In 1931 the New Republic reported on a lynching in Mississippi: "Jim [Ivy] was staked with heavy chains and dry wood was piled knee-high around him. Gasoline tanks were tapped for fuel. Three men set the wood and Jim on fire. I saw the flames climb high on Jim. Jim screamed, prayed and cursed; he struggled so hard that he snapped one of the log chains that bound his ankles to the stake. I was looking into his eyes that second.
Thank you, Mr. Buchheit for spelling all of this out. In the same way that the corporate media lies about a post-racism society, it does likewise implying that sexism and any call to women’s rights are also passe. A few top Black athletes and celebrities show up with gorgeous white women and illiterate, insecure males from right wing families see THAT as “Blacks taking over this country.”
Beyond the black athletes and celebrities that cross the racial divide, what scares the right wing the most is black men doing the right thing with their lives and busting the right’s stereotyping. The right’s vociferous protestations remind me of Shakespeare’s great line: “Methinks thou doth protest too much.” Let’s hope this is ignorance’s death cry as it is drowning in a sea of a new awakening.
While the growing majority in this nation were able to elect a "Black"president, who is just as much White–twice, the hard core raciest and haters have crawled out of their caves with even more outraged venom. Even many so called liberals display a tremendous lack of respect for the man and the office. Ironically the world in general shows far more respect, while Republicans try to pretend the other nations have LOST respect for us. By now the right wingers are in a complete La La Land, but determined to pretend otherwise.
That’s an interesting slant. I hadn’t considered it. However, I still think the observation I offered is of greater influence on people like this weakling who thought shooting a gun at unarmed people somehow qualified as a rite of passage (and entrance pass into some right wing uber-macho group).
I think the old racists have a serious problem with a Black President. Too bad his policies show 100% deference for white, corporate America. And while I’d like to see a woman like Jill Stein or Elizabeth Warren serve as President, Brand Hillary is likely to be paraded as an alternative to that same martial white boys’ club that’s done its best to champion the ecological destruction of this planet, made war and weaponry its chief aim and “proof” of power, and set up banking/financial systemic graft that’s essentially returned 21st century citizens to serf status (if not debtors’ prisons). Unfortunately, Hillary has been admitted into this “club” and will govern accordingly.
Does a President deserve respect when he lies about his positions? Obama the candidate did a 180-turn from Obama the President, and the cost in the way of lives, lost opportunities for so many, and financial corruption is super high. In my view, these egregious policies warrant NO respect. However, that has nothing to do with his skin color. I would not give him a pass for his skin color, nor Hillary a pass for her gender if the same horrifying, soul-deadening, morally depraved policies remain(ed) in place.
Change must go much deeper than packaging and patriarchal-capitalism must be placed onto history’s junk heap.
I am a white male soon to be 63 years old. It amazes me that ignorant white males in my age group think that we all think the same as they do. The raciest things they say to me are unbelievable. Racism is alive and well in this Country.
I guess that thinking that everyone thinks the same as you do is human nature. That is why one of the most criminal companies check your receipts on exiting their store. It’s because they think you are as big of criminal as they are.
Let’s just keep on going toe-to-toe in a pas de deux, then. Each of our linguistics and hard headedness (in my case) notwithstanding.
The great majority of poor in the US are women and children. The majority of these are white. A large percentage of these live outside of urban areas, where jobs can be scarce and help can be non-existent. They don’t have money to move. White middle classers do not want to acknowledge white poverty. Believing that poverty is a black issue gives them some assurance that this could never happen to them. Liberals dumped the issue of poverty back in the 1990s, so it’s understandable that even libs know little about this issue. It says a great deal about our culture that we call poor black people “disadvantaged,” and poor white people “white trash.” Even back in the 1960s, when America had the courage to recognize the grave short-comings of our socioeconomic system, liberals restricted the issue to people of color. (The one exception is that, for a time, it was popular to note the poor white communities in Appalachia – relying on stereotypes, of course. Either way, all the work that has gone into avoiding all legitimate discussion of our poverty crisis continues to work against the best interests of the country. Our greatest problems – including the utter dehumanization of the poor – is at the heart of everything from police violence to mass incarceration.
The problem is that racism goes both ways, but we are supposed to say nothing about black racism. From the absurd stereotypes to attacks on homeless white people to the routine anti-white racial slurs, racial animosity continues to be nurtured. Since the late 1980s, it hasn’t been unusual for groups of black men to brutally beat homeless white men, just for the sport of it.If you want to find out what oppression is, or dehumanization, take the time to talk to the homeless.
Somehow, he got the idea that this was an acceptable life path to discuss. It’s ugly out there, friends. It’s not that the average American is stupid. It is that 1/2 of us are dumber than the average American.
