Commentary on the Article

My last post indicated that I had made an attempt to bring understanding to a community mired in various forms of hatred. I'm posting that comment here for the consideration of the reader; I feel it should have its own place apart from my previous post, because the ideas, while similar, are best thoroughly considered one after the other.

Note, this comment is no longer on the original messageboard, here:

http://news.yahoo.com/officers-shoot-kill-man-knife-st-louis-suburb-153024453.html?bcmt=1429386425672-a7749708-5d0a-4136-8349-3cae7ce5238b_00002g000000000000000000000000-be6d34c3-3d2d-4190-9a61-6020e1bd9c94&bcmt_s=u#mediacommentsugc_container

while numerous other comments advocating hatred remain.

On the subject of this latest St. Louis Police shooting and similar events:

"It's really a shame that there's so much racism in the comments, which reflects the racism of the country as a whole. No, I'm not talking about this shooting. This shooting was justified- armed suspect, rushing police, use of non-lethal rounds. Fine, do what must be done.

But this incident is also in the minority. There are a lot of other shootings that are

questionable. Situations where, in all likelihood, neither police nor suspect are completely innocent or guilty.

What I'm talking about when I say racism is the confirmation bias and selective news consumption that so many people exhibit, and the assumptions they make about the black community at large without even considering the forces at play behind the scenes. If one takes everything at face value and don't question anything that they see, then of course the black community looks horrific. If one looks at statistics regarding such things, without looking at what goes into such statistics, then again, of course it looks bad- but people are looking at symptoms, not causes.

It's been proven by studies that minorities get more time for the same crimes, get tailed or challenged as suspects of crimes more often, and are perceived to be more aggressive/more of a threat(even children) in given circumstances.

It's been proven that people are less likely to trust or value minorities for things like housing and employment, even assuming all factors are equal in terms of qualifications and financial status.

It's been proven that people are more likely to assume minorities have stolen/intend to steal expensive items, because others find it hard to believe that a person of color could be successful.

And yet people constantly complain that blacks can't or won't make something of themselves, and assume that they have the same opportunities as everyone else, while mistrusting them all and lumping them all in negative categories.

Fact: One can't better their situation(through legal means), regardless of qualifications, if no one will hire them.

If a person doesn’t have a job, then they have no means to support themselves and any dependents.  Faced with starvation/eviction, suddenly illegal activity seems a whole lot more appealing. It doesn't make it right, but the fewer options a person has, the more desperate they tend to get.

Black on black violence? Everyone likes to claim that all black neighborhoods are proof of their inability to be productive members of society- and that the fact that other races flee from these areas is proof of the black population’s inability to cohabitate well.

For starters, black people don’t own these neighborhoods- they just, because of those limited opportunities, happen to live there, because that is all they can afford.

The violence comes in when you overcrowd a small area and limit the resources available. It’s not about hate of one’s kind, it’s about personal/kin survival. Just like if a mugger pulls a knife on his target, and it’s their life or his, there’s only enough food/supplies for one family,  so it’s one family or the other. It’s not a quality inherent in black people; if the same happened to any race, or even a mixed race situation, the results would be the same after a few generations. 

People don’t realize that this is encouraged by those in power. The Black community is encouraged to fight amongst themselves. The rest of America is encouraged to fight with blacks. People claim Blacks are worthless because they can do nothing great on their own, but don’t consider the fact that the accomplishments and successes of black people are kept under wraps, downplayed, or erased from taught history. Just like the encouraging of the destruction of the black community via drugs, negative messages from the media, etc. But people refuse to even acknowledge that such is a possibility- that maybe just maybe they are being played or misled. Yet they are so quick to acknowledge the media lies to people, or that political parties have thinly veiled agendas. Again, it’s confirmation bias. If you are so sure that your opponents are being misled, then acknowledge the possibility that you’re not getting the full, honest picture either... because you’re not."