Black America is so very tired of explaining and debating

[randys1]

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/08/black_america_is_so_very_tired_of_explaining_and_debating/

Black America is tired. The liminal existence of Ellison’s invisible man; Cornel West’s brilliant meditation on “niggerization” as a state of existential fear, where black and brown people are unwanted, unprotected and unsafe in America; and the genius insights of Richard Wright’s “Native Son” speak to a stalwart resilience in the face of the racial absurdity that is white supremacy and the color line in America (and the world).

Black Americans are the moral conscience of the United States.

The most patient, peaceful people in history, to put up with this shit for this long...

[bravenak]

1. It gets so exhausting!

The black tax. Constantly having to prove your humanity, your goodness, your right to exist, racism, etc.

[randys1]

2. Much of white america just wants to know why you folks wont just let us go back to 1955.

[bravenak]

4. Or 1855 when everyone 'knew their place'.

[randys1]

5. Even better.

[bravenak]

6. They think so

[randys1]

8. LOL..not

[AuntPatsy]

31. Sadly I've heard that from several white individuals, the good ones know their place..

It's not easy changing that thinking, I've Been trying for years, I am not originally from Texas, but married into it, raised children here, it's been far from easy changing that mindset when new generational children follow with that rhetoric and way of thinking...

[daredtowork]

11. Having to Food Stamp 'Splain is not the same

But I hope it gives me a teeny tiny corner of insight of what it's like to always be having to justify your existence to a demanding other - and who gave them the positional power to be constantly demanding and questioning the value of your existence?

+1 squillion to this post.

[bravenak]

14. Food stamp splaining is just fucked up.

Explaining that you need food? What a piss off!

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[Jefferson23]

7. It is up to us, not the victims to turn this around...enough is enough. n/t

[randys1]

9. And if the AfAm community patience DOES finally, someday, run out...they will then be

blamed for that too

[Jefferson23]

13. They won't, not ever, in my opinion. If Amercans want the stain to continue they'll not

demand that certain issues be dealt with now. Police violence is beyond ugly and the
stats on our prison incarceration rate is there due to profit, and easy to fill with more
cities across the country in poverty.

On a cynical day, I feel that white Americans may get edgier about the police violence they see
as it unfolded for the young female black teen. It was a moment in time where ANY father and
mother should say, NO. She was so vulnerable and for some white Americans, the fact that
she and her friends did not fit their stereotypical view of poor black kids who they feel less
a sense of a bond with..they tend to blame them for their poverty and "making trouble".

White Americans when they see a video like that may feel the prospect for violence against
their own children and themselves for that matter will increase and act more decisively for change.

If this horrific event spurs more white people, fine..I do not want to see any lost
opportunity to enact change..email your reps, demand congressional hearings and
I have said before, a summit on race relations in the US. A percent will not bother to
listen to these stories, but more will than not, imo. White Americans also need to hear
about reparations..yes, that word.

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. Posted to for later. n/t

[madokie]

12. You got it right

[Mister Ed]

15. The most patient, peaceful people in history.

All in all, viewed by any honest, objective standard, Black Americans have been a race of Ghandis.

[jwirr]

16. Had they not been patient and peaceful people the blood would have flowe in the streets like

never before. Because the anger is justified.

[Mister Ed]

24. The anger is justified.

As a white man, it makes me almost literally squirm with discomfort to acknowledge that simple fact. But it's the plain truth, and truth is truth.

Two weeks ago, I finally got around to viewing the movie "Selma". In the moment that young Jimmie Lee Jackson was murdered by a state trooper, I was gripped with the intense and ugly realization that I would never, never have been able to summon the strength to remain a Ghandi in the face of that. No. My rage would have transformed me into something...other than human.

The strength of the people who won that battle, and the people who continue to fight that battle in so many ways, great and small, is simply unfathomable to me.

[jwirr]

26. Me either - I can only hope I would have the same strength under those circumstances.

[AngryAmish]

40. White America is gonna get a wake up call.

It will be a long, hot summer.

[jwirr]

41. I expect so.

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. When every thread on police brutality against African Americans on every internet forum

AND I MEAN EVERY INTERNET FORUM gets flooded by racist shitheads and gun nut racist assholes, truly, the situation is utterly infuriating and beyond belief. Some of these racist pieces of trash can't even let people mourn before they come over with their "Ahem, but..." and "If only they'd complied..." and the rest of their fucking nonsense. Then they go to bed satisfied that they're good people. They're racist trash.

[Champ50]

18. Amen!!!

[heaven05]

22. you are right

I've heard a lot of the "Ahem, but if only compliance" bullshit continually, even here. Lots of DINOS here spewing that shit and spitting into the melting pot trying to shit stir. Truly disgusting people and nothing good about them.

