Anime cosplayer shot dead while being black.

[40kGamer]

I genuinely wish it didn't work this way, but I've seen it happen. I went to school where the population was almost entirely white, with one black kid a couple of years younger than me. He was always in fights, people would spread rumours, he was the focus of bullying solely for being different in a way that couldn't ever be hidden.

And for middle school I had to ride a bus with the high school kids. They got on first and the older white kids took all the back seats and would not let me set with them forcing me to set up front with the black kids. Every day the black kids would smack my ears until they were blood red while the white female bus driver two seats up ignored the whole thing. So I lived with it until I bulked up, kicked the holy crap out of a couple kids and got the whole respect through fear reputation that kept everyone off my back. Was it racism for black kids to smack around a smaller white kid simply because I was white? Or do we need a new word for it?

It's not a raw, burning hatred of skin colour, it's the systematic web of rumours, lies and propaganda that leaves even good people thinking, "I dunno about that guy, he looks shifty…. You see them as something less than yourself, less than human, even if only a little.

If you’ve ever met white supremist, there’s an easy to see burning hatred of skin colour.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Warning: The video below might not be pleasant for some - it includes what can only be described as an execution by firing squad:


Here's your problem, not one of those officers stops to say, "hey, all of us unloading into this guy might be excessive."

Eight. F**king. Officers. Each firing six bullets. That's f**king...how can that even be justified? If this happened in Afghanistan, it would be a war crime. Soldiers would be trialled and court-martialled for cold bloody murder. How is there absolutely zero discipline or control on the part of the police officers.

The victim doesn't even charge them, he starts walking away from the camera and they decide to unload! Not a single warning shot, a volley of shots to kill. He didn't threaten them, didn't even move towards them!

At least they handcuff him afterwards. I mean, really, shoot someone down, they're on the floor breathing their last, so you put a boot on their back and cuff them up?

You wouldn't use this much force to execute a rabid dog attacking people, it's just...

Well, it's justice. They were found to be fully within their right to exercise that force, because it was eight officers versus one dead man in the courts. No-one was convicted for this, the court considered this fair.

[40kGamer]

They rarely do, and even if some say it they don't have the capacity to do so. Wishing harm on an oppressive majority who actively deny your experiences of oppression isn't exactly reprehensible either. The trouble is most privileged people don't realise how very far the pendulum is swung in their favour and perceive efforts to reach equality as efforts which punish them:

It takes the wind out of the sails but you are spot on that people on the winning side just don't want to share their good fortune. It's still sad to consciously admit that how our life goes is riding heavily on an event we can not control.... our own birth. With that thought I'm off to look at kittens and puppies to rebalance my mental attitude.

- - - Updated - - -

[url]http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/25/critics-see-racial-double-standard-in-coverage-of-/?page=all[/url]

[url]http://downtrend.com/71superb/unarmed-white-man-shot-by-police-no-riots-al-sharpton-silent-obama-keeps-golfing/[/url]

It's not as common but police do shoot unarmed white people for no reason. This case is a close match to the Ferguson case but is basically a media black hole. Just no interest in an unarmed white youth being killed by a black cop.

[Morgrim]

Can we be careful with the definition of 'racism'? I think eldargal in particular is falling into a trap I see quite often online where the word is taken to refer only to 'systemic racism'. It doesn't. The word refers to any incident where discrimination occurs based on race. That's it. And that is how the vast majority of people define it. I was groped by a group of older boys as a teen and they got off scot free because I was white and they weren't. That's racism. But it isn't systemic racism.

It's entirely possible for caucasians to suffer racism. But in western countries they cannot suffer the same deeply embedded cultural discrimination that people of other ethnic groups can. I think we all understand this, or at least I hope we do. So can we discuss this and how to possibly fix things rather than chasing each other in circles due to there being some groups that are trying to redefine the word 'racism' to have a narrower meaning, and then the resultant semantics tripping everyone else up?

(Also it's a pity we don't have a better word for that social power imbalance, because while 'privilege' is used it doesn't really fit either, and english tends to be really bad at shoehorning an old word into a new shape.)

[Psychosplodge]

(Also it's a pity we don't have a better word for that social power imbalance, because while 'privilege' is used it doesn't really fit either, and english tends to be really bad at shoehorning an old word into a new shape.)

We just tend to find a new one...

[eldargal]

[URL="http://blacknerdproblems.com/site/the-sobering-of-reality-of-actual-black-nerd-problems/"]THE SOBERING REALITY OF ACTUAL BLACK NERD PROBLEMS[/URL]

There was Jon Snow’s “Longclaw”, Cloud Strife’s sword “Buster”, Nariko’s “Heavenly Sword” and many, many more. I picked up “Buster” and marveled at its weight. This thing was awesome. I had no idea where I would put it, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t contemplate dropping some credits on it. I mean, come on: FINAL FANTASY VII MEMORABILIA!
And then, I got really, really sober and put it down. I smiled at the vendor, told him how great all the stuff looked, then walked away. Maybe it was because I had just seen this tumblr post of tweets collected from Carrie McClain. Maybe it was because the autopsy of 22-year-old Darrien Hunt, the cosplayer in Utah was just released and confirmed that he was shot at least six times by police, at least four of them in his back. Suddenly, the idea of carrying around a giant sword wasn’t as appealing.

I want to be clear and realistic about something: I am aware of two things simultaneously. I am uber-aware of the violence against black men and boys based solely upon the fact that someone was scared of them by default. I talk about that a lot, constantly really, because Trayvon and Jordan and Michael and Darrien and…and…and… happen a lot. Constantly, really. But I am also aware of my personal disposition. As a physical stature, I am included in that bull**** Ben Stein would call “armed with my big scary self.” But I also don’t look like I’m in my early 20s either. Maybe my life has been saved multiple times without my knowing because some cop or 2nd amendment lifer thought that older translated to “not as much of a threat.” Who knows what magical combination of black and wide shoulders and greying beard unlocks the secret of being black and safe to exist.

But a real Black Nerd Problem is not knowing if your cosplay will get you killed. Or if phaser equals wallet equals 41 empty shell casings later. Or feeling compelled to write this column in the first place.

[Mr Mystery]

There's also the added issue that Nerdom is generally considered the domain of pasty, pasty white boys from middling class backgrounds.