We Hit Peak 2019

[CJD]

(12-12-2019, 10:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I fully acknowledge that there is a historical context of white people being racist, but what I am saying is that black people need to be careful about using the history of racism as a crutch or a made up reason to be offended.

I worked in a State office in Nashville for a while where 75% of the employees were African American.  While working there I got a ticket for rolling through a red light while making a left hand turn.  I was mad at myself for doing something stupid.  Just a couple of weeks later the same thing happened to a co-worker.  It was a down town intersection where it was very difficult to make a left hand turn so I believe that police were monitoring it.  But my co-worker was not mad at himself for doing something stupid because he blamed the ticket on a racist police officer instead of his own stupid actions.

If you blame everything on racism then you never correct your own faults.

If you get offended when a white person compliments a black person then you just create more resentment between the races.

There are plenty of racists institutions and actions to be legitimately angry about.  No need to make EVERYTHING about racism.  That just makes things worse instead of better.

There's a historical context for this terminology specifically. We're not speaking about racism in general at the moment.

I understand your point about the red light though. But I don't blame a black person for thinking cops are overly ambitious about pulling them over for petty things since that, also, has historical context (and present day context, if you know my meaning).

Again, I am not saying minorities don't occasionally call racism when it isn't the case. Such is the burden of having to live their life under constant scrutiny that white people don't experience (in short: white privilege). It may make them a bit more sensitive to possible racism. But it doesn't mean that cases in which he suspects racism aren't usually/mostly/often justified. 

From your perspective, it wasn't racism because it happened to you first. That's okay. However, there's no guaranteeing his circumstance was identical or as bad as yours. Maybe you blatantly hit the red light whereas he hit the yellow light. Maybe the cop called him "boy" or was otherwise disrespectful to him, triggering his suspicion. 

I can definitely see that, from your perspective, that guy was wrongfully claiming racism because of your own ticket but, unless you have more details, I don't even think your "gotcha" example is all that convincing to not be racism. It is all contextual.