(08-17-2022, 07:15 AM)Ronster Wrote:

(08-17-2022, 05:51 AM)Caldrac Wrote: There's some truth to that statement in bold. I think the Great Fire of 1901 set this city back substantially though for decades and generations to come. It was even cited back then that during that fire there was little to no efforts made to help save the black neighborhoods and they were allowed to burn down. It wasn't until it started reaching the white neighborhoods that they made an effort to really put it out. 

There's just parts of Jacksonville where you look at it and you just know it. You literally see it on the streets, especially along Philips Highway over here where I work. The crime is also bad in the downtown areas. It's been notorious enough to gain a following on YouTube with millions of views. You can look up the gangs down there. I wasn't even aware of it. As I tend to not watch local news at all. 

However, I recall Randy Moss made a statement on national television about our county having it's issues. I was a little upset about that. Thought he was wrong. However, he was right to an extent. Just because you can't see it from your backyard doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I can also say that my car has been broken into three times over the last twelve years in my neighborhood. Nowhere else in this city. That's on Kernan Boulevard which, up and down is a pretty solid area from what I have seen around the city in my 34 years of being here. 

It is sad though. People like to throw the phrase "The past is the past, let it go" around a lot. I get that sometimes, and then again, sometimes I don't. As I get older I realize how much more I miss my grandparents. And when you really think about their age, their era and before them? Telling someone to get over something that happened "years" ago is distasteful when you consider most of those people crying foul were fortunate enough to sit down and speak with their grandparents and great grandparents that literally lived through all of that. 

We've made progress. Still, much, much more work to do. I often times look at the rich, black celebrities though that like to get on social media and spout off hate this, and hate that, race this and race that. Shaun King is a notable example. As is Snoop Dogg. Hell, at one point even that woman that lead the BLM movement or was one of it's leaders came off as hypocritical. They all preach about community, black community, etc. Yet, they wouldn't dare live in a predominately black neighborhood. We're not allowed to say that though...

Shaun King is white…

"What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie? I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky. The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing; Rush in and die, dogs - I was a man before I was a king."