Bigotry is not new in America. If you want to read about how politics has been shaped by fear and racism, try Limousine Liberal: How an Incendiary Image United the Right and Fractured America by Steve Fraser. Or you may be able to, like me, simply reflect on the America where you grew up.
I lived in a little Italian community in a rural town in Rhode Island that became suburban during my childhood and teenage years. My father, an Italian immigrant, would complain about "the frogs" who lived next door, threaten (privately) to "fix" neighbors who angered him by selling his vacant lots to blacks (I believe he said "negro"), and referred to my boyfriend as "that Jew." For that matter, my future father-in-law, a Jewish man who was married to an Anglican, was incensed that his son was dating someone not Jewish. In one rather hysterical family fight, he berated his son for going out with a "spaghetti-eater." And then he threw the plate of spaghetti he was eating at the wall.
It is odd that those who were solidly members of groups who faced bigotry would be so quick to turn it on members of other groups. Because I lived in a small Italian community, I did not hear the words "wop" and "guinea" until my first full-time supermarket job, and then it was a self-derogatory joke made by an old Italian meat-cutter. I can only imagine the world of hate he had grown up in.
I was mostly unaware of any racial bigotry that might have been directed at me. When I was a school psychologist on Long Island, the director once commiserated with me about Italian men, not realizing that I had kept my family name, thinking I had married an Italian. I believe she thought I was Jewish, as was she. I am aware these days that I can pass for Jewish and Hispanic, but the features are not so distinct that it is ever a conscious part of my interactions with people.
It is so much a part of our heritage, to mistrust and hate those who are different than us, to feel threatened by their proximity, that we Americans are easy targets for anyone who seeks power. Hence, the Donald Trump phenomenon. Which has been brought to us by decades of right-wing rage targeting minorities.
Want to win an election? Target a minority.
Just as in my mother's day Italians and Irish were called lazy and dirty, so have African-Americans and Mexicans.
Just as Jews have been persecuted for being sneaky and greedy, and for plotting control over whatever "civilization" happens to be feeling threatened, Moslems are now targeted as plotting to destroy "civilization."
Small people with perverse sexual obsessions have always in our society been fond of gay-bashing, when they aren't focused on what goes on in a woman's body without their approval.
As a woman who has not ever had to really face bigotry (only misogyny), I can't imagine how awful must be the threat of being targeted in America. Show your papers. Stop and frisk. Driving while being black. And Trump's outrages-of-the-day: "We have to go and we have to maybe check, respectfully, the mosques" (six days ago). Since he proposed the national database of Muslims last year when he was only a primary candidate, he apparently has realized that as a presumptive nominee, when he suggests taking away a group's rights he now has to do it "respectfully."
South Carolina is not the only proud state to waste taxpayer dollars on "bathroom bills" and bills that would keep out refugees and prevent Sharia Law from infiltrating our courts. Because right wing radicals continue to foster fear and hatred, we have our own home-grown assault rifle toting paranoids to contend with. In a totally irony-free atmosphere, state and federal legislators have caused such a panic over our rights and our safety that they have unleashed the very wackos we should be concerned about, who kill in the name of protecting the country from killers.
Fueled by the NRA which is controlled by arms manufacturers, our legislators have once again failed to pass even the most basic gun controls. Paul Ryan, never before concerned about the rights of people kept off planes because they were wrongly put on the no-fly list is now expressing his concern for people that would wrongly lose their right to buy a gun. And how about this pretzel-shaped rationale: by refusing to sell a gun to someone on the no-fly list we would be jeopardizing national security by alerting them to the fact that they are being watched.... Hmm, you mean like if they are told they can't get on a plane???
Which leaves us all waiting for the next mass shooting. And while we are waiting, innocent people continue to be killed on the streets, in bars, at home. And the rage goes on.
Showing posts with label Racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Racism. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
It All Comes Back to Politics
On Thursday, Charleston County Democratic Women hosted three young women who spoke about their greatest concerns. The talks were informative and inspiring. And most interesting was that they in fact, intertwined.
Savannah Frierson spoke to issues of racism, and how they are reinforced in our politics and our lives. She brought up the drinking water in Flint, and in fact, problems with drinking water on our own Wadmalaw Island. Environmental problems hit the poor and rural areas first. Monica Tanouye spoke about the environment, not as a "tree hugger," but as someone who sees our environment as a resource that we need to maintain, in order to maintain our lives on earth and in our communities. Finally, Ali Titus spoke passionately about obesity and the blame-the-victim mentality that is so prevalent in our society. She pointed out that the same big corporations that made fortunes selling foods that lead to obesity also share in huge profits from the health problems and dieting regimens caused by obesity.
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| Savannah Frierson, Ali Titus, Monica Tanouye |
As the women spoke, and for these days afterwards, I have been thinking about how all these issues relate to one: capitalism as political power, and political power run amok.
With all the Tea Party talk about reducing the deficit, big agra continues to profit from huge government subsidies: subsidies to grow sugar and corn, the latter used not as a healthy vegetable but as corn syrup. Meanwhile, our local farmers struggle against the extreme weather conditions of global climate change with little aid that only comes when those extremes cannot be ignored, as with our October floods. This means healthy produce grown locally is far more expensive than McDonald's or a bag of cookies. Note that here in South Carolina food stamps cannot be used at many farms or farmers markets.
With all the light shone on Flint's water crisis, it has become more than apparent that decisions were made to cut corners in a town where the poverty rate is the second highest in the country. It was easy to do this because Michigan has an "emergency manager" law that allows the governor to appoint someone to run the city, bypassing voters' choices. And as we all know, the main function of government these days is to cut costs, and it is especially easy to do so when the people are too poor to fight back.
It's all politics, and politics has gotten so convoluted that the good guys have to run the same cons as the bad guys.
Take Wadmalaw Island, where I live. As Savannah spoke Thursday night, someone near me mumbled that that wasn't true that Wadmalaw had bad water. In fact, it is not true for me, because I live in a development that is only about 25 years old. A couple of years ago, based on my low income, I even qualified for a new well, which was dug last week. I know that there were also people who qualified that had bad wells that were fifty years old.
