Comments

1
Repent all ye who enter! All joy shall be sucked; all progress shall be shown to be anti-progress. Woe betide! If it isn't the Revolution, it's crap. None shall survive!
2
Sorry, Charles, but I think you're misreading the stats. Or reading them in too blindered a way.

The twenty-dollar bill is the sweet spot in daily cash commerce. And EVERYBODY has some cash transactions. Most establishments, at least here in the Big City, refuse larger bills. Most ATMs dispense only twenties.

I'm a well-off (by some standards) white boy who much prefers using plastic over paper (for that sweet, sweet 2% cash back I earn), but many local small stores either don't accept or have a minimum for card transactions, and I have a lot of small transactions because I buy fresh groceries daily, a quick walk from my home. And many small restaurants in the neighborhood are cash-only.

I'm looking forward to losing Jackson, easily the most villainous of the dead presidents chosen for our money, and adding a folk hero who helped change the world.
3
Anything at all that winds up the right wing nut jobs is OK by me. They are never wound up by crappy bad things, only by things that I like, do and approve of. And fewer elderly white dudes anywhere at all, even on money, has to be a good thing.
4
Yeah, I have to say I rarely have any cash on me anymore, outside of a few one dollar bills in case I want to get a soda or something. I probably could not describe a $20 bill to you outside of "It has Andrew Jackson on it."

I figure why carry cash that can be stolen or lost? Also, if I use my credit card for everything, the company creates for free a wonderfully organized record of all my transactions for me so I can see exactly where my money is going and when.
5
So you're saying we need to get a picture of MLK on the credit cards? Ok. I'm cool with that. But in the meantime putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 is still a step in the right direction. ...and besides it'll really piss off the right wingers!
6
@4, You do realize that everyone using credit cards costs the businesses 3.5% and that extra little bit is built into the prices? That little record at the end of the year is costing you, what? 3.5% of $30,000 so about $1,050 every year assuming you pay no fees and are never carrying a balance.
7
I hope that ATMs will still be dispensing $20 bills by the time Harriet Tubman is on them and in wide circulation!

Per the NY Times: "The final redesigns will be unveiled in 2020, the centennial of the 19th Amendment establishing women’s suffrage, and will not go into wide circulation until later in the decade." ... "The final decision on release is up to the Fed."
8
@6: Haha, yeah, if I was the only one using a credit card maybe. But guess what: those fees existed long before I had a credit card, and will still be there if I never used it. I never pay fees or carry a balance either.

So really, I am getting something for "my" 3.5% and other consumers are not. So there.

@7: That is the thing that is really not being reported with this story: the design could change before 2020 (kind of like the $10 redesign was halted after people whined). It is very possible that if enough people whine about the $20 bill, Tubman could be removed or relegated to the back of the note.
9
Slavery is exactly why Tubman should be featured on the $20 bill: you'll remember every single time you pull out your wallet. And nobody is absolutely cash free; the $20 is by far the most used bill and is exactly where Tubman belongs.
10
Mudede you have a remarkable ability to cite the plight of African Americans' today. But is dredging-up a long-dead white guy, with ad hominem attacks against whites, or "racist' cops 'targeting' the 'innocent' young men in the 'community' -- really the problem the black community faces?

Note: Yesterday was the 1,000th (one THOUSANDth) shooting in the City of Chicago. Mostly young black people. More than NYC and LA combined, and 66% above last year.

Do you honestly think the problems within the black community have to do with the infliction of injustice by white people? Are you sure it's not because of a cascade of shitty personal decisions?

Behold, urban black culture (and I kinda' dare you to watch....)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=59d_14599…
http://wfla.com/2016/04/11/mother-to-giv…
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b85_13968…

There are entire channels (WorldStarrrrr!) set-up and stocked daily with the deprivation of the black community – by members of the black community. And its not simply due to financial poverty (those dirtbikes don't come cheap). It's moral poverty tied to family decay. It is the product of multigernartional social entitlement without consequence, and an 80% rate of unwed motherhood.

Those most shrill about "Black Lives Matter" are – pardoxically – those whose public policies who have contributed most to the continued decline of black lives.

Factually, the sooner a young black family moves out of the "black community" – the greater the opportunity to be safe, educated, prosperous and healthy. And that's an opportunity every black kid deserves. Herding people together by skin color – self-segregation – ONLY serves the political and financial interests of politicians, activists and preachers who've preyed on blackness for 50 years.

Stop worrying about dead white people and pictures on currency.
11
Sigh, you have waaayyyyy too much time M. Mudede.
12
I'm just mad they put a black woman on the currency before a black man. #LastPlaceInAmerica
13
@Zoner it's no mystery that African-Americans live with more violence, more crime, lower performing schools, hospitals, services of all kinds, they're families are more fractured, etc.

Essentially every demographic indicator is against us.

But as a group, you know, this situation grew from generation repression, or we are just genetically inferior and will struggle no matter how nicely white people treat us. What do you think?
14
@11: this is his job. he gets paid to come up with it. it's not his "spare time".

