It’s not a “black thing”
by daChipster
So, Bill Cosby. When I was a kid, I enjoyed Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids on Saturday mornings. When I was a little older, I had one of his albums. In the 80s, I watched the Cosby Show. In the 90s, I saw him perform live. Having enjoyed his body of work and the positive messages he’s portrayed, I am terrifically saddened that all these accusations have come out. Saddened, but not surprised. It seems anybody who wags a moralistic finger at those below him ends up a hypocrite, these days.
But, it’s not a “black thing.”
So, Ferguson. I don’t know why people choose to care about one shooting over another. I don’t know why protesters were so strong, and the media so present, on this one, but so weak and so absent on John Crawford, or 12-year-old Tamir Rice, both Ohioans killed by cops recently in separate incidents when somebody called 911 to report them carrying a gun, each of which was fake. I suspect it has a lot to do with long-simmering tensions in Ferguson, that erupted once the heat was turned up by Michael Brown’s killing. Turned back down to simmer, these tensions boiled over again when a grand jury failed to indict his killer. That decision literally and figuratively lit the matches that blew Ferguson up last night.
But, it’s not a “black thing.”
In fact, with all due respect to the black community, most of what’s going on is not about them, per se.
It’s not black-white. Or brown-white. Or yellow-white. It’s not a race or color thing at all.
It’s a poor thing.
Unless someone comes up with strong evidence within the statute of limitations, Bill Cosby has successfully gotten away with decades of serial rape and sexual assault, because he had the power to cow any accusers, and the money to buy the silence of those who wouldn’t scare. He only pulled this nonsense because he had the money and power to get away with it. Anybody black, brown, white or plaid, who didn’t and tried the same thing would rightfully end up a registered and jailed sex offender.
As we see in Ferguson, the black id is still in a justifiable siege mentality. Centuries of enslavement and oppression are not to be wiped away by a couple of decades of people mouthing “equality” but not backing it up with action. But it’s not just a black thing. It so happens that they are still on the downside looking up because they are the ones still in the slums. Irish and Italians are just two groups who faced similar circumstances, and also had endemic crime in their neighborhoods, while being blackguarded by WASPy politicos and editors. Same with hispanics today.
Those who stand in opposition to Affirmative Action, public education, and other attempts to level the playing field bleat phrases like “Equality of Opportunity, not Equality of Outcome!” All the while, equality of opportunity is a sham.
The only people with equal opportunity are those who can pay for it.
The only people with equal justice are those who can pay for it.
The only people with equal police protection are those who can pay for it.
The only people with equal access to reproductive health are those who can pay for it.
The only people with equal political speech are those who can pay for it.
The only people with equal access to the ballot are those who can pay for it.
The only people with equal representation in Washington are those who can pay for it.
As in Animal Farm, we are learning that some people are, indeed, more equal than others. Roosevelt New Deal liberalism recognized that equality of opportunity means NOTHING unless it leads to equality of outcome. But the ones who get equality of outcome are not the ones chased and shot by police. If punished at all, their crimes are federal, and they are politely arrested, post bond, and are back at the office suite after lunch.
That the people in Ferguson are black is only a coincidence of current history. In 1776 America, they were all white. In 1789 France and 1919 Russia, as well. In 1947 they were Indian. In 1946, they were Chinese. In 1959, they were Cuban. In 1979, they were Iranian. It’s not a black thing.
It’s a poor thing.
Quoting Leonard Cohen, with thanks to Fred Clark, over at Slacktivist:
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows …
Lots of talk, but nothing much changes, da. . (sorry, Momma).
1Dear God in Heaven … you are so right, DaChipster and it is a crying shame!
I am sharing this on Facebook!!
2Well said!
3Chipster. Once again, you done good.
4Thanks for perspective.
5Good piece, Chipster.
A lot of it has to do with poverty, but who are the kids in most of the poor schools getting an inferior education? Most of them aren’t white.
