Tag: Race Issues

Racism, Policing, Politics, Violence….Oh My

We all have seen the tellie with the hatred, violence, deaths and the political situations…..

It seems to be getting worse with each passing week…..but can we point a finger at a point in our history where this was made possible?

Yes we can.

And yes the old professor will give you a history lesson to help explain the situations making the news these days.

Republican attempts to gain political support by promoting racist fear and hatred, reflexively siding with police in confrontations with African Americans and denouncing Black Lives Matter demonstrations are a prominent feature of our political landscape. But they’re also nothing new. In many ways, the battle lines of 2022 can be seen forming in 1964. A letter published 58 years ago this week in the New York Times can help explain the underlying issues, both then and now.

As President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2, 1964, he called upon Americans to “close the springs of racial poison.” Two weeks later, on the same night that Sen. Barry Goldwater accepted the Republican presidential nomination with an explicit endorsement of extremism, a 15-year-old African American was shot and killed in Harlem by a New York City police officer. The incident began after the white superintendent of a group of apartments turned a hose on a group of Black kids who often sat on the steps to the buildings. According to them, the superintendent shouted at them, “Dirty n***ers, I’ll wash you clean.” They responded by throwing bottles and garbage-can lids at the super, who retreated inside one of the buildings. A boy not involved in the original incident, James Powell, pursued him, and when Powell exited the building he was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman. 

That led to an almost immediate confrontation between neighborhood young people and police. Over the following days, these clashes escalated into the first major urban “riot,” or “uprising,” of the 1960s. (Those two nouns were used by different sides to describe the same phenomena, the former by most white people, the latter by Black people and, as the decade went on, a growing number of whites on the left.)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/21/racism-policing-and-violence-how-america-in-2022-was-shaped-by-1964/

Our troubles these days are a direct link to the 1964 Act signed by Pres. Johnson…..and the beat goes on.

Can this country recover from 1964 or will this finally drive a nail in the coffin of the republic?

You can make a difference…..or will you continue to be a by-stander and watch this country destroy itself?

It is your choice….choose wisely!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Is CRT So Damn Important?

A subject that gets little coverage these day….so who better than me to resurrect the subject.

We all have heard about the Critical Race Theory (CRT)…..ever wonder why this obscure issue has become so damn important in our political discourse?

Red States are spending an inordinate amount of time trying to prevent the teaching of CRT…..the catch is this waste of time is seldom taught and when it is it is a class for law degree.

Like my state of Mississippi…..

The same Mississippi Legislature that proclaimed racial reconciliation after removing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag nearly two years ago passed a bill Thursday to limit how race can be discussed in classrooms. Several Black legislators said during the six-hour debate that the bill could squelch honest discussion about the harmful effects of racism because parents could complain if history lessons make white children uncomfortable. The Republican-controlled House voted 75-43 to pass Senate Bill 2113. It will go to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has pledged to sign it into law, the AP reports. All House votes for the bill on Thursday came from white Republicans.

The bill’s short title says it would prohibit “critical race theory.” But the main text of the bill does not mention or define the theory, and many supporters of the bill also have said they cannot define it. The bill says no school, community college or university could teach that any “sex, race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.” Democratic Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson said she has been told by some colleagues that the bill does nothing substantial but it gives them a talking point at election time. “Censoring teachers, dismantling education bit by bit, attempting to erase the past, refusing to acknowledge the hurt and the horror and the heinous acts that have been done to my people and then hiding behind this ‘inferior versus superior’ argument—that’s what this bill will do,” Summers said.

No legislators gave speeches in support of the bill. Republican Rep. Joey Hood of Ackerman, who is white, did not define critical race theory as he explained the bill Thursday. “History will continue to be taught—American history, Civil War history, Mississippi history,” Hood said. When the bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate in January, all of the Black senators withheld their votes and walked out in protest. Critical race theory is an academic framework that examines how racism has shaped public policy and institutions such as the legal system, and how those have perpetuated the dominance of white people in society. State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said critical race theory is not taught in Mississippi schools. The University of Mississippi law school offers an elective class on the theory.

