Tag: Bigotry

Ugliness Comes To Mardi Gras

Yesterday was the final day of the Mardi Gras season and now the faithful go into Lent for the next 40 days (what’s up with the number 40 in religion?).

Usually Mardi Gras is about the togetherness of the people to enjoy the parades and the events around the season but this year some ugly has creep into the celebration…..

A Mardi Gras group is investigating what it says was a “racist display” during a Friday parade in New Orleans. The Krewe of Tucks says it learned only after the parade that a float had included a Black doll apparently dangling by its neck from a strand of beads, per USA Today. A young Black girl caught the doll attached to the string, according to the City of New Orleans, which later shared photos of the girl in a birthday crown enjoying some lighter festivities with Mayor Helena Moreno.

In an initial statement, the krewe apologized for the doll display, which it described as “intolerable” and “completely contrary” to its values, and pledged that whoever is responsible “will no longer be permitted to have any association with the parade.” On Monday, the group said two members had been terminated after bringing 30 white dolls and 30 Black dolls to the parade “for the purpose of throwing them to young children,” per WWL. The group said its investigation is continuing and additional action might follow.

Moreno had denounced the imagery as “deeply offensive” and “unacceptable,” saying it runs counter to a city “built on respect, diversity, and inclusion.” City Council President JP Morrell called the doll a “disturbing effigy” meant to intimidate families and children and said no one is “above accountability.” City officials say they are working with krewe leadership to ensure consequences, as Carnival season heads toward its climax on Fat Tuesday.

It is pathetic and as well as disgusting that the hatred has creeped into this pseudo ‘religious’ celebration before Easter.

I have been around Mardi Gras for many many years and cannot remember any such racist crap before….I am not saying that it has not occurred just I cannot remember one.

Only a damn racist could mar a good time for all.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Make America White Again

Ever since Donny entered into politics he has been Hell bent on persecuting people of color….this time around he has taken his desires to full blown attempt to make American a white country again.

The problem with that stupid damn idea is that American has never been a solely white nation….

As Donald Trump deteriorates and his grasp on power fades, he has been lashing out furiously at female journalists and ethnic groups, most recently Somali Americans. His insults land because of their animosity and his power, not their accuracy. Likewise, his administration’s attacks on immigrants are sloppy and driven by lies. It’s strikingly clear that the target is not individuals with criminal records. It’s anyone and everyone guilty of being brown. Native Americans with tribal identification cards, US citizens, people doing crucial work from construction to nursing, military veterans, college students, people sleeping in their own beds, small children: all kinds of residents of this country are under attack.

“ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to serve public safety,” declares Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect. Masked thugs smashing car windows and dragging parents away from their babies, terrorizing whole swathes of the population, and interfering with the ability of schools and businesses to function does the opposite. The rounds of targeted hatred by Trump and his minions – for people from Haiti during the 2024 campaign, for people from Venezuela this spring and summer, and most recently for people from Somalia – rely on defamatory lies and insults, because the facts about these groups don’t support the hate.

This terrorizing and demonizing pretends to be in service of recreating a white America that never existed. The US when white supremacists like Trump were young was whiter, but this was never a white country. In 1776, the 13 colonies that became the United States included a significant percentage of Black and Indigenous people (some southern states were a third or more Black). When the US annexed Texas in 1844 and then in 1848 took Mexico’s whole northern half, a Spanish-speaking population was already settled across parts of what’s now the south-west and California. The first African Muslim in what is now the United States came in a Spanish expedition almost a century before the Mayflower brought its fanatical Puritans to the shores of Massachusetts in 1620.

The persecution of huge numbers of brown people and even the mass deportations will not create the white country of far-right fantasy. Los Angeles, for example is an almost 50% Latino city, and despite the ICE and border patrol outrages, arrests, imprisonments and deportations, it remains so. The city’s very name is Spanish, a reminder of who was here first. All the hatred, all the persecution, seems like the panic of racists pretending they can stop the future of this country no longer being majority white through sheer cruelty.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/06/trump-immigration-whiteness

As Donny tries to marginalize people of color he is doing real damage to the whole concept of what the US stands for in this crazy world.

This is a fool’s errand….but what better person to lead than a fool.?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Do People Hate People?

Another Sunday in the Deep South…..extreme heat and no rain….some things just do not change.

Moving on to more important stuff.

I read a site entitled ‘The Conversation’ it has some really good articles….they even have a Kids section and this conversation was started by a 9 year old from Oregon.

“Why do people hate people?”

