Should we celebrate “Christopher Columbus Day” or “Indigenous People’s Day”? Which do you prefer and why?
Part of me, as a child of the 70s indoctrinated to celebrate the Pilgrims and Columbus, clings to Columbus Day. My weak rationale for this is along the lines of this:
In a 1988 presidential proclamation, Reagan commemorates Columbus for his spirit: “He was a dreamer, a man of vision and courage, a man filled with hope for the future and with the determination to cast off for the unknown and sail into uncharted seas for the joy of finding whatever was there. Put it all together and you might say that Columbus was the inventor of the American dream.”
Far from a day to remember our divisions or to dwell on past wrongs, Columbus Day is a day to celebrate an American dream that values diversity, yes, but also rewards daring risk-takers. Or as Reagan put it, “not only an intrepid searcher but the dreams and opportunities that brought so many here after him.”
The other view, as articulated at HuffPo, is tinged with a multiculturalist liberal perspective; but not exactly inaccurate. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue … and slaughtered the indigenous peoples he found. Is that all there is to know?
Opportunistic monster or heroic explorer? Why must it be either one or the other and not both?
My opinion on the matter has evolved somewhat since the last time I blogged over this “holiday”.
I’m open to FA readers to sway me to lean in either direction. Should we continue to honor Christopher Columbus Day? I’m partial to tradition; but it’s only been an American tradition since 1934 due to Italian community leaders and the Knights of Columbus. Not all traditions and ideas are a good thing, worth clinging to.
Officially, it’s still a government holiday; but one in which current clime and culture in American life do not seem to really follow and honor. Are there still parades in cities? What is being taught in our classrooms?
Whichever you prefer, happy federal holiday!
Presidential proclamation this year:
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION
When Christopher Columbus — a son of Genoa, Italy — set sail across the Atlantic, no one could imagine the profound and lasting impact he would have on the world. In search of a westward route to Asia, he instead spotted the Bahamas. As dawn broke on October 12, 1492, Columbus’s crew set foot on a Caribbean island and changed the course of history. For much of Europe, this marked the discovery of the New World, and it set in motion the more than five centuries that have followed.
In a new world, explorers found opportunity. They endured unforgiving winters and early hardship. They pushed west across a continent, charting rivers and mountains, and expanded our understanding of the world as they embraced the principle of self-reliance.
In a new world, a history was written. It tells the story of an idea — that all women and men are created equal — and a people’s struggle to fulfill it. And it is a history shared by Native Americans, one marred with long and shameful chapters of violence, disease, and deprivation.
In a new world, a Nation was born. A resolute people fought for democracy, liberty, and freedom from tyranny. They secured fundamental rights to expression, petition, and free exercise of religion and built a beacon of hope to people everywhere who cherish these ideals.
Columbus’s historic voyage ushered in a new age, and since, the world has never been the same. His journey opened the door for generations of Italian immigrants who followed his path across an ocean in pursuit of the promise of America. Like Columbus, these immigrants and their descendants have shaped the place where they landed. Italian Americans have enriched our culture and strengthened our country. They have served with honor and distinction in our Armed Forces, and today, they embrace their rich heritage as leaders in our communities and pioneers of industry.
On Columbus Day, we reflect on the moment the world changed. And as we recognize the influence of Christopher Columbus, we also pay tribute to the legacy of Native Americans and our Government’s commitment to strengthening their tribal sovereignty. We celebrate the long history of the American continents and the contributions of a diverse people, including those who have always called this land their home and those who crossed an ocean and risked their lives to do so. With the same sense of exploration, we boldly pursue new frontiers of space, medicine, and technology and dare to change our world once more.
In commemoration of Christopher Columbus’s historic voyage 522 years ago, the Congress, by joint resolution of April 30, 1934, and modified in 1968 (36 U.S.C. 107), as amended, has requested the President proclaim the second Monday of October of each year as “Columbus Day.”
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 13, 2014, as Columbus Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also direct that the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in honor of our diverse history and all who have contributed to shaping this Nation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-ninth.
