The Ferguson, Missouri thread

[notorious bum]

Study Shows Most White Americans Don't Have Black Friends

Despite all the talk about our supposedly post-racial society, friend groups among Americans remain starkly segregated.

A recent study conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute showed that 91 percent of the average white American's friends are white, and just 1 percent of their friends are black. While black Americans tend to have a more diverse social network, they don’t fare much better. The average African American has 83 percent black friends, 8 percent white friends, two percent Latino friends, zero Asian friends, and three percent mixed-race friends. One of the most glaring statistics from the study revealed that 75 percent of white Americans are exclusively friends with those of the same race.

All in all, the Washington Post put it simply: “Blacks have ten times as many black friends as white friends. But white Americans have an astonishing 91 times as many white friends as black friends.”

In a recent HuffPost Live conversation, Jezebel staff writer Hillary Crosley said she's "not surprised" by the findings.

"What I think is clear is as Americans, or as people in general, you look to people who are similar to you, have similar interests, live in the same area [and] maybe work at the same place," she said.

Crosley, who wrote a piece about the report urging white people to diversify their social networks, explained the benefits of befriending those who come from another racial background.

“The whole point is, if you have friends of different ethnicities, you won’t be so surprised when things like a Mike Brown happen," she said. “It’s about communication through different cultures so that you actually know what’s happening, not necessarily just something that you saw from the Internet. ”

Crosley also discussed how race affects her own life perspective and why it is so important when cultivating one’s friend group.

“For me, there’s never a separation between my existence and race. As a black woman, it’s always there,” she said. “It’s the lens through which I see things and the lens through which people see me.”

Author Rob Smith added his own interpretation of the statistics, emphasizing the way that they reflect white privilege in America.

“It’s literally sometimes about sheer numbers. Here’s the thing: Black people are going to have more non-black friends because most of us have to exist in a world that is very, very white,” he said. “But when you’re a white person you can literally surround yourself with all other white people because that’s what’s comfortable. That’s a privilege that white people have, and it’s something that black people don’t have.”

Some of the comments were actually funny in this article lol

[AoE]

I thought this was an Onion piece for a second.

[vagus]

Fuck that is hilarious. Damn white people being racist. How is this possible that Asian's are so low on the scale? We ain't scary.

[Kohan]

Fuck that is hilarious. Damn white people being racist. How is this possible that Asian's are so low on the scale? We ain't scary.

Though this is only anecdotal, in my own personal experience, the average white person has trouble with individuals from different cultural backgrounds if exposed to them for more than, say, a few hours in a day. Considering that about 75% of white people do not have any friends of color, according to this survey, I presume that this "average" is a genuine average, but I have no valid support beyond that.

Regardless, and returning to the topic: it's incredibly frustrating and offensive to me, but I've comparatively nothing to complain about, considering that I'm white; however, it's so utterly irritating that I generally would not want any white person that I know to be around anyone of color that I also know. They take offense at virtually everything; they don't understand cultural differences, as aforementioned; they don't understand different senses of humor, and so on.

As such, while I have a very mixed roster of friends—I don't believe there are more who are white, and even my significant other isn't—said friends do not really interact with one another, or they do not for long. It's very upsetting, and representative of what a divide there still is. That subliminal racism, that skepticism, that nastiness that still lurks within—all evident in even the simplest and most innocent interactions.

People who don't understand and won't understand also don't trust. They don't realize that all of their supposedly good intentions—the things they'll say behind closed doors—are rendered virtually meaningless when they can't even genuinely interact with someone with differently-colored skin.

[thetruepandagod]

Just tell white people to take up basketball and DDR if you care so much about them having mixed friends.

[Khajit]

When it comes to white friends there are just some topics where I keep my mouth shut and resist the urge to say "is this nigga serious?" Eg this Saturday they were talking about how some cameraman on the TV show COPS dies from getting shot and only the police had used any guns. Instant chirping in about how screwed the police department was over that. Meanwhile in ferguson...

Or in another case i actually explained to one of them a summary of what happened in Ferguson since I offhandedly mentioned it and he didn't know wtf was going on. He's convinced there's some 3rd perspective going on after I pointed out 4+ eyewitnesses claim to have seen Mike Brown get murdered, press being arrested for trying to be press, a US senator being attacked with teargas during a peaceful protest, guns leveled at citizens while threatening to shoot them, that woman that got shot in the head and the police took the bullet from the hospital to dispose of evidence and cover up what they'd done, and so on.

