To be utterly disgusted by the protests today.

[SoggySocksAgain]

Am I alone here?

I am utterly disgusted by what I have seen in the news.

@emodi

If you are below 40 and fit and well you are more likely if you are BAME to die related to racism or childbirth or by police brutality than COVID-19 . That is 0.2% risk of death below 39 . You are more likely to be killed for being black than dying from covid . What is heartbreaking is that people are willing to die protest in the middle of a pandemic so sad.

Because the protesters are at very low risk of Covid as its predominantly young people. Those they might infect and potentially kill however...

The police have not reacted.

I do find it weird that I've seen the word thug more than ever during the protests. Not lout or criminal or anti-social... thug. Racial terminology.

[quote Stuckforthefourthtime]@R1R2 Tony Timpa was white, but also undergoing a mental health crisis while on cocaine and off anti-psychotic medication. The way he was treated was horrific and does show that disadvantaged people are often awfully treated by US police. It does NOT show that a white man who was alleged to have used a fake $20 note at a shop, as George Floyd did, would have been treated the same way.

@Tianalia and @MrsTannyFickler are you aware of the implications of using the word thug and thuggery here? There's a reason that Trump is using it too. The original idea of the 'thugee' groups is increasingly seen by academics as a colonial invention to demonise Muslim groups in India (robberies were real, any kind of organisation/cult was likely not), and now is used almost entirely against young black men. So when you use this word, it absolutely makes black people assume that you prefer black people to be well behaved and polite and wait another 50 odd years for things to improve. (@Tangerrenie this is also the issue with maternal mortality. Many people, from all different backgrounds ARE trying to help. But it's not enough).[/quote]
Some major mental gymnastics you had to pull there but its always the way its how you maintain the divide.
Just like the ignorant attempt at saying thug is a colonial invention when its origins are traced back to the 14th century and related to gangs of criminals that targeted Indian roads. Thug is a commonly used word in the UK and has never been used entirely against black people and frequently used to describe people who partake in violent disorder regardless of colour.

Describing people as Thugs just shows The Hate yoU Give
Describes you. Not them

Do you ever engage your brain before typing? Describing people as thugs who are violent thugs is not hate. It's a description of what they are. If you think throwing bikes at police horses, causing huge injuries to people and throwing missiles with no care for other people is ok, then it would seem to me you are also a thug. Or unable to engage any level of critical thought. What happened in the States was appalling. Going on to injure other people in the name of that is also appalling.

I think we need to strip out the whys and wherefores of these protests, and ask one simple question- will these protests result in improved Race Relations in this country?

I would suggest the answer is no. I think these protests will have set back Race Relations in this country. I think it will increase the Racial Divide. The emphasis is now very much focussed on them and us.

An awful lot of peaceful and innocent BAME people are going to suffer as a result of these protests. That saddens me, on behalf of the BAME community.

The message from these protests is going to be of violence, aggression and basic thuggery. People are not going remember that the protests were largely peaceful.

When BAME people who have attended these protests start dying of Covid19, as a direct result of any subsequent the response of many is going to be intolerant, of the “It’s their own fault variety”. Ditto the backlash if Lockdown ends up being reimplemented.

Whoever triggered these protests has in my opinion made a severe error of judgement, and a major miscalculation. This was the wrong time fir a protest of this nature.

That is in my opinion, the reality.

People can flame me and scream white privilege as much as they like. The one certain thing is that white people will not suffer as a result of these protests, whereas BAME people are going to.

I don’t think it is any way racist, or patronising to say that saddens me.

@masakabuzz
Its exactly what those who profit from the status quo want, they know the day the divide falls so do they @masakabuzz

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking

Unless you are BAME you really can not saddened on behalf of that community unless you are accepting your privilege and are preparing to stand up for them

The race war bullshit has been used for decades. To enable suppression. And anyone who doesnt ask why about what is happening is part of the problem

I have said my piece. Take from it what you will, or ignore it. I will not apologise for being white. Like my disabilities it is something completely out of my control.

The more you rant about “White Privilege” the more disengaged from the debate I will become. The more the term becomes banded about, the less impact it will have.

[quote R1R2]@masakabuzz
Its exactly what those who profit from the status quo want, they know the day the divide falls so do they @masakabuzz[/quote]
With the greatest respect your comment doesn’t make any sense.

I have stated my opinion. I might be wrong. I hope for the sake of the BAME people who are going to get caught in the cross fire, I am. I doubt it though.

