America's Great Divide isn't Black vs White, It's Conservatives vs Reality

Many people regularly argue that America is divided deeply along racial lines.  But when you look at the protests and event taking place in Ferguson, you don't necessarily see that all the face lined up on one side are black and the other side white.  What you see is that all those who feel strongly that the this shooting of Michael Brown, like so many others in recent memory, was deeply unjustified are people from various backgrounds, Black, White, Latino, Asian and other - while those on the other side who feel too much has been made about this case are almost all White. And also Conservative.

There's even polling on it. http://www.politico.com/...

According to a Pew Research Center poll released Monday, 80 percent of African-American adults answered that the shooting and killing of the 18-year-old Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, raises important issues about race, while 18 percent answered that the topic of race is “getting more attention than it deserves.” White adults polled held very different opinions: Thirty-seven percent answered that the case is raising important issues while a plurality, 47 percent, said the topic is receiving too much attention. Answers also revealed a divide between Republicans and Democrats, as 61 percent of those polled who identified themselves as a supporter of the GOP said race is getting too much attention, while 68 percent of Democrats answered that the case raises important issues surrounding race.

When 80% of Black people all tend to feel the same way, that's called being in agreement.  When 37% of White people also feel that same way, that's an extension of that agreement.  The Divide here is with the other 47% of White people who feel the other way about it.

And yes, most of those on one side tend to be Democrats while the others are Conservative Republicans.  This isn't White vs Black.  It's not even Left vs Right.  It's provable Facts vs Deluded Bullshit.

We can as always, see that divide on full display on Fox News, as you see here pointed out by Jon Stewart. http://www.rawstory.com/...

Daily Show host Jon Stewart hammered Fox News on Tuesday for their various attempts to discuss the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown — like Sean Hannity telling his radio show audience that he puts police officers at ease during traffic stops by showing them his gun.

“You really do have no f*cking idea, do you?” Stewart asked. “Basically, you’re saying, if only Michael Brown, instead of holding his hands over his head, had reached down to his waist and lifted up his shirt to show the gun he did not actually have, this whole tragedy could have been avoided. Do you not understand that life in this country is inherently different for white people and black people?”

And you can see it here as Megyn Kelly manages to accurately explain what White Priviledge is to Bill O'Reilly. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...

Fox News host Megyn Kelly laid out evidence supporting what a disbelieving Bill O'Reilly called the "white privilege theory" Monday night to explain why the black community in Ferguson, Mo. feels justice won't be served in the Michael Brown shooting.

Kelly ran down a list of statistics, including the disparity in employment between blacks and whites in Ferguson and that blacks are three times as likely as whites to be subjected to or threatened with force by police.

The facts, pointed out in Megyn Kelly's statistics are absolutely correct.  The Missouri State Statistics does show that Black people are more likely to be stopped by police (by about 60%) even when there's no valid reason for the stop and they've done nothing wrong.   http://www.stltoday.com/...

Ferguson police are much more likely to stop, search and arrest African-American drivers than white ones. Last year, blacks, who make up a little less than two-thirds of the driving-age population in the North County city, accounted for 86 percent of all stops. When stopped, they were almost twice as likely to be searched as whites and twice as likely to be arrested, though police were less likely to find contraband on them.

I mean we could just stop right there.  We could stick a pin in that, and circle it with a sharpie and a highlighter and just stop at that point alone.

We should be done with just that.

But that's not where it ends.  The Bureau of Justice Statistics says a lot about what is likely to happen during those stops.

o Black drivers were about three times as likely as white drivers and about two times as likely as Hispanic drivers to be searched during a traffic stop.

And More.

This table shows that the percentage of Blacks that are arrested during traffic stops is twice (4.7% to 2.4%) as high as White Drivers.  And similarly their likelihood of being ticketed is greater (58% to 53%) - although Latinos top them both at 62% - and their likelihood of receiving a written warning (14.8% to 17.7%) or a verbal warning (6.0% to 11.2%) are consistently lower.

And when it comes to uses of force by Police?

From 2002 through 2008 Black citizens encountering police received threats of force, or use of force at least Three Times More Often than White citizens. Latinos citizens were threatened with force, or had force used on them about Twice as Often.

