All lives matter BOOED! Only black lives matter.

[JSt0rm]

Ahhh yes, "white guilt". It's our fault.

Lmao. This is you

http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate

 

[woolfe9998]

Maybe you guys should read this:

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/20/9003233/all-lives-matter-black

That's the third editorial I've read explaining why they protested over "all lives matter." None of them, including this one, has convinced me that they were in the right and O'Malley was in the wrong and needed to apologize.

The fact is, black people don't have a monopoly on being victims, or even on being victims of police. White people also get shot and harassed by cops, but these cases are not high profile because they don't have the element of possible racism and hence are not newsworthy.

The case for systemic mistreatment of blacks by white cops these days is generally made by reference to a clutch of anecdotes, individual cases amplified by the media and it's desire for sensationalism. It would be better made with statistical evidence, and the statistics should, of course, be adjusted for differing amounts of crime in various communities. If after making those adjustments we see a significantly higher number of incidents of abuse against blacks then they have something.

But these anecdotes prove little beyond the facts of the particular cases themselves. So far as the facts go, whether we're talking about Fergusen or New York or Baltimore, my take for those cases and others brought up in the media is that the police in those cases sometimes acted appropriately, sometimes inappropriately, and sometimes acted criminally (gross negligence). However, I seriously doubt that racism was a principle motive in any of them.

Take the Oscar Grant case. The allegation is that a BART cop intentionally executed a black man in full view of more than a dozen witnesses, knowing that he was being recorded on a security camera. Even if the cop really was racist enough to just want to kill a random black guy for kicks, he wouldn't have done it in that situation. The killing was manslaughter - criminal neglect - plain and simple. It's hard to peg an accidental death on racism. Yet every time a black man is killed by cops, it's automatically assumed to be racism?

The reason I discuss this at such length is because the notion that certain black activists own a slogan like "black lives matter" to the point where they are outraged that someone says "all lives matter" is predicated on an assumption that is inadequately proven.

Beyond that, these people need to learn some public relations skills. I suppose they don't know how it looks to anyone not black when they become outraged over someone saying "all lives matter." If they continue with that kind ham-fisted rhetoric, it's a certainty they won't get anyone on board for their cause, at least not anyone not in the 15% African American minority. The fact is, most people aren't going to read an editorial like the one you linked. Their position shouldn't look so bad on the surface that an editorial should even be needed to explain it. If you're going to be honest here, I think you'll agree that they've opened themselves up to the kind of criticism that we're seeing in threads like this.

 

[HomerJS]

Ahhh yes, "white guilt". It's our fault.

I'm going to tax you brain a bit. Look up the following phrase

post hoc ergo propter hoc

translate and discover why you are bereft of thought

 

[JSt0rm]

That's the third editorial I've read explaining why they protested over "all lives matter." None of them, including this one, have convinced me that they were in the right and O'Malley was in the wrong and needed to apologize.

The fact is, black people don't have a monopoly on being victims, or even on being victims of police. White people also get shot and harassed by cops, but these cases are not high profile because they don't have the element of possible racism and hence are not newsworthy.

The case for systemic mistreatment of blacks by white cops these days is generally made by reference to a clutch of anecdotes, individual cases amplified by the media and it's desire for sensationalism. It would be better made with statistical evidence, and the statistics should, of course, be adjusted for differing amounts of crime in various communities. If after making those adjustments we see a significantly higher number of incidents of abuse against blacks then they have something.

But these anecdotes prove little beyond the facts the particular cases themselves. So far as the facts go, whether we're talking about Fergusen or New York or Baltimore, my take for those cases and others brought up in the media is that the police in those cases sometimes acted appropriately, sometimes inappropriately, and sometimes acted criminally (gross negligence). However, I seriously doubt that racism was a principle motive in any of them.

