Worst of Social Justice

[Eiki-mun]

Whatever your objections might be, that hardly qualifies that for Worst of Social Justice. It's... not even bad. It's good social justice.

[Even Then]

^

[Svata]

While it may not happen to whites as often (AFAIK, anyway), it does happen.  For example, there was a white teenager in Georgia who got shot because the cops mistook his Wii Remote for a gun:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/georgia-teen-holding-wii-remote-shot-cops-front-door-family-lawyer-article-1.1619842

Besides, this movie was set (and indeed, made) before trigger-happy cops became commonplace.

But how is it bad?

[Even Then]

As far as I can tell, the points espoused by OP are:

- A black kid got killed for having a toy gun (and his murderer went free) while a story of a white kid getting a toy gun is a national Christmas tradition. This demonstrates that white privilege is a thing in the USA.
- Art can cast light on society's issues and patterns (even inadvertently).
- The USA is a way different place for white children than it is for black children. White privilege and systemic antiblackness are things in the USA.
- White kids in the USA have way less of a chance to get shot by the police for having toy guns than black children do. (Hell, white kids in the USA can carry actual guns in open and not get shot by the police.)

None of this is bad, even though UP is on the right track for a change when he points out that white people are capable of suffering police brutality as well.

[Ultimate Paragon]

While it may not happen to whites as often (AFAIK, anyway), it does happen.  For example, there was a white teenager in Georgia who got shot because the cops mistook his Wii Remote for a gun:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/georgia-teen-holding-wii-remote-shot-cops-front-door-family-lawyer-article-1.1619842

Besides, this movie was set (and indeed, made) before trigger-happy cops became commonplace.

But how is it bad?

Because it assumes that white kids don't have to worry about trigger-happy cops.

[Eiki-mun]

Because it assumes that white kids don't have to worry about trigger-happy cops.

But they really don't. And before you say "but what about this case in Georgia", that's one case. Heck, it's so newsworthy because it's such an oddity. The fact of the matter is, for every white child shot to death by police for a toy gun, one could probably name a dozen non-white children who died in the same way. There's just no comparison.

[guizonde]

call me old-fashioned, but isn't the problem more about trigger-happy cops willing to shoot children than it is about skin color?

besides, objectively speaking, cops are wrong to shoot black kids. white kids are a lighter and easier target to see, anyway.

[Ultimate Paragon]

Because it assumes that white kids don't have to worry about trigger-happy cops.

But they really don't. And before you say "but what about this case in Georgia", that's one case. Heck, it's so newsworthy because it's such an oddity. The fact of the matter is, for every white child shot to death by police for a toy gun, one could probably name a dozen non-white children who died in the same way. There's just no comparison.

Here's a white kid who was shot dead for flashing his headlights:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwp2pPkXUac" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwp2pPkXUac</a>

No charges for the cop, by the way.

Or, if you want to talk about cases of "mistaken weapon," get a load of this:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_ptHWgKXRM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_ptHWgKXRM</a>

I'm not saying blacks don't have it worse in the justice system, just that whites don't have it as good as you think they do.

Besides, that's not really what pushed this into the "worst" camp for me.  It's that last sentence that did it.

[Even Then]

What made you post it here was "watching this movie of a white kid getting a toy gun while being aware of the Tamir Rice debacle reminds me that white privilege exists in the USA"? Seriously?

[Damen]

Besides, this movie was set (and indeed, made) before trigger-happy cops became commonplace.

But how is it bad?

Because it assumes that white kids don't have to worry about trigger-happy cops.

Honestly, I find it rather disingenuous to use a movie made in the early '80's and set in the mid-to-late '40's to reflect issues and concerns of 2015. If anything, this says more about the hyper-militarization of our police force between when the movie was set (around WW2) and now and the cops these days taking a ready-FIRE!-aim approach to conflict resolution than anything else.

Of course, I readily admit that I could be missing the point, but that is the impressions I get when thinking of the differences between the movie and this day and age.

[Even Then]

Old art can still be used to reflect on modern issues, tho, even if those issues weren't relevant in the time that art was made. Like... okay, I can't think of any examples, but there's bound to be some. I'm not a sociologist or literary/film analyst.

[Ultimate Paragon]

What made you post it here was "watching this movie of a white kid getting a toy gun while being aware of the Tamir Rice debacle reminds me that white privilege exists in the USA"? Seriously?

Yeah, that was my bad.  Fixed.

The reason that was so bad is because the movie was set in the 1940s, when guns were considered more socially acceptable.  Refusing to consider the context is the height of intellectual laziness.

[The_Queen]

I'm with Paragon. It is about time that we talk about the true victims of institutionalized racism: white people.

[ironbite]

Yeah.  Won't somebody please think of the poor white people?

Ironbite-they're so persecuted

[Even Then]

...except the context of the time the movie was made/set in doesn't really matter in this case because the movie is explicitly being viewed in present-day context, with the sociological implications and emotional impact that entails.