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'm going to try to be as civil as possible here because this is a very emotive issue for me and many other black people. I also know that many Asians (East and South) see themselves as somehow removed from racism, see it as a black and white issue, even though some of the most obvious racism I and other black people have received has been from Asians or in Asian countries. I have also seen your posting on here and despite what you say in the last paragraph, I don't think you are willing to change your mind. You have come in here, repeated this one study over and over again, at one point admitted you don't actually know that much about the Floyd Killing and proceeded to carry on holding the same opinion. Regardless, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and attempt to get my thoughts down in a polite manner.
I'm pretty sure others have raised this with you already. But I struggle to understand how you don't understand that a system that criminalises black people, that portrays them as a fundamental threat, is not inherently racist? The fact that black people do the same does not mean the system is not racist. It means that we are also raised in this global system, with an unspoken hierarchy where white is at the top and black at the bottom. I was doing some humanitarian work in Uganda a few years ago and one of the workers there asked me whether I thought the South Sudanese refugees were attractive or not (fecking dumb question of course). She asked me how they can be attractive when they're so dark. Or another Ugandan woman who wished she could be like Michael Jackson so she could be white. These people are not born like this.
Yes I do think basically everyone is a racist in some way or another. I include myself in that. We all hold prejudices that we've picked up in our daily lives and from our environments. The key is to try and acknowledge those and actually try to change those thoughts, rather than pat ourselves on the back for how little racism we hold.
Your murder rapist analogy is so off-piste I don't even know where to begin tbh. But for the rest of the point, I would say many people, on here at least, are trying to acknowledge it. They're trying to challenge it. Friends and colleagues have been asking me what they can do to help, whether they ever do these things themselves and how to help challenge those misconceptions.
'Those who see it this way are the greatest racists'. Really? So someone who sees this as racism is a worse racist than the white guy who walked into a black church to kill people for instance? That's really your argument? Ffs.
You seem to have done 2 things here.
1) Bunker down on there being no proof of this being racism from Chauvin
2) State that we're all more likely to shoot black people if given the chance
And are managing to completely miss the point. The reality is, it isn't about Floyd. Nor is it about Chauvin. Chauvin may well not be a racist (though he is a murderer). The point is, people don't care anymore. This is a tipping point, reached because of decades of institutionalised racism barely hidden under the surface, following centuries of institutionalised racism completely out in the open. These protests are not about Chauvin or Floyd. They're about the way the police, the criminal justice system, the media, the government and normal people, treat black people every single day. The issue of police brutality more likely being meted out to blacks is just the tip of a huge iceberg of millions of much smaller and less dramatic events that don't make it to national media or cause international protests but are fecking tiring regardless.
The protests have very clear aims. And they are very legitimate. They are an attempt to change the reality for black people in America. To shine a spotlight on what happens to blacks every day there. To change the culture of policing and justice where blacks are more likely to be stopped, more likely to be searched, more likely to be brutalised, more likely to be imprisoned for the same crime as a white, more likely to spend longer in jail than a white, more likely to be struck off a jury than a white. To shine a light on the fact that black people are inherently seen as poor and dangerous, especially if we end up god forbid doing well enough to end up in a 'white neighbourhood'. That we're less likely to get a job than a white person with the exact same qualification based on our names. More likely to have the police called on them for silly crimes. More likely to be mistaken for criminals. More likely to have poor water quality and poor access to healthcare. Then there's the things that are difficult to quantify but we've all experienced. People following us in a shop. Thinking we can't afford things. Crossing the street. Clutching their purse or bag closer to them when they see us.
You seem like a very very very literal person. No evidence of racism from Chauvin, only brutality. These protests are specifically to protest the racist killing of Floyd. No and no. It isn't about individual racism from one police officer and it isn't about the individual killing of one black man.
Fecking hell pogue. Charmed life you must lead. Please tell me you at least put a finger down for not being able to afford something expensive.