Well after all the energy spent by numerous state legislative bodies…..we know that it is banned from being taught to our children….but why is this?

My state would not surprise me if they started a campaign to ban the US Constitution….I wouldn’t be surprised if the Constitution itself is ultimately banned in states like Mississippi because if students are permitted to read the 3/5s & fugitive slave clauses it will become clear to them that the principles of America’s founding included the idea of people as property.

Texas (go figure) has yet another bill  before the legislature about teaching CRT….

Texas college and university professors may soon lose tenure if they teach critical race theory (CRT) in their classrooms, according to the Lone Star state’s lieutenant governor, who has vowed action by the state.

In a warning message to educators this week, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he will work to strip them of their job security in the state if they teach CRT.

“The critical race theory people are trying to take us back to a divided country,” Patrick told reporters at a press conference.

“Tenure to these professors who voted 41-5 telling the taxpayers and the parents and the legislature, and your own board of regents, to get out of their business that we have no say what you do in the classroom… You’ve opened the door for this issue because you went too far.”

“What we will propose to do is to end all tenure for all new hires,” Patrick said, vowing that the state legislature would take action against those who teach the subject in their classrooms.

“The law will change to say teaching critical race theory is prima facie evidence for good cause for tenure revocation,” he said. In addition to his comments concerning tenure, Patrick said he wants annual reviews for the professors rather than six year reviews.

(FOX News)

Then there is yet another of those ‘go figure’ states that has tried to limit the teaching of race….Georgia (the state not the country)

Legislation prohibiting Georgia schools from teaching nine racial and ethnic concepts it defines as divisive has passed the state Senate. The bill cleared 32-20 on Friday, CNN reports, with Republicans voting yes and Democrats no, and goes next to the House. The measure also would apply to training in state agencies. Republicans in other states are pursuing similar legislation. The movement was sparked by the uproar over “critical race theory,” which isn’t taught in Georgia schools anyway, per WXIA.

The prohibited concepts include that one race or ethnicity is inherently superior to another and that the US and Georgia are “fundamentally or systemically racist.” It specifies that teachers would not be allowed to make students feel demeaned or guilty because of their race, skin color or ethnicity. The legislature has four similar bills before it, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This one would withhold up to 10% of schools’ funding for violations. Colleges and universities also could be docked, but the bill doesn’t specify how much. Another bill would penalize schools up to 20% of their funding.

The sponsor of one of them said history could still be taught but teachers would not be allowed to include their political beliefs. GOP Rep. Bill Wade said he worked with school board and teacher groups on the bill, but they’ve said they’re opposed to his bill. “All this bill does is muzzle our teachers and make them into a straw man for political gain from the true divisive voices in our communities,” said Democratic Rep. Matthew Wilson, a former elementary teacher. “This bill is whiter than the paper it’s printed on,” said the lawmaker, who is white.

These idiots are doing exact what they claim the CRT is doing…..dividing the country.

What are these people so afraid of would be the next logical question….

Maybe there is a good answer after all…..

What nobody is talking about, though, is the why of this particular issue at this particular time. As a result, we’re mistaking the tool for the goal.

Moral panics, when driven by politicians, are usually just tools. This CRT moral panic is a tool being used by a coalition of interests to achieve their own goals, none of which have anything to do with teaching or not-teaching the history of race in America.

