The Gates of Wrath
Not much left to be said about this, but once again we find we're not arguing about the issues raised by the very public mistreatment of a black man by white policemen, we're seeing them trying to silence that argument using a well-understood tactic. By being offended, not by the repugnant actions of a cop steeped in the tradition of dealing with people of color as if the Constitution does not apply to them, but by the words the President used in talking about it.And once again, it worked. We're not having a national conversation about the abusive manner in which police treat minorities, as should have been the result of the Gates arrest, but rather we're taking the political opportunity to back the President down, simultaneously rehabilitating the cop and subtly demonizing Gates for having the temerity to expect to be treated the same as his white neighbors. Outrage at the actions of the Police has shifted to outrage at the words of the President, who, it should be mentioned, is black.
The narrative of white America, where the police are uniformly good and black people are criminals remains ascendant, even though everyone KNOWS that the police routinely profile and mistreat minorities, abuse their authority and use unnecessary violence against anyone who stands up for their rights.
What we know to be true and what we are permitted to say have become so radically disassociated from one another that it really can only be described as Orwellian. How have we allowed our society to be bullied like this? What happened to the open exchange of ideas that is such a necessary part of a functioning democracy? Why should we care if someone feigns outrage in a cynical, manipulative attempt to stifle those ideas? Why are the self-appointed "idea police" winning?
In a deeply ingrained pattern of racial domination, Henry Louis Gates was wronged. It was important for Americans to talk about it, and it was important that Barack Obama, as the President and also as an American black man, to call out that abuse in the harshest possible terms. If there is outrage over Obama speaking bluntly about the behavior of the officer, it should be noted by all observers that it is the outrageous behavior of that very cop that brought about the whole discussion. Had he acted professionally and humanely, as we know he would have if the homeowner was white, none of this would have happened. But immediately the last bastions of white privilege rushed to the barricades to defend a policeman's right to abuse, mistreat and even take into custody a minority citizen because that's the way America works. Disgusting.
Centuries of abuse by white Americans is coming to an end, probably in the next generation. Demographics and the relentless march of human diversity will out. But make no mistake, in their desperate fight to cling to power and privilege, we will see white racists say and do increasingly irresponsible things, and there is suffering yet to be inflicted. And the worst thing we can do is allow the defenders of the unfair and untenable status quo silence the discussion when abuse occurs. Artificial outrage is not a viable basis for a society to answer these questions...
posted by mikey @ 3:04 PM
4 Comments:
And the rich guys still have all the money, and they have empowered the bigots because this helps them get even more money.
It's a supremely cynical strategy. In the long run, we're all dead. In the long run, empowering ignorance and bigotry is a huge mistake.
But in the short run, old greedy rich lying fuckers like Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, the Olins, the Walmart heirs, the Coors, and on and on get richer by doing it.
So that's just what they're gonna do.
~
I'm old and heartbroken, my bones hurt only a little less than my joints, and like you say, fuck it, in the end we're all just worm food anyway.
Why aren't we on the barricades?
What, is a week from Tuesday a better day to die?
mikey
this is what pushes my buttons when some guy says "I hate being made to apologize for being a white male" as some choad did recently at S,N.
Nobody is FORCING anyone to apologize for being a white male. I'm a white male, and when I am apologizing, it's because I FUCKED SOMETHING UP. If someone is constantly apologizing, it's probably because they are a royal asshole, not because they are white.
white guys are CONSTANTLY coming forward acting all butthurt, that others are getting some kind of preferential treatment. But still and all, white guys control almost all the power, and money, and media, and all the other levers of power there are.
And the irony that pisses me off is that the guys most likely to pull this shit are the born-on-third-base-and-think-they-hit-a-triple winners of the fortunate heritage game, born to wealthy families with all the connections they will ever need.
My family was straight up blue-collar, and I was the first one of my immediate family to go to college. I chose a profession where it is common for early career achievements to be based on providing services to the well to do friends of parents, which was not available to me. My clientele have always been more decidedly downscale; while I would certainly be appreciative of an opportunity to design a multi million dollar house, that is not where my career path led.
But somehow, I have never felt discriminated against as a white guy. Never felt that a minority or a women was unfairly elevated over me.
Fuck.
Tell the fucking idiot he doesn't have to apologize for what he IS, any more than Gates deserved to get arrested because of what HE is.
The motherfucker needs to apologize for what he's DONE, what he supports, what he condones. It would be SO easy to end it. To declare that it was all a mistake, and fairness and honesty would be the order of the day going forward, and that we are all humans, skin pigmentation doesn't MEAN anything, and it's time to just find a way to make it work.
I mean, what lessons are left to be learned? How can these thugs insist that we fight the same battles over and over again, and when they do why don't we punch them in the mouth?
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