[John K.]

There are really two or three different problems that you mention. You try to tie them all to overt racist...which is more than likely not the case.

First, the initial telephone interview. Been there, done that! Let me share with you my experience. I went to college for 5 years and got two degrees, chemical engineering and chemistry. Pretty high GPA, higher in-major averages, the works. The only thing that I did not have was prior work experience in the field...and that made me hard to market. These days, college education is not enough, you usually have to gain experience in your field while in school to get an edge. I have two highly specialized degrees, and yet it took me two years to get a job, and to be honest, it is only marginally related to my field. Need I mention how many of the initial telephone interviews ended badly, once they realized I had no experience?

Your second issue is a little more tricky, and involves networking. Networking can easily counter a lack of experience. Ever notice how friends will put in a good word for each other at work, to help with a job hunt? That's networking. If you have the right connections, things can be easy. Family connections are the best kind, but getting out to job fairs and things like that can help you meet the right people.

There are obvious problems with networking. If you are not part of the network, you are out of the loop and have to work harder to get in the door. Again, been there, done that. Can this seem racist? Yes, it can. But it affects just as many whites, if not more.

It is very possible that you might be hitting a racial barrier, obviously they still exist. But there are some basic barriers to all potential employees that should be addressed before assuming that race is the sole factor.

One last thing about the mortgage companies. Please recognize that there are two sides to job placement: experience and education. A lot of upper level jobs require minimum degree requirements. Sure, the preparers might have lots of experience, but do they have an MBA? Or degrees in business management? Without the education, it is hard for anyone to break through. Consider that before assuming that it is racism at work.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

This seems to be a fairly common artifact of metropolitan history on the East Coast. Recall that most of the Irish and Italians now living in those areas are the descendants of immigrants. In places like Philly, Boston, Chicago, etc., Irish and Italian immigrants would live in ghetto conditions and depend on extended family and ethnic connections to get by. Add to that the strong family 'clan' tradition in both ethnic groups, and that explains why they are so clannish, as you say.

But now the real question: Why are they usually so racist? This comes out of the prior answer. The Irish and Italians were segregated and discriminated against until earlier this century. So when other ethnic groups and freed black slaves entered the mix, there were distinct ethnic groups all fighting for the same resources. Even though the conditions have changed sharply, the mindset remains due to attitudes and grudges passed down through the generations.

Note that the attitudes you mention are more prevalent in lower-income ethnic areas, like South Philly, South Boston, even the Irish Channel in New Orleans. This is consistent with the idea that these ethnic groups consider minorities to be competition with regard to resources like jobs.

I doubt that the Catholic Church is involved to any large extent, other than the usual religious issues.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

Actually, I can give you a another example, if you like. In NYC, we have Al Sharpton. The general view of Sharpton is that of a racist opportunist. However, whenever there is an incident that is even remotely racial in context, the media will practically act as Sharpton's mouthpiece. Why? Sharpton will tell you himself. Because the media understands that Sharpton will publicly criticize any media outlet that dares to contradict him, and that would cut into their profit margin because of the number of his supporters. Without the media, how could Sharpton have such a palpable effect on politics, to the extent that Gore, Bradley, Clinton, etc. all feel that they have to have a strategy to deal with him?

This happens with politics all the time. Note the recent media coverage of GW Bush's 'world leader pop quiz' and his unproven drug use. That was covered to an extreme. However, recent proven allegations that Al Gore's father paid soldiers in Vietnam to act as his bodyguards barely made a dent in the media. Why? Bush is not in power, Gore and his political allies are. So you go with the side that has more clout. It happened the entire stretch of the impeachment mess...note how the tone and spin of the media coverage tended to change depending on which side had the upper hand. You sell papers and gain viewers by going with the winners or the most popular side of the argument among your potential audience.

I will go farther to point out that this changes depending on the overall tone of the media outlet. For example, conversative media outlets will emphasize and sensationalize the conservative viewpoint. If the media outlet is more liberal, then that outlet will go with the liberal viewpoint. When the outlets are somewhat more objective, they will make sure that they offend as few people as possible. But since they still have to make it as sensational as possible to attract readers and viewers, they wind up taking sides to minimize the potential cost.

