Tag: Racism

Rise Of The New Confederacy

“The South shall rise again”….has been the war cry of the racist and now it appears that it has happened and all with the help of the Supreme Court, especially John Roberts….

Back in 2011 there was a prediction, a look forward, if you will….

The tactics by the GOP are working the system to return to the 1950s and give racist their wish of a new confederacy…

This is an article from 2011….

The South’s alternative vision of the good society was defeated in the Civil War, and our 20th-century history can be told as a narrative of halting progress toward greater tolerance and equality. The major plot points include regulations on corporations in the early 1900s; women’s suffrage in 1920; a social safety net in the New Deal; the Supreme Court’s rejection of Jim Crow laws in 1954; the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s; the gay rights victories since the 1970s.

…

For the Confederacy that now dominates the GOP, truth is solid and fixed and divinely embedded in the structure of the universe. Humanity’s responsibility is to accept and believe the truth rather than test ideas against actual experience. The Confederacy’s obsession with ​“originalist” interpretations of the Constitution – a twin of biblical literalism – is the classic example: truth must be eternal, universal.

…

The new Confederacy rejects that process wholesale. Its leaders and authorities are the spiritual descendants of the conservative Christians and charismatic radio preachers who broke away from religious modernism in the 1920s and 1930s. For these leaders and their followers, faith justifies – and verifies – itself. You don’t believe an idea because it’s true. It’s true because you believe it.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/new-confederacy-rising

Now fast forward and to the court….

This mess we find our country in is all Chief Justice John Roberts’s fault. There are many other actors contributing to our current situation, but Roberts has been the most consequential of them. His actions lead to the conclusion that he wants to dismantle the “Second Founding” and return to a Confederate/Jim-Crow-style apartheid system.

Roberts has been working his entire career to undermine the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which were ratified after the Civil War. These amendments are also known as the Reconstruction Amendments. They are considered a “Second Founding” because they reoriented the Constitution from primarily promoting states’ rights to emphasizing individual rights and federal power in protecting those rights.

In 2013’s 5-4 Shelby County v. Holder decision, Roberts concluded that racism was a thing of the past. Racial discrimination in voting, according to Roberts, simply wasn’t a major problem anymore. This landmark case — by glibly pretending that racism is no longer a factor in elections, while allowing states-sponsored voter suppression and intimidation — reveals Roberts’s own latter-day racism.

When the history of the Trump era is written, John Roberts will be featured as the man who used Trumpism to finally win what southern racists call the “War of Northern Aggression.”

(whowhatwhy.org)

This ought to, if read, should offer up some interesting comments….we shall see.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A “Great Replacement Theory”

It is time to call a spade a spade.

There has been lots of typing trying to explain what is happening in this country politically….some of it is detailed and in-depth but there is a simpler explanation.

Donald Trump made clear on the Philadelphia debate stage this week, as he has throughout his three presidential campaigns, the basis of his run for office. Trump is running on the platform that non-white immigration is an existential threat to the nation. This time around, Trump has made his primary message, the so-called Great Replacement Theory(GRT), more vivid than ever. It is therefore of existential importance in understanding the stakes of this election to have clearly in mind what has happened in the past when GRT has been the central driving narrative both of individuals and of states.

According to the Great Replacement Theory, the nation’s greatness, its traditions and its practitioners, are existentially imperiled by an influx of foreign races, ethnicities or religions. The foreign elements are sometimes described in the narrative of GRT, as vermin or diseases. 

GRT was central to the official Nazi motivation for the genocide of the Jews of Europe. Hitler blamed the loss of World War I on Jewish betrayal of Germany. But this betrayal, for Hitler, was intimately connected to the Great Replacement Theory, via the introduction of Black soldiers in the French army subsequently occupying the Rhineland, the so-called “Black Horror on the Rhine.” In Mein Kampf, Hitler writes:

It was and is the Jews who bring the Negroes into the Rhineland, always with the same secret thought and clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the necessarily resulting bastardization, throwing it down from its cultural and political height, and himself rising to be its master.

With the benefit of hindsight, the idea that Jews betrayed Germany in World War I in order to use the occupying French army to bring Black Senegalese soldiers in to ruin the white race by rape and race mixing seems utterly unhinged. It is hard to fathom that this crazed conspiracy theory justified for many Germans the mass murder of two out of every three of Europe’s Jews. But our descendants will also find it hard to understand why so many Americans find Trump’s claims that non-white immigrants to the United States are savages who eat pets, criminally insane murderers and drugs dealers who nevertheless somehow manage to get it together to vote fraudulently en masse in election to be plausible. In both cases, the bizarre nature of these claims stands in stark contrast to their obvious political power.

https://www.salon.com/2024/09/13/donald-is-openly-running-a-great-replacement-theory-campaign/

All this is nothing new…..I recall when the boat people were arriving in the 70s a story locally was that pets were being eaten by them and that Vietnam had sent us criminals….any of that sound familiar?

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”

No Affirmative Action

This session of SCOTUS has seen the ‘end’ to affirmative action….to some it is a good thing and to others it reeks of racism….just depends on where one stands in the political landscape…

It appears the most of America agrees with the court on this issue…..

The majority of Americans approve of the recent Supreme Court decision gutting affirmative action, according to a new ABC News poll. Just 32% disapprove of the ruling, which restricts the use of race as a factor in college and university admissions, while another 16% said they don’t know whether they approve or disapprove. Among Republicans, 75% approve of the SCOTUS decision, but just 26% of Democrats approve. (Among independents, 58% approve.) And a higher percentage of white people (60%) and Asian people (58%) approve when compared to Black people (25%) and Hispanic people (40% approve and 40% disapprove). Other poll findings:

  • When asked if they believe Black and Hispanic students have a fair chance of being admitted to the higher education institution of their choice when compared to white and Asian students, however, just 47% of poll respondents believed Black students had a fair shot while 50% believed Hispanic students did. (Asked about white and Asian students’ chances, two-thirds of poll respondents believed they have a fair shot.)
  • When asked if they believe the country’s highest court makes rulings based on justices’ political beliefs or based on the law, 53% said partisan political beliefs while 33% said on the basis of law and 14% didn’t know.

See more from the poll here

When it comes to college affirmative action helped minorities get an education when privilege was the only decider…..now with the decision it may well go back to those dark days….but there is a way to head that beast off at the pass….

A civil rights group is challenging legacy admissions at Harvard, saying the practice discriminates against students of color by giving an unfair boost to the mostly white children of alumni. It’s the latest effort in a growing push against legacy admissions, the practice of giving admissions priority to the children of alumni, per the AP. Backlash has been building in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court’s decision ending affirmative action in college admissions. Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit based in Boston, filed the civil rights complaint Monday on behalf of Black and Latino community groups in New England, alleging that Harvard’s admissions system violates the Civil Rights Act.

“Why are we rewarding children for privileges and advantages accrued by prior generations?” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, the group’s executive director. “Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process.” Opponents say the practice is no longer defensible without affirmative action providing a counterbalance. The court’s ruling says colleges must ignore the race of applicants, activists point out, but schools can still give a boost to the children of alumni and donors.

A separate campaign is urging the alumni of 30 prestigious colleges to withhold donations until their schools end legacy admissions. That initiative, led by Ed Mobilizer, also targets Harvard and other Ivy League schools. President Biden suggested last week that universities should rethink the practice, saying legacy admissions “expand privilege instead of opportunity.” Several Democrats in Congress demanded an end to legacy admissions in light of the court’s decision, along with Republicans including Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is vying for the GOP presidential nomination.

A sterling idea!

I say get rid of all preferential treatment….making it a level playing field….make the little turds compete for every spot.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–08Nov21

For decades now the GOP has been assaulting our educational system….trying desperately to curb the move to a more educated country…..the latest is in response to their lie about the Critical Race Theory….which by the way is taught as an elective in college….there is NO required subject along these lines.

