Baltimore

White people's knee-jerk reactions to recent events in Baltimore seem to be a pretty accurate barometer of their level of racism. There are those whose immediate reaction to another black man being killed in police custody is to blame the dead man. He shouldn't have been disobeying the law. 

Except, what if he wasn't? What if, as apparently in the case of Freddie Gray, there was no probable cause for him to be arrested? And yet, police stopped him on the street, handcuffed him, manhandled him, dragged him to a police van and threw him in, failing to obtain medical help for what seemed to be obvious injuries. 

And then the man dies of his injuries. 

But for people who blame the victim, the police are always right. They are never guilty of overstepping their bounds, of unnecessary violence. It's the Fox News theory of race relations and it is all summed up very succinctly by Tom Tomorrow in This Modern World.

(Hat tip to Daily Kos.)

Thursday Tidbits

Have you heard about this letter to the editor from a Canadian citizen in British Columbia? It's been making a bit of a stir on the internet this week.



It might be a bit difficult to read in that format, so here is the text:

"Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections. Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record highs, the country's adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The dollar is at its strongest levels in years, the stock market is near record highs, gasoline prices are falling, there's no inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, the deficit is rapidly declining, and the wealthy are still making astonishing amounts of money.

"America is leading the world once again and respected internationally — in sharp contrast to the Bush years. Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq and killed Osama bin Laden.

"So, Americans vote for the party that got you into the mess that Obama just dug you out of? This defies reason.

"When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?

"Richard Brunt


"Victoria, British Columbia"

Sometimes it is our closest neighbors who see us most clearly.  And what an image we present to them!

*~*~*~*

Ebola has essentially disappeared from the national headlines now that the election is over and it has served its purpose of scaring the bejeezus out of cranky old white voters.

(Of course, we shouldn't stereotype "cranky old white voters." After all, I am one myself, but I was never terrified by Ebola or ISIS or desperate brown children or any of the other bogeymen conjured up by fear mongering right wingers during the election season. There are still a few of us...)

Last night, Chris Hayes of MSNBC did a segment on Ebola in which he "congratulated" cable news on its even-handed and low-key coverage. It's pretty good.

*~*~*~*

So now that they no longer have Ebola to freak out about, what's the latest "outrage" they are screaming about? President Obama in China, of course!

"OMG! HE'S WEARING A PURPLE SUIT!" (An outfit provided by his hosts to all their guests to wear.)

"OMG! HE BOWED HIS HEAD TO THE CHINESE LEADER!

"OMG! IS HE CHEWING GUM?"

"OMG! HE JUST SIGNED AN AGREEMENT WITH CHINA FOR A WAR ON COAL!"

There is literally no end to their store of outrage when it comes to President Obama and, frankly, it could all be summed up in just three little words: "OMG! HE'S BLACK!"

The year of the myth of white victimization

The end of a year brings about thoughts of how to sum up that year. That's essentially what all those year-end lists of the ten worst and ten best are all about. We want to find some short-hand way of thinking about the year just past.

As I think over the last twelve months, I am struck by how often our news was dominated by the idea of the poor, oppressed white person. Especially the poor oppressed white man. Poor oppressed white men like the "Duck Dynasty" guy who had his hand slapped for expressing his homophobic and racist and misogynistic views.

Then, of course, there is Fox News' annual hysteria and hypocrisy regarding what they are pleased to call the "War on Christmas." What they really mean is the war on white Christmas as was made plain by their TV hostess Megyn Kelly's amazing freak-out over the idea that anyone could even imagine that Santa Claus could be anything but white! Because, you know, Santa Claus "just is white." Oh, and, by the way, so is Jesus. Really, it is all just too ridiculous for words.  

But those frivolous stories dominated the news at the end of the year. Earlier in the year, we had a more serious example when a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman of murder in the death of a black teenager named Trayvon Martin. The jury accepted Zimmerman's plea of self-defense even though the teenager was unarmed and Zimmerman was carrying a loaded gun. Zimmerman instantly became a cultural hero to some of the paranoid white right and his canonization among those people continues in spite of, or maybe enhanced by, his later legal problems over charges of domestic violence.

There was further hysteria and paranoia over the myth of the so-called "knock-out" game where, allegedly, young black men were going around indiscriminately attacking innocent white pedestrians for no reason. That had its fifteen minutes in the news cycle, although one still hears about it occasionally.

These are just some of the low points in the drum-beating during 2013 to "expose" the victimization of white people. The charge was led, as always it seems, by the Fox News Network, but they were abetted by the right wing inside-the-beltway punditocracy and various members of the tea party/Republican Party, several of them elected representatives from Texas.

This is all a continuation of the right-wing conservative movement's attempts to control the political landscape through the promulgation of what the Republicans have referred to as their "Southern strategy." It is quite simply an ongoing attempt by right wing politicians and their allies in right wing media to inflame the anxieties of white working-class Southerners about racial and economic changes in society. The strategy also extends itself to white "ethnics" in other parts of the country who are susceptible to having their fears played upon by those who are cynical and disreputable enough do that.

Can we dare to hope that 2013 may have seen the last of the dishonesty and cynicism of the "Southern strategy" and the political use of the myth of white victimization? Of course not! It will continue to be used as long as political contests continue to be won using such strategies.

Still, there are a few glimmers of hope that perhaps people are becoming a little less gullible and a bit more inclined to require some proof before falling for the latest outrageous claim on right wing radio and TV. So let us keep hope alive that 2014 may be the year when the divisive myth of white victimization finally breathes its last and common sense sees a revival in our society. It could happen...

The summer of magical thinking

There are certain groups in our country who seem to honestly believe that if they say a thing is true, no matter how outlandish it is, that makes it true. That, I believe, is clear proof of a faith in magical thinking that bedevils our national discourse this summer. You might also think of it as the "Tinkerbell philosophy." If I close my eyes and believe real hard and clap just as loud as I can, then I can make it true.

Thus we have highly placed members of the Republican Party claiming with a straight face that reducing taxes for the richest people in the country will not increase the nation's deficit and that it will stimulate the economy. They make these statements in spite of the fact that all empirical evidence points to the conclusion that any tax reductions received by these people go straight into their own savings. They have no effect on the economy at large - except to depress it by increasing the deficit. Furthermore, it is self-evident to anyone who is not a complete idiot that if you reduce a country's income, while continuing to spend at the same rate, you will increase the deficit. But Republicans still insist that isn't so and that is the philosophy they will run on this year.

Then we have the case of the tea partiers. Their rallies are full of signs with racist innuendo and sometimes unmistakable racist expletives. Their ranks are virtually 100% white. Many of the groups that are their strongest supporters, both financially and with personnel, are outright racist groups - groups like the Council of Conservative Citizens, the successor to the notorious White Citizens Councils of the '60s and '70s. And yet they reject any implication that they are in any way racist. This week, when the NAACP passed a resolution calling on them to repudiate racism and the racists in their organization, this is what one of their leaders, Mark Williams of the Tea Party Express, had to say about that:

You’re dealing with people who are professional race baiters, who make a very good living off this kind of thing. They make more money off of race than any slave trader ever. It’s time groups like the NAACP went to the trash heap of history where they belong with all the other vile racist groups that emerged in our history.

No, no, nothing racist or historically incorrect in that statement. Just squint your eyes and believe as hard as you can and clap those little white hands and it will all be true.

Like I said, magical thinking. But it is very likely that both the Republicans and their cohorts, the tea partiers, will get away with it because there are not enough journalists in this country who are willing to call them out on this utter stupidity. I think it's going to be another long, hot summer of lies.