Whitehouse Visit

[chon derry]

 

[Toews]

5 minutes ago, Tystick said:

Right, well actually it's called murder, but nice try, and good job taking things out of context. My responses have been fact-based and fair. I thought I was having a political debate, but apparently my words are now offending people. 

Out of context? What are you even talking about? I just said you do not know the difference between racism and prejudice. 

 

Saying "My responses are fair" is literally meaningless, show me someone that thinks that their responses are not fair.

 

Who is offended? Certainly not me. 

8 minutes ago, Tystick said:

What exactly is it that I don't know? Please explain. Is it the different, unique problems people face? You're right. Just like you don't know the problems I face day to day. Our problems might not be equal and fair. Well guess what, life's not fair. I find it hilarious that you are now profiling me as if you know me.

What is there to explain? I find that you are woefully uninformed on this subject. 

You are indeed correct. People do face different problems and with varying degrees of difficulty. Life is also not fair. But that's what people are trying to do, to make things fair. It used to be that black people could not even sit at the front of the bus and were relegated to the back. Now that we have remedied that, we have this problem of black men being profiled by cops. It's easy to say "Well guess what, life's not fair" when you do not have to face the same problems as someone that is disadvantaged.

 

I have only made judgments of you based on your responses.

8 minutes ago, Tystick said:

What does the color of my skin protect me from? I want evidence, statistics; not your opinion. I am very prepared for this discussion. 

Funnily enough that's all you have done in this thread is post your opinion. One that I find fairly uninformed. I am not going to spend my time doing research for you. You are capable of doing that yourself. 

8 minutes ago, Tystick said:

Everyone I'm talking to circles back to the same argument. That I don't know what the black community goes through therefore I can't speak about the subject because I'm white (once again, racist). Yet the people debating me conveniently ignore that I've answered this argument already. I've never said individual racism doesn't exist, I said show me where it is and I'll fight it with you. When you start saying that it just must exist out there, I have a problem with that. This ends up fueling the liberal hysteria that's dividing the US.  

Now you are just being obtuse. No one has said that you can't speak on the subject. You are more than welcome to do so. But you cannot speak intelligently about a subject that you clearly do not understand. There are white folks who do understand the subject far better than you do, because they have taken the time to do so.

 

And no it's not racist to tell you that you do not understand the subject because you have lived a sheltered existence. 

 

With that said this is my last response to you. I don't think I am accomplishing anything in this discourse.

[Tystick]

1 hour ago, Toews said:

Out of context? What are you even talking about? I just said you do not know the difference between racism and prejudice. 

 

Saying "My responses are fair" is literally meaningless, show me someone that thinks that their responses are not fair.

 

Who is offended? Certainly not me. 

What is there to explain? I find that you are woefully uninformed on this subject. 

You are indeed correct. People do face different problems and with varying degrees of difficulty. Life is also not fair. But that's what people are trying to do, to make things fair. It used to be that black people could not even sit at the front of the bus and were relegated to the back. Now that we have remedied that, we have this problem of black men being profiled by cops. It's easy to say "Well guess what, life's not fair" when you do not have to face the same problems as someone that is disadvantaged.

 

I have only made judgments of you based on your responses.

Funnily enough that's all you have done in this thread is post your opinion. One that I find fairly uninformed. I am not going to spend my time doing research for you. You are capable of doing that yourself. 

Now you are just being obtuse. No one has said that you can't speak on the subject. You are more than welcome to do so. But you cannot speak intelligently about a subject that you clearly do not understand. There are white folks who do understand the subject far better than you do, because they have taken the time to do so.

 

And no it's not racist to tell you that you do not understand the subject because you have lived a sheltered existence. 

 

With that said this is my last response to you. I don't think I am accomplishing anything in this discourse.

First of all, I was actually debating with someone else. I know you weren't following the conversation. That's why I said you took it out of context. Let me help you out though. I was trying to say that I can understand what racism looks like without stepping in the shoes of someone that's experienced it to know it when it's there. It's actually pretty obvious if you can believe it.  

 

I used an example of modern racism towards someone like myself. Someone else said that the example I used is racist (lol), and I said no it's not, it's a real thing. Then you used that as a reason to attack my intelligence because you thought I used the wrong word. Thanks for that. 
So obviously there was no intention to debate my original point, but don't worry, I'll rebut this silly argument:

 

Racism is simple. If I'm racist, I believe my race is superior to yours, and I don't care if I treat you less than myself. I can even harm you and it's still considered racist. Why? Let me share with you the definition of racism: 
"prejudice (there's that word you love), discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." 
 

If a group of violent native's attack and kill me because I'm white, how is that not racist? They violently attack me (prejudice) for no other reason than being white (racist). A man must believe his race is superior if he is willing to end the life of another's solely because of his skin color. No?

 

How are my responses not fair? I'm giving my arguments based on facts and statistics and I'm also seeing the other side. Seems fair to me. 

You're not offended? Well it certainly appears that way. Why else would you take a piece of my conversation with another poster and use it to attack my character out of nowhere? Just curious. 

 

Well you can keep saying I'm uninformed, but I'm not. I'd say I'm more informed than yourself. Until you prove I'm uninformed, you're just talking, not stating fact, which means nothing.

 

The unjust profiling issue is a problem, but it's not just black men being randomly arrested by the cops. Does it happen? Yes. Does it happen to white men? Yes. Women? Yes. Kids? Yes.  

 

The core issue is the police officers, not some underlying racism. Once again, do racist cops exist? Yes. But it's definitely not some massive epidemic that the liberal media, and more importantly, the anthem protests are making it out to be. Point me to some actual instances, with evidence, and I am 100% on your side fighting the dumbass police officer with you. But don't feed me the idea that all these instances are racist in nature. You're contributing to the problem. 
 
Lol okay, well I guess I'll go do some random research. You forgot to mention what I need to research wise guy. That would be helpful, you know, since I'm so uninformed. 

 

Actually, others have said I can't speak on this subject (in this very thread) because I'm privileged, white, and don't understand what it's like for the minority community. Such a ridiculous argument. Yes, I don't understand what it's like to be black, just like black people don't understand what it's like to be white. Maybe both sides could work to gain some perspective? No? It's assumed that I have zero problems and I am privileged to receive everything I've ever wanted in life because I'm white. I've stated multiple times that I know what racism looks like and I'm willing to fight it with you. Stop repeating the same argument.

 

You know the really funny thing out of all of this is I've been very fair to everyone I've debated. Answering every single point, yet I've slowly watched this entire thread derail from the anthem protest to some race and privilege issues that I'm supposed to answer to over and over.  

Maybe it's just me, but I care about the unity of our countries (both the US and Canada). I don't like to see the unity of the US be disrespected and destroyed by an anthem protest. I think it's disgusting that, if I'm objecting to that, I must be against the police brutality that apparently only affects people of color. 

 

Thanks for the intelligence insults, you're very classy. What I do understand and you seem to lack an understanding of is the overall issue that's affecting everyone in the US. Not just the liberals. The difference is I'm not going to insult you. Ignorance doesn't deserve discrimination. 

 

Assuming to know how I was raised is not an argument. Insults are not arguments. Good try though. And once again, it actually is racist to say I can't speak on a subject because I'm white, you know, because you're targeting my skin color as the reason. Would my argument be more valid if I was Black? Because, you know, there are black people out there that agree with me. Not everyone agrees with the liberal agenda. But hey, keep your head in the sand. 

 

You're right, you're not accomplishing anything. That's the most sense you've made in this post. 

 

Good bye.