But suppose you don't qualify? Suppose you work hard enough to fall just above the federal poverty line? The assumption is that you can pay that $6,000 for the new well. And whatever other problems there are that need to be corrected for the water to be potable. Impossible for so many.
And yet, I am fortunate that I qualified for that federal grant. I imagine I can thank Democrats like US Representative Jim Clyburn, the late Senator Clementa Pinckney and Representative Robert L. Brown. I imagine County Councilwoman Anna Johnson pulled some strings as well. There has to be a reason, in fact, that while South Carolina skinflints in the Statehouse refuse to raise the gas tax to repair bad roads, the two main roads on Wadmalaw have been repaved twice in the seventeen years I have lived here.
But for republican strongholds, politics is all about money and influence. And for wealthy donors, politicians will spend whatever of our tax dollars it takes to keep them happy. If the air or water gets bad where they are, if a hurricane blows their home away, they move to higher ground, build a bigger newer home with the insurance money.
Meanwhile, the working poor get made promises of more jobs while being sidetracked with messages of refugee and immigrant invasions. The poor, a high percentage minority, are victimized by government decisions to cut what little aid they get, and by inadequate services. When you aren't allowed time off from work, or you don't have a car, when getting to a supermarket is a hurtle, not only do you not get out to vote, you don't really see that it makes a difference.
For those who are living in the shaky middle class, they live with financial insecurity that makes them vulnerable to the fearmongers that convince them that the EPA, immigrants and unions will cost them their livelihood. Financial insecurity for the right wing is political gold.
I would like very much to invite our three speakers back. I would like for them to maybe be a panel that addresses political solutions to the huge problems that they posed to us. I would like to keep this conversation going.
And I want to thank them for opening it up for us.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Nino, We Knew You Too Well
The death of Antonin Scalia yesterday left me remarkably speechless. It took a night of turning the event over in my mind before I could write about it.
Because he was so obviously going to be rattling his cage with the Supremes forever, it was inevitable that I would have from time to time imagined his death as the only likely way to move the Supreme Court forward. There, I said it.
He may be a larger than life evil figure to me, not just because of his power, but because we are both full-blooded Italians. Scalia more than fulfilled the stereotype I grew up with of Italian men. He was a mafioso with an Ivy League education. He was convinced that he was the smartest person in the room, and held contempt for those who he saw as beneath him. Which was most of us.
He was rigid and held to simple and self-serving philosophies. Calling himself an originalist, he was a proud founding member of the Federalist Society. However, as with all obsessively rigid people, Scalia could blatantly hold a conflicting opinion if it served his interest, and wholeheartedly deny the conflict. He condemned activist judges, except, of course, when it was him. Because he was always right.
He was best friends with Justice Ginsberg, a friendship which totally flummoxes me. We've all heard of warring attorneys enjoying after-hour friendships. But I can't imagine someone as moral as Ginsberg being able to stick all that in a compartment so she can enjoy a glass of wine with Nino. I have imagined that he must have enjoyed having all those women on the bench of late. Not because he valued their opinions, but because he could engage in flirtatious sparring with intelligent female opponents. What fun!
I do believe though, that as Obama's appointees became more influential, and at times he was even abandoned by fellow right wingnut Chief Justice Roberts, Scalia's narcissistic wit began to deteriorate. Loose associations having to do with broccoli and his most recent failure to self-censor his racism suggest that Scalia was not quite as clever as his self-promotion made him out to be. Perhaps it was the inevitable legalization of gay marriage that pushed his homophobic old mind over the edge. In fact, it was after the DOMA decision that Scalia told an interviewer that the devil is real:
Scalia was "Despicable Me" with less charm and more power. He was not at all embarrassed at his conflicts of interest during his time on the bench because, after all, he was right. He was indeed above the law, which is a scary position for one of the most powerful jurists in the land.
After a good night's sleep I find that it will be easier to accept the absence of Scalia.
It will come as no surprise that Mitch McConnell has already said that a new justice should not be appointed until after the election. He would have said the same thing if Scalia had died two years ago. Senate republicans have routinely chosen to leave seats vacant during Obama's presidency in the hope of filling them with more desirable right-wing candidates after the presidential election. This has left a shameful backlog in the courts, but, hey, it's not about justice, it's about politics -- and power.
So for at least a year we will have an eight-member Supreme Court. This will no doubt mean a lot of 4-4 decisions, meaning no decision. Which I see as an improvement over the status quo.
I worry though.
I worry about how hard Ruth Bader Ginsberg is taking the loss of her friend. To be honest, it's not completely motivated by empathy. I worry about her health. We need her more than ever now.
I worry about Clarence Thomas. What on earth is he going to do without his buddy to hide behind, and say all the horrible things Thomas would like to say if he wasn't so bottled up with rage?
The ground shifted a little for me when I heard the news last night. But I imagine the earth shifted a bit more for those remaining eight members of the most exclusive and sheltered club in all of this country.
We have survived a do-nothing Congress, and in fact, were better off for it. Perhaps the remaining Supremes will just hang in and bide their time for a year or more as well.
As for Antonin Scalia, his last day on earth was spent at a friend's ranch, doing what he most enjoyed, hunting down and taking shots at the smaller and weaker among us.
Because he was so obviously going to be rattling his cage with the Supremes forever, it was inevitable that I would have from time to time imagined his death as the only likely way to move the Supreme Court forward. There, I said it.
He may be a larger than life evil figure to me, not just because of his power, but because we are both full-blooded Italians. Scalia more than fulfilled the stereotype I grew up with of Italian men. He was a mafioso with an Ivy League education. He was convinced that he was the smartest person in the room, and held contempt for those who he saw as beneath him. Which was most of us.
He was rigid and held to simple and self-serving philosophies. Calling himself an originalist, he was a proud founding member of the Federalist Society. However, as with all obsessively rigid people, Scalia could blatantly hold a conflicting opinion if it served his interest, and wholeheartedly deny the conflict. He condemned activist judges, except, of course, when it was him. Because he was always right.