BARACK OBAMA
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
@Gail+Combs: 35 good writeup. I haven’t read all the links yet, but will. One thing I find a small disagreement with is why labor jobs are overseas instead of here. The price of labor has nothing, or very little, to do with that. It’s all the rules, conditions, laws, etc that cause the problem. If a cell phone sells for $600, it makes little difference if the labor cost involved in making it is $10 or $1. Do the numbers. I am familiar with many cases of t shirt manufacturers moving to Mexico a few years ago. The labor cost of a t shirt was less than 20 cent, whether made in the US or Mexico. It was all the laws and tax benefits that companies actually got for moving the factories to Mexico that caused that mass exodus of jobs. The link in your writing about all the hindrances to job creation in the US makes it very clear that it is not labor costs that prevent job creation, it’s all the laws and politics that prevent it.
@retire05: 39 very interesting.. I guess most persons experiences are unique to them. I grew up in rural South Georgia in the 40’s and 50’s and was always called a Georgia Cracker. I liked being called that. A term of endearment or familiarization. Now I hear that being called a Cracker is supposed to be derogatory. Well, not to me. The population around me back then was like about 30% black. I heard black people referred to as N****r. I never used that word as a racial word. If I were asked I had no problem saying a person was a N****r. That’s what they were back then. But when they let us know (actually I’m not sure the blacks let us know) it was a derogatory term, I don’t use it at all. I think it became a racial term when the Dimocrats were looking for some ‘victims’ to take up the cause for. Racism in this country was mostly created, as Retire has described it.
@Rich Wheeler:
changed my mind. I’m picking Oklahoma to get upset. Just kidding. I’ll bet OU has a new kicker next week. I think that guy had to ‘try’ to miss that one half yard field goal. And at home?
good gracious.
@Gail+Combs:
Good stuff! Welcome to Flopping Aces.
Non-profit 501c3 Theater companies are also required to follow the same guidelines regarding political issues, however are not in that companies with a decided political leftist bias are left alone by the IRS which allows them full uncensored rein to produce plays written to influence audiences into support of leftist political agenda. Such as the mostly mythical The Laramie Project play that gives a somewhat disingenuous telling of the Mathew Shepard story.
I would bet that a theater company that produces political plays with an anti-leftist, pro-conservative message would be pilloried by leftists and that Democrat politicians would sic the IRS on the company for crossing the line.
@Rich Wheeler:
Not I, for this has been the main tool of the revisionist progressives and they have this to account for their successes in bringing down this great nation.
@Rich Wheeler: 50
No and I didn’t say that I do. Good example. Just watching the tail end (walked into my daughters house while Jackie Robinson movie was on)of the Jackie Robinson movie. Never saw the whole thing, don’t intend to. But I made the statement that I would bet that at least 90% of the movie was entirely fiction, with the intended purpose to make Jackie Robinson look much better than reality. So your statement: “The human being is nine times more susceptible to rumor than it is to facts.” seems to use the same ratio: 90%.
@Redteam:
I don’t think anyone would criticize you for using that term back before you learned it derogatory. What you might deserve criticism for is your monolithic indifference toward knowing why blacks would rather not be called that word. Would it really be that difficult for a man with a computer to find out why that term is considering racist? I guess it’s just easier on the mind and heart to hang it on the Dimocrats. Bliss.
@Tom:
Some people go around with a chip on their shoulder, just looking for a reason to take offense where none was intended. They will see racism where it doesn’t exist. They will scream, rail, protest and grandstand simply to draw attention and sympathy towards themselves, and derision and hatred towards the person who never intended offense.
Certainly bigotry still does, and always will exist, and those victimized by it are right to take offense from actual bigotry. Faking offense as a means of victimizing someone who never even meant to offend, is just as bad as a bigot who purposely means to degrade or offend.
It puts me in mind of a young Northern Black who travels South and gets offended when referred to as “boy” without comprehending that the use of “boy” might be in reference to his age and not his color.
@Redteam: It would be pretty damn hard to “make Jackie Robinson look better than he was.” Truly one of baseball’s greatest all-around players. An incredible athlete–running back at UCLA. An Army Officer. A great man who showed up the racists by being better than they were.
@Ditto:
Is the existence of racism really in dispute? No. So is it more likely it exists where it is found and therefore its existence is pointed out, or that it doesn’t exist and it’s existence is invented? Sure, it’s possible people have been wrong. But the idea it’s mostly made up is ridiculous. So why ignore racism and focus only on alleged fake racism?
