It's Time to Boycott Arizona

[DomnNC]

Public libraries is a good resource if you have one. They closed down over half the public libraries in the Char-Meck system this year due to lack of funding and it's happening everywhere, just not in Char-Meck.

Perhaps those people that were being called ignorant did listen to "peers" who were just as uninformed and hence the idiots being re-elected.

And why is Canada any better? I just read an article where blacks are 3 times more prone to being pulled over as a result of racial profiling as the aborgines are. There is NO country that is immune to racial profiling.

Here is the part that pertained to Canada:

Canada
Accusations of racial profiling of visible minorities who accuse police of targeting them due to their ethnic background is a growing concern in Canada. In 2005, the Kingston Police Service released the first study ever in Canada which pertains to racial profiling. The study focused on in the city of Kingston, a small city where most of the inhabitants are white. The study showed that black skinned people were 3.7 times more likely to be pulled over by police than white skinned people, while Asian people were less likely to be pulled over than whites or blacks.[13] Several police organizations condemned this study and suggested more studies like this would make them hesitant to pull over visible minorities.

Although aboriginal persons make up 3.6% of Canada's population, they account for 20% of Canada's prison population. This may show how racial profiling increases effectiveness of police, or be a result of racial profiling, as they are watched more intensely than others.[14]

In 2003, Professional Boxer Kirk Johnson launched a Human Rights Inquiry against the Halifax Regional Police based on Racial Profiling. During the inquiry Johnson claimed that he had his car stopped 28 times over five years while in Halifax[citation needed]. The police service was ordered to create a scholarship in Johnson's name.

In February 2010, an investigation of the Toronto Star daily newspaper found that black people across Toronto were three times more likely to be stopped and documented by police than white people. To a lesser extent, the same seemed true for people described by police as having "brown" skin. This was the result of an analysis of 1.7 million contact cards filled out by Toronto police officers in the period 2003 - 2008.[15]"

Just because studies were only begun in 2005 as to racial profiling doesn't mean it didn't exist before then.

[Greyson]

Originally Posted by DomnNC

Public libraries is a good resource if you have one. They closed down over half the public libraries in the Char-Meck system this year due to lack of funding and it's happening everywhere, just not in Char-Meck.

Perhaps those people that were being called ignorant did listen to "peers" who were just as uninformed and hence the idiots being re-elected.

And why is Canada any better? I just read an article where blacks are 3 times more prone to being pulled over as a result of racial profiling as the aborgines are. There is NO country that is immune to racial profiling.

Here is the part that pertained to Canada:

Canada
Accusations of racial profiling of visible minorities who accuse police of targeting them due to their ethnic background is a growing concern in Canada. In 2005, the Kingston Police Service released the first study ever in Canada which pertains to racial profiling. The study focused on in the city of Kingston, a small city where most of the inhabitants are white. The study showed that black skinned people were 3.7 times more likely to be pulled over by police than white skinned people, while Asian people were less likely to be pulled over than whites or blacks.[13] Several police organizations condemned this study and suggested more studies like this would make them hesitant to pull over visible minorities.

Although aboriginal persons make up 3.6% of Canada's population, they account for 20% of Canada's prison population. This may show how racial profiling increases effectiveness of police, or be a result of racial profiling, as they are watched more intensely than others.[14]

In 2003, Professional Boxer Kirk Johnson launched a Human Rights Inquiry against the Halifax Regional Police based on Racial Profiling. During the inquiry Johnson claimed that he had his car stopped 28 times over five years while in Halifax[citation needed]. The police service was ordered to create a scholarship in Johnson's name.

In February 2010, an investigation of the Toronto Star daily newspaper found that black people across Toronto were three times more likely to be stopped and documented by police than white people. To a lesser extent, the same seemed true for people described by police as having "brown" skin. This was the result of an analysis of 1.7 million contact cards filled out by Toronto police officers in the period 2003 - 2008.[15]"

Just because studies were only begun in 2005 as to racial profiling doesn't mean it didn't exist before then.

NC, my experience of Canada, BC and Ontario really is not based on surveys but on time spent in Canada. When I spent time in Canada, for me as a POC I did not feel, experience the same level of racism. Racism is just not as intitutionalized as here in the States. I could throw out reasons as to why this may be true, but that could be something for you and others to research.

As my mother would forever remind me when I was growing up and into my adulthood, "Two wrongs do not make a right."

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by DomnNC

[B]Public libraries is a good resource if you have one. They closed down over half the public libraries in the Char-Meck system this year due to lack of funding and it's happening everywhere, just not in Char-Meck.

Perhaps those people that were being called ignorant did listen to "peers" who were just as uninformed and hence the idiots being re-elected.

And why is Canada any better? I just read an article where blacks are 3 times more prone to being pulled over as a result of racial profiling as the aborgines are. There is NO country that is immune to racial profiling.

No one is saying Canada is a paradise on Earth. If I make the obvious statement that the United States of America is more politically and economically stable, less violent and has more social capital in the form of voluntary associations than, say, Somalia have I made some statement that the United States is somehow without any kind of political upheaval, has no economic problems, has no violence and no social pathology? No. I've made a comparison, nothing more and nothing less. Now, empirically, the United States IS more politically and economically stable than Somalia. Somalia is in the midst of a civil war that has been going on and off for the last two decades. The country is has no functioning economy to speak of. But that does not mean that the United States is some kind of Nirvana--simply that in comparison to Somalia the USA is a much better place to live.

