Liberal_Stalwart71
Liberal_Stalwart71's JournalMany thanks to Rachel Maddow for proving the existence of white privilege (Bundy v. Ferguson)
This is not coming from me or any of the black, brown, Asian or white sympathetic DUers.
This is Rachel Maddow's show tonight. It was a brilliant show tonight because she demonstrated a very important contrast.
For months now, many of us have been trying--in vain--to explain what we have witnessed. Our life experiences. To try to get people to understand, not to make white people feel guilty. Not to accuse white folk of racism--real or unconscious. But simply to get people to see how white skin privilege has led to disparities in the ways people of color and whites have been treated in this country.
Rachel drew a contrast between the Bundy stand-off in Nevada and what happened in Ferguson, where the protestors came strapped, armed to the 9's, antagonizing federal troops, aiming their weapons squarely at feds. We saw how favorable to the Bundy's the coverage was in that the feds were lambasted for "overstepping their bounds," even as they enforced federal laws. (Remember, Bundy had been breaking federal land regulations for many decades!)
In stark contrast, the protestors in Ferguson--all unarmed--are treated like animals, told to go home. The protests began peacefully, but with only a few of them causing trouble, the press generalized about ALL the protestors. The cops are militarized, the crowds are sprayed with tear gas. Remember these people are all unarmed.
Don't attack me. Rachel clearly drew the contrast. She clearly stated that race IS the central factor.
And guess what? I agree.
Study: White people support harsher criminal laws if they think more black people arrested
So we live in a post-racial society? I think not. 
Study: White people support harsher criminal laws if they think more black people arrested
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/08/07/3468368/study-white-people-support-harsher-criminal-laws-if-they-think-more-black-people-are-arrested/
A recent study suggests that, if you are white, and you are presented with evidence that our criminal justice system disproportionately targets black people, then you are more likely to support harsh criminal justice policies than if you were unaware of this evidence. According to a study by Rebecca Hetey, a post-doctoral fellow in Stanford’s Psychology department and Jennifer Eberhardt, her faculty advisor, informing white people that African Americans are significantly over-represented in the prison population “may actually bolster support for the very policies that perpetuate the inequality.”
Forty percent of the nation’s prison population is black, as compared to only 12 percent of the population as a whole.
To reach their conclusions, Hetey and Eberhardt conducted two experiments involving white subjects. In the first, white people were asked to watch one of two videos containing mug shots. In one video, 25 percent of the mug shots were pictures of black men, while in the other video, 45 percent of the mug shots depicted African American males. After watching the video, the subjects were then asked whether they would sign a petition calling for one of California’s strict sentencing laws to be eased.
The result: “Over half of the participants who’d seen the mug shots with fewer black men signed the petition, whereas only 27 percent of people who viewed the mug shots containing a higher percentage of black inmates agreed to sign.”
In the second experiment, two groups of white New Yorkers were shown different statistical data about the racial makeup of the prison population. One group was shown data indicating that 40 percent of prisoners are black while the other group was shown that 60 percent are black. Once again, the group that was led to believe that fewer people in the criminal justice system are African Americans were more likely to support liberalizing criminal justice policies. In this case, the New Yorkers were asked if they would sign a petition calling for the end of New York City’s stop-and-frisk policy. Thirty-three percent of the subjects who were led to believe that fewer African Americans are incarcerated were willing to sign the petition. Only 12 percent of the other group were willing to do so.
As Hetey notes, this research could have profound implications for advocates seeking to convince voters — or, at least, white voters — to support less harsh criminal justice policy. “Many legal advocates and social activists seem to assume that bombarding the public with images, statistics and other evidence of racial disparities will motivate people to join the cause and fight inequality,” according to Hetey. “But we found that, ironically, exposure to extreme racial disparities may make the public less, and not more, responsive to attempts to lessen the severity of policies that help maintain those disparities.”
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