The lack of Brown Wilson discussion here

take the word "black" out of your post and I agree with you 1000000000%

I have a question about looting. Now see, I live not far from Chicago, so I get a "Weekend Shooting/Death Count" all summer long. This past weekend, 29 people shot, 5 killed, I think. Pretty much all gang-related. Young people were killed...caught in the cross-fire. It's territorial.  It's horrific. Yes, these people are poor. But here's my question about looting because I'm not great with History. How long has looting gone on? Here's what's in my "white" head...and even that's a little racist, if you think about it. I wasn't born into privilege. My parents didn't come from money and no one handed them anything because they were white. I am not entirely disagreeing with some opportunities coming to some people easier than others. I might be a little less financially stressed if my name were Rockefeller or Trump. I'm not mad at people who have money. I don't believe they owe me anything, either. BTW, I have seen plenty of homeless white people in the city and suburbs, and I don't think they're feeling too privileged because of the color of their skin.  I also don't feel morally superior to black people or any other race. People with morals are somewhat morally superior to those without them....I don't care if they're plaid. 

But how long has looting been a THING? When Katrina tore through LA, people were told to leave their homes and head for higher ground ahead of time. There were school buses that their mayor could've put them on. The ones who chose to stay...stayed. Those who survived...some of them....were looting. Now,they weren't stealing food for their babies and families. Nope. They were stealing bigscreen television sets and $350 pairs of shoes. Can someone please explain this to me? Because here's what...I can totally get behind a person stealing food and water for their family. But video games and tv's and shoes? What??

The Ferguson looting was, IMO to show everyone that the people there weren't going to back down. And Brown..he stole what? Cigars and liquor. Hardly staples for the home. Also, those items don't warrant being shot to death either. So here we sit, waiting on the slanted media to tell us what "really" happened.  I have a friend down there right now and his exact words when someone asked what was REALLY going on, were, "A whole lot of stupid." Take that any way you'd like.  I know I rolled it around and it was kind of an empty answer. Will have to speak with him more on this.

Right now it looks like a racial thing, but it's really a class/caste thing. It would be easy for me to say that because I was raised by a truck driver and a secretary, neither of whom went to college or made monstrous amounts of money, that life is unfair and that I was at a disadvantage. In fact, take a look at where my parents and I lived when I was a baby and a small child. In Harvey, IL.  Have a look at these statistics. www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/harvey/crime/ My parents got us out of there....not very very far away, but we were no longer in the heart of it once I was about 8 years old. Racism was alive and well then too...only *I* was in the minority and I felt it. In first grade, we were told to draw a picture of two people we looked up to and admired.  Remember, it was the early 70's.  So, I drew my doctor and his nurse. My teacher saw my picture and told me that I had to color one of them black because if I didn't, it was...and she used this HUGE word on my 7 year old brain and didn't even define it to me...DISCRIMINATION. <<<----Those were her words...a woman of color. Yep. I told her that I would color one of them black if one of them was, but they were both white(I had drawn classmates and colored them whatever color they were). I don't think I need to tell you how quickly my mother was in the principal's office, having a word. Can you imagine that sort of thing happening NOW? It'd be all over the news, there would be lawsuits...Not from my mom, but from some mom who felt her child was permanently scarred. But if this happened in a school today,where a kid can't even accidentally chew a PopTart into the shape of a gun....Look out!!  It's a damned scary place, this world, and people are going a little bonkers.  

Is there crime where I live now? Yep. It's everywhere, but not in those staggering numbers, thankfully. My father grew up with a single mom because his dad died when he was 2 1/2. He grew up in Roseland, IL...a lot like Harvey, IL. He didn't steal. He didn't assault people. He learned a trade and by the age of 12 was driving a truck and earning money. I found an interesting article about "Successful African-Americans" and how they've come together to mentor youth in their area. They talk about what they were up against, and how they overcame it. www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25470761/successful-african-americans-tell-black-students-they-can  There must be other groups like this, and if not, there should be.  

