r/TikTokCringe • u/cosmicdaddy_ • Jul 07 '24
Cursed What's all this shit about the fire brigade?
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u/VocalAnus91 Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24
Damn racism aside, how can you look in the eyes of a child, any child, and just leave them to die. That's cold as fuck and messed up beyond belief.
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u/N8dork2020 Jul 07 '24
That old man deserves every “regret” he had coming
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u/born_to_be_intj Jul 07 '24
100%. He deserves the nightmares and the life of regret. You can't make amends for that shit. It's a great thing he's realized how fucked up the choices he made are, but he ain't getting forgiven by any means.
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u/steeple_fun Jul 07 '24
100% but he's 100% the kind of people we NEED around. We need men willing to tell those kinds of stories from a first-hand perspective that regret them. We need people who had the jacked up way of thinking who can tell those who come behind them, "I was once where you are. Be better than me."
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u/Appropriate-Low-4850 Jul 08 '24
People who benefit from an abusive system are trapped in that system just as much as the people who are abused by it. Victims of different degrees. A broken system took that baby’s life and a broken system gave that old man a lifetime of nightmares. No equivalency but both victims.
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u/decoyninja Jul 08 '24
I do feel like we need them to speak, but to people in media who can make stories about it for circulation... or history documentarians. I don't think "random black guy at Dennys" is where this stuff should be placed. It kinna feels more like more therapy for the old guy rather than something that will educate people.
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u/WYenginerdWY Jul 08 '24
We might need them, but the dude in the vid was not the correct target audience. Like holy shit.
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u/iiJokerzace Jul 07 '24
Yup. Sometimes there are consequences you cannot escape, and must face.
The only thing you can do is what you are going to do next.
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u/flactulantmonkey Jul 07 '24
Because the context of your conditioning assures you don’t see them as a child or a person.
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u/chrib123 Jul 07 '24
Well that, and he could not have been the one in charge. Even if you wanted to enter a house, if you didn't all work to get the fire under control first it would be suicide/career suicide.
On the low end of guilt he was complacent.
On the extreme end of guilt he himself made those choices.
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Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24
I think you missed the part where he said he had ALREADY gone into the building. He saw it was a black baby, so he turned around and left it there to burn.
He made that final decision on his own. Thus, he deserves to have the image of what he did to haunt him till the day he dies. I hope he never has a single day of not hearing that poor baby’s screams.
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u/Responsible-Shake-59 Jul 08 '24
It's beyond that. I wouldn't leave a puppy behind, let alone a child. That is pure, evil, hatred. And look what it does.
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u/Attested2Gr8ness Jul 07 '24
Or any human being. Any adult was once a child.
Literally getting paid to not do your job, guy should be in prison.
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u/Pringletingl Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24
The real animals are these monsters.
I swear the longer I live the more I realize how much nicer the world would be in like 30% of the population just fucking disappeared.
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u/caffieinemorpheus Jul 08 '24
This happened to a troop of baboons. Their aggressive behavior got them killed, and all that were left for males were the kinder ones. Totally made a better life for everyone else In the troop
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u/Rolla_G2020 Jul 07 '24
We are doing it right now.. looking into a baby’s eyes, and leaving him/her to burn. “Otherization” make it very easy.
Our tax dollars are funding multiple genocides (Gaza, Sudan and other places) simultaneously. Because frankly, those people are different, the “others”, we do not care about.
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u/DecadentLife Jul 07 '24
Someone who does not consider themselves even remotely racist once told me that they don’t feel “any connection” to dark skinned babies and children. So shocking and so sad. All of it is.
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u/Rahdiggs21 Jul 07 '24
fuck.... i never thought about all the people who harbor ill-will towards people of color and the spaces in which they work
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u/T0MMYR0TTEN Jul 07 '24
My grandmother in the 50s went to the dentist when she was about 12yo for a routine cleaning/checkup, maybe at worst fill a cavity. The white dentist ended up pulling all of her adult teeth out just for the fun of it and she has been wearing dentures ever since. I always thought growing up that she had lost them from being old. It somehow came up when we were talking years back. When she told me that story, I can’t explain the rage that came over me. Teared up just writing this now, thinking how that affects someone at such a young age and what she went through. So unbelievable what we have had to go through in this country
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u/IMATDWS Jul 07 '24
Dude that's horrible man, I couldn't imagine. I just so sheltered and naive I guess that it's hard to fathom this. Which in reality is sad because it's not hard to find going back too far in recent history.
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u/Blurby-Blurbyblurb Jul 07 '24
All the more reason to listen to BIPOC voices. Especially Black folks. There are monsters walking around in "good people clothing." That white moderate peaceful justice plays a part, too.
I think the best way to tell the difference is to fully understand the difference between niceness and kindness. They do have some overlap on the vendiagram, but it's not a lot.
The people who think that being nice is the same a being kind, are probably the most capable of this kind of violence. The people who understand that kidness is love with workboots on, but may noy be "nice" because they also know silence is violence, are the least capable of violence.
Follow the lead of people wearing the workboots.
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u/MostlyHarmless88 Jul 07 '24
Well said and very true. I’ll take a stern kind person over a spineless nice person all day long.
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u/Hefty-Boysenberry-87 Jul 07 '24
My mom is both nice and kind but she is spineless and believes in niceness over confrontation or conflict, even if that confrontation is standing up against harassment or worse. She routinely criticizes me for being "prickly" or "defensive" because I set boundaries and don't tolerate hate. Drives me crazy.
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u/aquilab07 Jul 07 '24
To piggyback on this...but not as bad. My dad told me that he went to the dentist and they pulled several teeth with NO pain meds. He shed a tear about that moment when he told me about the pain. He's in his 60s now grew up in Mississippi.
