Quote:
Originally Posted by Skinned
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Slavery, segregation, ethnic cleansing, and what is occurring in Ferguson is definitely racism of a structural level, which is better described as discrimination, as racism doesn't have the power component in it, while discrimination does.
A more fundamental question here is: even if you think the man who was killed by the police was a strong-arm thug, are you willing to relinquish the presumption of innocence? From your position in this thread it seems so, but only for one demographic of citizen and not another. Are you ready to go down this road? Or are you acting in a way that you wouldn't want to be the universal maxim given the situation?
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I would say the most accurate description of the stance that I take at any given time is to look at the available facts and roll with what is currently the most probable outcome. The beauty of only being figuratively judge and jury in this instance means that I am able to jump the gun and make a call without potentially harming the party in question.
In in virtually any situation including this particular instance I agree that the cop was wrong to shoot an unarmed person, even if he robbed a store, even if he was a gang member, race is irrelevant when it comes to me making that judgement, even if the shooting itself was likely racially motivated. As more information comes in, we are starting to see the other side (the cops story) gaining more and more weight. Is it enough to make their side of the argument the truth? For me, not yet. I'm not even close to backing off and going neutral on it yet, I still believe the cops overstepped their bounds.
With all of that said, the bulk of the discussion in this thread is in regards to the rioters in the aftermath of said shooting, whom while completely justified in their anguish and anger are absolutely not justified in looting/assaulting/vandalizing or anything else that they've done beyond peaceful protesting.
Complaining about the mere presence of police in the area even though it's been allegedly mostly peaceful since the looting is wrong as well, since it's standard practice to have a police presence in any situation that has the potential to get violent such as *gasp* a place with active protest that recently had a riot.
Sure the cops are being dicks here too, they are teargassing news reporters and non-violent civilians and everyone caught being part of that should be fired on the spot. Despite that, it's still zero justification for more looting/rioting.
I'd have a plethora of respect for the protesters if they decided to raid the police station or city hall as opposed to destroying the homes and businesses of their fellow citizens. Calling for a revolution and then burning down a QuickTrip doesn't add up no matter what numerical system you use.
I'm looking at facts first, if I make a racial quip after first looking at the facts/statistics (I never claimed to be a saint) too bad. I still consider pointing out a group of black people acting stereotypical black to be observant as opposed to racist. Note that I point out their actions after they've taken them, I try not to claim "of course the blacks did this, are you surprised?" because I mostly don't think that way and when I do it's because I'm hedging my bets based on social trends from which my personal opinion is irrelevant.
I hope that answered your questions.
08-15-2014, 02:00 PM
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