Hey Portland - you might get what you deserve.

[Irreligious Atheist]

A decrease in racism seems to lead to the appearance of more racism. This is why white people appear to be the least racist or the most colourblind as some would put it. We've not suffered nearly as much at the hands of other groups, at least recently in history, so we have less of a grievance with other races. Blacks have suffered from a great deal of racism and mistreatment historically, which has lead them to be hyper vigilant. Of course we shouldn't be against black people just because many of them are wrong though. Their communities and schools should be given heavy investment. Hopefully some day we will have more of an understanding of each other and we will be able to unite more as human beings.

Even if that is true (and I doubt it is), this explanation is incomplete at the very best. The fact that what racism white people do have becomes amplified by the power they hold (even on the off chance that there's less of it overall) aside, even if the last racist individual on the planet is dead, racism will still be a problem. How, you may ask? Because there's still a shitton of lasting aftereffects of racist policies that are still hobbling people of colour to this day. This is what systemic racism is. It isn't about the government rounding up black people with a lasso and throwing them in jail for no reason. It's in shit like, for instance, black people tending to be stuck in the same shitty neighbourhoods their grandparents and great-grandparents were redlined into because wealth is often intergenerational and their schools are shit because they're underfunded. It's because, even when the cops actually do step up their presence in their neighbourhoods, they don't just go after the bad guys; they go after everyone; particularly everyone who looks like them, even when the areas aren't actually high in crime. And that's not going into the unconscious biases that often lead to this shit. Entire books can and have been written on this subject.

Of course that is true. While white people seem to be less racist on average than most others, we hold more power so the racism of white people ends up being far more impactful than other racism. But white people do tend to be less racist than black people overall, so telling people to be less white doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense in my opinion. Of course there is the problem of subconscious or unconscious bias and most everyone is a little bit racist. Many white people are still very racist, and there's still a lot of improvement that can be made in that area. In large part I do give black people and indigenous people at least somewhat of a pass for having anger towards white people, but I don't think the mainstream encouraging this or egging this on is good for anyone in the long run, and like you say, it's just not good optics. Black people are suffering right now with this rise in violent crime and murder. I actually used to defend BLM, but at a point they went too far and it all just turned into a big mess and it just became about people getting their rage out and wanting to see the world burn like the Joker or something.

I'm right there with you on social justice. Systemic racism is a problem, and I don't have all of the answers, but I'm not wiling to accept that authoritarianism and taking away people's rights and trying to burn down court houses is the only solution to this problem. I'm not saying to sit back and do nothing and ignore the problem, but like you say, optics are key, and you need to make sure you are actually helping the black community with your tactics. If black people are hurting even more like they are right now, it might be time to re-think things a bit.

So, we agree on the social justice concerns. Our differences are in how we think things need to be fixed. I didn't need BLM to teach me about black people suffering legal injustices and having to deal with systemic racism. I already knew these things. I watched a great video from Vaush yesterday about how we all need to come together and learn to live together and love each other. Black people being taught to hate white people is only going to hurt black people. Coming together and working together benefits all of us.

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Why, IA, when you describe what you think BLM or anti racism is, do you end up saying the things racists believe about BLM and anti racism?

If you had to take a wild guess?

I hear it straight from the mouths of the BLM founders and supporters, as well as straight from the mouths of the self professed anti-racists.