Prison population is backwards looking. How would everybody be able to know we make progress in the 2nd half of 2020?

Release all minor drug offenders in prison.

The problem with the stats idea is if you went by them BLM wouldn’t exist. Or the stats used are clearly flawed ones like using total white and black deaths by police officers without taking into account that crime rate is higher in the black community. You have a higher chance of dying if you’re arrested for violent crime if you’re white than you are if you’re black, and a higher % of white people killed by cops are unarmed than black, which doesn’t make very much sense if the majority of white cops are racist. I believe the % of dying while under arrest if you’re black is higher, but for example white people get arrested for DUIs way more than black people where you’re not as in danger from cops, so this affects the numbers somewhat. Stats would also bring up some things people don’t want to hear such as that black people kill white people more than white people kill black people, and black people killing each other is by far a bigger problem than being killed by white people.

An article today about the subject https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-myth-o ... 1591119883

Apologies to the emotionally charged for posting some inconvenient truths.

What would that do for police brutality etc?

You truly are a piece of shit. Like, honestly. Shut the site down. I'm so fucking sick of you.

People that go around replying to "Black Lives Matter" posts on social media with "ALL LIVES MATTER" can't possibly be that fucking stupid, can they? I see this everywhere and I don't get where it's coming from. I'm assuming right-wing personalities are behind it.

For your health example, I actually think it's ok if someone does say that about that cancer, and other types of cancers; it doesn't diminish breast cancer, but also bring awareness to other types as well.

Specifically, I feel like the cancer analogy applies relevantly to Covid-19 situation. A lot of women do regular check up for breast cancer, but ignore other type of cancer risks. So people have been solely focused on Covid-19 that they are ignoring the dangers of other health conditions. They're afraid to go get important medical exams to check for other health issues; or the medical facility is closed/not allowing any elective procedures, or the hospital was overwhelmed with patients and couldn't adequately provide care to non-covid-19 patients. So people have been dying without getting covid-19, but those deaths are indirectly caused by the covid-19 pandemic.

Site is behind paywall. Those statistics sound interesting, I'd be curious to read more about it.

The problem with Shack's point is that it is largely true. The big, fat problem with American voters is how fucking stupid some of them have become. Then throw another a faction that is both stupid and without morals?

Floyd's death and other issues are absolutely a moral issue. It is nuts that some use it as means to live in an alternate reality where "things are no better than 1921". Right...

I know some do not like, BUT...if you really care about seeing less Black people die. if you really care about police reform...go into the issue with your eyes wide open. The statistics say what they say. It is what it is.



Thank you for proving his point? Is this how you react any time anyone of a different opinion presents an alternative perspective? Yet these people call others ignorant and closed minded. Ridiculous. Even if one doesn't agree with Shack, this is a nonsensical response.

I read from my local newspaper here in Finland, quoting from memory, that blacks make up roughly 12% of USA population, yet commit roughly 50% of violent crime. Sorry if the numbers are somewhat incorrect, I didn't google and check them.

That doesn't excuse racism or police brutality, but is likely one factor to why policemen tend to be more suspicious of black people, which manifests in many ways.

For example, if a middle-aged black man wears a suit and drives a BMW, is he likely to get stopped by police? Probably not. The same with a black woman with two kids on the backseat.

But a young black man / men who all do their best to imitate gangsters, even when they are not? A different story.

I'm sure that racism plays a part in the fact that black drivers are stopped more often. But most likely there are other factors as well, and trying to pretend that the other factors don't exist or don't mean anything is a disservice for everyone. Including black people.

Change won't be permanent, and it won't be good, if it's based on distortion of truth.

Also I read from a newspaper a rather big article about a young, middle-class, American black guy who was taking part in the riots. The story was supportive of him.

What hit me was the way he thought of King Jr. He essentially said that King played it nice, and got killed for it. He and his friends are not going to play it nice.

I couldn't help thinking that the guy considers King Jr. a pussy, and looks down on him. He seemingly didn't have any kind of real context of what King did for equality of race in USA.

