My problem is what facts are actually facts. While I realize that the authors are going to sway an article toward their understanding of history, their current situations and their religious beliefs/color of their skin, I always try to sort through the rhetoric to determine MY validity to the written words…using my filter of religious belief/color of my skin, understanding of history and my current situation.
I used to say that the racism by the people of my parents generation was just going to have to die with them. But, I’m finding we (I) are (am) loosening the scab of my parents generation and my personal high school experiences and starting to bleed a little. I’m getting angry and I don’t like where this is going. I’m starting to view this race/cop through the angry filters of my youth as a whitey.
While I have eased my way over to the moderate liberal views during my adult years, I’ve also been paying attention to the Trump rhetoric that so many have hooked onto. My question is this. What happens if America elects a trump agenda for this country? What happens if we have a more conservative/racist president leading the country? Is it possible that less social programs/less tolerance for human rights/putting the fence up for immigration. What happens if all Americans are required to work to support themselves and/or pull together to survive? This very likely could be our future. What happens then? Or will we relive the 50s….will self described white/black/every other color America start shooting it out in the streets to defend their particular heritage and perceived racial association? Will we really commence fighting with a larger scale of warriors and crime…will I as a white, suburban retiree start having to worry about my safety? Will I have to buy more guns to protect my little dot in the world. Is this where we are going? Do we need to once and for all fight it out until there is a victor? And then, what about the terrorists from other countries?
Or should we all start smoking some pot and mellow the hell out?
Until next time….
Ninasusan 
I relate to the police departments lowering their standards. A few years back, the Michigan State Police put an entire class through the academy. Those graduates naturally believed they had jobs afterwards, and they were wrong. No jobs were offered. States like AZ, NM, WY, and TX came to MI and cherry-picked our best and brightest. These were young, highly-trained, intelligent, and fit academy graduates and none of them work in MI anymore. The MSP had to lower their standards drastically and have never recovered from that. The quality of applicants is just not there anymore.
As far as racism goes, I will never forget being in a civil rights class and seeing whites from the fifties throwing things and insults at blacks and saying, “Oh my god. These look like my relatives!” I come from serious racism.
The ultimate white privilege is to just not have to deal with race if one does not feel like it. White privilege just isn’t what it used to be. People on both sides are fed up. I understand both sides. Security is mostly illusion anyway. It sucks, I know.
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We already have a racist president, so nothing new there. What this will become is an excuse to militarize the local police. Obama does not have enough time left to do it. Don or Hillie will be left to make that happen.
I would also have to add that I do believe there is a race problem in most police forces, but it does not stop with race. African Americans get stopped more often because they are black. There has also been a tendency in recent years to shoot first and exonerate later with vets and others that know how to use guns. I have read stories where police have been called because someone’s senior citizen mother would not take her medicine. The police tazed her when she refused and she was charged with resisting police. She was bedridden. That happened in California. I cannot remember the jurisdiction.
Whatever happens, it will not be good. Part of the problem is that they have lowered academic and intelligence standards for new police recruits. This happen around the year 2000. The people that police forces are getting now are those that would have ended up as security guards at Sears in the past. They have more fear and are therefore more willing to use lethal force more quickly. They do not reason well under pressure either.
Trump will not be the problem you imagine him to be. He is a pragmatist. He will simply seek the solution that works best to stop the carnage. That is also my problem with him. He does not always consider ethical and moral principles when seeking a solution. He’s a business man. Why would he?
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Idk but I’m sick of it.Enough to unfollow 3 ppl last week and unfriend 2. I’m afraid there is still racism, I do think less so than my parent’s generation, but it’s still there. And I believe moreso in the cities than out here in the boondocks. When I went to high school ppl of other races were just included and embraced. We all did everything together and sat together at lunch. Seems like in the cities they are more divided in high school, hanging with only ‘like’ ppl. i find that sad.
And then there’s this, I live close to Syracuse NY. Every single day at least one kid dies by gang violence. There are streets there you do not go near, especially after dark. Sadly it’s mostly black kids that live there and are doing this to each other. So if you’re a cop and for the 498th time you get called to something around there, what would you be thinking? I spent a night in the ER up there, that alone was eye opening as to what they constantly face.
So now having said that, I’m sick of good cops sticking up for bad cops too. There are bad doctors and mechanics and cashiers…admit it, you’re not all perfect.
Anyway I think it’s more about poverty than anything else, but you can’t disclude race from that either because as I said, who mostly lives there and why? I don’t have the answers but a little weed could help lol. And i think the paranoid part is just ppl being stoned but having to pretend they’re not. It’s not the same kind of “they’re out to get me” paranoid that seems to be the thinking of the an awful lot of ppl these days.
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I was actually using the pot reference as a way to say Good God America stop fighting…although personally Imwould use it to mellow out 😀
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Pot makes some people paranoid so that may not be the answer. I thought it was just the old generation that was just so racist but unfortunately I know a lot of millennials who are every bit as racist as the old people.
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