Tuesday Open Thread ~ Every Voice Raised
“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” ~ Frederick Douglass
Truth is fighting a circular battle of distortion and resistance from all sides. Which makes disseminating information challenging. But there are still ways to get voices like Garrick McFadden heard in the fight for racial justice. So, instead of posting the column I had originally planned for today, I am presenting his words instead. His experience as a black man living in the U.S. is both a powerful and sobering message and one I hope you will share with others.
Thin Love ain’t no Love at all
By Garrick A. McFadden, Esq.
~Forty percent of all white people do not have any black friends. Fifty-five percent of white people only have one black friend. The average black person has eight white friends. This is my lived experience. I personally know two white people, with more than one black friend. I have a number of close white friends, so close I would call them my family. These people would clothe me, feed me, shelter me, protect me, and fund me if I asked. I love them and they love me. Yet, if I am being honest…I am their only black friend. This is not an indictment on these people, whom I truly love, but it is a truthful statement said out of love. Many of you reading this are not proximate to the pain and experience of being black in America, until now.
I must confess that I have abdicated my duty to you, my newly black friends. See no one has told you, out of anger or in love, that all of you formally white people are now black.
See whiteness is a fickle and fleeting concept. Any groups’ grasp on it is tenuous. It is something that can be bestowed upon a people and can be removed. Many of you have heard the concept of white privilege, but white privilege is too small and clumsy to express and define our existence. White privilege is not rooted in history. It is a term that fails to adequately, appropriately, and accurately define what we are dealing with: whiteness.
The American experiment has worked for this long because of whiteness and niggers. You see I am a nigger, like my father, and his father, and his father, and so on. It is because of niggers that America is a place where someone can immigrate to and can escape being on the lowest rung of your nation’s social structure. Every group of immigrants who have come to this country has desperately fought to obtain whiteness and avoid the plight of being a nigger.
Do not believe me? Irish, were not white in this country until they were. You saw the signs, no Irish and no niggers allowed. Italians were not white in this country until they were. Signs that said no WOPs and no niggers were commonplace in this country a hundred years ago. Yet, the Irish had to prove to the others that they were worthy of whiteness. They had to be extra cruel, extra murderous, extra inhumane to substantiate why they deserve whiteness. Have you ever heard of the New York Draft Riots? The movie The Gangs of New York, whitewashes it completely. The Irish were worried that if the Union won the war they would have to compete with freed black folk for jobs (at that time their place in life was dependent on being elevated over niggers). They did not want to fight to free the people they thought would replace them, so the Irish went into the black neighborhoods and lynched black folk as an offering to white supremacy. Sometime after that, the Irish were granted whiteness. The fights between black and Italian teens are legendary in major cities. The turf wars that were waged to prove to everyone that Italians were better than niggers and worthy of whiteness raged on until the early 90s. Italians are now white.
Whiteness is a badge of protection, it allows its members access to housing, loans, better educational institutions, protection from the law, and more resources into their communities. Who would not love to obtain whiteness? Other ethnic groups vie for whiteness from Latinos to Arabs, Asians to Eastern Europeans, all have developed anti-black views and biases, which is the currency used to obtain whiteness.
Yet, whiteness can be mercurial. People attempt to strip whiteness away from various groups. Gay white men constantly have their whiteness questioned. Jews are always finding themselves in the crosshairs of those who want to remove their whiteness. Every hail Hitler, every Nazi salute, every desecrated Jewish cemetery is a constant reminder that whiteness is a fickle mistress.
Right now you have had your whiteness stripped away and you are living the black experience and, in love, you are not doing so well. This is new for all of you, and you do not have a black parent who will one day, awkwardly, explain to you what it means to be black in America. So that is where I have fallen short. I have failed to have that cumbersome conversation with you.
Don’t believe me that you are black, fine. Right now we are at unemployment levels that rival the Great Depression. White people are finding themselves without employment. For some of you this is the first time in your life that you are in this disorienting position. These furloughs and layoffs are not your fault, just like not being able to get a job because an employer can screen your application and identify that you are black because your name is DeMarcus, Devin, or Deon.
Your government has failed you and you have never experienced this before. Many white folk have never had to rely on the government to meet their needs until the past 14 weeks. White people are still waiting for their stimulus check to hit their back account or mailbox. They see their friends and family members receive their check, but nothing for them. Just like black folk have seen justice administered swiftly for when someone who looks like them is accused of a crime, but slow when a white person commits a crime against them. The betrayal of your own government is the kindling of the flame of disenfranchisement that is currently being stoked in your chest.
For the past 10 or so weeks your child’s school has been trash, because you are now your child’s teacher. This failure becomes more pronounced the younger your child is, because there is so much more for them to learn. Many of you have resorted to busy work and using the TV to pacify your child while you work, or search for work, or do your best to function under the crushing cocktail of anxiety, depression and fear. Yet, black folks’ schools have been under-resourced for centuries in this country. My own mother attended a one room school for all of the colored children K-12, with one teacher for all the students in Chandler, Arizona. It was not until she was rescued by Brown vs. the Board of Education and liberated to a functioning school that she truly understood the injustice that she had suffered her entire life. My mother entered high school not knowing what a noun or a verb was. Did your parents enter their freshman year not knowing what a noun or verb is? That is why she became the first person in her family to graduate from college and she became a teacher, so no other child would have to suffer such an indignity.
The schools in black communities have been economically starved by a funding model that is designed to maximize the lower property values associated with black neighborhoods. If the property values are low as a result of past redlining, homes that were zoned in toxic waste areas by all white zoning boards, homes zoned in industrial areas by all white zoning boards, and neighborhoods adorned with bars and liquor stores, then how can the schools be appropriately funded?
