Quote (WrathOfGod1337 @ Aug 27 2020 01:56pm)
As a general response to people bringing up white deaths at the hands of police as a reason that people shouldn't be allowed to protest black deaths...
I don't think anybody is saying that it's okay or not a problem for white people to be killed unjustly, if anything it strengthens the argument that police in general need more training and accountability, and that police brutality is a problem that affects every demographic of our society.
But this is why the "All Lives Matter" response misses the mark with so many people, because nobody has ever had to wonder if white lives matter in America. We have never been systemically oppressed or enslaved by another race. We rarely if ever have to wonder if we are treated differently because of the color of our skin.
For black and brown Americans, this is not the case. This is a daily thought that is always in the back of their minds, simply because it truly does occur so frequently, often on a microaggression level, but in more significant ways as well.
That is why the race component is important and relevant in these scenarios, because nobody is wondering if a white person dying at the hands of police is racially motivated, but that cannot be assumed in circumstances where a black person is the one who dies.
Regarding people who think Jacob Blake and others like him deserved what he/they got because he was a "thug" or he had a record, or a warrant, or whatever. I urge you to research things like the school-to-prison pipeline, redlining, the war on drugs, and other things like those (there are many), and truly consider how they may have contributed to the higher crime rates in communities of color.
It's convenient you left out one of, if not the biggest, reason: Single parent upbringings (no father figures).