This Sandra Bland murder has touched me in a way like most of the murders of African Americans by the police haven’t. I think of this black woman driving alone cross country for her dream job getting pulled over and arrested for no apparent reason, and then being killed. Some of you can sit and wait for the investigation to conclude all you want to, but I don’t have. I’ve seen this movie before, and it always ends the same way. African Americans are no safer today than we were in the 60’s. Yes, we are richer and more educated and more socially mobile, but at the end of the day that won’t stop some police officer from putting us in our place if he or she feels like it. If Denzel Washington can’t get a cab in New York City, then what chance does a Sandra Bland have in driving cross county safely?
Thank goodness for so many powerful voices. NW, Propane Jane, DonnaD, Don, and everyone else who contributes to our collective process, thank you all for expressing the truth. There are so many times I am left speechless at the inhumanity of these racist, TERRORIST actions. And then I come here and feel the power of your voices. Thank you again and again and again.
Donna, glad you came in first on this post. Listening respectfully to all that you, Nerdy Wonka, Don, Alycee, GGail, Prettyfoot, and so many others have to say about the increasingly egregious treatment by police of POC in this racist country. Working on Truth and Reconciliation in my own community.
Nerdy, you are outdoing yourself today with this post and the one before. I can’t thank you enough for bringing Propane Jane’s truth telling to TOD. You are your bringing it home to all of us and hopefully to a wider and wider world. It’s time the USA woke up and confronted its sins, its history and its continued failings as a just society. Thank you for all you do to help make this better world possible.
The strength it takes for black people to get up day in and day out to keep fighting, despite the horrors this society visits upon us, leaves me in awe of my fellow black brothers and sisters.
Some days, it’s too much and you wonder, what next? What unspeakable tragedy will this society levy against us? But still, we rise with courage, fortitude, and resilience.
Sending so much love, hugs, and comfort to my black brothers and sisters.
Sending the same back to you, NW! We are, and have always been, at our core a strong people, and we have needed to be. Truth is, despite everything I’ve always felt proud to be me and never ever yearned to be in any other skin, and I suspect you would say the same. Blessings on you, ‘young’ lady!
‘Yesterday a Kenyan Jesuit posted a delightful video to his Facebook page produced by the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, featuring a variety of Kenyans saying “Welcome” (“Karibu”) to President Obama, on the occasion of his visit to the East African country, which begins today. It’s a superb and at times touching portrait of the faces of the Kenyan people. and includes: a women’s choir singing “Jambo sana,” a popular song often heard by tourists upon their arrival; a group of Maasai men dancing and singing their traditional shukas and carrying rungas…This is the Kenya I knew when I spent two years there, from 1992 to 1994, working with the Jesuit Refugee Service. Of course it’s wrong to generalize about a people or a country, and Kenya encompasses men, women and children from a stunning variety of ethnic backgrounds speaking dozens of indigenous languages (most also speak Swahili and English), but perhaps positive generalizations are okay. Nearly to a person, the Kenyan men and women I knew were warm, welcoming, friendly, upbeat, clever, playful, helpful, and, most of all, hopeful. I adored living there, loved working and living among them, and enjoyed learning Swahili (and even a little Maasai)…
…For Kenyans the visit of President Obama, a man with deep Kenyan roots, is of enormous significance and a cause for celebration. Family is of inestimable significance for Kenyans, and nearly everyone knows what tribe you’re from, and the location of your family’s shamba (loosely translated as “farm” but a larger word meaning homeland). It’s especially easy for Kenyans to figure out what ethnic group Barack Obama hails from. He is obviously a Luo, as evidenced by the “O” that begins his last name. Luo names are ones like Odhiambo, Omondi, Okello, Onyango, Otieno. When I living in Kenya, the Jesuit vocation director for East Africa was a florid-faced, white-haired, Irishman named Sean O’Connor who, like me, loved his adopted country. Sean loved to joke with the East Africans when they asked where he was from, that of course he was a Luo. “Can’t you tell from my name?” he would say. “It’s Oconnor, after all.” During the president’s trip to Kenya, I hope that the media covers the following: the way that Kenyans often make do with so little; the way that they are able to live among a welter of cultures and languages; the stunning beauty of their land; their deep pride in their heritage; their great love of country. So with my friends (marafiki) in Kenya, I say to the President, “Karibu Kenya, Rais Obama!”
really? murkans think gop is better at foreign policy? after all that disaster called dumbya regime ? better at economic policy? again, after all that disaster called dumbya regime? and now, donald dreck is the leading candie?
NO…man you need glasses, Desi! Ds up 16 pts from 5 months ago…now favored by 3 overall. Must be to early for you to think straight, but that usually applies for all times of the day 😕
no, I read it right. the thugs were ahead by 45-38 just 5 months ago as per your own post. and they were leading on economic front also by similar margins. so what exactly was their achievement to get that kinda margin? yes, It’s a batshit country alright.
I was focused on the FP #’s change. Never looked at the econ #’s…they always favor GOP for some dumb reason. PBO overall rating is 48/45 in this poll though. We have a crazy electorate.
