‘I Beg You, Master’

[Heyo]

As an avowed racist

So you are one of those "humans first" people like Allen from Generation Films?

 

[Revoltingest]

So you are one of those "humans first" people like Allen from Generation Films?

I've never seen those movies.
But I might be more of a "humans last" type.

 

[Tambourine]

Breonna Taylor was a) black and b) innocent.
What do you think which attribute will speak to more people?

Neither. The fact that she was killed by police is proof enough to certain people that she could not have been innocent.

 

[Revoltingest]

Neither. The fact that she was killed by police is proof enough to certain people that she could not have been innocent.

I often wonder if you believe what you post,
or if you're insulting some unspecified poster.

 

[Stevicus]

As an avowed racist, I have no need to deny it.
Perhaps this makes it easier to spot baseless claims of racism.
Sometimes it's just not knowable whether police misbehavior
is driven by racism, sexism, anger, poor training, or general
misanthropy.

I think one issue is that people tend to focus on the individual police officer and evaluate the situation based on their estimation of their individual personality, character, and possible motive for their misconduct. It may not necessarily be that. It may be due to other factors which may be a consequence of systemic racism, although it may not be immediately obvious when looking at individual situations.

For example, how many of these incidents relate to the war on drugs, either because they're looking for drugs or suspect drugs? The war on drugs is often thought of as a racist campaign, so that, in and of itself, would indicate a racist motive (even if an individual officer is not personally racist - or even if the officer is a person of color).

The police are sometimes thrown into impossible situations where they're expected to enforce law and order, yet they're required to go into chaotic neighborhoods where they're already disliked and have to keep their guard up. The fact that municipalities are set up this way (and oftentimes dependent on issuing and collecting fines from people in poor neighborhoods as a source of revenue) can itself be considered rooted in racism. A lot of police officers don't even live in the communities where they're hired to police, so it's easier to develop an "us vs. them" mentality which contributes to a hostile culture. And the individual officers can be influenced and molded by that culture, even if they may not be personally racist.

The problem comes in when such incidents occur and people just assume "Oh, it's a white officer who abused/murdered a black suspect, therefore the white police officer must be racist." It's that kind of simplistic reasoning that many people reject, but it doesn't mean that racism is not a factor in these incidents. We have to ask ourselves why the socioeconomic conditions are so lopsided as to lead to the kinds of situations where police are patrolling the streets looking for trouble.

But I would agree that it's a mistake to look at the individual police officer and say "he's the bad guy." He is a bad guy, but he's also a symptom of a deeper problem. It's not just a few bad apples. It's the barrel that stinks, and that's what causes the apples to stink.