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Comment by vkou | Hacker News Reader

"Why do blacks even have a problem with the police? If they stop breaking laws, wouldn't they stop getting harassed/killed?"

That would be a totally legitimate question, if we lived in a colour-blind world. Or in a world where institutional racism has not been well-documented for decades. Or a world where driving while black was not a reason to get pulled over. We don't, though.

Or, the Canadian equivalent:

"Why are natives complaining about the government, when they don't pay any taxes?"

That would be a totally legitimate question, if we lived in a world where native people did not pay taxes. We don't, though.

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> "Why do blacks even have a problem with the police? If they stop breaking laws, wouldn't they stop getting harassed/killed?"

That actually sounds like quite an important question to ask. And difficult to phrase without sounding racist, which makes it even more important to ask.

If you assume someone is more racist than average just because they ask such a question, you are the bigot.

"Why do blacks even have a problem with the police" is an excellent question. The correct answer is "because the police disproportionately arrest them far more for behaving the same way as whites" and "because the police often murder them on the street in cold blood and face no repercussions" and "because the police are known to explicitly harbor white nationalist sympathizers and explicitly make racist comments publicly, in official internal communications, and informally in person". And finally "because the police as an institution in the US is primarily a force designed to protect property, and at its inception property was black slaves; traditionally, the US police are a psuedo-military force whose primary reason for existing was to chase runaway slaves".

If your follow up to "Why do blacks even have a problem with the police?" is "all they have to do is stop commiting crimes!" then it is the second statement that is explicitly racist. With the second statement you make the claim that the fault of police abuse lies in the abused, not the abusers, and that black people have no reason to mistrust the police except for the obvious fact that they are criminals.

"Why did native Americans have a problem with settlers? If they had just stopped killing people..."

The racist part is that the question assumes there is no precursor, or unstated factors.

Social and Developmental History of the United States goes largely ignored by choice and hidden by agenda. It is a shame people do not examine this country's history more, and know that certain dynamics have been in place for decades, and that only a heartfelt change of attitude on the societal level will have any lasting impact in ameliorating the divide.

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