Blacks Invent Sayings But "Ignorance Is Bliss" Ain't One

We went west.

White conservatives - who say it's racist for blacks to discuss race because it makes whites uncomfortable - don't understand this country, it's history, The Republican Party, American blacks, or The Civil Rights Movement. If they did, they wouldn't be trying to change it all to their vision, when they know it's outdated.

"We had been dealing with, had been made and mangled by, another machinery altogether. It had never been in our interest to overthrow it. It had been necessary to make the machinery work for our benefit and the possibility of its doing so had been, so to speak, built in."

Because white conservatives  generally, "don't think about race" (and, thus, have done little about it) even the kids have a skewed vision. Like their too-many-documentary-watching parents, they, too, imagine black history is ancient history, so everybody's dead:

"A member of the Little Rock Nine fielded questions on the ongoing battle to end racism last week at a gathering of Huntington Beach middle and high school students born well after school segregation became illegal.

'When did segregation officially end?' one student asked.

'The truth of the matter is we're still working on it,' civil rights pioneer Terrence Roberts replied.

...He told the students he was beaten daily at school but that he and the other black students refused to respond with violence.

'The kids at Central didn't respect that,' Roberts said. 'They didn't appreciate the nuances of nonviolence. They simply saw us as stationary targets.'"

The All-Knowing Oracles Of The Racial Apocalypse.

A civil rights veteran says white conservatives can't "appreciate the nuances"? Well, if they didn't in the past, how can they, today, when the Right openly says they are "colorblind"? Terrence Roberts, the still-living civil rights legend, has it all wrong - there's no "ongoing battle to end racism" for white conservatives. They've got old fashioned racism again. And I'm a witness. 

Recently, TMR was compelled to show the history of "colorblind" racism, just as Slate's Jamelle Bouie was compelled to explain it's adherent's motivations - two blacks at the same time - so, I've got an inkling, white conservatives are still practicing racism, while, maybe, not understanding exactly how they're doing it.

"The problem is that 'I don’t have a racist bone in my body' only makes sense if your definition of racism stops at personal animus. If that’s true, then yes, I’m sure that most people lack racist bones.

But let’s broaden our horizons a bit. If we think of 'racism' as material harm—or anything that furthers racial stereotypes—then it doesn’t require anyone to hold hatred or show explicit bias. Bob Dole’s support for the South African regime wasn’t racist because he hated black people; it was racist because it bolstered a racist government. Likewise, if Paul Ryan committed a racial offense, it was to perpetuate ugly ideas about low-income black men.

In other words, the only reason to say 'I don’t have a racist bone in my body' is to change the subject: from what someone said or did to who he is. Indeed, when it comes to race, it’s much easier for people to talk about their boundless tolerance than it is to own up to their actions."

Glenn Reynolds on holiday - for no particular reason.

One student asked Roberts what remains a difficult question: How do you end discrimination?

Roberts said the answers begin with individual change.

'You have to ask yourself, "In what way am I perpetuating this ideology of racism?"' Roberts said. 'If you find out that you are involved in that, what are you willing to do to stop it?'"

The Projects - "a monument to the folly, and the cowardice, of good intentions."

Many white conservatives won't do what Terrence Roberts suggests, from what I can see, mostly because A) their skewed vision paints them as proud heroes for even associating with blacks - which is obvious South African-type racism - and B) they know there's no way to hold whites accountable for what they're doing - without enormous risk to black people - in today's still-white-dominated environment. I know this from experience - white's exploit opportunities for pure racism. As Bill Burr said, it's subtle, quiet, and comes with I'm-not-racist disclaimers, because those are the "nuances" of race whites understand. 

And they do practice it.

You are so cool to do this.

White conservative's culture, of ignorantly looking down on blacks, hovers over and around the country - just as whites physically do blacks - not understanding that, usually, most black's attempts to buck that culture are not because we agree racism's "over", but because of the racist enforced-poverty white conservatives also force on us. 

That's what this is, ultimately, all about.

White conservatives think they can win from losing.

Being around white conservative's ignorance, alone, is life-threatening to blacks, but white conservatives can't know that, since they don't want to be told. But blacks know. Just as white conservatives refuse to change, the problem doesn't either. It's as American as apple pie, baseball, and broken promises.

  "12 Years a Slave doesn't see slavery as a trial that men must overcome on their way to being men, but as a systemic evil that leaves those in its grasp with no good choices."

White supremacy is a house on fire

Like most people, I was deeply moved by last week's video of Curtis Reissig's courage, but - as I said on Althouse - it was haunting:

 "That's like black life - with spectators.



Never sure if the ladder's going to show up, though,…" 

Another commenter added:

"It seems to me the guy *could* have jumped down to the ground, via successive leaps to porches. Not a safe way down, for sure, but he wasn't doomed if the fire truck hadn't shown up."

Why is this man grinning?

And that, I added, would be "just like black life,…" because it is. Left alone to handle "your" problem, of whatever you tried to build on going up in flames - a problem caused by someone else - but it's only the black person who, somehow, has to "escape"? That's normal for us. Black parents live with it, daily. But, after the recent spate of black lynchings, why would white conservatives in America consider, in 2014, that black "success" is still, proudly, measured in staying alive? 

This should be in the Pledge Of Allegiance.

They don't want to know. It's too different from white life, in this so-called "post-racial" world, where how much money they make/exploit remains the mark of achievement. Even Althouse's supposedly-educated commenters can't comprehend the basics.