When the pandemic first started your grocery stores became the fuel of your anxiety for all those who never lived in the path of a hurricane. The shelves became more and more bare. Staples were soon depleted. Some of you went on an odyssey worthy of Odysseus to find Lysol, hand-sanitizer and toilet-paper. Overnight your fertile grocery stores had been transformed into a food desert like those that dot the ghettos that blacks are trapped in. Many black folk have to travel large distances to find fresh fruits and vegetables and avoid the fast-food restaurants that have burrowed their way into the neighborhoods.
For the first time in your life you have been denied a loan. It is not that you were denied a loan, your loan was not even submitted to the underwriter, because the business that you have built, inch-by-inch, was not requesting the amount of money that would make the banker the most money. You saw publicly traded companies get the money that was intended to keep your business afloat. You were not denied because you were not worthy of the loan, you were denied because of who you are: a small business owner. This is the same experience that black folk experience each day when trying to get capital to expand their business, create a business, or acquire a business. They are denied with all sorts of colorful euphemisms to escape from the banker having to say the quiet part out-loud: I can’t give you a loan, because you are black.
You no longer have childcare and the strain of raising your child(ren) while working is exhausting, like being black. Due to black workers being denied fair wages or even the same wages their white counterparts get paid, childcare is a barrier for many black families. For the median black family, childcare for two children amounts to 42% of their gross income.
Your neighborhoods are now subject to more and more chaos. You have police in riot gear marching through your streets barking orders and “light her up” when you do not comply. Heavy Armor rolling through your streets, like the ghettos when the war on drugs raged. Even though peer-reviewed-studies show that white folk use and sale drugs at higher rates than black folk, black folk were the targets on this war on drugs and our neighborhoods were deemed acceptable collateral damage.
You watched stores, police buildings, monuments, and everything else that has been in your community get defaced, destroyed, and desecrated. I know you fear if they will rebuild or replace those things to make your life more convenient. This is the entropy that slowly corrodes a healthy and vibrant community into a ghetto. Without these stores and malls to anchor your neighborhoods the value of your home starts to erode. Soon, pawn shops, title loans, and liquor stores will start to sprout up and accelerate the loss of value of your homes, like what happened to black folk.
You have been confined in your home for the past 14 weeks. A life of watching Netflix, playing video games, reading books, baking bread and despite all of your comforts and amenities it was not enough. You longed for freedom. You longed to have brunch. You longed to be free, like the tens-of-thousands of innocent black folk who have been forced to take pleas to crimes they did not commit, because no one in their family could afford $800.00 to bail them out.
You are now black and to be black in America is to know profound disappointment. Disappointment in our government, in our leaders, in our institutions, in our schools, in our police, in our employers, in our history, and in our collective failure to form a more perfect union. To be black in America is to be weary. That weight you feel on your chest, is what we call Tuesday, or Wednesday or any day of the week.
Now that you are black your relationship with police has changed. They are wildin’ on white folk. I have seen so many unprovoked acts of violence against ya’ll, that I am deeply concerned for those who look like me. You need to know that the whiteness that protected you before is gone. When you get pulled over, you need to put your head on the dash and stretch your arms out. So that way the Officer knows that at that moment you will not be a threat. You cannot play your music loud, because it will attract the police. You have to be inside your residence when the sun is down or else you are subject to being questioned about where you were and what you are doing. When questioned by police you must stay calm, any perceived agitation can cause them to fear for their life and justifiably kill you, because you caused them to be afraid.
I want you to survive your encounters with the police. In Phoenix we have an estimated 2,900 officers. 2,610 of those officers will never have any incidents of misconduct. 87 of those officers will be cleared of misconduct. 100 will have less than five credible misconduct complaints. 74 will have over 10 credible complaints of misconduct in their career and 29 will have over 100 credible instances of misconduct.
2,610 officers allow themselves to serve with 29 officers who terrorize this city and disgrace the oath and badge that they all wear. If I gave you a bag of 2,900 Skittles and told you that 2,697. of the Skittles were normal, but that 174 of the Skittles would make you very sick and 29 of the Skittles could kill you, would you trust eating the Skittles?
I want you to remember this feeling right now. I want you to take it all in. I want you to understand that this is what it means to be a nigger. Your whiteness might be restored, but I will still be a nigger and I cannot change that only you can change that.
I do not want you to talk to your family about politics, because I know that is divisive. People have strong and differing opinions on whether a regressive or progressive tax strategy is best for our Country. People of good faith can debate, in earnest, the importance of our NATO allies contributing at the same level as our country. People of good will can differ on the roles of charter schools in our country. That is politics and politics can be divisive.
I am asking you to discuss your values at the Thanksgiving table: why is the future of a young white man who is convicted of sexually assaulting a woman more important than the need for that woman and the community to have justice? Why is it acceptable for a white man to be paid $0.13 more than a black man for doing the same job at the same level. Why is it acceptable for a white man to be paid .22 cents more than a white woman? Why is it acceptable to incarcerate 12 black people for every 1 white person in the states of Iowa and Minnesota, but nowhere else in the world? Those are values. We do not have to be unified in thought and purpose, but we must be committed to one another if we expect to make any progress. Our values are what guide us and if you cannot not communicate your values to your loved ones, what hope do I have? What hope do we have? If you do not love your family or those closest to you to feel free to express your values, not your politics, then, I say in love, that you really do not love that person. Love that thin is no type of love that can heal this nation and improve this world.
