Most of the sites I visit are mainstream sources and political opposition opinion pages. Like The Root. In my humble conservative opinion, The Root is a race agitator as much as black American protector that feeds gasoline onto the racial divide that has been gripping this country for the last 10 years. THEY are part of the problem as much as actual racists in this country. They are adding to the noise and creating some of the very problems they think they are shining sunlight and Lysol onto. When your default reasoning is always racial injustice and institutionalized racism, you will always find what you are looking for; and when you only stand up for the defense of blacks even when they deserve none, you probably are creating racists by promoting the stereotypical “angry black man” by being angry all the time at only perceived injustices against blacks.
I have no convictions regarding the Ahmaud Arbery murder. I wasn’t there. And a 30 sec shaky video clip doesn’t tell the whole story from beginning to end. Certainly Ahmaud should not have lost his life; and had someone been brandishing a shotgun while I was out jogging and if I feared for my life, I might have gone after the gun as well. Of course, that ended up being an unwise decision for Ahmaud, every bit as much as it was a bad judgment call on the part of the father and son to go after Ahmaud in the manner in which they did. But then again, I was not there. We don’t know the conversation that transpired aside from a “they said” story. And it may well be outrageous that it took media and public outrage to finally see the two suspects arrested. We’ll see how this plays out in the courtroom.
Meanwhile the race agitators are at work pushing the “America is racist” slander. And of course we on the right also have those of us quick to jump the gun and start looking for reasons to slander the murdered person by digging for dirt and make excuses of our own. (Although in this instance, I do see plenty of conservatives also criticize the actions of Gregory and Travis McMichael, as well; just not pushing the racism angle without any facts).
So I’ve also been reading another ethnic advocacy rag, Asian Huffpo, pushing stories and “studies” about the rising hate crime against Asians due to the “Chink Virus” and using geographic labels. It’s my belief that drawing media attention can sometimes shine needed attention; or create it. Sometimes making a mountain out of a molehill issue creates more of the same problems by inspiring attention seekers and idiots.
Yesterday, I read about an Asian woman in Minnesota who was kicked in the face by one teen and taunted/bullied by three. These teens are apparently black. Do you think The Root will report on that? If it was a black woman kicked by 3 white teens, you know they would have a field day over another racially motive attack. The incident might well have been racially motivated; but that’s not my default assumption. The way it comes across in the short video and news description, I think they are just 3 teenage losers who would have done the same thing to any lone person at that train station if that person looked helpless and vulnerable. They seem like they were just doing it to a random stranger for kicks to film and laugh about, thinking they’d be social media starts on YouTube or Instagram, or Twitter, or Tik Tok, or something.j
I do not believe America is a racist country. No more so than anywhere else. People are people. However, I do believe that news sites and advocacy groups like The Root who promote the supposed interests of one special interest group based upon racial identity does promote racial and cultural discord and animosity. Not quell it.
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Also destroying the “killed for jogging while black” trope is this video:
https://www.infowars.com/surveillance-videos-show-ahmaud-arbery-trespassed-into-mans-home-before-shooting/
First, this: NO, this is not saying Arbery deserved to be killed. Trespassing is not a capital offense. Neither is this saying or implying that Arbery was the person stole $2500 worth of items from the construction site previously. What this video DOES prove is that Arbery did indeed match the description of the person seen that day poking around in the home… EXACTLY matched, because he WAS that person. Now, them good ol’ boys may be racist as hell, but they didn’t stop Arbery because he was a black guy… they stopped him because he was THE guy.
And again, sadly, since we have liberals in the vicinity, it was totally wrong for those dumbasses to stop Arbery and draw guns on him. They are in a heap of trouble, violating every concealed and open carry law I know of (though I don’t know the specific laws in Georgia). I have no sympathy or support for those guys.
I learned long ago to wait for facts before reacting to the all too often sensationalized reporting of such tragedies. Perhaps if our media was not so busy covering hydrochloroquine, insults to China, Lysol and any other lie they can invent about Trump’s response to COVID19 they might have addressed this tragedy earlier and brought attention to how the local authorities tried to brush it under the rug (I suspect they are Democrats since it has not been trumpeted that they are Republicans). Using race as a weapon is racist.
Obama hurt race relations in America, not Trump.
I sat as a juror on a torture/rape/murder case years ago…..before Obama.
5 black gangbangers attacked a white woman in her 50’s after dark on Christmas Eve.
They were each tried separately.
