The US War on Blacks!

[PLATO]

[Dinner]

He made a DL just for this?

[rah]

That dl has been around for a few weeks.

[kentonio]

Oh shut up Kentonio. Spare me your indignant lectures over nothing at all

Fair enough, keep on sounding like a closeted little rich boy, who doesn't give a **** about the real problems in his country because he thinks a few years of university and a rich dad gave him all the answers.

EDIT: Look, I have my opinions about why black crime is so high, and yes, I do think culture is one of many components of it. It would almost have to be. And no, ffs, I don't think genetics has anything to do with it. Also, don't accuse me of not thinking there's a race problem.

You've on many occasions tried to argue that the race problem in America is nothing like as serious as it actually is. Just by indulging in that bull**** you're painting yourself in an unpleasant light. As for the culture thing, if you really think that then you can just **** off quite frankly.

[Hauldren Collider]

Unlike kentonio, I've actually met some poor american black people, and while I hardly claim to be an expert, my knowledge of race relations in the US isn't driven by articles in The Guardian. So I'm just going to ignore your indignant lectures.

[dannubis]

nm

[ricketyclik]

An aspect of America's love affair with guns is that they create a demand, and thus a supply, making it relatively easy to obtain guns in countries with bans.

HC, you remind me of the common rednecked attitude in Australia towards Aborigines. As a group they have unemployment, incarceration, domestic violence, substance abuse and illiteracy rates tens of times higher than the population as a whole, so it must be to do with their culture? Really? Historically they were invaded, stripped of their land, massacred, forcibly separated from their families and put in Christian institutions until the 1950's, denied the vote and not counted in censuses until 1967, and actively vilified and ostracised throughout and still are. Remind you of anyone?

[I AM MOBIUS]

I think the time is right to finally retire the Confederate Battle Flag from all official buildings, official seals and licence plates...

All the places where the Confederate flag is still officially used

[DinoDoc]

I think the time is right to finally retire the Confederate Battle Flag from all official buildings, official seals and license plates...

Why?

[Patroklos]

Smashing gravestones

[kentonio]

Unlike kentonio, I've actually met some poor american black people, and while I hardly claim to be an expert, my knowledge of race relations in the US isn't driven by articles in The Guardian. So I'm just going to ignore your indignant lectures.

Aww bless, did you pat them on the head and tell them to work harder?

[kentonio]

Oh by the way, for anyone who felt the need to defend Ben on the racism thing earlier, you might want to remember these little snippets from the past that he somehow survived.

It was white people who freed black people. It was other black folks who enslaved them in the first place. Slavery did not begin with white people - it was white people who tended to be enslaved for many years in Europe.

Facts are stubborn things. Slavery wasn't started by white people - but white people did end it. If black people hate slavery so much, why did they enslave each other?

The sooner black folks stop blaming others for their problems, the sooner we can start attacking real problems. Like the education gap, like the reading gap, etc, etc, etc.

[giblets]

I bet Ben thinks white people deserve credit for ending Apartheid too!

Except he thinks the end of Apartheid was a bad thing, so maybe he'll give black people credit for that...?

[rah]

Yes, we freed them and the rest was up to them.

[regexcellent]

An aspect of America's love affair with guns is that they create a demand, and thus a supply, making it relatively easy to obtain guns in countries with bans.

Most of those guns don't come from here. E.g. South Africa's guns are either sold by corrupt cops, or were smuggled in by the ANC back when it was engaged in terrorism. In Latin America they're left over from various wars or produced in clandestine factories. In Western Europe, they're smuggled in from North Africa and Eastern Europe, especially places like Libya, Algeria, and the former Yugoslavia. Gun exports from the United States are very, very tightly controlled. You do not want to mess around with ITAR. Even things that are only tangentially related to guns as "accessories" like scopes for paintball markers are restricted and if you violate the rules the state department and FBI will come down on you like a ton of bricks.

A lot more of the guns floating around 3rd world countries were produced in the former communist bloc; relatively few were built here, and fewer still were in civilian hands prior to being exported (something that almost never happens).

Don't blame us for other people's problems, and the problem isn't the guns in the first place. Fairfax County, where I live, is ****ing LOADED with guns and we have around 10, maybe fewer murders a year in a population of over 1 million. Monroe County NY, where I used to live, similarly has ****loads of gun owners and not that much crime (more than Fairfax, ironically; it has much more stringent gun control).