23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black In America

[PhantOS]

That doesn't account for the 5x figure.
Are unarmed black people 5x more likely to be dangerous then? Is that what accounts for these numbers? Black people are superhuman?

or maybe the police are just pussies and shoot anyone who scares them

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[Red Spy]

Yes that sounds very likely let's go with that

[freshmin]

I wonder why?

no, that image isn't why, in fact about the time that media started rapidly pushing out stories of cop on black violence was around the time of the trayvon martin killing (i know georgie boy wasn't a cop but it was around that time), which was in 2012

[ultimamax]

or maybe the police are just pussies and shoot anyone who scares them

It's some combination of lack of proper training, police militarization, eagerness to use deadly force, the mentality of police officers to protect one another from the consequences of killing people, and purposeful targeting of minorities by the police.

no, that image isn't why, in fact about the time that media started rapidly pushing out stories of cop on black violence was around the time of the trayvon martin killing (i know georgie boy wasn't a cop but it was around that time), which was in 2012

Maybe the media started pushing them out because having two black teenagers killed within such a short timespan (Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown) provoked the black community to make this problem more visible. It's no coincidence that Black Lives Matter started around that time.  What you're describing is actually just the media finally reporting these killing.

[Red Spy]

It's some combination of lack of proper training, police militarization, eagerness to use deadly force, the mentality of police officers to protect one another from the consequences of killing people, and purposeful targeting of minorities by the police.

You sure know alot about the police

[freshmin]

Maybe the media started pushing them out because having two black teenagers killed within such a short timespan (Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown) provoked the black community to make this problem more visible. It's no coincidence that Black Lives Matter started around that time.  What you're describing is actually just the media finally reporting these killing.

there were plenty of black killings reported before 2012, but now that's all there is, the media puts way too much effort into reporting black killings because that's what makes money, that's what people want to watch, it has nothing to do with news stations wanting to bring attention to it for the sake of bring attention to it

[ultimamax]

there were plenty of black killings reported before 2012, but now that's all there is, the media puts way too much effort into reporting black killings because that's what makes money, that's what people want to watch, it has nothing to do with news stations wanting to bring attention to it for the sake of bring attention to it

Okay, but if disproportionate violence towards black people is actually a problem, then why isn't this anything but a win-win situation? Anything news stations report on is inherently for money, because they're a business. That bias cannot be denied. But that doesn't mean that these news stations don't also want to make this issue more visible to help prevent it?

This applies to any injustice. The news isn't exclusively owned by the government, so if they decide to report on any wrongdoing at all, they are profiting from it.

[freshmin]

Okay, but if disproportionate violence towards black people is actually a problem, then why isn't this anything but a win-win situation?

it's not a win-win situation at all because all the stories are all about race, i haven't seen a single "person killed by cop" story where they didn't include the races of both parties, and that creates groups of people separate from each other, all the stories are black vs. white, race vs. race, it would be fine if it was just "black man killed by cop", but they make it seem like we're in the middle of some kind of race war, and that can only lead to more violence

[ultimamax]

it's not a win-win situation at all because all the stories are all about race, i haven't seen a single "person killed by cop" story where they didn't include the races of both parties, and that creates groups of people separate from each other, all the stories are black vs. white, race vs. race, it would be fine if it was just "black man killed by cop", but they make it seem like we're in the middle of some kind of race war, and that can only lead to more violence

If they're trying to point out systemic violence towards a particular race, the only way they can do that is to use race descriptors.

[otto-san]

there's definitely credit to the idea that media can perpetuate and exacerbate problems through the choices made on how events are reported, and what events are reported. that doesn't mean a problem is any more or less real, but it can certainly shape the public response

the reason why media doesn't offer the same coverage for similar events of the majority race is because that's irrelevant to the topic they're actually discussing, whether or not they're responding appropriately to that topic isn't so much the concern

[Sheepocalypse]

Lmao really?
"Holding a fake gun" Like forget, that kill is most likely justified.

[ultimamax]

Lmao really?
"Holding a fake gun" Like forget, that kill is most likely justified.

Tamir Rice is literally a kid who was holding an airsoft gun in Walmart. Someone called the cops and he was shot without warning.

[PhantOS]

Lmao really?
"Holding a fake gun" Like forget, that kill is most likely justified.

insult to injury would be the fact that the officers didn't even do first aid, even after they determined the gun was fake

[Mysteroo]

Damnit ultimax you're going to summon the ghost of Tezuni Von Antiliberal

90% sure that graph is bullcrap since far more white people are killed by police in general than black people. (numerically, not percentage-wise)

Not to mention that even if it wasn't- just LOOK at the graph. It's average unarmed deaths per 1 million people, and the results are literally separated by 2 people. 1/2 a white person per 1,000,000 on average, and 2 1/2 black per 1,000,000. That is so tiny; it means nothing

It can easily be chalked up to demographics- which is that the poorest people in the U.S is where a large chunk of the black population resides. Not because of other racial issues- but because parts of a culture that descended from slavery did not value education as much and therefore are more inclined to find themselves in a lesser economic state. This was then passed on through several generations. Obviously they're just as capable, but there's this culture that developed partially because of this history, which makes it harder to rise up on the economic ladder.

LOGICALLY if most encounters with police are with that economic level - you're going to have more accidents with black people.

edit: and I just realized that I bumped a conversation that might have died otherwise. Yay me. :I

[ultimamax]

90% sure that graph is bullcrap since far more white people are killed by police in general than black people. (numerically, not percentage-wise)
Yes, more white people are killed numerically, but black people are a much smaller population than white people. The proportions are what matter, because they highlight a bias.

Not to mention that even if it wasn't- just LOOK at the graph. It's average unarmed deaths per 1 million people, and the results are literally separated by 2 people. 1/2 a white person per 1,000,000 on average, and 2 1/2 black per 1,000,000. That is so tiny; it means nothing

The trend is still an issue. You could just as easily say "most people don't die in fires, fires are very rare it's not a problem" but we continue to fund public firefighters, because human lives are important.

It can easily be chalked up to demographics- which is that the poorest people in the U.S is where a large chunk of the black population resides. Not because of other racial issues- but because parts of a culture that descended from slavery did not value education as much and therefore are more inclined to find themselves in a lesser economic state.

Right, like black people had all the same opportunities as white people right after 1865. I don't feel like going into a laborious explanation of how black people have been systematically oppressed for the last 150 years after slavery. We can at least agree that they were pretty forgeted until the Civil Rights Era right? Do you expect an entire lower socioeconomic class of people to just bounce up to the same class as white people? There are still people alive who could only drink from particular water fountains.

This was then passed on through several generations. Obviously they're just as capable, but there's this culture that developed partially because of this history, which makes it harder to rise up on the economic ladder.

You shouldn't shift the blame for the socioeconomic state of the black community onto their "culture". Black people have been getting the stuff end of the stick since the Triangle trade.

LOGICALLY if most encounters with police are with that economic level - you're going to have more accidents with black people.

I already explained this earlier to Red Spy - black people represent 28% of arrests despite being around 13% of the population. From that, we would expect for black people to be twice as white people to be killed by the police, yet it's not 2x, it's 5x.

edit: and I just realized that I bumped a conversation that might have died otherwise. Yay me. :I