Thoughts on Living Dark in America

Tags

racism, right wing

I’m not a white man, I’m a white woman. A few Black men used to tell me that white women and Black men shared a common victimization. They claimed that Black women were freer than both of us.

I was never sure that I bought that argument, and I certainly don’t buy that I share an equality of victimization with Black men or women.

But it does give me a certain empathy that comes easier for me than perhaps to the white male.

In my professional working days, I dated a number of police officers. A few were regular beat cops, a couple were Sergeants. I  called a number of detectives and even one Deputy Chief good friends. Since this all occurred in one of the larger metropolitan forces in America, I think I know of what I speak.

Given that all this happened in Detroit, Michigan, once the “murder capital” wherein I worked with and under a list of rather well-known African-American police/ judges/politicians, I speak with some small knowledge of the realities of both crime and racism in America.

We are in the grips of a series of well-publicized incidents wherein Black folks have been killed by white police officers. This has happened in myriads of places, among forces that are more or less bigoted toward their policing communities. The evidence (1) or more properly, the allegations are all over the place. Some cases “seem” more clear-cut than others. People who are favorable to the police in one case are not necessarily favorable in other cases.

Whatever the truth may be in any case, there is a strong and clear perception that the system has failed the African-American community in large part. One example will suffice. Studies suggest that where marijuana is concerned, people use it pretty much in an equal amount racially. In fact, in some years, whites out use marijuana. Yet when you examine arrest rates, Blacks are arrested at stunningly higher rates. A look at the incarceration rates across the country speaks to the same conclusion.

Blacks are targeted. This has always been the case, and it continues to be the case. All the explanations and arguments cannot dissuade this conclusion no matter how hard people try. Deflections to “blacks commit more crimes against blacks than anybody else” are convenient diversions but nothing else. African-American parents teach their boys at an early age a whole series of behaviors in public that are required of them that are unthinkable to a white parent. Walking and driving while black is a real concept.

During my time practicing law, it was not unusual to be told by a client, “the police rolled up on us, stopped us, and said, ‘what are you doing in THIS neighborhood?'” No such thing is asked of a white kid.

The insensitivity to race in this country is stunning and shocking. The Right-wing continues to claim that we are a post racial country. And of course this is understandable when you are busily trying to dismantle government support systems, deny people the right to vote, and otherwise diluting the influence of dark skins in the decision-making process. Suddenly we don’t need to feed the hungry because they are poor and victimized by an unfair system that revolves around poor schools, lack of transportation choices, injustice in the courts, and so forth, but rather because they are “lazy” and have not learned the values of hard work and sacrifice that all good white children learn.

The point is there is a vested interest on the part of the Right to negate racism in America. Their champions become those handful of Negroes who crave the limelight and are willing to dance Bojangles tunes in return for being patted on the head and “considered” a real presidential candidate. African-Americans who stand up and declare the unfairness (as well as well-meaning liberals) are just “playing the race card”

Go to any right-wing blog, and read the comments. I regularly post “humor” pieces consisting of nothing but verbatim comments by people on topics of racial injustice. The same sick and ugly remarks pervade the hundreds that are posted.

Yet, I am daily told that I am the problem. I fail to understand the dangerous jobs our police people are doing, against criminals who are armed to the teeth. I fail to have any balance. I am always “playing the race card.”

Yes, I play it, because it fairly cries out to be played. This country is still ugly racist and you, Right wing, prove it every single day.

Here is a list of what is considered racist:

