Black Lives Matter · 6:51pm Jun 4th, 2020
Hard to say it more plainly than that. If you want to help but you're not sure how, here's a handy link: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
When there's demonstrable injustice, we ought to protest it or at least give our solidarity to those who do. When police forces treat a populace demanding their basic rights as an enemy to be crushed with whatever underhanded brutality they please, we mustn't shut up about it. And when pathetic, murderous twerps from our own community who apparently didn't heed a damned thing from the show go out to try and kill these same protesters, we ought to push back against that.
I thought ours was a good and basically decent fandom. I still think that. But basic decency comes with the obligation to resist that sort of foulness, to not shut up about or give an inch to the alt-right and proto-fascists and any of their ugly fellow ideologies fouling our spaces. We've had a troubling vein of them for a while now.
And if they're given a free pass, and are only left to linger and grow in our complacency and neutrality and silence, then we won't be good or decent any more.
Lemme know if there's an All Lives Matter website, I'll support that if the equally murderous riots stop, riots, not protest.
5275996
Even the riots don’t stack as many bodies at a rate comparable to some precincts. And at least rioters actually end up in jail.
5275996
"All Lives Matter" is a distraction. It exists only to take people's attention away from "Black Lives Matter" and the salient fact behind it; namely, that in the US today, all lives do not matter equally, and black people suffer from systemic, racist violence.
Also:
aws1.discourse-cdn.com/boingboing/original/4X/9/1/f/91f151656fd29f49c5c927b04847f90e668ce163.jpeg
5276004
When people pull a gun, they get shot. When people drive recklessly and endanger other, they get shot. When people pull a knife, they get shot. How could you compare the deaths of unarmed civilians and officers just doing their jobs to the deaths of people committing crimes and yeah, police make mistakes and yeah some cops are power-hungry bullies, I don't deny the police have done a crappy job in many precincts and many situations and that there are many issues, but don't equate MURDER to killing.
The riots have resulted in murder, the same thing they're rioting about.
5275996
I keep seeing this in various blog posts, and I totally understand how easy how it is to conflate the riots and the looting with the protests. It's easy to think, "Well, if this is about systemic racism and injustices performed by the police, why are they burning and looting their own communities?" It doesn't make any sense, does it?
Except here's the thing: The protesters and the looters aren't necessarily the same people. Sure, some looters might happen to also be protesters, but many of them are just douchebags looking to serve their own means. Some might be opportunists using the chaos as cover. Even worse, some might be looting and pillaging with the sole intention of making the protests look bad.
I know how hard it is to separate the two because I also used to conflate the two. That's why I think the looters are especially insidious. They turn public opinion against protesters who are just out there trying to make a difference. That's why I'm so happy to constantly hear about stories of protesters chasing away looters or people trying to stir chaos.
It is in fact possible to both support the protesters and condemn the looters. Like the image Lurks-no-More posted says, yes, it's wrong that all this looting and pillaging has happened, but let's not forget the root cause of all this.
5276034
All lives matter, when a black is killed unjustly, they matter. All lives matter, when a white is killed unjustly, they matter. All lives matter, when an Asian, Hispanic, Atheist, Muslim, Christian, Jew. It doesn't matter what group, yeah it's a counter group but you can't do one race at a time, it ain't just about black folk. And I'm sorry but those BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES THAT ARE DESTROYED, matter too,
You people that justify destruction and violence truly baffle me.
5276048
I support the protestors. It's wrong that the rioting and looting happened but I support the protests.
5276064
The point of focusing on a particular group, though, is to try and address those wrongs which are being disproportionately meted out to that particular group. I can happily accept that no group in America is entirely safe from police abuse and brutality, whether white or Hispanic or black or Asian, and ending injustice across the board ought to be the goal we ultimately strive for.
But when there's evidence that black people are being unjustly targeted and killed by police at a disproportionate rate compared to other ethnicities, in spite of every peaceful protest so far, then 'Black Lives Matter' seems an entirely reasonable rallying cry, and a counter-cry of 'All Lives Matter', even if made with the best of intentions, can't help but feel like it's downplaying the specific and lethal prejudices they have to deal with.
If a group has any hope of remaining good and basically decent, it needs to always be aware of elements within itself trying to make it otherwise. If the fandom had been willing to address these elements earlier, instead of getting to the point of casually assuming that making Nazi ocs was basically fine... I don't know. I'm not a psychic and I don't know enough about the fandom's history to guess, but it's certainly something we should have been doing earlier.
5276064
The issue isn't that some lives matter more than others. It's that American law and society have been, for decades and more, plainly operating under the intrinsic assumption that black lives don't in fact matter as much as others. When one group is constantly and unfairly mistreated, then yes -- society needs to stand up for the group, specifically. If police brutality were unfocused and targeted everyone equally, then "All Lives Matter" might have some meaning -- but since black people are the ones who always bear the worst of this, those are the lives that our society evidently needs to be reminded matter.
5276136
I wanted to add this on why the 'All Lives Matter' saying is not what needs to be said right now. Yes, everyone's life should matter, but when we see how someone's life flat out doesn't, it rings hallow.
pleated-jeans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/not-to-get-too-political-but-here%E2%80%99s-a-good-comic-explaining-why-%E2%80%9Call-lives-matter%E2%80%9D-is-silly.jpg.webp
I'm glad I'm seeing authors here posting blogs, even at the large chance their comments will possibly turn into nightmares.
Great to see you speak up about this, Carabas!
I think this site and the fandom in general is at a crossroads right now. Derpibooru explicitly supporting Black Lives Matter is one small step, but they have to put their money where their mouth is, and FimFiction has to follow suit.
Thank you Carabas for giving me a small amount of hope back, that this fandom is not completely gone in terms of following the tenants of the show. To hear that one of our own chose to support the hatred that is sadly far too prevalent in our country and world is awful beyond words.
5276136
So we should pick one group at a time and arbitrarily decide which?
5276411
We could also use stats and look at history.
Oh, what do you know, that means we should be focusing on black lives right now.
But people can also do multiple things at once. Help the poor. Help immigrants. And yes, help white people who the police are hurting too.
5276411
Under ideal conditions, certainly not.
But when society and the law arbitrarily pick one group at a time to oppress and dehumanize, we do have to respond to that.
5276411
Not so. Like Frustration in Excelsis says, when the law itself arbitrarily persecutes a particular group, we respond to that injustice.
Is your concern that the needs of other persecuted groups are at risk of being overlooked in all this? If so, and if you've got the time and capability to protest for and campaign for their rights as well, then that's a commendable thing to do. But like SigmasonicX says, when black people in America are statistically at greatest risk of police abuse and brutality beyond that experienced by other groups (though I don't doubt other minorities find themselves in the blue line of fire as well) then giving them particular focus at this time doesn't strike me as arbitrary at all.
5275996
5276034
5276166
"All Lives Matter" was a campaign started by neo-Nazi leader Richard Spencer for the sole purpose of ridiculing and denigrating the Black Lives Matter movement. It's a slogan that is very popular with white supremacists and other bigots.
The left is the most bigoted, noninclusive, and elitist group of people I have ever known.
The left knows nothing of the magic of friendship and quite frankly neither do you if all your going to do is attack someone for dearing to defend their community from people who wish to destroy it.
There's a difference between rioting and protesting. What does destroying a bar have to do with Floyd's death?
5276694
Thanks for the heads up of how to be wary of in using it, I didn't realize it had such a negative background, I'll make sure to explain when I use it.
5276445
I understand the oppression angle but what's up with the dehumanization thing?
5276496
My problem with BLM is that when you say your "enemies" are racist without any kind of accountability it's dangerous. It also seems to me like people will just go along with anything they say because they have the moral high ground. We also need to take into account the areas of the violence and the actual situations themselves when the incidents occurred, because of the neighborhood I live in, I could see how some cops would be jumpy, the deaths of blacks does not automatically equal murder.
Thank you for this post, Carabas.
5276827
This is an odd spin on someone who went out on the streets armed and intent on violence against the protestors, who rhapsodised beforehand about how 'Our swords are eager to drip with blood', who had every chance to de-escalate and withdraw and instead chose to charge at someone with his sword drawn.
If you genuinely think my condemnation of him and his actions is evidence that I (and the left in general) 'know nothing of the magic of friendship', you're a bit silly.
