Do you agree with this: Controversial
Dear friends,
Be warned. Some of the views here are very controversial and I don’t agree at all. I am placing this article here so people can understand how part of the ‘leadership’ here where I live think. Be it right or wrong is for you to decide and do leave me a comment. For me, all people should be treated equally and stop being stereotyped for their ‘performance’ in life based on dated race ‘research’. All humans want happiness and deserve it.
Tsem Rinpoche
Paul Ryan Claims Black Men Are Lazy And The Cause Of Poverty In This Country
written by Justin Baragona for PoliticusUSA
Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) was on the conservative radio show ‘Morning In America’, which is hosted by Bill Bennett. Bennett is the former Secretary of Education under President Reagan. He is also known for gambling away millions of dollars while at the same time preaching about living a virtuous life. Anyway, Bennett had Ryan on to discuss Ryan’s recent ‘War on Poverty’ report, where Ryan stated that anti-poverty programs developed under President Lyndon Johnson and after were actually the root cause for the continued existence of poverty in this country.
During the interview, Ryan used thinly-veiled ‘code’ language to claim that black men do not want to work and are satisfied with being poor. He also stated that anti-poverty programs create a culture of laziness and that what we really need is for affluent white people from the suburbs to spend more of their time mentoring those in the inner-city. Obviously, the answer for those living in abject poverty in a jobless environment is to have someone come down from their lofty perch and whitesplain about how to lift yourself up by your bootstraps.
Below is an excerpt from Ryan’s conversation with Bennett:
We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with…you need to get involved, you need to get involved yourself, whether through a good mentor program or some religious charity, whatever it is to make a difference. And that’s how we resuscitate our culture.
This is Ryan’s way to justify that all social programs need to be gutted. Basically, rich, white people will fill in the gap and provide mentoring to the poor, inner-city black folks that they moved far, far away from. At the same time, there is no need to raise the minimum wage in this country and we also need to destroy unions, since they drive away jobs due to their demands for a living wage for their members. In the end, Ryan’s solutions are for there to be no social safety net and the driving down of median wages. But, no worries. The free-market and basic human decency will provide all the solutions needed.
What is especially disgusting here is the notion that all poverty is centered around inner-city black men and that nobody else utilizes the social programs that Ryan demonizes. He is making sure to stoke the racist flames already ablaze within the Republican Party by going down this route. Ryan is essentially doing the same thing that Reagan did when he brought up the ‘welfare queen’ myth.
To make matters worse, Ryan cited Charles Murray, who is the author of The Bell Curve. Murray has argued that intelligence is genetic, and that whites are naturally more intelligent than blacks. He has also claimed that all social welfare programs will inevitably have a negative effect on a society. Overall, Murray’s studies have been used by many to justify their notions of white supremacy.
Ryan has long been touted by the Republican Party as extremely intelligent and a real ‘wonk.’ I guess the fact that he uses numbers a lot to make his points makes him appealing in that regard. It gives the appearance of being knowledgeable and exact. However, he is just using smoke and mirrors to push forward a Randian vision of how America should be. Basically, the wealthy should be coddled at all times and they will decide how much to trickle down upon the masses.
(source: http://www.politicususa.com/2014/03/12/paul-ryan-claims-black-men-lazy-poverty-country.html)
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Equality before the law is the principle that each individual being must be treated equally by the law and that all are subject to the same laws of justice. Everyone will be given justice by treating them equally nor matter what race and religion or belief, you are. All are equal without any discrimination to equal protection of the law as well. After reading this article I do not agree with Paul Ryan what he commented on the conservative radio show ‘Morning In America’. Racism should not be brought up then, claimed that black men do not want to work and are satisfied with being poor. Remarks involving negative prejudices about people on the basis of race, would spark off misunderstanding and disharmony . It is extremely dangerous to label the rich or poor by skin colour or ethnicity.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing.
Antique Pelden Lhamo thangka with sacred Dorje Shugden at the bottom right. Can see Tsongkapa and Guru Rinpoche on the top also. Beautiful and holy.
感谢仁波切的文章分享。所有的有情，都是平等的，虽然種族，膚色，文化背景的差异。然而，个人業力決定是否出生在一個良好的家庭，富足生活条件，反之出生在一個貧窮的家庭。因此，了解如何業力的運轉，明白佛陀教義而持之，將幫助我們緩解這些問題。
Racist remarks are one of the most base emotions anyone can express.
It is quite easy then to generalise a problem and blame it on a particular segment of society. Blame is very easy to do, solving the problem will take much more effort. The funny thing is this person was elected by the population to represent them.
As always, everyone will have their own ruler in their heart. Whoever is doing good for others can be seen by many and vice versa. Let’s treat all sentient beings equally no matter how they behave or what attitudes they have as everyone deserves to be free from sufferings and free from ignorance. No one enjoys being poor physically and spirituality. Only Dharma and spiritual practice can free us from misery and suffering. It’s proven by many great masters and they cannot be wrong.
