Wave The Bloody Shirt
PG likes to listen to internet audio content while editing pictures. The idea is to listen to the talking voices, avoid interruptions, and create content. This works well, until PG hears something quotable. Today, it was Moby, on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. @chamblee54 “I’m feeling just a little bit smug because I just found out what cis gender means” @thelittleidiot @BretEastonEllis
Bloggingheads.tv is notoriously bad for multitasking. It has a video image, with the risk of taking screen shots. BHTV also has a device that allows you to make samples, whenever you hear something interesting. The Glenn Show, episode 43716, lasted 2:46 before the quote buzzer went off.
The show featured Glenn Loury and John McWhorter. The two men, both professors at Ivy League Schools, are the “Black guys at Bloggingheads.” They tend to talk about race relations a lot, like the rest of America. Whoever said that people don’t like to talk about race is mistaken. Americans LOVE to talk about race, often at top volume. Exaggerated gestures, logical gymnastics, and redundant rhetoric are the order of the day. Whether anyone is listening is another matter.
The first saved comment was when Dr. McWhorter said that someone called someone a racist. It sounded the same as someone saying, fifty years ago, that someone was a communist. PG has written about this before, comparing anti racism to McCarthyism and homophobia. There was an unsigned comment… “Will you just put on your white sheet and come out already?” Good times.
A few minutes later, Dr. McWhorter mentioned that a taxi has never refused to pick him up. This compares to a comment made by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Playboy interview. “I’ve never had a white person call me a nigger.”
The Glenn Show tends to downplay the effect of racism, and focus on issues like mass incarceration and black on black crime. There was a comment made about the soft bigotry of low expectations. Another remark decried people who wave the racism bloody shirt.
Many people disagree. You will not need to look far to find them. This tweet is another POV. @kat_blaque White people will make it a hobby to create stock accounts to tell me I look like a gorilla, but deadass deny racism exists. lol.
Another example is a video. A cashier at a Family Dollar saw three children dressed in “cultural garments.” The lady made the mistake of asking them if they were going trick or treating. The mother of the children went ballistic. “Racist bitch” is one of the milder things she said.
Right now, it is highly fashionable to say that Donald Trump is a racist. A good case could be made that he is. However, a lot of people are tired of being yelled at about race. Dr. Loury presents a scenario how this constant racism bashing may help Mr. Trump might get elected. Pictures today are screen shots of Dr. Loury and Dr. McWhorter, edited by chamblee54.
Clickbaitery
Today’s adventure in clickbaitery began with a headline, Math is racist: How data is driving inequality. It seems to be a rule that you get the r-word into every title, whether it is justified or not. The story promotes a book, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. “A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life — and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.”
The thesis of the book is that big data is running amok. “Denied a job because of a personality test? Too bad — the algorithm said you wouldn’t be a good fit. Charged a higher rate for a loan? Well, people in your zip code tend to be riskier borrowers. Received a harsher prison sentence? Here’s the thing: Your friends and family have criminal records too, so you’re likely to be a repeat offender.”
Is this racist? Maybe, and maybe not. Are records secretly coded with with an indication of the persons race? (With the Health Insurance Marketplace, this information is explicitly on the application.) Or, is race just a divide and conquer tactic? While America has a hissy fit about a second string quarterback sitting down, big data is making life tougher for the ninety nine percent.
“O’Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, it’s up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives. This important book empowers us to ask the tough questions, uncover the truth, and demand change.” This sounds good on talk shows, but ultimately big data is going to continue doing what they do. With the Donald and Hillary show going full bore, there will be plenty of distraction.
The one star reviews at Amazon make their points. Aaron C. Brown skewers the book. His review is well written, but too long to quote here. “This book tackles an important subject on which the author had a lot of knowledge and expertise, and interesting incisive opinions. Unfortunately it is marred by appalling journalistic lapses, bad enough to taint not just author, but publisher as well. Crown Publishing Group should have done a little fact and reference checking.”
