Jon Stewart Nails It on Ferguson, Race and Media

ENOUGH!

The baiting and insulting stop now.

a reply to: macman

How about the world make people like you a minority. You know the ones, those people who assume because your a person of color, you must be involved in criminal activities.

Your assumption that all of them use that excuse is common amongst your type of people.

If you only went through what people of color went through on daily basis, maybe you would understand. Despite these attempts to hold people of color back...there are always going to be success stories.


You people always love to bring up the fact there were idiots rioting afterwards..but you guys never even brought up the peaceful protests after that. You know why?..because it does not fit into your viewpoint of the world.

I love how you people always bring stats to justify your racism. How about read the stats on how race dictates how you are dealt with in the justice system. Drugs..an gram for a white guy..majority no jail time same amount for colored guy..majority will be jail time.

So all those stats you love to bring up..have you ever brought that into consideration, of course not.

This is what gets to you people, despite trying to put people in their place and categorizing them..a few of us find a way through and find success.

a reply to: Onslaught2996

So, I shall rephrase.

I love the use of "you people" in your statement. Very divisive.

So, I must be a monitory in order to look at the world and say "The man has got me down, and there is nothing I can do about it".

Well, I guess you and others that buy into this will never succeed then. "You people" like this seem to be comfortable with falling back to excuses.

And where have I ever stated that being not white, means you are an automatic criminal???

I will happily wait for for that quote....

America will be ready once they stop commodifying education, school districts and access to the American community.

Children are growing up TODAY thinking its normal to have districts segregated by race, I'd get into more but this thick truth serum is probably too much for most of you to digest. After all we're all to busy filled with hate and fear to progress at all.

Thank you capitalism.

Race, religion, politics, entertainment, etc. All divisive tactics.

We breathe the same air. Require water, food, shelter, clothing if we choose.

Have emotions, are creative, inventive, insightful. Are capable of great beauty and sadly also great brutality.

How can anyone, anywhere truly be free when we're labeled and categorized? Freedom and ultimate love have nothing to do with the color of someone's skin, or their religion or their cultural taboos. Freedom and love are never forced, they're felt genuinely. I'm not saying you have to love but it helps to see something from the other person's pov.

To be honest, if you live on Earth most likely whatever you do, watch, eat, listen to was created by someone else. By another culture. So everybody at all times are usually molded by cultures that were not originated in one race.

Rock n roll came from blues.

Plenty of black inventors. Plenty of white ones, etc. Eating Chinese food? Rice? Papaya? Probably your culture didn't originate it. Slavery? Every culture partook in slavery. People have been selling their own kind, own families, own children for generations. Out of greed, fear, callousness, whatever.

Even people of the same color will hate on the same color because they're from a different country, or region or neighborhood.

I'll stop now lol but I'll just say divide and conquer. Others don't hinder you or your beliefs, the govs do. Humans are unfortunately impressionable.

a reply to: Galvatron

I've already read about a dozen of those and I'm fairly familiar with the ideas expressed by the authors of the rest. I guess maybe I haven't collected enough pieces of the puzzle!

Maybe you could pinpoint where Trotsky created the concepts of racist and racism (or even coined the terms) because I know that a popular myth is that they originate in Trotsky's The History of the Russian Revolution but the term was in use at least 30 years before then (Pratt).

If I'm not mistaken the relevant bit from Trotsky that some people would point to is a reference to Hitler using the ideas of Arthur de Gobineau which can still be seen echoed in comments like this:

Of course whites are the cause of black social inequality. Just look at Africa and what a bastion of black achievement and technological advancement it is.

You can read the text of An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races here which was written 1853-1855 — a bit more than 20 years before the birth of Trotsky. There are some other writings you might wish to consider when you ponder the origins of racism. Francis Galton’s Hereditary Genius (1870) or Lothrop T. Stoddard’s The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy (1920) would be examples.

originally posted by: CornShucker

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
I'm sure it doesn't fit your world view. Neither will this; Authoritarian racism is 10x worse and not equivalent to the oppressed hating their oppressors. Prisoners always hate the guards. It has nothing to do with race. Reverse racism is a ruse made up by Faux News. Guards don't give a damn that the prisoners hate them because the are the subordinates. get it?

Your logic is tragically flawed...

I live in Southern Indiana and am over 60 years old. Before I even entered elementary school, I knew that there was a certain area (and one intersection, in particular) of Evansville that was not safe for whites regardless of time of day.

You give Fox News too much credit.

Funny I come from Evansville and I would have to say this simply isn't true. During the day you can go anywhere in town and not have to worry nighttime however is a different story. It isn't safe for some whites in the downtown area after dark just as it isn't safe for blacks on the West side after dark.

a reply to: theantediluvian

The reference to Trotsky is in a now out of print edition of the Oxford English dictionary. Leon Davidovich Bronstein is credited as coining the term "racist" much like William Gibson is credited for coining the terms "matrix" and "cyberspace" when refering to the internet.

Race was certainly used to describe peoples well before Trotsky. Read about European conflict of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite both being Caucasian and genetically similar, the English considered themselves a separate race from the French or Germans. Hungarians considered themselves a separate race from Austrians. In fact, people could be said to be very "racially aware" during this time.

