And it comes around again......

I was going to post the cracked article

In regards to the shooting - regular folks are more likely to shoot black men. we've been programmed to see them as a danger, regardless of our own race

 

Those biases are embedded into our culture
that study on shoot response to black men is only the the tip (this is a follow on pun)

black men in pornography is terribly portrayed and many female actors wont work with them because they are afraid of their careers crashing.
the "mandingo" stereotype is terrible.

in regards to the legacy of racism - my grandparents grew up in kenya, their parents were indian. they lived with local blacks, worked with them, attended school with them, played sports, worked out together, partied with them, went to church with them, knew that many of them were in fully committed marriages just as my grandparents were.
but still, if a person in my family married a black would receive a lot of quiet criticism and would be chastised constantly for it. (its actually a lot better than what my grandparents generation did in the 80s which was family lynch mobs)

purely because of a legacy of racism that has for generations told them that black skin = inferior.

 

my parents are from greece. i've always thought how amazing societal pressures are in shaping one's views on intermarriage.

i honestly think that while my parents in a vacuum would have loved my african american (or african wife), but because of their society and family (which is all still in greece), they'd hate me because everyone in greece would chastise them about it.

marrying a black person is one thing. i think marrying a person who's faith is jewish would pretty much get me kicked out of the family.

 

This isn't even a race issue - it's a human issue. A few years ago in Ireland Protestants and Catholics marrying would have caused an outcry and porbably still does today

Then there is the LGBT issues et al....

Religion, Color, Creed, Taste in music, Colors of clothing...... basically anything that is different from "us" or "normal" is seen as an excuse for people to be really crappy to each other

 

My mum married my dad (who's family is muslim) and was disowned until i was born.
my dad's sister has a grandson who is part Jamaican and adores him. but when her daughter wanted to marry a part algerian of the same faith (and met through the mosque) , she didnt like it because he was part black.

but the legacy of racism with south asians comes from religion (low castes/classes have dark skin) and were reinforced by the colonialism (south asians were "smarter than blacks" in the British colonial herierachry)

I think there's just something very tribal in human nature.
one of my favourite stories is Watchmen. When confronted with an enemy unlike themselves, the world's opposing governments unite, they cant overcome their tribal nature.

 

no way, a watchmen reference! ozymandias did indeed win!

 

Interesting, if disturbing, aside - turn of the century boxing taught that body shots were the best on "colored' fighters because their heads were too hard

And watch ANY Samoan in WWE when they headbutt/are headbutted - it is a known "fact" that these "wild men" all have hard heads you know..........

 

ozymandias lost in the long run though. people will eventually forget Dr. Manhattan and will turn tribal again, he only stalled the crossroads between human destruction and enlightenment beyond our tribal thinking.

its why Watchmen keeps inferring that Dr. Manhattan might be a god, because what is the role of biblical god and the devil?
to scare the pants out of the tribes of jerusalem to unite rather than fight between themselves.

and thats why doctor manhattan resigned himself to ozymandias' win, because he realised that this was human nature - tribes.

 

back then they thought melanesian/polynesian/micronesian/Madagascan/taiwanese, phillipino and Australian aboriginals were africans rather than the ultimate colonisers leaving africa long before the rest of us cavemen, far surpassing other "races" centuries before in both sea faring and melee weapon combat with nothing but stone tools and some coconuts with no written language.

but they thought everyone was shades between african and european, and drawed blanks when it came to the origin of east asians.

on the attributes of "race" - the californian police departments used the argue that the high rates of choke-subdued police related deaths were due to blacks having hereditarily weak necks. no medical proof has ever been provided to confirm this. nice way to cover up excessive use of force against blacks.

 

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/9yc4ry/toni-morrison

Good points on race and racism.

 

so this seems like a good place to post this report. the doj came out and issued a report on the bias of the ferguson police department. pretty interesting reading actually.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/257669288/Ferguson-Police-Department-Report

here are the demographic numbers for ferguson from wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson,_Missouri#2010_census

 

Doesn't justify the actions of someone robbing a store, beating the clerk, and being aggressive to a LEO

 

Really? A police dept that out of control and you don't think it impacts on how citizens interact with the police?

 

Reminds me of that South Park "He's coming right for us!"

 

So when you rob and beat up on a clerk, beat up of go for a LEO gun, this justifies the perp being forced to do all of these things because of the dept

Ok, so let me get this straight, I will go an steal something from a town that has dept issues, beat up a clerk, instead of complying, I beat up the officer, go for his gun....And then blame it on the entire dept

 

It doesn't really matter what he did to the clerk or what he did to the LEO, what mattered was whether the use of force was justified at the time of the shooting.

 

you're conflating issues. darren wilson has actually not been charged by the doj, which came out and said there was no evidence to support an indictment.

this is a different report, that gets to the heart of the tactics of the police of the city of ferguson, and surrounding cities i might add.

did you read the report? i did, and it's absolutely shameful. i agree doesn't justify mike brown's behavior, but clearly helps to explain the complete disdain the residents (including brown) have for the police. there are numerous anecdotal examples of people doing nothing, only to have interaction with the police. and excessive user of authority to generate town revenue.

read the report.

 

It's attitudes like this that make people hate authority and its apologists. You obviously don't care about the people who are less fortunate and bear the brunt of the worst in our society. You claim to help and mentor but how can you mentor people who you can't even hear? How can you help when you blame people before listening? Empathy only works when you can understand or care about other people. You can't assume you know everything because Wilson wasn't found guilty.

The robbery was deplorable, but not a death sentence. Walking down the street was illegal, but no reason to die. The attitude of the officers and those in authority in Ferguson, like most inner cities, is one of confrontation, scare tactics, and demeaning the population. Then people want to turn around and blame them when they aren't all model citizens. Most people are, they abide by the law and do the best that they can with what they've got. You've got the nerve to judge when your tone and words speak tomes about your bias.

 

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2EU6HuTixA"]Ancient Voices - Tracking The First Americans (BBC Documentary Series).mp4 - YouTube[/ame]