The other one star folks have the zesty quotes. “She claims to be a mathematician; she’s certainly not a logician.” ~ “Author clearly wasn’t payng attention is math class. The logic used in the book is contradictory at best, nonsensical at worst and racist all throughout.” ~ “Expected a nice educational read, got a book written by a SJW with an ax to grind.”
PG saw another race based article yesterday, It’s time to stop talking about racism with white people. It was written by Atlanta resident Zack Linly. Out of 1869 words, they appears 28 times, or 33 if you include they’re. (There is used 4 times, and their is used 12 times.)
The fifth sentence of this paragraph has two, of the three, homophones. “I understand that white people are mad. They’ve gone their whole lives being the default for social and cultural normalcy and never really had to think critically about race at all. Now a black first lady addresses the nation, and she talks about slavery. Now social media identifies and challenges their micro-aggressions. They’re getting the tint snatched off of their rose-colored glasses; that “Shining City on the Hill” they know as America is starting to lose some of its gloss. And they ain’t here for that — but we are.
The full article is available at the link. Here are a few more quotes.
“When Rachel Dolezal got her counterfeit black card snatched, we struck comedy gold for black meme-makers all over the web. The “Ask Rachel” hashtag was born, and scrolling through your Black Twitter feed became something like running a marathon, only the people on the sidelines were handing out little paper cups filled with white tears instead of regular drinking water.”
“When Beyoncé released the video for “Formation,” featuring a black kid in a hoodie, a “hands up, don’t shoot” banner and a sinking police car — then performed the song while paying homage to the Black Panther Party smack in the face of white America during the Super Bowl halftime show — she provided us with a bottomless open bar of white tears.”
“The fact is, we can fight systemic racism without white validation. We can continue shutting down bridges and highways every time there’s a new Alton Sterling, Philando Castile or Korryn Gaines in the news and let white folks complain about the intrusion on their lives.” (The names of citizens killed by other citizens are not said.)
As this feature is written, there are 3280 comments. scotpowell 6:29 AM EST “I bet this guy is fun at parties…..” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Cam Newton
It is a slow news day tradition. Some magazine has an article coming out. A few eye catching quotes are leaked. The internet has a collective hissy fit. Today, it was GQ, and the article was: Cam Newton on Those Versace Pants, Race in America, and Whether He Would Let His Kid Play Football
PG was known as Cam, short for Campbell, not for the car part, most of his life. PG has long been leery of Cam Newton. Number One has a preacher father, went to school at Auburn, and seems to be a bit of a hot dog. If you look at today’s GQ event, you will see Mr. Newton modelling a selection of pricy threads. Those fashion photos may say more about the personality of Mr. Newton than the article black twitter is wigging out about. (How many tweeters have read the GQ article?)
The article is fashion magazine purple prose. Here is a sample. This was a couple of paragraphs before the money quote: “:…The Charlotte Observer, a wonderful newspaper that’s kept its lights on during this di∞cult time for newspapers thanks in part to reactionary complaints about Cam Newton. … An honest question: Can you name a contemporary athlete who has been subjected to more veiled and sometimes outright racism than Cam Newton? Is this even a controversial opinion, to think that Cam lives in a world of coded and not-so-coded critiques that basically boil down to resentment about the existence of such a sublime black quarterback? … Maybe today he woke up and felt like being just a quarterback, not a black quarterback. Maybe he feels fatigue at having to have this conversation with any random reporter who thinks he’s entitled to his thoughts on this subject. … Maybe he just didn’t feel like participating in the whole economy of outrage that surrounds him today.”
As you may have heard, Mr. Newton said something about racism. Here is the actual quote: “Your now former teammate Josh Norman said last year, “I’m going to be precise when I say it: It’s hate.” His response may be somebody else’s response, but that’s not how I feel. Do you feel like football fans are racist toward you? It’s not racism. Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. So if it’s not that, what is it, do you think? I’ll let you be the judge. I don’t look at it like that. I look at it like some people have certain beliefs, and I have my own belief, and we can agree to disagree on certain things. But this is what makes sports so amazing, that we can start a discussion around a table, in the newspaper, in the magazines, that will get people’s attention. And that’s what sports does. In January, right before the Super Bowl, you said: “I’m an African-American QB that may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to.” I don’t want this to be about race, because it’s not. It’s not. Like, we’re beyond that. As a nation.”
