How a Southern white boy unlearned racism

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Sunday May 24, 2015 · 12:01 PM PDT

2015/05/24 · 12:01

I am going to give in to Denise Oliver Velez's request to turn a comment into a diary. The aversion to length (TL;DR) is a peculiar modern affliction, but I will make it easier for people who suffer from it primarily because this issue is so important.

Southern segregation prior to the 1960s and automobility was different from segregation outside the South in that it was a matter of legal institutions and enforced with occasional violence. Being institutional, it was a matter of status and not geography. In fact, having black workers closeby was an advantage. The geographical segregation then was widely distributed and on a micro-scale instead of being the huge segregated neighborhoods of the big cities or the concentrated black communities of lesser non-Southern cities.

My wife, who is from Michigan experience the black customers of her grand-dad's garage in Benton Harbor as "shadow people" and first met a black person face-to-face in a church program at the age of 13. A good number of my earliest friends growing up had black domestic servants (called "maids") who looked after their employers' children all day -- and that included any friends of those children. I cannot remember a world without black people in it an close by. So much so that when in the mid-1970s I moved from Atlanta to Green Bay it took me a while to figure out why the city felt so strange. You never saw black people on the street, but you occasionally saw a black man or a black family driving a Mercedes. That's a strange awakening to yet another aspect of racism.

My take on how I unlearned the racism that I have so far unlearned is below the orange curlicue.

TarheelDem

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Sunday November 16, 2014 · 8:56 AM PST

2014/11/16 · 08:56

A slaveowner-dominated society is for all its democratic pretensions a totalitarian society that cannot allow contrary notions. For those whites who think they were not involved, the most important involvement of all white people over the past 150 years is maintaining the silence and reinforcing the denial. And propping up the institutions that maintain the silence. It is time we broke that silence and let those who want us to go back to that time of blatant white privilege that we will not go back.

This is a comment on Denise Oliver Velez's diary on the internal US slave trade that persisted until the end of the Civil War.

TarheelDem

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Sunday September 28, 2014 · 12:42 PM PDT

2014/09/28 · 12:42

Denise Oliver-Velez asked me to put this long comment in a diary. Here it is with just a tiny bit of expansion.

Let's start with this accurate perception:

An interdisciplinary team examines the mainstreaming of the New Dixie movement, whose calls range from full secession to the racist exaltation of “Celtic” Americans and whose advocates can be found far north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

A National Movement Cloaked in Pseudo-Traditional Symbols
Contrary to most analysis, what I see is a new reactionary movement drawing members from earlier movements and cloaking itself in yet another pseudo-historical narrative and in this case a pseudo-geographical reference.

Instead of being more popular in the South, it seems to be popular across the nation with a certain socio-economic and cultural group that might be more heavily Scotch-Irish in identity but certainly include as lot of mutts of the English, German, and even French Cajun and French Huguenot identities. I say "mutts" because few ancestries in the previously multicultural US of the 1950s through 1990s have escaped the melting pot.

Far north of the Mason-Dixon line, far west of the Mississippi River, and far northwest of the junction of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri. And not necessarily identified directly with SPLC "neo-Confederate" groups like the League of the South. It is, in fact, an echoing theme within the establishment of the Republican Party. Rick Perry is just the spokesperson.

TarheelDem

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Friday September 26, 2014 · 8:24 AM PDT

2014/09/26 · 08:24

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune

Regardless of the outcome of the US election, any elections in Europe, Australia, New Zealand--or even India, Pakistan, and China, the Washington consensus and neoliberal capitalism prevail as the current imagination of the global economy. Global climate change is occurring with zero response from the people who have the power and resources that could mitigate or even reverse this fossil-fuel-caused climate trend. Indeed spending the natural savings accout of environmental services, natural materials (non-renewable and renewable), and fossil fuels seems to be accelerated in one vast binge of "Drill, baby, drill. Mine, baby, mine. Burn, baby, burn." consumption constrained only by the lower consumer demand that results from the mass impoverishment of ordinary people around the world. Privatization of infrastructure continues to be the policy direction of US Democrats and Republicans, European conservatives, social democrats, and socialists and global institutions are being rigged to force the privatization of health care systems, transportation systems, water systems, sanitation systems, education systems, and even income security systems in every country of the world. Whether pending international agreements to lock this system down are signed, ratified and implemented, these agreements -- Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA), and redundant systems of interlocking bilateral free trade agreements -- a lot of their provisions will be the operating assumptions of the world's finance ministers and governments. Clearly the emphasis is to continue to shortchange public infrastructure maintenance and privatize the infrastructure assets.