I hear her frustration but we cannot let the reality of how we are being treated in this country deter us. Keep Shouting, Keep Saying Her Name and Never Give In or Give Up.
@SugarMama7 She is gone but if our shouting gives just one police officer in this country pause we may have just saved the next #SandraBland
Thanks for this, Donna, and for all the political tweets (in your series focusing on the … gag … GOP candidates) you continue to send out. Well done, all of them.
THE UNFORTUNATE PART OF THIS IS THE FACT AND IT IS A FACT THAT PEOPLE OF COLOR REGARDLESS OF ETHNICITY ARE CONSIDERED FLESH TO BE OPPRESSED…LESS PAY..LESS RESPECT…LESS BENEFITS IN LIFE…IT JUST PLAIN DISGUSTS ME AND THOSE WHO THINK THIS WAY…GOD KNOWS THE HEART… AND EACH WILL HAVE TO MEET THEIR CREATOR.
Utterly disgusting with the ruling that Bland committed suicide. It’s looking like the FBI will probably cave for who else runs the FBI but a white male who backed away from stating that Roof was a terrorist but was quick to proclaim a military recruitment attack was an act of terrorism. Absolutely disgusting.
Don – I’m a white 68-year-old great grandmother and not African-American, but I agree with every word you wrote and felt. And there are many more “in my demographic” on that bloody color wheel that is America – older and younger – out there, who feel as I do. That’s not much comfort through any of this, any of the killings, any of the racism, but I just had to write it again. In truth, if I were an African-American person in this country, I personally wouldn’t speak to any white people. I don’t know where you and those in other ethnic “minority” groups, individually and collectively, get your strength to carry on, in America. But I do recognize it.
I believe that when the President repeated the Hopi’s “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” he included all of us … even as the old white grandmother like his own had, I’m sure … in speaking up.
I feel totally helpless in the grand scheme, but I’m going to keep speaking up. I promise you that.
JO’B, as a 71-year old white grandmother, I second all that you’ve said. I, too, feel helpless in the grand scheme, but will be doing everything in my limited power to speak up. Thank you for articulating what I was feeling.
Here’s another white grandmother, soon to be 68 years old who agrees with the two Jackie’s. One of my dearest friends here is AA and my heart breaks for her every time there’s another shooting or killing or some ugly words or mistreatment to PO. As one of you said, I do not know how they do it, living with this every day, 24/7. God bless and keep every one of the !! Thank you, Don for being so open with us.
Here is another white 69 year old woman who so agrees with all of you. I am so sicken by these killings. Where is the humanity of the police and all the folks who say the ones being killed are at fault. Too many are so judgemental. I so believe in what President Obama said. “We are these ones we have been waiting for.” Thank goodness for this place called TOD, that we all have met and are learning more how to give voice to all that is going on.
Me too, Jackie! I’m almost a 60 year old white mother, not a grandmother, but I feel the same. I never had to have a talk to my children about how to act in the presence of a police officer, or wonder if my child would be killed. It breaks my heart.
I am another white 72 year old grandmother feeling helpless in the face of what feels like the accelerating rate of murder of black people in our country.
If the rate of murder and abuse is actually not accelerating but our awareness via press coverage is, well that would be a bit of comfort.
The awareness part is definitely happening via social media, protests, and the press – not to mention our great President. But I’d have to see some real statistics to believe this all hasn’t perhaps been happening just out of our eyesight all along – while everybody else is just trying to “get by” in life, not paying enough attention, thinking “things are better now.” Which is grotesque and should keep every American awake at night.
I think you are right, JOB. It has always been this violent. But now, more and more people of good are watching and re-watching the horrific videos and are eager to see justice.
Voting for town city and state officials who are committed to equal justice will make a difference.
Being a “respectable Negro”, or a respectable fill-in-the-blank, is how power perpetuates itself. “Play by our rules, and you’ll eventually get what you want.” Except so far the ultimate goal, full humanity, always seems to be the same distance away.
The rules change, the goal posts are moved, and terrorism greets anyone who excels or tries to stand up for him/herself. White society has to do this to maintain their idea of racial superiority. What excuses will the lazy, poor, and willfully ignornant- among them will have if there is true equality? The most ragged-mouth, uncouth, poorly educated, sickly pale, hump-backed on- welfare white person has to believe that his whiteness alone makes him better. It keeps him poor and ignorant and the 1% who uses them as a weapon wealthy and powerful. He who shall not be named, who assassinated 9 people who were smarter and more accomplished than he, is a perfect example of this.
One of the best things that resulted from the push for integration in public places, was for A-A people to see that the mysterious, all-powerful white man, especially in the South, is a myth. We learned that many of us were smarter and more accomplished than many of them were. That we could go to ivy league schools and excel, own beautiful homes, send our children to high-performing schools, and take vacations in beautiful places here and abroad. All that so many of them have is their whiteness, which has no intrinsic value whatsoever. They are killing us because we are beautiful, brilliant, talented, and not afraid of them. We refuse to lower our eyes, to move off the sidewalk, to give up our positions, or to give them unearned respect. They cannot kill all of us and their days of terrorism are numbered. They have the cops, the media, and the power brokers, but we have right and the might of courage and determination. Barack Obama is not an anomaly; we have many like him in the A-A community. We will not be afraid, we will not be moved, we will not be denied, we will not leave the country, we will not apologize for our existence. We are American citizens and we are here to stay and to flourish.
