African American
Related: About this forumWhy White Americans Don’t Believe in ‘Personal Accountability’ For Police
BY JAMES THINDWA
http://inthesetimes.com/article/17932/do-the-nations-police-suffer-from-the-soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations
By a margin of 41 percent to 34 percent, white Americans say police treat African Americans and white people equally, according to a YouGov poll conducted 11 days after Freddy Grays death. African Americans, however, overwhelmingly76 percent to 13 percentsaid that cops treat them unfairly.
The responses of white Americans are unsettling in light of the seemingly endless video accounts of racially tinged police violence circulating online, the millions of dollars cities have paid to settle police brutality lawsuits, and the many studies that have demonstrated a racial bias in policing.
A disturbingly large number of white Americans, it seems, willfully dismiss the evidence. Perhaps their own relatively uneventful contact with police provides comfortable distance and deniability. Or maybe white America has been swayed by persuasive and powerful counternarratives, especially from conservative media.
Whatever the explanation, there is a bewildering disconnect between white tolerance of police misconductincluding homicidesand the call for personal accountability that has long permeated our national policy discussions. Championed by conservatives and furthered by liberal elites wary of social justice, personal accountability has been elevated to a national religion. In the 1990s, with full cooperation by the Clinton administration, this rhetoric was used as a cudgel against the poor in order to pave the way for draconian welfare reforms, packaged as The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The same dogma helped justify the three strikes youre out and mandatory minimums policies that fueled the countrys racist and expensive incarceration frenzy. Today, politicians brandish the term to demand drug testing for poor recipients of public aid and to cut social programs that help the needy.
marym625
(17,997 posts)Kick!
F4lconF16
(3,747 posts)That's...depressing. I'd be curious to see a demographic breakdown.
marym625
(17,997 posts)Old Codger
(4,205 posts)This white american thinks thy should be held to an extremely high standard of ethics and should all be adorned with body cams that cannot under any circumstance be disabled or turned off under penalty of firing and jail time. PERIOD!!If the body cam become inoperable they are to immediately return to their stations and have it replaced or repaired before returning to duty.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)I am not surprised at something like this at all. Post racial dontchaknow......
sheshe2
(83,718 posts)The Supremes told us so.
The answer, of course, is that the dogma of personal accountability was never an honest critique, but a ploy to serve conservative racial and political goals. It targets poor black people, who dont produce votes for the GOP but can be used as fodder for its race-baiting electoral strategy. It targets teachers and their unions, who represent the last remaining barrier between the billions spent on public education nationwide and the corporate shysters trying to get at that money through privatization.
Thank you for this thread, Mr. Scorpio.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)and get some training in controlling their biases. They are too quick on the trigger with black men. Every case involves a white cop and a black man ending up dead. This latest one, Freddie Gray, is egregious.
As for personal responsibility the right wingers are total hypocrites. They never take any. And they never had to face what black people face. And they had opportunities they could take advantage of. They judge everyone else as if things were the same for them.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)the truth about Clinton and POC is usually dismissed.
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)...and again, when I hear black people complain about Obama and/or Eric Holder, it infuriates me!
If they knew that the president/Holder worked on these issues...some of the first actions they took!! UGH!!
When people praise Bill Clinton for this bullshit, I go ape shit!
JustAnotherGen
(31,798 posts)Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)and "minimum sentencing," but the so-called liberals still tear down Eric Holder and the president to no end.
When I hear black people do the same, it breaks my heart.
These two issues were among the first actions taken by President Obama when he entered office. But again, it'll never be good enough.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Last edited Thu May 21, 2015, 04:15 PM - Edit history (1)
some so called liberals and progressives because of this site mainly, but also by listening to people when they discussed the shootings of unarmed POC and the aftermaths. What little idealism I had left has been flushed just like a lot of the excreta I have read here. Not so liberal and not so progressive. The social battles for equality of 60's and 70's showed me one thing that has remained true, truth is always diminished or watered down(to slow social progress and equality)by those with the most to lose. How do I know? 200 years and still battling to be perceived as worth just as much as those who perceive they have too much to lose to accept this premise.
Obama and Holder are doing as much as they can, I feel, given the number of enemies(in a racist perspective)they have to battle against in the quagmire of D.C. and lack of 'real' support from our Party.
leftofkant
(14 posts)Positive social change is fragile despite being so hard-won. Still possible, I tell myself...