All things Racist...USA edition (3 Viewers)

Snarky Sack said:

I might interpret the slamming up beer as aggression, probably motivated by him thinking I was weird for waving at a stranger in a bar. Or I might just think he's had a few too many cores and isn't really controlling his motor functions that well. Or that maybe he has a disability where he always has trouble with his motor functions.

Or maybe there was a critter crawling across the bar that he wanted to smash. Or maybe he hallucinated one.

What I'm saying is that there are plenty of interpretations one could spend for the simple closing of a blind. I'm just wondering how productive that actually is in the larger discussion about the existence of racism.

Since y'all have forced me to think about this so much in depth, I would think that a much more quote aggressive unquote way to close the blinds would have been too slowly close the blinds while lowering his head to stare menacingly at the hated new family.

Maybe Robin didn't think of that..

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If later, that guy walks over and says that criminals like you shouldn't be around here, then calls the police; will you still think he slammed his beer down because a critter ran by that he wanted to smash?

Incumbent said:

Got it. Maybe you aren't being intentionally obtuse after all...

You can only get there by choosing to ignore the description of "aggressively ignored" which indicates he did something that came across as aggressive to them. I used abruptly as an interpretation of what that could mean. I think that approach gets closer to trying to understand the situation than your approach of deciding you don't like the phrasing so you'll just drop that from the equation.

And then continue to gloss over that he didn't just ignore the wave, but that he came out to confront them, accuse them of malicious intent, and had called the police.

You're right that there are plenty of real stories of racism that harm people, and many of those start with nosy, bigoted people being unnecessarily confrontational and calling the police in exactly this manner.

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In this manner and in this exact circumstance.

samiam5211 said:

If later, that guy walks over and says that criminals like you shouldn't be around here, then calls the police; will you still think he slammed his beer down because a critter ran by that he wanted to smash?

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No, I think he's a mean drunk who stereotyped me as a criminal for reasons on clear in his drunken mind.

If the story by Robin what's-their-name is true as written, it is certainly an example of racism. I guess I have to repeat that a few more times.

I'm a detail-oriented person, like you'd want flying your plane or drilling your teeth, but not necessarily drinking a bear with you. That first detail of the aggressive blind closing didn't ring true to me is what makes me doubt the entire story. It sounds like an "it could have happened, so why not say it did to meet my deadline" kind of story.

Enough about the blinds. Here a woman tries to explain how she is NOT racist. Yeah, like every racist does.

samiam5211 said:

It's not the racists that murder black people who have the most impact on people's lives.

It's the lady at the store who follows someone around, or the lady at checkout who makes a face at a black family.

Those small interactions that most black people deal with multiple times every day have more impact than the type of racist who burns crosses in people's yards.

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Just saw something recently where a guy was talking about checking out in a grocery store in a mostly white town

This is well over 20 Years ago before debit cards and most people paid cash at the store

The cashier smiled and placed the change in the hand of each customer

When he paid, no smile and change was placed on the counter(and he had his hand out for the change)

he said that in some ways that hurt more than some of the more blatant racism he experienced

I’ve posted this before



Excellent video that everyone should watch

It goes over the micro aggressions we deal with all the time

The internal debate/struggle over whether you should say something about it

The woman who uses her position to challenge what was happening

The cashier who was denying doing what she was clearly doing

But think about her daughter.

Think about this ten year old child Seeing her mother go through that, think about her seeing her mother decide not to defend herself and just take it

What does that do to the child? To her relationship with her mother?

But better that than have her classmates learn about systemic racism. They might feel bad and guilty

The 10 year old black girl standing next to her mother watching all this go down? Fork her

And literally case in point, a Kansas principal was forced to apologize after showing this exact video to staff because it created “a hostile work environment”

And it wasn’t a student or a parent who complained. It was a teacher

Snarky Sack said:

No, I think he's a mean drunk who stereotyped me as a criminal for reasons on clear in his drunken mind.

If the story by Robin what's-their-name is true as written, it is certainly an example of racism. I guess I have to repeat that a few more times.