  • Imagine you’re part of a group of libertarian billionaires who don’t believe in public education and who see any such sort of taxpayer-funded effort to improve “the underclasses” as an absurd waste of the tax dollars you “worked so hard to earn” and the “gummint” now wants to take away from you “at the barrel of a gun.”
  • Imagine you’re a leader in the Republican Party who’s seeing the average age of the Fox audience — 70 — as a threat to your own political longevity because old white people don’t go into politics and you need 30- and 40-year-olds to learn their basic political skills locally (like on a school board) so you can groom and propel them up into state or federal politics.
  • Imagine you’re a multimillionaire white evangelical preacher who’s looking for an issue you can use to more tightly bind your congregation — your donors — to you by portraying yourself as a crusader who’s going to save their children from a horrible fate.
  • Imagine you’re a white supremacist militia leader who’s looking to expand his base by bringing in white middle-class adults and therefore you need an issue to get yourself into the headlines “taking on authorities” but that won’t also end with you going to jail.
  • Imagine you’re a Republican politician who’s looking at a serious challenge in the upcoming primary elections and you need an issue that’ll be both popular and energizing for your base voters, even if the larger population doesn’t much care, because base voters are all you care about in the upcoming primary.

https://www.rawstory.com/a-disparate-group-of-billionaires-republicans-televangelists-and-white-supremacists-has-found-common-cause/

There you have your answer….it is a wedge issue that does nothing but create chaos and confusion……and these are the two issues that the GOP excel at giving the people of this country.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Damn Critical Race Theory

Recently there has been an issue that has made the GOP lose their ever-loving minds….that issue is Critical Race Theory…..state after Red State has spent energy and time passing bills the ban the teaching of CRT in their schools.

Lots of controversy has grown up around this issue…..my state of Mississippi has been one of those states that is running scared of anything thing that will shine the light of truth on our history.

I thought that since this issue seems to be so damn important to the GOP in Mississippi I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about…..

Here is the truth about CRT in Mississippi….this is what a student at the University of Mississippi found out about this issue being taught in our schools……

“Critical Race Theory: Law 743” is an unusual course at the University of Mississippi Law School, where most classes teach students about the law or how to argue like lawyers. What makes Law 743 unique is that it teaches a bird’s eye view of the legal system, a framework for understanding the law and its impact on racial minorities. Law 743 is also more diverse than many classes at UM’s law school. In the 13-person class, Murphree is one of four white students. 

Out of all her courses this semester, Murphree was the most anxious to see what Law 743 would be like. On the first day, the professor, Yvette Butler, issued a disclaimer that Murphree took to heart. Critical race theory, Butler said, examines difficult and potentially upsetting topics, but it was important that the class remain a safe, respectful space. Students were going to disagree with the readings and with each other; when they did, Butler asked them to give each other “radical acceptance.”

When Murphree started her readings later that day, she pushed herself to keep an open mind. One of her first assignments was a 1976 article by a professor at Harvard Law School named Derrick Bell, who is often credited as the founder of critical race theory.

In the article, titled “Serving Two Masters,” Bell lays the groundwork for one of his most notable arguments: By and large, school desegregation was a failure. Brown v. Board of Education, he argues, was in many ways harmful to Black communities across the country. As Black schools closed, Black teachers, principals, bus drivers and custodians lost their jobs. Bussed to white schools, Black children were more likely to be beaten, arrested, and expelled than their white peers. As a lawyer for the NAACP, Bell had sued for desegregation; in “Serving Two Masters,” he was wondering if that was the right tactic after all.

https://mississippitoday.org/2022/02/02/mississippi-only-critical-race-theory/

There you have it….the only place this issue was taught was in a law school setting…..and yet the GOP is afraid the rest of us may learn about it.

You tell me why they made this a thing of such importance.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–21Jan22

Do you feel guilty about anything?

Well in Florida (why is it always Florida) never fear you can be forbidden from making someone feel guilty.

A Florida bill pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to prohibit public schools and private businesses from making white people feel “discomfort” when they teach students or train employees about discrimination in the nation’s past received its first approval Tuesday. The Senate Education Committee backed the bill that takes aim at critical race theory—though it’s not mentioned explicitly—on party lines, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed, the AP reports. Democrats argued the bill isn’t needed, would lead to frivolous lawsuits, and would amount to censorship in schools. They asked, without success, for real-life examples of teachers or businesses telling students or employees that they are racist because of their race.