People say this is all justified because of "Black on Black" Crime.  But the best facts available show that the percentage of Black's arrested for murdering other blacks isn't 90% - it's really only 44% when you include all Murders, not just some of them, according the Supplemental Homicide Report.  They claim Blacks commit most of the Crime, but FBI Arrest numbers show that White People are arrested (6.5 Million in 2012) more often than Black people (2.6 Million) by a factor of almost 2.5 to 1.

These are the numbers.  These are the figures. This is a digital expression of the lived reality that most black and brown people experience, but most white people don't.  Some of them, like those listed in the above polls, seem to realize this is going on while other refuse to take it seriously even when they have no way to disprove it and no valid answer for it.  People like Bill O'Reilly.

O'Reilly then challenged those numbers, claiming Attorney General Eric Holder really held the reins in the investigation into the fatal shooting of Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer.

"I don't know why African-Americans wouldn't have confidence in that," he said. Kelly reminded him that Holder is running a satellite investigation to the primary inquiry being carried out in St. Louis County.

Why wouldn't African-Americans have confidence in Eric Holder  - who is also African-American?  Well, for starters, because he's not running the Grand Jury that is currently looking at whether or not to seek an indictment against Officer Wilson.  That's being handled by local DA Bob McCulloch, who has family ties to law enforcement, whose father was killed in the line of duty by a black assailant, and who - even though he is a Democrat - has a history of aggressively prosecuting black defendants and also not prosecuting police after they fired 20 rounds in to a car killing it's unarmed, African-American, occupants.

This why there is a Petition, with 20,000 signatures so far, to have him removed from the case.

McCulloch’s decision not to charge officers who murdered two unarmed African American men in 2000 by shooting into their car 20 times, especially in the face the U.S. Attorney Office’s independent investigation that those officers lied about their actions, gives us no confidence that his office can provide a fair and impartial investigation into this current matter.

It's McCulloch the people don't trust.  And a Ferguson Police Department that has played games with the Incident Report, possibly even falsifying it.  That released video of Michael Brown supposedly performing a "Strong-Arm Robbery" when in fact, he had actually paid for the cigarillos at the counter.  A Ferguson Police Department that had their dog piss on, and then drove over the Memorial that had been placed on the spot that Michael Brown died on.

As darkness fell on Canfield Drive on August 9, a makeshift memorial sprang up in the middle of the street where Michael Brown's body had been sprawled in plain view for more than four hours. Flowers and candles were scattered over the bloodstains on the pavement. Someone had affixed a stuffed animal to a streetlight pole a few yards away. Neighborhood residents and others were gathering, many of them upset and angry.

Soon, police vehicles reappeared, including from the St. Louis County Police Department, which had taken control of the investigation. Several officers emerged with dogs. What happened next, according to several sources, was emblematic of what has inflamed the city of Ferguson, Missouri, ever since the unarmed 18-year-old was gunned down: An officer on the street let the dog he was controlling urinate on the memorial site.

....

By then, police had prohibited all vehicles from entering Canfield Drive except for their own. Soon the candles and flowers had been smashed, after police drove over them.

Even before there were any protests, any "looting", any "rioting", THIS was the level of "respect" the Ferguson Police Department showed Michael Brown, his family and the community.

So there was no cigarillo robbery.

There was No Orbital Fracture for Officer Wilson.

There's no evidence that Michael Brown "charged" at Officer Wilson and even if he had - what exactly is that Officer's Body Armor, Mace and Taser there for anyway? Decoration?

Black people aren't "making up" stories of being overly targeted, harassed and assaulted by Police, all the available data backs that up.  Every complaint they have has been - so far - shown to be legitimate.  Some people who happen to not be Black can see that truth, that reality.

Not so much with Bill O'Reilly, who apparently thinks he's figured out the "Problem with the Negro".

"It all comes down to family, culture, personal responsibility,” O'Reilly continued, contrasting black culture with what he called the "Asian success story." “All of these things which we don’t hear anything, or much about, and this is what drives the poverty.”

"Culture" drives the Poverty?  It's not something that can be helped with less job discrimination...

First, black job seekers were offered significantly less compensation than whites by potential new employers. Second, blacks were much more likely to accept these lower offers than their white counterparts. “This is exactly what you would expect if blacks know that they're being racially discriminated against,” Spenkuch adds.

...

