Black fisherman repeatedly confronted by white neighbors, who ask what he’s doing there
Black fisherman repeatedly confronted by white neighbors, who ask what he’s doing there
Anthony Gibson said his TikTok videos show “what people like me have to go through when they live in a nice neighborhood.”
You're viewing a single thread.
"I’m not afraid of anybody,” Gibson said. “But do I want to get out of this house and go fishing and do any of that stuff around here anymore? Hell to the no."
No Offence but this is how racism wins, this end result was entirely what the racist wanted and they got it. They don't have to lynch you to kick you out of a neighborhood, just mildy harrass you to the point where a person self segregates and then what? I mean the end goal is the same for the racist at the end of the day. Don't give them the satisfaction
> > > Don’t give them the satisfaction > >
You're asking someone being harassed and threatened to keep fighting and deal with it. It's not on the victim to beat their abusers. It's on society to stop the abusers. That town should be arresting the racists for harassment but since the cops are likely supporting the racists, an ACLU lawyer should be stepping in pro-bono to sue the shit out of these people/department. Unfortunately it's rarely that easy to affect systemic change.
They're not asking the victim anything, they just made a statement of fact that when we bow to the bully, they get their way.
You're right that the town should be stepping up. But, the reality is that most of them are republicans and would not piss on him if he was on fire, let alone step up to support him. So all that remains as options are to fight back (I think his current tack is the best one), move away, or isolate. Feels like you shot the messenger (OP) here.
> They're not asking the victim anything
> Don't give them the satisfaction
🤔
You're right about he fighting part, not about the "deal with it" part. I'm not sure how you equate one with the other. If we don't fight back against racism, then that is "dealing with it". Fighting back is what I just said to do.
In general, yes. If you're getting harassed and threatened and you want that to change, you should fight and deal with it. Nobody ever won anything by simply rolling over for anyone who was mean to them. Worse than that, society probably won't support you if you do, even if they should.
It's up to the individual how strongly they want to fight for it, of course, but I certainly wouldn't discourage them from doing so.
This is literally victim blaming. What if he "stood up for himself" and was shot by a cop. What a win for him! What if he was best by a mob?
If someone pulls a gun on you should you fight them? A knife? A bat? A brick? A dirty needle? I'm mentioning this because people seem to understand immediate bodily harm and how it's perfectly acceptable to keep yourself safe. However somehow when you have to make the active decision to expose yourself to bodily harm then suddenly if you don't you're coward and part of the problem.
All the while, no one is talking about how people with nothing to lose to stand up to the abusers aka the person judging the victim for keep themselves safe. If they really thought it was a great idea they'd do it themselves. They'd confront the harassers and give them the proper shunning and verbal redress they deserve, but that never happens. All that happens is people with no skin in the game talk about how others should risk their personal safety and livelihoods for some principle the victim doesn't want to stand for.
for some principle the victim doesn’t want to stand for
So we should all just let racism flourish then and not stand against it? The victim here isn't being threatened with violence, and they have friends too, so why then run away? Running away from problems never solves anything
What if the moon was made of cheese?
It's up to him to judge his own situation and make his own decisions. There are many different ways besides physical to fight and struggle against something. Basically the only thing that does nothing is giving up entirely.
Call it victim blaming if you like. It would be lovely if society at large sprung to assist those who are wronged. But that's not what happens in reality, as I see it.
Unlike the moon being made of cheese I gave actual real situations. I agree that everyone has to judge if they want to fight or not, but it's not up to people who will never be impacted by a situation to have that opinion.
I say this as a black person who has been punched by a cop as a teen. As a black person who had my house raided for no reason. As a black person who has watched my family carried away for no reason. Whose grandmother was put in federal prison for helping fund the civil rights movement and was nearly denied a security clearance because most of my family is considered domestic terrorists because of the Civil rights movement. I have a lot more to add to the stack.
I've spent my whole ass life advancing safety for my people, but no I would not go purposefully to an area where I would be harmed. That's why I take offense for judging that man for making that decision. It's doubtful you've ever had to make such a decision and if you could have helped you wouldn't have because as you said outsiders don't help. Stop judging people for not taking steps you never would.
Feels like you're talking at me, rather than to me.
Any judgement you're picking up is the way you've chosen to read my comments.
Perhaps you should take a moment to reflect on if your words are callus towards the people who are affected. You can think that I'm talking at you or taking meaning that isn't there, but you're on the side of people who arr advocating for risking their safety. It doesn't matter of you didn't say it, it matters that you contradicting me and another person who say that person was wrong.
Context matters, especially ok a platform that doesn't put focus on users, but words. Your words will add to the context and not be just your words. That is what I'm arguing against. You addition to te context because you are saying that victims should risk themselves based on nothing but where you chose to interject yourself.
BTW, I didn't vote one way or another on your posts. Those downvotes came organically.
BTW, I didn't vote one way or another on your posts. Those downvotes came organically.
I don't care if you do or not. We're not having a popularity contest here.
You can think that I'm...taking meaning that isn't there
I sure do, because you are. Just because I'm saying that it's important to stand up and fight for your rights does not mean that I'm advocating for this particular guy to put himself in a situation where he might get beaten up or killed, or judging him for not doing so. There's an enormous range of actions between actively putting yourself in harm's way and doing nothing at all. And in fact, the only person judging people here...is you.
If the racism is institutionalized, the racists will always win in the end. I work with people with disabilities and the list of places I can't take people with dark skin keeps growing. There was a park we used to enjoy until someone started stalking us, as if that wasn't bad enough the cops were called on us every time by the stalker. They knew they only needed to get the racist cop once for it to work, and us knowing that too means we can't go back. They got what they wanted.
This helps no one and accomplishes nothing, just saying we should "deal with racism" is racism in itself.
Institutional racism will always exist as long as that's peoples attitude towards it. Civil Rights never would've gotten anywhere if black people were just complacent ALL the time, if black people didn't make noise they never would've been heard by white people and forced to think about these issues.
This is a lived expirence that actually happened. Don't treat it like an arguement to do nothing because i never suggested people should do nothing. What it should do is inform how one approaches dealing with racism because asking a Disabled Black young man to risk bodily harm to get the same rights other people already have is not going to work. You can't put the burden of changing a predatory system on the people the system preys upon. Thats the message.
At no point did I make any argument that the entire burden should rest on your shoulders and your shoulders alone, nor would I ever. This is a shared burden amongst all of us. Letting racism take control of our lives is an admission of defeat and I will not tolerate that in my country.
The burden is not on you, it's on us