Larry BerganWho Is Counciling The Ad Council?
I was walking along on Murray-Holladay road just above Holladay Blvd. and my jaw dropped when I saw this billboard. Am I overreacting, or is this just outright racism peddled by the justice department? This is put out by an organization called “Project Safe Neighborhoods“, which is funded with billions of taxpayer dollars.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I’m really glad I’m not the only one offended by these. They have a ton of them all over, and it pisses me off every time I drive by one of them.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
It’s a weird ad. Are the people supposed to be victims or suspects?
March 11th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
It is reflective of the sad statistical fact that the leading cause of death for a black male under the age of 29, is being killed via homicide, usually with a gun, usually at the hands of another black man. Societal conditions contributing, they are pulling the trigger on each other.
That is the sad litany. Good ad. Like a crack ad, or any ad addressing other elements of society that are a horror show.
March 11th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
When you drive by these, it’s very hard to notice anything about them except the words “gun crimes” and black people standing in a lineup. The organization’s name is impossible to read unless you stop and get out of your car, but that doesn’t matter because even if you see everything on it, it still sends the message that this organization has to stop black people from killing each other.
Everybody knows that black people are prosecuted more harshly then whites in the drug war. They even decided to stop prosecuting crack users more harshly then cocaine users because of this fact very recently. When they made alcohol illegal they did it legally by changing the constitution and it created the Mafia and violent (white on white) gun crimes so they backtracked and changed the constitution back.
Now we have The Drug War complete with Drug Czars and have completely ignored the constitution for decades. What did we think was going to happen?
This has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with the creation of an underclass BASED on skin color. America has more people in prison then China. It’s time to wake up and start treating drugs like alcohol. If you made tobacco illegal tomorrow, it would produce much more violence in our society. This is crazy!
March 12th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Oh please. Nobody is pulling the triggers on these young men but their enemy cohorts of color.
Whatever the legality of a substance, why is it that you Larry, aren’t compelled to deal up and murder your competition?
Answer: You spend too much time on OneUtah.org?
Face up. Bill Cosby can, even Jesse is glad when some one walking up behind him is White. You want me pull that quote up? ‘Cuz I will.
Why can’t progressives see this obvious truth?
In addition, do you think that those people on the poster are Al Jolsened? C’mon, reality is needed to solve problems, not some twisted nonsense that leaves all of us twisting in the wind.
Legality of drugs and punishment aside, speak to the reality of black on black male murder, for whatever reason, and ask yourself if you think their “reasons” are reasonable.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Forgive any problem my comment here might have in regard to the restatement of the obvious, but there is a group of citizens, that for obvious reasons, have historically been discriminated against, who have struggled with the poverty, ghettoizing, and other downsides to being ‘different’, all the way to self-loathing and criminality. This is just another feature of the class war that we humans never seem to be able to rise above. I need my scapegoats so I can feel superior, and whoever that scapegoat might be will just have to deal with the ramifications of my position. The death camps of the Nazi’s were staffed in part by Jews, willing to do whatever it took to save thier own skins. Understandable. Given this characteristic of the race (human), such travail will likely always be part of the deal. Just sayin’.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Wow Glenn (pop goes the list)! Should we take you seriously here? I know you to be many things, but an ignorant racist was not one of them before.
I mean, I knew you hated Mexicans, but I thought you meant just the illegal ones. I guess I was wrong.
Any other racists interpretation of minority and class struggle with which you’d like to regale us?
When I white man shoots another white man, are all white people to blame?
March 12th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Well said, caveat!
There are some good signs that things could change. Yesterday I heard an album by Gladys Knight, who is a Mormon, redoing some old Mormon church hymns to a revival meeting flavor and it is fantastic!
I may start going to church if I can feel happy like that instead of falling asleep. Something like that would have been impossible just a couple of decades ago. Church authorities would have put an end to it calling it a bunch of jungle music.
I’m not an expert on any modern music, but I’ve heard rap music started out as something very positive, with talented people just getting up and speaking their minds. Then the corporate music empire became involved and turned it into something scary and dark, probably on purpose. Sorry, all you rap fans out there, but bling-bling makes me sick.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Larry, three / four months ago we suggested Gladys Knight run for the presidency. In one cantidate we’d have had everything that distinguished Mitt, Obama AND Hillary. I hadn’t even thought of the very valuable aspect of the ‘feel-good rockin’ gospelly tunage’. You are correct.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Straw man again, pushing the only names. It is terribly weak, you aren’t getting much better at this sort of thing. Where have I written anywhere that I blame the entire black population for male black on black homicide?
