Victim of perceived thug does end up in jail

[Whiskey_Lord]

This basically vindicates everything I've said. Subconsciously I think most of you grasshoppers know whats coming for you. You keep pretending to laugh at the ants as they go marching by with food stores, but there is a cold chill in the air and the leaves are falling from the trees. The long night will soon close on you. Goodbye little grasshoppers. Goodbye.

 

[Flying Pig]

There is some talk of having Zimmerman charged with a hate crime. Should his punishment be based on motivation?

I fail to see how you can charge anyone with a hate crime not based on their motivation.

A hate crime? As opposed to those 'really, really like you' crimes?

Is there any way to format that so that 'Life on Mars' is in italics?

 

[JollyRoger]

I fail to see how you can charge anyone with a hate crime not based on their motivation.

Well, the objection to hate crimes is that they consider motivation.

 

[Flying Pig]

I see the rub - where it's possible to work out motivation (normally when a crime is planned or when there's evidence of words said during its commission) I see no problem with charging it as a hate crime, although such evidence can be difficult to find.

 

[Core Imposter]

I reject the notion of hate crimes and believe racial and ethnic labels should be abolished.

 

[useless]

Too bad that'll never happen unless the more conservative Americans agree to not hate certain elements of the American populace.

 

[attackfighter]

Too bad that'll never happen unless the more conservative Americans agree to not hate certain elements of the American populace.

All Westerners are liberals whether they know it or not.

 

[Cutlass]

I reject the notion of hate crimes and believe racial and ethnic labels should be abolished.

We'll get right on that just as soon as racial discrimination stops.

 

[attackfighter]

We'll get right on that just as soon as racial discrimination stops.

Racial discrimination doesn't exist and never has. What you really mean is ethnic discrimination, but you're too immersed in propaganda to know that. This is besides the point though. The real question is: do you know how to end ethnic discrimination?

 

[Formaldehyde]

What ethnic group do African-Americans belong?

 

[attackfighter]

Is that a joke?

 

[Formaldehyde]

Do you really think most African-Americans identify with supposed common ancestors in Africa instead of thinking of themselves as being Americans?

What ethnic group do Americans who have been here for centuries belong? People whose ancestors are frequently geographically dispersed all over Europe, South America, Asia, and elsewhere?

Do you think racists who feel superior to blacks only feel superior to certain ethnic groups and not others?

Do you think KKK members really care which ethnic group someone belongs as long as they aren't considered by them to be "white"?

Do you think people who profile blacks as criminals really care if their ancestors came from Liberia, Panama, or Ethiopia?

 

[Cutlass]

Racial discrimination doesn't exist and never has. What you really mean is ethnic discrimination, but you're too immersed in propaganda to know that. This is besides the point though. The real question is: do you know how to end ethnic discrimination?

That's trying to win with semantics rather than facts. Hint: You don't win.

 

[attackfighter]

That's trying to win with semantics rather than facts. Hint: You don't win.

I said it was besides the point so I don't know what you think I'm trying to "win" with it.

My question remains: do you know how to end ethnic discrimination?

nk most African-Americans identify with supposed common ancestors in Africa instead of thinking of themselves as being Americans?

What ethnic group do Americans who have been here for centuries belong? People whose ancestors are frequently geographically dispersed all over Europe, South America, Asia, and elsewhere?

Do you think racists who feel superior to blacks only feel superior to certain ethnic groups and not others?

Do you think KKK members really care which ethnic group someone belongs as long as they a

It would have taken you much less effort to look up the term "ethnicity" than to write this wall of text on a flawed premise.

 

[Formaldehyde]

The only thing that African-Americans have in common from an ethnic standpoint are ancestors. And even then, it is usually quite tenuous given that many of them have varied ancestors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_group

An ethnic group (or ethnicity) is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture (often including a shared religion) and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy.[1][2][3] The concept of ethnicity differs from the closely related term race in that "race" refers to grouping based mostly upon criteria that in the past have been presumed to be biological, while "ethnicity" also encompasses additional cultural factors. However, OMB defines the concept of race as outlined for the US Census as not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference."[4]

As Cutlass pointed out, this is just semantics. As you are using the term to describe blacks, it is just another synonym for race.

 

[Bugfatty300]

It would have taken you much less effort to look up the term "ethnicity" than to write this wall of text on a flawed premise.

Why don't you answer his question then? What ethnic group do black Americans belong to?

 

[attackfighter]

The only thing that African-Americans have in common from an ethnic standpoint are ancestors. And even then, it is usually quite tenuous given that many of them have varied ancestors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_group

An ethnic group (or ethnicity) is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture (often including a shared religion) and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy.[1][2][3] The concept of ethnicity differs from the closely related term race in that "race" refers to grouping based mostly upon criteria that in the past have been presumed to be biological, while "ethnicity" also encompasses additional cultural factors. However, OMB defines the concept of race as outlined for the US Census as not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference."[4]

As Cutlass pointed out, this is just semantics. As you are using the term to describe blacks, it is just another synonym for race.

You get your definition from Wikipedia and wikipedia even lists "African-American" as an ethnic group.

Research your facts before using them in arguments. African American is an ethnic group using that definition (and all others).

This is the only thing I feel needs clarification:

As Cutlass pointed out, this is just semantics. As you are using the term to describe blacks, it is just another synonym for race.

Commoners don't know what race means, therefore they're incapable of consciously discriminating based on it. Racial discrimination has never existed, outside of maybe Nazi Germany or whatever. The word "race" is simply a buzzword in Western rhetoric.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Research your facts before using them in arguments. African American is an ethnic group using that definition (and all others).

So black people living in a Louisiana swamp speaking creole belongs to the same ethnic group as urban Chicago black people?

 

[Cutlass]

I said it was besides the point so I don't know what you think I'm trying to "win" with it.

My question remains: do you know how to end ethnic discrimination?

Don't let people discriminate. Teach people that it's a bad thing to do.

 

[attackfighter]

Don't let people discriminate. Teach people that it's a bad thing to do.

Western nations have been doing this already for 50 years. The "problem" still persists.

Also I'd like to see evidence and hear some reasoning as to why this would work. Otherwise it's just hollow rhetoric.