We have the right to free speech in the United States, but there are just some things you aren't supposed to talk about. Or question. Race is one of them. We're all supposed to pretend we don't notice if someone is black or white, or Hispanic, Asian, or Native American. With all the hush-hush on the topic, you'd think race was something we were supposed to be ashamed of. Why do we pretend it doesn't exist? Why are we all fooling ourselves? And why do we all jump on someone the moment they break the rules and dare ask questions about it? Isn't it getting a bit silly?
The latest person to step on the race landmine is Adam Carolla, podcaster and former co-host of Love Line and The Man Show. Carolla is now getting crucified after a recent podcast which featured guest Gavin Newsom, a former San Fransisco mayor. The incident began after Newsom started talking about poverty and mentioned the fact that many Blacks and Hispanics don't have access to checking accounts and ATMs. Carolla then asked what was wrong with them? What is it about Blacks and Hispanics that prevents them from having access to checking accounts like the rest of us do? Are they flawed? Newsom responded by saying that there were many reasons but he didn't want to get into a sociological discussion.
Listen to the exchange below:
If you listen to the rest of the exchange, you'll learn that Carolla's point is that those who do well are those whose focus is the family, a good education, and hard work, while those who don't are the opposite. There seems to be an almost unanimous view in the country that blacks are at the bottom rung still because of their origins in slavery. The argument is that they're still catching up as a result of that and we should all just be patient and sooner or later their school performance and employment rates will improve.
What goes against this argument is this: slavery was abolished in 1865, while the Japanese were put in internment camps in 1942 and Jews were killed by the millions in the 1940s as well. Are the Japanese still struggling the survive? Are Jews experiencing high unemployment and dropout rates? And whatever your reasoning happens to be for the state of affairs in the United States, what about for the rest of the world where conditions are different yet similar problems exist?
As you can see, there appear to be some holes in the status quo reasoning. Most people seem to realize that somewhere there is a fault in the logic, but anyone who dares to question it gets crucified in a heartbeat. We're not allowed to discuss race. We're not allowed to acknowledge discrepancies. Keep your head in the sand and hopefully it'll all work itself out. How's that been working out for us?
Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
Friday, March 8, 2013
Sunday, March 27, 2011
14 Year old kid shot in the chest by police, survives
You thought cops were bad in the states, Sao Paulo takes police brutality to a whole 'nother level. Six Sao Paulo police officers have been arrested after being caught on video shooting an unarmed 14 year old with no criminal record 5 times in the chest. Miraculously the kid survived and is on his way to a full recovery.
As you can see from the video, the boy is clearly not a threat to the officers and did not make any attempt to flee when shots began firing. Fortunately after the release of the surveilance video, 6 of the 7 officers involved have been arrested and charged with attempted murder. It remains to be seen what the punishment will be for these officers, but as this story is now being heavily covered in Brazil hopefully they'll be pressured into locking them up for a very long time.
The 7 officers involved are: Janderson Bezerra Magalhaes, Andre Castillo, Wilson Henrique Ribeiro da Cunha, Rozivaldo Ferreira de Souza, Marcos Teixeira de Lima, Wesley Souza dos Santos, Alexandre Souza dos Santos.
As you can see from the video, the boy is clearly not a threat to the officers and did not make any attempt to flee when shots began firing. Fortunately after the release of the surveilance video, 6 of the 7 officers involved have been arrested and charged with attempted murder. It remains to be seen what the punishment will be for these officers, but as this story is now being heavily covered in Brazil hopefully they'll be pressured into locking them up for a very long time.
The 7 officers involved are: Janderson Bezerra Magalhaes, Andre Castillo, Wilson Henrique Ribeiro da Cunha, Rozivaldo Ferreira de Souza, Marcos Teixeira de Lima, Wesley Souza dos Santos, Alexandre Souza dos Santos.
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