5275996
I keep posting this at people who say things like you are, so you get one too:
i.imgur.com/G8udzIC.jpg
5277683
Carabas is far too modest to admit this, but his friendship is so powerful it has latent healing properties, and grants him mild telepathy.
I'm just saying what he knows we're all thinking!
5277701
I'd be angry at you for divulging my secrets if I hadn't known you were going to do exactly that.
5277683
Not that particularly but when I go on Twitter I see people calling Hugh Jackman an alt right Nazi for posting a picture of a police officer and an African American hugging
When I hear about the left it’s about people who claim they are morale superior to everyone else. It’s about people who say if you don’t think the way they think than you’ll be censored. It’s intolerant, people who say I’m left go out of the way to harass people. And they are constantly offended about everything. If you can’t laugh at yourself than you can’t laugh at anything
The left and right are meaningless terms. There is not two monolith groups with one being good and one being bad.
5277699
The rampant racism towards people that are white kinda makes it hard to believe that.
Thank you for this post, Carabas.
5277721
What "rampant racism" towards white people are you talking about? Give us some examples.
5278907
I mostly mean some of the core principals, white privilege and operations, for example, I don't believe ALL white people are privileged, and I don't believe that the sins of the father should go to the son, slavery ended almost 200 years ago, not long enough ago but, nearly 200.
Or the "If you're white you need to admit your inherent racism!" thing, like in the case of the video, where a group of white folk is kneeling and swearing fealty to a group of black folk. Who happily accepts it.
And I find those things kinda racist
5278907 And now I can. It's an insane book called "White Fragility", written by a morbidly-depressed lunatic and now inflicted upon numerous companies by communist HR departments.
And then there's the absolutely absurd 'whiteness' list put together by a horrifically racist museum staff, not only racist against whites, but against practically EVERY OTHER CIVILIZATION THAT HAS EVER EXISTED, by declaring that ANY values of logic, reason, time, fore-planning, family structure, self-denial, delayed gratification... ALL of that and much more is all 'whiteness'.
But, do I expect idiots to know anything about world civilizations? Japan, China, India, Egypt... THE ENTIRE BUDDHIST FAITH (teaching thoughtfulness, self-control and moderation in all things... clearly white people made that up...)
Face it, you've sides with maniacs and anarchists, who used a handful of episodes of 'police brutality' (so few that the media has time to harp on each one of them... as compared to THOUSANDS of deaths at the hands of criminals every single year) to push an agenda of pure wickedness and savagery, with the Chinese-funded media dutifully obeying while their masters commit genocide of the Uyghurs to the media's utter silence and the Democrat denials. The rest of the world knows all of this and has cast China out of everything they can, with even Austria and Belgium condemning the murder and harvesting of organs by the CCP and PLA to such a degree that they have outright banned any human organs sourced from China.
Actual racism. Actual genocide. PROVEN BEYOND ANY DOUBT... and you leftists dwell in utter ignorance.
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration hits China back harder and harder with each passing day, while that senile twit Biden croaks out a feeble defense of the Chinese, who funded his drug-addict, deadbeat son Hunter's decrepit little investment company to the tune of $1 billion dollars when VP Joe paid them a visit on Airforce 2.
Oh yes, I know EVERYTHING about the left. Their continued attempts to stealthily interfere with the Epstein investigation and stonewall further arrests of confederates in the pedo ring, which stretches to the British royal family and beyond, the media censorship which has become so blatant that millions are now fleeing the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
Meanwhile the incessant cry of 'muh rayschism!' is endless... while the rioters murder dozens more than the one man killed by a bad cop in a city run by Dems for 70 years in a state run by Dems for 50 years. But, sure, it's Republicans' fault that somehow this Democrat cop and his Democrat union weren't taken to task by the Democrat city Council and parade of Democrat mayors for his many reports of bad behavior over the years.
I would make some quip about leftists being brainwashed, but that would be to incorrectly assume they possessed something to wash in the first place.
Empty barrels make the most noise, and these soy-based violent children who were denied the spankings they clearly needed are certainly creating a ceaseless cacophony.
5277683 So, what of the mobs beating people to death? The mass-destruction which serves absolutely no purpose other than to tell all regular people that these ARE nothing but savage monsters.
Actions speak louder than words. No violent uprising has ever ended with any outcome other than mass-murder, one way or the other.