For Blacks Americans, US about as dangerous as Rwanda

I can attest that a large number of Black Women are hysterical (I know, a poor choice of words for describing women) due to the narrative being forwarded recently. To the point I couldn't even convince my own Mother that I'm not constantly harassed by Police and she was selling wolf tickets on Facebook regarding incidents of my and my brother's past interactions with Police (my aforementioned "fit the description" incident and my brother and his friend taking that friend's Mom's car without permission and being arrested for Grand Theft Auto [but charges being dropped]). Police brutality is a real issue, but it's being framed as THE ISSUE which afflicts my community, and frankly, it's not.

Well, that and "White Privilege". Those are the current buzzwords.

You don't think there is white privilege?

Also, from my POV I always look at this from the white community (being white) and I think the issues we have in our community that affect black people negatively are very big, but we are very willing to sweep these issues under the rug and just point at it being black people's fault alone.

^^^Ha, really?
Another reason to be glade i'm not on Facebook.

Originally posted by Bardock42
You don't think there is white privilege?

Also, from my POV I always look at this from the white community (being white) and I think the issues we have in our community that affect black people negatively are very big, but we are very willing to sweep these issues under the rug and just point at it being black people's fault alone.

So are you in college right now BR? As student or teacher?

Originally posted by Flyattractor
[b]So are you in college right now BR? As student or teacher? [/B]

lol no

Coulda fooled me.

Originally posted by Bardock42
You don't think there is white privilege?

Also, from my POV I always look at this from the white community (being white) and I think the issues we have in our community that affect black people negatively are very big, but we are very willing to sweep these issues under the rug and just point at it being black people's fault alone.

I think wealthy people of every ethnicity have it better than most people regardless of ethnicity, and I know some white people in poverty have it worse than me, a single middle class 35 year old black man with no kids and a career, and I know most of us here in the US have it better than people elsewhere, so it's all relative.

The only 'privilege' your average lower middle class white person has (which is the vast majority of white people) is that they don't have the mental and cultural baggage my people do, and by that I mean being brought up and taught that everything here is set up to hold them back and even if you try your hardest you'll likely be passed over because you're black. One of my favorite hip hop songs of all time "Thieves in the Night" by Mos Def and Talib Kweli spoke on it. The sense of disillusionment and disenfranchisement that leads to a stigma of self defeat. A lot of people actually buy into that mentality before they even try or look to illegitimate means to make a living without giving a legitimate career a chance and lacking the patience and foresight to plan long term. I can't blame White People solely for that. I've never lived in bondage, and I've made strides in my life because I came from a household that didn't profess that mindset.

I think wealthy people of every ethnicity have it better than most people regardless of ethnicity, and I know some white people in poverty have it worse than me, a single middle class 35 year old black man with no kids and a career, and I know most of us here in the US have it better than people elsewhere, so it's all relative.

Originally posted by Bardock42
You don't think there is white privilege?

Also, from my POV I always look at this from the white community (being white) and I think the issues we have in our community that affect black people negatively are very big, but we are very willing to sweep these issues under the rug and just point at it being black people's fault alone.

you seem reasonably intelligent to me so it's kind of confusing to me that you would have such an approach.

it's like you're basically saying you will only address the parts of the problem that you feel indirectly guilty about... anything else isn't your problem so you refuse to acknowledge it.

Originally posted by red g jacks
why are you this all or nothing on this one issue?

you seem reasonably intelligent to me so it's kind of confusing to me that you would have such an approach.

it's like you're basically saying you will only address the parts of the problem that you feel indirectly guilty about... anything else isn't your problem so you refuse to acknowledge it.

I don't think I'm all or nothing on this issue. I haven't disagreed that there are issues within black communities, of course there are. My point is that the mainstream only discusses the issues that exist in black communities, and solely blames black people for it, often using these issues to disregard the problems caused by racism and the treatment of black communities by authorities. There is a difference between not acknowledging something and not focusing on it.

I think Bardock means well and I have no quarrel with him, I just think at times liberals in general pimp victimhood, guilt, and altruism the same way conservatives pimp piety, fear, and patriotism, and the end result is patronizing banter. As a black man I feel the Left feels we need to be 'kept' for our own good whereas the Right feels we need to be left to rot or recover for our own good, whereas I feel the actual position should be these are our fellow citizens and, moreover, human beings, what can we do to both encourage social and economic progress without taking on full hands on responsibility and stewardship, as well as let them know that they have some real issues to address that effect us all?

Originally posted by MF DELPH
I think Bardock means well and I have no quarrel with him, I just think at times liberals in general pimp victimhood, guilt, and altruism the same way conservatives pimp piety, fear, and patriotism, and the end result is patronizing banter. As a black man I feel the Left feels we need to be 'kept' for our own good whereas the Right feels we need to be left to rot or recover for our own good, whereas I feel the actual position should be these are our fellow citizens and, moreover, human beings, what can we do to both encourage social and economic progress without taking on full hands on responsibility and stewardship, as well as let them know that they have some real issues to address that effect us all?

I would completely agree with this. I guess what I am mostly exposed to is white people having none of that compassion you are talking about, so I am unwilling to further the narrative that it's all black people's fault. I agree that there needs to be progress on both fronts, however police and authorities wash their hand of the situation by pointing at gang violence and disregarding any circumstances that lead to the problems.

Therein lies the paradox of the Hood. The crime and violence brings down the property values and in turn creates a deficit of local funding for schools and social services and increase in Police presence, but the lack of social services and education can lead to a life of crime and generational poverty.

On top of that sprinkle generous amounts of crack and fast money from criminal behavior and sex trafficking juxtaposed against the cost of higher education.