@HiiiPoweredSoul So Cam Newton tuckin his tail to avoid controversy? I expected better. Especially bc of all the racist comments thrown at him.
@theintlfiles 5m5 Cam Newton was partially right when it came to criticism of himself, but my man was dead wrong when it came to the “post racism” society.
@KiamberNicole • welp. Cam Newton is officially a part of the ashy coon community.
@OhLordTaylore Wasn’t looking for Cam Newton to be an activist or anything, but to come out and say something as ignorant as we’re past racism? Smdh
@SonofBaldwin Remember how we had #CamNewton’s back too, when all those white folks came for his throat? For him to just sell us down the river for it…
mariaj81 Some negroes think that just because they have some coins that race no longer applies to them. Im looking at you, Cam Newton
Later in the interview, Mr. Newton says that Donald Trump is ” an unbelievable businessperson.” The author, Zach Baron, tries to get Mr. Newton to comment on North Carolina’s “bathroom bill.” Mr. Newton declines a comment. “But that’s too personal. That’s when you put the microscope to the person. But overall, I don’t care. Man, in my circle, and especially growing up in Atlanta, you see everything! … Sometimes I talk too much.”
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Don’t Tread On Me
Sometimes these stories write themselves. This one began with a tweet. @NotShaunKing “SJWs are now more offended by the Gadsen and Confederate flag, than the ISIS flag. Nice job, people!” The “Gadsen Flag” is the Revolutionary War banner. A coiled rattlesnake rests above the phrase “Don’t Tread on me.” It is a staple of American history.
Supposedly, someone is making a federal case out of wearing DTOM in the workplace. The google search shows stories by Fox News, and The Blaze. The slightly more reputable Washington Post has an article, Wearing ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ insignia could be punishable racial harassment.
“Here’s an excerpt from Shelton D. [pseudonym] v. Brennan, 2016 WL 3361228, decided by the EEOC two months ago: On January 8, 2014, Complainant filed a formal complaint in which he alleged that the Agency subjected him to discrimination on the basis of race (African American) and in reprisal for prior EEO activity when, starting in the fall of 2013, a coworker (C1) repeatedly wore a cap to work with an insignia of the Gadsden Flag, which depicts a coiled rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me.” Complainant stated that he found the cap to be racially offensive to African Americans because the flag was designed by Christopher Gadsden, a “slave trader & owner of slaves.”
PG read that, and began to think. This is never a good omen. If Christopher Gadsen was a slave owner, then what about Betsy Ross?
Elizabeth Griscom Ross is, according to legend, the seamstress who created the stars and stripes. The story is disputed. For this sake of this blog post, lets assume that the legend is real. Betsy Ross created the American Flag, albeit with thirteen stars. Did she own slaves?
One internet forum raises the question, Did Betsy Ross have a slave? “no, Betsy ross did not have a slave. RE: Her husband had slaves though ” Could women own property in 18th century America? Who knows? Bear in mind, this is an undocumented internet forum. As is the next story.
“Have you ever heard Betsy Ross had children by her African slaves and was shunned by the Quakers because of it? Betsy Ross was widowed three times, and I have heard that since she knew how white men were having children by African women to increase their slave population, she decided to do the same. … Betsy Ross had children by her male slaves to increase her slave popuplation (and in essence, her property value).”
FWIW, Betsy, (January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836,) was indeed married three times. The lucky men were John Ross (m. 1773–1776,) Joseph Ashburn (m. 1777–1782,) and John Claypoole (m. 1783–1817.) In both cases, she was remarried the next year. If she did take a slave baby daddy, she was very efficient. Maybe the husbands were understanding.
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. The Atlanta Crackers played ball until 1965.
Conservative Liberal Racist
The management of this blog is not responsible for brain damage incurred while reading this post. If you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Those threatened by this discussion, or not interested, are encouraged to skip over the text, and look at the pictures. These images, of Union Soldiers of the War Between the States, are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
There is a meme, with the text a conservative is a liberal who has been labeled a racist. A few comments followed publication. Someone was paying attention. Uhm…WTF?! ~ its a long story ~ All three labels are useless and misleading. I try not to let the labels of others describe me, but sometimes it happens. It is a bit of poetic license.
