# Living while black in America **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 9, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611 "2018-07-09T21:17:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 77
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1523 "2020-05-09T16:51:26Z")
[Guy who recorded the Arbery murder is now getting threats](https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/09/us/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-video-saturday/index.html) I initially thought the guy was a good Samaritan who just happened upon the scene. Turns out he was in cahoots with the murderers, which explains why we see Arbery jogging in the video. The guy behind the camera was stalking him and knew what was about to go down I don’t think he deserves death threats, but I can’t be arsed to feel sorry for him either. I think his ass should be arrested for participating in a lynching. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1524 "2020-05-09T16:59:13Z")
That doesn’t look like dashcam video, but something taken by a cell phone (because of the portrait orientation). But who drives around filming stuff from their cell phone? I didn’t see in that CNN article how it was filmed. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1525 "2020-05-09T17:22:49Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > But who drives around filming stuff from their cell phone? I don’t know if you saw my post above yours, but the guy wasn’t just driving around, filming stuff. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1526 "2020-05-09T17:23:05Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > [Guy who recorded the Arbery murder is now getting threats](https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/09/us/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-video-saturday/index.html) > > I initially thought the guy was a good Samaritan who just happened upon the scene. Turns out he was in cahoots with the murderers, which explains why we see Arbery jogging in the video. The guy behind the camera was stalking him and knew what was about to go down I don’t think he deserves death threats, but I can’t be arsed to feel sorry for him either. I think his ass should be arrested for participating in a lynching. He was an accessory to murder and involved in a conspiracy. He will be doing jail time, imo. And he will be sued and economically ruined which again is well deserved. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1527 "2020-05-09T17:24:32Z")
dumbass board software ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1528 "2020-05-09T17:42:37Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > But who drives around filming stuff from their cell phone? > > I don’t know if you saw my post above yours, but the guy wasn’t just driving around, filming stuff. Yes, I saw your post and read the CNN article. I’m wondering what he said when the police asked him about it. Why was he there? Why was he filming? And he voluntarily showed the video to them? ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1529 "2020-05-09T17:48:41Z")
Basically what it seems to me based off reading the New York Times article [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/us/ahmed-arbery-shooting-georgia.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/us/ahmed-arbery-shooting-georgia.html) Is that the Father who was former law enforcement had prior knowledge of Arbery during an investigation and the prosecutor Barnhill claims there is video footage of Arbery burglarizing a home before this incident and also going into some house that was being built. I don’t know that any of that has been verified but it doesn’t seem that out of place. I very much doubt that this trio of men were going out looking for “jogging” black men to shoot. That being said, being that none of these guys were active law enforcement even if it comes to light that the dead man possibly stole some stuff it doesn’t give them the right to act as judge, jury, and executioner. And I personally hope they have the book thrown at them. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1530 "2020-05-09T17:52:45Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Have you ever seen [_Conspiracy of Silence_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFGSiu9G0Vc)? It’s about the racially-motivated murder of Betty Osborne in Manitoba. The killers did that because they believed they could get away with it. And, for quite some time, they actually did. How did that happen? The society in which they lived protected them, because in general that society was prejudiced against the victim’s race. I’m sure you see the relevance. > > What makes you think the government of the State of Georgia will be motivated to take your suggested action? No, I haven’t seen the video and I’m not going to watch it now. I guess you are implying that the whole state of Georgia is corrupt and irretrievably racist. I don’t know that to be true, and I hope it’s not. To deal with your related point, even when the society as a whole is prejudiced against someone’s race, honest law enforcement authorities who enforce the law rather than their prejudices can make a huge difference in protecting them. If the message becomes “you can’t get away with that in this county” and that message is repeatedly enforced, I would expect it to at least cool down a lot of the violence. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1531 "2020-05-09T18:07:18Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Yes, I saw your post and read the CNN article. I’m wondering what he said when the police asked him about it. Why was he there? Why was he filming? And he voluntarily showed the video to them? Amazingly enough, people can watch that video and think the murderers were the innocents in the situation. Perhaps he turned over the video because he felt it exonerated his buddies. To wit, the criminal defense lawyer who had informally consulted with the murderers was the one who leaked the video to the media in the first place. From [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/us/ahmaud-arbery-video-lawyer.html:](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/us/ahmaud-arbery-video-lawyer.html:) > [@](#): > > Asked why he had leaked the video, Mr. Tucker said he had wanted to dispel rumors that he said had fueled tension in the community. “It wasn’t two men with a Confederate flag in the back of a truck going down the road and shooting a jogger in the back,” Mr. Tucker said. Not surprisingly, the murderers decided not to retain this crazy lawyer (I doubt he’ll be retained by anyone for awhile). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1532 "2020-05-09T18:22:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Yes, I saw your post and read the CNN article. I’m wondering what he said when the police asked him about it. Why was he there? Why was he filming? And he voluntarily showed the video to them? My speculation is this guy was a “normal” racist. He thought it was suspicious that a black guy was in a neighborhood where “he didn’t belong” and he was okay with the idea of harassing him. I’ve seen a report that said he was recording the victim because he felt he was gathering evidence that he planned on giving to the police. Then his two buddies started a confrontation and shot the guy. And this guy may have felt that was going too far. _“Hey, I’m okay with having the police chase black people out of the neighborhood but I don’t think we should be killing black people. That shit’s wrong.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1533 "2020-05-09T18:30:37Z")
