But are they really?
I try to not comment on the black lives matter protests around the world not because they don’t concern me but the simply because the African American is far removed from my immediate environment and while I have read a bit on the matter, I wouldn’t claim to know enough to speak authoritatively on it. But I can comment on my fellow countrymen and women staging a BLM protest.
Now, if you are a visitor to this blog, just know I live somewhere in Africa and for those whose education isn’t good enough, africa can as well be a country but that is not important. What bothers me about these protests done in solidarity with AAs is that we need them daily in almost all African countries. Most governments treat us like dirt. And I can mention the many ways this happens but I don’t want to bore you.
So then to what I keep asking myself, what do my brothers intend to achieve? Could we first protest our governments failure to treat us with dignity? I mean given that we are all black and all plus we are not trying to drown ourselves in the Mediterranean? I think it is only when our governments treat us do we have some space to demonstrate with dignity about the case of the AAs or any other oppressed group like NAs.
Or maybe i miss the whole point?
Random thoughts 
You definitely have a point.. Remember the scriptures talking about the larger speck in our eyes vs the smaller one in our neighbors eyes? (I don’t intend to belittle the BLM campaign). I only agree with you…shouldn’t we focus a little more on getting ourselves out of the dirt our governments have left us in?
Amazing.. You haven’t missed a point, IMO.
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I found it ridiculous the Kenyans who went to protest at the US embassy when their own government treats them like dirt on the daily. It’s like they forgot for that moment that they too are black and their lives should matter.
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The absurdity of it all surprises me😂
I only have one question?… Who’s going to protest for us? When we’re busy protesting for others?
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I find this rather odd, too.
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Well, here in the States, black folks live in complete equality with whites and have nothing to fear from the ops, racist groups, or anyone else for that matter. America is like a racial utopia where love, equality, and empathy are pushed for all the folks living here regardless of race creed or color. (No idea where I was going with this. You ask some important questions to which I’ve no answers–only wise-ass replies.)
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don’t forget, oh mighty-tiny one, that our African American population is BELOVED by all their fellow citizens, and only HERETICS and ATHEISTS and COMMUNISTS complain about anything. And we have…ways…of dealing with such as these!
Ugh. I feel a little dirty even writing this as a parody! 😦
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I know I know
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I hear or have read that it is the land of milk and honey where in some places it is much easier to get booked in a police cell than to get out, especially if you are poor and black. Amazing place you got there my friend
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Yep. Amazing.
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I should get myself there. I like drinking milk
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OMG! You’re a Black? I’m shocked. I did find that leg on the bicycle picture unusually dark, but I just presumed you liked black hosiery.
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No, you saw wrong. I wear leggings and they only come in black.
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Good! I’d be terribly disappointed if after all these years I found out you weren’t a talking Koala.
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No. I wouldn’t want to disappoint you my friend
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Still…I am not sure what the real answer is. “People Power” revolutions have worked, but in most cases, “protests” don’t really do much. The scathing, sarcastic pen of Heywood J sums it up, sadly….http://hammeroftheblogs.blogspot.com/
“despite its constant bleats about freedom and rugged individuality, Americans are some of the most cowed, compliant people on the face of the earth. And with good reason — who in their right mind would want to get caught up in its medieval for-profit carceral state, just to make some noise at a meaningless, futile street protest?”
Maybe the folks out in the streets protesting, as well-meaning as they are, might be suckers as well. They think something will “change” from their efforts. Well, you’ve been doing it all summer, and the only thing that’s changed is that the police forces of Portland, Minneapolis, Kenosha, and NYC — all cities run by liberal Democratic mayors in states run by liberal Democratic governors — are much more comfortable openly displaying their true sympathies.
They stand aside while roving white supremacist gangs barrel through crowds in their $70k trucks and attack unarmed protesters. They let assault-rifle-toting kids who have just murdered people in the street with a weapon they were not legally allowed to possess just walk on by. They have not stopped killing, beating, kidnapping. They have made their position entirely clear, and no one is even pretending to try to stop them.
Black Lives Matter? Are you fucking kidding? Your life doesn’t matter, liberal white protester. As far as the redneck death squads and their good buddies on the PD are concerned, you’re not white. They probably won’t shoot you seven times in the back, but you never know. They sure as hell won’t stop the bearded goon with the riot helmet and the Kevlar Pepe the Frog vest from stomping the shit out of you.
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This leads, of course, to passivity and depression and giving up. Something (the passivity at least) I have been guilty of forever and ever.
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What is the solution? I, too, don’t know. But being passive is not going to help. Some form of united action is needed but I don’t know what form it will take.
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What is the solution? I, too, don’t know. But being passive is not going to help. Some form of united action is needed but I don’t know what form it will take.
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Don’t know if your familiar with Marcus Ranum, but he covers the Police Beat pretty thoroughly.
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I think you have shared it before in our many mail exchanges
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I do find it rather odd that African men and women should be campaigning for the BLM movement when their own lives are, in many cases, worse off than those they are campaigning for. In many African nations, the black majority are oppressed are more oppressed that African-Americans are, even in the worst affected US states.
Personally, as an oppressed minority (in most nations, autistics are treated far worse and denied more rights than ethnic or racial minorities), I have more important fish to fry than BLM.
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And they are not protesting at the seats of government in their countries. This is what I don’t get.
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I dont get it either
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It boggles the mind, Barry
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On issue I have with the practical benefit of the protests is that in the United States, local policing is all that, local. Even if Trump were interested in reform, I am not sure his what his practical role would be other than, literally speaking, the bully pulpit. Which would be great, but.
For example, in my County, I would argue the police force of my employer is really not that bad. Sure, there is some profiling and everything, but I cannot remember in decades an unjustified shooting. Now, the city down the freeway is a different story. It’s faded shipyard town and a bit..rougher (there were 22 homicides this year! In a city of 100,000 people! That is a lot even by American standards!) And the police force seems to be unrelentingly toxic. Multiple shootings over the years. The City (which declared bankruptcy at one point) has had to pay out tons of money in settlements. In one case, a cop threw on the ground a woman who was in her own driveway. Why? Because she was a salon worker and the cop saw her wearing gloves (to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome) and assumed she was a car thief.
This City probably needs to abolish its police force outright and start over. The culture is toxic and inbred.
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I agree that city needs to rethink its police force and how it relates with the citizens.
Here the police service is centralised. So the problems with it arise from the top.
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