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Comment by concordDance | Hacker News Reader

> However that doesn't mean i think racism/bigotry/etc is acceptable at work.

A big issue is different people have different definitions of these terms.

For example, say a very religous conservative doesn't want to use a trans persons preferred pronouns as they consider said pronouns to be untrue and sinful. They are otherwise polite and nondiscriminatory (e.g. they will listen to and implement ideas from the trans person and don't bring up their opinions of trans issues). Is this bigotry?

Or say some people in the company want to run a BLM donation drive and a conversation then ensues where someone states that they don't think racism has anything to do with USA police killings of blacks and it's actualy down to problems in the main african american culture. Is this racism?

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> Is this bigotry?

Prioritizing made-up, vague and abstract ideas of "sins" and refusing to respect the identity of a fellow human? Yes, that is bigotry.

> Is this racism?

Yes, because there's plenty of research that's been done that says racism within police departments is responsible for the killing of black people in the USA. Not to mention countless videos of innocent black people being shot down by cops.

Believing something stupid doesn't excuse your bigotry or racism.

  "racism within police departments is responsible for the killing of black people in the USA"

Firstly, if they are mistaken about facts, that doesn't necessarily make them racist. That just makes them mistaken, and possibly racist depending on the reasons they are mistaken.

Secondly, what is the evidence for this? I've read evidence of racism in US police departments against Blacks, but not specifically in the context of police killings.

"For every 10,000 black people arrested for violent crime, 3 are killed

For every 10,000 white people arrested for violent crime, 4 are killed"

https://twitter.com/LeonydusJohnson/status/12674663458447400...

Consider also that there are towns such as Jackson, Mississippi which have police departments that are >90% black [1] but still have all the same problems as police forces in America generally:

https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/policeshootings/

Not posting this to change your mind, I don't think that's possible through a single comment, but if you seriously think that there can be no other good-faith, legitimate opinion than your own, then consider that you might not be thinking about this rationally.

"“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that." John Stuart Mill

[1] https://www.governing.com/gov-data/safety-justice/police-dep...

The recent high profile police shootings were not during arrests for violent crimes, and in many of them the victims had committed no crime at all. You aren't going to change very many people's minds by citing statistics unrelated to their concerns, and some may even take offense at seemingly trying to steer the conversation from talking about killing clearly innocent people to violent fugitives.

You do realize that these very statistics show that the “high profile” cases you mention do not reflect the racial reality of police killings? The media decides what becomes “high profile” and cases like Daniel Shaver and Tony Timpa do not get the coverage of Eric Garner or George Floyd.

> Yes, because there's plenty of research that's been done that says racism

Woah, so disagreeing with particular research is racist now? I've heard it all.

> Believing something stupid doesn't excuse your bigotry or racism.

It is apparent to me that you are the stupid in this thread.

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