Take the Oscar Grant case. The allegation is that a BART cop executed a black man in full view of more than a dozen witnesses, knowing that he was being recorded on a security camera. Even if the cop really was racist enough to just want to kill a random black guy for kicks, he wouldn't have done it in that situation. The killing was manslaughter - criminal neglect - plain and simple. It's hard to peg an accidental death on racism. Yet every time a black man is killed by cops, it's automatically assumed to be racism?

The reason I discuss this at such length is that notion that certain black activists own a slogan like "black lives matter" to the point where they are outraged that someone says "all lives matter" is predicated on an assumption that is inadequately proven.

Beyond that, these people need to learn some public relations skills. I suppose they don't know how it looks to anyone not black when they become outraged over someone saying "all lives matter." If they continue with that kind ham-fisted rhetoric, it's a certainly they won't get anyone on board for their cause, at least not anyone not in the 15% African American minority. The fact is, most people aren't going to read an editorial like the one you linked, and you have to admit it looks awfully bad to become that incensed over that particular remark.

Maybe they are pissed off and don't give a fuck. Just like I didn't give a fuck to read all your words 😀

 

[HomerJS]

That's the third editorial I've read explaining why they protested over "all lives matter." None of them, including this one, have convinced me that they were in the right and O'Malley was in the wrong and needed to apologize.

The fact is, black people don't have a monopoly on being victims, or even on being victims of police. White people also get shot and harassed by cops, but these cases are not high profile because they don't have the element of possible racism and hence are not newsworthy.

The case for systemic mistreatment of blacks by white cops these days is generally made by reference to a clutch of anecdotes, individual cases amplified by the media and it's desire for sensationalism. It would be better made with statistical evidence, and the statistics should, of course, be adjusted for differing amounts of crime in various communities. If after making those adjustments we see a significantly higher number of incidents of abuse against blacks then they have something.

But these anecdotes prove little beyond the facts the particular cases themselves. So far as the facts go, whether we're talking about Fergusen or New York or Baltimore, my take for those cases and others brought up in the media is that the police in those cases sometimes acted appropriately, sometimes inappropriately, and sometimes acted criminally (gross negligence). However, I seriously doubt that racism was a principle motive in any of them.

Take the Oscar Grant case. The allegation is that a BART cop intentionally executed a black man in full view of more than a dozen witnesses, knowing that he was being recorded on a security camera. Even if the cop really was racist enough to just want to kill a random black guy for kicks, he wouldn't have done it in that situation. The killing was manslaughter - criminal neglect - plain and simple. It's hard to peg an accidental death on racism. Yet every time a black man is killed by cops, it's automatically assumed to be racism?

The reason I discuss this at such length is because the notion that certain black activists own a slogan like "black lives matter" to the point where they are outraged that someone says "all lives matter" is predicated on an assumption that is inadequately proven.

Beyond that, these people need to learn some public relations skills. I suppose they don't know how it looks to anyone not black when they become outraged over someone saying "all lives matter." If they continue with that kind ham-fisted rhetoric, it's a certainly they won't get anyone on board for their cause, at least not anyone not in the 15% African American minority. The fact is, most people aren't going to read an editorial like the one you linked, and you have to admit it looks awfully bad to become that incensed over that particular remark.

So its your contention blacks and whites are treated equally bad by police?

Just look up the pot usage vs arrests/jail and get back to me.

 

[woolfe9998]

So its your contention blacks and whites are treated equally bad by police?

Just look up the pot usage vs arrests/jail and get back to me.

No, it isn't my contention one way or another. Show me the statistical evidence of blacks being disproportionately harassed/shot by white cops, after adjusting for the higher frequency of crime in black neighborhoods. I don't have those stats at my finger tips, but if I had to make an educated guess, I think they'd show systemic problems in some limited geographical regions but not much in the country as a whole. Either way, they're not using the right kind of evidence to prove their points. 4 or 5 high profile media cases proves exactly nothing in a country with over 2 million law enforcement personnel, who make 10's of thousands of arrests every day.

