Race in America

[Flint]

Originally Posted by glatt

Yes. Things are much better. This made the news and the cops got in trouble.

Only a few years ago, this would go unnoticed.

You're right, and this is true, but goddamnit we've only managed to progress to the point where you get fired from your job for LITERALLY MURDERING SOMEONE. You get fired. For murder. That's not getting "in trouble"

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Flint

You're right, and this is true, but goddamnit we've only managed to progress to the point where you get fired from your job for LITERALLY MURDERING SOMEONE. You get fired. For murder. That's not getting "in trouble"

To be fair, I am trying to avoid consuming much news, because it's not healthy to let so much shit enter your life when you can't do anything about it. So I have only looked at a few headlines on this incident.

[Griff]

That is wise man, I think I need to find some balance in my social media intake. It'll be easier when I get back to work next week.

We finished watching When They See Us about the Central Park Five last night. Now I'm obsessing on race. Media plays such a big role in this. The press ran with the Wilding story which was an early domino in a lot of bad shit in NYC and the country.

[Griff]

One of my High School friends is dealing with the terror of race right now. She adopted two African babies years ago and is raising them in rural NY. The boys are really tall well built middle-schoolers who look like high-schoolers and by all accounts are smart sweet kids. It may not really matter who they are though, it's what they are...

[tw]

Originally Posted by Griff

It may not really matter who they are though, it's what they are...

Racism is not only judgement based upon color of skin. Racism is judging anyone on any first impression. An emotion. That conclusion comes from an emotional brain of a child. And not from an adult who is thinking like an adult.

In that event, the suspect was fully handcuffed and walked back to a police car. For some reason he fell to the ground at that car. And then the officer pressed his knee into that black suspect for maybe four minutes. Doing so (for some reason) even with one hand constantly in his pocket. Pressed until (as paramedics speculate) the suspect died. Paramedics never found a pulse.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by tw

Racism is not only judgement based upon color of skin.

This is true. There are lots of other cues people take into consideration, even subconsciously when assessing the race of another person. Then, acting on that information without properly considering other pertinent factors, that's racism. Those other cues could be dress or name or zip code, etc. Of course each of us is more than just what can be observed from a distance or through a screen. Race, by itself, is just a social construct. Twist the kaleidoscope a little more one way or the other and the same content displays a different pattern entirely. One Karen's "bushy haired stranger" is another person's friendly fellow birder. Which pattern better fits reality?

Originally Posted by tw

Racism is judging anyone on any first impression. An emotion. That conclusion comes from an emotional brain of a child. And not from an adult who is thinking like an adult. --snip

No, tw, no. You're wrong about judging on first impressions. That's prejudice and stereotyping. People judge All. The. Time. It's how we all move through the world. But those among us who glide through on autopilot miss a lot.

Racism is the result of lazy thinking. Thinking is hard, observing and learning should be an ongoing process, *like children do*. They do it because it's fun and interesting. *Adults* who believe they already know what they need to know about a situation or a person, and act in a racist way, they're exhibiting a learned behavior. But they're doing in place of actual learning--just concluding. That's prejudice; prejudging before the pertinent information is known.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by BigV

Racism is the result of lazy thinking.

Idk, man...I know a lot of people (on both sides of the coin) that work pretty damn hard to be racist/and or take something in an unintended racially charged way.

[tw]

Originally Posted by BigV

Racism is the result of lazy thinking. Thinking is hard, observing and learning should be an ongoing process, *like children do*. They do it because it's fun and interesting. *Adults* who believe they already know what they need to know about a situation or a person, and act in a racist way, they're exhibiting a learned behavior.

You have just described how many judgments are made only on height. A cleft lip. Clothes or even and only observing hoes. Whether they talk with a foreign accent. Body odor. Parkinson's disease. Facial expressions. Tourette syndrome. People are judged by all those other 'First Impressions' just like they are judged for their skin color.

Because others are lazy and for many other reasons. All reasons directly traceable to making decisions from an emotional brain. And not waiting to learn facts - that the adult brain needs before it can make any such judgement.

Yes, lazy is one reason why people do not have enough attention span to learn before making judgement. And so we have a president who is a classic racist - who makes all judgments using his 30 second attention span. Just another of many reasons why one judges others only using emotions. And in his case, also due to ego. Another reasons for his racist behavior.

Judging anyone by first impressions is racism. The Don does that constantly - like any good racist always does. No wonder he publically praised the KKK, White Supremacists, and Nazis.

Nobody has any logical reason to believe racism is only about race.

Yes, one may foolishly make that conclusion because race and racism sound so similar. Using another classic thinking error called 'word association'. As if somebody from Hungary must always be hungry. It must be true. Those words sound alike.

Racism has always been about judging others only using first impressions. Why they do can be explained by so many other reasons. Skin color was simply a first and obvious example, so blatant, that millions must die.

Lazy is only one of many reasons why racist judge people only on first impressions.