We pretty much elected tribals out of office in the 60s
I'm sorry, what? Racism pervades society and government even today. We're far from a Utopia.
Jitank, while your frustration is not baseless, and I do agree with many of the causes which you represent, I find it difficult to support you given your demeanor when approached with the subject, or as it seems often, that you bring it up from a perceived offense. While I may get flak from the forums, I do not care, for I still count you as a friend, but please allow me to correct any ideas that you have on how to go about this.
First, it is not productive to get out there and raise hell regarding a subject. Staging an outrage when others may be simply ambivalent or unaware of the problem will not convince them—it is typically fruitless. In addition, being so eager to take a position that white people are the cause for the suffering of people of color and that you hold the concept of white privilege and perhaps some you believe to exploit it in contempt, especially while failing to provide proof that supports your cause on a mostly white forum only pits you against the majority
and pits you against those who believe in the same cause but are doing what they can to present their cause as a righteous one. Next, the argument you may have may be about incivility, but to those who are unable to relate, bringing that incivility to them will not help you one iota. For instance, one of the reasons people believe you to be a troll is because you seem to be pushing out responses for the sole reason to get a response so you can prove it wrong. Everyone can see that here, and it feels like an insult to the intelligence of those arguing against you as well as a defamation to any intellectual character you try to maintain. You spoke earlier about black people having to tread differently in different neighborhoods, well, this might be an example—if trying to relate metaphorically to the intellectual neighborhood called the forums. Then, there's the issue of seeming to get triggered by the word, "monday". I understand that it is a disrespectful and rude thing to say, and I too get very upset that people say it, however, I try to not let it show. Letting yourself get visibly upset from a word meant to defame only gives power to their words. It tells them that saying tribal things works and it keeps you, and perhaps many others, in line. Finally, I know that there's more that I can dispute here, but not all of this is important or necessary to bring up. The last thing is that you failed to recognize a metaphor because God was mentioned in it. Users have already called you out on this before, but I believe it is important in this discourse to mention. The metaphor wasn't about God; it was about you. Disputing faith when the metaphor doesn't even address faith is not helping you one bit—it shows you want to bring more fight to the arena than there already is. One argument that I dislike is "You're not black, so you wouldn't understand the struggle." I've heard it plenty of times. The problem with it, and many other similar arguments is that it does not teach people and unify them on a matter, rather, it is divisive and tells people not only that they don't understand, but that they will never be able to understand.
Do you get what I'm trying to say, Jitank? You're a really cool guy, but in all honesty, this kinda stuff you put yourself through is hard to watch. And if you want to hear my stand on the matter of BLM, racism, and such, I'll be glad to talk about it with anyone, but I realize I probably excessively soapbox without invitation.