I like it quite a bit.
15
@13

So by this calculation there are but two possible scenarios:

The racist scenario: Genetic inferiority predisposing poverty, violence and stupidity, OR

The retrospective scenario: That things were bad, and therefore can't be expected to improve, or are naturally inclined to lag behind.

I don't buy either of them. In fact, your expression that "every demographic indicator is against us" belies the problem.

Demographics aren't alway things that happen to a person and never change. Education, income, marital status, parenting, home ownership, religion – all of those are in your control.

And "against us" implies that there's a monolithic "black" us – when in fact many black Americans succeed because of America, not despite.

Crime, violence, educational quality, health, unwed motherhood, etc. can certainly be measured demographically. They can also be measured psychographically. What people value and believe. If you don't value human life, your responsibility to self, and the value of education – there really isn't much going to save you in this world. Unless "black culture" starts to reflect the Black Lives indeed do Matter, it's gonna' be a shit show.

It's not self-hate to notice there's a few things that seriously need to be addressed if there is to even be a "community." (No more than it is self-hate to decide to go to the gym after a few too many dinners.)

It's time to stop bullshittin'. America isn't racist towards blacks. It is - at worst - indifferent. It has become hardened and uncaring to squandered opportunity, moral ambiguity, culturally institutionalized dishonesty and non-negotiable defensive outrage.

I'm prepared to be impressed how much Black Lives Matter in the black community.
16
@15 oh fuck you and your parents for making you such dummy.
17
@15 i don't know it seems to me you clearly do buy one of them.

(you buy the first one, just to be clear. i wanted to be clear.)
18
you think there is something about that black community that is unique to it, that makes the black community despise themselves, lives, responsibility, and education, despite the opportunities available for "many" black to succeed because of America. You are saying their culture makes them inferior, and that culture is not the result of any of the negatives that have been propagated against their culture. well, why would their culture be inferior? do you think you are clever in calling it culture and not genetics? you are a racist. the "culture" you describe, those negative elements, exist because of all the bad things going against them you so easily brush off as no big deal. because it's either that, or you have to honestly agree you think there is something inferior about blacks that would make them choose an inferior culture.
19
@18 -- Sumwun'z a widdle huffy and needs their nap.

In fact "cultures" DO make people inferior. NEWS FLASH. There are inferior cultures. Naziism, Wahabiism, Redneckism. Inferior.

Culture is a nothing but a set of voluntary, socially accepted values and normative behaviors. It is independent of genetic skin color. It is reinforced (negatively) in broken communities, the world over. If you assume being black suggests some obligation to "act black" – in some inescapable social calculus, then you – in fact – are the racist.

The problem in black America is the negative feedback loop that distorts the ability to hear reality. Isolating blacks in media and neighborhoods feeds that cycle. Amplified by the politicians, bureaucrats, 'artists' and preachers who line their pockets with the subjegation of positive black identity.

Blacks were enslaved and beaten. The Irish were enslaved and starved. The Vietnamese bombed and pushed into the sea. The Chinese starved, indoctrinated and dislocated. The world has been a shitty place.

So do like the Mexicans, Italians and Koreans have done: Pick your asses up, surround yourself with good people, make positive choices and fucking get on with it.

Now, you can say: "Easier said than done.' And you're right, it is easier said than done. But do you think anything else, any amount of protesting and finger-wagging over history is going to feed, educate, house and employ black people?

I'm not a racist. I'm a realist.

It is as it ever t'was: Nothing changes until individuals make changes.
20
so... why, in your view, haven't african americans done like the mexicans, italian, koreans, and chinese?

are you saying it is their voluntary culture? and that their culture is bad? bad like voluntary nazi culture?

and if those good "cultures" had had to "make positive choices and get on with it," aren't you saying there was racism against them? wouldn't that suggest there was (and maybe is) racism against the black culture?

finally, it sounds like you are saying there was racism against the irish, but the irish overcame, so racism isn't a big deal?

you say culture is voluntary. why are all your culture groups that succeeded also race groups?

please answer, and let me know if i am mistaken about your premises.
21
i mean, it sounds like you already agree there is racism, but that individuals just need to get over it. but... cause i don't know if you are going to get around to answering the questions...

either the "culture" you mean is completely voluntary, or it is influenced by outside factors. if it is completely voluntary, you are supposing there is something inferior about blacks that would make them choose an inferior "culture." if blacks are not inferior, then you have to admit there are unique circumstances to this thing you call culture due to external circumstances (such as, dare i say it, racism).
23
@22,
Yeah, it is fascinating, Zoner & in-frequent's discussion.
25
Number One. Zoner is a fucking moron who has never interacted with a Black person in his life.

Number Two. I'm old school. I like carrying around a giant wad of cash in a money clip. I will be thrilled when I can pay small merchants, tip service providers and fill red envelopes for the kiddos with Harriet Tubmans instead of the odious Andrew Jacskons. Already want to switch to Hamiltions.

Number Three. 2020? WTF? We whipped Hitler's ass in four years but it takes just as long to print a double sawbuck?


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