He was best friends with Justice Ginsberg, a friendship which totally flummoxes me. We've all heard of warring attorneys enjoying after-hour friendships. But I can't imagine someone as moral as Ginsberg being able to stick all that in a compartment so she can enjoy a glass of wine with Nino. I have imagined that he must have enjoyed having all those women on the bench of late. Not because he valued their opinions, but because he could engage in flirtatious sparring with intelligent female opponents. What fun!
I do believe though, that as Obama's appointees became more influential, and at times he was even abandoned by fellow right wingnut Chief Justice Roberts, Scalia's narcissistic wit began to deteriorate. Loose associations having to do with broccoli and his most recent failure to self-censor his racism suggest that Scalia was not quite as clever as his self-promotion made him out to be. Perhaps it was the inevitable legalization of gay marriage that pushed his homophobic old mind over the edge. In fact, it was after the DOMA decision that Scalia told an interviewer that the devil is real:
Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately?
You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore.
You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore.
No.
It’s because he’s smart.
It’s because he’s smart.
Scalia was "Despicable Me" with less charm and more power. He was not at all embarrassed at his conflicts of interest during his time on the bench because, after all, he was right. He was indeed above the law, which is a scary position for one of the most powerful jurists in the land.
After a good night's sleep I find that it will be easier to accept the absence of Scalia.
It will come as no surprise that Mitch McConnell has already said that a new justice should not be appointed until after the election. He would have said the same thing if Scalia had died two years ago. Senate republicans have routinely chosen to leave seats vacant during Obama's presidency in the hope of filling them with more desirable right-wing candidates after the presidential election. This has left a shameful backlog in the courts, but, hey, it's not about justice, it's about politics -- and power.
So for at least a year we will have an eight-member Supreme Court. This will no doubt mean a lot of 4-4 decisions, meaning no decision. Which I see as an improvement over the status quo.
I worry though.
I worry about how hard Ruth Bader Ginsberg is taking the loss of her friend. To be honest, it's not completely motivated by empathy. I worry about her health. We need her more than ever now.
I worry about Clarence Thomas. What on earth is he going to do without his buddy to hide behind, and say all the horrible things Thomas would like to say if he wasn't so bottled up with rage?
The ground shifted a little for me when I heard the news last night. But I imagine the earth shifted a bit more for those remaining eight members of the most exclusive and sheltered club in all of this country.
We have survived a do-nothing Congress, and in fact, were better off for it. Perhaps the remaining Supremes will just hang in and bide their time for a year or more as well.
As for Antonin Scalia, his last day on earth was spent at a friend's ranch, doing what he most enjoyed, hunting down and taking shots at the smaller and weaker among us.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Charleston's Democratic Women
As you may know, Charleston County Democratic Women has been around a long time, fighting for the rights of all South Carolinians. They are working to make us more aware of the ongoing battles at the Statehouse for women's rights as well as healthcare, education, a living wage and the right to live free of racism and gun violence. Membership and donations support like-minded candidates, so that we can change the pathetic record of rabid right-wing radicalism in our legislature.
The next meeting of CCDW is this Thursday, February 4, at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Riverview. The featured speaker is Will Moredock, author and columnist. Will has been reporting on the weird, wacky and often offensive twists and turns of our state government for well over a decade. His latest book is a collection of articles from 2002 to 2012 entitled Living in Fear: Race, Politics and the Republican Party in South Carolina.
Will has spoken passionately for women's rights, and is an advocate for reproductive rights, which, since the secretly recorded and heavily edited Planned Parenthood video, are even more under attack by state and federal legislators than they had been in previous years. Our state legislature currently has twenty or more bills pending that would curb the rights of women to pursue legal abortions in South Carolina, and even restrict the ability to donate fetal tissue to research.
But the attack is not just against women. It is against African Americans, the LGBT community, college students, workers. Families, children, the poor, all are under fire from a legislature with the mantra of no taxes. Small government is cited in denying Medicaid to the uninsured but doesn't apply at all when it is women's right to medical privacy that is being considered. Bad state government is the reason South Carolina ranks 45th in financial security.
CCDW is planning on keeping us all informed about what is going on in Columbia, and in spearheading some grass roots actions in order to fight all those bad bills, and promote the good ones.
I hope you will be there on Thursday. We can fight the insanity if we work together.
The next meeting of CCDW is this Thursday, February 4, at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Riverview. The featured speaker is Will Moredock, author and columnist. Will has been reporting on the weird, wacky and often offensive twists and turns of our state government for well over a decade. His latest book is a collection of articles from 2002 to 2012 entitled Living in Fear: Race, Politics and the Republican Party in South Carolina.
Will has spoken passionately for women's rights, and is an advocate for reproductive rights, which, since the secretly recorded and heavily edited Planned Parenthood video, are even more under attack by state and federal legislators than they had been in previous years. Our state legislature currently has twenty or more bills pending that would curb the rights of women to pursue legal abortions in South Carolina, and even restrict the ability to donate fetal tissue to research.
But the attack is not just against women. It is against African Americans, the LGBT community, college students, workers. Families, children, the poor, all are under fire from a legislature with the mantra of no taxes. Small government is cited in denying Medicaid to the uninsured but doesn't apply at all when it is women's right to medical privacy that is being considered. Bad state government is the reason South Carolina ranks 45th in financial security.
CCDW is planning on keeping us all informed about what is going on in Columbia, and in spearheading some grass roots actions in order to fight all those bad bills, and promote the good ones.
I hope you will be there on Thursday. We can fight the insanity if we work together.
CCDW
Charleston County Democratic Women
February Meeting
Thursday, February 4, 6:00 PM to Socialize
Program Starts at 6:30!
Holiday Inn Riverview in Charleston
Optional Buffet Dinner is $20
Our Featured Speaker will be Charleston Author
Will Moredock
Living in Fear is a selection of his writings with a focus on the way that racial fear has shaped the politics and culture of our state. Also included in this collection is Will’s 7,000 word essay on the origin and future of these fears.
