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narrowtriangle33-blog · 3 years

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Please share this article, it important that you do so. These truths have to be told.

"Bethune’s name appeared in six reports in the House Committee on Un-American Activities and five times in Senate reports on people suspected of communist activity. While she was cleared of any involvement, the message was clear: Confronting racism and white supremacy is un-American."

"This is why white people are my bellwether."

"Whenever I am trying to decide whether or not a particular movement, policy or person benefits Black America, I wait and see what white people think. While that might sound racist, there has never been a movement, policy or person that benefitted Black America who was simultaneously embraced by white America. In this country, a stance against the trauma-inducing brickbat of whiteness is perceived as a stance against America. And anyone who disagrees can feel free to prove me wrong. Name one person who fought for Black liberation who white people agreed with."

"Whenever anyone does anything that includes the word “Black,” it immediately falls under the classification of Marxist and anti-whiteness. White people hate being left out, even though they are acutely aware that there is nothing more valuable in the known universe than a white life. White people will slit a Black baby’s neck for a white woman’s life."

"Let’s just say they will beat a Black baby to a bloody pulp, tie him to an industrial fan with barbed wire and toss his lifeless body off a bridge. Is that better?"

"But I understand why they vilify Black movements with Marxism."

"White people don’t know what Marxism is."

"According to a 1970 Harris Poll, 64 percent of Black Americans had a favorable view of the Panthers, while 92 percent of white Americans had a negative view. It’s probably because a lot of members of the Black Panther were Marxists, which is different from communism. Basically, Marxism is a way to examine history, economics and societies through the lens of class, while communism is actually Marx’s economic and political theory in which...wait. For a second I started to believe that there was some logic to white supremacy."

"White people hated the Panthers because they had guns and pushed for armed self-defense. For some reason, those America-hating negroes believed “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”"

"I have no idea where they got that crazy idea from."

"Black people voting"

"Why white people don’t like it: States’ rights, something something, communism, something something it was a different time."

"When Black people marched on Selma for voting rights, they were called “communists.” The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was called “Un-American.” Of course, the 2020 election was about “socialism” because so many Black people voted."

"Southerners, conservatives and white people, in general, have never pushed for a single law to expand the electorate because they are the only true Americans."

"Critical Race Theory"

"Why white people didn’t like it: Because they don’t know what it is."

"This one is easy."

"The one thing that dumbfounds me about white supremacy is how much white people trust each other. They just trust the explanations for their fellow white people. In all this debate about CRT, I have yet to see one person who opposes CRT who can also explain what CRT is. And many of the legislators who are against funding K-12 teachers who absolutely do not teach CRT are already funding the leaders’ movement, such as Richard Delgado, the professor at state-supported Alabama Law School who wrote a little book called Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. "

"All they know is that it has the word “race” in it, so it must be bad."

"Legislators opposed the Civil Rights Act because it was “Marxist.” The House Committee on Un-American Activities investigated the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for communism. The FBI did, too."

"In a 1964 New York Times survey, a majority of white people said that the “Negro civil rights movement had gone too far,” and a quarter of those people said their resentment was growing. They were right. Two years later, a 1966 Harris Survey, revealed that 85 percent of white respondents thought civil rights demonstrations “hurts the negro.”"

"Apparently, to white people, fighting racism is worse than racism."

"And if you think I’m kidding about white people not thinking Black people were smart, according to the National Opinion Research Center, it was not until 1963 that 50 percent of white people believed “Negroes” were born with the same intelligence as whites."

"History"

"Why white people don’t like it: Because white people might find out about some of the things white people did, which is racist."

"The fight against what politicians have deemed the Marxist, Un-American 1619 Project is actually a fight against teaching the history of slavery more accurately. And it is not new. White people said the same thing about teaching abolition. The United Daughters of the Confederacy said the same thing about the Civil War. White school districts in the North and South said the same thing about Jim Crow. And Black History Month."

"Plus if white kids learn about America’s racist past, they might start saying: “I’m not going to do that again,” and then, what will happen to white people?"

"Martin Luther King Jr."

"Why white people didn’t like him: He was a communist. He was anti-white. He was a Marxist."

"In 1966, a majority of white Americans had a negative opinion of King. When he died in 1968, 75 percent of Americans disapproved of him. Now they love him..."

"Because he’s dead."

"This is why we must never ignore white people."

"While we should never, ever do what white people collectively want, history has shown us that if something is good for Black people, white people will hate it. And if they vilify something as racist, communist or anti-white, you should take a second look because, nine times out of 10, it might be worth considering. When it comes to freedom and equality, the easiest thing to do is to see what white people have to say...

Then do the opposite."

I copied a lot of his article word for word those are Michael Harriot's words not my own.

The word's of people who commented.

"I was asking one of the few people on the Right side of politics I am still in touch with about why he hates CRT, and he sent me a link to a whole essay. It boiled down to a few leaps in logic:"

"1) the USSR used US race relations as a shield to deflect criticism of their own human rights record (“And in the USA, they hang n-words”)"

"2) therefore, any criticism of race relations was caused by Soviet propaganda (not, you know, by actually HANGING BLACK PEOPLE)"

"3) therefore any discussion of race relations was commie propaganda."

"4) therefore, any movement that calls attention to race is communist."

"It’s very similar to how the Communist League fired the original writer of The Communist Manifesto because he brought up ethnic minorities and racism and replaced him with Marx, outright rejecting any factor that so much as complicated their preconceived model. It also shares many of the issues raised in the “grievance studies” affair, being exegesis to elaborate and propound upon a founding scripture."

"That’s the most idiotic line of reasoning I ever heard. It’s so typical of white people as a group in this country that when someone points out some shit they did that’s fucked up that instead of you know, stopping the fucked up thing they basically say that the entity pointing out their fucked up shit is bad therefore bringing up solutions to the fucked up thing they did is wrong."

"Fuck the trolls, but if anyone is actually confused about the likelihood of any white person to trust any other white person over anyone at all who is even POSSIBLY not white, please refresh your memories regarding the multiple instances in the last several years of a Black person being anywhere near a house or building, then being approached by either a white guard, cop, or other self-important deputy of white fragility."

"In these instances, Black people are often believed to be up to no good even after they show ID proving they live in the building some white person has decided they don’t belong in. No amount of proof will have a fragile white self-deputy believing that even state-issued IDs are a real thing and this Black person lives in their own home."

"But when any white person walks by and says “Oh, this is _____, they live here”, immediately, that’s good enough to let this perceived criminal go into their home."

"Because any white stranger vouched in any sort of way."

"Literal evidence of address means nothing, but the word of ANY white person, with no proof of their authority, no hassle about “Well what are YOU doing here?!?”, just...instant belief of any white skin."

"Also, the main difference between Angela Davis and Assata Shakur is that Ms. Davis beat the system at its own game, the “proper” way. Racism couldn’t even beat her at their heavily-rigged game. Ms. Shakur ALSO beat the system, but because she didn’t get to win at a fully-rigged game, she found her own loophole and got out of this racist hellhole."

"Not that it matters, because they’re both the same to any racist. To me, they’re both brilliant heroes."

"If you asked these mouth breathers what they hate about CRT not only could they not tell you, they would call you “the real racist” for asking. There is no winning with these people because they refuse to see themselves as ANYTHING other than the good guys in any situation. It is fucking tiring to deal with this shit and yet they seem to not understand that we are more fucking tired than they are. With each comment, committee and talking point they pretty much prove that no white person could handle being anything other than well, white."

"To admit anything else would result in a reckoning. It will never happen and America will remain a racist society, with white culture pushing back and getting more extreme as each generation of BIPOC become more aware and angry over white supremacy. America will implode and whatever rises from the ashes will either be that reckoning with real change or a third world country."

Again I quoted these people

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randomrainman · 4 years

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american conservatism and the minds of people: a black man’s perspective.

Hi, it is I.

I often think long and hard about the mind states of the people around me, and my inevitable conclusion is that the vast majority of people are monumentally and irrevocably fucking stupid. As it turns out, people have a really hard time letting go of things with which they have grown familiar or fond, and therein lies the basic principle of conservative thought.

“But aren’t some things okay to keep?”

Well, obviously, not everything needs to be thrown out in order for improvement to occur. In the Army, we have things labelled “sustains” and “improves”. The two terms are pretty self-explanatory (as are most things in the military): sustains are the things that work, and the improves are the things you either completely nix or need to, erm, improve. Of course, this begs a question: as it relates to a society of living, (mostly) breathing human beings, how does this apply?

"Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water,” it is commonly said. I am not entirely sure who was throwing away bathing children, but that’s a discussion for a different time. The baby in this idiomatic expression is whatever it is we are supposed to be maintaining. Let’s start with an example: police.

Obviously, it is entirely infeasible to literally abolish police. We absolutely need the police force as an institution, and good and effective policing is a pillar to a modern, functional society. However, we can abolish unprofessional, unnecessarily violent, racist, or otherwise unbecoming behaviour from police departments, and also demonstrate that such things are intolerable and met with appropriate punishments every time these rules are broken. NWA didn’t make “Fuck The Police” because they wanted to express interest in having thoroughly arresting cop sex; it exists because they don’t trust the police.

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Above: An Autistic Swedish dude spitting shockingly accurate commentary-by-proxy about American society. Flames!

Due possibly in part to dubiously worded slogans such as “defund the police”, modern conservatives balk at the thought of changing anything of significance about how policing in many communities in the United States is conducted, even going as far as to label the reform for which we call as an attack on the very idea of police.

That said, historically, the very pillars of police forces in the United States have their foundations in slavery and post-slavery racist institutions, which means that, while much has changed on the surface, the way police implement policy reflects structural and societal racism. As a result, simply attacking individual instances of misconduct will almost always fail to elicit any meaningful progress, which is why some do seek to dismantle police departments (an option I cannot fathom as being realistic, especially not in the short term).

The lack of a centralised police organisation from which to implement policy certainly does not help, and while some police departments, to include the Department of Justice itself, have introduced implicit bias training, it would appear that change was difficult to measure. Additionally, many police departments have not addressed the more overt problem of explicit racism in law enforcement, which is a nigh-impossible thing to tackle expeditiously without a top-down structure to deal with it. It has improved steadily overall, however, but not without significant disapproval...

Pictured: “disapproval”. A civil rights demonstrator is attacked by a police dog in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. (Photo credit: AP)

The Origins

As I noted earlier, there is plenty of shit people want to keep, and most for relatively understandable reasons -- after all, those things provide a sense of familiarity. “It’s always been this way -- why change it?” they ask. One needs only to look at our, um, flowery history to see countless examples of things that required change...

The transatlantic slave trade transported up to 12 million forcibly enslaved Africans to the Americas, many of whom arrived in what is now the United States. As unspeakably horrifying as the actual journey was, this was only the beginning of the tribulations that would befall the slaves and their descendants in the future.

While Europeans played a large part in introducing the idea of race-based caste systems into colonised lands, the American brand of discrimination is different in the fact that the idea that Blacks and Native Americans were genetically inferior to whites was endemic to our inception, and thus, formed the basis of the things enshrined into American democracy.