I'm a detail-oriented person, like you'd want flying your plane or drilling your teeth, but not necessarily drinking a bear with you. That first detail of the aggressive blind closing didn't ring true to me is what makes me doubt the entire story. It sounds like an "it could have happened, so why not say it did to meet my deadline" kind of story.

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Do you think you were being relayed the story in real time?

The assumption about the way the blinds were closed was made after the full context of the interaction.

You were desperate to look for something to write off this person's experience, so you shut down as soon as you found it. That's not very detail oriented, to make a conclusion before you have all of the information.

“Would you say you were ignored aggressively or was it more abruptly?”

Optimus Prime said:

I’ve posted this before



Excellent video that everyone should watch

It goes over the micro aggressions we deal with all the time

The internal debate/struggle over whether you should say something about it

The woman who uses her position to challenge what was happening

The cashier who was denying doing what she was clearly doing

But think about her daughter.

Think about this ten year old child Seeing her mother go through that, think about her seeing her mother decide not to defend herself and just take it

What does that do to the child? To her relationship with her mother?

But better that than have her classmates learn about systemic racism. They might feel bad and guilty

The 10 year old black girl standing next to her mother watching all this go down? Fork her

And literally case in point, a Kansas principal was forced to apologize after showing this exact video to staff because it created “a hostile work environment”

And it wasn’t a student or a parent who complained. It was a teacher

Kansas principal ordered to apologize for showing a video about white privilege after teacher said it created a hostile work environment

Derby High School's principal showed staff a video showing how some people could use their white privilege to be allies.

www.insider.com

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This is outrageous, that a teacher would object to this video being shown to staff - and forever puts to rest any allegations that the left are “snowflakes”. The right turns out to be the biggest, fluffiest snowflakes of all.

And that’s being generous, because I don’t happen to believe that teacher actually felt that it was a hostile work environment to listen to a woman tell a true story of one of her experiences. No, the teacher rather saw a way to pervert the regulations in order to keep people from actually talking about such issues. They would do anything, it seems, to keep people from talking about the way things actually are, with the goal of having everyone employ some self-reflection.

Self-reflection is what they are terrified of, IMO, because if they truly look at themselves, they will see the people who sneered and shouted at Ruby Bridges. They would see ugly.

Optimus Prime said:

Just saw something recently where a guy was talking about checking out in a grocery store in a mostly white town

This is well over 20 Years ago before debit cards and most people paid cash at the store

The cashier smiled and placed the change in the hand of each customer

When he paid, no smile and change was placed on the counter(and he had his hand out for the change)

he said that in some ways that hurt more than some of the more blatant racism he experienced

Click to expand...

I had something like this happen to me that I talked about on EE

My girlfriend and I were out of town and went to a mall and we went into a store and started looking around

We were the only black people in the store

After a while I noticed that everyone who came into the store received an enthusiastic "Hi! Welcome to (store name), is there anything I can help you with?" from an employee

We did not, even though there were several employees milling around when we came in and they weren't helping customers

When leaving the store everyone got an enthusiastic "Thanks for coming in, have a great day!"

Total silence when we left

Did I really care or did it really matter in the grand scheme of things that one of those 20 year old blonde women didn't say hi or bye to us?

But I noticed. I always notice. And it does wear on you

Optimus Prime said:

I had something like this happen to me that I talked about on EE

My girlfriend and I were out of town and went to a mall and we went into a store and started looking around

We were the only black people in the store

After a while I noticed that everyone who came into the store received an enthusiastic "Hi! Welcome to (store name), is there anything I can help you with?" from an employee

We did not, even though there were several employees milling around when we came in and they weren't helping customers

When leaving the store everyone got an enthusiastic "Thanks for coming in, have a great day!"

Total silence when we left

Did I really care or does it really matter in the grand scheme of things that one of those 20 year old blonde women didn't say hi or bye to us?

But I noticed. I always notice. And it does wear on you

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And there will be a long line of people ready to tell you the disparate treatment was imagined, or if it did happen, was motivated by anything other than race. That will happen no matter how many times other black people share their same experiences.

I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I'm angry you have to deal with that. America is a bigoted society, and a lot of that has been facilitated through religion. I had to get comfortable accepting that because it's obviously not what many of us are taught about "the greatest country in the world" while practicing a religion that is about "love and forgiveness" [as long as...]

Incumbent said:

And there will be a long line of people ready to tell you the disparate treatment was imagined, or if it did happen, was motivated by anything other than race. That will happen no matter how many times other black people share their same experiences.

I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I'm angry you have to deal with that. America is a bigoted society, and a lot of that has been facilitated through religion. I had to get comfortable accepting that because it's obviously not what many of us are taught about "the greatest country in the world" while practicing a religion that is about "love and forgiveness" [as long as...]

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This country suffers from what I call toxic theomythology. Humans tend to couch things in relation to foundational myths. Here the foundational myths have reached the stage of religious dogma. A few examples of the theomythology are:

Exceptionalism which is acutely dangerous
Rugged individualism for which we have to “thank” the transcendentalists and Horacio Alger since it is completely untrue
Post-racial which is just complete bullschlitz created to make white people feel better

It is almost impossible to have a discussion about toxic theomythology because it would unleash seismic social discomfort. So we limp along pretending that everything is wonderful here in the “Greatest Country in the World”.

AKentucky school district will reform its anti-discrimination policies after a years-long investigation uncovered "serious and widespread racial harassment" targeting Black students and multiracial students in the county, federal authorities said.

Located in central Kentucky, Madison County Schools enrolls about 11,000 students across its 18 schools, according to the district. It became the subject of a federal probe in 2021, which found "numerous incidents" where Black and multiracial kids were harassed by other students because of their race, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday.

Students of color in Madison County faced racist taunts and intimidation while at school, which in some instances involved the use of Confederate flags and imagery, the Justice Department said, citing situations where students contended with racial epithets, including the N-word, and other derogatory racist comments. The investigation also found a disproportionate amount of disciplinary actions taken against Black and multiracial students in some schools, coupled with "inadequate systems for recordkeeping and analysis" of disciplinary reports.

Monday's announcement noted that the school district failed to "consistently or reasonably" address these issues, and when it did, often failed to respond in accordance with its own racial harassment policies.

Ultimately, the investigation determined that the district's "actions were ineffective in addressing the broader hostile environment," and led Black and multiracial students to believe that district officials either condoned the harassment or would not protect them from it, the Justice Department said.............

Optimus Prime said:

AKentucky school district will reform its anti-discrimination policies after a years-long investigation uncovered "serious and widespread racial harassment" targeting Black students and multiracial students in the county, federal authorities said.

Located in central Kentucky, Madison County Schools enrolls about 11,000 students across its 18 schools, according to the district. It became the subject of a federal probe in 2021, which found "numerous incidents" where Black and multiracial kids were harassed by other students because of their race, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday.

Students of color in Madison County faced racist taunts and intimidation while at school, which in some instances involved the use of Confederate flags and imagery, the Justice Department said, citing situations where students contended with racial epithets, including the N-word, and other derogatory racist comments. The investigation also found a disproportionate amount of disciplinary actions taken against Black and multiracial students in some schools, coupled with "inadequate systems for recordkeeping and analysis" of disciplinary reports.

Monday's announcement noted that the school district failed to "consistently or reasonably" address these issues, and when it did, often failed to respond in accordance with its own racial harassment policies.

Ultimately, the investigation determined that the district's "actions were ineffective in addressing the broader hostile environment," and led Black and multiracial students to believe that district officials either condoned the harassment or would not protect them from it, the Justice Department said.............

MSN

www.msn.com

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This is racism from within the system. I feel like there's a term for this...

cuddlemonkey said:

This is racism from within the system. I feel like there's a term for this...

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If only we knew what it was and maybe just maybe teach everyone about it to try to prevent from happening

Optimus Prime said:

If only we knew what it was and maybe just maybe teach everyone about it to try to prevent from happening

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Given this real-world, modern example, we should probably find a way to get to the root cause. There's gotta be a way to do that, right?

Darrin Bell plays with three of his young children as the family heads to the dinner table. As they sit to eat, though, Bell’s 6-year-old son looks up and asks out of curiosity: “Who’s George Floyd?

