The author provides comfort to your perspective. I do not and will not.
Not to overdo the medical metaphors, but as with those other cases noted above, so too in this one did a disturbing number of whites manifest something of a repetitive motion disorder—a reflex nearly as automatic as the one that leads so many police (or wanna-be police) to fire their weapons at black men in the first place. It is a reflex to rationalize the event, defend the shooter, trash the dead with blatantly racist rhetoric and imagery, and then deny that the incident or one’s own response to it had anything to do with race.
I should have responded the same as you did in the other thread:
"Can you summarize the [article]? Thanks. I knew it was a waste of time. It's funny how Pavlov's dog salivate when their masters ring the bell. I wonder how many other dogs went out and created similar [posts] as [this]."
The path of learning is not shut out and ignore things you find uncomfortable.
One thing I'm learning over the years is not to define other people based on the words of activists.
Activists are salesmen. There is a reason why this was the first sentence of the article:
I suppose there is no longer much point in debating the facts surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown.
It gave him ample excuse not to mention the fact that the evidence strongly suggests Brown engaged the officer in a physical confrontation. Don't do that. Your chances of dying are very significantly reduced if you just follow that one piece of advice. When you demand to have a debate about the facts, you have to have a debate about
all the facts, not confine your views to only a particular subset of facts, and be open to the possibility that you are not aware of all the facts. That's what makes it a debate. Otherwise you're just giving lectures. Lectures are not debates.
The article's sub-headline is:
Black people have to learn everything about white people just to stay alive.
What are the current statistics, 99.99999% of black people are not shot dead by white people? People who share the gene that produces black colored skin are doing a pretty damn good job of staying alive. But when you initiate another person in a physical confrontation, your chances of remaining alive diminish. That stat holds true for all people of all skin colors. These stats are facts. Let's include these facts within our debate.
That sub-headline also reinforces racism in itself. That sentence is confirming the author's belief that black people are different from white people. To someone who holds the view that white and black people differ only by one genetic marker, that statement is very odd to read. That genetic marker, to the best of my knowledge, does not produce different worldly views.
In the end there are two choices. Either (1) continue being angry, or (2) do something productive. Do something productive? Ha! What a fucking stupid white person thing to say!
Don't like the police force? Become the police force. With Obama in the Presidency and Eric Holder in the Atty. Gen. seat (didn't he resign? Guess he still wants the job) there are no more excuses for anyone to reach out within these communities and gather unemployed or underemployed people who want to go through police training, provide the training, and get them hired onto the force when openings come up. No excuses.
I hope people chose the second option. Because the first option gives stronger voice to people like Spidey on the other side.