Photo credit: Alexander Gardner / Wikimedia Commons

Abraham Lincoln entered the chat.

Naturally, having someone even so much as threaten the idea of racial dominance after literal fucking centuries of treating Black people as property did not sit well with the slave-owning populace (even if Lincoln’s motives were not exactly altruistic). While the Southern states did in fact operate an agrarian economy heavily dependent on chattel slavery, it was that notion of superiority combined with societal comfort they felt that ultimately catalysed the secession of the Southern states from the Union...

Pictured: Civil War reenactors (from the Confederate side) simulate the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest battle in US history. Also, why the fuck is Civil War reenactment a popular thing to do? It’s deeply weird. (Photo credit: MPRNews.org)

...and then they decided to have the deadliest fucking war in American history over that comfort. Spoiler alert: the Confederates lost both the war and their precious bullshit institution of slavery -- but even after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, many Southern slave owners did not even pass the news of freedom to their slaves for months.

In keeping with the preservationist and racist mindset which occupied most Southerners’ brains, any attempt to integrate Black people into society during the Reconstruction period was stymied at every turn. To them, despite Black people being de jure full citizens in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1866, we were still subhuman. Due to Jim Crow laws, Ku Klux Klan terrorism, and other assorted nonsense, we made virtually no progress toward equality until the Civil Rights Movement and resulting laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

“Well, you got what you wanted! YOU’RE EQUAL! Quit yer bitchin’!”

Ah, if only things worked that way in real life. As previously noted, even if things are codified into law as changes, there are still people who try really hard to keep everything exactly the fucking same, so it does not end up happening in practice. Things such as residual effects of redlining and continuing disproportionate and excessive imprisonment of minorities, amongst other issues, still affect people in the present day. In other areas, people exploit loopholes in order to lawfully discriminate against others they might deem “undeserving”.

Lots of things, especially when it comes to role of minorities in society, have historical precedents. When arguing said precedents with conservative types, the conversation almost always leads to one of several (predictable) conclusions: the person believes that 1) negative historical events (e.g., slavery, Native American genocide, etc.) were not that bad; 2) those things did not happen at all; or 3) those things were bad, but somehow do not affect modern society.

Obviously, all three are emphatically wrong. This is why typical conservative behaviour, even in this modern era in which information sharing is instantaneous, does not surprise me: often, the rhetoric is not rooted in reality, and often resorts to appeals to emotions to elicit a knee-jerk response. This is not to say that this does not occur on liberal ends of the spectrum, but modern conservative rhetoric is rooted primarily in unjustified fear of change and anti-intellectualism.

Pictured: A screenshot I took of someone on a pro-President Biden post desperately trying to be oppressed.

This kind of shit is utterly exhausting. Neoconservatism, in a nutshell, is people literally inventing problems and subsequently getting angry at their own creations. It is the equivalent of setting up a bear trap, immediately stepping in it, and wondering why the fuck you’re stuck in said bear trap and your foot doesn’t work anymore. During the Obama administration, the only thing I would witness is people insisting (without any evidence, of course) that President Obama was the Antichrist and that he would usher in the New World Order and take everyone’s guns. All zero of those things happened, of course, but when Donald Trump assumed the presidency, the rhetoric completely reversed, and he was named “God’s chosen" by evangelical figures, despite him having broken perhaps all of the Old Testament’s Ten Commandments. Of course, as you can see with the above screenshot, clearly, they have returned to the Obama bitching method, but diminished, partially because President Biden is also an old, white male, and they don’t need to ask where he was born.

Pictured: what happens when you fuel millions of self-victimising people with QAnon conspiracy theories and possibly loads of Bang energy drinks. Photo credit: ABC News

The hypocrisy is absolutely palpable amongst these types of people, and if I tried to sit here and continued to provide examples of conservative figures contradicting themselves, I would die either of old age or myocardial infarction, whichever happened first. The difference in the reaction to Black Lives Matter protests versus the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 makes the double standard quite transparent: justice and equality, while technically codified into law, are clearly are not administered equally in modern-day America. We’re still not like the others.

Our brand of conservatism, by and large, is the enemy of those two very important American ideals.

|the kid|

#conservatism #conservative #liberal #Donald Trump #Joe Biden #President of the United States #creative writing #article #political ideology #critical thinking

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blackgoddess991 · 4 years

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The F Word

When you think of the word feminism and how it become to be, people usually think that it was to help all women to have equal rights to vote. Well in facts, the foundation of feminism was built upon white women who would be able to vote by the 1920’s. While black women in the south did not have the freedom to vote for almost half a century, until the voting rights act was passed in 1965. Since the mid-19th century, black women and women of colour fought for their rights to vote while dealing with discrimination from white suffragists who did not want their movement associated with women of colour.

Malcolm X once said, “the most disrespected person in American is the black women, the most unprotected person in American in the black woman, the most neglected person in America is the black woman”.

I don’t think I can stand by something that black women and women of colour have never benefited from. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want equally for everyone, it’s just that women who call themselves feminist today completely disregard other protest, or women who shame other women for loving their bodies and/or having a different point of view or belief than them. what makes you so different? We’re all human, so in order to fix this broken system we need to stop shaming each other, we should be supporting us women and unfortunately their women in our society who are more privilege than others and those who have more of an advantage. You need to understand how much freedom you have in this world and learn what it means to fight for what so many are entitled to. Be an ally for people who have less privilege than you. we live in a world where men take what they want and discard what left and were left to pick up the pieces. We are in a society where women are constantly being shamed for what we do and what we don’t, the world want to steal our voice by telling us that it’s our fault or you deserved that happened to you because of what you wore. Society teaches young girls to hate themselves instead of loving and accepting who you are. They will grow up to have a warped image of themselves and what they’re supposed to look like. For years our fathers, brothers, politicians, and others have been telling us what to do and what not to do. We are expected to be strong but gentle, educated but not opinionated, and above all beautiful but not too much cause that will make us a hoe. Us women are the glue that holds this broken world together, we have the power to say NO, the thing that makes women strong is that we have the guts to be vulnerable, we have the ability to feel the depths of our emotions and we know that we will walk through it to the other side. We use our struggles that we go through to connect to women and others alike.

Zozibini Tunzi said “I think the most important thing we should be teaching young girls today is leadership. It's something that has been lacking in young girls and women for a very long time, not because we don't want to, but because of what society has labelled women to be. I think we are the most powerful beings in the world and that we should be given every opportunity. We should be teaching young girls to take up space."

The perception feminism has changed and formed over the years into different ideals, we can’t let our history define what our future is going to be. I think it’s your job as woman of privilege to stand up against injustice among black women and women of colour, and it’s our job as black women and women of colour to educate those who are uneducated.

#women #Black Girls #womenempoweringwomen #intersectional feminism #white feminism #feminist #femism

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evilelitest2 · 4 years

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Okay I'm going to be very careful with my words but I wanted to get a second opinion on this. We know besides the establishment being cowards and backing Biden he never would've gotten this far without older blacks. Do you think it was a bad call and against their best interests to vote for him despite his record showing he uh doesn't have the best track record on race? This is not me blaming anyone by the way.

Ok, this is complicated, an`d i’m seeing this talked about a lot, the African American vote. some caveats because this is a really complicated subject

1) The african American vote is not universal. Like the white vote, it is divided based on age, location (there is a big distincition in southern vs. northern vs. Western black voters), religion, income and class. There isn’t a universal way to understand the african American vote, so eveyrthing I am going to say are generalizations and anyone reading this should be careful to fall into generalizations. There are many african Americans who voted for Biden btw.

2) Voters make their choice for a variety of reasons, some of which I am not getting into, and it doesn’t always affect their ideology.

I also want to make clear that I am talking about black voters who ideologically might actually like sanders platform more than Bidens, there are also many african americans who just are conservative (like whtie conservatives).

Ok so something that people need to understand about the African American community, espicially in the south is this. Since the Republican party is so defined by white Nationalsim, blacks are among the worse hit by any republican administraiton, this has always been the case. like Trumps administration has hurt me personally in a few ways, but no where near as much as it is hurting racial minorities in the United States. So a lot of African Americans tend to focus on “harm reduction” when voting since they are the ones who get harmed.

tied to this is the place of hte Democratic Party in black culture, where it is one of the fundemental pillars. Espicially in the south, where the democratic party is sort of the one major national instiution actively trying to protect black Americans. Like try to imagine the sheer level of shit that the Black Community in Missisopi or Alabama has to endure, being trapped in some of the most conservative red states. So loyality to the democratic party is as fundemental in the black community as the Republicans party is to the eventalist community.

Its also important to understand that as a rule, african Americans are the best voters in the country. not just in the sense that they always go out to vote in every eleciton, its also that they tend to organize, voluenteer, give money, and raise awareness. This is partly due to the very well established community focus of black culture, but its also because they know full well what happens if a Republican wins. a good example of this was Doug Jones 2018 shocking victory in Alabama, which was only possible thanks to massive black voter turn out.

The only other voting community as good as the African American in terms of being voters are the Evengelical Christian community, who are like their evil fundementalist twin. But that is a story for another time.

But you know how despite Trump clearly being an atheist, the religious right supports him because he gives them what they want, and Mike pence serves as their surrogate. That is very similar to Biden with Obama as the surrogate, except that what the black community wants are objectively good things and not crypto fascism.

Because of how good the black community is about getting the vote (espicially older black women) the democratic party relies primarilty on black voters. And in the last 30 years, the black community has been extremely successful at steadily taking over the democratic party, and forcing it to address their issues. Which is why Joe Biden in 1980 is playing nice with segergationists and Joe Biden in the 2020 is running on a platform of racial justice. Because now the democratic party needs the african Americans to survive, they are moving steadily to the left on those issues. If the progressive movement wants to really be successful, we really should copy their example, because that the political leaders of community knows exactly what needs to be done to acheive tangible results. Ideally by turning many African Americans into progressives, but that would require the progressive movement to purge itself of its nastier elements (Chapo House)

See the progressive wing of the party has a long history of valuing rhetoric over the pratical, and this alienates them to a lot of black voters who are desperately afriad for themselves and their families.

and that is why they supported Joe Biden, because while many of them don’t actually like him and aren’t happy about his legacy on race, the fact is they know that he needed them to win. And thus as a reward for supporting him, he will give them what they want (again just like the evengelical community for trump but not evil).

specifically, they want the following

A) A democratic Supreme Court. The greatest blow to the Black community in the last 20 years (except Trumps election) was SCOTUS overturning the 1965 Voter’s Right act, which has been devestating to black voting power, espicially in in the south

B) A national law to push back against voter repression

C) Federal support for Black lives Matter

D) The Federal goverment to really crack down on the Alt Right and White Nationalism.

E) Pushing to end the wealth gap between the black and white community (which shrank dramatically under obama).

And most importantly, get trump and his white nationalist supporters out of office.

There are other policies obviously, but for many prominent african American leaders, Biden is a major way to acheive those ends and so they support him. And biden frankly is likely to deliver, between his 8 years working with Obama and his reliance on the black community in 2020, many African Americans feel like he is somebody who is going to listen to them and take them seriously.

So I don’t really feel comfortable saying that they are voting against their own best interest, instead they have a different set of “best interests” than what leftist usually consider. There is more at play than a strictly materalist understanding of politics.

#ask EvilElitest #joe biden #African American community

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sumukhcomedy · 4 years

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How Do I Talk To “Not Racist” White People?

As people in the country proceed to have more discussions on race, this is going to involve having honest conversations with white people who are “not racist.” If you’re wondering who white people are that are “not racist,” it’s pretty much any white person who isn’t wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood or flat out proclaiming themselves as a white supremacist. Then again, over the past 4 years, maybe it’s gotten so flexible that these types of white people are even considered “not racist.”

The progression of race since The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has led simply to the realization for white people that begin considered “racist” is being thought of as pure evil. It’s how we look back upon history. The mountains of white people who intimidated black people in the streets and at sit-ins are bad. The Ku Klux Klan is bad. Nazis are bad. Hitler was bad. Pop culture, often the only presentation that white people have to racism, also brings out about these simplistic ideas. Any movie dealing with race from the 1980s to even today has the white villain who is clearly a part of the KKK or white supremacy. They are evil and racist and that’s that. There is no possibility that there is any nuance to racism and white supremacy.

As a result, this has been the extent of race and white people’s interaction and conversation on it. White people see themselves as “not racist” and the extent of their “not racism” ranges from being active to a point of overcompensation and even danger (see Jessie Spano on Saved by the Bell or the parents in Get Out) to pushing race aside while not realizing one’s confirmation of a racist system and policies (many supporters of Donald Trump).

As many white people attempt conversations with each other on race or even try to reach out to myself and other people of color, there is one piece of advice I can give you from my own experience:

I CANNOT TEACH YOU HOW TO LISTEN.

A conversation is an ability to listen to one another and to feed off each other. A conversation on race means that you have a willingness to listen about race and you should listen to the person or persons of color in the conversation because they can tell you of their experiences as a result of racism. That’s how you learn and get better.

What has been frustrating not just recently but throughout my life has been attempting to have conversations with “not racist” white people. You can’t claim that you’re not racist and then avoid a discussion of race. I have been in so many conversations where a “not racist” white person prefers to avoid listening to me. They become adamant about defending themselves. It even goes to the extent that they defend policies that hurt people of color. Their inability to listen and their fixation on being potentially labeled as the all-evil word that is “racist” clouds their brain to a point that their perspectives make no sense.

I can readily admit that there are so many things in life that I am not knowledgeable on. I attempt to become knowledgeable on them by listening and understanding. I now am living in a farming community which is a drastic change from living in cities for most of my life. But I am open to listening to the experiences of farmers, their lives, and their perspectives. I will fight for the rights of farmers just as much as I would fight for the rights of others. I don’t sit and listen to them and say, “You’re wrong!” or “That’s backwards!” or “Cities are better than you!” I never take on an approach where I say, “I love farmers but…” Yet, this is how the “not racist” white person of all walks of life and in all different kinds of industries and from cities to towns discusses race.

Not only do I attempt to become knowledgeable on things but I also accept my responsibility when I screw up. Do you think I grew up in a household that understood trans issues at all? My parents still barely understand gay people. But I chose to expose myself to these communities. I learned from them. I understood them. I befriended them. I could then look at one of my jokes that I felt was insensitive to the trans community and be apologetic about it and even pull it from the re-release of my album. That’s effort. That’s understanding. That’s progress. And, even then, I can admit I am still not perfect on these and many other issues at all. I’m still learning and I’m still trying to teach others close to me in my life to better accept it as well.

So, you can then hopefully understand where the anger on race with “not racist” white people comes from. How can you claim to be “not racist” if you are unwilling to have a conversation about race? How can you claim to be “not racist” if you dismiss my experiences and feelings? How can you claim to be “not racist” if you make no effort to understand where you may be wrong? How can you claim to be “not racist” if you don’t actually make the effort to be better and accept responsibility? These questions are just some of the many issues with the “not racist” white people that only amplifies the frustration and anger of people of color.

Look, I get it. Every single human being is scared at the idea of being thought of as evil or wrong. But, the first step is accepting the fact that we live in an evil and wrong society. Then, the next step is to ACTUALLY LISTEN to those victimized by the evils and the wrongs in our society and understand why they are victimized by it.

If you can just make the effort to open up your ears more and close your mouth, you might actually start to take the steps needed to stand on the “not racist” pedestal you’ve been living on for your entire life.

#race #racist #not racist #blm #black lives matter #get out #saved by the bell #black trans lives matter #trans #history #racism

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robertfsmith · 5 years

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Robert F. Smith Commencement Address to Morehouse College on May 19, 2019

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President Thomas, board of Trustees. Faculty, staff, and Morehouse alumni.

The extraordinary Angela Bassett, and the distinguished Professor Doctor Edmund Gordon.

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, family, and friends.

And most of all, Morehouse College Class of 2019: Congratulations!

Earning a college degree is one of the greatest and most impressive of life’s accomplishments.

But success has many parents -- and as hard as each of you has worked to achieve what you all have achieved today, you’ve had a lot of help along the way. We are the products of a community, a village, a team. And many of those who have made contributions for you to arrive at this very moment are here with you today.

So, first and foremost, graduates of the class of 2019, please stand and join me in recognizing the love and commitment of those who have been with you on this long and hard journey!

Graduates, standing here before you is one of the great honors of my life. And I am so proud to share it with my mother, Dr. Sylvia Smith, a lifelong educator and the greatest role model of my life, who is here today.

This is the first of three graduations in my family this week. One of my daughters graduates from NYU, another graduates from high school and is headed off to Barnard in the fall, and my niece is graduating from my alma mater, Cornell, next weekend. So I want to thank the Morehouse administration for perfectly timing today’s festivities in advance of them so that I could be here.

Morehouse was built to demand excellence and spur the advancement and development of African American men. I have always been drawn to its rich history, and I am optimistic for its bright future.

The brothers from Morehouse I’ve met -- or revered at a distance -- understand the power of this education and the responsibility that comes with it. Willie Woods, Morehouse’s Chairman of the Board, is one such man. Thank you, Chairman Woods.

In our shared history -- as a people, and as a country -- the Morehouse campus is a special place. The path you walked along Brown Street this morning to reach this commencement site was paved by men of intellect, character, and determination.

These men understood that when Dr. King said that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, he wasn’t saying it bends on its own accord. It bends because we choose to put our shoulders into it together and push.

The degree you earn today is one of the most elite credentials that America has to offer. But I don’t want you to think of it as a document that hangs on a wall and reflects what you’ve accomplished up till now.

No.

That degree is a contract -- a social contract -- that calls on you to devote your talents and energies to honoring those legends on whose shoulders you and I stand.

Lord knows you are graduating into a complex world. Think about what we have faced in just the years you spent as Morehouse students:

We have seen the rise of Black Lives Matter, lending voice to critical issues that have been ignored by too many for too long.

We’ve seen the Me Too movement, shining a spotlight on how far we still have to go to achieve real gender equality.

We’ve also seen the unapologetic public airing of hate doctrines by various groups.

We’ve seen the implications of climate change become impossible to ignore and become ever more severe.

Our connected world has grappled with new questions about security, privacy, and the role of intelligent machines in our work and lives.

And we’ve witnessed the very foundation of our political system shaken by the blurring of the sacred line between fact and fiction… right and wrong.

Yes, this is an uncertain hour for our democracy and our fragile world order. But uncertainty is nothing new for our community.

Like many of yours, my family has been in the United States for 8 or 9 generations. We have nourished this soil with our blood. Sown this land with our sweat. Protected this country with our bodies. And contributed to the physical, cultural, and intellectual fabric of this country with our minds and our talent. And yet, I am the first generation of my family to have secured all my rights as an American.

Think about it:

1865 was the first time that most African American families had a hint of access to the first and until now, greatest wealth-generating platform of America -- land.

The Freedmen’s Bureau was supposed to deliver 850,000 acres of land to the formerly enslaved, a program that was then canceled and replaced with a Freedman’s Savings Bank…which was then looted.

Essentially that recompense was reneged upon. We didn’t have broad access to the Homestead Act nor Southern Homestead Act where 10% of the land in the U.S. was distributed for no more than a filing fee.

It wasn’t until 1868, after the passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th amendment, that my family actually had a birthright to be American Citizens.

Then, when America decided to create a social safety net for its citizens in 1935, they created a Social Security program.

Yet that program excluded two categories of workers: maids and farmworkers, which effectively denied benefits to two-thirds of African Americans, and 80% of Southern African Americans.

It wasn’t until 1954 that my family had a right to equal education under protection of the law -- guaranteed by Brown v. Board of Education.

And while the 15th Amendment gave my family the right to vote -- the men, at least -- starting in 1890, those rights were rolled back in the South and remained suppressed until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Even today, more than a half-century after that, the struggle to ensure true integrity at the ballot box is still very much alive.

All of these landmark extensions of our rights -- and subsequent retrenchments -- set the stage for a new policy of forced desegregation utilizing school bussing that went into effect when I reached the first grade in my hometown of Denver, Colorado.

Our family lived in North East Denver, and back then, Denver, like most other American cities, remained extremely divided by race, both politically and geographically.

In my community, my neighbors were mostly educated, proud, hard-working, and ambitious. They were dentists, teachers, politicians, lawyers, Pullman porters, contractors, small business owners and pharmacists.

They were focused on serving the African-American community and providing a safe and nurturing environment for the kids in our neighborhood.

They were on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement. They were sacrificing their sons to the Vietnam War. They mourned the death of a King, two Kennedys and an X.

Despite all they gave, they had yet to achieve the fullness of the American Dream. But they continued to believe it was only a matter of time -- if not for them, then surely for their children.

I was among a small number of the kids from my neighborhood who were bussed across town to a high-performing, predominantly white elementary school in South East Denver. Every morning we were loaded up on bus number 13 -- I’ll never forget it --and taken across town to Carson Elementary.

That policy of bussing only lasted through my fifth-grade year, when intense protests and political pressure brought an end to forced bussing. But those five years drastically changed the trajectory of my life.

The teachers at Carson were extraordinary. They embraced me and challenged me to think critically and start to move toward my full potential. I, in turn, came to realize at a young age that the white kids and the black kids, the Jewish kids and the one Asian kid were all pretty much the same.

And it wasn’t just the school itself -- it was my community back home that embraced and supported our opportunity. Since most of the parents in my neighborhood worked, a whole bunch of us walked to Mrs. Brown’s house after school and stayed there until our parents returned home from work.

Mrs. Brown was incredible. She kept us safe, made sure we did our homework the right way, gave us nutritious after school snacks, and taught us about responsibility. And because her house was filled with children of all ages, I suddenly had older kids as role models who were studying hard and who believed in themselves. Mrs. Brown also happened to be married to the first black Lt. Governor of our state, so we saw the possibilities first hand.