It would be nice to see what effect it would have if “affirmative action” went by income rather than race, but that’s harder to manage when race is easy to see.
6Thanks to P.Diddie…. at “Brains and Eggs”.. for the quote.
“A system cannot fail…”
7“… those it was never meant to protect.” — W.E. B. DuBois
No, it’s not a “black thing,” which is why it’s incumbent upon all of us to work toward forwarding the policies of FDR and subsequent progressive thinkers. However, I would be remiss not to acknowledge that the preponderance of systemic abuse remains directed toward African Americans and that historically the majority of their immigration experience differed significantly from white immigrants. Some European immigrants did arrive via steerage class, but their voluntary travel cannot be compared with forced travel, while chained in cattle holds. Follow that by slavery, Jim Crow and institutional racism, so yes we still have a racial component to our current day problem of inequality of opportunity. We’ve been working on it, but SCROTUS dealt us a major set back with the dismantling of the VRA and the unleashing of the attitudes inherent therein.
Solution 1: stop the dismantling and privatization of public schools under the guise of “better” charter schools.
8Solution 2: demand our elected representatives restore a progressive tax structure.
Solution 3: give students a better break on the student loan debt than the criminal bankers received.
Solution 4: restore and improve affirmative action to include all minorities; which means the economically disadvantaged, too.
Solution 5: strip tax free status from all churches that preach against any of our citizens.
Yes. This.
9Rhea, I agree it is easier to discriminate against the poor black then the poor white. White privilege is a real thing.
10Very thought provoking, daC. Thanks for sharing.
PKM, your addition is also thought provoking.
11This is just plain, old socialist rabble-rousing. And we need a lot more of it. We already bear the responsibility for allowing the Bill of Rights to expire while we were the ones voting. (Would Professor Obama, Constitutional Scholar, allow unlimited spying on everybody, all the time? Nah. Who knew? Certainly not me as I knocked on doors in 20 below weather in Iowa)
12We can at least try to slow down the wholesale purchase of the governing process by the ultra-wealthy and attempt to restore some sense of fairness to the criminal justice system.
Let’s start with the Banksters that grew rich sending the world into recession.
While I agree that it is not JUST a black thing, in the particular case of Ferguson, at least, it IS a black thing as well as a poor thing. When an overwhelmingly white police force treats an overwhelmingly African American populace like the residents of an occupied country — to the tune of issuing more than 30,000 nonviolent arrest warrants a year in a town of 21,000 — then, yes, it IS, at least in part, a black thing.
13Let me be clear, I’m not disparaging the plight of blacks throughout American history, nor am I suggesting they are at all responsible for their current situation.
But the racist problem in America is, at root, a sociological dissociation based in a long-cherished illusion that guaranteed that hundreds of thousands of Americans died for slavery who never had a ghost of a chance to own one. And that is: “Well, I may be poor, but at least I’m better of than them…” [fill in the epithet of your choice].
Now it’s extended to “I’m poor, therefore I’m going to support the guys who don’t want my taxes going to help them…”[fill in the same epithet].
It’s still poor folks dying – or wasting their franchise -for rich folks’ wars to protect rich folks’ riches.
14PKM
0) (a pre-req to all of yours) Refute the ridiculous notion that “Money = Speech” with a Constitutional Amendment saying only speech = speech and federally funding all Congressional elections.
15Lex,
If I can gather my thoughts sufficiently into a coherent whole, I am going to have a column in a few days about the militarization of the police, and the cult-of-the-gun.
Meanwhile, you are right, but that doesn’t just happen in black neighborhoods. And in Ferguson, I have a feeling that is going to change real soon. Right after the next election, in fact, whenver that is, I think there will be a new mayor, a new police chief, etc etc etc.
16daChipster-you have been introduced to Madville Times,compliments of me. It is your hide and your welcome.or not.
