Being Black and hearing republicans laughing it up at watermelon jokes at my expense

[bigtree]

Last edited Mon Oct 28, 2024, 06:52 PM - Edit history (5)

...how that feels after a lifetime stretching from the promise of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, to the revival of Jim Crow racism as a political play in the Trump era.

We were so close to turning the corner on all that, and purging most of the old racists through attrition like we did in my old grocery workplace.

This is Jim Crow cosplay which intends to be a permanent feature in our social discourse. The way we drove most of the kinds of abominations underground after the material gains of the Civil Rights era was through public shaming and humiliation of regressive bigots who insisted on continuing the divisive nonsense.

There is no effective legal recourse. This is on us to drive it to the ground again, and there are more of us out here today who will make it clear they aren't tolerating any of it.

I recall integration of a particular school in the South in that segregated past where ALL of the white students were pulled out of classes by their parents when a handful of black youth were admitted. Those black youth attended classes in a virtually empty school that year.

The next year, however, the majority of the white students had been allowed to return - and time and history marched on.

But that progression didn't happen in a vacuum of indifference or apathy. There needed to be leadership from the top to make clear that the nation wasn't going back to forced segregation and the discriminating against minority Americans with impunity.

It really is remarkable how our insistence on progressive change has the potential to move mountains of resistance, in the end. History tells us this.


___When I think of watermelon, btw, I immediately recall my mother telling me how she would spend summers in her youth in Molena, Ga, working with her father and sharecroppers in a melon field, and how she would love to crack open a warm watermelon and eat it with the juice running all down her front.

Just a beautifully evocative memory that reminds me of the awful distortions that these intended slurs contain in their denial of the wonderfulness of Black people's lives, our actual joy.

[DaBronx]

1. It's on all of us to speak up!

Very sad what is happening. We have to keep hope alive, back it up with votes, action, words and donations (for those that are able). Most important perhaps are everyday interactions where we must speak up.

[Roy Rolling]

99. "All of Us to Speak Up"

MAGAts have proven themselves to be humorless, a right-wing comedian is another figment of their imagination. Don’t let the rebranding of comedy happen with this, we must laugh at them for thinking they are comedians. Except when they say things like “they’re eating the cats and dogs”.

Mean-spirited and scripted insults are not humor, it isn’t comedy. It’s political propaganda.

And those who deliver the Putin propaganda lines as written aren’t comedians— they’re clowns.

[soldierant]

102. Real clowns have a real message, and it has to dowith two things -

speaking truth to power and memento mori. Medieval jesters, the ancestors of clowns, did both. There are many clowns in many Shakespearean plays, and if we today aren't careful to look a bit past the words, we'll miss a lot.

Propagandists are lot worthy to shine clowns' (oversized shoes with their tongues.

[malaise]

2. Did you hear him talking about his white skin

and look at her.
It was a feast of racist ugliness

[MayReasonRule]

51. I'm Astonished At The Number Of Sheep, Cows, Hogs, Chickens And Goats That Are Voting For The Butcher And The Hunter

[malaise]

54. I was stunned at first

Not any more

[MayReasonRule]

59. Malaise It's Infuriatingly Heartbreaking

I, my honey and our daughter are the only members of our families that escaped the Abrahamic blood cult of 'Christ' in which we were reared, so all the rest of our families remain predatory Nat-Cs.

The childhood home in which we reside is less than 20 miles from the residence of the Y'all Qaeda fascist shit that is Mike Johnson.

Our state is ruled by Y'all Qaeda Nat-C plutocrats and oligarchs.

I'm surrounded by folks that no matter the color of their skin, sexual orientation or gender that have been deluded into buying into to paying for their own personal demise through the ongoing criminal enterprise that is the GOP.

Sigh.

It simultaneously provokes gratitude and anguish within my being.

Life is always as it is and rarely as we'd have it...
And only then after a long and protracted fight.

Game on then... I ain't damn near done!

[malaise]

65. Wow,

At least you escaped

Down memory lane
When Nazis Took Manhattan
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/20/695941323/when-nazis-took-manhattan

On the evening of Feb. 20, 1939, the marquee of New York's Madison Square Garden was lit up with the evening's main event: a "Pro American Rally." The organizers had chosen the date in celebration of George Washington's birthday and had procured a 30-foot-tall banner of America's first president for the stage. More than 20,000 men and women streamed inside and took their seats. The view they had was stunning: Washington was hung between American flags — and swastikas.

The rally was sponsored by the German American Bund, an organization with headquarters in Manhattan and thousands of members across the United States. In the 1930s, the Bund was one of several organizations in the United States that were openly supportive of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe. They had parades, bookstores and summer camps for youth. Their vision for America was a cocktail of white supremacy, fascist ideology and American patriotism.

At Madison Square Garden, the rally opened with the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. The mood was jubilant. Attendees wore Nazi armbands, waved American flags and held aloft posters with slogans like "Stop Jewish Domination of Christian America." There were storm troopers in the aisles, their uniforms almost identical to those of Nazi Germany. "It looked like any political rally — only with a Nazi twist," said Arnie Bernstein, author of Swastika Nation.