Amazingly, almost every single student on that number 13 bus went on to become a professional. I am still in touch with many as they make up the bedrock of their communities today. They are elected officials, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, professors, community organizers, and business leaders.

An incredible concentration of successful black men and women from the same working-class neighborhood. Yet when I look at my other folks from the extended neighborhood -- those who didn’t get a spot-on bus number 13 -- their success rate was far lower -- and the connection is inescapable.

Everything about my life changed because of those few short years. But the window closed for others just as fast as it had opened for me.

That’s part of the story of the black experience in America: getting a fleeting glimpse of opportunity and success just before the window is slammed shut.

The cycle of resistance to oppression, followed by favorable legislation, followed by the weakening of those laws, followed by more oppression, and more resistance, has affected and afflicted every generation.

And even as we’ve seen some major barriers come crashing down in recent years, we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t acknowledge just how many injustices persist.

Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you get educated. Where you go to school shouldn’t determine whether you get textbooks. The opportunity you access should be determined by the fierceness of your intellect, the courage of your creativity, and the grit that allows you to overcome expectations that weren’t set high enough.

We’ve seen remarkable breakthroughs in medical research, yet race-based disparities in health outcomes still persist. You are 41% more likely to die of breast cancer if you are an African-American woman in America today than if you are white.

You are 2.3 times more likely to die of prostate cancer if you are an African-American man than if you are white.

If you are African-American, you are more likely to be stopped by the police, more likely to be issued a ticket after being stopped, and more likely to be threatened with the use of force than if you are white.

This is our reality. This is the world you are inheriting.

Now, I am not telling you these things because I am bitter or because I want you to be bitter.

I don’t call upon you to be bitter, I call upon you to make things better. Because the great lesson of my life is that despite the challenges we face, America is an extraordinary country. Our world is getting smaller by the day. And you are equipped with every tool to make it your own.

Today, for the first time in human history, success requires no prerequisite of wealth or capital -- no ownership of land, or natural resources, or people.

Today, success can be created solely through the power of one’s mind, ideas, and courage. Intellectual capital can be cultivated, monetized, and instantaneously distributed across the globe.

Intellectual capital has become the new currency of business and finance -- and the promise of brainpower to move people from poverty to prosperity has never been more possible.

Technology is creating a whole new set of on ramps to the 21st century economy, and together we will help assure that African Americans will acquire the tech skills and be the beneficiaries in sectors that are being automated.

Black men understand that securing the bag is just the beginning -- that success is only real if our community is protected, if our potential is realized and if our most valuable assets -- our people -- find strength in owning the businesses that provide economic stability in our community.

This is your moment, graduates. Between doubt and destiny is action. Between our community and the American Dream is leadership. Your leadership. Your destiny.

This doesn’t mean ignoring injustice, it means using your strength to restore order.

And when you are confronted with racism, listen to the words of Guy Johnson, the son of Maya Angelou, who once said that, “Racism is like gravity, you got to keep pushing against it without spending too much time thinking about it.”

So…how do you seize your American Dream? Let me get specific. Let me give you five rules that I live by.

The first rule you need to know is that nothing replaces actually doing the work.

Whenever a young person tells me they aspire to be an entrepreneur, I ask them why. For many, they think of it as a great way to get rich quick. Invent an app, sell a company, make a few million before you’re 25.

Look, that can happen, but it’s awfully rare. The usual scenario is that successful entrepreneurs spend endless hours, days, and years toiling away for little pay and zero glamor.

And in all honesty, that is where the joy of success actually resides. Before I ever got into private equity, I was a chemical engineer, and I spent pretty much every waking hour in windowless labs doing the work that helped me become an expert in my field.

It was only after I put in the time to develop this expertise and the discipline of the scientific process that I was able to apply my knowledge beyond the lab.

Greatness is born out of the grind. Embrace the grind. A thoughtful and intentional approach to “the grind” will help you to become an expert in your craft. When I meet a black man or woman who is at the top of their industry, I see the highest form of execution. That’s no accident. There’s a good chance it took that black leader a whole lot more grinding to get to where they are.

I look at the current and former black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies whom I admire, and they blow me away every time I met with them. Bernard Tyson, Ken Frazier, Ken Chenault, Dick Parsons, Ursula Burns, the late Barry Rand. They may not have attended Morehouse, but they have the Morehouse attitude.

They knew that being the best means grinding every day. It means putting in the ten thousand-plus hours necessary to become a master of your craft.

Muhammad Ali once said, “I hated every minute of training, But I thought to myself, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”

Grind it out -- and live your life as a champion.

My second rule to live by is to take thoughtful risks.

My Granddad took a particular interest in my career, and he couldn’t have been prouder of my stable engineering job at Kraft-General Foods. For him, to have that kind of job security at my age was a dream come true.

When I told him I was thinking of leaving for graduate school, he was beyond worried. Then, you can imagine how he worried some years later when I told him I was going to leave Goldman Sachs, where I had achieved a good level of success, to start my own private equity firm focused on enterprise software.

I respected my Granddad and his wisdom, his thoughtfulness, and his protectiveness over me. But I had also done my homework. I calculated my odds of success, and importantly, I knew that one of the fundamental design points of achieving the American Dream was to be a business owner.

So I decided with confidence that I was willing to make a big bet on the one asset I had the most knowledge of: myself.

There are always reasons to be risk-averse. Graduating from Morehouse can make you risk-averse, because the path you’re on, if you stick to the more conservative choices, is still pretty darn good.

That doesn’t mean you should gamble with your career or careen from job to job just because the grass appears to be greener. But it does mean that you should evaluate options for taking business and career risks…do the analysis, and trust your instincts.

When you bet on yourself -- that’s likely to be a pretty good bet!

My third rule is to be intentional about the words you choose.

I know Morehouse has taught you that you what you say carries with it enormous power.

Be intentional about the words you speak.

How you define yourself.

What you call each other.

The people you spend time with.

And the love you create.

All of this matters immensely. It will define you.

My fourth rule -- which is my favorite -- is to always know that you are enough.

I mentioned that before going into investment banking at Goldman Sachs, I worked in applied engineering for Kraft General Foods. And I loved it!

Until one day I was at a meeting with a number of department heads in my division and as we went around the conference table discussing the divisions most important strategic initiatives, I realized that of the top six, I was leading five of them.

I was half the age of everyone, yet I knew I was making just a third as much as anyone else in the room. And I said to myself, I’m either doing something very right or very wrong. Truthfully it was a bit of both. So, it became a lesson in realizing my worth and self-worth.

It isn’t just about salary, though that always matters. It’s also about demanding respect from others -- and from yourself. A realization and respect for all of the skills and talents you bring to the table.

When you have confidence in your own worth, you’ll become the one to raise your hand for the hard assignment that may mean putting in time on nights and weekends, but also means you’ll be gaining incremental skills and experiences to enhance your craftsmanship.

Earn your respect through your body of work. Let the quality of your work product speak of your capabilities.

Know that you are only bound by the limits of your own conviction.

You are Morehouse Men. There is no room on this earth you can’t enter with your head held high. You will likely encounter people in your life, as I have, who want to make you feel like you don’t belong... but when you respect your own body of work, that is all the respect you need.

In the words of the great Quincy Jones and Ray Charles, “Not one drop of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.”

You are enough.

The fifth lesson and final lesson for today is as follows:

We all have the responsibility to liberate others so that they can become their best selves -- in human rights, the arts, business, and in life.

The fact is, as the next generation of African-American leaders, you won’t just be on the bus, you must own it, drive it, and pick up as many as you can carry along the way.

More than the money we make, the awards, or recognition, or titles we earn, each of us will be measured by how much we contribute to the success of the people around us.

How many people will you get onto your bus number 13?

We need you to become the elected officials who step up and fix the laws that engender discrimination and who set a tone of respect in our public discourse.

We need you to become the c-suite executives who change corporate culture, build sustainable business models, and make diversity and inclusion a core and unshakeable value.

We need you to become the entrepreneurs who will innovate inclusively, expand wages for all Americans, and lower the unemployment rate in our communities.

We need you to be the educators who set the highest standards and demand the resources needed to deliver on them and inspire the next generation.

We need you to invest in the real estate and businesses in our communities and create value for all in that community.

No matter what profession you choose, each of you must be a community builder. No matter how far you travel, you can’t ever forget where you came from.

You are responsible for building strong, safe places where our young brothers and sisters can grow with confidence… watch and learn from positive role models, and believe that, they too, are entitled to the American Dream.

You Men of Morehouse are already doing this. Your own Student Government, in fact, sends students on a bus to underserved communities around the country to empower young black men and women to seize their own narrative and find power in their voices.

This is exactly the kind of leadership I’m talking about.

Remember that building community doesn’t always have to be about sweeping change. But it does have to be intentional.

You can’t just be a role model sometimes. I’m cognizant of the fact that whenever I’m out in public, people are observing my actions. The same goes for you.

Building community can’t be insular.

The world has never been smaller, so we need to help our communities think bigger.

I’ve invested particularly in internship programs, because I’ve observed the power of exposing young minds to the opportunity out there that they don’t see in their own neighborhoods.

Help those around you see the beauty of the vast world out there, and help them believe that they, too, can capture that dream.

And remember that community can be anywhere.

Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, community was a few blocks around where I grew up. Today, we, you can create communities of people anywhere in the world. Merging the physical and digital communities will be one of the great opportunities you have and you will have have in the years going forward.

Finally, don’t forget that community thrives in the smallest of gestures. Be the first to congratulate a friend on a new job, buy their new product first, and post on social media about how great it is, and also be the first to console them when they face adversity.

Treat all people with dignity, even if you can’t see how they can be of help to you.

And most important of all, whatever it takes, never, ever forget to call your mother. And I do mean call – don’t text, a text doesn’t count!

Speaking of mothers, allow me a point of personal privilege to end with a story that speaks volumes about mine.

In the summer of 1963, when I was just nine months old, my mother hauled my brother and me 1,700 miles from Denver to Washington, DC so that we could be there for a Morehouse Man’s historic speech.

My mother knew that her boys would be too young to remember that speech, but she believed that the history we witnessed that day on the National Mall would always be a part of the men we would one day become.

And Mom was right, as usual. I still feel that day in my bones, and it echoes all around us here at Morehouse.

Decades after that cross-country trip, I had the privilege to take my granddad with me to the opposite side of the National Mall to celebrate the inauguration of the first African-American president.

As we sat in the audience on that cold morning, he pointed to a window just behind the flag, in the Capitol Building and he said, “You know, grandson, when I was a teenager I used to work in that room right there, in the Senate Lounge, I used to serve coffee and tea and take hats and coats for the senators.” He said, “I recall looking out that window during Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration.”

He said, “Son, I did not see one black face in the crowd that day – so here we are, you and I, watching this.”

He said, “Grandson, you can see how America can change when people have the will to make change.”

The beautiful symmetry of our return to the Nation’s Capital under such different circumstances was not lost on us -- the poetry of time and soul that Lincoln called the “mystic chords of memory" resonated in both of our hearts.