Racism does not go both ways. Racism is a system of oppression by a dominant controlling group upon a less powerful group. Therefore, in the US, Blacks cannot be racist because they do not control the reins of power. Blacks have been legally disadvantaged not just by slavery but by laws that kept them chained to the south. By laws that kept White neighborhoods white and low-interest rates on loans to Whites. You are talking about prejudice, where you decide that because one member of an out-group does something wrong, all members are worthless people.
The reason we don’t make progress is that many become upset when a person fails to recite the politically correct lines. What makes this such a problem is that rather than state what they disagree with, they tend to resort to name-calling.Problems can’t be corrected unless people understand what those problems are, and this requires considering a range of different perspectives. The US has some profoundly serious problems. Resolving them requires open communication AND open minds. It can require researching the available data, and data doesn’t always conform to our preferred notions. It can require examining more than the one or two issues that are “popular” in the public discussion at any given time.
One of the most critical issues in the nation is one that we barely mention – our poverty crisis. The reason this is a critical issue is that is has a profound impact on the overall economy, quality of life, and the ability of the US to keep from collapsing. Consider that when Reagan was first elected, launching the long campaign aga9inst the poor, the overall quality of life in the US was rated at #1. By the time Obama was elected, the US had already fallen to #43, and we can no longer adequately compete in the modern world market. These are complex issues, but we need to start recognizing how hopeless poverty drives so many other critical issues. And as a nation, we really can address more than one or two issues at a time.
(As readers here probably know, VP Joe Biden’s son, Beau, died on May 30, 2015, and the Bidens are grieving the loss, out of the public spotlight.) Usually, the VP goes on to run for president, and Joe Biden will be launching his campaign later in summer (see his website). Any Dem pol can then challenge him for the nomination, and the primaries will determine which one goes on to run for president on the Dem ticket. This is just how our political process works, and is not an opinion.
What we have consistently seen for decades is that any Dem president will be treated by Republicans the same way – with considerable contempt.This has been true for a very long time. Until Obama, every Dem president was white.
I would have phrased it “Obama the President did a 180-turn from Obama the Candidate,” but right on!
;-})
Siouxrose11, agree with your interpretation of the MSM narrative. Allow me to elaborate. First of all, keep in the back of your mind the joke, “News is the rich paying the rich to tell the middle class that the poor are to blame.”
The economic quarantine imposed by “our betters” on everyone else would be self-evident but for the “racial identity” misdirecting narrative. Race as a “social (or even political) category” conveniently creates tribal polarization and prolongs artificial animosity between “blacks” and “whites.” As you will recall, our evolutionary simian brain arrives predisposed to form tribes. It is a simple Bernaysian (as in Edward Bernays) matter for “our betters” to create a synthetic “racial/tribal divide” among the oppressed and exploited classes. The unaware, and intentionally under-informed (grossly underfunded public education), human brain contributes to this convenient (to the oppressors) narrative and easily buys into it. Hence the “racial divide” and the resentment, and even hatred, that it fosters. “It’s us versus them.”
With this insidious racial “civil war” created and embedded by the usual media outlets, our betters can sleep better at night knowing that the internecine racial-economic war they unleashed will weaken any potential threats from the oppressed class. Recall Jay Gould’s words, “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.”
In short, let the dogs fight amongst themselves for the crumbs that fall from the master’s table and
convince “the dogs” this is the way things ought to be as per the master’s updated (post-Bacon’s rebellion) narrative of “divine right.”
Be well.
Olivia, please read my response to Siouxrose11. We have been fed a narrative that conveniently favors the “haves” over the “have nots.” These synthetic racial “divides” based on non-science serve to misdirect attention, to divide and weaken the oppressed…
It’s about who controls resources and who keeps how much–and how to convince the oppressed that “they’re to blame.” Everything else, I am persuaded, is a sham on the people…
Be well.
I suspect we’re on the same track. An economic system of oppression concocts tools to make oppression not merely efficient, but acceptable and continuous. It keeps its victims weak and polarized, at constant war with each other. The process works by subverting and hijacking human minds and choice. Racism is one such tool, a powerful one at that. Those deceived by it believe themselves entitled to dominate others and those with less economic or political power come to believe in the legitimacy of such eventually, “institutionalized” process. I merely disagreed with the phrasing “Racism is a system of oppression.” Racism is one more tool in the arsenal of “our betters.” Much like the legally sanctioned tool of paying for political campaigns in order to guarantee that certain sponsored candidates will vote on the laws that perpetuate the status quo (which favors an “entitled” minority at the expense of the majority)…
Did not mean to offend. Apologies if I did.
Be well.
