I'll interject my little bit on this, apologies for spelling and format errors I'm typing this pretty late, while I typed this 43 replies were made, sweet baby Jesus in a chicken basket, in light of this some things I mention in this post may have already been discussed, oh well i'll post it anyway-
The length and duration of slavery and the Jim Crow south has basically stacked almost all of American history against a Black American. 240 years of concerted and organized efforts to keep American blacks "In their place" is an issue which only until relatively recently has been taken on. The 50-60 years of progressive effort after this period simply isn't enough time to undo that entire 240 years of history.
When things like de facto-segregation (Segregation by a matter of fact, not a matter of law) of neighborhoods, disproportionate amount of poverty among blacks, and absolutely terrible public schooling in the inner city where many minorities live (this ties into de facto-segregation) continue to exist, the real racial divide in the United States can't really be fully fixed. Hear me out, I promise I am not a BLM apologist.
Don't get me wrong, great strides have been made over the past 50 years, but it has only been 50 years. There's still more work to be done, but the issue has faded from the public perception yet still exists and rears its ugly head when you see blacks often doing some really counter productive and down right destructive things, like violent rioting or in this case, hi-jacking a ceremony that should have been just that, a ceremony. On the flip side, black on black crime accounts for far too large of gun crime in the United States, yet the majority (For the most part white) turn a blind eye to the deaths of thousands, and the lives utterly ruined by said deaths. It's not just "ignorant blacks killing themselves." as people often proclaim, it's truly a deeper issue that has not been resolved. BLM, or should i say, the radical BLM members do say this, but they don't say it in any matter of productive way, and in fact use the issues in an extremely destructive manner that only deepens the rift.
The only way for the racial divide in America to be fixed is a concerted effort by both Blacks and Whites to reconcile the issues, however I feel and have been demonstrated that BLM often misses this message completely. The message of Martin Luther King wasn't "forget the white man and forget everybody who collaborates with him, forget all the other minority groups too because our issue is the one that needs hearing!", If that had been his message of MLK, chances are i'd still have to use a 'Colored' restroom to this day. On the flip side, whites must also make a concerted effort and try to understand blacks as Americans as well, Americans who often suffer more than them disproportionately, Americans who are often left with no options but the worst options in life, not entirely by a choice on their own, but because all the cards have been stacked against them. Black people aren't out to destroy you, like any peoples the general populace just want peace and prosperity in their life, but for many Blacks the general prosperity cannot be attained due to massive poverty. And please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not saying successful Blacks don't exist, there's an absolute ton of them, what i'm saying is there's is simply far too many in wide scale poverty.
This makes things complex, and makes it an issue for both races. It's not a black problem, it's not a white problem, it's an American problem.
It's not about seeing people as categories and hard coded stereotypes, it is in the end about seeing people as people. I have an optimistic outlook on the future, I really truly believe things can get better, and America as a nation, white and black, can start healing one of it's oldest and more severe wounds once again.
That's basically my thoughts on these matters.
