USA Politics

[arpeggio]

Point of Contact
ahem, sorry... not at work any more...
it's "People of Color"

What?  There are people of color who are racist? 

Again common sense dictates that there are some blacks who are racist. So what?

[Christo]

anti-American and pure Marxist propaganda.

Hahaha  

[Herman]

What is "POC"?

He's switching to the "whatabout black people having prejudices too?"

It makes one wonder whether this is really a rightwing bot.

[greg]

What?  There are people of color who are racist? 

Again common sense dictates that there are some blacks who are racist. So what?

Well that's not what a lot of people on the left believe nowadays (the belief that only white people can be racist).

But yeah, I don't quite see the point of him mentioning that either, even if it may be true.

[greg]

So CHAZ is being finally shut down after an underage black guy was shot and killed by their own security... wait... what was this area made for protesting again? It was some issue that the US has... hmmm guessing I'm Bidening today, can't remember, oh well lol.

[Que]

Well that's not what a lot of people on the left believe nowadays (the belief that only white people can be racist).

It's so interesting to hear - from others - what "people from the left" think and believe.

Speak for yourself, I was taught.

Q

[Karl Henning]

It's so interesting to hear - from others - what "people from the left" think and belief.

Speak for yourself, I was taught.

Q

Up there with Trump's "they say...."

[Que]

Up there with Trump's "they say...."

It's an old tactic to create and manipulate an image of "the others"....

Q

[Karl Henning]

It's an old tactic to create and manipulate an image of "the others"....

Q

Aye. Just so.

[BWV 1080]

Not that the Blue team ever engages in that activity...

[Karl Henning]

Not that the Blue team ever engages in that activity...

That's so meta 

[greg]

It's so interesting to hear - from others - what "people from the left" think and believe.

Speak for yourself, I was taught.

Q

That's why I said "a lot of people", not just "people on the left" and nothing else.

It's something I hear often, since it's part of the ideology. It states that if you are perceived as "at the top" the only that group can be "-ist"... in this case, since white people are perceived as having the most power then only they can be racist. It's part of the redefinition itself of "racism = power + privilege."

Perhaps you haven't kept up with how this ideology has been changing the last 10-20 years, but that's how it is now. Perhaps you are just liberal, which is different from leftist.

[Todd]

In 5-4 decision, Supreme Court rules states cannot ban public funding for religious schools

Supreme Court, in 5-4 ruling, strikes down restrictive Louisiana abortion law

Decisions taken together that will make people across the political spectrum unhappy.  Good work, SCOTUS!


Supreme Court makes it easier for president to fire CFPB head

But this is the decision that really matters.  Good work, SCOTUS!

[milk]

My friend's aunt posted this to her FB page (you can never underestimate stupidity):

"ANTIFA / TERRORIST ATTACK PLAN ON 4th OF JULY:
PLEASE be aware this July 4....... 30,000 members per state...many trained by radical Islam - plan on killing as many Trump supporters and whites as possible!!
ANTIFA To Desecrate Gettysburg National Cemetery on July 4 - Then MURDER & BURN White Suburbs under cover of "Fireworks" ANTIFA is planning to desecrate the Gettysburg National Cemetery by burning flags there on July 4; just before they begin MURDERING White people and BURNING DOWN Suburbs the same day. It will start at the desecration of Union Solder graves at Gettysburg, Pa. According to the Controlled Unclassified Law Enforcement Bulletin issued as "Law Enforcement Sensitive - For Official Use Only" to Police and Fire Departments about ANTIFA already using fireworks to acclimate suburbia with sounds of explosions, so they can use those to cover for gun fire when they attack white, suburban, neighborhoods the same day. According to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in a Bulletin issued to Police and Fire Departments, ANTIFA has been taking deliveries of very large shipments of professional-grade fireworks. They have been sending teams out to various areas throughout America to detonate those fireworks for the past two weeks, to achieve"

[Que]

That's why I said "a lot of people", not just "people on the left" and nothing else.

It's something I hear often, since it's part of the ideology. It states that if you are perceived as "at the top" the only that group can be "-ist"... in this case, since white people are perceived as having the most power then only they can be racist. It's part of the redefinition itself of "racism = power + privilege."

Perhaps you haven't kept up with how this ideology has been changing the last 10-20 years, but that's how it is now. Perhaps you are just liberal, which is different from leftist.

It's a game of words, really.... How do the concepts of racial prejudice, racial discrimination and "racism" relate?
My impression is that in Europe "racism" is the more general term covering both prejudice and discrimination.

When someone is "racist", we're referring to someone with racial prejudices and who believes in racial superiority.

Obviously an (unequal) power relation is going to be decisive for the impact of any form of prejudice.


So, if you claim that "a lot of people on the left" believe that only white people can be racist...

Are you suggesting that "they" (whoever they are are) think that (in current US society) only white people can use race against someone else in a position of power?

Or are you suggesting that "they" believe that only whites can have racial prejudices?

