Awaken White People

This appeared in this morning's New York Times: Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden "opened his hastily arranged address by noting that he had spoken with the Floyd family, the sort of consoler-in-chief outreach he has become known for after his own life of loss, and concluded with another note of reassurance to the family along with a final challenge to white America. 'I love you all, and folks, we’ve got to stand up,' he said. 'We’ve got to move. We’ve [meaning white Americans] got to change.' Mr. Biden also evoked past leaders, some explicitly, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and others less directly. Citing the country’s founding promise, he echoed John F. Kennedy’s declaration that equality is 'as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.' By reciting the names of the black victims and repeating what has become a watchword of the racial justice movement, 'I can’t breathe,' Mr. Biden also summoned Lyndon B. Johnson, who borrowed the lyrics of the civil rights protest song to vow 'we shall overcome.'"

It's time for white Americans to awaken to the daily indignities and injustices endured daily by African Americans.

There's the Rub

Last night I received an email from Derrick Johnson, the NAACP CEO. He wrote that as a black man, a father, and husband, the killing of George Floyd revived some of his worse fears. He feared for the well being of his sons.

The world is changing, however, and I'm not naive enough to be referring to the inequities of the American system, a system that has used African Americans as its economic fodder. Yet, we should not be studying America through the lens used to rationalized all forms of human entrapment.

We need a new lens for an emerging America.

Am I being a Pollyanna? God, I hope not. How can I prove that I'm right? Evidence contradicts me. Dozens of deaths in the past two decades, such as George Floyd's in Minneapolis, feed the fears of parents such as Johnson. Simultaneously, decades of lynchings have repressed rage. Centuries of enslavement "have proven" whites cannot be trusted.

It's a psychological torture born of white indifference and ignorance. Most white Americans remain indifferent to the systemic injustices inflicted on African Americans. For example, a New York Times article about the outrage around Floyd's death noted, "Although Minneapolis is politically progressive and many white residents speak of racial justice, black residents say it has not been enough to solve the inequities. In fact, there is often resistance."

We, again meaning white Americans, seem to forget that the philosophies and economic greed that drove slavery in the Americas also fueled the slaughter of other groups. I am not equating experiences, but if white Americans look into their own histories, they may find shadows of the atrocities inflicted on African Americans.
For example, my forebears and a million others left Ireland in the 19th century. British absentee landlords dominated the island's economy and politics. For more than three centuries, they stole land from my forebears, their friends, and neighbors. They killed forebears, friends, and neighbors who refused to Anglicize their Irish names, spoke Irish, or practiced Catholicism or Duridism. They shot or imprisoned forebears, friends, and neighbors who ignored or disobeyed orders from landlords. They were forced to raise a single variety of potato because the English loved them. (Contrary to the stereotype, the potato wasn't indigenous to Ireland. In the 16th Century, the Spanish exported it from the Americas where the indigenous tribes had domesticated the plant.) The mandatory methodology of farming potatoes led to a blight in the 19th Century. Starvation killed one million of my forebears' families, friends, and neighbors in two decades. The Irish call it the Great Hunger. Another million, like my forebears, fled--some going to the U.S., others to Canada, and some to Australia.

Comparing the enslavement of and subsequent segregation of African Americans with the English persecution of the Irish is fool's errand. Each tragedy left different scars. More important, the repression of the Irish ended a century ago. I cannot say the same for African Americans. I can say, however, I share a history of unjustified repression, and with only a little effort, I should be able to empathize. Am I foolish enough to believe African Americans want my sympathy? No. They don't. There's been enough white sympathy for their causes over the past two hundred years. If I can empathize, then I should understand. With understanding, I should work to fix America's white problem.

There's the rub.

We must first stop thinking the problem is the victim's problem. Indifferent, ignorant, and racist attitudes made them victims of physical, economic, and psychological torture.White Americans fashioned artificial distinctions among different ethnic groups, concluding the lighter the skin, the better the person. (It evolved into the "science" called Eugenics, which the Nazis embraced in the 20th Century.)

Armed with such bullshit, America's forebears suspended the principles of Christianity and the core principles of their Constitution. It enabled so much. They enslaved people for their enrichment. They segregated them, again, for their enrichment. And they have failed to remedy the problems caused by centuries of mistreatment.

European Americans caused the problem, perpetuated it, and have failed to resolve it. They are America's plurality. They, therefore, are the problem.

And what of the new emerging America? I am a small part of it. I, like Johnson, worry about my family. I am frightened for my grandsons, both African Americans. I don't want them forged in a crucible of hatred. I don't want their wind pipes crushed. I don't even want them to worry about this crap.

