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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBaltimore Riots: Poll Finds 96% Expect More Racially-Charged Unrest Nationwide
A whopping 96 percent of Americans say that they expect more racially-charged unrest around the country this summer, similar to the past week's violence in Baltimore. And more than half 54 percent believe a similar disturbance is likely in the metropolitan area closest to where they live.
In a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 68 percent of adults said they believe it is "very likely" that there will be more protests and clashes around the country like those after the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Another 28 percent said that they believe such unrest is "somewhat likely."
The expectation of more events nationwide like those in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, was similar among respondents regardless of race.
But white respondents were slightly more likely than African-Americans to say that they expect racially-charged disturbances in the metropolitan area closest to them.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/baltimore-unrest/poll-96-expect-more-racially-charged-unrest-nationwide-summer-n352276
NoJusticeNoPeace
(5,018 posts)When millions are told they no longer have health insurance, when tens of millions are told the govt will no longer endorse their hatred for gays, when police shoot black people this summer, and you know they will, it is ALL gonna go to hell
ODDLY enougn, it wont be the black people or uninsured who start the violence, it will be the self proclaimed christians who hate gays so much they will start shooting them
B2G
(9,766 posts)Are what this smilie was made for.
I do agree with NoJusticeNoPeace.
It's easy to dismiss the worries as nonsense unless you view it from the lens of the people that are living it. I *HOPE* my fears and worries are in vain, but that said, I'm still concerned.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)romanic
(2,841 posts)except to push the police further into unlawful practices against the public and confirm racial distrust and hatred from racists and bigots. I don't want more black neighborhoods and cities to burn for a cause that can be solved with peace.
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)They have been actively cutting food stamps and welfare which they seem to regard as mostly black people depending on. So they are arming their bunkers, expecting black people to rise in rebellion now that their dole has been taken away.
Whereas the real story is large segments of this country have been deprived by various forms of economic injustice: especially lack of access to good jobs, but also inequities in education, the justice system, environmental justice, housing policy, etc. But the ECONOMIC injustice is not primarily black: i.e., when you take away welfare, you are hurting white people, asians, hispanics, and native americans - who outnumber the black recipients. However, since all the prejudice and malice about the poverty programs is focused on black recipients and since urban policy has tended to herd them together into ghettos, there is a black identity to the reaction and the resistance.
In short, I think certain elements of American politics half knew what they were doing in setting this situation up. They falsely painted black people as the typical welfare dependent, so poor whites experiences scarcity would want to take that "dole" away. And then once those black people were both "othered" and deprived of their "dole", of course violent retaliation was to be expected. This expectation of violence is also what makes the police tend to start riots by over-reacting to minor protests. The notion that "black people will resent their food stamps being taken away" has been spread on thick.
Meanwhile, don't forget that Obama is actually supposed to lead a black coup via the Jade Helm exercises in Texas or a false flag nuking of Charleston. And we already has Muslim NoGo Zones established all over the country. Why do wingnuts embrace this crap? Part of it is because tax hikes were pushed toward the lower end of the social scale, which made poor white people believe any social program was an incursion of totalitarianism that was out to take from their pocket and give to "lazy black people". Another part of it was seeing images of urban violence on TV where black people had been kettled into large zones of poverty and then harassed by quota-driven police. Whenever someone called for social programs to alleviate the situation, it sounded like more dole coming out of their pockets to pacify an unspoken threat of riots. The current riots are what they've been expecting all along. Because *that's the situation that was set up*.
In my view, at the base of all this is the routine association of welfare with black people. Both Republicans and Democrats do it when it suits their political purposes. This is what sets up the idea of black people as an "othered" group on the dole from "white" taxpayers. And this is what creates the expectation that the "other" is potentially hostile, vengeful, and will retaliate if their dole is taken away. Only educating Americans about how welfare really works and who it really goes to will change this long fostered dynamic.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)I heard on the teevee today that there are riots in Tel Aviv because two Israeli cops (or soldiers, nor sure) beat up a black Israeli Soldier pretty bad. They have many black Ethiopian Jews who have settled there (I read somewhere that they are the tribe who have the Ark of the Covenant, but that's neither here nor there in my main comments.)
The Israeli police use tear gas, hoses and other forceful means to quell demonstrations, and THIS is the place that some higher-up in Maryland sent our cops from Baltimore to learn the methods of the Israelis in subduing crowds in occupied areas.
Netanyahu should take care of the store at home before he tries to manage ours, and our cops have to unlearn the way that the cops in Tel Aviv taught them....the way used in an "occupied territory."
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)where blacks are involved - Tel Aviv
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141083727