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Discussion » Questions » Life and Society » If the United States of America was supposedly such a wonderful country during its first 150 years, why did Civil Rights have to be both
Randy D

If the United States of America was supposedly such a wonderful country during its first 150 years, why did Civil Rights have to be both

fought for and signed into legislation in order to finally be realized?
~

Posted - January 7, 2020
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Responses


  • 46117
    Obviously it wasn't and it was a DENIAL DREAM the idiots of the country keep spouting.  

    NO ONE of any merit or brain matter could look at this country or any country in history without unearthing major atrocities.  

    We have done some great things. So has Sweden and so has China.  So has America and so has Australia and all of those countries are rife with atrocities committed.

    So, why go on about NOTHING at all?  NO ONE THINKS THIS COUNTRY IS SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF BECAUSE IT IS SUPPOSEDLY SO REMOVED FROM STAIN.

    NO ONE of any brains.  The thing is, we try.   Will the morons win?  If they do?  We have LOST everything we ever held dear.
      January 7, 2020 12:04 PM MST
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  • 53509
    What did “we” ever hold dear during slavery?  During the Jim Crow Laws, the heyday of the Klu Klux Klan?  During the genocide of the Native Americans?  During things like the Chinese Exclusion Act, concentration camps for people of Japanese heritage, intervention in the politics, elections, economies, commerce and trade of other nations?  During the propping up of puppet governments to further the almighty dollar?  
      January 7, 2020 12:16 PM MST
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  • 46117
    Why are you arguing that?  I am saying we never had a great country of lily-white, pure souls.  There were no CIVIL rights.  We are trying.  

    We are mostly failing.  And then, as in all countries, we are capable of doing extraordinary things.

    This is way too simplistic for any conversation to take foothold.

    Some Americans are good and some are not.  OKAY?  There is less "CIVIL RIGHTS" these days, thanks to Trump.  Trump has set back the movement to the 60's.   This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at January 8, 2020 7:06 AM MST
      January 7, 2020 12:35 PM MST
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  • 53509
    I’m not arguing anything, I’m merely asking what you mean by what was held dear by the rich, white, male, literate landowners who decided the definition of who was a human being and who was not, who dubbed themselves the “founding fathers” of a land that was “discovered”, even though it was already inhabited, etc. 

    Youre the one who touted what we held dear.  All I’m doing is seeking clarification as to what it was. 

      January 7, 2020 8:13 PM MST
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  • 7280
    Wow, I must be out of touch---I wasn't aware that civil rights had actually been realized. This post was edited by tom jackson at January 7, 2020 5:13 PM MST
      January 7, 2020 12:29 PM MST
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  • 46117
    Oh yes.  I forgot the most OBVIOUS point.  THANK YOU, TOM.
      January 7, 2020 12:34 PM MST
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  • 53509

      I haven’t been lynched for my marriage to a woman who is not of my ethnicity. I have better opportunities in the area of education, employment, residential, etc., than did the generations before me. The fields of entertainment and sports that I enjoy are not restricted to particular ethnicities as they were in the past two centuries. People of my ethnicity and color and genetic background make great strides every day now that we’re not available prior to the fight for civil rights took place. There are countless other examples too. You bring up a good point, but only partially so. Certain aspects of civil rights absolutely have been realized. 

      While it’s true that no Utopia has been reached in the realm of civil rights, it would be a slap in the face of those who struggled, fought, persevered, died, were maimed, were ostracized to achieve goals for anyone in 2020 to say that no progress has ever come of it. There is a possibility that you’re out of touch if you’re not in touch with what parts of it have been realized. 

     
      January 7, 2020 8:08 PM MST
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  • 4624
    It never was.
    The fact that legislation is necessary, and still not successfully enforced, is proof enough.
    But the evidence is also there in history, archeology, drama, dance, song and every form of literature.
    America's greatest novelists have made it abundantly clear.

    We humans frequently fall short of our ideals.
    Yet it is always worth doing our best and educating our young towards them.
    Hopefully, one generation at a time, we gradually evolve towards something better.


      January 7, 2020 4:17 PM MST
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  • 5391

    If we examine what “America” did, and is still doing to the Native Americans, any claim of wonderful is poorly considered.

    After 4 score and 9 years as a nation, 600,000 Americans had slaughtered each other over the continuing enslavement of people kidnapped from their African homelands, The result? As you mentioned, 100 years of Jim Crow, the Klan, and Separate but Equal. Proud endeavors all.

    Women -half the population- could not vote in the US until 1920. No women was elected to federal office until 1934.

    The Dust Bowl.
    The Great Depression.


    The cruise ship St Louis, filled with Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, was turned away by FDR, in 1939. At least a quarter of them died in the Holocaust. 

    The US remains the only nation to use nuclear weapons on human beings. 

    100,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps. Heinous injustice. 

    Korea - the DMZ
    The Red Scare
    Vietnam- Mai Lai
    Watergate
    The “Cold“ War
    Mutual Assured Destruction
    Arms for Hostages
    9/11
    Iraq-WMDs, Abu Graib
    Kids in cages

    When was wonderful? 

    This post was edited by Don Barzini at January 7, 2020 9:32 PM MST
      January 7, 2020 4:54 PM MST
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  • 2836
    Promises of making America great again are lost when nothing was ever great to begin.with, except for the white European conquerors.

    Thanks for that thoughtful timeline, Don This post was edited by Jon at January 8, 2020 10:13 AM MST
      January 7, 2020 9:35 PM MST
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  • 5391

    The “Again” part is the problem. What is the basis of comparison? No answer has yet been presented.
    It has not escaped my notice that the same groups who succumbed to the catchiness of that empty tagline, are the same easily misled crowd who are dissonantly heralding the con man who fooled them with it. 

    This post was edited by Don Barzini at January 8, 2020 8:31 AM MST
      January 8, 2020 5:27 AM MST
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  • 6023

    Just to clarify your point about women voting ... that is only Federal law.

    They could vote prior to that, under state law.
    In fact, in some states, they lost the right after previously having it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_States

      January 8, 2020 8:09 AM MST
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  • 5391
    Thanx, Walt. You get the point though.    Women weren’t fully equal under law everywhere, ... for too long a time. 
      January 8, 2020 3:40 PM MST
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  • 6023
    I read a "historic fiction" short story once, long ago ... where the plot was that when Wyoming Territory granted women the right to vote (1869), there was a mass movement of women to move there ... and it quickly became a matriarchal society.  The story took place when the Territory was considering whether to become a State, or its own Nation.  

    Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the story or the author.
      January 9, 2020 7:08 AM MST
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  • Reading this thread.... Pick a side dude. You argue one way then argue the exact opposite..
      January 8, 2020 7:48 AM MST
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