Obama on the Killing of George Floyd and Subsequent Protests
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I think it makes a lot of sense what he wrote. I dont agree with everything, but I do think much of it is correct.
However, it is easy to write a letter like the above when you are on the sidelines and can seem "above" it all. After all, he was the President for 8 years. If he would have wrote this at the beginning of his President and then followed through, it would have made more sense.
@Copper Why do you think President Obama is an idiot for saying that? I would change "so much" and substitute "a part", and then I think it would be more correct.
My impression as an immigrant to the US is that the US is still a very segregated society. For the most part, white people hang out with white people and black people hang out with black people. I think that is true of a lot of the ethnic groups, more obvious with black and white people. Some of it personal preference and some is external pressure to do so.
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@Copper said in Obama on the Killing of George Floyd and Subsequent Protests:
@Axtremus said in Obama on the Killing of George Floyd and Subsequent Protests:
h/t wtg
prejudice and inequality still shape so much of American life.
Idiot
Maybe it's better phrased as "The excitement of fighting against prejudice and inequality rushes in to fill the vacuum of so many otherwise meaningless American progressive lives". But he's right, in a sense.
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@taiwan_girl said in Obama on the Killing of George Floyd and Subsequent Protests:
I think it makes a lot of sense what he wrote. I dont agree with everything, but I do think much of it is correct.
However, it is easy to write a letter like the above when you are on the sidelines and can seem "above" it all. After all, he was the President for 8 years. If he would have wrote this at the beginning of his President and then followed through, it would have made more sense.
@Copper Why do you think President Obama is an idiot for saying that? I would change "so much" and substitute "a part", and then I think it would be more correct.
My impression as an immigrant to the US is that the US is still a very segregated society. For the most part, white people hang out with white people and black people hang out with black people. I think that is true of a lot of the ethnic groups, more obvious with black and white people. Some of it personal preference and some is external pressure to do so.
There is massive social pressure to get on board with the victim/victimizer narrative. The direction of that pressure depends entirely on the color of one's skin. You should either loudly state that you are a victim and that that is not fair, or you should loudly claim to be a victimizer, and that is not fair. That narrative of course can be expected to create divisions where none would otherwise have existed. These are just things that our thinking / feeling machines born to this culture are programmed to think and feel, it has precious little to do with personal observation. That's why you see the huge explosions around single anecdotes that can be observed. We make sure that everybody observes them as proof that the narrative is real.
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@taiwan_girl said in Obama on the Killing of George Floyd and Subsequent Protests:
@Copper Why do you think President Obama is an idiot for saying that? I would change "so much" and substitute "a part", and then I think it would be more correct.
Because it was a stupid, selfish, senseless, short sighted, snobbish thing to say.
Idiot.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Obama on the Killing of George Floyd and Subsequent Protests:
And your point is?
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Bush adds his voice:
“Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. Yet we have resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen. It is time for America to examine our tragic failures – and as we do, we will also see some of our redeeming strengths.
It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country. It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future. This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a better place.
America’s greatest challenge has long been to unite people of very different backgrounds into a single nation of justice and opportunity. The doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly split our country, still threaten our Union. The answers to American problems are found by living up to American ideals — to the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by God with certain rights. We have often underestimated how radical that quest really is, and how our cherished principles challenge systems of intended or assumed injustice. The heroes of America — from Frederick Douglass, to Harriet Tubman, to Abraham Lincoln, to Martin Luther King, Jr. — are heroes of unity. Their calling has never been for the fainthearted. They often revealed the nation’s disturbing bigotry and exploitation — stains on our character sometimes difficult for the American majority to examine. We can only see the reality of America’s need by seeing it through the eyes of the threatened, oppressed, and disenfranchised.
That is exactly where we now stand. Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions. We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means. Looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress. But we also know that lasting peace in our communities requires truly equal justice. The rule of law ultimately depends on the fairness and legitimacy of the legal system. And achieving justice for all is the duty of all.
This will require a consistent, courageous, and creative effort. We serve our neighbors best when we try to understand their experience. We love our neighbors as ourselves when we treat them as equals, in both protection and compassion. There is a better way — the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a peace rooted in justice. I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way.””
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Gosh it's really no wonder everybody thinks America is the most racist place ever, with our cultural leaders saying that sort of stuff openly. But I am getting pretty sick of the virtuous self-flagellation, myself. And oh boy do I not believe it helps anybody, other than the virtuous self flagellator, of course. It helps them stay out of the sights of the mob.
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@xenon said in Obama on the Killing of George Floyd and Subsequent Protests:
Bush adds his voice:
“Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. Yet we have resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen. It is time for America to examine our tragic failures – and as we do, we will also see some of our redeeming strengths.
It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country. It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future. This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a better place.
America’s greatest challenge has long been to unite people of very different backgrounds into a single nation of justice and opportunity. The doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly split our country, still threaten our Union. The answers to American problems are found by living up to American ideals — to the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by God with certain rights. We have often underestimated how radical that quest really is, and how our cherished principles challenge systems of intended or assumed injustice. The heroes of America — from Frederick Douglass, to Harriet Tubman, to Abraham Lincoln, to Martin Luther King, Jr. — are heroes of unity. Their calling has never been for the fainthearted. They often revealed the nation’s disturbing bigotry and exploitation — stains on our character sometimes difficult for the American majority to examine. We can only see the reality of America’s need by seeing it through the eyes of the threatened, oppressed, and disenfranchised.
That is exactly where we now stand. Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions. We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means. Looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress. But we also know that lasting peace in our communities requires truly equal justice. The rule of law ultimately depends on the fairness and legitimacy of the legal system. And achieving justice for all is the duty of all.
This will require a consistent, courageous, and creative effort. We serve our neighbors best when we try to understand their experience. We love our neighbors as ourselves when we treat them as equals, in both protection and compassion. There is a better way — the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a peace rooted in justice. I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way.””
Predecessor to the Bush Bunch working for Biden.