The words liberal and conservative are useless. When he started to make the comment, PG intended to refer to those two expressions. Then he started to type.The realization hit … the word racist was just as obsolete as liberal and conservative, and probably misused more often.
The next day at work, PG began to think. If you saw a mushroom cloud rising over Jimmy Carter Boulevard, that is what you saw. Random thoughts began to emerge.
A- The popularity of con, lib, and rac, derive from America’s blind allegiance to the belief paradigm The general thought is that what you believe is more important than what you do. The dominant religion in America is Jesus Worship, which is based on beliefs rather than practices. While America is not officially a Christian country, their thought processes dominate the way things work here.
B- The belief paradigm filters down to the popularity of silly labels.We have people who claim to be small government conservatives, and who support sending 200k troops to a war eight time zone away. You can treat your black neighbors with kindness and grace, but if you say the wrong things on facebook you are considered a racist. It is a funny system.
C- Conservatives use liberal as an insult. Liberals use racist as an insult.
D- No one is certain what the words conservative, liberal, and racist mean. You should beware of anyone who claims to be certain of what these labels represent.
The End Of Racism
One of the touted TED talks in the weekly email is Color blind or color brave? It is by Mellody Hobson, a POC in the investment business. It is the standard call to talk more about race. Talk, talk, talk, and talk some more. The word listen is not used.
At the 3:13 mark, Mrs. Hobson makes a remarkable statement. “Now I know there are people out there who will say that the election of Barack Obama meant that it was the end of racial discrimination for all eternity, right?” It is possible that someone has said that. There are also people who say the earth is flat.
PG asked Mr. Google about this. The top two results are about the TED talk. The third result is an article in Forbes magazine, Racism In America Is Over. It is written by John McWhorter, one of the “black guys at Bloggingheads.tv.” Dr. McWhorter does say racism is over, sort of. The problems that remain are a lot worse. Too much food for thought, for a population with intellectual bulimia.
There is a quote in the Forbes article that is pure gold. “When decrying racism opens no door and teaches no skill, it becomes a schoolroom tattletale affair. It is unworthy of all of us: “He’s just a racist” intoned like “nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!””
There are a lot more results. PG is getting tired of looking. If you want to see for yourself, google “the election of Barack Obama meant that it was the end of racial discrimination for all eternity.” Except for a rogue title editor at Forbes, almost nobody has said that. This is a repost. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Grammar Oppression
An MF writer (Melissa A. Fabello) at Everyday Feminism chimes in today with Why Grammar Snobbery Has No Place in the Movement. She means a social justice movement, not a bowel movement. The two movements have a similar aroma.
With more and more people using written english, there are more grammar mistakes. Some people enjoy pointing these out. The EF post says that such behavior is elitist, privileged, and yes, racist. The distinction between written, and spoken, is not made.
“So, if a person wrote a Facebook comment that said “That their was an example of cissexism,” a prescriptive grammarian might comment back, “I think you mean ‘there,’” and a descriptive grammarian might respond, “You understood what they meant.” And while both schools are accepted forms of linguistic thought, it’s important to note that any time we create a hierarchy by positioning one thing as “better” than another, we’re being oppressive.” (“That there” sounds clumsy and ignorant, even using the correct “there.”)
“Ghanaian blogger Delalorm Semabia, in a conversation about the eradication of “the Queen’s English” in Ghana, explained, “The idea that intelligence is linked to English pronunciation is a legacy from colonial thinking.” And this is precisely where we need to start this conversation. As educated (and – okay – snarky) activists, we’re quick to respond to “According to the dictionary” arguments with “Who wrote the dictionary, though?” We understand that a reference guide created by a white supremacist, heteropatriarchal system does nothing but uphold that status quo. Similarly, we have to use that line of thinking when talking about the English language: Who created the rules? And who benefits from them? As per usual, what this comes down to is an issue of privilege (of course!). In fact, grammar snobbery comes down to an intersection of multiple privileges.
