I have been advised never to offer advice about racial matters. I don't have standing. Regular readers of this blog know I am a moderately prosperous White male, born into the heart of the Boomer generation. I grew up in a stable, middle class nuclear family with great parents. I am healthy. I am the luckiest, most privileged person in America--if only I had been taller and better looking.
Few things piss me off more* that being told I don't have "standing" and a right to express my opinion. Each of us is a unique human being, and the argument that we don't have standing to express ourselves about another's situation quickly leads ad absurdum.
Which is not to say that my opinion should not be evaluated in context: I've never walked a mile, or even a single step, in anyone's moccasins other than my own. My perspective is the only one I have, and I'm the only one ever to have it. And it will be different tomorrow.
We all have "standing"; the value of our "standing" may be judged greater or lesser by anyone, depending on their assessment of our knowledge, experience, and motivations; each of them has "standing" to value our opinion as they see fit.
*one thing that does piss me off more: a cougar killed one of my pregnant ewes during the night last night. The ewe's throat was ripped out, her udder chewed away, and her belly was still huge from likely triplets or at least twins, due in the next couple of days. She was a gentle, sweet Katahdin soul; the sire was an ornery Dorper ram.
I've never been a hungry cat; and from my privileged, armed, position, I am going to express my opinion. I have standing.
You are not entitle because you are white, or educated, or a democrat, or a man or a boomer... Say after me:
You are entitle and privalge because... YOU ARE AN AMERICAN!!!
Chris video is funny, but is also condecending, since it points out to having common sense which seems to be a general problem regarding of race, but more so in some inner states amongs black people, which already have a racial and policing stigma that goes back, not to the slavery days, but to the segregation (which endedn in 1964... less than a century ago), redlining (ended finally around 2005) and missrepresentation and condecendense (still happening under woke hollywood to this very day)... as Denzel Washington said "the problem with black America is cultural, not racial"...
I'm a black man myself, but I was born and raised in Venezuela, even if my mom is from Georgia, where we understand that Policemen are armed, have a position of power which includes the use of violence, can be corrupt, are undereducated, and they deal with the bad side of human nature, from gangsters, to hookers, to random shooters, to domestic fights, to child abuse, to intonxicated people and drugdealers. For most of their working hours, they are under stress... so we know that dealing with law-abiding citizens is not exactly what they are used to or trained for.... and that's not "pre or post" George Floyd, who (even if he was, unfortunatly, yet another victim of a broken system and a confused culture), was hardly a good candidate for martindome or point of reference of sistemic issues....
I've seen videos of 2023 of US, under-age white kids handcouffed and put in patrol cars just because some lady said "they saw someone doing something in their street"... and the kid points out that he haven't been told why he is beign detained, while the cops are figuring out what the hell he do that was illegal, some times having to explain to one another that there's no reason to detaining the kid...
But in a neurotic, overly tribal and sectarian country where a white succesfull guy turns out to be Ted Bundy, and a black, millionaire sports-star turns to be OJ Simpson, I would not have it any other way...
In Venezuela, is easy... gansters are obvious, Police stop and frisk ANYONE, without concern for due process or politeness, to see if you have pot or if they can score a couple of extra bugs out of a DUI, and that's that... no kid's gonna turn up in a school with an automatic weapon cause he was missgendered and no derranged redneck is gonna shoot randomly at a supermarket cause he doesn't like inmigrants.... so when Police say "Stop" you don't get to test the rights and ammendmends that are supoused to protect you to make a tiktok video and complain about the country and system that somehow forgot the concept of natural selection over the "right" to act like an idiot... you just do everything Chris Rock said to adults in the video, exactly like we, in Venezuela, were told since we were kids.
And if you think that you giving an advice to the black guy from a broken family raised by the gansters in them corners, or the poor gay guy that fell into drugs, or the hispanic woman that got pregnated at 17, just because, and I quote: "you cannot possibly understand them, and they do not want to hear from you"... well who exactly are they gonna get advice from? the other people like them that are struggling in life instead of someone with education, good family values and economic luck? Not exactly noble... so you shouldn't be wandering why democrats listen to your advice, and republicans dont.... cause for foreing eyes like mine, YOU are the racist, YOU are the phobic, and YOU are the sexist... and you fell into the democrat trap of "don't say anything, you might offend XXXX cause you don't look/earn/feel/talk/pee like he or she"...
We had A LOT of problems in Venezuela, and we still do (mostly because "our dear left"), but THIS problem? we don't have... we see someone strugling, we give a life advice, not because we are the same skin color, ethnicity, gender or sexual preference, but because IS ANOTHER VENEZUELAN THAT IS STRUGGLING!!!
THAT'S equality.... THAT'S undiscriminating... THAT'S morally right and virtuous... so please, could you people FINALLY, stop thinking in the labeling, sectarian way of the protestant, puritans fom the late 16th century that came to you shores, and start acting like a country of brothers and sisters instead of a country of tribes and sects? You are getting old for this particular act...
Few things piss me off more* that being told I don't have "standing" and a right to express my opinion. Each of us is a unique human being, and the argument that we don't have standing to express ourselves about another's situation quickly leads ad absurdum.
Which is not to say that my opinion should not be evaluated in context: I've never walked a mile, or even a single step, in anyone's moccasins other than my own. My perspective is the only one I have, and I'm the only one ever to have it. And it will be different tomorrow.
We all have "standing"; the value of our "standing" may be judged greater or lesser by anyone, depending on their assessment of our knowledge, experience, and motivations; each of them has "standing" to value our opinion as they see fit.
*one thing that does piss me off more: a cougar killed one of my pregnant ewes during the night last night. The ewe's throat was ripped out, her udder chewed away, and her belly was still huge from likely triplets or at least twins, due in the next couple of days. She was a gentle, sweet Katahdin soul; the sire was an ornery Dorper ram.
I've never been a hungry cat; and from my privileged, armed, position, I am going to express my opinion. I have standing.
Funny thing here?
You are not entitle because you are white, or educated, or a democrat, or a man or a boomer... Say after me:
You are entitle and privalge because... YOU ARE AN AMERICAN!!!
Chris video is funny, but is also condecending, since it points out to having common sense which seems to be a general problem regarding of race, but more so in some inner states amongs black people, which already have a racial and policing stigma that goes back, not to the slavery days, but to the segregation (which endedn in 1964... less than a century ago), redlining (ended finally around 2005) and missrepresentation and condecendense (still happening under woke hollywood to this very day)... as Denzel Washington said "the problem with black America is cultural, not racial"...
I'm a black man myself, but I was born and raised in Venezuela, even if my mom is from Georgia, where we understand that Policemen are armed, have a position of power which includes the use of violence, can be corrupt, are undereducated, and they deal with the bad side of human nature, from gangsters, to hookers, to random shooters, to domestic fights, to child abuse, to intonxicated people and drugdealers. For most of their working hours, they are under stress... so we know that dealing with law-abiding citizens is not exactly what they are used to or trained for.... and that's not "pre or post" George Floyd, who (even if he was, unfortunatly, yet another victim of a broken system and a confused culture), was hardly a good candidate for martindome or point of reference of sistemic issues....
I've seen videos of 2023 of US, under-age white kids handcouffed and put in patrol cars just because some lady said "they saw someone doing something in their street"... and the kid points out that he haven't been told why he is beign detained, while the cops are figuring out what the hell he do that was illegal, some times having to explain to one another that there's no reason to detaining the kid...
But in a neurotic, overly tribal and sectarian country where a white succesfull guy turns out to be Ted Bundy, and a black, millionaire sports-star turns to be OJ Simpson, I would not have it any other way...
In Venezuela, is easy... gansters are obvious, Police stop and frisk ANYONE, without concern for due process or politeness, to see if you have pot or if they can score a couple of extra bugs out of a DUI, and that's that... no kid's gonna turn up in a school with an automatic weapon cause he was missgendered and no derranged redneck is gonna shoot randomly at a supermarket cause he doesn't like inmigrants.... so when Police say "Stop" you don't get to test the rights and ammendmends that are supoused to protect you to make a tiktok video and complain about the country and system that somehow forgot the concept of natural selection over the "right" to act like an idiot... you just do everything Chris Rock said to adults in the video, exactly like we, in Venezuela, were told since we were kids.
And if you think that you giving an advice to the black guy from a broken family raised by the gansters in them corners, or the poor gay guy that fell into drugs, or the hispanic woman that got pregnated at 17, just because, and I quote: "you cannot possibly understand them, and they do not want to hear from you"... well who exactly are they gonna get advice from? the other people like them that are struggling in life instead of someone with education, good family values and economic luck? Not exactly noble... so you shouldn't be wandering why democrats listen to your advice, and republicans dont.... cause for foreing eyes like mine, YOU are the racist, YOU are the phobic, and YOU are the sexist... and you fell into the democrat trap of "don't say anything, you might offend XXXX cause you don't look/earn/feel/talk/pee like he or she"...
We had A LOT of problems in Venezuela, and we still do (mostly because "our dear left"), but THIS problem? we don't have... we see someone strugling, we give a life advice, not because we are the same skin color, ethnicity, gender or sexual preference, but because IS ANOTHER VENEZUELAN THAT IS STRUGGLING!!!
THAT'S equality.... THAT'S undiscriminating... THAT'S morally right and virtuous... so please, could you people FINALLY, stop thinking in the labeling, sectarian way of the protestant, puritans fom the late 16th century that came to you shores, and start acting like a country of brothers and sisters instead of a country of tribes and sects? You are getting old for this particular act...
My 2 cents, cheers from Mexico