Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

I only hope for things to be better, however, that's not what the majority of voters want. Me Me Me Me at the end of the day.

 

It only took a week of white people experiencing the kind of police brutality black people have been familiar with all along for the NFL Commissioner to say “black lives matter” in a public statement. Talk is cheap, but this was unthinkable previously. Convos about divesting from the police are happening in institutions all over the country. If you care enough to work at it, change is possible.

I don’t disagree with @ymo’s letter. You are right to call out these attitudes. People who are too comfortable to care about making things better for others are just an obstacle to work around.

 

After the way we have seen cops behave when they know they are being filmed, why would you want to give them more money?

Day is not enough. Let’s try a year with an option to renew.

 

This is the wrong read. The corporate world is in full blown profit oriented virtue signaling now. They saw how much money CK's endorsement with Nike made Nike, and want a piece of that action now that the cause has gained even more potential customers.

 

This. At the end of the day most people are going to forget about it and live in their own bias worldview.

 

Agree that the motive is profit. I didn’t mean the the commish had a personal change of heart. They have seen that sentiment is widespread enough to jeopardize their $$$. That only happens when it’s more than just black people upset.

 

I know it's super un-PC, but stereotypes are often based in fact. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/201809/stereotype-accuracy-displeasing-truth

In this case the violent crime rate for blacks is more than 4x higher than for whites including Hispanics.
https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/explorer/national/united-states/crime

Rather than trying to shame people into overlooking these facts, I think a much more effective approach would be to address the underlying conditions that lead to crime including education and economic opportunity, along with sentencing that hollows out families and communities. This obviously has the immense added benefit of improving peoples socioeconomic conditions. I know this take will surely get interpreted as blaming the victim, but I think effectiveness is more important than sentiment.

I understand that it's not either or, but I do think there is an overemphasis on fighting racism that distracts from larger more important issues which if addressed would also more effectively and sustainably reduce racism.

 

Oh I am aware. However, 200 word limit in an opinion piece, keep to keep it short and sweet. Also, can't change people's minds when it comes to these things. I was just back from my Tobacco Shop and plenty think BLM = Democrats which means they are communist and socialist = Need to Vote for Trump.

People will live in their own reality, nothing you can do about it. Here in Jacksonville, normally any discussion of trying to send money or improve the socioeconomic conditions of our poorer areas of Jax is normally shot down by City Council, which is heavily dominated by the GOP.

Recently City Councilis allowing a school sales tax vote to be on the ballot in Nov and they are discussions to improve the poorer areas. From my experience, mostly lib service that doesn't do much. For the longest time City Council didn't want to put it on the ballot (the schools sales tax vote) due to being a tax that people hate to spend on.

Also funny to say, it is possible one of the RNC Conventions things they are doing might be in Jax this year. Some say the timing is bad due to being near the 60th anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday. However, tell that to the runs who run our City/County government which is dominated by the GOP. Also keep in mind, Jax is biggest city land mass wise in the country.

 

Might change more minds if it were Drew Brees, Elon Musk, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

 

I was being flippant. My point is it's a lot to ask of those black men to do even more, or protest in yet another way in CK's case specifically, so that people will listen. It would be good to see prominent, visible white athletes, public figures, etc. willing to put their careers, comfort, etc. on the line in solidarity with the BLM cause.

 

That comment is absolutely ridiculous. Stop playing the victim card would be a great start, along with many other reforms that are being actively discussed.

 

What do you mean by “playing the victim card”?

 

The portion of your post I quoted makes it seem like LEO violence was exclusive to the Black community until last week.

An attitude like that will keep people divided and prevent us from becoming united, and we need to come together more than ever now.

 

I find the whole idea of defunding the police to be a nice playground of "ideas" for people who never lived in crime affected communities. When I came to Canada 30 years ago I lived for a couple of years in Toronto inner city, mostly in a coop where half of the units were subsidized. Many immigrants from all over the world. Never heard from people with families and kids in local schools that they wanted less policing, they wanted more.

That's what police needs,a lot of scrutiny, and they should not be able to unionize, that's very important.

 

I can see how you got that impression. I left out some qualifying words that would have helped me be more clear.

I wasn’t saying black people are the only ones who have experienced violence at the hands of the police. I mean that the reality of police violence has been very easy for people outside of the black community to ignore or dismiss as one-off acts by “bad apples.”

what seems to have changed in the past week is that there have been well-documented heinous acts by police all over the country against a diverse group of protestors. People who don’t usually see this stuff are seeing it happen to people that look like them. That is changing some minds that previously would have not engaged or paid attention. This has led to some of the things we are now seeing which are unprecedented like the NFL supporting BLM.