The speeches were explicitly anti-Semitic, and tirades against "job-taking Jewish refugees" were met with thunderous applause. "They demanded a white gentile America. They denounced Roosevelt as 'Rosenfeld,' to say that Roosevelt was in the pocket of rich Jews," said Sarah Churchwell, author of Behold, America. In equal measure to the xenophobia, the speeches were loaded with American boosterism.

One of the main speakers, Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, the national public relations director of the Bund, pointed to the white supremacy present at America's founding as a nation. "The spirit which opened the West and built our country is the spirit of the militant white man," he preached. Kunze followed the thread of racism that runs through American history to bolster his vision for a whites-only America. He cited anti-miscegenation laws, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Jim Crow policies and immigration quotas. "It has then always been very much American to protect the Aryan character of this nation," Kunze told the audience.

[B.See]

79. "I was stunned at first Not any more"

Malaise, I'd stopped being surprised by these sorts long ago, because I've been writing, warning who this... cult... is and what they were REALLY all about for nearly a decade now.

So this MSG rally was no revelation to me. It was just their "Greatest Hits" collection. The remastered, unvarnished version of what they essentially have been ON ABOUT all along....the raw fuel behind their so-called 'culture' war.

High time the rest of the world finally see it for what it truly is.

[malaise]

81. That's why I watched it

I knew what was coming and it was exactly what I expected.
They are sick people.

[B.See]

84. Sick indeed...

for many, a long term affliction.

[malaise]

85. The media gave these scumbags a pass for far too long

They are everywhere. It will take a long time to send them back into their basements

[B.See]

86. We the people

have the power to change that too, as we did in Montgomery.

[malaise]

87. Agree

Rec

[B.See]

97. You see, Malaise, this is why, for just as many years,

I've used this signature line here (and long before my arrival): "The struggle for civil rights on many fronts is far from over, in fact it's only just begun.

Because it was clear to me that the struggle, for Blacks, Jews, Muslims, Gays, Women, Latinos, Asians, Immigrants, Indigenous Peoples, for the disadvantaged, the poor and the infirm - for ANY marginalized group,

and even for the right to healthcare, housing, a safe environment (rights recognized by other 'developed countries' as a civil right),

the right to freedom of choice, choice of worship or no choice at all,

the simple (allegedly) "inalienable right" to well-being, peace of mind, life, liberty, and happiness

is an ongoing struggle that, rather than growing easier, has instead, come under increasing assault, from forces and entities, all too willing to take those rights away.

So that in fact, in a very real sense, the struggle has just BEGUN.

[Keepthesoulalive]

3. Some democrats would like to make this election about economics

Meaning let’s not talk about that horror show at MSG. We’re going to talk about it and denounce it.
That's what not going back is about. No more it was just a joke, you’re to sensitive, you don’t understand humor . The southern strategy is a thing, let’s bury it.

[magicarpet]

77. The MAGA Fascist crowd,...

... thinks making racist jokes and laughing AT people is what humor is all about.

They have no understanding that humor has nothing to do with being insulting or injurious in the vilest ways or a means to gleefully express ridicule. Humor is laughing WITH people for a fun time - not laughing AT them to entertain your close circle of friends.

[twodogsbarking]

4. The importance of recording history accurately cannot be ignored.

Anymore.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. History has often been "recordded accurately"

But all it takes is a DeSatan to "cancel it" and "censor it", essentially removing it from having ever existed.

[33taw]

5. Sadly, I don't think we were anywhere near purging racists from this country. They were simply not exposed and now

they feel they have permission to be publicly vile.

[soldierant]

92. I wish I could disagree, but I can't.

We will always have racists, misogynistsm], anti=gay, anti-trans. It seems to be inborn in people sort oflike gender identity. Congenital, but not genetic - people like Stephen Miller and Paul Gosar were born with it but are the only ones in their respective families

What we did succeed in doing for a while was getting them to shut up in public. That felt like a blessing, but it was not an unalloyed one - because you relly didn't know who to trust - or not.

I am white and still trying to figure out how my kind managed to bamboozle so much of the rest of the world that that meant anything, let alone that it was "better looking" than dark skin. And yet "skin lighteners" are still making money for merchants all over the world - including Africa. It makes no sense.

I don't know whether or not I shoudl even wish they'd shut up again. I think probably as painful as it can be, I'd rather know who they are than not.

[33taw]

96. Probably better to know, but it is scary.

[lindysalsagal]

6. Such old hatred, and they think it's funny. Authoritarians start with

The built-in targets: gays, minorities, religious and racial, then handicapped, then women, then they'll have their white male straight xtian patriarchy minority dominating everyone else. We might as well be south Africa, according to their plan

[slightlv]

20. Interesting last sentence

Considering Musk and other tech bro billionaires. They failed in their homeland so they want to remake ours? I don't think so.