We don't get wishes.

Change comes only when we change.

This Time, Cell Phone Video Saves a Black Man

Sarah Maslin Nir filed this story with the New York Times:

The incident appears to have begun as one of those banal and brusque dust-ups between two New Yorkers. A black man, an avid birder, asked a white woman to leash her dog in Central Park, as the rules required. She refused.

Then the encounter, which was recorded on video, took an ugly turn.

As the man, Christian Cooper, filmed on his phone, the woman, clutching her thrashing dog, called the police, her voice rising in hysteria.

“I’m going to tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my life,” she said to him while dialing, then repeated to the operator, twice, “African-American.”

The video, posted to Twitter on Memorial Day by Mr. Cooper’s sister, has been viewed more than 30 million times, touching off intense discussions about the history of false accusations made to the police against black people, sometimes putting their lives in danger.

 

There's more to Nir's story. Click the link. After the revelations yesterday about George Floyd, I was too disgusted to follow up closer.

Cops Kill Black Man as Onlookers Plead.

25 May 2020. Minneapolis. Hinnepin County Medical Center. 9:25 pm. George Floyd. Dead.

We have ignored our pledge.

Reason: He was Black.

We have forgotten our pledge.

"I Can't Breathe." F**k! again![1]

We have not honored our pledge.

The Minneapolis Police dishonored our pledge. It initially reported: “He [George Floyd] was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress [my emphasis].”

Translation: A cop knelt on the man's neck, ignored him when he complained he couldn't breathe, all captured by a bystander on video.[2] The cop kneeling on Floyd and others disregarded bystanders who shouted statements such as the following:

• Check his pulse.


• What's his heart rate?


• He's not responsive.


• He's not fucking moving.


• He's [the cop kneeling on Floyd's neck] is enjoying it.


• You going to let him [the cop kneeling on Floyd's neck] kill him [Floyd].


• You just killed that man.

Each comment perfectly annotated the images in the video.

Today, the four cops involved were fired. The FBI is investigating.

The incident, one in a long line and a line that gets longer, ignited old fears and anger at the police and American society in general.

• How many more African American men must die at the hands of those who said they wanted to serve and protect?


• Ten, 20, 100, or 1000?


• What slaughter is required before Americans will take notice?


• When another 10, 20, 100, or 1000 die?


• Most important: When will American society demand a change?


• When their relatives, like my grandsons, might be the next to die?

The questions, as they have for decades, go unanswered. So, anger and fear flare.

"As the video spread on social media on Monday night, the arrest quickly drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, a black man who died in New York police custody in 2014, after an officer held him in a chokehold," reported the New York Times. "Mr. Garner’s repeated plea of 'I can’t breathe' — also recorded by a cellphone — became a rallying cry at demonstrations against police misconduct around the country." Hundreds of people demonstrated Tuesday night near where Floyd was killed.

People don't forget. Monday's erasure of life will be woven into a long, painful, and time-worn narrative. It will fuel fear and distrust of those who should help. In the end, the fear and distrust will cripple efforts by those officers who do serve and protect.

Everyone suffers. Not just the officers or the African American community, but us all. Without trust, there cannot be one nation indivisible.

The solution, therefore, cannot come from the African American community alone. Nor from police departments. It must arise from one nation, the nation of all Americans. They must call for equitable policing of all communities. They must demand liberty and justice for all, as Americans have pledged for decades.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." [3]

 

[1] Do some police officers need lessons in basic human survival?

[2] It’s an evil video, no, it’s disgusting. My stomach still turns.

[3] I prefer the pre-1954 version of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Racism in America's Military

In an excellent, albeit depressing, New York Times article, Helene Cooper writes about the crippling effects of the European American dominated culture of the U.S. military limits opportunities for soldiers of color (as well as limiting the talent pool for what European Americans boast at the world's best military):

Racism within the military appears to be on the rise. A survey last fall of 1,630 active-duty subscribers to Military Times found that 36 percent of those polled and 53 percent of minority service members said they had seen examples of white nationalism or ideologically driven racism among their fellow troops. The numbers were up significantly from the same poll conducted in 2018, when 22 percent of all respondents reported personally witnessing white nationalism.

In recent years, the Pentagon has faced intensifying criticism for a series of racist episodes. A lawsuit filed in federal court in February by a Navy fighter pilot accused airmen and officers at the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach of seeking to cover up institutional racism directed against African-American aviators, which he said resulted in their wrongful removal from pilot training programs. The pilot’s lawyer said in an interview that black airmen at the base were, among other things, given racially derogatory call signs like “8-Ball” and referred to as “eggplants” in group chats on social media.