 

[woolfe9998]

Maybe they are pissed off and don't give a fuck. Just like I didn't give a fuck to read all your words 😀

Apparently you "gave a fuck" enough to provide a snarky reply.

If you don't want to read the post, don't read. But don't respond either. It's rude.

 

[HomerJS]

No, it isn't my contention one way or another. Show me the statistical evidence of blacks being disproportionately harassed/shot by white cops, after adjusting for the higher frequency of crime in black neighborhoods. I don't have those stats at my finger tips, but if I had to make an educated guess, I think they'd show systemic problems in some limited geographical regions but not much in the country as a whole. Either way, they're not using the right kind of evidence to prove their points. 4 or 5 high profile media cases proves exactly nothing in a country with over 2 million law enforcement personnel, who make 10's of thousands of arrests every day.

Blacks and whites use pot at the same rate based on population yet you are 10-15 times more likely to be arrested or jailed if black. Look up the stats yourself

 

[woolfe9998]

Blacks and whites use pot at the same rate based on population yet you are 10-15 times more likely to be arrested or jailed if black. Look up the stats yourself

I did some checking and I believe what you're referring to is a study by the ACLU which says blacks are 4x (not 10-15x) more likely to be arrested for pot.

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2015/04/16/marijuana-arrests-in-black-and-white.cnnmoney/index.html

Why is there such a discrepancy? I have no idea. Perhaps since black neighborhoods tend to have more serious, violent crime than non-black neighborhoods, they get a lot more police presence, and hence they also get arrested a lot more for petty crimes? Or could it be that black drug dealers tend to deal on the streets where it's easier to get caught instead of in doors where it's harder to get caught? Maybe neither of these explanations is correct, but the point is, you can't just run to "racism" as a cause without exploring the issue more deeply.

Anyway, that statistic is too isolated to mean much here. The topic of the thread is about whose lives matter - it's about violence by white police against blacks, particularly young black males. So if you have any valid statistical evidence on that topic, I'm all ears. It's a lot more on point than pot arrests.

 

[Spungo]

Blacks and whites use pot at the same rate based on population yet you are 10-15 times more likely to be arrested or jailed if black. Look up the stats yourself

It's hard to make a claim like this since it's nearly impossible to track who does drugs. Most of the people I know have tried cocaine, but you will never hear them talk about it. They won't even admit it if you ask them directly.

Profiling is really unfortunate, but it's not completely unfounded. Islamophobia became a bit of an issue after 9/11. Are most Muslims terrorists? Of course not, but most terrorists are Muslim. A few bad apples ruin it for everyone. This happens with gender profiling as well. There are some truly awful women out there who will try to steal everything a man has. Those women are a minority, but they cause men to be extremely careful around women.
Most men are good people, but there's a small percentage who should be killed. Why do I need to watch my drink so carefully when I'm at the bar? It's because a small percentage of men are fucking crazy rapist assholes. Most guys would never dream of drugging a woman, but some do. I know it's unfair to assume every guy is trying to drug me, but I make that assumption for a reason.

Police might be racist, but it's based on their experience. We can't fix this problem by telling them to stop being racist. What we need to be doing is getting to the root cause of crime. Asians were not respected at all until Bruce Lee was kicking ass, but police don't seem to single out Asians as potential criminals. As much as people might hate Asians due to WW2, the Korean War, and the Vietnam war, people don't draw a connection between Asians and crime. It should be fairly obvious that hatred of a particular race is not the motivation for singling people out and arresting them. I don't watch my drink at the bar because I hate men. On the contrary, I tend to like men, and I had a great relationship with my dad, but I watch my drink because crazy rapists exist, and most of them just happen to be men.

 

[werepossum]

These are the same type of person who say that egalitarians are bigots while saying that feminism is for everyone. And then these same feminists who are for everyone will protest forums of males who are concerned about suicide rates of males, despite the fact that males commit suicide at 5x to 10x the rate of females.

Yep, the new left has gone absolutely bonkers.