[Undrafted]

4 hours ago, ForsbergTheGreat said:

Most post wasn't meant to be taken in a negative way. I'm actually just curious. I see a lot of talk about institutional racism but without actual evidence of first hand events I don't know what to believe. If there was some thing people can bring up its Obviosly something we should be fighting against.  

 

From my own experience. I was falsely detained handcuff and put in the back of a cop car once simply because I was a white male driving black SUV and fit the description of recent theft. So It does happens and was embarrrsing but in my opinion the cops were just doing there job. A poor job but none the less. 

 

Individual racism sucks but at the same time unless we are going to control people's thoughts and speech there's not a lot that can be done. And at the same time, skin colour isn't the only appearance factor that gets decriminated against.  These situation require more teaching the young than any sort of govt interaction. Govt interaction only segments and devides people more then it does to remedy. 

Hi and thanks for your clarification.  Like I said, it wasn’t you personally that made me angry and I know it wasn’t your intention, but still, those are a lot of bad memories to dredge up.

 

I get your experience with the false arrest, but as you said, there was at least an actual crime that they were investigating and they at least told you WHY you were being arrested/stopped.  

 

That’s completely different than my experiences in my youth and what many urban non-whites (mostly blacks and First Nations people) still endure today.  We are basically stopped/arrested at random, “asked” to show ID and submit to a search and on-the-spot interrogation without legal counsel.  But it’s not just that: it’s also the attitude: we’re treated like criminals from the start and if they don’t find anything wrong, they don’t apologize: they get even madder if they can’t find anything to charge you with.  That’s the part that scared me the most from those incidents: I didn’t know whether or not they were going to shoot me or “manufacture” a crime (planting “evidence”) or what.

 

Even so, I’m not going to say all cops are bad.  I’ve also met good, caring cops in other circumstances who do uphold their duty and do good work in their community.  But there's enough "bad" and/or racist cops out there to make it a legitimate concern about which kind you're going to get if you have an encounter with the police.  Adding to the problem is that “thin blue line” culture where the good cops won’t turn in the bad ones; or if they do, they’re ostracized to the point where they’re harassed into quitting.

 

 

3 hours ago, ForsbergTheGreat said:

My wife lived in fox lake for two years from the age of 10-12 because her mom was teaching there and life was horrible for her. She was picked on and beaten up because she was the only white girl in the community. It got to the point where she was scared for her safety and had to move.   An ex of mine was a 1/2 native and grew up of the reserve but when ever she visited family she was constantly beat up and in fights because wasn't considered a "real" native, because he mom was white.  These are real life experiences.   Sure maybe they weren't going to be killed because they were "white" but they were clearly discriminated against because of there skin.  

I’m going to disagree with @Toews a little and say that your wife’s childhood experience was indeed racism.  No one, especially a child, should be beaten up because of their colour; I can identify with that because it happened often to me as well when I was a kid, although I don’t think it was ever to the point where my safety was at risk.

 

But regardless of the semantics, I think we all agree that what happened to her was unquestionably wrong.

 

[Undrafted]

3 hours ago, Toews said:

Out of context? What are you even talking about? I just said you do not know the difference between racism and prejudice. 

 

Saying "My responses are fair" is literally meaningless, show me someone that thinks that their responses are not fair.

 

Who is offended? Certainly not me. 

What is there to explain? I find that you are woefully uninformed on this subject. 

You are indeed correct. People do face different problems and with varying degrees of difficulty. Life is also not fair. But that's what people are trying to do, to make things fair. It used to be that black people could not even sit at the front of the bus and were relegated to the back. Now that we have remedied that, we have this problem of black men being profiled by cops. It's easy to say "Well guess what, life's not fair" when you do not have to face the same problems as someone that is disadvantaged.

 

I have only made judgments of you based on your responses.

Funnily enough that's all you have done in this thread is post your opinion. One that I find fairly uninformed. I am not going to spend my time doing research for you. You are capable of doing that yourself. 