Originally posted by MF DELPH
Therein lies the paradox of the Hood. The crime and violence brings down the property values and in turn creates a deficit of local funding for schools and social services and increase in Police presence, but the lack of social services and education can lead to a life of crime and generational poverty.

On top of that sprinkle generous amounts of crack and fast money from criminal behavior and sex trafficking juxtaposed against the cost of higher education.

Well, and in there's a couple of things that mainstream society could work one: Criminalisation of drugs, decreased funding for badly performing school districts, high cost of higher education, etc. etc.

But instead there is a general feeling of "well, that's black people's problem, our policies have nothing to do with it"...

Originally posted by Bardock42
I don't think I'm all or nothing on this issue. I haven't disagreed that there are issues within black communities, of course there are. My point is that the mainstream only discusses the issues that exist in black communities, and solely blames black people for it, often using these issues to disregard the problems caused by racism and the treatment of black communities by authorities. There is a difference between not acknowledging something and not focusing on it.

and i'm not saying white people have no part in it or it's "black people's fault' or whatever... i think it's obvious the current set up is a result of a racist history and all that... but ideally a lot of us would like to move on from that past... and that's pretty much impossible when the media is relentlessly race-baiting the common public from both sides of the political spectrum.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Well, and in there's a couple of things that mainstream society could work one: Criminalisation of drugs, decreased funding for badly performing school districts, high cost of higher education, etc. etc.

But instead there is a general feeling of "well, that's black people's problem, our policies have nothing to do with it"...

Well, for example, if school funding comes property taxes, and the tax valuation of a certain neighborhood is low because it's a high crime area where most of the residents rent thier homes (with BMR vouchers) versus owning, that isn't the fault of the policy, objectively speaking, it actually is the fault of the criminal element in the area bringing the tax valuations down by making the neighborhoods undesirable and destroying everyone who lives there's equity. Then when efforts are made to bring those values back up it's labeled as gentrification and displacement of the impoverished. Oakland's a prime example of this.

Originally posted by MF DELPH
Well, for example, if school funding comes property taxes, and the tax valuation of a certain neighborhood is low because it's a high crime area where most of the residents rent thier homes (with BMR vouchers) versus owning, that isn't the fault of the policy, objectively speaking, it actually is the fault of the criminal element in the area bringing the tax valuations down by making the neighborhoods undesirable and destroying everyone who lives there's equity. Then when efforts are made to bring those values back up it's labeled as gentrification and displacement of the impoverished. Oakland's a prime example of this.

Originally posted by red g jacks
if by not focusing you mean that in a thread where the initial posts misleadingly uses a homocide statistic to push a narrative of police abuse, you continue to talk about police abuse after that's pointed out, then when someone from the black community comes and tells you hey i think there are other things that deserve more attention right now, you continue to find ways to talk about police abuse or somehow the white man is at fault then yea... i'm gonna say that's basically the same as not acknowledging anything that doesn't agree with a predetermined narrative that you've decided to stick to. if you want to call it "not focusing" then fine.. that's semantics to me. for all intents and purposes you're basically ignoring any information that doesn't conform to your narrative imo.

and i'm not saying white people have no part in it or it's "black people's fault' or whatever... i think it's obvious the current set up is a result of a racist history and all that... but ideally a lot of us would like to move on from that past... and that's pretty much impossible when the media is relentlessly race-baiting the common public from both sides of the political spectrum.

That the discussion in this thread has somewhat evolved may be true, but I think my posts are close in spirit to the point the OP was trying to make. My disagreement with MF Delph was on whether there are other issues that deserve more attention, not whether there are other issues at all. From my POV the issues of authority and mainstream society that contribute to the problems in black communities are more important and I choose to focus on them more, in particular because the media actually focusses much more on the other side imo.

And I don't think "moving on" from the racist history is in any way reasonable or productive currently. If we do not acknowledge the history and continued racism we are turning a blind eye to a big part of what causes the issues.

Originally posted by Bardock42
I would very much say it is the fault of the policy if it is tied to property values. The education of the citizens of a country should not be based on the wealth of the neighborhood, imo.

If the funding doesn't come from local, state, and federal tax funding where is it going to come from? As a citizen of Oakland, CA my local taxes don't cover the costs and curriculum of, say, Lubbock, TX, for example (I sure as hell wouldn't want to know I was funding what the Texas Board of Education is doing to their text books and curriculum). Certain areas in Oakland are very high crime with little to zero home ownership and essentially all of the funding for schools comes from subsidies. A city like Dublin, CA doesn't have the same issue because on top of the state and federal funding they are also getting local taxation. The shortfall is the fault of Oakland's overall local tax valuation and revenue. The only way to bring that up is to bring the property value and local revenue up.

Originally posted by Bardock42
That the discussion in this thread has somewhat evolved may be true, but I think my posts are close in spirit to the point the OP was trying to make. My disagreement with MF Delph was on whether there are other issues that deserve more attention, not whether there are other issues at all. From my POV the issues of authority and mainstream society that contribute to the problems in black communities are more important and I choose to focus on them more, in particular because the media actually focusses much more on the other side imo.

And I don't think "moving on" from the racist history is in any way reasonable or productive currently. If we do not acknowledge the history and continued racism we are turning a blind eye to a big part of what causes the issues.

sorry for the hostility bardock just a little tired of this cops vs black people media campaign...

overall i agree it should be approached from a centralized/govt perspective rather than just "hey buddy pick yourself up by your bootstraps" approach.

but i think like delph said police brutality is not the main issue. that doesn't mean there aren't other ways in which poor govt has created/exasperated the current mess.

for example chicago...

YouTube video

i figure you might find this interesting enough to just watch it, if not i can give a tl:dw