[James]

You are wrong on three points. First, you assume everyone necessarily equates style with racial identity. Sometimes a hairstyle is just a hairstyle. And as for ‘kids’ – even a decision to ‘dress/talk/act black/white’ is almost by definition a style choice because what other kind of choice is a kid going to make? It is not a choice of one racial identity over the other, but a part of the process of building an individual identity one piece at a time from the various facades they will try on. Second, you seem to believe in a set of appearance and behavior characteristics that are not just common among, but defining of members of various ethnic groups. Your use of terms like ‘whiteness’ or ‘act black’ is suggestive of the expectation that people define themselves according to one of your racial stereotypes and that they strictly adhere to the stereotype characteristics. There is nothing about being of any ethnic background that inherently ties one to any set of beliefs or behavioral characteristics, and to imply otherwise – to assert the requirement for loyal conformance to standards over the individual right to self-determination is wrong. Thirdly, as for ‘childish name-calling,’ I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about. It seems to me that you’re the only one calling names here. I am not so ‘naive’ that I don’t know what you mean when you say ‘act black.’ I am not so ‘willfully blind’ as to believe there aren’t people who intentionally choose to ‘act white/black.’ That is entirely their own business, and I am certainly not so arrogant as to tell them how to live their lives. What do you think gives you the right to expect others to conform to the You should not condemn people who have chosen a style not typically associated with their ethnic background nor assume they have rejected their ‘racial identity’

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Name : James, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 32, City : Alexandria, State : VA, Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[James]

To Priya: Of course Capitalism is not a meritocracy. Economic systems that purport to reward contributions based on social merit, or individuals based on ability and hard work alone are doomed to failure (and by failure I mean poverty). The reason for this is simple cause and effect – they do not reward success (the generation of wealth) directly, but rather reward activities and attributes that are loosely correlated with success or that do not relate to the generation of wealth at all but are considered important to society.

In Capitalism, rewards are not based on the social value of your work or the difficulty of your work or even entirely upon your relative skill at your chosen profession. Reward is based for the most part on the wealth you create and your criticality in the process of creating that wealth. We could all do without Disney movies or McDonald’s food or Coca Cola – they are not irreplacable elements of American society. And the people who created these industries were probably not among the top 1 percent in ability or hard work. But their actions created businesses that employ thousands and generate millions of dollars of wealth, which benefits everybody. I think that’s reason enough to argue that the wealthy (or most of them, anyway) deserve their money. Cheeseburgers may not save the world, but they do employ a lot of people.

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Name : James, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 32, City : Alexandria, State : VA, Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[James]

Do they? Who knows – some people feel guilty about anything. Should they? Not on your life! There is no denying that Capitalism is the most successful wealth-generating economic system in history. It is inherent in Capitalism that some will make out better than others. Indeed, Capitalism depends on people wanting to do better enough to work hard and be creative and take chances, thereby generating more wealth for everybody. This is the system we all work in, the objective we all share and the game we all play. Expecting those who come out on top to feel guilty is like expecting the Denver Broncos to feel guilty that none of the other fine AFC teams got to go to the Super Bowl. Also, a great many of these rich people, Bill Gates being the ultimate example, have, in the process of amassing their wealth, created jobs for thousands or (perhaps indirectly) even millions of others. You may be smarter and nicer and more honorable and in every way that matters a better person than Bill Gates, but only on the basis of what he has contributed to the national and global economy, his billions are well-earned. Now, if they got filthy, stinking rich by breaking the law, that would be something to feel guilty about. But that’s another matter entirely. PS Please don’t send me any ‘I hate Bill’ letters. I hate the little egotistical tyrant too – but there is no denying what Microsoft has done to facilitate the exponential growth of the computer industry. PPS Does anybody else recognize how tragic it is that the majority of Americans feel their only opportunity to achieve economic success comes from buying state run lottery tickets?

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Name : James, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 32, City : Alexandria, State : VA, Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

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