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> I have family members saying “All lives matter.” Oh come on, at this point you have to be living under a rock to think that "Black lives matter" means other

by pen2l 6y ago

> I have family members saying “All lives matter.” Oh come on, at this point you have to be living under a rock to think that "Black lives matter" means other lives don't matter. At this point, that is just not excusable and the folks who say 'All lives matter' are unbelievably insensitive in saying so, and they are very much a part of the problem. And we have a president with a penchant for dogwhistling thanks in part to folks like those from rural Iowa, so we really shouldn't cut them any slack (that's no knock on you/your family personally, I'm just sayin').

rayiner 6y ago
> Oh come on, at this point you have to be living under a rock to think that "Black lives matter" means other lives don't matter. There have been multiple people killed as a result of the riots, including two police officers, but nobody on the news is talking about those deaths. Instead, people are talking about how those riots are justified. Every single store on the block in DC where my wife has an office had its windows smashed in. But the mayor of DC is focused in painting a giant “black lives matter” sign on the street. How are people supposed to take all that, other than as an assertion that “other lives don’t matter?” One of the great virtues of Americans is that they don’t condone social upheaval. It’s not like the country where I’m from, where they have strikes and violent rioting after every election. You need some really grave to justify rioting in America. I think there is a strong argument that the oppression of black people in America is that grave. But it’s really asking a lot for people to appreciate why based entirely on some clips they see in the news, and assertions from talking heads in the news that they don’t otherwise trust. I’ve got two cops who live within a couple of blocks. One just had a baby boy. Our closest neighbor friend is a former cop. Wonderful guy, knows everything about being a dad. The last time I live in a predominantly white largely suburban/exurban county. The last time I personally got pulled over by a cop, the officer was almost apologetic, explaining that he was pulling people over because some folks in the neighborhood had complained about people speeding through on the way to the freeway interchange. We have a few officer involved deaths every year, and it’s usually a mentally ill old white guy. But I’ve lived in Chicago, New York, Philly, Baltimore, DC, and Atlanta. Over the years, being constantly faced with the economic disparity between blacks and whites was crushing. It’s so bad and so wrong and we are so woefully far from fixing it. There is a pit in my gut that counteracts my natural instinct to condemn what I’d otherwise perceive as a grave attack on the social fabric. But would I feel this way if I didn’t see the injustice first hand? What if I had only lived somewhere where all the homeless people are white? Could I really even begin to understand just by being told or reading about it?

by pen2l 6y ago

rayiner 6y ago

> Oh come on, at this point you have to be living under a rock to think that "Black lives matter" means other lives don't matter. There have been multiple people killed as a result of the riots, including two police officers, but nobody on the news is talking about those deaths. Instead, people are talking about how those riots are justified. Every single store on the block in DC where my wife has an office had its windows smashed in. But the mayor of DC is focused in painting a giant “black lives matter” sign on the street. How are people supposed to take all that, other than as an assertion that “other lives don’t matter?” One of the great virtues of Americans is that they don’t condone social upheaval. It’s not like the country where I’m from, where they have strikes and violent rioting after every election. You need some really grave to justify rioting in America. I think there is a strong argument that the oppression of black people in America is that grave. But it’s really asking a lot for people to appreciate why based entirely on some clips they see in the news, and assertions from talking heads in the news that they don’t otherwise trust. I’ve got two cops who live within a couple of blocks. One just had a baby boy. Our closest neighbor friend is a former cop. Wonderful guy, knows everything about being a dad. The last time I live in a predominantly white largely suburban/exurban county. The last time I personally got pulled over by a cop, the officer was almost apologetic, explaining that he was pulling people over because some folks in the neighborhood had complained about people speeding through on the way to the freeway interchange. We have a few officer involved deaths every year, and it’s usually a mentally ill old white guy. But I’ve lived in Chicago, New York, Philly, Baltimore, DC, and Atlanta. Over the years, being constantly faced with the economic disparity between blacks and whites was crushing. It’s so bad and so wrong and we are so woefully far from fixing it. There is a pit in my gut that counteracts my natural instinct to condemn what I’d otherwise perceive as a grave attack on the social fabric. But would I feel this way if I didn’t see the injustice first hand? What if I had only lived somewhere where all the homeless people are white? Could I really even begin to understand just by being told or reading about it?