“That Conversation about Race” category archive
Race at the Bottom 0
In a nation which was founded on theft of labor, that is, chattel slavery, and which invented racism to justify that theft of labor, it should not surprise that almost every issue ultimately winds its way back to racism and bigotry.
Not Knowing Their Place 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., notes that there seems no “right way” to protest against discrimination. A snippet (follow the link for the rest):
When there was violence in the streets over unpunished police killings of African-American men, they said that was the wrong way to go about it. Most of us agreed.
But when peaceful street demonstrations took place, conservatives didn’t like them, either. Then, last year, NFL player Colin Kaepernick hit on the idea of sitting through the national anthem.
But conservatives said that was disrespectful to veterans. So Kaepernick started taking a knee instead. Many others followed suit.
Conservatives said that was still wrong . . . .
It’s not the protests that conservatives find distasteful.
It’s the uppity.
Since protest of any kind is inherently uppity, there is no form of protest that conservatives will find acceptable.
Twits on Twitter 0
Lost in translation twits.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Josh Marshal decodes de code.
Facebook Frolics, Yet More Racist Frolickers Dept. 0
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tony Norman comments on the (now ex-)Fire Chief who posted a racist statement about NFL coach Mike Tomlin and then claimed it was not racist, no sirree, not racist at all. A snippet:
I know what you’re thinking: What’s the race-ish card?
Follow the link for the answer.
Plus ca Change 0
David Farmer has heard it before. A nugget:
It was echo of the stinging voice of Alabama Gov. George Wallace that I heard in Alabama last week.
The speaker was President Donald Trump, but his words carried themes from the not-so-distant and ugly past.
The Unmasking 0
Jenee Osterholt points out what was obvious to anyone who paid attention. An excerpt:
Donald Trump is the president America deserves.
He’s forcing the country to take the mask off, to confront its systemically oppressive ways, to deal with the fact that xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, able-ism, anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia and, yes, racism, are real. Say it with me: Racism is real.
(snip)
Perhaps this is what happens when a rich reality TV star who gets off on debasing and firing people storms into the White House. Or maybe we’re watching the institutional racism that has been remixed and masked in mass incarceration, mortgage discrimination, redlining and more stack together like Voltron and become a president.
Myth Makers 0
In my local rag, Roger Chesley looks at the text books used in Virginia schools around the beginning of the Twentieth Century and at how they promoted the lie of the “Lost Cause.”
Read it.
Plus ca Change 0
At the Boston Review, Kahlil Gibran Muhammad spots a pattern in the flickering light of tiki torches (emphasis added):
Follow the link for the complete article.










