General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Some blacks feel fatigued after barrage of racial incidents' (understated AP headline...)
WASHINGTON (AP) The weariness, the rage, the depressing conviction that black life is stuck in a murderous loop fueled by racism these emotions resounded in black America after the deadly shootings at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
...
People attend a prayer service to mourn the lives lost at the shooting in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015, at St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church in Huntsville, Ala.
The Rev. Anthony Evans of the National Black Church Initiative said he planned to travel to Charleston to help churches learn to defend themselves. He said the attack evoked "a point of deep moral frustration that cannot be explained."
"At the same time, they want individuals such as myself as clergy to preach peace and coming together," he said. "They only want us to not let the people get out of hand, and I'm not willing to stand in front of that angry crowd anymore and tell them that their anger is the wrong emotion to feel."
Threats came, too, on U.S. campuses. At Duke University, a noose was found hanging from a tree. Spray-painted swastikas and nooses were found at dorms on the State University of New York's Purchase campus. Just Thursday, a man pleaded guilty in federal court to threatening African-American students and employees at the University of Mississippi by helping place a rope around the neck of the statue of James Meredith, the school's first African-American student.
Those events unfolded against a backdrop of above-average black unemployment, crime-stricken communities, criticism of the state of the black family, black culture and education, and even debate over the meaning of blackness itself. In the days before the Charleston shooting, the nation had been riveted by the saga of Rachel Dolezal, who resigned as head of the NAACP's Spokane, Washington, chapter after her parents outed her as a white woman pretending to be black.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I've been numb since Trayvon Martin...
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)onecaliberal
(33,039 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I've got to deal with these "Who cares about Charleston when TPA just passed in Congress!!!111" -assholes on Twitter and DU...
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)and they really come out of their hidey holes when this kind of egregious event occurs.
The 'minimalists' as another POC called them.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Stormfront has something like 300000 registered users. That's one in every thousand Americans who is a blatant, unapologetic white power racist. And gods know how many are too paranoid to register, but simply surf the site anonymously.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)an endangered species.
The gradual passing of the old guard does not seem to be depleting the ranks.
New blood is being added with a younger generation of male white-power racists..
Autumn
(45,120 posts)Vattel
(9,289 posts)But there is so much we can do to move our nation closer to its ideals of equal opportunity for all. One's degree of opportunity is strongly linked to one's upbringing and education. It is time to invest heavily in our poorest neighborhoods and regions to provide greater opportunity for those who will otherwise for the most part end up poor at best and at worst incarcerated, drug-addicted, or murdered. I wish there was a 1% equal opportunity tax on all those who have the good fortune to make a lot of money, a tax to be used to improve the chances of poor children to succeed.
edited to add: Sorry if my post is off-topic. The tragedy in SC is so frustrating and sad partly because it is so hard to know how to keep it from happening again. I mean, what in the hell can one do to prevent racist assholes from grabbing guns and killing people? I guess my mind naturally starts thinking of what can be done to provide as much justice and equal opportunity for African Americans as can be achieved in a nation with far too many racists and far too many guns.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)JustAnotherGen
(32,117 posts)But it goes back to the Obama as Hitler and Witch Doctor posters. And the guy carrying a Curious George Doll at a McCain/Palin Event.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 19, 2015, 11:36 AM - Edit history (1)
the blatant, flagrant, screw-you race-baiting.
Little did I know how much worse things would get.
JustAnotherGen
(32,117 posts)He died in August 2011 - but he saw it coming. All of the elements of the derogatory were there.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)I hadn't seen anything since the 60's like I have witnessed since BHO came into office. Frightening and heartbreaking.
JustAnotherGen
(32,117 posts)We came back from Europe in the late 1970's. It really was this bad. All they did was refine their approach. After being made fools of on the talk show circuit - AND the advent of the internet - they refined their code of conduct.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)I'm trying to imagine the loneliness and alienation of being the token POC in a mostly white town.
I'm afraid my imagination is overtaxed. The painful images are just to heavy.
GreatGazoo
(3,937 posts)bigtree
(86,043 posts)...of the politically motivated resurgence of racial animosity toward black Americans which has manifested itself in individual acts of violence toward members of our community.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)madashelltoo
(1,709 posts)Mental illness and fear is the right's floorboard. They know they will never abandon them and let them fall. We are born tired of it, live tired of it and die tired of it. And, it does not matter which response we choose; hatred, ignorance, mental illness and fear will pull it down. What we have to remember is that in order to pull us down, you have to be beneath us. Keep going.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)The creepy little killer would love to get his 'new civil war', but wiser heads will prevail.
'What we have to remember is that in order to pull us down, you have to be beneath us.'
rocktivity
(44,588 posts)The nerve of them, feeling barraged -- how uppity can they get?
rocktivity
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Coded message: How dare they make us ill-at-ease by feeling under seige?
rocktivity
(44,588 posts)as a "You Call This NEWS?" award!
rocktivity
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)I'll certainly keep an eye out for it now! LOL!
jwirr
(39,215 posts)in the 1960s civil rights movement. I remember talking to my sister about it as we watched the whole thing unravel. Our hearts were breaking.
"They only want us to not let the people get out of hand." Ouch. That could have been said about MLK also. And there is a great deal of truth in that statement. As I sat watching the protests in Ferguson MO I felt very glad to see ministers and community leaders come out to stand between the opposing forces. I was afraid of the black deaths that would come at the hands of a much more heavily armed group. I wanted them safe. But today I wonder if I was right to put so much hope in the methods of MLK. The black community is in real danger with or without fighting back.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Violence does breed more violence, though, ineluctably--and MLK was right to follow Ghandi's teachings.
The historical arc of justice is momentarily unstrung, but it will be set right.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)work. The opposite is unthinkable.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Here's the great Satchmo to give us some courage.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)Lincoln Memorial. This song was included in the videos. Not thinking about where we were we all started singing along. To our surprise the rest of the people joined in. I will never forget that moment.
Later standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial I stopped to listen to people and was again surprised at all the different languages people were using as they walked by. I dawned on me that MLK would have been very please to stand there and hear that.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Thank you for sharing that lovely memory with us.
May there be more such moments in store for everyone, and may we all be wise enough to live fully in those moments.
handmade34
(22,759 posts)a few months ago... good representation
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Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)in the good old USA.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)uponit7771
(90,379 posts)... rate.
Black on black murder is no worse than white on white or any other race....
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)Today the RW is having a celebration -- yea, celebration -- of the one year anniversary of the RW in Murrieta, CA who 'greeted' and chased off the buses carrying mother and children from the border to a processing center for bathrooms, water, food, blankets. Ugly people. Buses returned to the border where people with hearts provided resources. This layer of our society is growing, I fear.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)more vociferous since BHO's election.
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