…You’ve probably never given much thought to this, aside perhaps from believing that you speak “correctly” and that everyone else who speaks a different type of English than you do speaks the language “wrong.” And perhaps you’ve noticed how often “those people” are people of color. And we (as a society) denounce any form of the language that isn’t “white” enough. Umm, that’s racist.”
English is a living, evolving language. Spoken english changes faster than written english. The written form, devoid of vocal inflection and facial expressions, is more dependent on rules of grammar to communicate.
As different people use english, they develop different ways of speaking. Many of the phrases that are common today began as slang in ethnic populations. As time goes on, these phrases become accepted as standard english. (Some see this use of “other culture’s expressions” as cultural appropriation. PG is neutral in that debate.)
The rules for written english are slower to change. At what point do we criticize the grammar of others? It can be a useful rhetorical tactic, along with -splaning what the person really meant. Or do we just accept that some people are not privileged enough to use good grammar? (There is a certain condescension in excusing the bad grammar of others because of their background. “Oh, they can’t help not knowing that, because they is a poor oppressed POC.”)
In the list of grammar nazi privileges, MF quotes Kurt Vonnegut. PG likes to research quotes, and found a reddit page about the passage. The full quote (MF only used one sentence.) “First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college. And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I’m kidding.” And yes, Kurt Vonnegut does use semicolons in his work.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. “Photographs taken at a horse show in Atlanta, Georgia, 1937.” UPDATE: There was an twitter exchange with the person who tweeted about the article: Knowing the difference between there and their is not oppression. ~ Not everyone has the luxury.
Monroe Drive or Boulevard
It is an Atlanta cliche. Boulevard turns into Monroe Drive because one was black, and the other white. The white people did not want to live on a street with the same name as the black neighborhood. You hear this all the time, with very little explanation. It is plausible. At one time, Ponce de Leon Avenue was a dividing line between the white, and black, neighborhoods. There are, however, a few questions about this name change business.
In the space between I-85 and Dekalb County, there are four streets that change names when they cross Ponce De Leon Avenue. These are Juniper/Courtland, Charles Allen/Parkway, Monroe/Boulevard, and Briarcliff/Moreland. Several streets cross Ponce without changing names, including Spring Street, Peachtree Street, Piedmont Avenue, and North Highland Avenue.
Four thoroughfares are affected by the Ponce rebranding. Juniper/Courtland is mostly commercial, at least south of Ponce. Briarcliff/Moreland is mostly white until you get to the railroad tracks south of Little Five Points. When Moreland Avenue goes under the MARTA line, the neighborhood is Reynoldstown….which was not named for Burt Reynolds.
Charles Allen/Parkway does change from white to black at Ponce. The street name then changes to Jackson Street, the original name, at Highland Avenue. Monroe/Boulevard also goes from white to black at Ponce. However, when you cross the railroad tracks, Boulevard goes through Cabbagetown, a white neighborhood. Boulevard residents change color several times before the road dead ends at the Federal Prison. Oakland Cemetery, and Zoo Atlanta, do not play a role in this drama.
If this litany of street names is boring, it is all right to skip over the text. The pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Roads change names all over the metro area, for a variety of reasons. In the area between Ponce De Leon Avenue and I 20, there are roads that change at railroad tracks (North Highland/Highland, Krog/Estoria.) Others change at Highland Avenue (Parkway/Jackson, Glen Iris/Randolph) or Decatur Street (Hilliard/Grant, Bell/Hill.) Some of these changes are racially motivated, while others are not. Some make sense, while most do not.
No one seems to know when this Monroe/Boulevard thing happened. An 1892 “Bird’s eye view” shows Boulevard sailing off into the horizon, past a racetrack in today’s Piedmont Park. A 1911 map shows Boulevard starting near “L.P. Grant Park,” and sailing past Ponce up to Piedmont Park. A 1940 map shows Boulevard going past Park Drive, only to turn into Monroe Drive at Montgomery Ferry Road. Finally, a 1969 map of “Negro Residential Areas” shows Monroe Drive changing into Boulevard at Ponce De Leon Avenue, like it is today. Boulevard is a stand alone street name at all times.
