Jesus it was a bad news week. It started out with Hillary Clinton being cleared by the FBI of all criminal charges relating to her private email server, but in the process being implicated in the misdeed of being sloppy with sensitive information. Even Hillary supporters, if we are being honest, should view this as a massive lapse of judgment on her part. But there is nothing we can really do about it. I mean, is this worth the risk of a Donald Trump presidency? C’mon, get real. Not when Trump responds to this softball he’s been tossed by recirculating anti-Semitic memes and then praising Saddam Hussein (seriously) for his approach to terrorism. That’s what American needs in a leader -- somebody who finally understands how effective brutal tyranny can be! Trump didn’t swing and miss on this one; he stepped out of the batter’s box and repeatedly hit himself in the nuts with the bat.
As if that weren’t bad enough, we also saw black people being killed by police officers at point-blank range, under highly dubious circumstances, in consecutive days. And then after that some nut with a gun upped the ante by taking out multiple police officers sniper-style at a Dallas B.L.M. protest. As I “joked” on FaceBook, what’s next – the asteroid that wipes out humanity?
So, yeah, it was rough week for America. And aside from Clinton’s email improprieties, the underlying issue of all the bad news is the same: racial strife. We still haven’t fixed the problem of white supremacy in this country. It all started when our forefathers made the brilliant decision to import human beings as cheap labor from Africa and treat them as if they were property. Then it was Jim Crow, and then "separate but equal." After that it was wink-wink, nudge-nudge discriminatory housing and hiring practices. Today it is a little different -- people aren’t overtly racist, and they aren’t even racist on the sly. I know a lot of white people, and the vast majority of us truly do not care what color somebody is. On an individual level, we treat people as people, period. But, the mistake many of us make is thinking that this is enough – thinking that being a good, non-racist person is all we need to do. But it’s not. This just maintains the status quo, and the status quo isn't working for a whole lot of people of color. This is why "color-blindness" is such bullshit. Color-blindness is cop-out for people who don't want to acknowledge that they live in a systemic racist country.
Also, we all have subconscious biases that we cannot address unless we admit we have them in the first place. And this isn’t some overly p.c. claptrap. This is backed up by studies that show people with black-sounding names are less likely to get job interviews than people with a white-sounding names, and that show that we are more likely to be scared of black people than white people. The former has profound implications on black people competing economically; the latter has profound implications on black people being over-policed. And I think the events of the past week are a better illustration of this fact than any study could be. I find it very difficult to believe that Alton Sterling and Philando Castile would have been shot if they were white. Not being viewed as potentially dangerous by law enforcement is perhaps the epitome of white privilege.
But, as you know, not everybody thinks the same way I do (regretfully). There are many people who believe racism is over, or it’s overstated, or it’s balanced out by equal grievances against white people (reverse racism!). I thought it would be fun to post the five most annoying arguments used by people like this to discount racism and police brutality against people of color.
The vast majority of violence against black people is perpetrated by other black people
Yes, gang violence, which is primarily what you are talking about, is a problem. There are myriad causes of it, and myriad people trying to fix it, with varying degrees of success. But what does this problem have to do with other problems like police brutality? I mean, far more Americans kill Americans than foreign terrorists kill Americans -- does this mean we can't ever address terrorism? One serious problem does not negate another serious problem, and we have to be able to work on multiple things at the same time.
Liberals just feel guilty about being white
I can't speak for all liberals, but I've never felt white guilt, because I didn't choose the color of my skin (I would have gone for something that doesn't burn quite as easily if I did), and because I didn't cause racism our society. I was born into it like everybody else alive today. With that said, I do feel privileged to be white -- because I am -- but that is a very different feeling than guilt.
Black Lives Matter supporters are such hypocrites -- they complain about the police and then as soon as shots were fired in Dallas they ran to the police for protection
Ugh... This is a particularly annoying charge. The obvious rebuttal is that the BLM protesters are not anti-police; they're anti-police brutality. That last word is very important. Honestly, I can't figure out what's so hard about this differentiation. It's a very simple concept. Here's an analogy: If you speak out against child abuse, does that make you anti-parent? Of course not. It sounds absurd. But that's basically what people are saying when they conflate being against police brutality with being against police.
Also, I would suspect that protesters were turning to police for protection, because its the police's job to protect them. This brings me to the next topic...
It's not going to be worth it for police to protect people, if they are constantly being scrutinized and disparaged
Ahh... The so-called "Ferguson Effect." How low is your standard for a police officer that you willingly accept that they won't do their job unless we only ever say nice things about them, even when they do something terrible. I mean, call me crazy, but I think it is possible for police officers to be able to enforce the law without, say, shooting a black driver in the head because he rolls his car forward a few feet. And I don't think it is wrong to say this.
If you don't do anything wrong, the police won't bother you
Yes, if everybody acted perfectly police brutality wouldn't be a problem. We also wouldn't need police officers at all. This notion that somehow people "get what they deserve," because they don't comply with everything an officer says is very troubling. For one thing, when people are dealing with police officers they are usually stressed and aren't thinking straight, and sometimes, because they are humans who are stressed out and not thinking straight, they make mistakes. Punishment for these mistakes should not be the death penalty. Yes, we know Alton Sterling should not have been resisting arrested; yes, we know he add an extensive criminal record; yes, we know he was illegally carrying a gun -- nobody is saying otherwise. What people are saying is that the cops did not have to shoot him at pointblank range, when they had already tackled and neutralized him. I think I speak for most Americans we I say we want criminals to be apprehended and prosecuted through the justice system; we don't want police officers to play the part of judge, jury, and execution, without the first two.
