Deniers of racism love to assert that racism is a thing of the past, that the U.S. is a post-racial society (we have a black POTUS, so that means…absofuckinglutely nothing). If one follows the news, it’s clear that such a belief is utter balderdash and is directly contradicted by reality (the shared one we all live in. Not the faux reality created by outlets like FOX “News” or the Blaze). Here are five recent examples of racism in the U.S.:
Black friend stays with white Texas family, family wakes up to find ‘KKK’ painted on their truck
“My black friend, he’s been here for two days,” Darren Franke told KHOU. “Me and him hung out in the yard and just mowed the grass and hanging out around the house yesterday. We woke up this morning and he goes, ‘Man you need to go look at your truck!’
When they walked outside Friday morning, they saw that someone had spray-painted racist messages and “KKK” all over the family’s white Ford pickup truck.
“I have no affiliation with the Klan whatsoever!” Franke told the news station.
“It was scary and it was embarrassing,” Franke’s wife, Hayli, added.
Neighbors who couldn’t believe what they were seeing took photos, while others shook their heads in disbelief.
“It’s absolutely disgusting,” neighbor Anita Johnson told KHOU. “What’s America coming to? I live around the corner; you can’t even park your vehicle out front now?”
The family tried to drive the truck to the car wash, but the ride there was painful because many people stopped and pointed at them, believing that they had written the hateful messages.
“I don’t feel comfortable driving around,” said Hayli Franke. “Driving to the car wash and back. We had so many different looks and people throwing their hands up at us like we did this to our own vehicle! It’s 2015. People need to get over racism.”
The Frankes drove the car home and spent the better part of the day scrubbing off the racist moniker using nail-polish remover and getting some help from neighbors.
It’s nice that their neighbors assisted them. I also appreciate the concern the family had for their friend:
The family added that their biggest concern was making sure their guest didn’t feel uncomfortable.
“He felt like it was his fault,” said Hayli Franke. “And I don’t want him to feel that way. He’s always welcome in our home.”
Where the Frankes wanted to make sure their friend felt welcomed, the woman in the next story has an opposing view of African-Americans, and isn’t afraid to share her opinions.
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Confederacy fetishist chases black kids with bat: “I’ll hang your family from my tree”
Tea Party, Phil ‘Duck Dynasty patriarch’ Robertson, and Confederate flag fan Lisa Marie Elbertson of Clermont, Florida was recently arrested for threatening to harm a group of African-American teens. Thankfully, the incident was recorded, otherwise I can only imagine whose side the cops would have taken.
On Sunday night, Elbertson was arrested after an argument with a group of African-American teens turned violent. According to a 16-year-old victim, Elbertson yelled racial slurs and spat on him and yelled racial slurs at him and his friends. The Orlando Sentinel reports:
The teen told deputies the incident started when Elberson’s husband and the teens got into a verbal dispute earlier in the day. When the teen and his friends passed by Elberson’s home later another argument commenced but when he and his friends walked away Elberson grabbed a black Louisville Slugger baseball bat and started chasing the group, according to an incident report.
Fortunately, one of the teens had his cell phone on him and was able to record video of the attack. At one point, she told one of the teens “I hang your family from my tree” and called him a “n*gger.”
Elbertson’s husband told WFTV that, after the initial confrontation, he went to confront the teens. He says that his wife and son went with him, and that his son brought the baseball bat. John Elbertson claims one of the teens “comes at my truck saying some other stuff.” After he told his wife about the altercation,
it was time for a good old-fashioned lynching, the family decided to confront the unnamed victim.“She grabbed [the bat] from my son so he wouldn’t hurt the boy,” he claimed, “to make sure everything was safe and that all that was going on was the talk.” Though she said “n*gger” numerous times during this “talk,” Elbertson says his wife did nothing wrong. “He really doesn’t have nothing on it,” he said. “He don’t have nothing.”
Mrs. Elbertson was arrested at her place of employment and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, child abuse and simple battery after deputies saw the video.
Elbertson knew damn well what she was doing. To threaten black kids and their families with lynching means she is aware of the history of that dehumanizing abominable practice. She’s clearly been stewing in some deep white supremacist bullshit far worse than normal in our culture.
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See the vulgar, violent messages racists sent to S.C. legislators over rebel flag
Where Lisa Marie Elbertson’s racism led her to threaten black kids, other people directed their racism at politicians. Angered at the possibility of the Confederate flag being removed from the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse (I bet they’re seething now that it’s been taken down), the following letter was sent to House Democrats:
Following that letter, House Minority Leader Rep. Todd Rutherford received two lovely personalized letters from two fine, upstanding racist folks:
It’s funny (in the not-really-funny kinda way)-so many conservatives whine and complain about not being able to use the word nigger. And yet, I see many people using it on a regular basis. It’s almost as if what they’re really complaining about is that people are criticizing them for using the word. They’d like to return to a time when they could call black people niggers and not have anyone call them out for it. They want their freedom of speech to come with freedom from the consequences of that speech. Too fucking bad. Meanwhile, some people who speak their mind on matters of race don’t care what anyone says in response to them.
