Black Lives Matter

[Sabal]

My FB feed is a disgusting display of divisive rhetoric that makes me cringe.  The #blacklivesmatter posts are always followed by someone posting #allLivesmatter 

Uhh... not the point 

Ten people sit around a table hungry. Everyone gets a plate of food except Dave.  Dave says, "My hunger matters!" 

Everyone else says, "All hunger matters!" , as they eat their food.  That is the point.

 

I dislike Facebook - especially these days.

 

[iweartanktops]

2 hours ago, Toothfairy said:

When people bring up black on black crime. 

Translation: If black people can kill each other, why can't we?

This is one of the most infuriating things for me lately! When people bring this up, they sound like fucking imbeciles. Seriously. I'd venture to guess that each race has more crime against their own race, for various reasons. Also, it's unrelated to police killing innocent Black people. We're talking about the people with power, killing civilians before they've even been arrested, let alone convicted. 

When people bring up black on black crime to justify the police killing Black people, I've been asking them if we should just shrug about 9/11, since Americans kill each other every day. It's absurd. 

[Mecca]

2 hours ago, Sabal said:

My FB feed is a disgusting display of divisive rhetoric that makes me cringe.  The #blacklivesmatter posts are always followed by someone posting #allLivesmatter 

Uhh... not the point 

Ten people sit around a table hungry. Everyone gets a plate of food except Dave.  Dave says, "My hunger matters!" 

Everyone else says, "All hunger matters!" , as they eat their food.  That is the point.

 

I dislike Facebook - especially these days.

 

Oh yes. I gave up my Facebook page because I had no idea I knew so many jerk faces. I had to leave it all behind because it truly hurts my soul to see people I know spew so much hatred. I still poke my head in on my husband's page on occasion to check out Russell Dejaynes Jr. nuttiness. Speaking of which, that guy made some horribly racist posts about this subject. 

I don't think many people want to understand the BLM movement at this point. Apparently you have to spell it out for some people and put a "too" behind Black Lives Matter, but I also think that for many people black lives really don't matter so it would not make a difference how you presented it to them. I nearly threw my remote at the TV after I saw Rudy Guiliani's nonsense.

I am also sick and tired of people thinking just because some of us speak out about the issues within the justice system means we are anti-cop and somehow we our peeing our pants with glee over the killings of those five officers in Dallas. Could not be further from the truth. Those officers should have never lost their lives. Killing is wrong. Full stop.

I want a system that treats people fairly. Nothing wrong with stating and fighting for that.

 

Edited July 13, 2016 by Mecca

[Mercer]

All Lives Matter used as a rebuttal to Black Lives Matter drives me crazy.

It's like if a ship was torpedoed, and the people on the deck of the sinking ship were yelling "Someone please save us!" while people safe on the shore were yelling back "Everyone deserves to be saved!" - it's technically true, but it's entirely dismissive of the fact that some lives are in imminent danger and others are not.

Acting like Black Lives Matter automatically means other lives don't seems to me like a willful refusal to understand.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Mercer

[myhobby]

Quote

My FB feed is a disgusting display of divisive rhetoric that makes me cringe.  The #blacklivesmatter posts are always followed by someone posting #allLivesmatter 

This right here.  Since Orlando last month and now the past week it seems like people have just started spouting the most horrible things I've ever read, and I follow Steve Anderson.  That cop who implied he was going to kill the little girl.  Unbelievable.  And disgusting.  

And I hate #alllivesmatter.  With a passion.  Obviously all lives matter.  That is not the issue right now, as we're focusing on a specific portion of all those lives.

[Mecca]

There was a Police Officer in Metro Nashville decommissioned because he said on his Facebook page he would have shot Castile five times instead of four. Disgusting. 

[Geechee Girl]

@purple_summer Thanks for the list. I've been following a few, and the others I've seen in retweets. Did you see the stream about "The Gaze" a few days ago? #BLAXIT had me rolling. It was a nice moment of levity.

@Mecca Leaving FB was the best decision for my soul and sanity. The months leading up to the 2008 election revealed the true face of people I thought were decent human beings.  

[sophie10130]

The way I see it Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter are two sides of the same racist coin.