A fascinating question asked by a 9 year old…..plus it is an excellent question that deserves a proper answer.

Have you ever said “I hate you” to someone? What about using the “h-word” in casual conversation, like “I hate broccoli”? What are you really feeling when you say that you hate something or someone?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes the word “hate” as an “intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury.” All over the world, researchers like us are studying hate from disciplines like education, history, law, leadership, psychology, sociology and many others.

If you had a scary experience with thunderstorms, you might say that you hate thunderstorms. Maybe you have gotten very angry at something that happened at a particular place, so now you say you hate going there. Maybe someone said something hurtful to you, so you say you hate that person.

Understanding hate as an emotional response can help you recognize your feelings about something or someone and be curious about where those feelings are coming from. This awareness will give you time to gather more information and imagine the other person’s perspective.

So what is hate and why do people hate? There are many answers to these questions.

https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-hate-people-224252

I do not know if the answer is adequate for her question but this site did do a good job at explain hate and the thoughts around the idea.

So let me ask you, my reader…..why do people hate people?

That is it for me on this Spring Sunday…..I have burgers to cook and a garden to look after….so I shall bow out until tomorrow when I shall return with more stuff.

Enjoy your Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Once Upon A Time In The South

Many years ago slaves were the norm in the South…..then progress was made and these slaves were free but they had to be equal but separate……black waiting rooms, bathrooms, separate schools, etc etc.

The came the great awakening and civil rights prevailed and from the ashes of the old South rose the promise of the new South.

What a magical story….but do not kid yourself!

All that racism just went underground until the rise of the great pretender…..and slowly all that bigotry has once again arisen to show its ugly face.

Take for instance in my state of Mississippi….

Recently at a protest at the University of Mississippi things got ugly and disgusting…..

Republican Georgia Congressman Mike Collins came under fire Friday over a social media post applauding video of white University of Mississippi students racially abusing a Black woman participating in a campus protest for Palestine.

Collins posted the video—in which numerous people can be heard grunting like apes and one young man is seen jumping up and down like a monkey in front of the Black woman—with the caption, “Ole Miss taking care of business.”

Collins—or whoever’s in charge of his social media accounts—sparred with Black leaders who called out his racism. When former Democratic Ohio state senator Nina Turner said the video showed “anti-Blackness,” the congressman shot back, “*Anti-terroristness.”

When Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) accused Collins of “fueling white supremacy,” the Republican retorted, “Don’t take down any more signs at our workplace, please” along with a photo of the Democrat triggering a fire alarm in a House of Representatives office building last year.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/ole-miss-racist-video

Only a POS would justify the actions of these people….nothing can justify using such tactics whether you agree or disagree with the protest.

This is not an isolated case especially here in Mississippi.

The New South my ass!  It is just the Old South with cosmetic work around the edges.

Update:

There will be consequences for the University of Mississippi student accused of taunting a Black student who was participating in a pro-Palestinian protest by mimicking a monkey or ape last week. The Phi Delta Theta fraternity says the man seen making monkey-like noises on video of the incident was previously a member, but was kicked out on Friday, the Hill reports. Ole Miss also launched its own investigation into the incident; the university’s chancellor said the actions of counter-protesters, who outnumbered pro-Palestinian protesters, included “hostility and racist overtones.” Meanwhile, the far-right congressman from Georgia who originally seemed to endorse the racist jeers heard at the demonstration is backtracking a bit, the AP reports.

n a statement Monday, Rep. Mike Collins defended his posting of video that included the racist jeers (he said he “did not believe that to be the focal point of the video shared at the time”) but acknowledged that he has since realized “that there certainly seems to be some potentially inappropriate behavior that none of us should seek to glorify” in the video. He said that he believes any schools “that [do] not allow the occupiers to run roughshod over the 99% of students who are there to learn and enjoy college are taking care of business,” but that he denounces racism or discrimination

This news will change NOTHING!

The ugliness or racism is still a large part of the fabric of Mississippi and amount of clever words will change it.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Mississippi “Goon Squad”

You have heard the term ‘New South’, right?

That was a PR attempt to try and paint the South in a different light from the days of segregation and bigotry.

It is possible that there had been some movement into the 21st century but it has been slow and small.

Take my state of Mississippi….we are infamous for our lynchings of blacks, murders of civil rights workers and leaders and since the 1950s not much has changed in the attitudes of most Mississippians.

We all have read or heard of the bad behavior of law enforcement around the country….but a group in Mississippi illustrates just how deep bigotry is even in the police organizations.

