The good thing that Black Lives Matter does is make sure that black and brown people know about bad shootings of black and brown people nationwide.
The bad thing that Black Lives Matter does is make sure that cops know they've gotten away with bad shootings of black and brown people nationwide.
Cops are going to get bolder and bolder. They'll shoot more of us. But they'll shoot more and more white people too because cops are feeling invincible. Shooting people without going to jail has to leave you feeling invincible and vindicated. That's why I think the number of white people being killed will change without a change in white racism one way or the other. Blue lives are going to matter more and more until they are the lives that matter only.
White people thought drugs were a black and brown problem until their own children started dying. But it took 20 years from them to catch on. So we can't wait for that.
I am simply predicting things are likely to get worse between us and the cops before they get better.
That's been clear to me for a while. But Korryn Gaines's behavior being at the center of the stories about the day of her death makes it crystal clear. But we'll talk about that another day.
All I want to say for now is hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride through the rest of this decade. If Trump is elected the rest of the decade will be a like a horror film. But it still won't be as bad as the 1950s and 1960s.
We have power that we didn't have in the 1950s and 1960s. We have the right to vote on paper and a real right to vote. We have control of sections of social media. We have the ability to make stories go viral. More importantly, we don't live in a country like Sweden, where they decided to erase all reference to race in their laws etc.
Voila! Just like that! No more racism in Sweden! Except when white people kill black people in questionable circumstances. But don't worry there won't be any record of any hate crimes because Sweden is officially colorblind as of 2014. -- which kinda makes you wonder why young black women arranged a Swedish Black Lives Matter in Sweden just last week....don't it? (smirk)
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| SWEDEN BLACK LIVES MATTER JULY 29ish 2016 |
White racism fluctuates from age to age and country to country. It's not ever present and unchanging. It can get better and get worse. It can be loud and brash or silent and deadly like a ____ after you've eaten too many beans in one sitting.
When Ronald Reagan was elected president white people near where I lived started burning crosses on lawns again. Small ones. Just for fun. Probably "just kids." But those white kids and their white parents who chuckled at the thought of the crossing burning "prank" knew that they were allowed overt and violent forms of white racism because of the dog whistle racism Ronald Reagan issued so boldly on television.
"Black on Black Crime," "Welfare Queen," "States Rights," "Some Young Buck" - those are all famous or remade famous courtesy of Ronnie R speeches. White racist groups, mostly teenaged white boys as I recall, increased dramatically when the ambient-white-racist-attitude increased in the 1980s and continued, for a republican led time, after he left office. A white mob actually killed Yusef Hawkins in 1989 Today, republicans are surprised that the dog whistle was blown and dogs came all the way to Washington in the form the Tea Party first and Donald Trump second.
I don't even want to know what happens if the white racism starts coming at us overtly from a sitting president in 2017 at the same time that the white population is feeling more and more threatened because their relative numbers are going down.
I promise, you don't want to know either.
Vote.
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