....understanding bunch.

I started looking at a lot of DUers with a suspicious eye.

That's something to listen to and be aware of.

I'm not the only one.

And many of us need to better understand the limits of our awareness.

We need to be constantly reminded. White Americans must open their eyes, hearts and minds to where we are and how we got here. It's pretty astonishing when a white person becomes aware of the everyday injustices people of color deal with almost daily.

We all know people who consider themselves not at all racist but would have no problem with the sentiments expressed on this t shirt. I've heard " I can support the police without being racist" and that's where the great divide comes in, because it's not about "not supporting the police," it's about not supporting racist and gestapo tactics.

Now that is a funny, my white wife seems to still have alot to learn about the police but we're getting there

Nice harmony with the skull and crossbones caps.

Should have added the words, "Or Else" to the slogan.

Breath easy. Don't break the law. "Or else" Officer Friendly Stormtrooper will shoot you dead, motherfucker?!"

It is not "To Subvert and Arrest", remember?

just fine.

Firefighters who make too much, well sure, if you compare it to Walmart workers...

The worst people with the strongest union, cops...

The best people with no union, everybody else...

We have a simultaneous attack going on, the southern mentality being played out EVERYWHERE including California, of racism and bigotry, while the Oligarchs are targeting all of us for a future of poverty.

I think we can use the racist puke fucks attack on our Black brothers and sisters as a way to organize a hard response to the oligarchs.

Not sure exactly how, but the beginning has to be getting the morons who think the problem is some mother of 3 getting food, to understand what the real problem is, who the real enemy is.

And they are enemies, be sure of that.

We are not the enemy. The VRWC is.

It's been around too long. And taken many forms, mean looking kill faces to cute little pink smiley skull marketed to little girls. I am sick of it. I refused to buy any skull/crossbones propaganda crap for my kids.

"Meine Ehre heisst Treue&quot My honor is loyalty) would have been a bit much...even if the shirt does have the two colors associated with the SS!

That's the definition of ignorance, to lack knowledge of something.

What they author really means is that people should be cognizant of the privileges that they receive off the bat from looking a certain way, loving a certain way, acting a certain way, etc. That is the real take home message here.

For example, how many of us would be for 'stop and frisk', if we thought it was us that would be subjected to it?

I don't understand how anybody could not see the blatant unfairness of such a policy or how it could one day be expanded to include us all.

I believe you might be thinking of a "blind spot'.

perfectly possible to be cognizant of one's ignorance:

And likewise, he wasn't speaking about ignorance. You equated knowing what you don't know with ignorance. It is a false equivalence. Ignorance is completely not knowing. You can't know that you don't know without knowing something.

own inner Rumsfeld:

And only one of us is a murderous f*ckhead.

was a soulless Strangelove. I'm pretty sure the awareness had dawned before the 'Known known' presser. Something about that too-eager glint in his eye, or maybe that gleeful cackle at his adoring fans in the papparazzi. But yeah, RummyDummy is sui generis. Even Bob McNamara managed to preserve at least a modicum of gravitas.

Thai cooking technique and 17th century Chinese poetry. That cognizance of ignorance is what prevents me from refuting, dismissing or belittling what theoretical physicists, mechanics, chefs and literature professors say about these topics.

One could extend the analogy to race relations. Knowing that I am, for the most part, ignorant of the life experience of black people in America, I refrain from refuting, dismissing or belittling what they say about their experience.

Knowledge of my ignorance compels me to learn.

A lack of knowledge or expertise is not ignorance. But I digress it isn't important.

Is it to show how much more clever you are than everyone else? Well, take a little pat on the head and the DU Hairsplitter Award for your trouble.

I stated a grammatical fact and one that is important. We should always be precise with the language we use.

If you lack knowledge or information on something then you lack knowledge or information on something.

I'm not sure I can be more clear than that.

and you will see videos of white people sounding so ugly that I'm embarrassed to be one. This hasn't changed, and now it's on the surface again. They need to put these new videos on display in the civil rights museum. You'll find in next door to the world of coke.

This country however, not so much.

Those are the only ones the corporate media cares to let us hear.

Are people really so blinkered?

Rhetorical, because I know they are.

I just can't believe that it is so difficult to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes. But that would require empathy, which is in short supply these days.

