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Racism in Buddhist America
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I think that the sort of "duh, I don't get it" attitude that the spin-sters at Fox News exhibit is racist, because they assert a superiority-complex in their approach to even the existence of "real" racism (which position I find preposterous.).
The second dictionary definition of racism is: "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on a belief that one's own race is superior [in some aspect or in several or all aspects]." Obvious to me is that those who callously accuse hurting people of "just flashing the race card" do in fact feel superior to all of this.
I believe that it all boils down to mentality, and that, outside the realm of mathematics, "Duh" is always a prejudiced response.
@vinlyn, I must say I'm kinda lost in what you have written about the English communication skills of some Thai people. Did they MEAN to ask the ways and hows you went through to becoming Buddhist, not being an Asian?
I know that in the Vedanta circles I move people always want to know the History of my Journey.
Is it/Was it like that?
Interesting. I do have to separate the overall "cop problem" from the 2 cops I personally know, who are the salt of the earth.
I think one of the straws that broke the camel's back for me in regard to police in general was when in Rochester, NY (I think it was) a couple of years ago they arrested a woman who was standing on her own home's doorstep and photographed a police action out in the street...and they arrested her. Shades of "secret police".
OK - I'm coming to this late as it seemed to be restricted to the US. Usually the rule is that the UK is 10 years behind the States but perhaps this is not so in this context?
From my very early school days, I was educated with people of all different skin colours. I don't notice it now - just as I don't notice people's accents (sometimes a problem as they think I am poking fun when I don't realise they are from a particular part of the UK). The only thing that took me by surprise working in Africa was that those I was working with and the other side in the relevant negotiations sat in tribes rather than sides as is usual in the UK and I didn't have a tribe round those tables!
What is an issue for me is people making racist jokes. I always speak out against these - except with my Dad who I eventually realised was making racist comments only to provoke me and stopped doing it when I stopped reacting. Racist jokes seem to me to give others permission to be racist. No, it's not OK. We are all human. I am unique. I am precious. And so is everyone else.
I tend to graduate towards people who are interested in ideas, those who listen to Radio 4 (although my husband puts his Sun on his van dashboard next to my FT. Always makes me smile). Perhaps I am an intellectual snob. But I don't really enjoy discussing nail varnish or malicious gossip. Does that make me discriminatory?
As for guns:
As a life-long pacifist (war seems a shameful waste to me, win/loose never results in good things long term), I determined that my son should have no exposure to guns. By eighteen months at the oldest, he was picking up sticks on the health and going "bang bang" with them. It was not a realistic goal.
So, since his father knew nothing about guns, I took him to my family in the country where shooting is taken seriously. I made sure he knew that they are not toys. He is an excellent shot - target, clays and pheasants - and joined the army cadets as soon as he could. I had to release him from a promise not to join the army as it is clear that that is what he wants to do. Yes, it saddens me, but he has excellent leadership skills and is good at de-fusing difficult situations. I can hope that he will wear a blue cap more often than not.
He still plays "shoot everything in sight" games as well as Assassins Creed type games. But he knows the difference between games and reality.
I feel I did right providing training in gun handling to a 2 year old. I would not have needed to do this had he not had such an interest (no need with my daughter) but in the circumstances, I now have an 18 year old son I am very proud of.
What's with this attached to guns?
Where are the thousands of protestors when dozens of teenagers are gunned down in Chicago? But no, you see it only matters when it has the potential to be racially divisive and thus draw in the rogue's gallery of agitators.
I saw that picture yesterday and my monkey mind announced "I wonder if Black folks see this picture and feel something different?" I felt very heartened by it, but struck with the symbolism. Big strong uniformed official white man being clung to by sobbing, frightened black boy.
Story says it was the "big, strong ... white man" who asked for the hug:
No "frightened black boy" at all!
^^^ Understood.
Images, symbolic or otherwise resonate differently. There are very divisive issues everywhere, externally and internally. In an imperfect world we have to be aware of the point you make and also use hope, however flawed.
I notice for example the 'trigger happy' (putting it politly) cop has resigned. No doubt with a pension and no intention to understand why people are outraged by him 'doing his job'.
