Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee
BoLevi I'm honestly not sure what your point is here or what you're really getting at.
You think people are jumping to conclusions prior to having all the evidence, but there are videos. You maintain not all the facts are rolled out, but in other cases they have been or near enough to certainly form educated opinions.
Over all the bodies of evidence and facts and whatnot you keep talking about, what is your opinion? Do you think police brutality is a problem in the US? Do you think the system is racist? Do you think policing is racist?
Sometimes generalizations can be fairly made.
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I think racism exists, and I think it exists to a far larger degree than any of us should feel comfortable about. Do I think there are racist cops? Absolutely, and more than we should accept.
The data is pretty clear that blacks are over-represented in police shootings, police deaths and other key statistics. Do I believe racism in law enforcement is the best explanation for this data? No, I don't - at least not in the current time. We can all go look at the various statistics and see what the outcomes are, but digging deeper reveals a much more complicated situation. Going over the data is pretty long and we can do it, but I don't want a total wall of text. But it certainly fits the data that individuals' behaviours are the cause the crime statistics for the most part. I will say that just looking at outcomes that are disproportionate (effect) and saying it is law enforcement racism (cause), is doing a disservice to the plight of black communities. I would extend that to the concept of systemic racism as well. I think the causes are much more complicated than what people think when they think systemic racism which implies an oppressor and a victim. I'm in the Glenn Loury camp which takes the position that historical patterns are more prevalent as a cause than systemic racism. Coleman Hughes also writes compellingly with similar ideas:
https://quillette.com/2018/05/14/the-racism-treadmill/
I note that the term "systemic racism" became prevalent as a replacement for "institutional racism". It's a useful exchange as people were having a hard time identifying any racist institutions, but systemic racism is a term that is, deliberately, simultaneously unverifiable and unfalsifiable.
Race obviously plays a role in the outcomes we are describing, however, it is obviously not a genetic component (we're identical genetically). As a society, the US is failing its black communities. But an acknowledgement of that failure does not require an oppressor/victim dynamic that is the definition of systemic racism. The cause is a much more complex melange of socio-economic factors: behaviour, patterns, cultural expectations, public policy, education policy, even small business regulatory policy - to name a few examples.
While situations like Floyd and Blake are tragic, we also have to be aware that looking at individual situations can be a canard. We simply can't extrapolate anything based on a small sample size.