Now you are just being obtuse. No one has said that you can't speak on the subject. You are more than welcome to do so. But you cannot speak intelligently about a subject that you clearly do not understand. There are white folks who do understand the subject far better than you do, because they have taken the time to do so.

 

And no it's not racist to tell you that you do not understand the subject because you have lived a sheltered existence. 

 

With that said this is my last response to you. I don't think I am accomplishing anything in this discourse.

@Toews if I could've given you all the pluses in the world...  thx

[189lb enforcers?]

What is the solution?

These folks taking a knee want to raise an issue. 

To who? What is the expectation. 

 

I thought the data surrounding the volience committed by black folks was enough to justify why they might get a wide berth or more looks from the cops. 

White people arent kiling black people, black people are. Black cops are 3x more likely to fire their weapon than a white cop.

 

What's with all the pretension here? 

Individual choices in the black community lead to their plight.

 

 

 

Pit bull dogs bite people, so folks don't put out their hand, in the same way blacks kill cops and cops behave differently too. You'd think people knew how to behave around the cops. Many of the shooting victims had weapons and were resisting arrest. I'm not sure why the cops aren't receiving more sympathy than the thugs in those cases.

 

Blue Lives Matter.

 

[ForsbergTheGreat]

11 hours ago, Undrafted said:

Hi and thanks for your clarification.  Like I said, it wasn’t you personally that made me angry and I know it wasn’t your intention, but still, those are a lot of bad memories to dredge up.

 

I get your experience with the false arrest, but as you said, there was at least an actual crime that they were investigating and they at least told you WHY you were being arrested/stopped.  

Well at first they didn't.  I remember them pulling me over and then the next thing I knew, there was a cop outside my window with his gun draw, I was %hiting bricks at that point. They got me to slowly step out of the vehicle and lay on the ground where they jumped me, ripped my shirt, cuffed me and then put me in the cop car where they told me they were going to search my vehicle.  I didn't know why at that point just complied. It wasn't until they found nothing in my vehicle and realized it was registered under my name that they explained to me the situation.  After they released me, i didn't even get an apology, they just said smile since i'll be on the news later as there was media flying above me. 

 

I get it though, detaining someone just based on suspicion because of a persons skin colour is wrong.  They shouldn't be able to act on something unless they have a beyond re seasonable doubt that the person was up to something.  With that said I don't see an issue of a cop just walking over to someone and simply talking to them suspicious or not.  It's there job to try and prevent crimes from happening and communication it a major deterrent to crime (that's the real reason Walmart has greeters)

 

11 hours ago, Undrafted said:

That’s completely different than my experiences in my youth and what many urban non-whites (mostly blacks and First Nations people) still endure today.  We are basically stopped/arrested at random, “asked” to show ID and submit to a search and on-the-spot interrogation without legal counsel.  But it’s not just that: it’s also the attitude: we’re treated like criminals from the start and if they don’t find anything wrong, they don’t apologize: they get even madder if they can’t find anything to charge you with.  That’s the part that scared me the most from those incidents: I didn’t know whether or not they were going to shoot me or “manufacture” a crime (planting “evidence”) or what.

 

I agree that they don't handle it right all the time, I think that it doesn't matter what your skin colour is they always just assume the worst, other than my friends who are cops, I got pulled over in BC a couple years ago at night and the cop made up some excuse that I was swerving all over the road (even though I clearly wasn't) but he treated me like crap assuming i was drunk and forced me to take a breathalyzer.  After I complied and blew 0% and he got to talking to me, I think he knew he was just being a dick, he didn't apologize, just said i was free to got and to drive safer.  Another time my house got broken into and the cop just acted like she didn't want to be their and assumed we staged it.  She kept saying she couldn't believe how someone would break in the basement when we were upstairs watching tv.   These are just a few recent experience I could name a handful more. 