If anyone knows about this name change business, please leave a comment. It would be interesting to know when these changes were made, and what government agency made them. Google has not been helpful, except for pointing the way to several map collections.
#PiedmontParkHanging Part Two
Last week, an apparent suicide was found in Piedmont Park. Soon, the twitter people were in an uproar. Rumors were spreading at the speed of light. People said that it was a lynching, and that the KKK held a rally in the park the day before. Others said the klan was handing out flyers.
At first, the corporate media was quiet. WSB TV tweeted we do not report suicides. There are sound reasons for this. Copycat suicides… a depressed person deciding to take their life, after hearing about another person taking this step … is a problem. There is also the decent consideration of privacy. If a person is in such a bad way that they want to take their life, the corporate media should allow them a measure of peace. There are other stories to report.
The name of the young man has been released. Apparently, there were health issues, and a family that did not accept him. The medical examiner reports evidence indicating a suicide, with no sign of foul play. The FBI agrees with the APD… this was not a lynching.
One of the more striking rumors was that the park was a known meet-up spot for the infamous hate group. This referred to the KKK. Most Atlanta residents find the idea of KKK rallies in the park to be absurd. And yet, people swallowed these rumors without a shred of supporting evidence. If someone says so on twitter, then it must be true.
Maybe the young man can find peace now. It is a shame that his tragic death has become the center of a circus. The gossip mongers can find another tragedy to exploit. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
#PiedmontParkHanging
The police report said that a body was found in Piedmont Park at 4:57 am, June 7, 2016. A black man, age 25-35, was hanging in a tree near the Charles Allen Drive entrance.”There were no discernible signs of a struggle or foul play. The scene was consistent with a suicide.” There would be an autopsy, and further investigation. A twitterstorm soon erupted.
@tattedpoc The KKK was in this spot yesterday & they want us to believe a black man hung himself on a tree #PiedmontParkHanging
@chamblee54 how do you know the KKK was on Charles Allen Drive yesterday?
@tattedpoc they had their lil racist rally or gathering there JUST yesterday
@chamblee54 do you have any evidence to support this claim? How many people were there? Were any counter protesters there? What park was it?
@tattedpoc @chamblee54 nigga how tf am I to know? Do you see my black ass attending KKK rallies to count the attendance?
The KKK story shifted to having klansmen in the park handing out flyers. This happened on Wednesday, a day with severe thunderstorms in the Atlanta area. No one seems to have a solid source for these reports. One person tweeted a flyer from Virginia, and claimed to have found it in their neighborhood. One twitter exchange got ridiculous. This is a heavily edited version, with most of the tweets left out. When you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging.
@chamblee54 Where is the evidence of the KKK handing out flyers in Piedmont Park Wednesday?
@FCsportz eyewitness accounts. No pics or video have been released.
@FCsportz @DoritoDinker @chamblee54 @Flyswatter I’ve read multiple articles on the matter, Folks said they saw them. That’s called an “eyewitness”.
@chamblee54 Do you have a link to any of those articles?
@FCsportz they are all over the Internet, it’s a simple google search.
@chamblee54 In other words you do not have a link
@_Hey_Arthur_ lololol OMG! Dude is using Twitter as his source. This is too much
@FCsportz “Account: a report or description of an event or experience.”These can be real or fake
@FCsportz whether they are lying or not is not my problem.
Piedmont Park has an interesting niche in Atlanta life. Many simply call it “the park,” and assume you know what they mean. The park is synonymous with queer life. Piedmont Park is said to be air conditioned… there is a blower behind every bush. To hear that the Klan is *recruiting* in the park is poignant. The jokes will write themselves.
@hiraethwndrlst a man was LYNCHED in a popular KKK meeting ground and its ruled suicide with little investigation.
@DarrinPenn How are you going to rule a suicide when the man was found hanging from a tree in a popular KKK meeting place
@BlvckConscious The man whose death was ruled a “suicide” was found hanging from a tree in an area with a high influence of KKK members #PiedmontParkHanging
@alisonklemp Maybe the #piedmontparkhanging was a suicide. And maybe before he climbed the tree he lit a cross on fire, you know, to help him see better.