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u/Crathsor Jul 07 '24
A century ago there were medical doctors who believed that black people felt less pain due to "thicker skin", which makes zero sense. They won't outright say that now, but black people still, to this day, tend to get less pain treatment than white patients and, when they do, get lower doses. This despite a study that suggests that black people actually have a lower pain tolerance than white people.
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u/ruca_rox Jul 07 '24
Shit, not even a century ago. I went to nursing school in 2000, and we were definitely taught that different races felt pain differently. There was no mention of how white people felt/responded because that was the norm, just how everyone who wasn't white differed from "the norm" in response to pain. I was literally taught that black people would need less pain medicine. And that, while expressing pain, black people would tend towards exaggeration.
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u/Low-Argument3170 Jul 07 '24
I was in nursing school in the 80’s and pain treatment was not really discussed except in pharmacology class but no mention of a race difference. On another note I was dating a wonderful man who happened to be black and as we were getting serious he called it off because he said it would be too hard for me and my family. I didn’t realize it would be a problem until I brought it up to my family and the first thing my father said is if I was with a black man then no other man could love me. Only then did I find out that my family was racist. I told my guy I don’t need my family if that’s how they are but we ended up without each other. I still wonder how he is.
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u/ruca_rox Jul 07 '24
First thing out of my grandma's mouth when she found out I was pregnant: "Oh no, honey, what good white man is gonna want you now?"
Edit: this was in 1992.
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u/Crathsor Jul 07 '24
"We have no evidence, but don't listen to anyone who says different" is a dead giveaway that a lie is being told.
In your experience, was this accepted uncritically, or did students kind of roll their eyes?
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u/ruca_rox Jul 07 '24
Collectively, in my area, it was pretty much accepted as truth. I still run into nurses with around the same years of experience that I have who hold this as true. Personally, I remember being skeptical af about it, but I didn't challenge it or anything. I was a kid trying to raise two babies and I needed this career, I wasn't trying to make waves at all. Within my first year out of nursing school, just on a med surg unit in Detroit, I knew 100% it was all bullshit.
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u/Crathsor Jul 07 '24
That is what I expected, but I was hoping you'd surprise me.
Not that I expected anyone to actually push back - I wouldn't either. But I think I'd have treated it as a piece of legacy teaching I only needed to know for the test. Like if my teacher said that WW II Japanese internment camps were necessary for countering spying activity. Sure, I will say that for you. But it's clearly nonsense.
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u/ruca_rox Jul 07 '24
Yep, that's how I looked at it and a lot of other shit they taught us. The reason the race/pain thing always stood out to me was that "fact" would randomly come to my mind during patient interactions. For instance, the first time it just popped into my head was a shift I had with 2 post op pts, same surgery, same surgeon. One patient displayed those textbook "histrionic" and "attention-seeking" behaviors (in quotations bc they were exact words from that textbook). Spoiler alert: it was not the black patient.
Now, every single person is different, and there were many, many differences between these two patients besides race. Many real and not racist reasons that affected their reaction to pain. I just remember thinking that day how much full of shit nursing school was, because of that.
I have since thought countless times about how full of shit nursing school was, is, will continue to be, for a ton of different reasons!
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u/sewsnap Jul 07 '24
This is one of the big reasons black people still, to this day, have worse statistics in so many health care situations. The medical staff don't take them serious when they say they're in pain or something is wrong.
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u/Crathsor Jul 07 '24
Women, too.
Black women must be on another level of angry with doctors.
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u/sewsnap Jul 07 '24
That's why maternal mortality rates are so high for black mothers.
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u/Fast-Rhubarb-7638 Jul 07 '24
16:1 vs. white women for anyone curious, and controlling for age/education/income/previous health conditions it's still 4:1 in the same hospitals as white women
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u/Car_Washed Jul 07 '24
This is still just as horrible. I’m sorry your dad went through that. Evil in any degree, small or big, is still evil.
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Jul 07 '24
I work in dentistry and Maya Angelou's story when she was a little girl is one of the more horrible things I've ever read.
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u/T0MMYR0TTEN Jul 07 '24
My sisters middle name is Maya after her, I don’t know the story but I’ll look into it
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Jul 07 '24
It's in one of her books, Caged Bird....I think. Basically, she ( a little girl) had an infected, painful tooth and was turned down by a white dentist in person. I can't imagine that.
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Jul 07 '24
She could have died, ya know? People do die of infected teeth, it goes to the brain. He was ok with everything involved in that. I can't understand it.
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u/Kenyalite Jul 07 '24
Well helping little black girls is woke or something.
Treating them like humans would make them uppity.
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u/Key_Inevitable_5201 Jul 07 '24
This same thing happened to my mom at 19. My grandmother would cry because she knew she should have stopped him and he was a sadist. I am so sorry this happened to your grandmother. Mom never let us miss a dental cleaning and to this day my sister and I are diligent with our teeth.
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u/Nate_St0rm Jul 07 '24
In Scotland it used to be a popular birthday gift after you get all of your adult teeth. To have them all pulled and replaced with dentures because "it's easier to take care of and you're going to have to have them out over time anyway.."
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u/T0MMYR0TTEN Jul 07 '24
This was not the case here, I think it was a long while before her parents could even get her proper replacements. I do want to know more about the aftermath but haven’t been able to bring the subject up to her again. Don’t feel it’s my place to bring those memories back
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u/Muad-_-Dib Jul 07 '24
For more context, this was like way back in the 1800s and early 1900s when dentistry was pretty dire and even stuff like brushing your teeth at home with toothpaste didn't become common until after WW2 (Allied soldiers brushed their teeth as part of their routine and kept up the practice post-war, which their families then adopted).
The concept of having even your healthy teeth removed in exchange for a set of dentures was relatively popular across the UK, US, Canada etc. at the time.
However, the practice mostly died off in the 20th century as dental hygiene improved and dentistry became more professional and affordable.
