others based on their own set of values. In America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand white culture is dominant and while I would say these days ( save for maybe the bible belt in the U.S and outback Australia) is on the whole not racist. I blame the media myself as they perpetuate these stereotypes - in Australia (with its large middle eastern immigrant population ) all Lebanese are car theives, Asians and East Europeans will scam you out of your life savings and aboriginals are freeloaders. People are saps, and I believe with the media manipulating the general public with politically motivated ill informed sources of information these stereotypes are hard to avoid (Murdoch owns Australia).
We have massive problems with deliberately lit bush fires in Australia, every time it is a young white male who is led out of his comfortable suburban house head bowed- every time. Sydney has an immigrant population around the 30-40% mark, yet I have never seen anything other than a white boy accused of starting a fire. Why? Sean is right, there will never be an examination of why white kids do these things, maybe its time for someone like Sean to investigate - i.e. a non white person.

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There's not much debate about whether some whites can be racist scumbags.

Does the author think non-whites can be racist scumbags?

Does the author deny blacks commit far more street crime (including violent crime) against whites than vice-versa?

It seems the author would like "reparations," and lots of them. Suppose we had reparations -- would there ever be some far-distant future time when the author would say, OK, that's enough?

Just wondering...

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Seems Gonsalves is still caught up in being Black.. so he didnt get a cab ride and blames it on his race.. I have been passed up by cabs also and I'm white..mmm..can it be..I was discriminated against, or the cab just didnt feel like stopping for some reason!!!

If you're white no one gives it a second thought..if you're black, well it MUST be racial!!!

Take a look at the 4 black shoot in the back of the head in Newark and look at Camden or Irvington crime rate and tell me there isn't something wrong with the Black Culture there!

Gonsalves, it's as good as it's gonna get unless YOU stop crying and make it better!

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"No matter how many times a disturbed white male shoots up a school, church or workplace, bombs an abortion clinic or is arrested for being a serial killer, nobody raises questions like: is something wrong with white suburban culture?"

Actually, I hear that all the time. Maybe you don't hear it in the main stream media but then again, why are you listening to the MSM at all?

Any time a discussion of race and how it correlates to crime comes up there are two sides:
1. "Black people are 12% of the population and commit 40% of the crime."
2. "White men are all the serial killers, pedophiles, etc."

It never fails.

Spend some time around young people or on the net. Maybe a 50 year old white man on NBC isn't going to launch into a diatribe about how all white men are psychotic pedophiles, but do you really expect him to?

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Last Friday, McClatchy News ran a story, with a clear picture
of a latrine near Baghdad. "Only for US military and contractors". There were quite a few comments to the article. One was mine. I stated only, "Selma where?". Nobody understood my reference. Then I posted a comment saying, "Just like the old deep South or South Africa". Then the replies came quickly and right to the point. They really showed how little things have changed. I was called idiot, imbecile and so forth. There was general agreement that Iraqis are dirty people, have no morals, make an awful mess and should never be allowed to use the same facilities as good ole USA boys and girls. "WHITES ONLY " Still with us 40 years after MLK.

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even in a gang. The author didn't mention the races of the cab drivers, who were probably Pakistanis. Even if some drivers were "white", that doesn't make me feel personally responsible for their prejudices, just because I am considered a white man. That would be ridiculous. I am not a racists and I do not tolerate those who are...and I have a racially diverse family. Besides, cab drivers have the right to take whomever they want, based on their own experiences.

Whenever it comes to racial issues in these Altnet essays, specifically white on black issues, the offended party (blacks) do not give any real remedies that they are asking for. Few black folks offer the only logical solution, assimilation, as the way towards harmony. They almost always preach the separatist mantra...just like white bigots.

So there are a bunch of racists cabbies in NY (even if they are Pakistanis, Persians, etc.)...there are also a bunch of assholes in that city. And NYC is crowded. Tell us something we don't know. That is one of the many reasons why I don't live in NY. I guarantee you that black folks are not denied cab service in KY based on race. It simply is not done.

