"The way people (mostly liberals) are using almost every situation to claim a social justice/racial incident is truly getting distressing."

Boaz is in distress.
Get him to a Safe Space!

"It is pertinent to the story considering that of the people being held who can't afford bail 8 out of 10 are lazy."

Edited for Boaz's world view.

"Actually, the system worked in this case"

Five days in jail for a false accusation, and Boaz says the system is working!
#MAGA

"You, Zed and a couple of others are really starting to suck when it comes to trolling."

You suck at not being racist, Boaz.

Like living in America.

"It's about culture and Liberals/Democrats/Feminists have surely screwed up the black family."

What happened to blacks screwed themselves, by doing too many crimes and being too lazy?

"I'm black and I've never been near the penal system."

Really, you've never even been pulled over while driving your car?

"change requires black agency. Which you folk deny, institutuionally."

I don't think I do that.
If you had examples of us people denying blacks a sense of agency, that might help advance the discussion.

"anything wrong must be OUR fault completely"

It's not about fault, it's about circumstance, and opportunity.
The poorer you are in America, the less opportunity life affords you.
So long as people are poor, they're going to struggle. Poor whites struggle too, but they don't have the racial animus of institutions stacked against them quite as hard.

I don't see why blacks should be expected to be doing better than they are. Slaves for 150 years before America was created, then slaves for another 100 years, then Jim Crow for 100 years, and finally 50 years of on-paper-only legal equality. There's still about 250 years of catching up to do... during which time, whites will be advancing too.

"The unfortunate thing in this country is that we are under the impression we are struggling."

There are people in this country that don't know how to cook a meal.
Calling it a struggle isn't a strong enough word.
It's a form of cultural illiteracy.

"It is also a sad commentary on neighbors"

It Takes A Village.

(We don't have those, not for everyone.)

"Even though we have that "catching up", it doesnt help the journey if we are inflicting our own wounds by having a culture that refuses to assimilate"

What's this "we" stuff?

Why isn't it on whites assimilate to black culture?

Because you think white culture is better.

That's your racism in a nutshell.

Beastie Boys made it okay for whites to like rap. That actually helps keep blacks down, right, by celebrating their ghetto culture, right?

You're blaming blacks for not assimilating. You seem to think the black cture, placed in poverty for centuries and excluded by white oppressors, can now assimilate themselves to economic parity with whites, in a system that's still purposed to exploit and exclude the poor. In truth, if the boss man doesn't hire or promote blacks, there's not really much you can do except get another job.

You act like equal opportunity is there, if they'd just stop saggin the pants.

You spent too much time in the liberal socialist armed forces where blacks get promoted. The real world ain't like that.

"Maybe the race needs to stop doing things that get them involved with the penal system.
#5 | POSTED BY BOAZ"

Maybe you need to ask an expert to explain institutional racism to you.

Rsty's been trying for at least five years, and your only response is to dismiss him as a liberal ambassador of white guilt.

Your ignorance represents everything you say blacks should have been able to overcome by now. Why haven't you been able to assimilate to the white understanding that systemic racism plays a huge role in America?

Because you're a racist piece of ---- who never found a black who couldn't have acted whiter to stay out of trouble.

"Example of denial of black agency: "blacks shouldn't be expected to be doing any better than they are."

Blacks really do have less agency, through both poverty and racism.

I'm not denying them agency by saying that.

I'm describing the problem, which is exactly as you say: A lack of agency. Then I'm saying why would anyone expect such people to thrive in that environment.

"Snoofdog, I appreciate your posts and humor. I am left with the question: why do liberal white folk deny the agency of blacks?"

I never addressed this more broadly.

This is a real problem.

The articles my device wants me to read had one about some white do-gooders from the suburbs who got the green idea to plant trees around the poor black parts of Detroit.

The imperiousness of deciding for the black community that black people would openly welcome trust a bunch of ousider whites -- We're only trying to help you poor people! -- was completely lost on them.

Too much empathy, not enough sympathy.

Black neighborhoods need capital investment more than they need trees, but hey, trees is a big feel-good thing right now. You might even call it virtue signaling. It's well intended, but fatally flawed because it was conceived in the vacuum of the black experience.

People need buy-in, not handouts.

And in case you're wondering why I still favor handouts, it's because the buy-in opportunities are still severely lacking.