Concrete Events
There were two events in Atlanta yesterday. In the afternoon, some people decided to play in the freeway. The fishwrapper reports Protesters temporarily block Downtown Connector.
The action was a protest against police brutality, and Micheal Brown. The hashtag involved was #blacklivesmatter. How this action will affect life in Missouri is uncertain. Maybe this helped a Missouri team win game two of the world series.
After the pumpkinfest event went out of control, many have drawn comparisons between how things are handled. The word is that white children can go crazy, without consequences, while black children get shot by police. The incident on the downtown connector was at least one time where unarmed black people engage in dangerous activity without being shot.
A mile or so northwest of the Grady curve is the Krog Tunnel. The venerable passage sits under the railroad tracks between Cabbagetown and Inman Park. It is a concrete palimpsest of graffiti, with new offerings spraypainted all the time. Some call it iconic.
Some doofus thought it would be cool to block off this thoroughfare, and have a party. The neighborhood disagreed. The city said go ahead. The Krog Masquerade was set to happen. Lots of neighborhood people were not happy with the arrangement.
Last night, the neighbors got revenge. Krog Tunnel buffed in protest of Masquerade ball. The crazy quilt of street art was painted over. After the party, the tunnel art will get a fresh start, with a new background. It is part of the process. #krogisnotforsale
Pictures for today’s entertainment are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. These pictures were taken May 17, 1955, at Southeastern Movie Festival, a Motion Picture Theatre Owners and Operators of Georgia event.
BO And JS Promote Privilege
Bill O’Reilly recently appeared on a tv show hosted by Jon Stewart. BO was promoting a book. JS was trying to make money. They call it show business.
The alleged topic of discussion was the murky concept of white privilege. The Jew, and the Irishman, shouted over each other for a few minutes, until it was time for a commercial break. At this point, they held hands and sang Kumbaya. Some people thought it was cool, while others were not so sure.
BO likes to whine about the “War on Christmas” every year. The solstice holiday should be about Jesus. Anyone who disagrees is a poopyhead. Does BO benefit from Christian Privilege?
An unintentionally ironic moment came when JS was reciting his white privilege talking points. “White people do more drugs in this country than black people but black people make up a far higher majority of drug arrests.” Holy meme, Batman.
The war on drugs hurts a lot of people. POC may indeed have it tougher than PWOC. The problem with racializing the war on drugs is that you tend to reinforce the status quo.
It is the old divide and conquer. Get the white people, and black people, fighting each other, and the government fucks everybody. If you make the war on drugs a race issue, you will divide the people. Instead of presenting a united front against the war on drugs, people are fighting over who is hurt by it more. The alcohol industry enjoys the spectacle.
Both BO and JS are employed by the corporate media. This industry is supported by advertising revenue, significantly from the alcohol industry. Those who sell adult beverages benefit from the war on drugs. The alcohol industry enjoys its legal monopoly. The alcohol industry, and alcohol users, enjoy legal privilege. The black people in prison are just a cost of doing business.
Pictures for today’s entertainment are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. These pictures were taken May 17, 1955, at Southeastern Movie Festival, a Motion Picture Theatre Owners and Operators of Georgia event.
Watermelon Flavored Toothpaste
Some time it just doesn’t pay to look at twitter. PG was downloading pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”, the source of the pictures that go with this report. This requires being connected to the internet. This also means temptation, in the form of facebook, twitter, tv listings, weather radar, and the growing collection of sites where PG is banned.
So this man, The Field Negro, likes to tweet. Field is a Philadelphia lawyer, who likes to “call out” racism. Like in this tweet. @fieldnegro Maybe Boston Herald Cartoonist’s Dumb Watermelon Joke Was Just a Mistake via @intelligencer Or maybe it was racism.
There was a cartoon in a Boston newspaper. A man is taking a bath, while BHO brushes his teeth. The man says “Have you tried the new watermelon flavored toothpaste? The cartoonist was thinking of a brand of watermelon flavored toothpaste from Colgate.
PG gets whatever is cheapest to rub against his teeth. He asked Mr. Google about watermelon flavored toothpaste. Some of the related searches were scotch flavored toothpaste, coffee flavored toothpaste, flavored toothpaste for kids, flavored toothpaste for dogs, and weird flavored toothpaste.
As some have noted, BHO is a dark skinned man, with an African father. There is a stereotype about African Americans and watermelon. The fact that millions of PWOC also enjoy watermelon is not important. What is important is an opportunity to call out racism. Twitter is up to the task.
@tanehisicoates Get it? It’s funny because of the original, and informative, insight that only black people like watermelon.
@tanehisicoatesSorry, cartoonist claiming the “racial element” was nowhere in his head is lying. Lying is a thing that humans do. So is racism.
@CultureInStereo That is outrageous. My GOD. Where is the decency…
@Freefree0Bobbie Jesus, can we as a country sink any lower?
@keylimepolitic @CharlesMBlow @Greg_Reibman @bostonherald This is THE most messed up cartoon ever! ARE YOU SERIOUS? #NoRespect!
@GregT2U2 @CharlesMBlow @Greg_Reibman @bostonherald Boston Herald read Julia Pierson and follow suggestions offered. FIRE THE Cartoonist! Watermelon
@clapifyoulikeme You say unfortunate, I say racist…let’s call the whole thing off.
@clapifyoulikeme @Greg_Reibman @bostonherald By “whole thing” I mean, “systemic racism”.
@twitfe @CharlesMBlow @Greg_Reibman @bostonherald I have nvr seen so much disrespect in terms of a POTUS who just happens to be black. ridiculous!
@abs_tellthetale @baublelauble @Greg_Reibman @bostonherald Is there ANY PERSON in the USA that doesn’t know how racist that is?!
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Hey White People
In more dog bites man news, there is a viral video about racism. . It shows a bunch of adorable black children reading a script. The kids are modeling a shirt. The shirt says, in all caps, 216 point text, “RACISM IS NOT OVER. BUT I’M OVER RACISM.” You can buy the shirt.
To begin with, all caps is yelling. People do not like to be yelled at. The correct response to this is “you don’t like hearing that, how would you like to live it?” There is not a cause and effect connection between the two. Listening to one does not reduce the effect of the other.
The script is a cliche fest. There is little to learn here. Some of this is true. Some of it is questionable. It is tough to see how this will have any positive impact. It has the feel of preaching to the choir.
The video is supposedly directed at white people. The title is “Hey White People: A Kinda Awkward Note to America by #Ferguson Kids.” How PWOC will react is uncertain. What is interesting is the reaction of some POC to this video.
@chescaleigh I’d take @FCKH8’s allyship way more seriously if they weren’t so passive aggressive when being called out. This tweet is from Franchesca Ramsey, the auteur behind Shit White Girls Say…to Black Girls.
The tweet links to a blog post, What Happens When Businesses Use Black Tragedies To Sell Products. It seems like the shirts are marketed by a company called FCKH8. (As an aside, is anyone else tired of this gratuitous neo-profanity?) Supposedly, five dollars from every shirt sold will be donated to “charities working in communities to fight racism.” The key phrase is will be. This promise is not made under oath. Accountants have lots of wiggle room here.
An online entity called Colorlines has a post, This is the T-Shirt Company Making Money Off of Ferguson. “There’s an entire economy around black death—and this ad campaign illustrates it all too well. Ironically, this economy’s profit margins depend on upholding the very racism this video claims to want to eliminate. So there you have it, folks. Everything, it seems, can distilled, packaged, bought and sold—including racism.”
The publisher of Colorlines is another outfit called Race Forward. They issued this statement. “It has been brought to our attention that outlets have been reporting our affiliation with Synergy Media and FCKH8.com. Race Forward has never received any money from Synergy Media nor do we have an agreement with the company or FCKH8.com campaign. To be clear, Race Forward would not accept any proceeds from this effort.”
