Yeah, I kind of felt like I was getting into the groove the longer I did the test. It seemed like they were basing it on how quickly you got the answer. They should have kept switching it back and forth or something to account for the possibility of swiftness of answer being associated with getting better at the game. Or maybe it is correct and I have a "moderate" association of blacks and weapons. Which is kind of silly given that as someone else here pointed out, most of the weapons were the type I usually associate with historical white dudes.
Strong association between weapons and African American faces! Oh boy. Interestingly, I've barely ever even met a black person. Nom and Parker are literally my closest black friends.
The hits just keep on coming. From the Orlando Sentinel: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/200 ... tland-park I guess the lesson learned is it's okay to have a police officer(s) moonlighting as a member of the Klan provided he was ON LEAVE at the time.
Just to keep my mind open and read things that don't exactly fit my point of view, I read this. And even though the police discussion is 25% of the overall discussion (as I see it as a symptom), it could explain a few cases of when shit wrong with the police. It definitely has an impact, but the larger problem, is the overall pattern going back 250 years that underscores every singular event. Q&A: An NYPD Officer's Real Talk on Garner Case - 'It's past the point of no return.'
Reading that pisses me off, because even in anonymity a cop can't fucking admit that was an illegal chokehold and he was strangled to death. We all saw it, I sure as hell know a choke when I see one and that's simply what that was. They act like some brainwashed cult who think everybody is stupid but them.
I'm not trying to be a dick but this is a huge problem of why white people think racism is not a problem anymore or view things through colored lenses. If this assessment is even remotely close, 75% of white people in America do not have a SINGLE black person or brown person in their social circle. Let that sink in for a minute. What exactly would these people know about what it is like to be black or brown? You have no frame of reference. Source: http://publicreligion.org/research/2014 ... l-network/
Oh, horseshit. That apocalyptic mentality is the problem. Life as a cop is just not that dramatic. Check out: http://www.odmp.org/search/year There's 780,000 cops in the US, and 43 were shot this year. They're just as likely to die in a car crash. "Cop" doesn't crack the Top 10 dangerous job list. (Though don't check out the K9 entries unless you're looking to feel bad). I don't say this often, but it is unAmerican to trust the government or to make them less accountable to the public. We pay cops (very well), they work for us, they have a license to kill, we afford them too much creditability on the witness stand, and we the people need to hold them to a higher standard than we currently do. Back on topic: When we say "the race problem", what do we mean? Is it about cops, crime, the economy, schools, college, under-representation as Disney princesses? I see Parker's point of the underlying commonality, but I'm not sure combining them helps a solution - but I could be talked into it. Is it better to refer to the Hydra or the various heads?
At least here we don't pay cops well at all, which I would assume is part of the problem getting quality individuals to do the job. I know both a cop and an assistant manager at an Old Navy, Old Navy pays about 10k more annualy.
Cops in my city make an AVERAGE of $84,000 a year. That's before overtime, and my city which has 400,000 people has had two homicides this entire year-- both stabbings that happened amongst mutual acquaintances. A constable here can make more than the chief for the Detroit police. Funny thing about it? The problem with police in this town isn't violence or racism-- they're usually very lenient. They want even MORE money: a fucking 10% increase per year, while most people are lucky to get 3%.
If they paid police in states that way, you would see people having knife fights in the parking lot of the police academy for spots. I remember when I lived in Kentucky back in the late 90's, I overheard a police officer telling someone that they start deputies out at 18k/year. That's roughly $9/hour. That was a while back, but I bet its not a whole lot better nowadays. I wonder if the requirements were more stringent and the pay was higher, if they would get a different type of police force.
Phoenix PD starts at about 45k for an officer fresh out of the academy and during their 18 weeks at academy they pay them 3400 per month, for a person starting in a career that does not require any kind of degree that is good money, plus they get benefits. Also regarding policing being dangerous, all the cops I know want the late night shifts in the worst neighborhoods because that is where the action is.
Establishing the commonality helps people understand there is a problem. As I've spent this entire thread pointing out there is a problem, and discussing what specifically that problem is. Because everyone wants to attribute it to something else than what it is or look at every singular incident in a vacuum. There are still people who don't think there is a problem (those who think the Sun revolves around the Earth) and those people need to get on board. They're the kinda fat middle who are unaware and would most likely do something about it once they see the case. And everything is connected, everything. If school children at the age of 3 aren't systematically getting removed from school...maybe they're not selling cigarettes outside stores? Maybe is dad isn't unfairly punished in the penal system, he can reform and get back to taking care of his family faster, making sure his son is in school. All sorts of maybes. It'd be great to see when this shit evens out. Just gotta get people asking why things are the way they are, because when people just start talking about the "black community needs to do this, needs to do that" it is underscored with assumption that the "black community" is inherently a mess and doesn't want to improve. That is a horrible (and racist) way to look at it.
