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?

Is that his mother? She looks like his sister. In any other world that is what we would be joking about. But in America it is about debating whether a black guy running has any excuse not to die. I swear to god I've had enough now.These hillbillies need to watch out. I'm going to make sure we hold them to account from now on. Don't worry.

"I'm just going to the [Insert racist word here] shop do you want anything" is just 1 example before anyone reads this thinking that I'm probably being a sensitive snowflake (ugh)

I remember hearing that from my mil and was speechless. I was hoping that maybe it meant something different in the UK than it did in the US since it is a well-known racial slur. BIL pulled her up on it instantly and her response was that was what we’ve always called them. She’s well-traveled in her 70’s and not one who would be called frail or elderly so it was shocking that she would still think it was ok to say. I only realised her age meant nothing when I read on another website that many people still use that phrase and think nothing of it.

There is so much whataboutery on this thread it's making my head spin. I always knew this site had a massive blind spot when it comes to racism (like when a person of colour comes on to AIBU having suffered from a racist incident and people pile on to tell them they are mistaken, it's all just a misunderstanding) but this just takes the cake. If you honestly believe that this tragic murder and many others like it are not directly attributable to racism, I really despair. Many people like to reduce racism to individual bias to create some kind of moral equivalence of the 'all lives matter' variety, but this is not how racism works. Racism is institutional and embedded into every aspect of society, it is pervasive and at its worst it kills black people, as demonstrated by this killing. Individual prejudice against white people is really not comparable against centuries of enslavement, disenfranchisement and legal and social discrimination. This is not ancient history, it is recent and its effects are very much seen today.

If anyone is genuinely interested in learning more and combating some of the silly arguments about 'black on black crime' being peddled on this thread, try Akala's Natives. It's very accessible and a good read.

Come on guys, there's lots of racism in the UK and I know it. I recently took an employer to tribunal (someone who employs 5000 employees) and successfully sued them for racial discrimination.

If I never hear that fucking dog whistle "all lives matter" phrase again it'll be too soon.

The people perpetuating the whataboutery are not confused ...they are positively trying to be racist. So please save your breath. (And come hither)

Yes, there's racism in the UK - and pretty much everywhere else too. What about this incident where this person died as a result of it?

And thanks for that recommendation about Akala's Natives, Rodehereonthebus I'll follow that up.

@PlanDeRaccordement 'slaves' became slaves after they were stolen. Of course the enslaved humans went through horrific things, being slaves. My point is that they were free men and women like you and I. This sentiment of African's being slaves contributes to the thinking that black people matter less than others - they were just slaves.

My correction stands. If you don't get it, leave it. Just don't go around calling free people, stolen from their homeland, slaves. They only became slaves after they were stolen. They weren't sitting in their homes as slaves.

Sorry for derailing the thread @RockLock

Yes, there's racism in the UK - and pretty much everywhere else too. What about this incident where this person died as a result of it?

I think this thread has pretty much summed up that in big big 2020 black lives (and I'm not talking about the so called movement here) still do not matter one bit.

memememoi I hope you're not implying that I inferred that this life did not matter. Because it did. It was the only life he had. It's a precious life his mother gave birth to, that his father contributed to. His siblings shared.

memememoi Yep. And I had the misfortune of venturing onto American Twitter. Omg, they are the most disgusting excuses for humans I have ever encountered.

trib.al/SyrEji6

Well fuck.

There were no burglaries

Many of the people taken from West Africa in the Atlantic slave trade were already slaves, and were bought from their African slave owners by the British, Portuguese etc prior to transportation.

Insideoutsuder
No I get it. You said in your original post that humans were stolen and they were “enslaved in other countries”

Which is not historically accurate. They were enslaved in Africa by slavers, they were marched through miles of jungles away from their homelands and held in wooden barricades on the coast of Africa. The slavers then sold them to slave traders who loaded them onto slave ships that sailed from Africa to other countries. By saying that they were “enslaved in other countries” it appeared you were saying that they left Africa as free people of their own choice and then only on arrival in another country, they were then enslaved. This is not true.

I agree with your second post, that they were free until they were stolen. But the stealing and enslavement happened in Africa, not after they arrived at the “other countries” (if they survived the horrors of the transatlantic sea journey)

That was the part I objected to in your “correction”

It's like people who don't understand lack of privilege. Maybe lack of jobs in the new recession world will make people have sympathy for people who are worse off than them through no fault of their own. Or maybe not.

As a black woman, I utterly despair. My heart is broken.

Wow, I have come back to a series of deletions and more wilful ignorance.

Fedhimtotigers I also read that there were no reported burglaries in the last month. Feel sick.

Honestly, I think we need sanctions against America, but they're our 'special friend' 🙄

Maybe lack of jobs in the new recession world will make people have sympathy for people who are worse off than them through no fault of their own.

You'd think so, but going by what happened in the past, the minority groups will be hit the hardest (BAME, women, disabled etc) while at the same time being used as scapegoats and others will project their anger at them.

YANBU OP, without a shadow of doubt. This murder is shocking and despicable on several levels.

@Moonmelodies Many of the people taken from West Africa in the Atlantic slave trade were already slaves, and were bought from their African slave owners by the British, Portuguese etc prior to transportation. The African system of slavery vs slavery in USA is in no way comparable. In Africa they had many more rights, were not raped and murdered, etc. It was a totally different system which was much more civilised and humane. 'Enslaved Africans' is the correct term.

“In Africa they had many more rights, were not raped and murdered, etc.”. No, not true in the slightest. Just ask any slave living in Africa now. A slave has no rights. If the person has rights, it’s not slavery.

Most of the people taken by the Atlantic and East Africa slave trades were originally free, then prisoners/captives of war, before being sold into slavery.

For those of you who don’t know, the same time the Atlantic slave trade was going on in West Africa, East Africa was being ravaged by an overland slave trade into the Middle East and extending into SE Asia. Africa was under attack on two fronts during those centuries.

Taken from bbc news:

^Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for the family, asked for the same justice for Mr Arbery as if the situations were reversed and Mr Arbery and his father had attacked an unarmed white man.
"We know beyond a shadow of a doubt they would've been arrested on day one," Mr Crump said, adding that he does not trust the local police department.
He called for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to investigate the officers who did not arrest the McMichaels.
"Either they were incompetent or it was intentional."^

It was a cover up. Whites protecting their own.

The case that must be tried is the one before the Court. So, two white men, in Georgia, one a retired police officer, took it upon themselves, to arm themselves and pursue a black man, and shoot him. He was unarmed.

I'll be simply fascinated as to what they come up with.

Well to get the death penalty, the jury has to unanimously vote for it. If even one jury member objects it’s a hung jury and the judge can’t do a death sentence.

I’m against the death penalty anyway, so my comment is just from a technical standpoint because Georgia does have the death penalty for murder.