A South Carolina native and Charleston resident, Will is a veteran journalist with stints at The State Newspaper in Columbia and Creative and Loafing in Charlotte. From 2002 till 2012, he wrote a weekly column on South Carolina politics and culture for Charleston City Paper.
His work has appeared in newspapers around the country including the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and Charlotte Observer. He is also the author Banana Republic Revisited: 75 Years of Madness, Mayhem and Minigolf in Myrtle Beach and The Storm – A Story for Children.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Underground Racism
It seems fair to say, despite the pontifications of Chief Justice John Roberts, that racism has not come to an end. I wonder why nobody has asked him to share his wisdom regarding the shootings of black men by white police officers. It must have something to do with that ginormous buffer zone the justices have protecting them from the actual real world. Which also explains why we would never expect Clarence Thomas to have to worry about white cops.
It was inevitable that we in South Carolina would have our turn in the national spotlight over a police shooting. In fact it happened too briefly a year ago, and other times before that.
I was surprised to hear an MSNBC reporter yesterday note that of over 200 police shootings in South Carolina, none were convicted of a crime. I recalled the terrifying dashcam video of last summer's shooting of an unarmed black man who was reaching for his license and registration after being stopped for not having his seat belt on. It turns out that the officer involved was fired and charged with assault and battery, but not yet tried. It seems we need to keep a close eye on that case.
Because it should be obvious to anyone other than five members of the Supreme Court that racism is alive and well. And not just in the south. The stereotypes of dangerous black men and black women who live high off the welfare system haven't died; they had just gone underground. It may be that it took a black president to bring the paranoia out in the open. And it took authorities like the majority of the Supreme Court to give their blessing to racially motivated aggression.
Where was all that racism before it became legal to deny blacks the right to vote via the voter ID bandwagon and selectively limiting polling places, hours and locations? And we hadn't had quite such a rage against people on welfare and food stamps since Ronald Reagan's bullshit about the welfare queen in the Cadillac. While the media was enjoying the Obama birth certificate nonsense, the racists were beginning to crawl out from under their rocks.
As a white woman, I can testify to the fact that there has always been racism. Because every now and then, someone would say to me something along the lines of "You know what they're like." Wink, nudge. I find it bizarre, and yet, if you're like me, when it's happened to you white folk who are reading this, you may not have said, "No, I don't," or, "Yeah, probably like me." We don't confront the crazies because, well, they are crazy. After all, they've made assumptions that all we white folk are like they are and believe what they know to be fact. So, like me, you probably backed away from the conversation, maybe discretely shaking your head as you went.
We know the racists are out there. We know the stereotypes. The only way to change that nonsense is for white and blacks to live, work, go to school with each other. We've known that for a long time. And yet even when schools are integrated it is pretty likely that the social groups aren't. And even a liberal democrat such as myself finds that I am in a social group with white women.
So we self-select. But we still need to talk among each other. We need to share space. And most important, we need to stop the racists from perpetuating the racist myths. We need our politicians to stop playing to our fears. We need to insist that our judges don't hold ridiculous stereotypes. We definitely need to screen those who hold racist beliefs out of our police forces and our schools.
My mother used to tell the story of a teacher in her elementary school (circa 1925) who hated Italians. She thought they were dirty and stupid. As my mother walked down the stairs, this teacher gave her a little kick to help her along. We've mostly all been there. These days it's the Hispanics who are called dirty and stupid. Segregating ourselves from others who are different, stereotyping those we don't know well enough to understand, this may be the human condition. But we are all in a position to step up and stop the nonsense when it happens. The media needs to do it, the courts need to do it.
But I don't see that on the horizon. Fox News, the right-wing politicians, and big corporate powers like the Kochs have too much to gain by fueling the hate. Until our authorities step up, as Lyndon Johnson did when he said no to racism and put his full power behind the American law and a true belief in equality, we will have to whip out the cell phones and make the cops wear body cams. It won't end racism, and the cameras won't be enough. We've had blacks shot and strangled on camera, and the cops gotten off by not-so-grand juries and prosecutors who were on the side of the cops. It will take vigilance, protests, media focus to stop the killing of innocent blacks that has gone on throughout the country's history. It is good that the tragic killings of Trayvon Martin and of Michael Brown in Ferguson woke us up from our delusions. But we need to understand that those talks that dads have with their black sons about the police have always gone on, and we need to know that the society that makes that necessary has got to change.
It was inevitable that we in South Carolina would have our turn in the national spotlight over a police shooting. In fact it happened too briefly a year ago, and other times before that.
I was surprised to hear an MSNBC reporter yesterday note that of over 200 police shootings in South Carolina, none were convicted of a crime. I recalled the terrifying dashcam video of last summer's shooting of an unarmed black man who was reaching for his license and registration after being stopped for not having his seat belt on. It turns out that the officer involved was fired and charged with assault and battery, but not yet tried. It seems we need to keep a close eye on that case.
Because it should be obvious to anyone other than five members of the Supreme Court that racism is alive and well. And not just in the south. The stereotypes of dangerous black men and black women who live high off the welfare system haven't died; they had just gone underground. It may be that it took a black president to bring the paranoia out in the open. And it took authorities like the majority of the Supreme Court to give their blessing to racially motivated aggression.
Where was all that racism before it became legal to deny blacks the right to vote via the voter ID bandwagon and selectively limiting polling places, hours and locations? And we hadn't had quite such a rage against people on welfare and food stamps since Ronald Reagan's bullshit about the welfare queen in the Cadillac. While the media was enjoying the Obama birth certificate nonsense, the racists were beginning to crawl out from under their rocks.
As a white woman, I can testify to the fact that there has always been racism. Because every now and then, someone would say to me something along the lines of "You know what they're like." Wink, nudge. I find it bizarre, and yet, if you're like me, when it's happened to you white folk who are reading this, you may not have said, "No, I don't," or, "Yeah, probably like me." We don't confront the crazies because, well, they are crazy. After all, they've made assumptions that all we white folk are like they are and believe what they know to be fact. So, like me, you probably backed away from the conversation, maybe discretely shaking your head as you went.
