General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen Barr was asked about systemic racism, and if blacks are treated differently by police than
white people.
Barr said no, and justified his answer by saying that Jessie Jackson said in 1996 "there is nothing more painful to me than to walk down the street, hear footsteps and thinking about robbery, turning around and see somebody white he feels relieved"
As though that quote means there is no systemic racism?
What a bullshit false narrative
When Jackson made that statement, it was a racist statement. It does NOT matter that Jessie Jackson is black, and using that to justify that there is no systemic racism is outrageous
Trump and his administration are not only racist, but support systemic racism
Anyone voting for trump is either an outright racist, or has no problem voting for one
Blue Owl
(50,238 posts)Caliman73
(11,722 posts)Individuals are shaped by and shape the systems they are in. We all get messages about other people and about ourselves through mass forms of communication and by individual interactions with people influenced by those same systems. Jessie Jackson may have said that but I am 100% sure that he also understands that his view of other Black people and of himself, has been influenced by the messages he has gotten throughout his life.
The same reason why women spend billions on beauty products while the male market is dwarfed in comparison, while men spend much more money on sporting goods compared to women. It is what is sold to us. For centuries we have been sold the idea that Black people are dangerous and it is so pervasive that even Black people believe that other Black people are dangerous.
The concepts of racism and racial bias are not null and void because Black or Brown people buy into them. In fact, that proves just how deep and powerful the concepts are that you can look at people who look like you and have the same biases that White people have.
People who support White Supremacy will use whatever means to defend it. Barr and Trump support White Supremacy.
Delarage
(2,186 posts)I found this Baltimore Sun article from 1993 about Jackson's statements:
]https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-12-03-1993337169-story.html
Sounds like Jackson was focusing on black-on-black crime and not on the issue at hand--white cops killing unarmed black people. Rethuglicans like to conflate the two. But if Trump & Barr sense any opportunity to blame the victim, they'll jump on it.
A lot of BLM counter-protesters say things like "Why don't you take your sign to Chicago where blacks are killing blacks? Don't those lives matter?"
Both need to stop, but only one is done by a government agency sworn to protect. Jesse Jackson can look at both, Rethugs can only look at one