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IWantGod
Guest
Wait… what year is this?
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BoomBoomMancini
Guest
1954, the peak of human civilization. A golden age of eternal bliss.*
- Some restrictions apply. Offer not valid if you’re non-white.
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Hoosier_Daddy
Guest
Race is not a great example after the weekend. In many ways we are more violent, more racially divided than before the 60’s.
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BoomBoomMancini
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Because then black people “knew their place”, right? We’re certainly in a better place today than we were then, in terms of legal protections for racial minorities. I mean, for God’s sakes, blacks and whites couldn’t even intermarry in all US states until 1967. We’re not perfect now, but we’ve come a long way from that.
Another great example of paradise lost. 4/4 men agree that wife beating is a great idea! Sweet!
To make this explicitly clear, I’m not saying that everyone in the 1950s was a racist wife beater. As I’ve said many times, there’s a lot we can admire in the past, no doubt. But romanticizing it as some kind of ideal society is just dumb.
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Hoosier_Daddy
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A lot of dead black people probably disagree with you. I’m sure thier families do.
If I had to choose a time period to be a black American it wouldn’t be now…
Or a woman for that matter.
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BoomBoomMancini
Guest
You want to take a bet on the results if we polled black people and said, “Would you rather be black in 2017 or 1955?”
I’ll give you almost any odds you want on that one. People might miss individual things, like the music they grew up with. But I don’t think too many would be lining up to get to the back of the bus again.
I can’t believe we’re seriously discussing “did black people have more or less rights in the United States in the 1950s v. today.” We’re really through the looking glass here.
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BoomBoomMancini
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Actually, let’s just focus on something specific here, Hoosier.
In the 1950s, in approximately half the country, a black person and a white person could not marry. Good or bad thing?
In the 1950s, in approximately half the country, a black person and a white person could not marry. Good or bad thing?
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twf
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Not to mention the primitive health care, the relatively short life expectancies…I mean, in the 1950s black people literally couldn’t sit at the same counter as white people in multiple US states. But at least we had Ward Cleaver showing men how to have dinner with their families while wearing a suit and tie, right? Decline and fall, I tells ya!
Friend, I’m doing fine. I’m “over it”. I’m trying to save you from spending the rest of your life as a resentful caricature of the “in my day” stereotype. If you want to spend the rest of your days bah-humbuging in the corner about how men have forgotten the virtues of Brylcreem, knock yourself out. But it sure seems like a sad, lonely way to go through life.
I would like to see these posters look an elderly black person in the face and tell them what a paradise pre-1960 America was.
I wouldn’t be in my current marriage… a white Catholic married to a Protestant of colour? My grandparents lived through that era - as Protestants - the Catholic Church was the source of all evil to their minds. Yes, it was a utopia of peace and equality and harmony for all.
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twf
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These guys may well think a Christian wife deserves a smack from time to time. Not that all men did it, but it was certainly part of the glorious Christian utopia of pre-1960. My grandpa used to quote scripture “wives must submit” at my grandma if she dared to express an opinion different from his. She suffered in a miserable marriage for decades after multiple incidents of cheating because society and the Church would have condemned her for speaking up. That’s how it was in the utopia. I’m young, but I don’t know why the experiences of people I know who were also there don’t “count”.
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twf
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There are a lot of closet Protestant fundamentalists on this forum who express ultra conservative views at odds with the Magisterium… so I actually don’t know what answer to expect here. I’m in a mixed marriage racially and religiously. Most Christians would have spat on me in 1950.
Of course some things were better from a Christian perspective. Abortion, fornication, homosexuality were universally condemned. Going to church was expected. Divorce was uncommon. But there was a dark side as well…a very dark side.
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IWantGod
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The guy on the bottom right - William Davies - looks like he belongs in jail. He Should be arrested just for having that look on his face.
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IWantGod
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Are you married to a Black women?Yeah, my marriage would have been literally illegal. But hey, no one said naughty words on tv so I guess we can just set that aside.
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BoomBoomMancini
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My wife isn’t black, but she isn’t white either (I’m white)
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xNoOnex
Guest
People love to romanticize the past and think the good old days were better… Nostalgia is a powerful drug and sometimes, our vision of the past isn’t true to reality.
As a child, I wished I lived in the Middle Ages. It was a time with Catholicism was dominant, of knights and maidens fair. But as I grew older I researched more into it and realized it really wasn’t like the Arthurian romances I was obsessed with.
I imagine the 50’s is the same way. Sure, entertainment was more wholesome and families were more stable… But there was systematic racism, a large amount of legitimate sexism, and police that turned a blind eye to abuse.
The argument that it was better because it was more moral seems a bit of a fallacy since while it was more moral in someways, it was less in others.
As a child, I wished I lived in the Middle Ages. It was a time with Catholicism was dominant, of knights and maidens fair. But as I grew older I researched more into it and realized it really wasn’t like the Arthurian romances I was obsessed with.
I imagine the 50’s is the same way. Sure, entertainment was more wholesome and families were more stable… But there was systematic racism, a large amount of legitimate sexism, and police that turned a blind eye to abuse.
The argument that it was better because it was more moral seems a bit of a fallacy since while it was more moral in someways, it was less in others.
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BoomBoomMancini
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But you don’t understand. We can ignore all that stuff because kids tucked their shirts in and sat up straight!
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IWantGod
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Heresy! Servant! Contact the Inquisition immediately i have evidence of interracial marriage!
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BoomBoomMancini
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Gasp…if…only…I had listened…to…Ward Cleaver!
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BoomBoomMancini
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Hoping Hoosier/Ed just lost interest in the thread and wandered off and aren’t finding this question legitimately hard to answer.
meltzerboy
New member
I’ll answer in their place. In many ways, the 1950’s were not a good period for Blacks or other minorities (including Jews) since there was much discrimination that went unchecked. But in certain ways, it was a better period for all, such as a more intact family structure, more wholesome, family-oriented entertainment with less gratuitous violence and sex, and more influence of the Church on family life. For many Whites, it was indeed a considerably better period of life than now, especially for children, who, although they had fewer choices in life (particularly girls), faced less confusion regarding moral values. It was a simpler era in which to grow up and live, including less technology and more heed to authority and tradition.
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