Well, the only point I was trying to make, in how-ever clumsy a fashion, was that

one of the main elements of the BLM protest at Netroots, and it was mostly women who were protesting, was specifically because so many symptoms of racism in this country seem to be glossed over by the politicians who either are quick to blurt - "ALL lives matter." Well, DUH! But not ALL lives are afflicted by an epidemic of police brutality, even murderous barbarism, toward individuals in the community, the way too many Black Lives are. Whites, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans - don't go through this like Blacks do. And mothers of other colors don't cry like Black mothers do. I'm a mom, this has all touched me really profoundly. That photo is just one of MANY photos that make me cry. I believe one of the women in the photograph, the one comforting the weeping woman in the foreground, is Sandra Bland's sister.

For me, that's how I can come the closest, as a white woman, to understanding at least that aspect of the BlackLivesMatter movement. It's a stumbling attempt to empathize as much as I can while not walking in the same skin. It's the closest I get to being able to "grok" the pain and frustration and agony behind the BlackLivesMatter movement.

From Wikipedia -
Grok /ˈɡrɒk/ is a word coined by Robert A. Heinlein for his 1961 science-fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land, where it is defined as follows:
Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man. To grok something is to understand it so intimately that it's almost as though you ate it.

And shit - I know I'm not telling any of who's left of DU's Black community anything they don't already too-painfully know. All I'm doing is trying to find a way to say I think perhaps I understand, even if only in a small way.



And, um, I'm sorry about the size of the photo. Didn't mean to be overbearing with it. I don't know how to make it smaller - kind of a technical idiot here.

Indeed.

I know what you mean. I do too.

I've seen TOO MANY of them. We all have. WAY WAY WAY TOO MANY. This HAS TO stop. As a mother I say that. I worry about my kids when they're not here at home, too. But I have NOWHERE NEAR the worry that ANY black mother does, at ANY given moment.

GREAT point.

More inconvenient truths.

[img][/img]

ROFL!!!

"...and no cake?!"

THIS^^^ and THIS:

[img][/img]

On the cover of LA Progressive this morning, on the death of Sandra Bland.

THIS PHOTO. That's all I need to see, yet again, to understand what BLM means. Mothers and other women - sobbing in unimaginable grief after their precious beloved babies were taken from them - FOREVER.

It's just too damn much. THIS mother says "ENOUGH!!!!!!! ENOUGH, DAMMIT!!!!!"

Wow - what a great post, BainsBane!

That link made a tremendously important point. BLM has a major case to make. And we all better pay attention to it, especially those of us who've neglected or haven't been keeping track.

I cannot imagine, for the life of me, what it's like for ANY black woman who's a mother. I cannot imagine, as a white woman, what it's like to kiss your kid goodbye every morning (for school or job or whatever) and worry, all day, about whether he's gonna come home safely that night. To LIVE with that, every day and every night and every moment until that kid comes back through the front door again, walking in on his own two feet. Or, since Sandra Bland, to worry about whether her DAUGHTER is gonna come home safely that night, too. It's not just about her SON's life and safety and survival anymore. It's a nightmare beyond imagining.

But EVERY black mother lives that gnawing agony, every day. THAT, to me, is what the BLM movement means. It's just that basic.

Editing to add photo. This PHOTO is what BlackLivesMatter means to me. More women mourning. More MOTHERS mourning. More needless senseless loss. And forever-heartbreak. And it happens in the black community FAR, FAR, FAR more than in any other community.

[img][/img]

EXCELLENT! And AGREED!

Sometimes I'm wondering if somebody somewhere here decided they needed a punching bag or something...

It's made me very angry and very embarrassed the way bravenak has been attacked and targeted and smacked around and piled on. EMBARRASSING!!! And RATHER discouraging, too. Whatever happened to the "we're all in this together/we're all on the same side" stuff? I can't believe the blood-lust here! Somebody on another thread here just tried to pick a fight with me, too. Just now. I just refuse to engage anymore. I'm NOT playing.

But I am inspired by bravenak's strength and fortitude. Glad you're here, bravenak! Hope you stay! And I hope you don't get discouraged. This is really starting to get ridiculous. bravenak, you deserve so much better. You are loved and respected here - and needed.

I'm totally there, William769.

bravenak - we consider you a friend, and a very valuable member of DU. Never mind the politics or political candidates or whatever. Don't let any of that baloney get you down.

Good point, BainsBane.

Actually, seems to me Barney Frank was making a legitimate point - "Even if we did Glass-Steagall, you'd still have institutions that are too big to fail." That's actually true. Especially with THIS Congress. Look how much the ACA left to be desired - even some people here still tend to hate it because it isn't perfect, didn't go far enough, didn't measure up, wasn't the public option, wasn't single-payer, wasn't this, wasn't that. So screw the whole thing, then? Or let it go through, even this imperfect and this wanting and this lacking, and consider it at least a solid foundation ON WHICH WE CAN BUILD FURTHER?

CRIMINY! It's not an all-or-nothing world. I tend to want to give Barney Frank some benefit of the doubt. Overall - through the years, he's been pretty solid. Now, I happen to think WHATEVER might at least START the conversation is good. If we bring back a Glass-Steagall type measure, at least that's a start back in the right direction (in the truest definition of the word "right" - not the bastardized hijacked version that the radical-wrong has turned it into). And maybe it won't be perfect, but at least let's get the engine started. And we're certainly not going to get anywhere near the kind of legislation we want and need - with THIS Congress. So why can't we at least try to get what we can, NOW, for the sake of at least getting the engine started?

This continued and ever-present insistence on Perfection-Or-BUST will get us nowhere in an Imperfect-Reality world. And I won't live in that bubble any more than I want to live in the Pox Noise-created bubble the bad guys who want only their own myopic white-people's-candy-world insist on living in. I'd rather get one square farther along on the game board than sit on the same square arguing - and not move at all.