I remember being taught that Reconstruction failed, but I dont remember being taught why it failed. I have the impression it was just allowed to die because no one enforced the new rules. Maybe we need to take up a "finish Reconstruction " banner, just as they pick up the seccionist banner once again. Let them know that none of us are going back again.

[Dan]

31. I don't remember the details

But it was a political decision on the party in power (DC) to allow Reconstruction to fail (combined with letting the White Southerns to retain power and dis-empower Blacks (voting, etc.)).

[slightlv]

53. That's kind of what I remembered...

that Reconstruction just kind of withered on the vine. I say it's time to try something like,maybe, the 2nd Great Reconstruction... starting with the new Lewis Voting Rights Act and picking up the pieces of the last Reconstruction to see what could be brought forward and taught as a lesson in this day and age. I'm tired of living my life from one anxious moment to the next. I was safety and security and a little bit or "normalcy"... not matter how weird that normalcy has always been for me. I'm tired of seeing the Dems as the angels of our better natures and I want to get down and dirty on moving this country forward. We've already lost a decade to this man, and more when you consider how far back he's set us. We've got real, existential problems we need to deal with. And we need these luddites out of the way, and away from any violence they could commit.

[Marcuse]

93. We are not our great grandfather's Democratic Party.

The Electoral College tied after the 1876 Presidential election. House Democrats and Republicans made a deal. Republicans got the Presidency (Rutherford B. Hayes), in exchange Democrats got the end of Reconstruction and the removal of US troops from the ex-CSA.

African Americans got more than a century of neo-slavery and Jim Crow. https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/compromise-of-1877

[slightlv]

94. And women stayed in indentured servitude.

Oh, what a web these political parties have weaved through the decades. If I remember correctly, the Founding Fathers (or at least Washington) was against political parties. That was a smart man.

[Harker]

7. Thanks for your perspective, bigtree...

I'll continue to condemn bigotry every time I see it.

[jmbar2]

8. Deeply distressing

It's a remarkable contrast to the multiracial unity being generated by the Harris campaign.

I'm thinking this morning of young kids seeing so many people cheering the blatant racism and thuggishness in MSG. I wish I had a large cape that I could envelop them in love and protection against this poison in our society.

[Espoir]

9. My grandparents lived in a time where racist language was common and acceptable.

As a kid, I assumed -- it seemed obvious to me -- that the generations accustomed to using such language and having prejudices were going to die off, eventually, and our "enlightened" generation was going to be free of such old ideas.

I am horrified that my generation is, in fact, no better than the racists of my youth. Apparently a permission structure is all that was needed for all the poison to bubble back up again.

I really was naive. (And I miss those days.)

[slightlv]

22. I understand your thinking

And yes, I think the permission structure was integral to this moment. Like you I grew up in a household where some racial epithet were common place. Others were forbidden, tho... a thought or word too far. As much as we do understand the Depression era that shaped our parents and grandparents, I don't think you're completely correct about our generation.

From the 1960s on, we always had a group of cohorts who didn't think like us... who were taught from an early age greed was good. They carried on the racist drug wars and condemned the hippies. At best it was even an uneasy alliance between our own groups... and then you had these kids who were learning their parents lessons from the past.

We were learning to get along, they were learning how to divide. I worry we'll always have that division with us, and wonder how we get past it to progress in the way so many of us want, even still.

[soldierant]

101. Robert Reich's Substack today

has a photo of Elon Musk (and, yea, this is a barf bag warning) which will make you wonder how anyone could consider white skin attractive. (Unless you've already though that, in which case it will sharply remind you.)

[MustLoveBeagles]

44. So was I

Silly me thought that with Obama's election we were beginning to move beyond this countrys deepseeded racism. By 2016 I had no such illusions. The racism seems worse than ever and my generation (GenX) has contributed a lot to it

[Linda ladeewolf]

69. Me too!

I just assumed that after the 60s, 70s and 80s and all that went on then, that by now things would be better, but no, we’re still dealing with it. 30 years. Only, thanks to trump it’s worse. The snakes and demons have been unleashed or crawled out from under their rocks and are tormenting the world again.

[moonscape]

74. Welcome to DU

[haele]

78. That's because it never ended in the Country Clubs and Board Rooms.

The Nepo-babies were raised from the cradle to believe that it didn't matter to them. The children of the Big Houses were special, as were those others in "the network" - the ones who caught the eye of the Bosses and were introduced to yacht parties, country clubs and "Business Dinners".
From what I've been able to tell, it doesn't matter how talented someone is, because the Bosses tend to be more mediocre the further back the family money and network associations went, and talent can become threatening to a CEO or Investor type if you don't keep it away from the actual leadership in the companies.
As long as talent makes money, it can stay at the periphery of leadership. Or a government agency. But it's got to be kept away from the Ownership class if it's not from the right "genes".
And this is a phenomenon found in all races and cultures, not just Western. The Autocrats have been able to collect enough wealth and of an international network they can act as a group to just buy the world and do as they see fit, national boundaries, culture, environment be damned.