1. I’m not a racist. Well, you probably are if you made that statement. People who are sensitive to race and working to eliminate racism recognize that we are all racist or bigoted in ways we don’t even realize. We are always looking for the ways that we “assume” before thinking, “react” before thinking. We recognize our tendencies and work to eradicate them.  To say you are not a racist is to utterly fail to even grasp this concept. You are deeply racist, and haven’t even begun the process.
2. We have a black president, and a black attorney general. As Chris Rock said, this is not an example of “progress”. There have been Black people for decades and centuries that were more than capable of being all these things. To suggest that white American has finally reached such a point, has little to do with “progress” from a Black perspective.
3. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are black racists. There is no such thing as a black racist. It’s an oxymoron. Racism denotes the power to control a minority by a majority. A minority cannot be racist. Individuals of any race, creed, or gender can be bigots. Learn the difference.
4. Blacks need to raise their children to work hard and be law-abiding. They already do. What you are really saying, is that black people need to act white. You are not constrained as they are by crime-ridden neighborhoods, poor schools, lack of good transportation, poor government services, local merchants who take advantage of them though inferior products and high prices. When you have tried to fight though all that AND teach your child to be polite to slur-slinging authority figures and keep their hands out of their pockets and not play with toy guns, and not to walk down certain streets, and not to wear those tennis shoes, and not to wear your hat that way, and not to be out after 10 p.m., and not to ride in that sort of car, and, and, and, maybe you will get it.

Much has been made in recent months of mostly white men walking around in stores carrying their “I got a big dick” guns, in some male peacock display of misplaced masculinity. People forget that the Black Panthers did the same thing in California back in the 70’s and then Governor Ronnie Reagan called for new gun laws to stop this danger to the public. Black men with guns is dangerous. White men with guns is “protection to all”. Do you FUCKING SEE THE DIFFERENCE?

One day we will look back on all this (we being future generations no doubt) and see all the hypocrisy. A study just confirmed what has been known for a number of years. The bulk of the “tea party movement” was born, bred and financed by the Kochs. They personally don’t give a damn about all your religious issues, but they do find it a good thing to have your mind occupied by gays and affirmative action, by “socialist” boogie men behind every government program designed to help those less fortunate. They and those like them are behind the misdirection that you live with.

As long as you blame others for your shit-life ( or at least it would be a whole lot better if I didn’t have to support THEM), then you are not blaming them–the people with all the money and with all the power. They continue to reform this country into an oligarchy where the rich have everything and everyone works for them in some sick Ayn Randian dystopian nightmare. And you play your part by calling for free markets and free guns, and worrying about who is marrying who.

Get a clue. Markets have never been free, and the Kochs and their ilk don’t want free markets, they want them rigged as they now are to favor them. They want international markets to be open to their products and they will abuse and exploit workers worldwide and do so with impunity. They are intent on reducing you to no more than a Bangladeshi sweat-shop worker. They don’t care about your old age, or your health. As long as we continue to breed, there will always be enough. Platitudes are all you actually get from paid politicians who say we just have to get back to the good old days of hard work and sacrifice–you know, like you and your parents. Stop supporting these lazy no-accounts. That ain’t racism, just good old American pride.

Bullshit.

As they sit with their December tans in San Moritz and laugh over martinis at the gullibility of their “tea bagger” supporters,  while you continue to talk about “respecting our police” and calling young a young kid who may have snatched a few cigarillos a “thug”. Yeah, continue doing your “job”. The rich laugh all the way to the bank.

PS: all this shit applies to brown skins too.

 

(1) Given that almost none of these cases has resulted in a prosecution, we can only surmise what the evidence is. Grand jury testimony is not evidence nor proof of anything, having been untested by cross-examination or subject to objection by the other side. This is no “other side” in grand jury proceedings.

Up to My Ass in Shit

Tags

crap conversations with the stupid, Ferguson, immigration

I keep going back for more, because I can’t believe that people can say these things, let alone think them.

Let’s be blunt. I can believe that people think these things but not  stupid enough to voice them.

Let’s be brutal. I can’t believe you can be on the Far Right and be this unable to even see how stupid what you say sounds.

I mean, seriously. Be a flaming conservative. Hate people by the train-load full. But no finesse in at least pretending otherwise to the world? Do you have to Rambo deliver your stupid?

I’m admonished from time to time to be gentle, to be kinder, to be more willing to assume that people are NOT the image that they so studiously work to portray. Forgive me if I don’t have time for niceties. It’s the looks, acts, talks, walks, lika. . . . Am I supposed to assume otherwise? Why are you entitled to the benefit of the doubt?

I had two fairly long conversations this week with idiots. I am not gonna quote verbatim because that would be boring, but I’ll give you a good idea of what transpired. Names have been changed to protect the children of these bastions of extreme stupid.