17No, we are not any kind of post-racial anything. There were human beings living on this continent when the human beings from a continent over the ocean arrived and they were all human beings. But when the newly arrived human beings began to lust after the land which was inhabited by other human beings, it was convenient to dehumanize them because if they aren’t human beings they don’t have human rights and can be enslaved or killed. Curiously, the women, though not human, were considered suitable for sexual slavery or just a casual rape despite their sub-human status.
Happy Thanksgiving.
18Beautifully thought and written!
19Rarely is the lost opportunity of ‘suppressed voting rights’ and ‘not voting’ so painfully evident as in this situation in Ferguson.
20We are all already in a place of suppression, now that the Congress has been taken over by the Corporate Legislature.
African Americans feel it most acutely, but the average American
is now at the mercy of the rich and powerful like never before.
“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it-whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.”
— Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird
this applies also to any man who cheats any poorer man (of any color).
21daChipster: “speech = speech,” absolutely, sir! Federally funding all elections would be a balm to my ears as I dream of elections without the blasted blasting lies, especially in the final 2 weeks of an election.
A Constitutional amendment would be a better & more permanent fix, but is there another faster way to reverse Citizens United before the 2016 election cycle? Congress could … head/desk … face/palm.
As you point out, daChipster, there are many solutions and my list barely scratched the surface. I encourage everyone to add to the list, and if there is anything on the list(s) that you can work to implement all the better. Organizers, activists, thinkers, voters and so many others, there’s a need for everyone in the progressive cause of humanity.
22daChipster has highlighted something that bothers many of us: “Now it’s extended to “I’m poor, therefore I’m going to support the guys who don’t want my taxes going to help them…”[fill in the same epithet].
It’s still poor folks dying – or wasting their franchise -for rich folks’ wars to protect rich folks’ riches.”
We need the help of educators, psychologists, social workers and folks with experience/common sense going forward. Whether it be substance, physical or emotional abuse, breaking the cycle of abuse is a tough one. So, ideas on how to break the cycle of self-abuse among poor folk who are being abused by the .01%?
23Sadly, this country was FOUNDED on the concept of “othering” anyone different. First the indians who had the misfortune to be here already. As a person of German decent, who spent her childhood wishing to be Japanese (they were “safe” from the people psyched up to hate by the government with posters and such) What did a six year old know or care about civil rights? My current apathy towards church springs from the fact that the worst egg throwers and hair pullers (yes, to a kid) were to be found there. And white war criminals were given more respect than black veterans and heros on “our” side.
24The Cosby thing is doubly sad as he was a nice looking young man, and still found it necessary in his mind to drug
women for an encounter sexually. Says a lot about self esteem in spite of success. Black has no bearing, right?
Thanks D C for a great column. Now I’ll shut up and let the cat in.
The problem is that equality of opportunity is a goal and not a destination. The problem is that it’s not just about money. It’s also about knowing the right people. If you suddenly gave people who are chronically poor a million dollars and you don’t solve all the problems. The key is a commitment to education. The key is a commitment to helping people know how to navigate through life. Give someone a fish and feed them for a day. Teach someone how to fish and feed them for the rest of their life.
25Scott: true dat! But, what do we do when they steal the bait, shorten the rod, poison the fishing hole, then buy themselves a State Board of Education in Oh, let’s say… Texas… which mandates that textbooks can’t talk about fishing, except to say that the it was better under Jeff Davis?
But if we had minimum catch laws, and equal catch for equal angling laws, and a strong International Brotherhood of Fishermen…
26Thom Hartmann wrote a terrific book titled “Cracking the Code.” Essentially it is about issue framing. The idea is that each side has a story to tell. The successful one is the party that is able to do a better job of selling their story. You don’t sell your story with facts. That’s why they are so successful. Facts aren’t on their side. You sell your story by appealing to feelings and emotions.