OK, that's all I got.
Until next time...
As if that weren’t bad enough, we also saw black people being killed by police officers at point-blank range, under highly dubious circumstances, in consecutive days. And then after that some nut with a gun upped the ante by taking out multiple police officers sniper-style at a Dallas B.L.M. protest. As I “joked” on FaceBook, what’s next – the asteroid that wipes out humanity?
So, yeah, it was rough week for America. And aside from Clinton’s email improprieties, the underlying issue of all the bad news is the same: racial strife. We still haven’t fixed the problem of white supremacy in this country. It all started when our forefathers made the brilliant decision to import human beings as cheap labor from Africa and treat them as if they were property. Then it was Jim Crow, and then "separate but equal." After that it was wink-wink, nudge-nudge discriminatory housing and hiring practices. Today it is a little different -- people aren’t overtly racist, and they aren’t even racist on the sly. I know a lot of white people, and the vast majority of us truly do not care what color somebody is. On an individual level, we treat people as people, period. But, the mistake many of us make is thinking that this is enough – thinking that being a good, non-racist person is all we need to do. But it’s not. This just maintains the status quo, and the status quo isn't working for a whole lot of people of color. This is why "color-blindness" is such bullshit. Color-blindness is cop-out for people who don't want to acknowledge that they live in a systemic racist country.
Also, we all have subconscious biases that we cannot address unless we admit we have them in the first place. And this isn’t some overly p.c. claptrap. This is backed up by studies that show people with black-sounding names are less likely to get job interviews than people with a white-sounding names, and that show that we are more likely to be scared of black people than white people. The former has profound implications on black people competing economically; the latter has profound implications on black people being over-policed. And I think the events of the past week are a better illustration of this fact than any study could be. I find it very difficult to believe that Alton Sterling and Philando Castile would have been shot if they were white. Not being viewed as potentially dangerous by law enforcement is perhaps the epitome of white privilege.
But, as you know, not everybody thinks the same way I do (regretfully). There are many people who believe racism is over, or it’s overstated, or it’s balanced out by equal grievances against white people (reverse racism!). I thought it would be fun to post the five most annoying arguments used by people like this to discount racism and police brutality against people of color.
The vast majority of violence against black people is perpetrated by other black people
Yes, gang violence, which is primarily what you are talking about, is a problem. There are myriad causes of it, and myriad people trying to fix it, with varying degrees of success. But what does this problem have to do with other problems like police brutality? I mean, far more Americans kill Americans than foreign terrorists kill Americans -- does this mean we can't ever address terrorism? One serious problem does not negate another serious problem, and we have to be able to work on multiple things at the same time.
Liberals just feel guilty about being white
I can't speak for all liberals, but I've never felt white guilt, because I didn't choose the color of my skin (I would have gone for something that doesn't burn quite as easily if I did), and because I didn't cause racism our society. I was born into it like everybody else alive today. With that said, I do feel privileged to be white -- because I am -- but that is a very different feeling than guilt.
Black Lives Matter supporters are such hypocrites -- they complain about the police and then as soon as shots were fired in Dallas they ran to the police for protection
Ugh... This is a particularly annoying charge. The obvious rebuttal is that the BLM protesters are not anti-police; they're anti-police brutality. That last word is very important. Honestly, I can't figure out what's so hard about this differentiation. It's a very simple concept. Here's an analogy: If you speak out against child abuse, does that make you anti-parent? Of course not. It sounds absurd. But that's basically what people are saying when they conflate being against police brutality with being against police.
Also, I would suspect that protesters were turning to police for protection, because its the police's job to protect them. This brings me to the next topic...
It's not going to be worth it for police to protect people, if they are constantly being scrutinized and disparaged
Ahh... The so-called "Ferguson Effect." How low is your standard for a police officer that you willingly accept that they won't do their job unless we only ever say nice things about them, even when they do something terrible. I mean, call me crazy, but I think it is possible for police officers to be able to enforce the law without, say, shooting a black driver in the head because he rolls his car forward a few feet. And I don't think it is wrong to say this.
If you don't do anything wrong, the police won't bother you
Yes, if everybody acted perfectly police brutality wouldn't be a problem. We also wouldn't need police officers at all. This notion that somehow people "get what they deserve," because they don't comply with everything an officer says is very troubling. For one thing, when people are dealing with police officers they are usually stressed and aren't thinking straight, and sometimes, because they are humans who are stressed out and not thinking straight, they make mistakes. Punishment for these mistakes should not be the death penalty. Yes, we know Alton Sterling should not have been resisting arrested; yes, we know he add an extensive criminal record; yes, we know he was illegally carrying a gun -- nobody is saying otherwise. What people are saying is that the cops did not have to shoot him at pointblank range, when they had already tackled and neutralized him. I think I speak for most Americans we I say we want criminals to be apprehended and prosecuted through the justice system; we don't want police officers to play the part of judge, jury, and execution, without the first two.
OK, that's all I got.
Until next time...
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