Most White People in America Are Completely Oblivious

[Tom Joad]

http://www.alternet.org/most-white-p...age=1#bookmark

A good article by Tim Wise.

Here's an excerpt from it:

To white America, in the main, police are the folks who help get our cats out of the tree, or who take us on ride-arounds to show us how gosh-darned exciting it is to be a cop. We experience police most often as helpful, as protectors of our lives and property. But that is not the black experience by and large; and black people know this, however much we don’t. The history of law enforcement in America, with regard to black folks, has been one of unremitting oppression. That is neither hyperbole nor opinion, but incontrovertible fact. From slave patrols to overseers to the Black Codes to lynching, it is a fact. From dozens of white-on-black riots that marked the first half of the twentieth century (in which cops participated actively) to Watts to Rodney King to Abner Louima to Amadou Diallo to the railroading of the Central Park 5, it is a fact. From the New Orleans Police Department’s killings of Adolph Archie to Henry Glover to the Danziger Bridge shootings there in the wake of Katrina to stop-and-frisk in places like New York, it’s a fact. And the fact that white people don’t know this history, have never been required to learn it, and can be considered even remotely informed citizens without knowing it, explains a lot about what’s wrong with America. Black people have to learn everything about white people just to stay alive. They especially and quite obviously have to know what scares us, what triggers the reptilian part of our brains and convinces us that they intend to do us harm. Meanwhile, we need know nothing whatsoever about them.

You can read it all here.

[donquixote99]

Excellent essay. I'll quote the second paragraph:

Because it is a kind of racial Rorschach (is it not?) into which each of these cases—not just Brown but all the others, from Trayvon Martin to Sean Bell to Patrick Dorismond to Aswan Watson and beyond—inevitably and without fail morph. That we see such different things when we look upon them must mean something. That so much of white America cannot see the shapes made out so clearly by most of black America cannot be a mere coincidence, nor is it likely an inherent defect in our vision. Rather, it is a socially-constructed astigmatism that blinds so many to the way in which black folks often experience law enforcement.

[Zeke]

And I'll quote a third.

Originally Posted by Irrational White Guilt

Can we perhaps, just this once, admit our collective blind spot? Admit that there are things going on, and that have been going on a very long time, about which we know nothing? Might we suspend our disbelief, just long enough to gain some much needed insights about the society we share?

FYI: The essay's only reference is from "Slangin’ Rocks…Palestinian Style," in Police Brutality: An Anthology.

Agendas all around...

[BlueStreak]

I think most people have a problem with indifference, apathy and the ability to see anything beyond their own little corner of the world. "Everything is fine-n-dandy until the problems reaches me." It's all about "those people" and "their problem" until it becomes OUR problem. Furthermore, I believe most people will tend to try and disassociate from a given problem rather than try to help solve it in any way. "F**k ____! Let them rot!"

Sadly, I not only believe that this just "How some people are.", but that this has coalesced into a major political movement. I believe that this is not a good thing, in fact, I believe it will be the end of us as a nation.

IMHO, "Screw you Jack, I've got mine.", CANNOT possibly build a cohesive, mutually beneficial society. All such a thing could possibly lead to is further division, discord and acrimony.

I am frequently insulted and ridiculed for expressing this belief.

I no longer care.

You think I'm an idiot and I think you're an idiot.

As Orwell wrote in 1984; "Under the spreading Chestnut Tree, where I saw you and you saw me."

Have a nice day!

Dave

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

http://www.alternet.org/most-white-p...age=1#bookmark

A good article by Tim Wise.

Here's an excerpt from it:



You can read it all here.

However, if black people believe that this gives them the right to assault police officers after they commit felonies, that's where I part company with them.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by finnbow

However, if black people believe that this gives them the right to assault police officers after they commit felonies, that's where I part company with them.

Hence my critique of the the essay's ONLY reference...

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by finnbow

However, if black people believe that this gives them the right to assault police officers after they commit felonies, that's where I part company with them.

Does 'parting company' differ in any important way from what Bluestreak was talking about?

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Hence my critique of the the essay's ONLY reference...

It's an essay, not a scientific paper. But you don't like it, so you will find your little stones to throw.

References are for academics and others to verify facts and quotations. Do you have any facts or quotations you find dubious? Or is this going on about 'references' just of the nature of a 'cheap shot?'

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Does 'parting company' differ in any important way from what Bluestreak was talking about?

It means I disagree with, not that I'm apathetic about, rioting in the streets to protest a cop (justifiably) shooting a felon who is assaulting him. Historical prejudices among law enforcement towards blacks, while still existent to a degree far less than decades ago, does not justify lawlessness, burning and looting on the streets of Ferguson.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by finnbow

It means I disagree with, not that I'm apathetic about, rioting in the streets to protest a cop (justifiably) shooting a felon who is assaulting him. Historical prejudices among law enforcement towards blacks, while still existent to a degree far less than decades ago, does not justify lawlessness, burning and looting on the streets of Ferguson.

I agree.

However, to further clarify I wasn't speaking of apathy towards the rioting, I was referring to apathy towards the plight of the black community. I believe that the vast majority of Americans are disgusted with the rioting and looting. I imagine there are few who are actually enjoying this. But, I also believe there are few outside the black community who honestly care about the conditions that led to this tragic situation in the first place.

I've been reading comments about it all morning. They range from somewhat ignorant to downright disgusting.

Dave