Tag Archives: Race

Political Rants

Lighting up.

Another black person is dead as a result of wrongful arrest. That in itself is not remarkable, unfortunately. And while there appears to be some social media debate as to who was in the right and who was in the wrong in this case, a look at the police dash-cam video is as unambiguous as, well, the one featuring Eric Garner’s summary execution. Sandra Bland, pulled over for not signalling a lane change (for Christ’s sake!), is arrested for not being sufficiently subservient to a Texas State Trooper with a chip on his shoulder. “I will light you up,” the trooper threatens when Bland resists his order to leave the car – a demand issued because the young woman declined to extinguish her cigarette when asked. (Yes, asked, if somewhat testily.)

This life mattered.The video of this incident is chilling, and instructive. It is a window into the mentality of entrenched white domination of black people; nothing less than this. Irritation should not be sufficient cause for arrest, whether it’s being projected by the motorist or the arresting officer. Sandra Bland was not doing as she was asked. She was not bowing and scraping. At the same time, she was not violently confrontational. The Texas State Trooper could have just handed her the ticket – or a warning – and walked back to his cruiser. Once he decided to be a dick about it, there was no backing down – not as the white cop disciplining the black miscreant.

Did she suicide? If she did, I can understand how she got to that place. She had had problems with depression, but for chrissake … she was about to start a new job, and then on the basis of nothing at all, she was taken to jail, held on $5000 bond, her prospects in ruins. The arbitrariness of the criminal justice system – the same injustice against black people she had criticized – was landing on her neck, reducing her to the status of a slave.

Being white, I don’t claim to understand the black experience. But by considering the hard facts of black life, the constant harassment, the endless traffic stops, the serial humiliations, the threats to life and limb, white people can gain a small measure of that understanding. We have to keep that in mind when we hear stories like that of Sandra Bland, or Eric Garner, or Michael Brown, or so many others. Not so easy.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

It’s the waving, not the flag.

The stars and bars are coming down all across the old south. High time, in my humble opinion. This does, however, represent a kind of gallows conversion on the part of many of the region’s politicians who capitalized on this symbol of their racist past throughout their noxious careers. Now they’re climbing over each other in a scramble to be out front on the flag issue. The political calculus has shifted with respect to the battle flag of the confederacy, and political leaders see the loss of this symbol as an opportunity to gain some easy points. No policy changes – just remove the flag and we’re all good, right?

Lose the flag; keep the dogwhistleIt’s vintage American political theater, kind of like the ubiquitous flag pin. (Pin on, hero! Pin off, traitor!) We are so obsessed with symbolism that we invariably miss the fundamentals. Reverend Barber was talking about this over the last few days, countering a lot of the happy talk about everyone coming together and pulling down that offending flag. Seriously, when I watched Nikki Haley making her dramatic announcement, all I could think of was the thousands of working families in South Carolina – many of whom are African-Americans – who could benefit from Medicaid expansion under the ACA, if only she and her party would allow it. Sure – symbols mean something to those who have suffered under them. That’s reason enough to pull the stars and bars down. But let’s not stop there.

King V. Burwell – The ACA (“Obamacare”), not to mention a large sector of our economy, is still alive, thanks to the Supreme Court. Further evidence that John Roberts, while a full-blown corporatist and a tremendous dick, does not like to throw the card table over or set the house on fire. Killing the subsidies for coverage would have punished working class to middle class folks. Meanwhile, all of those people in Republican led states just above the poverty line (but too poor to go to the exchanges) have to go without. So good news for some of us. But again … more work to do.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Ban the bullet.

What is there to say about the Charleston shooting? Another three-foot creep with a four-foot gun. That’s the long of it. I notice most of what’s being talked about is this generic “pure” hatred, evil, etc. Most of the television commentators have been avoiding the “R” word. Hey, folks … it’s called racism. Combine a racist history with a birthday gun, and you’ve got the recipe for Charleston. School friends talk about racist jokes that nobody took seriously. He wore flag patches on his jacket for both Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa, Confederate flag license plates. No particular concern? We shall see.

Victim of racism. Say it, people.The sad fact is, racism is a default position in white society, south and north. I grew up in white society, and I have been surrounded by racism my entire life, at various levels of severity. I am certain that, had it not been for the guiding efforts of my mother and my older siblings, I might well have ended up as racist as some of my neighbors. It was, in many ways, the path of least resistance in ’60s middle America. And to this day, when I’m in a room with just white people, racism will occasionally join us in the form of a comment, a joke, etc.

So … that’s a thing. Then there’s the gun culture. The birthday pistol. How you can sell a pistol to someone who advocates race war is beyond me. As much as we have to examine our tendency to look upon black Americans as the “other”, we also have to ponder our devotion to uncle bang-bang. And yes, we’re very unlikely to do anything to slow down the proliferation of firearms. But there is one thing we can do without violating the extremist notion of the 2nd Amendment: ban bullets! You can have all the guns you want, but no freaking bullets. Guns don’t kill people … bullets do. Or adopt Chris Rock’s idea – make bullets cost $5,000 each. That might slow down the Jared Lee Loughners of the world.

Again – these are hard problems. That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about them. If we are appalled by Charleston, it is incumbent upon us to act. And soon.

luv u,

jp