There was a comment. “Hello guys this is Mike with FCKH8.com we had selected your organization from hundreds to receive portion of the proceeds from the video. I was not aware that we had to receive permission to donate money. If you do not want our money there are plenty of other organizations out there that would greatly benefit from it. We just thought that you did awesome work and we wanted to support it.”
Pictures from The Library of Congress. UPDATE: Fckh8 is bad at damage control.
Not In A Bad Way
Sometimes a story comes along that you can’t help but comment on. The story is about a pro basketball team, the Atlanta Hawks. This franchise has all the appeal of watching paint dry, but without the intoxicating fumes. This story has all the elements.
The four elements are earth, air, fire, and water. Earth and water combine to make mud. RACIST is the mudslinging term of choice in 2014 Amerika. The arena where the Hawks perform is built the empty air over the railroad tracks.
Maybe this story only has three of the four elements. If anyone cared about the Hawks, there might be fire. This team has never been past the second round of the playoffs in forty odd Georgia years. Pro basketball in Georgia is as much fun as getting pulled over by the police.
RACISM starts it off. Every story about the Hawks idiot owner has the word RACIST in the headline. Long forgotten jocks weigh in on twitter. An eyesore mayor talks to the fishwrapper.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar @kaj33 Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson isn’t a racist-he’s a businessman. Read my thoughts @TIME
Dominique Wilkins @DWilkins21 Thank you to all my fans and concerned Hawks community. Please be patient with me. I will be commenting on the recent Hawks news shortly.
Kasim Reed “We shouldn’t have a conversation centered on race when it’s really focused on winning … Let’s not make it about race.”
The affair started when Hawks general manager Danny Ferry was discussing which free agents to sign. This is where you offer a player lots of money to come play for your team. This player will make more money for playing a game six months than the typical ticket buyer will make in a lifetime. In this case, it was a “a highly-regarded African-American player and humanitarian” named Luol Deng. The hraapah in question is from Sudan. How he got to be african-american is tmi.
When the story broke, no one knew what was said about hraapah. Inquiring minds want to know. “he has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he’s like a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out the back.”
This comment led to an investigation. “An Atlanta law firm conducted 19 interviews and turned up more than 24,000 internal documents, including the email that Levenson cited when he announced his decision to sell the team.” This will cost enough to pay for a humanitarian free agent.
The story broke last sunday. The idiot owner of the Hawks, Bruce Levenson, “self reported” to the NBA a numbskull email about increasing attendance at Hawk games. The email may, or may not, be RACIST. Persistent rumors have it that Mr. Levenson wants to jack up the price of his team. This is a curious marketing strategy. It worked for Donald Sterling. Having your adulterous gf spill the beans is not as much fun as self reporting.
The email in question is bizarre. You are trying to sell pro basketball in a football town. The team plays downtown, across the street from the fifth most dangerous neighborhood in amerika. It is also the site of the Blank Bowl, with billions of dollars being invested in a new football stadium. You have to wonder about the values of our society.
This post is going on past the attention span of most readers. If you like, you can read the email for yourself. Do you need to know if it is RACIST? You might want to ask why you care. The pictures are from The Library of Congress The pictures are from the Farm Services Administration. America did not spend millions of dollars on humanitarian basketball players in those days.
Dr. King And Mr. King
The other day PG stumbled onto a blog post, about a speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This address was deemed “the singularly most-important speech on race in the history of this country.”
PG admires Dr. King. He is also suspicious of superlatives. There were some comments made by Rodney Glen King III. The comments by Mr King were briefer, and tougher to live up to.
While thinking of things to write about, PG realized that he had never seen the actual quote by Mr. King. It is embedded above. When you see this video, you might realize that Mr. King has been misquoted. The popular version has him saying “Can’t we all just get along.” He did not say just.
Mr. King was known to America as Rodney King. His friends called him Glen. His comments, at 7:01, May 1, 1992, went like this: ““People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids? . . . Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it.”
The circumstances of the two comments could not be more different. Dr. King was giving the sermon of his life. There was an enormous crowd, both in person and on TV. His comments were scripted, rehearsed, and delivered with the style that he was famous for.
Mr. King, by contrast, had just seen the officers who beat him acquitted. Cities from coast to coast were in violent upheaval. Mr. King was speaking to reporters without benefit of a speech writer. What he said just might have been more important. Pictures today from The Library of Congress.
I Have A Dream
PG stumbled onto a blog post about a speech. It was delivered August 28, 1963, by Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. You have probably heard the money quote many times, but how many have heard the entire 881 words. PG had not, and decided to take a look.
The speech is really a sermon. It is delivered with the cadence, and rhetorical flourishes, of the church. Dr. King was a minister. The Jesus worship church is a huge player in African America. The fact that slaves were introduced to this religion by their owners seems to be forgotten.
The term used is Negro. This was the polite word in 1963. The custom of saying Black started in the late sixties, at least partially inspired by James Brown. Negro began to be seen as an insult, along with the infamous N-word … which is really just a lazy way of saying Negro.
As the speech is working up to the climax, there is a line “But not only there; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia!” Today, Stone Mountain is a middle class black community. DeKalb County is mostly black, and the political leadership is African American. This was a long way from happening in 1963.
Twelve weeks after Dr. King gave his speech, President John Kennedy was killed. Part of the reaction to this tragedy was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The next year saw the Voting Rights Act, and escalation of the war in Vietnam. It seemed that for every step forward, there was a half step back. People lost patience with non violence. America did not implode, but somehow survived. It is now fifty one years later. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Sunday Racial Polemic
PG was spending a productive sunday morning. He created a map to the Living Walls grafitti festival. He was in a good mood. Even this link on facebook did not bring our slack blogger down.
Out of a masochistic sense of fairness, PG took a look at the link after he finished the map. “That’s Racist Against White People!” A Discussion on Power and Privilege is the usual headache producing polemic. Here is the third paragraph.
These are White folks who are claiming that the Obamacare tax on tanning beds is “racist” against White people. These are White folks who are claiming that affirmative action is racist against them. These are the White folks who honestly believe they suffer more racism than people of Color.
Lets take a look at those three links. In the first, Republican Congressman Ted Yoho complained to John Boehner about what is sometimes called the “Snooki tax”. The second link, about affirmative action, is linked to a feminist blog. The money quote “Ask any White person how they feel about Affirmative Action, and you’re almost guaranteed to hear that it is “racist against White people” and that it is “unfair” or “reverse discrimination” and that they oppose it.” This article is used as a source for the comment “These are White folks who are claiming that affirmative action is racist against them.” Is “ask any white person” prejudiced?
The last one, about PWOC thinking they suffer more discrimination than POC, is linked to an article in a British tabloid newspaper. Somebody did a study once, and that was one of the results. The study also showed “Blacks also perceived that racism against themselves had steeply declined from 9.7 in the 1950s to 6.1 in the 90s.”
One of the main points in the Everyday Feminism post was that the word racist is often misused. PG will not argue against that. The article was posted two days before a curious tweet by Chris Brown. “N**** done 6 months community service wit police and the DA racist ass crying to the judge that I didn’t do it. Fuck the SYSTEM! “
The entertainer, who is a POC, got in trouble for publicly beating up his girlfriend. He has had problems with his community service requirment. The amusing thing about this tweet is that the “DA racist ass” is a POC.
This is a repost. Very few things needed to be changed. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These images are Union soldiers from the War Between the States. The primary justification for that gruesome conflict was the abolition of slavery.
Moral Superiority Comedy
As facebook memes remind us, Jon Stewart recently delivered a speech about racism. It is embedded above, in case you missed it. The closing line is “And that shit happens all the time. All the time. Race is there, and it is a constant. You’re tired of hearing about it? Imagine how fucking exhausting it is living it.” The crowd went into hysterics.
Our media culture is strange. On the “conservative” side, buffoons like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly present news as entertainment. On the “liberal” side, comedians like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher present comedy routines as political commentary. America becomes more cynical every day.