While we are at it, white folks hardly have a monopoly on racism in this country. True enough, there are plenty of white racist but there are plenty of racist who are black, latino, chinese, middle eastern, etc. Assimilation is the ONLY answer. But then folks will find some other "trait" (be it real or imagined) to use (simply look at the Irish/Protestants, or Sunnis/Shitte) to descriminate against each other...but at least it will not be race.

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When I was younger I used to feel personally responsible for the stupidity of my fellow man. As I aged, I began to understand that I have a duty to fight against injustice, try to educate those who will listen, work towards making this world a better place and if I work hard and I am extremely lucky, I might actually make a difference.

With all that in mind, I am sorry that anyone would be treated with anything less than respect and I do understand that this does occur. I will continue to make sure that I am not one of those people and will always strive to make sure that I treat everyone I meet with the respect they deserve.

Yes, there are idiots out there and they come in every variation that humanity can produce. However, this is not an issue of race, nor religion or even nationality, it is a failing of each individual that cannot live up to the standards that all people should adhere to.

But what would I know?
I'm just one more opinion.

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in the subhead, the author notes that no one is raising questions about whether something is wrong with white subculture... well, that's not entirely true. in 1999, gloria steinem published an article called "supremacy crimes," in which she discusses school shootings such as that at columbine.

in her article, she notes that "these senseless killings begin to seem less mysterious when you consider that they were committed disproporionately by white, nonpoor males, the group most likely to become hooked on the drug of superiority. it's a drug pushed by a male-dominant culture that presents dominance as a natural right; a racist hierarchy that falsely elevates whiteness; a materialist society that equates superiority with possessions; and a homophobic one that empowers only one form of sexuality."

she says that such violence is caused by the "impossible expectation of dominance to which [young white men] have become addicted." but that it is invisible to us "because it's like the air we breathe: the white male factor, the middle-class and heterosexual one, and the promise of superiority it carries."

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FULL DISCLOSURE: I grew up in a Jewish household, but have been able to pass as white my whole life.
============

Colour blind? What an absurd idea!!!

The first thing I notice about a person is their colour. Hell, it's as plain as the nose on their face. That doesn't mean I treat them any different from anyone else. It merely means I see their colour, Steve Colbert notwithstanding.

I recently read the book "Sundown Towns" by James W. Loewen. The title is based upon the signs on the highway on both ends of towns in America that said, "Nigger. Don't let the sun set on you in this town." An alternative sign was, "Nigger, if you can read you better run. If you can't read, you better run anyway."

The author has CONFIRMED some 180 (the exact number escapes me, but it's in that range) towns that had those signs. He suspects hundreds of other towns also had them, based on anecdotal memories, but has been unable to confirm them, but that doesn't mean they didn't exist.

Now, one might think this was a southern phenomenon. WRONG! These signs were in the north almost exclusively. In the south everyone knew their place.

One might also thing we are talking about ancient history. WRONG AGAIN! The last sign appears to have come down in 1980. That's right: 1980!

Another disclosure: I grew up in Detroit, one block and three houses from the border that separated it from the lily-white suburbs. I always knew something didn't smell right, but I left at the age of 17 for 35 years in Canada, so I never had the chance to put my finger on what was wrong with this picture. The book makes clear that Detroit is the most segregated city in all America.

My thirty-five years 'north of the border' in Toronto gave me an appreciation for all cultures (and the food and music produced by them) and all colours. I've been back in the United States (HA!) for 2 years to take care of my aged father. From personal experience in these past 2 years, I can tell you that things have not changed much. Because people assume I'm part of their White Skin Club™, they will say the most outrageous racist things to me in the simple assumption that I would agree. Conversely, when I am friendly to people of colour, I first have to break thru' a suspicion before I am treated as an equal. Not that I blame them one damned bit.

Back to the book: It also makes clear that just about every disadvantage experienced by blacks --- from the 'ghettoization' of the cities to a lack of equal opportunity --- can be attributed to the Sundown Towns and what they spawned in the fullness of time.

This is a scholarly book filled with statistics and proofs, and at 600 pages, quite a slog. There were times I had to put it down because I could not read thru' my tears. However, it's a wonderful book that I recommend to anyone concerned about race relations in America.

[And, if you enjoy that book, I will also recommend the author's other two: "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and "Lies Across America." These were his books I read first.]

With all my love,
Aunty Em

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I find it tremendously amazing that an article on racism generates so much discussion, and especially white self-defense. Having lived in several countries, I've seen that racism happens in different ways in different places, yet seems to be fairly common throughout the world.
Racism as Gonsalves (not Gonzalez as some have said) has described is active and prevalent in the USA. All you white folk trying to defend yourselves - get over it and face reality.
And suburbs lack soul, any wonder they produce so many delinquents.

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from a Newsday article (Long Island and NYC newspaper):

CITY WORK

Yellow Cab Drivers Get No Relief

by Dan Ackman

IN NOVEMBER, 1999, movie star Danny Glover complained that he and other African Americans were discriminated against in hailing a cab. Glover's complaint was old news, but the city's Taxi & Limousine Commission took the opportunity to intensify its routine assault on the rights of the city's 41,000, largely immigrant, yellow cab drivers.

Last week, Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields issued her own report, "Confronting Discrimination in the Taxi Industry." This product of nine-months' work is rife with error, avoids the main point it pretends to address, and disregards the serious civil rights abuses committed against taxi drivers.

Data collected in the several recent New York Police Department and TLC sting operations against cabbies indicates that between 90 and 99 percent of all cabbies stop for whomever hails them. Certainly in a perfect world the figure would be 100 percent. But in a perfect world, hardworking cabbies would not have to worry about being beaten on a fare, robbed or murdered.

The facts may be little solace to the black men in particular who are passed by. But talk to the drivers-including black and Hispanic drivers-and they will tell you with one voice: The problem is not racism, but economics and safety.

Driving a taxi is an economically marginal existence. Most cabbies rent their cabs for $100 per shift or more. Thus they must collect that much in fares before earning a dime for their families.

Though most yellow cab drivers live in the outer boroughs, they are loathe to take long trips out there for reasons that have nothing to do with race. It is because they generally have to drive back to Manhattan-where most of their business is-empty, earning nothing. Over the years since the TLC rules were first written, the TLC has licensed thousands of livery cabs to serve the outer boroughs.

Some cabbies fear for their safety, which is hardly irrational given that they carry wads of cash and there was a spate of livery cab murders just last year. All cab drivers have been beaten on fares, and there is nothing the TLC or anyone else does to compensate them for their loss.

...Instead, the TLC periodically steps up enforcement. In its mindless "crackdown" on supposedly racist cabbies, the TLC has suspended the licenses of hundreds of cabbies on a bare allegation from a TLC inspector without any sort of hearing. It is strictly verdict first, trial later.

When a driver does get a hearing-usually months later- the judge deciding his case owes his or her job to the agency prosecuting the offense. Of course, the cabbies lose not just most of the time, but every time. Not even Brezhnev got 100 percent of the vote.

The borough president's report nods to the economic realities, and then assumes that racism is at fault at any rate. Thus Fields says drivers should have more training, including "sensitivity" training. Then she advocates still more enforcement and says it should be easier to make a complaint against a driver. Currently complaints can be phoned in. What could be easier than that? I have followed the refusal cases as closely as anyone, and the evidence-even where a driver is found guilty-rarely suggests racial bias. Often an undercover agent will enter a cab and demand to go to a distant address. If the cabbie asks for help with directions, the agent refuses, tells the driver he should know that already and demands he get going. If the driver asks another question, the agent interprets the question as a tacit refusal and confiscates the driver's cab and his hack license, his means of livelihood.

Hard to believe, but it happens almost every day.

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You want statistics? "Progressives" wouldn't do this research, so I went to a conservative source -- "The Color of Crime." (The sources are cited in plenty of footnotes.)

Here's a summary of the findings:

Crime Rates

• Blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder, and eight times more likely to commit robbery.

• When blacks commit crimes of violence, they are nearly three times more likely than non-blacks to use a gun, and more than twice as likely to use a knife.

