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You probably won’t see the above video on network news. It won't be Brian Williams who tells you that Michael Brown’s mother and some of her friends are awaiting trial for assaulting people with steel pipes and robbing them, or Scott Pelley who informs you that Michael Brown’s stepfather intiated a night of burning, rioting, and looting by repeatedly shouting, “Burn this motherfucker down! Burn this bitch down!” And while David Muir will report Al Sharpton's and Jesse Jackson's words of wisdom and inform you solemnly that your president and the mayor of NYC think racism is to blame when a white cop kills a black criminal, no network anchor will suggest that such rhetoric is reckless or tell you that the murders of police officers were up 56% last year.
I live in a state where only 2% of the population is black, yet there was a movement here by black leaders to dissuade the local media from mentioning that a criminal or fugitive is black or showing his mugshot on the evening news. They took this stance because Oregon blacks commit a disproportionately high percentage of crimes, so their fellow blacks thought it would be better for an occasional fugitive to escape than for white people to be constantly reminded of black criminality. Some might claim that all of these black criminals in this bastion of white liberality are simply the victims of racist cops, racist juries, and racist judges, and I can’t disprove such a claim anymore than I can disprove earlier claims that a dead space alien was discovered near Roswell, New Mexico.
The network news will tell you that racist white cops go around bullying black people for no reason, but they won't mention that it was blacks who invented rap music with its glorification of criminality, or that upwards of 10,000 blacks a year are murdered in this country, 93% of them by other blacks. Of course, if you’re one of those who blame white people for black people’s problems, you might argue that white cops kill all those blacks and frame other blacks for their murders. Maybe so—I can’t disprove it anymore than I can prove you wrong if you believe Jews run the world or that the Mafia killed Kennedy.
Given that 61-years have elapsed since the advent of the Civil Rights Movement, yet large numbers of blacks are still blaming white people for their problems, it's my opinion that far too many blacks are damn feckless at taking responsibility for their own lives. While I believe that, in isolated ways, blacks still get a raw deal, the fact remains that a high percentage of them really are criminals, and that far too many blacks choose to voice their complaints regarding police brutality through rioting, looting, and calling for the deaths of police officers. This suggests that they have problems that go well beyond what white people can remedy, and it doesn’t incline me to turn a sympathetic ear to their complaints. Instead, it increases my perception that an alarmingly high percentage of them are dangerous.
The top video was made during a demonstration in NYC. Several seconds into it, you can hear the demonstrators demanding that police officers be murdered. A week later, two cops were shot to death while sitting in their car. Regarding the bottom video, please hang in there until the police chief is asked why he was on his phone during a public meeting.
The top video was made during a demonstration in NYC. Several seconds into it, you can hear the demonstrators demanding that police officers be murdered. A week later, two cops were shot to death while sitting in their car. Regarding the bottom video, please hang in there until the police chief is asked why he was on his phone during a public meeting.
23 comments:
It's much the same in the UK Snowy. Black on black knifings, shootings and other attacks, often gang related and drug squabbles are commonplace.
The police have set up special units to deal with this mayhem in some areas, especially my old home town of Croydon.
Racism DOES exist in the UK but it is not quite as bad as it used to be.
East and West, oil and water, black and white ... difficult mixtures.
Black politicians, actors, celebrities and athletes have shown that black people can succeed in every field. I wish black leaders would encourage people to become educated, take responsibility for their actions, raise the children they father, become the best citizens they can be. White people can't hand equality to black people; they can only provide opportunity. As I see it, black people are being betrayed by people like Al Sharpton who pour gasoline on every situation to make blacks feel like victims.
"It's much the same in the UK"
I hate like heck to even wonder if there might be something about being black that makes people more prone to criminality, but I would like to know if blacks everywhere in the world commit more crimes than other peoples. Of course, even if they do, there are a lot of well-meaning black people, and it's not right to punish them for the crimes of others. My own best thought is that, here in America, poverty and broken families have a lot more to do with black crime than other factors. Maybe if America didn't waste so much money on its silly wars, we could do more to help our own.
"Black politicians, actors, celebrities and athletes have shown that black people can succeed in every field."
Yes, of course. I hope you didn't interpret me to imply otherwise.
"As I see it, black people are being betrayed by people like Al Sharpton who pour gasoline on every situation to make blacks feel like victims."
MLK had his Rosa Parks. All Al Sharpton has is an endless succession of hoodlums, and while it's true that hoodlums have rights too, it's my impression that what Sharpton wants more than anything else in the world is to be famous and respected, but that he lacks the personal power to do it in a worthwhile way. This reduces him to flying from hither to yon half-assedly championing people who are a liability to the world.
