“That Conversation about Race” category archive

Buried deep in a story about another subject in my local rag–almost an aside–are two sentences that in their off-handed casualness highlight just exactly what cause was lost.

Owners treated the workers* better after an 1808 law prohibiting new slave importation, McGill said.

“You wanted to get the longest service you could out of the ones you owned,” he said.

__________________

*Did he really refer to them as “workers”?

Chauncey Devega was at the Chicago rally for Donald Trump, the one that was purportedly canceled for “security concerns.” He says it has been grievously misrepresented. An excerpt:

As I watched the mayhem, I was treated to a verbal epilogue from the Trump supporters sitting behind me. They were pissed and angry. Frustrated whiteness is scary; frustrated and likely a bit drunk whiteness and conservative-authoritarianism is even more so. These three young men grumbled about how the Trump protesters were “animals,” “undesirables,” and didn’t know that “the government is soon going to control all of them if they don’t vote for Trump.” The trio uttered some other vitriol and curses toward the people who were protesting the bigot Donald Trump before they skulked away.

(snip)

At Friday’s rally in Chicago, the members of the “silent majority” that Trump speaks for were made, at least for a few hours, to realize that other Americans actually have a voice too. Of course, this moment will only encourage their right-wing politics of racial resentment, hatred, nativism and revanchism. The Trumpeteers now have a story to tell of black and brown savagery in the evil “Democratically controlled” Chicago. This distorted version of events will resonate throughout the Fox News right-wing disinformation machine. Those Trumpeteers at his planned Chicago rally will spin tales of being imperiled by “Mau Maus” and “Commies.” In reality, they were never in any real danger. And like Trump’s other events, the fights and scuffles that did take place were mostly instigated by his supporters.

Follow the link to read (or listen to–he also made this into a podcast) the full report.

At Above the Law, Elie Mystal mulls over whether Donald Trump can be charged with “incitement to violence” in connection with one of his supporter’s “sucker punching” a protester and concludes “no.” Mystal applies the Hollywood super villain standard to illustrate the reasoning:

Donald Trump is not taking normal people, whipping them up into a frenzy, and then loosing them upon an unsuspecting public. He is talking to crazy people, violent citizens who have been spoiling for a fight ever since they started letting black people go to school with white people, and telling them it’s okay to give into their worst impulses. It’s the difference between buying a fat man a cupcake versus telling him to it’s okay to eat one.

He’s not throwing cash in the streets and watching people fight over it, like Jack Nicholson’s Joker. He’s giving middle class people the moral authority to blow up some undesirables, like Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Follow the link for the details.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., tells of a conversation that took place just a little while ago. Here’s a bit from his article:

President Obama had just spoken before the Illinois General Assembly. Now, he and some old friends, all retired from that body, were being interviewed by the Los Angeles Times. Obama was talking about the legislative gridlock that has marked his terms and how he might have avoided it.

“Maybe I could have done that a little better,” he said.

One of his friends wasn’t having it. “They were afraid of you for a couple of reasons,” said Denny Jacobs. “Number one, you were black.”

Obama parried the suggestion, saying what he always says when asked about race and his presidency. “I have no doubt there are people who voted against me because of race . . . or didn’t approve of my agenda because of race. I also suspect there are a bunch of people who are excited or voted for me because of the notion of the first African-American president. . . . Those things cut both ways,” he said.

Jacobs, who is white, was unpersuaded. “That’s what they were afraid of, Mr. President,” he insisted.

Dan Simpson also has something to see on this matter. A nugget:

At some point let us hope that American people will realize that the McConnells, Trumps, Rubios and Cruzes of this world are willing to risk destroying our system of government to get ahead personally. It is in circumstances such as this, when the functioning of our Supreme Court is on the line, that we can see just how greedy and immoral they are.

Image via Job’s Anger.

Gerald commented on my Original Intent post earlier today and sums up the last seven years:

(Republians) are attempting to treat POTUS Obama’s presidency as 3/5’s (of a presidency).

“Original intent” is neither a legitimate interpretation of history nor a coherent legal theory. It is a racist primal scream.

More here.

This seems to have Wingnut World and the New Secesh in the uproar of the day.

After all, it’s not as if white folks have anything to feel guilty about . . . .