“Nevertheless, white privilege often carries with it a negative connotation.”
@fractalmstr – so does “we only shoot black people” !! Which is the subject of this entire conversation !!
@partyof5 agreed. It’s a coveted job. There are people who can fill positions once racists are ousted.
ETA: White privilege should have a negative connotation. It’s a bad thing. It leads to over-incarceration/institutionalization, high rates of poverty, lower rates of education, and higher killings “accidental” or otherwise of people of color.
White privilege needs to be recognized and challenged at every turn.
White privilege is not inherently bad. What is bad is that not everyone shares that same privilege.
Uh…sure. White privilege causes all of these things. Nothing to do with high rates of single parenthood (unless of course, that is the fault of white privilege). Sure, the fact that vast majority of blacks are killed by other blacks…yeah, white privilege.
Let’s not look into any of the actual causes of these problems, forget about the excessive number of private prisons, too many people incarcerated for drugs, too many single parents at young ages, gangs, easy access to guns. Let’s just blame it all on white privilege. Make all these evil white people feel guilty for privilege they have and the fact that every one of these problems are all THEIR fault, and that’s going to fix it. 
So, @busdriver11, are you saying that the things you mention - single parenthood, incarceration, etc. - are determined by the color of their skin and not a result of outside influences?
The history of our country and how it is structured contributes to all these things, IMO. It’s not genetic. You’ve got to keep tracing backwards and see the root causes, a lot of which is steeped in white control and prejudices. Not everyone gets a fair shake.
Seriously, don’t dump all people into a category. I am a white female, who grew up as a privileged child. I then had a child of color as a single parent. Don’t dump me into your category as losers. My child is now a physician, and I am proud that she is what she is, not coming anything.
Nothing is or should be determined by the color of your skin. There are all sorts of reasons why things happen, but blaming problems on white privilege isn’t going to solve anything. Going in that direction is a big reason why we are in the divided situation we are in this country today. Millions of people in tough situations being blamed for all the ills of the world because of the color of their skin…when they are struggling too.
Look at the system not the individual people. There’s a difference.
Perhaps some of the CC parents on here should have their enlightened offspring join their local police force and show them how it’s done. They should rise through the ranks quite fast with a fancy college degree.
People don’t look at a systemic issue, when they feel that the finger is being pointed at them, because they are supposedly “privileged”. They are in debt, unpaid, underemployed, and getting behind. Yet they are excoriated by some because of all their privilege and faulted for every possible thing. And people feeling resentful for that is why we have the government we have today. So to those people…thanks for nothing! 
“Perhaps some of the CC parents on here should have their enlightened offspring join their local police force and show them how it’s done. They should rise through the ranks quite fast with a fancy college degree.”
Why the assumption that CC parents you’re directing you comment towards aren’t well versed in LE and don’t have family members who have served in such capacities? No one here is bashing law enforcement when we choose to call out the behavior of individual LEOs as being sucky. Things aren’t black and white, they are more complex, obviously. It’s not “Cops good.” “Cops bad”. I think we’re capable of higher conversation than a barb like this.
That fear is mostly irrational.
Looks like as of this afternoon he is no longer employed by Cobb County. The police chief issued a statement saying they were going to terminate him so he immediately announced he is going to retire…
Am I understanding correctly this is just hitting the news now because of a court case where the video was recently released?
adding: I’ve read several reports in different papers. I can not understand the timeline of events from the traffic stop last summer to this firing.
I was wondering the same thing @ahl. What brought this tape to light a year later? I do think the officer’s comment was extremely inappropriate but that seems to have overshadowed the fact that the driver was stopped for DUI and the female passenger was ultimately arrested for some other undisclosed offense. Her lawyer claims both charges were resolved months ago so why is this coming to light now?
The article in the OP states “Channel 2 Action News reported that its request for body camera footage of the traffic stop prompted an internal investigation of Lt. Greg Abbott, who has been on the Cobb force for 28 years. …” So somebody must have tipped them off to the comment.
From the link above:
"The racial comments by Abbott, who is white, only surfaced this week, when WSB-TV aired video from Abbott’s dash cam from a July 10, 2016, traffic stop. "
"There’s never a good time for a police officer make such remarks, even in jest, but Abbott’s timing couldn’t have been worse. According to the date stamp on the police video, Abbott’s encounter with the woman occurred July 10, 2016.
That was just four days after Minnesota police shot and killed Philando Castile, a beloved cafeteria supervisor at a Montessori school, whose last moments were recorded by his girlfriend on her phone.
“In this environment, with sensitivities running high, it is inappropriate, for any police officer, but especially one of our leaders,” Register said."
^ If this is ‘white privilege’ I don’t think I want it!
@roethlisburger Seriously you don’t get to tell me what’s rational when I have to watch perfectly innocent men of color either get beat down or shot on camera and no one is held responsible. This doesn’t just apply to men. My first encounter was with a white cop who stopped me and demanded to know why I was riding thru his jurisdiction when I was only trying to drive to school. This was in the 80’s.
Why ask why the video came out a year later? The better question would be why did it take the video being in the media for him to get fired??? Why wasn’t he fired a year ago.
@sensation723 I think because no one was aware of the comment until now.