And I remember my alabaster-skinned grandmother, when I told her that we were all the same, looking at me with steely eyes and spitting out “No, we’re not the same. They have big lips and big noses and kinky hair.”
I bet you were a cutie pa-tootie little boy with your curly hair. I had an Italian friend who would tan darker than me in the summer time. He told me once his mother was teasing him that he really belonged to a black woman. As a little boy he didn’t understand that was supposed to be an insult…..
We are so beautiful that everyone wants to look like us. We laugh with derision when we see people baking themselves and risking skin cancer to achieve our beautiful skin tones, getting injections to make their thin lips plump like ours and getting butt augmentations to have the fine, curvy asses that we got naturally. People all over the world want our music, our dance and our swag. Funny how so many want to pick and choose what aspect of our lives that they want, but will be the first to stand on white privilege in all other aspects of our lives. As for the kinky hair, that is working for us as well ( I have worn a short ‘fro for over 20 years and men of many races have tried to step to me full of compliments and more). White women tried to disparage our beauty because they knew that their men wanted us.
With all of our problems and tragedies because of race, the fact that there are so many families like mine (white brother-in-law, white cousins, etc) where people of various background are proudly and happily loving and living, lets me know that we are going in the right direction.
Interesting about the kinky hair: There’s an article on the BBC about African women eschewing hair relaxants and letting their hair go natural. Personally, I love women’s hair in whatever shape it comes. (God, I’m such a guy.) But more than once have I given a thumbs up to African American women in my library who come in with righteous ‘fros.
I was thinking about the same thing today. We sacrifice and do without to send our kids to college and a boy that didn’t finish school took nine lives who had so much to give. This young lady graduated college and was on her way to a great future and was cut down by a cop who I am sure maybe has not even accomplished half of what she did. Yet we tell our kids not to give up, keep on striving and we go about our lives not hating, just loving everyone in our path. We are God-blessed people and that’s for sure.
I like them, but they do not like me. It has been years since I have had a hot dog even though I loved them when I was a child.
A not so nice observation on another subject: I get a little irritated when i see people from other countries, who had nothing to do with the development of PBO try to claim him. He is not “coming home” whether it is Ireland, Kenya, or Indonesia. His home, his identity, has mostly been forged on our shores. An American mother and Grandparents raised and loved him, he was educated here, worked here, found love here and is raising American children here. He is ours; other countries can get their own; There!
Seriously, I think you may eventually have to admit that PBO *IS* a world leader and as such, belongs to ‘the world’. I venture to say it matters not so much where he was raised – and don’t forget some of that did occur in Indonesia. Remember how we here always say that he is comfortable in every/any situation? Well, you may have raised him there, but from Bible times ‘he belongs to the people’. 😉
TODobots, Black or White, I encourage you to go to the link and read this ‘sermon’ in its entirety. I really do; the excerpts do not do it justice.
TITLE = I, RACIST
// ……………………………….
You see, I don’t talk about race with White people.
To illustrate why, I’ll tell a story:
It was probably about 15 years ago when a conversation took place between my aunt, who is White and lives in New York State, and my sister, who is Black and lives in North Carolina. This conversation can be distilled to a single sentence, said by my Black sister:
“The only difference between people in the North and people in the South
is that down here, at least people are honest about being racist.”
There was a lot more to that conversation, obviously, but I suggest that it can be distilled into that one sentence because it has been, by my White aunt. Over a decade later, this sentence is still what she talks about. It has become the single most important aspect of my aunt’s relationship with my Black family. She is still hurt by the suggestion that people in New York, that she, a northerner, a liberal, a good person who has Black family members, is a racist.
This perfectly illustrates why I don’t talk about race with White people. Even — or rather, especially — my own family.
……………………………………………………
To understand, you have to know that Black people think in terms of Black **people**.
We don’t see a shooting of an innocent Black child in another state as something separate from us because we know viscerally that it could be our child, our parent, or us, that is shot.
The shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston resonated with me because Walter Scott was portrayed in the media as a deadbeat and a criminal — but when you look at the facts about the actual man, he was nearly indistinguishable from my own father.
Racism affects us directly because the fact that it happened at a geographically remote location or to another Black person is only a coincidence, an accident. It could just as easily happen to us — right here, right now.
Black people think in terms of we because we live in a society where the social and political structures interact with us as Black people.
White people do not think in terms of we. White people have the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our society as individuals. You are “you,” I am “one of them.” Whites are often not directly affected by racial oppression even in their own community, so what does not affect them locally has little chance of affecting them regionally or nationally. They have no need, nor often any real desire, to think in terms of a group. They are supported by the system, and so are mostly unaffected by it.