You cannot have witnessed the history I have, or walked the halls of Morehouse for four years as you have, without profound respect for the unsung everyday heroes who, generation after generation, little by little, nudged, shoved, and ultimately bent that “arc of the moral universe” a little closer to justice.

This is the history and heritage you inherit today. This is the responsibility that now lies upon your broad shoulders.

True wealth comes from contributing to the liberation of people. The liberation of the communities we come from depends on the grit and greatness inside you.

Use your skills, your knowledge, your instincts to serve -- to change the world in the way that only you can.

You great Morehouse Men are bound only by the limits of your conviction and creativity. You have the power within you to be great, be you. Be unstoppable, be undeniable, and accomplish the things no one ever thought you could.

You are well on your way. I’m counting on you to load up your bus and share that journey.

Let’s never forget what Dr. King said in the final moments of his famous sermon at Ebenezer Baptist, “I want to be on your right side or your left side, in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world…a new world.”

Graduates, look to your right side and your left. Actually, take a moment. Stand up, give each other a hug. I am going to wait.

Men of Morehouse, you are surrounded by a community of people who have helped you arrive at this sacred place on this sacred day.

On behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we are going to put a little fuel in your bus.

Now, we’ve got the alumni over there. This is a challenge for you.

This is my class -- 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans. Now, I know my class will make sure they pay this forward. And I want my class to look at these alumni, these beautiful Morehouse brothers -- and let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity moving forward -- because we are enough to take care of our own community.

We are enough to ensure we have all the opportunities of the American Dream. And we will show it to each other through our actions, through our words, and through our deeds.

So, class of 2019:

May the sun always shine upon you.

May the wind always be at your back.

And may God always hold you in the cradle of Her hands.

Now go forth and make this old world new.

Congratulations!

#Morehouse College #Morehouse #Commencement #Commencement speech #Robert F. Smith #MorehouseGrad2019

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alexkablob · 6 years

Note

So I'm from the UK and I don't follow American politics very often, so I'm just cool with hearing your opinions on any Crazy Bullshit that's happened recently.

There’s some utterly Crazy Bullshit going down in North Carolina right now and it’s amazing.

Okay so like, as background, the North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) is the most utterly shameless state party in the entire country, there’s literally no respect for democracy or the rule of law, and if you understand the South’s…Unique political history then you start to understand why they’re like this.

Basically after a brief flirtation with actual democracy enforced by federal troops (1865-1877, in which a number of black politicians were elected to Congress from the South), the South was pretty much literally a collection of tinpot white-supremacist one-party dictatorships, in which the Democratic Party (the Dixiecrats) reigned supreme and the various state Republican parties in the South existed only as token opposition. The “Solid South”, solid because its elections were quite literally rigged.

Enter the Civil Rights movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964/Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Southern Strategy. There’s a long, slow realignment in which the Southern Dixiecrats switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, starting with Barry Goldwater in 1964 but really solidified by Richard Nixon in 1968. This starts on the Presidential level and slowly filters down, and a full rundown of it all would take a whole other post.

So after about a century of unchecked Democratic dominance in the South, the Democratic Party in the rest of the country decides it’s had enough of racism and kicks the Dixiecrats to the curb. But here’s the thing: the South has to have real elections now. The Republicans don’t inherit the Solid South even though the white supremacist Good Ol’ Boys network transfers to them, and it takes them decades to take full control on the state level.

As late as 2010 most state legislatures and congressional districts in the South were held by Southern Democrats (the late stage ones, the ones that weren’t total open racists and instead were just generically shitty moderate-conservatives). 2010, incidentally, is when the NCGOP took control of North Carolina’s legislature for the first time.

But here’s the thing: unlike a lot of other southern states, North Carolina’s electorate no longer supports the Dixiecrat system. Over the last twenty years it’s become less white, younger, people have moved there from the rest of the country. Obama won North Carolina in 2008; Romney and Trump only won it by the skin of their teeth in 2012 and 2016. The NCGOP is frantically trying to hold on to power by any means necessary, with the voter suppression and gerrymandering that are standard for the GOP these days of course, but also with shit like calling special sessions in the dead of night to strip power away from the Governor’s office because the Democratic candidate won. Heck, the fact that Governor McCrory lost reelection in 2016 due to backlash against the NCGOP’s transphobic bathroom bill has them panicking, and well it should. They’re pulling out every dirty trick they can think of, ranging from questionably-legal to extremely not legal.

So, the gerrymandering is what this is about. In 2016 the legislature already was ordered by the court to redraw the map they produced in 2012, because it was an illegal racial gerrymander:

The map on the bottom that was first used in 2016 is less blatant but is in fact no less gerrymandered: the GOP holds 10 out of NC’s 13 House seats despite the two parties’ vote shares being roughly even. Earlier this year a court ordered the 2016 map was illegal too, but a stay was issued on the ruling by the Supreme Court who really didn’t want to have to deal with a case on whether partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional in an election year…and also because the Supreme Court is 5-4 conservatives.

But then two days ago another court found the NC map illegal, and the Supreme Court can’t issue a stay on it this time because Kennedy retired, the court is 4-4, and they need 5 votes to issue a stay. So they might have to use a new court-drawn map for this year’s elections in two months. Which like, to translate thsi to the length of UK election cycles, is basically like if Parliament’s constituency map got thrown out a week before the election. And the court ruling has ruthlessly used the NCGOP’s hamfisted tactics against them here:

So little time remains before the date in September when ballots must be printed and mailed to overseas and military voters, and other election details must be settled, that the calendar would ordinarily all but dictate that the existing map be used.

But the chief author of the three-judge panel’s ruling, Judge James J. Wynn, left that question open, citing North Carolina Republicans’ own turn-on-a-dime manipulation of state politics.

A new map would mean discarding the results of the state’s May primary. But the judge noted that the State Legislature summarily eliminated primary elections for judicial races this year, so perhaps staging a House election without primaries “would be consistent with the General Assembly’s policy preference.” Or, he wrote, the state could hold primaries on Nov. 6 and a special House election later in the year.

Some legal experts say the Supreme Court would be likely to grant a stay, just as it did after the panel first ruled against the existing House map in January.

But “we’re in uncharted water, given how poisoned the political waters in North Carolina have become,” said Edward B. Foley, an election-law scholar at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. He added that evidence of rank manipulation of the political process could make the court think harder about delaying a new map yet again.

Judge Wynn seemed to hammer that point home in his opinion, noting that Republican lawmakers had already been given two chances to draw a constitutional House map and had failed both times. He noted that they also drew state legislative maps that were overturned as racially biased, and had passed election-related laws that were struck down.

Their actions raise “legitimate questions regarding the General Assembly’s capacity or willingness to draw constitutional remedial districts,” he wrote.

It’s complete, utter chaos, and it is glorious.

#american politics #north carolina #north carolina politics #unluckystaple

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collegianwired · 2 years

Text

Voter Suppression Surges Ahead of Midterms

By Angela Johnson

Voter suppression has entangled democracy and politics like an octopus for over a century. African Americans in the United States have fought the beast since the founding fathers added the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870. It forbids “any state to deprive a citizen of his vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” But voter suppression usurped that right by preventing Blacks from exercising their newly-endowed right to vote more than 150 years ago. As the 2022 Midterm elections approach, the tentacles of voter suppression constrict the very workings of election operations and threaten to derail democracy at the ballot box. All the while, Donald Trump and his political lemmings repeat the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen by voter fraud. States adopt hundreds of new voting laws and election operations to ensure the “Big Lie” does not reoccur in 2024.

Voter Suppression 101 Explained

California’s Secretary of State Shirley Weber, Ph.D., is the daughter of sharecroppers. “My parents were the victims of voter suppression when they lived in Arkansas,” Weber said. “My grandfather never got a chance to vote and my grandmother never voted because they died before the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” Weber’s father moved the family away from Arkansas after he was threatened by a lynch mob. He did not have the opportunity to vote until he was in his 30s. “And it wasn’t that they didn’t have the right to vote, as some people think—that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 does—but that’s not true,” Weber said. “What it does, it prevents voter suppression, it prevents people from creating rules and regulations that make it hard for you to vote,” Weber says voter suppression often goes unrecognized. “And we don’t understand it, and therefore it is able to sneak into our system without much fanfare,” she said. “And when we look up, we will discover that we are victims of it, and it’s very deadly.”

By last fall, 19 states had enacted 33 laws that will make it more difficult for some Americans to vote, according to the Brennan Justice Center, a nonprofit public policy center at New York University. “Voter suppression is there when people say, ‘Well you know we’re [going to] make lines longer for you, we’re going to make it harder for you to get a vote by mail ballot,’” Weber said. “In other words, they will create obstacles so that your voting numbers will go down, and your access will be limited.”

‘Warriors’ Fight for Voting Rights

Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer was born on a plantation and was 45 years old when she left a life of sharecropping to fight for voting rights in Mississippi in 1962. She inspired other sharecroppers to register to vote, join labor unions and form co-ops.

“I never knew we could vote before,” Hamer once said. “Nobody ever told us.” She was beaten, arrested and shot at for registering people to vote in her community. Plantation owners kicked her off the property when she became an activist for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It inspired her to continue her vital voter registration work.

Since Weber, others now follow Hammer’s example. Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State (SOS) Leigh Chapman and New Jersey’s SOS, Tahesha Way are mentees of Weber and consult with her to ensure 37 million people in their respective states have a clear path to the ballot box. Their job is to secure voting infrastructure and oversee the elections. The non-partisan position of secretary of state is viewed through high-profile crosshairs as the battle over voter access rages. NBCBLK.com’s Randi Richardson reports that Weber, Chapman and Way work to increase voter participation and eliminate voter suppression.

“We’re one of the largest voting blocs in the country,” Chapman said. “The way Black women vote really determines the outcome of many elections at the state level and at the federal level, and we are not represented equally in political office.”

An in-depth analysis of the political lives of Black women published by Clark Atlanta University titled “#Blackgirlmagic Demystified: Black Women as Voters, Partisans and Political Actors” identified African American women as a force to be reckoned with, indeed. “Black women are the most loyal Democratic voting [bloc] in the United States. The phenomenon started way before Donald Trump became president,” the report states in the introduction. The article documents how “Blacks have historically voted less often than whites because of discrimination or voter suppression. Black turnout increased in 2008 and 2012 because of Barack Obama’s candidacies.” The article illuminates the fact that in the last six presidential election cycles “Black women’s turnout rates have consistently rivaled turnout rates of whites, particularly white men.” Presumably, this factoid is what has lawmakers and politicians in swing and battleground states riled up.

Jim Crow 2.0 in 2022

Since the 2020 presidential election, Arkansas has passed four multiple restrictive voting laws. The new laws, among other restrictions, change the state’s voter ID law. Republicans in swing and battleground states seek greater power at the legislative level. To accomplish this, they must maintain control of the Senate and win control of the House. Pennsylvania filed 13 lawsuits to recount ballots cast in the 2020 election. Nine of them were dismissed without comment, lack of evidence or the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. “Voting integrity” has become a popular catchphrase for Republican lawmakers as motivation for this “fast and furious” round of new voting legislation.