Note: Sweeping Generalizations ahead made purely from anecdotal evidence from my Facebook wall and my utter exasperation and anger but I still stand by it:

Blue Lives Matter is for the more conservative and overtly racists. They love cops and they love the military and they love that both use their positions of power to uphold white supremacy in America and abroad. Say the n-word. Call black people the n-word when around other like-minded white people. Own guns. Call the Confederate Flag "heritage."

All Lives Matter is for the purse clutching, walk to the other side of the street when they see a black man suburban Moms. The hidden racist. The people that are super happy with their white privilege to never take a closer look at their internalized racism. The I had a black friend in college/I dated someone who was black so I can't be racist racists. Some might even vote for Hillary in November.

[ADoyle90815]

2 hours ago, Mecca said:

There was a Police Officer in Metro Nashville decommissioned because he said on his Facebook page he would have shot Castile five times instead of four. Disgusting. 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

4 hours ago, iweartanktops said:

This is one of the most infuriating things for me lately! When people bring this up, they sound like fucking imbeciles. Seriously. I'd venture to guess that each race has more crime against their own race, for various reasons. Also, it's unrelated to police killing innocent Black people. We're talking about the people with power, killing civilians before they've even been arrested, let alone convicted. 

When people bring up black on black crime to justify the police killing Black people, I've been asking them if we should just shrug about 9/11, since Americans kill each other every day. It's absurd. 

It's because you interpret black on black violence differently from them. Where you see a criminal committing a crime against a citizen, they see a B league criminal individual committing a crime against another B league individual probably another criminal cause all B league citizens are good for nothing criminals with few exceptions for people they know and are "friends with". After all the news love to report on violence in inner city prevalently black neighbourhoods, stats that show how most criminals/addicts/homeless/inmates are black etc without bother contextualizing these data because it's too fucking complicated and the average readers/audience wouldn't understand anyway because it's not a problem of theirs.

[Imagine20]

There are people out there who have no idea that BLM and All Lives Matter are two totally different things. One news station in South Dakota labeled a BLM demonstration as an ALM event. Some people just don't get it. Don't even very me started on the Pokémon Lives Matter shirt I saw on Fb.

[Peas n carrots]

It just makes me sad seeing so much ugly resurface. It should erase all doubt the civil rights movement leveled the playing field in even the most remote corners of the nation.

I'm a white Midwestern female - I have nothing to say, just here to listen and learn. Most Non-blacks need to realize they don't know jack about what it is like to be black in America and just need to STFU and listen.

[IntrinsicallyDisordered]

This is an older article but I keep going back to it - http://fusion.net/story/184032/black-lives-matter-martin-luther-king-hate-mail/    It's startling and depressing how little the talking points have changed.  

1 hour ago, Peas n carrots said:

I'm a white Midwestern female - I have nothing to say, just here to listen and learn. Most Non-blacks need to realize they don't know jack about what it is like to be black in America and just need to STFU and listen.

Yes, this.  Growing up I knew very few POC and had the lalala I don't even see color! aren't we all just people?!  nonsense going on.  I meant well, but meaning well doesn't mean very much at all in the scheme of things.  As I grew and met more people and actually started listening to what POC had to say about their own history and experiences it was a revelation and churned up a great amount of anger and shame.  I don't feel "white guilt", but I do recognize my privilege and am more aware of what racism is and the reality based history of the country vs the conservative mythology.  White people as a whole HAVE to stop feeling like being accused of/seen as racist is somehow the worst thing ever...you can't change if you can't acknowledge there's something that needs changing.  I've found about half the white people I try to talk to about this get it, the other half go off about how they're not racist but...

[Eternalbluepearl]

I have nothing to add. I am learning so much, though. I want to say how nice it is to read that others are also infuriated with the Blue Lives Matter cop hero worship crap on their facebook newsfeeds. It's like a movement educating the public about the experiences that black people have is just not allowed to exist. It's just not. It has to be turned into something about EVERYONE'S LIVES mattering, or about how cops are heroes. It can never, ever, just be about black people. I'm not black, but that seems unfair. 

[VelociRapture]

6 hours ago, sophie10130 said:

The way I see it Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter are two sides of the same racist coin.