However, using the term racist, the word itself separate from the sentiment it represents and more specifically as a pejorative to divide politically homogenous but ethnically heterogeneous people isn't a myth. It was indeed coined by Trotsky in his 1930 publication "The History of The Russian Revolution"

That doesn't mean racism didn't exist before him, it doesn't mean the word race didn't exist. But the word racist itself, used as a political weapon, like it is always used today almost without exception by the mainstream media, was created during the Russian Revolution.

originally posted by: jjkenobi
Meanwhile, a white guy is told a restaurant isn't a safe place for whites and then is beaten by a mob of 20 black people. But that is not a hate crime, nor is it racist.

But a white cop shooting a black person who was assaulting him is racist. And you wonder why people are sick of this crap??

I can't believe anyone listens to Stewart, he's as bad as any news pundit.

While I agree what is posted here can been seen as a hate crime, from what I have read it isn't that cut and dry.
Neither is the way you describe the brown shooting...
But we can see by the response that you got that doesn't matter to people I guess

Damn! I can see from the replies that harsh realities get some people all defensive.

I created a thread on this topic, which is about to get shut down because I didn't see this thread, and I stated that this video was bound to make some people uncomfortable.

It doesn't fit your political and personal narratives to be given such a reality check, huh?

That's sad.

a reply to: Galvatron

(side note, I've read all of Gibson's books but for cyberpunk lit, I prefer Neal Stephenson)

You could have saved yourself a lot of time and just said the following the first go around:

However, using the term racist, the word itself separate from the sentiment it represents and more specifically as a pejorative to divide politically homogenous but ethnically heterogeneous people isn't a myth. It was indeed coined by Trotsky.

That doesn't mean racism didn't exist before him, it doesn't mean the word race didn't exist. But the word itself, used as a political weapon, like it is always used today almost without exception by the mainstream media, was created during the Russian Revolution.

I appreciate what you're saying but in my view, that's a hard sell — even given the pervasive race-baiting in American political culture. It might be simpler if you'd just summarize your argument in another thread. I stand by what I've said and though I may have oversimplified in some areas (What else was going on during integration? Women's liberation, the end of the "golden age of the middle class" etc), I think it's fairly accurate, particularly in regards to the importance of the long term effects of a lack of educational and economic opportunity and multigenerational poverty. The wages for black folks had been increasing as they migrated to northern urban centers, before and through the civil rights movement and right up until they were hit disproportionately hard by wage stagnation in the late 70's and 80's and the trend reversed.

Was it that despite gains in education, black students were still only graduating with 4 year degrees at a rate that was half that of their white counterparts and were finding it increasingly hard to compete? Perhaps it was a weakening of anti-discrimination policy? It could have been that many blue collar jobs were moved out to the periphery and without adequate resources and facing housing discrimination, many were left stranded, clustered in areas with limited employment opportunity. More likely some combination of all of the above?

Anyway, though this is all on topic in a roundabout way, perhaps at some point you'd care to discuss this in depth in another thread?

originally posted by: buster2010
Funny I come from Evansville and I would have to say this simply isn't true. During the day you can go anywhere in town and not have to worry nighttime however is a different story. It isn't safe for some whites in the downtown area after dark just as it isn't safe for blacks on the West side after dark.

I at least made the attempt to find it online but, short of spending money for an online archive, I can't find it. Don't have a clue how old you are, but if you have roots in the E'ville area I'm sure someone will remember. The shooting at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and South Governor Street took place in broad daylight while a couple was waiting for the light to change. For reference, this would predate the Loyd and the four lane 41 by a few years. From where I live, coming in on 57 and taking a left to connect with Lincoln was the fastest way to get to Washington (one way street). Garvin was the street to catch on the way back (one way, also).

Not everything can be backed up by a link on the 'Net, that doesn't automatically mean someone is pulling statements out their butt.

I'm scared of the Loyd, they drive like maniacs... I'd rather take few extra minutes than get caught up in all that.

originally posted by: sheepslayer247
Damn! I can see from the replies that harsh realities get some people all defensive.

I created a thread on this topic, which is about to get shut down because I didn't see this thread, and I stated that this video was bound to make some people uncomfortable.

It doesn't fit your political and personal narratives to be given such a reality check, huh?

That's sad.

Ignorance comes in a multitude of varieties. Personally, I find the guy indefensible and put him in with the nuts that disrupt military funerals.

a reply to: sheepslayer247


John Stewart's comedy is so valuable to American sanity that he should not be allowed to take vacations!

At the very least, he should be forced to come back from vacation when something is going on to make us laugh and feel better, and to help us put things in perspective, then he can go back to the beach, or whatever.

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: sheepslayer247
John Stewart's comedy is so valuable to American sanity that he should not be allowed to take vacations!

I know I'm showing my age, but Stewart deadpan reminds me of Jack Benny sometimes. When somebody can crack you up with just a look you know they've got somethin' special goin' on.

a reply to: sheepslayer247

He's an entertainer who's instrumental in dividing and conquering. News and current events turn most people off, make it humorous or jazz it up and ratings seem to go up. Helping to polarize the public so they don't unite.

Cornshucker, precisely. He isn't an informer he's an entertainer. Helping to shape people's minds into believing certain things just like the other puppets. Distraction, divide and conquer. The simplest trick and still the most common. And Jack Benny's awesome. I prefer Ozzie Nelson and William Bendix as Chester A. Riley though.