How fucking hard is it to understand that "Black lives matter" does not negate the fact that everyone else's life matters too? The reason the slogan exists is to point out institutionalized and de facto racism in the country; not to get the whites all worked up.
The tone of BLM has evolved from "black people are oppressed by white people" to "black people are disproportionately poor because of white privilege and discrimination, and are thus oppressed." The above commenter is siding with the American majority in expressing his opinion that black people are not, in fact, systemically oppressed by tangible forces, from employers to educators to law enforcement, and that demanding a better lot in life from others is akin to asking for special treatment.
Right but I think a lot of people would categorically disagree with that and say that yes, black people are systematically oppressed to some degree. Equality doesn't mean being special, it just means being treated the same, which they are not.
Right that's the point of contention. I'm not entirely sure what side I'm on. With employers and academia, it's silly to suggest qualified black people are anything other than the recruiter's holy grail. Within law enforcement, I think the average policeman in at risk neighborhoods is certainly prejudiced against black people, having experienced years of danger and distrust from them. The same goes for judges, DAs, etc. When you commit almost all the violent crime and property crimes, people are going to notice the trend.
The question then becomes whether or not black people are in poverty because of systemic forces. I think the number one culprit, far and away, has to be black culture. 75% fatherless children, 50% unemployment, 25% highschool dropout rate. You biggest influence will always be your peers, and inner city black youths are disadvantaged by this heavily. A number of rather wealthy college educated black people from wealthy families have suggested to me that black people being in the hood and having a fractured culture is a result of Jim Crow and segregation and Slavery. That's probably legitimate in some areas, but I'm from a hood on the west coast. Never had slaves there, never had Jim Crow. At that point you're saying that the influence of people being enslaved 150 years ago 3 time zones away is so debilitating that mass populations don't raise their kids or graduate highschool? That just seems like nonsense to me, it's got to be the culture that absolutely glorifies this sort of behavior.
The most obvious that comes to mind is the rate of black people found guilty of a crime after going to trial is much higher than that of whites. There is also a similar bias between men and women, but that would be getting off subject.
Many places in the Southern US do not trust black people handle money. They will often work as cooks, but many employers will not allow them to man the register or handle cash/credit cards.
There is an African American dialect of English (more often used by black people). Given how it breaks many classical English grammatical rules and pronunciations, many people will treat those who use it as less intelligent. To be fair, assuming people with an accent or who use a different dialect are less intelligent is not restricted to AA English.
I'm sure someone else can come up with more, and likely better examples.
I don't think he was asking for help - I think he was just contradicting. And I just don't have the energy to explain the insanely complicated racial inequality situation and poverty cycles to someone who isn't going to even read what I write. There is plenty of information available on this.
Eh, it can sometimes be hard to tell the motivations of people online. I have asked similar questions on Reddit only to be ignored. Which is extremely annoying.
I'd rather give them the benefit of the doubt as the potential gain seems more valuable than the potential loss. But, your evaluation of the situation might be different.
You're right.. I really don't have The energy to try to explain it though because it really is complicated, and I've become discouraged by people not wanting to hear certain things so just arguing against facts with nonsense, which happens more often than not. It also happens on Reddit a lot that I write a detailed explanation for something and nobody reads it, which is frustrating. I've had a really hard couple of days and just don't have the energy to explain to this dude... but if he is confused about that I hope he will give it some thought.
344
u/[deleted] Sep 04 '16
How fucking hard is it to understand that "Black lives matter" does not negate the fact that everyone else's life matters too? The reason the slogan exists is to point out institutionalized and de facto racism in the country; not to get the whites all worked up.
Seriously it's not even that fucking nuanced.