Haele

[Moosepoop]

10. I cannot even imagine.

We all must speak up, speak out, and push back until at least most of the open bigots are again shamed/ostracized into crawling back under their rocks.

But as you say, it does take leadership from the top -- which makes this election so crucially important from the presidential ticket to the state and congressional tickets and all the way down.

We will, together, move our country back to a progressive track and correct this aberration of our recent history.

[surfered]

11. They are disgusting and a lot of them think they're Christians.

We've made a lot of progress, but it's not fast enough. Each generation is less racist, because I believe racism is learned by children from their parents, which is why this younger generation gives me hope.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

13. Any Christian who is a racist is gonna get the express ride down

"There are two commandments yada yada." (yes, I just yada-yada'd Jesus)

He will not know them, even tho they hollered Lord, Lord. Or something.

[efhmc]

24. Not only do I agree with you but you gave me my first laugh of this sad day.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

25. I hope it helped 😃

But yeah, how can you hate and then think you'll be one of the chosen?

[efhmc]

80. When I was growing up, we were told as followers of Christ that it was wrong to hate people. We could hate spinach, etc

(which I love if fresh) but not other humans. Hard to do but hate changes nothing and can be very destructive. Maybe we need another word for how I/we feel about TFG.

[MLAA]

12. I'm with you.

I was living in Gainesville Florida when schools were finally desegregated. I was in 5th or 6th grade. Most/many of the white adults were anywhere on the spectrum from hostile/angry/concerned/nervous but not so much the kids. I don’t recall hearing my parents say anything about it, but they too were likely at best nervous. I was bussed to a historically black school which had been repurposed to be a desegregated school for 5th and 6th graders. I don’t recall a single issue there. Not one. Kids learned and played with kids.

I’m with you.

[slightlv]

23. Rather than being born evil

Because Eve ate the apple, I think kids have to be taught to hate. Sure there are going to be exceptions due to brain or personality disorders but I think for the most part people are born good... then taught to unleash evil.

[MLAA]

49. Agree

[Lunabell]

100. Best thing that happened in my school days.

Desegregation. I grew up in Apartheid Alabama and Tennessee. In the fourth grade we were finally desegregated (coincidentally, it was the first time girls were allowed to wear pants to school.) and I just didn't understand the problem. We played together. Laughed together. And were just kids together. It was the grown-ups that caused all the problems.

[usaf-vet]

14. I spent four years in the south in the mid 1960's. I hope that by now nearly 60 years later that the civil war level....

... of hate would be long gone. It is not!

Over the years, when it has been time to find a vacation spot, I have continued to write off the South as a place I would like to return to.

[HagathaCrispy]

15. Racism just went below the surface... NEVER left.

Nt

[czarjak]

17. John Roberts: "Racism is dead."

To John Roberts. Ask W.

[Kid Berwyn]

21. Lots dead in them brains.

Perhaps a side effect of being heartless.

[MustLoveBeagles]

41. Yet another thing Roberts was wrong about

[ProudMNDemocrat]

18. I am in solidarity with you.

In April of 1964, my late father was offered an opportunity to head an Engineering Department for Lockheed Missiles and Space in Marietta, GA. My mother OPPOSED that move. She put her foot down and told my father if he accepted the offer, she would divorce him and move back to Cleveland from San Jose, CA.

My Mother told my father in plain words..."Johnny! We have three major strikes against us. 1) We are White LIBERAL Catholics! 2) We have 3 daughters! 3) We ARE NOT Prejudiced!"

She proceeded to give him other points as well. What it boiled down to was that she had a deep fear of the Klu Klux Klan. She read of the lynchings, cross bearings, rapes, the terrible treatment of African-Americans that took place throughout the South. Then that fateful day in June 1964, she slammed down the San Jose Mercury in front of him where the headline read...3 Civil Rights Workers Murdered in Mississippi. She said then..."See Johnny why I did not want us to move to Georgia?"

I came of age during the Civil Rights era. I remember all too well the hate and fear. It has been rearing its UGLY head since 2015, only more obvious and clearer than ever.

[llmart]

35. My story

I moved from Cleveland to North Carolina in the 80's. My first week working for a big multinational corporation and there was one other new hire, an African American woman same age as I was. At lunchtime I took my lunch and went into the small employee lunch room. I saw this other woman sitting alone so I figured she's new, I'm new I'll sit with her and introduce myself. The rest of the people in the room got very quiet. I thought nothing of it until I went back to my office and I said to one of the guys I worked with who was from New Jersey who also always ate in the lunchroom, "I don't understand why people don't seem to be very friendly" to which he replied, "You have two strikes against you here - you sat with a black woman and you're also a damned Yankee". I truly was flabbergasted. Another incident was where the three of us took the department secretary to lunch for Secretary's Day. She was a bible toting (literally) evangelical who prayed at her desk during lunch hour. On the way to the restaurant she decided to tell an extremely disgusting racist joke. I had now been there for a couple of years and didn't fear for my job, so I called her out on it just by saying, "I find that joke very offensive." Everyone in the car was shocked but I didn't care. I lived there for close to 10 years.

