Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Coming Race War Won't Be About Race *Long Read*
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Is it about race? YES. But once you make any mention of race crackers shut down and get defensive. So if you're talking to a large audience its best to dance around the topic.
My position is speak to blacks only. Its black people that need to hear about racial injustice because we falsely assume black people are educated. You still have ? blacks on here who have the nerve to call other blacks "racist." That's what we're truly up against.
It only took tens of thousands of people (lawyers, civil rights workers, etc) to get laws changed in this country that ade blacks equal (on paper). So its not like we need EVERYBODY. We just need to work on ourselves. It IS about race. But crackers aint trying to hear that. Best to only speak to blacks and get our own ? in order.
I disagree.
Whites don't want to hear it because they truly do not think there's a problem. I was once one of them, until my eyes were opened by.... the IC.
Because it doesn't affect white ppl, it's not a big deal to them. When they see the outcry of black ppl, they think "oh, get over it, I've never seen that, I know blacks who have jobs and are well off, you put yourself there, get yourself out, it's your problem"
The media plays a huge part, like Kareem said, "disinformation", which they used to paint Brown as the bad guy. The surveillance tape, Brown attacked the officer and Brown had weed in his system.
We know certain things are a non-issue, but if you throw it in, it meets the preconceived notion for whites that this black male is a criminal and since he's robbing stores and using drugs, he's a threat and did attack the officer because he's "aggressive", therefore he deserves to be killed.
You have the protesters who are against police brutality and for the justice of Michael Brown, which involved a majority of blacks and a small percentage of other races.
Then you have those who support the officer, 100% of them being white. It's because they have been fed images and words that anyone who isn't white that is approached by police, had to have done something wrong criminally.
Until it starts affecting them, they'll change their tune.
The truth is, what happened in Ferguson affects everyone except the rich. Race war or not, this has shown that no matter what, police will attack, hurt and ? American citizens. The enemy won't be whites, blacks or hispanics, it will be the police and it will take the idea and presence of martial law, a policed country, for whites to realize who was right.
If you only speak to blacks, then whites stay in their bubble of ignorance.
More truths need to come to light so that more ppl, especially whites, see that this is about humans and human rights, not white v black (because it doesn't, and shouldn't, have to be that way).
More examples of whites w weapons being talked down and arrested instead of killed should be presented, along w examples of blacks who do not get the same treatment, instead, they're gunned down and beaten because they're "less than human".
So, whites definitely need to hear about this. If I can change my perception of how racial issues work, then I know it can change others. We have a new generation that's being raised, they're heavily influenced by social media and celebs, parents aren't raising them any more. They gotta be hammered w these truths so that when they get older they won't hold the same views as their parents.
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Kareem is right and wrong. He's wrong that stuff like this isn't about racism. It absolutely is. Blacks and Whites are treated differently by the cops. So when something like this happens, there is a racial aspect to it. Do Whites get killed unfairly by cops? Yes. Are there egregious incidents like this happening to Whites on damn near a monthly basis like with Blacks? Hell No. So it is incorrect to try and take the racial aspect out of this mess.
That said, racism in this country was a tool created to promote class warfare. Tim Wise spoke on it and it's been discussed on this site before. When this country was first being colonized, Blacks did not come here as slaves. We came here as indentured servants the same way poor white people did. There really wasn't a divide between the two groups at that point. They worked together and had a sort of unity because of that. So much so that when rich Whites imposed unfair policies, poor Whites and Blacks bonded together to fight them. Rich Whites couldn't have that, so they pit the poor Whites against the Blacks in a divide and conquer style tactic. The same thing still goes on today. This is where Kareem is right. Situations like what happen in Ferguson are most definitely racial issues, but those racial issues are still used to divide the poor and allow the rich to stay rich. Poor whites that are about fairness and justice should be able to see that these things are wrong even if they are happening to Blacks and not them. But they can't because the talking heads and the politicians and the news media all lead them to believe that Blacks are the enemy, and this ? happens to us because we deserve it. So they don't join us in our struggle even though to some degree that struggle is the same as theirs and they also have to suffer through some of it. After all cops might not give two ? about killing a Black kid, but they don't give 2 and a half ? about killing a poor White kid. That gap ain't as far as White people want to tell themselves it is.
It doesn't matter. Poor White people are the dumbest people in this country. They are easily misled and are constantly voting and working against their own interests all because some other White guy who is rich and has no idea what life is like for them tells them to do so. -
You get your ass beat by a Chinese dude, you learn some things.
Sorry, there's more than one race.
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