I love you that is why I will not provide you with absolution of your guilty or failure to know these things that have been deleterious on our body politic. I will not condone nor condemn, but only ask you, in love, what are you willing to lose for me to no longer be a nigger? Are you willing to be disinvited to Thanksgiving, because your family thinks that black lives do not matter? Are you willing to challenge your loved one when they make a remark that is not rooted in fact, but steeped in hate? What are you willing to do? Talking to black people about what you are feeling is not the best use of their time, but sharing your values and how they make you feel with those you love is appropriate and needed.
That is the reason I do not make some post sharable, like this one. I do not want to fight with your uncle, or the guy you went to high school with who has never left your hometown and wants to quote MLK to me, when his comprehension of MLK is shallow, self-congratulatory and fails to recognize that when he was alive white people viciously hated him so much he was killed in the name of white supremacy. That is why you have my permission to copy and paste this or anything I write and post it on your wall. Your friends and loved ones are not proximate to me, they do not know me, but they know you and love you and in love we might start to share our values so that you and your bloodline will stop being white and me and my bloodline will stop being niggers.
In the immortal words of Toni Morrison “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”
In addition to our voices, there are also actions we can take to support those on the frontlines of this battle. Below is a hyper-link to a list of resources that encompasses everything from helping bail out protestors, supporting black business in your area, specific fundraisers, to volunteering your time with an advocacy group.
George Floyd, Say His Name
Comments
Tip Jar
A big thank you to Esther Bradley-DeTally for sending me Garrick McFadden’s essay. An activist in her own right by way of example in her daily life. Courageous, generous, and one of the most patient people I have ever met, she adds value to this world by valuing others. Maybe that quality alone made her one of the best creative writing teachers I’ve ever had. Hugs forever, Esther, for teaching me the joy of creating and showing me it was okay to give myself time to learn the craft of writing.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Thank you for posting this
A very powerful message that should be read by all of us. The links are a great resource for me.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
Good Morning Jakkalbessie
Always good to see you! Glad you were able to read Garrick McFaddens essay. I hope we can do our part here to spread his message. It’s definitely one that needs to be heard. In love and understanding.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
You knocked it out of the park today, chica.
This is as good as anything I have ever read on this site.
I intend to share it far and wide.
Take good care.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Thank you chica
I can always count on you.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Good morning Anja. That was one hell of an essay and one
hell of a column. I will definitely be forwarding McFadden's essay. Something implicit yet unspoken in it occurs to me as to how our communities can unite or divide us. I suspect, without hard data that urban living and cosmopolitan surroundings are more conducive to having friends across color and ethnic boundaries. In a broader sense, our communities can or will either unite or divide us.
As a sample data point, as a kid I had friends of all kinds of ethnic and "racial" backgrounds except blacks, because there were no black people in our neighborhood or any of the adjacent ones served by our schools, but my dad had some, whom we now and then met, through his job. In college, suddenly blacks became part of the mix and part of assorted friendship groups and affiliations, and stayed that way until I left the Berkeley environs and headed up to the Mendocino woods, whereupon it was all pretty much lily white.
So, when I returned to the Bay Area and got a steady desk job, again I acquired a lot of friends of all colors and ethnicities, but the portion of each group of these who were neighbors varied with my domicile which in-turn varied with affordability at my salary at a given time versus all the other quasi-critical factors like availability and parking, nearness to BART, walkability (especially with reference to grocery stores), total commute distance and time, amenities like a garage, and eventually things like extra bedrooms, a yard, fruit trees or space for same,etc.
Then when we retired, all of those friendship and affinity groups slowly melted away again except those who resided in our locale and were mostly limited to those who volunteered where we did except for a few fellow retirees that we see on sporadic occasions.
Part of this pattern must simply be commuter culture. When one has to travel daily to this or that central locus, commingling is very natural, but post retirement, or during periods of unemployment, convenience takes over. If a map of your "friends through work" looks like somebody fired a shotgun at moderately large range at a map of the Greater Bay Area, when you no longer meet at work and disperse from there, the frequency with which you see any of those people except real besties seems to become inversely proportional to their distance from your residence or their location on a path that you frequently travel for other purposes anyway.
Had either of us been raised as serious bigots, this pattern might very well not have obtained, or maybe the exposure would have broken through. We did know a few real bigots at work who seemed not to associate in any way with anybody but those of their own ilk, so that says maybe a cosmopolitan environment isn't enough. Just a thought, not "data", but enough to make one wonder if greater "integration" across all boundaries and barriers isn't to some degree both a requisite and a solution or goal, which is one of those chicken and egg things. What role does attitude play and how much can (or will) that be altered by acculturation and community and how much of that is determined by simple economics, which, in the US, is the economics of repression? The larger question, then, is can we break that economic model without coercion?
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
You bring up some interesting points
When I was young, the school and the neighborhood I lived was not diverse. At all. As a consequence, all the friends I had looked like me. When I went to junior high school that changed. And the friends I had changed as well. When I moved to Kansas City in my early 20’s everything went back to a homogeneous sameness. The sea of sameness was so pervasive that the small circle of friends and neighbors I socialized with even shared the same religious denomination. The downside of that, apart from meeting the same people, is not being introduced to different ideas. Conversations were reduced to a particular banality and predictability, that even as a 20 year old, I sensed the static nature of it.
All of that changed when I moved to New York City. Like X1000. Which in turn energized me and compelled me to challenge of my old patterns of thinking. This included everything from art to politics. I’m not saying the process was entirely a smooth one, but I sure feel fortunate to have gone through it.
