"“So when the folks in the Trump camp say it’s not about race"........

Anti-racism expert explains Trump’s scapegoating appeal to whites -- it will give you chills https://t.co/cqTTHpu3FI pic.twitter.com/eIjccMF3Ol

— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 29, 2016

"If this doesn’t get you on the #NeverTrump train, it’s hard to say what will."

Here's the deal.  If you support Donald Trump you support racism/bigotry and sexism.  There can be no more pretenses. EYE don't care how many black friends you work/play ball with. #OwnIt.

When you come to political rallies carrying signs of the president dressed as an African witch doctorwith a bone through his nose, or send around e-mails depicting the White House lawn covered in watermelons, or throw “ghetto parties” at your fraternity house, replete with blackf ace makeup, your claims of interracial camaraderie are not merely irrelevant to the suggestion that you just might be a racist, more to the point, they are blatant effing lies. The people who claim they have black friends and still do this kind of thing are liars, plain and simple. Every one of them. No exceptions.

H/T Mother Jones



"There isn’t much to say about this video mash-up of Donald Trump comments and 1960s civil rights protests. It speaks for itself in the starkest, most horrifying terms"

 #MakingAmericaGreatAgain My Donkey

If I were a rich white man~Edit

If I were a rich, white, man I would be President of the United States of America. But I wouldn't be a rich, white, male, republican President like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, or George W. Bush. Rich, white, males who only cared about the rich getting richer while the rest got the shaft.

Nope. I would be a rich, white, male, republican President like Theodore Roosevelt. I would be a rich, white, male, democratic, President like, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Lyndon Baines Johnson. You know, rich, white, males who despite their wealth, cared about, and tried to make the world a better place for ALL people.

If I were a rich, white, man I wouldn't try to keep poor women from having access to a safe, legal abortion.

If I were a rich, white, man I wouldn't send our troops to war based on DEAD WRONG INTELLIGENCE.

If I were a rich, white, man I wouldn't discriminate against LBGT Americans.

If I were a rich, white, man, I would own a media empire that informed the American people instead of mis-informing them with all spin all the time, UNfair and UNbalanced. A media that reported just the facts and didn't promote racism, bigotry, and sexism.

If I were a rich, white, man I use my resources to make sure ALL children, regardless of race, gender, religion, or their parents circumstances, had equal access to a quality education.

If I were a rich, white, man I create jobs in America and not ship them overseas to countries who use slave labor.

If I were a rich, white, man I wouldn't rape and ruin the environment for my personal gain.

If I were a rich, white, man I use my position of privilege and power to make this world a better place for everyone.

But I'm not a rich, white, man, and I will never be a rich, white, man. The only thing I can HOPE for is rich, white, men will CHANGE their ways. I'm not holding my breath though.

white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…


White privilege is, in short, the problem.

It's the Stupid Racism

Racism won't end until it's confronted.

Racism can't be confronted until it is defined.

Let's start with the definition of racism.

racism -noun
The belief that some races are inherently superior (physically, intellectually, or culturally) to others and therefore have a right to dominate them. In the United States, racism, particularly by whites against blacks, has created profound racial tension and conflict in virtually all aspects of American society. Until the breakthroughs achieved by the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, white domination over blacks was institutionalized and supported in all branches and levels of government, by denying blacks their civil rights and opportunities to participate in political, economic, and social communities.

Now let's define racist:

A person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others

Note, both words are nouns, but one describes an act(racism) and one describes a person (racist). This is very important

The final word we need to define is prejudice:

A hostile opinion about some person or class of persons. Prejudice is socially learned and is usually grounded in misconception, misunderstanding, and inflexible generalizations. In particular, African-Americans have been victims of prejudice on a variety of social, economic, and political levels.

Racism is an action. It's that thing you did not that thing you said.

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.

The things that divide us are rooted in sin (greed, pride). We need to be wall breakers instead of wall builders and tear down the wall that divide us. The white privilege mindset is the way of thinking that grows out of having white privilege, from the advantages of being white in America.

In order to overcome racial prejudice we need understand and respect each others differences and experiences. When love and understanding move into our hearts it has the power to remove all forms of hatred. It's time for us to become part of the solution and not be the problem.

I'm not a racist....I'm a Democrat. Not.

A liberal democrat is just as capable of being a racist as a conservative wingnut. I suppose the difference is that the liberal doesn't really think he is a racist and doesn't want to be painted as such. The wingnut, on the other hand, embraces his racism, and indeed wears it like a badge of honor.

Please watch, listen and learn as Tim Wise confronts the stupid racism in this 9 minute video.

Saturday Must Reads

If you don't read anything else I've posted or ever will post, I am begging you to read History: Democrats & Republicans On Civil Rights and Equality. H/T Oliver Willis

There is an awful lot of misinformation and untruth out there about the legacy of the two major political parties and the civil rights movement. Conservatives often like to use slight of hand, insisting that because the early Republican party was stronger in support of civil rights, this means that conservatives have the moral high ground. This is totally untrue.

After you read the above post PLEASE read Reading Racism from Right to Left: Reflections on a Powerful Word and it's Applications. H/T Tim Wise

This is part one of a two-part series on racism on the right and left of the United States’ political/ideological spectrum. Part One provides the reader with a working definition of racism, and then explores how racism at both the ideological and institutional levels is connected to and enhanced by American conservatism. Part Two will explore the ways in which American liberal and left rhetoric and policy prescriptions can also manifest or further racism at the ideological and institutional levels.

The piece is long, and less a polemic than an analytical think piece, but hopefully folks will find it helpful in future discussions of racism with friends and adversaries alike...

Then, Imagine if the Tea Party were Black H/T Ephphatha Poety

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Peaceful reading.