Malcolm Xmas

"Anti-black violence was a regular feature of African-American life throughout the Jim Crow South, and especially in Louisiana. [Duck Dynasty's Phil] Robertson's recollection is a tremendous whitewash that would be stunning if not for the sad reality of our national memory. For as much as Americans celebrate the lives of men like Martin Luther King Jr. and women like Rosa Parks, there's little awareness of what Jim Crow looked like for ordinary blacks. The quotidian violence that defined the era — from forced labor camps to attacks on whole communities — has vanished from our collective consciousness, if it was ever there to begin with.

It's no wonder we don't want to talk about Phil Robertson's other, impolitic comment, since — when it comes to remembering the past — he's just like the rest of us."