Yep. So has the new right, with the "my marriage means nothing if them homos can get married too." It's the new age of insanity.

Obviously people in the thread are ignorant of context.

All lives matter should be apparent but since this country does not treat black lives on par with whites the "black lives matters" meme is being pushed.

Just look at what it took for white people to do the right thing in South Carolina 9 black people being killed. It never dawned on them to just do the right thing.

Um, the vast majority of people in South Carolina were doing the right thing the vast majority of the time well before this tragedy.

That's the third editorial I've read explaining why they protested over "all lives matter." None of them, including this one, has convinced me that they were in the right and O'Malley was in the wrong and needed to apologize.

The fact is, black people don't have a monopoly on being victims, or even on being victims of police. White people also get shot and harassed by cops, but these cases are not high profile because they don't have the element of possible racism and hence are not newsworthy.

The case for systemic mistreatment of blacks by white cops these days is generally made by reference to a clutch of anecdotes, individual cases amplified by the media and it's desire for sensationalism. It would be better made with statistical evidence, and the statistics should, of course, be adjusted for differing amounts of crime in various communities. If after making those adjustments we see a significantly higher number of incidents of abuse against blacks then they have something.

But these anecdotes prove little beyond the facts of the particular cases themselves. So far as the facts go, whether we're talking about Fergusen or New York or Baltimore, my take for those cases and others brought up in the media is that the police in those cases sometimes acted appropriately, sometimes inappropriately, and sometimes acted criminally (gross negligence). However, I seriously doubt that racism was a principle motive in any of them.

Take the Oscar Grant case. The allegation is that a BART cop intentionally executed a black man in full view of more than a dozen witnesses, knowing that he was being recorded on a security camera. Even if the cop really was racist enough to just want to kill a random black guy for kicks, he wouldn't have done it in that situation. The killing was manslaughter - criminal neglect - plain and simple. It's hard to peg an accidental death on racism. Yet every time a black man is killed by cops, it's automatically assumed to be racism?

The reason I discuss this at such length is because the notion that certain black activists own a slogan like "black lives matter" to the point where they are outraged that someone says "all lives matter" is predicated on an assumption that is inadequately proven.

Beyond that, these people need to learn some public relations skills. I suppose they don't know how it looks to anyone not black when they become outraged over someone saying "all lives matter." If they continue with that kind ham-fisted rhetoric, it's a certainty they won't get anyone on board for their cause, at least not anyone not in the 15% African American minority. The fact is, most people aren't going to read an editorial like the one you linked. An editorial should not be needed to explain their position just because it looks so bad on the surface. If you're going to be honest here, I think you'll agree that they've opened themselves up to the kind of criticism that we're seeing in threads like this.

Well said. We've seen this cause descend to the level of pure insanity, with protesters insisting that even black people shooting at cops or holding up stores should somehow be protected from serious harm. Combined with booing "all lives matter" it is as you say a major blunder in public relations. The first step in being treated like everyone else is to show everyone else that you are just like them, and insisting that you are special snowflakes whose problems matter more than when the exact same things matter to other people does just the opposite.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Maybe they are pissed off and don't give a fuck. Just like I didn't give a fuck to read all your words 😀

You should. You might learn something in life and be more informed rather than close minded forever damning yourself of any intellect.

 

[werepossum]

I did some checking and I believe what you're referring to is a study by the ACLU which says blacks are 4x (not 10-15x) more likely to be arrested for pot.

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2015/04/16/marijuana-arrests-in-black-and-white.cnnmoney/index.html

Why is there such a discrepancy? I have no idea. Perhaps since black neighborhoods tend to have more serious, violent crime than non-black neighborhoods, they get a lot more police presence, and hence they also get arrested a lot more for petty crimes? Or could it be that black drug dealers tend to deal on the streets where it's easier to get caught instead of in doors where it's harder to get caught? Maybe neither of these explanations is correct, but the point is, you can't just run to "racism" as a cause without exploring the issue more deeply.

