[jmathai]

Black people. And I don't mean that sarcastically.

But I don't believe they're afraid of them as much as it's a power play.

A police officer on video said "Bring it. All you f*cking animals." [1] Based on everything I've seen this sentiment feels more like the rule than the exception.

[1] http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/266242/speedreads-white-...

[allegory]

Without getting into a race debate, black people do get a lot of bad press. What the cause of this is, I don't know or wish to comment on past I suspect that it is mainly down to education, poverty and somewhat stereotypical reporting.

The latter is good leverage for anyone with an agenda.

However if I was in the US I'd be rather more worried about the significant portion of gun toting redneck conservatives who are devoid of all logic.

[calibraxis]

Is there a race debate? Many cultures simply feature weird -isms like racism. Racism is designed to divide people using bizarre theories, in order to justify institutions of societal control, violence and inequality. (There may be debaters arguing about it, but the existence of flat-earthers doesn't make "round-earth debate" a serious one.)

Just like sexism is used to divide people using gender as leverage. That's how women were men's property and unable to vote, men dominate various professions and get away with workplace harassment, etc.

(For what it's worth, "Redneck" is regionalist and probably classist. No need for such pejoratives.)

[LyndsySimon]

I think the only "-ism" in the end is tribalism. People seek to identify with a group that sets them apart from "the rest", and allows them to think of the world in an antagonistic way.

Whether that group is based on gender, race, or some other visible characteristic is immaterial. The result is always that each group works to suppress those outside that group, consciously and unconsciously.

I'm beginning the believe that mankind is wired in such a way where this is the primary social expression of our competitive drive. While the current situation at any given time is created by social circumstances, the overall nature of our social actions as a species seems to be pretty much the same.

[coldtea]

>Without getting into a race debate, black people do get a lot of bad press. What the cause of this is, I don't know or wish to comment on past I suspect that it is mainly down to education, poverty and somewhat stereotypical reporting.

It's about:

1) Kidnapped and being brought to another country by force to work as slaves, cutting lost deep cultural and societal bonds and ties they had with their original communities.

2) "Freed" but still (always) being a minority in the country, numbers wise, and with their old masters and racist people against them, including legislators (Jim Crow laws), business owners ("no blacks" or sharecropping), white communities (seggregation), etc.

3) Starting the race from a huge handicap (the huge majority of them being slaves, poor and uneducated) compared to even the poorest new immigrants arriving.

Unlike the prevalent myth, "hard work and determination" doesn't do much statistically for large groups of people. Actually if you work hard as a low wage worker, without the proper business/investment ideas of your own you stay mostly in the same paylevel. So, that plus luck and talent (e.g from business to music) might get a small percentage moving upwards, but tons of black people breaking their backs everyday will just go nowhere.

[freethinking]

White communities- is segregation? Seriously? Black people are more likely to pick/stay in high crime neighborhoods full of mostly black people, isn't this the same? Difference being, successful, hardworking, decent, honest black people will move away- usually in a primarily white neighborhood. Ask them why... they don't want black neighbors. This is not made up. I, with 2 other college students, conducted our own study for our social economics course, we talked to so many people from different races, wealth classifications, different neighborhoods, and their answers were dependent on their class and neighborhood, more than their race. But hey I guess when you think about it, it's only racist, segregation, and wrong when white people do it.

Funny how illegal immigrants come over here with nothing more than the clothes on their back, work for $7-$100pcs an hour, pay taxes/social security/Medicare -but never get it back, and they more often than not, somehow achieve a good enough life to take care of their families, and still send some money back home.

[coldtea]

>White communities- is segregation? Seriously? Black people are more likely to pick/stay in high crime neighborhoods full of mostly black people, isn't this the same?

No, it's not the same. That's because they can't afford to live elsewhere. And also because racism doesn't let them integrate in other communities. Heck, even when they had money and tried to move to white communities, real estate agencies and locals didn't let them, to avoid "lowering the value" of the place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining

>Difference being, successful, hardworking, decent, honest black people will move away- usually in a primarily white neighborhood. Ask them why... they don't want black neighbors.

No, they just don't want the kind of neighborhouds a legacy of opression, racism and poorness has made of those other blacks. The richer blacks would have tried to move just the same even if they lived in a poor latino or white area. So it's not about not wanting "black neighbors". White people didn't even like black middle class families, or even doctors and lawyers living next to them.

Again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining

[tammer]

Don't forget a long history of systematic prevention of wealth accumulation through redlining, contract mortgages and predatory lending!

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case...

[LyndsySimon]

Good read :)

[bigtex]

#1 makes it seems like the white man just went over to Africa with a big net and starting catching Africans. In reality, most slaves were captured people from other tribes whom there own people sold/bartered to the European slave traders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery#African_part...

[LyndsySimon]

I agree that there is a major problem within the media and culture at large in that there is a presumption of criminality whenever a black citizen is involved in any sort of incident with law enforcement.

This has been in the public eye recently after the successful Twitter campaign #IfTheyGunnedMeDown. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/08/12/if-...

It is true that a higher percentage of black in the US are imprisoned, a higher percentage are convicted felons, and a higher percentage are arrested before age 25. It's also true that a higher percentage have household incomes below the poverty line, and a higher percentage are raised in a household with only a single parent. This would lead a rational person to believe that the causes of crime have far more to do with social and economic factors than with any other attribute.

> However if I was in the US I'd be rather more worried about the significant portion of gun toting redneck conservatives who are devoid of all logic.

While it may not matter to you, I find this highly offensive. I'm a white male, and a fervent supporter of gun rights. While I'm not poor or conservative - I'm middle-class at most, and an extreme libertarian - I grew up in an area where the vast majority of people were in fact poor and conservative.

I know many, many people who fit your pejorative, and they are with few exceptions the kindest and most reliable people I've ever met.

With respect, I urge you to actually get to know some of those "gun-toting redneck conservatives" of whom you speak. They may not be like you, but I truly believe that you'll quickly come to realize that they are in fact people too, and that their actions and beliefs barely resemble the caricature that you apparently ascribe to them.

[freethinking]

Stop believing agenda seeking black people about the media (Sharpton, James, etc.)- turn your tv to CNN, msnbc, etc., and watch it for an hour. They do not blame black people. They don't wait for facts. They automatically side against cops, and with our president. So you are right, they do report the news on bias, you just have their bias backasswards. When changes get made in the wake of these type issues, you still blame people for not changing... why change, why be fair, what's the point?.. when they still get blamed for not doing the right thing.