A sickness has infected the people of this country.
You have often discussed your position that the death penalty should be outlawed for the reason that the state shouldn't have the power to execute anyone, guilt, innocence, and morality aside. I agree with that judgement, and think it should extend to the police. Why do they get their own rules? How come if I shoot someone, because I'm scared, it's murder (as it should be), but for them, it's a paperwork headache at worst? There was a prominent case here in Detroit a few years ago where a team of cops stormed a house where they had good information a wanted murderer was staying. Instead of flushing him out, they busted through the door, guns blazing, and in the end, they killed a little girl. They got their murderer, but at what price? Is sure as hell didn't seem like a good trade to most people. I don't exactly know what happened to the officer, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that he didn't get a murder sentence. All I've been able to conclude about race in this country is that I'll never be able to understand it. As a white, well-to-do man, all I can do is sympathize. There's no understanding, no empathy in me. I literally cannot relate to what it must be like to have the threat of a police state looming over me, at least in the background all the time. minimum_wage posted another article about not criticizing the rioters in St. Louis. I have to say that it strikes me as wrong (because rioting seems always counterproductive), but I know that I can't judge these people one way or the other. Their experience and mine in America are so dissimilar that it's hard to believe we come from the same country.
I keep returning to the feeling that we must reject and deconstruct racial identity in all forms, positive and negative. Of course, I am an affluent white American male, and thus, people assume that my opinions are representative of people that look like me; but, that is their bias, not mine. Anything that might be described as an affinity between me and those that are physically similar is based upon assumptions. I get onto a bus with one white guy and one black guy. Who do I have the most in common with? Which one am I most likely to get along with? Any assumption is unfair to everyone on the bus. The white guy might like football, and the black guy might like to play Magic the Gathering. Or maybe it's the black guy that likes football, and the white guy that likes MtG. I don't give a shit about your skin proteins, I want to play some MtG and I don't want to chew the fat about an excuse for beer commercials. What if I get on the bus and MtG-playing white guy gives me a nod of solidarity? Fuck that, all possibilities are polluted by stupid "Hey, we have the same skin color!" white guy. I don't want to play MtG when it looks like a statement of racial solidarity, and I don't want to talk football with black guy as a statement against it. Maybe I get lucky and black guy likes MtG, so I can reject racism with a discard deck. What if black guy gives me an overt "Hey, don't worry about me white guy!" gesture? Do I have to talk football instead of playing MtG so I don't snub his effort for racial harmony? Wait, did black guy frown at me? Fuck. One shitty thing about racial identity, is that someone else's exercise of it defines my interactions against my will. If you aren't open to bond with me, then I am grouped with other people you don't want to bond with like oil droplets in water. If you preferentially bond with me, then you've done the opposite, which is no better. It would be great if we could just replace all talk of skin color with birth month. Then we would all clearly appear as the fucking idiots that we are.
Great stream-of-thought paragraph, "mk rides the bus". Bigots that read horoscopes get 2x the points. They just have no idea we're keeping score like golf.It would be great if we could just replace all talk of skin color with birth month. Then we would all clearly appear as the fucking idiots that we are.