01-08-2017, 03:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-08-2017, 07:44 AM by FireIceTalon.)
I don't live in Wyoming, I actually currently reside in Boise, ID. But I was born, raised, and lived in Los Angeles for the first 34 years of my life. I witnessed the 1992 Los Angeles riots almost firsthand, and I went to school and grew up around many different races and cultures, so I have a very good idea about what racism is and the racial tensions and interactions that come along with them, that are so prominent in American society. Back then, I was much younger obviously and therefore not nearly as socially aware as I am now. But even then, I could see and observe power relations between whites and non-whites and the blatant difference in how they were viewed and treated respectively in common, everyday interactions. And even then, I knew that these interactions were not merely the will of the individuals involved, but that larger systemic forces were behind it - even if I was too young conceptualize how these things came to be in the way that I can now.
The statistics you provided btw, just affirm that racism is indeed fundamentally structural and not personal. If it were personal, the statistics would be much more balanced and proportionate between and across each race - but they are anything but balanced and proportionate. Prejudice thought can be personal, and people of all races are capable of being prejudice. But again, that isn't the same thing as racism. In nearly all spheres of American society, whites have power and privilege over non-whites.
I am white, and I am privileged for the simple fact I can walk down the street without having to worry about being racially profiled or suspected of wrong doing because I have the right skin color. That is THE essence of how systemic racism works. Being black in America can mean harassment, incarceration, or even death for doing something so simple as walking down to the store. This is not something white people, in general, have to worry about. If I was indicted for some reason, I am FAR more likely to be acquitted or recieve a less harsh sentence than my black comrades would be for the same crime.
But perhaps most importantly: "hate crimes" are far from being the only way that systemic racism manifests itself, so using such statistics to try and prove that whites are victims of racism also; isn't really enough to demonstrate that racism isn't structural. White people having more access to education and healthcare, higher employment rates (blacks with an BS/BA degree have roughly equal or just slightly higher chances of landing a job compared to a white high school DROPOUT - if they have same educational status, whites have a higher chance by far across the board), higher wages and salaries to do the same jobs, better legal representation, and the fact they are not disproportionately incarcerated compared to blacks and other minorities....these are just but merely a few of the ways that institutional racism is embedded in American society.
The statistics you provided btw, just affirm that racism is indeed fundamentally structural and not personal. If it were personal, the statistics would be much more balanced and proportionate between and across each race - but they are anything but balanced and proportionate. Prejudice thought can be personal, and people of all races are capable of being prejudice. But again, that isn't the same thing as racism. In nearly all spheres of American society, whites have power and privilege over non-whites.
I am white, and I am privileged for the simple fact I can walk down the street without having to worry about being racially profiled or suspected of wrong doing because I have the right skin color. That is THE essence of how systemic racism works. Being black in America can mean harassment, incarceration, or even death for doing something so simple as walking down to the store. This is not something white people, in general, have to worry about. If I was indicted for some reason, I am FAR more likely to be acquitted or recieve a less harsh sentence than my black comrades would be for the same crime.
But perhaps most importantly: "hate crimes" are far from being the only way that systemic racism manifests itself, so using such statistics to try and prove that whites are victims of racism also; isn't really enough to demonstrate that racism isn't structural. White people having more access to education and healthcare, higher employment rates (blacks with an BS/BA degree have roughly equal or just slightly higher chances of landing a job compared to a white high school DROPOUT - if they have same educational status, whites have a higher chance by far across the board), higher wages and salaries to do the same jobs, better legal representation, and the fact they are not disproportionately incarcerated compared to blacks and other minorities....these are just but merely a few of the ways that institutional racism is embedded in American society.
https://www.youtube.com/user/FireIceTalon
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)