General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumstblue37
(66,035 posts)That picture misrepresents the controversy by exaggeration, plus feeds into a false narrative that protestors = violent criminals.
The controversy isn't about peaceful demonstrators being called thugs.
greyl
(22,993 posts)Your pic in the OP didn't offend my moral sense, if that's what you're implying.
edit: I'm also not saying that swapping in a photo of 2015 looting would fix the picture. I'm saying the whole concept behind it is faulty.
(White people weren't the only ones protesting in DC in 1965, right? Weren't there violent demonstrations in the 60s in which people were called thugs?)
edit 2: additionally, the famous flower pic is from 1967. It is DC, though.
http://www.marcriboud.com/marcriboud/accueil.html
Where did you get the OP pic?
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)No. They were called "hippie freaks".
greyl
(22,993 posts)Bobby Seale:
http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_26719757/party-people-brings-dawn-black-panthers-berkeley
Seale said that as early as 2005, far as I can tell: http://m.semissourian.com/story/155595.html
Of course people were calling "law enforcement" officers jack booted thugs back then, too. It was going both ways.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)It wasn't a label associated with flower children though.
greyl
(22,993 posts)Frustrated with CNN giving airtime to the "thug" word controversy, Kweisi said it was a distraction from the stuff people should be focusing on, and he tried to bring the conversation back to poverty, bad cops, etc.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)convicted murderers on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list.
MrScorpio
(73,699 posts)Along with its long held campaign of political oppression in this country.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Exactly. People are guaranteed the right to protest under our Constitution's First Amendment. They aren't guaranteed the right to riot and loot.
MrScorpio
(73,699 posts)The powers that be have been arresting and murdering peaceful protestors since day one.
How about a little sympathy for black rage?
Ms. Toad
(35,335 posts)The ones being called thugs are the ones committing crimes.
That's where the analogy breaks down.
MrScorpio
(73,699 posts)Baltimore filled its jails up with people who committed no crime at all, many weren't even charged.
What's broken down is our society. This uprising is the result. If there was no breakdown to begin with, the uprising and everything that came with it wouldn't have occurred.
These are people who are sick and tired of suffering in silence.
greyl
(22,993 posts)MrScorpio
(73,699 posts)greyl
(22,993 posts)Looks like something a right-wing troll would create to make people look silly for spreading it, imo.
The incorrect date(at least one) is the clincher, for me.
Ms. Toad
(35,335 posts)The ones being called thugs are the ones who broke into stores and stole things, set cars on fire, set stores on fire, etc.
If you want to be honest about your pictorial analogy, the last people should include an image of someone engaged in the activities for which they are being called thugs.
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)Probably each one of those people was slandered by the dominant system in their own society.
Right now the so-called "thugs" are being slandered. But their struggle is for freedom and justice. I think the day will come when people look back at many of them as freedom fighters.
merrily
(45,251 posts)greyl
(22,993 posts)(Date on first photo is false)
gollygee
(22,336 posts)The context doesn't change. Not sure why you're so focused on a mistake in the date?
greyl
(22,993 posts)and I'd bet a troll created the image in the OP.
merrily
(45,251 posts)I didn't even notice a date
greyl
(22,993 posts)at first glance.
Gothmog
(153,721 posts)brooklynite
(96,882 posts)The word "thug" has not been applied to all protestors (certainly not by the Mayor or the President); it has been applied to the looters and the arsonists.
BumRushDaShow
(140,566 posts)It's remarkable about how many DUers fail to see the racial issue here because "race" (most notably, the "black race" and racism doesn't matter, is old-timey, and only happened "in the past", so it's not a factor in what is going on today and how it is being interpreted and labeled.
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)They know it has problems, but they don't see it as a totally rotten system of institutional racism, oppression and exploitation.
Like you said, people think those days are in the past, but clearly we are still living through it.
BumRushDaShow
(140,566 posts)from 1972 that was posted here - http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017262429
And I found and posted the video of a panel discussion that she was just in a couple months ago where she commented on that 1972 interview, and compared to where things stand today.
I.e., some things have changed, but whole lot has not. That is what is meant by "institutionalized" and "systemic"... and IMHO, a lot of it has to do with sociological issues. I remember way long time ago taking a course on "Sociology of the American Society" (or similarly named) and it was eye-opening in terms of pointing out the building of the framework for what we saw happen in the past and what was happening at the time - when Reagan first got elected (late '70s/early '80s when I took the course) and what would happen in the future (which is our now).
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)It's one thing to point out the pent up energy and what happens when dreams are deferred.
It's another to be dishonest and deny the obvious.
I don't use the word "thug" anyway. But your graphic is misleading.
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)derby378
(30,252 posts)Not many people can stand up in the face of oppression like that. I salute him.