“That Conversation about Race” category archive

When I was a young ‘un, it was common for segregationists out to perpetuate “Our Way of Life” (TM) to blame the Civil Rights Movement on “outside agitators,” because, natch “our darkies” (as they would say) were happy working for pittances and living in shacks.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you can’t make this stuff up.

A. It’s own past.

Jon Steward on Ferguson, below the fold in case it autoplays.

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Jim Wright reads between the lines and exposes the racist underpinnings of Rudolph Guiliani’s recent remarks that Obama doesn’t love America “like us.”

Here’s a bit. Do read the rest; it’s a magnificent post.

Obama is a patriot, Giuliani admits, sure. But different. Not like Reagan. Not like Clinton. Not like us.

That’s what plantation owners used to say when they sold black children away from their parents, when they broke up families: they’re not like us, they don’t love their kids like we do.

That’s what we used to say when we sought our Manifest Destiny across the Great Plains. We’re special. Indians? They don’t love America like we do. They can’t love their kids or their wives or their god like we love ours. They can’t, they’re savages.

That’s what we used to say when we burned down villages in Korea and Vietnam, hey don’t feel sorry for them, they don’t feel emotions the way we do. That’s what we say about Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. They don’t feel pain or loss, they’re not the same as us, they can’t love their kids or their spouses or their country like we do.

That’s what we used to say when women wanted to vote. Hey, god love ‘em but they just don’t think like we do. They’re not like us, like real Americans.

An article in the Tampa Bay Times reflects on the legacy of Judge Lynch.

It is important to remember that the hangings, burnings and dismemberments of black American men, women and children that were relatively common in this country between the Civil War and World War II were often public events. They were sometimes advertised in newspapers and drew hundreds and even thousands of white spectators, including elected officials and leading citizens who were so swept up in the carnivals of death that they posed with their children for keepsake photographs within arm’s length of mutilated black corpses.

These episodes of horrific, communitywide violence have been erased from civic memory in lynching-belt states like Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.

The article goes on to discuss the efforts of the Equal Justice Initiative to ensure that the memory of those deeds are not obliterated, however much preserving them may discomfit some Southern white folks who long for the Good Old Days, but will not mention just what it was that makes them think those old days were so good.

Unlike another much-derided New York Times story, which neglected to mention just who did the lynching, the Tampa Bay Times article* does not flinch from identifying the culprits.

Give it a read, then follow the link to the Equal Justice Initiative and read the report or download the Executive Summary (PDF).

________________

*In fairness to the NYT, I think the TBT article may have also appeared there. The TBT does not credit its origin.

Chauncey Devega dares tell a truth about the Southern reign of Judge Lynch. Frolicking ensues.

One more time: When you hear someone lament the Lost Cause, ask, “What, precisely, was the cause that was lost?”

Anything else will come back to bite you.

This story has been going on for days in my part of the world and I have been trying to figure out how to blog about it, without success; I could not find a handle, because the smell of bigotry overcame me.

If you cannot be safe from the persons who are sworn to keep you safe, you cannot be safe.

The police chief says, “unreasonable.” I say, “racist.”

Selma and the deaths of Goodman, Cheney, and Schwerner were not that long ago. They were within my lifetime, and hate has more lives than a cat.

At the Bangor Daily News, a little paper with big writers, Alex Stead excoriates white racists’ “victimhood.” A snippet:

. . . and the last time I was in Boston Common after dark with my wife, a group of white teenagers threatened to beat us and to rape my wife. If, according to the “woe is me” white victim, black crime is to be viewed through the lens of race, then I should, based on my experience, see other whites as Chiksika did.

Chiksika, the elder brother of Tecumseh, said of white people, “The whole white race is a monster who is always hungry and what he eats is land.” He, of course, said this in response to what he and his tribe had seen of European settlers’ behaviors. Chiksika said to his brother, “When a white man kills an Indian in a fair fight it is called honorable, but when an Indian kills a white man in a fair fight it is called murder. When a white army battles Indians and wins it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre and bigger armies are raised.” Whites have long been known for this tendency.

Read the rest and, the next time you hear a white folk whining about “those people,” have your grains of salt ready.

A Republican travels to China and discovers the reality of white privilege in America. Here’s a bit; read the rest.

Privilege isn’t necessarily undeserved superior treatment; it’s the ability to enjoy trust within the community without having to earn it. The benefit of the doubt is a powerful form of privilege that can only be noticed once it’s gone.

I recently traveled to China on business, joined by a colleague on his first visit. We are both white males, yet my travel companion stands out in the crowd. Local citizens flocked to capture a glimpse and snap pictures of his towering 6’ 5” frame, blonde hair and blue eyes. While I expected a reaction from the local crowd, I wasn’t prepared for a very new experience: the benefit of the doubt I have always enjoyed vanished.

The tape doctors:

Fox lies. It’s how they roll.

Writing at the Bangor Daily News, Sociology Professor Michael Rocque explains that, despite the denials you hear, of course it’s about race. A nugget.

It is the vehemence with which the “it’s not about race” argument is made that I wish to address here. Simply because overt racial prejudice has declined does not mean that racism itself has also declined in our society. Yet any claim that race matters is met with defensiveness and strong denials. This is understandable (and a good thing, in a sense) because it means that being overtly racist is not acceptable any longer. But we are living in an age in which racism is “ color blind” in that disparities are said to be caused by anything but race. The racism we live with is systemic and institutional. And while this form of racism is not necessarily as overt as someone using racist or disparaging remarks, it is likely more harmful. This means that our structures are built in such a way that makes life easier for certain races and more difficult for others.

Chattel slavery, justified by a mythology of racism, is America’s original sin. As with any sin, denying it does not make it go away.

Do follow the link. Granted, the man needs an editor, but what he says needs hearing.

Via Job’s Anger.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.