Think about 2008. Yes, there were lots of reasons why we won, but one of the reasons is that we aggressively sold our story. Essentially, while they were selling their “people can govern themselves, we don’t need regulation, we don’t need taxes, government is either evil or incompetent” message. What is our response? In the last election cycle we ran away from ourselves. All of these situations show that we have truth on our side. It’s time to own it.
27It is also a black thing. Poor is always a good reason for societal abuse but black, by itself, is also a root problem. If it were only poor then black people would not be stopped by the police, regardless of class, at substantially greater rates then whites are stopped.
Look at the response to Obama, he’s not poor. We have to acknowledge that the response is extra crazy,beyond the Clinton derangement syndrome. I don’t understand why but I can not help but accept that it is true.
28If the Democrats sit on their behinds in 2016 and let a Repulsive be elected we all deserve what will come about.
29That’s a good suggestion, Rhea, but it will only go so far because it assumes that the lack of economic mobility is rooted in education and I just don’t think that’s right.
It seems to me that the lack of mobility in our society is rooted in a capitalist system that rewards and empowers the few at the expense of the many. You can open your schools to all comers, but if you maintain your standards of performance there will always be people that are left behind; individuals who cannot earn a degree, not because they are bad or lazy, but because they simply weren’t gifted with the genes that favor intellectual achievement.
And even if everyone could earn a degree, there are many jobs that need to be done that don’t require an advanced degree. Someone needs to do the dirty and demanding work, to put their body in harm’s way, to build our stone walls and carry our lumber, to clean our toilets and sewers, to care for the sick and elderly, to wait our tables and bag our groceries. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with those jobs. Nothing that is except they aren’t valued by our society and don’t pay a human being worth a damn.
It’s a problem that we don’t value all work equally.If we are smart enough, greedy enough, of just plain mean enough, we will claw our way up the opportunity ladder to obtain the most valued job we can get leaving the less fortunate to fight over the less valued ones. Having obtained some degree of security we come to see the unequal value of work not as a threat to our economic security, but as a natural, justifiable and in fact necessary aspect of our capitalist economic system. Having once felt the certain unfairness of the system, we now look elsewhere for solutions to the problem of economic injustice; equal access to education for example.
In my mind that right there is the fundamental source of all the injustice in our world. We need to recognize not just the inherent worth and dignity of every person but also the worth and dignity of the work that we do. We need to level the opportunity ladder. We can do this. All we need is the will to make it so.
30One thing we cannot afford to do is wait for cable news to bring something to our attention. While Congress is too busy to conduct confirmation hearings, address our foreign policy in the Middle East, vote for a minimum wage, etc, etc, etc., they are not too busy to throw another bone to big business:
“Draft tax break deal makes many corporate perks permanent”
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/tax-breaks-corporations-draft-113169.html#ixzz3K7Wi32fV
There’s some good stuff that will be thrown aside, like child tax credits, earned income tax credit and wind production credit to pay for the corporate welfare.
Call them, write them, email them: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
31Chinton, maybe because it is true?
Consider the treatment of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on his own door step, because a neighbor called in about the blah man breaking into his house. (Henry’s own house, that is) Or, the Walmart shopper gunned down and dead because another “good Samaritan” called in about the blah guy with a BB gun and made a number of untrue statements to 911. (was the caller charged? no.)
And, what about those poor white boys on the border, felons with weapons, who on one occasion accosted federal agents and another bunch scared the breath out of a group of scientists. Were they gunned down by LE? nope
Or, my personal favorite, Cliven “the welfare rancher” Bundy. Was he gunned down? Is he back in court yet, along with his posse of good old white boys?
Lots of children being killed and killing, but have any black or brown children been given million dollar rehab because of “affluenza”?
I’d say your observations are spotlessly clear, Chinton.
32re: Ferguson
33I’m still baffled by the apartheid in Ferguson. A majority black city with a majority, or all, white police department? How can/did this happen? I know black police officers personally. They aren’t unicorns, they exist. As do Hispanic police officers. WTFO
Guys, I’m not saying that there’s not racism at play. I’m eschewing the racist arguments that Cosby raping and Ferguson rioting are because they are black.
