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Police Called On 3-Year-Old Black Boy Because He Was Too Good At Soccer (blacksportsonline.com)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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[–] 10 points 1 week ago (9 children)

The fact is the police were called and legal action was taken. Now that it has been escalated to involve the power of state force, that invites a challenge to the charge based on equal accommodations laws.

Considering the state of the society is such that John Oliver's most recent LWT segment is about neo-nazi entrenchment in the party in power, we can't look at this incident and not see a racism mattar. We have to consider if the response of the other parents to invoke law enforcement would have occurred if the color of the offending family was a few shades lighter.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    It's always good to check; reportedly, the team is already quite diverse, and black parents were among those filing complaints.

    The father had been coaching the child who turned out to be quite skilled, and had enrolled him in a very beginner rec league. He got his viral videos out there and started tagging teams and schools. He got the publicity he was looking for, and the facility had him removed and issued a refund because the child's advanced training and subsequent skill level/play were inappropriate for their beginner rec league.

    . We have to consider if the response of the other parents to invoke law enforcement would have occurred if the color of the offending family was a few shades lighter.

    This is not substianted, you can review the videos posted by the father and see the makeup of the team was not primarily white. No other kids were removed from the team.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Yes. As more details of the incident became known to me, my position has evolved. It appears the police were called regarding the behavior of the father, and the response by the police was temperate.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    "Because police and a black person were involved, we can't NOT assume it's racism"

    Riiiiiiiight. The fact that this bat shit insane comment is upvoted is an indictment on Lemmy

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    I did add context that one of the primary political parties — the one in power, in fact — is openly white supremacist and xenophobic. Hate crimes surged in 2016 by 68% and haven't dropped since. Literal lynchings in the US have become conspicuously more frequent.

    Even before Trump, police and the justice system have been demonstrably dangerous to black Americans.

    So, yes?

    Maybe if we wanted to take interracial tolerance in the US for granted, we shouldn't have voted a white supremacist into office, which Americans did twice, specifically for his racist and white supremacist views. Maybe the response to Brianna Taylor and Heorge Floyd should have followed through on police reform.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

    I'm not claiming racism doesn't exist, or doesn't exist in America, or that the police force isn't often racist (intentionally or otherwise).

    My claim is after looking into all the details of the situation, it's the unfortunate reality that the kid WAS literally just too good. It's funny to say but it's the actual fact. He was too good, and didn't belong. On top of that the parents were being problematic which is the real reason the cops were called. If the parents just chilled and acted like reasonable adults then nothing would have happened.

    A blanket perspective of "A bad thing happened to a non-white person, therefor, the bad thing happened because they are non-white" is barley better than the full throated maga racists and it infantilizes and removes autonomy of non-white people. Sometimes the reality is that non-white people DO deserve the cops called on them. It's not the case that the police involvement is ALWAYS racist.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    They called the police in a situation where the need for police is implausible. There were parents there, yes? I assume they were sober. Why didn't they manage the situation as might mature adults?

    No, they escalated to state intervention, and that means question of equal accommodations can be raised, if the state has laws mandating them.

    But it also raises the question of racism, especially if that was the only black family in the group.

    Racism doesn't merely exist in the US, it's the dominant culture right now. So yes, it's entirely appropriate to expect it and catalog when it happens.

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