Six former Mississippi sheriff’s deputies from a self-described “Goon Squad” pleaded guilty Thursday to subjecting two Black men to racialized torture and shooting one of the victims in the mouth after a neighbor called in a complaint about the men staying in the home of a white woman.

Former Rankin County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) Deputies Brett Morris McAlpin, Jeffrey Arwood Middleton, Christian Lee Dedmon, Hunter Thomas Elward, Daniel Ready Opdyke, and Joshua Allen Hartfield pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the January 24 torture of 32-year-old Michael Corey Jenkins and 35-year-old Eddie Terrell Parker.

On January 24, the white deputies—who had no warrant—broke down the door of the Braxton home where Parker was living, handcuffing and repeatedly tasing the victims before sexually assaulting them, calling them racist names while threatening to kill them, and shooting Jenkins in the mouth, shattering his jaw and causing permanent injuries to his tongue and neck.

“These guilty pleas are historic for justice against rogue police torture in Rankin County and all over America,” Malik Shabazz, an attorney representing Jenkins and Parker, said in a statement. “Today is truly historic for Mississippi and for civil and human rights in America.”

“There were a lot of naysayers,” Walker added. “This proves there is justice in Mississippi, even in Rankin County with its long history of police violence.”
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey—who in June said the six deputies had resigned or been terminated—called the case “the most horrible incident of police brutality I’ve learned of over my whole career, and I’m ashamed it happened at this department.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/rankin-county-goon-squad

But  I ask will there truly be justice for what these animals did?

Will this change anything in the state?

Mississippi will remain the backwards state it has been for the last 100 years….no change will come (at least for now).

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–26Jul22

Occasionally I write about stuff that happens in my state of Mississippi…..this one is just disturbing on so many levels…..

The police chief of a small city in Mississippi is out of a job after an audio recording leaked in which he boasted of killing 13 people on the job and used racist and homophobic slurs, reports USA Today and the Washington Post. The board of aldermen in Lexington voted 3-2 to fire chief Sam Dobbins last week, reports WLBT, after the audio was made public by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Dobbins is white, while an estimated 80% of Lexington’s 1,600 residents are Black. Among the lines in the recording causing controversy:

  • “I’ve killed 13 men in my career, justified,” he said. “In my line of duty, I have shot and killed 13 different people.”
  • “I shot that n—– 119 times, OK? … The vehicle was shot 319 times, but he was hit 119 times by me.” Dobbins suggested he “saved 67 kids in a school” with this shooting in a cornfield, though the Post notes it’s unclear what he is referring to.
  • “I don’t talk to f—ing queers, I don’t talk to f—ing fa—-s.”
  • “You’re going to get some s— in the streets, and there’s only going to be one man fighting for you, and it’s going to be me, OK? Don’t ever ruin that, all right, because these other n—–s, they’re [unintelligible]. I don’t give a f— if you kill a motherf—er in cold blood. I will articulate to fix the f—ing problem, and I’m the only man in the business here that’s smart enough to do it.”

The recording was secretly made in April by Robert Lee Hooker, a Black officer who resigned last week. Regarding his claims of killing 13 people, Dobbins (before being fired) told the MCIR, “that’s something we don’t discuss, period.” Of the slurs, he said, “I don’t talk like that.”

This guy is an idiot….it is that simple.

Can you believe the stupidity?

I wish just once something good would happen in my state….instead of the stream of crap from idiots.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Gimme That Old-Time Religion

Closing Thought–18Nov21

Remember that Trumpian d/bag Michel Flynn?

Since leaving the Trump admin he has done what he does best…… babble…..but this time he has his mouth working about religion.

Michael Flynn, former national security adviser in the Trump administration, on Saturday said the United States should have a single religion.

“If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion,” he said while speaking on the “ReAwaken America” tour Saturday night. “One nation under God and one religion under God.”

Responding to questions, Flynn, who has been known to repeat conspiracy theories in the past, also accused President Biden of election fraud, a claim that has been proved false.

Later Saturday, Josh Mandel, Ohio’s treasurer and a U.S. Senate candidate, tweeted, “We stand with General Flynn.”

I am sure he is talking about some W.A.S.P. sort of thing……

How this man became the head of the DIA just amazes me……he is a babbling idiot that deserves no quarter…..he is traitor and a religious bigot.

This is a wedge issue and may likely get legs in the coming elections…..it is just white supremacy trying to hid in plain sight.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Feeding Hate

We all are well aware that Donald the Orange fed the hate and bias of many Americans……basically he was so popular not because of the presidency but rather he punished those that he hated…..

