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    A Message To White America: Black People Can Teach You A Lot If You’d Just Listen

    It’s funny how ideas about articles come about. Sometimes they just seem to walk up to you and knock on your door, and they’re so simple and obvious that it’s almost as if they’ve been suggested by the universe. The idea for this article was one such occurrence. If the subject matter had been a mugger it could have robbed me blind.
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    I recently ran into a guy at the supermarket who came up and introduced himself as I was loading my goodies into the car. He said that a friend of his pointed me out and told him that I was Eric Wattree, and he wanted to tell me that while he didn’t always agree with me, he loved reading my articles because he appreciated the "outside of the box" insight that I bring to many issues. Then he went on to say the following:

    "But here lately, every article you write seems to always be Black, Black, Black. One of the reasons that I enjoy reading you is your opinions tend to be balanced and evenhanded, but here lately, your focus seems to be narrowing, and I believe that could have a negative impact on your readership. I’m a Republican, so naturally, I don’t agree with many of the things you say, but you have changed my thinking on a few things, so I really think that you’re worth reading. Like I said, I don’t always agree with your overall philosophy, but I do like the way you think, and I believe that you would gain many more readers if you’d continued to focus on America as a whole, as opposed to just limiting your writing to Black issues alone."

    The gentleman really opened my eyes to an important issue that from this point on I’m going to take into consideration - I need to make it a point to more carefully incorporate what he considered "Black issues" into the impact that they have on America as a whole, and I want to thank Bob for providing me with that insight.
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    But I pointed out to Bob that while I agreed that we should be discussing America as a whole, that’s not reality, because when we discuss America as a whole, the discussion always turns out to be "White, White, White." So in essence, what he’s actually saying is, I need to stick to discussing more White issues. But I think I’ve found a way to remedy that, and at the same time, be much more informative to all.
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    While Bob seemed to be very sincere, and the kind of guy who simply wants to promote a better America, what he fails to see is that the "White supremacist" attitude is so ingrained into the American psyche that both White, and many Black people, embrace it without even recognizing it. For example, when he suggests that I should get away from writing articles that seem to be exclusively focused on the Black experience, he never stops to consider that EVERYTHING he sees in the media is White oriented and he doesn’t see a thing wrong with it. He’s become so comfortable with it that it seems to him, the natural order of things. In fact, he’s become so comfortable with that way of viewing the world that he thinks that I should fall in line.
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    But the fact is, a discussion of the Black experience IS a discussion on America as a whole, because it permeates everything that America is as a nation, and it goes to the very core of what America is suppose to stand for. What people who think like Bob need to recognize is when the founding fathers agreed to compromise on the issue of slavery while establishing this nation, they also compromised every word and sentence that they so eloquently laid out in their founding documents, and America as a whole has been paying a huge price for it every since. That one decision, made over two hundred years ago, is having a negative impact on our current economic condition even now. 
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    Few people can legitimately deny that Barack Obama literally saved America - and that includes those people who love to call him an "un-American, socialist, Kenyan" - from having to endure a second Great Depression. But since many of them - including a few Black critics who are suppose to be educated - have so little knowledge of history that they have little or no idea of what this one Black man saved them and their families from having to endure. Nor do they have any idea of how much better that both our economy and our lives could be in America today if it weren’t for the racist obstructionism of the GOP. The GOP has PURPOSELY sabotaged economic relief for the American people for not only political purposes, but to prevent this first Black President of the United States from getting the historic credit that he deserves. Thus, ALL of America is suffering as a direct result of the nation’s failure to correct the founding father’s hypocrisy regarding race over two hundred years ago.
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    Also reflective of this problem is how the race issue is used to keep America divided. Generally, the only time we see a story in the media that’s Black oriented is if a Black person does something extraordinary, or if a White cop kills a Black kid - and even then (in the case of the cop) the story is about why the White cop was justified in his actions. That’s one of the reasons that Black people have traditionally been seen as unimportant in America, because we’re invisible, and the American people know virtually nothing about us. And the frustrating part about that is, it’s not always based on blatant racism. In most cases it’s based on America’s unconscious racist attitudes. In many cases the White people who suffer from this malady routinely have family barbeques with their Black next-door neighbors.
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    Thus, Black people need a voice. We need to be given visibility in America - and not as just criminals, victims, dysfunctional entertainers, or swaggering athletes. The AVERAGE Black person needs to be seen and heard from in this country - the postal worker, the salesperson, the computer analyst. America needs to see these people, and understand their views, concerns, and love for their families. America needs to understand that Black people - and every other cultural ethnicity in this country - are just like them, and they ALL bring something culturally unique and of value to the table. Barack Obama has benefitted this nation greatly, and contrary to popular belief, he’s not an aberration. There are literally thousands of Barack Obamas out there, so because of a handful of insecure and self-serving bigots, the nation is wasting its most valuable natural resource - the brilliance and unique skills within its population.

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    Dr. Mark Dean, Principle Architect Of The Personal Computer

    The fact is, you probably wouldn't be currently reading this article on your beloved Personal computer if it wasn't for a Black man. "Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is in the National Hall of Inventors. He has more than 30 patents pending. He is a vice president with IBM. Oh, yeah. And he is also the architect of the modern-day personal computer. Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon." (http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/10/black-man-invented-pc-as-we-know-it.html).  Thus, diversity makes ALL of our lives better.
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    So a discussion on the Black experience doesn’t just benefit Black people and minorities, it’s also important to America as a whole. Minorities make up a huge part of the 99 percenters, and since we are literally in a class war in this country, minorities and the White lower and middle class are natural allies. So it’s important that we know one another, so the enemies of the American middle class can’t divide us and neutralize our political clout - and currently, that’s their most effective weapon.
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    In addition, the White middle class needs to recognize that Black people can bring much to the table that can benefit them greatly. As a direct result of our having to routinely endure and overcome every kind of adversity over the centuries, Black people have a specialized insight into sugarcoated malevolence and demagoguery that White people don’t always share. Having to deal with, overcome, and outwit blatant and more subtle racists of every kind every day of our lives has caused a sixth sense to evolve in Black people, and it has also caused us to develop an intellectual muscularity in this area that’s nearly infallible, and it’s a form of knowledge that the White middle class could benefit from greatly.
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    Conservatives like to claim that Black people vote Democratic in order to get government handouts, but that’s not the case at all. We vote Democratic because we’re not idiots. Here are the facts:
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    The vast majority of Black people in this country are middle class or above. African Americans are the second largest consumer group in America with a combined buying power of over $892 billion currently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002 African American owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses, and 47% of Africans Americans own their own homes. - U.S. Census Bureau. And in spite of the fact that Black people are forced to run a marathon against White people while wearing lead boots, spotting White folks 50 yards, and a study has shown that a White male with a felony has an equal chance of being hired for a job as a Black male with a clean record, as a percentage, there are only 1% more Black people on welfare than Whites, and in actual numbers, many more Whites people are on welfare than Blacks (Whites - 38.8%; Blacks - 39.8%).
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    So again, it’s not handouts that keep Black people flocking to the Democratic Party, it’s that sixth sense that allows us to see through political demagoguery. It struck me as completely ironic when Herman Cain said (echoing a GOP talking point) that he wasn’t getting Black support because two-thirds of Black people were brainwashed. Yet who turned out to be right when Cain turned out to be just another philandering pervert, the "enlightened" GOP, or the "brainwashed" Black community?
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    The same was true of Dr. Ben Carson. Even as Carson was being lauded by "politically sophisticated" White conservatives, once he started talking politics Black people immediately saw right through him - and that’s in spite of the fact that he had formerly been one of the heroes of the Black community. Now that it’s been revealed that Carson is guilty of plagiarism and being associated with a shady company that was selling "miracle cures" and snake oil, it seems that the Black community was right on the money yet again. 
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    And finally, if the nation had followed the lead of Black people in shunning Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush in droves, we wouldn’t be suffering through our current economic crisis. Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt, abolished the Fairness Doctrine, and destroyed America’s industrial base, and George W. Bush destroyed the nation’s economy as a whole. Thus, in terms of rock-solid political statistics, Black people are batting a thousand.

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    Child Labor During The Great Depression

    So again, there is overwhelming evidence that suggests that a discussion on the Black experience in America, is also a discussion about maintaining a thriving America as a whole. The reason for that is, the GOP routinely creates and then uses a hostility toward the Black and minority communities as a tool to gain support for an agenda that’s actually aimed at lowering the standard of living of the American middle class as a whole. If you doubt that, take a moment to review history. Modern history will clearly demonstrate that as the Black community goes, so goes the White American middle class - maybe not as fast, the trajectory is identical.
     

    DIVIDE AND CONQUER

    The American middle class is being decimated. The reason that we're being decimated is because the corporatists and their political cronies have a vested interest in lowing the standard of living of the American middle class in order to become more competitive in the new global economy against countries who pay their workers less per week than the average middle-class American worker spends on lunch per day.
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    So we'd better wake up and recognize that we’re knee-deep in a class war. The business community is making record profits, so there’s absolutely no economic reason for unemployment to be so high - and regardless to what Obama does, he can’t force a private corporation to hire workers if they find it in their best interest not to. And let there be no doubt it, it is in their best interest not to. They’re using high unemployment in order to beat the American middle class into a desperate state of submission. That way the American people will be more agreeable to lowering their standard of living. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see what’s going on.
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    So, while they have us divided, miserable, and debating the evils of socialism, they're using capitalism to cut our throats. It’s not the “isms” that are evil, it’s the people who are running the “isms” who are the source of our problems.
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    So if we're smart - and have anything less than several million dollars tucked away -  we'd better ALL start listening to one another. If we fail to do so, the Tea Party, the Mexican Mafia, and the Black Guerilla Army are ALL going to find themselves shoulder-to shoulder picking virtual cotton on the very same Corporate-GOP plantation.  So the poor and middle class better wake up - and fast!!!
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    GOP STRATEGY: DIVIDE AND CONQUER
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    Eric L. Wattree
    Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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    Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

    Comments

    Institutional racism (and other kinds) are worth fighting against. You don't have to explain why it is bad or why you devote so much time resisting it.

    Sending this particular message to "white people" is really another articulation of that resistance. The point of view expressed in this post isn't different from what you have put forth before. In fact, it is a repetition of your previously expressed views of "white culture."

    If you want to speak in terms of class struggle, it has its own requirements and sense of scale. To assume most white people you are addressing are like the Bob in your story is not a serious response to those requirements. Not because you failed to properly characterize one group of people but because the story makes many other groups disappear.

    Class consciousness doesn't work like that.


