Black Lives Matter

Hi everyone.
This is very, very near and dear to my heart. I have two special needs boys. One of them is more "passable" as neurotypical than the other. The other boy has some cognitive delays and because of that, he often has problems with communication, being socially appropriate, and understanding and responding accurately to questions. Many, many times the police deal with special needs people, and it often turns out bad, even deadly. The only saving grace my son has is that he is white.

Every day people with autism or other intellectual disabilities interact with the police, and special needs advocacy groups are calling for better training of police officers. Black moms NEED this for their kids. If you are looking at policing reforms, I would recommend they follow the guidelines and training developed for interaction with special needs people because it's so much more humane and it results in de-escalation.

Pushing initiatives like special needs training in police departments that can save someone's life. I encourage all of you to not just talk about de-funding police, but also to push for what we want in it's place.

For people who want to know more about SN police training:
www.npr.org

How One Mother's Battle Is Changing Police Training On Disabilities

Patti Saylor's son, Ethan, died after an encounter with law enforcement when he was 26. She believes the incident could have been prevented with better training.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

SN Black Parents perspective:
www.npr.org

For Parents Of Young Black Men With Autism, Extra Fear About Police

People with autism often have trouble communicating with police, which can be dangerous — and scary for parents who also worry about racial profiling. Now, some cities are trying to mitigate the risk.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

And just for good measure:
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MikeH said:
Yea I found a Kindle lying around and started The End of Policing. Tried to buy the book at my local book store but they were all out of it.
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I used to read like 15-20 books a year back in like 13', 14', 15' but then I wanted to get back into reading paper books instead. I read a bunch of books because it's infinitely more convenient on a Kindle, it's harder to read consistently, IMO on a physical book.
 
Thackeraye said:
Started it last night, about 5% in. I’m tempted to go back to the Freakonomics chapter about the Broken Windows policy to revisit it based on the take on it here...
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Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in his book Tipping point, maybe worth a look for you. All of his books are excellent.

Also, the wikipedia entry is very comprehensive.
en.wikipedia.org

Broken windows theory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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Ethos99 said:
Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in his book Tipping point, maybe worth a look for you. All of his books are excellent.

Also, the wikipedia entry is very comprehensive.
en.wikipedia.org

Broken windows theory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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I *think* I've read Tipping Point. Definitely read a couple of his, but I'm not 100% on that one.

I don't think I appreciated the undertone of the policy: essentially that the poor are stupid and basically can't have nice things without trashing them, and the only way to make sure they don't is hardcore policing. I seem to remember Freakonomics spending a lot of time on it as a policy, but not that reading of the methodology.
 
wokeupnew said:
I used to read like 15-20 books a year back in like 13', 14', 15' but then I wanted to get back into reading paper books instead. I read a bunch of books because it's infinitely more convenient on a Kindle, it's harder to read consistently, IMO on a physical book.
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Yea--it makes sense for a lot of people. I haven't used a Kindle before this (it's my fiancée's). I still prefer to read a physical book and we have a bookshop a few blocks from our apartment that we have been trying to buy more from during quarantine since they have been shut down. We like buying stuff from there and then we drop it in a public book drop near us once we're done reading.
 
So, a young African American male was found hung in a park in a nearby city to me in the last couple of days. I was just watching the town hall event addressing it. They are not sure if it was a murder or a death by suicide. However, his has brought up a lot of pain and distrust. It's a community that was previously populated by a lot of police officers. Over the years is has increasingly become a place where POC move because of the affordable housing.
 
My kid’s school just sent a resource list for how to discuss these issues with children:



Resources for Exploring Race and Systemic Racism



-21 Anti-racism videos to share with kids from We Are Teachers



-This website was created and maintained by an African American parent with an eye to diversity in education, family and books. She has phenomenal resources, Here Wee Read. A bonus is that if you order from this site it is connected to Bookshop!



-Podcasts for kids: this list pulls together many stories with a focus on black voices



-Video for Black parents trying to explain racism and its impact on their kids.



-Webinar by leading expert, Abram X. Kendi, about Raising Antiracist Kids



-Talking About Race resources from the National Museum of African American History and Culture
 
I don't have a lot to say or add to this thread because as a 43 year old white male, I think my place now is listen and empathize with this movement. As a parent of two girls, my wife and I have decided the time to shield them from all the bad things in this world needs to end. So we've had a lot more conversations with them about what happened to George Floyd, why people are out protesting, and talking with them about what we can do as a family to help the cause of Black Lives Matter. We've gotten a lot more library books on order for them that speaks to the black experience in America, one that can be vastly different than the world they know. I've also talked to them about a lot of the terrible history of the city they live in.

