r/nextfuckinglevel 2d ago

Billionaire speaker Robert F. Smith tells 400 graduates he's paying off all their student loans ($40 million in total)

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u/YoRt3m 1d ago

I know that there's history of racism in the US. for the first time, in this post, I learned that it caused the establishment of institutions for blacks only (I didn't read the entire wiki page of this, just heard this concept for the first time). yet, expecting entirely black institutions to still exists today seems weird to me. I understand that it's not only for blacks, but the video is showing me a crowd of blacks only and it looks weird. is it racist? no. is it bad? no. that's just not something I knew existed and I'm not used to it.

Maybe I expected that after the racist laws were removed, those institutions will cease to exists and all groups will mix with each other. just a different mindset I guess

I don't care about the flak much, this is Reddit and people judge other people very easily

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u/ZackWzorek 1d ago

Racism is far more complicated than “just laws.” Even Americans don’t understand that. Racism is a systemic and societal phenomenon that is a part of all cultures, I bet even wherever you’re from, that afflicts the overall human condition.

We abolished slavery after it being apart of our legal system since the 1660s/1690s (Maryland/VA) where laws stated white people couldn’t marry freed “Indians” and Black Americans.

This has cascaded for nearly 300 years and after the 13th amendment abolished slavery. The Civil Rights Act went through iterations that sought to tackle former politicians and confederates becoming KKK terrorist killing mass amounts of Black Americans in the south to keep them from voting, to desegregate public places (and, failing twice until 1964, because Plessy V. Ferguson “revealed separate but equal laws in the 14th amendment”). I mean shit brother man, Black Americans couldn’t legally marry White Americans in Alabama until as recently as 2000, 25 years ago.

Now we have DEI attacks that are removing war heroes from our national archives because they’re black.

Our administration has openly supported the KKK rallies in Kentucky. The Neo Nazis in Ohio. And, are now mass deporting any brown person acting against the regime. Crowds of Black People shouldn’t be weird. If anything it should be celebrated that they’re allowed to congregate together without fear of being mobbed. Thats what happened to Black people in Tulsa in 1921.

The overall point, if you’re unsure of why this is okay and it makes you feel a certain way, and you’re not American, don’t load it with weird. Ask your questions, because there are some real proud Americans who know their history, and we’ll tell you.

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u/YoRt3m 1d ago

Sometimes you ask explanation on Reddit and it's getting political and that's not a way to learn things.

As for the topic itself. This is a Reddit post and my reaction for me to realize there's an institution for blacks only is "weird" even if it comes from lack of knowledge. that's my honest reaction and I'm entitled to make it.

if I will take an average stranger and show him a religious ritual people do in my community, holding leaves and shaking them in circles, they might think it's weird and that's okay. I can then explain to them why we do it for hundreds of years if they're interested. there's nothing offensive about it for me. We also have religious institutions which might look very weird to people that might not know why is it necessary and it might look weird or even discriminatory but for other people it's natural.

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u/buckeyes404_ 1d ago

Well once you "understand" it should cease to be "weird".