 

I'm not trying to say i have it as bad, but it's a misconception that coloured people are the only ones that are treated bad by the cops.  Even after my bad experience I have a lot of respect for the police, they have a very difficult job.  They can't just assume everyone is a good person, one mistake and they might not be going home to their families. I honestly believe they just want to keep everyone safe more than simply wanting to be a inconvenience.  So I give them some slack and if i get into a situation with them i just do my best to make their job go as smoothly as possible (unlike my wife who gets angry with them)

 

 

11 hours ago, Undrafted said:

Even so, I’m not going to say all cops are bad.  I’ve also met good, caring cops in other circumstances who do uphold their duty and do good work in their community.  But there's enough "bad" and/or racist cops out there to make it a legitimate concern about which kind you're going to get if you have an encounter with the police.  Adding to the problem is that “thin blue line” culture where the good cops won’t turn in the bad ones; or if they do, they’re ostracized to the point where they’re harassed into quitting.

Yes there are good cops, many of my old hockey teammates have went into the police force, I've had cops just give me warnings on speeding tickets, i've had a cop sit with me and my friends outside a bar for an hour letting us each blow into a breathalyzer until one of us was under the limit and legally allowed to drive. 

 

I'm not naive to think that there aren't some bad apples out there but I do think a lot of the attention gathered is just media hype that get blown out of portion and all it's done is divide people more,  Personally I want to view canadians/americans simply as that,  I don't think the adjectives (sex, race, religion, skin colour) should play a part of it.  And I'm not really sure what politically can be done about it.  On one hand you don't want to deter and scare good cops from doing their job, but on the other hand you want to stop the bad ones from their action

 

Sorry for the long winded ramble

[coastal.view]

2 hours ago, 189lb enforcers? said:

What is the solution?

These folks taking a knee want to raise an issue. 

To who? What is the expectation. 

 

I thought the data surrounding the volience committed by black folks was enough to justify why they might get a wide berth or more looks from the cops. 

White people arent kiling black people, black people are. Black cops are 3x more likely to fire their weapon than a white cop.

 

What's with all the pretension here? 

Individual choices in the black community lead to their plight.

 

 

 

Pit bull dogs bite people, so folks don't put out their hand, in the same way blacks kill cops and cops behave differently too. You'd think people knew how to behave around the cops. Many of the shooting victims had weapons and were resisting arrest. I'm not sure why the cops aren't receiving more sympathy than the thugs in those cases.

 

Blue Lives Matter.

sure let's just ignore the historical context in assessing what is occurring

 

do you have equally insightful views of the aboriginal / native plight in canada ?

 

 

[Sbriggs]

19 hours ago, Undrafted said:

While appreciate your sentiments, I do want to take issue with your shot at people in the American South.  

 

Is the Southeast US more racist than other places?  Yes, of course.  But as I said in a post to Alf above, there are good people everywhere—it’s just that the number of racists, soft or hard, vary from place to place.  And in places where there are a lot of racists, even non-racist whites can be cowed into silence.

 

I’ll leave you with an example of a white Southerner who is strongly against racism:  An American friend of mine sent me this link about Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen from ABC

 

https://deadspin.com/dallas-sportscaster-on-nfl-players-taking-a-knee-all-1818769991

 

 

True. There are exception to every rule and I know there are good people everywhere.

[Tortorella's Rant]

3 hours ago, 189lb enforcers? said:

What is the solution?

These folks taking a knee want to raise an issue. 

To who? What is the expectation. 

 

I thought the data surrounding the volience committed by black folks was enough to justify why they might get a wide berth or more looks from the cops. 

White people arent kiling black people, black people are. Black cops are 3x more likely to fire their weapon than a white cop.

 

What's with all the pretension here? 

Individual choices in the black community lead to their plight.

 

 

 

Pit bull dogs bite people, so folks don't put out their hand, in the same way blacks kill cops and cops behave differently too. You'd think people knew how to behave around the cops. Many of the shooting victims had weapons and were resisting arrest. I'm not sure why the cops aren't receiving more sympathy than the thugs in those cases.

