Racism Sucks · 6:57pm Jun 5th, 2020
Seriously, it does. Wanderer D and Albinocorn have said it more eloquently than I ever could, but here are my two cents.
I am a minority in my own country. I'm Chinese-Canadian and here's the thing, I've been quite silent. Yes, I wrote fanfiction with themes about racism... but honestly I've been pretty silent in my public life because to put it bluntly, I am Canadian, but there's that pressure to belong in your country, even one that has a multicultural culture like mine. You want to be glad for what you have, you don't want to upset the cart too much when there are so many voices.
Edit: Reason? There's a culture of silence in the Chinese-Canadian community. Due to colonialism and the exclusion act etc... the community really wants to belong. We frame ourselves as Canadian, when we are also aware we are treated differently. We argue to ourselves we need to prove ourselves... when not questioning the why we are demanded to prove ourselves.
But I don't think I can be silent on this any longer. Racism is terrible. It blinds decent people to stuff that happens under their own noses, it keeps people who should really speak out silent, and it just kills people in many, so many different ways.
In some ways, the cops themselves, and those being racist are the victim of this system of colonial racist oppression. I cannot imagine any cop who signs up to protect their communities... wants to go out and kill black people, I work in child services and I cannot imagine the Social Workers that I work with aim to separate indigenous or black people from their families, but that's the problem with systems and institutions... racism gets internalized until people take a stand and speak out against it.
Should we compassionate to those blinded by their own prejudices? Of course. Should we loot things? Of course not, but the fact of the matter is, this problem has gone on since human history began so I yeah, people are frustrated as hell. We need take steps to stop this before it takes more lives and breaks more good people.
People don't understand this. In most cases the anger is directed to the wrong location. The rhetoric is "cops are all racist because they only arrest black folk"... the reality is that you have a few like the guy who doesn't deserve to be named who decided to rough up someone he'd known previously. Because his chief, his mayor, etc did absolutely nothing to correct the behavior of the few bad cops. (Whether or not they can do anything thanks to the double-edged sword of the police union is another matter entirely)
I don't think it's ever had anything to actually do with racism at all. It's an unfortunate tornado of statistics and demographics. Based on my experiences being incarcerated our inner-city/lower-income culture (regardless of race) idolizes gangbangers, criminal activity, and drug use. Attempting to extricate yourself from this leads to accusations of "being too good (for 'this/them')", or if you're black and want to live a legal successful life you're an uncle Tom or "acting white". This isn't just me in an armchair looking at DoJ data and pushing some white supremacist rhetoric, this is me being sentenced to four years in juvenile detention for armed aggravated assault and watching my best friend Leon get the shit kicked out of him for listening to the Rolling Stones, and people making house n- and "massa say" jokes about my friend Kelly(armed robbery & gang activity) for wanting to drop his colors, straighten his life out, and wanting to become a nurse.
Maybe, just maybe, if we give these young kids the ability to leave the 'hood and stop pulling them back in when they try, maybe if we stop equating "blackness" with "being hard" and criminal activity, we'll stop seeing dead black boys on the front page of the newspaper.
The man who doesn't deserve to be named who did Floyd in deserves to hang. The city officials who ignored complaints against him and did nothing to correct his conduct or take him off the street need to be indicted. But we also need to be the change we want to see. Want to see it change? Instead of burning down a family-owned Vietnamese restaurant and """joking""" on Woke Twitter about how it's perfectly okay to loot white businesses, maybe run for an office and effect the change you want to see. We complain, protest, and riot about the status quo but most of our sitting legislators and elected government officials ran completely unopposed.
My understanding of the situation is that it's more then just just a racist cop killing a black, but just the kindle that light the fire. The USA government has cut a lot of social programs for the pore, AKA a lot of Black folks, and with the COVID-19 that stopped most of them from working for over two months, or just losing their jobs, they can't afford paying their rent and about to go default, so a lot of them are risking eviction along with their family on the streets. This is a just a symptom of a much much larger social issue that the unchecked capitalism, gros regulation of affordable homes and the government that that decided to bailout large business that didn't meant they would keep their low wage employees. These people are desperate, fed up, and deep-seeded resentment of a system that is obviously is design to work against them and that there is no system that can or will come to their aide. The looting is only a means in an attempt to survive and to make some money in an attempt to avoid landing on the streets.
5278006
I hope you know that George Floyd was a career criminal, he raped, tortured, killed, and held a lot of people hostages in his life. Recently (a month before his death) he held a pregnant woman hostages while he was robing her, and honestly the fact that he died makes me smile, the fact that he died from police brutality though doesn't. In my opinion that monster should have died from gunshot wounds from resisting arrest or something like this.
5278157
I don't believe he deserved to die at all. Nobody deserves to die.
He didn't die from police brutality. He died because a thug allowed to keep his badge assaulted him over a ten year old beef.
Humans are incredible, biological machines. We have a base programing in DNA. but I belive in nurture over nature. Meaning I belive its mostly in how a person is raised, and the experiences they go through that makes a person do what they do. Sure genetics have a role in habits and compulsions. But genetics take a long time to deviate and change like that. Even then for the most part we can override it with time and effort, phobias, etc...
Essentially I see that poverty, drugs, and bad parenting and schooling are the cause of most of the problems.
Also, people need to be more understanding of the
why... and know how to take a joke...
5278157
Sure thing buddy.
5278166
So from your own words someone like Osama bin laden didn't deserve to die after killing thousands of innocent people?
5278172
I agree with you buddy.
5278157
You're missing the point and whether intentionally or not, diverting the conversation. The point isn't that he's a career criminal. It doesn't matter if he is or isn't. Maybe he deserves to die, maybe he deserves jail. The point is racism in all countries in all walks of life is bad and don't you dare tell me it doesn't happen.
5278006 That's an intriguing point of view, though, I still think racism plays a factor because at least how I read it is that people pulling people back in the hood have internalized the racism to that extent, but again, that's my POV. I'm not going to discuss whether people should die or not, that isn't even related to the topic of conversation here.
5278074 Oh of course. Though I still see long-ingrained racism as the key reason why certain minority groups suffer more.
5278172 Well duh, but if you grow up in a school that is racist and teaches you to be racist.. you're going to end up being racist.
5278351
That was part of the point. Originally that was a reply to
5278006
and I worded it differently after thinking it was better as a stand alone comment. I agree with them for the most part, but i wouldn't say never.
I've already made my thoughts clear on someone else's post. But my break is over and I dont have time to repost it.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/903985/my-thoughts-on-everything-going-on
I will admit I rolled with a changed in subject to humanity in general...