This truth is in the DNA of every A-A person. For awhile, when was in my late teens and early 20’s, I thought that I could manage to be seen as an individual; that what another Black person did or did not do had nothing to do with me. I wanted to believe that I could be an “I’ rather than a “we.” American taught me very soon that this would not be possible in my lifetime. While it is true that after coming from a background and early life very similar to Michelle Obama’s, I have been able to live a life that is in many ways the epitome of the American Dream, there was always the never-ending, background chorus of ominous voices, that low-level anxiety, that extra watchfulness, that minute hesitation that underscores all aspects of life. We are not safe here; we cannot really relax here no matter how we live our lives. It is a miracle that we manage as well as we do.
{{{CEB}}} It’s not just there in America, CEB. That extra watchfulness in stores etc, that minute hesitation when you pass by, the flicker of surprise when you have a ‘good job’ or do that job well ……. all more than enough to keep you at a low-level of dailyanxiety. I firmly believe we do as well as we do because we are a strong people – a people with a high level of resilience, a strong inner core, …and the ability to not give up no matter the obstacles …to keep on. We have the wisdom and certain knowledge that we have as much ‘right’ to life as everyone else!
All these Republicans are the same, step on the poor and middle class. Jeb want to figure out a way to Phase out Medicare. I want American voters to figure out a way to phase out Jeb Bush.
Anthony Weiner, a failure of a mayoral candidate and husband (for that matter), snapped at one of the most beloved public relations people in Washington.
And trust me, there aren’t that many.
On National Hot Dog Day, no less, Weiner got all hot and bothered after C-SPAN Communications Director Howard Mortman announced that Weiner had landed a new job in crisis communications. As the New York Post put it, he’s a “Working Stiff.”
One of the firm’s clients is, naturally, Ball Park Franks.
in totally unrelated news: we have been having afternoon and evening thunderstorms, every day for over a month. Some of these storms have been accompanied by power outages in various part, and localized flooding (nothing like what happened in Austin, however). While all of this rain is good for the water table and our lawns, it is getting rather tiresome. Wish we could send some of this water to California.
We’ll take it. BUT, we’ve been having some oddly wet weather this month. July has seen 0.38″ of rain in Los Angeles. Not much, I know. But normal is 0.01″.
Thanks so much Nerdy for these two powerful posts! Thanks for front-paging Don’s comment, and donna’s tweet. Propane Jane never fails to break down the hard truths. These truths speak for me, for us, and millions of others.
And our President is up in the air!!! I just get chills watching this big jet take off and land…(and of course knowing that PBO is the main passenger contributes to those feels). 🙂 🙂
The Obama Diary 
AMEN!
Thank you for continuously speaking up, Donna.
Thank you for posting Don’s powerful, eloquent statement of TRUTH, NW!!
Thank you Don!!!
Thank goodness for so many powerful voices. NW, Propane Jane, DonnaD, Don, and everyone else who contributes to our collective process, thank you all for expressing the truth. There are so many times I am left speechless at the inhumanity of these racist, TERRORIST actions. And then I come here and feel the power of your voices. Thank you again and again and again.
Don, what a heart-breaking, powerful, truth-telling few words.
“I’ve seen this movie before, and it always ends the same way. African Americans are no safer today than we were in the 60’s.”
Thank you Don, and thank you Nerdy.
Donna, glad you came in first on this post. Listening respectfully to all that you, Nerdy Wonka, Don, Alycee, GGail, Prettyfoot, and so many others have to say about the increasingly egregious treatment by police of POC in this racist country. Working on Truth and Reconciliation in my own community.
A really nice piece on Auma Obama and President Obama’s ancestral village:
THE COMPASSION RUNS IN THE FAMILY……………………….
**Thank you** for this jewel, LPlains! /said with piety/>> It’s enough to make me forgive you for all your recent sins towards me.
I LOVE THIS…IT NEEDS TO GO VIRAL….OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN…JUST PLAIN DARN BEAUTIFUL!
It is nice to have your forgiveness for once 😎 …. though I do have another gem waiting the monster known as WP Spam 😦
‘another gem waiting’ is alright. Nice to sprinkle your jewels around so we/I don’t use them all up at once!
WordP spam has been doing a number on me too, but it will not conquer my spirit.
I’m happy to hear from his sister that if he can’t make it to his ancestral home that they will understand that he’s doing his job.
Thanks LP for posting these!
“My brother has made a mark in the word” for the good., She has followed in the “family business” helping others.
Nerdy, you are outdoing yourself today with this post and the one before. I can’t thank you enough for bringing Propane Jane’s truth telling to TOD. You are your bringing it home to all of us and hopefully to a wider and wider world. It’s time the USA woke up and confronted its sins, its history and its continued failings as a just society. Thank you for all you do to help make this better world possible.
Thank you so much for your truth, Don.
The strength it takes for black people to get up day in and day out to keep fighting, despite the horrors this society visits upon us, leaves me in awe of my fellow black brothers and sisters.
Some days, it’s too much and you wonder, what next? What unspeakable tragedy will this society levy against us? But still, we rise with courage, fortitude, and resilience.
Sending so much love, hugs, and comfort to my black brothers and sisters.
Sending the same back to you, NW! We are, and have always been, at our core a strong people, and we have needed to be. Truth is, despite everything I’ve always felt proud to be me and never ever yearned to be in any other skin, and I suspect you would say the same. Blessings on you, ‘young’ lady!