  "Why are blacks so dependent on other people's good wills? The ladder may never show up, so deal with it. Build your own ladder, jump, take a chance.

...Only black liberals, black poverty pimps dwell on things happened centuries ago to exploit the current situation.,…"

Althouse commenters are so "open" about their feelings. 

Can anyone deny, almost no matter what whites do, if they imagine the problem was "centuries ago" - but blacks must "deal with it" today - that shows white conservatives have no awareness of what we "poverty pimps" have always been doing with whites? Isn't yelling "stop playing the victim" what whites have always said to blacks? Isn't this the white conservative's answer to Terrence Roberts' challenge to "ask yourself, 'In what way am I perpetuating this ideology of racism?'" - when outnumbering blacks 6 to 1? 

"Think on your feet, Rabbit"

And, as we do "deal with it", is it any wonder we don't also welcome (and aren't grateful for) advice we receive, on being "happy" about the situation whites have - repeatedly - put us in?



Inspired by a Parliament/Funkadelic concert.

"Racism works for the Republican Party in the short-term. Ironically, the Republican Party's name brand as a white identity organization in post civil rights America, and efforts to further expand its white voting base, will enable the GOP to lose by winning."

Do conservative whites own mirrors - or are they like vampires?

As Wisconsin Senator Paul Ryan's recent comments suggest, I've met whites who seem to think there's something wrong with blacks, simply because whites still can't imagine anything wrong with themselves.  How could white supremacists know any different? They tell themselves it was their ancestors, long ago, who have nothing to do with how whites behave today. Today, the problem is elsewhere - just as their ancestors said - but, since whites don't want to know different, who knew?

"Jehu Grant was a Rhode Island slave who escaped the bondage of his anglophile master to join the fight for American independence. He was in his eighth month of service in George Washington’s Continental Army when the military returned him to his owner. Years later, Grant obtained his freedom papers and, as an 80 year old indigent man who’d lost his eyesight, he applied for the military annuity authorized in the Pension Act of 1832. His appeal was denied because the War Department determined that a slave could not also be a soldier. Despite a commitment to America’s founding principles and a mortal fight for liberty, he was denied capital gain by the very nation in which he’d literally placed his blind trust."

He's trusting the nation will be good to him.

That's the nation and history white conservatives blindly support. But what do blacks see if our trust in this nation is not blind? Whites who think they're different. Not just from their forefathers but everyone. And, just like their racist forefathers, they see "animals" where people are. Again - I'm a witness.

  "Sub-human is a term that became infamous when the Nazis used it to describe 'inferior people' such as Communists, Bolsheviks and 'the masses from the East,' that is Jews, Gypsies, and Slavic peoples including Poles, Serbs, Belarusians, Russians, and Rusyns. The term was also applied to black people and Mulattos,…" 

The Ten Commandments by Spike Lee

Unlike most blacks, I've had a front seat to not only Ted Nugent saying it, but Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds saying it (even after the Ted Nugent brouhaha!) and commenters - like the Dust Bunny Queen and edutcher - saying it. History tells me the Tea Party's definitely something to worry about when it's politicians, entertainers, internet leaders, and numerous caucasian commenters feel free to openly talk like Nazis. 

This statement makes her different.

What they refuse to understand is - while there is a cultural uniformity there, including in how I, as a member of their "subhuman" species responds to it - they are now representatives of America's racist elite, who don't have blacks - or America's - well-being at heart. It's those of us, reacting to them, who do.

“We can’t trust white men North or South to shape thoughts for us. We must do it ourselves.”

There's no going back.

"They tried to make me go to rehab but I said, 'No, no, no.' Yes, I've been black but when I come back you'll know, know, know."

No history, no culture, no problem - easy.

Really, what's their point? In the context of America's history, white conservatives can't tell us. Because they don't know. That's why they need history gone. 

Like blacks have never had other things to do.

Some want blacks dead, on trumped-up charges, so they can finally be comfortable,...with the spoils from slavery, they deny this nation was built on, and support in pretending blacks don't deserve. That's my "colorblind" theory, anyway, because that, alone, will be the end result if they're successful. More crime.

What it's like to want a job.

So, we'll push on for justice, with or without them. As we always have. They can get mad if they want to. Living with them is, still, life and death and a massive theft. We know this. We won't stop. Their disgust at our actions are nothing new. 

Neither are the results.

"Our cultural attitudes are unconsciously shaped by our collective history as much as they are consciously shaped by our current context. When you consider the death penalty as a tool of racial control—a way for whites to “defend” themselves from blacks—then Pew’s poll results make sense. What we’re looking at is the inevitable result of that history expressed through public opinion, and influenced by racialized ideas on crime and criminality.

If you’re still skeptical, consider this: In 2007, two researchers tried to gauge racial differences on capital punishment and assess how blacks and whites responded to arguments against the practice. Their core findings with black Americans weren’t a surprise—in general, blacks were receptive to any argument against the death penalty.

Their findings with whites, on the other hand, were disturbing. Not only where whites immune to persuasion on the death penalty, but when researchers told them of the racial disparity—that blacks faced unfair treatment—many increased their support.

It sounds glib, but if you needed a one-word answer to why whites are so supportive of the death penalty, 'racism' isn’t a bad choice."

Welcome.

As I said, the white conservatives lack of self-awareness, of themselves as individuals AND the situation white America's created, is deadly. But only to blacks like me.

This is not a promise to be believed.

So excuse me if I - as a "poverty pimp" - won't wait for whites to admit that since, I'm aware, they don't wanna know,….