34daChipster, understood; being a rapist has nothing to do with ethnicity. While the protests in Ferguson have everything to do with suppression and understandable frustration. Again nothing to do with race.
Not ready to ‘give’ you “rioting” just yet, daChipster. Some looting, three burned buildings in a predominately black community does not mean (1) that there is rioting and (2) the residents are responsible for the arson and the looting. There are several preliminary indicators we have been had by the right wing fliers of false flag operations.
35In the past few months, at this address, it has become very obvious that poverty is the handmaiden of contagion, and not just in third world countries where ebola seems to be as common as halitosis. As for Cosby, I am waiting for the other shoe or shoes to drop. All we have heard is coming from various women. The Cos will have to make some kind of a real genuine statement, either personally or via his lawyer. Either way would work.
36Truest thing I know: White privilege is the ability to be outraged by the Ferguson decision, rather than terrified by it.
37“The only people with equal representation in Washington are those who can pay for it.”
The only people with ANY equal representation in Washington are those who can pay for it.
There. Fixed it.
38“Juanita Jean says:
November 25, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Truest thing I know: White privilege is the ability to be outraged by the Ferguson decision, rather than terrified by it.”
Great explanation of the difference in understanding what is happening regarding Ferguson and militarized police in too many places, and taking the actions we need to take to move forward.
Without a doubt, we should feel the terror, but a mobilizing terror; one that spurs us into action, not pillars of salt.
Bombard the liars in the media; embrace Anonymous and let every one of our elected representatives know we are watching. Crash Jay Nixon’s in box with e-mails. Support National Bar Association President Pamela J. Meanes.
http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b493e6c4d31beda32fdaf8e2d&id=73514e334b
39More true thing (per Frederick deBoer):
Another definition of white privilege is being so steeped in the language of emotive politics that you think the system cares whether you as an individual are terrified or outraged. I promise: whether you as a white person feel outraged, terrified, delighted, or indifferent, the system that ensures cyclical state violence against black men is utterly unconcerned with how you feel. It just doesn’t matter.
I recommend reading the entire short — 5 paragraphs — commentary.
http://fredrikdeboer.com/2014/11/25/racism-is-asphalt-racism-is-a-bullet/
His closing remark:
If we ever are going to figure out how to do something about all this, it will only come from an acknowledgment that good white people being good has done nothing to prevent a world where Michael Brown lay dead in the street for hours. Until that second sentiment is more popular among them than the first, the outrage of white people will never be a force for change.
40Thank you DaChipster.
Yes it is about being poor, yes it is about access, yes it is about education, and yes it is also about a nation that seems to have declared that it is open season on young black men.
I don’t envy the jurors who had to make this call. Criminal cases rely on reasonable doubt and there was apparently reasonable doubt. My guess is that when the case goes to civil court, where the decision relies on a preponderance of the evidence, the outcome may change.
At the end of the day, a young man is dead, a family has lost their son, an already struggling community is going up in smoke, and a police officer, with a heretofore unblemished record, no longer has a career. If this were an episode of Star Trek it would have been called Ferguson: Kobiashi Maru, it was truly a no win scenario.
Sometimes you are confronted with nothing but bad choices, and the problem is you still have to choose. Michael Brown chose to steal cigars and to physically confront a shopkeeper, who chose to call the police. Officer Wilson chose to confront Brown and to draw his weapon, fatally shooting him. The Prosecutor chose not to recuse himself, the Governor chose to be largely absent, the Chief of police chose to encourage his force to adopt a siege mentality, the City Council chose to purchase “I Love Ferguson” yard signs and to hope it would all go away. The Grand Jury chose to find “no true bill” rather than charge Officer Wilson. People in Ferguson and across the nation chose to protest the verdict, some chose to do so by setting fire to buildings and cars and to blockade highways. Choices all, I’m not sure any of them was good.