“This bill’s not for Blacks, this bill was not for any other race. This was directed to make whites not feel bad about what happened years ago,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who is Black. “At no point did anyone say white people should be held responsible for what happened, but what I would ask my white counterparts is, are you an enabler of what happened or are you going to say we must talk about history?” DeSantis held a news conference last month in which he called critical race theory “crap” and said he would seek legislation that would allow parents to sue schools and employees to sue employers if they were subject to such teachings.

Critical race theory is a way of thinking about US history through the lens of racism. The bill reads in part: “An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, does not bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex. An individual should not be made to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race.” Republican Sen. Manny Diaz, the bill’s sponsor, said it is not about ignoring the “dark” parts of American history, but rather ensuring that people are not blamed for sins of the past. The bill now heads to Senate debate, per ABC News.

Just another waste of time by a damn Repub….this does nothing to improve the society and move the state forward…..just another wedge issue to keep the slobbering Right in tow.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Whose Afraid Of Critical Race?

GOP/Repubs/conservatives that’s who…..and especially old white people….but then  the GOP has always been afraid of history.

If they are a Right winger then they all are running in a panic over this issue.

For those that spend their time worrying about the Kardashians are doing let set your mind in motion…..

Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.

The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.

Look for this issue to be a major diversion for Repubs in the 2022 election. But just why are the Repubs so afraid of this theory?

People like that idiot from Arkansas, Tom Cotton…..

Speaking at an online forum sponsored by the conservative Heritage Foundation, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) slammed what he says is the military’s incorporation of critical race theory, saying it will create division among soldiers.

https://www.rawstory.com/tom-cotton-2653630053/

Then there is the disturbing prophecy from Megyan Kelly Show….

“It was bad enough when they were indoctrinating college students, but college students tend to be more left-leaning, and their experimenting with ideas, and I think once rationality sets in, they tend to make up their own minds one way in the other,” Kelly said.

“But now, we’re seeing in today’s day and ages, they’re infecting — and forget corporate America, that’s already spread, sports and so on — but they’re infecting kids. Young children, they’re indoctrinating with these divisive messages. Our military! And then those things — it’s abuse towards children, and it’s endangering the men and women in the military, and our country as a result.”

(mediate.com)

What is it about CRT that has conservatives so babbling upset?

A recent poll tries to explain their concern.

The survey of 1,592 U.S. adults, which was conducted from June 22 to 24, set out to determine how closely the public’s opinion of the term “critical race theory” aligns with a central idea behind it. To do that, Yahoo News and YouGov asked respondents whether they’d “heard of critical race theory” — and followed up with the ones who had heard of it by asking if “critical race theory is something students should be exposed to in school.”

It turns out only about half of Americans (52 percent) are even familiar with the term “critical race theory,” according to the poll, and political engagement is likely to account for that exposure. As Time magazine reported in a recent cover story, “conservative advocacy groups, legal organizations and state legislatures” have “mounted a campaign to weaponize” the term because they believe that “fighting it will be a winning electoral message.”

As a result, awareness is much higher among white Americans who identify as conservative (71 percent) or liberal (70 percent) than it is among white moderates (48 percent), African Americans (42 percent) or Latino Americans (39 percent).

https://news.yahoo.com/poll-the-real-reason-republicans-are-so-riled-up-about-critical-race-theory-090015052.html

Indoctrination?

That small minded idiot from Arkansas got his way and with the help of the d/bag Dem, Manchin….

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the “Stop CRT Act” in an effort to prevent tax dollars from being used to teach the controversial set of ideas in public school classrooms.

“They want to teach our children that America is not a good nation but a racist nation. Those teachings are wrong and our tax dollars should not support them,” Cotton said ahead of the vote. “My amendment will ensure that federal funds aren’t used to indoctrinate children as young as pre-K to hate America.”

All Senate Democrats voted against the ban, aside from West Virginia moderate Joe Manchin, who gave the GOP the vote it needed to successfully pass the amendment during series of votes late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/senate-passed-cotton-amendment-ban-federal-dollars-funding-critical-race-theory

Good to see that Manchin found his footing on this so he can stay in the spotlight….for me he is a worthless lump of manure….

But why is the GOP denying our past?

The hoods are off, and Republicans are embracing the white supremacist “replacement theory.”

If you’re dismissing this as fear-mongering or click-bait, you probably missed Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and renowned adulterer, espousing replacement theory rhetoric on Fox News earlier this week while talking to host Maria Baritromo, who always has time to offer a platform to dangerous conspiracy peddling. Speaking about Mexican immigrants coming to America during the pandemic, Gingrich said the “radical left” wants to “get rid of the rest of us” and would “love to drown traditional, classic Americans with as many people as they can who know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law.”

He wasn’t talking about Donald Trump, notorious for being historically ignorant and profoundly incurious, but about those of us with darker skin, who are never seen as “traditional” or “classic” or “real Americans.” Gingrich, a craven political opportunist, parroted the talking points associated with “the great replacement” theory, also known as “white genocide,” which stipulates the white race and “Western civilization” are in dire threat of being weakened and ultimately usurped by immigrants of color, Muslims, feminists, and gays.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-racist-theory-that-inspired-murderers-is-now-gop-dogma

Like I have stated….GOP is running scared.

CRT should be a major election campaign and the use of indoctrination will be the new word for the 2022 elections…..(seems we must have a new slogan for ever election…and now 2022 has its own)

For me I believe that history should not be taught sanitized….we should be given all our history…..the good, the bad and the ugly.

But why all the hoopla around CRT?

Few Americans can define what critical race theory actually is — an academic framework that originated among legal scholars in the 1970s to help explain how racism permeates American institutions — but it’s not surprising that it has emerged as a bogeyman on the political right. Increasingly, the Republican base is politically animated by white racial grievances, which is a major reason why misrepresentations of critical race theory — “every white person is racist” or “certain children are inherently bad people because of their skin color” — have found such a receptive audience. After all, many of the same grievances helped fuel Trump’s rise. 

From the earliest days of his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s support has been most heavily concentrated among white Americans who think they face significant racial discrimination. In fact, perceived anti-white discrimination powerfully predicted voter preferences in the 2016 general election. One survey conducted shortly after the election found Trump voters were over four times more likely than Clinton voters to say white Americans face “a lot” of discrimination (45 percent versus 10 percent, respectively); other polls also consistently showed that Republicans and Trump’s 2016 supporters saw racial discrimination against white people as a bigger problem than unfair treatment of racial and ethnic minorities in American society. Those views have only grown more pronounced in Republican politics. 

How The Rise Of White Identity Politics Explains The Fight Over Critical Race Theory

Most have NO idea what CRT is or why it is important other than the lies and misinformation spread by self-serving d/bags in the GOP.

History needs to be taught whether you like the story or not….to deny our history is to deny who we are as Americans.

Any thoughts?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Do NOT Talk About Race!

There is a racial divide in this country……we can pretend that it does not exist (not in this country) but sadly there is and I have written about it several times……

In case the posts were missed I will help with this issue…..

https://lobotero.com/2008/07/16/is-there-a-racial-divide/
 
Now instead of actually trying to open a conversation…..a real conversation on the issue of race states are trying to ban the very conversation is country desperately needs to have.

The absurdity of the Republican Party’s culture wars has reached new heights. A slew of GOP-led state legislatures are enacting new laws that ban teaching “critical race theory” an academic framework that has become the latest conservative boogeyman.

Do you want to learn about racism, discrimination and privilege? Well, Republicans are trying to make it really hard to do so with a slew of bills designed to muzzle educators. In Texas, House Bill 3979 would limit how teachers talk about current events and historic racism in their classrooms. It also bans schools from teaching the 1619 Project, a New York Times endeavor which investigates US history starting with the year the first slaves were brought to what would become the United States. After some political maneuvering, the controversial bill appears to be headed to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. 