Next I was transferred to the Detroit area where I bought a house next door to a lesbian couple who were extremely helpful to me in showing me where to shop, how to get places, that sort of thing. They only lived next to me for about a year before they moved, but one time they were asking me about my experience living in North Carolina and I said something to the affect of the state is geographically beautiful but the "some people can be very trying" sort of statement. This couple who had been together for 20 years said, "It may be like that in North Carolina but if you get just a little bit farther north of Detroit, you will find the same sort of bigotry." They were absolutely correct. In Michigan I've heard the racist crap equally as much as I heard it in the South.

[Hekate]

58. Your mom sounds like me when my husband wanted to take a tech job in Saudi Arabia...

It had to have been 40 years ago — they were offering really good money for systems analysts/programmers. Pay off your US mortgage type money. I said, “They stone women like me!! “ Turns out he only got to the first level of interviews anyway — no Jews, thank you.

As for your mom’s concern about being a Catholic back then — my mom was born and raised in Colorado during the heyday of the KKK, who made no secret of how they hated Roman Catholics like her family.

PS: my dad spent 44 years at Lockheed as an inspector-supervisor — of what besides aircraft, he wouldn’t say.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

62. My father was a Design Engineer there.

We lived in San Jose, CA at the time. He was there from January of 1962 to late 1970. He designed and invented things for the US Navy and Air Force.

[Zilli]

26. A Martin Luther King quote that moved me 40 or more years ago.

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools" Wow, the message still moves me to stand up to these hate filled, lie filled racists.

[et tu]

34. good quote

but look how foolish the gop is,
and remember covid antivaxxers,
they don't mind dying if they can take
their hate with them- so sad to be so small minded.


and welcome to du!

[Blue Owl]

27. Again, this should be a campaign-ender for Dump, like mocking the disabled reporter

[B.See]

82. SHOULD be...

[Kid Berwyn]

28. I stand with you, bigtree.

I always have and I’m Puertoriqueño.

[debm55]

29. That whole rally reminded me of "Birth of a Nation" a racist silent movie Sorry bigtree

Last edited Mon Oct 28, 2024, 11:39 AM - Edit history (2)

[BattleRow]

30. I'm Southern,white,and offended as hell.

[Joinfortmill]

32. It's up to us to make our voices heard..

each in our own way . Peace brothers and sisters

[kimbutgar]

33. Yesterday I saw a commercial of black people saying they are not voting for VP Harris

The reasons made no sense and I was laughing inside that they would automatically become second class citizens if the orange turd got back in.

The commercial starts with: Is Kamala Harris for black people? What has she done for black people ? Another black woman say she brags about jobs in Honduras and Mexico( black unemployment double the national average) index after that that she let 8 million cross our boarder with (migrants took 1.5 million jobs) while saying Americans lost 500k jobs.a black man comes on saying” Kamala Harris took money out of my pocket for what} then another woman says billions to house migrants, war in Ukraine while black schools falling behind. And have you brought groceries lately, have you seen gas precisely lately? And inflation is painfully high today right now, how are we supposed to make ends meet? She doesn’t care about us and even locks black people up for weed and then laughs about inhaling the and getting high. She's been a VP for 4 years. She’s hasn’t done a thing for black people. Not a damn thing. She has made things worst for black people. Way worst. November 5 th payback time.


The website www.fortheblackpeople.com

I wonder what white person funded that ad ? it was so full of lies and disgusting. Constitutional rights pac did the funding and it is funded by the orange turd campaign!

[orleans]

36. actors. nt

[chowder66]

42. Constitutional Rights PAC is behind fortheblackpeople.com

Some guy named Jonathan McQuay (black) is working for/with the Constitutional Rights Pac. They are a "hybrid pac" that has donations only for republicans in 2023 and 2024.

https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/constitutional-rights-pac/C00540229/summary/2024

Published
October 20, 2024
Advertiser
Constitutional Rights PAC
Advertiser Profiles
Facebook, YouTube
Songs
None have been identified for this spot
Ad URL
http://www.fortheblackpeople.com
Mood
Active
Events & Venues
2024 U.S. Elections
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/frU6/constitutional-rights-pac-stop-kamala-project

[Marthe48]

37. My Dad was a racist

It was never in my heart to be like him. I loved him, but not that part of his personality.

[Warpy]

46. So was mine, but I was lucky, he was also a gent

and while his "humor" would gag anyone with a heart, it was said in private. I never, in the 59 years I knew him, saw him be rude or dismissive to any POC. From him, I learned there might be a wid4 gulf between the trash people talk and who they really are. It doesn't happen that wau all the time, just often enough that I've always looked for it.

He learned his own lesson on his deathbed, when the only person who took the time and trouble to come in to see him in the hospital was his mailman, a black man. My dad was completely bowled over by that. I didn't rub it in but did thank the mailman for his visit.

