White Fragility Digest #1: 13 May 2018

[MrScorpio]

Store Manager Stands Outside of Black Woman’s Dressing Room and Reads Theft Policies

Link to tweet

Two Black women confronted a “Fuego” store manager in Tacoma, WA, who tried to throw the ladies out of the store after claims of being racially profiled.

One of the women entered the dressing room to try on a dress when the store manager read aloud the store procedures outside of her dressing room. Both women then asked the manager what her purpose was for doing so and the employee claimed that staff members discussed theft “all the time.”

The manager then called authorities and tried to shoo the women away with scornful hand gestures. However, the girls stood their ground and made it clear they didn’t feel comfortable leaving the store just to be tackled by security. They wanted to wait for authorities to arrive and explain their side of events.

The victim who goes by Simone Intrepid Gamble posted the incident on her Facebook and wrote, “So this just happened. I was in the dressing room and while in there the manager started talking about the procedures for theft. Mind you she was not on the floor when we first arrived to the store. I select dresses then tried them on. I was going to PURCHASE one of the dresses until I heard her speaking directly in front of my dressing room about theft procedures. I then got dressed and went to tell her I wanted to buy one of the dresses and confronted her about her implicit conversation right outside the curtain. She kicked us out of the store when I tried asking her why and she then said all of this.”

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/05/09/store-manager-stands-outside-black-womans-dressing-room-reads-theft-policies/

"White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium."

Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D

[MrScorpio]

1. A White North Carolina High School Student Says BLM Mural Is Offensive -- So He Destroyed It

Link to tweet

By Tia Berger -May 11, 2018

A 16-year-old high school student in Apex, North Carolina was suspended after a video showing him tear down a Black Lives Matter mural started trending on social media.

Apex High School student Mason Stewart said he found the painting derogatory and disrespectful. The student insisted that he was only expressing his First Amendment.

“The mural on the wall was up there for about three or four weeks, ’cause they’ve been working on it occasionally because it’s an art class, and right when I saw the gun go up, that’s when I complained and it’s still up here since Monday so I tore it down,” Stewart told Abc 11.

The junior explained that he grumbled about the mural to school officials about the gun plastered in the painting and said it was inappropriate.

“It was very offensive and it’s pointing fingers to cops, and more likely white officers,” the boy said. “And I have a lot of respect for officers because their job is not easy.”

The student and creator of the mural who goes by ‘Gracie’ on social media posted the video of Stewart demolishing her work that was approved by the school and wrote, ” Welcome to Apex High School where your mural about Black Lives Matter will get torn down the day it is finished (this was a month of work BTW).”

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/05/11/white-north-carolina-high-school-student-says-blm-mural-offensive-destroyed/

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "respect for officers because their job is not easy."

And being black in America is somehow a walk in the park?

[steventh]

22. student activist Emma Gonzalez retweeted

The Raleigh News and Observer ran a good article on this occurrence. Among other things it said:

Gracie Staser didn't see the mural taken down Monday, but learned about it through phone messages later. She couldn't contain her anger.

She was surprised when her tweet reached 100 views, not being an avid social media user. But a day after she posted it, she learned that student activist Emma Gonzalez had retweeted it. Gonzalez, one of the most prominent voices from the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., has almost 1.6 million Twitter followers.

The student who destroyed the mural was suspended.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article210927619.html

Thanks for posting this story.

[kentuck]

2. There's something happening here...

...and it is not good.

[MrScorpio]

3. Watch Nashville, Tenn., Mayoral Candidate Tell Roomful of Black Voters Racial Profiling Is 'Absolute

Watch Nashville, Tenn., Mayoral Candidate Tell Roomful of Black Voters Racial Profiling Is ‘Absolutely Necessary’

Michael Harriot

Friday 9:00pmFiled to: NASHVILLE MAYOR

Link to tweet

There are some things that make you feel so icky that they’re impossible to explain.