They testified at one another’s trials, implicating their fellow gang buddies as well as themselves.
The DNA evidence was damning.
Their use of her credit cards was caught on video.
Their bragging to friends who then testified was very damning.
So, each got sent to California’s death row.
BUT….. along came Obama and his “racial disparity” crap.
All 5 of them were taken off death row and given life sentences, perhaps even being able to be paroled!
From prison they began going after witnesses and jurors via ex-cons who rubbed shoulders with them in the general population.
There’s the real racism.
Who knows if they are even still imprisoned.
After all, coronavirus.
And, they’re black so victims.
The woman’s autopsy photos are burned into by brain just like the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl, the only one I ever watched.
The Asian lady attacked in MN is an inductive argument as it simply reflects the flaws in humans rather than addresses the cultural breakdown experienced here.
I doubt that revisiting history such as the Rosewood massacre (an interesting perspective here) or Selma or even early comedy would change any views of the black community ever getting a fair shake but there’s still an element (actually several) omitted from the above opinion. It appears that everything was pretty much a closed case until someone else let the cat out of the bag. This elevates the argument that the white guy shooting the black guy was going to get away with it if at all possible. I again present the Richard Prior and Robin Williams comedy as this speaks volumes of American justice, particularly in ruby red GA.
So what we have is a basic denial of racial injustice that’s been going on for years and in real time, seen by the black community but not so much by the white guys getting passed over on jobs due to Affirmative Action and such. It doesn’t help much that we have a president fanning those white grievances at every opportunity.
@Ronald J. Ward:
Is this a hate crime? Was this a racist killing?
@Ronald J. Ward:
That’s a fair point and one that I thought I covered with a superficial nod, as a possibility of racial influence. However, it’s still an assumption drawn and not actual fact. We don’t know what thoughts passed through their heads and how Ahmaud Arbery’s skin color influenced their actions one way or another.
Given McMichael’s connection to law enforcement and key players in power, could just be evidence of a “good ol’ boys club” not in the sense of alignment due to shared skin color culture but due to occupational loyalty as former colleagues. So Arbery’s could have been white and the same outcome of no immediate arrest and the McMichaels given the benefit of the doubt may have still panned out.
Experts will determine if the wounds that killed the man are consistent with the shooters version of events.
Joggers dont often trespass into and out of garages or buildings under construction.
While black on white violence is often totally ignored by the MSM, the white on black is splashed front page leading story for weeks. ( known as race baiting for ratings)
The blacks described as Youths or fathers, pictured in graduation gowns or playing with a kid.
Whites described as supremacist and a booking photo shown.
Data shows that The rate of black-on-black crime (16.5 per 1,000) was more than five times higher than white-on-black violent crime (2.8 per 1,000).
Violence and homicide horrible no matter how it ends up. You are much more likely to be killed by someone of your own race.
I dont believe racism is growing, I think its pushed on TV that only one race can be racist, and diversity means no white men.
Another video has surfaced from 2019 showing Arbery poking around in other construction sites. It is becoming apparent that he was seen often in the area and someone matching his description had been seen in many homes under construction. This makes it apparent he was NOT stopped for “jogging while black”. That doesn’t make these two idiots any less guilty… it just denies leftists… like AJ… a tragedy to exploit for political purposes.
@Wordsmith:
My point isn’t the innocence or guilt of an isolated incidence but rather the overall culture of, as you say, “the Good Ole Boys”, a quite influential group. It could be circumstantial but it’s still representative of that culture of oppression. And perhaps the video and evidence was held back for some investigative or forensic reasons but it’s consistent with the historic reality that we would have never known if they knew we didn’t already know.
The “Good ole Boys” have been getting away with it for years from Emmitt Till to Rodney King to filling up their for-profit prisons with minor offense pot smoking black people. And much of this is witnessed by that community on a daily basis whereas others never see it. There’s the strict demand for respect of white authority or insuring they place items just right in their shopping cart to show they aren’t stealing, keeping their hands in plain view at all times or even that it might be a bad idea to wear a hoodie. Not following that protocol could prove fatal and in most cases the aggressor walks unscathed.
What the last decade of camera-in-hand has shown us is that this culture is far from eradicated. We’re seeing a lot of what they’ve seen for years. What’s also being revealed is that even with live footage, it seldom changes anything. That mockery of a kangaroo court still exist.