To me, Sharpton is laughable, and I don't even get the idea that he has all that much status among black people. I think the news medias puts him on TV simply because they don't have anyone better. For example, Michael Brown's parents made a bad appearance, and there apparently were no black leaders in Missouri who could fill the void. I think that if a black person with wisdom and charisma should come along, Sharpton would be immediately forgotten. Maybe he could then make a living as a clown.
The bigger the racist, the louder their voice. What we now have is a country of racists who are not asking for equality, or the ability to work, but for absolute power.
I HAVE A DREAM can be quoted nearly word for word - for a sentence or two, but the most enlightening part of the speech is eliminated EVERY TIME:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
There are similar issues here too. I wish I knew the answers. I suspect you are right and poverty and broken families have a huge part to play. Our largely white culture DID break some of those families and contributes to the poverty. Just the same, I believe there comes a time where the only way forward is to accept responsibility. Not necessarily for where you are - but certainly for where you are going.
Snow, this is the first time your post has deeply offended me. I can't bring myself to even try to respond
My daughter and grandchildren live in NYC, so that video strikes fear in me. There are many racists amongst whites, but some blacks react to all white as though all whites were racist.
"the most enlightening part of the speech is eliminated EVERY TIME: 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’"
I know, MLK stood for equal opportunity
"your post has deeply offended me. I can't bring myself to even try to respond”
I can’t respond too well to your unhappiness unless you say what it is that you’re unhappy about. From time to time, people have encouraged me to write about current events, but I almost never have, and I wouldn’t have this time had I not seen the video in which the mob was chanting for the death of cops. It is exactly that sentiment that I think large numbers of the demonstrators feel even if they’re too prudent to say as much. As I see it, far too many of the demonstrators are thugs who want to do whatever it is that they want to do, so they naturally despise anyone who stands in their way. No one stands in their way more than cops, and all this talk about police racism is, to large numbers of the demonstrators, simply a pretext for wreaking revenge. Why do I see these people in such a light? Because I hear what they say, and I see what they do, and Obama is throwing fuel on the fire when he says that a particular white cop killed a particular black criminal because he was racist. Even back when Trayvon Martin was killed, Obama made the statement that a couple of decades earlier, it would have been him who was killed had he been in Trayvon Martin’s shoes, yet no one who knew Zimmerman (the killer) thought he was racist (in fact, they said the opposite). It’s this assumption of racism on the part of any white person who has a problem a black person that offends me. Part of why I left Mississippi was that I got so sick of seeing the race card played. If a school had 51 white teachers and 50 black teaches, and the next hire was a white teacher, the black community would cry racism. Here in Eugene, after considerable study and debate, the city council voted against renaming a main thoroughfare "Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd." After cries of racism, they convened a special city council meeting the next night, and made the change. This is what the Civil Rights Movement has become. All of the nobility that was behind the Movement that King led is long gone. Now, it’s nothing but a power struggle and a pretext for hurting those whom far too many black people scapegoat for their own failures.
“...some blacks react to all white as though all whites were racist.”
I think we probably are, but then I think that, for all practical purposes, everyone is. When I hear a white person say that he or she isn’t racist, I simply wonder if the person is lying or completely out of touch. Based upon physiological studies, all whites react to blacks with more fear than they experience around one another, and this includes those who say that they haven’t got a racist bone in their body. By the same token, my guess would be that all black people are prejudiced against white people. This doesn’t meant that we have to act out our racism, and in fact, being aware of it makes it easier to not act it out. I’ve had one black friend here, and she told me that it’s harder in some ways to be black here because West Coast liberals are more dishonest about their racism than are the Southern conservatives. Down there, she said, you know where you stand, whereas here, racism is just as prevalent but since no one will admit to it, you’re left to wonder if a person dislikes you because they dislike you, or if they dislike you because you’re black. As a white Southerner, I had no such problem here, because, based upon his accent alone, many liberals waste no time in telling a white Southerner what a loser he is. Now that I’ve lost much of my accent, it’s not so big a problem, but I used to run into it fairly often.
This is an issue that is very near and dear to my heart, as you well know. My son is a cop. A good cop! He wouldn't arrest or kill a black person just because they were black. And I don't dislike black people because they are black. But I am so sick of this whole American racial issue that I will admit today, right here, that I am a racist. But am I any more racist than the black person who is pointing their fingers at white people..calling them racist just because the white person doesn't see things the way a black person does. I am sick of the race card. I no longer hear anything black people have to say because it is so cloyed with their racist beliefs against white man. I didn't cause their problems. I wasn't alive in the days of slavery. And neither were they!!! Get over and take responsibility for what you are responsible for. Quit making heroes out of criminals. And quit blaming white people for your problems. Take responsibility. And no matter what color you are if a cop tells you to do anything it is my suggestion that you do it. If you feel you are wrongly accused...fight it in court. That is the American way of handling problems.
