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I would respect your opinion if you would be open-minded enough to realize that blacks weren't the only people ever enslaved in the world. Get over it - blacks are not the only people ever mistreated or held as slaves; they were not the only people who ever ever forced to leave their homes, their countries, and had everything taken away from them. This has been brought up in numerous other threads, and not once have I ever seen you acknowledge that other races have also been mistreated, sometimes for centuries. If you would like, I could prepare a lengthy response, including numerous references to support this. The whole "put yourself in a slave's shoes" comment - I get very very tired of your position that only blacks suffered in this fashion. I have my grandparent's wedding photo when they were escaping from Russia - no shoes, and my grandmother's head was shaved as she supposedly had lice. They were slaves in Russia... they were beaten, my grandmother was raped, they had family members beaten and killed in front of them. I have relatives who escaped Russia when The Wall came down, who told horrendous stories of having family members dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night, never to bee seen again, of rapes and beatings, of children being taken from their homes, of having all their belongings destroyed... and all these things were happening less than 40 years ago, in far more recent history than black slavery in the US. Get over your self-righteous anger, as you are using it as an excuse for people to get more than they deserve through their own merit. Of course, I know that my reply here will not change your opinion, as I cannot carry on an open discussion with someone who refuses to look at a bigger picture than the one that he currently holds.

Yes richard, the fact that you show empathy and are willing to see things in a different light means you are one of the good guys. We all have some level of predjudice or racism, if for no other reason because most of us were raised and hung around our type, thus we do not have a true understanding of what others have been through. I have been quite open about my disdain for homosexuals, I do not consider them a race, but I obviously have issues there as I blanketly judge all of them by their actions instead of the content of their heart. If I were a better person I would not let my disdain for what they do cause me to avoid the people. But I am not there yet, we are all works in process.

Tough call. Lots of factors here. First, we all project a certain aura or personality. Most folks in the public safety business are Type A- act first, ask questions later, and if someone senses a person is tentative or weak they will seize control of the scene. Worse case, if the person stepping up is not in charge, or not in a position of authority, they can create havoc on a scene. The only way to change someone's opinion of you is to step up and take control of the scene. Be confident in your abilities, PROVE that you are capable of controlling a scene. Be firm, authoritative, and aggressive with your care. If you are the senior medical person, then you need to act like it. Next time you are in an ER and there is a code or critical patient, WATCH the person running the code. See how they handle things. Look at their demeanor, the tone of their voice, their mannerisms.how they react when things go bad. You also need to know what everyone's job and responsibilities are. No, you don't have to know all the details, but at least be familiar with them and know how the various pieces fit together. Example- on the scene of an accident, LEO's are collecting information, directing traffic, making reports, etc. The fire company is securing the car, maybe disconnecting the battery, extrication, assisting EMS, etc. EMS of course is caring for the patient. Someone is triage, another may be telemetry officer, another may be arranging transport, another may be collecting information from victims, etc. You need to be aware of all these things and more, keep that data in the back of your mind, and use it- and the resources as needed. THAT will give you control of the scene.

A long held adage states that in order to figure out where you're going one must be aware of where they've been. This is true, so that the mistakes of the past won't be repeated in the future. But it's also a double edge sword, with the back stroke being "As long as you hold onto the past with both hands, you cannot reach out to embrace the future". Yes, we realize that there were slaves; we realize that there were atrocities perpetrated. Hanging onto the anger for 140+ years is counterproductive. I am in no way suggesting that what happened in that time frame in American history be forgotten, no more than I would suggest the Jewish people forget about what happened during the Third Reich. The problem, as I see it; is that it’s only the black community in the United States that still expects the keys to the kingdom simply because of the color of their skin. No, Africans were NOT the only race/nationality to be mistreated throughout history, but their descendants are the only ones who will not stand on their own two feet and take charge of their own destiny! Rather than complain how standardized testing is ‘culturally biased’, how about doing something about it (like every other successful non-white has done before you? Study your ass off like the rest of us, be proactive in your educational opportunities and actually make something of yourself rather than expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter! My Great Grandfather left Germany around the time that WWI broke out, came to America and became a naturalized citizen, joined the United States Army and was sent back to Germany. No, my people didn’t have slaves; because that era in time was long over by then. After growing up poor, I decided that I was going to make something of myself. By doing so, I set myself up to be able to get through school without quitting, I stayed away from the gang mentality and dedicated myself to obtaining a ‘quality education’ in a predominantly black school, so don’t sit there on your self –righteous soapbox and tell me it cant be done! No; it wasn’t easy, but it WAS an attainable goal. I am the ONLY one who is responsible for my actions, and I will NOT use the past to justify a ‘free ride’ through life!

If he doesn't want any further communication, why push it? What do you gain by "explaining yourself"? To be honest, in this post you seem to be desperate for someones approval who does not approve of you. *Note: This is why I NEVER... EVER.... EVER post things on FB that are even remotely related to work. If you want to handle this professionaly, go delete your entire wall to ensure you got the one that upset him, then never post work stuff again. The other option is to continue giving power to this individual to disrupt your life so much, you must reach out to strangers in a desperate attempt to "settle the score" BTW: Welcome to the City Glad too see so many new users being post-active lately.

