• LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “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

    • Neato@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • Pleonasm@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        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.

        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.

        • Iteria@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • Pleonasm@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            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.

            • Iteria@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              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.

              • Pleonasm@programming.dev
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                1 year ago

                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.

      • LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • LexiconDexicon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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 you approach 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.

  • Drusas@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Gibson, an actor, said the harassment began about a year ago. He was sitting at the lake with a friend who is white, and nearby were two white men whom he didn’t know. One of the men approached Gibson and asked him to provide his address. When Gibson declined, the man called the police. Although he remained calm, Gibson said he “probably was the most upset I’ve ever been.”

    “I’m telling the police, ‘Why are you bothering me?’” Gibson said. “I said, ‘I can’t believe that you’re bothering me this much and all I’m doing is fishing.’ I’m not smoking. I’m not drinking. I’m not partying. I’m not making loud noise. I’m not loitering. But you asked me all of these questions.”

    Two other white men fishing nearby told Gibson that they had been fishing at the pond for seven years and had never been questioned, even though they didn’t live in the community. Since then, Gibson started capturing all incidents on camera.

    Predictable but still infuriating.

  • ZombieZookeeper@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    No one should be shocked to know that both the state senator and representative for Newnan are Republicans, the Federal Congressman is Republican, and Coweta Country went 67% for Trump in 2020.

    • GiddyGap@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I hear you. It’s definitely hard for a lot of white people to understand our responsibility for reconciliation after so many years of brutality. But that doesn’t mean the responsibility doesn’t exist.

      Germany is still working through its responsibilities for WWII and the holocaust even though few current Germans lived through that.

  • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    On the bright side, at least racists are getting more polite now that they know they’re on camera.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Shortly after the video was posted, Gibson said he learned online that Petty had been fired from her job as a massage therapist at Sea Glass Therapy, an emotional wellness center. The business’s owner, Jennifer Yaeger, declined to comment to NBC News on the matter. The wellness center announced that Petty had been fired on a since-deleted social media post.

    I love this for her racist ass.

    • TornadoRex@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I saw a video of another community member coming by after this happened (while he was fishing of course) and basically begging him to contact her work and explain it’s a misunderstanding. He declined lol

      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        After his confrontation with Petty went viral, Gibson said Thomas Drolet, president of Springwater Plantation’s board of directors, asked him to release another video saying the encounter had been a “misunderstanding.” The reason cited by Drolet, Gibson said, was that Petty needed her job back to pay her “big mortgage.”

        “We live in the same neighborhood,” Gibson said. “I’m not going to help her get her job back. She still hasn’t apologized to me. I haven’t seen her since.”

        You go, dude. Fuck that lady. And fuck the guy asking him to mischaracterize the interaction.