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Originally Posted by Iron Tamer
The idea that its the left that allows hate groups to exist in America is silly.
Its the American ideal that makes it happen. America is a land more governed by laws than any other. This allows some bad things to happen but its the source of American exceptionalism.
I completely disagree, and I think the idea of American exceptionalism is a farce.
This country was built on the exploitation of Native Americans, and then Africans, for the advancement of white Europeans.
mongidig, JiggyMac, BroadwaySushy, pay attention here and you'll learn something about America.
Slavery and The Civil War happened a long time ago, but you can still hear the echos in America, and you can still see very clear dividing lines. Politically, the country is generally split between the north and south.
Look at these US presidential election maps going back 25 years. Now look at this map of slave states, states open to slavery, and prohibitionist states.
Rather interesting, isn't it? Can you see the clear dividing lines?
This is just politically. There are dividing socio-economic lines all throughout America. The criminal justice system is entirely stacked against black people.
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Black people make up roughly 13% of the United States population, and white people make up 64%. Black people make up 40% of the prison population, and white people 39%. Therefore, even though there are roughly five times as many white people as black people in this country, blacks and whites are incarcerated in equal numbers. But the fact that black people are incarcerated five times as frequently as white people does not mean black people commit five times as many crimes. Here's why:
(1) If a black person and a white person each commit a crime, the black person is more likely to be arrested. This is due in part to the fact that black people are more heavily policed.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-fa...b_8078586.html
(2) When black people are arrested for a crime, they are convicted more often than white people arrested for the same crime.
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(3) When black people are convicted of a crime, they are more likely to be sentenced to incarceration compared to whites convicted of the same crime.
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The color of a defendant and victim's skin plays a crucial and unacceptable role in deciding who receives the death penalty in America. People of color have accounted for a disproportionate 43 % of total executions since 1976 and 55 % of those currently awaiting execution.
https://www.aclu.org/other/race-and-death-penalty
Education in America is not working to elevate the lives of black people.
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Black Americans with college degrees have less in savings and other assets than white Americans who dropped out of high school. According to a recent calculation of 2011 figures by a group of academics, the median household headed by a black college graduate had about two thirds of the net worth of the median white household headed by someone who did not finish high school.
http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/in-pl...tunity-n305196
Black people do not have equal status in our country. They don't have equality of opportunity, or representation. Compare 1 black president with 44 white presidents.
So The American Civil War may have happened a long time ago, and black people have had the right to vote for a long time, and it's been a long time since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but there is still no equality for black people. Legally, one would expect there to be, but because of widespread racism that remains, particularly in the south, they do not have equality.
That is why it is so disgusting to see a bunch of far right wing groups like the KKK and Neo-Nazis gather to "unite the right" under Trump, and protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, who was a heroic Civil War General for the Confederacy. This is a man that led troops into battle against fellow country men to try to retain the legal right to own black people as slaves. This is also why it is so important to fight against bigotry, and for equality anywhere and everywhere there is a fight to be had.
This is just mentioning black people, this says nothing of Muslims, the LGBT, Jews, which are all people that these hate groups discriminate, and commit hate crimes against.
So for all of you suggesting the opposition to these hate groups in Charlottesville should have just stayed home, while at the same time saying the hate groups had every right to be there, own up to the side you're on, because we all know what side it is.