Have you spoken with local LEO regarding your concern? Perhaps they would meet with you and your son.

 

Nope but the chief of police in Danville knows my son so that is helpful.

Nope but the chief of police in Danville knows my son so that is helpful.

 

Would you feel as comfortable with some of the sheriffs/deputies and not city cops?

So then what's left are people like you and me who know there's a problem. As I said, and it obviously offended your senses, there is no home run/silver bullet. It truly starts at home with how you raise your children and how you live your life.

 

This is where I am. I have done the best I could raising my two children to be color-blind and tolerant. I'd like to think I've been successful in that regard.

This is where I am. I have done the best I could raising my two children to be color-blind and tolerant. I'd like to think I've been successful in that regard.

 

I have two daughters that I have raised the same way. I believe the most important thing that any of us can do is to be intolerant of racism. There is much room for improvement in this area. I have witnessed a huge improvement in my lifetime of the way my family and friends handle race issues. Racism makes us all worse people and I find it's typically associated with segregation and ignorance.

Would you feel as comfortable with some of the sheriffs/deputies and not city cops?

 

Yes. They work the Boyle County basketball games so I talk to a few of them from time to time. Last year after the Southwestern game there was an incident between the fans of both schools and they were excellent to me. Love me some Derek Robbins.

 

Between Danville and Harrodsburg I have only had one incident with a cop that I would call a bad experience and in that incident I simply felt he was being a smart aleck to me for no reason. Between the two towns I know a few city cops and deputies from both counties so for the most part I don't worry too much about the Danville-Harrodsburg metropolitan area. My family is blessed to live in this area. Unfortunately the world is bigger than this area. Thus my

concern.

Which solutions thread are you referring to? The one about drugs or the one about interracial sex? I didn't take either of those to be dealing with this topic.

 

But to your point...

 

The first SOLUTION is to get past what's keeping many on here from having a discussion. If you can't get past your issue with CK or his method of delivery or the words he used or...we'll never get to the solution conversation. We've been talking about this for 2 weeks now and we STILL have threads FILLED with "he disrespected the flag" "he's a backup qb" "he's rich" "he's not really black" "what does he know about police harassment" "Minister Farrakhan...""show me a law that says it's different for blacks than whites".... We can't get TO the discussion about solution.

 

Then if we ever did it's still a problem. If you fail to acknowledge the problem exists then what's the point of a discussion about solution.

 

IF you do believe the problem exists and you then say "well give me a solution" there is NO silver bullet that you're looking for.

 

I can't tell you to love your brother equally. You have to do that. Are you the "moderate white" that MLK feared worse than the KKK? Are you afraid to stand up to your white friends and say "hold on now - let's look at this differently than we have?"

 

It's either in you or it's not. You either show your children (the people who hopefully will find the solution) that it's not a "them" issue but it's an "us" issue or you teach them that "well it's unfortunate but , hey, what are you doing to do?"

 

Saying that someone has to have a solution or the complaints about the issue is either ignorant or it's a diversion tactic.

 

Perhaps there is a way forward. The relationship between an African-American Activist and a former Republican Governor can serve as an example to us. They are finding common ground through friendship and faith. See this article from the Minneapolis StarTribune.

 

The ex-governor, the activist and a most unlikely friendship - StarTribune.com

 

Back in July, in a thread called "For Equality and Justice Black People Should..." I suggested the way forward was to establish friendships with people of different races/ethnicities and that these friendships should include the entire family. This is what I posted then (nobody responded to it at that time).

 

Maybe the place to start is on a personal level. How many of us have friends of a different race, and since we are talking African-American and White, how many of us who are white have black friends and how many of us who are black have white friends?

 

By friend, I mean someone that you invite to your house to hang out or have dinner with your family. This is different than someone you may meet at the pub to watch football with but your families don't mix and don't really know one another.

 

Now that I think of it, I don't do this with too many white people either. But, if we are to understand one another and to have empathy toward one another, then we need to know one another on a personal level. I will be more likely to feel injustice, bias, and prejudice directed toward someone that I care about because our families are friends. How many of us know young men through athletics and we would do almost anything for that young man because he is a teammate or we coach him and we know his character. Nobody better mess with that person while we are around. Well, if our families had a reason to pull together (i.e. a close friendship), then we may recognize when one is being overlooked because of race or neighborhood, etc. This would create the opportunities for us to "stand up" against injustice and bias.

 

I guess the next question is: How do we establish a friendship with someone from a different race without that person feeling like we are making them our "project"? In other words, trying to be intentional about addressing this in the manner I suggested can feel just as inauthentic and be just as ineffective as hiring someone because they meet the profile. Even though it may be awkward to start, it may be worth the effort. Most of us feel like we can't effect change on a large scale (or even a medium scale) but each of us can effect change in our self. But whose to say if someone from a different race would even want me for a friend? There is risk involved but it seems like this may be the place to start.

-- posted July 2, 2016

Perhaps there is a way forward. The relationship between an African-American Activist and a former Republican Governor can serve as an example to us. They are finding common ground through friendship and faith. See this article from the Minneapolis StarTribune.

 

The ex-governor, the activist and a most unlikely friendship - StarTribune.com

 

Back in July, in a thread called "For Equality and Justice Black People Should..." I suggested the way forward was to establish friendships with people of different races/ethnicities and that these friendships should include the entire family. This is what I posted then (nobody responded to it at that time).

 

Maybe the place to start is on a personal level. How many of us have friends of a different race, and since we are talking African-American and White, how many of us who are white have black friends and how many of us who are black have white friends?

 

By friend, I mean someone that you invite to your house to hang out or have dinner with your family. This is different than someone you may meet at the pub to watch football with but your families don't mix and don't really know one another.