The kind of racial bias that drives this effect, says Spenkuch, is called “statistical discrimination”—“which has nothing to do with any emotional distaste for working with minorities,” he adds. “In our model, employers are purely profit-seeking. The employer says, ‘I don't care why blacks are less productive on average; I know that they are, because of the lower SAT scores and other data that are observable. Therefore, if I don't know anything else about the candidate, I have to treat him as I would the average candidate in that racial group—that is, less favorably. Of course, by law employers are not allowed to do that. But the data show that it’s happening.”

And less lending discrimination...

In a study of loans created on Prosper.com, a peer-to-peer lending website where applicants are encouraged to include a personal photo, researchers found that black borrowers are 25 to 35 percent less likely to receive funding than a white borrower with similar credit.

And less housing discrimination

A new report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development finds that in major cities across the country, Blacks, Hispanics and Asians still face greater struggles to find a place to live compared to equally qualified whites. The study sent white, Black, Hispanic and Asian participants out to pose as potential renters or homebuyers, with each taking on a scripted socioeconomic persona that included annual salaries, car and credit card payments, and debt loads that made them equally qualified financially. They logged details about their search, from how many units they were told about to how many units they actually saw and what comments agents made to them in the process.

Despite laws like the Fair Housing Act (part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), and the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, and the creation of the Fair Housing Council by President Bill Clinton, all of which worked to criminalize discrimination in the housing market, participants found that sellers and agents still use loopholes to continue to make it harder for people of certain races and ethnicities  to find housing. These tactics included not only telling clients about fewer properties or showing them fewer in person, but also what was said during visits, perhaps an attempt to intimidate buyers or renters to keep them from a certain home, condo or apartment.

And better school support and funding where it's actually needed?

Despite dramatic upticks in overall student achievement in recent years, the achievement gap between white and minority high school students remains wide and steady.

The academic performance of the nation’s 12th graders in math and reading has not changed since 2009, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which on Wednesday released The Nation’s Report Card on America’s high school seniors. But the white-black gap in math and reading scores in 2013 was 30 points, the latter of which grew five points since 1992.

The white-Hispanic gap was 21 points in math and 22 points in reading.

No apparently for O'Reilly and many Conservatives, none of these facts matter.  The problem is that Black people are culturally "deficient", yeah but y'know O'Reilly not "racist" or anything.  He doesn't even See race, only culture. They're too busy watching degrading videos by Beyonce. [Have you seen the one with Katie Perry and sparklers on her Tits?]  I guess they're too obsessed with accumulating wealth, fancy cars, women and guns.  And of course, Asians don't have that problem at all and neither do White people do they? Yeah, white people just so Hate their guns.

The problem isn't the fact that from Police, to Jobs, to Lending, to Housing, to Schools, Black and Brown people are consistently mistreated  - it's that Black people apparently refuse to sit down, shut up and quietly take all this abuse without making such a fuss.  

The way that Asians do. Yes, apparently the beatings and shootings will continue until you change your attitude, Boy, er, young man.

Citing the intactness of Asian American families and the "emphasis" placed on education, O'Reilly suggested that these things aren't emphasized in African American culture, which is why they aren't as successful.

"American children must learn, not only academics, but also civil behavior, right from wrong, as well as how to speak properly and how to act respectfully in public," O'Reilly said. "If African American children do not learn those things, they will likely fail as adults. They will be poor, they will be angry and they often will be looking to blame someone else."

See, African-American kids don't achieve because they just don't know how to behave properly. They ain't got Culture. Civility. Class.

It's not like Black People in America have ever grabbed their own bootstraps and levitated themselves into prosperty.  It's not we've ever had a Black Wall Street.  Except for when we did. And you can just guess what happened to it.

Greenwood, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa, was the type of community that African Americans are still, today, attempting to reclaim and rebuild.  It was modern, majestic, sophisticated and unapologetically Black. Tragically, it was also the site of one of the bloodiest and most horrendous race riots (and acts of terrorism) that the United States has ever experienced.

Today marks ninety-two years since as many as 300 African Americans lost their lives and more than 9,000 were left homeless when the small town was attacked, looted and literally burned to the ground beginning in 1921.  It’s impossible, however, to realize what was lost in Greenwood, which was affectionately known as "Black Wall Street."

So I wonder who taught us that just about everything we build up, they'll do nearly anything to tear down? Some of us succeed in athletics, and they tear them down.  Some of us succeed in entertainment like Oprah or Beyonce or Tyler Perry or Russell Simmons and they tear them down.  Some of us succeed by attending Harvard and becoming an attorney and then running for Office and become the President and all some people do is Tear Him Down.