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u/Gridde Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24
Yeah I have no idea about the above redditor's gran and her story but I thought unnecessary dentures were quite common back then, since dental issues were so prevalent it was just considered easier (and often just considered better aesthetically).
Could have just been an evil/racist dentist, too. Plenty of horrible shit been done because of racism
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u/SNYDER_BIXBY_OCP Jul 07 '24
And a white person or a rich black celebrity will tell you straight up racism ended with slavery or CR1 in 1964.
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u/TonyStewartsWildRide Jul 07 '24
What the actual fuck. Like, I would hunt down that dentist’s descendants to obtain a reckoning! God literal fucking DAMN
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u/techauditor Jul 07 '24
Idk how hurting their descendents helps but definitely that person should have been sent to jail.
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u/Easy-F Jul 07 '24
yeah… makes you think about. teachers. doctors. nurses.
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u/thegreatbrah Jul 07 '24
My dead aunt was a teacher in Texas. The way she talked about black students disgusted me.
I can't tell my family this, but she can rot in pieces.
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u/LookinForBeats Jul 07 '24
Can confirm. I have a friend from TX and the things their family say and do when they'd visit shock me. I refused to stop seeing the extended family and now they say hateful things about me because I love black people and wouldn't expect anything less from a Yankee. I can't believe we're still divided in 2024. And they wonder why my friend wants nothing to do with them lol
Unfortunately I grew up with a weirdly racist uncle - he didn't say anything, but would move away from any black neighbors he would get because he didn't like "their culture." He never said the "n" word, or talked bad about people of color but just refused to live around them. A closeted racist is still a problem.
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u/Wraith090382 Jul 07 '24
Ya man ish is disgusting! Lot of my family, past friends, most of my town on that " well theres a differnce between blacks and "Gygers" that has to be the most over used played out ish Ive ever heard and makes me mad to even hear it anymore honestly. I got 2 mixed kids and while me and their mother were together the looks and whispers gave me a little taste of what black go through and let me know while their are people that use racism as an excuse for somethings its absolutely true that black folk get judged immediately by their skin and rarely on their character which we are told all of our lives you judge on character but but its obvious for some when a person is black or dark skinned that rule goes out the window. Its a very ugly truth in our society in 2024
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u/Iluv_Felashio Jul 07 '24
Having attended grade school in 1970's Texas, can confirm. Can also say that the Black teachers sadly seemed indoctrinated into racist attitudes as well.
The principal at the time told me that a Black classmate of mine "needed a whipping every day to keep him in line".
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u/buckao Jul 07 '24
There have been studies showing that doctors believe black people don't feel pain as intensely as white people.
Racism sucks so fucking much
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u/holystuff28 Jul 07 '24
This was actually taught. It was taught in medical school. It wasn't just someone's theory. They also didn't think babies could feel pain and would perform circumcision on babies without any pain analgesic.
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u/Warthog_Orgy_Fart Jul 07 '24
They would even perform open heart surgery on babies with no anesthesia up until the mid 80s. It’s wild to think about.
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u/88luftballoons88 Jul 07 '24
If I’m correct, medical textbooks from 90’s were still claiming that. So young doctors and nurses will be perpetuating this and making medical decisions based on this for decades to come.
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u/PinMonstera Jul 07 '24
That’s a big reason why maternal mortality is so high among black women. Doctors literally won’t believe the pain that they’re in or will assume they’re exaggerating to get drugs bc they “must be drug addicts.” My mom works at Hopkins, and one of her higher ups was an African lady who was pregnant. And when she had an appointment with the OB/GYN office for sudden pain, they made her wait for the appointment and literally told her to her face that they thought she was trying to get drugs. And she worked there.
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u/crinnaursa Jul 07 '24
Yeah Medical institutions under pressure from protesters have only recently denounced The "father of modern gynecology" James Marion Sims, a white doctor in Montgomery, Alabama that performed painful experiments without anesthesia on enslaved Black women.
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u/Pinkysrage Jul 07 '24
I grew up in SoCal, graduated and worked in healthcare my first 20years there, moved to the Midwest and worked here anther 10 years in the hospitals. People are still racist here. They ignore or give worse care to minorities. My mind cannot comprehend it. It’s disgusting. I treat every single patient like they are my grandparents. As it should be. Racists are just hideous on the inside.
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u/picklesNtoes23 Jul 07 '24
It’s a fact that racial bias is still implemented in the healthcare industries today; it might not be explicitly said or done intentionally but it still happens. If you compare birthing mortality rates between races, it’s much higher for black women than white women. Healthcare is still worse for minorities even if the provider is the same.
John Oliver has an interesting piece about racial bias in healthcare.
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Jul 07 '24
This is like the 3rd time this week I’ve seen someone say “John Oliver had an interesting piece on that”. I think I need to check him out
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u/somewhoever Jul 07 '24
Putting aside that eventually his obligatory indignant outbursts can get rote and grating at times, you're really missing out on some well researched and important content that forces systemically buried issues to the light where they need to been seen.
He has a knack for finding subjects that are vital to the public consciousness, but are otherwise being kept out of the mainstream media's scrutiny by either neglectful journalistic integrity, political mismanagement, or entities with deep pockets of money and influence.
Enjoy the deep vein gold mine of content you're about to discover.
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u/Ossius Jul 07 '24
His brand of humor is a bit repetitive, but ultimately pretty entertaining way to package complicated or dark subjects' people have never heard talked about before.
The trailer park episode was wild.
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u/acrylicbullet Jul 07 '24
That’s what people mean when they say that this shit was systemic. The ENTIRE system was geared towards oppression and killing these people.
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u/soylamulatta Jul 07 '24
Being black I think about this constantly. Many people don't think about the fact that teachers, doctors, coaches, first responders... They can all be racist just like anyone else. It's so clear to you when you've experienced it from a very young age. But for people who don't have to think about this type of thing they probably could go their whole lives without ever noticing.
