Yes, It Is Different

H/T to Zander at Balloon Juice:  There are many, many, things wrong with this article, which can be fairly summed up as "I think a black person stole my bike, absolving me of all white guilt." One point that bothered me was when Mark Judge tells us:

black pain is no different than white pain

Mark Judge is a rich white boy from a liberal area.  As am I.  As such, the closest I've come to feeling "black pain," by which I can only presume he means the pain coming from racism, is when I heard that a fellow teacher had insulted my then girlfriend (now wife) based on her race.  It took me a good two hours to calm down to the point that physical violence didn't seem like a viable response, and a good two hours longer before I could focus on anything else.

One remark, made by one person, once, made me so angry I couldn't function for the rest of the evening.  I don't presume to know what Judge's so-called "black pain" feels like, but I know this: whatever it is, it's worse and more frequent than how I felt that night, and how I felt that night is different from how I've felt every other time I've been angry in my life.  So yes, it is different, it is worse, and getting your bike stolen is a terrible excuse to pretend otherwise.

Santorum on Race

The quote is "I don't want to make BLACK people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money.

The question was about foreign policy, the comment was about welfare and medicaid, and his answer was about BLACK people.  He felt no need to object to making poor white people's lives better by giving them money for things like food and medical care, no, he objects to giving that money to black people.  Watch the clip. Then watch it again, because you might have missed the word "black" thrown in there.  Then watch it one more time so you know you weren't seeing things.  

And remember, this guy tied for first in the Iowa caucuses.

Also relevant, the breakdown of Iowan food stamp recipients, by race (From CBS)

9% Black

84% White

Edit:

Links:

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/03/396428/santorums-racist-welfare-rant/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57350990-503544/santorum-targets-blacks-in-entitlement-reform/

Note to Lowes: Being Muslim doen't make you less American

Recently a new show debuted on TLC, and the Florida Family Association said:

"All-American Muslim" is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law.  The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.

Or, to paraphrase: "they only showed the normal Muslims, so people might get the idea that there are Muslims who live normal lives like normal Americans." The horror. And so Lowes pulled its ad buy from the show.

Lowes was not duped. By pulling their ads, they suggest that to portray Muslim people, even individually, as legitimately American is somehow controversial. This is fundamentally what racism and xenophobia are about, it is the active denial of another's right to be American. Lowes apparently objects to a portrayal of normal people who happen to be Muslim as normal people who happen to be Muslim. It's important here to notice that there was no misconception as to the show's content. Lowes was not somehow convinced that the show is sympathetic to Al Quada and the Taliban, or is otherwise subversive. The show makes the assertion that there exist deeply patriotic Americans who happen to be Muslim, and so Lowes pulled its advertising dollars.

My wife is ambiguously brown looking, and tells me that I "don't get it."  Obviously I don't; I've never been followed in a store because somebody thought I was Mexican, and I've never had eggs thrown at my house or tomatoes at my head because they thought I was Muslim, but I thought I understood how much I didn't get it. Clearly I was wrong.

I always chalked it up to a few rednecks, which is easy for me to do. People know that I won't tolerate racism around me, so others tend to hold their tongues, and as I am white, most people see no reason to direct bigotry at me. I assumed that when she said "you don't get it" she meant that I don't get what it feels like, but I thought I understood how widespread it was.  I thought I understood how common it was. I thought I had a feeling for how pervasive it was. I was clearly wrong.  Lowes is big, Lowes is national, and Lowes is exactly the sort of far reaching corporation that I thought would be above this stuff on a national scale at least, so my outrage is not just at Lowes and the other companies that bowed to pressure from the FFA, but also at myself, because I thought I knew how much I didn't get it, but I was deeply wrong.

So, if you're as upset as I am, do what I did, and call and complain.

Call Lowes Customer care at 800-445-6937, ask to speak to a supervisor, ask them why they withdrew their advertising dollars, and tell them what you think.  The supervisor I spoke to told me the move was not in response to the show itself but instead in response to the controversy around it, so I told him that I felt responding to bigoted controversy in such a way was tantamount to denying the right of these people to be American, and I found that deeply offensive.

Brief Thoughts on Rick Perry's Implosion

Rick Perry is not a fan of the gays.  We knew that all along, but it has been deeply gratifying to watch the backlash to his latest political ad, not because he went so far over the lines, but because he did not go so far.  Against the likes of Santorum, he seems pretty moderate in his comments, and yet the backlash has been remarkable.

The text of the spot:

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian, but you don't need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. 
As President, I'll end Obama's war on religion. And I'll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage. 
Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again. 
I'm Rick Perry and I approve this message.

To paraphrase: "DADT is good, School Prayer is good, and I'll try to bring them both back."

By making his prejudices explicit, he seems to have alienated the entire internet, and Time Magazine.  This warms my heart, because in absence of hateful language, the backlash can only have been to his hateful opinions, and while we still have a long way to come, these opinions would never have brought the same level of outrage even ten years ago. This is what progress looks like!

Modern Racism

 John Wideman's Op-Ed today in the Times:

I’m a man of color, one of the few on the train and often the only one in the quiet car, and I’ve concluded that color explains a lot about my experience. Unless the car is nearly full, color will determine, even if it doesn’t exactly clarify, why 9 times out of 10 people will shun a free seat if it means sitting beside me.

I doubt more than a handful intend to shun the dark skinned neighbor, yet they do so regardless.  I'm sure these affluent travelers watch their thoughts and actions for prejudice the way we all do, giving our imperfect best to avoid repeating the sins of those that went before.  I'm also confidant they think they're good at it.  Which is to say, they're probably just like me–a deeply unsettling thought.

I guess we should just take this as a reminder of the gallant south, and remember that it is not Toby Keith's memory of an era where they would "round up all them bad boys [and] hang them high in the street" that we should remember, but instead Billie Holiday's: