What's Wrong With These Pictures?

And in the case last evening, in Minnesota, Philando Castile was legal, legally carrying a weapon, cooperating with the police and was still shot and killed, in his own car, in front of his girl friend, in front of his daughter, shot four times, and all because of suspicion only of a very minor traffic violation.

Dead.

Question On That Killing Last Night--For the NRA

On the shooting/killing of Philando Castile last evening in Minnesota.

An Extremely Worthwhile, Educational Eleven Minutes

Following is eleven minutes and 9 seconds of rather important information,  I think, that unfortunately, most Americans won't see.

Please enjoy.



And what are we going to do about it? All of it?

Black/White Relations in the US for the last 400 Years

Calling it as it was and is (click on picture or link for easier viewing):

A Concise History Of Black-White Relations In The United States

Just another day in grossly unfair, unjust, even murderous America

Check out last evening's news:

Texas 'sovereign citizen' sets dumpster fire,reports self missing to set up police ambush

So in our recent past few weeks, we've had the following take place in this country:

1. AK-47 fired at cops, arson and smoke bombs - STILL ALIVE
2. Hold a BB gun at Walmart - DEAD
3. Unarmed 18-year-old jaywalker - DEAD

Guess which two, of the above, were black.

Important article so few will read, let alone understaand

I ran across this article at Alternet just this morning:

White America Is Oblivious to the Truth About Black Poverty

It outlines a lot of what I've thought and believed and heck, even seen, for some time. That is, most white people don't understand even what black people have been through in this country, let alone the intransigent, deeply inset racism that not only shaped this country but that still exists today. Another way to put it: most of us don't understand we don't understand and further, much worse, we don't understand how mistaken we are, let alone how still very racist and destructive we are and so, our country is and how that keeps blacks down and from rising up financially, socially and economically.

Some of the best, most important parts of the article:

Conservatives and liberals alike prefer to focus on perceived deficits in black and brown people than on structural racism and the concepts of white supremacy that undergird it as the principal reasons for disparate conditions and outcomes for many blacks and Hispanics. White privilege means not having to think about the many ways the lives of those who are classified as white are enhanced and protected by the subjugation and exclusion of racial minorities. White privilege provides white ethnics escape from the stigma of poverty. As historian Nell Irvin Painter aptly distinguishes, “Not all black people are poor, but among the people in America defined by race, black people tend to be the poorest.”

Similarly, the link between poverty and criminality is dubious at best. The vast majority of poor people do not engage in criminal activity despite our tendency to label more and more things crimes. Lack of opportunity breeds disillusionment, which leads to disorder, a conclusion reached more than four decades ago by the  Kerner Commission charged with investigating the causes of urban rebellions in the summer of 1967:

Although Negro men worked as hard as the immigrants, they were unable to support their families. The entrepreneurial opportunities had vanished. As a result of slavery and long periods of unemployment, the Negro family structure had become matriarchal; the males played a secondary and marginal family role—one which offered little compensation for their hard and unrewarding labor. Above all, segregation denied Negroes access to good jobs and the opportunity to leave the ghetto. For them, the future seemed to lead only to a dead end.

 Today, whites tend to exaggerate how well and quickly they escaped from poverty. The fact is that immigrants who came from rural backgrounds, as many Negroes do, are only now, after three generations, finally beginning to move into the middle class.

By contrast, Negroes began concentrating in the city less than two generations ago, and under much less favorable conditions. Although some Negroes have escaped poverty, few have been able to escape the urban ghetto. Pervasive unemployment and underemployment are the most persistent and serious grievances in minority areas. They are inextricably linked to the problem of civil disorder.

What white Americans have never fully understood but what the Negro can never forget—is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.

What Chait’s liberal analysis of American racism fails to acknowledge is racism was created to achieve an economic purpose. Anglo-Americans didn’t start out as racists, they became racists in order to justify their chosen economic system, which relied on the exploitation of enslaved black labor. The principal motive for racism was and still is, profit.

One of the many things that infuriates black people, at least it does me, is the obliviousness of white Americans to the ways they project onto black people the pathological and violent behavior they have engaged in and seem to have collectively whitewashed from their memories. In the almost 400 years that African people have been in this country we’ve been subjected to continuous murder, rape, brutality, dehumanization and mob terror at the hands of whites (lynching ended a century ago only to be replaced by extra-judicial police killings) and yet the contemporary narrative is that whites are justified in their fear of blacks, especially black men. Seriously? Modern policing is based on this premise—one that whites rarely question and have trouble understanding as a source of black rage.

