I believe that black lives matter (BLM).
I refrain from responding to someone saying that BLM with all lives matter (ALM). To the extent that the person is saying BLM, responding ALM seems to be taking issue with BLM.
I believe in equal opportunity and equal justice for people of all races, genders, religions, sexual orientations, etc. I also believe in equal treatment under the law. I believe in fairness. Whether it’s college admissions, proceedings at a county court, or interacting with the police, to name a few, what color you are, what you believe, or who you love should have no bearing on your treatment.
I DO NOT support the Black Lives Matter movement. I don’t like their methods, or some of their desired outcomes, which seems often less about equal opportunity and equal justice than it does about revenge and giving white people “our” comeuppance.
I didn’t ask to be born white. I just was. I’m tired of the divisive privilege bullshit. Completely and totally over it. Sell that bullshit somewhere else, because I’m not buying it. I am no more responsible for what some white person or people did 50, 150, or 250 years ago than a black persons is for what some other black persons did. And as for the privilege bullshit, it seems a real cop out to me. Rather than taking on the real issue that all kinds of minorities and groups have to face: racial, gender, sexual preferences, even handicapped persons, instead its to diminish my accomplishments because I was born white. I’m not the bad guy, no I am not, and no, I did not cheat to get to where I’m at. I made a lot of mistakes, and I also made some tough decisions and personal sacrifices. More than half of you reading this would have got fired from or quit difficult jobs I did rather than to put up with what was expected from me. How many of you moved your young families, in a space of 10 years from California, to New York, to Arizona, and then to Kentucky to seek a better life for your family? How many of you woke at 6 am every Saturday while raising your family so that you could find 2-3 quiet hours to do your homework before the family woke up to get a degree to better yourself? My hard work, determination, and the sacrifices me and my family made aren’t attributable to my race. So fuck that privilege business. Figure out what is holding back minorities and fix it? Yes. Blame me and undermine my accomplishments? Fuck you.
So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to continue to treat people the right way. That means whatever their race, their religion, their gender, their sexual orientation, and including whatever handicaps they have. If I observe what appears to me to be someone mistreating someone for any of those reasons, be it a cop, a landlord, or a store clerk, I’ll say something and if it was a criminal act report it.
Here’s what I’m NOT going to do: I’m not going to apologize for being white. I’m not going to apologize for what some other white guy did 50 years ago or 50 miles from here. I’m not going to support destruction of society in the interest of so called fairness or excuse it because someone feels they’ve been treated unfairly. I’m not going to lie and pretend there’s no such thing as racism, because there is indeed. But neither am I going to presume to see it lurking beneath every single unfairness or wrongful act. Derek Chauvin: Bad cop. Murderer. Deserves punishment. Racist? Maybe so. As yet I have not seen even one single iota or anecdote that supports racism as a motive or even an enabling factor. I’m not ruling it out, but I’m not jumping to a conclusion just because it conveniently conforms to a political narrative.
I said my piece. Peace.
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