"Do you know why a lot of non blacks are hesitant around black people?..."

[kpete]

Last edited Tue Apr 28, 2015, 11:34 AM - Edit history (1)

from:
https://twitter.com/Luvvie/status/592840532608557057/photo/1

[bravenak]

1. I've heard and said the same thing myself.

[marym625]

25. I have said it to you

Except the hesitate part.

[bravenak]

31. Yea, I was thinking about you.

[marym625]

35. Just the burn the place down part

Hell! I want to sometimes

[Baitball Blogger]

2. It's true.

I deal with a lot of abuse from the good ole boys in my city. To add to the affront, I definitely see indications that efforts are made to prepare for a reaction. This can range from increased police car patrols (The frequency drops off when we're on vacation); to golf cart patrols at night; and a few other behaviors that I have written about before. I finally figured that the reason behind all this heighten vigilance is the knowledge that they would respond in a violent manner if I did the same thing to them.

To the discussion, I add another factor to consider. When you rely on your mother's advice and avoid them at all cost, it only adds another dimension. From a safe distance, they will try to subtly provoke you. In backwater communities that means leaving the garage door open in the hopes that the troublesome neighbor will cross the blue line. I, personally, see it as a silly exercise. But their intention is clear. Defame the individual and then provoke them in the hope that they do something that will confirm whatever was stated in their defamation.

[busterbrown]

23. I’m just disgusted and embarrassed for our Country,,

Being Jewish, I am always troubled when discussing race, a friend might state, “Well look at how Jews have managed to do so well, and certainly they have been subjugated to thousands of years of hate and discrimination”...Yea , idiot, a little easier for a Jew to assimilate and lets not forget how the American Black family structure was destroyed to it’s core by slavery, and not so long ago..Jewish Family has always remained in tact..despite the horrible events of anti-semitism through the ages..

[Scuba]

3. Nailed it.

[mountain grammy]

4. +1000

[truebluegreen]

5. Yup.

[Thespian2]

6. In the days of segregation,

when I grew up, we were not allowed to speak to black people...we did it anyway...we couldn't find a way to have black friends because the schools were segregated...Our lives were less than they should have been...

[AtheistCrusader]

19. This is actually how I look at the cold war.

During WWII, American and Russian troops got along together quite well. So many years wasted, so much potential, so many possibilities, thrown away in fear of the other.

But the racial disparity is worse, because it's right here at home. These are our peers. Our own blood. And still, so much waste in fear of the other. And as far as I can tell, just to profit the jackals that capitalize on fear.

[Thespian2]

30. Yes, I agree

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Implied and in this case explicit bias

as photogs we are well aware of it, so even that we are careful not to activate the bias.

[Raster]

21. welcome back.

good to see your name on a post again.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Thanks, now speaking of photos

I need to go through a few... I did not go as trigger happy as I tend to do

[L0oniX]

8. K & R

[Buzz Clik]

9. yikes

[seabeyond]

10. two decades ago, i asked my friend why she was not so fuckin' angry. i would be so angry.

two decades ago, i had just moved to the panhandle of texas from california and was going thru a culture shock... it was a situation of subtle positioning.

i was so mad. she was ... accepting. and that made me that much more angry.

believe it.

i also came to a place that, better she wlaks her journey her way, then my always anger. that is not a healthy place to be. who wants a life of that. but, damn.

[Enthusiast]

11. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

[NYC_SKP]

12. I love you, kpete.

You have a way of nailing it.

[Half-Century Man]

13. The patience, perseverance, and anger control the African American community

has shown is proof that we all would be better off if we elected more minorities into office. Every branch and level of our government could use more patience, perseverance and anger control.

[kpete]

14. you are

we all would be better off if we elected more minorities into office.

correct!

peace to you Half-Century Man,
kp

[Half-Century Man]

17. I had to use a word I hate to make my point "minorities".

The word tastes foul to me, my fingers ache when I type it. Yet, we have no better term to describe a population percentile group or groups.
Too many people read the word not to indicate a specific fraction of population, but as an implication of a person of lesser worth.

Fuck a bunch of that.

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. I suspect we'd be better off if ...

the majority spent half as much energy, getting to know a Black person, as they do nurturing, and excusing, their fear. Because in doing so, they would learn that Black folks are not the least bit interested in "pay back" or burning stuff down.