White privilege permits people to ignore the reflection of their own pathologies in others.

_________________________________

As I said, great, even important article.

Too bad few will read it.

And even less understand or accept it. And try to do anything about it.

Quote of the year (perhaps)

"What black people are experiencing right now is a kind of privilege previously withheld—seeing our most sacred cultural practices and tropes validated in the world’s highest office. Throughout the whole of American history, this kind of cultural power was wielded solely by whites, and with such ubiquity that it was not even commented upon. The expansion of this cultural power beyond the private province of whites has been a tremendous advance for black America. Conversely, for those who’ve long treasured white exclusivity, the existence of a President Barack Obama is discombobulating, even terrifying. For as surely as the iconic picture of the young black boy reaching out to touch the president’s curly hair sends one message to black America, it sends another to those who have enjoyed the power of whiteness."

--Ta-nehisi Coates, Senior Editor of The Atlantic, from his article "Fear of a Black President"

Links: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/fear-of-a-black-president/309064/#.UDqc1kMFeFM.facebook

http://www.theatlantic.com/ta-nehisi-coates/

The World According to Jack Cashill

Thank God for Jack Cashill, huh?

Or so he'd have us think.

As he keeps telling us, we need him to help us all by explaining things like the Holocaust and the real racial history of Kansas City--and the US and world, I'm sure--as he's done in this month's Ingram's Magazine.

This time, he's telling the developers of this reputedly upcoming "Museum of Suburbia" that's to go out in Johnson County. I love how he even starts the column, just to straighten everyone out:

"Johnson County’s planned National Museum of Suburbia (NMOS, pronounced “no mas”) is not necessarily the horrible idea that most pundits think it is."

As I said, I love that. This museum idea is so bad, he has to make sure we know up front that it's not so bad after all.

Anyway, it's his contention that, while this proposal could devolve, as history would have it, as an explanation of and/or for "white flight" and racial division, that someone just needs to make it "fun" and it will, of course, work and be successful.

Golly.

What a great idea.

Forget that Kansas City is, to this day, deeply, deeply divided, racially, with the outgrowth of that white flight mentioned above, that we so clearly experienced here from the middle of the last century up to this day.

Forget, of course, that there were formal clauses in residential real estate contracts specifically calling out that blacks couldn't buy in the new developments.

Sure, Jack, forget all that.

Just paint a rosey picture of how that all developed and gee, it'll be just like it never happened.

Mr. Cashill insists that this proposed museum shouldn't make any excuses for itself and absolutely should't apologize for the fact that the 'burbs were created, at least in large part, so people could run away from people who weren't otherwise like them.

Way to rewrite history, there, Jack.

He tells, too, in the article that he does the same thing with our own national history, too, when he went back East to the Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It seems Jack was there, helping out a guide, in this example, who needed to be straightened out that the good old US of A wasn't that racist in the past, after all.

It seems a guide there mistakenly, according to Jack, told his group--God help her--that our own Constitution only applied to "White men with property."

Jack straightened her right out, of course. It's what God put him here for, clearly--to educate the rest of us.

Or, at least, God put him here to enlighten the rest of us here in reality land--those who don't agree with him and his views.

In this article, he mentions what happens to be, coincidentally, my hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri, as proof that the suburbs were'nt developed out of racism, in part or whole, at all. He states that, "despite a population that is less than one-half of 1 percent black... 'Who,'" he asked, “'are these people fleeing from?'”

Well, being from St. Joe, I can tell him. I lived there, after all.

The people in St. Joe ran from that East and downtown side of town to, yes, in fact, get away from black Americans and Hispanics and--no surprise--the lower class. The fact is, St. Joseph, Missouri makes a really poor example as a standout against the idea of "white flight" that created the suburbs because the same thing happened there that happened all across this country.

Forget the racism of the US.

Forget the racism of the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Forget the ugliness and sameness of too much of suburbia.

Totally ignore how sprawled and disconnected our metropolitan area is.

Forget how racially divided we are.

Forget all that.

If you just open a museum and have Jack run it, golly, he'll make it "fun" and you can ignore all that stuff.

Forget truth. Forget reality.