In the bigger picture, I’m glad I saw both sides. But it would be difficult for me now having seen both, to go back to the sameness. I enjoy the benefits that diversity affords me.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Caitlin nails it
.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/06/16/normal-isnt-coming-back-prioriti...
Wow, just fucking wow
Clicked into one of the videos she linked to where a swat team, in full military gear, rolls up to a small group of protestors in Wayne, Indiana, get out of their armored vehicles and start patrolling the streets for victims with machine guns in their hands. Chills down my fucking spine.
You were right when you said she nailed it. Boy, did she ever:
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I keep asking why the 2nd amendment folks haven't been
up in arms at the brutal police crackdowns on people's 1st amendment right to peacefully assemble and protest their government? Some will say that is only to protest the government, but when it was the government that wrote the laws that gave police permission to do that as well as the military equipment then they are protesting the government. But they are spouting the usual talking points when they think the protesters or the things that they are protesting are the ones doing wrong.
And how can you call out the war on drugs while posting a graphic of Obama saying that we need to end it without calling out Biden's role in making the response to it more violent?
Hello!! Once upon a time that was a site that dealt in truths, not half truths and deflecting criticisms of when the democrats did bad things. Once Obama became president I kept getting whiplash over how people excused him for doing the same damn very bad things Bush did. The war on Libya and Syria were just because people were mad at their leaders and decided to have a civil war. Never any mention of how Obama supported Al Qaeda and ISIS. as Ben Norton says in the linked article Older and Wiser posted in her brilliant essay.
This is the same damn hypocrisy that Caitlyn is talking about. People need to stop fighting on left and right issues when it is a class issue that we should join together and fight and people need to take their blinders off and see that both parties serve the elite donor class at our expense.
More on democrats are never bad
Senate Democrats call for investigation into Barr's role in 'misuse of force' against protesters
Hmmm does anyone remember when Obama's federal agencies worked with governors across the country to brutally crack down on OWS protests? You know the ones that were peaceful until the cops showed up and started the violence.
Link goes to DK.
I watched the police brutally
Break up OWS down at Zuccotti Park on a live feed at 3:00 am in the morning. In addition to beating the protestors with billy clubs, they made a large bonfire and threw all the books from the people’s library in it. Broke my heart. I had contributed to that library, and enjoyed many an evening reading with others while attending their general assemblies.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
What about labor disputes?
Whoever is saying that my first amendment rights only pertains to protesting my government needs to study their history. You make some good points Snoopy. People really do not understand what these protests are about.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Would you mind
explaining to this "don't tread on me" type just what you are
referring to here?
[EDIT: OK - I see this is a Caitlyn quote by way of Anja - maybe I should be asking her/them.
The same people who were calling out Re-Open protestors for protesting (peacefully a month ago now criticizing them for failing to, what? Buy into the BLM line that everything is about race and that the only appropriate thing for white people to do is grovel in collective guilt? Help burn a police car? Loot a big box store?
Sorry, I don't buy it. That's hardly just a white thing, although I am. Plenty of people of all ethnicities believe in *personal* responsibility and do not plan on handing over what's legitimately theirs in the way of rights or property (including guns) to thugs - official or otherwise - without resistance.]
To the extent that that happens, yes, that does suggest tyranny pretty strongly and is rightfully opposed.
As to "what tyranny looks like" in a broader sense, and who was standing up to oppose it,I would have thought that that was articulated pretty clearly in the various "Re-Open" protests.
Placing entire populations under effective house arrest, attempts to disarm the population and to undermine or eliminate medical choice/informed consent, censorship, the abuse of police and prosecutorial power are all features of tyranny and generally opposed by 2A/DTOM folks - who are generally sincere in their belief that the 2nd Amendment is there to protect the 1st.
Not that they got much love around here for expressing that *peacefully* now did they?
Of course not - they were clearly selfish and ignorant Trumptard hicks out to wave guns around and kill Grandma with COVID-19...RIGHT?
Clearly not as noble and uplifting as looting a liquor store or pawn shop for racial justice.
"Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as 'racists'"
~ Thomas Sowell
I’m honestly not sure what your question is
Or what it is you needed clarification on.
As to informed consent. I think the key word there is “informed”. A woefully inaccurate adjective that I hardly think describes the majority of Americans, who throughout history have mostly acted on emotion. Not logic, or considered analysis of situations effecting them.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I am not sure why you are asking me about the things in
Your comment. I have not made any remarks for or against the protests regarding during the time of COVID.
2 things in my comments are about how some folks on the left only see republicans doing bad things while giving democrats such as Obama a pass for doing them too. It is the tribalism hypocrisy.
Second was why the people that protest for their 2nd amendment right don't seem that concerned about people losing their 1st amendment rights or might have not noticed the their 3rd, 4th, 5th and others have basically been nullified by the patriot act, the 2012 NDAA and other acts that were in my opinion unconstitutional.
As for locking down the country without supplying financial support for those who can no longer work I have been quite vocal about that beginning the day it first got birthed out of congress.
who are generally sincere in their belief that the 2nd Amendment is there to protect the 1st.
Actually I am wondering if the 2nd amendment folks have even noticed that their other rights also need protecting. Not that they go with their guns to.... I am sorry, I really don't understand why this is addressed to me.
Can you clear up what it is your are addressing in regards to my comments and this one?
Thanks.
OK...
Sorry, SD - that became a somewhat scattered rant, less properly directed your way than toward some others here. To be clear, I appreciate your contributions here and quite agree that
further agree that
are to be condemned - when they actually occur.