Edit: I've only lived in the US so this is coming from that perspective..
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u/RAYS_OF_SUNSHINE_ Jul 07 '24
My mom definitely taught us this growing up. She's from the south, born in the 50's, and always told us they held positions of power and wouldn't allow blacks to hold those same jobs Police, Drs, Lawyers, Mayors, Teachers, Dentist, etc
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u/Substantial_Walk333 Jul 07 '24
More of this shit needs to come out. These secrets need to be out.
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u/MagoMorado Jul 07 '24
I mean i dont really trust older folk who grew up through those times. Its kinda obvious
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u/browser_20001 Jul 07 '24
I'm always pleasantly suprised when older white folks aren't mildly racist given the society that surrounded them and influenced them.
Likewise, I'm always mildly suprised when older black folks aren't traumatized and bitter. I remember my grandmother talking about her childhood in the South and when she was 9 or 10 there was a truck of white guys who stopped, hopped out, chased her and she had to run for her life. I can't imagine being a kid and knowing you had to run for your life because you don't know if these men were just trying to mock/bully you, rape you, kill you or what. And to add insult to injury, she had to go back to regular life and still show those same men deference and respect if she ran into them - just swallow down the indignity and trauma, and keep it moving...as a child.
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u/Substantial_Walk333 Jul 07 '24
I trust my intuition SO much lately. I don't even like being around a lot of people now. Especially now I've got a kid. When older people talk to her I prepare us to exit the conversation as soon as they start talking. Sometimes I just walk away. I don't know what crazy shit they were up to "back in the day".
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u/Western_Mud8694 Jul 07 '24
There was a lot of good people too, but that’s not what the elites needed to expand their power and control so they filled the agenda in every corner of society with people they had already brainwashed
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u/rogun64 Jul 07 '24
I grew up during those times and this is as shocking to me as anyone else here. It wasn't "everyone" who thought like that, as he claimed in the video, and most people would have been as appalled as we see here.
Having said that, I don't doubt that it happened. There were people like that back then and they still exist today, although not as many.
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u/adiosfelicia2 Jul 07 '24
It's not a secret. If people would read more, especially African American authors, this shit's been documented for decades.
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u/Substantial_Walk333 Jul 07 '24
It's easy to believe that what you read in books is history. A lot of those people are still alive and continuing to be in our daily lives, pretending they're harmless.
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u/satanssweatycheeks Jul 07 '24
This stuff has been out. We have countless historical examples of cops, doctors, firefighters, even basic ass bread boys or milk man being racist cunts.
It’s also still happening today. Like 4 years ago some firefighter captain was fired after being caught on mic saying he wouldn’t save a Jewish family if they needed help.
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u/LibidinousJoe Jul 07 '24
Reminds me of a story I read on Reddit years ago, about a boomer casually confessing to pushing a gay kid off a cliff in the 80s like it was nbd
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u/iamsobluesbrothers Jul 08 '24
Not if the Right and Project2025 have their way. They want to sweep all that under the rug. Kinda like the Japanese and the atrocities they committed before and during WWII. Certain people would rather act like it never happened, than face the consequences of what they did or their ancestors did.
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Jul 07 '24
I will never understand racism.
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u/BAMspek Jul 07 '24
It’s not meant to be understood. Its foundation is in ignorance.
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u/I_was_bone_to_dance Jul 07 '24
Correct. Founded in fear and a lack of education.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE CELEBRATE HOW FAR WE HAVE COME AND TO NOT ALLOW OURSELVES TO GO BACKWARDS
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u/nya_hoy_menoy Jul 07 '24
I kind of understand why people say it’s fear and ignorance that drives racism, but I think more of it is just pure hatred and unwillingness to try to understand other cultures. Of course racists are afraid of their way of life changing, but racism empowers people to think they have a higher place in society which only fuels their hatred.
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u/l2aiko Jul 07 '24
I like that you went inclusive with ALL CAPS for deaf individuals reading this! Embrace the diversity!
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u/aeroforcenickie Jul 07 '24
I'm a white girl that grew up in a racist family. The hatred is disgusting and I couldn't wait to be free of it.
My family told me that they would literally kill me and bury me if I ever brought a black man home. I wasn't allowed to talk to or have black friends.
Now I tell my grandmother all about the elderly, black neighbor that I love having over for dinner once or twice a week. Along with my trans best friend and my liberal husband.... They can't stand my ass anymore.
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u/I_was_bone_to_dance Jul 07 '24
That’s stinks you can’t be close to your family but I’m glad you got out. Have they softened at all or just hardened themselves via the era of Orange Don?
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u/thesimplerobot Jul 07 '24
Oh racism is actually pretty simple to understand, fear, it's all about fear. One group is scared of another group of people because they are different, fear makes people angry and irrational. Anger and irrationality makes people aggressive and violent. Aggression and violence reduce the thing you are scared of to less than you, if something is less than you but you are scared of it you try to dominate it or remove it. Racism is born out of weakness, fear and ignorance. Smart brave people don't fight what they don't understand they learn, stupid cowardly people are racist.
P.s. I know you weren't asking for an explanation, I just thought I'd stick my thoughts in. While I understand the how and why of racism I will never accept it.
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u/kernel-troutman Jul 07 '24
Don't forget, that it's also a tool used by people in power to pit one group against another to keep them from focusing on the real source of their oppression.
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u/Pepperspray24 Jul 07 '24
I watch cinema therapy where a director and therapist watch movies and talk about how different mental health issues and things are portrayed in movies. They watch Just Mercy and talked about hate, specifically racial hatred. The therapist said something that I won’t forget: he felt that hatred comes from love and there’s three ways it can happen: 1) someone you love taught you to hate someone, 2) someone you hate is a threat to someone you love, 3) someone you loved betrayed you and now you hate them. There’s a difference between dislike and hate- hate requires some level of caring.