[Marthe48]

50. My Dad treated people nicely

But his opinions in private were hateful. I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland. I think most of my family were racists, and I don't know why I didn't follow suit. My older brother worked security at a downtown hospital, during the Hough riots. His partner was a Black man, and they protected each other a few nights when the violence surrounded them. My brother was different after that. My sister became a little more tolerant. Maybe never entirely woke, but their eyes were opened.

[Warpy]

67. Most of us who grew up in the 50s-60s had parents with hateful opinions

because those opinions were pervasive until service with black soldiers in the Korean War slowly started to change them. That slow change allowed court cases to go foward that looked like justice to kids but alarmed the hell out of their parents, whose hateful opinions weren't as fashionable as they once were.

They needn't have woried, the race riots of hte later 60stold them they'd been right all along. However, the best of them never acted on those opinions. They just annoyed the crap out of their offspring with them.

[llmart]

73. I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland also.

Well, maybe not even a suburb - it was 50 miles NE of Cleveland. I clearly remember the Hough riots.

[IbogaProject]

38. I'm angry too

As a white guy I'm furious about these evil people. I dress on the conservative side, button down shirt and keep my hair trimmed. It is a character barometer for me to see how people talk, racism comes out and I rebuff it where I can. I use it as a compass to turn me away from those who use such language, as it speaks to them believing they are superior, and that often leads to moral failings like theft and fraud. I knew T was the front runner in June of 2015 when I heard his second speech and knew that crap would resonate across a whole cohort of people. It was frustrating how few realized he was the front runner into 2016. I've gone through with my son how slavery in America was 250 years and then Jim Crow another 100 years, so comparing 'races' isn't even fair as only one has been very advantaged. As I've sat here working on this I'm really overwhelmed with emotion over how I can fight harder against this evil as that is what this vile rhetoric is.

[NJCher]

39. they're even inept, outdated rascists

FWIW, a colleague of mine texted me last night after news broke about the watermelon remark. He said, "That will only mean something to older people. Younger people don't even understand that watermelon stereotype."

[dobleremolque]

40. Bless your mother and her memory, which triggered one of mine.

One of the greatest joys in life is a perfect, vine-ripe watermelon, straight from the field and bought at the roadside stand! (That was back when they were 5/$1, though. Days long-gone.)

I'm sorry for what our white society has forced you to go through in your life. Kicking Trump and his ilk and enablers to the curb should take this country in the direction it needs to go for the sake of all its people. Hasten the day!

[liberal N proud]

43. Not one life is better than another

And to ridicule, laugh at and demean another life only serves to show the world that those who participate or allow such behavior to continue, only devalue their own lives.

[nolabear]

45. I grew up in the South in the segregation years.

I remember it all. I cannot believe this shit. I fear for my biracial grandsons. I want EVERYTHING for them. I fear for whatever little girls or boys out there who may become their partners. I am more disappointed in this country for not running that fascist bastard out on a rail than I ever thought I could be. I believed we were getting better. Win or lose, I am so very sad and angry that this racist, misogynist, Hitlerian POS is thought of as anything but the malignant narcissist he is by a lot of the citizens of this struggling country.

We have work to do, bigtree and all y’all. A lot of work.

[Elessar Zappa]

68. Believe it or not, I do think we're getting better.

Certainly, the racists have been given permission to be their hateful selves but I truly believe younger generations are less racist than ever (gen Z and millennials). I’m very impressed by young people. Most of them are accepting of lgbtq, including trans rights. So I think things are getting better even if it’s not obvious.

[nolabear]

71. On my better days I believe you.

I often say “Louder does not equal larger.” I need to remember that myself sometimes.

[RussellCattle]

47. "Our actual joy". There it is. That's why we'll win this in the end.

[Martin68]

48. Racist assholes.

[slightlv]

52. After the last decade, I understand a little...

Never did I ever think I'd be having to fight the same fights I fought at 16, 17, and 18 years old and older for women's right not to be some man's property. Yet, here we are, right back there again. Granted, there are a few of the rights we fought for we still have for the present moment, but I expect if we don't get the magats back under the rocks from which they came, those will be stripped from us, too.

To me, it just speaks to what I've said forever, it seems... no matter who we are, we have to stick together. Rights stripped from one of us, will see it stripped from another group. It's only in joining together in a coalition and fighting as hard for one another as we fight for ourselves that we can win.

The R's beat us on this, IMO... but they did it on the evil side of things. You've got white supremacists and neo-nazis, militias and extreme religious fanatics all joining together in a coalition (a cult) called Maga under the rulership of one evil man. It would be interesting to see which among these groups of evils outdoes the others, if only the rest of us didn't have to pay the price.

Until then, any more "million XXX march" should encompass each and everyone of us, standing shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm with each other. Because each one of us has one goal -- to build a more perfect union where every person is guaranteed the rights and privileges of being an American, where opportunity is a level playing field for everyone, and where every voice is heard and no one is silenced any longer.