What I do wish to call/point out, though, are a few of the following:
- The tendency of some here to conflate rioting, looting and assault with "peaceful protest"
- The double standards of those who were vocally against the peaceful (and multi-ethnic) "Re-Open" protests but give the George Floyd protests a pass, even when they degenerate into riots and looting.
- The general idea that race is the overriding issue in economics, politics and social relations generally and that the root of any and all problems with the above is "white supremacy" and that whites therefore collectively bear responsibility for the evils of the world. Which neatly avoids the need for people to take - and expect others to take - *personal* responsibility for their life.
- The stereotypic view of those supportive of gun rights (AKA the right to meaningful self defense) as mostly racist whites who are ignorant of or uncaring about other basic rights and the importance of protecting them. Sure, there are at least some that are all of the above, but it's hardly typical.
The white support of restrictions on open carry of guns in California in the 1960's is often thrown up as an example of white gun owner racism - and that was certainly a factor (there was a near-COVID-level fear inducing campaign about the threat of blacks with guns pushed by Kamala's California AG predecessor, Ed Meese which helped the restrictions to pass).
What is generally disregarded/discounted by gun control advocates, though, is that most gun owners realize that was a tragic mistake and have learned from the experience.
Also instructive is how the Black Panthers attempted to respond to the campaign that was, essentially, targeting them. A late friend of mine had a pamphlet put out at the time by the California BPP aimed at white gun owners - printed in red, white and blue no less, that rather than attacking them urged them to see that they were all in this together and that by supporting the open carry restrictions they would be supporting curtailment of their own rights.
Thus, an inclusive approach - which the establishment fears far more than the divisiveness fostered by BLM/antifa.
Dems try to promote gun control as beneficial to black communities, ignorant of or ignoring its profoundly racist (and classist) history.
Regarding Mr. McFadden's essay, he says "I am a nigger" and, although I find that unfortunate, I am not in a position to dispute him on the matter. He does seem to extend that to all other black people (however defined) - in America, anyway.
I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of black Americans who do not consider themselves thus - the standard explanation for that seems to be that this just amounts to delusion on their part about reality and their place in it.
OK, here's a thought exercise. I'm going to try imagining the people on the following list (made up off the top of my head) saying "I am a nigger". You try, too.
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Tubman
Marcus Garvey
W.E.B. Dubois
Langston Hughes
Woody Strode
James Brown
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King
Tina Turner
Muhammed Ali
Shirley Chisolm
Chuck Berry
Jimi Hendrix
Bob Marley
Malcolm Gladwell
Cynthia McKinney
Michelle Malkin
Condeleeza Rice
Mia Love
Tim Scott
Thomas Sowell
Allen Keyes
Ben Carson
Larry Pinkney
Candace Owens
Well, any of those work for you?
Just doesn't seem to work for me, somehow. Can't imagine even one of
those people saying that with any conviction. Maybe because nothing I
know of the people above leads me to think they ever thought of *themselves* that way.
Thanks for 'clearing' it up
Sorta. I’m not seeing what you are on this blog. I have however seen lots of those issues on DK, other left leaning and other blogs. This especially I’m not seeing here..
I’m neither a gun advocate or against people taking their guns to protests. I do however see white privilege in how they are accepted for white peoples as opposed to what happens when blacks do it. But even though I’m not big on guns I will protest against any attempt for people to be disarmed. But I doubt guns would make much of an effect against the ones that the military have if it ever comes to people using theirs against the military weapons.
I saw this quote awhile ago but don’t remember who said it.
The young government just fought a bloody war against another government for its freedom so why does anyone think that they would turn around and let its citizens take up arms that could be used against them?"
Just something to think about.
If your goal was to have a reasonable conversation
Then you are off to a bad start.
Your examples are non-sensical and demonstrate you did not understand Mr. McFadden's point.
Also, I noticed the link you provided to EL below goes to a website that claims COVID-19 is a “HOAX” by way of two nurses testimonies, which tells me that any reasonable discussion about science would be a waste of time. As is, apparently, this discussion as well.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
OK, you tell me...
what, in your view, *is* McFadden's point? Just re-read they essay so I should be able to reference.
If I understand what you're referring to as my "examples" I think I clarified that in my responses to SD and EL.
I see a large and hypocritical disconnect between the responses on the left to the Re-Open
protests - roundly, if not rabidly criticized as selfish/dangerous/violent/racist - and the response to the protests in the wake of they Floyd killing, even as they escalated into riots/arson/assault/vandalism. *None* of which occurred during the Re-Open protests.
You see no disconnect there?
Well, at least you got as far as clicking on the link, but it's pretty obvious you did not bother to actually watch the video.
True, the byline is somewhat misleading - "New York Undercover Nurse Confirms COVID-19 Criminal Hoax" - because the nurse in question, Erin Marie Olszewski does *not* claim that COVID-19 is a hoax. But I guess you could call claiming to treat people while actually killing them to be a "hoax" and that she does expose.
What she does do, and documents, is expose practices at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NYC that literally appear to constitute murder - and primarily of poor, minority patients.
Elmhurst was not the first setting in which she had been treating COVID patients, her regular job is at a (name undisclosed) private hospital in Florida but she was sent to Elmhurst through some FEMA program to bring in medical professionals to support NYC hospitals.
Among the things she alleges (much of which was filmed/recorded)
- Improper use of PPE
- Placement of non-COVID patients together with COVID-positive ones, even though this was avoidable
- Staff being instructed to operate as if there were DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) orders in place even where there were none. (A 37 year-old patient with no comorbidities whom Olszewski believes never had COVID in the first place dies while she, other nurses and a doctor are discussing whether resuscitation should be attempted).
