Running racism in America thread

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]

 

sure thing

Poll: Trump voters say racism against white Americans is a bigger problem than racism against Black Americans

 

Biden Creates Monument to Emmett Till Amid Fights Over Black History

 

meanwhile

 

Well, we could start by not demonizing and threatening to jail OB/Gyns.

 

I don't know. That someone could/would likely be shot? That would be according to the lyrics.

If you go by the video, then yes, something worse than that, which might include mob justice, and, if the backdrop is anything to go by, then lynchings might be among the possibilities.

I just posted the lyrics so people could actually read them. Often, with videos, the music actually gets drowned out by the visuals, and I think that did happen with "Try That in a Small Town." That might have been the exact intention. I don't know. But again, I do think it's good to know that the actual song lyrics don't include anything about lynchings.

And, I'd think there are a lot of (really great) small towns that might also have problems with the kind of behaviors the song describes. A small town doesn't have to be a riotous, unlawful, murderous mob. That's the argument that Aldean's fellow country musician, Sheryl Crow, made last week in a Twitter post: “There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone, having survived a mass shooting. This is not American or small town-like. It’s just lame.”

Crow is a known, active gun-control advocate, of course, while Aldean is a staunch gun proponent. But I think it's worth noting, again, that his song came out in May -- to not much notice at all, and to the sound of crickets. It was only after the release of the video, on July 14, that problems with the song arose and are being debated. Because, now, the song and its message and intent can be debated, and called into question. The video did that. That was my point.

 

Jason Aldean decided to consciously cast his lot with a side. We'll see what happens.

The Dixie Chicks decided to consciously last their lot with a side. We saw what happened.

 

The song was bad enough to be controversial. Put a lynching site under it and it get gets exponentially more offensive. I wish I didn't think we'd be getting more songs to own the libs.

 

inflammatory

 

to misquote Eldridge Cleaver, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem . . .

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interactive/unresolved/cases/emmett-till?