“That Conversation about Race” category archive
Class Facts 0
Badtux marvels at the obtuseness of the punditocracy in not realizing that the “working class” comes in all colors. A snippet:
Hint: The white working class hasn’t been in play for Democrats since 1964. No Democrat has won with a majority of the white vote in any election since then. Not Jimmie Carter. Not Bill Clinton. Not Barack Obama. None.
Hint: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed in 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 was passed in 1965.
Flag Daze 0
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s Maureen Downey quotes a powerful letter by a college professor about the kneeling protests at football games.
I cannot excerpt or summarize her article and do it justice. Just read it.
The Persistence of White Supremacy 0
Thom and the Reverend David Billings explore the persistence of white supremacy in America.
A Matter of Lives 0
Writing in The Charlotte Observer, Tiffany Capers describes her own first #metoo moment, then moves a new topic to the discussion. Here’s an excerpt, in which she highlights some hypocrisy.
Do please read the rest.
It Wasn’t “Gone with the Wind.” It Was Never There. 2
Will Bunch deconstructs John Kelly’s misguided and historically–what’s a stronger word than “false”? Oh, yeah, complete and utter bullshit–claim that the Civil War resulted from a “failure to compromise.”
Indeed, it resulted from a refusal–the South’s refusal–to compromise.
Here’s a bit from Bunch’s article (follow the link for the rest).
The Civil War was not the result of “a lack of an ability to compromise,” but because 11 American states were determined to fight — to the death, if necessary — to defend a way of life in which an oligarchy of plantation owners became wealthy by enslaving human beings, based upon the color of the skin.
Kelly’s statement reflects what I have pointed out before–that the North may have won the war, but the South won the peace, weaponizing racism and propagating propaganda about a “land of gracious living” peopled by “Southern gentlemen and Southern belles” that never existed except in Gone with the Wind and other pieces of preposterous puffery, while papering over the violence and brutality that created for those “Southern mansions.”
That propaganda has penetrated the nation’s soul and perverted white Americans’ view of themselves, of their virtues and faults, and of their fellow citizens and residents.
Seeing the effects is easy.
You just have to open your eyes.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
Trumplers in training:
Gloucester County Christian School officials are investigating the incident and trying to identify the culprit, said Pastor John Mark Turner, the campus administrator. The school’s board could impose a suspension or expulsion, he said.
Double Jeopardy 0
Solomon Jones sees a tell in how Trump has responded to Myeshia Johnson, the pregnant widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the soldiers who fell in Niger. A snippet (emphasis added).
Myeshia Johnson is both. Therefore, it seems, she is unworthy of the respect that Trump afforded Navy widow Carryn Owens when Trump led Congress in two minutes of applause for Owens during his State of the Union address.
Follow the link for the rest.
(Link fixed.)
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., notes the disparate treatment. A snippet:
The black guy fails to wear a lapel pin and endures months of questions about whether he belongs. The white guy canoodles with Russia, insults the intelligence community, undermines the judiciary and makes a Gold Star widow cry, dismissing her husband’s sacrifice as, apparently, just one of those things.
Do please follow the link.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
Hate-full mail. Follow the link for the complete article.
She noticed a piece of mail with “Proud American” scrawled above her address. Her family has an American flag hanging outside, she said, so Dunphy, home alone and curious, ripped open the envelope.
“As soon as I opened the envelope, my jaw hit the ground,” said Terri Kiral-Kuenzer, 56, of Pennsburg, who also received a flier. “Who could have done this?”
Inside the hand-addressed envelopes were fliers that contained racist, white supremacist, and anti-Semitic messages, drawings, and quotes from Adolf Hitler.
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
Elie Mystal takes a stroller through the dysfunction that is contemporary American air travel.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the increase of racial incidents in schools in the Philadelphia metropolitan area since November of last year. A snippet:
“Things like that give the white nationalists a green light,” Simmons said.
Nancy Baron-Baer, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said it’s hard to know whether the recent outbreak of racist incidents in area schools represents an actual uptick.
“It may be that people who are taunting, people who are performing hate crimes seemingly have become emboldened over the last 12 to 15 months,” said Baron-Baer. “It may be those that are the victims or opposed to that behavior feel that they must speak out.”
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
A Halloween Trumpling.
The demonstration, which included marching around the school twice, was a display of unity from the student body, a protest of administrative inaction, and a call for change, student leaders said.
