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In the time it's taken me to respond to your message I can see that others have already said what I'm thinking but I felt that was very well put. I'm pretty sure my contribution so far at best has been simplistic but FWIW anything i put out on here I do so in the knowledge that it's open to criticism and will be part of my much needed self eduction. TBH I'm a painfully slow reader so I need to be prepared to put myself out there and talk to people. Hopefully that doesn't sound like I'm asking others on here to educate me rather than doing it myself.
Regarding my klaxon moment LFGSS T-shirt charity suggestion I was just thinking it would be good to show support through association but maybe I'm wrong on that. AFAIK there's charities out there on the front line dealing with this right now that need our support.
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jono84
This might be a completely honest post but it absolutely reeks of sealioning. However I'll take it as an honest post by someone who hasn't done any of the reading, yet.
There isn't. There are decades worth of research and writing investigating the subject, and dozens of current podcasts covering the topic.
Yes.
Simplistically because the Police force have only ever been there to protect the white status quo.
No. Unless you plan to stop and search literally every person in the country bias (racism) will skew the results.
Yes. As above, it has been investigated. Poverty plays a much more significant factor in crime statistics, and poverty affects BAME populations significantly more than white because, you guess it, systemic racism. (See also gerrymandering, redlining, ghettoisation etc)
In short literally all of these questions are not new, they have been heavily discussed by a wealth of black researchers, educators, and journalists. You don't have to search very hard at all to find multiple sources that would dissect all of these in as much detail as you care to know.
Generally this thread is embarrassingly full of white hand wringing. I'm glad there's a lot of diversification in people's reading, and that we're all trying to get to become more educated and nuanced about the BLM movement but it means fuck all if we're not willing to act on it.
I read a very brief thing the other day about being an ally isn't good enough. It's not good enough to just go away and read and educate ourselves. We have to become accomplices, willing to walk the line, back up, and stand up for black people everywhere.
This means not asking a black person what you can do to help because that information is already out there. It means you will do the wrong the thing under good intentions and be checked for it. Learn when our voice is necessary, and learn when it's not. But don't feel good about yourselves because you've read two Zadie Smith novels, and Remi Eddo-Lodge.
This is as much to me as it is to every other white person on this forum.