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You're stopping short of spelling out your conclusion. The aims of the protests are to shine a spotlight on police brutality and qualified immunity / defund th

by jddj 6y ago

You're stopping short of spelling out your conclusion. The aims of the protests are to shine a spotlight on police brutality and qualified immunity / defund the police / ensure that killer cops are prosecuted / damage property in pursuit of anarchy / score a new TV / whatever. It's all fairly clear and makes enough sense. Your idea, however, leaves us with nothing but a knowing look and an appeal to not trust the narrative. If you can read any broader frustration here, it's because all the "but what about white folks?" people in my social circle have been following the same playbook. So where does it go? Does your argument conclude that the police should be harsher still towards black people? Does it suggest that police who kill should suffer less scrutiny than they presently do? Is the status quo fine, and the resolution should be that everyone just shut up and go home? What's your call to action here, and what would be the immediate real-world consequences of your worldview?

axguscbklp 6y ago
>it's because all the "but what about white folks?" people in my social circle have been following the same playbook. Consider that maybe it's not a playbook. Maybe people look at the data and reach conclusions different from yours. Call to action: Let's work together to reduce police brutality. However, let's not sweep black-on-white violence under the rug while focusing narrowly on white-on-black violence. The prevailing media narrative about racial violence in this country is, compared to available data, grossly inaccurate. The inaccuracy fuels political division and distrust of the media. If protest organizers said something like: "Police brutality is wrong and there is reason to think that it is a worse problem for black people than for white people. At the same time, we recognize the disproportionate extent to which white people suffer from black violence. We may perhaps disagree about the extent to which the discrepancy is due to systematic racism or socioeconomic issues, but we recognize your concerns. We want to reach across the division and work together to fix all these issues." In that case, I would be totally on board. Because that would be fair, and transparent, and unifying.
- jddj 6y ago
  The playbook is the knowing look and the consistently not reaching conclusions, or perhaps not amongst polite company. They're quite free to think differently to me. If they had said that the protests were fine but next time we expect a shout-out, then the discussion could move on. Much like in this example.
- fzeroracer 6y ago
  > Police brutality is wrong and there is reason to think that it is a worse problem for black people than for white people. At the same time, we recognize the disproportionate extent to which white people suffer from black violence. We may perhaps disagree about the extent to which the discrepancy is due to systematic racism or socioeconomic issues, but we recognize your concerns. We want to reach across the division and work together to fix all these issues So you want to dilute the protest which is specifically about police violence against black people into something entirely different? You're essentially arguing to destroy the entire protest for something it's not at all about. Protesting police brutality against black people is protesting police brutality in general.
- zarathustreal 6y ago
  Thank you for this thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion. I would also like to add a global take into the discussion. Who stands to benefit from the American people being both divided among white / black, male / female, old / young, and distrusting of the media? Certainly not anyone in America.
  - zo1 6y ago
    Not OP. When considering this line of thought, I think of meme's in the original sense of the word. So one could take a mildly-conspiratorial take on it and say that the "meme" itself stands to benefit from this sort of division rather than a nefarious agent or group. It's a self-feeding cycle because I would argue that this cause done in a bad/unfair way sows more racial/gender/etc division and as such creates more reason for itself to exist.
jakkyboi 6y ago
Thank you, I haven't been able to articulate this line of thought recently

by jddj 6y ago

axguscbklp 6y ago

>it's because all the "but what about white folks?" people in my social circle have been following the same playbook. Consider that maybe it's not a playbook. Maybe people look at the data and reach conclusions different from yours. Call to action: Let's work together to reduce police brutality. However, let's not sweep black-on-white violence under the rug while focusing narrowly on white-on-black violence. The prevailing media narrative about racial violence in this country is, compared to available data, grossly inaccurate. The inaccuracy fuels political division and distrust of the media. If protest organizers said something like: "Police brutality is wrong and there is reason to think that it is a worse problem for black people than for white people. At the same time, we recognize the disproportionate extent to which white people suffer from black violence. We may perhaps disagree about the extent to which the discrepancy is due to systematic racism or socioeconomic issues, but we recognize your concerns. We want to reach across the division and work together to fix all these issues." In that case, I would be totally on board. Because that would be fair, and transparent, and unifying.

jddj 6y ago
The playbook is the knowing look and the consistently not reaching conclusions, or perhaps not amongst polite company. They're quite free to think differently to me. If they had said that the protests were fine but next time we expect a shout-out, then the discussion could move on. Much like in this example.
fzeroracer 6y ago
> Police brutality is wrong and there is reason to think that it is a worse problem for black people than for white people. At the same time, we recognize the disproportionate extent to which white people suffer from black violence. We may perhaps disagree about the extent to which the discrepancy is due to systematic racism or socioeconomic issues, but we recognize your concerns. We want to reach across the division and work together to fix all these issues So you want to dilute the protest which is specifically about police violence against black people into something entirely different? You're essentially arguing to destroy the entire protest for something it's not at all about. Protesting police brutality against black people is protesting police brutality in general.
zarathustreal 6y ago
Thank you for this thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion. I would also like to add a global take into the discussion. Who stands to benefit from the American people being both divided among white / black, male / female, old / young, and distrusting of the media? Certainly not anyone in America.
- zo1 6y ago
  Not OP. When considering this line of thought, I think of meme's in the original sense of the word. So one could take a mildly-conspiratorial take on it and say that the "meme" itself stands to benefit from this sort of division rather than a nefarious agent or group. It's a self-feeding cycle because I would argue that this cause done in a bad/unfair way sows more racial/gender/etc division and as such creates more reason for itself to exist.

jakkyboi 6y ago

Thank you, I haven't been able to articulate this line of thought recently