There is a lot going on in the world right now. Discuss it here. No trolls, MRAs, etc.
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Open Thread for Non-Personal Stuff: May 2015 Edition
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
We Hunted The MammothThere is a lot going on in the world right now. Discuss it here. No trolls, MRAs, etc.
I wish I knew what to say about Baltimore. The media coverage has been really obviously slanted, and I am afraid for the people. Our police forces are in a shameful state.
I wish I was in a better position to do something for Nepal other than donating money.
I posted this in a different thread, but it’s still relevant.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/04/23/native-actors-walk-set-adam-sandler-movie-after-insults-women-elders-160110
A bunch of Navajo and many other Native American tribe members have walked off the set of the newest Netflix exclusive Adam Sandler movie, which involves such brilliant writings as:
BEAVER BREATH
I have a big idea for your wedding: we decorate trees with toilet paper!
SMOKING FOX
What is this “toilet paper”?
BEAVER BREATH
Paper used to clean your chi-wat after taking a chungo.
NEVER-WEARS-BRA
That what dead squirrel for!
I am super concerned about Baltimore. How much can you fuck over a population of people before they finally say enough? At the end of “To Pimp A Butterfly” Kendrick is “interviewing” 2Pac, and 2Pac says that the next time things get really bad in the black community, it’s not going to be storefronts and cars. It’s going to be bloody. And I hope it never comes to that, but a real part of me is scared that it’s the only way the people in power will pay attention.
In news about Baltimore, the six officers involved with the death of Freddy Gray have been arrested and charged with various accounts of manslaughter and second degree murder.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-mosby-presser-0502-20150501-story.html#page=1
@Banana Jackie
Holy shit! How does that still fly in 2015? I mean, it took a lot of folks approving the script and idea in general to get funding for production…and none of them said “Um, guys….this is totally racist.” Wow.
Then again, all kinds of racist and sexist shit still flies in films.
One good thing on the Baltimore front: They have ruled the death a homicide and are pressing charges. I really don’t know much about it because I live in St. Louis (remember Ferguson?) and just can’t deal with all the details right now. But it’s a real shame that this stuff keeps happening. I am glad it’s getting national attention though…because if nothing else there needs to be ongoing dialogue about racism in America. There are too many white people who think racism isn’t a “thing” anymore. Ugh.
Ugh. I had heard about everything going on with the Adam Sandler movie but had not read any specific dialogue. Just awful.
I’m heartened that the killers in the Freddie Gray case are being indicted. While this is just the bare minimum, it’s better than nothing.
I’m irritated that commentators, including the Baltimore Sun, are so hung up about “not tarring with the same brush,” though. No one is denying that there are good cops. I’ve seen people get into arguments about whether bad cops are in the minority or the majority, which is again beside the point. The point isn’t whether there are more good cops than bad cops, it’s that the system doesn’t put a stop to bad cops. Once you have a dysfunctional system of hiring, training, and incentives, good cops will be good in spite of and not because of the institution they are in, while bad cops go unchecked. That is the real issue here, not the percentage points of good and bad cops–especially because in many cases there’s no bright line separating the two.
This is older news but relevant to what’s been going on in a thread recently. Via PZ Meyers I learned that back when the Santa Barbara killings happened a Fox News psychologist said the killer was schizophrenic and possibly fighting homosexual impulses. Via one of the comments to PZ’s article I also learned that the APA has a rule against diagnosing public figures in the media without directly examining them and getting permission to comment, as helpfully explained in an article explaining the origins of the Goldwater Rule (via Wikipedia), a famous case of armchair diagnosis. So tell me, why is keyboard diagnosis a good idea again?
Should have known I’d get ninja’d about the indictments, taking a geological age to compose my post. Also, @Banana Jackie, I read the article when you first posted it but holy shite it’s still awful.
For anyone who hasn’t heard yet, Joseph Kent has been released from prison. He’s the activist who was snatched by police live on CNN. He’s free and safe, and it doesn’t look like they hurt him in any way (unlike others who’ve been wrongfully arrested, like Eric Garner and Freddy Gray.).
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/04/29/joseph-kent-arrested-live-tv-missing/26565625/
@because reasons, Machine Gun Sally
If you’re interested, the article has a link to an entire page from the script. I didn’t even get to the period joke or the fawning over Tommy, aka “White Knife”.
Just from ONE PAGE of that movie has the dialogue I put plus what I stated above. ONE. PAGE.
Can you fucking believe it?