Officials in Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana and Texas have all all enacted laws that restrict assistance in returning a voter’s mail ballot for a senior citizen or disabled person. Florida and Georgia have banned snacks and water for voters waiting in line. According to the “Voting Laws Roundup” from the Brennan Center for Justice, 27 states introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 250 bills with restrictive provisions at the beginning of this year. Lawmakers in Arizona, Virginia and Washington legislatures have proposed five bills that impose new proof of citizenship requirements to vote.

Last year, there were a number of bills that could “enable partisan interference in election administration,” the report stated. The most extreme “election sabotage” bills would have allowed officials to simply reject elections results.

Filibuster vs. John Lewis Voting Rights Act

When the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (JLVRA) was blocked by filibuster in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, acknowledged “a coordinated assault on the right to vote and even how elections are conducted, tallied, and potentially decided.” He characterized that as “a true threat to the ultimate foundation of our democracy.”

The JLVRA received negligible support from Senate Republicans. Every member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, who voted against greater access to the ballot box can be voted out of office. Therein lies the immense power of the vote and why so much effort historically has gone into suppressing that of BIPOC.

November 2021 saw every single House Republican vote against the JLVRA. In the Senate, the bill did not receive the 60-vote threshold needed to defeat the filibuster. Because the filibuster is still intact, JLVRA has no path forward now. That legislation would replace part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court removed in 2013 and aims to restore Department of Justice (DOJ) review of changes in election law in states with a history of discrimination. That provision is known as preclearance, and it has proven to be a point of contention for Senate Republicans.

Litany of Laws Limits Voters’ Rights

The 2020 presidential election brought a massive voter response despite COVID-19, and propaganda spread about vote-by-mail being ripe for fraud. In April 2020, pandemic concerns gripped the country. Former President Donald Trump planted seeds of mistrust and doubt about mail-in ballots during a White House news conference. “Mail-in voting is horrible, it’s corrupt,” Trump said. “Mail-in voting is a terrible thing . . . even the concept of early voting is not the greatest.”

Students: Time’s Up on Non-participation

One of the main rewards of the Civil Rights Movement was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Every American benefits. A lot of work helps identify new and first-generation voters. Outreach efforts in California high schools pre-register students between the ages of 16 and 18.

“We are making sure they have all the information they need,” Weber said. “We are also encouraging them to work at the polls, because once they begin to work to help others vote, they realize how important it is.”

The California SOS Office of Outreach conducts the “Ballot Bowl Competition” at all the California State University, University of California, community college campuses and private institutions.

“Right now, one of our greatest challenges in voting with regard to low percentages is really in our college-age students between the age of 18 and 35,” Weber said. “And so, we are working hard to make sure they go to polls and understand the importance of voting.”

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collegiantimes · 2 years

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Voter Suppression Surges Ahead of Midterms

By Angela Johnson

Voter Suppression 101 Explained

Voter suppression is a strategy to discourage or prevent specific groups of people from voting, usually Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). The Anti-Defamation League defined voter suppression laws as tools “used to impact the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting.” In the 1950s and 1960s, voter suppression manifested as intimidation, beatings and the murder of would-be voters. California’s Secretary of State Shirley Weber, Ph.D., is the daughter of sharecroppers. “My parents were the victims of voter suppression when they lived in Arkansas,” Weber said. “My grandfather never got a chance to vote and my grandmother never voted because they died before the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” Weber’s father moved the family away from Arkansas after he was threatened by a lynch mob. He did not have the opportunity to vote until he was in his 30s.“And it wasn’t that they didn’t have the right to vote, as some people think—that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 does—but that’s not true,” Weber said. “What it does, it prevents voter suppression, it prevents people from creating rules and regulations that make it hard for you to vote.” Weber says voter suppression often goes unrecognized. “And we don’t understand it, and therefore it is able to sneak into our system without much fanfare,” she said. “And when we look up, we will discover that we are victims of it, and it’s very deadly.” By last fall, 19 states had enacted 33 laws that will make it more difficult for some Americans to vote, according to the Brennan Justice Center, a nonprofit public policy center at New York University. “Voter suppression is there when people say, ‘Well you know we’re [going to] make lines longer for you, we’re going to make it harder for you to get a vote by mail ballot,’” Weber said. “In other words, they will create obstacles so that your voting numbers will go down, and your access will be limited.”

‘Warriors’ Fight for Voting Rights

Jim Crow 2.0 in 2022

Filibuster vs. John Lewis Voting Rights Act

The filibuster is a political move Senate Republicans have used recently to block the progress of legislation that will serve the needs of the people, namely the JLVRA. It’s a strategy used to block advancement of expansive voting legislation in Congress on a regular basis.Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia have repeatedly gone on record pledging their support for the filibuster. The Senate voted 48-52 against changing the chamber’s filibuster rules.November 2021 saw every single House Republican vote against the JLVRA. In the Senate, the bill did not receive the 60-vote threshold needed to defeat the filibuster. Because the filibuster is still intact, JLVRA has no path forward now.That legislation would replace part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that the U.S. Supreme Court removed in 2013 and aims to restore Department of Justice (DOJ) review of changes in election law in states with a history of discrimination. That provision is known as preclearance, and it has proven to be a point of contention for Senate Republicans.

Litany of Laws Limits Voters’ Rights

The 2020 presidential election brought a massive voter response despite COVID-19, and propaganda spread about vote-by-mail being ripe for fraud.In April 2020, pandemic concerns gripped the country. Former President Donald Trump planted seeds of mistrust and doubt about mail-in ballots during a White House news conference.“Mail-in voting is horrible, it’s corrupt,” Trump said. “Mail-in voting is a terrible thing . . . even the concept of early voting is not the greatest.”

Students: Time’s Up on Non-participation

The California SOS Office of Outreach conducts the “Ballot Bowl Competition” at all the California State University, University of California, community college campuses and private institutions.

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usashirtstoday · 4 years

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Best Dad Bod Ever Since 1965 Vintage Father T Shirt

Syndication service later onand Mr Jack Douglas who produced Johnand Yoko Ono’s current album double fantasy who was with Johnand Yoko shortly before his tragic death here in New York last night I would be right back to run the 1975 interview with John Lennon after these announcementsand I hope that you will stay with us we back in about two minutesand seconds John Lennon in a Best Dad Bod Ever Since 1965 Vintage Father T Shirt little bit later on in the program will talk about the possibility of us having to leave the United Statesand at that time his attorney Mr Leon Wilds will join us to make certain that John or I make no mistakes in the legalities but I welcome you hereand I’m glad that you’re here as I said at the outset the back in 1964 by after the cataclysmic arrival of the Beatles here in the United Statesand the great popularity had on the Ed Sullivan programand others there were many people who did not really understand what you were doingand and they thought then that your hair was longand that you looked might. They can escalated to a vaccine invention so is very important that we resist this mashup not only is truth on our side the Constitution and the law on our side but logic and common sense is on our side and a lot more people out there that are frustrated with this mask shipping you think they just don’t know the lawn he don’t have the intimate knowledge about what’s really being done to us like we do there pushing the coalition shut the schools down and the church is why because schools and churches aware boating happens if they can shut down a bolt of the polling places guess what happens mail in voting Horowitz study of our thousand hundred UK schools show very little evidence that the virus is transmitted in school you know why because everybody has tested positive is asymptomatic the CDC and the World Health Organization already said asymptomatic people do not get the do not. Like John Snow Amy’s motivation is drivenand the nonsense in the service of keeping him sympathetic relative to Dragon Lady bad we know what kind of a guy Jamie is based on his actions so for him to say even really giving us a why only serves as a cheap twist surprising but not unexpected isn’t it after all he’s explaining his motivation with wordsand motivations are explained with words that means a defect to make telling the audience the thing makes sense with your dialogue while not supporting the thing with the characters actions is kind of the trends in the last season game of thrones Thursday one of the greatest villains not just in TV history but arguably all of literature she she didn’t have much to do battyand there did she all of tearyand stupid mistakesand wildly out of characterand unmotivated sudden trust in his evil sister serve the purpose of keeping Circe in the game optional remember I chose to help promises or assurances which feels even more insulting given that Circe closed lowing up that faces no consequences nor has a secret evil plan beyond staring on a balconyand glowering over my domain with a glass of wine which I get it that’s my usual Friday night but all she in season eight is a scene of the thing was not to be the most in the show makes Circe sympathetic but it’s like in the most condescending way possible be characters somehow just go she just got he says come when the plot says so Circe’s armies instantly crumbleand she dies a weirdly sympathetic death in Jamie’s arms who is here for some reason in a rocks fall everyone dies situation that feels more on par would like a your Disney movie is in line with someone who once said how or how this is important to look at Circe for who she is presented as a monarchand what the show built her up to be before dinner is torched King’s Landing elements multivitamin will take off the big thing hereand I mean big scene as a defining actionand Circe’s rule is are effectively blowing up the in universe equivalent of the Vatican as a means to wipe out her enemiesand flex on how many foxy gives which is zero is the scene was awesomeand yes it feels like something someone as recklessand vengeful as Circe would do when pushed to the editor Brink but prior to season for most of the plot of game of thrones is centered around the direct consequences of one guy Ned start getting his head lopped offand what pretty much everyone who wasn’t a child who ordered it even Circe felt was a massive dick move meanwhile postseason six Circe not only blew up one of the largest buildings in West Rosen wiped out a decent chunk of the faithand its leader but also decimated one of the most powerful wealthyand well liked familiesand mistress with a lot of loyal Bannermanand apart from a few stray remarks from other characters you sister this major act of mass violence just kind we just move on it nobody cares there are no consequences for this she is crownedand life goes on the only person opposing her is Dragon lady who would have invaded no matter who is on the throne so let’s break this down why in God’s name when they set up Circe finally exacting revenge on the faceless masses that through literal feces on her during the walk of shameand weeding out religious extremism with impunity only to conveniently forget the internal logic of much smaller scale political issues like that starts execution causing massive upheaval dimension again wasting someone likely entities talent’s well here is why because of how season eightand this one act necessitates that yes Circe would be considered an unparalleled top tier Megatron grade tyrant she couldn’t have wiped out all of the faith militant or even most of them let alone the countless followers of the seven in West Rose who would feel understandably very pissedand personally attacked by this maneuver is also to say nothing of all people who saw her as 100 illegitimate or believe that her children were inbred pastors or who would want revenge on her for what she did the house Tyrell to the dumb dumb throated juicy situation which in theory could have led to some of the best acting from one of the most talented players but the problem here is that it would have revealed her as a tyrant leading to a situation where literally anyone with a claim to the throne would be looked upon by the people attend landing as a liberator which leads us to the person who at least far as everyone knows has the best claim to the throneand wouldn’t you know it has already defined herself as a liberator so Dragon lady shows up writing some dragons like okay hi I’m here to liberate y’all on the breaker of chains love me please it’s fair to say that DD created a situation where I actually does a pretty great for the small book of Kings Landingand the vast vast majority of the nobles who already support herand pretty much everyone who is in the iron Bank of bravos to whom the Lancers a lot of money can count on the back support our students to go should they wrote a situation where there’s no way Circe would be able to maintain power after her move with the septic without being a complete totalitarian who stomps out dissent before it even manifests she created a situation where she had no choiceand she is a personality to relish that sort of thing like oh God yes revenge please I live for thisand I remember the face of every peasant who flung shit at meand I will pull each of their fingernails out myselfand on a related note you really expect me to think alike Circe’s good I like be upset that the nurses murdering that the innocence of Kings Landing after what they did to her she should be like go girl so the only way to deal with the fallout of Circe’s actions while still barreling full steam ahead to this predetermined ending is to ignore them altogether the show must maintain that the people of Kings Landingand help greater West Rose are never affected by their monarchand that they don’t care that social trends do not apply to the rabble or the common folk even though that was a huge chunk of the Kings Landing plot for seasons six that yes the machinations of the powerful do have effectand politically savvy nobles like Marjorie Tyrell have sound methodsand this development in later seasons especially with Circe kill me because what set game of thrones apart for the first few seasons was how it was so conscious of the house that intrigues a magical or otherwise have realistic consequences that affect not only the lives of the major characters but also the culture of the world itself like in season seven during the latrine attack dinners recklessly burns all that food from the reach that surely should have some consequences right may be set up a touch of the old starvation but like the destruction of the set they wrote a situation that should have had consequences but didn’t that the existence of a gun create a situation where it makes perfect sense not only for the people of West rest to reject an heiress for her own sense of entitlement to make her descent into power up session makes sense only based on the situation but also based on the character that we know unfortunately that is not the situation at the Chapel Road facility with the nearest nurse came to power effectively from nothing not only because of an important nameand some dragons but because people believed in her once so it was like the service provider leaving with whom I know a lot of people problematic writing or no sacrifice a lot because they believed what she believed this isand then she went some more crimesand you didn’t even see it coming because she pretty don’t you feel stupid

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gibsongirlselections · 4 years

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The Populist Radio Host Who Really Was Trump Before Trump

Somewhere in New Jersey, on the border of Trenton and Hamilton, just a few miles from where critical battles during the Revolutionary War were fought, just a block down from a German restaurant, nestled inside a blue-collar neighborhood of police officers, firefighters, and war veterans, was a barbershop right out of central casting.

It was here that I was introduced to the strong voice of Bob Grant, “the King of Conservative Talk Radio.” He was the only alternative many of us had to the Star Ledger, the Trenton Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Times, and other left-leaning media organs. There’s not much left of that world, the one before the internet gave conservatives a voice, which is why the memories of that barbershop linger.

The center of attention there was “Angelo,” the kindly, short, stocky, sharp-witted Italian barber. Angelo cut my father’s hair, just as Angelo’s father had cut my father’s father’s hair. I never knew my grandfather who came to this country from Mayo, Ireland, in search of opportunity and found it first in New York and later at the Trenton railroad. I would sometimes hear Angelo and Dad talk about how proud he was to be an American and lament how hard it is now for anyone to immigrate legally from Ireland to America.

When I came home from college, that was when I got to know “old Ang,” as Dad would call him. Oftentimes he had Grant’s program on, heard live starting at three in the afternoon on WABC-AM radio. I realize now that I was catching the tail end of a special moment in the life of the “Greatest Generation”—the one that served in World War II and lived through the Great Depression. They never expected to live to see the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Desert Storm was a bookend to that period and Grant lent his voice to the cause. I remember stopping in one day and hearing Grant unload on Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat, who became New Jersey’s longest serving U.S. senator.

“And let’s be heard!” Grant would say. “Good afternoon everyone, the telephone lines are open, in a program dedicated to the free and open exchange of ideas and opinions. And what is on your mind this afternoon?”

It was Lautenberg who was on Grant’s mind this particular afternoon. Lautenberg had been showing up at rallies expressing support for the troops during Desert Storm. Yet he’d also voted against providing the president with the authority he needed to apply the “use of force” against Saddam Hussein and his army.

I’m just going from memory with this quote, but it’s close: “I understand Lautenberg, Frank Lousenberg, doesn’t like me reminding the public that he voted against authorizing the use of force in Desert Storm. Well I’m going to keep on reminding them, Lousenberg, you phony.”

Grant got under Lautenberg’s skin. There was only one time he was in any serious danger of losing his seat and that was in 1994 when the Republicans won both houses of Congress. Grant helped almost pull off an upset, but the radio host ran smack dab into the perpetual enemy of the conservative movement—polite, genteel, moderate Republicans who were unwilling to fight.

Angelo’s shop was prime Grant territory, in that it was an Old Right shop, if you follow me. Capital O and Capital R. The patrons were defined by their opposition to the New Deal, their affinity for the founding period of the United States, America’s heroic role in history, and a fervent belief in American exceptionalism.

On a Saturday, the usual drill was for Dad and his friends to linger after their haircuts and talk horseracing, sports, and, of course, politics. There was one particular Saturday when the focus was on the perfidy of the United Nations and the heroism of General “Stormin Norman” Schwarzkopf, the U.S. Army general who led coalition forces to victory in Desert Storm. A Trenton native, Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, a highly decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, oversaw the extensive air campaign followed by a 100-hour ground offensive that liberated Kuwait from Iraq.

At the time, the news media was expressing skepticism over the idea of an unambiguous American military victory while U.N. officials were working feverishly to block the U.S.-led ground campaign that ultimately routed Hussein’s army. There are several conversations I recall, but I’ll just pick one.

In his favorite seat at the back of the shop was “Shady,” a retired Trenton police officer, World War II veteran, and a mountain of a man who I have to say looked a lot like Schwarzkopf. Shady related to Grant because he too was concerned about “mass immigration” and uncontrolled borders. But during this visit, he was most concerned with the “transnationalists” at the U.N. and was suspicious that some American politicians were complicit in efforts to subordinate the U.S. Constitution to U.N. charters. He supported Desert Storm, but wasn’t sure what Bush had meant by a “New World Order.”

Apparently, Shade knew the Schwarzkopf family in some way. He explained to me that Schwarzkopf’s father was the founding superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and had taken on a prominent role in the investigation into the 1932 kidnapping of the Lindberg baby. There’s a lot of history packed into a small state.

Like I said, this was an Old Right barbershop.

After Desert Storm came and went, Grant returned to what I think was his central focus—the need to unwind and reverse the changes to immigration policy that Senator Edward Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson had set into motion.

Here’s one segment that was typical of Grant’s commentary:

Do you know that the Immigration and Naturalization Reform Act of 1965, which was signed in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty by then President Lyndon Baines Johnson, our 36th president standing there with Hubert Humphry smiling, standing there with Teddy Kennedy smiling, Bobby Kennedy smiling? But I looked up at the face of the lady holding the lamp and I don’t think she was smiling. Do you know why? That Act changed America forever because it said henceforth only 15 percent of our legal immigrants will be allowed to come from Europe. The other 85 percent shall be dispersed from Asia, Africa, and South and Central America. And that’s what it is, folks. Teddy Kennedy said not to worry, this is not going to change, no pun intended, the complexion of America. I leave it to you. Did it?

Anytime a caller with rough, uneven English protested Grant’s views on immigration, he’d ask, “Hey, just where are you from, pal?!!” If they continued to protest, he’d do an impersonation of the caller that could bring down the house in that barbershop. We all knew what was coming next: “Get off my phone, you fake, you fraud, you phony!!”

Grant was tough, entertaining, insightful, articulate, knowledgeable, patriotic, and incendiary. He could be highly effective as a foil to the left in academia and the media. At his best, he was a fearless truth teller who defied political correctness while opening up honest discussions on race relations eschewed by the mainstream press. In his most undisciplined moments, he made himself the issue with overheated rhetoric that was not helpful to the conservative cause.

Grant has been somewhat lost to history since he died in 2013, but he is highly relevant to today’s politics and instructive to conservatives in the Age of Trump. We can only imagine what Grant’s tweets would have been like. He might even make Trump appear moderate and restrained by comparison.

Like Trump, Grant was an effective communicator who operated deep inside enemy territory and knew it. But what made both men effective in their preferred mediums (Grant on radio, Trump on Twitter) also brought some baggage.

If you want to understand Trump, his brand of populism, and how he appeals to conservatives who may not be with him on every issue, then go back to Grant. He was not optimistic about America’s future and made it clear to listeners that in his view, the 1965 Immigration Act would lead to a radical transformation of the country’s culture and institutions. On Grant’s broadcast, there was no talk of Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on hill.” He described America as a “once great country.”

Is that too bleak? Consider today Grant’s home state of New Jersey. There, Governor Phil Murphy and other top Democrats are pushing for illegal aliens to acquire driver’s licenses. Murphy has also signed off on legislation that would allow for what his administration and its allies term “undocumented immigrants” to qualify for financial aid.

In many instances, illegal aliens already receive in-state tuition at colleges and universities, giving them a leg up on legal citizens who seek higher education in states other than their own. Let’s also not forget that many Democrats sound serious about providing free health care for illegals while plotting to torpedo private insurance for citizens.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, a former Democratic presidential candidate, was last seen escorting migrants from Mexico into El Paso, Texas, where they can process asylum claims.

Standing in opposition to permissive immigration policies that do not put “America first” is President Donald Trump who has made an issue out of illegal immigration in a way that no other recent president has. Like Grant, Trump has demonstrated a willingness to get down in the mud and fight elitists and globalists in both parties who are unwilling to protect America’s borders and to prioritize American sovereignty over international agreements forged at the U.N.

With Americans now attuned to Grant’s prescient warnings about the dangers of mass immigration without assimilation and its impact on the rule of law and the nation’s finances, Trump’s appeal to key voting blocs in 2016 is easy to understand. Like Trump, Grant understood that elites in both major parties were unwilling to step up enforcement of existing immigration laws while failing to press ahead with necessary reforms.

Grant was an ardent supporter of California’s Proposition 187, which prevented illegal aliens from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits. Voters approved the measure in 1994 after it was championed by then-Republican governor Pete Wilson. Grant was sharply critical of conservative stalwarts Jack Kemp, a former congressman, and William Bennett, a former education secretary, for opposing the law. Kemp and Bennett argued that the economic benefits of immigration outweighed the costs. Grant didn’t agree with their math and expressed enthusiasm for Wilson as a presidential candidate to take on Bill Clinton in 1996. Wilson ultimately ran into trouble with social conservatives in his party who felt some of his views were too permissive. Wilson was, for instance, pro-choice on abortion. But then again, so was Grant.

So what did it mean to be a conservative when Grant was at the peak of his fame and popularity? He dominated the airwaves in the New York market beginning in the late 1970s and continuing through the 1980s and 1990s. He was not exactly a Christian conservative and went so far as to express doubts about the second coming of Jesus Christ. Grant also had some sympathy for the use of euthanasia in certain circumstances and he seemed open to some form of gun control. But Grant was also an enemy of the left and consistently challenged the political establishment in his home state of New Jersey and in New York. He was a proponent of constitutional limited government who celebrated the ideals of America’s founding. Grant also had a keen appreciation for the dangers of judicial activism, a topic he discussed at length.

