Identity Politics: African Americans and Guns

The American News Cycle is weird.  You notice it most when you are about to see it from the POV of the rest of the world.

Guns have been in the news too much and in America, they have been responsible for the MOST shootings of "high income countries".  Guess who is ranked #2?? In this graphic, America has 4.5 deaths per 100,000; Portugal has just under 1/100,000.

There have been major shootings.  14 since Obama has been President. There was video about kids at a pool party, and an officer pulled a gun on them (the African-American ones).  Coming out of a YEAR of black people getting shot by cops AND it being talked about.  Before that, it was happening, but it was NOT talked about.

(Another thing that is barely being talked about in the American press is that the Dominican Republic is DEPORTING anyone of HAITIAN heritage on 6/16/15. Regardless of where they were born. 200,000 stateless people. Hispanic vs "Black". Is ANYONE paying attention?)

The most recent shooting (6/17/15), in South Carolina, IN A CHURCH, has crushed me -- and some of the rest of America. The problem is--well there are MANY problems.

Here's the issue captured by an eloquent friend, Andrea Ciannavei, from a Facebook post:

Apologies and expressions of guilt to black people are meaningless.
Do not apologize.
Do not wring your hands in guilt and angst.
This is not about you and your feelings.
Do not appeal to black people to act peacefully when they are being hunted and disenfranchised from Baltimore to Santiago to Tel Aviv to Athens.
When there is not a single tank deployed in Charleston to apprehend this terrorist even though he assassinated 9 people including a State Senator and father of two.
Any sentence beginning with "Not all white people..." is a rationalization.
Any sentence beginning with "He/she was no angel..." is a rationalization.
It is all white people.
The white people who shoot and brutalize and are not unilaterally and consistently condemned at a deafening pitch by an overwhelming force of white people everywhere.
The white people who have no fear when they fly a confederate flag or hang a noose from some tree.
The white people who wear uniforms and can kill and maim with impunity.
The white people who did not make their voices heard and/or their bodies seen in Baltimore, Ferguson, Los Angeles, New York or Mckinney.
The white people who put the onus on black people to educate them about racial issues.
The white people who want to talk about race issues rather than white supremacy.
The white people who want to talk about black on black crime every time a white man kills a black man or woman.
The white politicians who are re-elected year after year despite the shit that comes out of their mouths.
The white people who ask if that neighborhood in Harlem is "safe" when they're looking for an apartment.
The white people who stay silent at the holiday dinner table when their racist relatives feel comfortable enough to let their tongues wag freely and uncontested for the sake of "peace" when really it is the pall of fear and cowardice.
The white people who do not hold other white people 100% accountable and punish them when they break the motherfucking law.
The white people who hesitate to give up even and 8th of an ounce of their privilege.
It is all white people.
Apologies are empty, it's time to act - it's been time for centuries.

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