Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Enlighten Me
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Old 09-13-2013, 11:07 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by redwitch View Post
There are Americans of Italian descent upset with the stereotyping and depicting of Italians as mobsters. There are Americans of German descent who are upset at being depicted as Nazis. There are Americans of Polish descent who object to being considered stupid. And so on and so forth. Yes, some can laugh at themselves and their heritage. Some can't.

The problems occurred when we started forcing people into jobs they for which were not qualified. Rather than training and teaching people, someone got the bright idea that if you put a person in a slot, they'd eventually fill it. Well, fill it they did but not productively. Even so, equal rights are still not here. Women still make less than their male counterpart for the same job. Some employers still won't hire people of color. Our prisons are over-populated with the majority of inmates coming from poverty and being of the racial "minority" (which is also changing). And so on and so forth.

Personally, I'm German -- born and bred. I have dual citizenship but I do not consider myself German-American. I was raised European but I think I'm becoming more American every day. Who knows, maybe in another twenty years or so, I'll think of myself as German-American. For now, however, I'm a German living in the land that I love -- America.
The only thing we can do...is to be a good example of who we are. We can make our background a plus or a minus, it lies with us today. It is foolish and unrealistic and unhelpful to blame our ethnicity, or race, or gender or the social status we were born into, or the amount of money our families had or did not have on whether we personally are making a success of the life we are given. There are still some roadblocks in this country , but NOTHING that hard work and sacrifice and good management of time and money can't overcome if we are given an able body and mind.
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