Racism in America - Champaign Newsgazette

HawkGold

Well-Known Member
An article worth the read. Why is it important to Iowa football and maybe basketball. How Iowa does on the field this year as well as off the field will possibly impact the football program for years. We've seen a dip in recruiting. The coaches need no more missteps for sure, but an understanding needs to be built. https://www.news-gazette.com/opinio...gn=blox&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

I'll post a few highlights. He does post the obvious history back before the civil rights movement so I won't bother with those, you can read them. The writer is a retired USDA worker and involved in the Mennonite Church. It is of particular interest to me having grown in a Mennonite town in Iowa that at one time drove out a black teacher in my lifetime.

— Between 1986 and 2010, when Congress mandated a minimum five-year sentence for distribution of five grams of crack cocaine, a cheaper form of the drug mostly used by Black Americans, and the same five-year prison sentence for distribution of 500 grams of powder cocaine, a more expensive drug used mostly by White Americans but with the same effect as crack cocaine?

— In the 1990s, when according to Harvard Professor David R. Williams, Americans had been exposed to sufficient negative messages about Black Americans that 80 percent of White Americans hold unconscious bias against Black Americans?

— In 2006, when Blacks comprised 15 percent of American illicit drug users, 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, 59 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of those sentenced to prison?

- In 2018, when data from 800 cities and counties showed Black people were arrested at a rate five times higher than White people?

— In 2019, when Black defendants were 22 times more likely to receive the death penalty for crimes whose victims are White, rather than Black, a bias the Supreme Court declared “inevitable”?

— In 2020, when the police report on the arrest of George Floyd read: “He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later”?

Without a video, this would have become one of the 99.3 percent of police killings that do not result in charges.

— In 2020, when Black women were three times more likely to have a maternal death than White women, and 66 percent of these deaths were considered to be preventable?

— Are we a racist society in 2021, when Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told senators that the greatest domestic threat facing the United States comes from “those who advocate for the superiority of the White race”?

If you identify as a White person, it is likely that you will not think of yourself as racist, but the reality is that to grow up in the U.S. is to grow up with racist attitudes.

That doesn’t mean we are all inclined to join the KKK. It doesn’t mean that we have a moral failing.

It does mean that we have absorbed all of the negative stories about Black people, and they are firmly implanted in our psyche.

To not be racist takes intentional action, individually and collectively, to repudiate these pervasive distortions that have caused so much damage and suffering.

It is the result of deliberate policy that the median family wealth for White people is $171,000, compared with just $17,600 for Black people. For most of the history of our country, Black people were punished for any attempt to make their lives better, and then we wonder why their lives are not better.

We will continue to be a racist society as long as those of us who have profited enormously from generations of accumulated wealth, which was methodically denied to Black people, do not recognize the injustices of those structures and actively work to change them.

‘We must take the appropriate actions to correct the inherent bias’Systemic racism will end only with our intentional effort to see society for what it is and what it has done and is doing to Black people.

It is ironic that at this moment when it is critical that we learn the history of how Black people have been treated in our country, multiple state legislatures are passing laws that will make it illegal to teach that history.

Teaching this history is objectionable only for those who see the truth as a threat to the myth of White supremacy. Rejecting this history forces Black people to survive in an invented world that denies the reality that they live every day.

We can begin to remove systemic racism only when we begin to learn our history, not as we would like it to be, but as it is. With this knowledge, we must take the appropriate actions to correct the inherent bias in our current institutions that were established in a society that was defined by racism.

It will not be easy. It will not happen automatically. It will require structural change, but it is necessary if we are to be the country that we proclaim to be.
 
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"In 1787, when we adopted a constitution that allowed Black people to be owned and counted as just three-fifths of a person?"

Are these people obtuse? The bid/ask on this was that the evil Southern states demanded that blacks be treated as full people. The virtuous and enlightened Northern states demanded that blacks be treated as 0 people. Had the South prevailed on this issue (which I have seen the modern leftist advocate for hundreds of times) the South would have had complete political control of the United States and would have precluded the expansion of states with political desires contrary to theirs.
 
When someone says that trying to be successful in life is "white culture", then whoever calls that statement out as racist gets called racist themselves, black people don't stand a chance at catching up. I'm guessing that's probably what those people want all along.
 