One of the “discussions” involved immigration. Peggy Sue was against all that stuff. Peggy Sue said the key word was “illegal”, in fact Peggy Sue just made the whole process simple,

“They are illegals,” she said in exasperation, “they have entered the country ILLEGALLY.”

“So, what’s that mean to you? I mean illegal is a word that describes some state of mind you have. It’s illegal to drive over the speed limit, to not pay your fair share of taxes, to litter. What does entry across the border without papers mean to you?”

“THEY CROSSED ILLEGALLY,” she shouted.

I get that, besides breaking a law, which we all do, why does that bother you so much? You see I see the term “illegals” as a code word for (a) they are brown and I don’t like that, (b) they will take our jobs, (c) they will change our way of life. I see that as racist, coming to you from Fox Noise and their hate machine.

After a few hours, I got this response:

“I’ll make this clear. They are breaking the law, and it’s important to know who crosses our borders because they may be carrying diseases to infect our children,  they may be criminals, or they may be terrorists. I’m not a racist. The only racists are liberals playing the race card,” she suggested in her best recall of what Fox said.

Tens of thousands of children are born in this country every year. Do you know which ones will be criminals or get diseases, or become terrorists? If you get a new neighbor do you know this? Your neighbor is not legally required to vaccinate their children. Why do you impose this on others? Did you know that South American countries on a whole have better rates of vaccination than this country? Are there ANY verifiable reports of terrorists crossing the southern border? Do you worry about the northern border ever?

Jack Sprinkle popped in at that point with “you’re wordy. You baffle with bullshit.”

Thanks Jack, that certainly enlightened the fly on the wall.

“Typical liberal. If you disagree with them it’s because you watch Fox News!” shouted Peter Pooch. And then to emphasize the point, he added, “I watch Fox and I’m proud of it.”

Later, we gave thanks for Thanksgiving, brought to us by all those hard-working migrants across the land who pick your food so you can celebrate. Thank you Jesus, for this food. Jesús, the worker, says da nada.

Peggy Sue scrunches up her forehead, denoting that she’s thinking hard, and asks, “they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving do they?”

FACEPALMS ALL AROUND at that one. Yeah, Peggy Sue they do. Oh triple sigh.

We move on to Ferguson.

Peter Pooch is all to excited to discuss this one.

Michael Brown is described as “a criminal, a thug, a giant, or better yet Giant Thug, a 6’5″ 270 pound charging cigar stealing police attacking criminal “. It’s all summed up this way:

“Giant Thug robs store
Attacks police officer
Gets shot for it
Cop was in the right”

Um except for the fact, that the Officer was the same height, so giant is perhaps a bit much. Except that he was never convicted of a thing, so “thug and criminal” is not correct. Except that there is conflicting evidence as to whether he attacked the officer. Your conclusion that the “cop was right” is your conclusion, not the facts there.

Peter Pooch was not done, “I will take the word of a police officer over a known criminal any day of the week.”

No doubt you will, and that disqualifies you Pete from sitting on a jury anywhere in the US of A. Got that?

It got worse:

If the black community wants to get ahead in this world they need to learn about education they need to learn that the leaders they have now such as Rev. Al have been lying to them for many years There may be some racism in this country but it’s very little compared to air to 50 years ago we have black senators black congressman black police officers black fireman black politicians by the way have a black president which it entire group of white people voted for There are more black racist than there are white racist these days

I gotta hand it to ya Pete, you don’t miss a beat of the Fox News distortion. And the African-American community thanks you for all that good advice on how to be white. I’m sure they will have family discussions and implementation strategies soon employed now that they understand how to be as you wish them to be.

African-American friends I have don’t listen to L Sharpton and And they teach their children to respect the laws of this country they teach their children to get an education and they teach their children to have respect for themselves I don’t riot and they don’t loot and I don’t attack police officers they have respect for each other for themselves for the walk

Which I take to mean that Peter Pooch’s African-American friends, are just like him. I can imagine them all calling Michael Brown a “giant thug”. But then I snap back into reality. African-American “friends” my ass.

As I was telling my husband, I’m not a really nice person. I sorta like poking sticks at caged animals if you get the metaphor. But it’s awfully sad too. Knowing that racism is so much a part of our daily lives still. At least in large parts of our country. Such conversations no doubt occur down here in New Mexico, but in much more isolation I believe.