    There are no Republicans like Edward Brooke, Jack Kemp, or Nelson Rockfeller in the current party. Barry Goldwater opened the lunch counters of his Arizona department stores to Blacks, but Goldwater had no problem courting White Supremacists when he ran for President. Martin Luther King said that people with a good conscience could not vote for Goldwater. Nixon had the Southern Stategy. Reagan began his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi noting State's Rights. The current GOP wants to disenfranchise Blacks, attack the Fair Housin Act, and humiliate the Black President. There is no reason to consider anything that the GOP has to offer.

    Rand Paul thought that he could play the Black community for fools. MSM talked about Paul's outreach to Black neighborhoods. Paul was convinced that telling Blacks that he would amend drug laws would make Black voters putty in his hands. Blacks knew that Rand Paul was as much of a crackpot as his father. Rand Paul hired Chris Hightower, a man with ties to a racist rock band, to run his Senate campaign. Next we learned that Jack Hunter, a co-author of one of Paul's books, was a White Supremacist who called himself the "Southern Avenger". Blacks knew was a fraud. Rand Paul has shown his nuttery by openly stating his feelings about vaccines. Paul went full Bachmann stating that he knows several children who developed autism after vaccination. In typical Ron Paul fashion he blames his statement on a trick of the Liberal media who merely repeated what Paul said. There is no reason to trust Paul.

    Finally, current GOP leadership stands proudly behind Steve Scalise, a man who spoke before a David Duke group. Scalise says that the was too stupid to realize that the group had ties to Duke. Blacks aren't looking for handouts from the Demoratic Party, Black voters are merely giving the GOP the same consideration that Blacks receive from the GOP .....None.


    RM,

    That was very nicely stated, and factually based. The mere fact that the GOP even think they have a chance to get mass Black support clearly demonstrates that they're so profoundly delusional that they can't be trusted with any serious responsibility. The entire party reminds me of a bunch irresponsible kids at a beer-bust. They're all bluster, and no sense.


    You got that right.  


    The thought of your post about the GOP crossed my mind today and brought back the memory of John McCain groveling to a crowd of Blacks in Memphis during a memorial of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. McCain apologized for voting against the King Day holiday. He was met with boos. The image that stood out to me was of the Black gentleman holding an umbrella over McCain to keep the Senator dry. I was angered by the imagery symbolizing the role the the GOP wants Blacks to occupy.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/04/mccain-booed-heckled-at-m_n_950...


    Tell me about it. One of the problems is, the GOP uses imagery and pubic relations so much better than the Democratic Party.


    Good job! I have gotten the, “why do you always write about black people" question. I always tell them to write more articles about black people and I will write less.

    This was my favorite point: The AVERAGE Black person needs to be seen and heard from in this country - the postal worker, the salesperson, the computer analyst. America needs to see these people, and understand their views, concerns, and love for their families.


    Thank you, Danny.

    I see it as writing about America from a Black perspective. I think we need that in order to Make America truly multicultural. Many thoughtful Black people, like yourself, have benefited greatly from having a bi-cultural perspective. You not only know how Black people think, but you also know how White people think. That not only allows you to navigate this society more successfully, but more importantly, it gives you the insight of clearly recognizing that there ARE other perspectives than your own. I also believe that's the major difference between progressive White people and conservatives.  Progressives tend to have that insight, while conservatives lack it in a big way.  You'd be surprised at how many people don't recognize that the universe wasn't created in their own image.  That's a major cause of conflict throughout the world. To a very large extent, most of the ugliness in this world is caused by a handful of irate children having a hissy fit because they want everyone to conform to their view of reality.


    "Message to Black America: White People can teach you a lot if you'd just listen" - I'm sure that blogpost would go over well.

    "EVERYTHING he sees in the media is White oriented" - really? blacks aren't buying smart phones, watching what Kanye and Miley are doing, paying attention to Ukraine & ISIS, fretting over what brain fart the Supreme Court is up to next, or dealing with college and student loans or talking about the next blockbuster movie and the price of gas?

    I tremble every time I see one of these "black people invented X" posts - simply because they usually misunderstand technology or commerce or both.

    Mark Dean - great engineer, developed most of his 9-20 patentable ideas in an IBM team, which is how most patents are developed, including the ISA bus (with Dennis Moeller) and programmable color monitors for original PC architecture, along with the 1-GHz chip later. He seems to have been team leader for much of this development, which of course is  more prestigious than 1 of many engineers.

    It's worth perusing Dean's long list of patents and IBM internal publications. as I don't think the focus on 3 PC patents does him credit either for the PC or over his career.

    But the way many internet articles phrase his achievements show a basic misunderstanding of the computer industry or technology in general. The 1GHz chip is an arbitrary milestone - it's not significantly different from building the 400MHz chip or the 3 GHz chip, which lots of companies have done, meaning lots of teams similar to Dean's.

    It's more impressive that his ISA bus was accepted as an industry standard, even though of course IBM being the inventor, whatever they did was likely to be the standard that everyone built to - it still had to be workable and long-lasting and beyond arguments, and I remember those early years when some alternative buses came and went.

    Still, Dean shouldn't be confused with a Larry Page building Google in his dorm room or Jeff Bezos leaving Wall Street to start up Amazon, or Jobs & Wozniak doing the first Apple out of their garage, or similarly for Hewlett & Packard developing their first test equipment in their garage, or the amazing Elon Musk seemingly able to succeed at whatever he touches.

    Dean was a cog in the world's most successful computer company, and his work was a funded project that he probably didn't have to fret about funding too much, as Apple II, Commodore, Sinclair & TRS-80 (Radio Shack) were already a successful in the 70's, and even IBM had an earlier desktop along with the renowned Xerox Palo Alto lab machine & Olivetti's 1965 entry desktop model. So by 1981, IBM was making a well-funded push to the moon, to capture the PC market for business, including sucking in Microsoft's slightly ripped-off OS and putting the internal teams in place to build the PC.

