06-03-2020, 09:08 AMjRuutu Wrote:

06-03-2020, 08:52 AMBaelor Swift Wrote: You bring up yet another really tragic aspect. People have tried. And the government has deliberately attempted to silence the votes of marginalized people. Some things that have been done include gerrymandering, which is when local political districts are deliberately changed to silence certain views and artificially inflate others - this may be a difficult concept to understand at first but here is a link, a refusal to declare voting days national holidays, which disproportionately impact poor people who have to work multiple jobs with ridiculous hours to provide for their families, sometimes even making voting become a choice of whether or not to be able to afford rent and food or to vote, and purging of voter rolls. However, there is a lot that people do try to do on a local level, which is actually one of the major points of these protests - to hold local police forces accountable when they are not currently doing so. However, addressing some state-level or national laws is something that also needs to be done which needs cooperation beyond the reach of local politics.

That sounds terrible, no wonder people are angry and don´t see a way to make a difference. You would think with how important politics are in America that everything about the system is ´perfect´, or certainly at least getting people to vote would be priority number one, but by the sound of it - that is not the case.

06-03-2020, 08:52 AMBaelor Swift Wrote: It's true and also plenty of white people are also victimized by police brutality. However, let me share this with you to explain a bit more about why the attention is so heavily placed on black victims right now.

That is a telling picture, thanks, shame if and when things truly are like that in most of the cities and neighborhoods.

06-03-2020, 08:52 AMBaelor Swift Wrote: The issue is, these black on black crimes have a lot to do with institutional racism and are inherently driven by it.

Also terrible, still especially rest of the world needs to hear about it or certainly it should the responsibility of the media over here to paint the real picture, not just blast one angle.

06-03-2020, 08:52 AMBaelor Swift Wrote: The problem is the system is not affording people the same opportunity to succeed and become role models. And you're right - there is so much wasted potential and right now, what is needed is that marginalized communities are afforded more support and attention to address some of the contributing factors to all these unnecessary deaths and wasted potential - the legal system disproportionately arresting, charging, sentencing, killing black people compared to white people, the exploitation of poor people by not enforcing a living wage as a minimum wage, the fact that health care is not considered a right in the United States, a $23 BILLION funding gap between white and nonwhite school districts despite serving about the same number of students, grossly overpriced university education, etc. All these things disproportionately hurt poor people and you know who are disproportionately poor in the United States? People of color.

Sounds like the system you have over there is far from perfect. I don´t know what to say - tragic. Like you said there is so much potential going wasted, that is the worst part of it all. Having potential and not being allowed to even try and fulfil it.

I'm really glad I took a leap of faith and decided to address your OP point by point. I honestly was not expecting you to be so willing to hear me out and gain a better understanding of the issue but I'm glad you have. If you have any more questions, please do ask but I hope I've explained the situation to you well enough about why people are protesting and rioting, why, this time, it was not just limited to peaceful protests, and how the system in the US is truly racist in its current state and is in dire need of reform.

If anything, I would love to see you make a donation to one of the many organisations people in the league are supporting - I will match you up to $20 if you do so.

To everyone else - no matter which side of the issue you are on, I really do urge you to read through this back and forth. Admittedly, this was rather exhausting but it is important for people to be open to dialogue and, in this case, both jRuutu and I were open to dialogue. And I think positives were able to be taken from it and it was an opportunity for him to be more educated on the situation and the facts and feelings that led to what is now going on. I understand approaching this post with hostility and don't blame, don't fault, don't condemn the many who did. That OP was extremely inflammatory. But if you're ever up to it, I urge you to try to take a breath and attempt to open up some form of dialogue with people who are expressing racist/discriminatory views. Many times it won't work but sometimes, you may just strike a chord.