Our culture is "deficient"?  Where do you think that culture came from? Who taught it to us?

I wonder just who it was, what process, what systematic method was used to originally strip our ancestors physically away from their family, from their roots, from their own African culture, from their sense of identity, their sense of self, from their language, from their freedom, then place them in an entirely new environment where they were forbidden from not only speaking their native language, they were forbidden to be taught how to "properly" read and write.  Their families could be torn apart and thrown together at a whim.  Torture and Murder were daily occurances.  Their lives were cheap and disposable.

And then after centuries of that, after having to chock-a-block adapt and rebuild a piece-meal patchwork quilt of self, of identity, and of "culture" in the midst of this madness they were told they were "Free" with the Emancipation Proclaimation and the 13th Amendment and the 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment, except there really wasn't any enforcement to protect any of that freedom for another 100 years, while the murder and torture and cultural crime continued unabated.  And then after they finally had a few laws passed that required that they be treated fairly in public accommodations, in voting, in housing, in jobs, and in lending... even fifty years later that STILL ISN'T HAPPENING.... because people use implausible deniability to claim what is happening right in front of your eyes, really isn't happening at all.

Or if it is happening it's not really "all that bad'. Just "Shrug it off". Pretend it's not a problem and it won't be. It doesn't matter that some of us have to run the rat race of life as an uphill steeple chase through firepits and tiger traps.  That's just tough, life isn't fair. Too bad. Suck it up. Quit whining. What doesn't kill you [even though sometimes it does] makes you Stronger and isn't just killing you slowly from the inside. Stop blaming me while I'm just sitting here on the sidelines doing nothing but finding excuses, denials and rationalizations as Evil passes by before me, and I refuse to raise a finger to make anything better for anyone.

Is it possible that a culture built and shaped by that experience might have some rough edges?  Is it possible that it might be somewhat dysfunctional in some areas, and then at the same time super-functional in others?  Considering the circumstances, how could it not?

No Racism is NOT the fault of every White person.  Black people do need to sometimes keep that in mind, just as much as some people need to keep in mind that every Black person is not. the. same. either.  It's not fair to blame people for something they haven't done, but it is fair to call someone out for refusing to speak out and call for something to stop when it's so clearly wrong and going on right in front of them.

It's fair to criticize when people are insisting to you that your reality, just isn't Real.  The facts aren't the facts. Not to them. To them you have "cultural" problem.  You're just not acting "American-ish" enough.

After Four Centuries of being not at all invited into the "freedom party" that is the primary American self-delusion, to being kinda sorta sometimes maybe invited to the party, and then being invited but then quickly shown your way to the kitchen through the back way  to serve everyone else, just what kind of culture do you think we've built out here on the porch during all that time, all on our own?  Could it be the culture that produced Jazz, Blues, Rock-N-Roll, Gospel, R&B, Funk, Soul and now Hip-Hop?  The culture that continues to push forward fashion, hair, style, language and perspectives that are emulated the world over?  The culture whose cry for freedom was echoed in England with the British Invasion and behind the Iron Curtain in a way that ultimately - immediately following a Rock Concert featuring Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen - is what directly inspired "the kids" of East and West Germany to finally tear down that wall?

Springsteen attracted an estimated 300,000 people from all over the German Democratic Republic -- the largest crowd he had ever played to. They were hungry for change and freedom, and seeing one of the West's top stars made them even hungrier, argues veteran journalist Erik Kirschbaum in his book "Rocking the Wall,"

"It's safe to say that pretty much every East German between the ages of about 18 and 35 was either at the Springsteen concert or saw it on TV," Kirschbaum, who has worked for Reuters in Berlin for almost two decades, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It was an unbelievably intoxicating moment for them -- many of them had never experienced such a mass crowd of people having such a good time before."

...
During West Berlin gigs by Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson a year later in June 1988, the communist regime deployed thousands of troopers from the Stasi secret police along the Wall to keep fans away.

Gray ranks of armed men confronting youths who only wanted to hear some decent pop music -- to young East Germans, such scenes just rammed home the message that they were locked inside a deeply unfun country.

That was our culture that did that, that's what it inspired in spite of what America did to us in the meantime.

Exactly what culture do you think we've been out here making Bill? It's certainly not yours, and it probably never will be.

Vyan