We know the racists are out there. We know the stereotypes. The only way to change that nonsense is for white and blacks to live, work, go to school with each other. We've known that for a long time. And yet even when schools are integrated it is pretty likely that the social groups aren't. And even a liberal democrat such as myself finds that I am in a social group with white women.
So we self-select. But we still need to talk among each other. We need to share space. And most important, we need to stop the racists from perpetuating the racist myths. We need our politicians to stop playing to our fears. We need to insist that our judges don't hold ridiculous stereotypes. We definitely need to screen those who hold racist beliefs out of our police forces and our schools.
My mother used to tell the story of a teacher in her elementary school (circa 1925) who hated Italians. She thought they were dirty and stupid. As my mother walked down the stairs, this teacher gave her a little kick to help her along. We've mostly all been there. These days it's the Hispanics who are called dirty and stupid. Segregating ourselves from others who are different, stereotyping those we don't know well enough to understand, this may be the human condition. But we are all in a position to step up and stop the nonsense when it happens. The media needs to do it, the courts need to do it.
But I don't see that on the horizon. Fox News, the right-wing politicians, and big corporate powers like the Kochs have too much to gain by fueling the hate. Until our authorities step up, as Lyndon Johnson did when he said no to racism and put his full power behind the American law and a true belief in equality, we will have to whip out the cell phones and make the cops wear body cams. It won't end racism, and the cameras won't be enough. We've had blacks shot and strangled on camera, and the cops gotten off by not-so-grand juries and prosecutors who were on the side of the cops. It will take vigilance, protests, media focus to stop the killing of innocent blacks that has gone on throughout the country's history. It is good that the tragic killings of Trayvon Martin and of Michael Brown in Ferguson woke us up from our delusions. But we need to understand that those talks that dads have with their black sons about the police have always gone on, and we need to know that the society that makes that necessary has got to change.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Racism and Reverberations
First thing I want to do (as do we all) is vent. The republican party has had big balls and they have been bouncing them around since Obama's landslide six years ago. We all laughed when Boehner said, "Hell, no," but it worked, and it has worked ever since. Today I heard Michael Steele say that Obama should just try to approach the new Congress, nicely, regarding immigration. Really??? Did this image occur to anybody else:
Whenever they say "hell, no" they reinforce their power and confidence, and when we waffle, we are seen as unsure of what we think will work and maybe even a little shady. It began with health care when Obama backed off from the public option; our Blue Dogs added a few nails to the coffin when they failed to throw their support behind the Affordable Care Act. And with a few exceptions we have been seen as cowards that will do anything to survive ever since.
Worse is the slurs and insults directed at the President by the opposition, and the Democratic flight to safety in response. When Bill Clinton was kicked around, we can say he gave Newt and his gang the ammunition, not only by his sexual misadventures, but by dancing around the truth and outright lying about everything from not inhaling to whether he had sex with that intern. Barack Obama has had no such dark deeds in his background; he has an enviable family life and was frank about past casual drug use and even his cigarette habit. Unable to dig up any hidden bodies, the idiot brigade resorted to making up racist nonsense about a Kenyan birth. But once they did, the noise reverberated for years. The racism that has accompanied this president's years in office has been overt more often than not, and barely masked at other times. And the Democratic Party predictably failed to stand together confidently to back our President.
And we can thank the media from both sides and in the middle for helping to keep the echo going. Anything for a story. Anything, that is, but the issues.
Speaking of which, if we were to talk honestly about the issues, this president has done some heroic things against great odds, including the auto bailout, handling terrorists with intelligence and calm and making gains with sustainable energy that have been too little publicized. He has also made some serious mistakes by siding with Wall Street over Main Street, stepping up deportation of undocumented immigrants and excessive border control, and giving the NSA a free hand with domestic spying and failing to protect whistleblowers. But there has not been a president who has done great things who has not also shown a tragic flaw, as did LBJ with civil rights juxtaposed alongside the Vietnam war.
Sadly, we have been hearing the media talk about Obama's unpopularity for some six years, almost through his re-election. We have all believed it because it has been said so often by so many. Rather than simply and rationally disagree on certain of the issues, we Democrats have allowed ourselves to reject the President on the whole, to the delight of the republican party. And I have to say, it has not just been us red staters. And the midterm election disaster was what we ended up with.
Barack Obama is a great statesman and an admirable politician. I believe that if he were to run a third term, he would once again be re-elected, and he could do it on all the good things he has done during his time in office.
So it was tragic when Alison Grimes, once running ahead of McConnell, chose to refuse to admit that she voted for Obama. So many ways she could have said he was and is the best man for the job, although she disagreed with him on energy and would always vote what was best for her constituents. Instead, she bumbled and looked embarrassed. The media ran with it, and the republicans did not need to do anything other than look smug.
And the absence of the President during the campaign -- noted often and loudly by the media -- was what was wrong with these midterm elections. Yes, there are other factors that affected the outcome, and I would like to talk more about those at another time. But had we stood proud and tall with the leader of the country, who has after all, done some amazing things with a country that his predecessor had pretty nearly flushed down the toilet, we would no doubt be on the other side of history these next two years.
Worse is the slurs and insults directed at the President by the opposition, and the Democratic flight to safety in response. When Bill Clinton was kicked around, we can say he gave Newt and his gang the ammunition, not only by his sexual misadventures, but by dancing around the truth and outright lying about everything from not inhaling to whether he had sex with that intern. Barack Obama has had no such dark deeds in his background; he has an enviable family life and was frank about past casual drug use and even his cigarette habit. Unable to dig up any hidden bodies, the idiot brigade resorted to making up racist nonsense about a Kenyan birth. But once they did, the noise reverberated for years. The racism that has accompanied this president's years in office has been overt more often than not, and barely masked at other times. And the Democratic Party predictably failed to stand together confidently to back our President.
And we can thank the media from both sides and in the middle for helping to keep the echo going. Anything for a story. Anything, that is, but the issues.
