One Man Banned

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Sun Tzu is good, classic even, but so is Confucius, had a lot of interesting things to say about leadership and governing that still applies today. On the topic of racism, 1st I'm surprised that 12oz is able to intelligently tackle this issue as past discussion led to replies of wonksaggin and thread closures. I find it important to note that there is bias everywhere and in pretty much everyone. Sometimes it is obvious, but at other times it has been planted there in an obvious manner but we are so used to it as to not give it proper attention. For example, when people think of propaganda I think the images that come to mind are old Nazi posters or ones from China or Russia depicting Communism, but there is a shit ton of propaganda put forth by mainstream American media that people readily gobble up as "news" without realizing they are being fed an angle that represents the political or other views of that media source. This influences sterotypes, discrimination, and racism. I don't think America became more racist with Obama, but I do think BLM members/supporters could note that having a black president has not appeared to reduce racism or help their cause. Obama running likely did attract more black voters, some of who may not have voted otherwise, but it's also true that a lot of white people and others had to vote for him too. The N word is an interesting topic that could carry its own thread, but briefly, it's use has become more outward, more prevalent over time, feel like a lot of that came through rap music and white culture embracing/imitating that. However it came to be, I believe that the word is too steeped in racism to simply decide that if we change the word from nigger to nigga that it is non-racist and now acceptable. This is not like gay culture reclaiming the word queer. Further, there are some who seem to feel that the word is acceptable for blacks to use but not whites. I can think of no other word in any language or culture where the use of that word is aceptable for one group of people but banned for another. Just helps maintain division. Final thought on the N word, sometime during his run or after being elected I think it was Jesse Jackson who was overheard referring to Obama as a nigger. When a white person (of stature) gets caught using the N word I tend to see them meeting with someone like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson to make amends, so who does JJ go to for having done the same? But back to cops and robbers... lots of complicating factors in here, racism is only part of it. I remember learning in a sociology class the concept of the symbolic offender. Take a cop working a gang neighborhood in the 80s, when repping colors was full out in your face. As the cops have increased interactions for criminal mattes with people wearing red bandanas, for example, the more they come to identify people with red bandanas as being criminals. Of course, this will also screw any non-gang affiliated individual who is out wearing a red bandana as they are automatically seen as suspect. That's not racism, it's the cops learning to associate certain features with criminal activity. Going after the people with red bandanas makes sense from the cop's perspective, but it does open innocent people to unwanted attention, harrassment, etc. Again, not defending cops, just understanding the complexity of the issue. Also not denying that there are some cops who are flat out racist assholes, but then there are plenty of people who are not cops who fit that category well. In the end cops should be better trained at what they do- they're not. Your general beat cop is kind of jack of all trades, responding to accidents, missing persons, traffic violations, disputes, and straight out criminal activity. They really don't get to master any particular subject and I suspect that the majority of them are not properly trained to use even one of the tools available to them to resolve an issue, including their own mouth. I lived in NYC for a number of years and found it quite lame at how the police are able to resist oversight of any degree while at the same time having the power to stop and frisk anyone of their choosing without real cause. Something like the Garner incident- the cop used a hold that is not allowed and did so in a situation that was not life or death- people should be held responsible for that and people should have consequences for that. Going back to the origin of this thread, as a gun owner I think what would I do if I had my weapon on me and saw someone else pointing a weapon at me? Chances are I'm going to draw my weapon and defend myself as necessary. Final thought, is a BB gun a toy, or a weapon? Both? In their anger I think some are trying to make it out like poor kids, they were out playing with their toys and got shot by cops who should have recognized it was a kid with a toy. Hmm- looks like Hua posted while I was typing this, so none of this is in response to his last post.

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GET OUT THERE & BENCH THAT SHIT!

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