For the record, I saw plenty of inappropriate behavior in Harvey, and again in my high school years, where again, I would be a minority. For whatever reason, I didn't focus on my being white or superior. I thought the people who brought knives and guns to school and who threatened other people with them were scary. I know my high school can't be a representative slice, but it is a bit of a numbers game after a while. Back then, the white kids were the ones being threatened by the ones of color.
So were the teachers.  I recall them being pretty bold in their words and their actions.  I got told to move my "Lily White Ass" out of the way in the hallway plenty of times. (For the record, my ass wasn't taking up a whole lot of room)  I just ignored them and was thankful that was all that happened.  In addition to ALL of this...my father was practically Archie Bunker in his attitudes.  He had a racial slur for everyone. His boss was a "Dirty kike", Polish people were "Pollacks", and on and on. In spite of that, I had and still maintain friendships with people of all races and ethnicities. You know what? I watched some of the poorest kids go to school and become far more financially successful than I am.  I don't begrudge them any of it, and I congratulate them and am happy for them. There comes a time when we all need to accept personal responsibility for what we say,what we do and where we end up.

None of this happened overnight, and it certainly isn't going away overnight, and it's going nowhere good with who's sitting in charge right now, because I think the president has done more to divide us than anything. And before anyone calls me racist, I don't care for the job the "white half"of him is doing either. Politicians are a special kind of slime. I trust none of them.

I think slavery was an atrocity.  I think the Holocaust was an abomination. I think we need to look forward for ways to break the links in the chain of these lines of thinking....the thinking that because someone has skin of a certain color that they are oppressed.  Or privileged. 

Well, I know my comments are racist but I don't know if you all heard about the mother of a baby who had her kid with her held up in a closet because some thugs broke into her house. She had a gun and when the thug came into her room where she was she open fired on him. She hit this kid 6 times and the thug managed to run a couple blocks down the street before collapsing. If I remember right I think the thug in this case was fairly small. This thug was something like 6'3 and almost 300 pounds. It's a myth that you shoot someone once and they fall right over. It depends on where you hit them and how powerful your weapon is. Sometimes you can get lucky and get a head shot and they keel right over. Other times you can hit them a dozen times and they are still on their feet for quite a while.

Police officers are trained when they use deadly force they shoot until the threat is terminated. This means if the punk was coming at the officer he would shoot until he was down on the ground and no longer running at him. We now have another witness that supposedly has video of this punk running at the officer and trying to go for the gun. We do know this punk just robbed and roughed up a store and it's owner. He wasn't a "gentle giant." He was a punk. He has facebook pics of himself flashing gang signs and looking like a bad ass. You live like a gang banger, you die like a gang banger.

Again, I know I am racist but this punk being dead will probably save the lives of who knows how many innocent victims this banger would have taken out in his life before he ended up either dead or in prison for life. At least now tax payers won't have to pay for his incarceration.

Right now it looks like a racial thing, but it's really a class/caste thing.

No, it's really a racial thing.  Fact is, even the economically-disadvantaged whites are given a huge number of privileges in our society based on their race only.   I'm having a lot of trouble buying the idea that a lower-class white man would've been shot to death by police in the same manner, for committing the same infractions. No matter how you slice it, Brown's race (no, not his social class) is the main factor here. 

In the past, I too, was quick to dismiss issues of race as issues of class -- white people often tend to do this, because racism tends to be invisible to white people whereas class issues tend to be a lot more visible on a white person's radar screen.  As white people, we don't really have to deal with race issues, so it's very easy for us to just "not see it."   Here's a pretty quick article to explain what I'm getting at. 

Other than the fact you stated you are racist nothing in your post is racist. The situation you talk about has been played out by idiots of every color of skin and walk of life 100000 times.
With rare exception no one wants to kill anyone else. The cop looks completely deflated in the photos after the shooting. No one else was there. Seems no one saw the actual shooting except the kids friend.
There are just too many successful people of every type of person out there and too many losers of every type of person..........and in-between also........I don't believe we are a racist society anymore. The only racist are the ones who voice special exception for some segment of society, and of course people who say someone else is "less than" for being a certain segment of society. Bottom line we can tell them to fuck off. They don't matter. Anyone who matters will not dare act out on their beliefs in fear of losing what they have and control.

Donna: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_Mentality
It has been forever that looting existed. Once one person acts in a certain way it is likely many will follow.

Then there is also this:

www.cato.org/blog/police-militarization-ferguson-nationwide

I just said I was racist because some idiot on Facebook said I was for saying the exact same thing.

I also disagree that this wouldn't happen with a white perp...if you rush at a cop or make any sudden moves toward him you will get shot. I can find a whole bunch of videos of whites getting shot by cops under questionable circumstances but they weren't in the media because we'll...it was a white person being shot by a cop. Like the elderly veteran that was shot because he reached in his car to get his cain.


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