I can see it now--Jack Cashill needs to be whisked away as an international consultant to any and every Holocaust Museum in the world--from Germany to Washington, D.C. and any- and everywhere else.

Jack will make the Holocaust fun.

That'll pack 'em in.

Way to go, Jack. Thank God you're here.

Link: http://www.ingramsonline.com/Aug_2012/btl.html

One more stereotype, shot to heck

Here's your "lazy Mexicans", according to reasearch from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the OECD):

Quoting: "Mexicans...top international studies by working nearly 10 hours a day on the job and in the home."

So much for that stereotype, huh?

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/who-knew/work-hours-which-nation-spends-the-least-amount-of-time-on-the-job-29600877.html#crsl=%252Fwho-knew%252Fwork-hours-which-nation-spends-the-least-amount-of-time-on-the-job-29600877.html

Mitt Romney's vision of America---a very white one

Just as The Daily Kos points out today, Mitt Romney's vision for America is, as we suspected, a very white one, as shown by his latest video from and for his campaign:
One thing seems clear, Mitt Romney, if elected president (God forbid) would keep the White House white.

Very white, if we are to believe his own media.

It's no coincidence--no coincidence at all--that it's very like John McCain's 2000 run, too.

Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/30/1095905/-Mitt-Romney-s-better-America-sure-is-white-isn-t-it-

Think the KCMO School District has problems?

Thank our lucky little stars we don't have Memphis, Tennessee's issues. This from The New York Times today: Merger of Memphis and County School Districts Revives Race and Class Challenges, By SAM DILLON. "The largest school district consolidation in American history is taking place as the overwhelmingly black Memphis district is being dissolved into the majority-white Shelby County schools." And we thought it couldn't possibly be worse. Enjoy this beautiful Sunday, y'all. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/merger-of-memphis-and-county-school-districts-revives-challenges.html?_r=1&ref=us

Especially applicable to Kansas Citians?

October 28, 2011 New Rule: Missing Inaction

Truth hurting there, Kansas City? Just wondering.

Mary Sanchez column on the Plaza shootings: Wha??

I was surprised, at least, by Mary Sanchez' column Sunday on the Saturday evening shootings on the Plaza, with Mayor James right there. You have to read it. She says she is "...glad it was a black officer who shoved Kansas City’s black mayor into the bushes, drawing his gun protectively as shots were fired from a group of black teenagers. The race of the mayor and his bodyguard, and their perspectives, will help others be less hesitant to make the strong statements necessary after Saturday night’s shooting of three teens on the Country Club Plaza. Excuse me? Could we stop separating black from white in this country? The previous mayor had no excuse whatever to do what he did about the shootings on the Plaza and that was--nothing. He did nothing about this situation and his color should have played no role in it. He had his responsibilities and he didn't do them, either. This mayor being black doesn't heighten his responsibilities to this city--and I'm not saying that that's what she's saying, don't get me wrong--but we need to stop dividing ourselves in this city and nation. We're all Kansas Citians. We're all Americans. We have problems. We need to work together, regardless of differences otherwise, to solve them. Sheesh. What a column. Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/14/3076633/kc-mayor-bodyguards-reject-excuses.html

First over at TKC and now this

First I see and read racist rants over at Tony's KC Blog in the comments section (racist, knuckle-dragging morons using the "n" word, for lack of a better description) and now this:

Anger, shock over cross burning in Calif community

By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – Anger and shock have penetrated a prosperous, mostly white Central California community where an 11-foot cross was stolen from a church and set on fire next to the home of a black family.

The cross was stolen from a garden at Saint John's Lutheran Church weeks ago and set ablaze Friday in a lot behind the house where the family lived, police Cmdr. John Hough said.

Whoever did this falls under the categories of thief, coward, racist and moron.

I point this out because first, we should be beyond racism and secondly, because pointing it out and bringing it to light should, hopefully, see to it that one day we rid ourselves of this kind of ignorance.  

It can't be tolerated.

It bears repeating:  we should be way beyond this.

Link to original story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_calif_cross_burning

Worst Super Bowl Commercial for 2011, bar none

I'm trying to figure out here, after seeing this commercial for Pepsi, how you could possibly create an uglier, meaner, more racially stereotypical ad unless you're a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Could they have hit more stereotypes—and deeply ugly ones at that? I can’t imagine the meeting or meetings they must have had when they came up with this one. It makes me wonder if any African American was in the room when it was conceived. I rather doubt it but then, “group think” does have a way of taking over in meetings in general but in corporations more specifically.

