Black Lives Matter @BeerAdvocate

Nobody called you a fascist dude. When you are arguing about economic inequalities being just as important, you are arguing that an effect of a problem is just as important as the cause. The cause is systemic racism and before you can solve economic inequalities from racism, you must combat the systemic racism first. Nobody is saying it isn't important or that it doesn't need to be discussed, but we first need to address the underlying issue here.

 

Choose 100 white people at random and ask them if they would prefer to have been born black to being born white and it will be obvious how simple it is.

 

Thank you for seeing whiteness and you're totally right. There are limitations and that some might not feel that privilege as much as others, but there are still ways it exists, even in those situations. I spent time growing up in a poor upstate New York, an area that was recovering from and feeling the effects of paper industry that fled, but also paling in comparison to the poverty throughout Appalachia. People don't know that about me unless I volunteer it. That's one aspect of my white privilege.

My family members own guns and hunt. People don't know that about me unless I volunteer it and it that could get me out of a lot of conversations when issues of gun ownership arise. I don't have to start an interaction with the assumptions people might make about that background. That's my white privilege.

Also by comparing white people from WVa to people outside WVa we (myself included!) are still missing the point. We should be asking what is white privilege in the context of living in WVa. This article gets at addressing that.

https://www.100daysinappalachia.com...palachia-race-white-privilege-denial-america/

The article aims to address some differences in experience due to race while still admitting, "To be sure, that poverty is genuine, and the claim it places on our conscience and the need for serious public efforts to address it are both absolutely real. Millions of white folks (and not only in Appalachia) are hurting due to deindustrialization and economic shifts that have worked to enrich mostly the top 0.1 percent at the expense of the rest of us."

 

People are confusing police brutality with racial discrimination.

A cop killed a person in custody. That’s police brutality.

[Hypothetical] A white cop kills a white person in custody. That’s police brutality.

A white cop killed a black person in custody. That’s police brutality. Is it racial discrimination? No, not necessarily. Did the cop treat him differently because of his skin? Not sure. Has the media treated it differently? Most definitely.

Correlation and causation are not the same thing.

 

I'm not sure I understand you correctly and I don't want to get it wrong. Are you saying we're just all confused by language and that the protests aren't about any of

a. disproportionate use of deadly force by police towards black Americans, especially unarmed
b. consistent lack of police accountability for their use of deadly force when black Americans are the victim
c. differences in the way black victims of deadly force are treated by the media

Thanks in advance for any clarification you give!

 

People here are falsely equating financial security with white privilege. While they do often go hand in hand, the whole my family is dirt poor from WVA is a major distraction and not what any of this is about. You are not in danger of getting shot simply for walking around. And I don't want to hear your but what about me and my extraordinary circumstances that's outside of the norms of white privilege. You don't get profiled the second you walk into a Sephora or a corner store. You don't get pegged as a bad tipper the second you walk into a bar. Profiled, stalked, and killed like Trayvon Martin. Or pulled over and shot like Philando Castile despite complying. You all know this and are needlessly dragging this out just to find creative ways to say ALL Lives Matter or what about me and my feelings? It's not about you right now. I really want a lot of this shit to stop and stop being so offended that we chose to stand up for people who are dead and can't have a say or a voice anymore. We respect everyone here. But right now it's not about you. It really shouldn't be confusing or offensive to you and it shouldn't be that controversial that we want innocent people to stop dying. And we want marginalized people to be better taken care of and have a bigger presence and voice around here. Enough with the what if's and false equivalencies that outright ignore the power structure of our society or culture, and our country. There are plenty of books to read, plenty of activists to follow, plenty of videos to watch if you need a better perspective on the subject. Right now we are focused on the issues at hand and we respect black lives. We want to open this place up as a more welcoming environment.