TarheelDem

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Sunday February 09, 2014 · 10:13 AM PST

2014/02/09 · 10:13

Crossposted at Firedoglake

I've been asked by several people to reflect on the verdict in the NATO 3 trial as best as my circumstances permit. Because my circumstances are not unique to people who have dissented or journalists (citizen-journals or professional journalists) who have covered dissent in the US, I will attempt to highlight what I see as the broader implications within my limited knowledge of Illinois and Chicago laws and politics.

TarheelDem

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Thursday December 26, 2013 · 11:26 AM PST

2013/12/26 · 11:26

Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan argues that in a state of nature human nature is to be such that life is nasty, brutish, and short and that the corporate state (the Leviathan and Hobbes included the famous picture on the frontispiece of his book) is the implied social contract that provides protection and establishes civilization. For Hobbes, there was not alternative to the absolute ruler. Fortunately for us, Hobbes, kicked off a debate that still goes on as the the "natural" (today we would likely say "sustainable") elements of government.

Goliath is the giant Philistine warrior in the the Biblical Old Testament Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 17), killed by the youth and future king David by as stone launched from a slingshot that one version of modern critical analysis asserts caught in Goliath's gr eaves, causing him to stumble and allowing David to behead him. The structure of the story is such to provide the impression that the Philistines had let their main weapon go far ahead of the ranks of troops in order to make short shrift of the romantic war-crazed youth. Regardless of the historical detail, the traditional reading is one of the action of Yahweh.

Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel is the name of Max Blumenthal's recent book. In in it, he cites the many cases in which the State of Israel's representatives argue that there is no alternative to their imperfect (they concede) solution to the conflict in Israel/Palestine.

Detroit and Jerusalem are both cities that have experience multi-decade ethnic cleansing through laws and money beyond their borders and corrupt politicians in public office.

Poll

13 votes Show Results

Have you read Max Blumenthal's Goliath?

13 votes Vote Now!

Have you read Max Blumenthal's Goliath?

Yes

2 votes

3 votes

On library hold list

1 vote

Later I hope

2 votes

Not likely

5 votes

A Citizen's Proposal: Presidential Commission on National Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism

TarheelDem

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Monday June 10, 2013 · 6:49 AM PDT

2013/06/10 · 06:49

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have called for the creation of a commission like the Church Commission to investigate allegations of para-Constitutional but legal use of mass surveillance on US citizens. The Church Commission actually had a broader mandate and so should any current commission.

This proposal seeks the most practical way to honestly and truthfully deal with allegations that have arisen against national intelligence and counter-terrorism operations of the US government.

So, comment away.

TarheelDem

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Thursday June 07, 2012 · 10:02 AM PDT

2012/06/07 · 10:02

or
Report from Chicago Spring: Thank You for Returning My Shoelaces and Belt. Now Can You Please Find My Drivers License and Computer?: My Experience Being Detained Prior to the NATO Summit

Crossposted from Firedoglake

I had returned from attending a book signing by Kevin Gosztola of his book Truth and Consequences: The U.S. vs. Bradley Manning and arrived back at the Halsted El station in Bridgeport, Chicago around 10:00 pm. I took the bus to within five blocks of the apartment that was housing a number of protesters for the upcoming protest of NATO on May 20. When I climbed the back stairs to the second floor apartment, I met two people on the second floor porch I had not seen before. A guy with a black bushy beard introduced himself as Turk and said that the lady in the hoodie with him was his cousin Nadia.

After introducing myself, I went inside and told folks who had been staying there about Kevin’s book signing and sat down at the table. While I was seated at the table, Turk came to chat some more and said his name was Mo and then went to join the other folks in the living room of the apartment.

I was tired and went to sleep in my sleeping bag on the kitchen floor while the others were talking and partying in the front room.

I awoke to the sound of a loud bang near me and the shout of “Police!” As I opened my eyes to see what was going on, I was staring into the muzzle of an automatic handgun held by one officer and a flashlight shining in my face, held by another officer. They ordered me to stand up, and helped me get out of the sleeping bag when I complied. They told me to hold my hands up and spread my legs while they frisked me and then ordered me to put my hands behind my back as they led me by the arm into the living room where the others were standing, legs apart, hands behind their backs, and heads resting against the wall. We were frisked again; the officer who frisked me felt the chest belt of my heart monitor and the strap of my money belt (called in the inventory a “fanny pack”). He searched through the money belt and found my drivers license, Medicare card, senior discount transit IDs, and a CTA 30-day fare card. He took the drivers license and left the rest and left me wearing my money belt.