I don’t know why my gag reflex is triggered every time I (ack!) think about (ack!) tongue-kissing Kellyanne Conway. Until I learned about trypophobia, an irrational fear of bumps or holes, I had no idea why those pictures of Erik Killmonger screaming “Is this your king?” gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Well, I challenge you to watch this video of Nashville, Tenn., mayoral candidate Ralph Bristol explain why racial profiling is a necessary tool for police officers.

“Profiling is absolutely necessary,” says the former conservative-talk-radio host. “Sometimes race might play some part in that.” Bristol was speaking at the Pumps and Politics event held at Meharry Medical College, the first African-American medical school in the South.

According to The Tennessean, the audience was predominantly black, but that didn’t stop the pro-Trump candidate from continuing:

Obviously, that was unpopular and I am not afraid to say unpopular things if the experts tell me that a particular characteristic is part of necessary profiling in order to prevent crimes against your families. I’m willing to offend you in order to protect your family.

https://www.theroot.com/watch-nashville-tenn-mayoral-candidate-tell-roomful-1825969607

[heaven05]

5. racists hate grow and grows

and so does reaction against it...something violent, vicious and hateful as race based hate, ameriKKKan style, has people talking...and the talk is not comfortable to hear. But to witness wypipo killing unarmed POC...like Charlottesville, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Waffle House shooting and the slaughter that white police officers are carrying out against UNARMED AA citizens, the spate of wypipo calling the police on POC for no valid reason except to possibly see them kill a POC for their entertainment is sad to see. Anger is justified.

Deplorables, MSM, McConnell, Ryan, Sessions, trump are all traitors and enablers of a racist, sexist, bigoted notion that somehow the wypipo are superior as a race above all others. Which has been debunked. One is example is the lunatic posing as potus, nothing, NOTHING superior about that one.

[oberliner]

6. People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?

[MrScorpio]

7. And what do you think would it take to do just that?

Any suggestions?

[oberliner]

8. Build bridges

As you probably know, I was quoting Rodney King from 1992.

Here's his daughter in a recent interview:

“It is hard to trust,” she said. “But it’s not going to get anything resolved by hating.”

[MrScorpio]

10. And what would these bridges look like?

And who would does the building?

[oberliner]

12. Love trumps hate

That's a good motto for everyone to live by.

[MrScorpio]

15. Ok, and how would that apply to the three separate incidents that I posted?

In detail, if you don’t mind.

[oberliner]

16. Reflect on "love trumps hate" and try to apply it to those incidents yourself

Perhaps something positive will come from such reflection.

[MrScorpio]

20. Well, let's see here...

Just to let you know, I'm pretty much identifying with the black people in each of these incidents and not the fragile white people who were triggered by being within earshot or eye sight of blackness and had responded accordingly.

- For the black patron who was implicitly accused of being a thief by the store manager, I don't seem to see any love in that manager's harassment.

Do you? Kind of hard to find it there.

- Or the young white student who seems to identify much, much more with the white (or otherwise) cops and their guns, who kill unarmed black people, than he does the unarmed black people who were killed by those cops with their guns. Sounds to me that he's implying that black people should be summarily executed in the streets and in their homes for whatever excuse the cops are using that day.

Do you think that he relied upon love in his heart when he tore down the mural in that school?

- And for the politician who claims that black people should be racially profiled by the police for merely the heinous crime of being black. Well, perhaps you can demonstrate how that's an act of love. Because, I can't seem to see it.

Perhaps, rather than observing these incidents from my own perspective as a black person living in America under systematic white supremacy, you could rely upon your own perspective as a white person, who's also the recipient of unearned white privileges, to point out what I'm missing here.

Yeah... Show me the love, baby! I'd love to see it.

[Tipperary]

25. So... what would be your suggestion?

Curious.

[MineralMan]

34. My suggestion is that the shop-owner fire that clerk.

Then, instruct new people on how to behave with customers. In detail. That's my suggestion for anyone who is in business serving the public. Tell your employees how you expect them to behave. If they treat your customers like garbage, fire their asses.