If I make the statement that the United States, compared to the major European economies, has some serious problems have I now reduced the USA to the status of Somalia? Again, no! I'm simply making the empirical statement that, all things considered, a baby born in Denmark will live longer, on average, than a baby born in Oregon. The former will have free education and medical care and the latter likely will not. The former will have a strong safety net under her and the latter will not. Again, I can make this comparison without stating that Denmark is a nation without problems or that the USA is something out of the Dark Ages.

Cheers
Aj

[DomnNC]

Laughs, I was just pointing out that ALL countries engage in racial profiling. Is that such a hard concept to grasp? It has nothing to do with babies in Denmark for crying outloud.

[Greyson]

Originally Posted by DomnNC

Laughs, I was just pointing out that ALL countries engage in racial profiling. Is that such a hard concept to grasp? It has nothing to do with babies in Denmark for crying outloud.

Yes, I agree that most countries do racial profiling whether they knowingly do it, admit to it. As for surviving, I hear your frustration. Many of us urban dwellers also deal with survival. These scenarios just do not happen all of a sudden one day, over night.

Much of what is happening in our world today is based on a long history of choices. Individual choices and collective. No one can afford to stick their heads into the sand.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by DomnNC

Laughs, I was just pointing out that ALL countries engage in racial profiling. Is that such a hard concept to grasp? It has nothing to do with babies in Denmark for crying outloud.

Sigh, do I have to walk you through this? Really?

One more time:

And why is Canada any better? I just read an article where blacks are 3 times more prone to being pulled over as a result of racial profiling as the aborgines are. There is NO country that is immune to racial profiling.

Your argument is flawed because one can make a comparison between the social circumstances of any given number of nations--in this specific instance the United States and Canada--without making any *absolute* statement about those conditions. In other words, saying that racial profiling happens in the USA does NOT make any kind of statement about whether or not racial profiling happens in other countries. What's more, even if someone had said that racial profiling is MORE common in the United States than it is in Canada that does NOT change the statement to mean that racial profiling happens in the former but not the latter. It is merely to state that if, say, 1 in every thousand black Canadians is stopped for driving while black while 5 in every 1000 black Americans is stopped for the same thing that racial profiling is more common in the USA than it is in Canada.

Taking the words I quoted above to mean precisely what they appear to mean, you seem to believe that if I say X happens more in Oregon than it does in New York I am saying that X ONLY happens in New York. That is the argument I am making.

So, what do the relative fates of babies in Oregon and Denmark have to do with it? It's called an argument by analogy. What I was trying to get across and which you completely failed to grasp although I thought I'd made it clear was this:

One can make a comparison between any two nations without making ANY absolute statement about whether some phenomena occurs in some nation. So I can point out that a baby in Denmark will, on average, live longer than a baby born the same day in Oregon without being committed to the idea that because the baby born in Denmark will live longer it means that the baby in Oregon is already dead.

The logic you are deploying in the statement quoted above is that to say that the average lifespan of a Danish baby is longer than an American baby is to say that all babies in America are stillborn. I was pointing out, by way of analogy, that your logic is flawed. I'm absolutely mystified that you seemed to think that some point was being made about Danish babies.

I will freely admit that I am no Shakespeare but I think I'm a pretty decent writer and can make myself generally well understood so how you could miss the point I was making and think that somehow I was arguing something critical about Danish babies is beyond my comprehension.

Cheers
Aj

[Greyson]

Originally Posted by DomnNC

Public libraries is a good resource if you have one. They closed down over half the public libraries in the Char-Meck system this year due to lack of funding and it's happening everywhere, just not in Char-Meck.

This one paragraph gives an indication of the priorities and challenges of your local government. All of us are making our priorities known. Yes, California and the SF Bay Area are not for all of us. I can tell you in my community libraries are not closing.

Okay, I am going off topic here. Stepping off of the soap box.

[betenoire]

Originally Posted by DomnNC

And why is Canada any better? I just read an article where blacks are 3 times more prone to being pulled over as a result of racial profiling as the aborgines are. There is NO country that is immune to racial profiling.

Article...Wikipedia. Poh-TAY-toe...Poh-TAH-toe.

Well I just read an article from 1996 that says that Black people in the US are nearly 5x more likely to get pulled over than White people! Canada wins! Wait...you mean you WEREN'T trying to have a competition? My bad.

Yes of COURSE Canada has corrupt police officers. Sweet jesus, anywhere that there are police (or other people in power) there will be corruption. It is, unfortunately, human nature.

As obsessed as I am with my Canada, I have no issues with admitting that we are not without our problems. Our current PM is a fuckstick conservative from Alberta who would make us into USA-junior if he thought he could get away with it, for starters. Our unemployment rate is 7.9%. We're like the 7th (last I checked) biggest polluter in the world.

But I'll tell you what problem we don't have: We do not have on the books laws designed specifically to harm people for not being white. I do believe that is what whoever it was who brought up Canada was driving at.