It is 2020, and Bell and his wife, Makeda, have wondered for several years when to have “the talk” with son Zazu. It is the conversation about how, as Bell writes in addressing his son, “The world is different for George Floyd, for your mama and papa, for you. And for everyone who’s Black … because of something called ‘racism.’”

Zazu soon hears that his youth provides no sure protection, either. In Bell’s words: “When police see little White boys with toy guns, they see innocence, but they would look upon Zazu as a menace. As a thing. As a threat to be dealt with. They might even shoot him. I know this makes no sense to him … because it shouldn’t.”

That passage propels a poignant scene from Bell’s first graphic memoir, “The Talk,” arriving this week as a riveting and intimate journey from innocence to experience, as we see the author mature from kindergarten to being a Los Angeles-area teenager in the Rodney King era to a parent of four Black offspring younger than 10 in the Black Lives Matter era.
That 2020 conversation is similar to “the talk” that Bell listened to in the ’80s, when he himself was 6. The author knows: It connects generations.

Bell, 48, is best known to some readers as an artfully unflinching satirist and the first Black cartoonist ever to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 2019. To others, he’s known for his syndicated comic strips “Candorville” and “Rudy Park.” Yet in “The Talk,” Bell combines the overtly personal and the sociopolitical in a textured autobiography that blends raw honesty, moving memories and powerful insights on race and police relations — including when squad cars unnervingly trailed his White mother and Black father toward a county line in California a half-century ago.

Bell says he did not begin writing “The Talk” for a mass audience, but rather to share with his son, now 9. Yet today, Bell says by Zoom interview last week from his Sacramento-area home, he views the book as more than simply his story. It’s also a guide for people who might be uncomfortable having “the talk” — a catchall term for how Black parents first discuss with their children the realities of American racism.

One of those people was Bell’s own father, who left the family on Bell’s 10th birthday.

When Bell was 6, he had a traumatizing encounter with a police officer. He was gleefully playing with a neon-green toy water gun — pretending he was a Star Wars character — when an officer suddenly commanded him, “Drop the weapon.” The officer began barking orders Bell did not understand before saying the words “warning” and “go home.” He then took Bell’s water gun.

Before that encounter, Bell had asked his mom why the brightly tinted toy didn’t look like a real gun. Her reply: “Because, son … that’s what’s going to keep you alive.”..........

Bell also endures an incident with authority in a store — what he calls a terrifying “nightmare” — when a friend of Korean descent decides to shoplift. Darrin refuses to participate, but as he dramatizes in the book, Bell is the only one who is paraded through the store and put in handcuffs for the crime. As if to add insult to injury, the guard even says to Bell: “How did a boy like HIM get MIXED UP with a BOY like you?” (Bell is in grade school at the time, and when a police officer soon visits his class and needs a child to portray a dope dealer in a D.A.R.E. skit, he averts his eyes; fortunately, he says, classmate Mayim Bialik volunteers.)..........

Optimus Prime said:

I had something like this happen to me that I talked about on EE

My girlfriend and I were out of town and went to a mall and we went into a store and started looking around

We were the only black people in the store

After a while I noticed that everyone who came into the store received an enthusiastic "Hi! Welcome to (store name), is there anything I can help you with?" from an employee

We did not, even though there were several employees milling around when we came in and they weren't helping customers

When leaving the store everyone got an enthusiastic "Thanks for coming in, have a great day!"

Total silence when we left

Did I really care or did it really matter in the grand scheme of things that one of those 20 year old blonde women didn't say hi or bye to us?

But I noticed. I always notice. And it does wear on you

Click to expand...

Years ago, before there was any talk of white privilege or systemic racism, I had a black woman as my immediate supervisor and we worked closely together. She would tell me how many times the police would pull her over for one reason or another, it happened so often I was gobsmacked. We drove similar vehicles and lived in similar neighborhoods. I never got pulled over during the time we worked together - not once. So when all these concepts came into the national discussion - I was like “yeah, that tracks”. I’m sorry that happened to you, OP.