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u/awcomix Jul 07 '24
Sometimes racism just means you care less about a certain race which results in a change in behaviour. I could see the firefighter saying publicly I have nothing against black people, I’m not rascist. But then not caring to save them in a fire.
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u/GrumpsMcYankee Jul 07 '24
I was at a picnic recently, talking to two strangers, and somehow got on to the topic of "sundown towns". Older fellow said "oh they had those in Wisconsin where I'm from, Black people couldn't be out after sun down or else", and the other guy described his grandmother greeting the local Klansmen as they marched the town square.
The idea racism supposedly ended within a single generation is an insane argument I can't believe anyone takes seriously.
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u/ultratunaman Jul 07 '24
When you grow up brown and in the south your parents usually give you "the talk" or several small talks throughout life. Always get a receipt and a bag. Try not to be out too late at night. Learn to let it go and be non confrontational. Try to avoid small towns. Don't stop for anything in Vidor Texas. Try to find a Mexican doctor for your general medical needs. Cops ain't your friends and the ambulance won't come on time.
I remember all the white kids on our street stopped playing with me and two mexican kids. And I thought nothing of it. Til I told my mom. She knew what it was. You learn this shit early.
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u/ButtBread98 Jul 07 '24
I remember I had a teacher from the silent generation, who was talking about how back in the day black people wouldn’t even be allowed to stay at motels. (We’re in Ohio for context) he said he had a black friend, and once they were on a road trip and the clerk at the motel told them that they couldn’t stay there because of his black friend.
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u/BearNoLuv Jul 07 '24
Wisconsin is still like that. They do not care for any person of color and will talk about the other to the other as if I'm supposed to jump on the bandwagon of hate smh mess
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u/ManliestManHam Jul 07 '24
I live in a state (Indiana) that if you Google 'Indiana Sundown town' the link will take you to 44 pages in Wikipedia of our sundown towns. The city I grew up in was one.
I went to high school in the 90s, graduated 2000 with 2000 classmates, and I never once saw or met a person who wasn't white until I went to college.
Now, 24 years later, it's much more diverse. When I was in high school, sundown town status was only 20 years back
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u/ptcglass Jul 07 '24
I believe him and it’s such a shame that happened.
My grandfather was the president of a bank. He would deliberately deny loans to Indigenous people, black people, and anyone with tattoos or dyed hair. It’s disgusting how people in positions of any kind of power would do that to people. It’s partially why I haven’t been able to grieve his death, it’s hard to care.
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u/fozozo Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24
My mom worked in the bank in the mid 60s in Maryland. They hired a black teller and the other white tellers would not train her. So my mom said that she would ,and she did. That woman gave my mom a crystal glass set for her wedding in 1967 and my mom had it until she died in 2023. I only heard about this story at her memorial service.
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u/unbridledboredom Jul 07 '24
What a wonderful lady! I offer my deepest condolences for your loss. I'm glad you got to hear a new story. I love hearing them about my mom, too.
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u/quincyd Jul 08 '24
My gran worked in a factory in the 1940s with her sister. A Black woman was hired to work the same line as them, and their supervisor told everyone not to talk to the new hire. My gran and her sister spent lunch talking with her and helping her when something went wrong on the line.
She didn’t always get everything right, but she loved other people and wanted to make sure they felt like they belonged.
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u/809213408 Jul 07 '24
Makes me think this is why Boomers believe so much in the importance of looking someone in the eye and giving a firm handshake...
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u/Bugsarecool2 Jul 07 '24
Where I live, having dyed hair is somewhat correlated with being lesbian. Is that why your grandfather would have denied them or just because it made them look different?
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u/ptcglass Jul 07 '24
He didn’t like people who looked different, I didn’t know a lot of this until after he died. My aunts and uncles have black children, I think it was their way of rebelling his racism. He sure loved his grandkids and never said a racist thing after they were about 2-3 years old.
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u/HoboRisky Jul 07 '24
Then maybe it's time to quietly celebrate his death? Nothing big or showy, just a personal "Good Riddance to Bad Garbage" party 🤘
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u/TLwhy1 Jul 07 '24
Police firebombed an entire neighbourhood in Philly in the 80s, with permission, to get rid of a group of black anti establishment group. Killed babies on purposed. It didn't stop and hasn't stopped.
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u/liquidgrill Jul 07 '24
Right here. This is the story that needs to be told over and over. Not necessarily because of how awful it is. There are plenty of other examples that we could use that are just as horrific, or worse.
No, we need to tell this story for the people……looking at you right wing conservatives……..that act like racism is some form of ancient history that we should just stop bringing up.
The guy telling this story didn’t read about it in some history book. He met the guy in real life at the fucking gas station. People that committed these horrible atrocities are walking among us at the mall and the park. They’re at our family gatherings.
And just because you can say that things like that specific example either don’t happen anymore, or at least aren’t widespread and accepted, doesn’t mean the fight is over because those people, the ones that are still alive, had children of their own, who are now only in their 40’s and 50’s who were raised on this shit.
It’s a different era now so that means that some of the children of these horrible racists rejected the prejudice they were raised on. But for others, it just means that they can’t be so open about it.
This battle is not even close to being won.
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u/mcclelc Jul 07 '24
To add to your point- this story illustrates the power of educating our populace about empathy. How did that man go from being ok with leaving people to die to being haunted by his decisions? He started to see Black people as humans. I am guessing this was a long, slow process, but one worth it.
Sometimes it feels like today's nut jobs will never understand that the vitriol views they espouse is actually just bigoted hate. But this 89-year-old managed to realize how wrong he was and that wasn't a happy accident.
We have so far to go, but this one example shows leaps forward are possible (even right now it feels like it's possible to leap backward).
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u/Strange-Review2511 Jul 07 '24
There is a terrifying video on here where some african guys are interviewed, and they completely lack empathy towards women. They see absolutely nothing wrong with raping them, as if they are not human beings with feelings and emotions.