- Patients being placed on ventilators despite testing negative for COVID multiple times.
- Despite availability of fast tests which could return results in under an hour the hospital was using testing which had a turn around of five days or so.
- Hospital refused to consider therapies such as intravenous Vitamin C or Hydroxychloroquine . This in spite of the fact that the treatment they were using almost exclusively had a zero rate of (the lone exception being a patient who managed to extubate himself and survive). In contrast, standard treatment at her hospital in FL, according to Olszewski, was HCQ and they experienced zero fatalities.
- Most horrifically, since it amounted to a virtual death sentence (and an expensive one, on the taxpayer's dime - as these were nearly all poor, Medicare/Medicaid patients - were being placed on ventilators when they did not need to be - and instead of being told the procedure would likely kill them, were told that they "needed a little help breathing".
So, if you want to watch what this courageous woman has to say and THEN tell me it's all BS I will certainly listen to what you have to say on the subject
Until then, I will stand by what I said to EL - NYC hospitals have likely killed more black people than the police in the whole country will in a year. And, unlike those the police kill - few, if any, of those killed by the hospitals were armed or engaged in criminal activity.
But neither those patients lives nor those of the thousands killed in black on black violence seem to be a priority to BLM. Is it racist to wonder why that is?
I'm not sure you want an explanation as much as you want to
rant and also smear: a) those who don't agree with the Re-Open scheme, b) Those who don't think wandering around in an urban environment openly carrying arms, especially in groups, is per se "peaceful" as opposed to threatening and c) everybody in or in sympathy with BLM. The strawman to substance ratio, IMHO, is over the top.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Admittedly...
That did devolve into a somewhat scattered and misdirected rant (see my reply to SD, above).
As to smears, that's another matter. Maybe the goalposts have moved, but as I understand it calling out illogic, BS or hypocrisy,encouraging people to examine their assumptions or simply expressing a contrary opinion does not constitute a "smear".
Lessee... who is it that I'm supposed to be smearing?
a) those who don't agree with the Re-Open scheme,
Those that don't agree with it are certainly entitled to their opinions, don't think I said otherwise.
What I *do* say is that there has been a double standard applied to the peaceful Re-Open protests and the George Floyd protests - that the former were heavily criticized in progressive media and by individuals here as irresponsible, dangerous and selfishly motivated.
Then the George Floyd thing comes along and the same groups/individuals suddenly lose their coronavirus concerns and assign noble ideals to the protesters - even when the "protests" had clearly become riots. Looting, burning and assaulting anyone getting in the way are given a pass as understandable expressions of righteous anger.
Feel free to call that what you like - I call it hypocritical.
b) Those who don't think wandering around in an urban environment openly carrying arms, especially in groups, is per se "peaceful" as opposed to threatening
Again, those people are are entitled to their opinions. I'm not claiming that open carry of weapons is "per se" peaceful if for no other reason than that other people may not have peaceful intentions towards those carrying the weapons even if their behavior is perfectly lawful and they might need to defend themselves. True, they might have bad intentions themselves, but overt threats and menacing are illegal, as they should be.
You are free to feel threatened by anything you like, but that does not over-ride the rights of others to conduct their lives as they see fit as long as they are not impinging on the rights of others in some fairly concrete way. See: Non-Aggression Principle or the tee shirt logo "My rights don't end at your feelings".
and
c) everybody in or in sympathy with BLM
I'm sure that there are a lot of people at the rank and file level in BLM are quite sincere and think they are saving the black community from some sort of genocide. But BLM as a group/organization is, in not just my opinion, manufactured and directed opposition. It is not something that sprang organically from the black community or that truly reflects its concerns. In fact, it undermines them by ignoring black on black violence or even that more (and non-thug) black people have probably been killed in NYC hospitals in a couple months than police in the entire US will during the entire year.
While you are quite free to sympathize with BLM, that freedom does not apparently extend to those who dare to question the party line. You good with that?
source
et vous aussi
"One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again." ~ Thomas Sowell
Literally LOL.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good article - The another episode of power loss
many of us experience is ageism. It comes earlier in the workplace 50 seems to be the magic number when employability and compensation decreases.
A starker loss of power is the medical system. Starts creeping in about 70, unless a disability is involved then the age of power loss (discrimination) is lower. It may start a simple as the office visit when the nurse or doctor asks the younger (whiter) person beside you for your personal information and "what seems to be the problem today? In a more sinister outcome if one make too many demanding requests during a hospital stay or show a little confusion - the antispychotic chemical restraint it added to ones medications.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Ageism and loss of power
Yes, there is definitely that indignity and hardship to suffer as we all grow older. I’m fortunate that I work with a company that does not treat me as if I was not a valuable part of the team just because I’m over 50. But I remember when my mother was ill how the medical staff treated her as if she were a blithering idiot. Shameful.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
'Mornin folks
Well done, Anja and high kudos! Lots of great information here.
The first quote is spot on and reminds me of what MLK said about every bullet, gun, bomb, plane and everything else that goes into the military budget comes out the budgets for things that we the people need to survive. People are aghast that we are calling for a decrease in the police budgets, and yet no one was as aghast when budgets for housing, food, medicaid and medicare, ect were not only cut, but gutted. Clinton's welfare reform cut the budget for federal housing, food stamps and other things that should be fully funded as is our right. Welfare reform sent 19 million women and children deeper into poverty. Obama cut $8.7 billion from food stamps which of course were already defunded by previous administrations. Not one democrat reversed what Reagan did to the mental ill nor to any budget cuts he made to the social safety net.