Not sure if his attitude was that healthy. Maybe modern people in USA think King Jr. was a loser? He is pretty respected here in Finland.

The only way to do this is get leaders from both sides to agree a set of goals, criteria & a measuring process and basically start from scratch. Looking backwards is extremely murky for the reason several people have noted. It would a wonderful goal for any President to take up & frankly, would be a crowning achievement if it were actually accomplished.

I think a major problem with the idea of working together to find a solution is the current president’s political identity revolves around being the antithesis to the Obama Era. He was voted in large part as a reaction to that era and Obama as a political figure. Without that identity, Trump has little fire in his base. Frankly he needs division to exist to win the election. He is strongest when his base is angry with an enemy.

If Biden was smart he’d center his campaign around unity, which it seems like that is the direction he is going with his “unite” tag on his slogans. Problem is the Progressive branch of his party does not want unity, but rather actual changes. This is why I still see Trump winning the election. The progress love base will again not show up to vote. Trump will continue his hate monger platform to keep his base motivated again the “other” boogeyman. He just needs to hope the economy doesn’t tank.

Magnus!

At least the political situation we’re in has us talking

Remember the election is decided by 10% of voters in a handful of states.

Relative to win in 2020, Bernie Sanders HAD to expand on his base. The enthusiasm was always going to be more muted in round 2. He couldn't. He regressed. He didn't move closer to the party, he rebuffed it. In return, he turned people off and could not grow his support. I suspect Trump is going experience this dynamic on a more severe scale. He hasn't proven anybody wrong, and life with him on TV every day has proven to be simply exhausting.

Any erosion of support from 2016 standing will be disastrous for Trump because he won by razor thin margins. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin were all by less than 1%, Florida was by 1.2%. He is down in all 4 now. States with larger margins of victory, such as Arizona, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina now lean Biden or are toss ups at worst. Trump's efforts to sabotage Biden's reputation as he did Clinton have proven far less effective. Biden is more well known and likable while Trump's style is obviously having diminishing returns.

Biden certainly is not a lock to win, and the last thing Democrats should do is get over confident. Democrats would be well served to keep buying into this notion that Trump is invincible in order to maximize turn out. But every bit of logic and reason says Trump sits in a highly, highly vulnerable position.

Winning reelection was always gong to depend on his performance as his personality does not endear himself to people than W or o did. With the results as shitty as they are 5 months from Election Day...

Yes, I stated that his unlikely to be stopped in general, but I acknowledge that he is more likely to be stopped than whites, especially whites with the same suit, and same car.

Good that there is some research on the subject.

Well look at it this way, it took 8 years for Bush to fuck things up. It took Orange Mussolini only 3 years to get to the point we are at and he would have done a lot more damage if he was not under surveillance under watchdog groups. 4 more years of Trump will bring more uncertainty and will probably pull us into more escalation with China and Iran and maybe war with either of those two

...how many walked by this old man??

Seriously wtf is going on there?

The "couple bad apple" cops argument some people like to lean into is certainly made difficult by video after video of many police all over the nation living up to their garbage reputation. You've really got to be a special kind of dense to respond to people protesting police brutality with police brutality and then wonder why civilians have problems with your hive mind club of thugs

"Of course, there are those self-justifying white people who are taking to Twitter to “Well, actually” MLK’s children themselves about what it is their father really meant. Which is peak whiteness. Just quintessential, talcum powder, confectioners’-sugar-on-a-vanilla-cupcake whiteness, especially when you’re a smirking little bigot writing for a laughably racist right-wing “news site,” telling the accomplished activist daughter of a man whose actual goals and black skin you actively hate that her dad would totally be on his side in his site’s whole white victimhood fantasy narrative."

https://news.avclub.com/dr-bernice-king ... 1843918344

In my article wandering on the internet I keep coming across things like this and I can't help it--this kind of crap is idiotic and not helpful. Simply being white in and of itself is a negative on keel with "whitesplaining" racists? How? If I were to say "Which is peak blackness. Just quintessential, dark chocolate, extra cocoa fudge-on-a-devil's-food-cake blackness" in regards to how *some* black people were behaving in various videos/clips/whathaveyou I'd quite speedily be called out for the rather racist, dipshit thing I said--but if it's white people well then have at it because they're all the same