I could likely come up with tons of examples, but they are in plain sight every day. The New York Times is a good place to start. They certainly have no problem offending conservative groups, since they strongly advocate Democratic agendas. For a conservative outlet, try the New York Post. The same will apply in the opposite manner.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

You make a very good point. Why did the death in Arkansas get so little coverage? On the same token, I asked a similar question a few months ago, a question that was never posted. There was an incident that mirrored the dragging death in Texas involving two American Indians nearly killing a white man. It was also marginalized. I think the answer is a simple one. The media desires readers and viewers, and so they choose the stories that take on a controversial angle to draw in that audience. However, there are a number of politically active movements out there, legitimite and otherwise, that affect the mix as well. It is safer to sensationalize the Shepard case, picking and choosing what information to report or not, depending on what the gay rights activists will tolerate. There were aspects of that incident that never came out in the media (though the result would not have changed). However, to sensationalize the death of a teen by two homosexuals would risk the protest of gay rights activists, and possibly reduce readers or viewers - which is contrary to the media's goal. The same is true in the reporting of racial, political and religious issues.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

I agreed with most of what you said, but I am curious why you take such a negative stance on people with an SUV and/or cell phones. Sometimes it is simply a matter of practicality. My wife and I lease a Subaru Forester, a small SUV. Note that leasing is much, much cheaper than buying. Why do we do this? Because my car (which I own) is small, and we wanted something safer for when our daughter was born. Since we both hate minivans, we went with an SUV. Now, the second part of your statement, about cell phones. In general, yes, the people who use them constantly at the expense of others on the road are out of line. But we have a cell phone because I work in NYC and my wife works closer to home. If there is an emergency during my commute, she has a way of contacting me. Again, simple practicality.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

I used to be one of those people in the rural areas with a porrly maintained house and a satellite dish. There were lots of people in a similar situation. First, our area of Virginia was full of mountains, so there was no such thing as free TV. It is cable or a dish. Since cable is pretty much a monopoly down there (as it is in many places), the rates were quite high. A satellite dish was usually cheaper or equal to the cable rates.

As far as the houses go, we rented. So we could only make cosmetic changes to the house, most of which were inside. Some people did own houses, but the cost of repair can be high in areas with few contractors, painters, etc. Again, they charge a high rate because they are the only game in town.

Finally, a satellite dish is a one-time installation. Fixing a house takes a lot longer and may cost much more than a family can afford.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

There are usually two reasons people act rudely toward the wealthy. The first is envy. Some people are jealous that other people accomplished something they did not. The second reason, related to the first, is the impression that the wealthy can only get that way through some illegal activity. I am not sure that the people in those homes can really be called wealthy, though. It depends on the area. In my area, that is a farily low price for a small home, and two cars are needed for a two-income family when you need to commute to your jobs. My wife and I both work, and we are still unable to get a house at that price. Then again, in West Virginia, I imagine that things are a bit different, and that might be even more out of reach.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

First, I was amazed how your thoughful question was negated by your comment about the religious zealots, a comment that seems to indicate you think photographing sexual acts with young children is merely a target of fanatical religious nuts. Sorry, but that is not the case. Take the recent case of the man who videotaped his rape of a 15-month-old baby, an act that included sodomy, among other things. It was not even his child, not that it makes a difference. Are you telling me it takes a religious zealot to feel outrage over this action?

A second point: Unlike adult pornography, which at least has some semblance of consent, child pornography is largely non-consentual. Some might choose to think that much of child pornography involves teens close to the age of consent, and is therefore on the edge of social acceptability. Do your homework. That is not the case. Some of the worst child porn involves children under 12, which is much younger than the age of consent. The modus operandi of most child pornographers and pedophiles is closely related to adult stalkers, something most of us would see as a clear threat.

And to answer your question about why some people like it: sorry, you'll have to ask them. Maybe someone into child porn will answer the question. It's a little like asking a person why a stranger likes country music.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

Last time I checked, 98.6 degrees F is the average body temperature for a human being, regardless of the ethnic factors involved. I know that there is some variance around that figure on an individual basis, but I am pretty sure that the average is the same. Any doctors out there know differently?

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

I just wanted to add a little bit of nuance to Floyd's post. Everything he says about the English attitude regarding Africans is true. However, the exact same descriptions were given to the Irish by the English during 800 years of the English occupation of Ireland. The English felt they were a separate and superior race, and that even other 'whites' were inherently inferior. Cromwell would describe Irish and Scots as demons with forked tongues and cloven feet, disguised as human. This attitude persisted for quite a few years in the United States, until earlier this century. It is interesting to note that the Irish in Northern Ireland had their own civil rights struggle with the English during the 1960s and 1970s. My point is, the English did not assume all whites were superior to blacks. They actually felt they were superior to everyone, and that disturbing frame of mind carried over with the colonists.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

If it were so cut and dry as you make it out to be, I would agree with the solution. After all, you said it yourself: The source of the article should not matter. The idea is to test verbal acuity. However, some of the factors that people bring into the discussion are utterly irrelevant. What does the education of the parents have to do with anything? My parents barely made it through high school, never read anything more challenging than a slutty novel, and yet I scored very high on the SAT. Oh, and my high school was one of the lowest-ranked schools in New Jersey, so that factor also doesn't hold water. Much of the charges against the SAT test are based on correlations that are questionable at best. I do, however, agree with the person who mentioned that children in families that speak English sporadically would have a more difficult time with the verbal section. One thing though...aren't the math scores also lower? How does that follow?

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

The story of Noah is actually a sythesis of dozens of similar flood stories told by a number of Mideast cultures of the time. In fact, there are two entirely contradictory versions of the story of Noah in Genesis. Also, while your ideas are interesting, they ignore another weakness of the Biblical 'history'. How could the handful of people (let alone animals) provide the viable gene pool necessary for genetic variety? A similar example would be the insistence that Adam and Eve were the only two people around, who then led to the rest of the multitude who perished in the flood. That's a heck of a lot of inbreeding!

Besides, if you take the story of Noah literally, God looks awefully vindictive. First he punished humanity with original sin after the Fall, then he wipes out humanity for not learning the lesson. But he allows a few to live...but keeps the original sin! Why not just wipe everyone out and start over? I prefer to think that the story was written (and rewritten, hence the differing accounts) in order to satisfy an allegorical function.

While I greatly appreciate your inclusion of science in your faith, I do find it a little odd that you include evolutionary concepts within a literal interpretation of the Bible. Such a strong fundamentalist viewpiont usually does not lend itself to the theory of evolution, as recent events have made clear. Nice change of pace!

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

In my experience, trusting an auto mechanic can be a difficult decision. I have had good and bad experiences. My mechanic in Virginia turned out to be bad. He replaced my alternator with a 'new' model that died within a month. He also took a deposit on work that he never did, and refused to pay me back. On the other hand, my 'new' alternator died while I was moving to New Jersey, and I wound up having to get a mechanic in a small rural Virginia town to replace it. It would have been very easy for the mechanic to take advantage of the situation, but he charged a fair price and bent over backward to help.

Unfortunately, I have to say that my bad experiences outnumber my good experiences, so I tend to distrust mechanics. In addition to personal experience, I can point to any number of undercover news programs that show examples of mechanics purposely damaging a vehicle to get more business, or charging a customer for work not needed or services not rendered. All of this has contributed to a stereotype that I have to resist. I can imagine that the experiences of others are similar.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

Well, there are a few reasons, but here are the main ones that I can think of. Regardless of how loose your underwear might be, the scrotum moves and can get pressed into an uncomfortable position. Recognize that depending on certain conditions, the scrotum will rise or sag to maintain proper temperature. So comfort can change. Also, sweating can make things stick in odd and alarming areas. And there's hair on the moving parts, which can get caught in bad places. So there are a lot of reasons. Think about when a bra shifts and begins to press in the wrong places...sometimes the only solution to the problem is to 'adjust'.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[John K.]

For the moment, I'll ignore the fact that you seem to imply that being around white people will make you some kind of sociopath. Part of the answer is numbers. Frankly, there are more white people around, so there is more of a chance that a white person will be involved in a behavior, or that the behavior will be noticed. The other part of the answer is that you are incorrect in your assumptions. White kids are hardly the only ones killing other kids or adults. Black-on-black violence is a quick example. Gang violence is also widespread, crossing ethnic boundaries. And for everyone who seems to think that all serial killers are white, what about that Latino serial killer who was arrested several weeks ago? So, getting back to the first point: Maybe you think that only white people do nasty things because you have a negative opinion of white people and fail to recognize the many valid examples of non-whites doing nasty things.

User Detail :  

Name : John K., Gender : M, Age : 27, City : Cranford, State : NJ Country : United States, Occupation : Chemical Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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