But Obama did make the Bush tax cuts permanent when they were only supposed to be temporary. Then of course we know how Obama let the 99% crash and burn while he bailed out the very people who crashed the global economy. And we are all aware of how congress and especially the 'working class party' the democrats utterly failed us and once again bailed out the F'ers that had once again set up the economy to fail. Banks and corporations loaded themselves up with debt and even if COVID hadn't given congress cover o bail them out they would have been bailed out anyway. Obama's QE was $29 Trillion. Since September the banks have gotten well over $9 TRILLION and today my local website had an article on how the fed is buying up bad debt. Only 2 of the 60 comments even addressed how wrong that is while small businesses across the country are failing and 40% might not reopen. But boy-o there are already a lot of big businesses either right now buying some of the food businesses out or are planning to. The biggest heist in history is going to see more mergers and more monopolies spring up.
THIS:
People have also been stripped of the middle class-ness which I saw coming for years after the assault on the lower class. Many thought they were safe from what their government was doing but in the second wave of unemployment claims they were coming from upper middle class folks that worked in white collar jobs. Like lawyers, accountants and financial roles.
But by the time that hits the extra $600 per week from the government is going to be gone because people like Lindsay Graham, Larry Kudlow and other low life cretins think that people are just sitting at home happy as pigs and getting more money than they used to. First off that tells me that people need a raise so that they are not living paycheck to paycheck with no safety net in times of emergencies. But will that amount come close to what upper middle class folks used to make?
That whole thing is absolutely spot on for what is happening in the greatest country on earth. Thanks for bringing it to us.
More info coming out on George Floyd's murder. Many people called 911 to report what was happening and even the 911 dispatcher called her supervisor to report it. It took 15 minutes for a supervisor to get to the scene and of course that was far too late. Why didn't those cop's radios start ringing off the hook?
'You can call me a snitch': Police dispatcher alerted supervisor to officer kneeling on George Floyd
Read the rest for more info from bystanders.
I posted a video that shows what officer Tauo did while Chauvin casually murdered Floyd while people were telling him that he wasn't breathing or moving and Tauo just standing them with a blank look on his face. Even after a medic felt Floyd's pulse and found he didn't have one he didn't tell Chauvin to move his f'cking knee off his neck. Nor did he immediately try to revive Floyd. It seemed like everyone was saying, "Yeah he's dead, what's your problem?" It is ghastly and horrifying and tons of other words. And it took 4 days to arrest Chauvin and a few more to arrest the other 2 cops that were also kneeling on his back and especially Tauo.
Here is the link to my comment
Warning: The video is graphic. And much more.
BTW what are you seeing on your local news? Mine is rarely mentioning the protests. HuffPoo does not have one article about the protests on its trending page and only one on its news page. SF Gate has decreased its coverage too. The media has gotten their orders to stop talking about the millions of people world wide protesting against police brutality so people will think it's over. Even Cuomo has said that he heard people in NYC so can they now go home?
We have heard about driving while black where cops will pull over blacks willy nilly and harass them for no reason. Well here is what a white women went through just because of who sat in her passenger seat. If this doesn't put privilege in perspective I don't know what will.
Why did cops keep pulling this white woman over?
Yeah this is long winded. Sorry about that, but this is eating at my soul this morning and I wanted it out. There are too many things weighing it down so it feels good to get some of it out.
The police in America shot more people last month than police in the UK have shot in the last hundred years. That might be because many cops in the UK do not carry guns and when they need them at the scenes they call on a group that has been highly trained with them. Of course ours are highly trained too. By Israels' military. Think about that. The PTB want our cops trained militarily, but not by our military. Oh no. By Israel's that .... well I am sure you know how they treat the people in Gaza and how they have no qualms killing children or the elderly.
Guess I'll stop here. You know me.
You can call me a snitch
Imagine having that thought process go through your mind when someone’s life is in danger? Unfortunately it’s the same with doctors. They won’t “snitch” on each other even if they suspect one of their own is chemically impaired.
You touched on the same thing that jumped out at me as well in McFaddens essay when he compared the government’s lack of response during the economic crises from COVID to the economic crisis black neighborhoods have been facing since forever. Our government has indeed failed us in the most stark terms.
Regarding media coverage on the protests, same thing happened when OWS began spreading throughout the country. Of course back then, putting everything online was fairly new, but that was where I got all my information on OWS.
There was a comment in one of the threads here about a week ago which was mocked for reasons I’m not entirely clear, but after having seen a video Caitlin posted in her column, the idea of machine gunned swat teams going after protesters does not seem so outrageous anymore. We have reached the tipping point, Snoopy, and like Caitlin said, there is no going back to normal anymore.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Good afternoon
Been a busy AM and just now getting on line.
Thanks for the McFadden essay and the OT. So sad to ponder the underclass. I grew up in Birmingham and saw the dogs, billy clubs, and hoses loosed on kids. The church bombing has morphed into church burning. It continues, as does slavery...now in our prisons.
The prison system is an extension of the racist militarized police. Bryan Stevenson has created a museum of slavery and prisons next to the old slave market in downtown Montgomery
https://eji.org/bryan-stevenson/ which is at least bringing some attention to the inequity.
Round and round we go in the the same struggle.
