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How are young black men supposed to feel, after this, after Trayvon, after the kid who got in a wreck and was shot while he pleaded for assistance, other than that their lives are absolutely worthless? White dudes can walk into a Jack N' The Box with fucking AR-15s drawn, causing the employees to run to the freezer in fear for their lives (THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED) and face virtually no consequences, while this kid, who was UNARMED, doing NOTHING WRONG, gets gunned down in the street? And not only are there people who don't care, there are people who are actively celebrating this shit! As if he deserved it just for being who he was! I feel like we are actually going backwards sometimes. Good god.
We should reserve judgement until the investigations are complete, but yeah. What's going on is shocking, partially because of the tragedies involved and partially because this has been happening for years and even with a more progressive America being born, society has tended to look the other way as some of the most vulnerable amongst us suffer. Just last week a young black man was shot and killed in a big-box store because he was carrying a gun. A toy gun he was taking to the register to purchase. That's how powerful this bigoted fear the police have has become, the sight of a black man in America with a toy weapon is enough to justify killing.
There is a Libertarian author (and kind of a d-bag) that lived near me for a while who wrote a book that's getting a a lot of traction with all this called "Rise of the Warrior Cop". There are some pretty shocking tales in there.
Was being a bit of a d-bag your first indication that he was a L(l?)ibertarian?
By all accounts, Brown was One Of The Good Ones. But laying all this out, explaining all the ways in which he didn't deserve to die like a dog in the street, is in itself disgraceful. Arguing whether Brown was a good kid or not is functionally arguing over whether he specifically deserved to die, a way of acknowledging that some black men ought to be executed.
To even acknowledge this line of debate is to start a larger argument about the worth, the very personhood, of a black man in America. It's to engage in a cost-benefit analysis, weigh probabilities, and gauge the precise odds that Brown's life was worth nothing against the threat he posed to the life of the man who killed him. It's to deny that there are structural reasons why Brown was shot dead while James Eagan Holmes—who on July 20, 2012, walked into a movie theater and fired rounds into an audience, killing 12 and wounding 70 more—was taken alive.
To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that any single one could be a threat to a trained police officer in a bulletproof vest. There are reasons why white gun's rights activists can walk into a Chipotle restaurant with assault rifles and be seen as gauche nuisances while unarmed black men are killed for reaching for their wallets or cell phones, or carrying children's toys. Guns aren't for black people, either.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 7:41 am Posts: 19722 Location: Cumberland, RI
If I'm not mistaken, the Colorado shooter wasn't shot (or even initially detained) because he looked like a cop (dressed in tactical gear and such). But, yeah, what that guy said too.
It's not just in cases like this, but anytime pundits (or idiots on Facebook) begin to evaluate situations based on some sort of calculus of the value of human life, it boils my blood. This sort of rhetoric gets used by people who want to humanize or build sympathy for victims as well, and even though it's less grating in that case, it's still discomforting.
To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that...
To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that...
To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that...
To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that...
To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that...
To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that...
I wasn't endorsing that viewpoint, asshole. If you think that popular culture doesn't drive prejudicial perceptions of the unfamiliar, go back to GD.
i'm not sure there was a way to interpret that post as being anything other than an endorsement of that viewpoint (and you know that, so why am i saying this, oh god what am i doing), cog of the death machine
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Malloy wrote:
making this place inhospitable to posting is really the only move left.
yes cops should have a higher standard but at the same time they are only human
Yes, they should. As a policeman it is your job to serve and protect the public. Michael Brown was part of that public. In too many of these instances, the attitude of the cop seems to be "I was possibly in danger, so I had to shoot!" when it is THEIR JOB to assume danger and risk for the public. Not only did this cop probably shoot a guy who was doing nothing wrong, he created a situation where other people could have been hurt or killed FOR NO REASON by opening fire on a street in broad daylight. This is fucking mind-boggling to me. His actions seem to indicate that the motto of the police has really become "to serve and protect if you're white, to intimidate and harass if you're black."
To ascribe this entirely to contempt for black men is to miss an essential variable, though—a very real, American fear of them. They—we—are inexplicably seen as a millions-strong army of potential killers, capable and cold enough that...
We could all sit here and post thousands of pictures of swarms of white people doing really horrible fucking things to people.
But our culture, as depicted by our music and entertainment, tends to run less about looking tough and more about whining and liking cute jeans.
Exactly. If you look at the country as a whole, maybe people (a majority?) simply don't have any conception of what modern African American culture or life experience is other than what they see on TV; black men getting arrested and hip-hop. It's not a giant leap to see how a misplaced fear would arise and the author does his message a disservice by taking the stance of it being 'inexplicable' instead of a lack of diverse cultural understanding and acceptance. The same biased perception of black men probably extends to police forces everywhere who lack diversity in their employees rolls and cannot afford the training and coaching required to try to open up closed minds.
*I am not endorsing the idea that black culture is to blame for police violence, nor suggesting it's all white people's fault for not embracing multiculturalism, just trying to understand how we got to this point*
In too many of these instances, the attitude of the cop seems to be "I was possibly in danger, so I had to shoot!" when it is THEIR JOB to assume danger and risk for the public.
Not to mention the cowboy vigilante manhunt fiascos that go down whenever one of their own is hurt.
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