@PPT
I can’t say I’m an expert on this, but maybe, just maybe, police forces should have some sort of test or screening that filters out racist or abusive assholes before they become cops? Plus screenings for police also on the force? Or perhaps way fucking better screenings? We don’t need men or women who think they can get away with this shit, especially when they have a badge on.
Banana Jackie Cake
“I posted this in a different thread, but it’s still relevant.”
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/04/23/native-actors-walk-set-adam-sandler-movie-after-insults-women-elders-160110
http://25.media.tumblr.com/e5a43b6747c09c94b7f7001dabaf1d44/tumblr_mgh7qi3AJ51rskk8io1_500.gif
Well, I’m never watching Adam sandler’s movies ever again
Also, I don’t have any sources for this, but my friend has gone through police training and he said that racial profiling is not only legal, it’s actually encouraged. Apparently some cops did a study based on bodycam footage and found that Black men who were approached by the police were more likely to be carrying weapons than White men.
@fruitloopsie
That’ll be easy because he hasn’t made a good one in…almost two decades? And only a few were worth watching.
So really SUPER easy to never watch anything with Sandler ever again.
@fruitloopsie
I’m inclined to do that as well. I liked his earlier work but with every subsequent film he seems to be grasping at straws and this is a new low. This isn’t humor, it’s incredibly insensitive and racist. I really just don’t see how this is allowed. Grr
Ninja’d by banana Jackie!
There’s too much nasty stuff going on in the world right now. It makes me want to sleep for a week, and then drink because it’ll be my birthday.
Happy (early) Birthday!
I went through “citizen police academy” in st. paul 12 years ago, and we were told directly that racial profiling was ok because – and I’m paraphrasing – “young black men are statistically more likely to possess drugs and guns than little old white ladies.” I was much younger (not as smart) at the time, but I still knew something was really wrong with that. I even tried to write some kind of letter, I just couldn’t figure out how to argue with “statistically.” Point being, that department definitely promoted racial profiling at the time.
Stephen Colbert argued against the “statistics” argument pretty well: http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/3vijkd/the-word—color-bind
Another officer told us that they trained their officers to sort of “put away” any biases they had. It was messed up. I don’t even want to get into the terrifying ride-along.
Happy birthday Paradoxy! I’m a May baby too. The 22nd.
@Banana Jackie Cake
Ugh. One page? All that?
I feel like I took a time machine back to the 60s with the stuff going on in Baltimore and, before that, Ferguson. Oh yes, and the newly elected black mayor who was prevented from entering her office building and told she was impeached (later, “suspended”) so could not take office. I was 15 years old and in a summer college program for honor students at the U of Detroit when the riots, or uprising, or rebellion, happened in 1967. The Kerner Commission report is still timely today. The naked racism that has emerged since Obama’s election has been nothing short of horrifying to me.
Happy (early) birthday, Paradox! Hope you have a good time.
Mine’s in a few days too.
Aw, well happy birthday to you too Spindrift! And an early one to WWTH as well!
Happy birthday, everyone. 🙂
I finally got to start my remicade/IV treatment last week and have actually been feeling a lot better since then. Not sure if this is very powerful placebo effect or unexpectedly quick results, but I’m just gonna roll with it. Going in for 2nd treatment on Wednesday. It actually wasn’t that bad. It was nice to have a few hours in a hospital bed, just catching up on old TV shows on my laptop. However, not having full use of my left arm was unsettling. I’ve never really put myself in that sort of position before, but I could tell on a bad day it might make me freak out.
Oh, and I also got a weird “finger straightener” contraption.
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo188/dhag85/1c7fbb85-02a5-45ba-9cde-aa8c51a8e8a9_zpsqycrbujh.jpg
Apparently, the super racist troll tweeters that posed as proud Baltimore looters organized on 8chan:
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/trolls-are-posing-as-baltimore-looters-online?utm_source=mbtwitter
ethics.
I hope that the concentration on specific cases in Baltimore and Ferguson doesn’t cloud the fact that the underlying issues need to be addressed. I feel trapped in this news cycle – for example, European media have already basically stopped talking about the murderous policies that resulted in nearly 20 000 deaths in the Mediterranean since 1990. That’s not the first time, and it happens again and again while nothing changes.
Also, a lot of the reporting is just shifting the blame – like, the problem with migration are the criminal traffickers, as if their income didn’t depend on Europe closing the borders in the first place. Or as if the problem in Baltimore were violent protesters, not violent police.
Also, Happy Birthday everyone!