Also, isn't "whitesplaining" just being condescending/patronizing while white? Any race/gender/orientation is capable of exhibiting that so if we're going to incorporate everyone's race/gender/who knows what else then is it necessary to say "Chineseplaining" and "Womansplaining" or are these things only whites/men are capable of demonstrating? I've had *many* conversations where some straight guy/gal did their best to explain why "faggot" isn't that offensive, what's the big deal if you call it a "civil union" instead of "marriage," how "that's so gay!" doesn't mean anything negative and I shouldn't take it personally, etc so should "straightsplaining" be thrown about as well?

isn't "whitesplaining" just being condescending/patronizing while white?
Yes, it is. And theoretically you "could" use any of the other 'splaining'-terms you proffered. The difference is in the CLEAR direction of power flow. White skin unquestionably confers far greater power, influence, benefit-of-the-doubt, weight, and privilege than black/brown skin. Same as being a cis-man, which is why "man-splaining" is a thing. Same as why you can definitely be prejudiced and discriminatory against white people, but you can't be racist towards white people. It's just not a thing, it's going against the deeply ingrained flow of power for the centuries on centuries on centuries that have informed our behavior, our social constructs, our consciousnesses.

I am white, I am racist. I've wrestled with shame and guilt about it. I've recognized I have it easier on a moment to moment basis existing in this world. (I'm also a cis-man, and "straight-passing" gay, quite privileged).

Being white, the quality of having this color skin in this society, has made me more powerful than otherwise. Whiteness has always been the ideal, the measure against which all others are judged. When I see a group of Mexican teenagers hanging around on my street, I'm a little more nervous. If I come across a couple of black people on the path, I am more nervous than I would be if I were coming upon a white couple. These are just facts, they're ingrained in my nervous system from the very specific and generalized cultural milieu we've all been swimming in, soaking in. The fish knows not the quality of the water in which its entire existence depends until truly immersed in something other-than. I wonder what happens if we touch our own racism (it's in EVERYONE), and if you're white, just imagine, maybe deeply imagine, dropping concepts and preconceived notions.... What if you were black??? Imagine moving through this world in dark, black skin. Imagine stepping out your door into the world, taking a walk, driving to the store.... Everything would probably be heightened, ever on the slightly-more-defensive edge.

I think you, Malcolm, might be able to relate to this experience as a gay man. And hearing about the straight people you've interacted / conversed with makes me exhausted, angry, resigned, very frustrated.... Ugh. ANYTHING experienced as offensive or hurtful from the perspective of a less-empowered social group, should by definition be considered harmful, hurtful. FULL STOP.

(imagining the pushback): FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!! POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS LIBPUSSY BULLSHIT!!! Great, yeah, go ahead and say whatever you want ever without regard to how it affects people, that's your right, great job, clearly your house is all in order and your relationships are surely rewarding and intimate and genuine and you feel welcome and safe in the world.

And if a black person directly related to literally THE most impactful Human Rights Leader this nation has ever known throws out the label of "the epitome of whiteness" to describe a white person in direct misalignment to MLK's values as "whitesplaining," it's okay to feel a little defensive, because that's the result of growing up in a white society as a white person, you're gonna get defensive at some point when "whiteness" is called out as being an overall negative, oppressive impact on society (in a racially relevancy kind of way, not saying "white people are all bad or have never contributed anything at all," AT ALL!!!!!) Context is crucial, in this, and everything.

Love to all y'all random internet strangers who I don't know at all except for your posts on this movie forum, for me a relic of being passionate about movies and box office grosses circa 2002-2010.

Prediction: America as we have known it is going to cease to exist by 2021. Either a break up into multiple states, total anarchy, or the Democrat/Republican democratic system will be replaced by something else.