RE: 4 Arrested In FB Video Torturing Of A Mentally Challenged Man
January 9, 2017 at 10:12 pm
(This post was last modified: January 9, 2017 at 10:19 pm by Shell B.)
(January 9, 2017 at 9:37 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Yeah I don't see the need to have the term reverse racism. Racism is racism.
I use it (and reverse sexism) in very rare cases when I'm dealing with someone who doesn't seem to understand that anyone can be a racist. They think racism can only go one way, which is why you say "reverse." That said, I think it's completely idiotic to have to use it. There are certainly races that are more prone to racism for whatever reason (usually deeply entrenched cultural issues that can be fixed), but that doesn't negate the fact that any damn person can do something racist. Even if my mother and her mother and her mother before her were abused by orange people, it's still racist for me to be a complete asshole to some random, innocent orange person. That's not to say there isn't a possible reason for my sentiment. Fuck, I could go on like this forever. Racism is racism. Period. It's all fucking stupid. Full stop.
(January 9, 2017 at 10:11 pm)Huggy74 Wrote:(January 9, 2017 at 9:35 pm)Shell B Wrote: Therefore . . . while systematic racism is very bad, the abuse in this video is without a doubt racism and without a doubt very bad. Also, far worse than name calling.
Ahh, but the people in that video are going to get the book thrown at them regardless, hate crime or not. You have people serving life sentences for drug offenses for goodness sake.
Removing all skin color from the equation for the sake of argument, I think they deserve to have the book thrown at them. If that was a black boy and white kids, I'd feel the same way. I abhor the racism behind the attack, but, to be honest, it's the attack itself that makes me feel this way. It's one thing to have some bizarre racist sentiment in the back of your mind. It's an entirely other thing to kidnap and abuse a person, no matter what your reason. These kids deserve what they get, assuming it is within the law.
On to people serving life sentences for drug offenses. That's fucking ludicrous, and I am well aware that it is disproportionately a black problem, for whatever reason (probably inherent racism, which is bullshit). With the possible exception of peddling very deadly drugs, I don't think jail sentences are necessary at all for drug offenses. You're selling pounds of marijuana? I don't give a fuck, unless you're breaking some other law at the same time. Selling heroin? You should get some time. The only time a life sentence should be involved is if you knowingly cook some drug in a deadly cocktail (i.e. cook meth with rat poison or something). That shit's murder.
To sum up my long-winded response. We have to do something about racism inherent in the system. (Monty Python rip off there, a bit). We also have to do something about isolated violent crimes, whether they involve race or not. I agree this isn't a "bigger picture" problem, but it's going to become one if we don't all address racism of every kind, in every instance. It has no place in our civilization. It needs to be eradicated.
