BLM (Black Lives Matter), for the uninitiated, was a movement created to protest the number of blacks being killed at the hands of white police officers in the U.S. There. That was a factual, objective statement. Everyone agree?


So what is wrong with it? Is it offensive because it doesn't include whites? Ok then I'll counteract by saying that it's not BLMBWLD (Black Lives Matter but White Lives Don't). You see..... THAT would've been wrong and objectionable. BLM is not seeking to exclude other lives from mattering. It's only asserting that black lives matter also. Thinking of which, maybe a better name would've been BLMA. I don't know, I don't spend a lot of time on that shit. Also, I realize this movement is already a couple of years old and thus my thread is a little outdated. But maybe not. Black protests still occur.... we still have kneeling NFL players protesting this same issue, etc.

On the root cause itself, and I'll make this clear. Yes... some of the blacks shot by white officers in the last few years have pretty much asked to be shot. Suspicious behavior, compounded by failure to follow direct police orders.... yeah.... those are all a recipe for disaster. But those haven't been the only cases. There have been other cases as well. Well-documented, and even videotaped cases where blacks have been shot with no solid reason whatsoever. Victims of inept, angry, apparently very racist white cops. If anyone cares to dispute that, I guess I'll go and dredge up the cases themselves. I'd rather not have to do that. I think we've all seen the video of the unarmed black guy who got shot 8 times in the back while jogging away from a white cop.

Yes, in some of those cases, justice has been served. But why do they keep occurring? That, I think, is at the core of these protests. Why are there very few token efforts being made to get to the bottom, or root cause, of this increasing problem? Is there something wrong with protesting this in a passive way? I always said privately that if I had been born black in the States and been around in the 50's and 60's, that I'd probably be dead by now. I meant it. I have zero tolerance for racism, because as I've said thousands of times before, I was raised in a non-racist environment in a society which is largely non-racist. Racist people like Denilson would and HAS disputed that, but then Denilson is very ignorant about a lot of things, so his opinion means squat to me.

So since I like to sum things up with lists, I'll do the same here with some of my thoughts:


1. Racism DOES exist. It's a form of ignorance. Those who claim otherwise are probably racist themselves.

2. There ARE blacks who take advantage of racism and its history and play it up to the hilt. All this does is hurt the cause of good black people, and add fuel to the fire of people who don't like their protests.

3. There IS such a thing as black backlash, which unfortunately wraps up non-racist whites in the same package as racist whites, and end up all getting lumped together in the same ball of shit.

4. Laws will never eliminate racism, as racism exists in people's minds. If I'm hiring between two candidates and I choose the white guy over the black guy because I'm a racist..... there's nothing to stop me.

5. In # 4 above, if the white guy is a better candidate than the black guy.... and I hire him for that reason, I don't want black in my face saying I hired the white guy 'cause I'm racist.

6. Many blacks will agree I made the right choice, if they know ME, and they trust my judgment.



I know some will not agree with me, but I believe in SOME hate crime legislation.

Joe shoots Jack, not killing him but severely wounding him. Joe shot Jack because he felt Jack had insulted him in front of his girlfriend.

Joe gets convicted of attempted murder, and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Jeff shoots Mike, not killing him but severely wounding him. Jeff shot Mike because Mike is black, and Jeff is a white supremacist who hates blacks. Jeff and Mike didn't know each other. BTW, Jeff admits to the motive.

Jeff gets convicted of attempted murder.

So far so good, right?

Ok, here's where I differ. Jeff should get more than 5 years. The crime was the same, but the motive was completely different. Jeff's crime was a hate crime.



So there you have it. In one spiel, I've summarized my views on race once again.