[Starry Messenger]

39. .

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. Yeah, and cops act like protesting it is "a race riot" that must be put down with force.

[heaven05]

20. very tired

but still fighting the good fight as so many here are. The privileged class cannot defeat dogged persistence that will never accept 2nd class citizenship in a so called democratic culture that is neither democratic or "color blind". Blind to POC and our humanity only. Patience only lasts so long in the face of recalcitrant, ignorant and mostly downright stupidly racist people of the 'privileged class'. Bravo to this post......

[Gormy Cuss]

21. Fundamentally what bothers me it's still on Black America to explain this

Last edited Tue Jun 9, 2015, 11:10 PM - Edit history (1)

It's as if there isn't a long body of history where it's been explained ad nauseum.

[DonCoquixote]

23. what is real funny is

Minorities, especially Black people, will be expected to smile while a certain ex president says "dog whistles, I did not say no dog whistles" in a fake "I was the first black president" accent while he stumps for his wife.

[ismnotwasm]

25. K&R

Excellent!

This indifference to black justice claims is present on both sides of America’s political and ideological divide.

Liberal racists derail and deflect conversations about the particular challenges of black life in the face of police violence with banal and empty slogans such as “all lives matter.”

Movement conservatives, possessed of a racist ideology and stoked to the gills with white racial animus in response to Barack Obama, practice a more obvious type of white victimology and politics of white racial resentment: They believe that black people have a “pathological” culture, and are therefore “natural” criminals. The Republican Party’s law and order fetish, as well as overt animus toward black and brown Americans, embraces police violence against the latter as a type of “just” and reasonable behavior.

[certainot]

27. republican use of/promotion of racism depends heavily on our universities

rw radio has led the way with keeping the racism alive and well, continuously making excuses for it and distorting and diverting the national discussion by creating mountains out of molehills and visa versa, attacking the victims and egging on the cops.

one of the amazing things is that rw radio as a coordinated megaphone for racism, is heavily dependent on black athletes and the sports programs they play for.

270 of limbaugh's 600 radio stations, many of them the loudest stations in their states, ride the community credibility of more than 90 of the most prominent university sports programs. they usually pay a small percentage of the overall licensing a school gets for those broadcasting rights.

one of the most appropriate places to protest the racism and police brutality is at those universities. many of those stations could not survive as republican propaganda tools if a few of those universities were forced to honor their mission statements and start looking for apolitical alternatives. many of the others would be shamed into doing the same.

[bettyellen]

37. Amazing post- I had no idea! Thanks

[randys1]

42. Everybody should read this post...

[byronius]

28. Great article.

[Rex]

29. and dying.

At the hands of those that swore an oath to protect them and serve the needs of the community.

[Number23]

30. Great read. Love how all sides of the political spectrum got a call out

The most patient, peaceful people in history

I don't know about that. But that was an awesome read. Thanks for posting.

[freshwest]

32. I think they have been patient, peaceful and productive in almost every instance.

I have always felt inferior to that kind of whatever you call it - spirirual nature - awareness - etc.

Is it innate? Learned from pain? Is it a survival mechanism?

I'd say what I thought of how white people behave - and answer that set of question from that viewpoint - but it'd get hidden for being 'racist.'

[Number23]

33. Well then, check out the latest Vox piece on the pool story. Shows that white folks can step up

and help the rest of us get rid of this scourge.

'The only good news about the McKinney pool party is the white kids’ response to racism'
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/9/8747567/mckinney-pool-party-white-teens

[freshwest]

34. That is excellent, and yes, I've seen it IRL. DU seems kinda skewed at times, too MSM oriented?

[damnedifIknow]

35. Well

[stage left]

36. I, for one, don't blame them.

[JustAnotherGen]

38. I'm not asking for permission

To be a black person anymore.

I'm simply not.

If that gets construed as "She's just angry." - then so be it.

When I get angry - I get quiet.

When I'm quiet - ask my parents - that's when I'm most dangerous. That's when I think it's a good idea to use a homemade parachute to launch off of the garage - or to dump baking soda in a bowl of vinegar.

Nothing to lose - jump.
Nothing to lose - let the bowl flow over.

[randys1]

43. Even when I say "most patient and peaceful in history" I sort of sound like when Joe Biden

said Obama was articulate.

It is as if I, a white male American, has to AUTHENTICATE you folks, that without MY (or those like me) comments, that you are then NOT the most patient blah blah

How in the hell did I get so high and mighty?

How in the hell did white people get this inflated view of themselves?

White privilege is a facet of racism, all whites in America enjoy white privielge, therefore ALL white Americans are



fill in the blanks, if I do it I will get in trouble

[Herman4747]

44. I'm tired of constantly being tired! (n/t)