At the end of the day, people can believe whatever they want to. If it’s not in your interest to acknowledge racism, why would you? Perhaps you have a personal stake in the status quo, or maybe it’s just uncomfortable to think about. Or maybe it conflicts with your self-perception of being persecuted. Objectively, I could post all day data that suggests racism is real. And when I have in the past, it’s either ignored or (ironically) explained away through even more blatant racism than I initially suggested existed (i.e. “there are more blacks in prison because black people are more criminal”). Let’s be blunt. This is even less confusing than global warming and requires a lot more obtuseness for the typical conservative to navigate. So why would you even ask?
@Ditto:
And who is this theoretical person who would be unaware that calling a young black man “boy” might be construed as offensive? If makes you happy, yes, I agree that misunderstanding is possible. But when you’re falling back on plausible deniability as your best argument, I think the debate is pretty much already lost.
@Tom:
Do you even have a clue where the practice of calling a male “boy” even came from? It certainly did not come from a pejorative against black men. It was basically started in the American colonies when young boys (8-14) went to work, often as message carriers. Most of them, as a matter of fact, were white. The practice then expanded to apply to any male employee, and yes, later to slaves in the South and even still, it is still used in the South as a way to draw the attention of a young male (white, black or brown) employee.
But blacks have to make sure that they have something to be aggrieved over, even after they have destroyed the vision of their freed slave ancestors. Hoping on that Democrat bandwagon certainly hasn’t helped. All a large portion of American blacks did was trade one master for another.
@Tom: .
apparently it would, I can’t find anything truthful that really says why it is racist. Please provide me a link to something that shows that.
@retire05:
So you’re argument is that racism is black peoples fault because they feel offended when confronted with racism? That’s a really strange argument, reducing blacks to people without agency who should just passively react to reality in a way that makes you feel most comfortable. I can’t imagine why they don’t agree with you, seeing as you’re a reasonable person who isn’t given to hyperbole or absurd blanket statements about entire races of people.
@Richard Wheeler:
that wasn’t the gist of the matter. The gist is whether most of the anecdotes from the movie were ‘true’ or ‘rumors’. My point is that they were rumors or outright fabrication. For example in the movie when he was ‘beaned’. That didn’t happen, he was hit on the arm. At end, when he hit homerun, didn’t happen. When he stood at home plate and ‘admired’ his hit. Didn’t happen. When he ‘pranced’ around the bases, didn’t happen. That whole ‘episode’ was a complete fabrication. Did it make him look better than he was, or like a showboat? The subject was if most of movie was ‘true’ or ‘rumors’, not whether he was ‘good’ or not. Want to retry on making your point, Rich?
@Redteam: a further note added to my above No.62
Please explain to me why the single most common word used by blacks when referring to other blacks is the word N****r? If it is truly considered by themselves to be derogatory, then they wouldn’t use it. As I hypothesized, it is used by liberals,socialists, progressives to establish a group that they can exploit. Note: no where do I see it explained why it is ‘racist’, only derogatory.
@Tom:
what is this global ‘warming’ you refer to, is that what is causing the largest amounts of ice ever measured in Anarctica? or the Great Lakes?
Redteam
“I’m sure you’re just clearing up the point that the real problems of the world are caused by the Progressives, Liberals, Socialists, Dimocrats, etc. No disagreement here.”
Correct. If you trace things back (follow the money) you find that most of the real problems are caused by the elite as a method of gaining more control and more wealth and more power. Very very rarely is any law passed for the benefit of the ordinary people.
E.M. Smith’s “Evil Socialism” vs “Evil Capitalism” clears up a lot of the misdirection we see. America’s Ruling Class points out there is less of a difference betwen democrat and republican politicians than there is between the political class and the rest of us. Dr. Evan’s The Regulating Class fleshes things out.
@Tom:
most of what they’re confronted with is life, if they choose to view it from a racist point of view, they might interpret it that way. That’s their problem. If you accidentally bump into a black person is that because you felt you had the right of way because you are superior to them?. I accidentally bumped into the shopping cart of a black lady in WalMart one day. I said, Sorry, excuse me. Didn’t bump her, only the cart. She followed me all over the store calling me a ‘sorry ass white guy’. I’m quite sure it wasn’t racist on her part tho. I certainly wouldn’t accuse her of that.
@Gail+Combs:
Thanks, usually both Retire05 and I are always correct. Most of the others, questionable. There are a few, you’ve already met that are always wrong. Rich, he’s pretty good on sports, politics, not so much.