It's relatively simple, and good basic business sense. Without customers, you're going to go broke. So, encouraging customers is job one.

[MrScorpio]

42. My suggestion? OK...

First, identify the problem. That’s pretty easy, because the problem is white supremacy.

Second, figure out who has power over white supremacy. That should be obvious: It certainly isn’t non-white people and definitely not black people. The only people who have any real power over white supremacy are those for whom it serves, who controls and created it... White people in this country.

Third, white people in this country are going to all need to understand that being the unearned and unwarranted recipients of white supremacy is their problem and it’s up to them to both be self-aware of the problem and brave enough to undo its power structure, because it’s ultimately self-destructive.

Basically, it’s up to white people to be sick and tired of other white peoples’ racist bullshit. White people need to stop rewarding white supremacist outcomes.

Lastly, if you see some white person in the midst of attempting to exercise their white privileges over a person of color, as the other white person on site, use your own white privilege to put that other white person in their place.

As another poster rightly said, stop expecting the oppressed to defeat their oppressors with love.

[tblue37]

29. IOW, Bring a cheesy cliched slogan to a gunfight. Easy to say when you're not

the one staring down the barrel of a gun.

And don't forget, the church members murdered by Dylan Root welcomed him lovingly into their prayer group before he killed them.

[MineralMan]

33. So, the victim is supposed to show love for the oppressor?

I know...those women could bow their heads to that shop worker, mutter a few "Yes, ma'ams" in a quiet voice, shuffle their feet a little, and leave the store sheepishly. Is that the sort of response you think would be appropriate? Turning the other cheek, as it were?

Here's the deal: A lot of folks have been doing things like that for a long, long time. It has not helped. Not one bit. You know what did help? Turning out in the street en masse. It wasn't until people started doing that that laws got changed and things started changing directions.

You know who needs to show some love? The assholes who do that kind of thing to people they encounter. That'd be great. Don't ask the oppressed to show any love for their oppressors. That trick never has worked, and never will.

[Blue_Adept]

35. Check out last weekend's W. Kamau Bell episode of United Shades of America

His look at the Sikh religion and their approach is instructive.

[MineralMan]

36. Check this out. I've provided a link, for your convenience, below:

I have no idea how to find what you mentioned.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210610467

[Blue_Adept]

37. It's a CNN show

Worth watching week to week on Sunday nights and probably On Demand as well.

[MineralMan]

38. I watch almost no television programming at all.

I use other sources for my news and opinion gathering.

[Blue_Adept]

40. Well fuck me with a chainsaw

And slap a big old elitist label on ya. And here I was just trying to help show something interesting to someone.

[meathead]

43. Among the Inept, Ignorance Is Bliss

https://www.cnn.com/shows/united-shades-of-america

[Blue_Adept]

39. Here's the full episode

[ProudLib72]

31. Vocal allies

Why I started my thread about confronting racists face to face.

[lunasun]

13. What were the women doing not to get along? So in the name of getting along get harassed ?

[oberliner]

14. Nothing

I am hoping we eventually get to a place in our society where everyone gets along with everyone else. Where hate is overcome by love.

[Solomon]

24. Here's what you are missing.

Black people have been doing the loving for more than 400 years. It's not working.

[JI7]

26. What did the black women do to not get along ?

[gollygee]

41. Yes, we should get along by not calling the police on people of color over nothing all the time

and by not assuming they are inherently dangerous or unethical.

[Lonestarblue]

9. This behavior is out of control.

Thank God I have low blood pressure because this crap is making me so angry I want to go out and smack a few people! This level of racism is unbelievable—Trump and his ridiculous claims about people of color has made some people lose their common sense and decency. I wish they would all climb back under their rocks and not show their nasty heads again, including that racist neo-Nazi in the White House (and he needs to take the delusional, morally challenged pasty fish-belly-white Stephen Miller with him).

