It's Not That Black And White

[Adakam 2]

4 minutes ago, Lionel Hutz said:

Diplomacy, obviously  

A.K.A as "sit back and suck it"

[Rio 5,088]

2 hours ago, Ancient Alien said:

Kindness gets us nowhere? Impatience, lack of plannings and uncontrolled temper get you nowhere.

Black people are recognized and respected for their breakthroughs, achievements and advocates in life. And that’s not down to black people only but to people of every races. That’s when they change the whole country on a systematic level by showing their exellency.

Make yourself vital to the whole system first then your voice will be heard and respected. Barack Obama did not become a president by throwing a tantrum and burning down streets and business in protests.

Craig said it better than me earlier. Peaceful protests have done **** all. People are angry and they're allowed to be. If you saw the video, you'd be mad at the system too. Peaceful protests are NOT going to work.

[Jill 31,812]

2 hours ago, Ancient Alien said:

Make yourself vital to the whole system first then your voice will be heard and respected. Barack Obama did not become a president by throwing a tantrum and burning down streets and business in protests.

Are you implying black people are not vital?  And also, Obama did become a president, yes, but where did that get us? To the present, where a racist bigot won the presidency because of the systemic racism that built up during the Obama presidency, and has been building up since the very conception of America.

[MJHolland 12,725]

the title of this thread keeps throwing me off 

of course it's not a black and white thing... 

systemic racism and racial supremacy is specifically and exclusively a WHITE PERSON PROBLEM in the united states 

something has to give. we cannot carry on with business as usual any longer. we as white people have to own up to this problem that WE have created for people of color living in this country.

my heart is aching, so I'll keep posting so we do not lose focus here. yes, there's a lot going on and a lot of details that we could debate about right vs wrong until the sun burns out...

BUT PLEASE do not stop saying it — WHITE SUPREMACY is how we got here and it's the thing that HAS TO GIVE. 

[rojo 560]

So you don't like getting called out?

[MJHolland 12,725]

1 hour ago, Adakam said:

Someone here yesterday called them thugs, thats 100% being anti-black people, so what you are saying doesnt apply to everyone.

Something id like to ask, because all i see is "riots are bad" "violence wont stop violence" etc, but i havent seen a single antirioter propose an idea of how to fix this, other than what you said in the OP "there are other ways", which ones? Tell us!

Peaceful protests have done nothing, kneeling for the National anthem got mocked and did nothing, so what now? Whats the community supposed to do? If violence isnt the answer, then what is?

racists and racist acts have to be called out plainly and directly. we cannot sit by and watch small acts of racism happen or else people of color will quite literally die.

at least one of those people calling people of color thugs yesterday was @Saint Gaga, which I reported immediately and have since heard nothing back on from GGD mods. 

I am glad to see that this website is promoting "BLACK LIVES MATTER" in their banner, but actions speak louder than words.

so mods, I invite you again to take disciplinary actions against members that are dragging this discourse down. please. 

[MJHolland 12,725]

1 hour ago, President Biden said:

Bullshit.

 

The army of high schoolers, alongside myself, partook in the March for our Lives. We lead a peaceful protest. Then, we got up and campaigned viciously in 2018. We threatened to support primary candidates against Democratic establishment leaders even. We brought gun violence to the forefront of the midterm elections. And it worked. The Democratic caucus endorsed gun reforms we demanded. We helped win back the House by flipping important seats in the suburbs where most people thought big establishment money would would maintain the status quo. We made the biggest shift in Congressional power since Watergate.

 

And now we are mere few Senate seats & the Presidency from getting a Gun Sense Majority.

 

Peaceful protest after a tragedy was the catalyst for that. So don’t tell me it “DOESNT WORK”. It doesn’t change laws, no. Nor do riots. But it can bring momentum to a movement that pressures people to take real civic action.

I so appreciate where you are coming from and your sentiment, but I do happen to think you are misguided on this. And please believe me when I say I see and respect where you are coming from — I've been a senior campaign operative on the left literally my entire professional career. 

The systems that you are describing — voting, knocking doors, organizing, "peacefully" protesting — have been intentionally designed to be rights that white people can enjoy freely, but are too often not available to people of color (which is precisely the problem).

Take voting for example. I don't think I need to tell you how obviously this right has been stripped away from people of color by white people. It happens in almost every state — white legislative majorities purposefully pass voter suppression laws that they know will disenfranchise people of color. 

I saw you mention canvassing (i.e. going door to door to have in-person conversations about specific issue(s)) earlier. This is one of the most powerful tools we have in organizing people, changing hearts and minds, and effecting change. It's true. But it is NOT available for all people equally. 

