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It shot to prominence with Rodney king and a burning Los Angeles in the 90s. Now, we have New Orleans closely following Dallas, and we have black men with military credentials shooting dead white police officers with a very clear motive of fighting back, a not one bit ambiguous reason being how inadequate the USA is in terms of racial equality as far as ground reality is concerned.
The argument against the easy availability of guns has gone deep and long, and those that want the freedom to own guns continue to vouch for how sacred that freedom is, no matter how many die for whatever cause.
But now that black people have started shooting white people, I wonder if some laws may come up for revision. If a door has to open to limit the use of certain types of firearms, automatic weapons and sniper rifles, it may very well be that the weapons of choice of these black warriors will be the first target of anything close to a ban. It's the way not the USA, but inequality rolls.
I saw "Ocean's Eleven" somewhat breezily recently. It dawned on me that in so many cases in the Hollywood projection of the USA, white people committing crime, especially large, sexy looking crime like robbing a fort of gold, a bank, a casino, or blackmailing the government is painted as maverick, rebellious, fun, and even heroic ability! Taking the law into his own hands, one man stands up against the 'system' for justice! He is not a bloody criminal! We want him to win, even when he breaks all laws! We've seen and heard umpteen stories of this nature - as long as the man is white!
Now we have black people fighting back for justice well outside the purview of most movie stories, well outside anything lawful, but well entrenched deep in the culture of the USA. It's a moment of deep embarrassment for the USA, because for all the advice on harmony it dishes out to other nations, it has shown up pretty hollow at home! It cannot stop simple, easily executed terrorism, accessible to any adult.
White people by and large love politically correct terminology, and the powers that be, by whatever measure of sincerity have implemented norms that have by and large influenced pop culture to the point where it is considered extremely rude to call a black man a 'nigger', even though in redneck country that would be considered fairly normal in many conversations.
But now, all that pretending, all that political correctness, all that avoidance of the real issue, that a considerable number of white people are indeed racist and carry open dislike of black people and those of other races, is wearing thin. If we can constantly ask moderate Islam to voice discontent over the actions of its extreme elements involved in acts like terrorism, I don't see how we should in any measure of honesty, not ask for moderate white people to tell their racists to tone it down, and put up with equality, especially after it is enshrined in the (damn) law.
White people in the USA have privileges. They should know this. The people they may choose to be racist against are usually in a position of comparative weakness. There is no reason for white American cops, who have a black man down on the ground and in no position or disposition to be a threat in any way, to put a bullet into that person. This is no different from terrorists that walk into a school and spray bullets on children.
The USA has its own brand of uniquely dumb terrorists, like the idiots who got kicked out of a party in Bakersfield, California, coming back with guns to kill others who were still partying. The number of incidents in schools is quite staggering and by now, should be quite infamous. The only differences are that these terrorists aren't organized and that they don't have any religious compulsions to do what they do.
For a person of non-white race, racism isn't hard to spot in the USA. Maybe most white people feel they have done enough if they don't commit any crime like discriminating on the basis of race, don't use politically incorrect terms, or don't openly avoid people of other denominations.
But in the USA's incredible love of insulation, especially that of white people who live in gated communities, refuse to even once enter the areas of their towns and cities where 'other' people live, don't ever take public transportation, and keep on reinforcing that bubble they live in, in every way, shape or form, and keep on passing that to their children, they will be inviting trouble in some accumulated form. They don't need to get this. That's one of their privileges, simply because they can afford it.
If they live in denial that there are many unhealed wounds, that their own people have both inflicted and exacerbated, and simply give only lip service with meaningless nonsense like, "We're all Americans", their extremists will keep on perpetrating those crimes, and negating all the genuine good in many people's hearts, because the collective at some point becomes answerable.
The biggest question is - why should a nation with so many resources and examples of world leading excellence, choose to put up with such lowly behaviour? The answer may lie in the fact that the USA developed on some sides without entirely resolving issues in others. Just like we implore muslims to come out of their denial, to accept that Islam does foster violence, we should also implore Americans, to come out of the delusion that they're not a racist society, and accept that white people with guns, whether in uniform or not, are a real danger to peace.
It should be bizarre but quite incredibly, the witness to this incident, found it fit to compare to an incident she could only have seen in a movie! http://touch.latimes.com/#section/2426/article/p2p-87884690/
This is the USA today. I'm not sure very many people living in it realize what is real in it anymore.