“Say it Loud!” “I’m Black and I’m Proud!” ~ James Brown
Amen, Amen, AMEN!
I am Black and I am Proud!
‘Yesterday a Kenyan Jesuit posted a delightful video to his Facebook page produced by the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, featuring a variety of Kenyans saying “Welcome” (“Karibu”) to President Obama, on the occasion of his visit to the East African country, which begins today. It’s a superb and at times touching portrait of the faces of the Kenyan people. and includes: a women’s choir singing “Jambo sana,” a popular song often heard by tourists upon their arrival; a group of Maasai men dancing and singing their traditional shukas and carrying rungas…This is the Kenya I knew when I spent two years there, from 1992 to 1994, working with the Jesuit Refugee Service. Of course it’s wrong to generalize about a people or a country, and Kenya encompasses men, women and children from a stunning variety of ethnic backgrounds speaking dozens of indigenous languages (most also speak Swahili and English), but perhaps positive generalizations are okay. Nearly to a person, the Kenyan men and women I knew were warm, welcoming, friendly, upbeat, clever, playful, helpful, and, most of all, hopeful. I adored living there, loved working and living among them, and enjoyed learning Swahili (and even a little Maasai)…
…For Kenyans the visit of President Obama, a man with deep Kenyan roots, is of enormous significance and a cause for celebration. Family is of inestimable significance for Kenyans, and nearly everyone knows what tribe you’re from, and the location of your family’s shamba (loosely translated as “farm” but a larger word meaning homeland). It’s especially easy for Kenyans to figure out what ethnic group Barack Obama hails from. He is obviously a Luo, as evidenced by the “O” that begins his last name. Luo names are ones like Odhiambo, Omondi, Okello, Onyango, Otieno. When I living in Kenya, the Jesuit vocation director for East Africa was a florid-faced, white-haired, Irishman named Sean O’Connor who, like me, loved his adopted country. Sean loved to joke with the East Africans when they asked where he was from, that of course he was a Luo. “Can’t you tell from my name?” he would say. “It’s Oconnor, after all.” During the president’s trip to Kenya, I hope that the media covers the following: the way that Kenyans often make do with so little; the way that they are able to live among a welter of cultures and languages; the stunning beauty of their land; their deep pride in their heritage; their great love of country. So with my friends (marafiki) in Kenya, I say to the President, “Karibu Kenya, Rais Obama!”
LP, I wish you had just posted the Dept of State Tweet Pic by itself.
It is SoS Kerry speaking and he’s speaking in clear terms and words everyone present should understand.
I highly encourage us all to take a listen.
Sorry, GGail. I try to bunch relevant tweets and messed up on that one….WP punished me by putting them in moderation 😀
really? murkans think gop is better at foreign policy? after all that disaster called dumbya regime ? better at economic policy? again, after all that disaster called dumbya regime? and now, donald dreck is the leading candie?
mebbe they do deserve the govt they want.
NO…man you need glasses, Desi! Ds up 16 pts from 5 months ago…now favored by 3 overall. Must be to early for you to think straight, but that usually applies for all times of the day 😕
no, I read it right. the thugs were ahead by 45-38 just 5 months ago as per your own post. and they were leading on economic front also by similar margins. so what exactly was their achievement to get that kinda margin? yes, It’s a batshit country alright.
I was focused on the FP #’s change. Never looked at the econ #’s…they always favor GOP for some dumb reason. PBO overall rating is 48/45 in this poll though. We have a crazy electorate.
BTs I need a comment freed from spam & two from moderation-TY
I hear her frustration but we cannot let the reality of how we are being treated in this country deter us. Keep Shouting, Keep Saying Her Name and Never Give In or Give Up.
Good for you, Donna. You are speaking the words of wisdom our President has often spoken to us. Keep putting one foot forward and never give up.
Thanks for this, Donna, and for all the political tweets (in your series focusing on the … gag … GOP candidates) you continue to send out. Well done, all of them.
FF to the 5:37:25 mark.
WELL DONE!….:)
FF to 5:43:50
Am reposting this because I want to be sure VC sees it given how grateful I am for her sharing the video with me, us.
#TruthAndReconciliation
THE UNFORTUNATE PART OF THIS IS THE FACT AND IT IS A FACT THAT PEOPLE OF COLOR REGARDLESS OF ETHNICITY ARE CONSIDERED FLESH TO BE OPPRESSED…LESS PAY..LESS RESPECT…LESS BENEFITS IN LIFE…IT JUST PLAIN DISGUSTS ME AND THOSE WHO THINK THIS WAY…GOD KNOWS THE HEART… AND EACH WILL HAVE TO MEET THEIR CREATOR.
^5, Bfr! 🙂 Seen and RT’d
TY, VC 🙂
Utterly disgusting with the ruling that Bland committed suicide. It’s looking like the FBI will probably cave for who else runs the FBI but a white male who backed away from stating that Roof was a terrorist but was quick to proclaim a military recruitment attack was an act of terrorism. Absolutely disgusting.
