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Day of Silence
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mac



Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17736
Location: Berkeley, California

PostPosted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:18 pm    Post subject: Day of Silence Reply with quote

I spent the morning with my grandaughter's fifth grade class at a school in San Leandro, including an assembly on the Day of Silence. The question of racism, sexism, anti-gay bashing, and the like is important enough to deserve its own thread. Here's the web site for Day of Silence: http://www.dayofsilence.org/

Among the things that I learned this morning. 90% of lesbian, gay, etc students report being harassed. Have we forgotten Fred Phelps, the preacher who says, backed by his freedom of religion, "God hates fags" ? Have we forgotten the murder of Mathew Sheppard, killed in Wyoming in 1998 because someone thought he was gay?

50% of Hispanic and African-American students report that they have been harassed because of their ethnic background. Yet there are those on this forum that insist there are no problems with using charged language like "illegal immigrants", and we need to just move past racism. Have we so quickly forgotten the murder of Brandon McClelland, 24, dragged to death beneath a truck driven by two white men in Paris, Texas in 2008? To be sure, there are no illegal people--there are acts that are illegal. And the Constitutional right to freedom of speech does allow you to use offensive language--but it doesn't make it right.

Now to the objections to Obama, and claims that there is no racism involved. Since he was running for election in 2008, a drumbeat of language has been used to try to define Obama as an "other", an outsider not really worthy of the protections America affords its citizens. From the thinly veiled descriptions used by the McCain campaign, to the more vile utterings of the Tea Party and the birthers, the rabid right has used language that would deny Obama humanity. This pattern of propaganda has been used often in the 20th Century, by Germans to describe Jews, by Americans to describe the Japanese, by Palestinians and Israelis to describe each other, and by tribal groups competing for territory (e. g. the Hutus and the Tutsi's).

Certainly not every conservative, nor every Republican holds racist views about Obama, or about people of color in general. Yet it is indisputable that few object to the attacks--and most of us have seen McCain booed by crowds of Republicans when he defended Obama. The party has pandered to the most despicable elements of the conservative movement, rather than challenge their reasoning--and perhaps sanity.

Any attack on Obama that is personal, and mischaracterizes his viewpoint as extreme is a part of this characterization of him as "other." Most offensive is the unabated description of his support for progressive taxation--policies established and supported for decades by white politicians--as socialism. It is obvious to most people who pay any attention to language that the epithet "socialist" replaces the N word.

To argue that we have moved past racism, when Republican legislature's establish voter identification laws that they admit are intended to reduce the votes of minorities, is to go well beyond denial into a never-never land with an alternative reality. To insist on using offensive language under the rubric of free speech is politically unwise. But I expect it to continue.

Look at the world through the eyes of the 90% of different children, who have been harassed because of their differences, or the 50% of Hispanics and African American's who have been harassed because of their race, and then tell me again that we should just shut up about bigotry? That's what bigotry is all about--the silencing of those who are different. I, for one, refuse to be silenced.
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beaglebuddy



Joined: 10 Feb 2012
Posts: 1120

PostPosted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 11:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

***Yawn***

8 years of bashing Bush and his family in any way possible and now you want special treatment for Obongo, HAHA, nope!
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MalibuGuru



Joined: 11 Nov 1993
Posts: 9288

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 1:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Socialist has replaced the N word"? Are you on LSD? What word has Oligarch replaced? Wasp?
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beaglebuddy



Joined: 10 Feb 2012
Posts: 1120

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 2:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

what a load of rubbish, every time I would have to work or pass thru a shady area I felt mistreated, picked on, a victim of racism, harassed because of my ethnic background. Awe gee someone was picked on because they are different, welcome to the planet earth.
If you are black and go thru a Mexican gang area your life will be in danger.
So the media hyped a case or two where a person of color was attacked by white people, do I need to show you the stats of minorities murdering, assaulting and robbing white people?
Do you want to hear my horror stories about school bussing in the 60's and how we were mistreated by blacks from East Palo Alto? No, I'm not going to discuss it because it's in the past and there is no need to dwell on this nonsense.
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mac



Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17736
Location: Berkeley, California

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 9:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Beagle buddy--terms like Obongo demonstrate that you are a bigot. Next question.
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 11:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

beaglebuddy wrote:
Do you want to hear my horror stories about school bussing in the 60's and how we were mistreated by blacks from East Palo Alto? No, I'm not going to discuss it because it's in the past and there is no need to dwell on this nonsense.

Montgomery, AL, high school, early 1960s. I hear you on both counts. Yet I hear from today's deep south residents that it's gotten much worse, especially in the last few especially divisive years. Race baiters like mac, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc. are part of the problem.
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nw30



Joined: 21 Dec 2008
Posts: 6485
Location: The eye of the universe, Cen. Cal. coast

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 12:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This thread is like a Rip Van Winkel moment.
He falls asleep in the early 60's, wakes up, reads the OP, assumes nothing has improved, segration is still rampant, so he goes back to sleep.

Answer me this mac, why are all successful, conservative blacks, considered Uncle Toms?
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 12:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And look at the sorry, unproved demonization of Herman Cain. I don't know for a fact whether he was falsely accused, but I never saw any proof, either ... just accusations.

Sounds very familiar.
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pueno



Joined: 03 Mar 2007
Posts: 2807

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 12:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

isobars wrote:
And look at the sorry, unproved demonization ... ....but I never saw any proof, either ... just accusations.

Sounds very familiar.

It does indeed.

Sounds like the accusations that someone was born in Kenya to Muslim socialist Kenyan Marxist Leninist commie jihadist parents.
.
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mac



Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17736
Location: Berkeley, California

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The truth about Herman Cain is sufficient to send any decent person running for cover:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/the-20-million/
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