But in Oklahoma, where a critical race theory ban has  taken place, the effects have already been chilling. Melissa Smith, an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City Community College, recently learned her race and ethnicity course had been “paused” for the summer. “Our history of the United States is uncomfortable and it should make us uncomfortable and we should grow from that,” Smith said in an interview with the Washington Post. But the community college has stated that since the new law “essentially revokes any ability to teach critical race theory, including discussions of white privilege” Smith’s curriculum would need substantial changes. 

Republicans Are Passing Laws to Keep Teachers From Talking About Race

Not to be outdone by Texas Florida has made a move on the race conversation…..

As dozens of bills are advancing in statehouses nationwide to ban the teaching of the basic truths of America’s racist history, DeSantis signed a bill into law this week that threatens to surveil and cut funding to public institutions of higher learning found to be on the wrong side of the Republicans’ ongoing white nationalist crusade.

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/27/desantis-florida-universities-white-supremacy-antiracism/

Here is an example of the denial that is hard wired into the education of the South….

Gather around, children. I want to tell you a tale, a story of a nation divided. A story about a war of values in the United States. A war where people were held in bondage, had suffered brutal consequences and degraded. They were unsure of the outcome of the war, and afraid for their lives. Their families separated. They faced oppression. This is the story of white southern families facing a war of northern aggression? Welcome to eighth-grade textbooks in Louisiana, and the story of poor Kate Stone, daughter of a family that once owned 150 slaves, but now would be deprived of family wealth the moment those slaves would be free.

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2021/6/14/2035192/-The-sad-story-of-southern-slave-owners-as-told-in-8th-grade-history-books

Then there are those that fit into the ‘Can’t Fix Stupid” Files……

Dick Morris has reached New heights of absurdity with a recent claim that Critical Race Theory would lead multiracial children to act on “Oedipal” fantasies.

During an appearance on Newsmax, Morris launched into a tirade against Critical Race Theory. His ludicrous, Freudian assertion that teaching people about systemic racism would somehow make them act on any Oedipal feelings they have is possibly the most bizarre criticism of Critical Race Theory so far.

https://www.comicsands.com/morris-critical-race-theory-oedipal-2653548800.html

What a pathetic pack of halt-witted pinheads.

What are Republicans afraid of….the truth?

The GOP is proving just what a moral degenerate the party has become…..and it just keeps getting worse.

Is there end?

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

NFAC?

That stands for Not F*cking Around Coalition.

An answer to all the fat white boys with their guns and slogans.

The NFAC is a militia comprised of Black members whose core is believed to be largely ex-military. The group, for the most part, is well run (some use an accidental firearm discharge as an example of its lack of organization), with all of its public actions being coordinated with law enforcement and local governments, which has resulted in no known violence. The first public appearance of the NFAC was at a KKK rally in Dayton, Ohio, in 2019. Grandmaster Jay told The Atlanta Black Star that the group stood guard to prevent a repeat of the 1979 Greensboro Massacre, in which five people in North Carolina were shot and killed by Nazis and Klansmen as citizens gathered for the start of an anti-racism protest. Last month, an organization stylized as NFAC UK participated with thousands of protesters who held an anti-racism rally outside the U.S. Embassy in London as Black Lives Matter demonstrations took place in cities across the U.K.

According to Grandmaster Jay, the mission of the NFAC is two-fold. On one end, it means “the establishment of an infrastructure that can assist in being the framework for community, self-policing, and the protection of our own communities and our race.” And on the other end, the NFAC’s “ultimate goal” will be in the “facilitating of the exodus from this country of those who are willing to leave to go someplace else, where racism is not an issue.” Over Zoom, he expressed his sincere intent of enabling Black Americans to “determine their own destiny, determine their own economy, defend their own homeland, and build their own culture.”

CNN did a feature on this organization…..

When two loud bangs rang out on the streets of Lafayette, Louisiana, no one knew where the gunshots came from as protesters gathered to demand justice for another Black man killed by police.

