I'm here for it. Too many non-POC people get to use sports as an escape from their reality which isn't remotely as stressful as the average POC's reality is. The fact that the majority of the NFL and NBA are people representing those demographics makes it 100% fine imo for them to use their platform as they see fit. Most of the "Life is tough, suck it up, kid.", "Play the hand your dealt.", etc. people will defend the abhorrent business practices of corporate America because "Anyone can make it if they work hard." and act like there's no problem with corporations using leverage to unfair extents yet all of that defense of leverage being an earned thing goes out the window once it's POC turning the tables.
I'm sympathetic to the cause up to a point. It's statements like that that demark the line for me. Notwithstanding the "walk a mile in my shoes" concept, the whole underlying premise of tolerance is to understand that for all of us there is struggle of various forms and fashions. To try to put objective measure on things like that, things that have no real standard of measure, doesn't help the process of understanding.
As for the rest, well, agree to disagree; that's one way of looking at it, but it just sounds a lot like finger pointing to me.
POC have to fear for their lives EVERY day of their life. It's not even just behind the wheel anymore. They can't even hide in their houses from it since that woman was killed while playing PS4, being shot at numerous times, and don't even get me started on Breonna Taylor. This stuff is happening to POC at an appallingly disproportionate clip compared to non-POCs. There's your "real standard of measure". Ignore it if you wish to.
This has really been bothering me since I read it. I think this is dangerous thinking that is perpetuating the problem. Not being critical of YOU personally, but the IDEA.
The reality is that there are about
55,000,000 encounters with police every year. If you follow the demographics, that means 7,435,000 are African American. (If you believe the narrative, that number is low, so we'll stick with it, since it then would be best case as we walk through the math). Last year, it is reported that
235 African Americans were killed by police. Many suspect that is low, so if it pleases you, we can double that number, and it will still allow the point as we walk through the math. Let's use 400 for round numbers.
If you're an African American, you have a 0.00538% chance of being killed by a cop. 54 out of a 1,000,000. We've already stated that that number is likely high. At even 10% higher for the African Americans stopped, we're at 49 out of 1,000,000. if you use the ratio of deaths (235 out of 1000, or 23.5%; that's 12,925,000 African Americans encountering police), we're at 31 out of 1,000,000.
Compare to
this (using 2013 numbers; the article is intended to fact check other misleading stats. I am taking the CORRECTED numbers from a paragraph about 3/4 of the way down the article):
If you’re a white person in 2013, your chances of being murdered by another white person are approximately 11 in 1,000,000.
Your chances of being murdered by an African American are 2 in 1,000,000.
If you're a black person in 2013, your chances of being murdered by another black person are 56 in 1,000,000.
Your chances of being murdered by a white person are 5 in 1,000,000.
Now, no question that the death rate for an African American person is higher; if that's the fear, then the numbers certainly justify that. But I'm not sure why the "systemic racism" of American policing is driving this conversation; an African American is almost TWICE as likely to die by the hand of someone of his own race than that of a cop, and almost TEN TIMES as likely to die by the hand of someone of his own race than that of a white person. These numbers are appalling, no doubt, but I'm not sure for the reasons stated.
Topic: 2020 NFL Thread v. Tom Brady aging better than Mila Kunis (Read 118397 times)