Anyway, that statistic is too isolated to mean much here. The topic of the thread is about whose lives matter - it's about violence by white police against blacks, particularly young black males. So if you have any valid statistical evidence on that topic, I'm all ears. It's a lot more on point than pot arrests.

One issue is that cops often bust people for drugs because they can't get them for something more serious. The good side of that is getting a predator off the streets - remember all the Mafia people put away for tax evasion? The bad side is that your life is seriously damaged, regardless of whether you actually did the seriously bad things they think you did.

One other factor among people I know is that the black guys who smoke weed tend to have it on them all the time, which makes you a lot more likely to get busted for it. And a third thing that biases the statistics is economic level. Poor people go to jail for possession, rich people go to rehab, and statistically more blacks are poor.

It's hard to make a claim like this since it's nearly impossible to track who does drugs. Most of the people I know have tried cocaine, but you will never hear them talk about it. They won't even admit it if you ask them directly.

Profiling is really unfortunate, but it's not completely unfounded. Islamophobia became a bit of an issue after 9/11. Are most Muslims terrorists? Of course not, but most terrorists are Muslim. A few bad apples ruin it for everyone. This happens with gender profiling as well. There are some truly awful women out there who will try to steal everything a man has. Those women are a minority, but they cause men to be extremely careful around women.
Most men are good people, but there's a small percentage who should be killed. Why do I need to watch my drink so carefully when I'm at the bar? It's because a small percentage of men are fucking crazy rapist assholes. Most guys would never dream of drugging a woman, but some do. I know it's unfair to assume every guy is trying to drug me, but I make that assumption for a reason.

Police might be racist, but it's based on their experience. We can't fix this problem by telling them to stop being racist. What we need to be doing is getting to the root cause of crime. Asians were not respected at all until Bruce Lee was kicking ass, but police don't seem to single out Asians as potential criminals. As much as people might hate Asians due to WW2, the Korean War, and the Vietnam war, people don't draw a connection between Asians and crime. It should be fairly obvious that hatred of a particular race is not the motivation for singling people out and arresting them. I don't watch my drink at the bar because I hate men. On the contrary, I tend to like men, and I had a great relationship with my dad, but I watch my drink because crazy rapists exist, and most of them just happen to be men.

Well said, which ties into the fact that black cops also disproportionately target black victims. Part of that is the higher crime rate, but another part is mindset. If a cop busts ten criminals a week and nine are black, he begins to think of blacks as likely criminals, even if he is black. That leads to more scrutiny of blacks, which leads to a higher percentage of black arrests, which strengthens the bias, and so forth. It's a positive feedback loop, and one shoplifters have learned to exploit as more scrutiny of the black decoy leads to less scrutiny of the white thief.

 

[LegendKiller]

I'm going to tax you brain a bit. Look up the following phrase

post hoc ergo propter hoc

translate and discover why you are bereft of thought

Kafkatrapping.

 

[LegendKiller]

Lmao. This is you

http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate

You know nothing of my upbringing.

 

[PokerGuy]

That's the third editorial I've read explaining why they protested over "all lives matter." None of them, including this one, has convinced me that they were in the right and O'Malley was in the wrong and needed to apologize.

That's because all of them come from the same dumb perspective. They all start with the same unproven basis, then go from there. Booing "all lives matter" is on it's face clearly racist and exclusionary. No amount of explaining and rationalization can fix it. It's a PR blunder and it makes a lot of the lefties uncomfortable because it exposes a lot of the racism that is obviously part of the BLM "movement".

If they continue with that kind ham-fisted rhetoric, it's a certainty they won't get anyone on board for their cause, at least not anyone not in the 15% African American minority. The fact is, most people aren't going to read an editorial like the one you linked. Their position shouldn't look so bad on the surface that an editorial should even not be needed to explain it. If you're going to be honest here, I think you'll agree that they've opened themselves up to the kind of criticism that we're seeing in threads like this.

