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People are protesting in Santa Cruz, saying Professor Negy should be fired for his racist tweets.
One tweet asked (paraphrasing): Would we be proclaiming that systemic racism exists if blacks did as well in school as Asians?
At first I thought: No, he shouldn't be fired. But after thinking about it more, they should keep demanding that he be fired.
What's racist about the tweet is that he's implying that: Not doing well in school:
What's racist about it? He's implying there's no systemic racism.
So maybe the University should explain this to him first. And then he should apologize for his ignorance or be fired.
I've been upset that so many people are upset. Worse, that many stupid police forces are attacking the protesters, hurting people, even killing them. Plus their attacks have brought violence that has killed some police as well.
I want everyone to calm down and work toward a peaceful solution.
Then I realized: That's because I don't currently have heaps of injustice piled on me due to my skin color.
What's my goto action when I'm upset? Design and propose a solution. I came up with a petition on Change.org to end racism. To me, this was a far better solution- let's at least ask for what we want.
It's still a good idea, but it's not a wise first goal. First, it doesn't get rid of police who are the biggest danger to black lives. While many police are probably good people, especially to whites, the police culture they're part of is thoroughly corrupt. Read this account from an ex-policeman.
Second, it's something that isn't going to happen while Trump's in office (unless someone explains to him how smart it would be and he miraculously agrees to it.) And even if it does, it opens up a long process that probably wouldn't even include getting rid of police.
My reaction is to be reasonable, to minimize the confrontation. I'd rather not shame people and make them wrong if it's not necessary. Plus I tolerate mistakes, even stupid ones. It's pretty easy for me to be "big" like that because I've rarely been treated poorly. Once I was treated poorly at a job and was injured. But even then, it didn't threaten my livelihood and it was a random event, not a system of societal injustice.
Being able to afford being big is a privilege blacks don't have. Since the 1960's, blacks have constantly been much "bigger" than I've ever been asked to be. Time and time again they forgive police for killing thousands unnecessarily, brutalizing, wounding and incarcerating millions. They did all that when they couldn't afford it.
And all that magnanimity didn't make much of a difference.
It did benefit them in the short term. It allowed black people to stop fighting full time and return to their lives. Still, it meant returning to a life all too often brutalized by a racist system.
It's time the oppressed stop being reasonable. Let the much wealthier unjust society be on the defense for a change.
One thing I've learned from "Defund Police", is that demanding more than is necessary is smart, if it comes with enough pressure. "Defund Police" is working.
Demanding "Defund the Police" works partly because it's a fair request. Even if there were no police to stop organized crime, there's no evidence that society as a whole would be any worse off. If might be a bit worse for whites, but maybe not. Let's find out first instead of opting to first allowing black and brown people to be in constant danger of injury and death.
"Defund Police" also works as a negotiating position. Maybe we do keep a police force, say, 1/20th the size, to battle organized crime and serial murderers and rapists, and move the rest of policing to people who aren't allowed to use force.
Perhaps the armed police who are left are only officers who've never had brutality complaints against them. If they're prohibited from using the neck restraints, wear body cameras and post the videos immediately, have personal excessive-force insurance and all the rest of the best practices PLUS there are only 1/20th of them, perhaps it can work. Or only allow new officers who weren't traumatized and brain-washed by police academies to feel they're in constant danger of being killed by minorities. If this takes a few years, so be it.
"Defund the Police" works- we've already seen it begin to work. Cities have begun to grapple with it. Even in my small city in the heart of Silicon Valley, one racist event 10 months ago that was swept under the rug is being reviewed. The assault 13 years ago (and the police pressure to hide it) of a minority family by a drunk, off-duty policeman is finally coming to light. And the publicity emboldened a woman in San Leandro (just South of Oakland), to sue the police for intentionally assaulting her to make her miscarry.
"Fire Negy" is thus also a reasonable demand, as a starting position.
And maybe we shouldn't protect racist language. Maybe publishing racist language should be considered a hate crime.
After all, George Floyd was killed for being black. Maybe the killing, beating, traumatizing and unjust imprisonment of citizens is actually a worse injustice that limiting freedom of speech. Maybe Black Lives Matter would be willing to make a deal: Make racist comments illegal only until structural racism is gone. Until it's gone, racist comments will be subject to losing one's job and either a fine or a prison sentence. As soon as it's gone and America is educated about racism, we can rescind that law.
It's so easy to say something racist, though... Maybe we want to allow people to publish a very thorough, detailed apology within 24 hours of being alerted about it?
But if we're being that generous with people who perpetuate a system of injustice, shouldn't we also be that generous to blacks who've been incarcerated? Shouldn't almost all of them be freed?
So "Fire Negy" is a very reasonable demand. If Negy wants to negotiate, he can. But let him feel a small part of the threat that blacks feel their whole lives. ("Hang Negy" would give him a more accurate feeling.)
The continuing, severe, systemic racism is as horrible as I've always known, yet I stupidly, like most other whites, assumed I couldn't do anything about it, or that it'd be too much of a sacrifice.
I dutifully, and, I thought, genuinely, repeated "never again" while blacks were being concentrated in prison camps. While blacks in every part of the country were being harassed, beaten, injured, incarcerated and killed for having dark skin. While blacks and even black children were being regularly traumatized by police and their actions.
I apologize. In my typical, nerdy, verbose manner, I've come to support "Defund the Police" and "Fire Negy."
Similarly, I was dutifully believing "never again", while Donald Trump began using a lot of the same tactics that Hitler used:
My mom is 90. She escaped Nazi Germany in 1938. Her father was 16 when WWI ended in 1918 and soon after got a good job with the government. A decade later, he was beaten up by Brownshirts. Like most Americans, he still believed in his country. At the time, Germany was thought of as the most sophisticated of Western civilized countries. He got a lawyer and filed a lawsuit against the government.
By the time he realized his country was lost, it was difficult to get out. They managed to get out just before Jews were no longer allowed to leave.
She's no longer quite as savvy as she used to be. Her ability to rationalize and deny what she sees in the news is diminished. She looks around and it reminds her of the way Nazi Germany started.
Structural racism is real and pervasive, especially
in police forces.
After the police are defunded, Negy is fired, and the insane would-be-dictator is gone, let's end racism.