But far too many won't even take that first step.

Unfortunately, a number of them are here on DU.

Because there seems to be a lot of Caucasians that think, that as persons of color, we all think and feel universally. It may surprise some of you to learn that not every person of color feels the same way about race relations in the US, the police, or the recent citizen deaths that have received so much media attention.

Further, I get the feeling from s lot of recent posts that most Caucasians on DU assume that all of us persons of color spend every minute feeling oppressed and sorry for ourselves, and that's a little insulting. Many (if not most) of us get up, go to our jobs, love our kids, and live our lives just like everyone else.

They cant support the OP but they cant risk opposing it either, so nothing.

I wish the god damn racist pukes that live on DU would just come out with it, already.
You know who you are...

of who is a racist puke? Aren't we saying that we can't know how other people think or feel? I don't like the self righteous pukes on DU who can't see how fucking blind they are!

I simply observed that DU has many racists on it, including those who are pretend Dems ...

I have observed and made a decision for myself what these people are and WHY they are here...

Where did I pretend to decide anything for you?

So when you are reading posts of racists you dont decide for yourself they are a racist?

pukes were for yourself. Many people who are labeled racist on DU are not racist.
Someone could invent a false standard then judge people by it which is what is happening I think.

To be fair to you and I dont mean this sarcastically or as an attempt to demean you, but if you are white the odds are you/we dont have a clue what is racist to a minority, because as white people we are so encompassed by our white privilege, we are so completely unburdened the way a minority is, especially Black (something about that skin color that just makes all the god damn difference in America), that even the most well meaning among us are still racist if only to the degree that we enjoy white privilege on a daily basis.


The question isnt are most white Americans racist, because they are; but which ones are at least attempting to resolve the issue even if while gladly accepting white privilege.

Racism is a white and white only problem, in America.

i.e. ONLY white people can resolve it, in America.

where you are coming from. The problem is you are extreme and you don't know it.

believe, please be my guest and tell me what exactly you have a problem with.

You seem to like to follow me around, now I am not exactly sure why, yet.

Would you like to give me your views on something or are you just going to follow me around and accuse me of being passionate, involved, engaged and giving a fuck?

know your DU name. I never looked you up. I guess I react to what you say kind of like Pavlov's dog.
This will sound extreme but I don't know how to tone it down. I would if I could.
I think part of the problem with this discussion lies in the degree to which people are portrayed as either victim or perpetrator.
There is no doubt that African Americans are not treated as well as White people are. I would think we agree on that. I think the vast majority of White people understand that. You don't think so I assume.
I believe that you can't help growing up White and understand that you are given privileges that Black people aren't given. The Civil Rights movement and laws point that out. Yet you think most White people don't understand White privilege or deny it.
Also, you are given privilege. It is passive not something you use against another yet you say White people aggressively use their privilege to harm others.
You believe in ideas like white appropriation of Black culture as some kind of negative action that White people ascribe to and that it can only be White people who can be appropriaters. I think that is a made up paradigm that does not represent reality.
So when I see extreme posts like yours I react. You don't have a lock on the truth. Like all of us you have an opinion. At times it may reflect truth and at times it doesn't I am the same in that respect.
I am 68 years old and I am assuming I am much older than you. I lived during the time when segregation was accepted as the norm and what was right.
I was not taught to be racist by my parents.
I don't know what life is like for a Black person today. I think Obama being president has brought out the racists who feel embolden when before they might of felt they would not be out of place.
I don't think your brand of extremism is helpful. I think it is more devisive.
The other week I was helping at a beach clean up. There was a group of young Black Civil Conservation Corp helping us. As they walked past I thanked them for helping and tried to get a conversation going. Only one guy talked to me and he was very nervous. The rest about 10 people glanced at me and walked by in silence or just walked by. I thought all the racial tension the country lately may have been the reason we did not communicate. I think the extremists are driving us further apart not helping. I think you are not helping.

All this talk of "cultural appropriation" is just a code word for segregation. Sad to see it coming from liberal quarters, I thought we were better than that.

"I thought all the racial tension the country lately may have been the reason we did not communicate. I think the extremists are driving us further apart not helping."

