So, I saw this cartoon today. It covers two controversial subjects: the killing of Tamir Rice, and the anti-federalist militants who have taken over a federal building in Oregon.
My question: regardless of your political affiliations, how does this cartoon make you feel? Do you think it's accurate?
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Lots of heated opinions, which of course is to be expected.
A follow-up question: if the anti-federalist dudes in Oregon were, say, black or Muslim, how do you think coverage/ the response of the incident would differ? Or would it not differ at all?
Is this satirical cartoon of guns in USA accurate? How do you feel when you read this cartoon?
It's so weird that after eight years with a black president, racial tensions are worse than they've been in decades. I thought Obama was supposed to be the great healer. I find it really interesting that whites are killed much more often than blacks by the police, and it's attributed to simply having a higher white population, but problems with relations between the police and the black community are never attributed to less than 20% of the population commuting more than three quarters of the murders in this country. In any case, these two issues are unrelated entirely. One is a tragedy where a boy holding a toy gun functionally identical to a real gun was killed, and the other is a group of people forcefully protesting extreme government overreach. They've committed no violence, they're holding a building that was empty when they took it. Is it perhaps the best way to protest? Likely not, but some of these people have been driven to desperation. If you look into the facts about the Hammonds, they were convicted of arson years after the fact of setting a backfire on THEIR land to stop a wildfire caused by a lightning strike. The judge in their case reduced their sentence, but they were later called back again to serve a full five years. For stopping a wildfire. The reserve adjacent to their land has made several encroachments, including building a fence along water that the Hammonds had legally reserved as watering for their livestock. Thing have gone to shit and some people are tired of it. Is this going to fix anything? No. Will it hurt anyone? Probably not. Will it force people to take a look at how powerful the federal government has become? Hopefully.
If people expected Obama to be a great healer, then they were mistaken. But I will say this: electing a black president was a step forward for America, regardless of his being Democrat, Republican, whatever. It's something that would've been laughable 50 years ago. Of course, more important than his blackness is his ability to be President, but you get the point.
I admittedly don't know much about the Hammond case, but the militants have threatened violence. Would the public tolerate that kind of behavior if the occupiers weren't white? I'm not so sure.
I think people very much expected him to heal some racial tensions. He was touted as someone who would do so. The one good thing I thought would come from his presidency was a little bit of healing. He didn't even accomplish that. Hasn't that violence been tolerated? Baltimore, Ferguson, etc. Mayor of Baltimore pulled the police back to give protestors "room," seems pretty tolerated to me.
The NRA guy thinks he is a patriot is what scares me, You know I like guns, handguns included but the NRA blocks common sense measures like more funding for a mental health system and such. Fuck the NRA and every gun owner my dad is friends with and my Dad hates them
I think it's an accurate representation of how average Americans swayed by the media and a number of people in power subconsciously think. They'll try to justify it otherwise, but in its simplest state... the cartoon says it all. I think same is true if the person was Muslim. I always thought it was strange when powerful, rich nations looked down on poorer defensive nations using guerilla warfare tactics as being immoral while it's fine for them to have more sophisticated weaponry. It's not an even playing field from the start, why are other rules so sacred? Regardless of anything, what else is the little guy expected to do? Anyways, side tracking. It's just that sometimes I think we make ourselves look like heroes all the time no matter what we do.
Haha yup. White person massacres people. Suddenly he's troubled and a lone-wolf who's crying for help. Black person wears a hoodie at night, he's an uneducated thug out to get you. When a young white person who supposedly had a good future ahead of them commits a crime, they'll show yearbook photos/pics of them smiling/doing good things. When a black person commits a crime, all you get is mugshots. A+ journalism 👍🏻
Accurate? No. I think it's trying to insight an even bigger racial divide in this country. It's playing off stereotypes and trying to be funny rather than looking at an honest approach to the problems.
That might be true in some way, actually. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I do feel like the one percenters in this country laugh as we all tear each other apart.
Someone called 911 on a 5'8, 170 pound man with a handgun, in a park, and who was pointing it at people.
Police drive up, and if you watch the tape, it looks like Tamir tries to draw. The gun on top is what baby Tam Tam pulled on cops from, what, 10 yards? static1.1.sqspcdn.com/.../..._151228_12x5_1600.jpg
I would have shot him too.
Oh, and don't go bitching that whites have it easy. A bunch of whites with guns were hanging out at a place called Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, and had a standoff with police. The ATF brought in armored personell carriers with flamethrowers attached and torched the compound, burning armed men, women and children.
A standoff happened at a place called Ruby Ridge, where a guy allegedly sold a shotgun 1/8th of an inch too short to be legal. In the ensuing standoff his unarmed wife, holding a baby, got shot dead by a sniper.
You can bitch all you want that he was a little kid, but very few white 12 year olds are anywhere near that. Police rolled up to a man with a handgun in a public park who tried to draw on them.
That is why a grand jury refused to indict.
You want someone to blame, blame his dumb ass parents who gave what looked like a.45acp handgun to a 12 year old and let him even remove the stupid orange tip, then take it too a public park.
I used to play with airsoft guns as a teen. People ranted against the dangers of "backyard airsoft" aka playing airsoft in your yard. Much less going to a public park to freak people out!
It's only accurate for a small percentage of people honestly. Anti-gun people I've met seem pretty much anti-gun across the board. A better comic would be the dude on the right having the same gun, same look, but being police/military, and it being "okay" for him, but not for the guy on the left. There definitely is racism over this though... I'm sure if I were a black guy wearing a gun (specially in a white area) I would get stopped by the cops a shitload and questioned about it, but if I were white I wouldn't get stopped much or any.
not really. only because usually those fat white gun toting people generally have shit like the American flag and preach about patriotism and shit... not to say they're right about what they say, but think rednecks in alabama type shit. however, I don't know specifically about tamir, but you don't see that many black people like that. by that. does it make it right? no, but the reason they're seen like that, again, is because those people, like the white guy have, have shit like bald eagles and flags and shit tatted on their body and shit.
It's not only wrong. It's laughably wrong. Blacks are responsible for half of all murders in the United States, while whites are responsible for less than a quarter. Blacks and Hispanics are responsible for the overwhelming majority of violent crime, while whites are responsible for only a small minority of it.
In short, patriots are peaceful. Black and Hispanic thugs are not. This cartoonist has the intellectual power of a lobotomized cockroach.
This is another blanket statement to say the country is racist and hates black people. From the outside point of view, it may seem that way, but when you dig into the facts, things are not what it seems. It's similar to how people complain that women make.80 cents for every dollar a man makes. Sure, it may seem that way, but when you investigate the facts, it's a different story.
I think our gun laws are nuts and there are some serious problems with how we view and treat anyone who isn't white. I would say that this is many people's perspective who identify more with the right wing.
Total apples and oranges case here. You can't compare the shooting of an African American boy to the arrest of two Oregon ranchers charged with arson, and a group of American militants protesting the federal government to turn over government owned land to ranchers and loggers for their use.
No I don't. Gun violence in black neighbourhoods is a very common thing. Of course police will get edgy if they see a gun in the hands of a potential thug. You never know if the gun is real or not, and the guns are more often than not illegal. Also a lot of black youths look older than they are.
Accurate? Of course not, how can a cartoon about a subject as multifaceted as gun laws and race relations be accurate. It's about as accurate as a one panel cartoon summing up 'War and Peace'.
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