THIS IS A VERY SAD WORLD WE LIVE IN……..’RAGE’ HAS BECOME A CONSTANT EMOTION…:(……………………..BBL…CONTINUED PRAYERS FOR PBO’S JOURNEY!
#Earth2.0 🙂
This is the one news story which has been a ray of light today.
Yup.
Don – I’m a white 68-year-old great grandmother and not African-American, but I agree with every word you wrote and felt. And there are many more “in my demographic” on that bloody color wheel that is America – older and younger – out there, who feel as I do. That’s not much comfort through any of this, any of the killings, any of the racism, but I just had to write it again. In truth, if I were an African-American person in this country, I personally wouldn’t speak to any white people. I don’t know where you and those in other ethnic “minority” groups, individually and collectively, get your strength to carry on, in America. But I do recognize it.
I believe that when the President repeated the Hopi’s “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” he included all of us … even as the old white grandmother like his own had, I’m sure … in speaking up.
I feel totally helpless in the grand scheme, but I’m going to keep speaking up. I promise you that.
JO’B, as a 71-year old white grandmother, I second all that you’ve said. I, too, feel helpless in the grand scheme, but will be doing everything in my limited power to speak up. Thank you for articulating what I was feeling.
Thank you, Jackie.
Okay, to recap, everybody named Jackie is with Don!
Here’s another white grandmother, soon to be 68 years old who agrees with the two Jackie’s. One of my dearest friends here is AA and my heart breaks for her every time there’s another shooting or killing or some ugly words or mistreatment to PO. As one of you said, I do not know how they do it, living with this every day, 24/7. God bless and keep every one of the !! Thank you, Don for being so open with us.
Here is another white 69 year old woman who so agrees with all of you. I am so sicken by these killings. Where is the humanity of the police and all the folks who say the ones being killed are at fault. Too many are so judgemental. I so believe in what President Obama said. “We are these ones we have been waiting for.” Thank goodness for this place called TOD, that we all have met and are learning more how to give voice to all that is going on.
Thank you everyone here.
Me too, Jackie! I’m almost a 60 year old white mother, not a grandmother, but I feel the same. I never had to have a talk to my children about how to act in the presence of a police officer, or wonder if my child would be killed. It breaks my heart.
I am another white 72 year old grandmother feeling helpless in the face of what feels like the accelerating rate of murder of black people in our country.
If the rate of murder and abuse is actually not accelerating but our awareness via press coverage is, well that would be a bit of comfort.
See the problem clearly and bring it out into the open, then defeat it.
The awareness part is definitely happening via social media, protests, and the press – not to mention our great President. But I’d have to see some real statistics to believe this all hasn’t perhaps been happening just out of our eyesight all along – while everybody else is just trying to “get by” in life, not paying enough attention, thinking “things are better now.” Which is grotesque and should keep every American awake at night.
I think you are right, JOB. It has always been this violent. But now, more and more people of good are watching and re-watching the horrific videos and are eager to see justice.
Voting for town city and state officials who are committed to equal justice will make a difference.
good will
Sounds like a plan to me!!!!!
Between the systemic fuckery of Sandra Bland’s murder and the inane fuckery which has assaulted me today, I think I speak truth here.
Being a “respectable Negro”, or a respectable fill-in-the-blank, is how power perpetuates itself. “Play by our rules, and you’ll eventually get what you want.” Except so far the ultimate goal, full humanity, always seems to be the same distance away.
The rules change, the goal posts are moved, and terrorism greets anyone who excels or tries to stand up for him/herself. White society has to do this to maintain their idea of racial superiority. What excuses will the lazy, poor, and willfully ignornant- among them will have if there is true equality? The most ragged-mouth, uncouth, poorly educated, sickly pale, hump-backed on- welfare white person has to believe that his whiteness alone makes him better. It keeps him poor and ignorant and the 1% who uses them as a weapon wealthy and powerful. He who shall not be named, who assassinated 9 people who were smarter and more accomplished than he, is a perfect example of this.
One of the best things that resulted from the push for integration in public places, was for A-A people to see that the mysterious, all-powerful white man, especially in the South, is a myth. We learned that many of us were smarter and more accomplished than many of them were. That we could go to ivy league schools and excel, own beautiful homes, send our children to high-performing schools, and take vacations in beautiful places here and abroad. All that so many of them have is their whiteness, which has no intrinsic value whatsoever. They are killing us because we are beautiful, brilliant, talented, and not afraid of them. We refuse to lower our eyes, to move off the sidewalk, to give up our positions, or to give them unearned respect. They cannot kill all of us and their days of terrorism are numbered. They have the cops, the media, and the power brokers, but we have right and the might of courage and determination. Barack Obama is not an anomaly; we have many like him in the A-A community. We will not be afraid, we will not be moved, we will not be denied, we will not leave the country, we will not apologize for our existence. We are American citizens and we are here to stay and to flourish.
Amen.
And I remember my alabaster-skinned grandmother, when I told her that we were all the same, looking at me with steely eyes and spitting out “No, we’re not the same. They have big lips and big noses and kinky hair.”
