Comments by "L.W. Paradis" (@l.w.paradis2108) on "" video.

Like, where did that intelligence go? We used to be able to confront things -- all sides did. We once had a sophisticated political discourse. WHAT HAPPENED?
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Because he got an op-ed published in a newspaper of record, and because standards of political discourse are lower than they once were. So, this choice was fine by current standards. I guess we need to talk about standards.
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Thank you. You'd think Michelle Alexander and Douglas Blackmon never wrote anything.
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This is an outstanding analysis. Another "tell" is how African-Americans who became enculturated to American society in French-dominated areas have a different pattern, starting with a different sense of self, and a greater sense of personal efficacy. I am so glad you pointed out the complexity of American culture. The immigrant groups he mentions as being successful also have the advantage of not assimilating to a culture that wants them to see themselves as beneath the Anglo-Germanic minority. These are people you could never dupe into believing such things about themselves.
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And isn't it odd that people who speak one of the living languages closest to Latin, and have an immense literary tradition, are somehow able to be convinced far too often that they are "less than" the monolingual Anglo-Germanic minority? How did that group manage to pull that off? Even Shakespeare went to a Latin school; I'm not sure that English was on the program -- certainly not for the advanced students. It's just so crazy.
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@jovenramirez1488 But they accomplished the most remarkable thing -- out of the worst slavery known to human history, they created many new musical forms that swept the world. There is no popular music now that has no blues, jazz, rock, soul, or gospel influence. Without the blues, there would have been no Beatles. Nothing like this has happened anywhere else, before or since.
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You see all of this credited more in Europe than America. Why? James Baldwin was not an exception for leaving.
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@SlugSage You're right. Practically no one cares about any of the things that merit attention. We live in a sea of memes.
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When it comes to competition for money and resources, people will use anything against you. Absolutely anything. They don't bat an eye.
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@jazzymoni7750 Oh thank you. I actually think there is a good argument for marriage here that people in other developed countries don't have to consider. American society is so vicious that being unmarried, or unhappily married, can harm you immensely. The fact is that we have less liberty to order our lives as we wish, in just about every way we might consider. That's what I really think. A small number get really rich, and they can do whatever they want. The rest of us never know what may be in store, no matter what we do. And whatever else may happen, blacks will be subjected to indignities that no one else will ever know. They need to be stoics and heroes on a daily basis. And part of the gaslighting is to refuse to acknowledge it, and refuse to admit that blacks have got to have MORE self-mastery, and that they do.
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And while "British invasion" musicians were becoming millionaires, Motown studio musicians were having trouble getting paid. How did that happen? (Also, Piece of My Heart by Irma Franklin is better. :)
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Do you know any new slogans, or only recycled ones? These are boring.
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@belmen7002 Being without two parents during childhood, regularly absent or never around at all, tends to toughen a person. Those kids aren't "snowflakes" by any stretch.
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There is something incongruous about the focus on blacks, and their supposed "failures," and what "they" should be doing differently to "succeed," when we have two presidential candidates -- nothing less -- who lack the sorts of qualifications for the office that we used to take for granted. There is a much bigger problem here, and anyone who thinks that "meeting a standard" is what you have to do, and that if you do, then you can count on a favorable outcome, must have been hibernating. What next? Jane Buckingham and Hunter Biden giving inner city kids tips on how to get ahead?
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@michaelhomes8049 I think the term "white privilege" is unfortunate on many levels. It can sound like something defiant, and designed to heap culpability on others, when it is NOT meant that way.
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Nonmarriage is ordinary in Europe, notably France. Immigrants from any part of Africa who have children are more likely to be married than ethnic French parents are. There, it isn't seen as hugely problematic; here, it is the crux of the problem, supposedly. Funny how that goes.
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@jazzymoni7750 They use the "marriage" business to control and blame, and divert attention from the issue and their own responsibilities. Of course, every time! If someone pointed out the real reason a tight, loving marriage in an oppressive society could be beneficial to the partners, they would be speechless. They would not know how to respond.
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@HWEspana Anglo-Germanic is both larger, neutral, and more precise. I thought I was the only person who used it! WASP is sometimes taken as a slur, almost like gringo or amerloque.
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@jovenramirez1488 Omg, a soul mate.
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Toni Morrison, "On the Backs of Blacks," is still the best analysis of what the new immigrant finds when he gets here, and what is expected of him in return for a shot at making money. It is not just about "hard work," it is about a mode of heartlessness and complete self-involvement my immigrant parents could never adopt. It was beneath them.
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If that were true, very few children have a chance.
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@mikecaldwell7992 Where is the reliable control group -- those with two married parents, no drugs, and no alcoholism in the home? That was my point. We have children whom we know are not growing up in two-parent families, and whose parents and guardians are drunk or drugged, then we have all the ones fitting one or more of the factors in that description, but we don't find out about it until decades later. Maybe you don't know how many drugs there are in the "nice" suburbs.
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@J0n312 From what you rightly point out, it's clear "white privilege" is not a good description of what the advantage/absence of disadvantage is.
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@Jcewazhere Thank you for a great laugh.
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@Jcewazhere I honestly still expect quality to be recognized.
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@paddyotterness You got that right. :)
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