@Redteam:
You’re (probably not intentionally) shifting your argument from “racism was mostly created” to a critique of how black people handle racism. I’m happy to have that debate, but it implicitly assumes your initial argument was incorrect. I just thought I should give you an opportunity to clarify your position on whatever it is we’re talking about.
Redteam,
I certainly agree about the cost of regulations. I was pointing out that upping the cost of labor PLUS Obummercare PLUS all the (*&*@! regulations bankrupts the small businessman who is stuck here in the USA trying to start a business. Small businesses are self-financed (aka Real Capitalism.). Only the big boys get to borrow fiat funny money from the banks. The ultimate goal is to have no middle class competition for the Transnational Cartels and to allow labor no option but to work for the corporation.
That is what History HAPP and the Food Safety Con Job documents. The decision by the Committee on Economic Development (one of Milner’s Round Tables) to bankrupt and drive small farmers into the city just after WWII and how it was done. Do not think they are through with getting rid of small farmers either. The CED at a local University wrote a ‘paper’ that was used to convince the NC legislature to change the definition of ‘Farm” from earning $1,000 a year to $10,000 This means we lose our no sales tax status and our farms now have property taxes equivalent to house lots. About 1/2 of America’s farms fall in that below $10,000 catagory if I remember correctly.
If you read Rosa Koire’s description of a ‘Transit Village or see her video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK2sZUs2l_U
She describes the goal of the elite. Rosa is about as liberal as you can get and is a California bureaucrat but she clearly see the goal and recognizes it as a return to serfdom/slavery. The end game is essentially a return to a feudal village where you live in a 200 square foot apartment and work for a corporation and can not leave the village without permission.
It is called Agenda 21 and was actually written as a rough draft as Sustainable Development (Scenario B1) by Shell Vice President Ged Davis. See: ClimateGate (1) email 0889554019
If you trace the owners of Shell Oil you find the Dutch Royal Family, the British Royal Family, The Rothschilds and the Rockefellers. Interesting that Prince Bernhard of the Dutch Royal Family is the Founding President of The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) HRH The Duke of Edinburgh served as International President of WWF for 16 years until his retirement at the end of 1996. John H. Loudon, Better known as “the Grand Old Man of Shell” a Dutchman, headed Royal Dutch Shell from 1951 to 1965. He was President of WWF from 1976 to 1981, and is also a member of The 1001 Club.
Positively incestuous isn’t it?
@Tom:
I’ve never maintained that racism has only one face and I certainly don’t limit it to a particular race. I do believe that racism is a ‘taught’ fault that too many are employing to acheive their evil ends.
@Tom:
Where did I ignore or deny the existence of racism? I wrote quite clearly that it indeed does exist, just as false claims of racism definitely also occur. If you think I haven’t ever been the victim of racism or other forms of bigotry, you are out of your frigging mind. Are you so uninformed as an Obama drone that you have been blinded to the fact that no one race has cornered the market on practicing and/or on having experienced racism and bigotry? What we have in your reply is your staunch (and rather ignorant) refusal to accept that some will call” racism” where there was none. Those hypersensitive people will often march in lockstep with “race hustlers” fueling mob insanity and attack innocents in their rampaging in their rabble-roused madness.
@Gail+Combs: Incestuous? very much so. They are members of the SuperRich club that intends to ensure that the little people survive to support and maintain the SuperRich crowd. Very few people get to enter that club, most are born into it. Notice how the country of Russia went totally to hell after the breakup of the Soviet Union, but the same people are there now, still the superrich, just as they were prior to the breakup. You’ve provided some more interesting links, and i’ll check them out.
@Ditto:
I refer you to post 52 where Redteam wrote “Racism in this country was mostly created”. I didn’t notice you disputing that claim and all of your subsequent posts have offered the usual right wing claims to support it. So a tepid “it indeed does exist” nested inside tired assumptions about “race hustlers” feels pretty empty. When one compares the damage of real racism, which is – if not quite quantifiable – overwhelmingly documented, vs. the damage of fake racism, which is little more than a right wing meme, it’s still puzzling to me why you’re chosen to focus your energies on the latter. Am I supposed to feel sorry for George Zimmerman to the exclusion of the histroy of white supremecy in America? That isn’t to say you or anyone else is a racist. It’s just to aknowldge a historical fact that still have effects today. The effects of racism wasn’t a switch that was turned off for any particualr reason. For every “race hustler scam” there are literally millions of Americans who have to contend with simple facts like black teens are 21 times more likely to be shot by cops than white teens. So hysteria about fake racist claims in the face of that unacknowledged reality feels a little cheap at best. I don’t think it’s illogical for your to feel the way you do. You’re just saddled with an untenably illogical argument to justify your feelings.
@Tom:
forgive the typos
@Tom: Tom why are you under the impression that created racism is not every bit as bad as real racism. just because it was created doesn’t make it not real. In fact, the fake racism is probably worse because some are trying to gain by promoting it rather than to work to eliminate it.
@Redteam:
What do you mean by “created racism”? If you could give me ten examples of this phenomena, I’d be shocked. Meanwhile one million black men are in prison. Can you give me a non-racist reason why such a high percentage of blacks are imprisoned compared to whites? The number of institutionally racist reasons for this are staggering. But since you’ve got all you can handle worrying about “created racism” I’ll give you one. Can you explain why for decades a person found with five grams of crack cocaine faced a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence, while a person holding powder cocaine could receive the same sentence only if he or she held five hundred grams?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/02/AR2010080204360.html
@Tom:
No, they have a right to feel offended over true racism, but not over every little thing that has been classified as racism by those who have lined their own pockets playing off supposed racism. Blacks do not have a right to violently act on any form of racism, actual or perceived by some poverty pimp.
Blacks haven’t been a “people without agency” since 1965 when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act because it “would keep those n—ers voting Democrat” for decades.
When Martin Luther King, Jr. marched, he marched for true equality. When he died, and Hymie Town Jackson and Freddie’s Fashion Mart Sharpton became the big mouths on the street, those two, along with an ever eager Democrat Party, became the voice of black America. How has that worked out? I have no more use for the useless pieces of human trash that are protesting in Ferguson, Missouri than I do for the drunken rez dogs. It angers me that the goals of freed slaves have been traded for a free cell phone, food stamps and drug dealers on every corner.
@retire05:
Nice blanket statement about black people. Unless you’re suffering from a staggering failure of self-knowledge, I take it you’re not part of the “racism doesn’t exist” crowd.
Redteam,
I doubled checked and over 1/2 of America’s farms do gross under $10,000
1,263,052 is under $10,000
up to $25,000 1,519,209 (hobby)
25-$100,000 298,385 (family)
$100,000 & up 311,388 large
$500,000 or more Only 70,642
Remember this is GROSS receipts. Figuring a 5% net those 70,642 farms grossing $500,000 are only netting $25,000. That is why most farmers have an additional full time job. With the Food Safety Modernization Act kicking in you are going to see the USA down to maybe 50,000 big farms… If we are lucky.
In the EU these regs (they are directly from the WTO) wiped out 60% of the farms. In Mexico they wiped out 75% of the farms. Unfortunately the average American is to darn stupid to realize our independent farmers keep us free.
Under Bush:
Funny how no one ever sees this quote from Lenin.
‘ The Socialist Revolution in the US cannot take place because there are too many small independent farmers there. Those people are the stability factor. We here in Russia must hurry while our government is stupid enough to not encourage and support the independent farmership.’ ~ V. Lenin, the founder of the Russian revolution
Quote provided by Anna Fisher
1932 to 1937 “The Collective Farm Policy was a terrible struggle, Ten million died. It was fearful. Four years it lasted. It was absolutely necessary.” Joseph Stalin http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/quotes.html
1934, “[Our] future is becoming visible in Russia.” Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell http://www.archive.org/stream/rednetworkwhoswh00dillrich/rednetworkwhoswh00dillrich_djvu.txt
Unfortunately nothing much has changed in the mindset of the Elite:
September 1995, Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, stated “Food is power. We use it to change behavior. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologize.” UN’s 4th World Conference on Women: Beijing, China. http://ngin.tripod.com/280702c.htm
@Tom:
Tell me something, Tom; why are Colin Powell, Dr. Ben Carson, Thomas Sowell, Larry Elder, Walter Williams, Starr Parker, Condi Rice, and all the other brilliant, and highly educated blacks not the norm instead of the exception? Why after 150 years of being free to achieve goals that are not limited, do we have the Fergusons and Chicagos still in America?
You ask:
Why do blacks represent a higher high school drop out rate than Hispanics or first generation Vietnamese who fled Communism when those blacks are going to schools in black neighborhoods and being taught by primarily black teachers? Why is there a greater percentage of blacks on welfare, compared to their white or Hispanic counterparts? Why is there a greater percentage of unwed mothers, and single parent households, among blacks than their white or Hispanic counterparts? Perhaps therein lies your answer as to why more black men wind up in prison.
Does racism, REAL racism exist? Yes, and it exists in the black community against white, Hispanics and Asians. But I guess you think if a black calls a white person a “cracker”, or calls a Hispanic a “spic” it is OK.
@Tom:
I am not Retire05 or Redteam and can only speak from my own view. Bigotry was not simply imported into the Americas, it already existed prior to the coming of the Europeans. Some tribes were peacful yet the truth is that various tribes hated and would war with others simply because they were in competition for resources, or in some cases simply because they were not of one’s own tribe. This is not surprising as inter-tribal warfare has existed in nearly every place humans made their homes. Bigotry and it’s subclass racism has been deeply ingrained in humanity and has been existent since sentient humans first appeared on Earth. It might even be part of our DNA. Real racism is a sad part of our human make-up and as the song says “everyone is a little bit racist.” Animosity towards those “not of your kind” is in some part a defense mechanism, in others part of “natural selection” existent in the animal kingdom. Perhaps, if bigotry is due to particular a chromosomes it might be eventually bred out, but I seriously doubt it.
It’s not my problem that the truth seems “empty” to you, facts are facts and false claims of racism happen. Accusing an innocent person of racism based on reverse racism on the accusers part is to my mind worse because it is baseless slander that can forever haunt the victim just as badly as a false accusation of rape or any other criminal act. If you can’t handle the truth, then perhaps Flopping Aces is the wrong place for you to troll.
What you feel about Zimmerman is not relevant. You are quick to talk about White Supremacy in America yet you would leave out “Yellow” Supremacy in Asia? What of Hispanic Supremacy? Black Supremacy? English Supremacy? Spanish Supremacy? Russian Supremacy? Islamic Supremacy? Christian Supremacy? Jewish Supremacy? Royal Supremacy? Intellectualism Supremacy? Secular Supremacy? Socialist Supremacy? Democratic Party Supremacy? Republican Supremacy? Bigotry is a regretful part of human nature, but it is something shared by all, even in those who claim have none (yet secretly know their own bigotries).
Tom,
I got lambasted for 5 to ten minutes by a Mama for asking the two little black girls to come forward to take their turn. Since I had just asked the blond boy and the girl next to him in a red shirt to take their turn it was obvious it was a purely descriptive term. That didn’t stop the B…B… from screaming at me.
She sure did a great job of advancing race relations since the next time I have that screaming crap tossed at me I WILL use the N…r word. After all they have just differentiated themselves from blacks. (And no I have never used the word before. It wasn’t allowed in our home. Any hint of racism was stomped on by my parents no matter who it came from.)
If she had simply said she didn’t like the word I would have said sure no problem but the woman was just itching to stick it to whitey. She also cost me a repeat customer but making such an issue about me being a racist.
What is interesting is I have had zero problems in sixty years before Obummer became president and now if you don’t treat the blacks with kid gloves some of them just go ballistic over a perceived slight. I have no problems with any other group either.
I also want to make it clear it is only a very very few that I have met who have it in for whitey. The rest of us get along just fine.
@Ditto: @Ditto:
You’re so upset. This must happen all the time. I’d like to hear about these incidents that are worse than false accusations of rape. A false accusaiton of rape can land you in prison for a long time. Real prison, not right wing I feel so trapped by Obama fake prison. Is that what happens on a false accusation of racism?
I’m a troll because i don’t agree with you and you’re frustrated your performance in this debate is, well, pathetic. Is that why you’re calling me a troll?
What a bizarre thing to write. Yes, I’m against all that other bigotry too. The only difference is I like to look my black neighbors in the eye when I walk by them, so I think the least I can do is understand contemporary American history. I don’t live in Russia, so that whole Russia Supremacy issue isn’t quite as relevant.
@Gail+Combs:
You’re being honest about how you feel. I wish everyone was as brave as you. When I talk about racism in America, I am not really referring to this person or that one being racist. I’m more referring to institutional issues, some of them legacies of another time, that impact many peoples’ lives. In many cases, things that were put into motion a long time ago and we can ignore them or simply press the off button. So I can’t, nor would I want to, criticize your anecdote, or your response, or your feelings. But at the same time, your feelings are also irrelevant to the institutional issues that most people* on the Right choose to ignore. I am not trying to convert anyone to another mode of thinking g. I am attempting to ask people to acknowledge reality.
* I would be remiss to not mention that Rand Paul has at least verbally acknowledged some of these issues, such as sentencing disparities.
Tom says:
…… Am I supposed to feel sorry for George Zimmerman to the exclusion of the histroy of white supremecy in America? …..
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Zimmerman was the victim of a political ploy that mostly backfired. The Publicity team for Obama’s re-election picked him because the name Zimmerman made them think he was white. Because they didn’t do their homework it blew up in their face at least among the Hispanics. Not only is Zimmerman biracial he is actually Tri-racial. He is White, Black and Peruvian Indian.
http://www.latintimes.com/gladys-zimmerman-mother-george-zimmerman-says-her-family-proudly-afro-peruvian-do-his-black-roots
The Zimmerman fiasco is just another Obama team SNAFU.
Oh, I should add that J. P. Morgan and friends bought control of the news media back in 1917 and still control it today.
Were you aware that a member of the Council on Foreign Relations sits (or at least sat) on the board of Directors of Huffington Post?
Also Journalists in the USA are a favorite Target of the KGB.
“Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have.”
– Richard Salent, Former President CBS News
U.S. Congressional Record February 9, 1917, page 2947: Congressman Calloway announced that the J.P. Morgan interests bought 25 of America’s leading newspapers, and inserted their own editors, in order to control the media…. http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Morgan-Buys-Newspapers9feb17.htm
April 19, 2010:…JP Morgan will now oversee 54 U.S. daily newspapers, the largest being the Los Angeles Times, making it the country’s second largest daily newspaper publisher after Gannett.
JP Morgan will also own 31 television stations, surpassing the number of TV stations owned by CBS and News Corp…. http://www.newsandtech.com/dougs_page/article_f3a45be0-4717-11df-aace-001cc4c03286.html
@Gail+Combs:
Well, that’s the way you view it. I can’t think of many scenarios where an unarmed teen was followed by an armed man and killed and it turned out to be the dead kid’s fault. That is, until this happened, then I heard a million reasons why. I wish you were here when it happened. Did you know Trayvon Martin is actually a very scary looking adult? http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/martin.asp He had it coming. We learned that here. Where were you?
@Gail+Combs:
I agree with some of your anti-elitist sentiments. But if you don’t realized the Republican party is owned by Wall Street, the part at least that isn’t basically a neo-Confederate haven for racists, I don’t know what to tell you. And, yes, I do get that the Democrats aren’t much better in that regard. But conservatives own Citizens United and what it has wraught.
@Gail+Combs:
Let me just clarify one thing on the reaction here to the Trayvon Martin murder. There were some very vocal conservatives on this site, writers for the site in fact, who pushed against the right wing group think that basically argued this kid deserved to die. I give those people a ton of credit. It wasn’t hard for me to believe Zimmerman murdered that kid because the facts and the ideological pressures aligned in this case. But they had to choose between facts and pressure, and they chose truth. I will always give those folks credit for that, although we were at each others’ throats otherwise. Don’t be a lemming, Gail.
@Tom:
I am 5ft 4 and my husband is 5 ft 7 (140#) we can both lift 100# even though I am retired and my husband is 71.
5 ft 11 and 158 pounds is the size of an adult. Actually it is the size of a large adult male.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average height for an adult male in the United States is:
69.2 inches, or 5 feet 9.2 inches
The average weight for a man five ft 11 is 136 to 172 lbs. So he wasn’t any scrawny bean pole either.
http://www.rush.edu/health-wellness/quick-guides/what-healthy-weight
Nor was he an innocent: http://spectator.org/blog/54312/how-miami-school-crime-cover-policy-led-trayvon-martins-death
And please don’t try to paint Martin as “lily white” I have lost my entire life’s savings to a series of thefts none of which the DA is willing to prosecute. At this point the people I meet who are NOT thieves or crooked in some other way are a small minority. A friend of mine and I were discussing that just a little while ago and he found the same thing. He is a businessman and got a degree in Law just to protect his business interests.
@Gail+Combs:
Gail, if I got out of a car with a gun and started following your son, a complete stranger to me, and your son ended up shot dead, give me the scearios under which you would agree the entire affair was your son’s fault. Everything Martin did is contingent upon a stupid and criminal decision by Zimmerman, an admitted vigilante.
@Tom:
Can you think of any scenarios where an unarmed guy was followed by teens and killed? Had Al Sharpton, and the Scheme Team not gor involved, would you have paid any more attention to the Trayvon Martin shooting as you have the dozens of unarmed black teens killed in Chicago, by other black teens, I may add?
I guess George Soros and Peter Lewis don’t participate in Wall Street? How can you be owned by a street?
Why? Because Benjamin Crump said so? It seems a jury of your American peers disagreed with you, and they, not you, heard all the facts of the case.
And Democrats own the unions. Want to compare contributions between Citizens United to Republican vs. union contributions to Democrats?
“Locked in jail I can’t win in this bitch.
So when I get out I’m gonna fuck me a white b*tch.
Slap her and whip her and choke her with my d*ck”
Sung by a black rapper at the Occupy St. Louis University movement as part of the Occupy Ferguson movement.
I wonder if Tom finds those words racist. I’m sure he thinks that the parents of white female students at St. Louis University have nothing to fear.
@retire05:
“White female students”. You’re bringing out the heavy artillery. I’m sure more than one person has been lynched based upon this despicable choice you think you’re presenting me. Am I a good white person? I certainly hope so.
Do you actually think cherry picking examples of bad behavior and then explicitly presenting them to me as racist hysteria is doing anything for your argument? That rapper sounds like a horrible asshole. And you sound like a horrible racist. I wish you two could meet. Do two wrongs make a right? You two deserve each other.
ARRGHhhh,
The internet ate my comment. I will get back to you in a day or so Tom, but I stand by my statement. Obama’s publicity team messed up because Zimmerman, despite the name was not a Caucasian and Martin was not a sweet Angel. So it was a rotten example of White on Black racism which is what they wanted.
You want to get angry – How about the boy carrying a toy gun mowed down by the cops? And the cops weren’t even charged! http://rt.com/usa/171272-california-cop-killing-toy-gun/
or the 85 year old deaf wood carver with a 2″ (legal) knife who was shot dead by the cops?
US Police Have Killed Over 5,000 Innocent Civilians Since 9/11
Oh, and my Dad, who never swore, never drank and didn’t even have any traffic tickets got pulled over toss in jail and the s… beaten out of him. He was a white 59 year old man. My parents tried to go after the cops and were told by their lawyer not to even try it was a waste of money. So it is not just blacks that are targeted.
@Tom:
The black rapper was quite specific in his aims, wasn’t he, Tom? He wasn’t threatening black women.
And you see racists under your bed, Tom.
I was merely giving you an example of what blacks sing about. Guess seeing the other side of the coin made you uncomfortable so you had to lash out at me and call me a pejorative.
@retire05:
A representative example or racist cherry picking? If the former, I admit I didn’t realize blacks, or as you describe them in your race war lexicon “the other side of the coin”, choose to by and large sing about raping and killing white women. I admit that is something I did not know about black people. I guess I need to reevaluate my love for Otis Redding.
@Tom:
No, you need to reevaluate your opinion of black rappers, who degrade all women. But I guarantee you, if that had been a white rapper singing about raping black women, you would be here showing that as a clear example of racism and demanding that the parents of black female students had cause for worry and concern.
You’re a one tune clown.
@retire05:
No, I don’t need to reevaulate my opinion of them because I’ve never held them in high regard. The difference between you and I is I don’t carry my opinion of them over to all “black people” just like I don’t carry my opinion of Adolph Hitler over to all “white people”. That little old lady in the Sunday dress I see walking from church every Sunday isn’t someone I lump in with your monolithic vision of blacks as predators. I guess I’m flawed like that. Keep race baiting though. You’re getting really good at it.
Serious question, What is it like to be a self proclaimed Christian who is also a self proclaimed racist? Do you subscribe to some of that antebellum southern Christianity that celebrated white supremacy?