    In terms of patents, to put things in perspective, I'd read just yesterday (which is probably why I'm launching into this) that Philips has over 64,000 patents and files 1500 new ones each year. If we multiply this across IBM, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, and all the other hight-tech companies, we can note that probably a million people can somehow claim to be the critical tech behind the PC, smartphone, internet, and what-not. And while I appreciate Dean's work, if he hadn't done it, someone else would have been hired, and if it wasn't the ISA bus, it would have NuBus or S-100 or some derivative of DEC's minicomputer, or other.

    The main reason I'm writing this is that successful entry into the economy & having a place in the sun isn't about a handful of achievements - it's about a tsunami of change. I talked to Quinn one time about new energy, and the basic deal that all the alternate energy was nothing in the VOLUMES required to supply cars, homes, factories and all our other energy needs - these still required the behemoth coal and oil and natural gas sources to even make a blip on the screen.

    The same can be said for black success in industry and commerce. I've known a few black CEOs & CFOs and a lot more black engineers - but like a few patents vs. Philips 64,000 and the total in the millions, the total number in context is not enough to sway Washington and industry itself as a source of power that requres 10's of thousands of upper level execs and millions of engineers, doctors, lawyers, and other upper-level professionals.

    Much of black achievement to middle class standards can be credited to opportunity in the government sector, especially in the 90's (how much, I'd have to research) - something that's been chipped back on in the last 15 years. Like the drive to the moon, black acceptance and entrenchment as a central part of the productive economy - not just continual association with street problems and more articles about race in America - probably means aspiring to a point where 1/4 of employed blacks are in prestigious positions - not the current situation where average black household wealth is listed as 1/10 of white household wealth.

    Until the kind of resources and strategy are deployed to hit that kind of mass success and mass acceptance and mass "you can't avoid me" significance, I'd guess it'll be another 100 years of sad discussions about what to do about entrenched poverty and how health care affects blacks disproportionally, and police brutality and single parents and all the other seemingly repetitive columns about the Black situation. As long as success is a White thing, with Blacks being an exception, yes, it will be just everything we see from any perspective will be at base level from a White perspective - money talks, all the rest walks. If it's true for the 1% vs the other 99%, it's especially true for our racial divide.


    The reason for your so-called "Blacks invented this" examples is so that as you are mentoring minority children, you can show them examples of successful scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and physicians who look like them as a form of encouragement. This is necessary because of what happens is they will be confronted by people who will say anything from George Washington Carver didn't invent anything to that Black scientist guy was merely part of a team and let me point out these White guys who actually did something important.

    Nobody believes that the system as it exists now is a good one. Pointing out success stories is important because it helps disabuse the notion that a given area, in this case science, is a White thing.

    Let me point you to Marc Hannah a Stanford PhD graduate, who co-founded SGI the company that did the graphics for Juraasic Park, the Terminators and others, so you can tear him apart. Then you can go after Neil deGrasse Tyson.

    People realize that Black children need encouragement. to enter scientific study. People realize that funding is neede to support that effort.


    The reason for telling children what succesful people actually do, rather than half-true hype, is so they have realistic directions to pursue and can be comfortable with their level of success.

    Saying Marc Hannah "co-founded SGI" and then listing movies done with the machines gives little idea who he is (SGI didn't make these movies - people with other companies did on SGI computers). Hannah was one of 7 graduate students and research assistants that Jim Clark - a professor - took with him. So part of a team - not a bad thing. However, SGI's Geometry Machine was based on Clark & Hannah's work - e.g. he was a critical piece, not just one of 7 techs.   You can read more about Hannah's specific accomplishments as principal scientist here. That's cool. You might think it's "tearing him apart" to look closer, but he and Mark Dean are much more interesting than the overhyped George Washington Carver. They're real inventors who created products that real people used.

    And I hardly think "merely part of a team" is the right way to put it. Most of our achievements these days are made through teams in projects, very few are created by heroic individuals. Sure there are more important team members and lesser members, but to be even a lesser one is often a bigger success than a wannabe individual developer who never gets anything out the door. And of course neither Dean nor Hannah were minor parts of the team - they were team leaders. But a team leader has to lead, delegate, inspire, motivate, bring the group together to achieve goals and hit deadlines, and sometimes sublimate his own preferences for what's best for the group and the company and the customer.

    Pointing out success stories with real-world reasons why they're successes for kids to emulate and improve on - yes, that's important. And while the prima donnas stick out, the odds are much better at succeeding as an active talented part of a good team than being a genius among losers.


    You actually let the children read the information on their own. During the summer you match them with projects going in in companies, universities, and hospitals.

    http://www.100blackmen.org/mentoring.aspx

    I suspect I can provide you with more information on Black scientists and entrepreneurs than you can supply me.

     


    You are teh awesome.


    I know


    And patient. I punted that ball two years ago. I got tired of having to explain the obvious.

    Black people excel in everything that they become interested in pursuing - in spite of artificial barriers to their success.  I learned to write by accident, by having to repeatedly act as my own attorney in juvenile proceedings between the ages of 12 and 19.  It also made me a paralegal who was in great demand by attorneys all over Los Angeles, who sought me out to research and write their legal briefs for them. I charged them a third of their gross fees. I only lost one case in 20 years - and won one EEOC appeal that was signed off on by Clarence Thomas (!), if you can believe that. One attorney told me that if he'd won that case he'd have it framed on his wall next to his Harvard Law Degree. 
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    So Black people only have one thing to prove.  Every generation we have to prove to our children that they are NOT the people that see portrayed in the media. I used to tell my son and daughter that if the media portrayed White people in the same way that they portrayed Black people, we'd think that all White folks were barefoot Hillbillies.
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    Welfare Statistics
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    Whites  - 38.8%

    Blacks  - 39.8%
    http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/
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    And that’s in spite of the fact that a study has shown that a White male with a felony has an equal chance of being hired for a job as a Black male with a clean record. 
    http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/09/study-black-man-and-white-felon-sa...
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    The vast majority of Black people in this country are middle class or above. African Americans are the second largest consumer group in America with a combined buying power of over $892 billion currently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002 African American owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses, and 47% of Africans Americans own their own homes. - U.S. Census Bureau  
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    Black people have been forced to compete in a marathon while wearing lead boots and having to spot White folks 100 yards, and we've still managed to remain relatively competitive. But many White folks tend to have a need to point to how much better they're doing than the lowest 10% of Black people who are ALWAYS being portrayed in the media. They tend to feel a NEED to try to maintain their sense of self-esteem in that way. But they tend never to stop to consider the fact that, considering the nature and ground rules of the marathon, EVERY Black person who is at the same point in life as they, or who is their professional peer, HAVE to be superior to themselves, because their Black peers have had to overcome more obstacles to getting where they are.


    Well, i spent some time trying to say something useful, and it's disappointing that you two have to always come along to glad-hand each other and speak nonsense, so I'll just correct you quickly and disappear.

    A couple links followed with the pertinent graph. If you want to feel most blacks are middle class, have at it, but you're simply wrong.

    http://blackdemographics.com/households/middle-class/

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gap_n_6317202.html


    On the issue of definitions of middle class, entry levels vary from incomes of $20K to a base of $32K. The working class can be included as lower middle-class. The poverty rate would be around 30%. Wattree's statement that the majority of Blacks are middle class is correct depending on your cut point for defining the middle class.

    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_middle_class

    What we do know from interactions with you is that we are going to have arguments rather than a discussion. Your initial post is a critique of why a given Black person was not worthy of praise followed by a list of White guys who you feel actually did something of note. Once the interaction begins that way, it is bound to go downhill. 

     


    "On the issue of definitions of middle class, entry levels vary from incomes of $20K to a base of $32K. The working class can be included as lower middle-class. The poverty rate would be around 30%. Wattree's statement that the majority of Blacks are middle class is correct depending on your cut point for defining the middle class."

    Oh Christ, his whole definition is lower-middle-class and poverty. $20-32K? chump change. Really, I hate discussing this stuff with you - it's just vapid, and can't get a straight fact out. The majority of Blacks are certainly not middle class, no matter how many times you click your heels. Sorry if the truth hurts, but better to do something about it than self-delusion.


    I gave you the range of definitions used.  Some in clued the working poor. You disagree.Fine. Continue to argue the point. This my last last comment to you on this issue.

    There are reports of schools working to close achievement gaps that are worthy of more attention 

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/17/oakland-manhood-development-pro...

    There are issues of the economic burdens of higher education more worthy of more discussion 

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/18/student-loans-race_n_6700276.ht...

    We also see a youth group battling to stay afloat when a Republican Governor cuts their funding

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/18/student-loans-race_n_6700276.ht...

    You come in to offer nothing but diversion and an argumentative persona.


    "What we do know from interactions with you is that we are going to have arguments rather than a discussion. Your initial post is a critique of why a given Black person was not worthy of praise followed by a list of White guys who you feel actually did something of note. Once the interaction begins that way, it is bound to go downhill. "

    What we do know from me is I praised the scientists for behaving like scientists, including patents and teamwork. Whatever the fuck RMRD's problem is, I don't know, but yeah, being an IBM teamleader for several projects or being part of the SGI development team are both pretty cool. It's not the same as being Larry Ellison or Larry Page, but that's the way the cookie crumbles - only a few superheroes.

    My main point after all was that it's better to be a solid team member with creativity, than an egotistical superhero - I think that's what kids need to understand, black or white.


    Your praise

    Still, Dean shouldn't be confused with a Larry Page building Google in his dorm room or Jeff Bezos leaving Wall Street to start up Amazon, or Jobs & Wozniak doing the first Apple out of their garage, or similarly for Hewlett & Packard developing their first test equipment in their garage, or the amazing Elon Musk seemingly able to succeed at whatever he touches.

     


    Reading remains fundamental. I'm sorry to break your heart by not lauding Dean or Hannah as a black Thomas Edison, but I really think it's sufficient to praise them for the excellent work they did, not for the significance you wish they had.

    However, SGI's Geometry Machine was based on Clark & Hannah's work - e.g. he was a critical piece, not just one of 7 techs.   You can read more about Hannah's specific accomplishments as principal scientist here. That's cool. You might think it's "tearing him apart" to look closer, but he and Mark Dean are much more interesting than the overhyped George Washington Carver. They're real inventors who created products that real people used.


    My heart is not broken. My point is that you come in to a Wattree post intending to create discord. You also have to throw in your obligatory White guy praise into your initial comment. You are predictable.


    African American Income

    Black Median Household income: $33,460
    (all races $50,502)

    All Black Workers 2012 weekly earnings:$606
    (all races $765)
    Black Men weekly earnings: $633
    (White men $854)
    Black Women weekly earnings: $590
    (White women $712)
    SOURCE: 2012 3rd Quarter: Bureau of Labor Statistics – 16 Years or Older & 2011 Census Bureau American Community Survey

    Median_Black_Income_Chart_2005_to_2011_opt


    Minority women make up 25% of female owned small business. Like minority men, they face enormous challenges getting funding for their business proposals. The gap in funding sources has to be addressed.

    http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/10/smallbusiness/minority-women-entrepreneurs/


    I'm very patient, the buying power of the Black community is 1.1 trillion. Seems as worthy of discussion as which middle class definition is correct.

    http://www.blackenterprise.com/small-business/african-american-buying-po...


    If they need $2 trillion to break out of poverty into the middle class, then discussing $1.1. trillion is fairly useless. But you like to buy into the "myth of black buying power" because it's a big number, even though it's misleading for what you think it is.

    Here's a whole website by Jared Ball devoted to it: The Ever Enduring Myth of Black Buying Power

    A couple key takeaways:

    “In 2013, White households had $141,900 median wealth, while African-American families had just $11,000 median wealth and Latino households had $13,700 median wealth. (p. 6).”  This equates to Black America having roughly 7% or less than half the median wealth relative to Whites held in the initial UFE report from 2004. 

    “buying power” is a marketing phrase meant to drive corporate advertising investments and not at all about the economic strength of a community. the median household wealth of a Black family is still below $6,000. That means even your GDP math concluding in “a per capita buying power of around $23,000” also grossly re-affirms the myth of what “buying power” as a phrase does and doesn’t mean. All you end up doing is moving Black America down this already false scale of economic strength from 16 to 44. That doesn’t help address the fact that poverty and income/wealth inequality are real and worsening problems that have nothing to do with how people spend money.


    Nielsen the company that looked at Black buying power notes the impact of Black shopping patterns in different venues. zblack businesses can note that Black consumers feel more comfortable with products aimed at them, but do not focus on Black businesses. Their is a niche to be filled.

    http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2013/african-american-consume...

    As I have said before, you come with a tremendous amount of doom and gloom but rarely have anything positive to add. It's your nature.


     
    'If you're currently reading this post on your cellphone, you have Jesse Eugene Russell to thank for that! Jesse Eugene Russell, aka the Father of the Cellphone, is a Black inventor trained in electrical engineering. A graduate of Tennessee State University, Russell became the first graduate of an HBCU to be hired by AT&T Bell Labs. He went on to receive his MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and became an expert in digital signal processing. 

During his time at AT&T he suggested taking the car phone more on the go and putting one in every hand. This technology took over four years to perfect. But finally in 1988, Russell released the first digital cellular system to the world. Currently, Russell holds over 75 patents in digital cellular technologies, including but not limited to: the mobile data telephone, the base station for mobile radio telecommunications systems, & the broadband cable telephony network architecture IP ITN network architecture reference model, etc. 

In 2000, Russell left Bell Labs to become the CEO of incNETWORKS, which is one of the leaders in MicroLTE product platforms for 4G devices.'

    If you're currently reading this post on your cellphone, you have Jesse Eugene Russell to thank for that! Jesse Eugene Russell, aka the Father of the Cellphone, is a Black inventor trained in electrical engineering. A graduate of Tennessee State University, Russell became the first graduate of an HBCU to be hired by AT&T Bell Labs. He went on to receive his MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and became an expert in digital signal processing.

    During his time at AT&T he suggested taking the car phone more on the go and putting one in every hand. This technology took over four years to perfect. But finally in 1988, Russell released the first digital cellular system to the world. Currently, Russell holds over 75 patents in digital cellular technologies, including but not limited to: the mobile data telephone, the base station for mobile radio telecommunications systems, & the broadband cable telephony network architecture IP ITN network architecture reference model, etc.

    In 2000, Russell left Bell Labs to become the CEO of incNETWORKS, which is one of the leaders in MicroLTE product platforms for 4G devices.


    Children are fascinated by how and why things work. Some how this joy of knowing "why" is diminished over time in school. Perhaps adults play a role in shutting down inquiring minds.


    The first handheld mobile cell phone was demonstrated by Motorola in 1973. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.[7] Several other countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first generatiion ("1G") systems could support far more simultaneous calls, but still used analog technology.

    What you may want to say is that Russell was the main force behind the first successful digital cellular network, including the first D-AMPS IS-54b digital base station design, and 1 of 4 designers on a drastically improved digital handset (see below), among others. Here's a much more balanced article on Russell's accomplishments and patents.

    "During his time at AT&T he suggested taking the car phone more on the go and putting one in every hand. " - oh please, everyone who ever had a car-based mobile phone wanted it to work like a walkie-talkie, i.e. take it out of the car. Too simplistic. See portable Motorola phone below, and Arthur Clarke's comments in 1976 (referring of course to the future of Dick Tracy):

    "The wristwatch telephone will be technologically feasible very soon. And so the telephone will no longer be sort of fixed in one place. It will be completely mobile. And this would again restructure society. And of course it has disadvantages as well as advantages. Anyone can get at you anytime you like. Of course you could switch off the calling signal, but then you might have to explain later why it was switched off. "

    We're going to get devices which will enable us to send much more information to our friends. They'll be able to see us, we'll be able to see them and exchange pictorial information, graphical information, data, books, and so forth.

