"Wednesday was the worst day of my life…"
Last edited Sun Jun 29, 2014, 02:47 PM - Edit history (1)
I really love that little girl, I hope that she never loses her willingness to speak truth to power.
But the fact that an innocent grown Black guy was handcuffed and questioned for FIVE HOURS, all on the casual and racially stereotypical implication of some 17 YO and then was only absolved 30 seconds after the word of a little 4 YO white girl, says way more about our society and law enforcement than ANYTHING else. A little 4 YO white girl has more systematic power and impact over a black man's fate than his own innocence.
Welcome to White Privilege, everybody!
= new reply since forum marked as read
who worked for the McCain campaign in Pittsburgh and claimed a 6'4" dark-skinned black male "Obama supporter" assaulted her and carved the "B" on the side of her face? 
Problem was, the "B" was backwards confirming she did it to herself in the mirror.
And Newt Gingrich taking advantage of this is just as bad, in my opinion. What a fucking schmuck, indeed. 
is deeply ingrained in all generations present at this time in american history. It will not go away. It can only be fought one case at a time, tooth and nail. Bigotry, ignorance and stupidity has been growing in this country last 6 years. Hmmmm, I wonder why????
Brown skin often translates to immediate threat. The native-american is a threat because the descendants of the perpetrators of the genocide of the many nations of native-americans, just like the descendents of slave owners has been holding on to their hate, for generations, and are fearful that somehow a balancing of the scales is coming up on their evil. That fear makes them get uglier and uglier. Every time racism and bigotry rears it's ugly head, I chop it off, metaphorically of course. Equality is not that complex a matter. Just takes tolerance and intelligence. Something still in short supply, I guess.
that the babysitter was 17. NOT 47 or 57 or 67 or someone of an age to have been drenched for decades in the vicious stereotypes about AAs.... And so yet another generation has been infected with and emboldened by the power of racism. I.e., a 17 year old white girl had the POWER to negatively impact the life of an innocent black man.
If the situation had been reversed, would those cops have believed the black man if he had witnessed what happened and reported that 2 unknown white suspects had burst into his neighbor's house and took off with some items? Of course not because "they don't fit 'the description'".
Fortunately he wasn't put away for good and hopefully the little girl will not succumb to the intoxicating power of racism when she gets older.
he was black wasn't he? Thank god for the truth from the mouths of children. He's lucky, he probably already would be in one of those for profit prisons working his ass off for the next 20 years. White privilege exemplified. What a country.
were it not for the commentary, including the frankly dumb "Welcome to White Privilege, everybody!" comment at the end.
And, by the way. a 4 year old having systematic power? That's B.S., MrScorpio. You should know better. 
Yeah, I hate to seem harsh, but we can tell truth without engaging in extremist B.S., folks. No 4 year old in the world could possibly have any power of any kind over anybody, even if they happen to be "white".
since birth and you know you still have privileges denied other because of race. Everyone has your number, you need to check yourself, no one else. No one is fooled by your BS.
Last edited Sun Jun 29, 2014, 07:16 PM - Edit history (1)
you got to be. No one could be that..........
And in modern day America, the classification of whiteness is less tied to ancestral national origin, than it is to skin color. This, of course, makes whiteness more generalized than in the past, doesn't it? So pointing out how the panoply of white ethnic groups were treated aside from WASPS in the past, that really has no relationship to with what we're dealing with today, right?
The lack of distinctions and even blurred distinctions are passed on to all people with white skin today. Really, in what way would being a white person in this country confer a MORE favored status if they were, in fact, black? Where and what are the advantages to being black in America over any white person, can you tell me that?
Now, let me ask you this: When the black neighbor was sitting there handcuffed, trying to convince the police that he was innocent, what do you think was going on in that conversation for five whole hours? It's not that hard to figure out, right? Basically, they ORDERED him to confess to robbing the neighbor and they ORDERED him to tell them where he stashed the stolen goods AND they ORDERED him to give up his accomplices. The whole time, of course, he told them that he was innocent of all of that stuff, and for five hours they told him that they didn't believe them. And you know why? They KNEW that he was lying solely on the word of a 17YO white girl and nothing more.