> [@pool](#): > > I very much doubt that this trio of men were going out looking for “jogging” black men to shoot. They probably didn’t go out with the plan of killing somebody. But they created the situation. They went out looking for black people that they thought were acting suspicious. And their definition of acting suspicious was doing something normal while being black. And they brought a gun with them. And they were willing to start a confrontation with the guy they thought was suspicious. That’s the kind of situation that leads to people getting shot. My guess is they thought they could just chase some black people around. Yell at them if need be. Maybe point a gun at them and scare them. They probably expected the black people they were harassing would run away. This is why we should have gun control. Guns can turn ordinary stupid people into dangerous stupid people. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1534 "2020-05-09T18:48:18Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Yes, I saw your post and read the CNN article. I’m wondering what he said when the police asked him about it. Why was he there? Why was he filming? And he voluntarily showed the video to them? According to what I’ve read, the videographer (William “Roddie” Bryan), thought that showing the video would convince people that the shooting was justified, presumably because it showed a struggle between two men. I can’t find a link to that statement right now, however. ETA: Tucker, the attorney representing Bryan, said [this](https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/crime/attorney-for-mcmichael-family-claims-he-released-shooting-video-of-ahmaud-arbery/77-c5df7130-1a00-4acf-90f2-7a5a56363360) > [@](#): > > …he thought releasing the video would help tamp down rising tensions surrounding the case. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1535 "2020-05-09T19:19:45Z")
[Here’s the news article I was looking for](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8302641/Attorney-leaked-Ahmaud-Arbery-lynching-video-thought-CLEAR-friends.html) > [@](#): > > Attorney who leaked Ahmaud Arbery ‘lynching’ video thought it would CLEAR his friends and says if jogger had ‘frozen’ he’d still be alive, as police debunk suspect’s recent burglary claims > > Video that showed Gregory and Travis McMichael fatally shooting black jogger Ahmaud Arbery on February 23 was actually leaked by the pair’s close friend > The friend [Bryan] believed the footage would clear the McMichaels of any crime, because if Arbery ‘had just froze… he wouldn’t have been shot’… If I were a black man in a white neighborhood and three white punks drove up to me with weapons drawn and told me to stop, I’m sure I would have pretty hostile, too, and not at all complacent. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1536 "2020-05-09T22:22:35Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > They probably didn’t go out with the plan of killing somebody. > > But they created the situation. They went out looking for black people that they thought were acting suspicious. And their definition of acting suspicious was doing something normal while being black. And they brought a gun with them. And they were willing to start a confrontation with the guy they thought was suspicious. > > That’s the kind of situation that leads to people getting shot. > > My guess is they thought they could just chase some black people around. Yell at them if need be. Maybe point a gun at them and scare them. They probably expected the black people they were harassing would run away. > > This is why we should have gun control. Guns can turn ordinary stupid people into dangerous stupid people. well said. mc ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1537 "2020-05-10T01:16:46Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > No, I haven’t seen the video and I’m not going to watch it now. I guess you are implying that the whole state of Georgia is corrupt and irretrievably racist. I don’t know that to be true, and I hope it’s not. > > To deal with your related point, even when the society as a whole is prejudiced against someone’s race, honest law enforcement authorities who enforce the law rather than their prejudices can make a huge difference in protecting them. If the message becomes “you can’t get away with that in this county” and that message is repeatedly enforced, I would expect it to at least cool down a lot of the violence. Where did I say the entire state of Georgia? I clearly said the government of Georgia. It’s long been obvious that said government cares little if at all about minorities. Look at how they’re being disenfranchised with the voter ID law, for one thing. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1538 "2020-05-10T03:24:26Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Where did I say the entire state of Georgia? I clearly said the government of Georgia. It’s long been obvious that said government cares little if at all about minorities. Look at how they’re being disenfranchised with the voter ID law, for one thing. OK, you said the State of Georgia, which means the government. That is what I meant as well, if I didn’t say so. I don’t live around there so I don’t know what is obvious to the folks who do. If my suggestion is not practical, I hope there is some alternative possibility for justice. I’m not quite sure why your tone in these responses to me is so hectoring. Clearly we agree that the situation in that county is awful. If you think it’s hopeless to make it better, I’m sorry to hear that. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1539 "2020-05-10T04:28:04Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > OK, you said the State of Georgia, which means the government. That is what I meant as well, if I didn’t say so. I don’t live around there so I don’t know what is obvious to the folks who do. If my suggestion is not practical, I hope there is some alternative possibility for justice. > > I’m not quite sure why your tone in these responses to me is so hectoring. Clearly we agree that the situation in that county is awful. If you think it’s hopeless to make it better, I’m sorry to hear that. No, I actually used the words “the government of the State of Georgia”. Scroll up. Those very word are there. There is a difference in the government of the state and the state’s populace. Your suggested justice is what would be right, except that the state government has no motivation to do that. To the contrary, their motivation is to prevent it from ever happening. By the way, “the whole state of Georgia” certain does not mean “the government of the state of Georgia” to anyone I know. Sadly, in many places in the state, there is still rampant prejudice. What is even sadder is the legislated prejudicial impact on minorities now. ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1540 "2020-05-10T13:08:08Z")
Speaking of prejudice… [The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/?utm_source=feed) ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1541 "2020-05-13T07:58:20Z")
> [@slumtrimpet](#): > > Speaking of prejudice… > [The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/?utm_source=feed) Pretty good read. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611/1542 "2020-05-13T12:23:24Z")
> [@slumtrimpet](#): > > Speaking of prejudice… > [The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/?utm_source=feed) …which is why I want coronavirus to start hitting communities where his base lives - and I believe it will in time. I honest to God wish that it didn’t require such an extreme thought, but that is the reality. I grew up in Trump country. Not all of his supporters are 100% bad people, but there is something about Trump and his politics that appealed to them - something that they personally identify with. Karma often has a way of eventually finding the people who deserve it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611.md?page=76) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-while-black-in-america/817611.md?page=78)