“That Conversation about Race” category archive
A Jury of Their Fears 0
Elie Mystal applauds the Supreme Court’s decision to look behind closed doors.
Republicans Rebrand Repression: “It’s All Good” 0
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
A bit of good news.
It was a seven to one decision.
Nothing Doin’ 0
Above the Law discusses life with a do-nothing.
Branding Trumps Reality 0
Really, it does (as any Jeep buyer knows). Douglas van Praet explains. Here’s a snippet:
Donald Trump tapped into a growing community of angry voters by riding a groundswell of anti-government disdain and anti-immigrant anxiety never before seen in American politics. . . .
It should come as no surprise then that Donald Trump had run the most effective campaign, despite a long list of false facts or questionable truths. This may also explain Trump’s tendency to ignore or embellish the facts to mold reality, however far-fetched, to his purpose at hand.
Elsewhere, Francis Wilkinson points out how hate-full imagery Trumps reality.
Rewrite! 1
As a Southern Boy, from when I first became aware, I have watched as racists rewrite history so as to blame the victimized for being victims. Hell, from my first lessons in Virginia history in elementary school in the 1950’s, where the arrival of the first African slaves at Jamestown in 1619 was taught as part of “the Red Letter Year,” I was subjected to such rewritten racist propaganda–it was only later that I started to winnow out the lies (a process which, by the by, continues).
Consequently, I can say from first-hand experience that this is nothing new.
“Trump’d Again” 0
Warning: Language, imagery.
A Day at the Museum 0
Cordell Faulk visits the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture. A snippet (follow the link for the rest):
Right there, in all their blunt starkness — above chains used for adults — was a set of shackles used to restrain children during the passage from Africa to the New World. They were just very, very small — unspeakably small. . . .
One more time: When you hear persons lament the “Lost Cause,” ask them this: “What, precisely, was the Cause that was Lost?”
All That Was Old Is New Again, Reprise 0
Soloman Jones channels Santayana:
If I have learned anything from watching this moment unfold, it is this: We must remain vigilant on the issue of race. Racism, after all, is America’s original sin. Its painful effects filter through the gaps in time, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
But racism isn’t the only thing that has brought us to a moment when the future will cede ground to the past. We are here, quite frankly, because of our tendency to forget the past.
Read the rest.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear points out that “massive resistance” wasn’t just a “Civil Rights” movement thing:
“If You Don’t Talk about It, It Must Not Exist” 0
At the Des Moines Register, Derrick Keith Rollins, Jr., reflects on how Donald Trump got elected, despite (or more likely because of) his blatant appeals to racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and all around hate-fullness. Here’s a bit:
First, we’ve refused to talk about it.
For the last 30 to 35 years, the strategy by mainstream popular culture — i.e. white culture — could largely be summed up as: “I don’t see color.”
Follow the link for the complete article. It is worth your while.
Finding Comfort by Overlooking the Obvious 0
The corporate media seem to have concluded that Donald Trump’s victory came from support by the “white working class.” The are using the phrase “working class” to avert the eye from the key word in that phrase: “white.” Chancey Devega explains:
Historically, to be white was to be the quintessential American. In the United States, whiteness also proceeds from an assumption that white people are always and forever to be dominant and consequently the most powerful of all racial groups. This is white identity politics as both a practice and ideology. It is also the not-so-subtle meaning of Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again!”
Follow the link for the rest of Devega’s article.