Among the crowd was a group of armed Black men and women who call themselves the “Not F**king Around Coalition” or NFAC. The group did not run toward the gunshots or break formation. Instead, they kneeled on the ground amid the confusion, and then walked away after their leader shouted, “fall back! fall back!”
The all-Black, Atlanta-based group has grown in size out of frustration during a summer of protests against questionable policing and the deaths of countless Black people at the hands of police, said their founder John Fitzgerald Johnson.
Their presence has caused a stir in the cities they’ve visited and the group has drawn some criticism after people accidentally fired a weapon during two of their rallies, including the one in Lafayette.
 
It is about time that there is some counter to the fat white boys and their play army…..but these brave souls will soon be demonized by the Trumpian Right as the new “Black Panthers”…..of the 1960s.
 
I recently wrote about another organization that I thought deserved some recognition…..https://lobotero.com/2020/05/10/who-will-confront-the-protesters/
 
About time that these communities have someone who will step up and help protect them from the exploitation of the past….these people have rights and those rights are under assault…..and now Defenders are stepping forward.
If I were younger and more mobile I would ask to join….I am not Black but I want to help justice to be done….besides about time someone stepped up to challenge the idiots in their combat gear that will run first chance they get.
 
Be Smart!
 
Learn Stuff!
 
I Read I Write You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Black People Is The Riots!

We have had yet another police shooting a black man and this time shot in the back numerous times.

Of course there have been protests and destruction…..and the conversation is still not being had……why is that?

I am sure that you have either had this conversation or heard someone else stating that it is those “Blacks” that are doing all the rioting….in essence it is all their fault.

I mean to some white people are so weak willed that they need Blacks to tell them when to riot…..which is total crap!

Let me say here…..these are protests not riots….only a racist would call them so…..

An honest review of the facts should compel a rational thinker to redirect his or her disgust—away from racist conclusions, and toward the outrageous indecencies that a well-to-do society forces on its less fortunate members.

It’s easy for lazy thinkers to gloss over the deep-seated reasons for the anger and violence of downtrodden people. Recent lootings of upscale shops on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile brought out waves of disgust for the ‘thugs’ who were said to care little for human values.

But an honest review of the facts should compel a rational thinker to redirect his or her disgust—away from racist conclusions, and toward the outrageous indecencies that a well-to-do society forces on its less fortunate members.

 1. For Every $100.00 in Median White Wealth, Black People Have $8.70

In 1968, it was $9.43. It keeps getting worse for beaten-down Americans. In the past twenty years, median income for Black households has dropped 5 percent while increasing 6 percent for White households. This year the Black and Latino communities have suffered the greatest effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Because of their job losses and lack of savings and inability to maintain rent payments, they will be taking the brunt of a growing housing crisis, especially in the big cities, where rent for Millennials is already over two-thirds of their incomes. Black and Latino households are also more like to face food insufficiencies. Yet the Trump administration recently considered cuts to the food stamp program.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/08/17/what-know-when-someone-blames-black-people-all-riots

“Lazy Thinkers”….I like the description……it is much more polite than what I will call them….

I know that there are things conspiring to prevent the protests from making the evening news…..but do not fear they are still raging….just not important enough for the media to break out into coverage.

Learn Stuff!

I Read. I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Fighting Racism?

Good grief we have been fighting this for how long?

Katt Williams can answer that question…..

And in the 21st century we have come back to the bad old days of the 1960s and the fight for equality and the end of racism…..and the civil rights movement thought they had accomplished that with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act……but apparently nothing was truly settled in those days with those Acts. 

Were these Acts just exercises in pacification?

A great American writer and activist, James Baldwin, made an observation that is as true today as it was when Baldwin made it……

“There are days—this is one of them—when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it. How, precisely, are you going to reconcile yourself to your situation here and how you are going to communicate to the vast, heedless, unthinking, cruel white majority that you are here. I’m terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country. These people have deluded themselves for so long that they really don’t think I’m human. And I base this on their conduct, not on what they say. And this means that they have become in themselves moral monsters.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/07/raoul-peck-james-baldwin-i-am-not-your-negro/613708/

A little historical perspective here…..