Now, you have to remember who the police are. They are institutional representatives… They are the authority and they didn't believe him.
Even after those five hours of questioning an innocent man, they were still unconvinced that he was innocent when they went to talk to the 4YO white girl. And do you know how I know that the police were unconvinced of his innocence? Look at what the little girl said about the police:
The police told the girl that they had the person who robbed her house and that person was the black neighbor. The cops didn't simply ask the girl to describe the robbers, they TOLD her that they had the black robber. And she, in turn, told the police that they were dead wrong.
Now think about this. Both the neighbor AND the little girl had the truth on their side, right? But despite the truth, whose word did they take?
One white person, telling lies was considered to be telling the truth, even after an innocent black man had the truth on his side during a five hour interrogation, and only after the word of another white person, a 4YO no less, 30 seconds later did the police realize that the neighbor was telling the truth all the long and not before.
Do you see the problem here? Both the black neighbor and the white 4YO had the truth on their side, but to the authorities, only one of them were deemed credible.
And remember, I mentioned that the best thing about about white privilege is the fact that it allows some of the people who benefit from it an excuse to deny that it even exists, right? But there's another part to that statement that I intentionally left unmentioned and I had hoped that you'd figure it out for yourself already.
And that is, people have privilege and not know that actually they have it. I never said that the little girl knew that she had white privilege and systematic power. She doesn't have to know. The only thing that she knew was to tell the truth, even to the police. She knew that the police didn't tell her the truth and she told them what the truth was instead. (Hence an aspect of power inherent in little 4YO girls, but that's beside the point).
I wasn't originally referring to the girl when I asked that question to heaven05, though. They basically accused me of being deliberately dishonest(even if not totally directly). And I asked them how I could possibly know that I have something that I don't believe (anymore) is even real. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5167732
The black neighbor knew the truth, he told the police the truth and they didn't believe him.
True, though to be fair, he *was*, originally the main suspect in the case. In this case, it's still likely they still would have held him for a while, even if he'd been white(most cops generally don't give suspects an easy pass, regardless of their skin color). And, in that same regard.....
Because if the little girl was black, and even if she told the truth as well, do you think that the police would have given her the exact same deference?
Can you honestly answer that question?
To be honest, I think it would be likely, yes(after all, 4 year olds in general are viewed as innocent by most people and there's not that many people who'd change their minds just because the skin colors were switched. I know I wouldn't). Even if the suspect had been white as well, hypothetically speaking. And this isn't a denial of systemic discrimination, not at all.
And just to throw you a bone, I do admit that the vast majority of white people in this country may not know that they have white privilege or even know that it even exists. It's conferred upon them without either their knowledge or agreement. Which actually makes it a very effective tool in the process of systemic and institutional racism. It's like the air that people breath, where you benefit from it and not even have to think about it.
*Sigh*.
But if it were taken away, people would know right away.
Don't you see the contradiction in this, by the way? First you say that most white people don't know that their collective "privilege" even exists, in your view, yet they'd somehow figure it all out when it was suddenly taken away. Really? Are you really serious? Or just trolling?
Either way, I'm about done dealing with this. You never did prove your point about all "whites" having collective (literal, that is) privileges, by the way. Because frankly, it was never there in the first place. I have studied this nation's history, by the way, front to back, from the Revolution to today. It's practically my hobby horse. And every single thing I've ever learned about racism, whether from mainstream or alternative sources.....credible sources, that is.....is that it was never something that *ever* helped all white people. Hell, even many Southern segregationists were okay with publicly stating that, as they'd put it, Jim Crow was good for white people(and some actually believed their own bullshit, too). And yet, did all Southern whites reap these mystical benefits? They sure as fuck did not. Racism was actually used as a tool to bust unions, to stymie socio-political evolution, and even as a tool against progress in general(even including several attempts to sabotage the New Deal).....not just in the South, but everywhere else as well.
Never once did the whole of "white" people in this country ever reap collective benefits from racism or other prejudices of any kind. Not once. Ever. So why are we claiming otherwise? Because it flies in the face of all sorts of historical evidence, individual cases of actual beneficence notwithstanding. It's honestly sad, more than anything. No wonder why the left is still having trouble.....
