America on Fire

Jesse Jackson said “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps... then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

If a black civil right activist can be prejudiced against his own people, surely it can happen to anybody.

My definition of a racist is not simply a person who has racial prejudice, it’s somebody who thinks it’s justified, and therefore needs no correction regardless of facts.

Everybody has a certain prejudice, it’s a survival mechanism built into our brain. If bad things happen to us whenever we meet somebody with a green shirt, pretty soon we’ll make a subconscious association between green shirt and danger. The same goes for skin color. It’s called classical conditioning, made famous by Pavlov and his dog.

What makes reasonable people different from garden-variety racists is the former continuously challenge their prejudice and assumptions. A racist is like a Pavlov dog that keeps salivating after a bell, even years after the bell was last associated with food.

Having lived in USA and witnessed multiple crimes by black people (and almost fell victim to one), I’d be lying if I say that I don’t share Jesse Jackson’s instinct. However, I continuously temper my gut reaction with reason and logic. While I may be a little faster to judge a black person negatively, I spend a lot of time second guessing my initial reaction, and would be very quick to make a positive adjustment as warranted.
 
I am glad my kiddos introduced me to TikTok so I have a pointless distraction from all that is going on back in the US. Any time virtue signaling videos pop up, I just block them.
 
Ironically, after posting the note above about Austrlian Aboriginal - police relations this evening's news ran this footage of the rough dealing in arrest of an Aboriginal teenager.


At least social media can have an impact in exposing such behaviour and the policeman involved in this incident has been stood down.
 
“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps... then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
If a black civil right activist can be prejudiced against his own people, surely it can happen to anybody.

That can be applied to any situation of risk, since people in general want to protect themselves. If a woman turns round at night and sees the footsteps behind her are those of a woman, she'd also breathe a sigh of relief, despite probably not thinking all men are rapists.
Considering how dangerous US inner cities are, I'd imagine only borderline psychopaths would join the police force over there, when everyone has guns the violence just keeps escalating, and we are where we are.
I remember a JIS cleaner getting beaten to death by police here, so the police here has its fair share of such people too, as does the army. I imagine they are also motivated by religious or skin colour differences in places where atrocities are committed like Papua. That's before even looking at how the police and army behave in places like India, China, Myanmar, Philippines, Pakistan etc.
One thing in the US's favour is that they manage to keep religion out of it.
 
That can be applied to any situation of risk, since people in general want to protect themselves. If a woman turns round at night and sees the footsteps behind her are those of a woman, she'd also breathe a sigh of relief, despite probably not thinking all men are rapists.
That's not the point Jesse Jackson was making, and a terrible analogy. You are equating "women are unlikely to rape" with "white people are unlikely to be a threat". Both are profiling their potential attacker and in both cases asses that the threat is low.
 
Not America, but good to see sports organizations not being silent.
westbromtweet.jpg


NFL owners were silent, it appears they aren't now.

 
West Bromwich Albion have a particular connection to this issue since they were the first team in the 1970s to include 3 black players in their first team, dubbed the 3 degrees (Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis), under a forward thinking manager of the time, Ron Atkinson.
 
I believe the time is long since past that the responsibility for learning should sit fair & square on the shoulders of those who need to learn,

There are 2 types of racism- overt & covert & I fully believe we should be anti-either of them.
It is not those victimised by this that should be educating us- it is our own responsibility to effect the changes to OUR negative behaviour.

& for those who choose to argue- look at it this way- if your kid was being bullied in school, would you want the bully to change or your child?
 
Last edited:
Cleaning our backyard first-we can make a roundtable with our RT to educate Indonesians to do not call Papuans monkeys, and to explain to them that black people are not drug dealers. When do we start?
 
This is from a friend whose stepson is in NYC and joined in one of the protests.

'My son Sampson texted this last night. This was his experience when he joined others on a walk in New York City, this afternoon.


