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Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda
There was nothing racist about this particular incident though. I'm all for reforming police forces to be less racist, god knows they need it, but it serves no purpose to throw that term around anytime someone of color gets shot regardless of circumstance
This applies to the media as well, who seem to only want to fan the Flames. The headline should read "Man with weapon shot by police", not "Black man shot by cops"
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I agree with your second point.
To your first though, you’re not really looking at the entire picture, and I think that’s what Walcott is referring to. When Walcott says we need to transform our systems, do you think he’s talking about transforming the act of shooting someone charging with a knife? Of course not. He’s talking about mental health, crisis response, everything. Race plays a factor just on the basis that people of colour are more likely to end up in these situations and more likely to meet these ends.
Anti-racist isn’t just “not being racist.” He’s not accusing the police of that. It goes well beyond it. Just as it would be unfair and possibly wrong to call the cops racist, it would be unfair and possibly wrong to say the man’s race had nothing to do with this.