The Problem with Black Lives Matter

This isn't a matter of experience. In my opinion.

There is plenty of history both new and old that tells of great atrocity made against the white race. Including slavery that was sometimes worse than how blacks were treated (As history tells)

Yet that is not experience enough in the eyes of others.

I can sit here and tell you that I have experienced Racism. Being in an International High school and it's natural segregation of the students races. Being looked at like I was an alien for daring to even attempt to sit at There table (ended up sitting alone after that)

But that experience will never be enough in the eyes of other races. Not in there opinion.

My daughter has been bullied by blacks because she is white.....I have had to wipe her tears and force her out the door when she was fearful to go because of the treatment of the other students.

But that isn't the right kind of experience in other races eyes. We are told that it is "Not the same." and that we can "Never Understand"

So who exactly has the right to decide which experience is more important to have than the other?

Who has that right and that authority?

Simply put. No one.

Nor are we meant to experience other peoples experiences. That should never be our goal. We are each unique and beautiful people because of these experiences both the good and the bad.

No. What we need is the courage to lead our local communities towards Positive action and results. Not bullying experiences into others because you feel justified to share your pain.

I'm not sure I agree. I've seen where politicians in some cities were forced to live with a disability for a day. Does it give them the full experience. No, but it does open their eyes to some of the barriers that are faced. I used the same idea for a speech in college. I removed someone's ability to use their hands They then had to carry their books, operate the doors, etc. The speech was on the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act. You can tell people what it's like all the time, but for many people it goes in one ear and out the other, unless they are allowed to see it first hand. It's kind of like that "walk a mile in their shoes" thing.

@Senan

That was a brilliant response. Thank you.


Cancer can definitely kill you if it goes untreated. BLM is like an x-ray, saying "HEY!! THERE'S CANCER HERE!" Does the x-ray cure cancer? No. It's not the x-ray's cancer. It's our (society) cancer.

A lot of sick people don't like to go to the doctor. Some would rather die than get treatment. Some wait so long that treatment is more difficult; so difficult that it may not be worth the effort.

This too is similar to racism. It is a cancer in our society and when it's not happening to you it's easy to ignore. I watched someone die of stage IV lung cancer. She knew she was going to die and she felt powerless to stop it. Black people also feel powerless to stop it because racism is a result of the "other" group having the power.

For me, there is a lot of "Jedi and Sith" (speaking of the franchise canon) in how this works because The Sith gain power for their own sake and if you're in chains then that's your problem. My attraction to the Jedi is because they spend time, through reflection/meditation/etc., working to rid themselves and become immune to the corruption that comes with all the power they have.

If a person understands power... they have to understand corruption. And if they understand both and can choose from the beginning... this is a person who is conscious. Everyone else is asleep, being changed and evolving based on all of the power they have, and not noticing.

Trisskar wrote: I can sit here and tell you that I have experienced Racism. Being in an International High school and it's natural segregation of the students races. Being looked at like I was an alien for daring to even attempt to sit at There table (ended up sitting alone after that)

This is exactly the experience I am speaking of. You can't "know" it until it has happened to you.

Trisskar wrote: But that experience will never be enough in the eyes of other races. Not in there opinion.

My daughter has been bullied by blacks because she is white.....I have had to wipe her tears and force her out the door when she was fearful to go because of the treatment of the other students.

But that isn't the right kind of experience in other races eyes. We are told that it is "Not the same." and that we can "Never Understand"

So who exactly has the right to decide which experience is more important to have than the other?

Who has that right and that authority?

Simply put. No one.

I disagree. Each individual has the right to that authority, they are just not allowed to have it. White people, mostly men, have enjoyed lording that authority over others since the very beginning of U.S. history. Just as you have the right to feel discriminated against because of your experience, black people have the right to feel discriminated against based on their experience, but white people have had the voice and the authority to both prevent discrimination against themselves and promote it against others.

The key is that we are able to recognize that no one person or race or sex or gender is more important than another, but they are all important. No act of discrimination should go ignored, which means every instance of it should be addressed the same. Right now, in the U.S., that is not the case.

Trisskar wrote: Nor are we meant to experience other peoples experiences. That should never be our goal. We are each unique and beautiful people because of these experiences both the good and the bad.

It absolutely should be our goal. It is called empathy. By trying to identify with and understand the experiences of others, we learn to show compassion. Even if we can't directly experience what others do, we should do our best to try. If you ignore or marginalize the experiences of others, you are saying that only your experience is important. This selfishness how discrimination starts in the first place.

Trisskar wrote: No. What we need is the courage to lead our local communities towards Positive action and results. Not bullying experiences into others because you feel justified to share your pain.