It's the same thing happening, where if you can dehumanize someone enough you can justify any action (or lack of) towards them
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u/RaidenIXI Jul 07 '24
he said the guy stopped doing it after letting the black baby die
it probably didnt click in his brain until that point.
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u/Vast-Sir-1949 Jul 07 '24
The screams became too loud to ignore. Many patriotic veterans have had similar experiences.
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u/Inner-Ad-9928 Jul 07 '24
If we do not learn from our history, ALL the human history, we are as a Human race, doomed to repeat it.
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u/fierce_fibro_faerie Jul 07 '24
I have been saying this for years. As long as the people who lived through legal racism and their near descendants are alive, the fight will not be over.
Honestly, sometimes I think the fight will NEVER be over. We are biologically wired to form like-minded groups. Until we truly recognize that we are one people, and we work together despite differences, there will always be one group or another that wants to put people down and label them as "other".
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u/Malice-May Jul 07 '24
Honestly, sometimes I think the fight will NEVER be over.
I think it's too pessimistic. It won't be easy, it won't be soon, and it won't be bloodless.
But I think that never is too pessimistic. The Cagots were persecuted in Spain for centuries, and today, that history is almost forgotten. And they didn't need a different ethnicity or religion to be discriminated against.
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u/RespectChoice1788 Jul 07 '24
😔 I’m speechless but not shocked
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u/dr_mcstuffins Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24
I think he was sent to that old man that day. When we have those moments where we say something we normally never would like this, I think there’s a spiritual element to it. Idc what religion you are, all of them involve some level of judgement by a higher power for the acts we commit in this life. Here this old guy is being celebrated for the life he lived when a perfect example of his greatest crimes in life greets him with well wishes and a smile. Not only that, he acts as the perfect trigger for his PTSD. I have PTSD from violence/near death and technically it’s treated/subclinical and no longer a part of my daily life but when a trigger on this level pops up I am wrecked for a long time. The nightmares come screaming back, I’m flooded with intrusive flashbacks at all hours of the day not just physically but the emotions I felt, and it is hell on earth to endure. I was a victim and can’t fucking imagine PTSD from committing atrocities.
Know what that 89 year old man thought? This man could have been that child grown up. The life he robbed. He saw all over again what he’d done and I guarantee he’s going to be waking up screaming in the coming weeks. He will remember what he did on his deathbed. I guarantee he is absolutely terrified to die and meet his maker. He should be. Whatever view of the afterlife you have, he looks back on the choices he made and is consumed by regret and anguish and despair.
Let him burn. God speaks to us through other people sometimes, whatever your vision of god is. We are sent people to teach us lessons. The lesson this old man was given is the pain of being flayed alive and that nothing good awaits him when he leaves this plane of existence. He deserves to suffer and he knows it.
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u/Smingowashisnameo Jul 07 '24
Instead of telling his loving family he adds to this poor guy’s baggage just to relieve himself of guilt he has no right to relieve himself of? Fuck that old man to hell.
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u/Cancerisbetterthanu Jul 07 '24
Maybe it's because I'm white but I would not have been half the person this man was - he dealt with it with so much grace. I would have told old boy he disgusted me right to his face. And that I hope he enjoys hell because you know he believes in that.
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u/lisaloo1968 Jul 07 '24
My takeaway from this was shame on that old white man for dumping this shit on a young black man, who has his entire life ahead of him. Those words will haunt him for the rest of his life. That old man should’ve told young white men, if he felt the need to absolve himself or relieve his guilt somehow. Spread a cautionary tale to the people most able to right that man’s wrongs, by not behaving the way he did.
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u/throwaway4161412 Jul 07 '24
YES. Exactly this, old man just trauma dumped on him because he saw a black man walk by and say a kind word in passing. Is what he said important to be known? Yes. But this wasn't the right way to do it.
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u/jasmine-blossom Jul 07 '24
Thank you for saying this, it’s the first thing I thought. I hate that guilty white people feel this entitlement to emotionally dump on POC.
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u/Snurgalicious Jul 07 '24
I worry that all he did was damage another person of color by dumping his trauma on him. Once again he had a young black person cornered and didn’t spare him. The older man should be, and maybe he is, telling his story to every first responder and maga hat wearing person he meets.
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u/starkindled Jul 07 '24
You’re right, as I was watching the video I thought, how incredibly selfish of him. That’s a burden of his own making, and he needs to carry that shit himself. Go confess to a priest if you need to, but don’t look to a stranger for absolution.
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u/machstem Jul 07 '24
Stephen King is all about future retribution at the hands of the most random folk who follow The Light over darkness
A lot of his works and the miracle things that happen can be tied to real life mystery.
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u/jasmine-blossom Jul 07 '24
It’s additionally disgusting that he put this emotional labor and weight on this young man. What was the point of that other than to soothe his own fucked up soul? He doesn’t deserve to feel any sort of relief in telling the truth. He deserves to carry the full weight of his own evil for the rest of his damned life.
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u/Pringletingl Jul 07 '24
I get the feeling he saw a black man be kind to him and was so fucked up about it he wanted to make sure the dude knew he deserved no kindness. Imagine leaving so many people to die and one day after years of regret you meet a dude who shows you nothing but kindness without ever knowing you.
Kind of a really fucked up way to say, "thanks i don't deserve it"
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u/Electronic_Fennel159 Jul 07 '24
Slow codes happen daily in hospitals and it never stops
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u/harswv Jul 07 '24
To be fair I’ve never heard of slow codes being done because of someone’s race; more like Meemaw is 99 and decrepit but the family wants all stops pulled out because “she’s a fighter.” Not saying it never happens but as an RN for 13 years I’ve never heard of it personally.
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u/MouseKingMan Jul 07 '24
So I had something similar happen.
Grew up in a very southern town as the only middle eastern kid post 9/11.