A guy getting shot by a stray bullet on COPS sets off more alarms than weeks of martial law in the middle of the US like it's a 2~3rd world country.

[BaneTheBrawler]

i'm as white as it gets, and there were no black kids at my school, so no RL black friends. but my dad and i talked about ferguson the other day, he was quite well informed and his summary would have fit right in here on BG.

#NOTALLWHITEPEOPLE

just kidding, we're special snowflakes. my parents are really smart people capable of seeing things from other viewpoints, which is an uncommon combination of traits, unfortunately.

[Sho]

Though this is only anecdotal, in my own personal experience, the average white person has trouble with individuals from different cultural backgrounds if exposed to them for more than, say, a few hours in a day. Considering that about 75% of white people do not have any friends of color, according to this survey, I presume that this "average" is a genuine average, but I have no valid support beyond that.

Regardless, and returning to the topic: it's incredibly frustrating and offensive to me, but I've comparatively nothing to complain about, considering that I'm white; however, it's so utterly irritating that I generally would not want any white person that I know to be around anyone of color that I also know. They take offense at virtually everything; they don't understand cultural differences, as aforementioned; they don't understand different senses of humor, and so on.

As such, while I have a very mixed roster of friends—I don't believe there are more who are white, and even my significant other isn't—said friends do not really interact with one another, or they do not for long. It's very upsetting, and representative of what a divide there still is. That subliminal racism, that skepticism, that nastiness that still lurks within—all evident in even the simplest and most innocent interactions.

People who don't understand and won't understand also don't trust. They don't realize that all of their supposedly good intentions—the things they'll say behind closed doors—are rendered virtually meaningless when they can't even genuinely interact with someone with differently-colored skin.

It's actually a very interesting situation that effects white people who have mixed race friends and/or have no inhibitions vs people of different races. They find it upsetting because they can't comprehend why their friends cannot get beyond the racial barriers (that society has created) as they did. I've seen many occasions where I have a white friend of mine get more apprehensive and angered at a racial comment that has nothing to do with their own race. They also like you prefer to not bring their white friends around African[-American] (Hispanic, Asian, Indian) people for fear of embarrassment and/or fear of [unknowingly] offending others in conversation and social interaction. My own girlfriend included.

It's definitely an ingrained problem with some people, even those who are genuinely nice and great people to all other races and cultures that are not their own. With older people, it's simply them living in the past in some respects -- they still remember the bias and offensive words, and because it was constantly spoken and heard around them, and there were simply no other ways (or they weren't intelligent enough) to find more positive identification terms for races. I have a much older friend who grew up in the 70s who still calls black people "Jigs." Yet another friend who is even older (nearing 90) who still calls Asians "Orientals" and people of Middle Eastern descent (and some East Asians) "Pakis." Both are exceptionally nice old white ladies, but their vernacular and word choice is simply stuck in the past where in blatant disdain of certain races lead people to create various offensive terms.

When it comes to younger people, it's more so a group [crowd] mentality problem -- people know better, but they want to remain cool and in good standing with their friends in a group, who are more than likely offensive and/or ignorant. Group-think mentality is a great problem, which many young people fall prey to. Why think and act differently when you can more easily act like the bland and timid masses who follow a specific mindset? Ironically this problem comes full circle to this thread -- The Ferguson Protests are a perfect example of group-think. Some people got so wrapped up in the feeling and rush of protest that some went on looting sprees and burning down businesses as a show of protest. This in turn leads to many opportunists jumping at the opportunity to take advantage of the chaos and loot themselves. This again leads to the police reaction of making a bad first call and treating everyone in the crowd as potential belligerents and acting in the manner that they did. Stephen Reicher has been writing about collective mentalities and police reactions since the 80s and it correctly lines up with the Protests in Ferguson in every instance.

Then again there are people who are just simply hateful. These people can never be changed and they will be as overt about their hate as possible -- almost always behind the anonymity of the Internet or within a group of like-minded individuals (like the KKK, Black Panther Party). Very rarely will you see a person being hateful out in the open and going about it completely solo.

[Khajit]

A few new stuff I didn't see mentioned after a quick look on twitter.
http://t.co/Csr5pa8I3Q
Ferguson police now have cameras on them.
There's currently some sort of protest at the I-270 that sounds like it was cancelled but not everyone got the message. Lots of misc angry(and a few racist) tweets about that.

