Bay Bridge Protesters Blaming thr rest of us for Slavery & Racism? (lawyer, college)

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by Chuck5000

Wow, what a display of ugliness here. If this were my forum, this thread would be removed.

Pro Tip: You can dislike a protest technique (I don't feel traffic stopping is particularly effective as a means of protest) but if in this case you think there is no reason to protest, you're ignorant of both history and current events. Yes, even if one or two protesters aren't the smartest individuals. However, if your news is from right wing, you probably believe racism was eliminated decades ago.

In effect, the responses here prove the protester's point. But I'm sure people will apply "up is down" logic. Racists never admit that they're racist. And racism is getting less and less tolerated, and I don't feel bad for them - just their children.

You are correct. In fact, sometimes not only do they never admit they're racist, they hold stupid protests on bridges.

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by Bisaro TMF

I agree the methods could be better. However to a racist or a racism denier, no matter what they do they'll be looked at as pests or "Reverse Racists". Just look at the Politics forum and the saturation of racists over there with their deep seeded hatred for BLM and Blacks in general. The BLM movement has nothing to do with denouncing all other groups. That's a very weak defense tactic by racists used to break apart what they are standing for.

Some of us hate BLM not because we're racist, but because we tend to hate groups that call for the murder of cops.

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by jade408

Let's put it this way, and I'll use the example of Flint, Michigan. People went through the "proper channels" in Flint, they said "something doesn't look right here." Got ignored. Started complaining about symptoms and sickness. Got ignored. Now it has been an entire year and no one in power did anything until they got called out and faced bad PR. Then it was "state of emergency." Now people are paying attention. And the people in that community have been irreparably harmed. Kids with exposure to lead have a permanent impact that will require lifelong treatment and will impact minor stuff like IQ, attention span and behavior.

At this point people are beyond fed up. How many more ways can you politely say "our system is screwed up and people need to take action." Why should people wait around and be nice when clearly no one is listening or taking action. It is beyond time for more visible measures. Everyone in this thread knows what the problems are, has solutions yet there is zero progress. Being an ally doesn't mean sitting on the sidelines in agreement.

Essentially everyone is saying, my comfort is more important than dealing with systemic injustice.

I can make an impact within the systems I have access too. Lots of people have no access and need to take it to the streets.

This Guardian video is excellent.
Are you racist? 'No' isn't a good enough answer

P.S. The GG Bridge protest for AIDS was not different. The sentiment at the time was, whatever that only impacts those sinful gay people. They sleep around and do drugs, it is their fault. We don't need to worry about this, those people are terrible anyway. Not so different than our society's messaging about black people, particularly poor ones.

Our society's views on gay people have done a 180 in my own lifetime, yet we still can't solve systemic racism.

Minorities might want to look long and hard as to why that is. I agree there is some level of systemic racism in our society, but it's not 100% the fault of non-minorities.

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Likewise, improvements such as body cameras on officers, and sensitivity training has been implemented in many police departments, and racial profiling is now closely watched in many departments.

And yet we still see incidents such as what occurred in Ferguson, Baltimore and SF---we still have a ways to go.

I just dont get why BLM people arent at least just as vocal and at least just as angry on TV, in the news, on social media. All I see are devastated mothers crying when their son is gunned down calling for an end to the violence. Might I say again, those kinds of killings are by far the number 1 cause of Black homicides.

That should be the focal point in my extremely humble opinion.


Yes, be outraged, but every local incident thus far Ive seen has really garnered very little sympathy and horribly bad PR for the movement, right?

People are NOT relating with the cause because they are so p*ssed off about being stuck in traffic.

Revenge is not blocking the freeway, revenge is graduating from college. IJS.


Yeah, no one suggested that this is inherent or an issue of Black pathology.

How we got to this point is less important to me than what we need to do to fix it.

And this is why there is still a ways to go. When a movement embraces a lie, they push any progress back.

[zitsky]

I will agree 100% that there are segregated cities. Chicago is a good example. I think that blacks and poor whites have things in common. They are both outside of the power structure, generally. But there is too much racism for them to get along.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Having a black leader as the president goes a long way in keeping blacks held up.

It sounds racist to say that just because a CEO or Senator is white (or non-white for that matter) to be inherently against blacks or any other particular group.

Their have been socialist mechanisms in place for 50-80 years; it's time that groups stop blaming society, and that the individual support themselves and make their way in society. There have been plenty of black individuals who can be used as role models that have been economically and socially successful who didn't need to stop bridges and break laws.

In my personal career, there have been two different black women that are on my list of role models whom I learned from and respected and I'm not black (not while either).

Not exactly. I'll frame this in a way that can highlight unintentional consequences. I work in tech. Basically every tech company says "the best hires come from your referrals, so refer your friends."

Now look at your friends circle, and your friends of friends and so on. So unintentionally you are probably missing a huge pool of talent. About 50% of black engineers went to black colleges. Most of us probably didn't go to black colleges so we don't know those people. They don't get referred. They don't get recruited from their schools and suddenly all the tech companies have few black people (and Latinos). Lots of Latinos go to state schools yet tech companies rarely recruit from there.

See how quickly and easily this compounds? If you don't make it a priority to recruit from a broader pool you miss a lot of people.

We have systems in place that make it easy to ignore the other pools.

[zitsky]

Diversity is a good thing. But it makes the assumption that all whites are equal, and they all benefit from the power structure equally. People like me who grew up poor didn't have many advantages just given to them. My parents had no money to pay for school. I had very few scholarships, worked full time as an undergrad, went to two different schools and took more than the usual 4 years to graduate. Now it's true that some companies I worked at didn't have a lot of minority employees. But does that mean that someone like myself should give up opportunities so that a minority person could be hired instead?

[jade408]

Originally Posted by zitsky

Diversity is a good thing. But it makes the assumption that all whites are equal, and they all benefit from the power structure equally. People like me who grew up poor didn't have many advantages just given to them. My parents had no money to pay for school. I had very few scholarships, worked full time as an undergrad, went to two different schools and took more than the usual 4 years to graduate. Now it's true that some companies I worked at didn't have a lot of minority employees. But does that mean that someone like myself should give up opportunities so that a minority person could be hired instead?

No it doesn't make that assumption at all. Opening up seats to more people doesn't mean there are none for you.

You are mixing up all sorts of concepts here. Diversity can mean any number of things. You are also mixing in privilege.

The concept of privilege doesn't mean that all white people start at the same place, but being white doesn't make you lose points like being a person of color can in many circumstances (or being female, or disabled....)

This video does an excellent job of explaining how privilege is quite layered.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hD5f8GuNuGQ

[Bisaro TMF]

Originally Posted by ringwise

Some of us hate BLM not because we're racist, but because we tend to hate groups that call for the murder of cops.

Stop watching Fox News . They never called for the murder of cops.

11 Major Misconceptions About the Black Lives Matter Movement

[Bisaro TMF]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

Having a black leader as the president goes a long way in keeping blacks held up.

It sounds racist to say that just because a CEO or Senator is white (or non-white for that matter) to be inherently against blacks or any other particular group.

Their have been socialist mechanisms in place for 50-80 years; it's time that groups stop blaming society, and that the individual support themselves and make their way in society. There have been plenty of black individuals who can be used as role models that have been economically and socially successful who didn't need to stop bridges and break laws.

In my personal career, there have been two different black women that are on my list of role models whom I learned from and respected and I'm not black (not while either).

You can't be serious.