“That Conversation about Race” category archive
Dropping the Mask 0
Michael in Norfolk argues that events at the recent CPAC convention highlight the venality of today’s Republican Party. Here’s a bit from his article:
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Michael Paul Jackson points out that history–and knowledge and awareness of history–matters. A snippet:
How Far Will Wells-Fargo? 0
In this case, not far enough.
One Nation, Divisible 0
Farron comments on a disturbing trend in Republican (what passes for) discourse.
Facebook Frolics 0
The restaurant that posted this claims it did not realize what this was, which leads one to the question: which is worse, conscious, intentional bigotry or ignorant unthinking bigotry?
Personally, methinks it’s a toss-up.
Warning Flags 0
They are waving them right in front of us and we are not paying attention.
History Is What Happened 0
It is not what persons want to believe happened.
As long as white Americans continue to willfully blind themselves to the facts of America’s original sin of chattel slavery, America will (continue to) live a lie and be vulnerable to that lie.
And I say that as a white guy who numbers among his ancestors persons who held slaves, as the saying went, including the man who signed John Brown’s death warrant at Harper’s Ferry.
That was not me and I am not them.
I’ve mentioned before how Second Son brought that home to me when we visited Harper’s Ferry and saw a wax figure of said ancestor, signing said death warrant, in a display there. Second Son said, “So, he was on the wrong side.”
And he was.
I already knew that, but, as I said, that comment brought it home.
A Sign of the Times 0
As Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.“
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Michael Paul Williams is less than impressed with Virginia’s Governor Trumpkin’s appointees. Here’s what he has to say about one of them (emphasis added):
Our moment of racial reckoning, teetering on the brink, does not need a Confederate apologist. But here comes McLean, who likened Abraham Lincoln’s attempt to preserve the Union to “Russia invading Ukraine” during a July 18 interview on John Reid’s talk show on WRVA radio. She also claimed that “slavery would have been outlawed in the South within five or 10 years, but they wanted to do it on their own time.”
I can only assume that “they” were not considering the desired timetable of the enslaved.
Follow the link for the others in his list.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Thom points out that America does not seem able to escape its original sin of chattel slavery.
It’s All about the Algorithm 0
But algorithms don’t just happen. They are created, and it appears that those who create them do so in their own image:
Those virtual robots, which were programmed with a popular artificial intelligence algorithm, were sorting through billions of images and associated captions to respond to that question and others, and may represent the first empirical evidence that robots can be sexist and racist, according to researchers. Over and over, the robots responded to words like “homemaker” and “janitor” by choosing blocks with women and people of color.
Follow the link for much, much more.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Words fail me.
The University of Central Florida has removed anti-racist statements from departmental websites, a move that one professor has decried as an “infringement on academic freedom” in the wake of the passage of a Republican-backed law that restricts how race can be taught.
Much more at the link.