Will black lives ever matter?

[RockLock]

So another killing of a black man Ahmaud Arbery by 2 white men (Father and son) in US. They nearly got away with it calling it a citizen arrest and self defence. Father was a retired policeman.

They followed him, armed with guns and shot him.

Prosecutors tried to cover it up until the video emerged.
Ahmaud’s crime? He was going for a jog.

Will black lives ever matter?

@HavartitoMeetYou great post

I saw a very sad post on Twitter today posted by a black man in the USA saying he doesn't run at night for this very reason.

I don't get off the train at my local strain station at night. It's dark and isolated and makes me feel vulnerable. I feel this way because I'm a woman. Something I can't change. I can understand how bloody sick to death people of colour are having to manage their existence because of their skin colour.

I hope black lives will one day have equal worth in society, and women's lives too for that matter. All lives should matter but at the moment society does not give them all equal weight. The swing towards populism makes me fear we are in fact moving away from equality for all.

In the US, black men are the largest demographic of murder victims

White men are second

Hispanic men are third

Women of all ethnicities are a minority as murder victims but white women get murdered the most, black women second and Hispanic women third.

Black men are the largest demographic over all and also the largest demographic to be murdered by another ethnicity

YANBU. I am not BAME but I can see this is not right. I know it’s not everyone and I don’t live the way some of my friends do, the fear, the difference in treatment. A part of me hopes that things will change but somehow I don’t think it will any time soon

@Thisfeelslikearipoff, well done for both missing the point of the op, and making it about white people in the most horrific way possible. You must be so proud of how graphic you got there to really hammer home 'but white people get racially attacked as well!!'.

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@areyoubeingserviced Oh absolutely! In fact that's one thing I fear the most for black men than being stopped and searched - having a casual sexual encounter with a white woman who isn't sober; or indeed even if she is has explicitly not sent a text saying "come over let's fuck." It would be straight to jail - white women at uni used to joke about this all the time.

@Thisfeelslikearipoff What’s your point? I must have missed the previous posts which said there isn’t any anti-white racism anywhere in the world?

White women in many regards are actually a hell of a lot more dangerous than white men. They can weaponise their proximity to white men and indeed their tears, they're more likely to be our nurses, teachers etc.. It's pretty terrifying.

But that's all - I'm off to read the more relaxed threads about who's neighbour isn't clapping for the NHS or putting out bunting for VE day.

If a couple of men, black or white, approached me without any weapons, saying they 'just wanted to talk' to me, I'd be expecting at best sexual harassment, at worst kidnap, rape and murder. And I'd want to run, scream, fight, anything to get away from them. It's happened, I've escaped however I could. It's what girls and women have to do daily to stay safe.

And that's in the UK, not anywhere with guns, not somewhere where there is a known history of anybody in a uniform being likely to rape women like me and being protected by the state, with all my privileges from being an arguably middle class white woman.

To think that anybody has to go about their day knowing that not only are randoms quite likely to kill them, people representing the state are likely to kill them and claim they were justified/frightened/they made them do it just due to how they look, is horrifying.

That's why Black Lives Matter.

Afternoon, all.

We've deleted a few posts on this thread already for racism and victim blaming.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, here's a BBC story on this. It seems pretty clear to us that the man who was murdered was nothing but an innocent victim, out minding his own business going for a jog. We don't think it's acceptable to be calling his motives or character into question.

We'll delete any further victim blaming here, so please do hit the report button if you spot anything like that or posts that break our talk guidelines in other ways and we will take a look right away.

This murder was horrible and I do believe they’ve finally been arrested so hopefully it will end in a lengthy jail sentence.

However it’s just not indicative of a larger trend. Most US killings are intraracial (ie blacks killing blacks and whites killing whites).

Of those that cross racial lines, black people disproportionately kill white people in the US. This is clear from FBI stats.

A lot of people pointing out how shockingly bad it is in America. That's because it's so overt.

It's places like this very country that are the real issue, case in point this thread....

You can’t talk about racism without acknowledging slavery and colonialism - the roots of this awful act are born out of a history of black people being subjugated, enslaved, lynched, sold, beaten and killed on a whim. It continued through Jim Crow and still continues, societal attitudes told those men they had the right to approach this man to challenge him about burglary in the area, they had the right to do so carrying guns and to shoot.

There’s no way on earth I’d be having a calm conversation with an armed man about anything - ridiculous you think anyone should, or that it’s was ok for them to die in such circumstances.

When I was still in Facebook I spent 6 hours watching videos one after a other of black people beings harassed just going about their day. Black people being shot, unarmed going about their day. Pregnant black being body slammed to the floor by police or beings harassed by white men and women.
If you think this isn’t a huge problem in the states then you’re most probably white and wilfully blind.

Exactly @memememoi

THANK YOU @HebeMumsnet

The link doesn’t seem to be working so just posting this one here: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-us-canada-52585505

RIP Ahmaud Arbery

I have had a version of the talk with my (white) lad whose childhood friend happens to be black in our very white village. His friend is very full of life, mischevious and cheeky (in a nice way).

I have pointed out that if they do something daft, or get into a scrape or rub one of the village stalwarts up the wrong way then it is likely to have much more serious implications for his mate than for him and that he needs to be the sensible one and put the brakes on those rule bending impulses.

I know his mum worries about him a lot.

Thank you @HebeMumsnet
I'm pleased you've put out such a strong statement.

@Jellycatspyjamas cool story. But how has that got anything to do with an innocent BM jogging and getting gunned down??

Stinks like dog shit in here

It's the sad and harsh reality of our society. The BAME community is heavily represented by people like @SkinRash who make decisions on how ethnic equality should be addressed and eradicated, hence why very little is done to help eradicate racism.

I am non-white and have experienced some form of racism in the UK.
I work in a professional Industry which is heavily dominated by white male and I remember my first year in the job so vividly. I was told by one of my white colleagues that I was only employed to help meet the company's diversity target. It was the first time I experienced racism which I was aware of in my life . This has stayed with me up until today. Prior to that I honestly thought it was because I was suitable enough. This ruined my confidence in the job and I actually had to seek therapy as I became soo paranoid and assumed that everyone in my team was racist. I always felt that I had to work 10 times harder than my colleagues in order to gain the same recognition. Yes, Racism still exists in the UK.

Last week, I spent a considerable amount of time on my local Facebook page fighting off a poster who said something to the extent of " My Romanian neighbours are not practising social distancing ...." I pointed out that the background of her neighbours were irrelevant to the point and I was gobsmacked at the number of people who disagreed with me citing that Romanians normally think they are above the law etc etc. We have a long way to go and sometimes I feel helpless but I will keep on educating and fighting for equality. Sigh

"I think this murder is terrible"

Then in the next breath

"But however-"

Lol some of you are just gross

Romanians normally think they are above the law etc etc.

FFS, did I spend the last 7 weeks indoors for nothing then?

At least now I know..

"I think this murder is terrible" Then in the next breath" But however-"

If you think the stats I provided are wrong, let me know. But I am saying while this is a sad incident it is not indicative of a larger trend according to FBI statistics. The fact is more white people are killed by black people than the reverse; but the reality is that murders tend to follow racial lines more than anything. This is the USA so I have no idea about the UK.

@HelloToMyKitty so do you believe that black people are killing white people because they are white??