What an awful--really awful--ignorant and ugly commercial.  This hits on so many nasty, vicious stereotypes, I'm not even going to go down the list of what they hit here.

So kudos and hats off to you, Pepsico! You came up with the absolute “Wort Super Bowl Commercial for 2011″ Great job! (not).

(Thanks and a h/t to fellow-blogger for the heads up on this one.  For more input see original link here:  http://ebonymompolitics.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/pepsi-super-bowl-commercial-highlights-the-angry-black-woman/)
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2046668,00.html?xid=yahoo-feat

Our (screwed up) priorities

We would much rather have a Black man in prison than educate a child on Troost.

"Is the Tea Party racist?" --from Jackie and Dunlap

Andrew "Breitbart's kind of a genius. You get accused of something and you just throw it back at your accusers--'You're the racist! Nuh-uh, Black people are the racists!' Now the whole country is in a dick-measuring contest over who's the most racist--White people or Black people." Back to me: That is some delicious, true, biting satire, right there, folks. If only it weren't true.

KC Police Chief Corwin's response to Saturday's Plaza brawl

From his blog:

Plaza incident

"As you’ve probably heard, large crowds of juveniles converged on the Country Club Plaza on Saturday night and wreaked havoc throughout. They intimidated shoppers and diners, destroyed property, committed a strong-arm robbery, and a juvenile suffered severe head injuries in an aggravated assault. Police took control of the crowds using traffic crews to close streets, pepper spray to disperse the crowds and a helicopter overhead to help officers on the ground find the most troublesome areas."

"We will be taking a number of measures to ensure those who shop, visit, dine at and stroll around Kansas City’s historic Plaza area can do so without fear. We will be meeting with the Plaza Merchant’s Association, NAACP and others to put together the best possible plan to allow Plaza patrons to fully enjoy themselves while keeping disorder at bay. We plan strict enforcement this weekend and for future weekends, and it will be mobile in case problems arise elsewhere."

"We will be closely following the development of any similar events. If you hear of a group planning to organize something like this, please call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS. You will remain anonymous, and you could save someone’s life. As I mentioned, one young man was seriously hurt in Saturday night’s incident."

Uh, right, Chief. I'm sure they're going to call. You'd better get back to your office right away and wait for it to come in.

Reading through the lines here, I make this predictable prediction: Cinemark will no longer allow teens to come to movies there, without parents, as it used to be.

Link to original post here: http://kcpdchief.blogspot.com/2010/04/plaza-incident.html

Saturday night's blow up--the only two things that matter

Let's call this what this was--a melee'--as I said before.

It wasn't "riot" and it certainly wasn't a "race riot", since it isn't one group against another.

You can even call it a "flash mob" as some have but a "flash mob", up to this point has meant people that get together to entertain others and create a fleeting event.

This was a flash mob that was created only to entertain themselves, at the rather big expense of others.

Two things, then, call out to me about this incident this past Saturday evening on the Plaza.

First, it seems insane that these kids coordinated this anarchy and chaos for entertainment.

There's no other way to describe it. It was simply anarchy and chaos for entertainment.

And how do you combat that?

Anyone who says you don't need or use pepper spray, then, needs to go down there and work with the police to get and keep things under control.

The second thing about this is that this is the third week in a row this has happened and, as the weather warms and word gets out, it's increasing in the number of people who participate. Good luck to us in May, June and the rest of the Summer if this isn't under control rather quickly. As in, immediately.

So if you're the government of the City of Kansas City, Missouri, or the Mayor or the Chief of Police or part of the Police Department or Highwoods Properties or their security staff, the only question is how do you stop it from happening again?

Police say they were ready; Mayor says it was "unexpected"

According to NBC Action News , the police say they expected some action, of one sort or another, on the Plaza this last Saturday night, they just weren't for the increased numbers of kids in the crowds.

The Mayor?

In his own words, he said that the melee' was "unexpected".

It may be "unexpected" by him and his office--not a big shock--but his own police department did expect it. There's a shock, huh?

Let's see--it happened two weeks in a row, apparently, before this weekend but his office didn't expect it.

To Mayor Funkhouser: we aren't surprised.