A total bulls*** premise and narrative pushed by Black Lives Matter.
What makes cops racist according to Black Lives Matter? It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with an individual officer's intentions, beliefs, or specific actions. It has to do with their status as an agent of the capitalist system. Police act on behalf of those in power. Since those in power tend to be white male capitalists whose mere existence constitutes exploitation of poor minorities, police acting on their behalf prove inherently racist.
Here's how political commentator and HuffPo Live host Marc Lamont Hill put it during a recent appearance on CNN:
To say that the Black Lives Matter movement is racist is bizarre to me, not just because black people don’t have the institutional power to be racist or to deploy racism, but because the movement has called for justice, it’s called for demilitarization, it’s called for nonviolence.
Note that bit in the middle, offered almost as a side note. "... black people don't have the institutional power to be racist..." Hill thus conveys the radical leftist notion that racism is defined not by intentions, thoughts, or actions, but by the power dynamic. Cops are racist, even if they themselves are black, because they have power.That's the fundamental premise upon which the entire Black Lives Matter movement is based.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 2:57 am
by Top Gun
You sure do a lot of posting about subjects you don't understand in the slightest, don't you?
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 3:22 am
by sigma
I do not know in other countries, but in different regions of the Russia cops have a certain nationality. With all the ensuing consequences. And interestingly, there is a sharp contrast. For example, my cars have license plates of different regions of Russia and I have often noticed a different attitude the police to the driver for that reason.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 9:13 am
by Spidey
What’s not to understand? In fact those opinions illustrate nicely the problems associated with addressing racism as a victim-perp issue.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 12:09 pm
by Top Gun
What problems? Anyone can think "man I hate group X," but by definition institutionalized racism requires a group in power persecuting a group that is not.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 12:16 pm
by Nightshade
Top Gun wrote:What problems? Anyone can think "man I hate group X," but by definition institutionalized racism requires a group in power persecuting a group that is not.
You didn't read the linked article at all, did you?
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 12:38 pm
by Top Gun
I did. I found it intensely stupid and dismissed it as such. Link better commentaries next time. (I won't hold my breath.)
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 1:13 pm
by Nightshade
Top Gun wrote:I did. I found it intensely stupid and dismissed it as such. Link better commentaries next time. (I won't hold my breath.)
Right. Very Alinsky of you.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 1:43 pm
by Vander
I don't think the premise is bull★■◆●. I feel this is a valid perspective that helps illuminate the issue past the focus on the police. It's like saying a Walmart cashier supports 3rd world sweatshops and destroying local businesses. That individual cashier might be against 3rd world sweatshops, but they are at the tip of the spear that makes it all possible. It's a poor analogy, but it serves.
Note that I may or may not agree, but I think the perspective is at least valid.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 2:27 pm
by sigma
Damn, zero understanding of the problem of racism.
To begin with, that the concept of "racism" was invented and exists only in America. In different countries it is called quite differently and has different, sometimes opposite hue. I don't know why you can't understand it until now.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 2:36 pm
by Tunnelcat
I believe Bill Maher had a great observation on the Late Show the other night, whether you like him or not. It's now basically an us against them problem we're dealing with, the "us" being the cops and the "them" being the poor black people living in the cities. Now with yet another 3 police officers killed in Baton Rouge today, it's devolving into open urban warfare. I wonder how long before we see whites calling for gun restrictions, but only for for black people?
sigma wrote:Damn, zero understanding of the problem of racism.
To begin with, that the concept of "racism" was invented and exists only in America. In different countries it is called quite differently and has different, sometimes opposite hue. I don't know why you can't understand it until now.
In most of the world, it's "social class" that typically divides people. In the U.S., it's definitely a race issue.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 2:45 pm
by Nightshade
tunnelcat wrote:In most of the world, it's "social class" that typically divides people. In the U.S., it's definitely a race issue.
No. It's still social class here in the US as well.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 2:54 pm
by Tunnelcat
Nightshade wrote:
tunnelcat wrote:In most of the world, it's "social class" that typically divides people. In the U.S., it's definitely a race issue.
No. It's still social class here in the US as well.
Oh, I mostly agree. It's just that most people in this country usually think we have a race problem, not a class problem. If you want to see a true class-based society, just look at Britain, or a worst case, India.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 3:02 pm
by sigma
tunnelcat wrote:In the U.S., it's definitely a race issue.
In Russia, everything is different than in the world.. Very long to explain. Just a hint that ordinary people do not care about the social status of someone else, when it comes to the understanding of justice. And Russian skinheads is not the same thing as the Latvian Nazis, or Georgian or Ukrainian russophobes. If it is very short to say.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 3:07 pm
by callmeslick
Nightshade wrote:
tunnelcat wrote:In most of the world, it's "social class" that typically divides people. In the U.S., it's definitely a race issue.
No. It's still social class here in the US as well.
here, I agree with NS. It's simply that blacks and hispanics are the canaries in the coal mine of the depressing economic realities I laid out in that study in another thread. 85% of the US public is on a sinking economic ship. That means repression, ironically enough, for the victims of that sinking ship by those demanding 'law and order' to somehow be able to address the situation.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 3:47 pm
by Tunnelcat
callmeslick wrote:
Nightshade wrote:
tunnelcat wrote:In most of the world, it's "social class" that typically divides people. In the U.S., it's definitely a race issue.
No. It's still social class here in the US as well.
here, I agree with NS. It's simply that blacks and hispanics are the canaries in the coal mine of the depressing economic realities I laid out in that study in another thread. 85% of the US public is on a sinking economic ship. That means repression, ironically enough, for the victims of that sinking ship by those demanding 'law and order' to somehow be able to address the situation.
Even though capitalism and class have taken over as issues, mostly due to the shrinking middle class, I still think race is playing an important part in our problems. Trump is targeting race and ethnicity spectacularly to win over disaffected and angry voters. Trump is stoking up that particular angry white male voter basal instinct by conflating class issues with race issues. They're emotionally supporting Trump against their own interests by doing that too. Trump claims that all those non-white immigrants are the reason these white males are now stuck in a stagnating lower social position, when in reality, he and his capitalist ilk part of our country's problem. Add in the Muslim terrorism fears and the race-baiting is complete. They're falling for it hook, line and sinker. Race baiting is still a powerful political tool because race is still an issue.
sigma wrote:In Russia, everything is different than in the world.. Very long to explain. Just a hint that ordinary people do not care about the social status of someone else, when it comes to the understanding of justice. And Russian skinheads is not the same thing as the Latvian Nazis, or Georgian or Ukrainian russophobes. If it is very short to say.
Every country's tribalism is different, but it's still tribalism.
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 3:53 pm
by Top Gun
Nightshade wrote:
Top Gun wrote:I did. I found it intensely stupid and dismissed it as such. Link better commentaries next time. (I won't hold my breath.)
Right. Very Alinsky of you.
Who?
No, seriously, what the ★■◆● does Saul Alinsky have to do with recognizing ★■◆●-tier writing? Lay this one out for us.
(Also your source of choice has a proven blatant falsehood as its most popular article. Really great site you have there.)
Re: "If you have no power, you can't be racist..."
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 5:55 pm
by sigma
I agree that it looks like tribalism. But you must agree that it has also a strong Russian-American mafia accent, isn't it?