This is why the country loved Trump…..

Atlantic columnist Adam Serwer writes that there’s a simple reason the GOP base still loves Trump despite being ousted from office after just one term: They saw him as a punishment for all the people in America whom they hate.

“Trump was not a successful president,” Serwer contends. “But as a form of punishment, he was everything conservatives dreamed of, and they loved him for it.

Serwer goes on to documents some of the ways conservatives relished seeing Trump punish their foes.

“Early in his administration, Trump banned travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, barred federal grants to so-called sanctuary cities, and sought to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were in the U.S. on temporary protected status,” he writes. “Almost all of his accomplishments were punitive.”

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-failed/

Some say that this was a once in a lifetime event….not so.

The US has a long history of blaming minorities……the recent violence targeting Asian-Americans is a prime example of this……

The instinct to vilify minority groups, especially during times of crisis, has a long-standing history in the U.S., rooted in the country’s relationship to white supremacy or fear that white people might become less powerful, said Sherry Wang, a professor of counseling psychology at Santa Clara University. Wang explained that the U.S. has often promoted racist myths to portray different groups of people as either inferior, dirty or dangerous to white people. For Asian Americans in particular, she said, there’s the “Yellow Peril” stereotype, a fear that emerged in the late-19th century, after an increase in immigration to the U.S. from China — and after the West realized that Asians were strong enough as a political, economic and military threat to surpass the U.S. “When the West realized Asia was very big and could take over, they wanted to paint Asians, especially East Asians, as dangerous outsiders but not so threatening that they were superior,” she said. “They were seen as threatening to the white, Western way of life.”

The U.S. Has A Long-Standing History Of Vilifying Minority Groups During Times Of Crisis

The use of social media has made the feeding of hatred to become an art form….the spread of hatred flies around the globe at light speed.

After the insurrection of 06 January the hate groups are seemingly gain speed….

Some members have left extremist groups in the wake of the Jan. 6 violence. The members who remain, and the new members they are attracting, are increasing the radicalization of far-right groups. As the less committed members abandon these far-right groups, only the more devout remain. Such a shift is going to alter the subculture of these groups, driving them farther to the right. We expect this polarization will only accelerate the reactionary behaviors and extremist tendencies of these far-right groups.

https://www.juancole.com/2021/03/insurrection-americas-extreme.html

I foresee danger ahead!

This must cease….a way to counter the feeding of hatred especially with lies and misinformation needs to be found and a solution needs a home.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

We B Morons And Sh*t

Election Day and a few things to consider…..

All this protesting and violence has brought the worst of America out and into the streets of confrontation.

Trump’s speeches calling out the “Proud Boys” and the lot is not just growing pains of our democracy….it is racism….call it anything you like but the racism title is the most accurate…..

President Donald Trump’s rhetoric is often referred to as “dog whistle politics.”

In politician speak, a dog whistle is language that conveys a particular meaning to a group of potential supporters. The targeted group hears the “whistle” because of its shared cultural reference, but others cannot.

In 2018, The Washington Post wrote that “perhaps no one has sent more dog whistles than President Trump.”

https://theconversation.com/trumps-appeals-to-white-anxiety-are-not-dog-whistles-theyre-racism-146070

Some see these far Right militias and thugs are being called to action for the day after the election results are announced…..

Stewart Rhodes was living his vision of the future. On television, American cities were burning, while on the internet, rumors warned that antifa bands were coming to terrorize the suburbs. Rhodes was driving around South Texas, getting ready for them. He answered his phone. “Let’s not fuck around,” he said. “We’ve descended into civil war.”

It was a Friday evening in June. Rhodes, 55, is a stocky man with a gray buzz cut, a wardrobe of tactical-casual attire, and a black eye patch. With him in his pickup were a pistol and a dusty black hat with the gold logo of the Oath Keepers, a militant group that has drawn in thousands of people from the military and law-enforcement communities.

Rhodes had been talking about civil war since he founded the Oath Keepers, in 2009. But now more people were listening. And whereas Rhodes had once cast himself as a revolutionary in waiting, he now saw his role as defending the president. He had put out a call for his followers to protect the country against what he was calling an “insurrection.” The unrest, he told me, was the latest attempt to undermine Donald Trump.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/right-wing-militias-civil-war/616473/

This question for all those deluded toads that support Trump….is this what you want for the country?

Let’s call these “supporters” for what they are……

At this point, Trump supporters who are not plutocrats or diehard Republicans are white supremacists, nativists, Islamophobes, stooges or some combination of all of the above. In a word, they are morons. There is no more reason to take their views seriously than there are reasons to believe a word Donald Trump says.