Possible. But fear has many sources, and it may not be accurate to take such an hypothesis and apply it in this context.

why we did not talk.

use when responding to them. Something innocent that the Mods wouldn't notice - like . . . Custard Pie or Delaware. Just work something into the response and we'll all know that you have identified another racist.

Bryant

So any time you use that phrase we can be aware that you have identified another racist?

Bryant

entertaining response, would have assumed it was sarcasm but I guess not.

If someone is openly racist they should be alerted on and either change or leave DU. If you can't alert on someone, then there is little point to those sorts of veiled accusations other than to shut off discussion.

Bryant

and now realize that will again jeopardize my account, so mums the word...

not a word out of me

Nothing will improve unless we (white people) understand that we don't really get what it's like to be on the receiving end of racial discrimination. Women might get it to some extent, having been subject to routine and pervasive gender discrimination, but white women still benefit from white privilege in other respects. We all need to listen to each other instead of bloviating about what we think "they ought to be doing."

are constantly being told to shut the fuck up by both women and minorities?

Whoops, guess I just outed myself as both a racist and a misogynist.

I'm sorry that throughout the history of civilization your voices have never been heard or your concerns ever considered.

will need to be part of the solution?

If you agree with this, then please explain to me how telling them to shut the fuck up will bring about better cooperation between people.

White people have to be part of the conversation. I get the whole 'we have to listen' movement. I've been listening. I get that I don't get it.

But I'd like to know one good expected outcome of telling people to shut the fuck up, aside from the occasional obsequious, gratuitous and condescending 'Ayup, I'm white and I'm a fucking moron, so I'll just shut up and pick gunk from my navel' type posts.

You can answer like, you know, a grown-up person, or you can post some asshole-y and completely unhelpful remark.

What some of us are suggesting, however, is that those who are not black or other minority (or female) could learn a lot if they were to spend less time whitesplaining (and mansplaining, if applicable) and more time listening. The first step is to try to understand. Understanding comes first and foremost from listening. If you want to interpret that as being told to shut up, that's on you, but that isn't what is being asked. If any of us white people thought we were just being told to shut up, we wouldn't be participating in this thread at all, would we? You can take offense if you want, but that won't help the conversation any.

Anyway, Google for yourself, "White people need to shut up". It's become something of a movement, and I don't think it's the best way to get white people to listen.

Thanks for the civil and well-reasoned response. I agree 100%.

in a Black skin. I did not know that places were as bad as Fergason and I am very upset that it took the killing of Michael Brown for me to learn about it.
I have a new Black coworker that I haven't met yet. I don't know how the past few month's racial news has effected him. I don't want to ask him. I don't think it is a proper work topic.
I don't think the posts on DU are much of a help either. They are mostly about symptoms and not solutions.
I think the way to stop the police in Ferguson is for the citizens to vote in a prosecutor who will indict cops when they should be.
Ideas like that could be more effective and in place faster than the time it takes to improve race relations. Some White people will never come around.

So I really think in the end, There is a contingency of white People that need to start to really listen and be a part of those discussions.

There are people right here on DU that a are part of suggesting solutions. WE need to listen.

Especially since anyone given to such is demonstrably not part of the problem. It would basically just devolve into a public show of piety, which is usually done for the purpose of drawing attention to oneself.

But calls for awareness, like this one, are a horse of quite another color.

It's not at all the same as simply trying to acknowledge that there are some things about racial prejudice we might not know or understand without ever have been on the receiving end of it, and that it's important to listen to those who have. I don't "castigate" myself for perhaps having been insufficiently aware of certain realities. I'm just acknowledging that I need to pay more attention.

Decades of stress placed upon working class whites have created conditions that make it easy to pit groups against each other or at ;east keep one preoccupied.

I've experienced discrimination before, for many different reasons (being female, low-income, disabled, queer, etc.), but never over my race or skin color, so I don't know what that's like. I fully admit to being ignorant of not personally knowing what it's like to be a black or brown person in America. I can't know it. So I try to listen to people and their stories the same way I would want someone to listen to me. I like to think I'm doing a good job of that, but I'm sure I'm clueless at times. But I know people aren't making up racism. It exists. It kills people.

And that "Breathe Easy, Don't Break The Law" shirt is way fucked up.

After all, so many of them are wasting away in our country's prisons, imprisoned for frivolous charges. Very unfortunate.