mantra. The GOP are dependant on racism and racist class divisions existing. Racism is a bountiful garden for them that they tend ardently.

too, and didn't get the same attention.

I don't know why this is getting it. Maybe their whiteness has something to do with it. But what is most important is that it IS happening. The tide IS turning. Maybe this time we can ALL make it safer for ALL of us.

That article is right, BLM and Ferguson protestors should've been taken seriously from jump.
But like I said, I'll take it however it comes.

us serious about stopping school shootings. But none of that happened. And this IS happening, and all of the groups we are talking about will benefit from it. I am just wary of giving the trolls issues to divide us on.

Spot on.

....20 to 50 dead inner city teenagers in Chicago on a bad weekend, no big deal, 17 white kids get it and SOMETHING MUST BE DONE RIGHT NOW!
Seems kinda racially motivated.
(I am guessing this will not be a popular post)

....(many here)seem to think you’re not supposed to discuss it for whatever reason.

We need to talk about all of it.

Sound's like a winner to me!



Multiple victims of many mass school shootings have been PoC. Bullets don't see ethnicity.

This certainly proves we do not need Russians to play their non-linear war pettifogging gambits.

Gotta keep the divisions alive!

jump on the bandwagon and make something of the combined movement.

I absolutely honor how they feel -- but its counterproductive AT BEST. Yes, their blackness had something to do with it.

But more than that -- or at least as much as that -- is the fact that every now and then there is a tide in the affairs of men, to borrow a phrase, that can't be manipulated. You push and push and push -- for 50 or more years, in the case of the Women's Movement -- for accountability for sexual harassment and SUDDENLY, things fall into place and the movement for that gains unrivaled momentum.

I think it's the same for any movement from abolition, to civil rights in the 60s, to the anti-war movement in the 60s-70s, to today's movements.

To a large extent those who have been protesting this violence have helped set the stage and warm things up in preparation. That's VERY important and essential work. I certainly honor their contribution. I'm sorry they didn't get the glory of lighting the spark that really ignited things.

Too, theirs is still separate because THIS gun violence isn't about abuse of power by LEOs at all, and theirs has been and is.

"Too, theirs is still separate because THIS gun violence isn't about abuse of power by LEOs at all, and theirs has been and is."

This is a key point that is missed in the comparison. I think a very important one.
One is about easy access to firearms by the public, the other, about unjust shootings/killings by officers.
Seems unnecessary and misguided divisiveness. Join in for the big win.

Too, the INDIVIDUAL (though entirely horrific) incidences that have fueled BLM just don't add up to what transpired in FL -- 17 children -- that ignited that activist blaze f the same students, the ones who survived. It's just not the same dynamic.

My husband and I were just texting about this. But, I'll take whatever victory that I can get, however it comes. Joy Reid had a good segment today (featuring Philip Agnew and others)which discussed the fact that children have always been politically active. The country just seems to hear them more when they have fairer skin.
A poster up thread notes that previous school mass shooting victims did not get as much attention. I would say that social media has played a big part in this particular movement. Just like social media was the only way folks began to hear about BLM. The networks really had to take this up because the story was trending everywhere. Young survivors were telling their stories to any/all available outlets. The national media did their thing.
Again, as always, we remain stronger together. I'm trying really hard not to get caught in my own feelings about this. I want to help bring about positive change whenever the opportunity arises. This does sting, though.
We need to have a conversation about intersectionality.

I was talking to a friend about same today...

They would be the major voice for gun control. Even other republican presidents would have at least been sympathetic.

I think it being mostly white kids did influence businesses to cut ties.

But these kids are being attacked and they are old enough to fight back.

They also come from a mostly liberal area so they have experience .

And groups like blm, metoo movement, dreamers etc get credit also since they already set the tone of activism , protest that people became familiar with.

It is what it is.

We pay far more attention to mass shootings in schools than we do to the massive amounts of shootings that happen every single day.

Even now, we as a country, and here on DU, are focusing on how to prevent mass shootings in schools, without really even discussing how to prevent the many, many, many, more deaths of kids that don't happen in a school.

A kid getting shot on the street with a bullet that comes out of a handgun just isn't big news.

* Whites much more able to move about in MS than blacks.

* They were not from south, so much less susceptible to threats vs their families finances, jobs, even lives.

* They had financial (family) backing that enabled them to afford the training sessions and then the trip to and stay in MS.

Note: 2 of my friends in grad school participated.

Much as we might wish it were otherwise, race and class have privileges that can be used vs injustce if their beneficiaries wish to use them.

In the case of many AA kids who are killed, they're just collateral damage as two groups fight it out in the street or some business, licit or otherwise, goes wrong. Even the little kids are just mistakes, not usually targets. Small solace for the parents, but "accidentally shot" goes into one box.

In the case of many others, they're on one of the sides. They're participants or supporters of participants. That's a second box.

The HS kids? They were the targets. They weren't collateral, they weren't participants. They were ducks at a shooting gallery. That's a third box.

The three boxes are different in nature, in how we react to them.

and if the participation of white kids in Florida brings more attention to the issue and helps make progress, I'm all for it.

This is not a racial thing. BLM has nothing to do with assault rifles or shooting up public schools. BLM should have more public support, but then again, so should a lot of things, and race is but one factor. Parkland is different. The victims themselves took charge of social media. Conditions are ripe...

and even if folks wants to bury their heads in the sand, still a valid point..