Speaking of which, if we were to talk honestly about the issues, this president has done some heroic things against great odds, including the auto bailout, handling terrorists with intelligence and calm and making gains with sustainable energy that have been too little publicized. He has also made some serious mistakes by siding with Wall Street over Main Street, stepping up deportation of undocumented immigrants and excessive border control, and giving the NSA a free hand with domestic spying and failing to protect whistleblowers. But there has not been a president who has done great things who has not also shown a tragic flaw, as did LBJ with civil rights juxtaposed alongside the Vietnam war.
Sadly, we have been hearing the media talk about Obama's unpopularity for some six years, almost through his re-election. We have all believed it because it has been said so often by so many. Rather than simply and rationally disagree on certain of the issues, we Democrats have allowed ourselves to reject the President on the whole, to the delight of the republican party. And I have to say, it has not just been us red staters. And the midterm election disaster was what we ended up with.
Barack Obama is a great statesman and an admirable politician. I believe that if he were to run a third term, he would once again be re-elected, and he could do it on all the good things he has done during his time in office.
So it was tragic when Alison Grimes, once running ahead of McConnell, chose to refuse to admit that she voted for Obama. So many ways she could have said he was and is the best man for the job, although she disagreed with him on energy and would always vote what was best for her constituents. Instead, she bumbled and looked embarrassed. The media ran with it, and the republicans did not need to do anything other than look smug.
And the absence of the President during the campaign -- noted often and loudly by the media -- was what was wrong with these midterm elections. Yes, there are other factors that affected the outcome, and I would like to talk more about those at another time. But had we stood proud and tall with the leader of the country, who has after all, done some amazing things with a country that his predecessor had pretty nearly flushed down the toilet, we would no doubt be on the other side of history these next two years.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
When Even Holding Your Nose Doesn't Work
I am proud of being a Democrat, mostly. There are times when they do make it difficult. For example, about a week ago, I went to my mailbox and found what turns out to be the nastiest piece of campaign crap I have received this election season, which certainly says a lot. Worse thing about it, is it came from a Democrat. Well, not exactly "a Democrat." It came from one of those shadowy groups in which individuals don't have to own up to their ugly message.
This is what I received:
Don't be surprised if the first word your eyes are drawn to is the word "Negro." And it's not a coincidence that both lunatic Cliven Bundy and Thomas Legare are in similar poses. What's going on here is guilt by association. Now, I don't know Thomas Legare, but I do know that he is a longtime businessman in Charleston County, and the thing you don't do in Charleston is toss racial slurs at people who live and work here.
Anyway, the text affirms, not that Legare is a racist, but that he supports racist, anti-American radicals (which in Fox Newspeak could be just about anyone). Again, I do know that Legare has said some crazy stuff in support of Cliven Bundy. But the association here is that his support of Bundy makes him racist. Are you fired up???
I tend to distrust political ads and I like to know where they come from. So I looked up the upstanding-sounding "Lowcountry Leadership Initiative," the group that paid for this mailing. Turns out that this is a new political action committee formed to raise money for candidates who support the controversial completion of I-526. When I first looked it up, there was an October 20 Post and Courier article by Diane Knich, in which the reporter stated that not much was known about the group. But on October 28, the intrepid Knich followed up with more specific information about the pursuits of the PAC. Lots about the politics, but, imagine that, still nobody owning up to being a part of the group.
Well, I would be ashamed to admit to it as well. And so should Anna Johnson, the County Council incumbent running against Legare. Last weekend, I sent her an email asking her to denounce the group and the mailing, and just as with Ms. Knich, I received no reply. And the most recent mailing by this group doubles down, calling Legare a "Tea Party radical" who "sided with racist Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy in an armed standoff with our own federal troops." In which they either got carried away with their rhetoric, or they maybe wanted us to believe that Legare was right there with Bundy.
It appears that Anna may be finding herself in a bit of a shit storm; by siding with the wrong bunch, I believe she herself has crossed the line of common decency here in Charleston. Over the years since she has been convinced that completing I-526 is a good idea, she has not only suddenly been dressing a whole lot better, but has found herself bitterly opposed by former supporters. This deceit and dirty dealing by Lowcountry Leadership Initiative has not helped.
Tragically, Anna has also done some good with the County Council, by supporting much needed social programs. For this reason, I had planned on holding my nose and voting for her on Tuesday. But I will speak against dirty politics and I draw the line at giving my vote to someone who has been bought by a group of such sleaze that they work anonymously, and with no ethical constraints.
So on Tuesday, I plan on leaving Charleston County Council District 8 blank. I urge you to also take a stand on this race, which represents the dirtiest of dirty politics.
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This is what I received:
Anyway, the text affirms, not that Legare is a racist, but that he supports racist, anti-American radicals (which in Fox Newspeak could be just about anyone). Again, I do know that Legare has said some crazy stuff in support of Cliven Bundy. But the association here is that his support of Bundy makes him racist. Are you fired up???
I tend to distrust political ads and I like to know where they come from. So I looked up the upstanding-sounding "Lowcountry Leadership Initiative," the group that paid for this mailing. Turns out that this is a new political action committee formed to raise money for candidates who support the controversial completion of I-526. When I first looked it up, there was an October 20 Post and Courier article by Diane Knich, in which the reporter stated that not much was known about the group. But on October 28, the intrepid Knich followed up with more specific information about the pursuits of the PAC. Lots about the politics, but, imagine that, still nobody owning up to being a part of the group.
Well, I would be ashamed to admit to it as well. And so should Anna Johnson, the County Council incumbent running against Legare. Last weekend, I sent her an email asking her to denounce the group and the mailing, and just as with Ms. Knich, I received no reply. And the most recent mailing by this group doubles down, calling Legare a "Tea Party radical" who "sided with racist Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy in an armed standoff with our own federal troops." In which they either got carried away with their rhetoric, or they maybe wanted us to believe that Legare was right there with Bundy.
It appears that Anna may be finding herself in a bit of a shit storm; by siding with the wrong bunch, I believe she herself has crossed the line of common decency here in Charleston. Over the years since she has been convinced that completing I-526 is a good idea, she has not only suddenly been dressing a whole lot better, but has found herself bitterly opposed by former supporters. This deceit and dirty dealing by Lowcountry Leadership Initiative has not helped.
