[Arkan]

I respectfully disagree with you Ed. I work with minorities and they do get special treatment in certain situations and the equal "white" workers treat them as anyone else. I don't hear the guys on my job calling the minorities niggers, wetbacks, chinks, spics...or whatever. We treat them with respect.
I came from a broken family in a racially mixed neighborhood so i know 1st hand what all this shit is about. I went to the same public schools as the minorities and was given no special treatment because i happened to be white. I had black friends and had them over my house for dinner. They were treated as regular people, not kins of slaves. As a matter of fact, the people who really deserve reperations aren't the blacks......it's the Jews. I know of no "living" minority who was a slave but there are plenty of surviving Jews from the holicaust. This society is so bent on making everything right. I say, let the chips fall where they may. We all should be given equal treatment and an equal shot at getting that job. If you can't score high on the test for a job, you don't get it.......simple as that. If i were a fireman, i wouldn't want some idiot next to me who couldn't read a map just as much as i wouldn't want a female who couldn't drag me to safety next to me either. If the person is properly qualified, give them the job regardless of sex or race.....thats my point. Lets not cater.
Another thing, my roots go back to the late 1800's in this country......my ancestors immigrated to this country LEGALLY from Austria and Italy. They learned the language and paid their taxes. Hell, wanna talk about slavery?, most of NY was built on hard cheap labor by Italian immigrants. You don't see them crying about it do you? They paid their dues.
America is a "free" country with equal opportunities.....lets just stick to that, shall we??