The Four Immeasurables
May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes,
May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes,
May all sentient beings never be separated from sorrowless bliss,
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger.
We are so blessed that able to recite Four Immeasurable in our Sadhana to keep on remind us to see everyone is same.
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing this article with us hence is best remind to us generate our compassion towards all mother sentient beings…
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing.There are some politician who work very hard to forget all sense of human decency for the interest to gain the favour of those who he thinks will support him to gain power .
In his relentless crave to fulfill his greed and ego .He would place his conscience in a lock box and bury it 7 feet under to achieve his misguided path in life.
For all those who have a gifted conscience of Dharma,please use him as a good example not to follow .As his action would only lead us to a path that would place human evolution back to the middle ages of the plague.
It is a clear sign that history will repeat itself because of the common human greed factor which stems from the fear of not having enough. If this continues, it will go back to an age of imperialism where there is a huge gap between the rich and poor. Then eventually, the people will create a revolution to oust the Government and the rich. This has happened numerous times in history.
Educating the importance of realising inner peace and how to achieve that is crucial because this addresses the root cause of the human agenda of greed, anger, depression, jealousy, stress and so on. That is why institutions like Kechara are very important because we show methods of overcoming such issues.
As Rinpoche says, realising inner peace is essential before world peace can be achieved.
I believe all man are equal, and given the same circumstance or situation, a white, black, yellow or red skin human will perform same.
It is the society or the government or even oneself that is giving the problem of laziness, refusal to learn and improve.
However, karma dictates whether one will be born in a good family, with a good life, or be ridden with debts, born in a poor family. Hence understanding how karma works, understanding the Buddha’s doctrine, will help us alleviate such issues.
Let’s send him back to school.
If you peel off everyone’s skin and flesh (his, yours, mine), you see we all have the same organs inside of us.
The blood running round his body is no redder that anyone else.
Anywhere in the text books that says colored people are lazy or vice versa?
This man is a very racist man. Genetically speaking, all humans are alike, if not same. It is because of people like him that provide a bad stereotype to the conservative families, breeding a race of racists. The funny thing is that nowadays the ratio between the whites and the blacks ain’t that different. WHY CAN’T HUMANS JUST BE EQUAL? What did people like Martin Luther King Jr fight for? Nothing?
What’s funny, I always thought that African Americans in general are more gifted with the ability to rap, sing and are the fathers of several genres of modern music – gospel, rap, hip-hop, R&B, soul…etc. I find white people – caucasians generally trying very hard to be just as cool but falls short somehow. Xenophobic thoughts as expressed here is just typical of many groups of people but fortunately, they are becoming rarer. Xenophobia used to be the norm but it is becoming popular with an increasingly smaller audience and receiving more and more slack. People just don’t want people to be treated that way. Empathy is becoming more widespread. Kudos to that. Today, he may be elected into office but tomorrow, he may loose it. I do hope he lose it. Nobody wants racist ideas anymore.
Hi, Rinpoche.This kind of politician exist in all the multiracial countries. for me their purpose of doing this is to flatter the white people, maybe the high level within the party or etc..but publishing this speech will cause conflict between white and black people..self-superiority and exclusiveness from one side cause bloodshed and hatred between races.. actually they r the one who lack of confidence, that’s y they come out this kind of speech to ‘prove’ that their race is better, they r pityful..
According to research done, however this excerpt does not necessarily reflect antipathy towards Blacks. Instead, the idea that Blacks are lazy stems from assumptions that the american economy is fundamentally fair, and that, there are sufficient opportunities for Blacks to pull themselves up by their own “Bootstraps”! Given the faith that americans have fairness of their “markets and society”, some perceived character flaws in poor Blacks must be responsible for their inability to raise themselves out of poverty. Unfortunately, skewed media protrayals only reinforce this distorted notion “that Blacks are lazy and the cause of poverty in this country”, despite the fact there is no evidence to suggest that Blacks are less committed to working than any other group! Neverthless, there is no excuse for not even attempting to look beyond the “stereotypes”. Of couse initial ignorance is nota sin, but a refusal to learn is.
Er, didn’t someone who started World War 2 also propound similar theories? I hope Paul Ryan starts chanting Manjushri mantras soon.
Years ago, I read about Paul Ryan lying about his Marathon time on air (he claimed he ran it in under 3 hours) and now he’s saying African Americans are lazy? Wow.
Republican is a party which upholds the white supremacy theory of which Ryan is on the extreme right , demonstrating racism as it’s core value . That’s why if I’m American I’ll vote for the Democrats.
Socialism will bring some balance to a merit based society and ensure a more harmonious environment . Do see resemblance in Malaysia though , well at least there’s a 2 party system in USA
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing
This man is a monster. The good news? He and his ilk are a minority in the United States. The bad news? He and his ilk got elected. My fervent prayers are that this changes in the upcoming election. I also pray that men like him don’t discourage you from remaining in the States.