@GimmeeTitties If he wanted to commit suicide he wouldn’t have hung himself from a tree , he would’ve just reached for his ID #PiedmontParkHanging
@WiFiWisdom #PiedmontParkHanging I live on the same street as the park and its Klan Central.
Maybe the death of the young man was foul play. Maybe the klan was handing out flyers in the park, on a rainy Wednesday night. Stranger things have happened. What is interesting is how quickly, and easily, the rumors are believed. It is also problematic. Americans are having serious problems getting along with each other. When outlandish rumors are automatically believed, and those who doubt these rumors labelled racist, it just makes it that much tougher to work on the serious racial problems that do exist in our society.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. The spell check suggestion for piedmontparkhanging is paperhanging. UPDATE: More information about the young man has been released. It is almost certainly a suicide.
91 Word Sentence About White Supremacy
There was a tasteful meme on the facebook thingie today. It was about BHO, who may go down in history as the Meme President. The block of JPG text began When a faithfully married black president who was the son of a single mother…
Some people quote the first sentence in a situation like this. In this rant, the first sentence has 91 words. It has more grammar mistakes than a sportscaster seminar. It boils down to: when A is considered B by C who D. And what does D do next? Those 91 words are an insult to the Queen’s English. (91 is the product of 7, a lucky number, multiplied by 13, an unlucky number.)
There are eight more words at the end. “This is white supremacy folks. Plain and simple.” A comma might help in the sentence. Does he mean that the two players in the 91 word sentence are “white supremacy folks.”? Or is the author calling the attitude described “white supremacy”.? In any event, “Plain and simple” is not a complete sentence, nor does it describe the 91 word sentence.
This is a case where the medium is as important to the story as the message. When looking for information about the meme, PG typed “When a faithfully married black president who was the son of a single mother” into the wonder window. The algorithm replied: “Did you mean: When a faithful married black president who was the son of a single mother.”
The first reply was from the dependable PuffHo, This Is Not White Supremacy. It made some good points. A few spots down the google page, we see THIS IS NOT WHITE SUPREMACY. That is the original posting of the commentary. PuffHo aggregated it, without paying the original author.
So mush much for the medium. Lets look at the message. BHO, as you may know, is mixed race. The “single mother” of the piece was white. To our racially obsessed culture, this means black. America has had nine years to get over the ethnicity of BHO. It has failed miserably. To some, any criticism of the man is racist. Maybe you mindlessly defend anything BHO does, and say that the critics are members of the KKK. Or maybe you are upset because a dark skinned man is in the White House. BHO can do nothing right, because he has dark skin.
Either way, the people who see the skin, and not the man, are doing America a disservice. After January 20, 2017, we will find some other mindless excuse to trash our leaders. This is how politics works. You say whatever you can think of that is negative about the opposition. You gloss over the negativity of your own side. After a while, a lot of people don’t believe a word that either side is saying. When everyone is shouting, nobody is heard. This is politics. The generalizations are plain, and the minds are so, so, so simple.
There is an attitude among some that “racism” is a metaphysical evil. The R monster must be defeated. Collateral damage is not a problem. If you are going to make an omelet, you need to break eggs. When PG hears talk like this, he feels like an egg.
One problem is that everyone has their own idea of what “racism” is. They are correct, and you are mistaken. To some, it is systemic institutional oppression. To others, it is cultural appropriation and microaggressions. (spell check suggestion: nonaggression) Some cynics say that “racism” is anything that rubs you the wrong way. If you disagree, you need to check your privilege.
PG saw a video last week, A Rant Against an Anti-Millennial Rant. “And we use words like “racist” to describe someone who thinks that the word “bae” isn’t real because it didn’t originate from a white, Eurocentric vernacular.” These are strange times.