the whole race thing is so complex, so many undercurrents, dishonesties and intertwined factors.
my eurasian kids will all openly admit to being unimpressed with a lot of asian people. i find that interesting
KJ, I really hope you will share your thoughts. No doubt, you see the demonstrations against the police as representing the anger of a people who are truly oppressed. While I don’t doubt that black people are oftentimes treated unfairly by the police—and juries, and courts--I see the demonstrations as representing something deeper, that is a hatred of white people (yes, I am aware that many whites take part in some of the demonstrations). I could list numerous reasons for feeling as I do, but it would be a whole separate post, and I really don’t have the interest in writing it, at the moment anyway. I consider it impossible, in this country, for there to be a rational dialogue about race because both blacks and whites know that their true feelings are too negative to be socially unacceptable, and I don’t know if it would really serve any purpose to express them anyway.
"And no matter what color you are if a cop tells you to do anything it is my suggestion that you do it. If you feel you are wrongly accused...fight it in court."
The man who died of the chokehold shouldn’t have died (why is why the cop who killed him is no longer a cop), but if he hadn’t resisted arrest, he wouldn’t have died. It simply doesn’t work to refuse a cop’s command once one is sure that it is a command, and by doing so, a person is guaranteeing that the cop will soon decide to subdue him or her physically, and this means that the amount of force the cop uses might later be seen as excessive whether the cop intended it that way or not. That said, there are limits to what a cop can command one to do, and limits to what information one has to provide to a cop, and I’ve gone to pains to learn what those things are. Still, I’m not going to stand on the sidewalk arguing with a cop if he orders me to do something because it wouldn’t be a situation that I could hope to win.
"my eurasian kids will all openly admit to being unimpressed with a lot of asian people.”
Peggy’s white niece has two half-black children (here in America, if you have any detectable black blood, you’re referred to as black, a custom that strike me as racist, although white liberals and blacks themselves do it to). The boy—who is now in his upper teens—hates black people so much that he would join the Klan if he could. I think it likely that many black people hate their race. I just Googled “black people who hate black people,” and there’s a lot of black people who agree. I think that one reason for this is white racism toward blacks; I think another reason is absentee black fathers; and I think a third reason is that the black race has to achieve some of the things that the white and Asian races have (not that I’m a booster for whites and Asians either). My belief is that the black race suffers from an inferiority complex.
When a person can lie from both sides of their mouth while believing every word, as others back them up in their ego maniacal insistence of self-entitlement, it's hard to push an inferiority complex in there - even sideways.
I have been waiting for this post, written thoughtfully .. carefully .. truthfully. My son and I are in Cocoa Beach FL during January, beach walks and plenty of time to think ~ scant writing. You can bet I will read this more than once, looking forward to the discussion.
My brother-in-law is a former cop, a dear friend's son is a Minneapolis cop .. I hate it when we are given sugar-coated versions of the truth. Unacceptable.
With limited access to the internet I bid you farewell and wishing you and Peggy a good 2015!
Thank you Snow for the courage to address something so controversial. There is ignorance and prejudice on both sides. I especially appreciated the bottom video. It made me more compassionate towards law enforcement. I think I see the problem more clearly now, though the solution - I don't know
how/when/if it will happen if we don't learn more about forgiveness and act on it with a view towards the future of our children. Thanks again for your post.
"it's hard to push an inferiority complex in there”
When compared to white people, black people are low achievers. I’m not saying that the reason for this is their race; I’m just pointing out that it’s true, and that it is reason for black people to feel inferior, to be angry at white people, and to unconvincingly—to white people and to themselves—blame their problems on white people. I have no idea what the answer is. Asian Americans were once victims of racial oppression, yet due to their emphasis on education and achievement, they surpass white people, so why haven’t blacks achieved more? Is it because they were slaves 150+ years ago? I don’t know. I just know that it’s politically unacceptable for white people to deny responsibility for black people’s problems. This means that people like Obama openly blame white people, and that those who disagree keep their mouths shut.
"I hate it when we are given sugar-coated versions of the truth.”
When you look at the kinds of commercials they run, I think you must have to be getting up in years to even watch the network news (although it’s as much human interest than news), but I get sick of only hearing one side, and it the side of those who hate the police, if not all white people. When you consider the tens of thousands who came out for those cops’ funerals, it tells you that there is another side, a “silent majority” if you will.
"Thank you Snow for the courage to address something so controversial.”
I didn’t just anticipate disagreement; I anticipated hatred and lost readership for taking any side other than the side that I see on TV. So far, I’ve lost one reader, and another person voiced disagreement, but said she was too offended to tell me what it was about which she disagreed. I hate it when people assume that I’m so “out there” that I’m not worth talking to. It’s what I got from that church, and it’s what I sometimes feel on this blog. Still, I carry on because I am SO GRATEFUL AND ENCOURAGED by those who say that what I write gives them something to think about even if they disagree.
