I'm against the mentality that says that Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton et al have to comment on every crime that involves a black person, and that if they don't, they're hypocrites.
I agree on that, but this is a weird scenario. These kids basically did exactly what Al and Jesse intimated that GZ was doing, which would be hunting down a member of a different race just because.
Meh, live by the sword die by the sword. If you profit as a talking head for a specific issue, don't get mad if the public demands your input at whim.
There is an important distinction you are missing. They are accused of doing it just because, as far as we know. That is quite different from accusations, whether they be made rightly or wrongly, of racial profiling. Zimmerman wasn't accused of hunting someone down down just because. He's accused of hunting him down because of the person was black. One was a potential instance of racially motivated action, whereas there has (thus far, that I have seen) been no evidence that the Lane shooting was anything besides random. Maybe it was, but I haven't seen anything. Moreover, the authorities treatment of the two was very divergent, again regardless of whether you believe this to be correct.
This is a very good point. Who initially accused Zimmerman of hunting Martin down because he was black? Was it the authorities or was it the media and pundits? That is important because in this instance, which is similar, the media and pundits aren't making this accusation of the three youths. So now the question is why not?
Because they did not hunt him down on suspicion of committing a crime with scant evidence. The available evidence suggests that they followed him because they were "bored." These actions are apples and oranges. Following an unarmed black teenager under the assumption that he has or is likely to soon commit a crime, with no evidence, is an act that carries with it high probabilities of racial motivations. Whereas this has every appearance of being a random act of violence. The only similarity between these two cases is "a person of one race killed another person of a different race," which is a slim basis for declaring them to be similar. In that regard, the Trayvon Martin incident is "similar" to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan. And technically, it was Tracy Martin and her attorneys.
Right Crump is of the same ilk as Jackson or Martin who pushes racial issues to the media. I believe the law offices he works for specialized in bringing media attention to race cases. Don't act like they have never pushed cases that had were in the end the opposite of racial because it fit their agenda *cough* Duke Lacrosse, Tawana Brawley*cough*.
"Negligent parents, lawbreaking kids" I think that's about as honest an opinion as you're gonna get. Of note: the author of that article is black.
One of the problems I have with Jackson and Sharpton is they claim to be civil rights activists, not black rights activist. I can absolutely guarantee that if the race roles were reversed in this Oklahoma incident, they would be "Outraged", calling for "Justice", and forming marches...not frowning on the incident. They have self appointed themselves as the banner carriers for civil rights, yet they continue to ignore that they are not the solution, but an enormous part of the problem. Their silence speaks volumes. They care about the civil rights of the black community, not humanity as a whole....thus furthering the rift of racism that divides much of this country. Another tweet has come to light from the shooter: "Ayeee I knocced out 5 woods since Zimmerman court!" Source: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/22/teen-charged-in-thrill-kill-australian-college-student-in-oklahoma-has-racist/?test=latestnews#ixzz2ckhQxiHy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/08/22/te ... z2ckhQxiHy</a> If a white public figure were to right now start calling for outrage, justice and stirring the pot in this obvious racially motivated case, he'd be labeled a racist. Why are Sharpton and Jackson labeled activist? And before anyone tries to argue this isn't a racially motivated case, let's switch races: A white man tweets: "90% of black ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM." "Ayeee I knocced out 5 n*****s since Zimmerman court!" And then goes out and shoots a random black man. Looks pretty damned racist to me and I'm sure Jesse and Al would very loudly agree.
I don't think the facts are with you on this one. 1. Zimmerman lived in a neighborhood with a crime problem. As I recall there were eyewitness reports of black male perps on previous B&E's. He functioned as a poor version of neighborhood watch. 2. Zimmerman had a well documented track record working with the NAACP in the local area. 3. Neighbor accounts (black individuals) attest to his character as a stand-up guy who they were glad to have in their neighborhood. None of this should lead someone to a leap in logic to believe that Zimmerman acted with malicious intent because Martin was black. The more current case is similar in that the parties involved were of different races, additionally, there are tweets out there from the kids involved talking about hating white people and such. There is no need to try to twist details, pardon the pun, it's all there in black and white. Apples and oranges indeed. Again, as I stated earlier, my concern isn't the motivation of the individual actors (I couldn't care less); it is the motivation of the press and pundits pumping certain cases over others. There is an agenda here and people are missing it or too chicken shit to own it. Unfortunately Zimmerman, the Martins and the public are the victim to a game being played on them.
Maybe I'm just slow but... is "boredom" now an affirmative defense? I'd like to hear how the honorable flooded basement analogy accounts for this one.
Here's a fun one. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-news/elderly-man-dies-after-being-attacked-outside-ice-arena/-/101214/21574858/-/9flm7iz/-/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-news/e ... index.html</a> WWII vet who survived Okinawa was beaten to death at "random". I swear to God, open carrying an AR may become normal.
"Witnesses say Belton was in the parking lot of the Eagles Lodge at 6410 N. Lidgerwood, adjacent to the Eagles Ice-A-Rena, around 8 p.m. Wednesday when the two male suspects attacked him as he was about to head inside to play pool." Unless all the witnesses were women and children or all other elderly men, someone should've reached deep down and found their fucking balls. The jackasses that did this are savages, but the men who stood by (if able bodied) are cowards.
There's probably not a whole lot of able bodied men hanging around the Eagles lodge in Spokane on a Wednesday night. You know, other then those waiting around to roll an easy victim.
Good one. When I pointed out that racially biases still exist, what I meant was, "no black person ever does any terrible thing to a white person ever." You picked up on that all by yourself, and I'm very proud of you. AND you're so clean, and articulate. You're not like most of them. Most of them wouldn't know a thinly veiled defense of everything black people do if it bit em on their cargo shorts. You even figured out that every analogy has to exactly describe every possible situation. Next level stuff.
Pardon my rural ignorance, but what in the fuck is that supposed to mean? It that some kind of golf reference?
[/quote] This is where racism is subtle but dangerous. If these were white kids acting like thugs, they'd be low life thugs, but because it's black youth then it reflects on all black people. Individual acts of random violence must reflect on the individuals, not part of a wider group.
Man, y'all need to come up with some better slurs for white people. I can't think of a single word for white people that is actually offensive.