That was my observation in my post earlier in the thread as well. If you start from the perspective that we need to fight all injustice together, and that maybe one group is being unjustly treated more often, then you have common goals and can build on that. Starting an exclusionary campaign where people can't even say "all lives matter", and people of certain skin color are not welcome at meetings and so forth, the entire effort it doomed from the start. Everyone not part of that particular group has been excluded and won't feel compelled in any way to push for change. Then, there will be whining that "nothing is being done!".

 

[dank69]

No, it isn't my contention one way or another. Show me the statistical evidence of blacks being disproportionately harassed/shot by white cops, after adjusting for the higher frequency of crime in black neighborhoods. I don't have those stats at my finger tips, but if I had to make an educated guess, I think they'd show systemic problems in some limited geographical regions but not much in the country as a whole. Either way, they're not using the right kind of evidence to prove their points. 4 or 5 high profile media cases proves exactly nothing in a country with over 2 million law enforcement personnel, who make 10's of thousands of arrests every day.

Some statistics were in the link eskimo provided:

 

[dank69]

I did some checking and I believe what you're referring to is a study by the ACLU which says blacks are 4x (not 10-15x) more likely to be arrested for pot.

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2015/04/16/marijuana-arrests-in-black-and-white.cnnmoney/index.html

Why is there such a discrepancy? I have no idea. Perhaps since black neighborhoods tend to have more serious, violent crime than non-black neighborhoods, they get a lot more police presence, and hence they also get arrested a lot more for petty crimes? Or could it be that black drug dealers tend to deal on the streets where it's easier to get caught instead of in doors where it's harder to get caught? Maybe neither of these explanations is correct, but the point is, you can't just run to "racism" as a cause without exploring the issue more deeply.

Anyway, that statistic is too isolated to mean much here. The topic of the thread is about whose lives matter - it's about violence by white police against blacks, particularly young black males. So if you have any valid statistical evidence on that topic, I'm all ears. It's a lot more on point than pot arrests.

Maybe the explanation is that white kids get a slap on the wrist when caught with a little pot while black kids get the book thrown at them? Hell, I've seen plenty of white kids just get their pot confiscated and let go without ever being arrested. Think that happens at the same rate with black kids? I doubt it.

All of a sudden, black crime rates look much worse when in reality maybe they aren't even committing more crime than the rest of the population.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Racist extremists get angry over a Democrat Presidential candidate saying "All lives matter".

And some of you show true intentions when defending that outrage.

It was a stupid thing to say. It marginalized the movement and their agenda, which is to reduce the number of unarmed black people being killed in our society.

The apology was justified IMO.

 

[unokitty]

Everyone knows this...

Uno

 

[PokerGuy]

It was a stupid thing to say. It marginalized the movement and their agenda, which is to reduce the number of unarmed black people being killed in our society.

The apology was justified IMO.

If saying "all lives matter" marginalizes their movement, then conversely their statement marginalizes other movements and agendas. Hence, using their logic, anyone not part of their movement/group should not support them or their agenda.

The bottom line is that all lives matter, and booing someone for saying so exposed the idiots for the racists that they are.

 

[cubby1223]

It was a stupid thing to say. It marginalized the movement and their agenda, which is to reduce the number of unarmed black people being killed in our society.

The apology was justified IMO.

Really? That's what this movement is about?

The movement started with the Martin killing, which most people finally stopped listening to the selfish activists and agreed was justified self-defense, Martin was more likely than not the aggressor. Ferguson? Justified, Brown was more likely than not the aggressor. And, what, did the life of the minority shop owner victimized by Brown not matter? Victimized by the subsequent riots, looting, vandalizing, and burning? His skin color was not dark enough to matter?

The protests by walking onto interstate highways during rush hour? That's what is suppose to reduce the killing of unarmed black people? Shutting down sections of the Mall of America? Walking into restaurants deemed "too white" and be as annoying as possible? Please do explain how these items further the agenda.

You truly are that special kind of stupid 😉 Read the above comments again and you'll understand why the proper response to the phrase "black lives matter" is "all lives matter".

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

This is an artificial and racially divisive nonissue (All Lives Matter) that has little to do with intelligence...it's a sanity check in my opinion.

 

[Jaskalas]

It was a stupid thing to say. It marginalized the movement and their agenda, which is to reduce the number of unarmed black people being killed in our society.

The apology was justified IMO.

Martin Luther King had a dream.
In that dream you would be inclusive.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Really? That's what this movement is about?

The movement started with the Martin killing, which most people finally stopped listening to the selfish activists and agreed was justified self-defense, Martin was more likely than not the aggressor. Ferguson? Justified, Brown was more likely than not the aggressor. And, what, did the life of the minority shop owner victimized by Brown not matter? Victimized by the subsequent riots, looting, vandalizing, and burning? His skin color was not dark enough to matter?

The protests by walking onto interstate highways during rush hour? That's what is suppose to reduce the killing of unarmed black people? Shutting down sections of the Mall of America? Walking into restaurants deemed "too white" and be as annoying as possible? Please do explain how these items further the agenda.

You truly are that special kind of stupid 😉 Read the above comments again and you'll understand why the proper response to the phrase "black lives matter" is "all lives matter".

Yes, that's one of the things their movement is about.

Go to their website and educate yourself.

http://blacklivesmatter.com/state-of-the-black-union/

2014 was a year that saw profound injustice, and extraordinary resilience. Homicides at the hands of police sparked massive protests, meaning that America could no longer ignore bitter truths of the Black experience. Gabriella Naverez, a queer Black woman was killed at 22 years old, unarmed. 37 year old Tanisha Anderson’s family dialed 911 for medical assistance. Instead, Cleveland police officers took her life. Anyia Parker, a Black trans woman was gunned down in East Hollywood. This brutal attack was caught on camera, yet her murder, like so many murders of Black trans women, have gone unanswered. This country must abandon the lie that the deep psychological wounds of slavery, racism and structural oppression are figments of the Black imagination. The time to address these wounds is now.

The current state of Black America is anything but just. For Black people in the U.S., the shadow of crisis has not passed.

• The median wealth for single White women is $42,600. For Black women, it’s $5.001.
• The infant mortality rate for Black mothers is more than double that of White mothers, due to factors like poverty, lack of access to health care, and the physiological effects of stress caused by living under structural oppression 2.
• 22 states have passed new voter restrictions since 2010, disenfranchising as many as 34 million Americans, most of them Black 3.
• In cities across the country, profit-driven policies fuel displacement and gentrification, leading to the destruction of entire Black communities 4.
• Blacks and Latinos are about 31 percent of the US population, but 60 percent of the prison population 8.
• In our country 1 in 3 black men will be incarcerated in his lifetime 5, and Black women are the fastest growing prison population 6.
• The life expectancy of a Black trans woman is 35 years. The average income of a Black trans person is less than 10K. Trans people are denied jobs, housing and healthcare just for living in their truths.
• It is legal in many jurisdictions to fire LBGT people from employment and deny them access to healthcare and housing.
• Since 1976, the United States has executed thirteen times more black defendants with white victims than white defendants with black victims 6.
• Black U.S. political prisoners have collectively served over 800 years in prison and have consistently been denied parole despite good behavior and time served.
• Increasingly, students in white areas are nourished and taught while Black children are criminalized and judged.
• Black neighborhoods lack access to affordable healthy food resulting in disproportionate levels of obesity and other chronic illnesses.

They aren't saying white lives don't matter, they are saying that there are disparities in our policing and in our society and that they want change.

While I don't think Mike Brown was innocent in his situation I do find that most of the rest of their assertions are alarming to say the least. What does that say about our society?

I also think George Zimmerman is a racist asshole who pursued and murdered someone he had no business following in the first place.