Democrats and Democratic media won’t outright call them morons because they think that candor would be impolitic. It is not clear why: perhaps they believe that there are still potential voters who have somehow managed not to make up their minds and they don’t want to insult them on that account. Or perhaps it is because they are the kinds of liberals Robert Frost described; people who are too reasonable to take their own sides in arguments.

Morons R Us

I understand conservs thinking but to turn a blind eye and NOT call these racist pigs out makes those not doing so…..no better than the thugs in the street…..and that means YOU….GOP.

I have found the perfect answer to so many questions about his supporters….

“If there is a difference between what is said and what is done, only a fool believes what was said.” ~ Frank Herbert

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Those Far Right Vigilantes

“There are some good people on both sides”….remember when the president made that proclamation on the racists in streets?

They are not vigilantes that are there to help the police…..they are there to take action against people of color and their supporters.

Trump’s call for the Proud Boys and other armed far-right paramilitaries to “stand by” has finally shed light on the real threat of physical intimidation around the election, to add to the threats of cyberattacks and abuses of the legal system. His call to arms is also a reminder why calling far-right domestic terrorists merely “vigilantes” minimizes and even trivializes the threat, for several reasons.

A vigilante can be defined as “a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate),” or more broadly “a self-appointed doer of justice.” This very definition does not cover the threat or use of violence which does not uphold “justice” against “crime,” but actually targets people based on how they were born or what they believe.

The concept of vigilantism evokes a spontaneous community response to the failures of law enforcement, or “taking the law into one’s own hands.” But far-right paramilitary groups in recent years have functioned more as armed wings of fascist social movements, often with sophisticated weapons, training, and online propaganda. Defining them as “vigilantes” overlooks the organized, serious nature of the threat, even if they are so-called “lone wolves” inspired by these far-right

Why Far-Right Paramilitaries are Not Just “Vigilantes”

Donald the Orange has given the shout out to groups like the “Proud Boys” to “stand by”…setting the stage for the day after the election.

Members of the Proud Boys are rejoicing after President Donald Trump gave the far-right organization a shout-out and marching orders during Tuesday night’s nationally televised debate, heightening fears that the president is deliberately rallying extremist groups and stirring up white supremacist violence as part of his frantic effort to remain in power.

The Daily Beast reported Wednesday morning that one Proud Boys leader readily interpreted Trump’s comments as instructions to commit violence against the president’s political opponents. “Trump basically said to go fuck them up!” wrote Joey Biggs after the president told the Proud Boys, a group that openly embraces violence, to “stand back and stand by.”

“This makes me so happy,” Biggs added, a celebratory reaction that was echoed by members of the extremist organization on the social media and messaging apps they commonly use, such as Telegram and Parler. One Proud Boys member claimed Trump’s comments prompted a surge in “new recruits.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/30/proud-boys-celebrate-trump-shout-out-warnings-grow-president-inciting-violence

The ingredients are there…..the simmering pot of discontent that could very well erupt.

As it did in Michigan….

“The allegations in this complaint are deeply disturbing,” said the US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Here they are: that six people plotted to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at her northern Michigan vacation home with the intention of trying her for treason. The Detroit Free Press reports the men’s pledge to “take violent action” against “certain government and law enforcement components” came to the FBI’s attention early this year via social media. Per a sworn affidavit, the group’s ideas ran from “taking” a sitting governor to “storm[ing]” the state’s Capitol Building and leaving with hostages. The FBI said four of the men were scheduled to meet Wednesday to “make a payment on explosives and exchange tactical gear,” per the AP.

Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta have been charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping; all are Michigan residents except for Croft, who is from Delaware. The Detroit News reports the criminal complaint unsealed Thursday in federal court alleges the men surveilled Whitmer’s vacation home on two occasions and talked about taking her to Wisconsin for the “trial.” At a June meeting in Ohio that an FBI source attended, Fox along with 13 others discussed “creating a society that followed the US Bill of Rights and where they could be self-sufficient,” per the FBI. Says US Attorney Matthew Schneider, “We owe our thanks to the men and women of law enforcement who uncovered this plot and have worked so hard to protect Gov. Whitmer.”

Let’s take a closer look at those indited…..

There are six men named in the federal indictment charging them with planning to kidnap and murder Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. They face multiple charges that could carry life terms of imprisonment.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/12/prof-o12.html

That is probably the most detailed look at these criminals that you will see……MSM does not give this much detail…..

Image

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