George Floyd - America so f**ked up

I don't think it's just about the police, it's about all racism in the UK. I think the aims are pretty clear tbf. 

I can understand your reasoning for not liking the name, I just disagree with it Personally, I don't think the name should be the focus point - rather the racism. Unfortunately the name & the violence seems to get more press than anything else. 

I did see something on NewsThump that made me laugh earlier, "We will tell you when you can protest, say white people".

When I say “aims” I didn’t word it well- what I meant was if you change the name to something more appropriate your aims are clear without needing to look it up.

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: what’s wrong with “end systemic racism now”? Perfectly clear and it encompasses everyone because racism can affect everyone. The cynic in me thinks it’s because black people want to have their turn on the mic and become the next best privileged race and the Asians and Hispanics and chinese can have the mic after them. Eg I don’t see much tie-in with the Asian community from BLM but I fully accept that I may have missed that there are strong links there.

Which brings to me to The common retort “All lives matter” which gets a lot of hate and I can see why as it’s perceived as dismissive and some people will be on a wind up when they say it. I can only speak for myself and to me, personally, I really do believe “All lives matter” and no minority should be focused on ahead of another. Race should not be a league table, let’s get rid of the lot of it and have a movement that encompasses every one. All lives really do matter and no-one should consider themselves better than anyone else. So as such I will support the aim and when CV allows consider joining protests but continue to criticise the name of BLM. Not that they care that some idiot on a forum hates their name of course!

In America it’s statistical fact that black men aged 18 to 34 are more likely to die at the hands of other black men. If Black Lives Matter then why isn’t this a high profile conversation *as well* as racism? Why do you think that isn’t an appropriate question to be asking?

Of course poverty is usually cited as the main driver for that stat which passes the buck to the state again. But with all due respect where is the ownership from the black community? I’m reading a book by a black rapper at the moment as way of making a contribution following the protests. I wanted to try and get a different perspective on my “white privilege” but even he concedes there is an issue of role models for young men in the black community and that can play a big part in the direction black youths go. So for me it’s wrong for BLM to point the finger entirely at the state, there has to be more talk about what the state can do as well as what the black community can do to help. Otherwise it’s pretty much saying “well, we’re born poor so that’s why we kill each other”, is that really an acceptable excuse?

But to be fair, it seems that, despite the name, issues within the black community are not the remit of BLM which is a bit disappointing to hear.

This

I think you're quoting the picture that was designed to make a general point about the phrase "black lives matter" vs "all lives matter" as if I personally wrote it. You're focusing on the wrong part of the message.

Does something have to 'suddenly happen' for us to say no more racism? 

Why is it a bad slogan? It states the aims very clearly, a lot more clearly than Black lives matter, which as I argued with ironicgas earlier is a mis-nomer because BLM are not actually interested in black people killing each other, only when it is is white people doing it. People should at least be able to understand why that makes the group an easy target for whataboutery about what their thoughts are on black related crime. Perhaps “Some black lives matter more than others” is a better fit 🤷‍♂️

I have no idea about systemic racism as it’s hard to know when I’ve experienced it. I work in STEM, technology to be more precise and for the 15 years I’ve worked in that field it has been white and male - it could definitely do with some diversity of people, but also crucially diversity of thought. Why do I have little experience of people of colour through work? I don’t think it’s racism because my understanding of the sector I am in is that it is ruthlessly logical and so there is no rational reason to favour white people. People in IT want the best people for the job, end of. In fact a software house I worked at for 5 years they just didn’t have any applicants for the technical positions from anyone other than white males ( there were a handful of women in the ‘soft skills’ admin/HR departments). The occasional female developer would apply but they were rarely good enough at the job to get in. There was one dev who was non-white and he was there before I arrived. He was a talented guy and he got the job. As it should be. So it’s always puzzled me why there isn’t more representation in technology as that is where the jobs and money are (after mathematics/finance).

But to bring it back to your point although I can’t relate I wouldn’t argue against systemic racism existing as per that NHS report. How to combat it is a very complex issue.

Gassy, you say "systematic racism" is a sh** slogan, you then say you read an article with "systematic racism " in the title did you tell the author it was a sh**e title.
Of course there's racism everywhere, but unless you are one of those blind sheeple type ,you have to admit it's much less than it was in the 70's-80's.
According to you every thing that is not black is racist, education ,If people don't want to be educated then you can't force them to learn, an example 2 brothers from the school I went to ,one worked his tits off to learn his brother couldn't be arsed. Guess which one went on to good employment and which one went on to basically not get a job, twas the same for white kids some dint give a stuff.
You say that some with more qualifications are overlooked for promotion, having more qualifications does not mean that you are better than those with less qualifications, there's a lot more than certificates required to take a higher position, unfortunately not everyone with more qualifications will get promoted.
At work years back I had a guy in my team, sh**e loads of qualifications, I trained him to a very high level, an opening appeared at a higher level on paper he was the kiddie for the job, in reality he was Dam hopeless, the second someone else got the job he cried racism, he just would not accept that he could not have done the job efficiently.
It's the same for white people some don't get the jobs they are qualified for as they would maybe hopeless dealing with people , lazy, always off sick, insert a reason here.
Do people like you not also realise that if a company doesn't reach is quota for positive discrimination it's deemed racist etc, you can't force someone into a job because of their skin colour.

So again someones view differs and you start spouting eugenics, i suggest you throw  Mein Kampf in the bin fella

I know I shouldn't but if there is a second wave spread amongst protesters in the uk ,who will get the blame  BJ , or Bristol city council.