Running racism in America thread

You are wrong about that.

But, I also don't think this is just about the police anymore. Which is a large part of why I don't like it.

I'm not "uncomfortable," with anything, unless you count a bunch of civilians marching through regular streets with militia-grade guns over statues, and as if they actually are going to war. They are not, and they, and we -- and make no mistake, there is still, and will always be, at this rate, a they, and we -- would all do well to remember that.

 

You want to bet inclusive, yes, but the point is not to have white people say "isn't that nice" and go about their days. The point is to get people to be confronted with the systemic oppression and utter bullshit of how cops treat people of color. They want the people to feel as uncomfortable as they do and actually do something. Otherwise white people are just going to continue pretending everything is fine. Yeah getting on a freeway sucks for drivers, but so does getting a knee to the neck for passing forgeries or getting shot in bed by police who served a warrant on the wrong house or to be shot by a cop who can barely get out of the car to share shooting because a kid is holding a toy or a teen getting shot because he won't get out of the street and the cop shouts "he's coming for my gun!" or a cop shooting a guy because he said he had a conceal carry or about a thousand other examples.

 

qed

 

Admittedly I did not see the degree of blatant neo-nazi/supremacists crawling out from their rocks; yeah the malevolence is disappointing. I thought we had given this up after the 70's but all I find solace in is that we did it before, we'll have to do it again.

The "sorry grandpa you'll just have to be sacrificed for the economy," and "the virus is all China's fault" is hard to fathom but the only sliver of hope is that in less than 4 months those asscl*wns that were put in control of the federal government will be rooted out like the bermuda grass weeds in my yard and discarded; those charlatans like DeVos, Pompeo, Munchin (intentional), etc. See you later and get yourself the best attorneys you can because AG Harris coming after your a**.

 

QTLaw-

When I was a kid growing up in California the biggest story was the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre.

Wall to wall coverage for one of the grandaddies of American mass shootings.

(Many of those mown down were poor Hispanics, which was not particularly well noted at the time.)

That atrocity wouldn't even move the needle in 2020.

I am not a lawyer but I suspect you are one. Do you think any of these people will ever do time?

 

I don't think these protests are going to accomplish the goal. They're going to cause trouble, and make resolving issues even more difficult. The further out from George Floyd's death we get, the more true that will become, and the more pointless all the gatherings and destruction will be. Except, as I said, to cause problems.

If this is really just a police-brutality problem -- and I'm not convinced that it is anymore -- then it is time to take more tactful and less-inciting avenues to resolving the problems, with the police. But these are not discussions going on, or procedural changes (although those appeared to be starting to be considered and implemented).

These are attempts to intimidate, force, divide and conquer, as it were, and won't work any more effectively on whites, or police, I don't think, than they have on blacks.

 

troublemakers

 

So should Black people take knees then? It doesn't disrupt traffic. It doesn't lead to people looting. It is quiet and peaceful and can lead to a constructive dialogue. I wonder how that will work out...

 

My glib remark aside, the problem is Black people have tried it the nice way since the Civil War. Meeting with presidents and generals, governors and mayors. They tried going to the courts. They tried opening dialogues through movies and other pop culture. Black people had Rosa Parks and John Lewis and Martin Luther King Junior and yet here we are having very similar arguments. At what point do we admit playing it the White person acceptable way isn't working?

 

There were massive, peaceful protests in Atlanta, Nashvillle and Chicago on July 4. Huge. Got absolutely no national media coverage and I only saw the images in people's Twitter feeds. The protests go on. People are engaged. You continue to fixate on the images you dislike rather than the bigger picture, which is the fact that this is all going to have to get more uncomfortable in order to precipitate real change. We live in an incredibly unjust country and the people who perpetuate that are going to tighten their grip in the face of this challenge. Only perseverance, even if it makes you uncomfortable - especially if it makes you uncomfortable, will win the day.

 

The destructiveness, disruption and dissention's been done. It's time to move on to something that, hopefully, will result in something other than that. Unless everyone wants everything to remain as it is...forever.

My point before was that blacks need whites to join them in their cause, not be turned off and turned away from it, if it is ever to truly succeed and things are to ever really change. Whether anybody likes it or not, we cannot be separate, and there cannot be an "us" and "them" in this, if anything is to be different in any significant way.

If people cannot talk together in some sort of peace and understanding, they certainly will never be able to fight together, and ever have it end well.

 

See my second post.