Note: Sweeping Generalizations ahead made purely from anecdotal evidence from my Facebook wall and my utter exasperation and anger but I still stand by it:

Blue Lives Matter is for the more conservative and overtly racists. They love cops and they love the military and they love that both use their positions of power to uphold white supremacy in America and abroad. Say the n-word. Call black people the n-word when around other like-minded white people. Own guns. Call the Confederate Flag "heritage."

All Lives Matter is for the purse clutching, walk to the other side of the street when they see a black man suburban Moms. The hidden racist. The people that are super happy with their white privilege to never take a closer look at their internalized racism. The I had a black friend in college/I dated someone who was black so I can't be racist racists. Some might even vote for Hillary in November.

Can we please put this all over the Bates forum (just joking... Maybe...)? Zach and Whit - but most likely Whit - posted this following the Dallas shooting:

Seems innocent enough because he's in Law Enforcement and she obviously doesn't want him to die, but considering they said jack shit about the Black men, women, and children gunned down by cops... And his parents had that fantastically racist room dedicated to that Confederacy guy... Might be a nice reminder that the Bateses are, indeed, flying assholes.

[Sabal]

What really gets me is:  People flat out do not understand "white privilege" - 

It has nothing to do with what you have! It has everything to do with how you are treated. 

If because of the color of my skin, I can drive around in my car and not panic when I get pulled over or break down on the side of a road, and see a cop approach my vehicle...  

OR

If because of the color of my skin I drive my car around in fear because if I get pulled over the initial rules and assumptions are that I somehow pose the cop danger and I'd better not move my hands, reach for anything and because I'm terrified I'm suspect...  

 This is a problem!!!

If because of the color of my skin I can wander around a store and nobody gives me "side eye", or follows me around while I touch the merchandise lazily browsing...

OR

If because of the color of my skin I wander around a store, I get "side eye", and followed around, until I'm so uncomfortable I leave. 

This is a problem!

 

[IntrinsicallyDisordered]

13 minutes ago, Sabal said:

What really gets me is:  People flat out do not understand "white privilege" - 

It has nothing to do with what you have! It has everything to do with how you are treated. 

 

I immigrated to a western European country some years ago, that also has a high number of immigrants from North Africa, Turkey and the Middle East.  I remember when the police did their spot check to see if I was actually living where I was living, he came to the door, declined to come any further into the house than the entry way, barely glanced at my ID (didn't even ask for it, but I gave it to him anyway), signed the form and left.  In my integration papers I'd been told they'd come 3 or 4 times, tour the residence, ask questions, etc.  It was just that once.   And years later, when I accidentally let my residence card expire, I was able to get a new one for a fee but no interest or questioning into how this happened and if I was on the up and up. 

 I am a pale, green eyed blonde.  I have suffered and struggled in my life, lived in poverty as a child, been emotionally, physically, spiritually and sexually abused, and am disabled.  But none of that negates the white privilege I've been swimming in since birth.   

I really like the dinner "all hunger matters" analogy; another one that seems effective is to describe life as a video game, and your privilege (whether race, sex, class, etc) doesn't mean the game is easy, it just means to maybe think about how other people's default game is on a harder setting.  Assume that other people are doing the best they can, because they are, even if you think they could do better, or that you could do better in their shoes.  Have compassion and empathy.  Stand up for what is right and give a helping hand when needed and wanted.  And LISTEN.  Never stop listening.  Don't ever presume to know anyone's life better than they do.  

And please, learn history and teach it to your children.  Real history.  I was taught that Rosa Parks was a sweet old lady who was tired after work and just wanted to sit down and never meant to cause trouble.  I saw no reason to question this so I didn't.  I trusted my teachers and preferred Roman history to American.  Finding out the truth as an adult, that it was planned, that she was an activist, was life-changing.  I started wondering how many other things I'd been lied to about, and am appalled by what I'm still learning.

[catlady]

24 minutes ago, Sabal said:

What really gets me is:  People flat out do not understand "white privilege" - 

It has nothing to do with what you have! It has everything to do with how you are treated. 

