I'm kinda the victim of an anti-white hate crime in my real neighbourhood

[Duty]

I'm half tempted to call the popo about it TBH Boru....yet, fuel on the fire = bad? It's a tough call...

Calling the peelers is a much better option than your first instinct. At least make them aware of the situation. Personally, my reaction would be to go next door and start breaking people, consequences be damned.

Don’t be me.

Boru

hmmmm, this is vexing me somewhat now....do as I say and not as I do is it Boru? Have a word - violence should be deployed in self defence only, no? Thy cake cannot be possessed and consumed.

[Rev. Rye]

I think Boru is encouraging you to listen to what Lincoln called “the Better Angels of [your] nature” and not follow the gut instinct that tells you to clobber them.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I’ve always reacted badly to public rudeness. Except for the time a woman cut the grocery line in front of me with her box of tampons, bottle of wine, and quart of Ben and Jerry’s. In the interest of self-preservation, I let that one pass.

Boru

Wise decision on your part.

Yeah, I'm smarter than I look.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

Sounds like they thought you were racist, not that they thought you were white. Anti-racist hate crime.

My crime? Being white. Their crime? Buying into the proliferated lie that racism is "everywhere" and predominantly manifested by white men against black men. And also being violent/uncivilised.

That part comes out of the blue - you don't know why they thought that, if they thought that, or what your "crime" was. You didn't ask or interact. Your mind immediately wanders to -

Analogies about the lack of evidence for racism in the killing of George Floyd seem...pertinent? BLACK LIVES MATTER - RARARA! Well guess what, the vast majority of people aren't racist and MY life matters too.

Happen to say things like that around any of your neighbors? Are you that guy?

I wouldn't have asked or interacted either, ofc. Not a huge fan of neighbors.

[Anomalocaris]

I’ve dealt with some kids like that in my job at the candy store (which I’m currently on a Cough That Won’t Fucking Die-related sabbatical from.) Admittedly, in my case, I explained exactly what the problem was in no uncertain terms, and some of my other coworkers were willing to “lay down the law” in ways I wasn’t, and I think the dynamics of the situation (both age-related and work-related) might have kept it from escalating.

The best solution would probably be to let the cops know what’s going on. Unless this feud gets to Straw Dogs levels, or they start actually trying to beat you up and there’s no other options, then and only then should you beat them up.

I’ve always reacted badly to public rudeness. Except for the time a woman cut the grocery line in front of me with her box of tampons, bottle of wine, and quart of Ben and Jerry’s. In the interest of self-preservation, I let that one pass.

Boru

the ben and jerry’s will punish her on your behalf.

---

Wise decision on your part.

Yeah, I'm smarter than I look.

Boru

how dumb do you think you look?  










I will mosey on out now. 😃

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I’ve always reacted badly to public rudeness. Except for the time a woman cut the grocery line in front of me with her box of tampons, bottle of wine, and quart of Ben and Jerry’s. In the interest of self-preservation, I let that one pass.

Boru

the ben and jerry’s will punish her on your behalf.

---

Yeah, I'm smarter than I look.

Boru

how dumb do you think you look?  










I will mosey on out now. 😃

When I tell my wife I’m smarter than I look, her usual response is something along the line of, ‘You’d have to be.’

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Calling the peelers is a much better option than your first instinct. At least make them aware of the situation. Personally, my reaction would be to go next door and start breaking people, consequences be damned.

Don’t be me.

Boru

hmmmm, this is vexing me somewhat now....do as I say and not as I do is it Boru? Have a word - violence should be deployed in self defence only, no? Thy cake cannot be possessed and consumed.

Yes, do as I say, not as I do, because I’ve been known to do some remarkably stupid things.

No, I don’t think the deployment of personal violence should be restricted to self defense. It can also be used in defense of others, the defense of an ideal, or - in extreme cases - to teach lunkheads how to behave (there are different rules for institutional violence).

But to do so is an intensely personal choice which should only be made with a full understanding of the risks and consequences involved. I would NEVER counsel someone to employ violence.

But Imma be me.

Boru

[vulcanlogician]

My crime? Being white. Their crime? Buying into the proliferated lie that racism is "everywhere" and predominantly manifested by white men against black men. And also being violent/uncivilised. 

I lived in some seriously bad neighborhoods in DC. So I empathize for someone living in a bad neighborhood fearing for their safety. But I think you are conflating a movement working towards freeing the oppressed with feeling unsafe in your neighborhood. They are two separate things.

You also might want to consider that minorities feel unsafe in bad neighborhoods too. The real problem is bad neighborhoods... not idealism or political movements.

I do know the sensation of being the only white guy on a "hard" street. You feel like you stick out. That's nothing new. It has nothing to do with BLM. Like I said, I've been there. It can be scary. And I have been harmed on occasion, and that heightened the fear in future situations.

But let's consider the possibility that the political ideals at work are completely separate from all that. There IS a sentiment from some arenas that it's somehow wrong to be white. I disagree with this sentiment on principle, but think about what's really going on there. White people are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a minority... like there is some kind of "wrongness" attached to their race... and they don't like it one bit.

I'm sure you consider yourself egalitarian, as most of us here do. But the issue with race is deep, man.

---

In their unrestrained eagerness to possess, the oppressors develop the conviction that it is possible for them to transform everything into objects of their purchasing power; hence their strictly materialistic concept of existence. Money is the measure of all things, and profit the primary goal. For the oppressors, what is worthwhile is to have more—always more—even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them, to be is to have and to be the class of the "haves."

As beneficiaries of a situation of oppression, the oppressors cannot perceive that if having is a condition of being, it is a necessary condition for all women and men. This is why their generosity is false. Humanity is a "thing," and they possess it as an exclusive right, as inherited property. To the oppressor consciousness, the humanization of the "others," of the people, appears not as the pursuit of full humanity, but as subversion.

---

https://commons.princeton.edu/inclusivep..._ch2-3.pdf

Freire is mainly discussing capitalism here, but notice that last sentence: "To the oppressor consciousness, the humanization of the 'others,' of the people, appears not as the pursuit of full humanity, but as subversion." It's worth reflecting upon this statement. I think your egalitarian ideals are fine. And, as I said before, feeling unsafe is not cool. But on the other hand, there is a "situation" going on with dehumanization of large groups of people. Ultimately, you are a part of this dehumanized, disenfranchised group. But you are being told you are somehow on the "privileged" side... that you are being infringed upon. But you aren't. 

Have you ever been in a normal, non-political social situation in which you weren't recognized as a person. And when you tried to speak up, you were faced hostility in return? Like, in that social situation, you didn't matter. And when you try to say that you DO matter, you are treated like you are infringing on other people.

I think we've all been in situations like that. Maybe highschool. Maybe when being cheated on by a lover. Anything. It's worth reflecting upon the possibility that such things happen on large social scales. And it isn't right. It isn't right when such things happen to individuals, and it isn't right when such things happen to communities.

[Nay_Sayer]

delete.

[The Architect Of Fate]

Sure this really happen. I believe you really I do. This isn't you inventing bullshit or anything