Quoted for truth. In order to solve such problems, you can't simply focus on a single one. You need an approach that solves several connected problems at once. It's very easy to trumpet loudly that "blacks need to pull their shit together", and walk off like you've solved the entire issue, but it's far more complex than that. In fact, that's a major part of the problem. The mentality that the solution really is that simple. The mentality that we don't need to put a lot of effort into the solution because the answer is right there. "Because I just solved that whole thing with a single sentence, guys!" And it's that kind of shit that keeps many of us divided. We all seem to have the very best of ideas, and everyone else is fucking wrong, wrong, wrong! We need to teach these children that there can be more to life than having your neck stepped on by the police, an attitude their parents also need to impart upon them. But for that to work, we need to pull those fucking boots off of their necks first. And in order to accomplish that, we need to change how police are trained, state by state, precinct by precinct, and we need to start offering blacks a fair shake at the same jobs, the same services, the same quality of life that the whites have nearly always gotten. But for that to work, those very same whites need to know that sharing their piece of the pie is not going to ruin their lives, that joy and happiness can be gained by offering to help thy fellow man in his time of need. Is all of this starting to piece together? Good, because that paragraph doesn't even scratch the surface of the problem. But it does offer some food for thought. Now, where's the solution you ask? I'm afraid that I'm woefully under-qualified to offer true sage advice on the subject. But what I can do, is listen carefully, and pick my battles accordingly, trying to impart that knowledge onto others, and leading by example as best I can.
All I want in this world is for people to hate each other for who they truly are, not because of the color of their skin. Hate them for their sports teams, music tastes, clothing decisions, preference of hairy vaginas and foreign films you haven't heard of that are way better than the American garbage you love so damn much. That's what we need to hate people for. Right now, the problem needs to get recognized and worked on. Once it is recognized, things can start moving in the right direction. Peers will call out peers for bad behavior, and that is how it really gets fixed. So I think we just keep this thread open and just talk about stuff that comes up. Keep the conversation going.
What does this offer other than tired, drive-by talking points? Sharing a "piece of the pie" means what, exactly? That could be a hand-out, that could be affirmative action, that could be a lot of things. Thats not "food for thought", thats restating the problem without offering a workable solution which one seems to want to do in society or in the 12 pages of this thread. I hear a lot of "that solution isn't going to work, its too simplistic/wrong/racist/etc." without a real counterpoint. This isnt an attack on you specifically Volo, just the general perspective that the responses this thread has provided, which has been razor-thin.
Because juice, at this point, most of the simple problems have been fixed. Even the shit the government can do is a complicated quagmire of fuck. For example if any politician really thumped a modern desegregation program they would be crucified. It is getting harder and harder to point to simple legal fixes. We need to change the conversation around rave in this country and I think that is what Parker has been getting at.
Children aren't in school at age 3, so dispense with the hyperbole. Let's discuss enforcement of law; this is common sense, law enforcement will saturate neighborhoods with high violent crime rates. When that happens, that means more patrols of areas which will pick up other petty crimes....theft, drug dealing, etc. This isn't racist law enforcement, this is the law of averages. Suppose drugs are dealt and/or abused at the same rate in white and black communities, it only makes sense that if you are in a neighborhood that happens to be more violent then you are more likely to be picked up some other petty offense because there is more law enforcement presence. That is not racist. I've shared the violent crime data and disproportionate distribution, that can't all be credited to racist white people. Don Lemon has something to say here. How is this racist? Are white people forcing others not to form family units? This has more to do with poverty, which is rising for all groups, not just black folk. I think there is some truth to this, there are a lot of vestiges of unhealthy race relations in this country but at the same time there are a lot of excuses too. It becomes very bothersome to read nonsense like "Whites are inherently racist" or "White racism is worse than black racism", I read things like that and I tune out and lose all interest in being part of the discussion. At some point people need to start examining human nature. Ethnocentrism and/or choosing your own over others who are different is not a phenomenon created by white people or in response to white racism. It happens all over the world. Racism, segregation, slavery....nasty terms all, are alive and well the world over. There are Christians kept as slaves in the Sinai, the caste system in India, there are Asian girls treated as chattel and traded for sex the world over, the Shabak people in Northern Iraq were just slaughtered by ISIS and there women put into sexual bondage. My point here is this world isn't fair and people aren't equal. You are deluding yourselves if you think differently. Here's an idea of something that could help. Stop incentivizing children out of wedlock, cut free benefits and curb law enforcement patrols in high crime areas. Give people an incentive to help themselves and their community. Spend that money on better education, continuing education, after school programs and programs that will lift people up instead of keeping them on life support.
http://www.cracked.com/article_21822_5-studies-that-prove-racism-still-way-worse-than-we-think.html how timely.