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I live in a small community outside America. On Saturday I left the mall where I'd been subject to the 'new normal' covid distancing laws shit. Stepped out into

I live in a small community outside America. On Saturday I left the mall where I'd been subject to the 'new normal' covid distancing laws shit. Stepped out into the sunshine to see over 1000 people marching down the street in one huddled mass protesting because...riots in America. I watched a car's window get smashed because they wanted to drive through an intersection and had the audacity to ask if they could drive through. While we have issues with police and abuses of power here, it's not even a speck on the radar compared to America. There's real issues here worth protesting. There's a worrying lack of housing for people here in the last year since the psyche ward and homeless shelters shut down. Businesses have been closing down permanently for months, people are desperate for work, one of the largest clearcuts ever for the area has been proposed in the watershed where the town's drinking water comes from. It contains not only the oldest tree in Canada, so old that our tools can't penetrate deep enough to age it, but some of the largest intact old growth in the province, habitat for numerous endangered species and again, directly feeds nearly every river that supplies our water. Nobody cares, nobody even acknowledges the issues outside their door. But some riots in America are worth flaunting all the measures forced on people for months because they've been riled up to believe it matters more than everything we've been told to believe for months now because social media tells then they need to care.

raxxorrax 6y ago
> it's not even a speck on the radar compared to America I do believe that there are problems with racism in state police in any country but I was surprised how restrained the police in America is by numbers. I would have expected much more death by the hands of the police. Outside of America there is certainly a stereotype of their police being cowboys. Still, I think the numbers alone clearly show police isn't going on rampages killing random people. State abuse today looks completely different.
askafriend 6y ago
I think you fail to understand just how prevalent these issues are for people of color every single day. Yes, these issues might be just a speck for you. But they're a stain on daily life for millions of people around the world (which is why you see people empathizing not just domestically, but internationally). Justifying one's existence and identity every single day is exhausting on a level that all other problems are simply irrelevant when existence is in question. I don't know if you've ever heard the phrase "When White people get the cold, Black people get the flu". Our problems are systemic and the way problems impact people in our society isn't equal. > There's a worrying lack of housing for people here in the last year since the psyche ward and homeless shelters shut down. Businesses have been closing down permanently for months, people are desperate for work, Now dig into the data and see what segment of the population these issues affect the most and disproportionately so. On top of all that, Black people have to worry about having to walk down the street too? Any reasonable person would say "fuck that".
- crowdglass 6y ago
  > I think you fail to understand just how prevalent these issues are for people of color every single day. Beaten in public for not "taking a knee"? White supremacist. Fucking nazi scum. Latino killed by police? White person? Asian? Black cop killing a black person? CNN's silence is deafening. Only Black Lives Matter. > Justifying one's existence and identity every single day is exhausting on a level that all other problems are simply irrelevant when existence is in question. All those straight white men with their white privilege and white fragility that the media paints as evil, horrible, racist monsters never have to deal with that.
  - askafriend 6y ago
    There's a Black family that's been living in a nearby neighborhood for over a decade. Their kid gets the cops called on him regularly because he's Black and walks to school through neighborhoods where people don't recognize him and their first response it to call the cops. Obviously he's not the only one that walks to school, and the other kids have never had the cops called on them. His father's father was lynched back in the day in an effort to drive out a growing Black community. Keep in mind this is just a tiny part of the story of one family. The issues are systemic through the default nature of things and understanding them requires understanding the various systems in effect, the context in which they were put in place, and how they've evolved since. Too often people approach these topics as personal attacks when instead they're intended to describe a complex system that's been intentionally perpetuated. This requires study and context - and that's difficult - which is why people often just talk over each other. For example, the Civil War is taught in some parts of the South as primarily an issue over State's Rights and very little other perspective is provided (personal experience here being a student in the South). Any sane student of History would recognize why this is a problem. Again, this is a tiny tiny part of how systemic these problems are - there's a world of literature out there if you're interested in learning more. I don't believe anyone thinks the BLM movement is saying "Only Black Lives Matter". Literally no one thinks that or even wants it to be that - that's a false framing. Same reason why "Black History Month" is there for a reason. It doesn't mean no one cares about "White History"....that's just called "History" and it's already required study. It's the same reason why when organizations or people highlight Cancer patients and survivors, no one is going around screaming "All diseases matter".

raxxorrax 6y ago

> it's not even a speck on the radar compared to America I do believe that there are problems with racism in state police in any country but I was surprised how restrained the police in America is by numbers. I would have expected much more death by the hands of the police. Outside of America there is certainly a stereotype of their police being cowboys. Still, I think the numbers alone clearly show police isn't going on rampages killing random people. State abuse today looks completely different.

askafriend 6y ago

I think you fail to understand just how prevalent these issues are for people of color every single day. Yes, these issues might be just a speck for you. But they're a stain on daily life for millions of people around the world (which is why you see people empathizing not just domestically, but internationally). Justifying one's existence and identity every single day is exhausting on a level that all other problems are simply irrelevant when existence is in question. I don't know if you've ever heard the phrase "When White people get the cold, Black people get the flu". Our problems are systemic and the way problems impact people in our society isn't equal. > There's a worrying lack of housing for people here in the last year since the psyche ward and homeless shelters shut down. Businesses have been closing down permanently for months, people are desperate for work, Now dig into the data and see what segment of the population these issues affect the most and disproportionately so. On top of all that, Black people have to worry about having to walk down the street too? Any reasonable person would say "fuck that".

crowdglass 6y ago
> I think you fail to understand just how prevalent these issues are for people of color every single day. Beaten in public for not "taking a knee"? White supremacist. Fucking nazi scum. Latino killed by police? White person? Asian? Black cop killing a black person? CNN's silence is deafening. Only Black Lives Matter. > Justifying one's existence and identity every single day is exhausting on a level that all other problems are simply irrelevant when existence is in question. All those straight white men with their white privilege and white fragility that the media paints as evil, horrible, racist monsters never have to deal with that.
- askafriend 6y ago
  There's a Black family that's been living in a nearby neighborhood for over a decade. Their kid gets the cops called on him regularly because he's Black and walks to school through neighborhoods where people don't recognize him and their first response it to call the cops. Obviously he's not the only one that walks to school, and the other kids have never had the cops called on them. His father's father was lynched back in the day in an effort to drive out a growing Black community. Keep in mind this is just a tiny part of the story of one family. The issues are systemic through the default nature of things and understanding them requires understanding the various systems in effect, the context in which they were put in place, and how they've evolved since. Too often people approach these topics as personal attacks when instead they're intended to describe a complex system that's been intentionally perpetuated. This requires study and context - and that's difficult - which is why people often just talk over each other. For example, the Civil War is taught in some parts of the South as primarily an issue over State's Rights and very little other perspective is provided (personal experience here being a student in the South). Any sane student of History would recognize why this is a problem. Again, this is a tiny tiny part of how systemic these problems are - there's a world of literature out there if you're interested in learning more. I don't believe anyone thinks the BLM movement is saying "Only Black Lives Matter". Literally no one thinks that or even wants it to be that - that's a false framing. Same reason why "Black History Month" is there for a reason. It doesn't mean no one cares about "White History"....that's just called "History" and it's already required study. It's the same reason why when organizations or people highlight Cancer patients and survivors, no one is going around screaming "All diseases matter".