[NHvet]

55. When I was in the 8th grade, we moved from St Louis Mo to Nashville Tn

Once there, I was enrolled in a white neighborhood school (Donelson area) in Nashville. That year they were integrated the schools and my first day of school was met with protests by the whites of the blacks kids that were being bused in. There weren't many and after a few weeks things quieted down. The following year it was reverse busing and I was one of the white students chosen to attend a previously all black school in the inner city (Cameron). What an eye opening experience for a 13-14 yr old. The stark contrast between the schools, supplies, and general safety wasn't what I was used to. We ere lucky if the toilets worked, or if the windows kept out the cold. I found out quick that safety was in numbers and found a home on the football team. Joining that team saved me that year as my teammates kept me out of harms way. The following year we moved back to St Louis, but to this day, I still remember the shouting, cursing of the white parents screaming at school kids just because they were a different color. I shames me that we've allowed ourselves to have not progressed away from those days of 50 years ago.

[ChazInAz]

56. Amen, brother Bigtree.

[PurgedVoter]

57. Years ago I talked with an Elderly Korean Gentleman

He was quite offended by the entire black love of watermelon thing. He told me it was entirely wrong. He explained that Koreans, love watermelon more than anyone else. He said it was their blood to love melons.

[Evolve Dammit]

60. Thank you. Great post.

[Skittles]

61. excellent post

thank you

[spanone]

63. K&R

[Demovictory9]

64. Kick

[Hekate]

66. They were yukking it up and I wanted to up-chuck. I'm sure you heard the misogyny as well.

They hate you and me. The hatred is so palpable. If Kamala loses, I am convinced it is not going to be so much the racism as the misogyny — the utter loathing of women, especially those who refuse to know “their place”

I noticed something about MAGA and Trumpistas: there appears to be a certain class of human being that desperately wants other human beings to look down upon, to degrade and impoverish, to remove all bodily rights from, to remove even the right to flee. They want the return of slavery. But this time, it will be explicitly about women — with laws (especially zombie laws) replicating aspects of Black slavery.

I noticed something about the majority of the SCOTUS: they are explicitly trying to undo the second half of the 20th century. All the social progress. For you — and for me. They despise anyone who isn’t them — in other words, us.

Us.

[Desert Dog]

70. Boldness equal to the challenge

Once we win this election, we need to be ready to do whatever is required to fix this. Obviously, we aren't fixing anything, but we have to turn back the tide. The last 8 years has destroyed so much progress. We need drastic action to push racists back into the shadows - and make their racism revolting again. A better world would not have Stephen Miller on cable news. Ever.

I have a AA co-worker that I used to chat with all the time. I really appreciated her perspective and how it forced me to think about "it" different. We are not as close anymore. Trump really sent her into a spin. She refuses to even waste a second of her consciousness on Orange Foolius. I used to think his rise was a fluke - as a result of his TV image. I just did not get why she wasn't more optimistic. Progress seemed slow, but with a 40 year perspective, I could see it getting better. Then Trump came. She was right. It is way bigger than Trump. We now have a new generation of mouth breathers who must degrade others to derive any self worth.

I grew up in an area with very few AA residents. The racism I saw was directed at Mexicans. While my parents did not display any racism, they did not play a big role in my mentality. I do remember my Dad talking about and being proud of integration in the service. I think my Dad also understood what being the outsider was like. Not to compare it in any way on equal terms, but in his neighborhood without blacks, HE was the outsider. He is old now and we have lost him to petty racism. Maybe the work ethic of rando Craigslist workers is not related to their ethnic heritage? I digress..

I was raised by my sisters and that shit was never going to be accepted. I am so thankful of their influence. My two older brothers are bigots - on some level. Oldest is straight up racist. Middle brother hates Jews. My friends dad was a retired Chicago police officer and I have never encountered someone so racist. The shit that used to come out of his mouth. In our house we used to use him as an example of what NOT to be. I fear that if my peer group was not as strong, I might have been influenced to go the other way. In today's landscape where it is being amplified and reinforced, it feels like this fight will never end.

Joe Biden was a great President. The perfect calming presence after the Trumpster fire. He would never be the right person for bold race changes (or Scotus). VP Harris will be that person. Assuming Senate and House, we must kill the fillibuster. We also should make court changes asap. It is game on folks. We will call it the "McConnell Doctrine". We need every advantage we have and understand the pee sized brains that America has for political history. In two years - nobody will remember these changes.

If the GOP is going to try and install their king with House hijnx, We better be ready to fight that with all our fiber. This might be a good time for Biden to use his new found immunity. Any GOP house member who does not certify the election results should be dragged off the House floor and arrested. Crazy? Sure.. Who are we dealing with here folks? Another idea? After the election, we should have a military exercise around the Capitol. Thousands of troops with high powered rifles flowing out of the underground corridors of all those DC buildings. The pitch would be - THIS is what should have happened on Jan 6th. Maga creeps think they can waltz into DC for another round? Let's give them something to think about. If GOP thinks they can steal another presidency - we better be ready for whatever it takes to prevent that. There will be no Coup II. Biden should now have the power to do whatever he can to prevent that.