In December, West Point announced that its Black Knights football team had removed from its flag the initials G.F.B.D., for “God Forgives, Brothers Don’t,” after learning that it was a slogan demanding loyalty by the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a white supremacist prison gang.

The small sniper community in the Marine Corps has often used a Nazi symbol, the lightning bolt insignia of Hitler’s SS units, as a stand-in for “Scout Sniper.” Although the Marine Corps leadership moved quickly to stamp out the symbol after a photo of a unit posing with an SS flag surfaced in Afghanistan in 2012, it still persists, Marines say, much like a secret handshake.

On this Memorial Day, European Americans should remember more than golf dates, the beach, and barbeques. They and all Americans should honor the vibrance of the American ethnic palette.

P.S. Americans love euphemisms. I was searching Google and Bing for some material. I typed in the following: American ethnic palette, hoping an illustrator came up with an imaginative way of showing the diversity of American and its simultaneous potential unity.

Apparently ethnic does not mean ethnic to the millions who search. It means African American.

When it comes to race, we enjoy blurring our words.

P.P.S.: Popculturephilosopher.com gives a good description of the flag and its origins: "The Flag of All Americans: Inspired by a poem by Pete Seeger, this is an American flag that replaces the original seven white stripes with ones suggesting the entire wide range of skin tones found in America. The image is available under Creative Commons licensing, it can be freely used and adapted without cost."

#WeAreDoneDying

This evening, Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, sent out an email noting how the Black community has borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Too many policies decisions at the federal and state levels ignore why the virus has taken so many Black lives. They also don't address "the systemic inequalities" that feed the pandemic in African American communities, writes Johnson, adding, "We’re done being discriminated against. We’re done being marginalized and ignored. We are not disposable. We are done dying."

The association has launched the #WeAreDoneDying campaign in order to push for solutions that help all communities of color during the pandemic. The program will push politicians to do the following:

• "Expand eligibility for affordable health care options and invest in long-term health care and health care education in the areas where people live;


• "Support black-owned small business specific economic relief funding in the upcoming stimulus relief packages and increase safety nets for workers and families;


• "Adopt multiple measures to ensure voting is safe and accessible and that voters and poll workers are not sacrificing personal health in order to participate in the democratic process;


• "Increase broadband access across the country, with particular investments in rural and low-income communities."

To finance the program, the NAACP is asking for donations.

Trumpocalypse and 'White Ethnic Chauvinism'

The book, Trumpocapypse: Restoring American Democracy, is an eye opener, according to Lloyd Green of The Guardian.  It was written by David Frum, a former speech writer for President George W. Bush and now a writer for the Atlantic,

Frum "argues that 'democracy is tested by its ability to deliver security, prosperity, and justice.' By that metric, the Trump presidency is a shambolic failure. In a book mostly written before the pandemic, Frum details the efforts of the 45th president to gut the rule of law and institutionalize 'white ethnic chauvinism,' leaving the country reeling, the constitution bruised. Trumpian alchemy has turned gold to lead."

White ethnic chauvinism: Stimulating excessive or prejudiced support for white Americans or a play torn from the books of Europe's famed 1930s Fascists. (DT never was original.)

Capitalism Racist?

That is the question posed in a New Yorker review of Walter Johnson's The Broken Heart of Ameria: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States. In his review, Nicholas Lemann writes: "Once slavery is positioned as the foundational institution of American capitalism, the country’s subsequent history can be depicted as an extension of this basic dynamic. This is what Walter Johnson does in his new book, The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States (Basic). The study demonstrates both the power of the model and its limitations."

Lemann and Johnson hit the mark, as I have noted in my "For a Dignity Deserved: Notes from Bubba." America's rise as an agricultural and industrial power during the 19th century was fueled by slavery and injected with additional juice with the share cropping and Jim Crow (in the South by law and in the North by practice) systems that remained an integral part of the American economic system well past the middle of the 20th Century. Economically, every American--poor and rich alike--stand on the backs of the women and men exploited during the first 400 years on this continent.

You may claim that your family never owned a slave. Mine didn't. You may assert that the American system exploited your ancestors, making them slaves or denying them the same economic opportunities granted others. Those statements are true. Yet, the system we will share today--the American economy--would be much different--probably smaller but far better--if slavery was never introduced. And one way or another and to varying degrees of wealth, we all have shared in the fruit of the American economy.

This is not a justification for the cruelty done. It is a debt notice. All Americans, particularly white Americans, owe a debt to millions who slaved and died so the world could have inexpensive cotton, tobacco, indigo, rice, and sugar--whose trade fueled the finance, shipping, and insurance industries of the North. It's a notice to the hypocrisy of America's past and the denial of it in the present.