TarheelDem for National Security Kos

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Monday February 14, 2011 · 4:13 AM PST

2011/02/14 · 04:13

Welcome to National Security Kos. The focus of this group is on national security policies in a period of transition from institutions that supported the Cold War to institutions that more closely fit the current position of the US in the world. Consider this an invitation to also become a contributor to the group.

And now, the first diary.

Paul Starobin in After America: Narratives for the New Global Age says that the foreign policy of the Bush administration had the effect of ending US ability to enforce a Pax Americana. The world after Bush knows that the US was not the hyperpower it seemed to be after the end of the Cold War. This new situation is full of new opportunities and new perils for each alternative that might succeed a US-dominated world.

Among the alternatives are:
1. A China-dominated world
2. International chaos and a new Dark Age of warlord alliances
3. Evolution of a world government
4. Devolution into city-states
5. A distributed system of regional security pacts
6. Regional and global balances among the major powers - China, India, European Union, US, Russia, Indonesia, and so on - as economic development results in high-population nations becoming new military powers.
7. Continued and failed US insistence on being the indispensable global actor.

No doubt there are other narratives.

What say you?

The question for discussion is what are the possible scenarios for what follows the American Century.

Poll

11 votes Show Results

What is the most likely global security environment for the next decade?

11 votes Vote Now!

What is the most likely global security environment for the next decade?

Continuation of American dominance

2 votes

Transition to dominance by China

1 vote

Emergence of a world government

2 votes

Collapse into chaos internationally

1 vote

Devolution into ethnic regions

1 vote

Devolution into city states

0 votes

Interlocking regional security pacts

4 votes

Other (explain in a comment)

0 votes

A Modest Proposal

TarheelDem

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Friday November 05, 2010 · 3:01 PM PDT

2010/11/05 · 15:01

John. Yes, you John Boehner. Can we talk? About the spending cuts for which you seem not to have details? Here is a modest proposal that cuts $813.551 billion from the budget in cuts to discretionary and mandatory spending. True to your campaign promise, it does not affect elders' Social Security or Medicare. And it does not make significant cuts in national defense. Could you maybe offer this as the Republican plan for spending cuts? Just a modest proposal.

For details, look after the jump.

TarheelDem

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Friday January 01, 2010 · 11:57 AM PST

2010/01/01 · 11:57

In 1996, Bill Clinton and Al Gore ran on the slogan of "Building the Bridge to the 21st Century". Fourteen years later we wonder if we will ever get off that bridge and get into the 21st century. Not chronologically, for the rhetoric of new centuries is not about the rolling over of a clock. But the promise of transformation. For Clinton and Gore, building that bridge meant the internet, more money for education, and personal responsibility for grabbing opportunities and acting as citizens. Kinda pathetic for a millennial bridge, isn't it? More and more the public mood is, well where is it? Where are my opportunities? Where is it that my taking responsibility as a citizen actually does anything?

TarheelDem

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Thursday September 17, 2009 · 7:25 AM PDT

2009/09/17 · 07:25

This diary was a comment in Troutfishing's provocative diary Try Fitting This In Your "the right is racist!" Conceptual Box.

Chris Houghton worked for a local conservative radio station. His appearance was a publicity stunt. Just like the appearance of Clarence Thomas, Michael Steele, and Ron Christie are publicity stunts for the conservative movement. Just like the election of J.C. Watts was a publicity stunt for the Oklahoma GOP. They are all hired folks whose primary purpose to the conservative and the GOP is to muddy the waters about the hidden and overt racism that the party has been exploiting as a campaign strategy since Richard Nixon ran in 1968.

If Chris Houghton were say, the conservative owner of a garage or a small business owner, one could argue your point more persuasively.

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How a Southern white boy unlearned racism

Breaking the White Silence

Michigan Already Knows This: The New Dixie Movement is About the Deep Blue States

Infrastructure Is the Current Revolution

Reflections on the Verdict in the NATO 3 Trial

Leviathan and Goliath - Detroit and Jerusalem

A Citizen's Proposal: Presidential Commission on National Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism

My Experience Being Detained Prior to the NATO Summit: UPDATED

National Security Kos: After American Dominance

A Modest Proposal

Where is my New Millennium?

Racism and the GOP