[awareness]

Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!

This topic was started regarding whether there is widespread, systemic racism in our police forces causing a distinct inclination of brutal behavior toward blacks. So thanks for your understanding - and I think the larger topic of general racism is perhaps not too far off. Unfortunately, like everything else these days, this topic can quickly get us off into the snorkeling-in-the-weeds of partisan politics!

From my standpoint, the anecdotal evidence is that I don't see the racism we're told is rampant in this country. I don't act in racists ways, nor does anyone I know. I have not seen it personally, especially in the more recent years. In Scottsdale there aren't a high percentage of black people, but some. There are a few blacks in our neighborhood and our ekklesia and I don't see any racism happening in these places. But again, this is just my personal, middle-aged white man anecdotal evidence.

(Let me say that I grew up with racism in the home of my grandparents who raised me. My grandfather was a KKK member in his early life. He let the N-word fly a lot. He would call the black trash collectors the N-word behind their back, but then be super nice to their face. He bought into all the stereotypical lies about blacks and voiced these frequently. But then as a teenager, I had a few good friends who were black - one was best man at my wedding. So I did experience racism in my early life.)

Does racism in our country occur? I'm sure it does, but other than what the media tells me, I don't personally see it around me. I also haven't seen the overwhelming evidence of systemic racism showing up in empirical data. The data and studies I have looked at, doesn't demonstrate the huge problem of systemic racism we're being told is rampant in our police forces. That's not to say some problem don't exist . . . it's just that either it's not as big as we're being told, or perhaps the studies are way off in their analytical methods.

As Christians, we know all these bad things exist in Adam. The list of negative and evil things present in Adam's race are long, and this includes racism and murder. Can I say I'm not guilty of having racist thoughts? No, I can't say that, because I still have the flesh. I have all kinds of thoughts that by the grace of God I don't act on because they are not of the new man, but rather of that old man. So what we are seeing in the world now is another manifestation of the old Adam man. He can't be fixed, and the one solution is his death. As Christians we know that anything else is mostly just putting the proverbial lipstick on the pig.

Adam likes to react in a knee-jerk fashion to things. All of this BLM stuff that's all the rage and being thrust into our face ("Why are they disquieted in vain?") . . . fine. Everyone has a right to voice their opinion in this country in a civil way. But I also have the choice to want to see a bonefide demonstration of solid empirical evidence before we react.

All the very many, widespread, black lives matter protesters are like the weather ; like it or not we can't do anything about it.

And the data doesn't matter, except maybe to partisans looking for faults, and talking heads on TV, and sociology academics. It's perception that matters. And apparently, very many people perceive that there's a cop problem, and it looks like it's targeted more toward people of color.

I think we are witnessing some kind of a civil rights second great awaking ... in our modern times ; since MLK Jr.

Never the less, like it or not, all these goings-on are making changes happen : new things are happening, changes, a reshaping of our society is afoot.

Personally, I don't like the violence, from or by, either side -- both sides have bad apples -- they are after all made up of human primates -- both and all sides -- like all of us. If we were/are all angels we wouldn't need movements like we're seeing today. Just accept it. It's like a widespread weather system sweeping thru our collective consciousness

And then, let's not forget, there's the pandemic, causing Covid crazies. It must be one of the symptoms. I'm staying away from them, and cops, and protesters.

Harold