Just this year, while serving in an HR capacity for a presidential primary campaign, I got a call just about every single day to be informed that either one of our staffers or volunteers of color (almost always our black supporters) had been arrested, accosted, harassed, or had the cops called on them while canvassing a white neighborhood.

I don't think I need to remind you that a black man was LYNCHED just a few weeks ago for jogging in a white neighborhood. 

I too wished we lived in a world where people of color could peaceful protest AND be heard. But we do not. Too often, people of color are harassed, lose their jobs, and are otherwise hurt for peacefully protesting (e.g. see Colin Kaepernick!). 

Believe me please, I respect where you are coming from. But please also understand where people of color are coming from amidst all the unrest that is going on. You do not have to like or support the non-peaceful aspects we are seeing, but you most also understand that we as white people have denied people of color peaceful avenues of protest since the dawn of this country. 

The systems of government you and myself, as a white person, navigate to create change have been intentionally designed to hold people of color down. I am not saying we should stop or abandon that pursuit. I am saying, though, that it is a privilege to be able to use them. When that privilege has been denied to you your entire life, it should not be shocking that we wound up where we are today. 

@President Biden, I respect your perspective and I hope you read this even though I know it's a lot. 

 

[sicilymanora 24]

7 hours ago, xoxo Craig said:

I get it, but peaceful protests only go so far. And its beyond that point. Black people in the US have every right to be angry, and if they feel that the only way their voice will be heard is through violence, then I have no option but to support them. Change comes when there is a significant amount of people rising up. We would not have rights as LGBT people had there not been the Stonewall riots way back then. And I believe its no different. When your oppressors start pushing you back and start the violence first, are you just gonna lie there? Or are you going to fight back?

This time, I don't think peaceful protests are enough. Change in the US needs to occur, and it needs to happen now. I don't want to advocate violence and I think violence is not the way forward... but I think it's beyond that point.

I'm not from the US so I don't really have a say in this... just going off what I see in the news and stuff

Stonewall Riots:

 

 

George Floyd Riots:

 

Please find me one, JUST ONE, photo of a building burning during the stonewall riots.

You gotta stop letting social media dictate how you think.

[Saint Gaga 1,466]

1 hour ago, sicilymanora said:

Stonewall Riots:

 

 

George Floyd Riots:

 

Please find me one, JUST ONE, photo of a building burning during the stonewall riots.

You gotta stop letting social media dictate how you think.

This is absolutely horrible.. The way people are using the scenario to destroy public property!!

[sicilymanora 24]

6 minutes ago, Saint Gaga said:

This is absolutely horrible.. The way people are using the scenario to destroy public property!!

What's more horrible is people justifying these actions 

[Saint Gaga 1,466]

1 minute ago, sicilymanora said:

What's more horrible is people justifying these actions 

Some people were saying, it's ok to kill people, if it's gonna put an end to this in another thread..Imagine the level of sadism.

[sicilymanora 24]

1 minute ago, Saint Gaga said:

Some people were saying, it's ok to kill people, if it's gonna put an end to this in another thread..Imagine the level of sadism.

😭😭

[Xoxo Adriana 15,040]

it’s a sticky situation, as there’s two sides to this.

i am not for violence of any kind, unless it’s self defence. in this case i feel this comes under the self defence umbrella. is it getting out of hand? maybe, but so is racism.

i guess these riots are symbolic to racism itself, it has gotten out of hand and people, (black, white and everyone in between) are sick of it. if we want the riots to stop we must stop the racism.

[BleepBloop 10,316]

15 hours ago, Quartz said:

It's not that black and white. There are other ways.

Have those ways been tried before? Absolutely.

Did they work? I guess you know the answer to that already.

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

7 hours ago, sicilymanora said:

Stonewall Riots:

 

 

George Floyd Riots:

 

Please find me one, JUST ONE, photo of a building burning during the stonewall riots.

You gotta stop letting social media dictate how you think.

They aren't just setting buildings in fire   you gotta stop picking isolated incidents that you find terrible and look at the bigger picture.

Black people are getting arrested, beaten, killed by police officers IN THE STREETS. The pictures you posted of the Stonewall riots are happening today in 2020 on a much larger and brutal scale. 

You think a building being on fire is terrible? What about the countless black people who have lost their lives tragically? What about the children, or young adults, who had their whole future ahead of them taken away JUST BECAUSE OF THEIR SKIN TONE? Exactly. But keep moaning about a building being on fire