When someone says that trying to be successful in life is "white culture", then whoever calls that statement out as racist gets called racist themselves, black people don't stand a chance at catching up. I'm guessing that's probably what those people want all along.
Is it OK for blacks to have more harsh sentences in your opinion?
 
It all depends case by case. May not have been a first offense in any situation. But if it is a first offense in each situation then yes it should be the same punishment for any race.
 
It all depends case by case. May not have been a first offense in any situation. But if it is a first offense in each situation then yes it should be the same punishment for any race.
I agree. If everything is apples to apples, of course it's a no brainer they should be the same. I have no idea if it is or not. I have no doubt you can find stats out there that say they aren't the same. What I don't know is if those stats are skewed or totally made up. There is a lot of that on the internet. All that said, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they are worse for black people on average. A lot of old judges out there who are probably a bit racist.

Our country is probably the least racist country in the history of the world. We bring in people from all over the world to live here. How many other countries have ever done that? What sucks is racism was getting less and less bad with each generation. Now all this woke shit is setting us back to the 60s. Who's idea was it to tell black people that every single white person is racist? And how did they think it would improve race relations? I know if I was black, my opinion of white people would be way worse today than it was a few years ago.
 
Yup agree % with what you wrote above. We aren’t the first country or the last that has ever had slaves. Hell China basically treats the Uyghur’s as slaves now. No one calls them racists. Do we have a past history that we regret as a country?… Yes of course! We have come a long ways and there is always room for improvement but this is not an inherently racist country. All lives matter!
 
Yup agree % with what you wrote above. We aren’t the first country or the last that has ever had slaves. Hell China basically treats the Uyghur’s as slaves now. No one calls them racists. Do we have a past history that we regret as a country?… Yes of course! We have come a long ways and there is always room for improvement but this is not an inherently racist country. All lives matter!
We have been developing as a species since we lived in caves. Of course you can look at our past and find faults. "Ours" as in humans, not Americans.
 
I agree. If everything is apples to apples, of course it's a no brainer they should be the same. I have no idea if it is or not. I have no doubt you can find stats out there that say they aren't the same. What I don't know is if those stats are skewed or totally made up. There is a lot of that on the internet. All that said, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they are worse for black people on average. A lot of old judges out there who are probably a bit racist.

Our country is probably the least racist country in the history of the world. We bring in people from all over the world to live here. How many other countries have ever done that? What sucks is racism was getting less and less bad with each generation. Now all this woke shit is setting us back to the 60s. Who's idea was it to tell black people that every single white person is racist? And how did they think it would improve race relations? I know if I was black, my opinion of white people would be way worse today than it was a few years ago.
PC, maybe you could dive into this one.

Years ago in Missouri, 2 young guys were stopped by the state police. One was white and portrayed as a confused young man who was misguided and received a prison sentence. He was in the CSA militia group. He was armed with a mg and opened up on the state police officer, killing him. He asked for a change of venue away from southern MO and the trial was moved to NE MO. The other young man, about the same age was stopped and got into a wrestling match with the officer. The officers gun was discharged in the struggle and the officer died. A change of venue from S Mo was not granted and he got the death sentence. Neither had a history other than the white youth being in the CSA. Can't find anything on it without really looking. This was not the older man who was executed for another officer murder.
 
PC, maybe you could dive into this one.

Years ago in Missouri, 2 young guys were stopped by the state police. One was white and portrayed as a confused young man who was misguided and received a prison sentence. He was in the CSA militia group. He was armed with a mg and opened up on the state police officer, killing him. He asked for a change of venue away from southern MO and the trial was moved to NE MO. The other young man, about the same age was stopped and got into a wrestling match with the officer. The officers gun was discharged in the struggle and the officer died. A change of venue from S Mo was not granted and he got the death sentence. Neither had a history other than the white youth being in the CSA. Can't find anything on it without really looking. This was not the older man who was executed for another officer murder.
Stories like that are pretty messed up. It falls into the "old white judge" category. It's pretty dumb that a judge has the power to make such an important decision when they could be basing it on a gut feeling, personal belief, or what kind of day they're having. Not to mention they could be straight up racist or sexist.
 

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