Black Lives Matter

[Niall_Quinn]

There are more than twice as many white people in America than black people.

For the time being.

The assumption being sown is that blacks are being gunned down all across America by police. Not true.

What IS true is that blacks are gunning blacks down all across America. Something like 10x the rate at which whites kill blacks. Whatever levels of racism genuinely exist, when you have violent communities that have been plunged into poverty and despair by a succession of divisive and destructive policies, the police are going to react differently than if they are policing a leafy suburb. This is obvious.

[WMUG]

When you have violent communities that have been plunged into poverty and despair by a succession of divisive and destructive policies, the police are going to react differently than if they are policing a leafy suburb. This is obvious.

The question is, are the methods used by the police proportionate to the threat they face? Black Americans seem to think not, to put it lightly.

[Niall_Quinn]

The zombie herd is out in force.



The police were busy enforcing lockdown guidelines on sane, law abiding people.

[Letters]

Twice as many whites are killed by cops.

Yes, but as WMUG has pointed out there are far more than twice as many whites as blacks in the US - you love a good "per capita" stat...

The disproportionate aspect comes from general stop and search, drug convictions - blacks are far more likely to be subject to these.

Right. So an issue I see here is that black people are disproportionately affected because crime is linked to poverty and black people are statistically poorer
I don't think there's any inherent difference between the races in terms of propensity towards crime or violence.

One thing I don't think helps (he says, veering into controversial territory) is that black people see themselves as black. I don't think white people see themselves as white, and I don't actually think many white people see black people as black. I identify with my gender far more than I do with my race - because men and women are fundamentally different in a way that I don't think black and white people are.

I have a FB friend who is a "person of colour" as she likes to say and bangs on about these issues all the time. I'm not saying these issues don't exist but seeking equality while seeing yourself as separate feels counter-productive.

[WMUG]

One thing I don't think helps (he says, veering into controversial territory) is that black people see themselves as black. I don't think white people see themselves as white, and I don't actually think many white people see black people as black.

Easy not to see colour when your colour is the majority. When I was in China, I absolutely saw myself as white, because that's how I was treated.

[Letters]

Easy not to see colour when your colour is the majority. When I was in China, I absolutely saw myself as white, because that's how I was treated.

That's fair. Treated white how?
That's not been my experience in China although I've only been there twice on a couple of business trips and didn't really interact with locals other than colleagues. Never had an issue in India either. Obviously you get people trying to rip you off because you're not a local but you'll get that in Europe too.
And I'd suggest in the UK a lot of people are treated differently because of their nationality even if they're white.
Which I'm not saying is OK but it's not all about race, and not every misfortune that befalls a "person of colour" is because of their race either.

[Mac76]

Easy not to see colour when your colour is the majority. When I was in China, I absolutely saw myself as white, because that's how I was treated.

yes, it's even like just being fair-haired in a lot of countries where the native population are all dark-haired, you really stand out

[Xhaka Can’t]

I do think there’s a case for arming our police. Seen so many clips of people taking the absolute piss and the cops looking totally helpless.

The US and Canada are providing clear and mounting evidence that completely undermine that case.

[Xhaka Can’t]

is that intended to be evidence for or against?

either way if you look, whoever it is they are grabbing and assaulting is simply trying to move away - they are not attacking the police or causing trouble

but no hey let's give the cops guns so they can just shoot him anyway, that makes sense...

I genuinely don’t believe the person posting this gave it any thought at all.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Yup.

I nailed it.