Do you feel African American's hold themselves back in life?

Question

Before I ask this, let me say this: I am not racist. Just asking a simple observation question. I sometimes wonder if some african american's hold themselves back in life by blaming their problems on everyone else EXCEPT themselves and complaining about the past instead of working on the present or the future. There are plenty of white, asian, mexican, etc. who are in the same situation. They never blame other races or live in the past....a past they never experienced, so why do some african americans?

Answer 1

Yes, but that's one of the results of racism. A lot of blacks do hold themselves back but not just the ones who blame their problems on others. The did that study awhile back where they found that blacks seemed to do worse on a test when they were asked to check the box for what race they were. It somehow actually affected their performance. When they were not asked, they did better. If you tell constantly tell someone they can't do something then it lowers their self esteem and eventually, they feel they can't do anything either. The person subconsciously begins to believe everything they keep hearing about their race, gender, etc. and they begin to behave the way they are told they are going to behave.

Answer 2

yeah there are many other races who are in the same situation..but how they got to that particular situation is not the same as african americans. THATS why their reaction is different. no other race in America has the history of enslavement, lynching and etc (in this country).... and with such a past, no one can say its effects do not linger around. its not as blatant as it was hundreds of years ago..its just more covert.

yes, there are many african americans who like to point blame and not take a proactive route...but at the same time, there are things holding ppl back and cutting their attempts short.
there have been many experiments done... observing what different races go through- as far as finding jobs...places to live, etc. and it has been observed frequently that minorities get the short end of the stick. There have been simple experiments where a black person would call in response to a job posted in the paper and would be told the position is filled....the white person would call not even 5 minutes later, and the position is open and they are invited down. its sad, but true...these things happen every day...and with that kind of stuff occuring, i think its safe to say African American's arent alone in holding themselves back...we have a bit of help in doing so.

Answer 3

There's still thousands of them living off FEMA handouts after hurricane Katrina, who are too lazy to work. We've made it way to easy for them to just hold their hands out and collect welfare, while blaming whitey for everything. Why bother asking this question when the answer is so obvious to everyone?

Answer 4

I do feel like some of them hold themselves back....just like some whites, asians, indians etc. do.

Just because they're black doesn't mean they automatically make life crappy for themselves. I've seen plenty of white people who do the same.

Answer 5

they have identified themselves in-correctly, they weren't born in Africa and moved to America, the true meaning of African-American, they are American from African descent... therefore they are Americans, like the rest of us former nationality peoples... if you are born here, you are American, then where your ancestors are from...

Answer 6

Too many modern black people DO do this. And when they do that they directly or indirectly hold the rest of us back.

Answer 7

i think its because they are made to believe they dont belong by the owners of the country

Answer 8

yes