“That Conversation about Race” category archive
Left Untaught 0
I never ran across this in any of my history classes.*
H/T to BadTux, who’s been on a roll this week.
___________________
*My degree is in history, with a focus on U. S. Southern. I did know that many persons thought that “America, the Beautiful” would have been a better choice, but I was unaware that “The Star-Spangled Banner” had a history of being sung at lynchings.
Take a Walk in the Park 0
Thom takes a serious look at Donald Trump’s rhetoric about crime (“It’s a war zone out there”), the actual crime rate (down significantly over the last 30 years), and the roots of crime. (You can skip the first two minutes–it’s recitation of Trump’s rhetoric. The facts start after that.)
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
Solomon Jones points out that one thing is not like the other thing. A snippet:
Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte is facing criminal charges in Brazil for falsely reporting he was robbed at gunpoint, and, while he lost several endorsements as a result, he ultimately was rewarded with a stint on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
Both men are accomplished athletes. Kaepernick appeared in Super Bowl XLVII. Lochte is a 12-time Olympic medalist.
But Lochte is white, Kaepernick is black, and when black men stand up against American oppression, the fears of the white establishment arise. Fears that a single man seated on a bench is the forerunner to violent rebellion; that an athlete with the gall to think for himself is a danger to the order of things.
Image via Job’s Anger.
There Are None So Blind as Those Who Will Not Look,
Sit with Colin Kaepernick Dept.
0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Sam Louie looks at the kerfuffle about Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem at a blanking football game for Pete’s sake. A nugget:
This from WTHR-TV Sportscaster Bob Kravitz in Indianapolis:
“I found it interesting, but completely understandable, that when I posed the Kaepernick question on Twitter, the responses broke along racial lines.
From whites: “If you don’t like America, go somewhere else. Leave. We’ll help you pack.”
As a white folk who has associated mostly with white folks but thank heavens not entirely because that’s how America works, I can state quite confidently that white folks don’t get it.
I try to get it, but I know I don’t not really but I promise to keep trying.
But, Christallmighty, as long as cops who kill black persons for being have an automatic “Get Out of Jail Free” card, there is no “liberty and justice for all” and the “American Dream” remains a farce and a con.
I’ll stop now, for all I have left is profanity.
There Are None So Blind as Those Who Will Not Look 0
Jodi Melamed writes in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel specifically about recent events in Milwaukee, but her column speak of any U. S. jurisdiction. A nugget:
Why is it so hard for white Milwaukeeans (and white people in general) to recognize segregation, mass incarceration, failing schools and joblessness as the inevitable outcome of our decisions? How can we fail to see that such “problems” will inevitably come to pass when we remove ourselves and our tax dollars to white enclaves, decide to foster a prison industry rather than demand government responsibility for job creation, and stop caring about “other” people’s children?
Rebranding. It’s a Thing. 0
There is nothing new or even alternative about the “alt-right.”
It’s the same old right, only with new sheets.
The Trump Card 0
In a long and thoughtful essay, Josh Marshall attempts to understand the appeal of Donald Trump. He concludes that most simplistic explanations (poor, downwardly mobile white persons)–the ones we hear repeatedly from the corporate media–miss the mark. Whereas they describe one leg of the elephant, they miss the larger beast. Here’s a nugget; follow the link for the whole thing (emphasis added):
That brings us to the second key point: Trumpism is about loss. And that loss is real. It’s not just about being haters or uneducated or stupid. The fact that what’s being lost is in most respects something that wasn’t legitimate to have in the first place – status, centrality and racial privilege – should not blind us to the fact that the loss is real and that it will have political consequences.
Civil Rights Movement, Act Two 0
At the Ashland, Oregon, Daily Tidings, Herb Rothschild posits that we are seeing a second Civil Rights Movement. Whereas the first was directed at legally-enforced discrimination (Jim Crow laws, segregated public institutions, red-lining neighborhoods and the like), this one is directed at gaining social equality, that is, equality in deed, not just in word.*
Just as the first Civil Rights Movement engendered opposition, so too has this one, as the Republican Party has become little more than the Party of the New Secesh. An excerpt:
This year is shaping up to be for the second struggle what 1964-1965 was for the first. On one side, Republican officials at every level have been openly combative since a black person was elected president. Now their George Wallace has emerged, and this time they’ve embraced him. Hate speech and hate crimes are increasing. In April the Southern Poverty Law Center published research indicating the Trump campaign is inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in U.S. classrooms nationwide. On the other side, graphic exposure by phone cameras has made routine police violence against people of color no longer tolerable and sparked renewed grassroots activism.Do please read the rest.
Image via Michael-in-Norfolk.
__________________
*The actual extent to which “equality in word,” as opposed to “equality in deed,” has been achieved, of course, is arguable and has been spotty, at best.
It is not just chance that, until the rise of Donald Trump, though, racists have been restricted to speaking in code since the 1970s. Now they’ve dropped the codes as they rally for racism.
“The Record” 0
I’m a Southern Boy. I know a bigot when I see one.
Christallmighty, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Don’t these people listen to themselves?
Sing a Song of Trump 0
At The Bangor Daily News, Marena Blanchard chronicles a day in the life of Trumpery. A snippet:
“Vote Trump! Make America great again!”
Tanya Lima, 25, of Portland, looked up from her lemonade and into the faces of three white men aggressively yelling at her as they walked by.
“White lives matter!”
Lima had been relaxing at a Portland coffee shop on a recent Wednesday morning before work. Now, confusion and anger built in her body. She watched, almost from a distance, as everyone else continued their day. No one around her offered support. They even avoided eye contact.
Donald Trump has accomplished one thing: He’s given his supporters confidence to wear their, their white sheets (or their black uniforms, if they prefer) in public. For example.
Immunity Impunity
0
Shorter Leonard Pitts, Jr:
The Land of Gracious Living 0
Yeah.
Right.
Roots from the tree spread out atop the foundation of the so-called “north dwelling,” the last of six structures that made up the tidy village in view of the mansion that included weaving houses, smokehouses and the living quarters of slaves.
More Southern heritage at the link.
“Dog Whistle” 0
From Drumpf, the Musical, a work in progress.