Finally, Ask for Garland's resignation the day after the election. Also full pardon for Hunter. The selective enforcement of those laws was absurd. Hunter was metaphorically tortured in the public square - to get at his father. I expect Harris will get a real prosecutor - instead of a placater.

[Bluethroughu]

72. I will say my kids would not even understand the joke.

They are in their 20's. They would ask, what's so funny about a watermelon.


This IS the dying of the biggot, by their own noose around their neck. The future IS moving forward without them.

[usonian]

75. Some "hearts and minds" can't be changed, but we can change LAWS. Let's do it NOW.

https://democraticunderground.com/100216524810

The best, the ONLY cure to WhiteChristianNationalism, race baiting, mysogyny, etc. is WINNING

This is from the epilogue of "Stamped From the Beginning", by Ibram X Kendi.
Emphasis mine:

Protesting against racist power and succeeding can never be mistaken for seizing power. Any effective solution to eradicating American racism must involve Americans committed to antiracist policies seizing and maintaining power over institutions, neighborhoods, counties, states, nations—the world. It makes no sense to sit back and put the future in the hands of people committed to racist policies, or people who regularly sail with the wind of self-interest, toward racism today, toward antiracism tomorrow. An antiracist America can only be guaranteed if principled antiracists are in power, and then antiracist policies become the law of the land, and then antiracist ideas become the common sense of the people, and then the antiracist common sense of the people holds those antiracist leaders and policies accountable.

And that day is sure to come. No power lasts forever. There will come a time when Americans will realize that the only thing wrong with Black people is that they think something is wrong with Black people. There will come a time when racist ideas will no longer obstruct us from seeing the complete and utter abnormality of racial disparities. There will come a time when we will love humanity, when we will gain the courage to fight for an equitable society for our beloved humanity, knowing , intelligently, that when we fight for humanity, we are fighting for ourselves. There will come a time. Maybe, just maybe, that time is now.

[applegrove]

76. Did your mom have to turn the melons? My dad had a summer

Last edited Mon Oct 28, 2024, 09:36 PM - Edit history (2)

job on his uncle's farm turning Montreal Melons which he was really bad at. His uncle would get every angry at him when he broke the stems.

And in saying that I am completely aware that my Dad's story, because he is white and privileged, is just a melon story and not necessary political context like your mom's joyous melon story, taking back the words from racists. What shame the Madison Square Garden event was. Thought that trope was being lost to time.

[Iris]

83. Thank you for telling your mom's story here. They cannot take the joy and wonderfulness away from you.

[mdbl]

88. Now we know what they look like without their sheets on

[electric_blue68]

89. My parents esp my mom taught us to be non-racists...

With her I think it was a mix of 2 experiences. One of her favorite cousins about 15 yrs younger had a very cruel mother. Mom hated cruelty.
Then she was a First Gen American both her parents were Greek Immigrants. Watching the Civil Rights Actions in The South of the '60's up here in NYC of people African-Americans who's roots went back hundreds of years; while she was a "newbie" being treated well, while they were treated so cruely rankled her sense of fairness, and justice.

She also told us that racism existed here -up here in NYC. She'd give examples.

Both of my parents welcomed my friends - White, Black, Chinese, Catholic, Christian, Jewish, (religious identification wasn't a point of discussion, or a gauge), probably an Aethiest or two in there.
I never heard any kind of slurs from them.

I've read that each generation of white kids are less racist, or more are non-rascist.

It's probably still true despite the rocks that drumphf turned over, and gave to virulent racists permission to spew their poisons! It's been hideous to catch some of their comments to be aware of what's happening.

Hopefully we'll send drumphf & Co packing! Their sewage back underground, and keep making Our USA the fairer place we aspire to. Our black citizens, friends, co-workers, acquaintences, can begin to truly relax more as first-class citizenship will become more of their reality!

[Jack Valentino]

90. I am white and I don't believe that any black American loves watermelon

any more than I do!!!


And I doubt that any black American would carve a watermelon for Halloween,
any more than I would (unless they had no alternative)


Stupid, ignorant stereotyping. They are not helping themselves with this shit.



WE WILL WIN!!!!!

[AllyCat]

91. Absolutely terrible Republicans and the people laughing along.

I’m so sorry this has happened. We have so far to go.

[UpInArms]

95. I weep for the loss of all that is good

I am more than appalled that this hideous odious hatefulness has not just seeped, but shrieked into the discourse …

I feel that I have stumbled into a monstrous nightmare and find myself wide awake … trembling with a fear that I cannot name … a stain that cannot be scrubbed …

I will spend the remainder of my days working to stop this blight upon the world.

[DSandra]

98. These bigots love to use the first amendment as a shield...

But the first amendment doesn't protect defamation and other speech intended to cause harm. They want the right to spout slander, libel, and hate speech that is malicious in nature.