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Reflections on the color of my skin

haydenplanetarium.org

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Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#21

Post by fxtentacle »

kstenerud wrote: post #13

6 months training for a police officer is appallingly low. German police officers undergo 3 years of training, including extensive training in de-escalation.

Yeah, one would also hope that the police officers handling military equipment would get even more training than those who carry only one small handgun.

I presume this is to cut costs. But the logical conclusion of that - giving people a companion app and only 1 month of training - appears very inhumane to me. And it wouldn't be surprising to me if less training with other humans leads to less care for other humans in the field.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#22

Post by hanselot »

ReticentVole wrote: post #18

In New York city, the portion of Black people killed by police gunfire is perfectly aligned with the portion of Black people firing on police officers: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_plan... 52.6% of murders are carried out by African Americans: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-... 49% of Black children live in single-mother households, which is double the rate of H…

How long till this clear and factual reply gets nuked?

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#23

Post by rbinv »

ReticentVole wrote: post #18

In New York city, the portion of Black people killed by police gunfire is perfectly aligned with the portion of Black people firing on police officers: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_plan... 52.6% of murders are carried out by African Americans: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-... 49% of Black children live in single-mother households, which is double the rate of H…

> The problems of the African-American community are mostly their own, and mostly cultural.

Wow.

> If there was significant systemic bias, then African migrants to the USA would not outperform African-Americans so significantly

Maybe people who successfully migrate to the US are not your average kind of person? There are a lot of hurdles to overcome (financially, too), so it's probably somewhat skewed.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#24

Post by BLKNSLVR »

nindalf wrote: post #12
jpxw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come to HN to get away from political discussions, I’d rather it stayed like it is now.

I like a space free of politics too. However, being able to ignore politics is a privilege. There are folks out there who can't ignore politics because their lives are made worse by those very politics. It sucks a bit for us but it sucks a lot more for them.

> It sucks a bit for us but it sucks a lot more for them.

This, I think, is the crux of any minority disenfranchisement. Their bubbles of reality are just different, and it's almost impossible to see from within someone else's bubble.

Also, ignoring politics is tacit approval of the status quo, which is a choice as much as any other.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#25

Post by SiempreViernes »

ReticentVole wrote: post #18

In New York city, the portion of Black people killed by police gunfire is perfectly aligned with the portion of Black people firing on police officers: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_plan... 52.6% of murders are carried out by African Americans: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-... 49% of Black children live in single-mother households, which is double the rate of H…

Oh, I guess you didn't see any of the "unarmed" deGrasse used in his text (It was only six times, once more than the word "die"). You should know the text is about police killings of unarmed people, nobody is really arguing about the shoot outs at the moment.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#26

Post by Traster »

ReticentVole wrote: post #18

In New York city, the portion of Black people killed by police gunfire is perfectly aligned with the portion of Black people firing on police officers: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_plan... 52.6% of murders are carried out by African Americans: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-... 49% of Black children live in single-mother households, which is double the rate of H…

Step 1. Systematically lock up african american men through unequal enforcement of laws, invention of bullshit pretexts (see "crack" vs "cocaine"[1]), and racist policing.

Step 2. Use the lack of male role models in the household as an explanation for why african americans are culturally inferior.

[1]https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?articl...

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#27

Post by hrktb »

ReticentVole wrote: post #18

In New York city, the portion of Black people killed by police gunfire is perfectly aligned with the portion of Black people firing on police officers: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_plan... 52.6% of murders are carried out by African Americans: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-... 49% of Black children live in single-mother households, which is double the rate of H…

> Nigerian immigrant median household income: $60,000. Ghanaian: $66,000

> African American: $41,000

Isn't this just pointing at the US being a worse place to grow for people of color, more than anything ?

That would also explain crime rates, and a lot of other things. I don't see how that excludes systemic racism.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#28

Post by dogma1138 »

kstenerud wrote: post #13

6 months training for a police officer is appallingly low. German police officers undergo 3 years of training, including extensive training in de-escalation.

That’s 6 months in the academy, they are then made probationary officers for about 2 years.

In Germany it depends on the path, the police academy includes not only police training but general education (hence why they are called police universities and offer degree programs too) to at least college levels in the US and you may also elect to get your bachelors degree as part of the training.

If you already have a degree your training would be substantially shorter.

While I don’t disagree that the police officer training might need to be reviewed the 4-6 months for the most part is a clickbait that if you look at how most other countries train their police force it’s not that different.

Please note that many police forces in the US require a 2 year college degree / enough credits for one or higher to join the academy in the first place and you have to be 21, countries with much longer “academic” studies for police forces tend to allow people to join the academy at 16-18 and get their 2 years of secondary education as part of their training.

I think the big difference is that most police forces in the US exempt you from this requirement if you have served 2 years or more of active military duty and were honorably discharged.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#29

Post by h0l0cube »

ReticentVole wrote: post #18

In New York city, the portion of Black people killed by police gunfire is perfectly aligned with the portion of Black people firing on police officers: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_plan... 52.6% of murders are carried out by African Americans: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-... 49% of Black children live in single-mother households, which is double the rate of H…

> There are ways to help African Americans,

I think any practical suggestions would be welcome. If this isn't simply rhetoric, then why hold back?

> but presenting an endless narrative of victimhood is not it.

There are a number of ways you can slice the data to support either narrative of victimhood or oppression, but referring back to the OP - it's worth a read - Neil's anecdotal experience and that of his contemporaries are sobering. Where I live I've not once been pulled over randomly, not even with such tenuous justifications.

> 49% of Black children live in single-mother households

Curious about this statistic. What's your source?

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#30

Post by SiempreViernes »

jpxw wrote: post #7
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Upvoted. I am honestly disappointed at how this board seems completely of out touch with what's going on in the US. And not a single official line from ycombinator as well, so far. I would also point out that, despite a quest for diversity that spans a few years, now, a quick glance at the people page of ycombinator shows an appalling truth: there is not one single black person listed. https://www.ycombinator.com/peo…

I come to HN to get away from political discussions, I’d rather it stayed like it is now.

Yeah, if we could get rid of all those all stories about pages being deleted, tweets being annotated or apps being taken down that would be nice.
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