Baltimore Calmer; 6 Officers Indicted

[Blakk Metal]

Define 'racist'.

is this your favorite thing to say nowadays

It will be as long until I get a good definition of the word or until people stop using the word.

while pretending racism doesnt exist

How can I claim racism doesn't exist if I don't have a definition to use?

[Prussia-Steinbach]

is this your favorite thing to say nowadays

It will be as long until I get a good definition of the word or until people stop using the word.

while pretending racism doesnt exist

How can I claim racism doesn't exist if I don't have a definition to use?

You use one of those new-fangled dictionary things.

[Blakk Metal]

It will be as long until I get a good definition of the word or until people stop using the word.

How can I claim racism doesn't exist if I don't have a definition to use?

You use one of those new-fangled dictionary things.

Or you can give me a good definition of your precious term.

[Prussia-Steinbach]

You use one of those new-fangled dictionary things.

Or you can give me a good definition of your precious term.

Or you can take less than ten seconds and figure it out yourself.

[Neu California]

You use one of those new-fangled dictionary things.

Or you can give me a good definition of your precious term.

Noun[edit]

racist (plural racists)
1.A person who believes a particular race is superior to others.
I think that racists and xenophobes hold our society back.

Took me all of 10 seconds to find that on Wiktionary, mostly because I took my sweet time typing out the URL

[Prussia-Steinbach]

Relevant.

[Arumdaum]

Or you can give me a good definition of your precious term.

Noun[edit]

racist (plural racists)
1.A person who believes a particular race is superior to others.
I think that racists and xenophobes hold our society back.

Took me all of 10 seconds to find that on Wiktionary, mostly because I took my sweet time typing out the URL

Eh, you don't necessarily have to believe that a particular race is superior.

Saying something like "Let's go to KFC, we're with Kevin and he's black" would be racist, but it doesn't imply that one race is superior over another.

[Prussia-Steinbach]

Took me all of 10 seconds to find that on Wiktionary, mostly because I took my sweet time typing out the URL

Eh, you don't necessarily have to believe that a particular race is superior.

Saying something like "Let's go to KFC, we're with Kevin and he's black" would be racist, but it doesn't imply that one race is superior over another.

That's more specifically prejudice/racial stereotyping though. Not any better. Just technically different though.

[Blakk Metal]

Or you can give me a good definition of your precious term.

Noun[edit]

racist (plural racists)
1.A person who believes a particular race is superior to others.
I think that racists and xenophobes hold our society back.

Took me all of 10 seconds to find that on Wiktionary, mostly because I took my sweet time typing out the URL

If that's so, then why is claiming black people are more susceptible to sickle cell anemia not referred to as racist, but eating three meals a day is and suppressing black votes for selfish political gain is, despite the fact the former implies blacks are superior and the latter two do not?

Relevant.

If you can get away with wrecking a city, then you aren't oppressed.

[Prussia-Steinbach]

Relevant.

If you can get away with wrecking a city, then you aren't oppressed.

I suppose you'd suggest we start rounding up the blacks and putting them in prison. That'd show 'em how free they are.

[Natapoc]

If you can get away with wrecking a city, then you aren't oppressed.

Your Premise is either unsubstantiated or out of context, and your conclusion does not follow from your Premise. Every part of your statement is flawed.

[Yumyumsuppertime]

Took me all of 10 seconds to find that on Wiktionary, mostly because I took my sweet time typing out the URL

If that's so, then why is claiming black people are more susceptible to sickle cell anemia not referred to as racist, but eating three meals a day is and suppressing black votes for selfish political gain is, despite the fact the former implies blacks are superior and the latter two do not?

Relevant.

If you can get away with wrecking a city, then you aren't oppressed.

Get away with it?

Hundreds of people were arrested during the riot, and held for up to three days in overcrowded conditions without a hearing. One rioter who turned himself in after being advised by his parents to do so is currently being held on $500,000 bail for participating in vandalism on a police vehicle, which is more than any of the officers accused of murdering a suspect who was unable to defend himself.

What, exactly, do you mean by "Get away with it"?

[Prussia-Steinbach]

If that's so, then why is claiming black people are more susceptible to sickle cell anemia not referred to as racist, but eating three meals a day is and suppressing black votes for selfish political gain is, despite the fact the former implies blacks are superior and the latter two do not?

If you can get away with wrecking a city, then you aren't oppressed.

Get away with it?

Hundreds of people were arrested during the riot, and held for up to three days in overcrowded conditions without a hearing. One rioter who turned himself in after being advised by his parents to do so is currently being held on $500,000 bail for participating in vandalism on a police vehicle, which is more than any of the officers accused of murdering a suspect who was unable to defend himself.

What, exactly, do you mean by "Get away with it"?

I think he means they haven't put all those rowdy Negros in a work camp where they belong. They were so much better when they were free to pick cotton.

[Yumyumsuppertime]

If you can get away with wrecking a city, then you aren't oppressed.

I suppose you'd suggest we start rounding up the blacks and putting them in prison. That'd show 'em how free they are.

Not prison. That's too cruel. What we should do is train them in some basic job skills. We currently have an undocumented immigration problem. What if we took these black people and sent them to areas where they need agricultural workers? We could have them work in the fields, and the ones who behave themselves and don't run off could even be given training in domestic work. We could even ensure that their children get training by having them work in the fields as soon as they're able to hold bags! Of course, we'll have to have some sort of discipline for recalcitrant types who run off due to not appreciating the opportunity, and various agricultural enterprises will have to be free to sell the services so as to ensure that they're not feeding more people than they really need, but I think that we could work something out.

[Prussia-Steinbach]

I suppose you'd suggest we start rounding up the blacks and putting them in prison. That'd show 'em how free they are.

Not prison. That's too cruel. What we should do is train them in some basic job skills. We currently have an undocumented immigration problem. What if we took these black people and sent them to areas where they need agricultural workers? We could have them work in the fields, and the ones who behave themselves and don't run off could even be given training in domestic work. We could even ensure that their children get training by having them work in the fields as soon as they're able to hold bags! Of course, we'll have to have some sort of discipline for recalcitrant types who run off due to not appreciating the opportunity, and various agricultural enterprises will have to be free to sell the services so as to ensure that they're not feeding more people than they really need, but I think that we could work something out.

Seems like a good idea to me. And God knows when they have that fantastic life all set up for them, they don't really need to vote on anything, since it's us that are taking care of them and all. I wouldn't even really count them as like a regular citizen, they're special, maybe like, I don't know, three-fifths of one? Regardless, I think it might also be a good idea to have some kind of organization, a society, maybe even a class that would stay down there with them and look over them directly. They could live in a big house, on the very same land, practically as equals! And mainly just keep things in line, you know, make sure nothing gets too out of hand.

[Ifreann]

If that's so, then why is claiming black people are more susceptible to sickle cell anemia not referred to as racist, but eating three meals a day is and suppressing black votes for selfish political gain is, despite the fact the former implies blacks are superior and the latter two do not?

If you can get away with wrecking a city, then you aren't oppressed.

Get away with it?

Hundreds of people were arrested during the riot, and held for up to three days in overcrowded conditions without a hearing. One rioter who turned himself in after being advised by his parents to do so is currently being held on $500,000 bail for participating in vandalism on a police vehicle, which is more than any of the officers accused of murdering a suspect who was unable to defend himself.

What, exactly, do you mean by "Get away with it"?

Presumably "I just assumed that none of the rioters were arrested".

[Alien Space Bats]

Why don't we have riots for black on black violence?

I dislike cops for my own reasons and its obvious old boy got a touchup in Baltimore, but its hypocritical as fuck to only protest and destroy property when its a cop holding the gun. Flash news, black community. You're oppressing yourself just as much as the cops are.

That sound you hear is the point passing swiftly over your head.

"<X>-on-<Y>" violence is not the issue here, particularly given the fact that half the accused officers are black or Latino.

The issue here is the way in which racist cultural stereotypes that are both so pervasive and so deeply embedded within our society have spawned omnipresent expectations of criminal behavior on the part of black people, and that these expectations have led to overly aggressive policing of the black community. As a consequence, black people in general (and young black men in particular) now find themselves living in a situation in which literally EVERYTHING they do (driving, walking, loitering, shopping, or even just looking around) is seen as "suspicious" and/or "dangerous" behavior meriting police investigation and/or a response. Combined with police training that encourages officers to employ lethal force when confronted with danger and a legal system that shields these same peace officers from prosecution in even the most outrageously egregious circumstances, this has in turn produced a very real danger to the health and well-being of black people in danger and young black men in particular.

Are the odds of being killed by another black man far greater for this population than the odds of being killed by a cop? Absolutely. But the set of expectations implied by your post — that blacks ought to just quietly accept being killed by the police on a regular basis (roughly 2-3 times a week on a national basis) on the grounds that there's a greater danger of being killed by black criminals — is not only utterly ridiculous, but thoroughly outrageous as well. We as a people — and this includes black people — have a well-founded expectation that the police ought to be on our side and not out to kill us; indeed, as their function within a free society is to protect our lives, our property, and our freedom, the notion that we ought to just meekly accept death at their hands as no big deal — or at best the price we pay for their protection — is deeply offensive on SO many levels that it's hard to fathom ANYONE imagining that we as a society should just let it slide.

The frequent and chronic nature of this problem makes it a fundamental issue of trust. Black people cannot and should not simply be expected to accept that they are, in essence, "the usual suspects" and that, as a consequence of this, the must live their lives under a microscope of overly zealous policing — and the collateral damage such policing creates.

