Senate "Race" Relations (was "U.S. Society and Black Men")

Agreed. I am just a bit out of the south and the rust belt (Pittsburgh) and so I've mostly witnessed from a bit aways this kind of thing. Rural PA and even suburban PA has a lot of that same bible thumping and racist BS, it is not to the same extent, but from what I've seen in my own family this kind of thing is just as prevalent in the middle class outside of the south. Least it can be roughly as entrenched. If we intend to combat it at all, it is vital we examine why this stuff became so entrenched. Of course it does come down to poverty in many ways, but not because they are stupid, rather because so much of the south has been economically awful for so long that people cannot move, and no one has reason to move there. And of course schools get less funding. But above all else it is that the racist pablum that we are all fed as americans sticks more to people who have been failed by the economy, but cannot get out of Balkanized places.

So they blame it on minorities that they cannot get a job, not cause they are poor, but rather cause insular communities who have been given the propaganda and no means to challenge it are not going to challenge it easily. It is easy for people who have seen all their jobs dry up and their towns hollowed out to look for answers and buy the one that least conflicts with the propaganda they have been fed. So much of that culture and its ties to conservatism is a feedback loop and people in power reinforcing this sense of "redneck means backwards" either to appeal to or dismiss people.

Like Bush and Trump appealed the most to the racism of the deep south, yet neither is at all able to relate to anyone there. Bush tried to play cowboy, ahole was raised in Connecticut, Trump hates the poor and has never left Brooklyn The liberal elitism is part of what makes it so easy for conservatives to no face any trouble in getting people to buy into their BS. Even just cynically, why would people even challenge their own racist beliefs on behalf of people who look down on them equally for being racist as they do for being poor? And what does it do to the upper middle class mindset to constantly associate racism and eating greasy unhealthy food? It makes it so much easier for us to be fed lies from within our bubble just like conservatives do to rednecks.

And in the end the victims are of course the marginalized groups who both factions harm and ignore in their quest to in a culture war that doesn;t exist.

Or hey maybe I have just gotten more cynical as of late when it comes to demographics in this country.

 

You've thoroughly missed the point I was making. Here it is again:
"the defining characteristics are their beliefs and actions." "Rednecks" are not all poor white people. They are people that are deep Trump supporters, enthusiastic gun rights activists, that love displaying the Confederate flag, that are walking around in groups on the ****ing beach right now with social distancing or masks because they know better than everyone else. They aren't even necessarily poor.
There is a strong elitism among "rednecks" - that science and experts are wrong, that those people don't want to work hard and just want free handouts, that school and education are something to mocked, ridiculed and looked down upon. It's embracing ignorance, willfully.
I'm sure there's "Florida Man" incidents that are unfortunate examples of mental illness, but take and take is usually someone behaving out of arrogance and a refusal to acknowledge authority. And it's certainly not limited to Florida.
What it feels like, vncredleader, is that you seem to think that liberals are to blame for the poor white working class in the South for not being leftists. You realize that it is conservatives that push poverty as a sign of moral weakness, right? I mean, That Conservative That Posted Here used to say that all the ****ing time, and I've experienced it too many times living here - that the poor just don't want to work, hard workers are rewarded for their efforts. That person forced to work 80 hours a week at three jobs? Oh, they're not working smart, and they're still lazy because they aren't doing what it takes to get out of their situation. That people like themselves have it the worst because all of those people get handouts and free money and are driving limos and eating steaks.
You should be asking why many poor whites that are looked down upon by conservative elites enthusiastically embrace their cause. LBJ already has the answer:
"“I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
And no one should give a **** about Bill Maher, an obnoxious, arrogant libertarian with conservative buddies that only gets a pass from some people because he makes fun of Trump.

 

Oh, there's even more to the story, at least with the police involved:

According to The Daily Beast: "On Feb. 28, Glynn County Police Chief John Powell was indicted, along with two officers and the police chief from nearby Vidalia, on charges of covering up crimes allegedly committed by members of the department's drug task force. Former members of the since-disbanded task force were accused of suppressing evidence in a fatal police chase, sleeping and doing meth and cocaine with a confidential informant, carrying a handgun while drinking in a bar, coercing witnesses, and lying to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about at least one of those instances of misconduct. "

This was five days after Arbery was killed.

 

Yeah I get what you are saying, and you are still missing my point.

It is not liberals fault that they are racist, I stated that pretty outright, my point is that WHAT people often mock is the obesity and poverty and not...ya know the racist actions. If it is all about actions then why do so many liberals make jokes about rednecks where the punchline amounts to "lol poor people are fat and ear BBQ". No substance, no critique of racist culture, just mocking the region and not the actual racism.

You are trying shift critique of classist undertones into defense of the actions of racists. It reminds me of the "Trump and Putin are totally gay for each other" thing, it is trying to mock homophobes but instead just mocks homosexuality. What is actually the punchline matters. You can talk about only referring to actions, but that does not matter to the fact that when a lot of americans are asked why rednecks are bad they come up with a critique that pins poverty on racism.

