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From: blp Category: Other stuff Date: 26 November 2006 Time: 01:10 PM Review: Oh, bloppo. The way you feel about African Americans is the way the rest of us increasingly feel about white Americans - because so many of you keep coming out with blunderbuss nincompoop bullshit like this. I know...I know it's unfair to stereotype an entire people on the basis of a few thick and unofficial spokespeople, but it's hard not to when they (you) are the most vocal (and when you voted George Bush into power twice). I'm going to make a brief attempt to address your remarks, though I doubt there's much point. Racism is the problem, not the symptom. Read the Autobiography of Malcolm X. The hopelessness inculcated in young blacks by the clear message that they are not going to be afforded the same opportunities as whites is what leads them into crime. Things have changed since X's day, but not enough, especially given the ruinous monetarist economic policies ushered in by Reagan, creating a larger gap between the rich and poor than existed in the sixties. A friend of mine recently had a black friend from NJ staying with him in London. He said he was subjected to racist abuse almost every day and that he was only saved from the life of crime and crack abuse that many of his friends went into because he had a middle class grandmother he could go and stay with. Poverty is a trap that's hard to get out of. I've wasted good time talking to a few Americans like you and this is all I'm going to spare you. From experience, I'd guess that if you read this at all, you'll respond with the usual aggressive guff that demonstrates a woeful inability to engage in basic, civilised reasoning. There does seem to be something very wrong in America - just not what you think.