If African-Americans are suffering so badly, Why are so many, so rich?

Contrary to popular belief, there has always been a black upper-class wealthy black Americans are not a new thing and that upper-class has been in place since reconstruction in the South and time immemorable in the North. Certainly, discrimination existed when this class was first established so to say that discrimination doesn't exist because there are wealthy blacks in the country is a real leap.

EOE and Affirmative Action are not the same thing. EOE simply means that you can't discriminate against a person for any reason (not just race, but religion, ehtnicity, etc.). Affirmative Action has helped white women more than any other group but, that aside, it's still in place (after 30-40 oh so long years) because of the 200 or so years preceeding it. Slavery is long gone but seperate and unequal isn't. It's less than one lifetime ago. My parents lived with it. I know in a world where we have the attention spans of fleas it's easy to dismiss the 60's and 70's as ancient history but it's not.

You still hear complaining and arguing because people like to complain, argue and make excuses for their failures in life. If it wasn't about race, it would be about something else. Blacks complain about the white man keeping them back and whites complain about all of the alleged perks that non-whites get and how it's so unfair. It's just human nature and we're all guilty of it on some level.

That being said, most of the complaints are not valid. I say this not because discrimination does not exist and not because there aren't still people out there who will not hire you because of the color of your skin. Not because, despite the fact that I worked very hard in school, graduated with honors and do my job well everyday, there aren't still people who look at me and stupidly assume that I only have my position because I'm black. I say that because it's not an excuse to sit around wasting your life. Blacks who came before us faced odds that we will never face and overcame them and that means no one reaching maturity now has any excuse for not seizing every opportunity. Furthermore, only about 20% of blacks live in the hood, impoverished. The overwhelming majority of us do not; but you wouldn't know it from the comments on here because we are the only race that is routinely judged by actions of it's poorest, least educated demographic. 20% is, admittedly, higher than other races but when one considers where we were 40 years ago, that's pretty good and it's getting better.

Because a lot of whites still benefit from their ancestors atrocities and the black community still hurts even today for the crimes committed against them. We didn't even have full rights in this country until a little over 40 years ago. Yes some Africans did sell their people into slavery, but they didn't know it was going to be the way it was. Keep in mind that the African slaves were only abused and treated horribly here in the US. Other countries didn't treat their slaves like that. They were simply servants and they were still given nice clothes and plenty of food. They didn't rip their children out of their hands and sell them to god knows who and other horrible things similar. Not saying other countries were not wrong for purchasing slaves but the way they treated them speaks a lot about the kind of people that they were. The world was disgusted when they learned of how the African slaves in America were treated. And that's why people in other countries, even European countries think white Americans are evil horrible people even still today. The fact that racism still exists in America confirms their thoughts. There is racism everywhere in the world, but not like it is here in the US, and other countries will always look down on the US until we make a change. A black president has nothing to do with it and doesn't show we have made any progress. We elected the best man for the job period. His skin color is irrelevant. And if there were no people wanting to buy slaves, nobody would have been selling them. The point is; white people are guilty of bringing the worst kind of evils and atrocities to this world in the last few hundred years, yet they act like they are better than anyone else when in reality they are worse. You may say blacks commit the most gang crimes etc, but the crimes that blacks commit have to do with their environment and poverty. White people do things like rape little kids, and they commit premeditated murder because they have huge mental problems like sick mommy issues etc. There have only been 3 black serial killers in American history and blacks do not molest little kids who cant defend themselves. Their crimes are committed against adults who would probably shoot them if they didn't shoot first. Kill or be killed sort of thing. So its not that we blame whites for things its just they act like they are superior when in reality they are the most evil people out there as history & the news today proves.

I think the problems are very deep. Jobs and training are one way to adress the issue, but I think a strong black leader is whats needed to help address that are keeping so many out of the mainstream. I live near New Orleans and the city was geared for tourism. A lot of low paying jobs in a city that size. Many companies look to locate there but can't find enough qualified people to staff them. People do not want to move there because of crime problems by residents (black and white.

In america, there are rich black people, and poor black people.

there are rich white people, and poor white people.

black people get more attention because of their history of racial abuse and slavery, etc.

I am not racist, infact I'm very, very against racism, but I've realized we're really all the same. there may be MORE poor black people, than poor white people, but their still is dirt-broke white people, who are unemployed, can't fed their familes, can't afford to educate their kids, etc.

I think that here, you've named a few prominent African-Americans who are well-known, and yes, quite wealthy. However, in general, African-Americans are somewhat disadvantaged.

Just look at the African-Americans from New Orleans, and what happened after hurricane Katrina.

you forgot to mention that African Americans control most of the Jails in the US, being a majority of the inmates.

they are dragging us through the mire with this racial propaganda.do you see the mexicans putting up such a stink?and we stole ther land.ther not trying to steal ours.they just want to work for a living.not have ther millions handed to them like some we know of.hey ;how much time did mike get?did you know opra donates more to other countries?

It's the individual....not the race. (same goes for EVERY person of EVERY race!)

Opportunities are there...whether or not you choose to see and/or take them is up to you.

10 points should go to sunny8463, she answered your question quite well.

i really dont like them sorry...