Tragically, Anna has also done some good with the County Council, by supporting much needed social programs. For this reason, I had planned on holding my nose and voting for her on Tuesday. But I will speak against dirty politics and I draw the line at giving my vote to someone who has been bought by a group of such sleaze that they work anonymously, and with no ethical constraints.
So on Tuesday, I plan on leaving Charleston County Council District 8 blank. I urge you to also take a stand on this race, which represents the dirtiest of dirty politics.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
My New Pen Pal
If you send someone you've never met a letter, you probably feel the need to communicate something. If you send them another one, I guess that means you're becoming pen pals.
T.B.S., who wrote me pages of colorful comments about his feelings about the NAACP and Trayvon Martin, apparently felt he had more to share. So a couple of days later, he got his colored pens back out and posted several more pages of burning thoughts:
Here is the text of my Letter to the Editor in the P & C that began this flurry of activity:
Blaming victim
As a girl growing up in the ’60s in Rhode Island, I knew there were places I had better not walk. Even so, I was about 10 years old and walking to the library one day when a car with several men drove by and I had what I think was a soda can thrown at me.I recall as a teen-ager and then a young woman that when a woman was raped, she was asked what she was doing in that neighborhood, at that time, by herself, with those clothes on.
Now that the trial of George Zimmerman is over, I am not only reminded of how women were blamed for being attacked, I am thinking about my son who is now 21, not that much older than Trayvon Martin when he was shot and killed.
Imagine your teen-age boy walking any street, dressed as teen-agers do, in the early evening hours. And then imagine that he realizes that he is being followed.
He tries to ignore it, and then panics. He makes a phone call to alert a friend and in his fear and anger describes his pursuer in angry language that you or I might use under those circumstances. Finally, feeling confused and trapped, he decides to fight.
Trayvon Martin was standing his ground.
George Zimmerman was not being pursued. He was not at home protecting himself and his family. He was the pursuer.
By attacking Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin was standing his ground and died because apparently in Florida an adult man with a gun trumps a teenage boy attempting to defend himself from a pursuer with his hands.
Agnes F. Pomata, Ph.D.
Foxfire Road
Wadmalaw Island
Nowhere in the letter I wrote did I talk about race, or refer to the NAACP. This letter was about violence directed at women and teenagers, and the fact that carrying guns with our government's approval has made the violence more deadly.
But my letter came from Wadmalaw Island, and I have an unusual name, and I talked about my son -- T.B.S. has assumed that I am myself African American, which I am not.
The rage that these missives convey chill me. Particularly because they were written by someone who is insane (has poor boundary control) and has focused his considerable hatred on black Americans. If this is a man with a gun, and it well may be, there is a good chance he will someday use it.
And people like Chief Justice John Roberts, who believes we live in a post-racial America, will never have a close-up view of that irrational hatred, or be in danger from such a disturbed individual, because he is protected on many levels. As a chief justice, his life is sheltered, and as a white man, he will never be the focus of that blind rage that people of color in this country struggle with every day.
As the easily identified minority, black Americans are not only vilified and feared, but are targets of hatred. My pen pal knows not to send his letters to the P & C, but he still carries that rage. Let's hope that the only weapons he uses are those colored pens.
Monday, July 15, 2013
It's About Guns, Again
I would be willing to say that the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman was not about race, although it was. Based on his own utterings, I don't for one minute believe that Zimmerman would have stalked Martin if he had been a white teenager. Because then he would have assumed that the boy belonged in that neighborhood.
If you recall Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, or Michael Caine in Harry Brown, there is also a fear in adults of teenage gangs. But Trayvon was alone.
So there is George Zimmerman, a paranoid individual who perceives himself to be harassed by "those kids," and who really, really wants to be the enforcer, to put a stop to those kids that can get away with that stuff.
So he joins Neighborhood Watch. He takes courses that talk about the "stand your ground" law. He becomes in his mind the guy the police can count on to straighten out his neighborhood, to make it safe for people like him.
And the means by which he is able to do this is his weapon.
Had Zimmerman not been allowed to carry a gun, he may have stalked Martin, he no doubt would have called 911 to report a suspicious individual. It is less likely that he would have continued to pursue Martin after he was told to back off, although he may have.
What I think we can safely say, however, is that neither of the two would have died in the altercation.
So what this comes down to is whether we are going to continue to let the NRA dictate to our state and congressional leaders the terms by which we will be able to walk our streets. We don't need people like George Zimmerman protecting our community. We don't need the kind of unstable men who feel strongly the need to walk among us armed to be encouraged to do so.
So let's not let this be about race, although it certainly was race that fueled the fire. Let this be about the gun that George Zimmerman carried -- and carries once again -- that allowed him to choose his enemy and kill him.
If you recall Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, or Michael Caine in Harry Brown, there is also a fear in adults of teenage gangs. But Trayvon was alone.
So there is George Zimmerman, a paranoid individual who perceives himself to be harassed by "those kids," and who really, really wants to be the enforcer, to put a stop to those kids that can get away with that stuff.
So he joins Neighborhood Watch. He takes courses that talk about the "stand your ground" law. He becomes in his mind the guy the police can count on to straighten out his neighborhood, to make it safe for people like him.
And the means by which he is able to do this is his weapon.
Had Zimmerman not been allowed to carry a gun, he may have stalked Martin, he no doubt would have called 911 to report a suspicious individual. It is less likely that he would have continued to pursue Martin after he was told to back off, although he may have.
What I think we can safely say, however, is that neither of the two would have died in the altercation.
So what this comes down to is whether we are going to continue to let the NRA dictate to our state and congressional leaders the terms by which we will be able to walk our streets. We don't need people like George Zimmerman protecting our community. We don't need the kind of unstable men who feel strongly the need to walk among us armed to be encouraged to do so.
So let's not let this be about race, although it certainly was race that fueled the fire. Let this be about the gun that George Zimmerman carried -- and carries once again -- that allowed him to choose his enemy and kill him.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Not MY Son
As I watch bits and pieces of the trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting and death of Trayvon Martin, I can't help but imagine what this case would be like if this 16-year-old had been a white boy.
