Analysis: Trayvon Martin'''s Death Still Fuels a Movement Five Years Later - NBC News
Well it seems to me the that NBC is still trying to stir the pot with racial tension. I get the idea behind being upset about the Trayvon incident. But does anyone feel it is a bit...inappropriate to mention him in the same breath as Emit Till? Or Michael Brown?
Both Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were architects of their own death. Not so with Emit Till. It is inappropriate to
Mention Till with either Martin or Brown.
That is not to say there are not valid cases of police misconduct leading to a Black person's death. Oscar Grant, Eric Garner and Terrence Crutcher come to mind. But are these cases if racism or just cases of police incompetence? The first two were clearly incompetence, the third is debatable. Would she have reacted the same way for a White man not responding to instructions? Who knows. But definitely misconduct as she reacted to a person who clearly was not understanding her commands, as immediately dangerous and assuming he would go for a weapon (directly from her interview, and with a caveat on imperfect recall.)
The fact of the matter is that this is a police pattern that is seen around all impoverished communities, especially the ones with denser populations which have higher violent crime rates, especially against strangers (vs domestic violence, and acquaintance disputes).
This article wants us to understand that there is underlying racial tensions in America. You think we don't see it? Of course we do. How can we not? But you want us to ignore the set of personal responsibility as well? We can't do that.
Racial tensions exist because this country constantly thinks in terms of race and keeps on ignoring sociocultural patterns. Both sides have huge swaths of people who blame issues in terms of race.
We have to ask ourselves why are blacks so disproportionately represented in the crime and murder statistics?
Multiple factors. Poverty is one, but it doesn't fully explain it. I think many of the Black communities are caught in a vicious circle of self destruction that is also evident in population such as Appalachia. A good read for that is Hillbilly Elegy. Many times multigenerational poverty is exacerbated by self destructive memes that form out of frustration in the past. Rationalizations of why things are bad for the group. Sometimes they may even be true at the time, but the memes become ingrained, even when the problems are no longer there. In the poor Black communities memes of distrust in the very institutions that might help them, medicine, education, law and order, etc are high, because these are the institutions that were used in the past to keep them subservient. And these memes aren't 'Black.' Because many African, AfroCaribean (depending on the island), Afro Latino and even upper class Blacks, do not have most these self destructive memes and it shows in their behavior and their level of arrests per capita etc.
What places them there year in and out?
Again multigenerational poverty, lack of opportunity, lack of perceived opportunity and distrust in the institutions that could help them. And even worse, distrust innthe system means you have to rely on other systems for protection, like vigilantism, survival of strongest, etc. and you do not hold the norms given by institutions you distrust authority, then you break those norms any time you think you can get away with it. It can even be perceived as rebellion against oppression. And again, it isn't 'Black' as such memes also manifest in other historically destitute groups like Latinos and Native Americans, and even some poor White communities.
This is not to say that Black communities do not face discrimination. But many times perceived discrimination is really not.
The other issue is implicit bias. Even with no intent of racism or bias, with overexposure to criminal elements of one group versus others, overrepresentation can lead to implicit bias development that can affect how a person subconsciously reacts to people of that group. I addressed this here:
https://salsassin.wordpress.com/201...ates-what-happens-when-numbers-arent-neutral/
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