Fox News does it again

[Strider]

I might say something people will bash me for here, but you know what? He isn't that far wrong.


I come from Birmingham and I've lived there for 21 years. While it's not an 'entirely' muslim city, sure, there are still areas that are what you'd call "muslim areas" and this is widely known to pretty much anyone who's ever visited the place or lived there. People might not want to admit it, and people might not want to hear it, but these places are pure shitholes. There's trash on the streets, homes in a constant state of disrepair, and all you see are people in Islamic garments. They're like ghettos.

He's also not wrong in that there are groups of twats who go around threatening people and trying to impose sharia law in their areas.

It's not like it hasn't already been reported on:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcsG-u2GtZE

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He said it in the most sensationalist way sure, but people who are saying he's a complete idiot are kind of getting on my tits. I've heard plenty of people who actually live in Birmingham say the same sort of thing as what this guy did while they're down the pub.

The response, especially on my facebook newsfeed where the majority of my friends are from Birmingham, is actually pissing me off a bit. People are suddenly getting self righteous and acting like Birmingham doesn't have a problem with these muslim communities. Like it's such a perfect multicultural society, and that we're proud of it. That's fucking bollocks. I'm pretty sure I made a thread a couple years ago on here about the muslim only areas in my city. If you're not a muslim, you would be scared to step out of your car in these places. Not for shit reasons either.

That is interesting to hear from a person who actually lives there. We have to take anything Fox News says with a giant grain of fucking salt because they have such a tendency to outright lie in their reporting.

Something that is probably even more of a touchy subject here in the U.S. are predominantly poor, African American communities in urban areas. These are very often the most dangerous places in the country, but simply acknowledging that these areas are largely black and going no further than that will elicit instant and immediate vitriol from liberals...even though I myself am liberal. Am I a racist? Absolutely not. I abhor racism, but I have a goddamn set of eyes and I've been to some of these places - most notably in Memphis, TN; Jackson, MS; and Birmingham, AL. I know that a lack of opportunities, poor education, and poverty contribute to the high rates of crime in these areas, but it is taboo to mention that an area is populated almost entirely by minorities if it is regarding the rate of crime.

EDIT: I should have mentioned that I think a large portion of the issues of poverty and a lack of education and opportunity stems from years of institutionalized racism. Unfortunately, that doesn't make the statistics any less damning. I wish I had a solution which would eradicate the issues faced in low-income communities, but I'm just an idiot from Mississippi. :/ It takes people a lot smarter to me to work out the answers to these kinds of problems.