Think what you will of Senator Mary Landrieu, but she's right on at least two things -
“I’ll be very, very honest with you. The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans,” the senator told Todd. “It’s been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader.”
Landrieu also said that Louisiana was a tough place for women as well. “It’s not always been a good place for women to present ourselves,” she added. “It’s more of a conservative place.”
As soon as those words were uttered, the backlash began.
Republicans from across Louisiana and elsewhere quickly demanded apologies for Landrieu's statements.
Naturally, Fox News went wild.
That is when Senator Landrieu lost all hope of being re-elected. A vote on the Keystone Pipeline was not going to save her. After pulling the covers off America's inconvenient truths - nothing would.
Republicans know that yesterday's vote on forcing the President to approve the pipeline was not the final say. They can wait.
The new Republican controlled Senate will be sworn into office in two short months. In 2015 the new Senate will once again vote on a bill for the construction of the Keystone pipeline.
Mary Landrieu will not be there to vote "Aye." Her opponent in December's run off election, Rep. Bill Cassidy, is leading by double digits.
Above all else, speaking the truth about racism and sexism in Louisiana and the South will deny Landrieu the re-election.
Her position as a United States Senator will end because far too many Americans can not, will not, face America's Cardinal Sins.
And yet, face them we must if we are ever to become what our ideals promise.
As difficult as it is, a conversation on the dark threads of racism and sexism woven through our Nation's history and present, is one we can not avoid.
It can be threatening to step outside our known reality and grasp another one.
It takes willingness, thought, caring, and determination to understand how structurally racist and sexist our society is, the messages it sends out, and how, through no fault of our own, the best of us can absorb those messages.
It is deeply unsettling, if not down right horrifying, to realize ugly assumptions run around somewhere in our lizard brains that we would never knowingly choose.
It is equally as unsettling to look at America's long history of racism and sexism.
We can feel tainted through no fault of our own. Our sense of self, our sense of our Country can shatter.
It can feel like we are walking through a broken mirror into the unknown.
But there is no choice but to do so if we are truly to be all that we hope for.
We can't wait for this conversation any longer. Far too many dreams and lives have all ready been broken.
Some time in the next few days and weeks, a Grand Jury in Missouri will decide whether the shooting of another young black man was justified.
The Governor of Missouri has declared a State of Emergency in presumption of public reaction to the Grand Jury's decision.
Everywhere comments are being made about fears of rioting.
That is always the assumption, isn't it?
I've seen it here.
I've seen comments accusing Black Leaders of inciting violence.
Writers expressing such sentiments have never bothered to learn about the Black Leaders and residents who have been fighting for peace and justice since Michael Brown was murdered. One of them is St. Louis Alderman, Antonio French.
Those who presume violence is the wanted reaction to a Grand Jury decision have never heard of Mr. French. If they had cared to really understand what was going on in Ferguson, Mo - they would have discovered French's unceasing work for healing, peace, and justice in the days, weeks, and months following the death of Michael Brown. He is far from the only one.
Instead, far too many have assumed the worst of a beleaguered community. They assume that their fear and anger at the very idea of people of color supposedly rioting is justified.
And I wondered about that.
I wondered if they will ever look at the assumptions they have made.
I wondered if they will ever look at how the term "rioting" is used and to whom it is applied.
Did women "riot" as they marched and fought for the right to vote? Were we militant and deserving of arrest?
Did peaceful Civil Rights marchers "riot" when dogs and hoses were set upon them?
How many of us would remain quiet, how many of us wouldn't be angry if those we loved were hurt, treated as less than human, if we feared for their very lives each and every day?
What would we do if Justice, subverted for centuries, still was denied?
What if this had happened to our grandfather?
What if our communities had been destroyed and our neighbors murdered?
Banished - How Whites Drove Blacks Out of Town in America
What if riot charges against those who had driven our families out with fire and blood had been dropped?
DA Moves to Dismiss 1921 Riot Charges for all Defendants
TULSA, Okla., December 1, 2007 – Eighty-six years after the infamous June 1, 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris plans to file a motion to dismiss charges of “riot” brought by a Tulsa County grand jury against 55 defendants.
Harris said he decided to file the motion “in the best interest of justice”. A hearing on the motion is scheduled December 11 at 10 a.m. at the Greenwood Cultural Center, which sits in the 35-block area where homes, churches, schools, a hospital and a library were looted and burned during the 24-hour riot. District Judge Jesse Harris will preside at the hearing.
“It is my hope that dismissal of charges against all defendants will reaffirm our commitment to the Rule of Law and help to promote racial healing in our community. I believe it is important to recognize the atrocities and devastation that occurred during this shameful event,” Harris said.
What if
our families had been bred and sold like cattle?
What if our families and friends were stopped for just being behind the wheel of a car, raped for wearing a skirt, shot for merely being out for a walk?
What if that happened time and time again?
What if it was our sister, our daughter, our mother being beaten and murdered every day in this country?
What if there was no Justice, only a demand for silence?
How would we feel? What would we do?
We'd speak out. We'd take action. We'd demand Justice, rightfully so.
And yet when women and people of color do just that, we are marginalized and othered. We're bitches and rioters. Ungrateful and animals. And always a threat. No matter how peaceful the vast majority of us are, we're all rioters.
When we're peacefully marching and tear gas is thrown at us, we're rioters.
When we fight for the right to vote, we're rioters, threats to the "natural order."
When we sing songs in Statehouses to protest draconian Republican assaults on Voting Rights, Women's Rights, Education, and Worker's rights, we're arrested.
When we speak out we're threatened with violence. We're threatened with rape. We're threatened with death.
The laws and courts are used against us again and again.
If a riot is "a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent," then a legalized riot has been occurring against people of color and women for centuries.
And that begs the question -
Why is it always Black reaction to injustice that is wrong, and never the long embedded structural racism of this country?
Why is it always Women who are at fault, and never the systemic sexism and violence directed towards them?
Why is that when we peacefully protest - the dogs, hoses, and military hardware come out?
Days before a Grand Jury decision, a St. Louis Police Talk forum called for residents to get personal firearms instead of waiting for the police to protect them from protestors.
Who is stoking an atmosphere of fear?
As Ferguson braces for grand jury ruling, activists cite 'fear campaign'
....“It's like a fear campaign,” said Johnetta Elzie, 25, an activist who runs a daily newsletter that aggregates Ferguson news stories. She said she worried that government announcements of security and media coverage were creating an atmosphere of panic.
“Some of these people in mass hysteria have no relationship with black people,” she said. “Why are you stock-loading food? What is going to happen? They're moving out of fear and uncertainty.... I would be more worried and concerned about the police than the people [who are] protesting.”
John Gaskin III, the local NAACP representative, agreed on Twitter that the fears were being over-hyped. “Absolutely,” he said....
Who is really "rioting?"
Where is the empathy, compassion, and understanding so many desperately need?
This is the conversation we need to be having. These are the questions we need to be asking.
Mary Landrieu will lose her Senate seat for speaking the truth about racism and sexism. That is proof enough of how deep both go in this country.
Democrats can NOT allow what happened to her to silence a deeply needed conversation.
If we do not continue to speak out about this nation's Cardinal Sins, our country will never heal and flourish.
For our children's sakes, for the future's sake - we need to name the elephants in the room before it is too late.
It's time to wade in and trouble the water.