41Chipper
A superlative distillation of the mash
Southern Comfort’s already taken,
dammit so is White Lightning
How about glad,for,noise
42In MY opinion, with Officer Wilson stating he wouldn’t have changed his actions, the fault lies in ourselves. Why oh why do we hire the kind of person who feels keeping the peace requires a firearm. If an officer of the peace can’t do their job without a firearm or a car, they don’t have the requisite skills to be an officer of the peace. The people of Ferguson have homes, businesses, jobs, and lives, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PERSON IN THIS COUNTRY. If the police can’t deal with those people, then they aren’t qualified to SERVE them.
We, as a nation, need to realize that possession of a firearm is NOT the defining aspect of being/having an officer of the peace. Having a knowledge and respect of The Law (ie, no made up dominance play), compassion for the people they SERVE, a healthy body, and, conversely, the support and respect of the community hiring them should be the requirements of policing.
I have had the opportunity to get to know a number of people that serve in various law enforcement communities and I very much respect them for their service in the face of many circumstances which represent the participants “worst day of their lives”. And I don’t mean that as a joke, these are challenging, heartbreaking events that the officer is required to step into and be the solution and solace for. I respect and praise them for accomplishing what they have done, and will do in the future. I just wish one of them had been in place to solve this situation before it became another worst day in that community’s life.
43they weren’t *all* white in 1776 america.
but otherwise, nice piece.
44There are a lot of very thought provoking comments here, thank you. I am so thoroughly disgusted by the “preachers” who loudly proclaim against the poor, among other demonized groups (gays comes to mind) and threaten warfare in the streets of they get any fairness. Well, with the ultra conservative (corporate) take over of this country, it might well come to that and indeed blood will flow on both sides. It might be discovered that the “librulls” are smarter and stronger and sneakier when pushed to it, and would prevail and in my old age I am willing to fight to the end.
45Movetoamend.org
Join NOW!!
46I see the problem a bit differently, having grown up in what was called at the time, N*****town, and in extreme poverty. My mother worked two or three jobs, and we were often hungry. The education was subpar. We personally moved so much that I (also have processing problems) fell behind.
47I think of it now as being born outside the stadium. We speak of those who are born on third base who think they have hit a homer. When you are born outside the stadium, you don’t even know it’s a game. It’s just random “CRACKS” roars, boos, and noise. It’s frightening, because it’s so noisy. You might be able to smell the food, but you can’t access it, and the people that stream out after smell like beer, which you associate with violence, so you don’t really want to go inside. But the game is what you must play. Without any understanding, no congruent thoughts/action…why are they spitting? If you are lucky enough to see it on TV. It rude and slow and stupid…even though it’s supposedly the national pastime. Two gangs, playing against each other, with only bats for protection…must be what the “cracking” is, but guns and knives would be more effective in a turf war. Trying to understand the game from outside the stadium, is exactly what acting civilized and competing with students who are ticketed and inside at the game is like. The social mores, the lubrication of polite interaction are a foreign as Mars. There is no way to catch up.
Politeness that is hammered in a a young age is second nature, and having to “think” about it, marks you as second class right away. My “upper middle class” (Harvard graduate type) black friends are 1,000 times harder on their children than the 1% whites I know! because one slip and it’s so impossible to climb back up. I can’t believe my own good luck, at being middle class when I should be poorer than ever because of devastating physical illness. (that’s one way to be stuck in the shuttle bus parking lot, far, far from the game)
Most whites never come close to understanding what “white privilege” means. My understanding is from both sides of the fence…but it’s hard won.
Fat Albert? You’re such a tender shoot!
The first thing that I thought of toodling down memory lane was Bill Cosby and Robert Culp in I Spy.
48Boomette, are you involved with movetoamend.com? What do you do?
49