response 1 of 50:

May 28 04:44 UTC 1994

It's probably not wise to extrapolate one school board's actions to
the whole U.S.A.  It's a large country with many opinions and many
subcultures.  To be honest I don't find a bit of geo/ethno-centrism
to be all that surprising.  Every place would like to be the best
at something...

response 3 of 50:

May 28 08:26 UTC 1994

Its a nightmare.  I for one think the American culture stinx.  There is no
set culture.  The diversity is interseting, but it causes SO many problems.
Don't get me wrong now, I wouldn't have it any other way ;)

response 5 of 50:

May 29 02:18 UTC 1994

 The dairy section of your local grocery store.

response 7 of 50:

Jun 3 21:36 UTC 1994

The constitution and bill of rights of the USA may well be superior to
similar documents around the world.  But a statement about the superiority
of "America's Culture" needs to include a definition of "America's
Culture" before I can evaluate it. 

response 9 of 50:

Jun 5 04:42 UTC 1994

Is that a macrobiological response?

response 11 of 50:

Jun 6 22:42 UTC 1994

Gee, even I realized that!:)

response 13 of 50:

Jul 15 08:47 UTC 1994

 While I wouldn't say white American culture is "the best" (I'd save that
for one of the Oriental or Northen European/Baltic cultures), we sure as
hell are better than most others.

        This isn't something I gloat over as I say Heil Hitler!" or anything,
but I think it is a simple fact.

        Which one nation is always jumping up to help others?  WHat one
nation shells out the most for the UN?  We have the largest technological,
scientific & financial base, & we use it to help other nations without
trying to dominate them.   This of course is an American thing, not just
a white American thing.

        But, when as a whole, you look at how totally phucked up American
black culture (again, this is a factual generality, I realize that there
isn't just one black culture here, nor is there just one white culture in
the U.S>A.) is, wlarge difference in life expectancy rates, due to black
violent crime, medical problems, educational & economic deficiencies, etc.
as compared to the white population, American whites have a clear advantage.
 
     Of course, the reason for the black American culture having these
abundance of negative aspects is debateable, but the purpose of this
response is to merely support my opinion that American culture --particularly
'white American culture' (sic) is better off (aka superior) to most
others, in terms of 'quality of life,' scientific advances/technology, &
care/compassion (as a nation) for democratic principles & supporting/impro-
ving the quality of life for less fortunate nations.

response 15 of 50:

Jul 16 10:16 UTC 1994

'BLACK AMERICAN CULTURE' HAS AN ABUNDANCE OF NEGATIVE ASPECTS.
 
  But no, I didn't say that American honkies are better than American
bruthas & sistas -- only that their 'culture' is.

response 17 of 50:

Jul 26 20:43 UTC 1994

Sorry for the much delayed response (doing this only at work and having
not so much time has a lot to do with it) but here goes...

Black American culture can not be separated from white American culture.
This is because it is not possible to have the "high sstandard of living"
of (let's change the terminology a little to reflect realities, as aaron
pointed out, there are a number of middle class blacks) the American
middle to upper class without having a lower class do most of the dirty
work.  Sadly, to a large extent, in this country, the divisions over who
is in the lower classes and who is in te upper has a lot to do with
skin color.  I'm just talking stats here, I'm making no historical references
(although I could, since I _am_ a history major...).  I perrsonally do not
think that a group of people can have a superior culture just because it
has a higher standard of living, expecially if they get that higher standard of
living from having others do a lot of the work.  Here, I'd like to bring
immigrants into the picture (just to make it a little more realistic) and
especially non-European/non-white immigrants.  The fact is, a lot of the 
labor in the secondary labor market (what I like to call "shitjobs" because
they are about as fun and pay about that much) is done by these immigrants
(I'm limiting myself to the U.S. for the moment, but not for long!).
How is this?  While there certainly are a lot of white people in the lower
classes, percentage-wise, there are more in the middle to upper classes. 
The opposite tends to be true for the other two groups I mentioned (Blacks
and Immigrants)  I'm not going to get into why that is, actually, because 
I think I'll let you respond to what I've sadi so far, but before I go,
here's teh part about the rest of the world...
if you look at the tags on most of the items that are for sale in stores,
you'll notice (you no doubt already have) that most of it si made in other 
countries.  As you may or may not know, the simple reason for htis is that 
it's cheaper to do it that way.  Because of the risk of getting involved with
annoying labor laws in the U.S., it's simply easier to go somewhere else,
just over the border to Mexico, for example, and make the stuff there.
--I've got to go, so I'll stop here, but I'd liek to hear what you have to say
about what I've written so far.

response 19 of 50:

Jul 27 07:26 UTC 1994

<descendents>

response 21 of 50:

Aug 1 18:20 UTC 1994

Yes, I do think that because most of the "unskilled" jobs go to people who 
"happen to meet the criteria of some sort of 'minority' label"  because that
suggests to me that something is going on.  There can only be two reasons for
this kind of disparity:  1) there is something inherently wrong with
'minorities' or 2) there is something wrong with society and the way things
are. I personally fully reject option one and so I feel the need to invegate 
option 2.   No doubt you feel there is something in the idea that something is
wrong with (to use your example) "black" culture and that is why they do not
succeed in this country to the extent that whites do.  I say there is a reason
for Blacks having the problems that they have that does not really have
anything to do with " culture", it has more to do with the fact that the
opportunities are not the same for both groups. You say you believe in the
"Puritan ethic" but from what I've seen, one of the major problems with society
is that many "minorities" believe in this idea so that when it just doesn't
happen, the opportunities just seem to pass you over, someone who's had far
less education and experience gets promoted just a little bit faster and you
wonder why, it's very easy to become bitter and figure that the " American
dream" just isn't for people of color or women.   Some of the people at my
school who work the hardest are these people.  I can tell you this from my own
experience (certainly there are plenty of white males who work really hard, but
I'm talking percentages).  Many of them work hard becasue they've got to keep
the many grants and scholarships that are getting them  through school so
they've got to maintain the grades (and work up to 1 hours a week).  Most white
students don't work as hard, they may spend a lot of time in the library, but
they don't usually work very much, if at all (by the way, the limit for number
of hours you can work in a week in my school is officially 10 hours).  And the
result?  After they graduate, it's the white males who do better.  Funny how
things seem to work, isn't it? That's why I'm not so sure I really believe in
the "Puritan ethic" it's not at all guaranteed that you will succeed if all
you've got going for you is hard work.

response 23 of 50:

Aug 2 22:43 UTC 1994

on rereading my entry, on the line where it ways "and work up to 1 hours a 
week" it should say "work up to 14 hours a week"
carson, success may be relative, but if you can't _choose_ which kinds of 
success you can achieve, while others with the same abilities can, something's
wrong.