I can see where you are going with this, but….. how do you then explain the immigrants to the USA and Canada who arrived here with nothing? The Irish, Chinese, Scottish, Russian, and others, who fled their countries, who did not speak English, who had no education, and who were met at every turn with “Irish Need Not Apply” signs, and blatant discrimination? How many of those ethnic backgrounds are still crying over the horrible misdeeds their ancestors were forced to endure, and using that as an excuse not to achieve? I agree with this wholeheartedly! I always wanted to be a brain surgeon, but I can’t pass the testing…. I don’t believe I should jump up and down and cry that because my grandparents were forced out of the country of their birth with nothing but the clothes on their back, and not even the hair on their heads (they had to shave their heads in order to board the ship, as they were not considered high class enough to not have lice), and because they weren’t given the same advantages as others, that now I can claim that life is so unfair that the world is against me in achieving my dream. DEFINITELY the home! To the people who gave birth/spawned/hatched those children, they are your responsibility first, someone else’s responsibility second. You had that child, it is your responsibility to raise that child to be a responsible member of society. In the first years of a child’s life, before they get to school, they are already learning social interactions, dealing with emotions and right and wrong. To leave this education to the schools is a recipe for disaster. Consider a schoolroom environment… anywhere from 20 – 35 or more children, 1 teacher, possibly an assistant or two… of those children, there is possibly one or more with learning disabilities, one or two who do not have English as their first language, one or two who did not have breakfast, one or two who did not have supper last night, one or two who have been physically or sexually abused in the last week…. And for some reason, we expect a single teacher to meet the needs of all of these students and turn them into responsible adults? That isn’t reasonable. To an extent, teachers can be held responsible. They need to control the classroom environment enough to encourage learning; however, there is usually no checkmark for “genetics” to explain why some children will never meet the minimum standard set. It is the teacher’s responsibility to provide the best opportunity for learning – they cannot force that learning into a child’s brain. Absolutely we should hold the students responsible! At what point did we lose sight of consequences for actions? We have become a nation of blame. “It isn’t Johnny’s fault he isn’t successful – his teacher/friends/life in general is to blame.” Unfortunately, the reasons behind a child who is unwilling to learn are numerous, and may be difficult to find. The current educational system is quagmired in “can’t hold them back, can’t pass them either.” Children are falling through the cracks of the school system due to a combination of lack of funding, resources, direction, and control. Again, parents are needed to fill the gaps that the school cannot provide, and by working together, the student has a better chance. What are the basic problems? 1. Parental responsibility in child raising is diminishing – we need to educate people that they are responsible for their children’s success first, and not assume the school system will do it for them. 2. Schools are under-funded, under-staffed, over-crowded, and ill-equipped to handle the multiple needs of students. 3. We have become a nation of blame – it isn’t my fault I failed – it must be someone else’s fault. And, attached to this, we are the nation of no consequences – instead of me being responsible for my failures, and working to fix those, I can blame someone else, and not bear the consequences myself. Solutions? How do we teach people to be parents? Honestly, I am stumped there. Do we really need shows like “Teen Moms” to show us how poor parents people really are? Why do we give those parents their 15 minutes of fame, and not the skills to actually be effective parents? We can fund schools more appropriately, but if we don’t meet the first issue, I don’t think we are truly solving the problem. There are discussions on holding teachers and students accountable… how about holding parents responsible? But back to the first post... racism? I think we need to get past the "blacks didn't score as well" and find out WHY blacks didn't score as well. Is there truly a discrepancy in the testing, or is it a case of people knowing they don't have to put in the same effort, to still get the job? I don't agree with anyone getting a job or promotion based on other than their qualifications. (Edited to correct grammar only)

There is nothing like good old republican "pull yourself up by your bootstraps logic", the problem is the person has to have boots and straps. I assume all of you have taken a math class, and most of you took algebra, so lets see how you do with this question: "the 3X + 1 problem". Let f(x) be a function defined on the positive integers such that: f(x) = x/2 if x is even f(x) = (3*x+1)/2 if x is odd Then the conjecture is: iterates of f(x) will eventually reach 1 for any initial value of x. The feeling you have right now, is the same feeling most minorities (excluding white women) feel when they take a promotional or entrance exam written by white people (usually university elitist). The mathmatician would marvel at how dumb you must be if you can not solve this problem immediately. I do conceed that not every black person's fate in life is due to an evil white person who held them back, if you will conceed that every member of his family from his grandparents back was held back by white people. All you EMTs, go try to pass the National Registry Paramedic Exam without taking the Paramedic course, see how you do. You can not withhold education from a group of people for centuries and then expect them to excel on a test at the same level of people who have not had education withheld. I respect people who have an honest disagreement about affirmative action, all I ask is you tell me what system you would use to make sure the playing field is level ? I guarantee you that on every Fire Department's promotion exam that there is a question about friction loss, yet I have never seen a fireman calculate friction loss on a working fire scene, so why is the question there ? To purposefully create lower scores for those who are not good with math.