Hope you have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Round and round we go
Yes, it does seem that way. It's difficult to process the rabbit hole this country is willfully choosing to go down. Where are the better angels of our collective character? Perhaps, we just have to be the best example in our own community as we can, and keep looking for others doing the same:
Thank you for the link. Reading about Bryan Stevenson's work was a much needed counter to swat teams going after protesters with machine guns.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Thank you, Anja. McFadden
is such an eloquent writer. His parting words, that--
IMO, his words are somewhat in keeping with the sentiments shared by Matt Taibbi in one of his latest posts. (excerpt in my signature line, below) Which is that many of the folks on the left--those with the loudest megaphones in the chattering class and/or journalists--have the least real-world experience, or, that their worldview is mostly 'theoretical,' not derived from something they've actually experienced first hand. (example, treatment of Lee Fang) Anyhoo, glad that Mr McFadden took the opportunity to shed light on the real pain and suffering the AA community, collectively, experiences daily.
BTW, I had never heard this quote,
Beautiful.
At any rate, I've already shared this essay with our healthcare workshop working group (almost 80, now)--almost all of whom have 'woke' to the fact that the Dem Party offers them nothing. (just like Repubs)
Hat tip to your former teacher, Esther Bradley-DeTally, too!
Mollie
"The leaders of this new movement are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry, and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats, and intimidation."
~~Matt Taibbi, The American Press Is Destroying Itself, June 12, 2020
"I know, I know. All passion; no street smarts."
~~Captain West, 1992 Rob Reiner/Aaron Sorkin Movie, A Few Good Men
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator (1856-1950)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Glad you could stop by Mollie
And thank you so much for sharing Garrick’s words with your healthcare group. You’re right about a general ignorance among the chattering classes who have no idea what most people are facing in their daily lives. Walk a mile in my shoes really does bring that home. Hard to do when their lives are cushioned in the protections money affords one.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
My pleasure, Anja. 'Thank you' for your consistently
excellent and informative essays!
Glad that Trader Joe's treats you Guys well (especially, safety-wise). Take good care of yourself.
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
A great essay I'm lucky enuf to share elsewhere.
Thanks for providing it, and it's been a long time since I read somewhere a Black man talking about The Depression. He basically said there was no 'Great Depression' 'at least not until White people had to live like us'.
That essay made me remember that comment but it's been so many years I don't remember anything else about the interview.
I grew up around 'Colored' water fountains (painted black) and 'Colored' entrances to buildings.
The Baptist Church our family attended was really big and right downtown and when you entered the lobby off to the left were two water fountains, one the usual dull gray color, the other one was black for obvious reasons but it wasn't until was about ten or eleven years old that I asked about it.
It's not like I didn't know about segregated water fountains, they were everywhere there were public water fountains, but in this large congregation there was not one Black person, even the janitor was White.
It was kindly explained to me it was 'the Christian thing to do' because on a hot day a 'Colored person' may be walking past and really need a drink of water.
At the time, and with my upbringing, I thought that was a nice thing they were doing, real 'Christian' stuff with no thought about what if there was no black fountain does that mean they can't have water?
Years later as a teen in High School I saw things very differently after spending my summer with my grandparents who lived on the Southside in a small house that was along an alley. A lot of big houses had small houses back by the alley for servants, but those days were over and these places were cheap, all over that area of town and apart from my grandparent and one other place they were all Black families living along the alleys.
Long story short, I got to meet a lot of very nice people that were also Black, and had a Black friend about my age named Roy that also like to roam the alleys.
Looking back I realize that while we both liked the adventure of rummaging through people's 'throw-a-ways' (didn't use the word 'garbage') and we went all over the area, but I could roam everywhere along the street sidewalks too, not Roy. It was solid White out there along the streets.
One memory that nags me to this day was when one of my high school teachers spoke out she felt in defense of our Black janitor who was getting a lot of racist comments directed at him that these students were wrong.
Then she explained why, she mentioned that anyone could see he had some burn marks on his arms and if you looked (at the discolorations) you'd see that under his skin he was White "like you and me". She was 'liberal'.
Last note, in 1969 after all the Civil Rights laws were passed, that janitor was the only Black person in my High School and I never had a Black person in any class in any school I attended.
The ‘Christian’ thing to do
Reminds me of a girl I met from South Africa during apartheid. She was telling me that hospital wards in her town had separate wards for black and white patients and that ‘everyone‘ was okay with that because when you are sick you want to be ‘comfortable’. I did not have the wherewithal at the time to break her argument apart, but to this day, I still remember the absurdity of it.
Thank you for sharing those memories. People like to say we’ve made progress, but every time another black person loses their life at the hands of police brutality, it feels like a black drinking fountain of justice. Nothing ‘Christian’ about that as far as I can tell.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Thanks, Anja.
I enjoy reading your writing, Anja, so I thought, "If she's substituting someone else's work for hers, it must be good." It was.
This is a perspective we all need to hear. I'm fortunate that I have Black friends that will talk to me, a white male, as this man does. Not sure any have done it as well as McFadden, though.
Thanks again for posting this.
Most of my Buddhist friends are black
which surprises a lot people when they hear that. Not that I have black friends, but that black people are Buddhists. Most people I encounter think of Buddhists in America as being mostly middle class and white, which I’ve always found a curious notion.
Had an interesting conversation with a black coworker the other day about his friends. And like Garrick McFadden’s life experience, Tyler has a lot of white friends. Can’t say that’s the same with a lot of white people I know. So I have to wonder why that is. Is it really about access? Or nature? Or both?
Btw, you made me smile with your opening.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Inspiring and uplifting
Great work as always, Anja.
Thanks Plutes
Always good to see you.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier