Why the Richard Showers Incident is about White Privilege

"Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America. And that makes this election extremely important."~ Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders (D)

These prophetic words by Senator Sanders haunt me because they exemplify what happens to African Americans and liberal Democrats, not only in the case of Huntsville City Council member Dr. Richard Showers, Jr., but in Alabama, and our country.

Senator Sanders words caused an uproar, or as my Daddy says, a whole lot of pigs started squealing, because he spoke the truth. Instead of Anderson Cooper and others focusing on WHAT was said, they chose to focus on WHO said it, because that was  easier for the panel of pundits to discuss.

Cooper asked Sanders what evidence he had that the Republican opponents would take Alabama back to Jim Crow days. Sanders said, "Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America. And that makes this election extremely important." Which is true, but not at all what the robocall said. Following the interview with Sanders, Cooper continued to discuss "race in the race" with a panel of pundits.

There is a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America, and it's being enabled by the predominately white male dominated mainstream media. Which is why I find the lack of diversity in the mainstream media appalling because they promote racist stereotypes like this;

It not a way to feel it's to show you and others what is really going on!!!! You like to write these stories of how blacks are done wrong etc. it's not as bad as it was. There have been improvements and yes we could do a bit better but with that said look at situations were whites are treated unfair in order to get the so called ratio up etc.The more important story is black on black crime, absent fathers, the uneducated blacks, when there is free money and programs everywhere for the black man or woman but most do not take advantage because we as a society have gotten them use to a handout (whites too) like welfare etc. Why work when the government will pay the bills? It's an entitlement society!!! If all you know is to apply for free money health care etc when will anyone better themselves? It's called FREE WILL but most do not have it.

And this;

Gerrymandering. It's ugly and it's unhealthy, no matter which party does it.

Gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts. To equate the creation of minority voting districts in accordance with the Voting Rights Act with corruption is not only racist it's wrong.

Following the 1964 election, a variety of civil rights organizations banded together to push for the passage of legislation that would ensure black voting rights once and for all. The campaign to bring about federal intervention to prevent discrimination in voting culminated in the voting rights protests in Selma, Alabama, and the famous Selma to Montgomery marches. Demonstrations also brought out white violence, and Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, and Viola Liuzzo were murdered. President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a dramatic joint-session address, called upon Congress to enact a strong voting rights bill. Johnson's administration drafted a bill intended to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments, aiming to eliminate various previously legal strategies to prevent blacks and other minorities from voting.

There are some who want to believe the Richard Showers incident is not about racism, but about an ethics violations. It's just a coincidence the violations were filed the day after Showers protested a wrecker service contract award accusing the company owner of unethical conduct. They want us to believe Richard Showers is unethical in an attempt to destroy his credibility.

It's takes power to exercise white privilege. Showers encountered white privilege from the time he protested the award of the contract, to trying to help his daughter in emergency in the aftermath of the deadly tornadoes. All the press about Huntsville/Madison County residents pulling together and helping each other after the devastating tornadoes was nothing but spin.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Huntsville City Councilman Richard Showers may have violated state ethics law by allowing his daughter to get gas at a government fuel terminal on the day after the tornado.
City Attorney Peter Joffrion reported the April 28 incident to the Alabama Ethics Commission on Friday. The Times obtained a copy of the two-page letter through an open records request.
According to the letter, Showers and his daughter drove in separate vehicles to a generator-powered city fueling station on Governors Drive -- one of the few places in town that had gas in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Two Huntsville police officers were posted there to ensure that only city employees providing "essential public services" got fuel.
The letter says Showers called City Administrator Rex Reynolds after being told he could not refuel both vehicles. Reynolds told Showers he could pump 10 gallons into his daughter's vehicle if he planned to use that car for city business.

Well, well, well

Want some irony? In Thursday night’s city council meeting, the city was poised to award a contract for wrecker services to a local company. Showers objected, accused the company owner of unethical conduct, and tried to get the council to award the contract to a company in his district that had submitted a higher bid.

So given Showers’ infamous sensitivity to all matters racial, I just have to ask: Would it be racist here to invoke the old saying about the pot and the kettle?

See what I mean? We know more about Shower's ethics than we know about the wrecker contract and the owners ethics. Instead of the policeman and the City Administrator showing some compassion they decided to exercise their authority.

So here was their chance to treat Richard Showers like a boy instead of a man. From the white male officer who told him NO, to the City Administrator who told him NO, to the City Attorney and the Mayor who filed the ethics violations, white power and privilege was on display.

Voter suppression with the Alabama State Seal of approval is OK.

Moving outside of the District you are elected to represent and lying about it is OK.

Violating the open meetings laws over and over again is OK.

Relocating a Homeless Shelter into a neighborhood without notifying residents is OK.

A City Council member trying to help his daughter in an emergency is an ethics violation.

Privilege of the powerful.

Power of the privileged.

It's not about that thing you SAID, it's about that thing you DID.

But I'm NOT A RACIST / HOW DARE YOU."

Thing is they're ALWAYS going to come at it from that point of view, because being called a racist has become more taboo than actually being one. People get more upset about the possibility they might have been called racist than the fact that their actions are racist as hell. They'll harp and linger on all their deeds in the past and what clubs they belong to and who their friends are. They'll START any rebuttal to your first words with that. And in the end you end up talking to yourself or talking to the wind, because they've drawn a crowd to chant the "I AM NOT A RACIST" mantra to the point where any on lookers without reading/listening to the whole thing, think that's what it's all about. Then people start picking sides and - boom- it's all over.

God Bless America?