@Smilethoyourheartisbreaking

Masaka if you feel affronted ask yourself why. As for saying I wont apologise for my race. You still think you can tell others like me what we should be doing? But not look at what you could be doing?

I know why I am affronted. Violence and thuggery offends me.

I am not telling people like you what you should or should not be doing. I am saying that in my opinion these protests will not achieve their aims.

What do you want me to do - other than wear sackcloth and ashes because I am white?

Racism is not something that is exclusively suffered by BAME communities. I live in a multicultural area and I have witnessed racism towards all cultures and ethnicity. As a student in London in the 1990s I was called white trash, pushed off a tube train because a black man told me he had more right to be there than me, told there were no jobs by a black shop assistant when looking for a part time job when a black friend went into the same shop straight after me and came out with an application form. I don’t have a chip on my shoulder as a result as I know it wasn’t a racism issue but more an issue with these individuals. Society in the U.K. has moved on since then. Yes, Churchill might have been racist but that was a feature of the time, things have changed. I do not believe that white privilege exists in current British society, especially in terms of recruitment when most companies have recruitment policies to address discrimination. We do not live in America and protesting here is not going to have much effect on the situation there. People who disagree with this have to accept that we all have the right to our own opinion. Calling others racist just because they have a different opinion to you shows weakness in your argument.

There is vast profit to be made off people being pitted against each other Masaka, if closing the racial divide and uniting society was profitable it would have happened years ago.

The young man setting fire to the flags yesterday was not 9 years ago, it was yesterday.

The picture of Otis hanging off it was 9 years ago.

The BLM graffiti was done on Saturday night just gone on the cenotaph.

Yesterday the Women of World War 2 statue was also desecrated. Emily Pankhurst's statues in the gardens of parliament was vandalised and signs of "white privelige" left around her.

Protest by all means, but why the need to attack war memorials and statues where there is no connection . I get Churchill and agree with the Bristolian's to dump Colston in the harbour.

But not the cenotaph.

@RunningAwaywiththeCircus

People who are outraged- were you similarly outraged at Cheltenham going ahead? The rugby and concerts that went on when we clearly should have been in lock down despite what the inept government said?

Yes. I wrote to my MP. One of the reasons I am rolling my eyes at the depths the protesters have sunk to is that it’s giving Bodger a free fucking pass and making us - me included btw - stick up for his BS social distancing and lockdown policies when they should be answering g these exact questions.

I can care about more than one thing at once.

It's a real gift for the government. They were hemorrhaging support and dropping sharply in the polls and getting it from all angles. Now anger has turned to these illegal protests with social distancing ignored and violence.

@R1R2

There is vast profit to be made off people being pitted against each other Masaka, if closing the racial divide and uniting society was profitable it would have happened years ago.

True, which beggars the question “Why engage with protests that are almost certain to enhance that divide?”

I do understand why BAME people are angry, (incidentally I also feel uncomfortable using that term, because it feels like I am lumping all non white people together when they are not a homogeneous group any more than disabled people are. If anyone can give me a better or preferred term please do), it just seems to me that this is a classical example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I genuinely think the only thing these protests are going to do is increase negativity towards “BAME” people.

I can't believe that people are more concerned with the protests than they are with systematic racism.
GF was the last straw for many, many people. Parents are tired of fearing for their sons lives, tired of being accused of crimes for going about their usual business. In USA, people have been shot and killed for just being in their own houses, or arrested for being on their own boat. It's like we've all forgotten about Amy Cooper in Central Park and her dramatics that a black person dared to ask her to put her dog on a lead. This happens all over america, all the time. While the UK is better, were still far, far from right. You are more likely to be arrested if you're not Caucasian. Why is that?

Change has to happen and if people don't act now, it'll be swept under the carpet again.

I’m ashamed to live where I live today. My work colleague actually said ‘I’m proud to live in XX today’ I choked out ‘you can believe in what you want but still not resort to violence and vandalism’ People are taking it too far and I bet many are just out there for a fight and have no idea why they’re really there. Loads of them probably couldn’t even tell you George Floyd’s name.

Oh and calling Churchill racist...he’s the best leader the UK has ever had.

I do find it weird that I've seen the word thug more than ever during the protests. Not lout or criminal or anti-social... thug. Racial terminology.

It's because Trump used it. These people are his followers. Their knickers are showing.

@EmbarrassedUser
You should be embarrassed.