You didn't actually answer any of my questions.
For one thing, getting your license replaced, how did you do it? What did you provide to prove you were who you said? Say Jubber was illegitimate, or out of touch with his father, or something. What would he do?
(and yes Jubber I had a similar experience, to provide proof I was a legal resident of MA, they were not content with my RMV ID or my utility bill, they demanded my birth certificate, that said my place of birth was Sacramento, CA. this they did accept as evidence of my state citizenship. gg.)
And the fact remains, if his "house" burned down then by definition he did not live in the projects. (Incidentally, my father did his internship in Harlem, and many years later, kept all important documents in a fireproof safe for this very reason).
Your claims of volunteering with vulnerable populations (I have) are flatly lies because no one who has done so finds their problems "comical" or believes their problems stem from managing the money they simply don't have. Not only because experience makes such views untenable but also because if that is your attitude then you would not last very long in the job.
Proper handling of money. That could certainly apply to most Americans, including you. You say they buy cigs etc - what's the alternative? No one is going to make capital progress on 10k a year - you can't save for college or to buy a house no matter how you live, and expecting people to live like monks with a miserable life devoid of all small joys (like smoking) is ridiculously hypocritical.
What makes you think you've earned the right to not have to exercise such extreme discipline yourself?
As for being taken seriously you are simply sheltered. No one who lives in the kinds of situations Dagery describes (or has experience with them) would agree with your assessment that people do not take poor blacks far less seriously (and people act like white women can do no wrong). (Go watch "Changing Lanes" - excellent portrayal)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_wh ... n_syndromeJubbergun wrote:
I support ID initiatives, and because of that and certain Supreme Court decisions (the ones that basically obligate us to proving we are who we say we are to the police) think that government-issued IDs should be free and as easily-obtainable as legitimate security and anti-fraud measures will permit.
I do too - in principle.
But all this BS runs down party lines because the goal is not enhancing security or legitimacy, the goal is to exclude people from voting. Why is it we see these initiatives only in areas with large black/latino populations? Why don't we see Russian or Indian or Asian immigrants held to the same standard? Why don't these proposals ever come up when there are serious allegations of fraud (e.g., Ohio)? And lest we forget - the problem back in 2000 in Florida wasn't fraudulent voting, it was mechanically defective voting (lol chads).
To really address this problem would require a comprehensive national dialogue about how we as a nation choose to address the question of identity and documentation. Currently, I think, we're in kind of a state of denial, we use SSNs for ID despite assurances back in 1935 that the SSN would never be used in that way. And it has come about simply because it's necessary that something fill that role.
Identity is in the same category as SOPA. Rights are being violated and hypocrisy on both sides (freeloaders and box stuffers vs. spooks and fat cats) endures because people can't decide what they want, they can't commit to formalizing what the social contract should be on issues like identity and intellectual property rights.
I don't see that changing anytime soon.