The Problem Of Anti-Racism
Some people are proud of being anti-racist. This is not always something to be proud about. Often, as in anti communism and homophobia, the struggle against the unseen enemy is worse than the problem you are fighting. When you denounce someone as racist, you might be talking about yourself.
The discussion that follows should not be seen as pro racist. People should treat people with kindness. The word people does not need an adjective. This kindness should be extended to those who do not share your opinions about racism.
Maybe you should lead by example. Instead of worrying about how your neighbor thinks, worry about how you think. If you don’t like the nasty word don’t use it.
To some, racism is the ultimate taboo. It is the worst charge you can make about a person, and the quickest to be made. Once accused, you are guilty until proven innocent. It does not help that the definition of racism is expanding all the time. What one person considers racism is normal thinking to another. It used to be that racism was when you treated someone poorly because of their ethnicity. Now is is a multi faceted boogieman about power and prejudice. Keeping up can be a full time job.
Anti-communism has been compared to racism. To our younger readers, there used to be a system of government called communism. It was alleged to be involved in a cold war with the United States. This cold war was the justification for a bloated military industrial complex. Many crooked politicians were elected on the basis of being anti communist. Often, the fight against communism was worse than the actual system of government.
Racism is the new McCarthyism. Guilt by association is the rule. Difficult to refute charges are made against people. The charge of racism is used as a red herring.
Homophobia is compared to anti-racism. In both cases, the accuser has a set of standards. If the accused does not meet those standards, then the accused is considered fair game for abuse. The accused and the accuser may not agree on these standards. That does not matter. If someone wants to make the accusation, then they will, and will feel righteous about doing so.
It is frequently speculated that the homophobe is secretly gay. The need to be heard badmouthing gays stems from a perceived need to prove heterosexuality. Could this be the case with the anti racist? Maybe the anti-racist is secretly afraid that he/she might be a racist. The “calling out” of others, for perceived racism, is an effort to overcompensate for his/her own shortcomings.
Some things need to be said one more time. People should treat people with kindness. The word people does not need an adjective. Shaming and guilt mongering, because someone does not share your attitudes about race, is not appropriate. To use an anti-communist expression, there are better ways to win hearts and minds.
Pictures are by “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
James Baldwin And The Six Letter Word
In the spring of 1963, KQED filmed a show, “Take this hammer”, about James Baldwin. The snippet in the video above seems to have been the last three minutes of the show. Here is a transcript. Mr. Baldwin discusses a six letter insult. The n-word is more about the speaker, than the spoken of. A 2010 blogger had this to say.
What resonated with me about this particular video though, is the universal experience we’ve all had being referred to, thought of as, or called something we inherently are not. Not because of something we’ve done, mind you – but because of the way others “interpret” us. Those of us that “transgress” gender norms are often given titles and names that don’t fit who we are – but are more representative of the fears and desires of others. I’ve often felt that people’s projections of me are oftentimes just that – their projections. However, Baldwin’s ending sums up a solution to this perfectly: “But you still think, I gather, that the n****r is necessary. Well he’s unnecessary to me – he must be necessary to you. Well, I’m going to give your problem back to you…you’re the n****r, baby…not me.”
It is now 2013. (All discussions of race must mention the year.) The TV show was fifty years ago. A few things have changed. To many white people, overt expressions of racism are seen as bad manners. The n-word is taboo in polite company. The overall attitudes may not have changed, but most white people are careful how they say things.
African America is keeping the n-word alive. But it is still about the speaker, not the one spoken of. When people say the nasty word, they are talking about themselves. They are now the people James Baldwin is talking about. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These men are Union soldiers, from the War Between the States.
Is The Death Penalty In Georgia Racist?
Whenever you discuss the death penalty in Georgia, someone is going to say it is racist. This makes sense. There are few things you can discuss without the R word being tossed in. The discussion that follows will change few minds. When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Chamblee 54 has been writing about the death penalty for five years. Georgia has executed ten men. William Earl Lynd ~ Curtis Osborne ~ William Mark Mize ~ Mark McCain ~ Brandon Rhode ~ Emmanuel Hammond ~ Roy Blankenship ~ Andrew Grant DeYoung ~ Troy Davis ~ Andrew Cook
This discussion is based on these ten men. It does not cover the time before the civil rights movement. It does not consider states other than Georgia. It will not give a direct answer to the question “Is the Death Penalty in Georgia Racist?” People whose minds are made up are not likely to be persuaded by this post.
Of the ten men executed since May 6, 2008, seven are white and three are black. The victims of all seven white men are assumed to be white. This information is not easy to look up, and we don’t want to spend all day working on this. Of the black men executed, two had white victims, and one had black victims. (The black victims are assumed. The 2 white victims were high profile cases, and there in no doubt as to the ethnicity.)
Two of the white men executed did not pull the trigger. William Mark Mize was a white supremacist, who ordered the killing of a subordinate. Roy Blankenship broke into an apartment, and his victim died of a heart attack after he left. Mr. Blankenship was executed thirty three years after his crime. This was the first execution using pentobarbital as a sedative. There were reports that it was not effective, and that Mr. Blankenship was awake for the entire procedure.
The next scheduled execution is Warren Hill, a black man. Mr. Hill is said to be mentally retarded. Brandon Rhode, a white man, was also said to be retarded. His mother was fifteen years old, and drank heavily during her pregnancy. Mr. Rhode attempted suicide a few days before his execution, while under the supervision of armed guards. He was revived after his suicide attempt, so that the state could kill him with an approved method.
The best known execution is Troy Davis. There is little doubt that Mr. Davis was at the crime scene. There is also little doubt that “Redd” Coles, a black man, was at the same crime scene. Many say that Mr. Coles is the killer. Mr. Coles went to the Savannah Police, accompanied by an attorney, the day after the killing. After this meeting, the Savannah Police decided that Mr. Davis committed the crime. There was little further investigation. If anyone benefited by the execution of Troy Davis, it was “Redd” Coles. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Don’t Touch My Stuff Sir
There is a video making the rounds. It supposedly proves the existence of racial profiling. The only thing this video proves is the gullibility of people.
It opens in a city park. It is a bright, sunny day. A young man is trying to break a bicycle chain. He uses a saw, and bolt cutters. He spends over an hour on the job, and a hundred people pass by. No one makes an issue about it. A reporter talks to people, and gets their reaction. No one suspects anything.
To begin with, a real thief is not going to spend an hour working on a bike. He probably won’t openly operate in a sunny city park. There probably is not a reporter nearby, asking people what they think about the affair. The bike is chained to a short road sign. It would be easy to lift the bike over the sign.
The first actor goes away, and the second actor comes in. The shadows don’t seem any different in the park. The second actor is dressed similarly to the first, except for the extra melanin. Yea, this is about how the white guy gets away with inept thievery, and the black guy gets questioned.
Soon, there is a crowd around the young black man. People are asking him whether he owns the bike. A man “whips out a cell phone, and calls 911.” He is standing next to the actor, who continues to saw.
It gets better. The actor rides off in the bike, then it is chained back to the sign. The experiment begins again. An old white man confronts the actor, and picks up the tools. What happens next? If you have ever caught a thief, you know that at this point all hell breaks loose. The thief will start yelling, or pull a knife, or start major trouble. But in this video, the bike thief actor says, politely, “Please sir, please sir, don’t touch my stuff sir”.
This video is a scripted piece of entertainment. It is a fantasy. It has nothing to do with the reality of crime and theft. It is not even very good acting. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Justice Or Vengeance
A jury in Florida rendered a verdict Saturday night. Some are not happy with this ruling. They were looking for the courts to punish the defendant. To many, justice has fallen through the crack.
The truth is that we have trials for a reason. The howling mob, demanding a pound of flesh, is often mistaken. The system exists to protect people from an unjust prosecution. The mobs have not sat in the courtroom, and listened to the evidence. They have not had to make a decision. It is easy to monday morning quarterback a jury, but tough to be on one. Those six women should be thanked for their service, not told to commit suicide.
Some are urging the federal government to prosecute under hate crime laws. This is where Uncle Sam is not happy with the local ruling, and brings his own charges. This is also known as double jeopardy. It is not a good idea. One trial is enough.
Many of the people demanding government sponsored vengeance are Jesus worshipers. This is the man that Pontius Pilate said had done nothing wrong. The crowd shouted Pontius Pilate down. The crowd bellowed Crucify Him, Crucify Him. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
TMI Trayvon Martin Incident
There is a graphic floating around the intercom about Trayvon Martin. It makes a few claims about the young man. In the age of Google, this might not be a smart move.
Trayvon Martin ~ Was an honor student with a 3.7 GPA ~ Was accepted into college on a full ride ~ Was a volunteer of over 600 service hours ~ Was a devoted member of his church ~ Was a loyal friend and a loving son ~ Was an innocent boy. But black skin, Skittles, and a hoodie deemed him a “threat to the community” RETWEET to spread Trayvon’s REAL story RETWEET for justice R.I.P.
PG asked Mr. Google what he knew about this. The six sentences in the first part were checked out. None of them have any evidence to back them up. The claim about being an honor student is especially amusing, in light of the multiple suspensions that Mr. Martin had.
This is the silly season in the media. George Zimmerman is on trial. The behavior of Trayvon Martin may, or may not, be a factor in the case. This behavior does not justify his shooting. However, when people put easily refuted nonsense on the internet, it calls attention to the shortcomings of Trayvon Martin. The google search, for this feature, turned up stories that made Trayvon Martin look very bad. Perhaps the best thing to do at this point is be quiet, and let the jury hear the case. Justice is not a popularity contest.
If you want to wallow in this a bit more, you can take a test, How much do you know about the Trayvon Martin case? Two of the questions are: 1. Hundreds of protests broke out across the country after the Feb. 26 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon in a Florida gated community. Where was the first ‘Million-hoodie march’ held? 11. Which NBA star tweeted a picture of his entire team wearing hoodies, with their heads bowed and hands in their pockets in honor of Trayvon? (Spell check suggestions for hoodies: goodies, foodies, woodies, hoodoos)
Pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Lisa Jackson Is White
The New York Times did it’s liberal media duty Saturday with a story about Savannah, and the Paula Deen controversy. There were three curious words in paragraph four. “The predicament that Ms. Deen finds herself in began when a former employee — a white woman who is now managing restaurants in Atlanta — filed a discrimination lawsuit in March 2012.”
This thing has seemed, er, fishy from the get go. The restaurant industry is full of disgruntled former employees, few of whom are paragons of virtue. DFE worked in a restaurant partially owned by a famous person. It is uncertain how active the famous person was in the day to day operation of the restaurant. DFE has a lawyer, who gets famous person to say embarrassing things in a deposition. Somehow, this deposition is leaked to National Enquirer. And now we learn that DFE is white.
Confirmation of the ethnicity of DFE is tough to come by. Few pictures are available. You have to ask Mr. Google repeated questions. A law industry blog called Huseby (spell check suggestion:Houseboy) has a good story on the matter, with a couple of links.
The attorney for the plaintiff, Matthew Billips, has a few issues. “The case began with an “inflammatory letter seeking over a million dollars for forgo filing a lawsuit and allow Deen ‘a chance to salvage a brand that can continue to have value,’ ” Withers’ document said. (Tom Withers, attorney for Bubba Hiers, the brother of Paula Deen) In the motion to dismiss Billips, Withers quoted a tweet by Billips in which he said “suing Paula Deen is a hoot.” Withers also referred to a sexually laced tweet Billips directed at Deen “even more concerning.” In it, “Billips promises to symbolically undress and have sex with” Deen, Withers said. “Billips has posted sexually explicit tweets using extremely graphic and profane language and imagery. He has used the “N” word,” Withers’ motion said.”
Huseby links to an article in the ABA Journal that is downright fascinating. This feature confirms that Lisa Jackson, the DFE/plaintiff, is melanin deficient. The Deen-Hiers legal team has filed a motion, that is highly entertaining. Unfortunately, the pdf is not copy friendly, so the ABA summary will have to do. If you have the time to read the legal motion, you will enjoy it.
“The motion by lawyer Tom Withers says the plaintiff pursuing race-based claims has no standing to assert them because she is white, the Savannah Morning News reports. The plaintiff, Lisa Jackson, had claimed she was sexually harassed and worked in a racially hostile environment at a restaurant owned by Deen and her brother in Savannah, Ga. Withers represents Deen’s brother and the restaurant.
According to the motion, Jackson claimed she was offended because her nieces “are bi-racial with an African-American father.” But the motion says there is just one niece, and she is related to Jackson’s partner, who said in a deposition that the niece’s father is Hispanic and she hasn’t seen the girl in years…. “Jackson cannot enforce someone else’s right, and she has no actionable claim for feeling ‘uncomfortable’ around discriminatory conduct directed at others,” Withers wrote. Jackson must show that any harassment was directed toward her because she was white, but at her deposition she alleged she was treated more favorably than African American employees at the restaurant.” (Page 153)
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
______ Telling _____ What Is Racist
Womanist Musings recently republished the internet classic 10 Conversations On Racism I’m Sick Of Having With White People. PG turned off his BS detector, and read. In addition to the ten convos of the title, there are five chats that the author would like to have. Apparently, the author likes to talk. Listening might be something else.
PG learned a long time ago that conversations about race are dangerous. If you say the wrong thing, you might wind up in the hospital. It is much easier to hold your piece, and live another day. The bottom line is, PG cannot remember ever discussing any of these matters, especially with a person of color (POC). He decided to leave a comment, and the fun started.
chamblee54 I am a person of non color. I have never had any of these fifteen conversations.
womanistmusings Do you want a cookie?
RVCBard Here’s a cookie you can make at home!
Siah WTF is a person of non-color? Transparent are ya?
miga Perhaps why ze’s never had that conversation before? No one notices hir?
PG felt it was important to make his ethnicity known. The image illustrating the comment has a brown paper bag over a head. You cannot tell if it is a person without color (PWOC), or POC. When talking about race, this is an important distinction.
Person of non-color might be a silly label. But then, what about POC? It is a mystery why “colored people” is offensive, but POC is PC. The skin on PG’s neck might be red, but red is a color.
And so it goes. People love to talk about race in America. The problem is finding someone who will listen. Before ending the text, and moving on to the pictures (courtesy of The Library of Congress), we are going to share something from facebook. This message has been edited. PWOC and POC have been replaced by blank spaces. This is a repost.
This is what I have seen a lot of recently: _____ telling _____ what is racist and what is not. Trust me, _____ of the world, _____ have been thinking about this for a LONG time, and it would be a good idea to LISTEN to what they say — I think that, most of the time, they’re probably right and you’re probably wrong about racism.
Maybe even do some reading and research, so the _____ don’t bear the burden of actively taking the time to educate you about racism in only face-to-face interactions and only when they’re calling you out for saying or doing something racist.
Can we just start with the assumption that you, _______ , are racist? That your actions, most likely, perpetuate or benefit from racism? Maybe that’s not true — I’m sure you’re a good person, but maybe you’re also racist. I don’t want you to feel guilty about it, but just live with it for a little bit as if it were true. Accept, for a moment, that, unless you are actively engaged in something that is ANTI-racist, you’re being racist. Now there’s nowhere to go but up! Now you can feel EXCELLENT about every anti-racist thing you do!
And you’ve been doing a lot of those anti-racist things recently, right?
The Funeral Of Your Enemy
Teju Cole continues to tweet. There are two items today that caught the attention here. The first is this: @tejucole “I learn more about privilege from what I get wrong about misogyny than from what I get right about racism.” There is probably a backstory there. 140 characters can only say so much.
