BethFromVA

People said that about AIG and the auto industry too.

PJTP: I have a feeling Ebony is gonna get her call tomorrow (today for her by the time she reads this) for the new job.

I'd say I have to agree with you there. I believe it started as racial and maybe has progressed (regressed?) to spanning races and becoming somewhat more socioeconomic, but yes, I would agree that it was meant to keep blacks in line. Maybe still is.

Glad I clicked on that hyperlink there! I thought maybe root was slang for "penis."

It's hard to see proof of what is likely coming down the pike. Some things you can see just based on the way things are going. I hope he and I are wrong in our beliefs, but I don't think we are. I think for sure employers will no longer offer insurance because, frankly, why should they? Whether people will then be able to afford private insurance over whatever the government is offering (whether or not it costs) is yet to be seen, but yes, I believe that it will become government insurance -- which is what they want.

Tell ya what. If you ever come up here, I'll put the pinion seat back on her and take ya for a spin. I'll even wear my tee: If you can read this, then the bitch fell off. Deal? :thumbup:

Wait, THIS I gotta see: Plain in a dress. Wait, seen that. Plain in a dress at a formal function. Shoot, seen that too. Plain in a dress holding flowers. I don't think I've seen that yet. Wait........... no. I haven't seen that yet.

The dude's not all that tiny himself. But the ones they TALK about are the overweight women. It almost reminds me of an episode of MAD Tv where they did the Lowered Expectations skits.

Hehehe, it sounds like it. I did some volunteer work for a while with unwed mothers, and it was one of the most emotional jobs I have ever done. And at times the most unrewarding, sad to say.

Okay, don't go giving him a big head. Or feed his ego either. :thumbup:

Or a doctor. And even that man thing is in question.

Then apparently we are coming from the same perspective. That's a grand assumption, isn't it? Maybe like the OP's assumption that a lady switched seats simply because she's black? I can understand WHY she may feel that way, but it doesn't assure that she's right about the situation. Look, if Helen Keller could overcome all she had going against her, if Jews who were exterminated in the millions nearly to extinction and who still suffer injustices, if Stephen Hawking can overcome all his handicaps and be a BRILLIANT scientist, then my dear, I definitely believe people can overcome how she (or anyone in her situation) allows people to make her feel. Maybe... Funny, I would have rather voted for a good candidate, something we didn't get on either side. But that's another thread. :thumbup:

Not to sound flip, but wearing scrubs I'd be afraid they'd think you have drugs with you. Just a thought... And oftentimes I have known many in situations like that (regardless of color) aren't that thankful for the help. Expectant or demanding, maybe, but not always thankful.

I will admit, Melly, that I wouldn't be caught dead driving through Houston's Fourth Ward, much less getting out of my car. And it has nothing to do with racism -- simply survival.

Okay, WTF? Anybody seen the ad for the new show created by The Bachelor folks called More To Love? It's a bunch of overweight "average" women looking for love. Some of them all weepy saying they just want to be loved too. Omg. 'More to Love' -- Fox orders dating competition series for the heavy set--The Live Feed

Wow, now that's downright fugly. But yeah, the Dallas area is still a bit "bubba" compared to places like Houston. And don't even get me started on west Texas or east Texas. Probably far north and south Texas too. Shoot, that covers pretty much all of Texas other than Houston. Maybe it happens in the Houston police department too. Never know. I just wasn't familiar with it in everyday life.

If it helps you feel better about how you jumped the gun, we have you beat. I went and looked at our house on a Friday (wasn't overly impressed, and could only look through the windows anyway -- a realtor told me abut it and sent me there thinking it was open). Told hubby about it in passing that evening, and we went to look at it inside and out on Saturday. Went back again on Sunday to check out a few more things about the house. And there was a sealed bid on Tuesday morning. By that evening we learned we won the bid and owned the house. :thumbup: Feel better?

Maybe it depends on where you are in the south, Lulu...? I lived in Houston for 27 years and frankly I never got a sense of racial issues. Maybe because Houston is big and no longer considered a "southern" city. It's a hodgepodge of a bit of everything. I didn't hear friends/family/neighbors/residents say anything racist about people and didn't see it outright. Nor have I been a party to it myself. And before anybody thinks I was insulated, I was far from it. We lived in an area that became VERY mixed over the years. Again, not saying it doesn't happen, especially in "good 'ol boy country," but maybe in the bigger southern cities not so much...?

Yeah, I think it is a big part of homebuying. With me, the first house was just so... BIG. To be our age and be able to get a house that was so... BIG... amazed me, even though it was a fixer-upper. Nothing really huge cost-wise -- it had a new roof and a few other things -- but it had been empty 3 1/2 years before we bought it (it was a foreclosure, owned by the VA, and went through a series of priced too high/too many things wrong, and went to priced much lower/many things fixed). It had NO yard (weeds, dead and live), the sprinkler was broken, needed painting/minor wood repair outside, painting inside BADLY (not to mention how dated it was), and just general stuff to prettify it. Oh, and the kitchen was a poster child for 1972. :thumbup: It was really gorgeous when we finished it -- then we sold it. As a matter of fact, I pulled it up last night on GoogleEarth (street-level, if you can believe it) and saw a pic of it since we've left. The morons who took it over have turned it to crap. At least outside. Very disappointing.

If Barack were white, the left would likely have played the gender card and gone Hillary.

And for what it's worth, Indio, you're not looking too dark there yourself, so how is it you're the expert on the black experience? Serious question that I know sounds snarky but isn't.

Indio, I may not be black (and I'm giving you that because you really don't know), but frankly you don't know WHAT I am other than I'm not black. You don't know my skin color, what my hair looks like, if I have an accent, you don't know my background, where I grew up, what sorts of people I grew up around, what people influenced me -- good and bad, what my experiences were/are/continue to be. Nothing. You claim I know nothing about the "black experience," and that's true. But you know just as much nothing about me and mine. With all due respect, the only one who seems to be preaching right now is you towards me. You know absolutely nothing about me, yet you speak as if somehow black people have a corner market on racism, bigotry, or mistreatment in general. I think we've already proven here that racism goes all ways. Bigotry goes all ways. -Isms are directed towards all people. I wasn't preaching to the OP about anything. I was simply offering up another possibility. Somebody simply moving seats could have to do with her color, sure. But it could ALSO have to do with her weight/size, the perfume she is wearing, room on the bus, any number of things. And I still hold to the belief that it COULD have been any of the things listed here, but I don't automatically jump to the belief that it was racially motivated. I do no service to her by automatically jumping on that bandwagon, further victimizing her, now do I? If these people's actions were innocuous, then she is feeling pain over nothing -- in these instances. You know, life is always going to put shitty people in our paths. What we do with that is what makes us. We can either be victims or we can rise above it. Though what we are confronted with is not our choice, what we do with it is.

Been there, done that! :thumbup:

I hate to admit it, but I'll be honest and say when I see people that are "humongous," I have stared. I don't mean to, but I think it's because, being big myself, and knowing how miserable it is, I can't imagine being "that big" and living with that. :thumbup:

That's a beautiful story, BJean. As for your parents, I would guess that "bigotry" just wasn't an issue back then. Not that it didn't exist, just that it wasn't recognized and addressed like it is today. It just "was."