According to the GOP parent’s are losing their rights……

One of the most dominant features of the modern Republican Party is its love for creating moral panic over things that either (1) aren’t actually happening or (2) are positive developments but ones that conservatives insist will lead to the downfall of society. Whether it’s immigrants supposedly taking Americans’ jobs or paid parental leave turning fathers into “doting dad[s],” the GOP has a long history of shamelessly trying to convince people that something very sinister is transpiring, and only Republicans can save them.

At the moment, the cause célèbre is the idea that liberals have stripped parents of a say in their children’s education, leading to terrible outcomes like kids being required to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic, curricula that includes accurate facts about America’s racist past and present, and—and you may want to sit down for this because it’s extremely alarming—the leaders of tomorrow being taught that the Holocaust did actually occur.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/republicans-parents-bill-of-rights

Just another wedge issue to avoid having any actually ideas or policies fr the voters…..all lies and yet it works perfectly on the voter…..how sad is that?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–11Jun21

I have written many times about the educational system in this country and especially the crap they teach in the South…..and Georgia has proven my disgust once again….

Georgia’s state Board of Education this week became the latest government entity to take a firm stance against teaching about racism in schools, or at least against teaching anything that makes white Republicans uncomfortable. The Georgia Board of Ed adopted a resolution insisting that the USA and Georgia are definitely not racist places, while calling for limits on how public schools should be allowed to discuss and teach about racism.

The resolution itself — authored by National Review writer and professional culture warrior Stanley Kurtz, author of many serious works of scholarship like Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism — calls for supposedly colorblind educational practices that will not “indoctrinate students in social, or political, ideology or theory” or “promote one race or sex above another,” and how could anyone possibly object to that? Like, unless you apply those concepts very selectively and in bad faith, or are actively letting Stanley Kurtz decide what is “isms,” but only a cynic would suggest rightwing officials could be capable of such a thing.

Among other things (we have the full list below), the resolution says no element of public education should do terrible things like tell innocent schoolchildren that

any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex;

or that

with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to, the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality
https://www.wonkette.com/georgia-schoolchildren-will-just-have-to-learn-all-history-from-confederate-statues

Another revisioni9st look at American history.

What are these a/holes afraid of?

They want to hide the truth in the hopes that it will go away…in doing so they feed suspicion and hate.

Pathetic and disgusting!

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scibo”

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”

Educational Stupidity

I have ranted many times on the problem of stupidity being taught to our children…instead to teaching the need for civics and history they instead want to pass on BS and misinformation to our children.

These two examples illustrate the stupidity that is being considered as part of the educational curriculum….

First from the great state of Louisiana……

A hearing erupted in laughter when one Republican legislator was compelled to tell another that “There’s no ‘good’ to slavery, though.”

The Louisiana House Education Committee held a hearing on HB 564 on Thursday, during which the bill’s author and committee chairman State Rep. Ray Garofalo was grilled by fellow Republican Rep. Stephanie Hilferty on the bill’s prohibition on “divisive concepts” in education.

Hilferty began by grilling Garofalo about the sources of complaints that led him to author the bill.

“Can you give examples of what they told you?” Hilferty asked.

Garofalo described teachers and parents complaining about “handouts” that they’d been given.

“Like what does the handout say?” Hilferty asked.

“Handouts saying the United States is a racist country, that corporations are inherently racist, and have a bias against…” Garofalo began, as Hilferty interrupted to ask “Can you share examples of these with the committee?”

WATCH: Hearing Erupts in Laughter When GOP Legislator Confronted for Suggesting Schools Teach ‘Good’ Side of Slavery

The ‘Good’ side of slavery?

Seriously?

The term indicts that there is and was NOTHING good about slavery.

Next stupidity comes from the great state of Idaho….a bill that would prohibit the teaching of racism….

