Excellent result for the teddy bears!
Who needs Morelos?
Depressing to see the players take the knee though.
I'm all for it .
For me these people have been treated badly for decades if not hundreds of years .
Slavery abuse their children abused by the slave owners . No coloureds allowed in this shop or restaurant.
Not allowed on the beach . Blamed for murders they didnt commit and put to death .
But when the were murdered the authorities didn't give a dam .
The soul bus from the 60s travelled from the north side of America with the likes of a young Dianna Ross on it performing for the whites but by the time they got to the deep south they could eat inside restaurant's they had to stay on the bus even though they were doing hugely successful performance's at night for the whites .
Not surprising some have issues .
Oh does anyone remember the first black man to kiss a white woman at the back of a car .
That was too much for many in the white population of America . unbelievable. Name that film and the actor !
I just don't see how Black (POC seems to be a new trendy phrase I see) people are treated badly though. I've never seen any stats that convince me otherwise, all I see are what I see as conspiracy theories about the police, systematic racism etc.
I also don't get how the George Floyd situation sparked this off. It was a case of police brutality but there's nothing to show that he was targetted for his race. It seems he was targetted because he committed a crime, then one white police officer knelt on his neck whilst 3 non-whites looked on. It's since been shown that him not being able to breathe was being complained about before the policeman knelt on his neck and was most likely to him being off face on drugs. Was it even the neck-kneel that killed him?
Slavery, blacks being treated as 2nd class citizens and giving them the blame for things they didn't do were all awful and go against everything I stand for, but these things don't happen anymore.
Using the probable non-racist death of a drug-fuelled criminal as an excuse to riot, loot, burn and destroy livelyhoods just makes no sense to me, and reflects terribly on POC to large swathes of people. If the far-right needed an effective recruiting campaign then this is exactly it.
If Black Lives Matter really cared about black lives, but they would protest against the black-on-black violence within their own communities. Maybe they should ask for reparations from existing 'POC' in Africa for capturing and selling their own people to Western whites for a healthy profit in the past too.
It’s a very complex issue IMO. In day to day life living in Scotland and working across the UK, and even globally, I don’t encounter racist attitudes. Part of that will be to do with the circles people move in, I guess, but it’s not something I personally come across in real life day to day, and that’s good.
I have family in America though and from what I understand there is a real undercurrent. It thrives in the poorest communities and blue collar cultures. From “rednecks” who just don’t have a brain to bitter cops who feel their experience of the American Dream isn’t what it should be and that they just don’t get enough respect. It’s always poor on poor and bitterness and resentment that fuels this stuff.
Whether Floyd George committed a crime or not and whether he was on drugs or not, police can’t murder suspects. They guy was on the ground, in cuffs, and pleading for his life while the guy kept the pressure on his neck. And while doing so, he taunted the guy, telling him to get up. They 3 cops who stood and watched are certainly complicit in the murder. As police officers themselves they should have prevented it.
In the context of racial issues in America, there is a strong sentiment that it would not have happened to white guy. I think that’s understandable in that context.
In America you are more likely to be poor if you are black. You are more likely to be prosecuted if suspected of a crime and more likely to be convicted if you are black. You are more likely to be in prison and more likely to receive a longer sentence if you are black. It is a vicious circle rooted in poverty, resentment and mistrust.
The police in the US have an appalling record. Some cities are better than others and some states are better than others. Even as far back as 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles during his presidential campaign. Due to his involvement with civil rights, his security team that day would not work with the LAPD because they did not trust the LAPD. And there is the further context of Rodney King which still lives in the minds of black Americans.
Taking a knee was a good thing to do I reckon, but it’s time to move on from that. It feels shallow and tokenistic now.