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CNN: Racism blamed in taser death
I definitely saw this coming. I wrote an essay last year titled The Fire this Time. In that essay, I analyzed what I saw as a "re-focus" on race and race-related news stories...I argued that the refocus probably started with Katrina, and no doubt will continue to intensify through this presidential election. While racism is still very much alive and well and much of it is structural that will not be changed by good intentions and colorblind ideology, this presidential campaign has also been a bold reminder that overt racism has not gone anywhere either. Just this week I've read commentaries that compare Obama to Hitler and then there are these two crazy pictures:
As Dome said in a comment below, America ain't ready (at least a large portion of it).
Also, as I've said before, I hope my progressive brothers and sisters will be very careful when joining the Obama bashing bandwagon. Amiri Baraka has written a good piece that I hope all will read. Davey D has it posted on his blog:
The Parade of Anti-Obama Rascals
In a previous post I listed a number of reasons I hope Obama wins. I should have added one more: white supremacists and ideologues like Hannity, O'Reilly and Limbaugh will be beside themselves...lol. Now, that's progress...and change I can believe in :-)
2 comments:
hey tina, much love and respect for what you do on "Rise Up." Long time reader, first time commenter ... I'm at a university about 30 mins from Winnfield, where Barron Pikes was tasered to death, and I can tell you, the chances of thisbeing a retaliatory killing for Jena 6 are probably slim. Racism, both in its stuructural, covert and institutionalized forms and in the daily ignorant expressions of individuals who believe there is a "race problem," is rampant here. And its expressed in manifold and varied ways. This one cop, acting out of compliance and likely with rage in his heart, was likely motivated by racism ... but the racism and the ways it is expressed here in the South are too deeply set to be attributed to recent racial flashpoints like Katrina and Jena 6. Katrina and Jena 6 are symptoms of that racial hate, not points of origin.
i.e. This wasnt a retaliation for Jena 6. This was a retaliation for Toussaint, Emancipation, MLK, etc ...
Much appreciation for the support in reading my essays and for posting a comment! I really appreciate the feedback and dialog. Thanks also for the insight on this particular case. The story was framed that it was the cousin I guess to make it seem like it could have been for that reason, but you are absolutely on point... This is a retaliation for Toussaint, Emancipation, MLK, etc. and there is no need for a new reason or motivation for racism that is embedded. What I meant by what Katrina and Jena did though was in some ways serve as a reawakening for black community, especially youth. And the more organized black youth get, the more backlash we will see.
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