(snipped for brevity)

 

you hit the proverbial nail with this.  I'm white, and I'm well aware that when I walk my dog around the block admiring people's gardens, no one thinks I'm casing their houses.

a few years back, someone wrote a letter to the local paper in response to a shooting by police, that if the victim had just done what the cop told him to do and hadn't put himself in the situation in the first place, he'd probably still be alive.  ***it's not that simplistic!!!***  sure, maybe if just once, when you're minding your own business and a cop accuses you of being up to no good, you'd be likely to comply and then go your merry way.  but when this happens to you ten+ times in a year, you're far more likely to be angry/upset/disgusted/etc to constantly be accused of something when you've done absolutely nothing wrong.  and this is the problem that Sabal speaks of.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

Sorry I don't live in the US so I may be way off but mine is a genuine question. Somewhere in this thread or another some of our members, some of them POCs, were expressing frustration because all of this isn't new at all and years ofpeaceful protests didn't lead to anything positive. Don't you think that this may be at least in part due to the silence of white folks? As someone already said upthread the racists are #bluelivesmatter and the racists in disguise are #alllivesmatter, where are the white people who can see that institutional racism is wrong and a reality? Are they marching and protesting, shouting and standing side by side with PCOs? Or are they keeping silent because this is someone else's battle/out of "respect" because they don't know how hard it is/are too busy listening/out of fear of being labelled cop haters? I've seen footage of the protests only on our media so there may be a bias but I noticed how there weren't white people. I really hope it was because they showed very little footage over and over. 

It reminded me of how historically things got better for us women only when men started to feel that misogyny and inequality wasn't just a problem for women but for the whole society.  Same with LGBTQ rights. The sensation is that until whites will think that it's not a problem of theirs, things won't change. 

[sophie10130]

1 hour ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

Sorry I don't live in the US so I may be way off but mine is a genuine question. Somewhere in this thread or another some of our members, some of them POCs, were expressing frustration because all of this isn't new at all and years ofpeaceful protests didn't lead to anything positive. Don't you think that this may be at least in part due to the silence of white folks? As someone already said upthread the racists are #bluelivesmatter and the racists in disguise are #alllivesmatter, where are the white people who can see that institutional racism is wrong and a reality? Are they marching and protesting, shouting and standing side by side with PCOs? Or are they keeping silent because this is someone else's battle/out of "respect" because they don't know how hard it is/are too busy listening/out of fear of being labelled cop haters? I've seen footage of the protests only on our media so there may be a bias but I noticed how there weren't white people. I really hope it was because they showed very little footage over and over. 

It reminded me of how historically things got better for us women only when men started to feel that misogyny and inequality wasn't just a problem for women but for the whole society.  Same with LGBTQ rights. The sensation is that until whites will think that it's not a problem of theirs, things won't change. 

I only know about my white activist friends in Chicago.

But they stay in the back and on the sides. They are there for support, not to speak over black people. But they are there! Some protests, like the one in Baton Rouge and the ones in Ferguson are in areas with an extremely large black population, so there will just be more black folks there. But white people do care and there are lots that are unafraid to speak out.

They know that police are way less likely to pull a white girl around by her hair than a black girl, so they try to make a wall along the sides and the back. If it looks like a cop is getting violent with someone, they will come around and watch and speak up. But they aren't on the "front lines" so to speak of the movement. Again, this is just what I know from my friends in Chicago. 

ALSO

It's a better rhetoric to show masses of black people "rioting" than a mixed group of people peacefully protesting. The narrative matters, and they are trying to evoke suspicion, terror, and anger out of the BLM movement.

5 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

Can we please put this all over the Bates forum (just joking... Maybe...)? Zach and Whit - but most likely Whit - posted this following the Dallas shooting:

Go for it. I think a good dose of reminding people that the Bateses are racist misogynistic cult members is important 

Edited July 13, 2016 by sophie10130

[VelociRapture]

@laPapessaGiovannaI can only speak for myself here.

Personally, I haven't participated or spoken out much other than on here. The reason why is because I did not grow up in a very diverse town and, because of that, I'm kind of playing "catch up" now when trying to understand these issues. I'm the type of person who really likes to learn and understand to the best if my ability before I open my mouth - if I don't know what I'm talking about then I don't say anything because I don't want to cause more problems. I also don't live in a state that has seen massive protests either, so there's that too.

The same was true during the struggle for marriage equality and LGBTQ rights. I was more vocal then because I knew more (thanks to my brother), but I wasn't an expert. So I took a backseat to try and learn and listen. Now when something happens or comes up, I do speak up because I feel more confident in my ability to help in a productive manner. I do always worry a bit that I'm talking over the people who should be the focus though - and that does concern me a great deal when I consider speaking up about the BLM movement. I don't want to be that person, you know?

