RE: Gun Violence in America Portrayed in Childish Gambino's - This Is America Music Video
first off i wasn't sure what you were referring to in saying the "counter arguments" to the narrative as i touched on quite a few things in this post -- were you referring to violence from cops on black people, gun violence, or something else? now i understand a bit more where you're coming from after watching this video.
as far as systemic racism is concerned, this is a topic that i've studied for many years, and i think this man's arguments are problematic on a number of levels because he's taking these specific cop violence on black people out of context to prove that system racism doesn't exist. there are generations of systemic violence against black people and the tearing down of black communities which black on black crime is a result of- so to share that statistic as "proof" that systemic racism is no longer a factor i find completely misleading. also, black men make up a smaller % of the population so the fact that less of them have been killed is a misleading statistic.
also, some black people have been shot for not resisting, but just for reaching for a phone or sitting in the car. i'm not sure what this man's purpose is in saying "all black men are resisting police and that's why they're shot; they should just take a more chill approach" as it's entirely misleading. in philandro castile's case, he was informing a police officer he had a gun (and wasn't using it on the cop) when within 1 minute he was shot dead- his child and girlfriend were in the car. resisting arrest is also not grounds for being shot and plenty of white people give resistance to police officers and aren't shot dead on the spot (and not charged for manslaughter).
in fact, white people can resist arrest in much more severe manners and cops just deal with it - as shown here. this is white privilege at its finest.
i understand it can be a scary situation for the cop as well and it's a very complex argument, but i think to make the conclusion that systemic racism against black people isn't real because of those stats that man shares in the video is simply misinformed.
this graph alone shows how impossible it would be to completely have equality with black people in america.
The key takeaway from the video I linked for me is that blacks commit more crime than other races especially against their own race, which is the explanation for the statistics you see in the final graph of your post.
As for claiming that slavery is the cause of that issue, if this were true then the situation should be getting better since the 60s as we get farther away from the era of slavery, but it's getting worse. It's actually correlated strongly with the increase of single motherhood in the black community as a result of welfare.
This video explains the statistics on the drastically poorer outcomes for children coming out of single mother homes, including crime, mental health and sexual abuse:
You are relying heavily on hand picked anecdotal stories of encounters with police in your latest response and not addressing the key points Larry made. He was simply demonstrating that these individual publicized incidents are not as cut and dry and the media is portraying. He's not saying bad situations with cops never occur. In fact, the likelihood they occur will be higher in groups which commit more crime than the average population, and it's a mistake to assume its purely the white cop's fault. You may want to consider the possibility that making that assumption is itself racist.
I understand and appreciate your concern, I used to agree with you completely, but we can't solve problems if we ignore the true causes.
certainly nothing is as cut and dry as the media makes it and whether or not the below statement is true is not that important to me as i see systemic racism as a very big thing in our culture.
i really don't want to keep going back and forth using this medium. irregardless of the correct stats, i believe from this statement that you obviously care:
...as do i... and would prefer just to leave it at that-- we see things from differing angles (and i don't want to keep debating and getting further into various points).
my article was not only about police violence against black people, but also about the consumption of black entertainment and even of violence relating to black people (whether against or caused by them) while the world goes on watching and the problems aren't being solved...
Is there a medium where you would discuss it, or are you really saying you prefer to agree to disagree?
In person or even private message