In fairness, I don't think what they did there was totally unreasonable. The removed parent was fairly racist (referring to surveillance footage, "Yeah but I bet they won’t show it... you can bet it’s the usual suspects.") and what followed was mostly a discussion about whether black people commit more crime than white people.
I don't think that it should be totally impermissible to discuss race when discussing criminal statistics, but it's far too easy to ignore socioeconomic factors in such a discussion, meaning it often turns into subtly-veiled (or not-so-subtly-veiled) racism. I don't think it's necessarily 'bad' for the /r/bayarea mods to not want that discussion in their sub.
If this was killing the entire story because it was a black guy robbing the store, or killing any mention at all that he was black, that would be censorship. But I think there is a valid place for a sub to not want to have a racism discussion in such a context.
Thoughts?
Not by itself, but context is important.
Besides, no facts were stated here.
If the comment was 'if the perpetrator was black, then it makes sense that they didn't release the photo because that area has a strong liberal social agenda' that's a theory about the social politics of the area, that doesn't make any other assumptions. It says almost the same thing, but without any racist undertones.
'I bet they won't show it... you can bet it's the usual suspects' 1. insinuates that this crime was committed by a black person (without any supporting evidence), 2. insinuates that blacks are more prone to crime than whites (without any supporting evidence), 3. insinuates that video wasn't released because the perpetrator was black and to further a social agenda (again, no supporting evidence), and 4. pejoratively refers to black people as 'the usual suspects'.
Put together, those sound a lot more like thinly-veiled racism than a fact-based discussion about criminal statistics.
lol
I'm not trying to backtrack anything or 'dig myself out'. I stand by my statement. Unfortunately in this age it's very difficult to separate out such things- what I said probably coming off as defending 'social justice reporting' or whatever it's called this week which was not my intent.
I think it's valid for the mods of a sub to decide that their sub is the wrong place to discuss whether race is a good predictor for criminal activity. That's a very large and nuanced question which I think is worthy of discussion, but unfortunately that discussion comes with negative elements- SJW types who would rather whitewash away any report of a minority doing wrong, and racists who would push the angle that minorities are predisposed to do wrong and thus it's okay to judge them solely on this basis. Sorting out fact and fact-based opinion from emotional position in such an argument is quite difficult, lots of people will get angry and offended, and it overall increases mod workload dealing with the whole thing.
Do you think it's invalid or 'bad' for a sub to say 'we don't want this sub to be a place to discuss whether certain races are predisposed to criminal activity'?
14 comments
37 u/imahik3r 26 Sep 2019 13:56
24 u/NorseGodLoki0411 [OP] 26 Sep 2019 14:07
6 u/_bani_ 26 Sep 2019 18:52
14 u/weiss27md 26 Sep 2019 17:10
9 u/holzy444 26 Sep 2019 21:22
12 u/bonerwashington 26 Sep 2019 14:48
12 u/lispychicken 26 Sep 2019 17:02
9 u/_bani_ 26 Sep 2019 18:50
-19 u/SirEDCaLot 26 Sep 2019 15:21
16 u/marful 26 Sep 2019 16:56
-4 u/SirEDCaLot 26 Sep 2019 23:00
2 u/marful 26 Sep 2019 23:09
-2 u/SirEDCaLot 26 Sep 2019 23:19
5 u/deesenaughts 26 Sep 2019 21:54