The Blue Wall Must Die
Been following the news of Oscar Grant's death and the subsequent riots. I suppose I was interested because I lived in Oakland for a while. I know what its like down there. Ghetto butting up with nice white neighborhoods- but not meshing, and the money isn't flowing to the needy, either. Poor black kids starving and homeless while rich white assholes go to art school and spend all their money on coke and heroin just so they can party every weekend.
I can't believe how fucked up we are. The fact that the perpetrator (IE the cop) hasn't even been interviewed yet is the really disturbing part. The poor guy was handcuffed, pleading, begging, telling them about his baby daughter, and they shot him in the back. The real trick is that he didn't even imagine he was going to be shot, he thought the cops were going to taze him. Just tazed. This is why I don't think we should be worried about other countries (*coughcouch* Iraq).The atrociousness of what some people are doing to women over there is just as awful as the racism we have here. How are we supposed to give them democracy when we don't even have it ourselves? Sure we can vote, but that's proven ineffective in the past (Bush *coughcough* I must have a cold). They said we had a democracy when women couldn't vote, when black people couldn't vote, when the IRISH couldn't vote. (If it was two hundred years ago, I would be "black", and so would most of you. If it hadden't been for the civil war, we probably would STILL be "black".)
Racism has been plastered over- we're all PC now and nobody calls black people "negro" trying to be nice anymore (I'm not saying the word is not used, its just not used by people who are, let's say, aware), but I think that is part of the problem. There is no real dialogue about racism anymore. Most (white) people in the Northwest don't think it exists here, or don't think it's as bad as it is.
The fact is this: Racism is here, it's still unacceptable, it's still bad, and cops still kill black men for no goddamn reason and get away with it.
Watch the vid (if you dare, its disturbing, I won't lie) to see how unnecessary the shooting was. Maybe then my anger will make sense. Maybe you'll get angry, too. Maybe something will change.
www.youtube.com/watch
And if you get angry enough:
www.racewire.org/archives/2009/01/5_things_you_can_do_right_now_1.html
I can't believe how fucked up we are. The fact that the perpetrator (IE the cop) hasn't even been interviewed yet is the really disturbing part. The poor guy was handcuffed, pleading, begging, telling them about his baby daughter, and they shot him in the back. The real trick is that he didn't even imagine he was going to be shot, he thought the cops were going to taze him. Just tazed. This is why I don't think we should be worried about other countries (*coughcouch* Iraq).The atrociousness of what some people are doing to women over there is just as awful as the racism we have here. How are we supposed to give them democracy when we don't even have it ourselves? Sure we can vote, but that's proven ineffective in the past (Bush *coughcough* I must have a cold). They said we had a democracy when women couldn't vote, when black people couldn't vote, when the IRISH couldn't vote. (If it was two hundred years ago, I would be "black", and so would most of you. If it hadden't been for the civil war, we probably would STILL be "black".)
Racism has been plastered over- we're all PC now and nobody calls black people "negro" trying to be nice anymore (I'm not saying the word is not used, its just not used by people who are, let's say, aware), but I think that is part of the problem. There is no real dialogue about racism anymore. Most (white) people in the Northwest don't think it exists here, or don't think it's as bad as it is.
The fact is this: Racism is here, it's still unacceptable, it's still bad, and cops still kill black men for no goddamn reason and get away with it.
Watch the vid (if you dare, its disturbing, I won't lie) to see how unnecessary the shooting was. Maybe then my anger will make sense. Maybe you'll get angry, too. Maybe something will change.
www.youtube.com/watch
And if you get angry enough:
www.racewire.org/archives/2009/01/5_things_you_can_do_right_now_1.html