I bet you were a cutie pa-tootie little boy with your curly hair. I had an Italian friend who would tan darker than me in the summer time. He told me once his mother was teasing him that he really belonged to a black woman. As a little boy he didn’t understand that was supposed to be an insult…..
We are so beautiful that everyone wants to look like us. We laugh with derision when we see people baking themselves and risking skin cancer to achieve our beautiful skin tones, getting injections to make their thin lips plump like ours and getting butt augmentations to have the fine, curvy asses that we got naturally. People all over the world want our music, our dance and our swag. Funny how so many want to pick and choose what aspect of our lives that they want, but will be the first to stand on white privilege in all other aspects of our lives. As for the kinky hair, that is working for us as well ( I have worn a short ‘fro for over 20 years and men of many races have tried to step to me full of compliments and more). White women tried to disparage our beauty because they knew that their men wanted us.
With all of our problems and tragedies because of race, the fact that there are so many families like mine (white brother-in-law, white cousins, etc) where people of various background are proudly and happily loving and living, lets me know that we are going in the right direction.
Interesting about the kinky hair: There’s an article on the BBC about African women eschewing hair relaxants and letting their hair go natural. Personally, I love women’s hair in whatever shape it comes. (God, I’m such a guy.) But more than once have I given a thumbs up to African American women in my library who come in with righteous ‘fros.
I was thinking about the same thing today. We sacrifice and do without to send our kids to college and a boy that didn’t finish school took nine lives who had so much to give. This young lady graduated college and was on her way to a great future and was cut down by a cop who I am sure maybe has not even accomplished half of what she did. Yet we tell our kids not to give up, keep on striving and we go about our lives not hating, just loving everyone in our path. We are God-blessed people and that’s for sure.
CEB, I am crying over my keyboard as I read this. PREACH! Thank you for your eloquence.
BTW – O/T but…
Today is National Hot Dog Day. I loooove me a hot dog!
Me too, Donna! I know they aren’t healthy, but do live them.
love………Gawd, auto correct.
I like them, but they do not like me. It has been years since I have had a hot dog even though I loved them when I was a child.
A not so nice observation on another subject: I get a little irritated when i see people from other countries, who had nothing to do with the development of PBO try to claim him. He is not “coming home” whether it is Ireland, Kenya, or Indonesia. His home, his identity, has mostly been forged on our shores. An American mother and Grandparents raised and loved him, he was educated here, worked here, found love here and is raising American children here. He is ours; other countries can get their own; There!
😦 Aw, CEB, you’re not willing to share? Fine, when we get him ….
…..we’ll share. 😀
Seriously, I think you may eventually have to admit that PBO *IS* a world leader and as such, belongs to ‘the world’. I venture to say it matters not so much where he was raised – and don’t forget some of that did occur in Indonesia. Remember how we here always say that he is comfortable in every/any situation? Well, you may have raised him there, but from Bible times ‘he belongs to the people’. 😉
Hot dogs for dinner tonight then….I love kraut dogs especially. Hey GGail want to join me?
Sure! I’ll call you when I’m leaving
OK!
Well darn! I wish I was on the west coast tonight 😉
Darn, we wish you were too Donna, then you could join us! 🙂
You can eat hot dogs tonight too…. 🙂 🙂 🙂 we’ll eat one just for you donna. I wish you were here too.
Hey thanks Donna! I’ll stop on my way home and get me a treat 🙂
So many of those were absolutely ruined by putting ketchup on them. No respectable hot dog has ketchup on it.
I feel you, Don.
TODobots, Black or White, I encourage you to go to the link and read this ‘sermon’ in its entirety. I really do; the excerpts do not do it justice.
TITLE = I, RACIST
// ……………………………….
You see, I don’t talk about race with White people.
To illustrate why, I’ll tell a story:
It was probably about 15 years ago when a conversation took place between my aunt, who is White and lives in New York State, and my sister, who is Black and lives in North Carolina. This conversation can be distilled to a single sentence, said by my Black sister:
“The only difference between people in the North and people in the South
is that down here, at least people are honest about being racist.”
There was a lot more to that conversation, obviously, but I suggest that it can be distilled into that one sentence because it has been, by my White aunt. Over a decade later, this sentence is still what she talks about. It has become the single most important aspect of my aunt’s relationship with my Black family. She is still hurt by the suggestion that people in New York, that she, a northerner, a liberal, a good person who has Black family members, is a racist.
This perfectly illustrates why I don’t talk about race with White people. Even — or rather, especially — my own family.
……………………………………………………
To understand, you have to know that Black people think in terms of Black **people**.
We don’t see a shooting of an innocent Black child in another state as something separate from us because we know viscerally that it could be our child, our parent, or us, that is shot.
The shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston resonated with me because Walter Scott was portrayed in the media as a deadbeat and a criminal — but when you look at the facts about the actual man, he was nearly indistinguishable from my own father.
Racism affects us directly because the fact that it happened at a geographically remote location or to another Black person is only a coincidence, an accident. It could just as easily happen to us — right here, right now.
Black people think in terms of we because we live in a society where the social and political structures interact with us as Black people.