[Half-Century Man]

24. I just hate the waste of it all.

How much could have been accomplished if a huge percentage of our population hadn't had to be dealing with racism?

Maybe I wouldn't be staring out the window at a apartment complex in Wisconsin; I'd be staring at Jupiter as we settled into orbit.

[kpete]

29. what we COULD do....

evolution

[brush]

28. Spot on — just equal treatment for the most part

Just get rid of the racism is what most Black people want.

(IMO it wouldn't hurt though for recompense to be made for the hundreds of years of unpaid labor during enslavement, which is a huge reason why Black household wealth is a fraction of that of whites. And I'm not talking of checks cut to individuals but of small business grants, college scholarships, inner city jobs programs, computer literacy workshops — those kinds of things that show an acknowledgment of the damage done and an effort to at least partially make up for monumental psychic and physical toll that the legacy of slavery and the Jim Crow era extracted from generation after generation of African Americans).

And some consideration should go to Latino Americans and Native Americans as well.

[tblue]

15. The astounding patience and grace of African Americans

as a whole can never be overstated.

I love my people and I just cry when I see images like those on tv the last couple days. All we ever wanted was justice.

[tblue37]

34. + a brazillion, cuz! nt

[Number23]

37. Beautiful post. I agree completely.

[blackspade]

16. A powerfully true statement.

[jwirr]

18. I think there may be a little more to it. White friends may also be afraid that they will be

seen as the enemy - ironically based on nothing more than the color of their skin.

I did not see that last night in the riots because I think there were a lot of different people there. I hope that continues. Many whites do not like what is going on either.

On the other hand. Black people are actually almost always taken as guilty as a whole - ironically based on nothing more than the color of their skin.

Finally I agree that they have reasons to burn the place down and I think it is a matter of great restraint that they have not.

[carolinayellowdog]

22. this phenomenon has deep roots in the 19th century

My historical research is almost entirely on the 19th century, and a lot of it lately has involved the abolitionist movement. People look at the 20th century, and think of Gandhi as an influence on MLK's nonviolence. But the restraint and self-control of the 19thc Black leaders is astonishing in retrospect. For example, Frederick Douglass vs. John Brown on appropriate vs. inappropriate tactics.

The same issue is involved with gender-- men fear that women, given the same power men have held for centuries, would exercise it with the same wild lack of self-restraint. But they haven't and won't.

on edit-- as a white man with many black family members, I've long felt that it is easier to have an honest US-historical conversation with people of color than with whites; this recent bullshit with Ben Affleck being just another example of THEY CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH. Wish Gates had stood his ground rather than caved on the "censor my family history" demand.

[BrotherIvan]

27. This sounds good and it got my blood up

But it's not true. I think white people are afraid of black and brown people because they think they're completely different. They don't know any people of a different race and their parents pass on their fear and hatred. They don't know that it's not that people are different, it's that our life experiences are different. That distrust and fear is spread on all sides and I have no idea how to stop it other than education and sharing food (the fastest way to break down barriers that I've seen). That's why Muslims and Jews are also an easy target. It's just ignorance and fear.

[Mira]

32. Came back to recommend this, just in case I had not

would like to do it at least one thousand times.
Because that is really how it is.
Sort of along the lines if men bled 4 days out of each month, this difficulty would have long been medically circumvented...
or if it were the men who needed abortions, it would long have been declared a religious sacrament...

[raven mad]

33. I wouldn't have been speechless.

I would have been crying in agreement.

[Prism]

36. The media behave this way

I keep trying to understand the largely white media's treatment of black riots. There's a kind fear or dread involved, an unspoken fearful curiosity. "Is this the time the civil unrest takes off and Blacks and their allies start burning it all down?" Because the friend in the OP has it exactly right.

Most white people know the kind of system we've built. We know we've oppressed black people for centuries. We are more than fully aware these degradated neighborhoods and police brutality is largely our doing. And we know we've done little to stop it.

And it is exactly right. White people would not stand for this for long. We'd go nuts. Look at the NRA. Do you think they'd tolerate a police state in small town Texas for very long? No, they would not. We'd riot, too.

And we know it.