Q

[Christo]

anti-American and pure Marxist propaganda.

Not very clever retort indeed. 

[milk]

It's a game of words, really.... How do the concepts of racial prejudice, racial discrimination and "racism" relate?
My impression is that in Europe "racism" is the more general term covering both prejudice and discrimination.

When someone is "racist", we're referring to someone with racial prejudices and who believes in racial superiority.

Obviously an (unequal) power relation is going to be decisive for the impact of any form of prejudice.


So, if you claim that "a lot of people on the left" believe that only white people can be racist...

Are you suggesting that "they" (whoever they are are) think that (in current US society) only white people can use race against someone else in a position of power?

Or are you suggesting that "they" believe that only whites can have racial prejudices?

Q

I think none of this matters anymore much to the new people running the show. I go back to what Matt Taibbi is saying about Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility - which has been meme-d around at me (her book, not Taibbi). Taibbi can't be accused of being anywhere near the right but the memes suggest you can't win by quoting anyone criticizing the new regime: it's un-criticize-able.
But Taibbi is more than on point, he's hilarious:

DiAngelo isn't the first person to make a buck pushing tricked-up pseudo-intellectual horseshit as corporate wisdom, but she might be the first to do it selling Hitlerian race theory. White Fragility has a simple message: there is no such thing as a universal human experience, and we are defined not by our individual personalities or moral choices, but only by our racial category.

If your category is "white," bad news: you have no identity apart from your participation in white supremacy ("Anti-blackness is foundational to our very identities... Whiteness has always been predicated on blackness"), which naturally means "a positive white identity is an impossible goal."

... DiAngelo instructs us there is nothing to be done here, except "strive to be less white." To deny this theory, or to have the effrontery to sneak away from the tedium of DiAngelo's lecturing – what she describes as "leaving the stress-inducing situation" – is to affirm her conception of white supremacy. This intellectual equivalent of the "ordeal by water" (if you float, you're a witch) is orthodoxy across much of academia....

... DiAngelo's writing style is pure pain. The lexicon favored by intersectional theorists of this type is built around the same principles as Orwell's Newspeak: it banishes ambiguity, nuance, and feeling and structures itself around sterile word pairs, like racist and antiracist, platform and deplatform, center and silence, that reduce all thinking to a series of binary choices. Ironically, Donald Trump does something similar, only with words like "AMAZING!" and "SAD!" that are simultaneously more childish and livelier..

...One line of King's speech in particular—that one day he might be judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin—was seized upon by the white public because the words were seen to provide a simple and immediate solution to racial tensions: pretend that we don't see race, and racism will end. Color blindness was now promoted as the remedy for racism, with white people insisting that they didn't see race or, if they did, that it had no meaning to them...
That this speech was held up as the framework for American race relations for more than half a century precisely because people of all races understood King to be referring to a difficult and beautiful long-term goal worth pursuing is discounted, of course. White Fragility is based upon the idea that human beings are incapable of judging each other by the content of their character, and if people of different races think they are getting along or even loving one another, they probably need immediate antiracism training. This is an important passage because rejection of King's "dream" of racial harmony — not even as a description of the obviously flawed present, but as the aspirational goal of a better future — has become a central tenet of this brand of antiracist doctrine mainstream press outlets are rushing to embrace...

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/on-white-fragility

[BasilValentine]

Not sure how I missed this news. Mother Jones publishes film of police in Minneapolis slashing tires of protestors, reporters and medics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSA4AT0N38Y

Fact checked by Snopes:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/slashed-tires-protests/

Thousands of dollars of vandalism by law enforcement. They slashed the tires of every vehicle in a K-Mart parking lot.

[milk]

Not sure how I missed this news. Mother Jones publishes film of police in Minneapolis slashing tires of protestors, reporters and medics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSA4AT0N38Y

Fact checked by Snopes:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/slashed-tires-protests/

Thousands of dollars of vandalism by law enforcement. They slashed the tires of every vehicle in a K-Mart parking lot.

I'm still wondering about Umbrella Man. St Paul PD insisted it wasn't a cop breaking windows with a mask and umbrella. But it's so suspicious. You'd think they would have caught that guy. Have you heard about this?
Minneapolis PD? Weird behavior for a dept. about to get cancelled. On the other hand, that city, a city dear to my heart, was nearly burnt to the ground by idiots.

[drogulus]

     

If your category is "white," bad news: you have no identity apart from your participation in white supremacy ("Anti-blackness is foundational to our very identities... Whiteness has always been predicated on blackness"), which naturally means "a positive white identity is an impossible goal."

     I don't know what a positive white identity is supposed to be for someone opposed to identity politics. It's clear that there are ethnic identities that are positive. They don't depend on hostility to others and don't advocate for supremacy over other groups. The problem with white identity as a positive is that history tells the story, from the founding of white supremacy to present day advocates.

     So I would say the news is bad for positive whiteness, but it's old news. What would it look like? Would there be a "white history" month? That might not be a good idea.