I don’t meet many in my daily life here.

There are so many errors. The conclusion that is held by so many uber right wingers that liberals and Blacks are the real racists today, because they don’t understand what the word racist means. Pretending that whites are the new “oppressed” “race”. Pretending that racism can be masked by “criminal” and “disease” and “illegal”.

Going about daily lives sanctimoniously, because you are “Christian” and “good” and “law-abiding”. Manipulating the world to reflect how you want it to be because it is what you envision as safe.

Life is mean, ugly, dirty, and freakin’ complicated. There are no answers that are definitive about most anything. There are things that are better or worse than some alternative. Life is unstable. It always was always will be. If you find a place of quiet, where life is serene, consider yourself lucky. Seek out good people and cling to them for the crazies are numerous and will drive you insane otherwise.

People are people everywhere and every time. There are not bad people, only bad situations that some find themselves in. Some of the fault is theirs, a lot of it is not. You’re not better just different. God favors no one. You don’t have any right to anything, you have only the privilege of certain advantages. If you spent half the time helping others attain your advantages instead of trying to protect your stuff, we’d all be better off by twice.

If it sounds like hate, it usually is. If you start using the word them, you are hating somebody. Stop it.

Get over yourself. You’re gonna die and be forgotten, in probably no longer than three generations.

Smell a flower. Drink a glass of wine. Watch a sunset. Smile at a stranger.

And get over yourself.

Stupid Installment #4,592

A lady (no doubt a very nice one) took umbrage at my propensity to, as she put it, “insult” people when making a point. My insult is of course pointing out that some people are stupid. I don’t make the charge lightly, since it normally takes some work to be stupid, it doesn’t just come naturally to most people.

I was pointing out that while all people to a degree form opinions and then look for “evidence” to support their comforting thought, conservatives, given their mental makeup, do this to a greater degree than most people. An acknowledged expert in the field of motivation, Jonathan Haidt, professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU’s Stern School of Business says as much, though I dare say he is more diplomatic than I.

That was and is his point after all. The way to reach people who are intransigent when it comes to facts is to recognize that facts don’t sway people who have “gut” beliefs. You must appeal to the that which motivates their world view. In the case of conservatives it is things like tribalism, fears of the mean old world, and comforting religion. While liberals can fall victim to similar emotional motivations, I contend that they do so with less fervor and less often because liberals are by nature open to new ideas and things in general–thus a new explanation draws their attention.

I find conservatives for this reason often illogical and Haidt supports that conclusion. Logic and factual evidence don’t persuade, rather, hitting them where it counts (family, and values) does. If you can structure an argument that helps them to see the truth as supporting their tribal instincts or values as they see them, they are more likely to listen.

I myself, being who I am, don’t have the patience. I hit them between the eyes with the obvious, and then throw up my hands in disgust, and publish yet another diatribe on, you guessed it, “stupid people.”

The truth is, the word ignorant better describes such people, and I can tell you from experience that they loathe this term even more. Of course its the perfect word because all it denotes is that you are uninformed, and aren’t we all on more subjects than we care to mention? I am ignorant about architecture, and can barely tell my Ionic from Doric but fair a bit better with Corinthian I must say. I am ignorant when it comes to “reading” music. The list is long I assure you.

Yet somehow, to call a person ignorant is to deliver a most insulting blow.

Well, so be it.

People are known to prey on ignorance. These people are called grifters.

Sarah Palin is a perfect example. She is not a stupid person actually–in her own way she is quite brilliant. She set out to become wealthy and famous and has done a fine job of doing just that. She is much too lazy to actually learn much that doesn’t  have to do with her trade, so to normal people she appears buffoonish, but she rather relishes that since it plays to her real advantage.

Sarah’s true audience are other ignorant people, those who are “too busy” to read books, magazines of note, or listen to good public discourse. They are not fans of Mozart (a name they would recognize at least) but have never heard of Berlioz. They might vaguely have heard of Oscar Wilde, but couldn’t name a play he wrote if you held a hot poker to their eye. They probably remember that the name John Locke was mentioned back in high school history but would no doubt answer with the query, “wasn’t he one of the Pilgrims?”

