- Nov 27, 2009
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- Lose 1d20 sanity points.
Is it weird that I'm so used to it, that I don't feel any level of outrage?
just disappointment.
Police shoot (another) unarmed black man in the back 7 times
- Thread starter crimson5pheonix
- Start date
just disappointment.
Same.
Also, I know for a fact that there's been a zillion other cases I just haven't read about, and the same is almost certainly true of even the most politically active US citizens.
I mean, given today's environment, what level of impunity did those officers believe they had?
Anybody who believes BLM is a misguided movement doesn't understand that black communities have been dealing with THIS kind of stuff disproportionately forever. Houseman (apparently a black person himself) would argue that black people commit a disproportionate amount of crime, but when you're over-policed, of course that'll be the case. Just like Trump's assertion that we do more testing for COVID-19, therefore we have more cases, when they focus on black communities, they'll find more reasons to draw their weapons, even when no reason exists at all.
And herein lies the issue. People are so accustomed to police abuse within black communities, it easily becomes an expected issue and hence a non-issue. But BLM is out of line according to some.
It's always easy to not see a problem when you aren't the one getting hurt. Regrettably, our culture seems to actively encourage us to look away.
WHO DARES SUMMON ME?
So which came first, over-policing or a disproportionate amount of crime?
Or more accurately, not not seeing a "problem" so much as "that's just the way it is." Like non-racist people during the period of segregation, or non-slave owners during the period of slavery. I wouldn't call those people complicit, but certainly they were complacent, and when movements like BLM pop up and suddenly rock the boat, that makes the complacent uncomfortable.
Lol, I DID!!!
More than likely, the latter; I've conceded that on many an occasion, but that crime stems from a lack of opportunity and a general disregard for blacks' humanity. So what should we do first: eat the chicken or make an omelet?
If the onus is on blacks to simply work harder, how is that fair or even right? Yes, a lot of black people have worked through hardship and succeeded, but to expect that we ALL do it and accept the status quo wherein white people, let alone police officers, will be the stewards of our success and our very lives... what kind of "life" is that? There's some accountability to be had on the other end as well, and as long as blacks are disproportionately on the receiving end of abuse like this, it will never be our time to "make it better" or "fix it" alone.
You already know what I think, if poverty would be solved, and "black communities" were no longer synonymous with "poor communities", all the other issues would gradually disappear.
So how do you feel about "organizations" like the Ku Klux Klan? Who, regardless of a black person's status, see black and non-white people as lesser than themselves? How do feel about people of a similar mindset who wear badges, wield guns and enforce "the law?" Solving poverty will certainly help, but it will not solve the way many blacks are treated simply for being black. So, while blacks need to do better for themselves, there's no denying a lot of accountability for whites, particularly those in authority, to do better as well.
Racism is bad, get rid of it.
Racism is bad, get rid of it.
I think that racist people are, maybe 5% of the problem while poverty is 95% of the problem. It's negligible, like the amount of racist black cops who take it out on white people are negligible.
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And the 1-2-3 punch of redlining, broken windows policing, and gentrification aren't a key cause of it?
Well, it'd certainly make a big difference (we generally forget that racism against the Irish was totally a thing, because they aren't poor outsiders anymore in most places), there are groups that aren't generally poor (or seen as poor) that still experience racism.
Yes, I would LOVE to just "get rid" of racism; I think most decent people would agree.
But until then, until such a time that racism somehow "goes away," should we not focus on keeping people of racist mindsets accountable and out of positions of authority that permit them to decide which lives matter? I made this point before; it's 10 years to become a doctor, and only 6 months to become a cop. Not saying cops are de facto bad; they're certainly necessary, but the vetting process that allows people with ulterior motives or those on power trips to police those they see as lesser than is a separate issue, one that blacks disproportionately have to deal with, and the amount of money in their pockets really doesn't matter, does it?
Case in point: when I was still working as a tour guide, I remember very clearly that the South Asian immigrants were some of the politest crowds I could hope to work with and were very well-to-do, but that didn't stop the MAGA-hat brigade from sneering at them behind their backs.
I think that's a dangerous line of reasoning because:
1) Focus implies that "we" can only "focus" on one thing at a time, like we can't work on solving multiple problems at once.
2) How are you determining whether or not someone is of a racist mindset? Are you working backwards and saying "he shot a black guy, therefore, he must be racist"?
USA