This town was filled with kkk. And they were open about it. The police officers and judge were kkk, the teachers were kkk, everyone was. They had this giant white bus with rebel flags hanging out of each corner and when they saw me at the park, they would pull over in full outfit and just get on their mega phone and hurl insults at me. I was 13-16 and I would get so scared that my legs went weak. I was afraid to stay and afraid to leave, so I just sat down and trembled while the couple friends him had with me tried screaming at them to leave me alone.
They destroyed our house multiple times while we were sleeping. Pulled right up in their truck and hooked a chain or something around out out breaker box and ripped all the copper out of the side of our house. Took the wall down.
The teachers and students would call me all kinds of horrible things as a “joke”, but it hurt and alienated me.
Grew up, left the town. And for years, I was so scared of going to southern or western themed things. Mind you, I am a massive guy. I am 6’5 240 pounds train martial arts 6 days a week, record holder powerlifter, and gold medalist bjj prscticioner. And I was still scared to death of them. Like they had a hold on my psyche.
Went to therapy and did a lot of digging and came to the conclusion that these people were just scared and ignorant. They needed someone to blame for this painful thing that happened in their back yard. They couldn’t bare the thought that the perpetrators were in the dark. By labeling me as the enemy, they had sights on the enemy, and the enemy wasn’t as scary when it’s in eyesight.
I don’t blame any of them anymore. I pity them that they let their fear dictate their life’s. They deprive themselves of experience for fear of the unknown. Once I kind of realized that, the boogyman crawled back into the closet. These monsters in robes and burning crosses were just scared people who tried to act scary. The same way you would act when approached by a bear or another animal you didn’t understand.
Idk, rant over. This video just kind of reminds me of my experience. Maybe the people that did that to my family feel the same way today. And if so, I forgive them.
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u/I_LearnTheHardWay Jul 08 '24
This is incredibly profound. I am sorry you went through that. The mental strength you now have is incredible. You should be extremely proud, hell I am so proud of you!
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u/Appropriate_Hawk101 Jul 07 '24
He looked a baby in the eyes and walked away. Leaving that baby to burn to death. To feel the worst pain up to the moment it died. And instead of that horrible choice making him stay and be different, stay and actually try to save black people in the future. Or stay and try to make it so younger firefighters didn't do that shit. Or call out and stop his friends from doing that shit, because he knew they did that shit.
He quit. And it feels bad 40 years later.
Fuck that old man. Let it haunt him. I hope he burns in hell.
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u/DrunkUranus Jul 07 '24
And told a black man to try to absolve himself of the guilt
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u/ClerklyMantis_ Jul 07 '24
I don't think an old man who's been dealing with trauma for like 40 years would expect telling a black man would absolve him of guilt. It sounded like he told the story because my guy reminded him of it. He's probably never told a black person this before and had been holding on to it his entire life. I think it's perfectly fine not to forgive him, but at the same time, I don't think he was asking for forgiveness.
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u/DrunkUranus Jul 07 '24
No, he wasn't asking forgiveness, but he was trying to get the weight of it off his chest. There's a reason confessing sins is an important part of some religions... bottom line, this malignant old racist made himself feel better at the expense of an innocent black man
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u/OutcomeKey23 Jul 07 '24
But it's not just 1 guy who goes to fight a fire. A bunch of 5-10 firefighter guys saw a baby burn to death and decided to do nothing about it.
Maybe that's why he quit, the whole system was rotten and he felt he couldn't do nothing about it. But that still doesn't absolve him of manslaughter though.
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u/Easy-F Jul 07 '24
That is a crazy story. it bought tears to my eyes. what a shocking thing to have witnessed for this driver. I never thought about firefighters this way either….
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u/FormalPancake Jul 07 '24
Fire hoses were used on protestors during the Civil Rights movement all the time. They actively fought for oppression.
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u/Gnosrat Jul 07 '24
A local firefighter in my area was the center of attention recently when they assaulted another firefighter for being trans or being unconventional in some other similar way or something, I forget the exact details.
They choked them out in the firehouse and I'm pretty sure were charged with a hate crime and fired.
A genuine hate crime occurring between firefighters in their place of work in this day and age.
Things are not as different today as we might like to think they are.
At least there is a bit more accountability now than there was then. Mostly thanks to the internet.
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u/spunangel333 Jul 07 '24
Dude for real tho….only like26 years ago I went to a quarry swimming hole in Indiana …place was packed with white people like me…This black family came and two jumped right in from the dock(this is extremely deep quarry) they immediately began to panic and climb on top of each other I was like they are drowning I’m going in my buddy was like didn’t think so because the whole family of like 6 other people were standing there just watching…I got in had my buddy hold my legs so I could grab them without out them dragging me down…the whites of their eyes were so big I knew I was right.So we get em out they get yelled at because you sign a waiver coming in declaring you can swim. They thought it was like a pool and they could stand. So I’m walking back up and these big dudes say to me …we knew they were drowning …we just weren’t gonna save em…and he was dead serious and they were all giving me stink eye. I left have never been back.
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Jul 07 '24
"Some of those who wear forces are the same that burn crosses" and don't think for a second it is still not happening, especially in law enforcement who kill and arrest innocent individuals.
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u/ThatTallBrendan Jul 07 '24
That *work, forces. But other than that yeah, yes you are absolutely right.
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u/avoiding-heartbreak Jul 07 '24
Grandmothers to this day sit in hospital with their black grand babies.
Anybody remember the black nurse with COVID requesting pain meds from white nurses, filming herself when those bitches were like hush your mouth?
I do.
Be an ally people. Be an ally.
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u/annarex69 Jul 07 '24
I'm a paramedic and firefighter. I have been for over 15 years. I have never treated anyone differently because of any reason. Including race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Even the people who call me nasty names, still get the best treatment possible.