Fully agree with the course of action, but to pretend like the individual experiences of white people are equal to the collective experience of institutional racism against black people in the U.S. is indefensible. White people have systematically "bullied" black and brown (and asian and...) people for hundreds of years in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world. Whether you or I personally had a hand in it or have been bullied by black people now as a result is not justification for denying there is a serious problem here.

"I can sit here and tell you that I have experienced Racism. Being in an International High school and it's natural segregation of the students races. Being looked at like I was an alien for daring to even attempt to sit at There table (ended up sitting alone after that)"

@Trisskar

I feel for you. I can empathize with how you may have felt. I went to a school that was segregated, not by mandate, but by choice. It is the same choice that exists in prison populations. Prisoners divide by race. But what you may not understand is that it is a defensive mechanism in response to "how things are" (the environment).

While I'm sorry that it happened, black people did not create that environment. We had to adapt to it which means grouping together which means trying to carve out a "space" that we can call ours because everything else is "theirs". You may not have had a single negative thought towards them and because of that experience... maybe you did. But this is why we need to have these conversations. I can't promise everything will make sense to you or that the other side's reactions are "right". What I am saying is that black people WILL, for better or worse, react to their environment and everything that is done to them. Because it is human nature and we are... human.

I feel sorry for your daughter. I took my kids swimming to a YMCA in a mostly white part of town and a kid said, in front of his father, that white people were better. His father said nothing. So, even though I can teach my son one thing about race... his experience is teaching him something else. He goes to school about two blocks from that YMCA. Even if my son tries to escape racism by staying away from white people or, if he's able to tell the difference, racists... the racists know that's their school and my son is a *n-word* in THEIR school. Racism works when your side has the power. When it's your school, your police force, your government, your company, your office, etc. It's not simply an attitude. It is the power to mistreat someone because of their race. And it is because of that racism that makes people defensive... makes us seek our own... gives us a common culture you don't understand and may not fit into... and makes us choose isolation even when you want to sit with us.

I'm sorry you were treated in anyway you did not deserve. But I ask you to understand the environment that created and fostered that treatment. You can sit at my table anytime.

Senan wrote: but white people have had the voice and the authority to both prevent discrimination against themselves and promote it against others.

And yet I was completely powerless against the treatment I received or the treatment my daughters received. There was no authority given or used. No method of righting that wrong. I was a white female attempting to sit at a different race's table despite the schools full and complete efforts to encourage student communion.

And yes. White's have held high positions here in America. I could debate with you as to why that is....But ill not bother My point is. Those higher powers has nothing to do with my experience and the experience of many common children no matter the race. If you are the odd sheep you will be treated as such. Period.

It absolutely should be our goal. It is called empathy. By trying to identify with and understand the experiences of others, we learn to show compassion. Even if we can't directly experience what others do, we should do our best to try. If you ignore or marginalize the experiences of others, you are saying that only your experience is important. This selfishness how discrimination starts in the first place.

Empathy is not the same as forcing one to experience the pain of another. Empathy is the ability to relate to emotion it causes and coming to an equal understanding. I can empathize with being mistreated, even if that mistreatment isn't the same it is still harmful.

I feel for you. I can empathize with how you may have felt.

While I appreciate your words. And please don't take the following response as Aught, thats not my intention!! I am trying to provide a point and not sure I will do it right I suck at words sometimes.

But.... I am not looking for or wanting that from you I have read your own examples and experiences and i know you have just as many stories to tell. My experience to me is all apart of my own life lessons, and I embrace them gladly. I have learned from them. I have grown strong from them. And they have shaped me into the person I am today. That's nothing to feel sympathetic towards. I am proud of my scars and greatful for the lessons.

While I'm sorry that it happened, black people did not create that environment. We had to adapt to it which means grouping together which means trying to carve out a "space"

.....Yea...Im not going to touch this one Im sorry, but what I have to say might come off as harsh.

I am reminded of one of our bon fire nights....a big congregation of friends and there friends. People drinking, grilling, shooting off fire works and all around having a great time......And then there was the Bitch Circle. A small group of females who all had nothing positive to bring to the party so they stood around in a circle smoking, glaring and hissing about all the negative things while shuffling away when the wrong person got too close.

Moral of the story: Being a Bitch dosn't make your actions right or justifiable.

I'm sorry you were treated in anyway you did not deserve.

No one deserves it. But it happens. What matters is how we choose to learn from it Even so. Thank you for your words

But I ask you to understand the environment that created and fostered that treatment.

I understand it....just probubly not in the same way you do

You can sit at my table anytime.

As are you My chapter loves meeting new people and new Jedi!