The killing of blacks has historical context, it is not just a random signal of police violence

[La Lioness Priyanka]

People who don't seem to understand why race is at the focus of the anger in the killing of eric garner or mike brown, do not understand the history of racial violence towards blacks in this country which started but did not end with slavery. Lynching of blacks as entertainment and for wearing the army uniform post World War's were extremely common, the Jim Crow laws, and the killings of African American civil rights leaders are just the few I can think of immediately.

In light of this egregious violence, these killings of black men by an arm of the government, is not an ahistorical event. It is a part of a pattern of violence towards blacks. For those who resort to the excuse of black on black violence, they ignore that most violent crimes for all races are within race. This does not excuse a systemic violence towards a people motivated by the color of their skin. Shoplifting or selling loosies are not death penalty without a trial crimes, and we need to stop looking at events ahistorically.

To deny that race is at the center of this, is to deny a history of violence towards black people.

(i posted a version of this on my FB page but find the need/desire to reiterate on DU too)

[TeeYiYi]

1. I believe that...

..President Obama has an opportunity, right now, to make a lasting difference in the world and in his legacy...

I sincerely hope that he uses this opportunity to step up and effect change in the world of race relations and the murky reality of police brutality; overall and specifically, as it applies to the disparity of being black vs. white in America in the 21st century.

Black. Lives. Matter.

TYY

[CakeGrrl]

12. He IS taking steps along with AG Holder and AG nominee Loretta Lynch

If you're relying on the MSM to be informed, you will not be aware of this.

And he isn't doing it to establish a LEGACY. He and the AGs are doing it to SAVE LIVES.

[markpkessinger]

2. There seems to be a widespread, persistant refusal . . .

. . . to see any of these events in their wider context, or even to acknowledge that such a wider context even exists.

[bemildred]

3. If we acknowledge it, we might have to do something about it.

And lets face, one thing about politicians, 99% of them are cowards when it comes to doing anything that matters.

[noiretextatique]

5. there were two sides during the civil war

there were two sides during desegregation. some people are still on the other side. they want to keep "those" people in their place, and they are willing to kill, or have their agents kill, in order to maintain their power and prejudice.

[XemaSab]

13. I disagree slightly

I think the big war now isn't the war against the forces of hate, it's against the forces of apathy.

For every person who cheers when a black man gets it, there are 100 or more people who shrug and go about their day.

Even worse, for every person who is appalled when a black man gets it, there are 100 or more people who shrug and go about their day.

This show is 20 years old, but there's a scene that starts about 9 minutes in that just nails it.

[noiretextatique]

4. To deny that race is at the center of this, is to deny a history...period

which makes me wonder if people even KNOW that history. or care about it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. I assume they don't know and don't care

[noiretextatique]

9. don't care to know

i think IF more people CARED to know, they would care.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. Agreed

[heaven05]

6. Thank you for simple, cold, hard truth/facts

[Man from Pickens]

7. I get it just fine

And history is history. The bulk of people alive in this country today didn't live though that history and know nothing firsthand of it.

Now, in 2014, this isn't just a black problem - it's an everybody problem. Cops are just as happy to brutalize lily-white Occupy protestors as they are to do so to black protestors in Ferguson or elsewhere.

By saying this is a black problem, you're saying it's not an everyone problem. But it is an everyone problem. We're all subject to the violence and threat thereof from the cops. None of us, no matter our color, have any recourse to justice when made the victim of police brutality - brutality which is escalating all over the place, and affecting people of every age, culture, and color.

By saying this is a black problem, you're saying that it's still the case that white people are using cops to keep black people down. But that's not the case. The actual case is that a privileged elite is using cops to keep all of us down.

We are all in the same boat in this, and recognizing that is the key to building the political coalition necessary to get this problem solved.

I know the history, but the history is in the past. The present-day situation doesn't differentiate between white and black and yellow and red and tan and brown. That is the experience that the majority of people alive today have, and that is what people of today have first-hand experience with, and that is what the people of today will respond to.

[nomorenomore08]

11. History is continuous. The past doesn't just "disappear."

Atrocities on the scale spoken of by the OP, reverberate across generations. People who would have watched a lynching with the whole family 100 years ago, now cheer on cops who shoot black suspects. Same damn thing.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

- William Faulkner

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. ....