Quote:
Originally Posted by icecube
Try to imagine what it's like being black. Try to imagine what it's like being indigenous. Actually deeply think about it. Read up on the black and indigenous perspectives on race and class. Do you imagine it might be... exhausting?
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There is a lot of systematic and casual racism and bigotry in most western nations including Canada and certainly the USA. Wherever racism is exposed, particularly of the systematic variety or by someone in a position of power (eg. Steve King) it should be loudly condemned.
But...
Magnifying what is likely ignorant behavior by a mob of kids as being blatantly racist and treating it as vigorously as Charlottesville, Trump, Steve King, David Duke, etc. not only does not help the cause to fight racism, it actively hurts it. People that do this are akin to the Boy-Who-Cried-Wolf and their claims are taken less and less seriously each time even when the subsequent claims are serious.
When I was 16 I didn't understand jack-all about most things in the world, including racism, even though I'm considered a minority. Are these kids the poster boys of White Privilege? Probably. Was there malicious intent? Hard to say. If anything, it looked to me like they got caught up in the group-think/mob-mentality and were doing stupid 16 year old trolly crap rather than racist crap.
This incident featured three groups:
1- A large group of teenagers- were likely sent to an anti-abortion rally by their school/parents. These kids put on MAGA hats, some for good old-fashioned negative attention, others because they are "True Believers" and others to go along with the group. They ended up behaving like a mob of hormonal boys do: like idiots.
2- The Black Israelis- A small, fringe, extremist hate group that was present to stir up crap and get some attention.
3- The indigenous group- Not sure why they were present to begin with. The only reason they got involved, they claim, was to settle down the first two groups. Why that Elder wandered into the center of the mob and went face-to-face with that kid is beyond me. He said he was trying to make things better but instead made it worse. We've seen things like this end in violence so it's fortunate that everyone remained relatively calm.
So, let's not make this out to be something it's not or blow it out of proportion. It only hurts the fight against racism and bigotry.