<p>The Republican Party may have been more noble 50~150 years ago, when it wasn’t replete with racists. But ever since the 1960s, a huge influx of Southern Democrats have made the party a lot more hostile to blacks and minorities in general. There’s a reason that the term “conservative democrat” is a rarely used one in this day and age, and there’s a reason the Southern United States, a region once dominated by Democrats, almost exclusively votes Republican now. But that’s a discussion for another day. In essence, I’m not arguing that Democrats are perfect and that the Republicans have always been evil scumbags. Rather, I contend that the Democrats are the lesser of two evils and that since the 1930s(When Franklin Roosevelt came to power), they’ve done more to improve the economic conditions of the poor and minorities than the Republicans have in the form of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, reduction of lead in urban settings(Lead congestion decreases IQ and is shown to make it harder to do well in school), and so on. There’s a reason that modern Republican politicians don’t boast about their accomplishments in mitigating poverty in America. It’s because they have few to speak of.</p>
<p>In regards to Europeans coming to this country and being discriminated against, that is a valid point. But it can’t be said that they suffered to the same degree in relation to others as minorities do today, especially since they lived in a time when robust progressive movements led the fight against 18 hour work days, 6 day a week work schedules, child labor, awful wages, monopolization, lack of a minimum wage, and so on. These progressive reformers pressured the government to step in and outlaw or regulate these business practices. It’s simply wrong to say that government wasn’t involved in the social and economic uplift of these groups back then.</p>
<p>The reason we even have a middle class today is that government intervention forced businesses to share the fruits of the industrial revolution with their workers. If only there were such a robust progressive movement today, and no, Occupy Wall Street doesn’t count, lol</p>
<p>The flaw in your argument is that you assume that Blacks and other minorities can overcome the forces of poverty and institutional racism by just being determined. If it were that easy, they would have done it already. No one likes being poor. The fact of the matter is that most nonwhites in this country are born at a distinct disadvantage. Being “determined” doesn’t remedy crappy public schools in the inner city or a dearth of jobs. Being “determined” doesn’t stop the police from arresting minorities at a ridiculously high rate compared to their white peers. Being “determined” doesn’t make up for the lack of educational resources that are available to students attending schools near more affluent neighborhoods and who are most likely from affluent families.</p>