I'm not really sure what question is being asked by the OP, but regarding George Floyd, he was a criminal convicted of numerous drug charges, for invading a woman's home with 5 others and pointing a gun at her. This was a deeply messed-up individual, and should not be portrayed as a martyr by any movement or person.
As for the idea that there is systemic racism in America, it is a loosely defined statement that requires proof and evidence. I haven't seen that proof
As for the idea that there is systemic racism in America, it is a loosely defined statement that requires proof and evidence. I haven't seen that proof.
No one said he was a perfect person, his needless death served as the umpteenth reminder that black people are being treated unfairly in the US.
What kinda evidence do you want to see? Many books, studies, videos, podcasts, what have you, have been made about systemic racism.
How about a 34 minute of a guy responding to the Change My Mind guy claiming that systemic racism doesn't exist?
Oh, it's not evidence? How about the Wikipedia article of systemic racism? You know, the source that gives a lot of sources to articles, studies, books, and stuff?
Wikipedia isn't a real source? Despite all the sources that Wikipedia gives? How about an opinion article of The Washing Post with, once again, multiple links to studies about systemic racism in different fields? How about a yet another swarm of links by NPR, to books, films, documentaries and podcasts?
If you're looking for evidence, it is there. As is often said, all you need to do is Google. But I know you won't check out any of those. Or maybe you will, I don't know, but I think it's rather unlikely. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't, either, because why the hell would I order books about an issue that I disagree with? Still, the evidence is there, and it won't go away, whether or not you check them out.
George Floyd wasn't a martyr. Martyrdom requires one to die while advocating for whatever they believed in.
Floyd died while crying for his mother. He is a name amongst many, many black people who have been needlessly killed by the police, which is one of the far too many examples of systemic racism. You know, because black people tend to get reported way more often than whites. Many of the names used in these campaigns and riots are people who were reported for doing completely ordinary things, such as holding a phone or sleeping. You know, because people are more afraid of blacks starting shit than whites.
With that said, George Floyd did have a criminal record, although I fail to find anything about the "pointing a gun at a girl" part. The crimes happened between 1997 and 2009; quite a while ago. But still, why does it even matter? He was reported for paying with a counterfeit $20 bill, which no one knew at that moment if it was counterfeit or not, and then he was killed. Pointless killing, pointless death.
The point was that a dangerous person is more likely to end up in a situation where he's killed by a police officer. This goes against the narrative that police are actively out-to-get black people.
It's all well-and-good sending me links - and I appreciate the effort - but what I'm after is evidence that systemic racism exists in your words. Feel free to quote others, but I don't have the time to read a bunch of books to get to the point. If it's so obvious that systemic racism exists, then it should be easy to explain to someone, like me, who is presently unconvinced.
"Systemic" implies a whole bunch of things. Where's the institutional and systematic racism in America? Can you point to any institutions?
Studies seem to indicate about 61-80% of black overrepresentation in prisons can be explained by higher black crime rates, with the unexplained portion largely attributable to racial bias.
Remember - the factors which lead to disproportionate criminality amongst black Americans are also in large part a product of racial bias. Underfunded public programs, redlining, generational poverty, bad schooling, and myriad other factors which influence criminality can also be traced to racial bias.
While White & Black Americans admit to using and selling illicit drugs at similar rates, Black Americans are VASTLY more likely to go to prison for a drug offense.
In 2002, Black Americans were incarcerated for drug offenses at TEN TIMES the rate of White Americans.
Today, Blacks are 3.7x as likely to be arrested for a marijuana offense as Whites, despite similar usage.
97% of “large-population counties” have racial biases in their drug offense incarceration.
Analysis finds the bar for searching black and hispanic drivers’ cars is significantly lower than the bar for white drivers.
Additionally, black drivers are less likely to be pulled over after sunset, when “a ‘veil of darkness’ masks ones’ race”.
Extensive multivariate regression analysis indicates black male offenders receive 19.1% longer federal sentences than similarly-situated white male offenders (white male offenders with similar past offenses, socioeconomic background, etc.)
This disparity seems to stem mostly from black males being 21.2% less likely to receive non-government sponsored downward departures or variances.
Non-government sponsored departures and variances refer to deviations from standard sentencing guidelines due to judicial discretion.
Black males who do receive non government-sponsored departures and variations still serve 16.8% longer sentences than white males on average.
In contrast, when sentencing length follows standard guidelines, that disparity is only 7.9%, and a substantial assistance departure for both groups nullifies that disparity.
IN SUMMARY - much of the sentencing disparity between similarly situated black males and white males comes down to judicial discretion to deviate from standard sentencing guidelines.
BONUS - regression analysis suggests violence in a criminal’s history does NOT explain sentencing disparities between black males and similarly situated white males - the effect of that factor seems to be statistically insignificant.
Analysis of 33 years of data from Washington State to determine which characteristics best predict the decision to implement a death sentence.
Black defendants are 4.5 times as likely to receive a death sentence as similarly-situated whites.
Other factors (presence of aggravating circumstances, involvement of sex crimes, hostage-taking, etc.) explain only a small fraction of the disparity in prosecutors’ and juries’ decision to invoke the death penalty against black defendents.
Race was by far the most influential statistical factor.
Results from three separate studies on perception and racial bias show people have a tendency to perceive black men as larger and more threatening than similarly sized white men.
Participants also believed the black men were more capable of causing harm in a hypothetical altercation and police would be more justified in using force to subdue them, even if the men were unarmed.
He wasn't doing anything dangerous before he got executed
He served jail time for his crimes
A bad thing happening to a bad person* is still a bad thing happening to a person
*debatable if Floyd was at the time of his death, people can change
If you are looking and you say you haven't found anything, you're either blind, willfully ignorant, or completely dishonest.
Vaush (the 34 minute video guy) has a document with a sort of cliff notes version of why institutional racism is a real thing. The section that talks about it is credited to Rose Wrist. Links to sources are above the conclusions drawn from them.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...rE/mobilebasic
I hope that helps.
The man was arrested for using a fake $20 dollar bill. He also had 19 nanograms of meth in his system, and 2.9 nanograms of THC, a psychocative ingredient found in marijuana. So I doubt he changed much - if at all.
My point is that bad people - which George Floyd clearly seemed to be - are more likely to end up in situations like this.
Wouldn't the systemic racism narrative have more impact in being applied to a more innocent black person rather than a drugged-up criminal like George Floyd?