I hate to dismiss anything out of hand but use of the term "cis" usually results in it

When we say Black Lives Matter, we are talking about the ways in which Black people are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity. It is an acknowledgement Black poverty and genocide is state violence. It is an acknowledgment that 1 million Black people are locked in cages in this country–one half of all people in prisons or jails–is an act of state violence. It is an acknowledgment that Black women continue to bear the burden of a relentless assault on our children and our families and that assault is an act of state violence. Black queer and trans folks bearing a unique burden in a hetero-patriarchal society that disposes of us like garbage and simultaneously fetishizes us and profits off of us is state violence; the fact that 500,000 Black people in the US are undocumented immigrants and relegated to the shadows is state violence;.the fact that Black girls are used as negotiating chips during times of conflict and war is state violence; Black folks living with disabilities and different abilities bear the burden of state-sponsored Darwinian experiments that attempt to squeeze us into boxes of normality defined by White supremacy is state violence. And the fact is that the lives of Black people—not ALL people—exist within these conditions is consequence of state violence.

#BlackLivesMatter doesn’t mean your life isn’t important–it means that Black lives, which are seen as without value within White supremacy, are important to your liberation. Given the disproportionate impact state violence has on Black lives, we understand that when Black people in this country get free, the benefits will be wide reaching and transformative for society as a whole. When we are able to end hyper-criminalization and sexualization of Black people and end the poverty, control, and surveillance of Black people, every single person in this world has a better shot at getting and staying free. When Black people get free, everybody gets free. This is why we call on Black people and our allies to take up the call that Black lives matter. We’re not saying Black lives are more important than other lives, or that other lives are not criminalized and oppressed in various ways. We remain in active solidarity with all oppressed people who are fighting for their liberation and we know that our destinies are intertwined.

And, to keep it real–it is appropriate and necessary to have strategy and action centered around Blackness without other non-Black communities of color, or White folks for that matter, needing to find a place and a way to center themselves within it. It is appropriate and necessary for us to acknowledge the critical role that Black lives and struggles for Black liberation have played in inspiring and anchoring, through practice and theory, social movements for the liberation of all people. The women’s movement, the Chicano liberation movement, queer movements, and many more have adopted the strategies, tactics and theory of the Black liberation movement. And if we are committed to a world where all lives matter, we are called to support the very movement that inspired and activated so many more. That means supporting and acknowledging Black lives.

The practical solution is to bring to justice cops who wrongly kill suspects, many of whom are black.

What is justice?

If the suspect is fighting or fleeing how does that impact "justice"? And there is not video footage or only partial footage in many cases. What does that mean for justice?

This will all work itself out in the next few decades when everyone is of mixed race, just as we have seen it happen with mixed ethnicity.

Not much of a history buff huh?

Coates favors massive federal investment in impoverished black neighborhoods as a form of reparations for slavery.

guess not

enlighten

It certainly is not straight forward. Justice is not a clearly defined term. Certainly not in the case of an angry crowd chanting it.

how are the ethnic enclaves, ones that existed even into our lifetimes, of every big US city holding up these days

His fix society idea is beyond vague

1.) Poorly! We have a family of dagos on our block. Can you believe that--dagos in Beverly?

2.) Whites don't need ethnicity any longer. Race does all that organizational work now. (Class does, too.) But it would be interesting to see if race does end up following the same model ethnicity does, and, if so, how long it will take--and what will replace race as the new mechanism of exclusion.

Slavery happened more than 150 years ago now, and the Civil War was blood reparations. Should we also pay reparations to the Chinese for racist immigration policies or to the Cubans for the Bay of Pigs?

It's a terrible slippery slope.

Also, Coates never specifies what he means by reparations. What exactly? A check from who? Should we separate the black tax payer money from the white? And why should people born in the last say the last 40 years pay for Jim Crow or slavery?

Affirmative action was reparations. Black history month and cultural sensitivity training are reparations.

Reparations for Coates seem to be a vague an unattainable goal of making him feel better for past slights and crimes.

In fairness to Coates, he wants reparations ("respirations") more for segregation and Jim Crow than for slavery.

There are ethnic conflicts in Europe that are at least 800 years old that marriages have not put to rest.

It already is.

Multiracial population in the US is growing at a rate three times faster than the general population.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/06/11/multiracial-in-america/

completely different situation

how are the ethnic enclaves, ones that existed even into our lifetimes, of every big US city holding up these days

Regardless of what all people view as the solutions to the many problems in our society something very important is missing. Immediacy. Since the 50's and especially late 60's and 70's many people had plans and well intended solutions. People are misled by leaders of all sorts as well as media outlets that the great ideas will fix things. Many so called fixes can take many many years to show not only results but if the results are actually positive.

I am sure if there were a message board back then many would have thought the Chicago Housing Authority was a great idea. People probably welcomed it. It took how long to see it was a failure and Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor torn down?

A part of this is politics. Pols promise grand solutions that are not even possible to really see results in their terms or possibly their lives. Unfortunately, people expect to realize these promises in a much faster time frame.

Do any of us really have a grand solution to much that can be realized quickly?

In the beginning Public Housing was considered a good thing. The first secretary of public housing sought to integrate. She believed that in order for it to be successful there would need to be integration. This plan was nixed by white alderman and largely driven by whites in the outlying communities.

In 1966 a lawsuit was filed by a CHA resident which stated that public housing had been unsuccessful largely because it'd primarily been built in black ghetto areas. She "won" the suit and in exchange for winning the courts ruled that any new public housing would have to be built in white areas. As a result of this local politicians simply decided to build no new public housing.

The thinking behind public housing was sound, and in the beginning there were some benefits. The public housing of the 1950's was starkly different from that of the 90's. It had a chance to be successful but political and societal factors combined to kill whatever hope that Elizabeth Wood originally had for it.