In London I was upset seeing police around Westminster (Houses of Parliament area for the information of colonial tax avoiders
) and beyond with automatic weapons a while back. Recently going past the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) tourists from all over the world were joshing with the presently (openly) unarmed police and having their pics taken. Much healthier IMHO.
I saw the pic without any text to it. That puts it in a sweet light
I'm sensitive to the anger from the 'oppressed' (from whatever), not to mention sneaky propaganda slipped in like a bone tossed to a dog. I'm glad this picture has a true face value. Funny, that monkey mind of mine . . .
I've heard that over and over. Politicians like to use that excuse because it seems to prove something while being meaningless. See, most people are killed by members of their own race, including whites by the way, because most people are killed by people they know including their own family. But the way it's presented, it's also meant to paint a picture of a thug culture where black gangs are running wild shooting each other. It's a very misleading statement on the par of "Why don't you just go back to Africa, then?"
People are not protesting a "black man being killed by a white man". They're protesting an unarmed black man being killed by a cop who is immune from any blame or consequences. Do you see the important difference? They are protesting that black men are singled out and more likely to get shot or beat up by cops, especially white cops. Young black men get hassled in circumstances where a white guy doesn't have to worry about it. Just recently, here in Michigan, a young black man was stopped and questioned while walking down the sidewalk. The cop's excuse? There had been robberies in the area and the black man was walking with his hands in his pockets. And the cop claimed someone had called the police to report his suspicious "hands in pockets" behavior. In Michigan. In winter. Hands in pockets. Tell me if that didn't happen to you, over and over, you wouldn't have a ball of anger inside.
Black men who kill other black men get arrested and put in prison, and white men who kill other white men also get arrested. So what the heck is someone supposed to protest there? We have to begin by at least understanding that the black population here has a real reason to be upset.
@Cinorjer -- stated so well. Thank you!
Handling guns makes people feel powerful.
In the Ferguson case, there was a lot of reasonable doubt about whether the officer was guilty of murder. Unless you think the officer beat himself in the face and neck, he had just been assaulted by a man who had committed a felony robbery.
The fact that someone is unarmed does not mean anything in a court of law if they are physically assaulting someone.
@SpinyNorman
I could relay thousands of examples of innocent and otherwise defenseless black and minority citizens whose lives have been saved because they had a gun when under threat from a criminal.
Yes -- putting their faith into something that can potentially help them with a serious problem that they have - in such cases - putting their hopes into something that makes them feel stronger and more decisive.
Oh - I sometimes change my mind and don't want to post, but when I try to get rid of it, it keeps coming back! Argh. It's funny - but frustrating - so I'm posting this tidbit anyway.
@Frozen_Paratrooper I do understand that this Ferguson shooting doesn't appear as cut and dry to those of us looking in from the outside as a lot of the protesters make it out to be. I know the prisons are filled with young adults that their parents claim are nice kids. The problem I see is the obvious manipulation of the process by the authorities with complete contempt for the family and community that has been shown. The closer I looked at it, the more convinced I am that, legal actions or not by the cop, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. And every time someone like the cop opens his mouth, it reinforces the crappy treatment. Now the Lt Governor says he would have arrested the stepfather for inciting a riot. No allowance made for the man being a grieving, angry father at all. This is the utter indifference to the black community and blindness by the authorities to their own reactions that stokes the fires. It's like they want the black communities to riot, or at least they're daring them to.
And as an outsider, I am especially troubled by the attitude of the community that they can demand a particular verdict out of any jury or court. People who have been on the receiving end of lynchings, legal and otherwise, should know better. Doesn't mean you shouldn't point out the lack of justice or lack of a fair hearing and demonstrate for change.
If the community hadn't lost faith and respect for the cops long before this, then we wouldn't have this huge reaction I guess. One thing's for sure. We are going to have more to come.
No one deserves to die for stealing a few cigars. Jail, yes. I saw the closeup pics of his face, front and side view, I saw very minor redness...very minor.
In a court of law it may not matter if a physical assault is taking place, but it seems odd to me that a police officer with a bullet proof vest, a hand gun, mace, billy club, and probably a taser, could not subdue an unarmed man.
And then there was the 8 year Black girl who was recently tasered because she had a knife. Really, an adult cop can't reasonably subdue an 8 year old without resorting to a tool that can cause death?
