If you're a white heterosexual Christian and you think you're being persecuted for your race, religion, or sexuality in today's America, then you're part of the problem.
If you don't think there's a problem with racist policing in America, if you still think it's just some bad apples, then you're part of the problem. (For some reason, in America, a thousand apples could go bad, and not a lot of people would think to see if it's a problem with the tree, or with the soil the tree was planted in. And, come on, that's just bad farming.)
If the Second Amendment is your most favorite amendment until you learn that a black man, dead at the hands of the police, had a gun, then you're part of the problem.
If you value the fact that the several police officers you may know are all "really nice guys" over the lives of all those slain for being black outdoors (or even in the privacy of their own vehicles), then you're part of the problem.
>>80798777
If you accuse the typical ~millennial~ of being too "sensitive" and "PC," and yet you practically cry your eyeballs straight out of your face every time someone suggests you might be racist, then you're part of the problem.
If every time you hear that a black person is killed by the police, you start frantically googling the deceased's criminal record to somehow lesson the ferocity of the tragedy, then you're part of the problem.
If you really think it's acceptable that police officers practically NEVER get convicted for murder or even manslaughter, if you think that every single one of them was "probably just doing their job," then maybe there's something wrong with the job they're doing, and you're definitely part of the problem.
If you choose to remain ignorant to the staggering and indisputable reality of police brutality in this country--if you cherrypick your information such as to see the world not as it is but through a fucked-up racist Breitbart kaleidoscope--then you're part of the problem.
>>80798835
If you don't consume media made by black artists, if you don't listen to black voices, if you're "just not really into" the kind of art that depicts people you're not used to seeing, then you're part of the problem.
And even if you do NONE of these things, if you're white, like I am, you're probably part of the problem. I don't know the particulars of your life, but I know the particulars of my own, and I can say one thing for certain--it's hard to look at yourself, to REALLY look. To put your values under a microscope. To figure out where they came from, how they got there. How they're always running in the background of your thoughts, how they imperceptibly alter your worldview.
It's equally difficult to look at your community through a critical lens. It's hard to look a little closer at the memories in the places you hold the dearest and to begin to see the self-replicating structures of oppression coming into focus through the haze of childhood ignorance. It's easy to tell outlandish stories about your racist uncle. It's hard to confront the ways that your racism is like his, but probably quieter and more socially acceptable.
>>80798908
It's hard to change the way that you think. And it's hard to suggest that someone should. It feels offensive, feels wrong, to suggest that the problem is that someone isn't thinking right. That's rude.
Yeah, it's hard. But you know what else I imagine is hard? Losing a loved one at the hands of the people who are supposed to "protect and serve" us. And you know what ELSE is hard? Knowing that racist policing is as much of a civic reality, as much of a day-to-day risk, as potholes and long lines at the DMV.
Racist policing is a fact of life, but it shouldn't be. If you, a white person, think police brutality is just "the way it is", it's easier to be complicit in it, because if it’s just the way it is, it’s not your fault, right? By way of comparison, 55 people were killed by the police in England in 24 years. That might even seem like kind of a lot, but here in America, the police have killed over 530 people in the first *half* of 2016. Did they all deserve it? Were their deaths truly that unremarkable--just a necessary byproduct of American Democracy? Are we that callous? Or should we, as white people, begin to change the way we think about police violence?
>>80798953
Because whose fault is all this? Sure, it’s not YOUR fault, but it’s the fault of a nation full of people who think just like you. It’s not YOUR fault, but in the way you think and act, you are responsible for it. It’s not your fault, but it’s your problem. But instead of thinking it’s “our problem,” we tend to believe instead that it’s really NOT a problem. So maybe we should change what we believe.
This horrifying trend—this acceptance of police brutality as the norm--didn't just spring up out of nowhere. It's been with us a while. We have absorbed a disposition to excuse police brutality just like we’ve absorbed a certain gusto for the word “liberty.” As with many norms that we don’t think to critique, it's a cycle that feeds into itself. It has weaved itself into the fabric of our very national identity so much so that it becomes difficult to differentiate from the rest of the American flag. It is a part of us. But it should not be.
It makes a lot of people uneasy to consider being anything but proud of their Americanness, but make no mistake--oppression is a part of your Americanness. But it should not be. Police brutality is as much a part of your Americanness as the stars and stripes on the flag. But it should not be. Racism is as American as Apple pie--after all, what else are you supposed to do with all those bad apples?
>>80798982
For every chapter in the US history book that you accepted as objective fact, the voices of those killed at the hands of the state throughout our country's relatively short lifespan screamed out from between the lines--police brutality has always been happening, disproportionately toward people of color. But now it's on the news. And we all have the news on our phones. All the time.
You can only chase hyperbolic fictions about America to protect the fragile window through which you view the world for so long. Eventually, the unpleasant, inconvenient realities of that world begin to intrude, like pebbles on a windowpane, each bouncing off until finally the whole thing gives in and shatters.
This is not a series of isolated incidents.
So start figuring out how you're part of the problem.
TL;DR
>>80798777
Tl;dr/10
>>80798777
hit me with a tldr and i might care
>>80798777
>>80798835
>>80798908
>>80798953
>>80798982
>>80799012
Someone posted this on social media and I just wanted to know what you guys thought about it.
If you must spam /pol/ with silly SJW tirades, please minimize the number of posts into which you split it.
Platitudes must have been 50% off for Amazon Prime Day
wtf am i supposed to read this
>>80799202
Announce that at the start of the thread, or link an archive. It honestly looked like a bait thread m8.
>>80798777
>>80798835
>>80798908
>>80798953
>>80798982
>>80799012
A good bait thread is one retarded post, a la "Makes you think", and then just watching and waiting. Extending it just makes people bored, like >>80799015
here. Anyways, you put in a good effort, so here's your (you).
>>80799377
Sorry I was going to.
I originally did, but the post was to long, so I had to reformat it, and in doing so, I forgot to add the fact that it wasn't my writing/opinion to the OP.
>>80799453
It's not bait, I was just wondering what you guys thought about this rant.
It's not my rant, someone posted it on social media and I thought you guys would have something interesting to say about it.
>>80798777
>I'm one of you, I just posted this to ridicule it
Fuck off shill, you are the problem not us. Kill yourself.
>>80798777
I'm part of your problem.
From where I'm standing, you're the problem.
Go find a gutter to die in, white men are discussing things of great importance here.
>>80798777
Shut the hell up you dumbfuck racist nigger cunt.
>>80798777
Nigger