One of the more recent outcomes of this movement is the university my wife and I went to, the University of Texas, is finally having the reckoning with its racist past that's been delayed for too long. The student council and a good portion of the student athletes are petitioning the school to change names of buildings that were put in during the Jim Crow era as tributes to Confederate officers and opponents to integration who later ran or taught at the school. They're also asking for statues to be removed and a section of the football stadium to be named in honor of the first African American who integrated the team in 1970. The latter is important as UT holds the terrible distinction of being the last all-white championship team.

The final thing they've asked for is to change our alma mater. It was written in 1903 as a satire of the school president at the time who was a Robert E Lee admirer. The Eyes of Texas is a nod to Lee's line about the Eyes of the South are upon you when Lee was the president of Washington College (later Washington & Lee) set to the tune of I've Been Working on the Railroad. The song was first performed at a minstrel show where the singers were in blackface. It was later a tradition for a school group known as the Texas Cowboys to perform it in blackface every year. This ended around 1963 when people rightly protested the tradition. This one might be the hardest to change as the song has such a different meaning to the majority who sing it. But I love that these athletes finally felt empowered to speak out and try to affect change in the program they love. Their coach and athletic director appear to have their backs.

I feel ashamed that I had no idea about this history. It was something that just wasn't spoken of when I was in school, except by the marginalized members of the campus, which made it easy to write off. It's similar to how I noticed a Jefferson Davis statue on campus back in the 90s when I was there and thought "ehh, I don't know why this is here but oh well". I thought it was more about Texas being once in the Confederacy. I had no idea it was put there by a racist asshole who wanted to make the campus a tribute to the "Old South". Thankfully that and a Robert E Lee statue were removed in 2016. It's past time we have conversations about this in America. We've ignored it and excused ourselves as "colorblind" for far too long. We need more empathy in this world. We need more education about the past. It bothers me that I had to learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre through an HBO show based on a comic book. I'm trying to commit myself to learning more and empathizing more. That's where I see a way of helping this broader movement.
 
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Wow, has anyone ever heard about Clapton's racist on-stage rant in 1976? All these years and I never had until today. I know he was pretty f-ed up in the 70s but still...

I'm going to put it as a spoiler, it just feels like I should.

"Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands … So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country … I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white … The black wogs and coons and Arabs and f*cking Jamaicans don’t belong here, we don’t want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don’t want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man … This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for f*ck’s sake? … Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!”
 
ranbalam said:
Wow, has anyone ever heard about Clapton's racist on-stage rant in 1976? All these years and I never had until today. I know he was pretty f-ed up in the 70s but still...

I'm going to put it as a spoiler, it just feels like I should.

"Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands … So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country … I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white … The black wogs and coons and Arabs and f*cking Jamaicans don’t belong here, we don’t want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don’t want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man … This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for f*ck’s sake? … Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!”
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Yeah, amazing guitarist. Not a good human. I am not aware of him even walking this back in any way, shape or form. I'd be curious if anyone else has uncovered just a bit of growth on his part.
 
Teeeee said:
Yeah, amazing guitarist. Not a good human. I am not aware of him even walking this back in any way, shape or form. I'd be curious if anyone else has uncovered just a bit of growth on his part.
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agree talented guitarist but a racist he whitesplained over the years, blaming it on his heavy drug and alcohol addictions saying that spurred his racist diatribe. on his past racist comments “I was so ashamed of who I was, a kind of semiracist, which didn’t make sense. Half of my friends were black, I dated a black woman and I championed black music,” said EriKKK Clapton.

Peter Green & Rory Gallagher are both legendary white Blues Rock guitarist that were way better than clapton but sadly are often over looked.
 
When any conversation about BLM protests during my morning zoom standup meeting revolves around looting and how downtown is boarded up, continually focusing on property damage rather than the loss of life and systemic racism which has brought us to this point.

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Bull Shannon said:
When any conversation about BLM protests during my morning zoom standup meeting revolves around looting and how downtown is boarded up, continually focusing on property damage rather than the loss of life and systemic racism which has brought us to this point.

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mad paddington is the best paddington and i agree with mad paddington.
 
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