 

Blue Lives Matter.

Resisting arrest isn't sufficient to execute someone. In some cases they don't resist at all and are still executed.  White people resist arrest every single day and aren't gunned down or choked to death for that. There are thousands of dirt cops in the States that violate your rights all the time and many do so willingly, knowingly. It takes many years to become a judge, a lawyer, to understand laws. It takes about 5 minutes to become a cop and they are the ones enforcing this law.

[Toews]

 

[ForsbergTheGreat]

https://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/2017/09/28/san-jose-sharks-joel-ward-says-he-wont-protest-by-kneeling-during-anthem.html

 

Quote

Ward had said he was considering a protest to raise awareness to the issues of racial inequality and excessive force by police against minorities in the United States. But he said Thursday that he doesn’t want the focus to be on the anthem and wants to work on bringing minorities and law enforcement together.

Ward says he wants to spend more time talking about these issues in the locker room, at kitchen tables and in the community.

 

 

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/report-p-k-subban-says-never-kneel-anthem/

 

Quote

According to a report from Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports, Subban told an audience during a comedy fundraiser at a club in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday night that he would “never” kneel during the Star-Spangled Banner, instead choosing to continue to “stand, respect, and sing along” to it.

 

 

Two hockey players who understand there are better ways to bring attention to these issues than to disrespect the anthem

[Mike Vanderhoek]

On 25/09/2017 at 0:21 PM, MJDDawg said:

This really just reflects the fact of how "white" the NHL is. 

 

A greater percentage of African Americans on the roster would probably bring a different response from the Pens.

 

What bothers me more is why this team thinks that going to the Trump administration's White House is an honor.

is zero reflection on how " white " the NHL is lol. The team and as is tradition champions get the invite to the " whitehouse " not " Trump's place ". It is an honr to visit the whitehouse, symbol of the country and the people not Trump lol....

[189lb enforcers?]

2 hours ago, coastal.view said:

sure let's just ignore the historical context in assessing what is occurring

 

do you have equally insightful views of the aboriginal / native plight in canada ?

 

 

History, sure. I'm not saying there isn't a past. 

'Who' is supposed to do 'What' about this claim though?

 

This thread created a mountain of problems, but no solutions.

What's the plan folks? 

[189lb enforcers?]

2 hours ago, Sbriggs said:

True. There are exception to every rule and I know there are good people everywhere.

Exception to the rule? 

 

[CeeBee51]

1 hour ago, 189lb enforcers? said:

Exception to the rule? 

 

I think it's sposed to be exception to the ruler.... or yardstick. I remember taking exception to the ruler back in grade one

[Grapefruits]

On 9/25/2017 at 11:01 AM, Sbriggs said:

I'm deeply disturbed that not only the Pittsburg Penguins are visiting the Whitehouse especially the fact Sid the Kid supports it. NHL Leadership is what is needed here, Sidney and the entire NHL and Canada as well should loudly let Scumbag Trump know we don't support racist views. Not surprising that white boy Matthews from TO supports Nascar and the trump point of view. I just heard on news that the reason the NHL is visiting and the NBA and future NFL are not is the NHL is a white league? How dumb is that. I don't want our game to be known for being a white league and a supporter of the Trump Whitehouse.

Deeply disturbed.?

 

Would you like a coloring book and a safe space to go to?

[kingofsurrey]

They don't call it the WHITE HOUSE for nothin........

[WHL rocks]

Looks like NHL head office had a talk with Joel Ward's agent so the agent wrote out a very good comment and gave it to Mr. Ward to post it on his twitter. 

 

.

