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sundin13 said:
Is it really so far-fetched that White Supremacy would be at the root of Black-on-Asian violence? Let's break things down real quick. When we hear "white supremacy" we largely think of individuals who hold the belief that whites are inherently better and that they should have the power in society, but that isn't what we are talking about here. In this context, White Supremacy refers to the system of values in our society which places traits commonly associated with whiteness above traits associated with non-white groups. This can be something as simply as valuing light skin tones over darker skin tones, or something more cultural such as valuing a nuclear family set-up over other types of family structures. It also speaks to the series of beliefs and ideas which have largely been created and perpetuated by white individuals in power (more on this below). This series of beliefs and values is passed down throughout the culture, regardless of race. Let's look at an example real quick: It is largely through the power of white supremacy that the anti-Mexican sentiment that "the immigrants are taking our jobs" arose. Is it really that far-fetched to assume that a black individual who is unemployed, or under-employed may internalize this idea and develope animosity towards the Mexican population? And if they did, what would be the root cause? I would argue that the root cause is two fold: The structures that caused the individual to be unemployed or underemployed (often White Supremacy) and the structures which created this messaging (often White Supremacy). Because these values and beliefs emerge from power, it is often a pretty safe assumption that these broad, culture-wide sentiments can be attributed to White supremacy to at least some degree. Now, what about Anti-Asian racism in the era of covid? I feel like you would pose little objection to the belief that this largely emerged from whites in power, be they White Republicans in politics, or white talking heads on Fox News, but I'll provide a source anyways: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2020.1839114 So, when a black person commits anti-Asian violence because of the beliefs they hold about the victim's role in the coronavirus, what stands at the root of this? Largely, racist sentiments perpetuated by whites in power and internalized by other communities. And the history of Black-Asian tensions have been going on for much longer than Covid. It is largely through white racism that a sense of competition between minority groups emerged (similar to the tension with Mexican immigrants described above). This article breaks down some of the history of Black-Asian tensions pretty well, but you can also look into the "model minority myth" if you want to do further reading: https://www.vox.com/22321234/black-asian-american-tensions-solidarity-history Now, does this mean that you are to blame, or that any of this is a criticism of you personally? Of course not. This type of defensive attitude is something I see all too often and it is altogether misplaced. I work in the sciences. One of the most important things that we learn is about cognitive biases. It doesn't make me evil or bad or stupid for these biases to exist within my head. It is simply a part of human nature. However, it is through learning and understanding in which I am able to ensure that I don't act upon these biases. The same thing applies for racial biases. It doesn't make you a bad person to have biases in your head. Everyone does. That is the power of white supremacy. However, learning and understanding can help immensely in not just ensuring you aren't perpetuating White supremacy, but in dismantling it. As for your final point, I'll just say quickly that it should be telling that seemingly your best sources to back up your claims that the "Defund the Police" movement is causally linked to increases in violent crime is how some people feel and Tucker Carlson... I've said before that some people have demonstrated that they do not value truth and as such they are not worth listening to. Tucker is at the top of that list. If you wish to prove this point, you'll have to produce a better source than that. And this post is getting long, but I'll provide a quick source on why I don't believe this claim is particularly well supported: Crime has risen even in cities that didn't decrease funding for police. In Democratic-led cities, the homicide rate increased 36.2%, while in Republican-led cities, the homicide rate increased 35.6%. Further, while this has been a particularly loud issue, few cities have actually decreased their police budgets, and many of the ones that have didn't go into effect immediately. https://www.salon.com/2021/02/01/did-defund-the-police-lead-to-an-increase-in-murder-almost-certainly-not/ I don't want to say it, but it certainly seems like the power of white supremacy may be leading people to make improper assumptions about the effect of decreasing police funding, in order to keep funding up for one of the most powerful perpetuators of systemic racism... |
Due to Covid, the revenues in major cities have fallen pretty dramatically and unlike the federal government, state governments are required to balance their budgets. So, police departments, being expensive, had their budgets cut. Which predictably leads to higher crime rates.
But when most people suggest defunding the police, they are not suggesting simply cutting the budget of the police, but cutting the budget allotted to current policing and adding to other programs aimed at reducing crime. I.e. addiction rehabilitation, people trained in de-escalation accompanying police officers, mental health programs, programs aimed at supporting convicts post release to prevent recidivism, etc, etc. Things that have been effective in other countries.
Whether or not such things would work in America is unclear, because that is not what is being done. What has been done is simply cutting police budgets without anything to replace them. That's probably not going to help unless police literally have a negative crime deterring value, which is a position I don't think many serious people actually hold.
Trumpstyle said:
You Americans got it wrong, should be defund the scientists not defund the police. From I read about about CRT, it believes that all form of racialism is because of white supremcy, so you can explain to me how South koreans being racist towards germans haft to do with white supremcy. Luckily is just Americans that believes in CRT. |
In that case, maybe you should read more about about CRT before commenting, because you don't seem to understand it very well.
Critical Race Theory suggests that the dominant culture is largely responsible for societal biases. In America, the dominant culture is white. In South Korea, it is not. Has any serious person (as in a respected source and not a random blogger) suggested that white people are responsible for South Korean attitudes towards Germans? If not, then that's a strawman argument.
If you can find any kind of scholarly work that suggests only white people and societies run predominately by white people are capable of racism, please show me that. I have taken a few classes and done some readings with Professors that I'm fairly certain would identify themselves as critical race theorists, and they have typically pointed to examples of racism in other, often non-white, countries as points of comparisons to understand the racial dynamics in America.
