Posted: Jul 25, 2015 1:25 am
Oldskeptic wrote:proudfootz wrote:Oldskeptic wrote:proudfootz wrote:'Black lives matter' is a thing in the US because it is blatantly obvious that they generally don't.
Racism is alive and well in the US, and the 'black lives matter' is there to point up the fact.
People who insist on diluting it with platitudes are simply trying to stifle the message that America needs to hear.
If the numbers of young black men being murdered every year points to racism being alive and well in the US then who is it pointing at? Nearly half of deaths of young black men 16-24 are homicides and a third of the deaths of black men 24-35 are. So, the question should be who's doing the killing? The answer is young black men around 90% of the time.
If the "Black Lives Matter" movement is really sincere why aren't they pointing the finger at the demographic that is doing the vast majority of the killing? Instead of addressing the real source of the problem they invade a conference and shout down speakers who are, as far as I can see, on their side. It's as if they can't see or smell the garbage in their own house.
Where is the rage and indignance that erupts when one young black man is killed by a non-black when nine young black men are killed by other young black men? Where are the angry demonstrations and protests against the perpetrators of the bulk of the killings? Why isn't Al Sharpton, and those like him, these "black leaders", agitating for change where change is really really needed? I have no answer for these things other than it's easier to blame someone else than yourself. Especially if the problem seems implacable.
So, who is it diluting black problems with trite and overused harangues? Big changes have happened since I was a boy, and more changes need to be made, but it's not all all about "whites" changing. The burden rests on everyone's shoulders, but there's only so much that anyone else can do about some "black" problems, and shouting down politicians that have a track record of trying to solve these problems isn't going to get anyone anywhere.
You don't know black leaders address this very issue you've mentioned?
It's mostly because 'mainstream media' apparently doesn't give a flying fuck about black folks.
Black folks? There's got to be a microaggression there.
NIce to know you're willing to make feeble jokes when you have no rational response.
...it’s easy to find examples of marches and demonstrations against crime. In the last four years, blacks have held community protests against violence in Chicago; New York; Newark, New Jersey; Pittsburgh; Saginaw, Michigan; and Gary, Indiana. Indeed, there’s a whole catalog of movies, albums, and sermons from a generation of directors, musicians, and religious leaders, each urging peace and order. You may not have noticed black protests against crime and violence, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t happened. Black Americans—like everyone else—are concerned with what happens in their communities, and at a certain point, pundits who insist otherwise are either lying or willfully ignorant.
There were more demonstrations over the Michael Brown shooting in a week than all of the demonstrations mentioned above in four years.
Yes, context matters. Apparently cops offhandedly killing people in the streets and not even being charged is the same as when citizens get arrested and go to trial for the same thing. At least in Bizarro No Context World.
To that point, it’s worth noting the extent to which “what about black-on-black crime” is an evasion, an attempt to avoid the fundamental difference between being killed by a citizen and being killed by an agent of law.
How big is the difference? Dead is Dead. And no matter which brush you want to paint it with people shot by police are generally putting themselves in a position where shooting is going to be the outcome.
Yes. And apparently going about your life while black, you're always in someone's crosshairs. Shot while playing in the playground, shot at a costume party, shot while walking home with soft drink and candy, shot for jaywalking, etc.
No matter how much you try to whitewash it - ethnic minorities are more apt to be harassed, assaulted, murdered by cops than others.
And it’s not new. “When Ida B. Wells … tried to explain to a wealthy suffragist in Chicago that anti-black violence in the nation must end,” writes historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad for The Nation, “Mary Plummer replied: Blacks need to “drive the criminals out” of the community. ‘Have you forgotten that 10 percent of all the crimes that were committed in Chicago last year were by colored men [less than 3 percent of the population]?’ ”
Regardless of cause or concern, a community doesn’t forfeit fair treatment because it has crime. That was true then when the scourge was lynching, and it’s true now that the scourge is unjust police violence.
Equating lynchings of the past with police shootings now is quite a stretch, but when engaging in hyperbole I guess anything goes.
Just noting the same bullshit excuses when it was lynching as when it's cops shooting blacks for stupid shit.
During the Michael Brown frenzy I remember listening to over two hours of dispatch transmissions of the Ferguson police department. Constant calls for police intervention in all sorts of disputes and crimes by a population that is over 70% black. Blacks calling white police to solve their problems when it suits them, but when a black man gets shot by a white police officer doing his duty all fucking sorts of hell breaks loose.
..and that adds up to what? Fuck all?
Yes, we need police. No, we don't need police shooting unarmed people in the streets. You seem to think there's no middle ground between having no police at all and Robocops acting as prosecutors, judges, juries, and executioners all at once.
Say what you will about “black-on-black crime,” just don’t pretend it has anything to do with unfair killings at the hands of the state.[/b2]
Yeah, it's just over there all alone. Black lives matter when blacks say they do. Is that the message? Shut the fuck up when we kill each other, that's none of your business?
You just want the victims of racism to shut the fuck up.
Prepare to be disappointed.
Now I know why I'm glad that I never made watching John Stewart a habit, and wont miss him. When you have to strawman Fox News and lie to get laughs it's really time to retire.
No one needs to strawman FOX News - it's like a nationwide POE: so insanely stupid and pandering it's almost impossible to believe it's for real. Yet some people get their misinformation from that source. Studies prove conclusively FOX viewers are among the most ignorant.
I'd put Jon Stewart up against O'Reilly, Coulter, Beck, Hannity, or any of the wise opinion leaders of the FOX stable of fuckwits.