• LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “I’m not afraid of anybody,” Gibson said. “But do I want to get out of this house and go fishing and do any of that stuff around here anymore? Hell to the no.”

    No Offence but this is how racism wins, this end result was entirely what the racist wanted and they got it. They don’t have to lynch you to kick you out of a neighborhood, just mildy harrass you to the point where a person self segregates and then what? I mean the end goal is the same for the racist at the end of the day. Don’t give them the satisfaction

    • Neato@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Don’t give them the satisfaction

      You’re asking someone being harassed and threatened to keep fighting and deal with it. It’s not on the victim to beat their abusers. It’s on society to stop the abusers. That town should be arresting the racists for harassment but since the cops are likely supporting the racists, an ACLU lawyer should be stepping in pro-bono to sue the shit out of these people/department. Unfortunately it’s rarely that easy to affect systemic change.

      • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They’re not asking the victim anything, they just made a statement of fact that when we bow to the bully, they get their way.

        You’re right that the town should be stepping up. But, the reality is that most of them are republicans and would not piss on him if he was on fire, let alone step up to support him. So all that remains as options are to fight back (I think his current tack is the best one), move away, or isolate. Feels like you shot the messenger (OP) here.

      • LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You’re right about he fighting part, not about the “deal with it” part. I’m not sure how you equate one with the other. If we don’t fight back against racism, then that is “dealing with it”. Fighting back is what I just said to do.

      • Pleonasm@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        In general, yes. If you’re getting harassed and threatened and you want that to change, you should fight and deal with it. Nobody ever won anything by simply rolling over for anyone who was mean to them. Worse than that, society probably won’t support you if you do, even if they should.

        It’s up to the individual how strongly they want to fight for it, of course, but I certainly wouldn’t discourage them from doing so.

    • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If the racism is institutionalized, the racists will always win in the end. I work with people with disabilities and the list of places I can’t take people with dark skin keeps growing. There was a park we used to enjoy until someone started stalking us, as if that wasn’t bad enough the cops were called on us every time by the stalker. They knew they only needed to get the racist cop once for it to work, and us knowing that too means we can’t go back. They got what they wanted.

      • LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This helps no one and accomplishes nothing, just saying we should “deal with racism” is racism in itself.

        Institutional racism will always exist as long as that’s peoples attitude towards it. Civil Rights never would’ve gotten anywhere if black people were just complacent ALL the time, if black people didn’t make noise they never would’ve been heard by white people and forced to think about these issues.

        • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This is a lived expirence that actually happened. Don’t treat it like an arguement to do nothing because i never suggested people should do nothing. What it should do is inform how one approaches dealing with racism because asking a Disabled Black young man to risk bodily harm to get the same rights other people already have is not going to work. You can’t put the burden of changing a predatory system on the people the system preys upon. Thats the message.

          • LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            At no point did I make any argument that the entire burden should rest on your shoulders and your shoulders alone, nor would I ever. This is a shared burden amongst all of us. Letting racism take control of our lives is an admission of defeat and I will not tolerate that in my country.

            The burden is not on you, it’s on us