• Hispanics commit violent crimes at roughly three times the white rate, and Asians commit violent crimes at about one quarter the white rate.

• The single best indicator of violent crime levels in an area is the percentage of the population that is black and Hispanic.


Interracial Crime

• Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving blacks and whites, blacks commit 85 percent and whites commit 15 percent.

• Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against blacks. Forty-five percent of their victims are white, 43 percent are black, and 10 percent are Hispanic. When whites commit violent crime, only three percent of their victims are black.

• Blacks are an estimated 39 times more likely to commit a violent crime against a white than vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.

• Blacks are 2.25 times more likely to commit officially-designated hate crimes against whites than vice versa.


Gangs

• Only 10 percent of youth gang members are white.

• Hispanics are 19 times more likely than whites to be members of youth gangs. Blacks are 15 times more likely, and Asians are nine times more likely.


Incarceration

• Between 1980 and 2003 the US incarceration rate more than tripled, from 139 to 482 per 100,000, and the number of prisoners increased from 320,000 to 1.39 million.

• Blacks are seven times more likely to be in prison than whites. Hispanics are three times more likely.
----------------------------------------

PS: This report is a bit dated, but I don't believe anything fundamentally changed over the past few years that would invalidate it. If this report is bogus, show me where, and I will have no problem rejecting it.

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has alternet ever had an article which said anything good about white people (or anything critical of blacks)? i searched for the word "whites" and the articles below came up. they all seem to have a negative view of white americans and always a favorable view of blacks. i thought that some of the articles were good, others not so, but it's strange that i've never remember reading an article on alternet that said anything positive about whites or critical of blacks. one of hutchinson's articles seemed promising but the content was actually anti-white despite the title. i'm tempted to write an article with some positive data about whites and see if alternet refuses to publish it. if you can think of one that does have a positive view of whites, please post a link.

The New Environmentalists: How to Make the Green Movement Less White
By Van Jones, ColorLines

None So Blind as the 'Color Blind'
By Sean Gonsalves
No matter how many times a disturbed white male shoots up a school, church or workplace, bombs an abortion clinic or is arrested for being a serial killer, nobody raises questions like: is something wrong with white suburban culture?


Fear and Loathing in Middle America
By Sasha Abramsky
Author Joe Bageant's "Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War" gets down and dirty with the hardship economics in Middle America.

'Talk to Me': A Political Movie that Lacks Politics
By David Corn, AlterNet
MediaCulture: Don Cheadle's new film, Talk to Me, about Petey Greene forgets Greene's most important accomplishment: He was a community activist who railed against poverty and racism.

The O.J. Simpson Card
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, New America Media
A decade after Simpson was acquitted, blacks are paying for the verdict by being kept out of juries.

The Reality of Race: Is the Problem That White People Don't Know or Don't Care?
By Robert Jensen, AlterNet
A recent study exploring white peoples' understanding of the black experience in America reveals that whites still drastically underestimate the cost of being black because they don't want to know or can't face the consequences.

Whites Just Don't Understand the Black Experience
By Margaret Kamara, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
To white Americans, giving up television is a hardship; being black is not. That's the upshot of a series of studies by researchers at The Ohio State University.

The War on Drugs is Still a War on Blacks
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Rights and Liberties: Recent surveys of drug habits among Americans found that blacks and whites use drugs at equal rates, yet blacks are more often prosecuted because the laws are biased against them.

Assimilation is a Double-Edged Sword for Immigrants
By Aviva Chomsky, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: The problem is that, in America assimilation means learning one's place in the nation's racial hierarchy, Aviva Chomsky writes in her new book, They Take Our Jobs! And 20 Other Myths About Immigration.

Do Blacks Kill Whites Because They're White?
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
A recent murder trial in Tennessee shows an aspect of violent crime in America that isn't much talked about -- whites are far more likely to be the victims and blacks their assailants in interracial crimes than the other way around.


A 'Ho' By Any Other Color: The History and Economics of Black Female Sexual Exploitation
By Dr. Edward Rhymes
Rights and Liberties: While white women's sexuality is celebrated in movies and magazines, Black women acting out the same behavior are relegated to the ranks of whoredom.

Many Whites Still Smugly Tie Their Racial Blinders Tight
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

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.....in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it". - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

While people of color bear the burden of disproving negative stereotypes regularly--when interviewing for a job, taking a standardized test, or merely driving in the "wrong" neighborhood, where they are presumed not to belong--whites rarely if ever have to worry that the actions of others, no matter how horrible, will stick to or force them to prove that they are somehow different.

For example, whites can screw up on the job, run entire corporations into the ground, rip off the Savings and Loans to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, cut corners on occupational safety and health in the workplace, or scam millions from employee pension funds, without the rest of them having to worry that such incompetence or outright dishonesty will result in whites being viewed suspiciously every time they seek to climb to the top of the corporate ladder.

Even when some white teenager commits a racially-motivated hate crime, as happened recently in Simi Valley, California where four white youths beat two black kids to a pulp or the Jena 6 in Jena, La., the white response is one that seeks to demonstrate that their town is not racist (as if geography alone ever commits an aggravated assault), rather than hoping to prove that all whites aren't that way.

Likewise, nearly a decade ago, when a Hmong woman in the Twin Cities murdered her six children, her status as a racial and ethnic minority was front and center in in discussion of the crime--anger on talk radio was pointed at the Hmong as a group, or Asians more broadly.

But a few years back, when Andrea Yates killed her five kids in Texas, or when Susan Smith drowned her two boys in a South Carolina lake, no one attacked her as an example of what's wrong with white folks these days.

Therefore, selling your soul for the privilege of being considered “white” makes anyone who has not been brutally enslaved or systematically denied basic human rights by the u.s. and european gov’ts accessories to the crimes against African Americans and people of color around the world.

It is so sad that the Caucasian’s strong belief in white superiority has blinded them to the real issues of the day such as bush’s commutation of scooter libby, being lied into war, the falling dollar, having your privacy tapped into, exporting jobs out of this country, having become notorious for producing weapons of mass destruction and poorly engineered automobiles, mistreatment of wounded soldiers by our own government, erosion of the constitution, lack of health care and morals, rising energy costs, and global warming.

So call me a racist if you will, but at least my so called racist views do not bring death and destruction a group of people so that their descendants (of the oppressors) can survive and perpetuate off the misery of that oppressed group. If whites feel that prioritizing racism is more important to their survival then uniting together with all peoples to correct the wrongs that the u.s. and european gov'ts have wrecked havoc on all, all over the world for the sake of humanity, then this world is in trouble because guess which countries holds the largest 'weapons of mass destruction' arsenals?

When (not if) another major attack on America happens, martial law and suspended elections will be going into effect immediately. Way of life as we know it now will be coming to a screeching halt in the very near future.

So to those white folks who are putting forth so much energy on hating a group of people who have never done anything to your people on a mass scale or that just don‘t look like you in skin color, it's your own kind you better watch out for.

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While this may risk getting a low review by our uncritically liberal audience, I think that the responses have largely spoken. It seems that a lot of people are tired of the black/discrimination paradigm, and while I find myself usually far left on most issues, on this I'd have to agree. This is a boring topic. Racism is wrong. But stereotypes exist for a reason. If I see a young black man in a suit, or a golf shirt and khakis, I'm not going to think "criminal". However, if I see some black trying to look like snoop dog or fifty cent and swaggering with the hip hop gangster cool, then I'm sorry, I am weary. What you wear tells people who you are. If I went to a bar dressed as a hell's angel, then I would be sending messages to others, which would differ if I went to the same place in a suit or something that evokes a different message. That isn't discrimination, that is the mechanics of identity, and its interplay with uniform. Our appearances send messages all the time about who we are. You don't want to be treated like a bum, then don't dress like one. You want to keep it real, then expect people to treat you likewise, the uniform tells people who you are. Everybody wants to blame someone for their own shortcomings in life. Sometimes these blames are justified and other times they are projections fuelled by personal unaccountability. Blacks are justified in being "Angry", but as a white male, I have to admit that negative reinforcements from the black community via this "Angry Black" demeanor have made me less sympathetic towards your people's plight. There are obvious class differences in american society, but to divide it along such artificial parameters as black and white is overlysimplistic, and counterproductive. Are a lot of blacks economically worse off? Yes, unfortunately they are, and a lot of crime and anger can be accounted for due to this, however, this isn't a racial divide. There are lots of poor whites, who aren't given jack squat either. A capitalist doesn't care what colour you are, as long as your money is green; or, if you're working for him, he doesn't care what colour you are as long as you bring in the green. I feel bad for saying it, but I'm tired of hearing this one... go find a new oppressor... I'm tired of being cast the role... You want to say something critical, start talking about class in america, the black thing has been done, and accepted by the mainstream. King's highlight reel is always about the dream of racial equality. His later message, which was racially inclusive, is never given air time, because one message divides, and the other frightens the very wealthy and influential. The tragedy of mainstream criticism, a la alternet is that it will never get past the redherring issues that distract us from saying anything mutually productive.

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regarding "bling", so called "race" crimes, etc..., these are the classic cases of the servant copying the master.

today's big gold necklace on a black rapper or bball player is the same flaunting of wealth taught as desirable as yesterday's limosines, chauffers and fur coats flaunted by the rich white "captains of industry".

Whitey sets the standards, everyone else follows along.

its the same with crime. Capitalism (and its so-called socialist Industrial equivilants) demonstrates that it's ok to stomp on whomever during the climb to the top. So we have the much vaunted captains of industry raking in huge salaries and generally firing, laying off, breaking unions, slashing and/or looting pension funds and otherwise SCREWING "their" workers. In the Middle, its lousy office politics. On down the social ladder we have poor people (no matter their skin color) mimiking the captains of industry and screwing people over to survive (maybe carjacking, burglary or welfare fraud). or in a vain attempt to get rich, just like the lazy captains of industry at the top.

Whatever...

the distorted social ethics of the day are laid down at the top and copied by those in the middle and at the bottom.

Conflict? For resolution the rich will sue (or have their servants in gov't bomb), the cops will shoot and the poor will cut or punch.

the racists go on and on about how the "coloreds" will destroy or at least degrade "western" civilization, but they fail to realize that it is already degraded by the behaviour of the "leaders" and the degradation practiced by the poor is merely tribute and flattery in the form of imitation.

and who were the main proponants of the social darwinism that still reigns as the dominant view of social relations? Rich White People, that's who. When you teach that you have to screw people to survive and get to the top how did you expect us to behave? Did you really think that most would just "turn the other cheek?"

so all you defenders of the status quo who scream about the "violent savages" knocking at the gates best wake up and take a good hard look in the mirror and look what kind of ethics your society, your gov't, your economics, and your politics promotes.

hint, its not real nice and its not base on the love of your supposed "God"

hypocrites, all.

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What a crock!!!

As amusing as this argument above, it just appears to be white people speaking to white people about a subject that they can only know from anecdotal evidence and gut feelings. In other words: It's meaningless, no matter which side of the argument you're on.

Please scroll up and read my earlier comment about the book "Sundown Towns" by James W. Loewen.

The book puts most of this back and forth argument into perspective, including all these silly crime stats, that are also quite meaningless.

Most libraries have this book, so you can read it for free. If you're too lazy to go to the library, you can read the whole book for free at Google Books: http://tinyurl.com/2kypca

You can read the wikipedia entry at: http://tinyurl.com/2lnfpg

A very good Washington Post review is at http://tinyurl.com/89mzo

Another WaPo review at http://tinyurl.com/lxcrl

A U.S News & World Report interview with the author at http://tinyurl.com/3e4bzk

After you've read all, or at least some, of the above suggestions, I'd love to debate you on this topic. Until then, you're all just blowing hot air...and it's hot enough already.

With all my love,
Aunty Em

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NOW WE'RE MAKING EXCUSES FOR CRiMINALS? Please forgive the gangbangers and dope sellers and car jackers, it's all whiteys fault. Do you people actually believe the bullshit you feed each other? If you people ever take this country over, it's time for war.

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