Like I said before, if you the approach you want to take is simply vocalizing an "all racism is wrong" position (after one group has suffered disproportionately and is still feeling some of the lasting effects to this day), then while you may believe it's all wrong, don't expect any fences to be mended by that.
If I spent 10 years vandalizing your property (costing you thousands of dollars that you were still trying to pay back to this day), because the city didn't have any rule against it...and in some cases, embraced it, a new township ordinance cracking down on vandalism moving forward, alone, isn't going to do much to correct any past damage or give you any sort of satisfaction or make your current situation any better.
Everyone in the town saying "we realize now, that all vandalism is wrong" isn't going to make you feel much better either.
It's going to make you feel even worse when you try to advocate for policies that will help you out, and everyone patronizingly tells you "if you would've worked harder, you'd have more money to get your windows fixed and wouldn't be in this situation"
It's not going to take long before the thought crosses your mind of "hmmm...I wonder how they'd like it if someone vandalized their home and they had to cover the costs"
...like I said, it wouldn't make it right, but it certainly doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how that progression of animus could occur.
...it'd be one thing if that were occurring.
For instance, if the vast majority of society was doing everything possible to right racial wrongs, and trying to take steps to undo damage, and you still had people bitter and engaging in, let's call it, retaliatory-racism for past wrongs, then I'd probably be on the opposite side of the debate along with you guys.
But that's not what's happening, and we shouldn't pretend that's what's happening.
In reality, the "all racism is bad" idea is one that's vocalized, but many folks (particularly on the far-right) only seem to invoke that talking point when they can pinpoint a case of black-on-white racism.
When folks in the black community try to highlight issues and current instances of racism targeting them, many of the "all racism is bad" folks on the far-right seemingly do everything they can to find a way to prove that "it's not racism, you're just being oversensitive" or "it's not racism, this is technically just your own fault because of XYZ"
Or, they make one of these disingenuous counter-movements or slogans (like the type I was describing before) like "All Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter".
Basically, a portion of the country gives lip-service to that idea when think they can use it to prove some sort of point, but attempt to rationalize it or make it seem unimportant or secondary in many other cases.
For instance, many folks (not picking on you, Ana, or Ken here...I've never seen this behavior from you 3), who are quick to use the "all racism is bad" and use it as a central focal point when things like this story happen when they're trying to make a point...but when things like instances of racially motivated police action occur, the talking points are very different.
"What did they do wrong that made the police officer shoot?"
"We need to see the rest of the video"
"It's important to keep in mind that not all cops are bad"
"There's a culture problem, if they didn't dress & act like thugs, they wouldn't draw so much attention from cops"
Or my favorite, when someone mentions disproportionate sentencing for the same crime, the response of "well, the solution is simple, just don't break the law and you won't have to worry about it"
The vast majority of society HAS overcome to right racial wrongs. It's the minority that haven't.
The majority of people anymore look at actions rather than skin color. If I owned a store and a white dude walked in looking for a job and looked like a thug, acted like a thug and a black walked in dressed appropriately and acted like a normal person I would hire him 10 x out of 10 over the white dude. And if they both looked and acted like thugs I wouldn't hire either. If they both looked and acted the same I would definitely have some work to do to figure out who would be the best hire. If everything was equal I would probably ask about their past to see who I think needed the opportunity the most.
So any way, most people judge on actions not skin color.
And as far as BLM vs Blue Lives Matter is to counter the racist argument. Why because people ASSUME racism. A white gets shot and people don't get all up in arms about it because most of the time there isn't anything to get bent out of shape about. But a black guy get s shot and immediately the response is that the cop was racist or bigotted. That's why the response is, let's see the video first before jumping to conclusions. It's because the black community jumped first. Where is the outcry from them to say, let's see the video first. No the response is the cop was racist.
Look we all want to be understood. We all want to not be blamed for other peoples actions. Black people don't want to be blamed for other black peoples actions. White people don't want to be blamed for other white peoples actions. And we all don't want to have others assume the worst of us, because of what someone else did.
Racism is insideous. And the only way to overcome the racial divide is to be kind to one another and don't assume the worst in each other. Then not condone
it or excuse it when we see it. As long as we allow it under the guise of "well we have to understand" it will never go away.
Because then we just lend credence to the "I don't trust black people because I was assaulted by black people." Then racism will continue. Can we understand why? Sure, but should we say, it's okay because we understand? I don't think so.
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