I am taking that line, filing off the serial numbers, and using it everywhere.
I agree, but probably in the other direction than your feelings.
It’s a slightly dishonest line, though, because it ignores that the same year Jaws came out also saw the release of an equally important film about people being menaced by bees.
Race misses the entire issue. When cops do something wrong whether it is shooting a black man (justifiably or not) or harass someone into a confession or make up a law so they can arrest the person for “resisting arrest” or telling people they cannot film cops in public there is very little accountability. The blue line protects its own, even to the point of lying or falsifying reports. They get to use the excuse of “I didn’t know that wasn’t illegal.” even though we presume they know more about the law then civilians and for us civis ignorance of the law is no excuse. And even when a cop is proven to have done something wrong they are often given a meaningless slap on the wrist. The true color-lines here are not black and white, it is blue and non-blue.
Race doesn’t miss the issue – it’s an entirely different issue. While everything you point out may be true to a certain extent, the issue behind BLM is that all that happens far more often to blacks than to whites, proportionately to their population. And not just egregious and obvious brutality, but “routine” traffic stops and other forms of harassment that never rise to the level of misbehavior you mention.
Well, there’s (spoiler for a 27-year-old movie) My Girl
As for the OP’s suggestion that activists don’t care about murders of Black Americans if the murderer is also Black, I don’t think that’s true. While activists typically work to draw attention to systemic injustices, the fact that Black Americans have a higher chance of being killed, and a higher chance of the murder going unsolved, is a systemic problem, and one that activists do talk about. This article, for example, quotes several activists who are concerned with murders of Black Americans (by killers of any race) not being investigated as thoroughly as when the victim is white:
Given the number of Black Americans who are murdered, most of those cases will never make the national news, and which ones do probably has more to do with how they fit into the prevailing media narratives than whether or not Black activists care. I’m quite sure many activists were deeply concerned about killings by police long before they succeeded in generating significant coverage for that issue from the mainstream media.
Of course neither activists involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, nor Black activists in general, nor Black Americans as a whole are monolithic groups who speak with one voice. Maybe the OP ought to clarify who he’s suggesting doesn’t care about murders unless the killer is white.
Expanding on that last point a bit… I think a major reason that most people, including most Black Lives Matter activists, aren’t drawing attention to a murder that didn’t make the national news is that they haven’t heard about it. So who is the OP complaining about here? Some hypothetical activist who heard about a murder in San Francisco before it became national news, and who also heard about a particular murder in Baltimore, and then chose to focus on drawing widespread attention to one but not the other?
To be fair, after a friend pointed out how lots of European Americans weren’t dealing with African Americans as equals and still placed them in a ‘other’ group it is pretty hard to ignore.
Implicit bias is real and there is no way known to help one address it. But what we can do is actively work on not making that an Explicit bias. Post-racial claims is a good example of this.
It is really easy to try and to the right thing but still ‘other’ a group by being a white knight. Challenge yourself to count how often you bring up the subject of some defining feature for a subjugated group if you have friends who happen to be lumped into those containers. Then do the same for what ever group you are in.
Race, sex, orientation or identity, it doesn’t matter but I think you will be surprised how often you bring it up. I haven’t had to live with those challenges but it sounds like it is pretty frustrating.
Even without experiencing it first hand I can empathize with how this would be viewed or experienced as racism, especially combined with the systemic racism and vocal explicit bigotry that is very real for these groups today.
I am not perfect but try to focus on the person first and over time this active work does seem to help change that.
Paradoxically if you think you are less biased than others you are probably actually more likely to discriminate. The only way to be fair is to assume you are not.
I agree with you. I think the Twin Cities BLM activists lost trust with the larger community that set them back when Castille was killed from making nearly the progress they should have made. And they are making the same mistake now for Blevins.
We shouldn’t have police killing unarmed innocent black men because they are nervous or scared or racist bastards. We need to allow policemen to do their jobs and protect themselves and others when necessary, sometimes using lethal force, however, or we will not have policemen.
It isn’t a one or the other thing. Its a both thing. We need better screening and better training for police officers. We need fewer racists and power hungry jerks carrying badges and guns. And we need to prosecute when necessary. But we can’t make it impossible for a police officer to do their job.
Being a cop is something you couldn’t pay me to do…I figure that anyone willing to do a job I wouldn’t even consider doing doesn’t need me second guessing their skills. And maybe we need more liberals on the police force - so maybe instead of second guessing, some of these people should go to cop school and actually make it better by doing it - I know St. Paul is hiring policemen.