White people do not think in terms of we. White people have the privilege to interact with the social and political structures of our society as individuals. You are “you,” I am “one of them.” Whites are often not directly affected by racial oppression even in their own community, so what does not affect them locally has little chance of affecting them regionally or nationally. They have no need, nor often any real desire, to think in terms of a group. They are supported by the system, and so are mostly unaffected by it.
…………………………….. //
https://thsppl.com/i-racist-538512462265
This truth is in the DNA of every A-A person. For awhile, when was in my late teens and early 20’s, I thought that I could manage to be seen as an individual; that what another Black person did or did not do had nothing to do with me. I wanted to believe that I could be an “I’ rather than a “we.” American taught me very soon that this would not be possible in my lifetime. While it is true that after coming from a background and early life very similar to Michelle Obama’s, I have been able to live a life that is in many ways the epitome of the American Dream, there was always the never-ending, background chorus of ominous voices, that low-level anxiety, that extra watchfulness, that minute hesitation that underscores all aspects of life. We are not safe here; we cannot really relax here no matter how we live our lives. It is a miracle that we manage as well as we do.
{{{CEB}}} It’s not just there in America, CEB. That extra watchfulness in stores etc, that minute hesitation when you pass by, the flicker of surprise when you have a ‘good job’ or do that job well ……. all more than enough to keep you at a low-level of dailyanxiety. I firmly believe we do as well as we do because we are a strong people – a people with a high level of resilience, a strong inner core, …and the ability to not give up no matter the obstacles …to keep on. We have the wisdom and certain knowledge that we have as much ‘right’ to life as everyone else!
*sigh*
I like him and I love his activism.
And what a Handsome guy.
What would all those people who depend on Medicare do?
Get Sick and Die!
All these Republicans are the same, step on the poor and middle class. Jeb want to figure out a way to Phase out Medicare. I want American voters to figure out a way to phase out Jeb Bush.
Me too annieb!
Time to phase out ALL Bushes…..
Well said! Phase him out, toss him out!
Thanks Bob, I needed this reminder 🙂
Do you have Time Warner for your cable? It should be on every BBC World news bulletin tonight.
Cause ….
Effect ….
It’s a #BFD for many reasons ….
#TrustBarack
Of course, I’m sure part of it has to do with the fact that recently Turkish soldiers have died in cross-border fire. Then they come running to us.
There it is,
Here’s a “doggone funny” 🙂
Anthony Weiner, a failure of a mayoral candidate and husband (for that matter), snapped at one of the most beloved public relations people in Washington.
And trust me, there aren’t that many.
On National Hot Dog Day, no less, Weiner got all hot and bothered after C-SPAN Communications Director Howard Mortman announced that Weiner had landed a new job in crisis communications. As the New York Post put it, he’s a “Working Stiff.”
One of the firm’s clients is, naturally, Ball Park Franks.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/23/weiner-whacks-c-span-communications-director/#ixzz3gl62vbSJ
he is so cure….
he said he can’t rap…but he had enough of a rap to get Michelle to marry him….hahaha…oh my goodness
Meanwhile, in the “More Money than Sense” department…
21 and over, Confidentiality Agreement.
What could go wrong…for HIM?
😮
Hello TOD, Good Evening All 😉
Au ⭐ for Donna, Yes!
Brilliant Commentary, Don.
Thanks for Headlining it, NW.
Good riddance….his ego got to big. Used to be a watchable program. I think he realized Colbert was more talented is jealous…
Can’t stand that a$$h*le…
It got my goat too. Ask the 3rd rate punk if he ever called bush, just bush.
They do it deliberately – racism to the fore with the media
I still do
oh boy. we are on nokia still?
in totally unrelated news: we have been having afternoon and evening thunderstorms, every day for over a month. Some of these storms have been accompanied by power outages in various part, and localized flooding (nothing like what happened in Austin, however). While all of this rain is good for the water table and our lawns, it is getting rather tiresome. Wish we could send some of this water to California.
We’ll take it. BUT, we’ve been having some oddly wet weather this month. July has seen 0.38″ of rain in Los Angeles. Not much, I know. But normal is 0.01″.
This should fix everything…
Are we supposed to be impressed? $8400 is a rounding error in their realm…
The President departs Joint Base Andrews en route Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany.
Click here ► ► http://www.cbsnews.com/liveFeed/widget.shtml
THANK YOU, JER!
You are welcome.
@jeffmason1
Thanks JER – I’m watching now! 🙂
You are welcome.
Thanks so much Nerdy for these two powerful posts! Thanks for front-paging Don’s comment, and donna’s tweet. Propane Jane never fails to break down the hard truths. These truths speak for me, for us, and millions of others.
You’re welcome, HF.
I agree with Don…we have seen this before…blk folks being stopped for some traffic stop…arrested…and then found dead in a jail cell….by way of hanging
Lynching by any other name is still a Lynching…
He looks emotional in that pic. He must be thinking about his father…etc…
And our President is up in the air!!! I just get chills watching this big jet take off and land…(and of course knowing that PBO is the main passenger contributes to those feels). 🙂 🙂
Have a safe trip…
Time to do business, not war ….
New post:
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/07/23/first-lady-michelle-obama-champions-students/