In fairness, these issues could reflect more on the poor rather than a race. The poor are I suppose more likely to steal, to become gang involved and construed as dangerous, and would be much less likely to legally represent themselves. No aspiring prosecutor would throw his career away by prosecuting a law officer for shooting someone insignificant and poor.
I agree we don’t know the exact details of the Arbery shooting but if there was no crime committed, it would be an exception rather than the rule. It also seems to be the rule that we’d never know if the video hadn’t been exposed. We’ve seen this movie too many times.
@Ronald J. Ward: Thank you for sharing your views and insights. I don’t entirely disagree with the merits and virtues of your points. It’s one I keep pondering over in regards to the extent of racial prejudices and the cause for them in 21st century America. Certainly half a century ago, I think those attitudes were much more prevalent. I just question whether some of these racial animosities are still with us today due to reasons of “institutionalized racism” and “white privilege”; or if there’s something else at work, here, that keeps both sides enslaved in antiquated beliefs and mentality of their own making and fabrication.
When a certain segment of the population keeps calling you racist and shows open hostility and contempt, regardless if it comes from whites or blacks, wouldn’t that affect your opinion of this particular “group of people”, making you become the very thing they keep saying you are? If you live in a neighborhood where your personal experience is to be “victimized” by attitudes or violence directed at you for your skin color, be it white or black, doesn’t that influence your opinion of that “group”?
Are blacks really disproportionately more likely to be killed (or shot) or persecuted (note that each one of these wordings can potentially change/distort statistics dramatically) by police officers than whites? Or do the known numbers say otherwise? Are blacks statistically more likely to commit violent crimes? Specifically against whites over numbers of whites against blacks in recent years? Any stats showing blacks committing more violent crimes than other demographics….Is that due to lingering effects of past racism and slavery? Or can it be pinned down to poverty in general, regardless of ethnicity? Single parent and broken, fatherless homes?
I came across a Newsweek article last week regarding black victims of police shootings. And in one story it made mention of a 4 yr old boy who was shot and killed by a stray police bullet as I think they were in a shootout with a criminal. So when there’s a study that mentions “number of police shootings against blacks”, that makes the statistics because the boy was black; but no asterisk that distinguishes it wasn’t intentional and through no fault of the police. Or perhaps a stat dishonest in its findings by not also separating justified vs. unjustified police-involved shootings.
And then there was a story I read where a lady called the police and went outside to flag down the arriving police car and was shot dead by them. She was unarmed and a white female. No uproar of racism. But you know what the societal and media response would have been had she been black? Or worse yet, a young black male? Default to racism. And that’s the problem and issue I’m struggling with. I know there are many legitimate instances of racist attitudes and violence against blacks; but I think there’s also a problem of self-creating and self-generating problems of racism by seeing life through the prism and prison of the racism filter screen.
I don’t agree with jumping to conclusions before all the facts are in. And I also believe a number of times this happens when people pass judgment from a snippet video and before all facts are in. And then the momentum of the pitchfork and torches mob just creates the narrative before the truth actually gets out. Damage done.
Yes! That’s what I lean toward: That the issues conflict is more one of culture and class than necessarily one of skin pigmentation. It’s the same kind of prejudices that govern attitudes between political ideologies. Tribalism.
@Ronald J. Ward:
I see there are significant gaps in your education, to imply that injustice can be “eradicated”.
Those in the 20th Century with the same view, a vitriolic hate for a group of people masked as “justice”, only showed that innocent people are the ones that get eradicated.
So you can think for yourself. That’s good. Unfortunately there’s a faction of our country who exploits these poor people by making it about race. These people are white themselves, and are imposing a form of slavery even as they rail against the boogeyman of the Conservative, who isn’t the stereotype from the 80s that television talk shows help to propagate.
The fact remains that a police officer is 20 times more likely to be shot by a black man than for the black man to be shot by a police officer (in situ). You’re more like to be shot by a cop as a white man than a black man.
These stats are real, and re-imagining events like Michael Brown (who robbed a store and attacked a police officer) to fit a false race narrative only makes Leftist whites richer. It does nothing for blacks.
Also, the “good ol’ boys” exist in every culture, including black and latino. Hillbillies, gangbangers, cholos…it’s all the same.
There are ignorant people of all races, and the move to “eradicate” the ignorant whites isn’t going to go the way you think…because you’re trying to eradicate a group.
@Nathan Blue: I’m a little worried about AJ; far less hyperbolic and irrational than usual.