Cliff use the edit feature, your spelling is all over the place(laugh).
I don’t hate anyone, that is you talking, and you are pretty devisive in the inflammatory rhetoric you bandy about. Go correct your “top post” spelling errors. I can understand your frustration, this democrat quandry that is coming to head like I said it would months ago, must have you down, and then spitzer “fucking up”.
The statistics speak for themselves, whatever the sophistry describing the reasons for male black on black homicide in the US, the fact remains they are killing each other.
The above that I wrote is a paraphrase of what Bill Cosby presents to people when questioned on the subject. Can he be a racist against his own People? The self hating African American is born. I have lived to see the day!!
I would gladly help the situation, by understanding their problems…, however whatever their problems are, in any rational sense, it doesn’t justify murder. You all know this. Do you excuse the murdering behavior? Defending yourself is manslaughter or no crime at all, what we are seeing manifested, is plain old murder.
Statistics are what they are, numbers of murders, race of victim, sex etc etc. Sort of like the fact that that Mexico has a higher per capita murder rate than the US, despite personal guns being illegal, and that is just what is reported.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
glenn:
It doesn’t matter how many super rich black athletes or rap stars parade around on your television screen, it is a plain fact that opportunities for blacks to advance in our society are much less then for whites. It’s been that way for centuries. Sometimes the extra requirements they need to participate are not even subtile. Why did previous black candidates for president need to have the word reverend in front of their names. Huckabee was a reverend. Why didn’t everybody call him “Reverend Mike Huckabee?”
This double standard convinces a lot of blacks to get into drug dealing or other consensual “crimes” where there’s a ton of money to be made because of their “illegality”. Didn’t you ever see “The Treasure of The Sierra Madre?” Everybody’s fine until they get too close to somebody else’s treasure. Add to that the very real possibility of hard prison time and the paranoia sets in. White vs white. Black vs black makes no difference in that world. You and I will never know what it means to be black in America though. Don’t even try, dude.
Imagine your picture on that billboard put out by the United States Justice Department. Would you think they were just trying to help you or take your gun away like they did to the poor people in New Orleans. Did you catch that glenn…
Take YOUR gun away and leave everybody else WITH theirs. Like I’ve said before, I don’t personally own a gun but I know it’s the most important thing in YOUR life.
Oh please, indeed!
March 12th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Whatever, I don’t own a TV, or watch it. As for the billboard, you make it sound like the people on it were held hostage and forced to pose. I’m sure they volunteered and were payed something. They know how deep problem is. Your posturing is ridiculous.
You watch far too much television Larry.
More ways than a gun to protect yourself Larry, one is making for higher ground when a hurricane is coming, if survival is your goal. These hypotheticals are pointless. More twilight zone, and TV references, it is small wonder we are in such deep shit.
Granted no one is born equal, but now you make excuses for murder. I refer you to Bill Cosby and other black high achievers. All the authors commenting in the link are black. I may not “know” what it is to live a black life in your opinion, I do however know how to read. You do too.
I won’t waste any more of my time trying to explain it to you.
http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/bcill.htm
Here is a sample of Bill’s angle on it. You Larry are aiding in keeping the black man down, sympathy is great, as long as it isn’t misplaced, sure that sympathy isn’t to make you feel better?
“For me there is a time … when we have to turn the mirror around,” he said. “Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the White man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you’re sitting in.”
Here is J. Jackson responding to Cosbys’ comments…
“This is a common message,†Jackson said, “Go into any Black church and you’ll hear the same message.â€
Are you sure you have any idea at all what black people think?
March 13th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Oh glenn:
I started to read some of the stuff from your first link. The second post was from Armstrong Williams. He is commending Cosby for not being politically correct and talking about how blacks can be successful. Do you know who Williams is? He got paid $250,000 to promote Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” nonsense. Since it was illegal, he had to pay back something like $25,000. Some success story. I don’t have any time to read crap like that.
I respect Bill Cosby highly and believe he is right. You can’t sit around complaining and expect good things to happen in your life no matter how hard things are, but that doesn’t change the fact that Bush’s policies create a class of people who will never have to work and get their kicks from pitying or using those around them. This is not what I want for my country.
The people in the ad probably DID get paid to do the ad and actually thought the guys who paid them were doing good things for the neighborhood. The guys who PAID them probably thought they were trying to help. The people who prosecute them think they’re helping by filling up the prisons. It’s a hard thing to believe you’re working like the devil for nothing, but that’s exactly what most of us do.
There has to be a better way.