There is another video embedded above. In this one, the former Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz says something critical about Israel. He is gleefully shouted down. Eventually, he gives up.
This video could have been made about race relations. If a white person says anything except the party line, he can expect to be called racist, and shouted down. Two wrongs become one right.
So the choice becomes not wanting to be yelled at, or not wanting to live a black life. You can yell at white people as long as you like about racism, and it will not change the way black people live. This yelling will accomplish little, except giving the dubious feeling of moral superiority. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Every 36 Hours
The issue of black people killed by police is in the public eye. PG saw a tweet, saying that a black person was killed by the police every 28 hours. There was a link to a report, Report on Black People Executed with out Trial by Police, Security Guards and Self-Appointed Law Enforcers January 1 – June 30, 2012. The report looks at 120 POC between 01-01-2012 and 06-30-2012.
There is a list of cities where these incidents took place. Atlanta is on top, with 10 deaths. The 10 deaths is actually for Georgia, with one incident taking place near Savannah.
Here are the ten deaths from Georgia. Bear in mind that the information presented here is from the report. For eight of the men, a link is given to a news report.Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
1/1/2012 Canard Arnold, 17, Atlanta GA ~ A white security guard, alleged he felt his life was in danger when Arnold was involved in a shooting with another man, so he fatally shot Arnold. Witnesses say that Arnold was unarmed and running away from a gunfight that others were involved in. Also witnesses say that Arnold never confronted or threatened the security guard. He was shot in the back.
3/1/2012 Freddie Burton Jr, 24, Clayton County ~ Burton allegedly robbed a Jamaican restaurant of $200 at gunpoint. As he was running away from police, he discharged his weapon and escaped. Then he carjacked a vehicle and jumped out of it while it was moving resulting in the car crashing into a house. Burton finally barricaded himself in his sister’s house. A SWAT team failed at negotiating his surrender. A shootout resulted in his death.
3/24/2012 Ervin Jefferson, 18, DeKalb County ~ As he was trying to protect his sister, Jefferson was shot by two security guards who impersonated police officer.
3/27/2012 Tendai Nhekairo, 18, Cobb County ~ Zimbabwean teenager attended Campbell High School. There were conflicting reports about whether his bizarre behavior threatened anyone. Police shot him while he was naked. They alleged he had a knife.
6/16/2012 Marcus Bell, 26, Jonesboro ~ Officers responded to a call about a domestic disturbance. Bell barricaded himself in his apartment but allowed the woman to leave. She showed signs of assault. After a two-hour standoff, officers obtained a warrant for the woman’s assault and forced their way into the apartment. Bell apparently never fired a shot.
6/21/2012 name not released as of 6/29/12 Mount Zion Road, Clayton County ~ Police stopped a car with 5 passengers. One had outstanding warrants. When the officer asked him to step out of the car, suspect allegedly pulled gun from waist and started shooting. One officer and the driver of the car were shot before the suspect was killed.
6/26/2012 Deshone Lamar Travis, 20, Port Wentworth GA ~ Police went to Travis’ home to question him about a robbery. He was uncooperative. Officers “feared for their life” because Travis backed his car towards them. Officers fatally shot him. Witnesses said Travis was driving no more than 5mph and was no threat.
6/27/2012 Christopher Calhoun, 38, Atlanta GA ~ Calhoun was wanted on drug and theft charges in Mississippi. Based on a tip, police found him in the parking lot of an Atlanta mall. Police shot and killed him when he allegedly pointed a gun at them.
6/27/2012 Trevion Davis, 13, Clayton County ~ Police responded to a call about a residential break-in and found three young men in the backyard. The police alleged Trevion “presented that handgun. Subsequently officers fired upon that individual.” One officer shot Trevion in the head. Police later found that the “firearm” was a BB gun
6/28/2012 David Foreman, 31, Brookhaven ~ DeKalb County officers responded to a 911 call about a “domestic dispute”. When officers confronted an agitated Foreman, he held a pistol to his own head. Then he allegedly pointed the weapon at officers who shot him 3 times.
Chamblee54 
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