“We walked through Manhattan for 8 hours today, peacefully. Thousands of us marched in solidarity with our hands up, causing no harm to anyone or anything. There was no looting, no burning of private property, and no attack on any police officers. The aim was to remain blameless and we were successful in that regard. At 8 pm we peacefully continued to finish the march, breaking the curfew that was arbitrarily (and unjustly) issued earlier in the day. This was the only rule that was broken by our gathering as a whole. Since we were walking on city streets, the police had the option of simply parking two or three cars at the adjacent crosswalks and arresting us for breaking curfew. They did not do this at any point. They followed close behind as we marched away. I can confirm there was no individual interference with the police because I was in the back of the crowd. The police made no effort to contain us until they were given the command to charge. At that point, they chased after individuals whose hands remained above their heads. All around me, I began to witness a brutal display of violence as the police beat people who were already vulnerable on the ground, cowering. This is no victim’s exaggeration. The police beat everyone they caught. If we had been surrounded at any point, we would have stopped. There was no resistance from us. They chose to chase and beat instead of stop and arrest. I was with three friends and they were all hit badly, none of them arrested. These men had a clear interest in hurting people. There was no protection. There were no peaceful arrests. Every arrest was violent. I watched a young man dragged unconscious by his arm across the pavement. I watched a woman’s arm be aggressively broken. My own friend had his hands above his head when he was thrown against a car and beat all along his back and legs. Now, please hear me out here. This is not a Democrat opinion. This is not a Republican opinion. This is coming from my individual observation and a heart for preserving the sanctity of human life:

Please consider this picture I painted when you want to issue your support for the general occupation of policing. In many situations like these, it does not matter who is a “good cop” or a “bad cop.” There is something wrong with the powers these people are allowed. None of these videos will go viral because these cases tonight happened in the masses. Anyone who tried to record was beat as well. I do not blame you if you are thankful for the police, have a respect for various officers, or even are an officer yourself, but please be wary of the lack of accountability that is at play here. Just because you don’t see it in your community does not mean it’s not happening. Just because slavery was abolished in 1865 does not mean the powers that be are not still currently benefitting from it. It is not because minorities are stupid, biologically more prone to violence, or unable to care for each other in a productive manner that there are higher rates of crime and poverty in their neighborhoods. It’s because these people came here in chains and have never been afforded enough freedom to break them on their own. Companies like JP Morgan Chase, Citi Bank, Colgate, Harper Collins, Macy’s and many more companies you might very well be invested in all predate emancipation. The structure we live in continues to have been built by slaves and a criminal justice reform is not lucrative for this structure. Please do not believe inequality is over. Please do not believe the criminal justice system does not need serious reshaping. Please do not believe that black lives are not still far more at risk than white lives. This should be enough to care. There’s no counterpoint here. Of course there’s additional information. There always is. Go find it out for yourself or go watch a protest and form your own opinion, but there is no doubt in my mind that the abuse of power I witnessed tonight occurs every single day across the country. Be vigilant and stand up for those who need to be stood up for. No one needs a “good point” right now. People are dying. I don’t even know if people I met today are still breathing.”
 
This is one of my South African friend's blog:

 
One thing of note, most of the recent posts I have made are not mine. Instead of posting what the media is saying, I am sharing from some of the different perspectives.
 
This is from a friend whose stepson is in NYC and joined in one of the protests.

'My son Sampson texted this last night. This was his experience when he joined others on a walk in New York City, this afternoon.


“We walked through Manhattan for 8 hours today, peacefully. Thousands of us marched in solidarity with our hands up, causing no harm to anyone or anything. There was no looting, no burning of private property, and no attack on any police officers. The aim was to remain blameless and we were successful in that regard. At 8 pm we peacefully continued to finish the march, breaking the curfew that was arbitrarily (and unjustly) issued earlier in the day. This was the only rule that was broken by our gathering as a whole. Since we were walking on city streets, the police had the option of simply parking two or three cars at the adjacent crosswalks and arresting us for breaking curfew. They did not do this at any point. They followed close behind as we marched away. I can confirm there was no individual interference with the police because I was in the back of the crowd. The police made no effort to contain us until they were given the command to charge. At that point, they chased after individuals whose hands remained above their heads. All around me, I began to witness a brutal display of violence as the police beat people who were already vulnerable on the ground, cowering. This is no victim’s exaggeration. The police beat everyone they caught. If we had been surrounded at any point, we would have stopped. There was no resistance from us. They chose to chase and beat instead of stop and arrest. I was with three friends and they were all hit badly, none of them arrested. These men had a clear interest in hurting people. There was no protection. There were no peaceful arrests. Every arrest was violent. I watched a young man dragged unconscious by his arm across the pavement. I watched a woman’s arm be aggressively broken. My own friend had his hands above his head when he was thrown against a car and beat all along his back and legs. Now, please hear me out here. This is not a Democrat opinion. This is not a Republican opinion. This is coming from my individual observation and a heart for preserving the sanctity of human life:

Please consider this picture I painted when you want to issue your support for the general occupation of policing. In many situations like these, it does not matter who is a “good cop” or a “bad cop.” There is something wrong with the powers these people are allowed. None of these videos will go viral because these cases tonight happened in the masses. Anyone who tried to record was beat as well. I do not blame you if you are thankful for the police, have a respect for various officers, or even are an officer yourself, but please be wary of the lack of accountability that is at play here. Just because you don’t see it in your community does not mean it’s not happening. Just because slavery was abolished in 1865 does not mean the powers that be are not still currently benefitting from it. It is not because minorities are stupid, biologically more prone to violence, or unable to care for each other in a productive manner that there are higher rates of crime and poverty in their neighborhoods. It’s because these people came here in chains and have never been afforded enough freedom to break them on their own. Companies like JP Morgan Chase, Citi Bank, Colgate, Harper Collins, Macy’s and many more companies you might very well be invested in all predate emancipation. The structure we live in continues to have been built by slaves and a criminal justice reform is not lucrative for this structure. Please do not believe inequality is over. Please do not believe the criminal justice system does not need serious reshaping. Please do not believe that black lives are not still far more at risk than white lives. This should be enough to care. There’s no counterpoint here. Of course there’s additional information. There always is. Go find it out for yourself or go watch a protest and form your own opinion, but there is no doubt in my mind that the abuse of power I witnessed tonight occurs every single day across the country. Be vigilant and stand up for those who need to be stood up for. No one needs a “good point” right now. People are dying. I don’t even know if people I met today are still breathing.”

That is how it works with the police. You beat the police for a couple of days, and next time the police will beat out the hell out of you in some dark corner, and when curfew starts everybody is an enemy. This is just settling the bills, unfortunately, innocent people suffer or get hurt sometimes.
 
Interesting that this point about police action and general discrimination against Papuans is now being taken up - making the point it is easier to complain about what happens in the US because of a celeb-backed hashtag than to act against what is happening on one's own doorstep, which is probably even worse:

 
Cleaning our backyard first-we can make a roundtable with our RT to educate Indonesians to do not call Papuans monkeys, and to explain to them that black people are not drug dealers. When do we start?
Why are you asking permission?
Get on with it :)
 
Why are you asking permission?
Get on with it :)

I am waiting for white self-humiliating keyboard warriors to start first ;)

I see that they have a high moral standing ground for situation 10,000 miles away, but anyway they live in a racist country without complaining-maybe because they enjoy living in one of the last countries in the world where white privilege really exists.
 
Interesting that this point about police action and general discrimination against Papuans is now being taken up - making the point it is easier to complain about what happens in the US because of a celeb-backed hashtag than to act against what is happening on one's own doorstep, which is probably even worse:


Yep. Many Indonesians have a specific criteria of beauty and Papuans and black skin are not part of it. You can do a survey asking Indonesians if Naomi Campbell is beautiful? I can surmise that many will say not.
 
How about this? Pathetic!

I think it’s not as sinister as it sounds. Indonesian consulates never encourage Indonesian citizens to participate in another country’s political process, especially if it may violate the country’s law. U.S. immigration law has provisions to deport foreigners —even permanent residents— for committing certain offenses, including certain misdemeanors. Since immigration is a federal matter, handled by officials picked by Trump, you can’t count on leniency.

Edit: I looked it up, and I think vandalism and destruction of property are ‘removable’ offenses. If a guy next to you started breaking windows then the police sweeps in and arrests the whole group, everybody there is gonna get charged. You may be a permanent resident for 5 decades, it doesn’t matter, a conviction will get you kicked out of the country.
 
Last edited:

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Follow Us

Latest Expat Indo Articles

Latest Tweets by Expat Indo

Latest Activity

New posts Latest threads

Online Now

No members online now.

Newest Members

Forum Statistics

Threads
5,966
Messages
97,420
Members
3,036
Latest member
stats
Back
Top Bottom