 

Now that I think of it, I don't do this with too many white people either. But, if we are to understand one another and to have empathy toward one another, then we need to know one another on a personal level. I will be more likely to feel injustice, bias, and prejudice directed toward someone that I care about because our families are friends. How many of us know young men through athletics and we would do almost anything for that young man because he is a teammate or we coach him and we know his character. Nobody better mess with that person while we are around. Well, if our families had a reason to pull together (i.e. a close friendship), then we may recognize when one is being overlooked because of race or neighborhood, etc. This would create the opportunities for us to "stand up" against injustice and bias.

 

I guess the next question is: How do we establish a friendship with someone from a different race without that person feeling like we are making them our "project"? In other words, trying to be intentional about addressing this in the manner I suggested can feel just as inauthentic and be just as ineffective as hiring someone because they meet the profile. Even though it may be awkward to start, it may be worth the effort. Most of us feel like we can't effect change on a large scale (or even a medium scale) but each of us can effect change in our self. But whose to say if someone from a different race would even want me for a friend? There is risk involved but it seems like this may be the place to start.

-- posted July 2, 2016

 

I go above and beyond in every facet. :thumb:

Perhaps there is a way forward. The relationship between an African-American Activist and a former Republican Governor can serve as an example to us. They are finding common ground through friendship and faith. See this article from the Minneapolis StarTribune.

 

The ex-governor, the activist and a most unlikely friendship - StarTribune.com

 

Back in July, in a thread called "For Equality and Justice Black People Should..." I suggested the way forward was to establish friendships with people of different races/ethnicities and that these friendships should include the entire family. This is what I posted then (nobody responded to it at that time).

 

Maybe the place to start is on a personal level. How many of us have friends of a different race, and since we are talking African-American and White, how many of us who are white have black friends and how many of us who are black have white friends?

 

By friend, I mean someone that you invite to your house to hang out or have dinner with your family. This is different than someone you may meet at the pub to watch football with but your families don't mix and don't really know one another.

 

Now that I think of it, I don't do this with too many white people either. But, if we are to understand one another and to have empathy toward one another, then we need to know one another on a personal level. I will be more likely to feel injustice, bias, and prejudice directed toward someone that I care about because our families are friends. How many of us know young men through athletics and we would do almost anything for that young man because he is a teammate or we coach him and we know his character. Nobody better mess with that person while we are around. Well, if our families had a reason to pull together (i.e. a close friendship), then we may recognize when one is being overlooked because of race or neighborhood, etc. This would create the opportunities for us to "stand up" against injustice and bias.

 

I guess the next question is: How do we establish a friendship with someone from a different race without that person feeling like we are making them our "project"? In other words, trying to be intentional about addressing this in the manner I suggested can feel just as inauthentic and be just as ineffective as hiring someone because they meet the profile. Even though it may be awkward to start, it may be worth the effort. Most of us feel like we can't effect change on a large scale (or even a medium scale) but each of us can effect change in our self. But whose to say if someone from a different race would even want me for a friend? There is risk involved but it seems like this may be the place to start.

-- posted July 2, 2016

 

This column has been floating around Facebook recently.

 

 

Three quarters of whites don’t have any non-white friends - The Washington Post

The column is interesting. 75% of whites' friendship networks have no minority presence and nearly 67% of blacks' friendship networks have no white presence.

 

Here's the quote where I get that:

 

In fact, PRRI's data show that a full 75 percent of whites have "entirely white social networks without any minority presence." The same holds true for slightly less than two-thirds of black Americans.

 

The implication of these findings is that when we talk about race in our personal lives, we are by and large discussing it with people who look like us.

 

No wonder we have different perceptions on "the racial problem" in the US and what the "real issues" are.

 

This study, at least as discussed in the link, does not tell us how deep these friendships are. Do the friendships include one another's family? That adds a significant dimension to friendship in my mind. For instance, my wife and I will spend time with a couple and when we get home my wife starts talking about something going on with one of the children. I don't know what she's talking about but I do know that child started at corner back in the last game. It also says I like being around "John" enough to include him around my table and my wife also has become a friend. And John's wife is now my friend and our kids are friends. I will really start to care about these people and what happens to them and I will listen to their thoughts. I also care enough about them that if they bring up something that offends me or makes me feel uncomfortable, I won't just walk away and isolate from them because I don't want to go there. Friendship provides a context for give-and-take and holds the relationship together despite disagreement. It also makes me have to consider their perspective because I value them as a friend.

 

I remember reading something Jim Brown said. He is my sports hero. He also was very active in the civil rights movement in the 1960's. He was nobody's fool. He would tell black rookies who came to the Cleveland Browns, "The white players will laugh and joke around with you in the locker room but they won't take you to their home and introduce you to their family" (or something to that effect). That was the measure of a friendship to him. I think it holds merit.

This column has been floating around Facebook recently.

 

 

Three quarters of whites don’t have any non-white friends - The Washington Post

 

 

 

Defies logic

The column also claims that nearly 67% of blacks have no white friends. I'm not sure that's any better than the statistic for white people when you consider that the majority population is white and a black person can't help but bump into white people while a white person can effectively have little interaction with black people, though there is no conscious effort to avoid them.

 

Again, in my mind, the more important thing for understanding one another and race relations in general is the quality of the friendship.

The column also claims that nearly 67% of blacks have no white friends. I'm not sure that's any better than the statistic for white people when you consider that the majority population is white and a black person can't help but bump into white people while a white person can effectively have little interaction with black people, though there is no conscious effort to avoid them.

 

Again, in my mind, the more important thing for understanding one another and race relations in general is the quality of the friendship.

 

That column makes me feel like I am one of the most diverse persons on this planet.