[mountain grammy]

19. Not the least bit unbelievable

and that's what makes it worse. It's common and becoming more common. This is what people voted for, the right to be openly racist, because they feel somehow entitled to do that.

When America was "great," black people couldn't try on clothes and couldn't return anything that didn't fit. My sister was a skilled seamstress who made most of her clothes because we were poor. She belonged to the sewing club in high school and most club members were black girls who also made their own clothes, but most did it because of how they were treated in department stores. In the south, it was the LAW that blacks couldn't try on clothes, but when my sister started sewing in the early 60's, we lived in Hartford, Connecticut where the unwritten rules also applied.

Whenever anyone talks about the so called "race riots" in Hartford in the 60's, I just say, well, you weren't there.

We are moving backward by leaps and bounds, mainly because so many Americans really don't have any 'common sense or decency.'

[lunasun]

11. K&R

[salin]

17. From the Daily Beast: When Calling 911 Makes the Emergency

https://www.thedailybeast.com/when-calling-911-makes-the-emergency?ref=home

Excerpt from the article:

Almost all of you have a superpower that I’m in fear of. You have the power to call the police and be automatically believed. Even if I’m in a suit, whiteness gets the benefit of the doubt. And you have this power available to you all the time, regardless of what I’m doing. Even if I’m not committing a crime you can call the police and be believed and put my life in danger.

I could be calmly sitting in a Starbucks, or quietly sleeping in a common area at Yale, or having a barbecue in a public park. Yet, no matter where I am and how many laws I’m not breaking, you could call the police. A whiff of your white fear will ignite them to action, leaving me to defend myself even if no crime was witnessed.

I obviously respect every citizen’s right—slash duty—to engage the police when there’s actual danger or when there’s a real crime taking place. But some white people are wearing crime glasses that make normal actions by black people like walking, sitting, or sleeping appear criminal. Before calling the police ask yourself, “If the people involved were white would I call the police?” as my friend Rinku Sen does in her amazing piece. If you think someone being black somehow justifies expecting criminality from them then you are a part of the problem. Keep this in mind: The overwhelming majority of black people have never and will never commit a crime. It’s crazy that I have to say that, but I do.

This article seems appropriate to include in this thread. Suggests that an aspect of this quick response to call the cops is about demonstrations of domination.

Mr. Scorpio, Please keep posting these actions of mass (i.e. collective) insanity. Exposure is important.

[MrScorpio]

21. I should point out some context here...

Unfortunately, in this country, many whites conflate comfort with safety. They didn't call the cops because they were in unsafe situations, by any stretch of the imagination. They called the cops on those black people because they were uncomfortable with having black people existing in locations that they arbitrarily determined were "white spaces."

It's as if they were imposing some sort of virtual reality Jim Crow scenarios onto black bodies.

That's highly dysfunctional behavior in this day and age.

[salin]

23. Important context.

And analogous - using cops to enforce positional superiority - very Jim Crow-like indeed.

[tblue37]

30. Since I was replying to someone else's post, you probably won't see my post #29 above, so I am

posting it in a reply to you, because I think it needs to be said to people who blame both sides for not getting along and loving everyone:

IOW, Bring a cheesy cliched slogan to a gunfight. Easy to say when you're not the one staring down the barrel of a gun.

And don't forget, the church members murdered by Dylan Root welcomed him lovingly into their prayer group before he killed them.

[malthaussen]

18. It's hard to legally regulate the behavior of people...

... but I would like to see some kind of fine for people who call the cops or otherwise harass others when they are just living their lives -- or trying to. The problem, of course, is determining what acts are actionable, and what are not.

-- Mal

[ismnotwasm]

27. K&R

[dlk]

28. It Would be Helpful to Put Out this Store's Name on Social Media

[oberliner]

32. It's literally in the first sentence of the article

And included in the tweet.

[Generic Other]

44. I know one of these young women

She is an amazing person. A college student studying to be a writer.
The clerk has been fired.