Originally Posted by
revelarts
I appreciate what your saying Kath, and the tone of your reply.
And there's no doubt that many felt that Obama's actions/words/missteps with the addition of BLM-ish activity were an excuse to justify their own bad views and actions about race.
But is that a real good excuse for their bad reactions?
Does the fact that the feminist movement has gone over the edge mean that now i, as a man, can feel justified in treating women less politely or even unfairly. And having a 'they get what the deserve' attitude when i see real and or systematic abuses.
True, it may not make me MORE sympathetic overall but real issues that i may have ignored previously still should be an object of concern. Even if couched in a way that i don't like. If i'm really trying to be decent person myself.
And I guess overall ..in my thinking at least... I have in mind a picture of a black guy being killed over a pack of imaginary cigarettes and the police going back to the job without consequence. And a white guy whose feelings are hurt because the president made him feel excluded/blamed because the president and some loud mouth activist jumped to mistaken conclusions in black white cases a few times. So now that makes him feel justified in ignoring or making excuses for all the abused and dead black guys at the hands of cops all the other times. And minimize the seriousness of other issues like one you posted of instances in LA where , i believe, the police and prosecutors sent many to jail without good cause and used lying informants. And ignore or chalk up to "bad apples" or over statements made in many police officers testimonies of systematic unfair and abusive treatment towards minorities that they've witnessed over the course of years or decades.
While i can in fact understand the hurt feelings or outrage caused by having an issue brought up that's uncomfortable and at times overstated or miss stated. And how the REPEATED complaint can seem unfocused or personal. And how mistaken accusations can make one sincerely believe that NOTHING really is a problem. And the whole package might for some make the general air of politeness that may have been in part of most behavior less at the forefront. I have to wonder, was that air of politeness partly due to a benign ignorance of an ongoing problem?
So generally, from my POV at least, those uncomfortable feelings really don't compare to the feelings of concern low income and minorities have of the real past and potentially unfair treatment, unfair abuse and unjustified deaths of themselves or family members at the hands of the police and courts that are supposedly there to protect us all. Again it's NOT an indictment of ALL police, ALL of the Justice system or ALL whites. Many whites... maybe numerically MORE... are in fact victims of the same. But it's demonstrably MORE focused in lower income and minority communities.
And that's not to ignore all of the other issues that minorities and lower income people have to deal with internally. However, IMO, it's no excuse for the wider population to dismiss it all because of bad feelings. Or to revive or nurse new racial animosity.
But it is what it is.