If you are getting itchy, this is almost over. If you like, you can skip over the rest, and look at the pictures. They are from The Library of Congress. Image #06663: “Fifth International Pageant of Pulchritude and Eleventh Annual Bathing Girl Revue, Galveston, Texas, August 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1930”
The last quote in this paste-a-thon is from RebelYid. “I could point out the fallacy of selecting the best qualities of Obama, while selecting the worst qualities of Trump, or the framing of the statement to reach a preordained conclusion about racism. This is how irrefutable facts can lead to erroneous conclusions. Such rants are great for confirming the views of those already so inclined and worthless for convincing anybody else. Facebook and Twitter thrives on political comments with no depth. By insisting on making it about racism, you blind yourself to the greater problem …”
All White Jury
The British story had an inflammatory headline: US supreme court voids Georgia man’s death sentence over racial bias on jury “The US supreme court on Monday delivered a stinging rebuke to the southern state of Georgia for having concocted an all-white jury to send a black man to death row, ruling that prosecutors intentionally skewed the process by striking out all prospective black jurors in an act of blatant racial discrimination.” Here is the SCOTUS ruling.
A Rome GA newspaper had a story on the case, Race is key to Timothy Tyrone Foster appeal before U.S. Supreme Court. “Queen White lived by herself in Rome. She’d retired after teaching over 30 years and had been a fourth-grade teacher at Johnson Elementary School. By all accounts she was loved by her friends, former co-workers and students. (SCOTUS notes “Timothy Tyrone Foster, an eighteen-year-old African-American, was charged in 1986 with killing Queen Madge White, an elderly white woman, in Rome, Georgia.”)
On Aug. 27, 1986, at approximately 8:30 p.m. a friend took White to choir practice and brought her back to her Highland Circle home near the Coosa Valley Fairgrounds.White talked to her sister on the telephone around 9 p.m. Her sister stopped by early the next morning, discovered White’s house had been ransacked and found her body lying on the floor of her bedroom.According to court records, she was covered up to her chin by a blanket, and her face was covered in talcum powder. Her jaw was broken, and she had a severe gash on the top of her head. Before she had been strangled to death, White had been molested with a salad-dressing bottle.
Police had suspects, and Foster — who lived nearby — was one of them. But they had no evidence linking him to the crime. Nearly a month later Foster was arrested after threatening his live-in companion on Green & Gold Boulevard. She responded to his threats by turning him in. White’s possessions were recovered from their home and from Foster’s two sisters. Foster confessed to the killing shortly after his arrest.
The community was outraged over the brutal circumstances of the murder, and several lawyers refused to represent Foster. “Obviously (Foster) was an African-American and (White) was a beloved member of our community,” (Mr. Foster’s lawyer Bob) Finnell said. “She was a lovely person.”
Apparently, Mr. Foster had a tough life. There was some dispute about whether he was mentally ill, or “retarded.” “A defense psychiatrist testified that Foster was so intoxicated from the ingestion of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine that he did not know the difference between right and wrong at the time of the crime.”
“Part of the Foster’s defense against the death penalty was to show the dire circumstances of his life — an environmental defense — essentially “look at where this kid came from,” Finnell said. His lawyers spoke with Foster’s father and asked him to take the stand to talk about Foster’s life. He said he wouldn’t do it. “He told me ‘We smoke our dope, we laugh and I can always make another kid,’” Finnell said. “You wonder how could somebody say that about his child. It was chilling.”
In death penalty cases, jury selection issues frequently come up in appeals. These have a way of being “inside baseball,” and can cause brain damage to casual observers. In Mr. Foster’s case, apparently four Black people were struck from the jury. The Georgia courts ruled that the reasons given for striking the black jurors were valid. SCOTUS disagrees.
In today’s ruling, much is made of a note the prosecutors used. In this note, the race of prospective jurors was noted. The Georgia court ruled: “4. The trial court did not err by denying Foster’s post-trial motion to review in camera the state’s jury-selection notes. An attorney’s work product is generally non-discoverable. A defendant’s right to exculpatory evidence under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (83 SC 1194, 10 LE2d 215) (1963), is not involved here, and non-exculpatory information in an attorney’s work product does not become discoverable simply because the opposing attorneys might find it strategically useful.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
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