Now I'm Under Lockdown Due to Protests and Looting

[AntsyVee]

I disagree. Like I said, (and posited a link in my previous response), it has happened before and there has been an outcry about it, and rightly so.

Also Antsyvee, sorry for hijacking your thread. It really was not my intention to do so. I was only trying to contribute at first. Then many of the questions/remarks from others appeared to be in response to something I posted, so I've been responding to them. I am still trying to figure out how to do this in a single post.

Regardless, this is your thread about how you've been dealing with all of this turmoil, and I've been remiss in not asking you if you're doing alright. Are you ok? I hope it has been a bit of a distraction discussing things on here.

You can hijack the thread. That's fine. After all, I have a tendency to hijack other people's threads, so it's only fair.

I think talking about racism in a safe environment is needed. I think we as Americans have always struggled to talk about difficult topics, especially concerning race and class.

I'm doing okay. Things have gotten back to normal in my city. The curfew has been lifted. I, like many people with GAD, struggle when something abruptly changes, and I worry more about the state of my life in general than I should. But once things settle down a bit, my anxiety does as well.

[AntsyVee]

BTW I respect Vee very much... and I hope she knows that.

Thank you N, but I didn't find that one post very respectful, especially given what you know about me.

[AntsyVee]

you talk about systemic racism. That is a very grey term the left likes to use.

Please don't dismiss this as a leftist issue. It's not something that liberals invented. It's a term that was adopted by sociologists in the 1970s to describe policies and conditions in our society's institutions that perpetuate inequality between the races and genders. Our country has had a history of systemic racism. Jim Crow Laws, Lynching, Segregation, the 20's America First Committee, all of those are historical examples of systemic racism, so one can't dismiss that "systemic racism" isn't a thing or is made up by a group to press their agenda.

Today there are many inequalities between different races and ethnicities, men and women, and those of the LGBTQ community. Individual acts of racism don't account for all the inequality. A lot of it has to do with class politics as well; however, one has to acknowledge that racial minorities make up the larger portions of the lower classes. Sociologists still argue all the time over which has more influence--race or class.

No one can argue with the statistics of inequality in our country, so what sociologists do is look at our institutions to see if they are contributing to the inequality. Unfortunately, it seems it still is the case in many institutions. The APA, the ACLU, SPLC, Dept of Ed, just to name a few have all done studies and acknowledged it exists in their respective institutions. Every year, as a teacher, we have professional development on closing the achievement gap of minorities and making sure that our disciplinary policies don't discriminate against certain groups of students.

But then you have the anecdotal stories of people of color, like my family. Every woman, every person of color, every LGBTQ community member has a story of when they've faced racism or prejudice. And when you've experienced it first-hand, whether it was an individual act or an act by an institution, it's not hard to believe that there could be policies in places contributing to the racism.

[AntsyVee]

Well, tonight we just had an earthquake. Never a dull moment here! LOL

[MyNameIsTerry]

Vee, I see what you did there. A huge STFU to any miscreants measured on the Richter scale.

I hope you and your loved ones are safe. You've got a lot factors combining when alone they can make people do silly things. There must be a lot of frightened people out there right now.

One of GADs annoying elements is the inner micro manager wanting to keep you safe from everything by looking for threatens in anything. Rather than be worried about one big outcome you can find yourself more worried about all the everyday and trivial stuff. But we need to keep it in proportion because how big a deal are so many of these things and what problems does it really cause if we have to put something back or reschedule?

[AntsyVee]

One of GADs annoying elements is the inner micro manager wanting to keep you safe from everything by looking for threatens in anything. Rather than be worried about one big outcome you can find yourself more worried about all the everyday and trivial stuff. But we need to keep it in proportion because how big a deal are so many of these things and what problems does it really cause if we have to put something back or reschedule?

Yup. You said it, Terry. I use Niebuhr's quote to guide my life with GAD, "G-d, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." Don't tell the rabbi, but I think I actually might say that one more than I say the Shema

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yup. You said it, Terry. I use Niebuhr's quote to guide my life with GAD, "G-d, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." Don't tell the rabbi, but I think I actually might say that one more than I say the Shema

The local charity holding walk-ins for mental health I used to attend have the groups recite that at the end of each meet (minus the God bit).

[Noivous]

Thank you N, but I didn't find that one post very respectful, especially given what you know about me.

Which one would that be? How did I disrespect you? Because no one has a right to not be offended. That's a different matter.

"Every year, as a teacher, we have professional development on closing the achievement gap of minorities and making sure that our disciplinary policies don't discriminate against certain groups of students."

Your comment is making my point. Do you think it's only the educational institutions having these types of meetings and initiatives? Every business in America is having them constantly, including my own. If you'll read my post I asked for examples of systemic racism in America today. Also, I work with many minorities, about half my company I'd say. And particularly the African Americans are offended when a comparison is made between their past struggles and the LBGT community.
You talked about minorities being the majority of the lower economic class. I'll give you that for the most part. But there are millions of poor whites as well. But I put the blame squarely at the feet of the Democrats. They have owned lock stock and barrel every inner city of the US for 60 years. The last 3 years have seen the lowest unemployment among blacks in our nation's history. We will see what happens coming out of this covid 19 blip, hopefully. I will say the stock market has rebounded nicely. My 401k took a 20% nose dive YTD because of covid and now it's up over 3% YTD. I think that's significant.

N.

[Noivous]

The local charity holding walk-ins for mental health I used to attend have the groups recite that at the end of each meet (minus the God bit).

The God bit is what makes it work, Terry.😁

[pray4me]

Antsyvee, it seems like you just cannot catch a break! But I am glad to hear you're plodding along.

Regarding examples of systemic racism, here's a link to a Harvard study that shows you're more likely to get a job interview if you "Whiten" your resume: https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minoritie...l%2003,%202019

There are also plenty of studies (too many to link here) about racial discrimination in rental housing and in public education (Black children are more likely to be placed in special education classrooms etc.)

I do agree though that not all marginalized groups are natural allies, and sometime hold prejudices against one another. But it's also good to see people with multiple oppressed identities (gay person of color) trying to forge unlikely alliances.

It's also good to see businesses and school systems taking concrete steps to address racial and other forms of discrimination. I personally think the way forward is by working together. Thinking in binaries (democrat versus republican, left versus right, liberal versus conservative) leads to further polarization and disaffection.