Care to explain?
Protests following the killing of George Floyd
- Thread starter Abizzz
- Start date
In her own way, she made a valid criticism.
300+ years of systemic abuse, lynching, rape. ... this time the cat is out of the bag and US police will have to suck this outpouring of rage foras long as it takes to get out.
Come again.
Are you responding about your pseudo account? Is this Wibble or hmchan.
Godwin’s law
I was half jokingly saying that if systemic racism wasn't a thing because sometimes non-black people suffer violence at the hands of the police then you could also say that the holocaust wasn't a thing because non-Jews were killed.
Ah, I believe we’re on the same page here.
I think people forget that there are degrees of privileged. I will never inherit a penny and most likely I'll never be very wealthy but growing up in a lower middle class white family in Manchester still gave me some privileged even if it was just in educational opportunities and expectations and life opportunities in general. If I had grown up in different circumstances the likelihood of me having lived the life I have to date would have been far far smaller.
I have also only twice been abused for not coming from the country I now live in. Once by a cop in the late 80's and once by a disgruntled neighbour who got upset when I asked him to move his (literally) shit stained double trailer road train from outside my house where he had illegally parked. Neither bothered me because neither event felt dis-empowering. If that had been racial abuse based on my skin colour I think it would have felt very differently.
I have also only twice been abused for not coming from the country I now live in. Once by a cop in the late 80's and once by a disgruntled neighbour who got upset when I asked him to move his (literally) shit stained double trailer road train from outside my house where he had illegally parked. Neither bothered me because neither event felt dis-empowering. If that had been racial abuse based on my skin colour I think it would have felt very differently.
I don't have a lot of faith that those who aren't already sympathetic to the protesters can be turned.
Well polls show 54% of Americans are sympathetic which is good I guess.I don't have a lot of faith that those who aren't already sympathetic to the protesters can be turned.
Post of the month!
Privilege isn’t just the ‘small million dollar loan’ Trump got from his dad.
When people talk about White Privilege it doesn’t mean a white person doesn’t have to work hard to be successful or that good things are simply handed to all white people - it can often be a reference to the everyday things white people take for granted that can actually cause a BAME person issues.
Something as simple as a car purchase. To most people the thought is ‘I work hard so I’ll get this luxury, I may be targeted by criminals but I’m insured & the police will help me find it’ but as a BAME person you think, ‘not only do I have to look out for criminals I might get stopped, & if I do what will that interaction be like? etc.’.
It’s hard to explain in just a few sentences but I read this recently, “It’s a privilege to learn about racism instead of experiencing it your whole life”.
Before somebody says it. Do white people get pulled over in nice cars? Yes but if that’s your argument I’m really done trying to reach you.
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White skin is the highest degree of privilege.
I have 0 interest in the NFL but Drew Brees has lit a fire with this one,
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...nd-around-sports-for-anthem-protest-comments/
Absolutely tone deaf. How kneeling & observing the National Anthem somehow got spun into disrespecting a flag I’ll never know.
There’s definitely something different about this movement; the usual subversion doesn’t seem to be working so easily.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...nd-around-sports-for-anthem-protest-comments/
Absolutely tone deaf. How kneeling & observing the National Anthem somehow got spun into disrespecting a flag I’ll never know.
There’s definitely something different about this movement; the usual subversion doesn’t seem to be working so easily.
Does he not realise what that flag symbolises for many people?
No we gotta hear more from cops. Both sides of the story and all that jazz.
Thugs:
The police department in Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city, is coming under criticism after a video posted to social media appeared to show officers using chemical agents on demonstrators who were boxed in while protesting the death of George Floyd.
The video was recorded Tuesday night by Justin LaFrancois, co-founder and publisher of the alternative Charlotte newspaper Queen City Nerve. He said officers fired tear gas and flash-bangs from behind the protesters, and in front of them as well. He also said officers perched on top of buildings were firing pepper balls down on the crowd.
“We were completely trapped,” LaFrancois said. “There was one way to get out, and half of the group did go out that way through the tear gas and through the pepper balls. But for the rest of us, the only route of escape ... was to pull up a gate on the parking structure that we were pressed up against.”
LaFrancois said people tried to squeeze under the 6-inch opening in the gate and find safety. But as those people looked for an exit from the parking deck, he said officers began firing pepper balls after they entered the deck from the other side.
"They were relentless in not allowing us to leave the area that they were trying to get us to leave," LaFrancois said. "It was the most extreme action that I had seen taken. It was the first time that I was actually in fear for my life."
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said on Twitter they are looking into the incident.
"We are internally reviewing the circumstances that developed this evening on 4th Street to ensure policy and protocol were followed, the police department tweeted Tuesday."
The video was recorded Tuesday night by Justin LaFrancois, co-founder and publisher of the alternative Charlotte newspaper Queen City Nerve. He said officers fired tear gas and flash-bangs from behind the protesters, and in front of them as well. He also said officers perched on top of buildings were firing pepper balls down on the crowd.
“We were completely trapped,” LaFrancois said. “There was one way to get out, and half of the group did go out that way through the tear gas and through the pepper balls. But for the rest of us, the only route of escape ... was to pull up a gate on the parking structure that we were pressed up against.”
LaFrancois said people tried to squeeze under the 6-inch opening in the gate and find safety. But as those people looked for an exit from the parking deck, he said officers began firing pepper balls after they entered the deck from the other side.
"They were relentless in not allowing us to leave the area that they were trying to get us to leave," LaFrancois said. "It was the most extreme action that I had seen taken. It was the first time that I was actually in fear for my life."
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said on Twitter they are looking into the incident.
"We are internally reviewing the circumstances that developed this evening on 4th Street to ensure policy and protocol were followed, the police department tweeted Tuesday."
For anyone still in any doubt over the effectiveness of these protests:
https://www.latimes.com/california/...nding-racial-justice-gain-momentum-across-l-a
https://www.latimes.com/california/...nding-racial-justice-gain-momentum-across-l-a
Rudy Guiliani just had a complete meltdown whilst being ignored by Piers Morgan. The bloke is unhinged and just exploded after Morgan mentioned the looting/shooting quote Trump tweeted.
Video when available please.
Will put it up when it comes on but I think they are checking it for swearing according to Susanna Reid
I think actions speak louder than words.
Republican senators dodge questions, defend clearing out peaceful protesters
Hope they are remembered in November. Cowards.
Hope they are remembered in November. Cowards.
feck them all
Only Murkowski there had some balls. And Cruz didn’t disappoint to be the most disgusting of them all.
Its accused. So I would assume going to buy something and the sales assistant making it clear they think you can't afford it.
Anyway I put down 3 fingers.
Racial slur
Followed in a store
Someone crossed the street
They're both white supremacist, bickering babies. Arguing with each other over their shitbag reputations for Christ sake.
What a stupid post!
I hope that Arkansas senator has a permanent ring of fire.
Ye I should have written pregnant woman:
Sorry if calling out the violence for what it is offends you, you might want to ignore my posts.
The regional slurs are odd, aren't they? There's a saying "Better to have a corpse in your house than a Marchigiano at your door."...3 or 5 fingers left for me, depending on whether ethnic/regional slurs qualify as racial(they're more like racist-adjacent). And i'm white and italian and lived most of my life in italy. Damn it Italy
I think most of the points have been addressed in #3427. I agree that black people are often treated unfairly by the cops, this includes being treated in a less lenient way etc. These are classic examples of racism, and people can always voice their dissent to these racist acts from time to time, but not making use of Floyd's death as it's a clear case of police brutality.
For the brutality part, however, I personally have some conservation. From the social experiment, the majority of participants including black people themselves were more likely to shoot at their black friend rather than a white stranger. While you may argue this is already a kind of racism, I think the definition would be too broad this way that basically everyone is a racist.
Many talk about police's bias towards the black, but they fail to acknowledge their own bias. They presumably think Chauvin murdered Floyd due to racial profiling, solely based on so-called history and pattern without any evidence. Using the same metaphor as before, it's like a murderer must also be a rapist just because many killers rape their victims in the society.
When a white man is knelt to death, it's police brutality; when a black man is killed in the same way, it's racism. It just doesn't make any sense. Those who see it this way are actually the greatest racists, because they view and categorize the same event differently. Now it seems people value black people higher than others, as their death arouses attention while few care about others.
Unlike others, I'm always prepared to change my mind, as soon as there is any direct evidence pointing to the involvement of racism in this particular case. Maybe someone would testify against him in the trial, maybe someome would leak some stories to the press. Honestly, I hope Chauvin can be proven a racist in the end, otherwise all these protests look far less legitimate and meaningful, as they have already been without a clear aim and a concrete demand.
I think that anyone in a position of true power could act similarly, all communities are susceptible to be prejudiced, it's an human flaw. The point of all of this isn't to attack one ethnicity's nature but to make people realize that the society that they built for themselves and its mechanism are totally unjust when you are not part of the ethnic majority.
