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posted by martyb on Saturday October 29 2016, @02:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the whatever-happened-to-DEsegregation? dept.

The Washington Times reports a story about protesters on the UC Berkeley campus physically blocking white students from accessing a bridge while police stand by and watch:

Students at the University of California, Berkeley held a day of protest on Friday to demand the creation of additional “safe spaces” for transgender and nonwhite students, during which a human chain was formed on a main campus artery to prevent white students from getting to class.

The demonstrators were caught on video blocking Berkeley’s Sather Gate, holding large banners advocating the creation of physical spaces segregated by race and gender identity, including one that read “Fight 4 Spaces of Color.”

Protesters can be heard shouting “Go around!” to white students who attempt to go through the blockade, while students of color are greeted with calls of “Let him through!”

Students turned away by the mob are later shown filing through trees and ducking under branches in order to cross Strawberry Creek, which runs underneath the bridge.

The protests were a response to a Safe Space being moved from the fifth floor of a building down to the basement.


[Original version of this story had "UCLA"; corrected to: "UC Berkeley" -Ed.]

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  • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:51PM

    by JNCF (4317) on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:51PM (#420315) Journal

    What more plausible explanation is there for all of those suspicious cuts?

    I'm not sure exactly which cuts you are talking about. I think the particular one we were discussing before is mid-way through 0:02, and off the top of my head I can see a couple of plausible explanations for it that aren't purposefully deceptive. The camera operator could have had to swap some equipment (batteries, tapes, or memory cards), I've had that fuck up otherwise good shots when documenting an event. I have also seen people make edits like that when their camera work is especially shitty, like if they jerked the camera around (or somebody bumped into it) and they then pointed it back where it belonged and decided it was less disorienting to chop out the sudden movement than to keep it in. Note that the angle changes significantly. I wouldn't agree with that editing decision in a video like this, but I've seen it done by others and I wouldn't be surprised by it.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @11:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @11:01PM (#420319)

    > I'm not sure exactly which cuts you are talking about.

    Every single example of non-white people supposedly getting preferential treatment. None of them show both before and after, there is always a hard cut right where the best evidence would be. This case where cut hides whatever preceded the guys breaking through the line. Then two pairs of girls entering the line around 1:30 - cut immediately after each pair crosses the threshold. We don't see them continuing on their merry way.

    Maybe you can excuse it one time. But not every time. The whole story is based on footage that is not present. It is blatantly manipulative and the only people who would be fooled by it are people who want to be fooled by it.

    • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Sunday October 30 2016, @01:13AM

      by JNCF (4317) on Sunday October 30 2016, @01:13AM (#420394) Journal

      If we're now talking about cuts that happen at the beginning and end of a scene, and not in the middle, much less of an explanation is necessary. Those could simply be a matter of taste by the editor. Imagine for a moment that the events did transpire the way the video presents them -- the video shows enough to document this. Only in light of contradictory claims does the follow-through matter. Again, I'd love to see the unedited video, but I can also see how these cuts could be made in good faith.

      We're only disagreeing about what is the most likely way the event in the video happened, correct? We agree that if the protesters were actually barring access to the bridge based on the metric of whiteness, that would be an unacceptable action?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @09:08PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @09:08PM (#420640)

        > Those could simply be a matter of taste by the editor.

        Your willingness to make up explanations has convinced me you are past arguing in good faith. If you honestly believe that baloney, then I'm confident that even the unedited video would fail to convince you.

        > We agree that if the protesters were actually barring access to the bridge based on the metric of whiteness, that would be an unacceptable action?

        Yes. Why is that even a question? Seriously. Where the fuck did that come from? First you make up the most implausible excuses for the video editor and now you implicitly accuse me of supporting racism. That tells me your entire world view is completely out of whack. That you would suspect that, despite absolutely no discussion of that point, says you exist in a completely different headspace from what I consider intellectually honest.

        • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Sunday October 30 2016, @11:25PM

          by JNCF (4317) on Sunday October 30 2016, @11:25PM (#420704) Journal

          Pot and kettle, buddy. I didn't accuse you of racism, I asked your opinion. I was legitimately curious, and to me you're a random AC so I can't accurately model how you view the world. You're the one who's accusing me of being biased in my interpretations past the point of good faith. I think we're all biased about all kinds of things in ways we can't understand, and I can't rule out that any given interpretation of events that I have might be biased by mental subroutines I'm not even aware of, but to be past the point of good faith requires intent. I can gaurantee that I don't have such intent, but you'd have to take my word on it, which you won't, so we're done. Happy Halloween! I hope you aren't unduly stressed over a conversation with a stranger on the internet.