The city council is cancelling all meetings now that people are actually paying attention to them.
https://twitter.com/zellieimani/stat...937792/photo/1

I also noticed
https://twitter.com/DatCatHerderTho/...243264/photo/1
While scanning to get a basic idea of today's events.

Edit:
Sho. Black panther party isn't the best example because J Edgar hoover specifically went out the way to hijack it and force the radicalization of the black panther party via planting individuals to stir up anger and aggression when they were simply a self defense organization and even misrepresent them in official reports so that they could be branded as a violent revolutionary party like they are known as today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

[Sho]

Edit:
Sho. Black panther party isn't the best example because J Edgar hoover specifically went out the way to hijack it and force the radicalization of the black panther party via planting individuals to stir up anger and aggression when they were simply a self defense organization and even misrepresent them in official reports so that they could be branded as a violent revolutionary party like they are known as today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

Bah, I meant the newer Black Panther Party (which has members of Nation of Islam) which is around currently. I knew a bit about the operations that J Edgar Hoover spearheaded to greatly discredit The Black Panther Party, but the spirit of the problem still existed in those organizations as well which was unfortunate. If anything, it makes the problem all the more apparent in retrospect; it shows that some members of the party still had deep-seated hatred for people of Caucasian descent. Meanwhile the New Party is very overt with their hate. It just sucks all around.

[Khajit]

Just noticed that the fundraising pages for wilson have disappeared.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...831-story.html
Apparently they may have all gotten swindled.

Interesting article in the NYtimes as well. It seems that the wealth gap between blacks and whites in the US is bigger than it was for South Africa during apartheid.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/op...s&emc=rss&_r=0

[notorious bum]

Shaun King ‏@ShaunKing 15m
In 2001, @RoordaJ was FIRED from the police force for making FALSE STATEMENTS, is now a state rep, raising money for Darren Wilson. THINK!

Matt Pearce ‏@mattdpearce 6h
I've updated my story on the Darren Wilson donations. One fundraiser is a Missouri Democrat running for state senate: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...831-story.html …

Rep. Jeffrey Roorda was also fired from a police department in 2001 after accusations he'd made false statements: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...831-story.html …

Elon James White ‏@elonjames 8m
How do you sponsor a bill to hide cop's names involved in shootings? They can already kill us but they want the ability to do it SECRETLY?

Jeff Roorda ‏@RoordaJ 30 Aug 2012
“Governor Nixon Endorses Roorda at Office Opening Ceremony” http://www.roorda2012.com/news.html http://fb.me/117Nke4fv

[Galkaeater]

If you want more black friends guess you'll have to import them from africa again

[Ghost_Wheel22]

In my defense in my area only has a handful of the blacks and the one guy I'm friends with is the most racist guy I know. Pretty much a redneck Clayton Bigsby. Only less blind.

[djzombie]

Pretty much a redneck Clayton Bigsby. Only less blind.

You found yourself a genuine uncle ruckus?

[Niiro]

No relation.

[Cantih]

Just tell white people to take up basketball and DDR if you care so much about them having mixed friends.

Or as I found out in college, Yu-Gi-Oh! also works.

[BaneTheBrawler]

i met all of my black friends through FFXI

[AoE]

i met all of my black friends through FFXI

Lol

[Qalbert]

Shaun King ‏@ShaunKing 15m
In 2001, @RoordaJ was FIRED from the police force for making FALSE STATEMENTS, is now a state rep, raising money for Darren Wilson. THINK!

Matt Pearce ‏@mattdpearce 6h
I've updated my story on the Darren Wilson donations. One fundraiser is a Missouri Democrat running for state senate: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...831-story.html …

Rep. Jeffrey Roorda was also fired from a police department in 2001 after accusations he'd made false statements: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...831-story.html …

Elon James White ‏@elonjames 8m
How do you sponsor a bill to hide cop's names involved in shootings? They can already kill us but they want the ability to do it SECRETLY?

Jeff Roorda ‏@RoordaJ 30 Aug 2012
“Governor Nixon Endorses Roorda at Office Opening Ceremony” http://www.roorda2012.com/news.html http://fb.me/117Nke4fv

https://storify.com/DKShan/backoffic...gs-in-missouri