Thank you for this post. I have been reflecting on this issue. I never thought about myself as having privileges in the past. Only when I was in the US, when for the first time I do not belong to the majority race, do I realise issues that I never thought about before. Simple things like "the sky is the limit if you work hard" only applies when you are born without the cuffs that are chained to certain groups of people from birth.
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They're really not. Just part of our culture in a way not too dissimilar from racism
Of course now that immigration is turning us into a multi-ethnic population, we jumped at the chance for full blown racism
What an interesting approach. 3 fingers left for me and this from a black man who socio-economically leads a comparatively charmed life in the UK compared to many other black people here.
I love the way you start with an attempt at a metaphor, give up half way through to try a syllogism, and when that fails too you simply revert to your stock in trade: incomprehensible garbage*.
*metaphor
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Another cop taking a knee Was before the current events but shows how common it can be.
Was before the current events but shows how common it can be.Look up "shooting bias" this is a similar situation.
You don't need someone in a trial to testify that Chauvin had posted racist posts on FB or was a secret member of the KKK. That would make this an indiviual act of racism, this is not necessarily about individual acts (though it may well be) this is about institutional racism. The argument is Chauvin and many other police like him expected more problems and possibly violence from Floyd because of the colour of his skin and their preconceptions of what that meant.
What I mean is this. Police are more likely to shoot at a black person than a white person, this isn't necessarily because they hate black people. But they expect them to be more violent, they expect them to be more likely to have committed a crime - these are preconception and are just as racist as attacking a business because it is owned by black people.
What people arguing in this thread, that we don't know if this brutality was racially driven fail to get is that this institutional racism is endemic everywhere in the western world. Its the reason people are more likely in to hire a white person over a black person, more likely to want to rent their property to a white person rather than a black person, feel more comfortable with their daughter dating a white man than a black man etc etc. Their preconceptions make them fear.
A white person walking down the street late at night, are they more nervous of group of young black men hanging out on the corner or a group of young white men? The tendency to fear and expect bad outcomes from black people is everywhere and it is 100% racist and lots and lots people if they are honest with themselves will recognise this at one point or another in themselves.
The bigger questions are why? American history is obviously one thing, as there cannot be a white person on earth who doesn't understand that black America has been appallingly treated throughout the history of the US. But the media and popular culture has a lot to do with it as well, from everything from the Wire to New Jack City (2 random examples and certainly not saying that either are racist) paint a picture of black urban America as violent and gang ridden. Nerds, sensible people and goodies etc etc in movies and in books are rarely black and if the hero is black even then they often come packaged in a violent form, like Black Panther or Shaft (2 more random examples and not held up as racist films)
We are bombarded everyday by negative black stereotypes in US culture and sadly that is the dominant global culture now, this just builds those racist preconceptions in all sorts of people even those who would not for a second think they are racist.
On top of that segregation is rife in the US and has been for hundreds of years this in turn builds up an us and them culture which once again breeds institutional racism.
To argue that Chauvin's actions were not racist misses the point entirely, the black lives matter movement gets this, institutionally black lives are currently cheaper in the States than white lives.
This post has gone on much longer than I meant, but there are literally hundreds of books and papers written about this, I offer no answers or suggestions on how to fix this as I honestly don't know beyond individuals recognising it in themselves and working to overcome it.
If it looks like a duck talks like a duck it is a duck.
Gotta love it when someone goes the extra lenght to defend chauffin. He doesnt need defending. I dont care if he's racist or just brutal and whatever happened i dont feel any remorse if he turns out to be just brutal. There are certain cases that needs the boook thrown at him, more than what's just because what he does is far from just.
Normally I'd try to see good in every man but this one is one special breed. I wont lose sleep if I'm the one assigned to pull his electric chair lever. He doesnt deserve an ounce of sympathy nor devil advocacy.
Arguing on semantics whether it's brutality or racism doesnt make you smart and objective. It only makes you insensitive to matters at hand. How'd you feel if you're black and people are dismissing this as simply brutality. Not racism. Yeah right it isnt.
Gotta love it when someone goes the extra lenght to defend chauffin. He doesnt need defending. I dont care if he's racist or just brutal and whatever happened i dont feel any remorse if he turns out to be just brutal. There are certain cases that needs the boook thrown at him, more than what's just because what he does is far from just.
Normally I'd try to see good in every man but this one is one special breed. I wont lose sleep if I'm the one assigned to pull his electric chair lever. He doesnt deserve an ounce of sympathy nor devil advocacy.
Arguing on semantics whether it's brutality or racism doesnt make you smart and objective. It only makes you insensitive to matters at hand. How'd you feel if you're black and people are dismissing this as simply brutality. Not racism. Yeah right it isnt.