Well, Hell.
That was genuinely surprising
and horrifying
and depressing
Native Americans are policed by Native Americans on the reservation.
This could play out in two different ways:
-
âWe need to do something about Native Americans being shot by police!â
-
âSee? Blacks need to stop complaining, theyâre not the worst off!â
I wonder which one America will choose! Letâs watch. . . !
Ugh. The common white refusal to reckon with collective white abuse (historical and ongoing) is so fucking powerful. I guess itâs too much for most white folks to admit, for white people as a group to admit, because doing so, let alone dealing with whatâs been done to and taken from others in the direct name of Christian white sumpremacy, would mean admitting that how you got to where you are leaves you less innocent than you think you are. âI didnât do anything!â may justify your (lack of) actions, but it doesnât justify having more than others, including more freedom and opportunity and less baggage, because those others have been stomped on and stolen from. âInnocenceâ is an interesting word in this context.
Paul Castaway. What a sadly perfect name.
What exactly do you mean by that?
Presuming it were true (which @stagamancer has already refuted) what conclusion are you pointing to by dropping that petty factoid?
What conclusion do you draw from the data?
Which makes me also wonder about the stats in depth. Technically I am on a tribal Roll and federally recognized as a Native American. I look white. Which stat gets ticked for people like me?
Iâm also interested in how many of those deaths were from tribal cops vs general police.
But I think one reason the stat is so high is like blacks they have a disproportionate population that is poor.
So itâs no surprise, youâre saying, that poor people are more likely to get shot by cops, because, what, they act badly, because theyâre poor?
Why do you find the mere fact of disproportionate rates of poverty more worthy of note than institutional/systemic racism, including the forces that help to keep blacks, American Indians and others poorer as a group than whites?
Why?
So I often donât participate in serious online conversations, since they can spiral so hard and fast. But this is my viewpoint.
Most people in north america, regardless of race, want native Americans and First People to be history. Literal history. Not anyone that you would actually interact with.
The reasons I believe are numerousâguilt, the small size of the population, the dissonance between what ignorant people think indigenous people are like, and widespread indifference. It does not surprise me that they are murdered by cops at the highest rate. And that lack of surprise makes me nauseous.
Slavery and repression is the united States biggest sin. Wholesale (and continued) genocide against the indigenous people here is the original one. Why the fuck do we keep torturing ourselves?
Crime is more common in poor areas. So one is going to find more criminals in poor areas, leading to more justified shootings, and more unjustified shootings as police are already primed to expect bad things in those areas.
I donât think every police department is full of racist cops. I do think many if not most cops are primed, whether they know it or not, to be biased against poor people especially poor minorities.
Certainly racism and many other things wrong with the system has helped keep blacks and others poor.
As for the last question, curiosity. Does priming work against a race even if that person is of the same race/background? Iâd also be interested in the black vs white cop shooting percentage.
Check your privilege, right there.
Thanks for the thoughts and I mostly agree, but I wouldnât conflate all non-Native, non-white groups like that. Whites are most responsible for the decimation of Native peoples, and members of other groups mostly know that.
So, regarding the most significant attitudes, beliefs and feelings on the matter, I would add that most whites have a sort of double consciousness about Natives, and about other exploited groups. Theyâre in certain ways proud of their country, what itâs accomplished and itâs supposed democracy and all, but at some level of awareness, theyâre also ashamed of what was done to others in the process. I think they know at some level that debts havenât been paid, that unfairness and ongoing inequity havenât been rectified. But theyâre not about to do anything or give anything up in order to set things more right. That would interfere too much with their belief that America Is the best nation on earth, âdespite its problems.â Just donât look too closely at those problems, nor at who has more of them and why that is, if you please.
Imma guess⌠Brown people.
Can I just quote this and say, Yep. There are some nuances we could probably hammer out over a glass of wine or a pint, but I think you and I are 98%+ in agreement (even if my use of words is a little crude at times).
Cheers, and lets make this world a little better place.
That is exactly the kind of cognitive dissonance down here in Oz. And I think a vast number of Australians just wish the Aboriginal issue would disappear.
Swap out America for Australia and its still true. Fuck. 
(sigh)
This is going to sound brutal, but the US of A has a long tradition of shooting âinjunsâ, I think if you take into account all of American history I wouldnât be surprised if more Native Americans have been shot than any other ethnic group, including whites shot by other whites.
But I guess the human race has a long tradition of beating itself up under the guise of beating up âthe other.â
Privilege? That is just reality. Not every person shot by a cop is innocent and many of them are completely justified. Do I think it happens to often and are there clearly cases where the cops are in the wrong? Yes. But there are also 100% justified ones and grey areas where you or I might have behaved in the same manner.
World isnât black and white. Context is needed.
Well they have no legal obligation to protect. But if someone is trying to kill them or someone else, lethal force is sometimes the only option.
Stagamancer did not refute - he quantified. What you consider petty is your business, but I consider the factoid may indicate a flawed conclusion.
No, you have tipped your hand. I love dogs, but rabies turns dog into beast. I have the right to protect myself from any creature that would do me harm - rabid dog, kkk dude, soulless isis butcher, home invaders wearing masks, and so on. My allegiance is with my self, and my loved ones first. But I would still rush into a burning building to save you, or any other who could use saving.
As to your comment about shooting Native Americans - smallpox killed many more. It would be interesting to tally the numbers of the groups shooting other groups you mentioned. Does the War of Northern Aggression count?