@Wordsmith:
I’m not going to research statistics or even word definitions because the issue is far from binary. Demographics, pop cultures, and as you mention, vague and unreliable records make for a questionable conclusion. And reading the tea leaves of that brew would ultimately be left to the eyes of the beholder. Even the very definition of “racism” has been manipulated to the point that many don’t even know what it means.
I recall driving one evening and my wife needed to use a restroom. I pulled into a poorly lit store where stood 4 black young men drinking beer. Our grandson was asleep in the back seat so I was to stay in the car. We chose to drive on. Racism? No. We often dined at a Chinese restaurant which was later closed by the health department over some rather hideous reasons. I wouldn’t eat at any Asian cuisine for a long time afterwards. Racism? Not really, just my personal decision where to dine. So the muddling of the word has altered the argument.
Living in rural KY, I grew up (and still live) in a predominantly white neighborhood. I do recall the busing issue in Louisville KY which much of the protest were mainly racist, that blacks were inferior and due to their race, shouldn’t be allowed the same schooling as white people. And then of course there was Selma during that era . While 55 years ago seems like a short time ago to me, I realize how some could call that ancient history.
At the age of 19, I went to work at Whirlpool across the river in Evansville IN who had a very diverse workforce. By union contract, when one department need extra people, they could “borrow” people from other depts but had to do so by seniority. I recall the other dept needing someone for a fairly undesirable job. It so happened I had 6 people junior in seniority to me who all happened to be black. So the other dept borrowed 7 employees, handed a broom to each of the 6, and put me, the young lanky white buck, on the crappy job. One of the female black juniors even told me verbatim: “I have to be here to get paid but I don’t have to work”. I was livid. But I wasn’t racist. I understood that people by nature are always going to game the system.
Is racism prevalent today? I think Obama’s election elevated racism. From my white predominantly Trump supporting community in eastern Daviess Co KY, sporadic black families have always been accepted. I think the general thinking was that they need and deserve the basics as everyone else. Shop in the store? Sure, they need to eat. Come to church? They need to pray. Become president? I saw a mindset of “now wait a damn minute, that’s crossing a line, that position doesn’t belong to that race”. Funny how so many claimed to hate “Obama’s policies” yet when asked to name one, they couldn’t.
Charlottesville opened another exposure of blatant racism as the protest was over removing confederate statues, many that were put in place in the 50s and 60s at an era of Jim Crowism and voting rights. White supremacist didn’t want these reminders of who’s the boss to be removed.
And putting my opinions of Trump aside, his strategy of fanning racial flames has intensified racism. It isn’t that Mexicans have crossed the boarder for a better life or to send money back to their families (because of the $/peso exchange making it so realistic) but rather, that race is coming here to steal your job, sell drugs to your child, rape your wife, and then murder you. We have shithole countries consisting obviously of shithole races, people, you know, not like us, the non-shithole people. So what Trump has done is to exhume those white grievances of me doing the minority’s work or those beer drinkers after my wife or maybe a less qualified man of another race getting a job over me. After all, the coronavirus isn’t his fault but rather that yellow man over there that stole your good paying jobs.
Now I want to apologize if my longwindedness doesn’t connect to our agreement (I think) that poverty plays into our cultural breakdown more than actual racism- the belief of superiority and intent of oppression of a race. That raises the question of why are so many blacks are poor. Are they being oppressed. I refer you back to the Rosewood FL massacre. Blacks were doing quite well in their own town, actually prospering. Once a black man was accused of raping a white girl, surrounding white communities rode in and slaughtered many and drove survivors to the hills and then confiscated their properties. This was another “wait a damn minute” moment, “you’re doing too well for black people”. Charlottesville was another “wait a damn minute” moment as “we put those statues there to keep you in fear”. Kaepernick was another “wait a damn minute” because prominent black athletes voices must be silence lest the lessor of them rise as well. Fergason expose how the courts were rigged to entrap the poorer black people. The system has insured a continuation of the poor being unrepresented, uneducated, and remaining poor. And the present administration has signed Executive Orders and filled the courts with Plutocrats and Social Darwinism Ayn Ryan philosophies that it isn’t likely to change for years to come.
Racism or just being poor? Looks to me like given races have been and still are just needed pawns to get caught up in an oppressive trap which can also be construed as racism.
So when minorities, or perhaps, our poorer citizens, continue to see their unarmed grandson shot down in the street or being tossed in a jail cell for a broken tail light only to rack up unrealistic and affordable fees or to get 5 years in a for-profit prison for smoking a joint, I get it that it doesn’t go over well.