An Important Message From Kathy Griffin About "People Like Her" Getting Involved in POC Issues - Comments

@ SmilingScarlet
No, I understand. I don't think what happened is something that should be taken lightly. Should there be riots and police officers tear gasing people, no... But the officer who shot him should be punished for what he did. He obviously shot someone who did nothing wrong.

Maybe I'm wrong because I wasn't physically there and something more happened. No one will ever really know, but him... And hopefully he will stand up and do what's right.

To me, I could care less if you're black, white, purple with neon polka dots, you're a human being. You're a person with a soul and emotions and we all deserve to be treated respectfully.

@ gatesguardian.
Sorry, love. You wouldn't believe how many rude people have been bashing this situation right now, and I'm on some high emotions. But as Audrey T has said, it's a very bad situation, and it's leaving people with their tempers high, and we just want justice.

It's so crazy, though.

@ Audrey T
It was in Sociology. And he was talking about the percentages in the US of states that are more this race than that race, etc. He didn't say anything in a bad way, he was just talking about how our children and our children's children will more than likely go to school with a lot more of other races than their own.

Thank you for posting that about Ferguson. I will definitely read up on the situation.

@ gatesguardian.

I'm not sure what your professor was referring too, though it seems ill advised for him to bring up an event such as Ferguson and make a comment on it without actually clarifying to his students exactly what's going on - or, at the least, relaying the basic information to them.

Personally, I think the "white people will be the minority" narrative is often just something that's used to incite fear in white people, which often leads to even more hate and acts of racism and violence towards POC. I can't imaging a situation in which a professor would bring that up that's not meant to get a reaction of "Oh my god, what are we going to do!" from white students.

But I wasn't there for the lecture so I really can't say what your professor was trying to "teach" his students. From what you've mentioned though, it doesn't sound positive at all.

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Re: Ferguson

Last week, Mike Brown, a young, unarmed African-American man (I believe he was 18 years old) was shot and killed by a police officer in St. Louis (in the town of Ferguson). What's particularly striking about the murder is that: 1.the police officer approached and berated him for simply walking in the street - yelling something like "Get the fuck out of the street," at him - and then shot him, I believe, over 6 times, at least twice at point blank range, after the teen repeatedly let the officer know that he was unarmed. According to witnesses, the teen had his hands up at the time, so the officer had no reason to believe he was a danger. The officer shot him in the back (and he tried to retreat) and in the head (as a coroner reports, the angle at which the shot to the head was, the teen would have been on his knees when it happened).

After the teen was killed, his body was left on display for nearly four hours. The officer was put on paid leave pending an investigation. At the time, police refused to take witness statements (the only official statement recorded was that of the police officer).

Since then, most mainstream media has run what's practically a smear campaign against the murdered teen, calling him a thug and a thief, and using other language to paint a negative portrait of him and to blame him for his own death - basically a "He deserved it!" campaign.

For a while after his death, the Ferguson county police refused to release the name of the officer who shot Mike Brown, which is unusual. And refused to release an autopsy and properly investigate.

All of the culminated with the people of Ferguson (and all over the country), staging and planning peaceful prote

[Double Trouble]

@ SmilingScarlet
I clearly stated that I don't even know what happened... Did you even read my comment? Or just the second half?

@ SmilingScarlet
From what both posters have said, neither of them are denying that the issue was caused by race and is an issue of racial inequalities and injustice. What they both seem to be saying, as Kathy Griffin had stated, is that even though this is an issue that's devastating and negatively affecting black people and other people of color, it's an issue that ALL people need to take notice of and work towards fixing. Any injustice against any person is also a human issue and we all should be concerned with it.

No one here is trying to devalue the enormous part race took in this incident and the reaction to it.

(please note that glory in the flower specifically said that it's not just a POC issue and gatesguardian stated that she's unfamiliar with the entire event and asked if someone could help her understand what took place.)

@ glory in the flower.
@ gatesguardian.

Let me stop you guys there, this is about race. It's killing me that an unarmed black man who allegedly (yes allegedly) stole from a convenience store was shot six times. The Boston Bomber got on the cover of Rolling Stone, James Holmes (the guy who shot up people in Colorado) wasn't even shot or killed, and he did have a weapon, and he did harm people.

To PoC like me and my friends this is about race. I may not be black, but the Latin@ community has similar struggles.

Just please don't be so quick to label this as something other. The many black people in Ferguson would be angered that once again a PoC's claim is being disregarded.

I honestly have no idea what's going on in Ferguson. I have heard bits and pieces and I know someone was killed... but that's all. So someone wanna catch me up? I work full-time and am going to school too now. I'm not trying to use that as an excuse, I usually watch the evening news but I haven't been able to as of late... Anyway, I am taking Sociology this semester and he mentioned Ferguson but didn't describe what was happening. He explained that eventually white people will be the minority. And I think it's sad that people are explained as minorities. We are all people. Why does it matter what skin color we are/aren't, or what gender we are, what orientation we are? Ugh... But like the person below me said, it's a human issue.

I think EVERYONE should care about issues like this - it is not just a POC issue, it's not just a women's issue, it's not/i] a LBGTQ issue. It is a human issue. It impacts all of us and we collectively need to work towards a solution to injustices such as this in order to make a more harmonious, united society.