I Am Going to Say Something Controversial
(part 3)
But my challenge to you is this: ask yourself, how much is the news coverage and growing public perception of racial inequality and racism revealing a truth that was unseen before, and how much is is creating that seeming truth? To what extent are most cops racist, and to what extent are most cops that are shown on the news racist (because highlighting non-racist cops would make them drop in the ratings)? To what extent has your perception of these issues been skewed, based on what the news thought would get them ratings, and so showed you over and over and over again? I don't deny that the problems are real, and are really bad - but how much does the public perception of those problems look at the actual problems, and how much does it percieve, enhance, or even create additional problems around the problems that are actually there? How much are bad things actually getting worse, and how much do we only perceive that they're getting worse, when really they're still-bad-but-still-slowly-getting-better?
I'll say this - as much as I see problems and issues with the direction that the "non racist" side of the divide has gone in recent years, one thing that it's accomplished for me is to really get me thinking about this stuff in ways that I never have before. So in that way, the amplified perception of the problem (real and imagined) has at least accomplished that much - for me and for a lot of other people. There's good being done, despite what I would label as a lot of bad behavior coming out of both sides. Maybe there's a sort of hope in that.
But my challenge to you is this: ask yourself, how much is the news coverage and growing public perception of racial inequality and racism revealing a truth that was unseen before, and how much is is creating that seeming truth? To what extent are most cops racist, and to what extent are most cops that are shown on the news racist (because highlighting non-racist cops would make them drop in the ratings)? To what extent has your perception of these issues been skewed, based on what the news thought would get them ratings, and so showed you over and over and over again? I don't deny that the problems are real, and are really bad - but how much does the public perception of those problems look at the actual problems, and how much does it percieve, enhance, or even create additional problems around the problems that are actually there? How much are bad things actually getting worse, and how much do we only perceive that they're getting worse, when really they're still-bad-but-still-slowly-getting-better?
I'll say this - as much as I see problems and issues with the direction that the "non racist" side of the divide has gone in recent years, one thing that it's accomplished for me is to really get me thinking about this stuff in ways that I never have before. So in that way, the amplified perception of the problem (real and imagined) has at least accomplished that much - for me and for a lot of other people. There's good being done, despite what I would label as a lot of bad behavior coming out of both sides. Maybe there's a sort of hope in that.
