What would america be without black folks?

[AZB]

A very humorous and revealing story is told about a group of white people who were fed up with African Americans, so they joined together and wished themselves away. They passed through a deep dark tunnel and emerged in sort of a twilight zone where there is an America without black people.

At first these white people breathe a sigh of relief. At last, they say, no more crime, drugs, violence and welfare. All of the blacks have gone!!
Then suddenly, reality sets in. The "NEW AMERICA" is not America at all-only a barren land. There are very few crops that have flourished because the nation was built on a slave-supported system.

There are no cities with tall skyscrapers because Alexander Mils, a black man, invented the elevator, and without it one finds great difficulty reaching high floors.

There are few if any cars because Richard Spikes, a black man, invented the automatic gear shift, and Garrett A. Morgan invented the traffic signals.

Furthermore, one could not use the rapid transit system because its precursor was the electric trolley, which was invented by another black man, Elbert R. Robinson.

Even if there were streets on which cars and a rapid transit
system could operate, they were cluttered with paper because an African American, Charles Brooks, invented the street sweeper.

There were few if any newspapers, magazines and books because John Love invented the pencil sharpener, William Purvis invented the fountain pen, Lee Burridge invented the Type Writing Machine and W. A. Lovette invented the Advanced Printing Press. They were all, you guessed it, black.

Even if Americans could write their letters, articles and books,
they would not have been transported by mail because William Barry invented the Postmarking and Cancelling Machine, William Purvis invented the Hand Stamp and Phillip Downing invented the Letter Drop.

The lawns were brown and wilted because Joseph Smith invented the Lawn Sprinkler and John Burr the Lawn Mower.

When they entered their homes, they found them to be poorly
ventilated and poorly heated. You see, Frederick Jones invented the Air Conditioner and Alice Parker the Heating Furnace. Their homes were also dim. But of course, Lewis Latimer invented the Electric Lamp, Michael Harvey invented the Lantern and Granville T. Woods invented the Automatic Cut off Switch.

Their homes were also filthy because Thomas W. Steward invented the Mop and Lloyd P. Ray, the Dust Pan.

Their children met them at the door-barefooted, shabby, motley and unkempt. But what could one expect? Jan E. Matzelinger invented the Shoe Lasting Machine, Walter Sammons invented the Comb, Sarah Boone invented the Ironing Board and George T. Samon invented the Clothes Dryer.

Finally, they were resigned to at least have dinner amidst all of
this turmoil. But here again, the food had spoiled because another black man, John Standard invented the refrigerator.

Now, isn't that something? What would this world be like without
the contributions of Black folks? Black history includes more than just slavery, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey and Dubois.

[AnnaC]

Very good AZB. Trying to save yourself from yesturday are you?

[sjh]

I am in no way anti black, Blacks have been an important part of US culture, economy,science in different ways though out our history.. But to imply that none of these things would have been invented by someone else is a little naive...

[NoMoreSnow]

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Quote from shad:

But to imply that none of these things would have been invented by someone else is a little naive...

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....that where Blacks have been given equality in opportunity ... they have risen to the top and DOMINATED... as the current situation in tennis and golf bears witness.....

Shad I think you are missing the point. It is not that they could not have been done by anyone else. It's that is was FIRST done by a person of the BLACK race. It's also to recongnize the contributions that BLACKS have made to society... something that is often overlooked by both BLACKS and WHITES alike.


NMS
still grounded in the 1960s Black Power Movement

[sjh]

Lets not start a race riot here....

I am very happy to recognise the many contribution Blacks have made to society... It is true that in certain fields blacks have truely dominated... All the "races" seem to average better in than anyone else...

But to imply that because in tennis or golf they have dominated that they will take over in a swiss yodelling competition would not make sense..

I just think the story was written to imply that things like elevators would not exist if some particular individual never existed. Inventions are a product of knowledge, need, effort, and opportunity, not color of skin...

If you come to me saying 'Black Power" you are as bad of a racist as a KKK member who preaches "White power"

[x_man]

Serena Williams!!!!! X.

[Criss Colon]

The United States is"The Land of Opportunity"! Many different "Groups" have come to it's shores and prospered.Most were treated as "garbage" until they learned the language,became educated,and became part of the political system.The Irish,and the Italians in Boston,the Polish in Chicago,the Lebanesse in Detroit,the Cubans in Miami,the list is long.One thing these groups didn't do is waiste 100 years "Blaming" those who arrived in the USA before they did for their "Failure to Thrive".Their strong connection to their churches,and their low "illegitimate" birth rate surely helped.Given that none of these groups arrived in "chains",or suffered 100 years as slaves,none the less the opportuities are available!The Chinesse have a saying;The duck that sits on the shore with it's mouth open waiting for a fish to fly in goes hungry!Opportunity has to be "seized",not waited for on the couch in front of the TV!CRISCO

[AZB]

"Very good AZB. Trying to save yourself from yesturday are you?" anna

Anna, you are missing the point. I am not racist, its just when you point out a certain types of individuals, you are labeled a racist. For example: you can say, "i don't like to date blond girls or white american girls in general or that the chinese girls don't do a thing for me..." you are not a racist but the moment you say "black" you are a racist. You see how such a robotic / mechanical thought process certain people possess?
In any case, I think I know more black folks than maybe you do. I had lived in a black neighborhood in NYC for some time and I know many more blacks in DR.
I only point out the low life sankies who don't have any education or manners. These people just don't have any class just like the ghetto type blacks who act like criminals dressed up in gangster clothes and listen to stupid angry rap music. That is something I could never understand from the very beginning. I hold the same views for white trash trailor folks (rednecks).
So you see, its not a color thing, just a difference of class.
By the way, I don't consider myself as a white person. Yes, there are some more colors between the black and white color spectrum.
have a nice day.

[Escott]

Originally posted by AZB
"Very good AZB. Trying to save yourself from yesturday are you?" anna

Anna, you are missing the point. I am not racist, its just when you point out a certain types of individuals, you are labeled a racist.

Here is a little tidbit of information similar to what you posted. I am not racist either.

The Contribution of Muslims to civilization:

19.6% of World's Population
1.2 billion Muslims

Nobel Prize Winners:

Literature

1957 Albert Camus
1988 - Najib Mahfooz 1988.

Peace

1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1994 - Yaser Arafat (yeah, I know)

Chemistry

1990 Elias James Corey
1999 - Ahmed Zewail

Medicine

1960 Peter Brian Medawar
1998 Ferid Mourad

__________________________________________________ ________________
The Contribution of the Jewish People:

0.2% OF WORLD'S POPULATION
14.1 Million Jews

NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS:

Literature

1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer

World Peace

1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Chemistry

1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1972 - William Howard Stein
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1979 - Herbert Charles Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1989 - Sidney Altman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics

1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Simon Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 - Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 Rober Fogel

Medicine

1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 - Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jacob
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - David Baltimore
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 - Richard J. Roberts
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis

Physics

1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi
1952 - Felix Bloch
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1978 - Arno Allan Penzias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 - Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1995 - Martin Perl


Does it make you wonder what the WORLD would be like without Jews?

[sjh]

can't we all just get along?