A bill that would ban teaching critical race theory and other similar teachings in schools in Idaho is awaiting Gov. Brad Little’s signature. 

The bill, HB 377, passed in the state’s senate on Monday after passing through the house last week. It would prohibit public schools from teaching that “any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior,” which it says can be found in critical race theory. 

The bill also bans teachings that argue that people should be treated differently based on things like race or gender and that people are not responsible for past actions committed by people who share their same demographics. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/idaho-wants-make-it-illegal-schools-teach-students-racism-2021-4

Red states just keep pushing the culture war crap down the throats of idiots that voted for them.

Personally I believe that there should be a national standard for the teaching of history and civics.

Why is this?

Textbooks help skew history to the absurd.

https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/public_affairs/2021/05/06/skewed_history_textbook_coverage_of_early_america_and_the_new_deal_775956.html

Once again the problem is in the education of our children.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–07May21

I live in what is being called these days as the “New South”….I have questioned the title for some time…..my premise is that very little has changed from what is the “Old South”…….the racism that all seem to think that is on the wane is far from……

Those in-bred spineless white boys that keep winning thanx to the legislation that the old white boys keep enacting prove their bias….and the most recent example is from Tennessee……this idiot wants to re-write history with the hope of continuing the racial bias…..

A Tennessee Republican falsely declared Tuesday that an 18th-century policy designating a slave as three-fifths of a person was adopted for “the purpose of ending slavery,” commenting amid a debate over whether educators should be restricted while teaching about systematic racism in America. During lengthy debate on the GOP-controlled state House floor, several Black lawmakers expressed concerns about the bill’s impact on how certain subjects would be taught in schools, specifically highlighting the Three-Fifths Compromise, the AP reports. The policy was made during the nation’s Constitutional Convention in 1787 and classified that three-fifths of a state’s slave population could be counted toward its total population when apportioning taxes and states’ representation in Congress. Historians largely agree the compromise gave slaveholding states inordinate power over choosing a president—and decisions of the Continental Congress. That clout eventually faded when Northern state populations began to rapidly rise.

Rep. Justin Lafferty, who is white, stood up and talked at length about what he saw as sparking the compromise. At one point he asked colleagues to note on paper their best guess for the reasons that led to the policy. “By limiting the number of population in the count, they specifically limited the number of representatives who would be available in the slave holding states and they did it for the purpose of ending slavery,” said Lafferty, from Knoxville. “Well before Abraham Lincoln. Well before Civil War.” None of the other lawmakers in the chamber directly challenged Lafferty’s false claims but some applauded when he finished talking. While the House overwhelmingly approved the legislation on Tuesday, the GOP-controlled Senate chamber refused to accept the House bill hours later. Its fate now remains unclear in the final days of the legislative session.

Historical revisionism just to keep the minorities in their “place”.

I would say that the New South smells as racist as the Old South….What about you?

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

BLM Comes To Mississippi

There is a local food market that I was visiting because it is a cost plus store….trying to save some money….it looks like I will avoid this store because of an incident recently……

Protests have been staged around the store in my hometown……

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) – “Black people, do not shop where you are not respected.”

That’s the message a small group repeated while walking around the parking lot of a Gulfport grocery store on Sunday, and while the protest was small, that message was heard loud and clear.

The protest was held outside the Froogel’s in Hardy Court after a couple alleged that racial slurs were made toward them while they were shopping last week.

Kimmiyatta May and her fiancé Bobby Anderson said the comments were made last Thursday by one employee to another.

“She told him these words while I was walking off to my fiancée: ‘Don’t worry about it. These n***** just spending n**** crumbs,” recounted May.

https://www.wlox.com/2021/03/08/claims-racial-slurs-being-used-by-gulfport-store-employees-prompts-protest/

I will boycott the establishment…..I feel there is NO room for this type of crap in the 21st century….I will stay away as long as this racist remains on their payroll.

The New South smells like the Old South to me.

“lego ergo scribo”