Conservatism is a much bigger church today than it was when Grant first became ascendant. There are economic conservatives, cultural conservatives, Christian conservatives, libertarians, neocons, traditionalists, and subdivisions thereof. But even in his time, Grant understood the necessity of finding common cause with average Americans who might have differed on cultural questions but were united in their opposition to runaway taxes, oversized government, and unaccountable bureaucracies. In many ways, Grant was the ultimate fusionist who brought together seemingly disparate groups to achieve larger goals beyond single-issue concerns.

His approach hit a high water mark during the 1993 gubernatorial race in New Jersey. Christine Todd Whitman, a former Somerset County Republican freeholder, was running to unseat Jim Florio, the incumbent Democratic governor. The 1993 Florio-Whitman contest occurred on the outer fringes of the Gingrich Revolution that was to deliver the House to the Republicans for the first time in 40 years. The New Jersey race was widely and correctly viewed as one with national ramifications and a bellwether for what might happen the following year. James Carville, President Bill Clinton’s campaign operative, nicknamed the “The Ragin’ Cajun,” came in to save Florio, and Ed Rollins, the former Reagan campaign manager, intervened for Whitman. After forcing through a $2.8 billion tax hike, Florio had become extremely unpopular.

A grassroots movement known as Hands Across New Jersey (HANJ) brought together a broad cross-section of state residents who felt victimized by the high costs imposed on them. Grant amplified the scope and reach of the movement on radio. Think of HANJ as a prototype for the Tea Party movement that emerged in 2010. Bumper stickers that read “Florio Free in ‘93” were widely dispersed throughout the state. But by the time 1993 came around, Florio had found a way to put Whitman on the defensive, attacking her as an out-of-touch elitist who could not relate to average people. He also, remarkably, moved to her right on issues like welfare reform.

But Whitman found her footing after making repeated appearances on the Grant program where she reminded voters how costly and damaging Florio’s tax hikes had been. She also embraced a Reagan-style tax cut package co-authored by businessman Steve Forbes and economist Larry Kudlow. After trailing by double-digits in some polls, Whitman pulled off an upset victory on the back of her proposed tax cuts. She also received more than a little help from Grant who provided her with a powerful media platform.

Fred Lucas, author of The Right Frequency, details in his book what happened next: “It was not until Bob Grant’s show had a clear impact on political contests that Democrats and Democratic operatives decided to smear him.” In 1994, Lautenberg knew he was in trouble for the first and only time in his career. He had been losing ground to Republican Assembly Speaker Garabed “Chuck” Haytaian. Like Whitman, Haytaian had gained notoriety by calling into Grant’s program. But when Lautenberg accused Grant of racism and seized upon what Lucas describes as “insensitive comments,” Whitman and Haytaian quickly turned on Grant. Whitman joined in the criticism while Haytaian headed for the tall grass.

Lautenberg was able to put his opponent on defense and shift the public’s attention away from his voting record, which was not friendly to taxpayers. He ultimately won re-election. That’s the short version of what went down. The lesson for today is that if you want to win a tough election, then make it about your opponent’s defects. In 1993, Grant made the election about Florio. In 1994, Lautenberg made the election about Grant.

Today, with a pandemic raging and issues of police brutality rising to the fore, there are plenty of avenues open to the Democratic nominee to make the Trump the issue in this year’s election. The president could do a lot worse than to label the Democratic Party as a giant advocacy group for illegal aliens. In fact, now would be a great time for Trump to revisit Grant’s commentaries on immigration policy and other issues where the radio host was ahead of his time.

Did Trump and Grant ever meet?

Apparently, there’s a photo on the walls of the Reo Diner in Woodbridge, New Jersey, that says they did. Grant, who was a resident of Woodbridge for a time, would occasionally broadcast from the diner. He died on New Year’s Eve in 2013 at the age 84. But as one of his final acts, Grant anticipated an opening for Trump before anyone in the punditry took the real estate mogul seriously.

“There is only one potential candidate who has demonstrated he is not afraid,” Grant wrote in a commentary published in April 2011. “And if you people are looking for someone different; if you are looking for the right man at the right time, then you don’t have to look any further than the man who stands beside me in a photo on the wall at the Reo Diner Restaurant…Donald Trump!”

Angelo died shortly before Bill Clinton was elected. I think Dad and I went to get one of the last haircuts. Just three years ago, our friend “Shady,” the Trenton police officer, passed away. Dad is the last one left from that group. Recently, we drove past Angelo’s old neighborhood. Many of the homes had been redesigned with new facades. The German restaurant, my old landmark, is gone. I couldn’t even tell which one was once the barbershop.

We were on our way to an Irish pub, one that Dad has been going to for as long as I can remember. He asked me why it’s so hard now for the Irish to immigrate legally into the U.S. I reminded him of Grant, the conversations he’d had with Angelo, and the 1965 Immigration Act.

The rest of the ride was subdued and quiet.

Kevin Mooney is a journalist and investigative reporter for the Commonwealth Foundation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

The post The Populist Radio Host Who Really Was Trump Before Trump appeared first on The American Conservative.

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sassysugawara · 7 years

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Personal opinions and political party aside Reagan was a great president and many consider him to be the greatest president in the last 50 years. It’s a fact that he’s help this country tremendously with it’s economy during his terms and after he left shit got messed up. A lot of candidates from both parties have great respect for him and even admit to wanting to run this country like Reagan (watch some debates) and use his “Reaganomics” to get the country back on track but sadly no one has.

Before I address this, let me acknowledge: I appreciate you taking the time to explain your opinion to me so politely. However, as I am sure you know, my opinion on this topic will not be swayed by one anonymous message, nor will my response change your mind. In essence, this argument is pointless, but I want to explain my personal reasons for not liking that particular president.

First off, you begin your ask with “personal opinions and political party aside Reagan was a great president.” This is contradictory in and of itself, because “great” is rarely, if ever, an objective concept. Therefore, your calling Reagan “a great president” is a personal opinion, which you have told me to set aside. I also believe that there is value to personal opinions and political party in disagreements like this, because our opinions (and our political alignment) is shaped by our experiences, and thus shape our perception of the world. In addition, there is no way to make an argument without personal opinions. If we simply list facts at each other we will be no more than a wikipedia page.

I don’t know your age, or your background. For all I know, you could be a prize-winning economist, or you could be a thirteen-year-old whose school doesn’t even offer economics classes. “It’s a fact that he’s help this country tremendously with it’s economy during his terms and after he left shit got messed up.” I have very little experience with economics, and I won’t pretend to know more than I do. But I have to doubt that any economic feat can be accredited to one administration, so calling this a “fact” makes me skeptical. A quick search on EBSCO gives me various academic opinions on this topic, many of them contradicting each other.

As a note about my understanding of “Reaganomics,” let’s use an example. The argument is that if taxes on the wealthy are reduced, the wealthy will spend more, as will corporations, thus creating new jobs, and the money will “trickle down” (as opponents call his plan) to people of lower socioeconomic standing. If we use the mattress industry as an example, rich people only need so many mattresses. If everyone in the upper 1% bought as many mattresses as they wanted, that would certainly be a lot of mattresses. But it would not be nearly as many mattresses as there are people without mattresses. If those people could all buy a mattress, THAT would stimulate the economy. If instead rich people were taxed (an extra mattress tax, continuing the example, suggesting that everyone has a right to a mattress), and the money was used by poor people to obtain mattresses, mattress companies would benefit greatly. There would be a boom in the mattress industry, creating new jobs, new ways to invest, and also invigorating other industries (the pillow and blanket industries, I suppose). The rich would still be a million times richer than the poor people, and could still buy as many mattresses as they wanted. This is an over-simplification, but in summary: Reaganomics is a system meant to allow the rich to get richer, with the meager excuse that it will benefit the poor.

Moving to my personal opinion (again, I’m terribly sorry because you told me not to do this), my issue with Reagan comes down to morals and priorities. You, I assume, prioritize economic advancement as a determinant to a “great” presidency. And that’s fair, and I would need a lot more time to research the actual logistics of Reaganomics to counter your defense of his economic policy. However, there are things about Reagan that I absolutely cannot pardon, economics aside.

First, Reagan cut education spending in half, then he increased military spending by approx. 40%. My argument is mostly based on pathos here, but I honestly think it is more important to educate people than to bulk up our military. Spending like that goes beyond “defensive” and becomes “offensive.” Education is my priority, and Reagan was no champion of education. He did acknowledge legitimate flaws in our education system, however instead of addressing them, he just cut federal funding and told states to take care of it, contributing absolutely nothing and instead further limiting progress.

Reagan was also blatant about his views on the environment: it is not as important as industry. This is another ultimate sin for me. He was willing to watch our environment get destroyed, and restricted the EPA from enacting laws to reduce acid rain. He also did small things like removing the solar panels from the roof of the white house. Reagan did not care about the planet, and he did not hide this fact. Simply put, as a person who lives on this planet, I care about it, a lot more than I care about money and economics. My view on this can be summed up as: we won’t be able to enjoy economic prosperity if we all die from environmental destruction. And I would argue that THAT is a fact: you can’t enjoy money if you’re dead.

As for the War on Drugs, whether or not it limited adolescent drug use , it became another major expense. Rather than rehabilitation, people were simply locked up, and more money had to be put into the prison system. The administration should have had better priorities, and even if this was a viable one, different steps could have been taken.

Reagan was also very clear about his opposition of LGBT+ rights, and openly denounced the movement. Reagan also did absolutely nothing about the AIDS epidemic, and let countless people die as a result. This, I believe, is his greatest sin of all.

Reagan was, at least initially, a blatant racist: he spoke out against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and tried to veto other civil rights bills.

Reagan cut public funding drastically, including funding for things like free lunches at school. He prioritized militarization over feeding poor children. Again, this is my opinion, but that sounds almost villainous to me.

I know Reagan had a reputation for being very honest, and I know that people on all sides admired him. I understand that people liked his movement to tear down the Berlin wall. I understand all these things. But, his morals did not match mine, nor did his priorities.

Thank you for telling me to watch some debates and educate myself, however your assumption is that I do not already watch debates and I do not already know the public opinion of Reagan. Also, your use of the word “sadly” at the end… it simply cannot coexist with your statement about setting aside personal opinions.

Finally, the reason you sent me this very serious (if somewhat unproductive) political debate is because I said that I don’t like when people name their dogs Reagan. I’m a big fan of Obama, but I don’t think I would name my dog after him myself. I think some things in life should be separated from politics.

Like, for instance, a blog about a volleyball anime.

#long post #i'll probably delete this later I just really wanted to point these things out #even if he helped the economy (which I don't necessarily believe) it doesn't change the fact that I think he's morally bankrupt #sorry to all you haikyuu!! folks lol #i'm getting into some old discourse

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