I'm not quite sure what to say to this. Black people aren't trying to be successful by focusing on racism, when they do point out racism (which is very rarely and only when it is extremely blatant) they are simply trying to point out things about our world that need to be improved.

Do you have any idea how many acts of racism the average black American just lets go compares to the ones he/she takes the time and energy to make a grievance about? I'll give you a hint, the incentives are all there for the black person to simply shut up and keep walking and the incentives are not there at all for the black person to make a big deal out of it.

Here's a fun thought experiment. Almost everyone these days claims to be a fan of MLK, but his legacy has largely been whitewashed + not told accurately. A better question to see if people are not afraid to embrace black rights activists would be this: Are you a fan of Al Sharpton? Because see MLK was seen in his day as Sharpton is now: as incredibly divisive, as a "race-baiter" by many whites, as an agitator, as someone who just used the issue of race to get views/ratings. It's almost a direct line from MLK to Sharpton and it sure is funny to see the massive differences in how these two are perceived by white Americans today.

Juan, that's going too far in making it about the poster and attacking them. Save it for the !!! threads please

Everyone - The thread isn't about bahbah or any other poster and absolutely do not reintroduce the old argument with LG.

It's like you don't even read your own posts.

I made a few statements in that post. So when you ask "how do you know?" without any explanation of which point you are questioning it is difficult for me to answer.'

If you don't know there is less racism today that previously I'm not sure you should be involved in this conversation.

So you don't have any empirical reason to state that there is less racism now than ever before? You're just going by your feels? And the way you state that makes it sounds like it should mean something? What does that statement mean BB? Are things "good enough?" Should we just stop listening to those pesky minorities?

Do you have any idea what an astronomically low bar that is? We are STILL locking up black Americans en masse and creating an entire system of disenfranchisement where they are largely kept out of the political process via criminal disenfranchisement.

When debating if cops really are racist I think we have to answer the following questions. I don't know if any of these things are more prevalent in one race or another I am just asking if they are found to then are we okay with cops acting color blind.

Are we ok w/ cops policing high crime areas more than low crime areas? What if this also means the disproportionately arrest/pull over one race?

Are we ok w/ cops pulling over known criminals for petty reasons considering statistics show that a criminal is more likely to commit another crime than a non-criminal? What if this also means the disproportionately arrest/pull over one race?

Are we ok w/ cops pulling over people with cars that aren't up to code? What if this also means the disproportionately arrest/pull over one race? (The 213 page Nashville paper suggested - one race is more likely to be driving around w/o a bumper or a broken taillight)

Are we ok w/ cops confronting people that are visibly drunk or high? What if this also means the disproportionately arrest/pull over one race?

Are we ok w/ cops shooting someone who is resisting arrest, attacking an officer or an innocent person and the cop feels someone's life is in danger? What if this also means the disproportionately arrest/pull over one race?

Here's a question for you BB, who uses more drugs whites or blacks?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_racism

What year or years do you think this country was less racist than it is today? Surely you don't expect me to go through and compare every year in our countries history to today.

I am not going by feels. Slavery, public hangings, burning crosses, white and black water fountains, Jim Crow laws, "separate but equal", black people couldn't vote, and MLK got shot because he wanted equality all happened in our history. If you are talking about more recent years I ask you to do your own research. Do you think people say racial slurs now or x number of years ago. Do you think there is more or less recrimination in things like job interviews and housing than x years ago?

Of course things aren't good enough. As I've said 10-15 times when making this point there is still a lot of room for improvements.

"Should we just stop listening to those pesky minorities?" : stop trying to project your misguided vision of me on me.

I hope this isn't news to you, but institutional racism isn't some new development. Black people used to deal with both institutional racism and overt racism as your quote describes. Now African Americans deal with less institutional racism than before and far less overt racism than years ago.

I am sure more drugs go into white bodies than black bodies. I'm not sure about per capita though. Why?

My question was that if one race (white, black, hispanic or asian) was found to use more drugs are you okay with cops approaching the visible high to shake them down and get those drugs off the streets?

OK, so you made a statement that even if true is meaningless. Why?

You're trying to justify institutionalized racism in the police by saying blacks commit more crimes than whites, which I'm pretty sure Well Named has shown isn't the case. What if blacks are arrested for crimes more often because they are hassled by police more often? How many white high school kids would end up in jail if they were hassled as much black high school kids?

http://www.sentencingproject.org/iss...franchisement/
http://www.sentencingproject.org/pub...ustice-system/

I am not claiming blacks commit more crimes than white and I'm not trying to justify cop racism.

I am just asking the question: Are we okay with cops more heavily policing high crimes area? If an all white high school is a high crime area are we okay with cops arresting a high percent of white people? If an all black high school is a high crime area are we okay with cops arresting a high percent of black people?

If you aren't okay with this then do you want the police to spend equal time in every neighborhood and are you okay with the fact that it will lead to less overall arrests and getting less criminals and drugs off the streets?

What race are you, einbert? You speak so much about the issues of black people, I'm curious if you are actually black?

I'm white, but I do make a strong effort to be in touch with the black community so to speak. There are a lot of great voices out there on twitter talking about these issues for example, I can recommend a few:

https://twitter.com/jbouie
https://twitter.com/fivefifths
https://twitter.com/absurdistwords
https://twitter.com/tanehisicoates
https://twitter.com/cypheroftyr

Now by all means these voices don't represent the entire black community. There are millions of black Americans and millions who even voted for Donald Trump--it's a very diverse community with a lot of voices. We can never assume that we know how the entire community thinks based on one voice. Now having said that, the vast majority of black Americans that were fortunate enough to be able to vote did vote against Donald Trump and are aware of the issues of mass incarceration and mass disenfranchisement.

And I'm actually glad you brought that up because one thing we can all do to help this situation is actively seek out close friendships + relationships with people of color. As a white person, this is one of the strongest things someone can do. So I think there's a lot of value in that. Date a person of color! I'm doing so right now, and it's a thoroughly eye-opening experience. Marry and have kids with a person of color . Hire people of color to work for your business. Promote them just like you would anybody else! All these small day-to-day things are things we can all do to chip in and make the situation better. And I mean go out of your way to do these things.

So do you work in law enforcement or as a prison guard ?
(that was just a joke guys, before anyone jumps to any conclusions regarding my political beliefs or similar)

Damn

No, that's all I needed. Thanks buddy.

So are you saying my voice is invalid because of the color of my skin?