Thus, talk of "black on black violence" not only misses the point, but represents a particularly nasty and gratuitous attempt to softpedal the unacceptable, particularly because it serves to reinforce the very cultural stereotypes that feed the real problem in the first place. Black people aren't going to accept that the higher rates of criminal activity among their population make them the legitimate target of racial prejudice, and should be expected to; they aren't going to quietly bury their dead without complaint on the grounds that, being born black, they were the "natural" suspects of police scrutiny and thus got gunned down as an expected and accepted part of the cost of maintaining social order within our society.

No, they're going to say "fuck it" and push back, because that's what whites (or any other population) would do if the shoe were on the other foot.

The question you now have to ask yourself is this: Why in the Hell do you find this so damned hard to understand? And why couldn't you have spent the five minutes that it would have taken to ask yourself how you would feel if you were in their shoes?

Your failure to put yourself in the shoes of a group of your fellow citizens and ask yourself how you would feel if it were you in their position speaks volumes about how you feel towards the black population — because, in the end, it really isn't hard to understand why they feel the way they do.

No, not at all.

[Alien Space Bats]

Hypocrisy, that article says black politicians can use the word but white ones can't.

The article says (rightly) that different people mean different things by it.

To repeat McWhorter's comments from the interview, when a white person says "thugs are messing up the neighborhood", they INVARIABLY mean that "BLACK PEOPLE are messing up the neighborhood" — in which case they'd be far more honest just saying what they really WANT ro say: That "niggers are messing up the neighborhood". It's a racist assertion from the get-go.

But when black politicians use they term, they're saying something different. They're saying, in essence, that "rebellious young toughs are messing up the neighborhood", and THAT is NOT AT ALL a racist observation; it's a cultural analysis of what's going on at a much deeper and more sophisticated level.

But then, to admit this is to appreciate that how we mean the things we say matters. And if we do that, then most of us white folks come of much the worse for wear from the careless exposure of some rather ugly attitudes that many of us are even ready to admit TO OURSELVES that we harbor deep down inside.

Gee, I wonder if there are other words like that out there.

I don't see how that's a defense. If you want to condemn the word, do it universally.

Yeah, because there's no such thing as connotative meaning.

<eyeroll>

Sorry, Bunky, but that just ain't the way language actually works. Context matters, and that context includes the identity and baggage of the speaker.

[Alien Space Bats]

Ironically, the officer's case is pretty good. While Maryland law allows for switchblades, Baltimore law doesn't. As well, the fact that the lawyer for the family was a major financier of the Prosecutor's campaign, and that her husband's (a member of government) riding was the one most effected by the rioting, could certainly lead to belief that there's a conflict of interest

I take it you're British.

<pause>

FYI, we don't have "ridings", we don't "stand" for office, and we don't have political "financiers".

We have "districts", we "run" for office, and we have political "backers" or "contributors" (or "bundlers", but those are beasts of a different sort).

[Alien Space Bats]

Not prison. That's too cruel. What we should do is train them in some basic job skills. We currently have an undocumented immigration problem. What if we took these black people and sent them to areas where they need agricultural workers? We could have them work in the fields, and the ones who behave themselves and don't run off could even be given training in domestic work. We could even ensure that their children get training by having them work in the fields as soon as they're able to hold bags! Of course, we'll have to have some sort of discipline for recalcitrant types who run off due to not appreciating the opportunity, and various agricultural enterprises will have to be free to sell the services so as to ensure that they're not feeding more people than they really need, but I think that we could work something out.

I hereby nominate you for the 2015 Jonathan Swift Award.

[Ifreann]

Not prison. That's too cruel. What we should do is train them in some basic job skills. We currently have an undocumented immigration problem. What if we took these black people and sent them to areas where they need agricultural workers? We could have them work in the fields, and the ones who behave themselves and don't run off could even be given training in domestic work. We could even ensure that their children get training by having them work in the fields as soon as they're able to hold bags! Of course, we'll have to have some sort of discipline for recalcitrant types who run off due to not appreciating the opportunity, and various agricultural enterprises will have to be free to sell the services so as to ensure that they're not feeding more people than they really need, but I think that we could work something out.

I hereby nominate you for the 2015 Jonathan Swift Award.

I love the meals they serve at that award ceremony. Reminds me of home, somehow.

[Prussia-Steinbach]

Beyonce and Jay Z reportedly donated thousands to Baltimore protesters.

Good on them.

[Russels Orbiting Teapot]

I love the meals they serve at that award ceremony. Reminds me of home, somehow.

Eh, the flavor varies from person to person.

[Patridam]

Took me all of 10 seconds to find that on Wiktionary, mostly because I took my sweet time typing out the URL

If that's so, then why is claiming black people are more susceptible to sickle cell anemia not referred to as racist, but eating three meals a day is and suppressing black votes for selfish political gain is, despite the fact the former implies blacks are superior and the latter two do not?

Because everything is racist.