Consider, for instance, the study that the Bureau of Labor commissioned famed Black scholar W.E.B. DuBois to complete in the early 1900s. Determined to employ sound sociological methods to disprove racist beliefs that Black people were inferior, he and a team of researchers spent three years in Lowndes County, Alabama, gathering data from 5,000 Black families (approximately 25,000 individuals). It detailed the conditions of life in the region, and was one of the largest sociological studies of rural Black life ever conducted. When DuBois submitted the final manuscript, it was a handwritten document full of charts and infographics.4 Not only did the government bureau refuse to publish the study, but it destroyed the document entirely, claiming it was rejected due to technical matters. DuBois made the case in his correspondence and autobiography, however, that the bureau rejected the document because it revealed the inconvenient political truth about conditions for Black Americans.

When Proof Is Not Enough

Does that sound at all familiar?

At what point does the nation holding meetings and discussions and protests and start actually solving the problems that racism has created?

Especially since the news is not good for BLM…..it is losing support with whites…..

Arguably, though, the protests’ impact on public opinion has been even more immediate and wide-ranging. Unfavorable views of the police, acknowledgement of widespread discrimination against African Americans and support for Black Lives Matter all jumped up by at least 10 percentage points, according to tracking polls conducted shortly before and after the protests by both Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape and Civiqs.

These changes in public opinion are being driven in large part by white Americans, who for years have been much less likely than Black Americans to acknowledge that racial inequality remains a real problem. Since the first wave of large-scale Black Lives Matter protests in 2014, white Americans’ racial attitudes have gradually become more liberalized while Black Americans’ views have remained relatively steady.

Support For Black Lives Matter Surged During Protests, But Is Waning Among White Americans

Just wondering!

Please check out earlier post about racism and bigotry…..from the IST archives…….

https://lobotero.com/2014/07/29/this-is-your-brain-on-racism-inside-the-mind-of-modern-bigotry-salon-com/

https://lobotero.com/2019/09/10/that-race-talk/

https://lobotero.com/2019/09/25/stop-racism-is-the-problem/

https://lobotero.com/2020/07/16/how-did-society-come-to-this/

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How Did Society Come To This?

This does not seem as important to the media as it was a month ago…..but it is still happening all around you…..I will not turn my attention from this social issue.

Like any social movement there are many facets within the Black Lives Matter……not all participants are looking for the same end.

It reminds me of the true Left movements of the 1970s and 1980s…..all want the same end just want a different path to achieve those ends.

BLM is no different……

It’s not surprising that prominent Black political figures aren’t aligned on every issue — and there’s nothing new about that at all. But these particular divides are illustrative of major shifts happening within Black politics, by which I largely mean the world of activists, elected officials and other power brokers in the United States who are Black.1 We are in an era where one man (Barack Obama) is no longer the center of Black politics. So among the major power centers are the activist movement linked to Black Lives Matter that is as skeptical of Black elected officials as non-Black ones; a rising left wing of the Democratic Party that includes many Black voices; and a Black establishment that is arguably more powerful than ever before on Capitol Hill.

There are now, in my view, at least seven fairly distinct camps among Black political figures — concentrated in the Democratic Party but also stretching into the GOP. These groupings — which come from my own reporting and talking to experts, rather than any specific data set — are mostly informal. But the idea is to explain some common patterns and themes we are seeing, not necessarily to perfectly describe the politics of any particular person or faction in the party. I should also emphasize that these camps do not correspond exactly to rank-and-file Black voters, although I will talk about some places where there is overlap between activists and voters.

I have tried to order the camps by size, from largest to smallest. They are:

Charles Booker, Jamaal Bowman And The 7 Competing Camps In Black Politics

If you listen to the idiots on the Right then you believe that all BLM participants are in agreement with what they want…..that my friends would be a LIE!

Have you noticed those public people that are calling for calm are the same people that get lots of cash from the people that help spread the racism?

I agree that there needs to be a “common” goal…..and that goal has nothing to do with preserving the riches of those companies that spread racism.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”