Politics

Politically, I’m very liberal — about as far left as one can go without sliding into Libertarianism.

Two Americas

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Two profoundly different experiences of life in our country that you should be aware of: [#CrimingWhileWhite] and [#AliveWhileBlack].

14- took my dads car to a party. Pulled over for running a stop sign, had a shotgun in backseat (hunting) “Get home safe” #CrimingWhileWhite

— Mrs. Eric Berry (@Miss_Facetious) December 4, 2014

Those police asked where I live. When I pointed behind me at my house where they had called me from they said “no, really” #alivewhileblack

— الشريف M. Ömer (@KTownsVeryOwn) December 4, 2014

At 13 I stole a car with my friends & drove it 2wks before we got busted. Only one charged was black. [#CrimingWhileWhite][#CrimingWhileWhite1]

— Cecily Kellogg (@Cecilyk) December 4, 2014

Walking to library. Campus security stops me and asks for ID. Several times. Claims I don\’t “look” like a law student. #AliveWhileBlack

— GrooveSDC (@GrooveSDC) December 4, 2014

Age 17: I bought gas but forgot to pay; an hour later I came back and they said they told the cops two black men did it. [#CrimingWhileWhite][#CrimingWhileWhite1]

— Jacob Harold (@jacobcharold) December 4, 2014

Stopped b/c child “did not look like he shld be w/me”Asked to prove my light-skinned nephew was not being kidnapped [#alivewhileblack][#alivewhileblack2]

— karla holloway (@ProfHolloway) December 4, 2014

Drug use, vandalism of govt property, running fake ID mill, theft, sale of stolen property — all before I was 20 [#CrimingWhileWhite][#CrimingWhileWhite1]

— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) December 4, 2014

was robbed at knife point in Charlotte. When the police came, told them what was taken, they asked “Why wld u have a pager” [#alivewhileblack][#alivewhileblack2]

— J I Λ (@missjia) December 4, 2014

Party busted, ran from Indiana cop. He caught me, furious: “if you were black I\’d-a shot you.” Cuffed, lectured, let go. [#CrimingWhileWhite][#CrimingWhileWhite1]

— Andy Cobb (@AndyCobb) December 4, 2014

17 y/o – Drove to Kroger to get mom Nyquil. Pulled over unexplained. Asked why I was in my neighborhood. 4 backup cop cars. [#AliveWhileBlack][#AliveWhileBlack5]

— Akilah Hughes (@AkilahObviously) December 4, 2014

Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people

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Absolutely excellent interview with Chris Rock covering mostly comedy, politics, and the intersections between the two. The whole thing is worth reading, but this section I thought was particularly good:

What would you do in Ferguson that a standard reporter wouldn’t?

I’d do a special on race, but I’d have no black people.

Well, that would be much more revealing.

Yes, that would be an event. Here’s the thing. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before

Right. It’s ridiculous.

So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president. That’s not black progress. That’s white progress. There’s been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. If you saw Tina Turner and Ike having a lovely breakfast over there, would you say their relationship’s improved? Some people would. But a smart person would go, “Oh, he stopped punching her in the face.” It’s not up to her. Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Nothing. It just doesn’t. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let’s hope America keeps producing nicer white people.

It’s about white people adjusting to a new reality?

Owning their actions. Not even their actions. The actions of your dad. Yeah, it’s unfair that you can get judged by something you didn’t do, but it’s also unfair that you can inherit money that you didn’t work for.

The Washington Post has some additional commentary springboarding off of Rock’s interview, with some very interesting poll results looking at changes in racial attitudes over time. On the one hand, there has been a lot of improvement over the years. On the other hand, though, we still have a long way to go.

In 1972, for instance, nearly two-thirds of whites said homeowners should be able to discriminate against blacks when selling their homes. That number fell to 28 percent by 2008.

Fully one quarter of whites said they would oppose [a family member’s interracial] marriage in 2008, the same year America elected the son of a white mother and a black father to the highest office in the land.

More than four-in-ten white Americans still say whites are more hardworking than blacks, and one-in-five say whites are more intelligent. Similarly, a majority of whites say that lack of willpower among blacks is driving racial inequality, and one-in-ten say that blacks are poor simply because of a lesser ability to learn.

Today’s Lesson: Both You and Morgan Freeman are Wrong About Racism

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From Today’s Lesson: Both You and Morgan Freeman are Wrong About Racism:

I believe racism is my problem. My problem. I claim it. It is not my problem because I am guilty. It is my problem because I am responsible. I didn’t create racism. It’s not my fault. But if I do nothing, I become a part of it. And it is not something I want to be a part of. I can make that decision. You can make that decision. We can all make that decision.

I know that it can be hard as a white person to read and talk about racism. It’s hard for everyone to read and talk about racism, because it is an ugly thing. When we confront racism, we commit to staring into the face of something both repellant and familiar. It’s hard for all of us, but what I know most about is what it’s like to be white and I can understand the temptation of defensiveness for us white folks. Of resentment. Of feeling accused. I understand the lure of clinging to all the ways in which you, too, don’t have it so good. I am more than familiar with the temptation to demonstrate your own oppression.

But it’s time to grow up. Children make excuses. Children engage in competitions to one-up each other. You’re not a child anymore. It’s time to do better.

Tear Gas: Banned in War, Used on the Streets

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The use of tear gas by the US police (and in other countries) is something I find seriously troubling. How can we justify using a chemical agent banned from use in warfare on our own citizens?

Despite its ubiquity across the globe and in United States, tear gas is a chemical agent banned in warfare per the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, which set forth agreements signed by nearly every nation in the world — including the United States. The catch, however, is that while it’s illegal in war, it’s legal in domestic riot control. That means Turkey got to use it on its protesters last year. That meant Bahrain got to the do the same. And now, in Ferguson, cops are likewise blasting residents protesting the police for the killing of an unarmed teen named Michael Brown.

…some scientists and international observers contend the tactic of spraying people with tear gas, which commonly uses the chemical agent 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (CS), can pose serious dangers. “Tear gas under the Geneva Convention is characterized as a chemical warfare agent, and so it is precluded for use in warfare, but it is used very frequently against civilians,” Sven-Eric Jordt, a nerve gas expert at Yale University School of Medicine, explained to National Geographic. “That’s very illogical.”

Technically not a gas, Jordt said, tear gas is an aerosol. “Tear gases are nerve gases that specifically activate pain-sensing nerves,” Jordt told National Geographic. And when used properly, in lower doses and deployed in open spaces, its effects are more or less harmless.

…But sometimes things don’t go as planned. “The use of tear gas in … situations of civil unrest, however, demonstrates that exposure to the weapon is difficult to control and indiscriminate, and the weapon is often not used correctly,” wrote Howard Hu in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1989. “Severe traumatic injury from exploding tear gas bombs as well as lethal toxic injury have been documented.” Hu found that if exposed to “high levels of CS,” some victims experienced heart failure or even death.

Debate links regarding Ferguson and Darren Wilson

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Just found this excellent Tumblr post laying out the most common arguments defending Darren Wilson or condemning the Ferguson protests, and linking to a wealth of stories and resources addressing those points.

Points addressed include:

  1. It’s not a race issue!
  2. The officer feared for his life. It was self defense.
  3. Michael Brown stole from a convenience store. He was a thug and a thief.
  4. The jury saw all the evidence, they know better. / Something about insufficient or unreliable evidence.
  5. The riots and protests are out of hand and unnecessary. It’s just an excuse to be violent and steal things.
  6. You can’t fight violence with violence, what would Martin Luther King say?

Adding another one. Some of the links might be the same, some might be different, but it looked like another useful compilation.

And one more.