day 1 post

yesterday in class we talked about the civil rights acts of 1964

Today in class we talked about the Black Panther Party.  We read their demands and thought about whether or not they were reasonable.  Most of them were not.  Some even sounded rather communist.  One thing that they wanted was free healthcare for blacks and oppressed people.  I think that this is unreasonable because if even wealthy and middle class blacks get free healthcare (as opposed to just poor people who actually need it) then wealthy and middle class people of other races should get free healthcare as well.  Mr. Boyle tried to argue this by saying that the black panthers feel that they have been treated unfairly and whites haven't faced hardships so it is reasonable (Or at least I think he was trying to say it was reasonable.  He didn't get to finish because class ended, but from what he was saying that's what it seemed like).  Yes, that makes it understandable that the Black Panther Party would make these demands, but it doesn't make it reasonable to give all black people in the united states free healthcare regardless of wealth and lifestyle if other races don't get the same thing.  Yeah, yeah, I know that blacks have been oppressed in the past and weren't given everything whites were.  If they weren't treated fairly then, why should whites be treated fairly now, right? Wrong.  If we're going to move past discrimination we need to stop keeping score.  Saying "They treated us unfairly then, so now it's our turn to treat them unfairly" doesn't get us anywhere.