Protests following the killing of George Floyd

AFC NimbleThumb

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As for my second point. I can only speak of the UK but I really don’t think ethnic minorities are hindered because of their skin colour, more to do with their financial situation when growing up. I appreciate the counter argument will be ethnic minorities are poor due to their skin colour. But the reality for most ethnic minority people is they or their prior generations came from poorer countries. Their families would have had to start from the bottom and it’s not easy to get up that financial ladder. I would suggest that’s a systematic error of not helping the poorest in our society. This is not to say racism doesn’t exist in the UK, unfortunately that will be difficult to eradicate completely. But systematic racism? Not for me.
Thank god @Leroy The Red had the patience to put you in your place with civility cause tripe like this deserves none of it.

From what I'm seeing in London the Met are rightly trying a very gentle approach with this however it does look like some people are not coming to protest but with the intent on inciting public disorder. I hope it settles down and BLM UK work to ease the situation.
:lol:
 

sammsky1

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What a stupid woman.
In her own way, she made a valid criticism.

300+ years of systemic abuse, lynching, rape. ... this time the cat is out of the bag and US police will have to suck this outpouring of rage foras long as it takes to get out.
 

Wibble

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Come again.

Are you responding about your pseudo account? Is this Wibble or hmchan.

Godwin’s law :lol:
I was half jokingly saying that if systemic racism wasn't a thing because sometimes non-black people suffer violence at the hands of the police then you could also say that the holocaust wasn't a thing because non-Jews were killed.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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I was half jokingly saying that if systemic racism wasn't a thing because sometimes non-black people suffer violence at the hands of the police then you could also say that the holocaust wasn't a thing because non-Jews were killed.
Ah, I believe we’re on the same page here.
 

Wibble

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I think people forget that there are degrees of privileged. I will never inherit a penny and most likely I'll never be very wealthy but growing up in a lower middle class white family in Manchester still gave me some privileged even if it was just in educational opportunities and expectations and life opportunities in general. If I had grown up in different circumstances the likelihood of me having lived the life I have to date would have been far far smaller.

I have also only twice been abused for not coming from the country I now live in. Once by a cop in the late 80's and once by a disgruntled neighbour who got upset when I asked him to move his (literally) shit stained double trailer road train from outside my house where he had illegally parked. Neither bothered me because neither event felt dis-empowering. If that had been racial abuse based on my skin colour I think it would have felt very differently.
 

Dr. Dwayne

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Unarmed, black, Muslim... 3 strikes and you’re out apparently

I would like to point out though that this is turning into the stuff that was broadcast in the 1960s - cops brutally attacking unarmed people on camera - that turned the nation’s sentiment against the police and toward the protestors.
I don't have a lot of faith that those who aren't already sympathetic to the protesters can be turned. :(
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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I think people forget that there are degrees of privileged. I will never inherit a penny and most likely I'll never be very wealthy but growing up in a lower middle class white family in Manchester still gave me some privileged even if it was just in educational opportunities and expectations and life opportunities in general. If I had grown up in different circumstances the likelihood of me having lived the life I have to date would have been far far smaller.
Post of the month!

Privilege isn’t just the ‘small million dollar loan’ Trump got from his dad.

When people talk about White Privilege it doesn’t mean a white person doesn’t have to work hard to be successful or that good things are simply handed to all white people - it can often be a reference to the everyday things white people take for granted that can actually cause a BAME person issues.

Something as simple as a car purchase. To most people the thought is ‘I work hard so I’ll get this luxury, I may be targeted by criminals but I’m insured & the police will help me find it’ but as a BAME person you think, ‘not only do I have to look out for criminals I might get stopped, & if I do what will that interaction be like? etc.’.

It’s hard to explain in just a few sentences but I read this recently, “It’s a privilege to learn about racism instead of experiencing it your whole life”.

Before somebody says it. Do white people get pulled over in nice cars? Yes but if that’s your argument I’m really done trying to reach you.
 

SteveJ

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Does he not realise what that flag symbolises for many people?
 

SteveJ

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Thugs:
The police department in Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city, is coming under criticism after a video posted to social media appeared to show officers using chemical agents on demonstrators who were boxed in while protesting the death of George Floyd.

The video was recorded Tuesday night by Justin LaFrancois, co-founder and publisher of the alternative Charlotte newspaper Queen City Nerve. He said officers fired tear gas and flash-bangs from behind the protesters, and in front of them as well. He also said officers perched on top of buildings were firing pepper balls down on the crowd.

“We were completely trapped,” LaFrancois said. “There was one way to get out, and half of the group did go out that way through the tear gas and through the pepper balls. But for the rest of us, the only route of escape ... was to pull up a gate on the parking structure that we were pressed up against.”

LaFrancois said people tried to squeeze under the 6-inch opening in the gate and find safety. But as those people looked for an exit from the parking deck, he said officers began firing pepper balls after they entered the deck from the other side.

"They were relentless in not allowing us to leave the area that they were trying to get us to leave," LaFrancois said. "It was the most extreme action that I had seen taken. It was the first time that I was actually in fear for my life."

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said on Twitter they are looking into the incident.
"We are internally reviewing the circumstances that developed this evening on 4th Street to ensure policy and protocol were followed, the police department tweeted Tuesday."
 

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Rudy Guiliani just had a complete meltdown whilst being ignored by Piers Morgan. The bloke is unhinged and just exploded after Morgan mentioned the looting/shooting quote Trump tweeted.
 

Drifter

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Republican senators dodge questions, defend clearing out peaceful protesters

Hope they are remembered in November. Cowards.
 

Revan

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Republican senators dodge questions, defend clearing out peaceful protesters

Hope they are remembered in November. Cowards.
Only Murkowski there had some balls. And Cruz didn’t disappoint to be the most disgusting of them all.
 

pacifictheme

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:nono: Fecking hell pogue. Charmed life you must lead. Please tell me you at least put a finger down for not being able to afford something expensive.
Its accused. So I would assume going to buy something and the sales assistant making it clear they think you can't afford it.

Anyway I put down 3 fingers.

Racial slur
Followed in a store
Someone crossed the street
 

Penna

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...3 or 5 fingers left for me, depending on whether ethnic/regional slurs qualify as racial(they're more like racist-adjacent). And i'm white and italian and lived most of my life in italy. Damn it Italy :lol:
The regional slurs are odd, aren't they? There's a saying "Better to have a corpse in your house than a Marchigiano at your door."
 

hmchan

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@hmchan do you agree that police brutality in the US is more commonly directed at black people? do you agree that the police are more lenient with whites than blacks? do you agree that their tendency in any given situation is to assume that the black person(s) involved are in the wrong?

In many circumstances I would agree that the issue shouldnt be restricted to a single race or denomination. This isnt one of those circumstances. It has been very clear that in the US, police appear to be far more aggressive and use far more (i.e. excessive) force dealing with blacks than with whites.
Do you - hand on heart - believe that anyone would be able to convince you to change your mind on this?

I dont think @hmchan comes across particularly well, and he also failed to respond to a post of mine earlier where I posted him three relatively straightforward yes/no questions. But he isnt being aggressive (most of the insults have been in his direction, in fact) and is at least attempting to put his viewpoint across in a reasonable fashion. If you dont want to engage with him - which is completely understandable - then just dont engage with him. Put him on ignore if you really feel there is no value to any discussion with him.

Its mildly ironic that in a thread where a major part of the talking point is people's right to freedom of speech, that we are having this discussion.
I think most of the points have been addressed in #3427. I agree that black people are often treated unfairly by the cops, this includes being treated in a less lenient way etc. These are classic examples of racism, and people can always voice their dissent to these racist acts from time to time, but not making use of Floyd's death as it's a clear case of police brutality.

For the brutality part, however, I personally have some conservation. From the social experiment, the majority of participants including black people themselves were more likely to shoot at their black friend rather than a white stranger. While you may argue this is already a kind of racism, I think the definition would be too broad this way that basically everyone is a racist.

Many talk about police's bias towards the black, but they fail to acknowledge their own bias. They presumably think Chauvin murdered Floyd due to racial profiling, solely based on so-called history and pattern without any evidence. Using the same metaphor as before, it's like a murderer must also be a rapist just because many killers rape their victims in the society.

When a white man is knelt to death, it's police brutality; when a black man is killed in the same way, it's racism. It just doesn't make any sense. Those who see it this way are actually the greatest racists, because they view and categorize the same event differently. Now it seems people value black people higher than others, as their death arouses attention while few care about others.

Unlike others, I'm always prepared to change my mind, as soon as there is any direct evidence pointing to the involvement of racism in this particular case. Maybe someone would testify against him in the trial, maybe someome would leak some stories to the press. Honestly, I hope Chauvin can be proven a racist in the end, otherwise all these protests look far less legitimate and meaningful, as they have already been without a clear aim and a concrete demand.
 

JPRouve

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Thanks, man. I'm just curious that if other non-white race is in-charge of power, they wouldn't do the same (or even worse). What do you think?
I think that anyone in a position of true power could act similarly, all communities are susceptible to be prejudiced, it's an human flaw. The point of all of this isn't to attack one ethnicity's nature but to make people realize that the society that they built for themselves and its mechanism are totally unjust when you are not part of the ethnic majority.
 

Lj82

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Post of the month!

Privilege isn’t just the ‘small million dollar loan’ Trump got from his dad.

When people talk about White Privilege it doesn’t mean a white person doesn’t have to work hard to be successful or that good things are simply handed to all white people - it can often be a reference to the everyday things white people take for granted that can actually cause a BAME person issues.

Something as simple as a car purchase. To most people the thought is ‘I work hard so I’ll get this luxury, I may be targeted by criminals but I’m insured & the police will help me find it’ but as a BAME person you think, ‘not only do I have to look out for criminals I might get stopped, & if I do what will that interaction be like? etc.’.

It’s hard to explain in just a few sentences but I read this recently, “It’s a privilege to learn about racism instead of experiencing it your whole life”.

Before somebody says it. Do white people get pulled over in nice cars? Yes but if that’s your argument I’m really done trying to reach you.
Thank you for this post. I have been reflecting on this issue. I never thought about myself as having privileges in the past. Only when I was in the US, when for the first time I do not belong to the majority race, do I realise issues that I never thought about before. Simple things like "the sky is the limit if you work hard" only applies when you are born without the cuffs that are chained to certain groups of people from birth.
 
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giorno

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The regional slurs are odd, aren't they? There's a saying "Better to have a corpse in your house than a Marchigiano at your door."
They're really not. Just part of our culture in a way not too dissimilar from racism

Of course now that immigration is turning us into a multi-ethnic population, we jumped at the chance for full blown racism
 

africanspur

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This makes you think. Nine fingers left for me.
What an interesting approach. 3 fingers left for me and this from a black man who socio-economically leads a comparatively charmed life in the UK compared to many other black people here.