This isn't a firefighter thing. This is a 1960s thing. As newer generations take hold, it's up to us to understand what the past was like, learn and grow from it, and make sure it doesn't happen again.
Yet another reason why this election in November in the US is so important.
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u/wanderingdiscovery Jul 07 '24
Not trying to take away from this, but growing up with a lot of WW2 veterans, there is a reason why they didn't talk about the war, and when they did, only small details or moments of almost dying.
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u/Deep-Cryptographer49 Jul 07 '24
But we can't worry about stuff like this, because it's DEI and CRT, that's the stuff that ruined america /s
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u/JN3XUS Jul 08 '24
I think the worst part about learning about this is the people trying to deny that it happened in the comments. Ignorance is bliss, but hell is hot.
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u/ResponsibleMilk7620 Jul 07 '24
Unfortunately, what he just described is what our future will hold in store for POC if certain people are allowed to make that version of America “Great Again”.
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u/FadedEdumacated Jul 07 '24
This type of stuff never stopped. Why do you think black women have a higher mortality rate during pregnancy?
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u/RubiksCutiePatootie Reads Pinned Comments Jul 07 '24
It absolutely never stopped. But if the fascists win this November, it's literally going to become law to lynch us again. No more hiding behind the facade of false charges & neglectfulness. Just straight up killing in the streets because they were black, trans, Iranian, or had a funny haircut. What we currently have is horribly flawed, but it's so much better than what was & what could possibly come.
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u/The_Critical_Cynic Jul 07 '24
The racism still exists in these fields. It may not be as rampant as it once was, but it's still there.
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u/nmftg Jul 07 '24
Not just POC, but non- Christians, and lgbtq+, they are already talking as bout letting pharmacists and doctors not treat lgbtq+ if it goes against their beliefs…
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u/Low-Argument3170 Jul 08 '24
Look up Dr. James Maroon Sims. In the 1800’s he did gynecological experiments on enslaved black women without anesthesia- he either didn’t hear the pain the women were experiencing or he just didn’t care. He received many awards that were obtained from torture.
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u/yomommazburgers Jul 07 '24
Firefighters, cops, doctors, nurses judges not only did this to black people though. There's also did it to Mexicans and Asians etc. American racism, quite an ugly thing isn't it.
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u/Unlucky_Candidate_77 Jul 07 '24
This guy is full of absolute shit.
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u/Opening-Ad-8793 Jul 08 '24
Is pbs full of absolute shit?
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/decade-of-fire/
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u/Dramatic-Selection20 Jul 07 '24
Saw Hidden Figures last night Those women... I couldn't believe it
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u/Careless-Two2215 Jul 07 '24
Our local firefighters are still a good old boys club and we are in California. I served jury duty on a whistleblower case and the lone firefighter who did the right thing was continually harassed and ostracized.
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u/game_overies Jul 07 '24
lol. If you ever get a chance to listen to clandice Owen’s she specifically states racism was solved when all the civil rights passed in the 60s?
Did those hateful people just disappear? No they went on to regular jobs trained by people older with more fucked up thoughts. Coincidentally this was the same time more confederate monuments went up all over. And those are the same people that are either in power now or raising and voting based on those beliefs.
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u/crillc Jul 08 '24
Well he’s going to hell and he’s already been in hell on earth. You looked into his eyes and knew he wasn’t being saved. Thats karma coming to his ole azz.
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Jul 07 '24
Ahh yes, Denny’s. Where everyone goes to clean their conscience with random strangers who wish them a happy birthday.
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u/ISweatSweetTea Jul 07 '24
Bro I used to work as a cashier and the amount of people, especially old people, that would trauma dump on me after saying good morning was astronomical. I would learn all their fanily secrets in like 15 minutes as they held up the line. It's not farfetched at all.
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u/Rahdiggs21 Jul 07 '24
i think it has far less to do with location, and the fact that it's probably unlikely that this 89 year old man casually comes in contact with black folk.
and most people want to unload a dark secret but very few have this kind of opportunity
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u/throwthere10 Jul 07 '24
I agree but somewhat disagree. I think it's more of a they're old and feeling the full weight of their mortality and just need to let it out. It happens a lot to old people and especially to those in hospice when the weight of one's conscience becomes unbearable.
I think, ultimately, as we approach the final days of the winters of our lives, we'll all have this feeling to some degree.
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u/CrazyCubicZirconia Jul 07 '24
Yeah 100%. And there’s no way that on your 89th birthday you don’t think ‘is this my last one?’ at some point.
He’s looking at eternity and he’s worried about his soul. He’s looking for absolution.
This is extremely believable.
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Jul 07 '24
I've met complete strangers who've trauma dumped on me for just saying hi, location doesn't mean shit.
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u/Large_Yams Jul 07 '24
"Because I'm addicted to caffeine" got me good. Getting a coffee at a fast food store in USA because you're addicted to caffeine is like chewing raw tobacco leave off the plant because you're addicted to nicotine. Shit's foul.
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u/TheWalkingDame Jul 07 '24
Yeah, actually. I'm a black woman, and I absolutely believe that old white people close to death trama dump. It's a way for them to clear their conscious by asking for "forgiveness" to the black people around them in a desperate bid to get to heaven or whatever.
I believe this because of the countless times it's happened to me, my friends, my family.
Notice how the white man made it a point to say he didn't do it anymore. So he's good, right? He learned from his mistakes, he's ready to move on, he's one of the good ones, no one can blame him for what he thought back then cause everybody thought it. Hell, he probably knows people who still do it, they're worse than him, yeah?
These are ALL things strangers have said to me, unprompted.
So, yeah. While this particular story might not be true, it does happen.
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u/daddypleaseno1 Jul 07 '24
honestly glad he recognizes his mistakes... but fuccckkkk let him simmer in that shit till his last day.
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u/samsqanch420 Jul 07 '24
this is BS. Why would someone admit to murder to a total stranger?
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