Racism (and sexism and all the other isms)
I find it hard to say anything useful about George Floyd. It's so plainly wrong to kneel on someone's neck until they die. It's so plain that police kill black people in a way that they just don't kill white people. It's bizarre that anyone would think otherwise.
But people do think otherwise. And I live in a nice bubble where I don't encounter them. I heard that some people are upset about the phrase "black lives matter" because they think it should be "all lives". People are only saying that because it's plain that society at large doesn't value black lives. I looked up some stats for the US police. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/ With alarming regularity, the US police kill almost 1000 people every year. But allowing for relative numbers of people in each group, black people are more than twice as likely to be killed by the police as white people.
It's tempting to go off at a tangent. The Wikipedia page for police killings in the UK lists the individuals all on one page. This year: two people. According to the article linked above, the total for the US so far this year: 464, and Wikipedia has a page for each month. WTF? But that's a rant for another occasion. And I didn't get on to the other isms, but I'll take a bet that a racist police force is also likely to kill more women and more gay people.
But people do think otherwise. And I live in a nice bubble where I don't encounter them. I heard that some people are upset about the phrase "black lives matter" because they think it should be "all lives". People are only saying that because it's plain that society at large doesn't value black lives. I looked up some stats for the US police. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/ With alarming regularity, the US police kill almost 1000 people every year. But allowing for relative numbers of people in each group, black people are more than twice as likely to be killed by the police as white people.
It's tempting to go off at a tangent. The Wikipedia page for police killings in the UK lists the individuals all on one page. This year: two people. According to the article linked above, the total for the US so far this year: 464, and Wikipedia has a page for each month. WTF? But that's a rant for another occasion. And I didn't get on to the other isms, but I'll take a bet that a racist police force is also likely to kill more women and more gay people.