The second tweet, and the subject of the bulk of this feature, goes like this. @tejucole “Everything I want in a piece of writing is here: Daniel Mendelsohn’s essay on the unburied: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/05/unburied-tamerlan-tsarvaev-and-the-lessons-of-greek-tragedy.html …”
The link is to a story in the New Yorker, Unburied: Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the Lessons of Greek Tragedy. It seems as though nobody in Massachusetts wanted to accept the remains of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The body is in an unmarked grave, in a tiny cemetery in rural Virginia. The New Yorker quotes various stories in Greek literature, which has no shortage of violence. In the end, even your worst enemy deserves a decent burial. “This is the point that obsessed Sophocles’ Antigone: that to not bury her brother, to not treat the war criminal like a human being, would ultimately have been to forfeit her own humanity. This is why it was worth dying for.”
America is currently killing people, in neutral countries, with unmanned aircraft. There have been reports that funerals have been targeted. There are even reports of killing “terror suspects”, and then returning to attack the funeral later. At what point do you forfeit your own humanity?
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Seek And Yea Shall Find
There is a graphic on facebook, with a message that PG agrees with. Seek, and yea shall find. (Pun not intended.) Not only does it have a good message, but the source is easy to find. Learning the context, of the message, can shine a light on dingy corners. G-d is in the details.
Without further ado, here is the message: Each of us bears a responsibility to reject hate, whatever its form, whatever its justification. A soul filled with hate can devastate a community. A nation filled with hate can devastate a people. It must start and end with each of us. George Takei
The comment is part of a blog post written August 7, 2012. It was in response to the attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. Mr. Takei says that Sikhs are confused for Moslems, leading to incidents like this.
This is highly ironic. The Sikh people originated in India. Some say that Sikhs are Hindus, and others say they are not. Some say that Sikhism is a warrior branch of Hinduism, created to fight Islam. These differences can be very confusing to outsiders.
Sikh is pronounced seek, like hide and seek. Sikh is not pronounced sick, as in ill. How you say a name affects your thoughts. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Jackson Katz
There was a link to a TED talk that promised to “Turn Every Man Who Watches It Into A Feminist.” PG gave it a try, and was not impressed.
The speaker was Jackson Katz. He likes to put the letters Ph.D. after his name. You have to dig into his biography to see that his doctorate is “in cultural studies and education from UCLA.”
The speech was given at a gathering called TEDxFiDiWomen. (Spell check suggestion: Committeewomen) It is an “independently organized TED event. The speech was about what men can do to reduce violence, mostly against women. The choir Dr. Katz preached to enjoyed the sermon. Did anyone who needs to change his behavior hear this talk?
Dr. Katz is an entertaining speaker. He spoke fast and loud, and the intensity of his rhetoric grew as he went along. He seemed to get his crowd fired up. How this emotion will be channeled is a good question. It would not surprise this viewer if some of these fired up women went home, and took the frustration out on a significant other. Verbal abuse is violence.
The first part of the lecture is wondering why this is considered a men’s issue. There were a few exercises in semantic mumbo jumbo, which might prove something. The idea that this is a human problem… that bullying and aggression are not good ways to treat people … is hinted at. Then, the focus goes back on the men, and how they need a “paradigm change”.
The moment when PG almost gave up on Dr. Katz involved racism. Yes, he had to throw that boogeyman in there. He gave the example of a bunch of white men having a conversation, and someone making a “racist remark.” The enlightened man is supposed to speak up, and say that this is not acceptable.
What PG wonders is why this was assumed to be a group of white men. Are you saying that only white people say rude things about other races? Or, maybe it is alright for black men to say rude things about white men. Until saying so called racist comments is considered wrong for all people, we are going to have a problem. At the very least, Dr. Katz is not as inclusive as he wants you to believe. Or maybe he just said something the “liberal” TED audience would find acceptable.
Some people find this sort of thing entertaining. It is possible that a man listening will hear this “leadership training” and learn to treat his neighbors better. PG suspects that the former is much more likely. The link is above if you want to hear it yourself.
Chamblee54 
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