Like my son.
Here is a boy dressed in a way that would be weird for an adult but not for a teenager. He is walking around this neighborhood, and honestly, if he was not black, would anyone have questioned what he was doing there? So let's supposed he is white and walking around at -- for god's sake, 7 p.m.
Enter George Zimmerman, a wannabe cop, who makes all those racial assumptions about a black boy in his neighborhood and decides he needs to be followed.
Again, imagine this is my white 16-year-old son. He realizes he is being followed. He keeps walking but becomes ever more conscious that that is indeed what is happening. He begins to get scared. Trayvon Martin knows what can happen to a young African-American male that has wandered into the path of an angry and/or paranoid white man. My son might have been oblivious of being followed for some time. He might have imagined that this couldn't be happening, that it was his imagination.
But at some point, when the unknown man continues to follow him, my son would become frightened. He would try to contact someone. He would almost certainly refer to the person following him as crazy, followed by any other descriptive obscenity, which would emphasize his fear. When this nightmare continues, he realizes a full-blown panic and decides that he has to fight back.
In other words, my son, and Trayvon Martin, would stand their ground. Unarmed, they would use the weapon they have, and physically attack the stalker. And under Florida law, they would be in the right.
Unfortunately, he who carries the gun has lived to tell the tale. And if Trayvon had been a white youth, it is unlikely that the defense attorney would be mocking the young black woman who was the nearest thing to a witness for Trayvon, and pretending not to understand what she is saying in an effort to emphasize that she -- and therefore Trayvon -- are not like the members of the jury.
Of course, had it been a white youth killed that day, it would not likely have taken nearly six weeks for his attacker to be charged.
But here we are. The paranoid, angry and power hungry man who stalked an innocent young black boy, who refused to heed the police officer on the phone who told him to step down and stop his pursuit, is the one who is seen as "standing his ground."
Let's all step outside of the hype and media circus, and imagine this scenario with our own teenager, walking down the road, and being stalked by an unknown man.
I wonder if, in this angry and paranoid decade, the jury will be able to give, not Zimmerman, but Trayvon Martin, a fair trial.
Like my son.
Here is a boy dressed in a way that would be weird for an adult but not for a teenager. He is walking around this neighborhood, and honestly, if he was not black, would anyone have questioned what he was doing there? So let's supposed he is white and walking around at -- for god's sake, 7 p.m.
Enter George Zimmerman, a wannabe cop, who makes all those racial assumptions about a black boy in his neighborhood and decides he needs to be followed.
Again, imagine this is my white 16-year-old son. He realizes he is being followed. He keeps walking but becomes ever more conscious that that is indeed what is happening. He begins to get scared. Trayvon Martin knows what can happen to a young African-American male that has wandered into the path of an angry and/or paranoid white man. My son might have been oblivious of being followed for some time. He might have imagined that this couldn't be happening, that it was his imagination.
But at some point, when the unknown man continues to follow him, my son would become frightened. He would try to contact someone. He would almost certainly refer to the person following him as crazy, followed by any other descriptive obscenity, which would emphasize his fear. When this nightmare continues, he realizes a full-blown panic and decides that he has to fight back.
In other words, my son, and Trayvon Martin, would stand their ground. Unarmed, they would use the weapon they have, and physically attack the stalker. And under Florida law, they would be in the right.
Unfortunately, he who carries the gun has lived to tell the tale. And if Trayvon had been a white youth, it is unlikely that the defense attorney would be mocking the young black woman who was the nearest thing to a witness for Trayvon, and pretending not to understand what she is saying in an effort to emphasize that she -- and therefore Trayvon -- are not like the members of the jury.
Of course, had it been a white youth killed that day, it would not likely have taken nearly six weeks for his attacker to be charged.
But here we are. The paranoid, angry and power hungry man who stalked an innocent young black boy, who refused to heed the police officer on the phone who told him to step down and stop his pursuit, is the one who is seen as "standing his ground."
Let's all step outside of the hype and media circus, and imagine this scenario with our own teenager, walking down the road, and being stalked by an unknown man.
I wonder if, in this angry and paranoid decade, the jury will be able to give, not Zimmerman, but Trayvon Martin, a fair trial.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Not a Great Day in South Carolina
When I moved to South Carolina some 12 years ago, I was delighted by how welcoming all y'all were. I was loathe to believe all those nasty things we Yankees had assumed about racism and closed-mindedness.
Of late I have come to understand those negative stereotypes.
It is here in South Carolina that primary voters raced to the polls to support a man who believes poor parents are lazy and do not provide good work models for their children. While no longer openly advocating work houses and orphanages for the children of the poor, he proudly presented his solution to the problem of raising lazy children: put them to work in the schools as janitors.
I don't know about you, but when my children were small, I was busy finding every learning opportunity I could get my hands on for them. I had dreams of violinists, writers, scientists -- award winners both of them. And when Barack Obama ran for office in 2008, he allowed people mired in poverty to begin to have those dreams for their children again.
So I don't blame Newt for being ignorant and manipulative, he is who he is. What I am offended by is the voters of this state who applauded those ugly ideas, and who look forward to a day in this country when the poor are put in their place and when we middle class whites can get back to comfortably being in control.
Of late I have come to understand those negative stereotypes.
It is here in South Carolina that primary voters raced to the polls to support a man who believes poor parents are lazy and do not provide good work models for their children. While no longer openly advocating work houses and orphanages for the children of the poor, he proudly presented his solution to the problem of raising lazy children: put them to work in the schools as janitors.
I don't know about you, but when my children were small, I was busy finding every learning opportunity I could get my hands on for them. I had dreams of violinists, writers, scientists -- award winners both of them. And when Barack Obama ran for office in 2008, he allowed people mired in poverty to begin to have those dreams for their children again.
So I don't blame Newt for being ignorant and manipulative, he is who he is. What I am offended by is the voters of this state who applauded those ugly ideas, and who look forward to a day in this country when the poor are put in their place and when we middle class whites can get back to comfortably being in control.
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