[Undrafted]

On 9/28/2017 at 10:00 AM, ForsbergTheGreat said:

Well at first they didn't.  I remember them pulling me over and then the next thing I knew, there was a cop outside my window with his gun draw, I was %hiting bricks at that point. They got me to slowly step out of the vehicle and lay on the ground where they jumped me, ripped my shirt, cuffed me and then put me in the cop car where they told me they were going to search my vehicle.  I didn't know why at that point just complied. It wasn't until they found nothing in my vehicle and realized it was registered under my name that they explained to me the situation.  After they released me, i didn't even get an apology, they just said smile since i'll be on the news later as there was media flying above me. 

 

I get it though, detaining someone just based on suspicion because of a persons skin colour is wrong.  They shouldn't be able to act on something unless they have a beyond re seasonable doubt that the person was up to something.  With that said I don't see an issue of a cop just walking over to someone and simply talking to them suspicious or not.  It's there job to try and prevent crimes from happening and communication it a major deterrent to crime (that's the real reason Walmart has greeters)

 

There's a major difference between "simply talking to them" and being frisked and manhandled on the street without reasonable cause.  At the end of the encounter you describe, once your innocence was established, they DID explain it to you and they DID have reasonable cause for their actions.  In my experience, the police had ZERO reason to stop and search me, unless you count being young and visibly non-white as "just cause".

 

Would you not find it offensive if they did that to random white people because they might part of the Mafia?  Because they look like they walked off the set of the Sopranos?  Or because they have tattoos, they might be part of a biker gang? 

 

 

On 9/28/2017 at 10:00 AM, ForsbergTheGreat said:

I'm not naive to think that there aren't some bad apples out there but I do think a lot of the attention gathered is just media hype that get blown out of portion and all it's done is divide people more,  Personally I want to view canadians/americans simply as that,  I don't think the adjectives (sex, race, religion, skin colour) should play a part of it.  And I'm not really sure what politically can be done about it.  On one hand you don't want to deter and scare good cops from doing their job, but on the other hand you want to stop the bad ones from their action

 

Sorry for the long winded ramble

Then what is your stance on racial profiling?  Do you think that's a legit practice?  Toronto Police are currently fighting tooth and nail to keep a practice known as "carding", which is when they stop people at random, interrogate them on the street (including demanding the subject tell who their friends are, where they generally hang out, who else they know in those places, etc.) and that information is sent to and kept in a police database.  In spite of the fact that this practice is aimed primarily at blacks in Toronto, the TPS claims it's NOT racial profiling.

 

I understand what you're trying to say in the part I bolded above, but the fact is there is a significant number of whites who DON'T agree with that.  Remember Harper's reference to "old-stock Canadians"?  I was born here but it doesn't take a genius to realize that I'm not part of that.  Look at all the people blindly opposed to Muslims, just because they're Muslims.  They're not a "fringe" element, those people are numerous enough to serve as a political 'base' for neo-conservative dog-whistles.

 

I'm not a fan of social media and I don't participate--no Twitter, no Facebook or anything else.  And to me, part of the problem is that much of this debate is being made in "140 chars or less" (now 280, but really, that doesn't help).  Why?  Because that just feeds into simplistic, binary "for/against" battles.  That is how demagogues like 45 divide the population, even on subjects that aren't about race.  Case in point: his infamous tweet "Who knew Healthcare could be so complicated?" 

 

That is why demagogues in general are dangerous to politics: they claim pretty much everything--whether it's the economy, terrorism, crime, whatever--can be solved with simplistic solutions and that simplicity appeals to their intellectually lazy base.

 

I realize that the term "white privilege" is the now-established way of referring to the issue, but the problem existed long before that.  Years before that term emerged in the media, I used to call it something else, but it's not short enough to be ever used as a hashtag.  The way I used to describe it was "we may be equal under the eyes of the law, but we are NOT equal under the eyes of society."  That was as close as I could come to encapsulating the complex issues of equality, and not just along racial lines: women could say exactly the same as well.  Even then, my description is woefully inadequate when it comes to explaining or describing the problem: it only really says that legislation alone can NOT solve the problem.

 

Edit: no need to apologize for long-winded rambling.