And with Florida Man, yeah no it is not just some cases, the vast majority of these florida man stories are literally people who got kicked from mental health institutions and cannot afford meds being brutalized by police for having a mental breakdown. You may truly be mocking the racist actions, but when that person is suffering from mental illness, or the thing broadly being mocked is their poverty as much as the racist action, you are not sticking it to racists. it is not arrogance towards authority that is the problem when the person is ill and needs some damn medication.

https://filtermag.org/if-you-care-about-health-justice-stop-clicking-on-florida-man-stories/

We have to ask why this is the way we critique racism. Some backwater bigot, but not policy makers who actually pass the laws sending death squads to Central America, or drones to the middle east. It does not defend evangelicals to point to our society having a serious aim problem when it comes to going after racism. Balkanizing everyone may not be your intent, and the racism is not the fault of liberals, but how we respond to it is important. It is a stereotype that reinforces itself, and maybe not letting people like Bush use it to fuel bigotry, we should challenge it.

and to the LBJ quote, yeah um that is literally my point. It is the point Hampton made as well, but liberalism in the actual sense of the word, includes most of both parties, or now neoliberalism. I KNOW why poor whites in certain areas buy into racism, I laid it out in my post that you allegedly read.

It is not just a one party gambit, the "look the other are taking your jobs" mentality that allows wages to be stolen is prevalent everywhere. We only protect racists when our archetype for racist are the people buying into the BS sold to them by the upper class.

You don't need to tell me to examine what is literally the premise of what I am saying, i have posted this clip from someone who actually did address the problem unlike LBJ who was oh so content to do exactly what he talks about in that quote.

Intersectionality is my thing. That fact is why I am critical of the "just kick out the south" BS, cause it doesn't address solidarity, and it doesnt actually address racism. It just allows people to tell themselves that they don't meet their cultivated checklist of racist things so thus they cannot be racist.

It is not just conservatives pocketing their money, it is not just conservatives who conned them and left them impoverished once profit dried up. This is internationally the same exact thing, with only different iterations. This is not the guilt of the south, it is the guilt of capitalism and neoliberalism. We must confront that and not tell ourselves comfortable stories.

Cause all we do then is make it easier for the rednecks to rally behind con men who are not even from there but rather rich New Yorkers and rich kids from New England. As well as not question our own actions, not question that California uses slave labor in prisons, not question that New York is more segregated.

Americans want a single answer of why the country is racist, and they want it to not be something that makes them confront themselves. It doesn't make rednecks victims or not ahole bigots, but it does make it vital that we expand our critique lest we continue allowing racism to flourish.



It is imperative that we don't just fall into the traps that Malcolm X and Fred Hampton warned about

 

... and Trump weighs in on the Ahmaud Arbery Case, because of course.

"It's a very disturbing situation to me, and I just, you know, my heart goes out to the parents and the family and the friends. To anybody that watched it, certainly it was a disturbing or troubling video, no question about that. It's a sad thing, very sad thing. Hate to see that."

I'm not sure how Trump could've gotten any vaguer with his descriptions. I'm sure his base will interpret it to mean that he was expressing sympathy for the poor vigilante justice father-son team.

 

I expect by the next massacre he will literally just read the definition of death and then walk off. Honestly would be less offensive somehow

 

Trump also said there may be things that happened off camera we did not see.

In other horrifying news on this matter

"These 2 God-fearing men were only trying to protect their neighborhood. This area has had a string of break-ins and this man fit the description and did not comply with simple commands. Our hearts go out to the McMichael family in their time of need. Amen."

--Religious Facebook Group formerly known as Christians Against Google now known as "Justice For Gregory and Travis McMichael.

 

Someone should ask the Heretics Against Google what authority the men had to act as law enforcement.

 

Er... in a story 180 degrees from that...

Princeton selects first African American valedictorian.

 

I guess I was fortunate to not see or hear it.

 

Attorneys claim LMPD officers killed 26-year-old EMT in 'botched' police raid

Allegedly, and when I say allegedly I mean that I absolutely believe that this is the case, cops no-knocked an apartment and fired off 22 shots, killing an award winning EMT. They, of course, had the wrong house. To add additional salt to the wound, the deceased woman's boyfriend was then charged with attempted homicide for firing back at the armed group of gunmen who broke into their house and killed his SO. Now the local police union is protesting the release of the boyfriend while trying to cover up the whole incident.

And, to the surprise of absolutely no one, it happened to a black couple with a police force that is almost entirely white.

 

There needs to be a lot of legal changes regarding Police, and I'm sure this is probably worth its own thread, but for starters: 1) it should be legal to injure or kill a police officer in a no knock raid, 2) it should be legal to fight a police officer, 3) resisting arrest should not be legal.

These actions would dramatically decrease the police's ability to harm while being protected by the law.