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As a card-carrying social justice warrior, I’ve lost count of the number of times I or any other SJW has been accused of being offended over “everything” or “looking for things to get offended by” or “getting offended over little things”. Such dismissive comments are a reflection of the people making them, rather than saying anything about people who advocate for social justice. After all, SJW’s advocate for everything from immigration reform and LGBT workplace protections to reproductive rights for women and greater police accountability. These issues (and many more) affect the lives of billions of people around the world and if resolved positively, would increase the quality of life for so, so many people. Meanwhile, people who argue against social justice advocacy get outraged and offended over the most ridiculous things. Case in point:
Hate group says Harper Lee’s new book could make white people violent
The leader of a prominent white nationalist group says the highly anticipated sequel to Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird could result in more “eruptions of horrible violence” like last month’s Charleston church massacre.
“This new book is yet another instance of rubbing the noses of today’s whites in the sins of the past,” said Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance and a leading member of the Council of Conservative Citizens. He said Go Set A Watchman, set for release on July 14, “could be yet another small contributor to the increasing disaffection of young whites,” and it will make “more and more young whites angry.”
Aww, is poor Jared angry over the release of a book? Quickly, someone find the world’s smallest violin!
Referring to the Charleston shootings, Taylor said: “Whether this anger results in more eruptions of this kind of horrible violence, I cannot say, but my feeling is that it will make it more likely. This constant drumbeat of racism as a one-way street is increasingly rejected by young whites, because it is false. Unless the greater ambiguities of the situation are recognized, unless blacks are urged to take some sort of responsibility for their own circumstances, I see no end to increasing frustration and potential violence.”
Racism in the United States is a one-way street. People of Color do not hold anywhere near the amount of power necessary for their beliefs about white people to have a detrimental impact on whites as a whole. But white people? They sure as fuck do. Look at Donald Trump and the ongoing debate on immigration reform. There are people with power in this country (read: white people) who look at Trumps’ comments and think they’re accurate and reasonable. They don’t see them as the deeply racist words they are. The current ineffectual Congress is made up of a lot of people who think just like Trump does. And guess what? We aren’t getting comprehensive immigration reform because of it. They hold all the cards. That’s what gives their odious views more weight than black people or Hispanic people saying “I hate whites”. This is one of the many things Jared Taylor doesn’t understand in his attempts to draw some equivalency between the ideology of white supremacy that continues to reign supreme in this country and People of Color being prejudiced against white people. He (and the scumbags who follow his website) are also ignorant (yes, I’m being generous) about the realities of black men raping white women. There was never any epidemic of black men raping white women, no matter how many white supremacist assholes claim otherwise. But that doesn’t stop them from spewing hate and ignorance:
Taylor’s comments echo those of users on his website AmRen.com. “Just what we need, even more ridiculous fairytales about innocent black men being accused of rape when we all know the reality of the situation. Sickening,” wrote one commenter, while a second claimed Lee was “desperate to continue with the ‘narrative’ and to continue on with the tradition of white guilt, despite the rape statistics in this country.” A third user described Lee, who grew up in Alabama and is now 89, as a “race traitor.”
Taylor, describing Mockingbird as “marvelously well-written,” said of Lee’s first novel: “She knew very well when she wrote that book that it was a portrayal that the publishing world and the public would find extremely attractive. There is nothing more compelling and convincing to northern liberals than a southerner who herself decries the bigotry and racism of southerners.”
“Northern liberals”? ::eye roll::
The people who live in the South are not a monolithic entity who all think the same thing. I know that racism, “Southern pride” in a symbol of white supremacy, and a dogmatic adherence to ridiculous religious beliefs are common features of people in the South, but not everyone down here believes the same thing. Some of us are liberals progressives who live in the South, but don’t support the horrible things that other Southerners do.
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Arizona Ex-Governor: “Trump’s telling it like it is”
Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) says GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump is making valid claims about illegal immigration’s link to violent crime.
Brewer, known best for her own hard-line stance on illigal immigration, defended Trump’s controversial rhetoric on Hispanic immigrants during an interview Wednesday night on CNN, according to Newsmax.
“I believe that Mr. Trump is kind of telling it like it really, truly is,” Brewer told host Don Lemon on CNN’s “CNN Tonight.”
“I think that the people of Arizona realize that we picked up the tab for the majority of the violence that comes across our border in regards to the drug cartels, the smugglers, the drug houses,” she added. “It has been horrendous.”
Brewer also rejected claims that outsiders understand the daily struggle facing states, like Arizona, that are on the southern border.
“We know from their data — from the federal data — that they only stop or apprehend 1 out of 4 illegal people crossing our border,” Brewer said.
Those “a thousand miles away” can cite whatever statistics they want without experiencing the border crisis firsthand, she added.
Ha ha ha! In one breath she cites data to support her opinion, but in the next she dismisses data that puts the lie to Trump’s racist comments. As is so often the case, reality and right-wing ideology are not on the same page.
As for Harper Lee’s new book, I had no intention of reading it, but it is utterly ridiculous to protest the idea of her bringing up the sins of the past by engaging in worse sins in the present. Really? For a group pf people always crowing about how violent PoC are , the irony that their go to position, on any subject they disagree with, is violence, surely escapes them.
That’s just rich.