Also:
Any people who take an entirely pro- or entirely anti-cop viewpoint are binary thinkers. I despise those who embrace binary thinking.
I struggle with the issue myself as regards race, but I have so far avoided binary thinking there, too. I admit, after (reading about) the events of the last 2-3 years, a person of color starts with the assumption they are hostile (violently so) to my race, but that can be overcome, and I embrace those people of color who have repudiated the prevalent meme in their community.
I struggle with the issue myself as regards race, but I have so far avoided binary thinking there, too. I admit, after (reading about) the events of the last 2-3 years, a person of color starts with the assumption they are hostile (violently so) to my race, but that can be overcome, and I embrace those people of color who have repudiated the prevalent meme in their community.
It took me years (decades) to get over the binary-thinking habit. It keeps trying to raise its head with race, but I grew up in a non-racist home in the '50s and '60s and spent my first 8 years in a part of the city that became 80% Black while I lived there - these were family people and our friends and neighbors. I watched how the race riots of the '60s changed a number of them, and how they treated me, but the core remained good people. Before the race riots, the worst "scandal" in our area was when a young Black man down the street (Bernie Dunham) started dating, then married a blonde woman. It stirred up a lot of chatter, but I never saw one act of hostility. He and his brother George were upstanding family men who moved to the 'burbs and worked hard - typical of many of the time in our area (Rochester NY). I also worked in a number of places where many co-workers were Black and they were also mostly upstanding folks. Now, I live on the MS Gulf Coast and, for the most part, the Blacks are working folks who also practice common courtesies. If you smile and greet a Black stranger, you are apt to receive same in return.
All that said, I cannot stop myself from looking closer at a Black man these days and elevate my situational awareness - I ascribe this to how the Black rabble-rousers and MSM keep pushing it into the forefront and the inevitable results in the whole sum of the Black communities.
PS - Thanks for "chatting" with donna on the cop thing - I still believe the majority of cops are decent folks, but the times fosters more aggression and the bad seeds take longer steps these days - add militarization and it drags the overall image down and fosters additional fear/distrust. I hear some lawyers are pretty upstanding folks too...