The question isn't whether I would have been able to succeed. I think it's the attitude that I take in: "I've got child care. I've got a probation officer. I've got all these bills. Now what am I going to do? Am I going to continue to go out to eat and put rims on my Cadillac? Or am I going to make some things happen in my life...?"

Way to avoid racist subtext, douche.

Rick, you realize that this kid didn't "pull himself out of homelessness," he wasn't ever actually homeless. He stepped out of the role when he chose to. Real people don't define the parameters of their plight the way make believe role players do, and there is no comparison between them.

Douche made his life no more difficult than he could manage. I notice he didn't poke an eye out or pull any teeth or anything.

Do you think Tom Hanks proved anything about how easy living on a desert island is by pretending to do it?

Antero wrote:

The question isn't whether I would have been able to succeed. I think it's the attitude that I take in: "I've got child care. I've got a probation officer. I've got all these bills. Now what am I going to do? Am I going to continue to go out to eat and put rims on my Cadillac? Or am I going to make some things happen in my life...?"

Way to avoid racist subtext, douche.

ha! yeah, that caught my eye too...

i'm gonna agree with steve on the credit card thing here...having that in his back pocket pretty much negated any real feelings of doubt, displacement and desperation and any other feelings that come with it (i don't know, i've never been homeless) and the decisions that come with that little set of baggage known overall as being trapped that result from it...

this kid, at least from what's currently known about this situation is that he never felt his life was genuinely circling the drain...

things like that will definitely affect a person and what they decide to do or not do...but then that also entails a person's character as well...

and if he did have a habit of some sort, how would that affect him and his getting a job?

these are problems that this kid didn't think through at all...

though i do give him kudos for at the very least trying this...that's more than most would do voluntarily...

Rick Reuben wrote:

Antero wrote:

put rims on my Cadillac?

Way to avoid racist subtext, douche.

How is it racist? The word 'black' doesn't appear in the sentence. But, inside your head, when you see 'rims on a Cadillac', you see a black man owning a Cadillac. So it is your own absorption of the stereotype that makes you see 'black' in a sentence where the word 'black' does not appear.

and how many white kids do you see doing this? and kids like the gotti douches don't count...

Red Square wrote:

Rick Reuben wrote:

Antero wrote:

put rims on my Cadillac?

Way to avoid racist subtext, douche.

How is it racist? The word 'black' doesn't appear in the sentence. But, inside your head, when you see 'rims on a Cadillac', you see a black man owning a Cadillac. So it is your own absorption of the stereotype that makes you see 'black' in a sentence where the word 'black' does not appear.

and how many white kids do you see doing this? and kids like the gotti douches don't count...

It still isn't racist. He could have said "buy a plasma-screen television" or "buy a signed Jeff Gordon poster" or even "buy music equipment". People of all colors do stupid things with their money. Me included. Especially those last two. The comment wasn't racially charged. Please. He is getting his ass kicked in the other argument. Don't make it this easy for him.

Rick Reuben wrote:Here's an analogy: if this kid entered a car race with a turbocharged car, and he had the only turbocharged car in the field, he would have a potential advantage. But if he never turned it on and he still won the race, then he won the race, fair and square.

I hope you beat all of us to the finish line.

Rick Reuben wrote:

Red Square wrote:and how many white kids do you see doing this? and kids like the gotti douches don't count...

Right. It is primarily a black thing. If it is, then it is not racist to point that out. Racist means putting down another person because of their race. It is not racist to point out behavior that is identified with a race, if it is a fair identification.

Racism is based on a distortion of the truth- saying blacks are stupid is racist, because it is unsupportable. Saying that blacks put rims on Cadillacs is not racist, because blacks put rims on Cadillacs. It is not a distortion of reality. It is reality. Obviously, it is a reality-based perception, because Antero immediately connected 'rims and cadillacs' to a race.

All cars have rims, anyway. Fuck it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=reaAQqW45O8

you don't have to tell me what racism is, me and a certain couple of other EA'ers live in the most racist part of our state...we know what it is and i experience a fair amount of it at my work...

as i've gotten older, i've come to realize it's everywhere no doubt but here it's just set up camp and overstayed its welcome and hasn't really decided it's moving anytime soon...with the swamp comes hatred...

Red Square wrote:interesting story from stumbleupon.com on the subject of homelessness and pulling one's self out of it...

It was really cool of this young, healthy, wealthy, college-educated white male to teach real homeless people how they can pull themselves up out of the gutter.

This dumb asshole's "experiment" is an insulting and grotesque farce, for reasons already mentioned.