“That Conversation about Race” category archive
The Monster Next Door 0
I have resisted the temptation of join NextDoor. I had a sneaking feeling that it could lead to no good, because years of experience and observation have taught me that “social” media isn’t.
As evidence, I offer one person’s story.
It Was All about the Benjamins 0
Dartmouth professor Randall Balmer tells the story of the rise of the “religious right.” It’s not what you might think, and certainly not the stories they tell themselves. A nugget:
Follow the link for the rest.
Aside:
Many years ago, I visited Bob Jones U. while researching a paper I was working on for some class I forget which one but most likely a sociology class my senior year.
It was one of the spookiest places I have ever seen.
A Case of Identity Politics 0
Tim Steller looks at the assumptions behind the voter fraud fraud and Arizona’s no-account recount. A snippet; follow the link for the rest.
By logical extension, their votes should not count. And if their votes are counted, democracy itself is the problem.
Aside:
In his list of characteristics, methinks he left out the one that underlies and ties together all the others: Whiteness.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Down home in Alabama . . . .
Much more rising again at the link.
Wall-Eyed Pikers 0
El Jefe offers an object lesson.
If the Truth Hurts, Make It Go Away 0
In the midst of the current who-shot-john over whether students should be taught the truth about American’s history, Leonard Pitts, Jr., offers some thoughts on National Banned Books Week. A nugget:
That’s something worth remembering here in Banned Books Week, a yearly observation sponsored by the American Library Association to call attention to that crude human impulse that, with apologies to the Tennessee moms, stands against liberty of knowledge and ideas. There is, after all, a reason one of the first acts of the Nazi regime was a massive book burning — 25,000 texts consigned to the fire — and it wasn’t to celebrate freedom. The spirit of that atrocity lives on in Tennessee. And in Pennsylvania. And in America.
NonDisclosure
0
Donald Trump’s nondisclosure ploy with Omarosa fails badly when put to the test. Here’s a bit from the story at Above the Law:
The campaign attempted to distinguish between Denson and Manigault Newman, arguing that latter “warranted a strict confidentiality provision as a term of her employment, since Respondent was known to be ‘nasty’ and ‘confrontational’ on the television show.” The arbitrator found this line of reasoning “unpersuasive.”
The arbitrator did not point out the inherent filthiness of arguing that identical contracts mean different things when applied to a White woman and a “nasty” Black woman. But we will.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
Sam, Emma, their guest, attorney and writer Sam Melo, discuss the history of immigration and immigration legislation in the United States.
Limitations of Statues 0
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Maureen Downey looks at efforts to change the names of schools honoring the Secesh and the obstacles those efforts are encountering. A snippet:
The SPLC inventory revealed the effectiveness of a campaign by United Daughters of the Confederacy to rebrand the events of the Civil War as heroic, especially through the naming of Southern schools. “These names are living symbols of white supremacy, and there is a difference between remembering history and showing a reverence for it,” said Lecia Brooks, chief of staff for the SPLC, during a recent media briefing. “Removing namesakes that celebrate a revisionist Confederate past does not erase history; it corrects it.”
Myth America 0
Billy Field argues that truth matters, even when some of it hurts.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At Chron.com, Dan Carson reports that Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick appears to have embraced the “great replacement” theory promoted by white supremacists. A snippet; follow the link for the rest.
“This is trying to take over our country without firing a shot,” Patrick said.
Patrick’s remarks sound strikingly like “Great Replacement” theory talking points — an old line of rhetoric used by white supremacist groups around the world to whip up fear using the specter of encroaching minority hordes. It warns of a future where white nations are overrun by black and brown immigrants, emphasizing cultural purity and the “securing” of the white race. And it’s had a disturbing renaissance of among conservative pundits in the Trump and post-Trump age.
They’re not even trying dress the racism up in Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes any more.
The History Buff 0
Elsewhere, coincidental but relevant, Betsy Biesenbach reflects on what I can only call “selective historiography,” and Tony Norman delivers a case study.
Image via Juanita Jean.