The examples given above are just that examples, one could give an infinite number of similar “tests” of general knowledge and these folks would stare at you like you had grown a second head.

One reads of a time in this country when people went (as entertainment mind you) to listen to a lecture by William James. Parlors were filled in the evening with women and gents conversing on all manner of politics and religion. On the Continent they were called salons.

Today, “family rooms” are filled with kids playing video games, Dad watching football, and Mom making elaborately decorated cupcakes for the church sale on Sunday. Discussions relate to the latest shenanigans of the Kardashians, which team is likely to take the bowling trophy this season, and should they all watch the latest installment of Real Housewives of (insert city) tonight as a “family”. The kids are clamoring for Honey Boo Boo which sadly  I think left the air with me never having had the opportunity to learn what it was.

All this stems, at least as as I see it, from a quality of life that has mired in “diversion for diversion’s sake”. Since we don’t prize education for itself, but only as a means to an end (doctors and lawyers make “good livings”, i.e., more money), we don’t learn the joys of actually learning about the world, the history of it, or anything much else. We work to make money to buy things to help us forget that we hate our jobs, and hate much of what accompanies it.

We hate the commute, we hate the chores and the endless stops to pick up this and that. We hate the meetings, the bill paying, the yard work, the shopping. We hate the traffic, the noise, the crowds. We are physically exhausted from the effort. Is it any wonder that we actually walk into a supermarket and buy “partially boiled potatoes”? Seriously, we don’t have twenty minutes to spare to boil our own! Since cooking is a chore, best leave it to Prego, or McD’s, or somebody else (for a price), so that we, poor beaten down creatures that we are, can spend every single second RELAXING.

And relaxing has taken on the meaning of “make me forget how crappy life is”, so it must be “other”. It must be things that don’t require thinking or comparing, contemplating or contrasting. Relaxing should be mostly mind-neutral, requiring only the barest of attention. Fishing and scrapbooking, movies, and sports, all fit the bill equally well.

You would think we would reach another conclusion. But that would require thinking. If I am working my butt off 40 hours a week all for the privilege of falling exhausted into bed each night, ought I spend the few precious hours I have of LEISURE in figuring out how I can better my lot, how we all COLLECTIVELY can better or lots?

Or stated another way? Is somebody or something making my life like this because it makes their lives better?

Our time should be spent on understanding our government, what it is there for and what we can do to change it. We should understand the truth of our history (not the good citizen version but reality). We should understand the history of the world, not superficial dates and names. We should understand philosophy and explore the great themes of human existence. What is truth, beauty, and morality?

That is the stupidity of much of our citizenry. They have been lulled by a consumer “shiny object” to reach for the latest IPhone rather than Plato, a new recliner with built in snack tray rather than a book of poetry. None of these diversions are wrong, they are just the entirety of our leisure time and as such they serve to keep us stupid and ready prey to the Palins and the Murdocks and the Kochs of the world.

We may hear the news in the background, but we have been drugged by the seductive tones of “it’s all their fault” of all too many self-serving politicians and journalists and pundits who make a good living off misdirecting your anger and frustration. It causes you to do stupid things, like vote for an increase in minimum wages while at the same time voting for the guy who has campaigned against it. You don’t even know enough to know that. The sound bites just convinced you that Democrats are all socialists now and just give stuff to lazy people.

You know almost nothing of importance or value to the conversations we are not having but should. You have opinions and account them as good as facts. Truth is relative you claim to each of our life experiences, when everyone knows that the people who eschew that remark are the evangelical preachers who tell you that truth is never relative, but can be found perfected in a book that they will interpret for you, for a price.

As I pointed out to another. I would not give a rotted carcass of caribou about your stupidity if you would just have the nicety to keep your ignorant ass away from polling stations and let people who do care take care of the country. You would in the end thank us and be grateful for the better life you would have. But no, you meddle in affairs you have no idea about and make it infinitely harder for the rest of us to make the world a decent humane place.

Since I cannot logically argue for disallowing your vote, I can only rail at your failure to inform yourself of the truth. Get off your lazy dumb ass and learn something. I’m serious. You are stupid.