    On the Ideal Communications Device: It would be a high-definition TV screen and a typewriter keyboard and through this you can exchange any type of information, send messages to your friends. They can read it [and] when they get up they can see what messages have come in the night. You can call in through this any information you want: airline flights, price of things at the supermarket, books you've always wanted to read, news selectively.

    From cellular history: "IS-54 was deployed in the American market in the late 1980s, a few years before the deployment of GSM in Europe. It is a dual-mode, digital cellular standard (AMPS and D-AMPS) specified first by the Telecommunications Industry Associate (TIA) and the Electronics Industries Association (EIA)". So digital cellular was available before.

    So were digital handsets, since Russel et al's 1990 design referenced 3 prior digital cellular patents:

    Cited Patent Filing date Publication date Applicant Title

    US4697281 *Mar 14, 1986 Sep 29, 1987 Spectrum Cellular Communications Corporation, Inc.Cellular telephone data communication system and method

    US4837800 *Mar 18, 1988 Jun 6, 1989 Motorola, Inc. Cellular data telephone system and cellular data telephone therefor

    US5142534 *Oct 17, 1990 Aug 25, 1992 O'neill Communications, Inc.Wireless integrated voice-data communication system

    Where Russell et al's design seems to stand out is in better separation of voice & data processing, muting audio signal in handover to new cell, and error correction, which might be viewed as the first really satisfactory digital cell system (eliminating fading, annoying handovers, loss of signal/interrupted calls while in motion, etc.). If that's the "inventor of the Cellphone" despite other models before, fine - at least you know what you're claiming. Or if you're saying he built & helped AT&T field a complete successful digital cell phone ecosystem himself, that may be accurate (with base station, phone & probably a few other pieces - would have to reference patents)

    What bothers me are these claims that seem to ignore what the rest of the planet has been doing, what the prior art was, what the inventor actually brought to the table. I get just as riled when people claim Steve Jobs invented the smart phone, the touch screen, the portable music player, this or that chip (rather than buying them with some pre-spec from Samsung & others)... it's so much annoying fanboi stuff.

    1989 - first portable phone (Motorola)   1984 - 1st handheld cell phone (Motorola)

     


    Welfare Statistics
    .
    Whites - 38.8%
    Blacks - 39.8%
    http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/
    .
    And that’s in spite of the fact that a study has shown that a White male with a felony has an equal chance of being hired for a job as a Black male with a clean record. 
    http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/…/study-black-man-and-white-felo…...
    .
    The vast majority of Black people in this country are middle class or above. African Americans are the second largest consumer group in America with a combined buying power of over $892 billion currently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002 African American owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses, and 47% of Africans Americans own their own homes. - U.S. Census Bureau 
    .
    Black people have been forced to compete in a marathon while wearing lead boots and having to spot White folks 100 yards, and we've still managed to remain relatively competitive. But many White folks tend to have a need to point to how much better they're doing than the lowest 10% of Black people who are ALWAYS being portrayed in the media. They tend to feel a NEED to try to maintain their sense of self-esteem in that way. But they tend never to stop to consider the fact that, considering the nature and ground rules of the marathon, EVERY Black person who is at the same point in life as they, or who is their professional peer, HAVE to be superior to themselves, because their Black peers have had to overcome more obstacles to get where they are. So Black people can take comfort in the fact that adversity is making them MORE, rather than less - ask Barack.
    .
    THE BLACK COMMUNITY OF BALDWIN HILLS, CA.

    'BLACK PEOPLE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO PROVE
.
Welfare Statistics
.
Black people excel in everything that they become interested in pursuing - in spite of artificial barriers to their success.  I learned to write by accident, by having to repeatedly act as my own attorney in juvenile proceedings between the ages of 12 and 19.  It also made me a paralegal who was in great demand by attorneys all over Los Angeles, who sought me out to research and write their legal briefs. I charged them a third of their gross fees. I only lost one case in 20 years - because cases are either won are lost in the preparation before the attorneys even step into the courtroom. - and I won one EEOC appeal that was signed-off on by Clarence Thomas (!), if you can believe that. One attorney told me that if he'd won that case he'd have it framed on his wall next to his Harvard Law Degree, and he'd rather have me than any two of his partners.
.
Thus, my life has taught me that Black people only have one thing to prove. Every generation we have to prove to our children that they are NOT the people that they see portrayed in the media. I used to tell my son and daughter that if the media portrayed White people in the same way that they portrayed Black people, we'd think that all White folks were barefoot Hillbillies, so NEVER allow yourself to be defined by others. I was defined as a worthless hood rat, but today I wear that title with great pride. I tell THEM I'm a hood rat . . . just before I stick my foot in their ass.
.
Welfare Statistics
.
Whites  - 38.8%
Blacks  - 39.8%
http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/
.
And that’s in spite of the fact that a study has shown that a White male with a felony has an equal chance of being hired for a job as a Black male with a clean record. 
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/09/study-black-man-and-white-felon-sa...
.
The vast majority of Black people in this country are middle class or above. African Americans are the second largest consumer group in America with a combined buying power of over $892 billion currently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002 African American owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses, and 47% of Africans Americans own their own homes. - U.S. Census Bureau  
.
Black people have been forced to compete in a marathon while wearing lead boots and having to spot White folks 100 yards, and we've still managed to remain relatively competitive. But many White folks tend to have a need to point to how much better they're doing than the lowest 10% of Black people who are ALWAYS being portrayed in the media. They tend to feel a NEED to try to maintain their sense of self-esteem in that way. But they tend never to stop to consider the fact that, considering the nature and ground rules of the marathon, EVERY Black person who is at the same point in life as they, or who is their professional peer, HAVE to be superior to themselves, because their Black peers have had to overcome more obstacles to get where they are. So Black people can take comfort in the fact that adversity is making them MORE, rather than less - ask Barack.
.
THE BLACK COMMUNITY OF BALDWIN HILLS, CA.'