...Now the Lt Governor says he would have arrested the stepfather for inciting a riot. No allowance made for the man being a grieving, angry father at all. ...
While I am almost entirely on the side of the family for the overall situation, I watched the video of the stepfather several times...he was guilty (IMHO) of inciting riot.
But that is a charge that is almost never leveled, not unless the police want to find a reason to lock up a ringleader or two. It's not like he stood on a stage and gave a passionate speech urging everyone to riot. And, just think about the reaction of the community if they'd grabbed this guy and slapped cuffs on him.
There comes a time when the heavy hand of authority has to be pulled back and egos have to be told to sit down for a bit while the adults try to make peace.
@Cinorjer, did you actually see the video of the stepfather screaming and urging the crowd again and again to "burn this place down"?
@Vinlyn, do you have a link to this video? I haven't seen it yet. Has anyone ever been arrested and found guilty of inciting a riot by shouting whateveritis they shout?
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/25/us/michael-brown-stepfather-video/
He actually shouted "Let's burn this bitch down" several times.
Yes, the man jumped up on a car and screamed for a few minutes. This is part of the drama playing out, where everyone focuses on the riot instead of trying to fix the problem. I'm not saying what the man did was right. Certainly not smart. But the DA having no problem arresting and trying this man, after refusing to even charge the officer? Like I said, they seem to be going out of their way to provoke an all out race war.
http://fox13now.com/2014/11/25/michael-browns-stepfather-caught-on-camera-in-ferguson-burn-this-b-down/
As requested, @Hamsaka.
BTW, I think the mother and father have been rather responsible. This is the stepfather.
He 'lost it' after holding the uncontrollably sobbing mother of Brown. Pretty hard not to be overwhelmed with grief and rage, I think
. How much 'responsibility' should he carry for the riot? The 'crowd' has been primed for decades, this is some seriously old deep rage. What I mean by 'held responsible' is specifically, 'held as cause'. He clearly said the words, but what drove those words out of his mouth? It was far beyond him as an individual in extremis, but still he said them and lit the fuse. But should a person be punished for that, all things considered? What would be skillful about that? I honestly don't know, these are questions that popped into my head.
It has to start SOMEWHERE, the responsibility, but exactly where is not so obvious to me.
Should someone be held responsible for inciting a lynching? Words have consequences. What prevented someone from not being killed during the burning of the many buildings in Ferguson. Nothing but dumb luck.
What about the small businessman who may have lost his entire livelihood because his business was burned to the ground and he doesn't have the insurance coverage to build again and reopen?
Either people are responsible for their words and actions, or they are not. And, from a principled perspective, the crowd was rioting over a cop not being held responsible. You can't have it both ways.
Being overwhelmed with grief is no excuse to start a riot. He whipped the crowd into a frenzy - he's responsible. It's pretty straightforward. Now if you want to defend that, that's your call and we're all entitled to our views regardless. But it IS obvious in this case IMNSHO.
It's 'uncomfortable' that he did what he did there, but when a specific group of people are singled out and made to suffer intense, continuous crimes and the deck stacked continuously against them in all kinds of ways, well maybe this is what karma is really all about (but that's another subject).
No one should expect there not to be a tipping point here. But the most diabolical thing about all this is that who, among rational and reasonable adults doesn't think it wasn't planned over the long haul, to then point the finger at those reacting to these ongoing torments and torture.
The tipping point was not the question, responsibility was and that was what I was responding to.
Yes, I know.
Buddha knew that this kind of thing was preventable, though. It's not going to be preventable if only one side is expected to be responsible for the whole enchilada. That's my point.
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That angle is part of the problem too @Betaboy. How do you get away with calling people here closet racists (for the fifty ninth time)?
Wow, he said it 59 times? I don't agree with that at all, but the rest of what he said ... well, I understand the sentiment.
It's getting to be routine. As for his sentiment I can understand it too, after I discard the hostility and intent behind his post, a lot of people think along those lines. They are just as obnoxious as their opposition, neither of which get the point thanks to all the ego's battling it out. There's no dialogue, just one side calling the other racists or idiots, it barely matters.
I think we're done here.