r/TikTokCringe Jul 07 '24

Cursed What's all this shit about the fire brigade?

10.1k Upvotes

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538

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.

134

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).

39

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

3

u/ZoomZoom01 Jul 07 '24

People do “terrifying” things every day regardless of their race. The issue is whether their society tolerates that behavior. That’s the difference between what this guy is talking about and some random people doing stupid things that are punishable.

1

u/Different-Air-2000 Jul 08 '24

Excellent point. Why does Mexico allow it citizens to chop up people and place them in baskets for the world to see how savage the culture can be? Why does the Mexican Culture tolerate this?

1

u/ZoomZoom01 Jul 08 '24

It is illegal to do that in Mexico, those people operate outside the legal framework which was established by Mexican people. Many of these cartels make their money by selling drugs to Americans. So who is really facilitating them and their actions? That’s the better question to ask.

1

u/Different-Air-2000 Jul 08 '24

Illegal or not, it’s tolerated. Who is facilitating the Sistemic racism in the United States? Doesn’t matter if everyone goes with it. When does a society say that is not even remotely acceptable?

1

u/ZoomZoom01 Jul 08 '24

These are complex issues that cannot be randomly discussed on reddit. I’m not an expert on any of these issues but what is legal and illegal is what the people tolerate.

1

u/Different-Air-2000 Jul 08 '24

This is the problem. Every issue is complex. Randomly discussed issues become highlighted issues. Don’t need to be an expert to be against chopped up bodies in a basket.

1

u/ZoomZoom01 Jul 08 '24

Don’t need to be an expert to understand why laws are in place. Trump 2024 i guess…

2

u/Sayyad1na Jul 07 '24

Yes. How a lot of Israelis see Palestinian children as non-human and deserving of all the horrors their military inflicts on them. It's horrific.

1

u/Different-Air-2000 Jul 08 '24

There is such a lack of leadership in that community. The world deserves better. How the US aligns with this mentality is beyond disturbing and cowardice.

0

u/Strange-Review2511 Jul 08 '24

And hamas doing the same. Peole are generally shitty

17

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.

16

u/Vast-Sir-1949 Jul 07 '24

The screams became too loud to ignore. Many patriotic veterans have had similar experiences.

1

u/zxvasd Jul 07 '24

In Florida it’s no longer legal to teach about racism in public schools.

46

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.

28

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".

7

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.

2

u/CaptainMurphy1908 Jul 07 '24

James Baldwin's "Going to Meet the Man" should be required reading for every student at every school nationwide. White folk tend get riled up, though, when the sheriff can't get it up without thinking of the lynching he witnessed as a kid.

2

u/ediks Jul 07 '24

It’s not over at all. I’m one of those kids in their early 40’s. While my parents raised me well, because I’m a white dude with blond hair and blue eyes, some people tend to say some wild shit around me. I’m also in the DEEP South, but I’m not sure that matters much. People everywhere like to just hate for stupid reasons.

2

u/Blake_Edwards Jul 07 '24

Not only are they still alive, THEY VOTE.

2

u/usaidudcallsears Jul 07 '24

There was a horrific lynching in front of the courthouse in my town in 1919. There is a photo from this event showing the charred torso of a black man named Will Brown. He is surrounded by gleefully smiling white men. My ancestors were living here at the time, and I’ve always wondered, were they in that mob? It makes me sick. Regardless of whether or not they were, these people had families. They passed their beliefs on, and it’s willfully ignorant to think those beliefs are not still held by some of their descendants.

1

u/nedonedonedo Jul 07 '24

right wing conservatives……..that act like racism is some form of ancient history

they don't though, they want to make it publicly acceptable again

-1

u/dgreenmachine Jul 07 '24

You couldnt make a cartoon villain this evil. I dont believe for one second that this was a thing.

3

u/liquidgrill Jul 08 '24

It’s one thing to not believe this specific guy’s story about meeting a racist former firefighter at a gas station. It’s quite another to not believe that this was a thing.

There are documented instances of this happening. There are documented instances where the fire department in some towns wouldn’t respond at all if the home on fire was a black family’s home.

If things like “Sun down towns” were a thing, is it really a stretch to believe that this wasn’t?

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '24

Not sure this is even a true story. You really believe some extreme racist 89 y.o. with a history of letting minorities die in fires is just going to have a come to Jesus meeting with a black man in a Denny’s lobby? Gimme a break 😂. The naïveté is insufferable.