This isn't true for everyone. My brother was traveling for work recently and randomly met some homeless people being bugged by a Cop (Cop was white, the people he was bugging were black.) It wasn't anything super serious or dangerous, but it irked my brother that the Cop was bugging them. He stopped and started chatting with them and the Cop was so taken aback (because my brother is a young white man in business casual) that he quickly left. My brother ended the day at a BLM rally with his new pals and he posted about his positive experience online to help people see that not all protestors are violent people.

ETA: That's not to say I don't speak about it at all. My husband and I discuss these topics quite a lot. We're both appalled at the stories that have been circulating regarding race and police brutality - a specific example was how horrified he was that Miss Reynold's toddler was in the car when Mr. Castile was killed by police. He simply couldn't wrap his mind around what that little girl must have seen or heard and it made him so angry for all three of them.

And we both speak up about it around family and, occasionally, friends as well. His mom has told us in the past that talking with us helps her understand different topics better and she feels like she's learning more than from what she sees online or on the news. We don't always agree on things, but she appreciates hearing our opinions.

Edited July 13, 2016 by VelociRapture

[batuityma]

1 hour ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

Sorry I don't live in the US so I may be way off but mine is a genuine question. Somewhere in this thread or another some of our members, some of them POCs, were expressing frustration because all of this isn't new at all and years ofpeaceful protests didn't lead to anything positive. Don't you think that this may be at least in part due to the silence of white folks? As someone already said upthread the racists are #bluelivesmatter and the racists in disguise are #alllivesmatter, where are the white people who can see that institutional racism is wrong and a reality? Are they marching and protesting, shouting and standing side by side with PCOs? Or are they keeping silent because this is someone else's battle/out of "respect" because they don't know how hard it is/are too busy listening/out of fear of being labelled cop haters? I've seen footage of the protests only on our media so there may be a bias but I noticed how there weren't white people. I really hope it was because they showed very little footage over and over. 

<snip>

 

I live in the area where Philando Castile was shot. Locally, it has been a solid week of protests and I've seen white people and non-black POC involved. On Saturday night a major interstate was shut down with protesters blocking the freeway. From what I saw it did seem like the white people who were involved were mostly in in the back or off to the side. The ones facing off directly with the police in riot gear were mostly black. But this morning there was another protest blocking a major interstate.  This time it was a coalition of non-black protesters.

http://www.startribune.com/protesters-block-i-35w-in-minneapolis/386622281/

Quote

A statement from Black Lives Matter Minneapolis said the activists on the freeway make up “a coalition of white people and non-Black people of color [acting] in solidarity with the movement for Black lives, condemning the ongoing killings of Black people by police in the Twin Cities and across the country.”

 

[iweartanktops]

I read an article this morning that at least the police only put Philando Castile's girlfriend in a "soft cell" for a couple of hours. They also gave her daughter a teddy bear.

The article made it seem like we should all feel better now.  

[sophie10130]

7 minutes ago, iweartanktops said:

I read an article this morning that at least the police only put Philando Castile's girlfriend in a "soft cell" for a couple of hours. They also gave her daughter a teddy bear.

The article made it seem like we should all feel better now.  

Oh Jesus Christ.

Have you seen the hashtag about if everyone was treated like Cops at their jobs?

Here's some of my faves:

Spoiler

 

[seattlechic]

16 hours ago, Mecca said:

There was a Police Officer in Metro Nashville decommissioned because he said on his Facebook page he would have shot Castile five times instead of four. Disgusting. 

and the boss of the police union in Seattle stepped down for saying something equally stupid on the union's FB page. don;t know how to upload a pic, so here's the link to the news story: http://www.king5.com/news/local/seattle/spog-facebook-post-yields-almost-two-dozen-racial-bias-complaints/271036987

I read an article this morning that at least the police only put Philando Castile's girlfriend in a "soft cell" for a couple of hours. They also gave her daughter a teddy bear.

The article made it seem like we should all feel better now.  

DAFUQ???? They should be grateful she was such an incredible classy gal. Had it been me, I would have put pedal to the metal the moment my man was assassinated, and taken him to the hospital immediately.