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From: geb@cadre.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: White greed
Message-ID: <328@cadre.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 19-Feb-85 10:01:32 EST
Article-I.D.: cadre.328
Posted: Tue Feb 19 10:01:32 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 06:07:47 EST
References: <293@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA> <80@spar.UUCP> <311@cadre.ARPA> <360@cybvax0.UUCP>
Reply-To: geb@cadre.ARPA (Gordon E. Banks)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pgh.
Lines: 36
Xref: watmath net.flame:8497 net.politics:7753
Summary: 

In article <360@cybvax0.UUCP> mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) writes:

>Gordon, if you read carefully, you will see that you are misinterpreting
>the citation.  He did not say whites inherit guilt, he said whites inherit
>material benefits.
>
>Nor does he say that every white individual has inherited these benefits.
>You're putting the words of a fallacy of argument into his mouth.
>
>However, it is extremely likely that each of us has so benefited.  I've
>benefitted: I went to a good school district.  Compare the average quality
>of public school educations available to blacks with that available to whites.
It seems to me to be faulty logic to say that because you have it good,
and someone else has it bad, that your benefits result from their misfortune.
Where is the causal link?  Where did the money come from that supported
your school district?  Did it come from taxes on blacks?  If so, I agree
it shouldn't have.  Sure, Marxist
theory holds that wealth is produced by exploitation of labor and of
the laboring class, but do we have to swallow it without proof?  How
are so many people who are unproductive welfare-clients being exploited?
Only by the politicians who need their votes, and thus want to keep them
in an role of economic dependence on governmental largess, in my view.
The problem with ghetto education is not a matter of money.  In Chicago,
the public schools in 1980 spent 5 times as much per pupil as the
private (largely Catholic) schools, but the quality of education
there was abysmal.  The worst problem is the shattered family structure
in the ghetto, lack of role models, no father at home, etc., in my view.
Few of these children receive encouragement at home in academic endevors.
Can you imagine what the US would be like if there had never been any
slavery, and the black population was almost nil?  Certainly, it would
be less rich culturally, but economically, do you think it
would be worse off?  If so, why?
I never argued that there isn't and hasn't been injustice, but that
injustice occurs to individuals, not groups, and cannot be rectified
by further discrimination against other groups.