Outstanding Post.. and Happy New Year
Thank you Snowy for saying what I didn't have the guts to say on my own blog!
In some ways society has given blacks a raw deal.... namely in that they have been taught not to invest in their children. In both Africa and the U.S., families were ripped apart and sold as property. It's hard to look to your child as the future when you know he could be sold any day.
But that is where it ends... the rest is what my mom taught me was personal responsibility. Don't steal, don't do wrong... doing wrong puts your life in danger! Your way of life in danger!
I was taught how to behave around cops. Yes sir, no sir and hands in sight. Do what you're told.
Learn to resist temptation... why is it only the black girls I teach that think someone is "tempting me" when they simply hang their purse on the back of their chair in the classroom??? How about you were being trusted as a valued classmate to NOT steal?
Until personal responsibility comes into play, I don't see this getting better. And grand juries have a hard time convicting a cop who places his life on the line every day when the thug in question just robbed someone...or was pointing a toy gun at someone, or lunges for the cops weapon. Two wrongs don't make a right... 87 wrongs certainly never do!
Have you seen the video of Michael Brown beating up an elderly pizza delivery man??? That and the video of the strong arm robbery tell me all I need to know about this kid... You do stuff like that enough times, karma will eventually bite you in the ass. The planet is better off without him. While I am sorry for the pain his grandmother has suffered (she raised him...not the mother and stepfather who had her beaten up for not sharing the money she raised for Michael's funeral!), the world is a better place without him.
And I would say that if he were white...
I moved to No Carolina from New York in 1978 and racism was very alive then, on both sides. You almost NEVER saw the two mix. Now we fast forward to 2015 and it is the usual thing to see the young people in our state mix with all colors and ethnicities. This gives me hope and, altho it won't be in my lifetime, I think that the day will come when we either accept all of earth's people and learn to live among them or we perish.
Hello Happy new year.
Americans showed great maturity and grace in electing Barrack Obama as president of US two times. I don't think there is any racism as made out by the blacks if they follow the law. If they blame the police, the court of law, the jury etc. if a verdict doesn't go in favor of them, it clearly shows their immaturity. They are becoming isolated and separated from the whites by the teachings of their own leaders.
The blacks should abide by the law. They cannot think they are about law and attack police offers. A police officer has a right to defend himself if attacked just as every one else.
Shooting two police offers sitting in car is a dastardly act and the criminals should be hanged in public. Prison sentence alone would not do. Only then criminals will understand that if they take a life they will have to pay with their life.
Strict gun control measures should be introduced and any one having unauthorised guns or any other weapons should be given exemplary punishment whether they are black or white.
Blacks should be given education to integrate with whites.
These are some thoughts that came to my mind after reading your thought provoking post
Best wishes
"I don't think there is any racism as made out by the blacks if they follow the law."
Joseph, I thank so much for your comment as it inspired my next post. I ususally take days to write a post, but the one you inspired came so easily that I finished it in an hour and a half.
"I moved to No Carolina from New York in 1978 and racism was very alive then, on both sides. You almost NEVER saw the two mix.”
I’ve been in Oregon since 1986, but I as born in 1949 and spent my first 37 years in Mississippi. My thought when I left was that blacks and whites got along well, but that neither side was ready to hang out together socially. When I was a teacher, and we had a teacher’s conference, the blacks would sit on one side of the room and the whites on the other. Sometimes, a person might sit on the other side, and there was absolutely no penalty for it, but the fact is that we all tend to socialize with those who are most like us, and black and white aren’t just races, they’re cultures. I have no idea the extent to which things have changed since I’ve been away, but I very doubt that they’ve changed substantially. Even when I was a kid, I had black friends, so I’m sure that in school there’s less of divide than in adult life."
"But that is where it ends... the rest is what my mom taught me was personal responsibility.”
Yes, but it’s surely harder for some to take personal responsibility than others. For example, if you’re a Kennedy, you grow up thinking that you have power, but if you grow up without parental guidance in a slum where your school mates are shot to death for no reason, and the only people who appear to be prospering are drug dealers, what are you to think about your power to make positive changes in your life through doing the right thing? You’re basically at the level of survival, and it’s not a level that’s conducive to high moral standards.
From Mississippi, are you? Please do not come near my blog again. I have enough problems dealing with racist Russians these days.
"Please do not come near my blog again. I have enough problems dealing with racist Russians these days."
Racist against blacks, though--what blacks? You have blacks in the Ukraine? I don't think so, and this means I can at least give you some variety.... Please, oh, please, if you will but allow me to visit your blog, I promise not to spread my racist hate mongering. I mean, you're the only Ukrainian follower I have, and I like status I get from that.
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