Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/17/chagrin-falls-usa-black-al.html
Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH Gavin Smythe of Chagrin Falls, USA, mows his lawn in a black-and-white world
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This is all funny, sad and true. The truth is: us white people have something to lose while protesting (going to jail, losing that security clearance, …) while black people are all in, nothing to lose. While we do want our black brothers and sisters to be treated equally, we don’t want to risk our comfortable lives in the process.
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Black people have nothing to lose? That’s a weird way to phrase it.
The risk to lose their livelyhood and life itself.
White people risk mild discomfort.
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I think the point zhasu was making with “nothing to lose” is that black people are risking losing their livelihood or lives themselves just by being black in America, whether or not they protest.
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The OP probably meant “nothing more to lose”, because it is assumed that if cops get them, any other reaction but voluntary self enslavement to them (yes, I mean exactly that) would result in being killed. That poor guy who defended himself by grabbing the taser from the cop hands very likely knew he was going to be killed anyway. Having nothing (more) to lose means just that. If I was in his shoes I would have done the same, probably with the cop’s gun.
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With coronavirus running rampant, everyone protesting is risking life itself. That’s why I’ve kept to donations rather than joining the actual protests. I’m willing to risk getting the virus, but I’m a caretaker for a vulnerable, elderly old man and sacrificing his health is not my choice to make.
Even ignoring the virus, would you call the old white guy getting shoved by cops and fracturing his skull “mild discomfort”?
Yes, black people are much more at risk, both inside and outside of the protests, but painting all white protesters as dishonest virtue-signaling narcissists is taking it to an absurd extreme.
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Sadly the actual protest reaction in Chagrin Falls was worse. https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/06/hysteria-in-chagrin-falls-over-george-floyd-protest-exposes-troubling-mindset-of-white-america.html
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Thank you, that’s a good article. Like the cartoon, it shows how most goodhearted white people are nevertheless out of touch with BIPOC in a country that remains so highly segregated.
Have reports settled on that being actually what happened yet?
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