The concept of 'white privilege' is not the idea that all whites enjoy good outcomes in life, any more than the concept of systematic racism is the idea that all people of color suffer bad outcomes in life. What it does mean is that, all else being equal, white people have somewhat better odds of a good outcome than colored people, in our society. A man whose point is six has a better chance of making it than a man whose point is three, and that is true even if he craps out on his first roll, and remains true even if the other fellow makes makes his point and collects despite the poorer odds.
Well, I do understand that was the original intent of the idea behind "white privilege", i.e., an honest attempt to try to describe these realities, particularly from the view of the disadvantaged. Unfortunately, in more recent years, it has been morphed by some and defined by said group as literal "privilege". Which is a problem because it led to the exact same kind of thinking that I mentioned here.
And even the original version, sadly, failed to fully account for other variables, including, and perhaps especially, class. Frankly, there is really no denying that a well-off Person of Color from say, Beverly Hills or Manhattan, is going to be viewed by many Americans(not all, though), even by some(same here, too) in positions of power(!) in a rather significantly better light than a poor or lower-middle-class white guy who just got plucked out of a trailer park in Texas or some run-down suburb in Ohio or Indiana. And this guy, and let's assume that he's a honest & likable guy who donates to charity, etc. would, in all likelihood, even still be viewed in a better light by many than a white guy of equal wealth who was caught in some sort of scandal or was a total asshole, etc.
In all honesty, I think white privilege's time has pretty much passed on by. Why not try a new terminology? Something really straightforward. "Systemic discrimination" might do the trick, I think. Anyway, just something to think about, really.
...were it not for the history of such breathtakingly brazen intellectual dishonesty -- outright, contrived denialism -- being tolerated in discussions of white privilege on DU. Particularly, it seems, when the topic is raised by a person of color.
Frankly, I couldn't have cared less what his ethnicity was. And if you knew anything about me, you'd know that I'm no bigot.
I hate to seem harsh, but your commentary on this issue has all but obliterated the line between "frankly dumb," to quote your phrase, and playing dumb.
Playing dumb about what? I've been pretty honest about what I believe.
And couching it all in careful insults aimed at the OP?
I'll admit I kinda overreacted a bit on that first reply, but that was out of frustration, and not malice. I even apologized later on(last line):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5168151
That only makes the artlessness of the performance more obvious, not less. Very rarely is patronizing dismissal mistaken for erudition.
There was no performance to begin with, though, and that was the problem. What you saw from me was a genuine rebuttal. You may not agree with what I've written, and that's fine.
TBH, the very notion of truthfulness is tarnished when you claim to be the arbiter of truth.
You sure about that? Pardon me, but I don't recall ever (intentionally) implying that I knew absolutely everything there is to know. To be honest, I don't think I really do.
Most folks know B.S. when they see it. Even if we happen to be white.
Well, I'm afraid that you missed the ball on this one.....no offense.
and what neighborhood(s) did the police terrorize looking for those 'black murderers', I wonder. I really do wonder.
with her pic and "4 year old exposes babysitter" or something and I didn't know what it was about.
Wow! Thanks MrScorpio..
Babysitter’s fake tot kidnapping, theft scheme exposed by child, 4
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/babysitter-fake-tot-kidnapping-theft-scheme-exposed-child-4-article-1.1839542
The Washington state babysitter allegedly let her boyfriend and an accomplice in to steal, then blamed the neighbor — but Abby, 4, told police the truth.
"Kids are smart. Insanely observant. And more capable of seeing through our adult BS than most adults. The problem is that we don't give them enough credit for their honesty or their ability to see things plainly -- which came in handy when the family of one 4-year-old in Washington was robbed while the little girl was being cared for by her babysitter."
http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/174001/4yearold_busts_babysitters_scheme_to
I don't know why it says "fake tot kidnapping" though.. she wasn't kidnapped.
It sucks that the babysitter said "two African American men did it" and her neighbor was hauled into custody for 5 hours. They are in a world of trouble.
That is one brave little girl. I seriously hope they file some charges against that babysitter for what she pulled.....and give little Abby a reward for doing the right thing.
ends with the truth coming out from a four year old! Unbelievable Joe!
