Very well put, Shame.

Thanks for stepping up. Too much politicking and not enough real communication. This is true of so many issues, today. Thanks, Shame, it took courage to post.

The former president of Missouri knows what racism is. Doesn't he?

I don't think I need to explain it, Alan. I'm pretty certain you understand it.

By the way, Steve's post is a rather rich irony: labeling a whole classification of people based upon their color and their age.

Hello?

For as cocksure as you come off in most of your posts, I'm appalled by your lack of knowledge and awareness.

A little listening, learning wouldn't hurt.

You're appalled by how little he knows, yet you edited your response to remove the bit about how you genuinely didn't know about the connection between swastikas, neo-Nazi's in the United States, and black oppression.

And then you continue on to argue that you're an expert on the subject. This on top of that whole thing about how you're Irish, and Notre Dame, so black people are just too darn sensitive about mere words. You seem really, really credible though. Keep it up.

Edited my response?

To add post script, troll.

The Nazi's hated jews, blacks, and Christians among others. It took every ounce of good sense in my body not to hunger strike once I heard the word of the poop swastika in Missouri.

As. a. Christian. I. was. so. offended. I. was. prepared. to. die.

I am not an expert on being a black man in Missouri.

I am also not an expert on being a white man in Ohio (the only place I've called home).

What I can speak to is demonstrably going out of my way to reach out to and help a black segment of the population of my local community that is struggling with literacy. Because after all if any kid, black or white or whatever, can't communicate what's bothering them properly through the written and spoken word, old white guys in California listening to their poorly communicated problems can't help either.

I'm not some closet Klan member. I'm not ignorant to social issues. I'm an independent thinker; I'm intelligent. And I have real first hand experiences as a white male in America and an inner city volunteer that contradicts your bull shit opinions on oppression.

I've not read through all the pages of this thread. I just got to page four and read the above.

I am absolutely appalled. This is the most insulting, unthinking post that I've ever seen on this board.

Dude, I hope you don't say these things to people when you speak.

Pot calls kettle black.

P.S. Just an expression, no racial overtones in word "black" in this context.

Would a white man with such an "insulting" "unthinking" opinion simultaneously take time off from his own day in evil corporate America by his own free will to help black children improve their ability to read and write?

Explain this glaring contradiction to me.

Reality is this bitter bitter pill too bitter for you to swallow Monroe.

Consider my contempt of your opinion for a moment:

The time I've put into developing my opinions on the alleged modern oppression of blacks drawfs my investment in any college football ranking system or point spread projections. If we can't even agree on things like the misuse of 70% of college football games in a data set why even bat an eyelash at holding your specific opinions in contempt?

“At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.” -- P.J. O'Rourke

I've spent the last 8 years of my life sitting on the board of a non-profit that exists to teach job skills to inner-city minorities, and have personally conducted mock interviews with hundreds if not thousands of individuals--and helped many of those individuals find jobs--every Saturday morning.

Our experiences are similar. The conclusions we've drawn differ. Which is why I've stated that I think the subject warrants a conversation. You've spent a week arguing against the mere idea of discussing this, insulted anybody involved however possible, and insisted that everybody who has engaged you on the subject knows less than you do, without any way of actually gauging that.

And then you quote P.J. O'Roarke in an attempt to call all of your detractors childish. People here are saying that whether or not you agree with all or some or none of what the protestors have said and done, that race in America is an issue that deserves our attention and warrants a conversation. You've argued against the very notion of discourse.

Edit: And I'm not even going to bother on the whole Christian thing. You seem incapable of understanding context, or being honest in any examination of what the swastika has come to mean and who it has been used to target. That you'd lump yourself, as a Christian, in as a target of that hate crime and then give any merit to your own lack of outrage is at it's best, laughably naive.

And lastly, the more you post, the more you unwittingly underline your own unwillingness to engage with anybody whose opinion differs from yours. The P.J. O'Roarke quote indicates that you're arguing against an idea, and an imagined foe. You're not actually making any effort to engage with the ideas presented to you, you're arguing with a caricature of what you believe the liberal to be. You're being asked to have a conversation with actual people, present in this thread. Instead you're arguing with an idea you dislike.

When someone asks me to entertain a poop swastika drawn in a bathroom as mortally offensive I start them on the bottom of the pile.

Long story short:

I think these are a bunch of spoiled college kids in Missouri with a victim complex (some of whom happen to be black).

Yes, we know you think that.

What we also know you think that it's not possible that you're casting too broad a brush in applying that to the situation, and dismissing core issues too easily as a result.