 

you literally lost me in the first sentence where you said you avoid things

 

My dad was a cop when I was growing up, my whole life was cops and families. But 1962 America policing wasn’t paramilitary, it was public service, my dad never ever had to pull his weapon. Problem is today IMO that police in general are undertrained and unprepared to serve in this capacity in a world that’s a bit insane. They’re not military but they’re put into situations they’re not capable of handling, often alone. I’m Marine, we worked in teams we all had backup, we were well trained and well armed. You always have to have a battle buddy, it keeps you level, your not alone and two heads are definitely better than one. In most places it’s budget problem, but no one should ever be alone. Leadership and training are paramount to success and avoids the fuck up in MN. With so many complaints against that guy he should have been long gone as unsuitable.

 

I'm sorry you had difficulty following along. I'm sure you'll get better at it. Keep your head up!

 

My heart goes out to all the small businesses which were destroyed (hopefully the list doesn’t continue to grow), but especially minority owned businesses.

Below is a link to an interview with George Daniels, who as a young man opened a record store on Chicago’s West Side after the 1968, and recently a liquor depot sadly destroyed over this weekend.

https://wgntv.com/news/george-floyd...go-liquor-store-looted-destroyed-amid-unrest/

@Todd posted a thread highlighting African-American owned breweries as a website resource earlier today. I’ve been fortunate to enjoy great beers at 18th Street located in NW Indiana (their Hunted series is excellent, they have other great pours as well). I plan on using Todd’s list to prioritize other great breweries on future road trips.

Supporting minority owned businesses like George’s and Drew Fox’s (18th Street Brewing) is one small but vital step we can all take to provide valuable support to communities which have been devoid of such help throughout history.

There are many other ways we as a society can and should help, but I will limit my post to what we can do as beer advocates and thoughtful consumers.

 

By that logic there would be no poor white people. I assure you that's not the case.
I digress. @Snowcrash000 nailed it. This is another situation that is being manipulated into social control. Nobody here has said they are pro racism. Yet we are all arguing like idiots. Meanwhile the fascists perpetuating this culture continue on.

 

Thank you, @Todd for doing your best to get our little corner of the internet on the right side of history. Our world has been flipped on its axis over the last couple of months due to Covid-19. Over the last week or so it has flipped on another axis. We have seen similar circumstances in the past following incidents of police brutality directed at African Americans, but this feels much, much different.

While I hope violence and destruction cease going forward, I hope the intensity of this movement continues in every other positive way. There are many, many influential people and decision makers that are saying the absolute right things in ways they have not before. Yes, there are plenty of mealy-mouthed statements flying around to insulate precious “brands”, but there are also many direct and well thought out statements that cut directly to the quick of this cancer. Let’s do the work to make sure that our protests in 50 years are organized for some other indignity.

 

To be fair, I'm not sure anyone has ever willingly labeled themselves a racist. ****** and the KKK legitimately thought they were doing great things. Now, imagine your average Joe...

 

Seems they’re all in the same boat, everyone self righteous.

 

Don’t know, but maybe we should encourage more racial diversity in our police depts vs worrying about how many coaches of color we have in the NFL. Not to down play the NFL, but lives aren’t at stake.

 

Excellent point. I'll never forget working with a client once, and he was discussing his move out of Houston, TX. I swear to god, this guy said, "Now I'm not a racist, never have been, but I will not raise my family in a town full of *insert N-word*. My kids will grow up in a safe, white neighborhood..." and he just kept going on and on while repeatedly saying, "..and I'm not a racist or anything..". My jaw hit the floor. I couldn't believe this guy.

That was the first and last day I worked with him.

How much of a racist dirtbag does one need to be to realise that they're a racist dirtbag? It's a scary thought to realise that so many aggressively racist people truly believe that they aren't racist. Seems like this is an issue that we often don't even consider.

 

It’s not police brutality. It’s murder.

 

I feel like we can do both of those things encouraging more diversity, training, accountability while redefining their focus among our police officers AND tell the NFL it should do a better job with representation among it's leadership. I would agree with you though if you if you pointed out one receives considerably more airtime than the other.

 

Beware anyone who starts a sentence with “I’m not a racist, but...”

 

I looked through this entire thread, and saw no one respond to this post.

Not even the Bro’s...

FYI: “Reasonable Person” is legal nomenclature, meaning roughly: a person of sound mind and judgment, acting without bias or discrimination

...more or less. (Not saying this to you, officerbill, but everyone else)