    So you're somehow proud of the fact that whites almost have as many on welfare as blacks, even though blacks make 12% of the population and whites about 72%?

    That means a black person is 6 times as likely as a white person to be on welfare - hardly a stat to be happy about. And to have blacks even outnumbering whites on welfare should be shocking.

    You're really in a "glass half full" mood of late. The soft bigotry of low expectations is eating your lunch.


    His misuse/misunderstanding of that statistic has been pointed out several times by several different people yet it continues to be one of his favorite.One has to question why? Is he so mathematically challenged that he can't understand statistical analysis? Or does he think we are? Wattree has often stated that he writes for young black males. Does he think they are so stupid that they can't understand what it means when 12% of the population has a higher rate of welfare usage then the other 72%? It's a puzzle.


    Wattree, if you note the most recent posts you are witnessing nothing good is happening overload. It is amusing. Imagine the drain of energy that would occur being in constant contact with such a person. You mention people involved in developing the PC and the cellphone and someone finds something negative. Fortunately, there are people working to education the youth as well as providing economic and spiritual support. It is fascinating that he finds absolutely nothing of value. We can remain secure in the fact that his emotion and spirit draining rants come nowhere in contact with our youth.

    Strange you consider *FACTUAL* as *NEGATIVE*.

    I'm not a fan of overblown hype in the name of praise.

    If I say "Larry Page & Sergey Brin invented search", I'm lying or badly distorting.

    If I say "Larry Page & Sergey Brin redefined or revolutionized search", I'm accurate.

    Overclaiiming just sets you up for ridicule, though since this is about race, ridicule isn't allowed because it's considered racist, so discussion is just shut down.

    Sad that "our youth" are getting the Disney version of reality rather than inspiring but serious details that give real life lessons & motivation.

    Note that Greece has 240 billion Euros of new "buying power" but seem to be in worse shape than ever - how can that be? surprise  can you ever grok where your misstatements lead to?


    Actually youth are not getting any history at all. It is fortunate that you are nowhere near a classroom with our children. They would be suicidal after hearing your nonsense. Giving positive examples is a good start. One of mine is headed off to either Hopkins or Penn depending on what she decides. She fortunately escaped exposure to you.

    Your Greek example is interesting. You note their economic state, but they have the ability to bring down the eurozone if they get no concessions. They do have clout

    http://www.greekcrisis.net/2015/02/pragmatism-is-required-amid-greek-dea...

    Louis Latimer made The light bulb viable.

    Wattree is actually playing with you now.he has you chasing biographies.


    If "power" = "so fucked up it's a calamity no one can ignore", I guess you're right. Not the kind of empowerment I'd envisioned, but I guess we can view the Mideast as "powerful" now beyond even what their oil used to bring. Hope they enjoy basking in their newfound "power".

    Re: the biographies, they're the most useful & interesting tidbits you guys have ever posted. Including the Latimer inventions & draftwork, though I'm not sure if I'd describe him as "made the lightbulb viable" without knowing more about his filaments - most inventions have steady improvements for their various components, as well as require a "viable" market in which to sell, so that Jobs' deals with telcos and record labels were as important as the design itself of the iPhone & iPod. But there are breakthroughs that make a product, such as Goodyear's use of rubber for tires, beyond any other aspect, and a long-lasting filament could certainly make or break a lightbulb's market acceptance. His & Brown's train toilet is also ingenious, as it replaced the open hole (unsanitary & dangerous) with a pivoted pan linked to raising the seat - you can read the patent description here.


    What is comical is that you attempt to provide me with information on the individuals that I point out to you, suggesting that I don't know their biographies.


    You seem to see it through the prism of your heavy bias and world-spin, so I just try to point out to you or others what might be more interesting or accurate.

    And I've no idea whether you took the trouble to read their patents - did you?

    Probably most people wouldn't - I just happen to be dealing with patents right now, so the topic's interesting to me, plus I like the technical side. If you're not technical, you might not get some of the picayune details of what they did.


    I suppose you read Latimer's book describing the workings of the light bulb? It was written for public consumption.

    http://www.amazon.com/Incandescent-Electric-Lighting-Practical-Descripti...


    Waiting for the Kindle version. Besides, incandescents are obsolete now with energy-efficient LED bulbs.


    Yeah, right

    You are probably unaware that some sources wonder if the toilet device was actually used.


    .


    It's used in European trains.

    I've personally shit on it.

    Not that I shit on all your ideas.


    Your reply may be full of it. Latimer got the patent, but as I said, other patents seem to have actually been applied.

    http://toilet-guru.com/train.php


    I had to add this:

    http://www.salon.com/2014/11/28/i_dont_like_chevy_richard_pryor_and_chevy_chases_tense_post_saturday_night_live_battle/

    I read this essay a couple of times today.

    Forty years ago and more....

    Pryor just discusses the problems involved in jogging in Detroit.

    Forget Chevy for  a sec.

    I have other stories concerning my son.

    He had Black friends and....

    But it seems irrelevant now.'

    Little has changed at least regarding jogging

    This link really hit me.

    Nice blog.

    thank you

     

     


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