We,  meaning Americans, all American, candy-coat our history, in effect erasing the past, disconnecting from the events of yesteryear as if the waves of their consequences don't roll to the shores of today. They don't crash on the beach of now. They ripple onto the sand, almost gently, without notice. Regardless how softly they roll, they erode the beach just as the rolling waves of the American past erodes the American now.

It's time we wash away the candy. It's time we ask for absolution. It's time we recognize our fault. It's time that we dig out the festering remains of our past.

And by the way, capitalism is not racist. It's a thing, a concept, a philosophy imagined by Adam Smith in 1776 when he published The Wealth of Nations. His point was simple: Competition fosters economic development. Racism actually is anti-capitalistic because it eliminates competition from the people enslaved or held back by artificial concepts such as the laws and practice of segregation. In other words, people are racist. They made American capitalism racist. Racism evolved not from capitalism, but from America's forefathers desire to cut corners in the name of power and greed. The corner they cut: The lives of millions.

Eating the American Soul

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead.
― Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

Two weeks ago, Donald Trump "wrote" to my wife. He asked her to answer a questionnaire. As always with the man, his intent was not subtle. He asked for the endorsement of his administration and a donation for the Republican cause.

A week later, Lara Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mitch McConnell, Karl Rover, Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump Jr., and even Donald Trump flooded my inbox with emails.[1]

The Donald wrote a second time stating: "This is worse than I imagined. I emailed you. Mitch McConnell emailed. Karl Rove emailed. Newt Gingrich emailed. We all tried to warn you, and we were all ignored. I am extremely disappointed, but I am reaching out ONE FINAL time [Donny's emphasis]."

All the emails shouted with boldface, UPPER CASE and UPPER CASE boldface, and phrases highlighted in red and blue. They warned about socialist Democrats and the reversal of Trump Administration policies. They claimed these "far left" individuals could take over the Senate and prevent a conservative majority in the House of Representatives.

Dan Crenshaw also emailed: “Our spirit [the American spirit] is unraveling and we must find a way to fix it [Weird that it remains broken after three years of Trump’s reign]. Fortitude [Crenshaw’s book] provides a roadmap for a tougher American culture. We must all lighten up, toughen up[2], and begin treating our fellow Americans with respect and grace to salvage what it means to be an American.”[3]

They spoke as sunless patriots: The commies are coming, the commies are coming. 

Each email used phrases called dog whistles[4], meaning the average person cannot hear the twisted, racist, xenophobic, sexist comments. True believers, though, can.

It echoes back to 1950 when Senator Joe McCarthy in a speech in Wheeling, WV, claimed 57 communists infiltrated the State Department.  It launched the un-American hearings chaired by McCarthy--with assistance from Roy Cohn and Richard Nixon. Cohn and McCarthy learned one important trick: Make an unsubstantiated accusation and forget innocent until proven guilty. It worked. Based on accusations, employers fired hundreds of people. The duo took it a step further. They would inform people they were about to be accused. They offered a way out: Write a confession naming others (from a list that Cohn and McCarthy provided) as communists. Many put their John Hancocks to confessions without support to their claims.

The lessons Cohn and Nixon learned haunt us today.

Cohn became a lawyer for the notorious in New York City, including Donald Trump for violating the civil rights of African Americans. As noted in Vanity Fair three years ago: “In 1973, a brash young would-be developer from Queens [Donald Trump] met one of New York’s premier power brokers: Roy Cohn, whose name is still synonymous with the rise of McCarthyism and its dark political arts. With the ruthless attorney as a guide, Trump propelled himself into the city’s power circles and learned many of the tactics that would inexplicably lead him to the White House years later.”

Nixon continued in politics. After losing to Kennedy, which gnawed at him as much as Obama gnaws at Trump, he created what has become known as the Southern Strategy.

It was 1967. The nation was divided about civil rights and the Vietnam war. Like today, it seemed that the coastal states favored laws that improved civil rights while those in the middle resisted change. Nixon came up with the Southern Strategy for his 1968 campaign, and it lured Southern Democrats, who were long opposed to the Republican Party because of its role in the seamier side of the post-Civil-War Reconstruction. It worked so well conservatives have adopted the strategy as noted by Thom Hartman and Lamar Waldron in Salon:

For two generations, conservative leaders — from politicians to billionaires to media figures — have used Nixon’s proven techniques of “Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear” (FIBS) to divide-and-conquer white working-class Americans and acquire political power. In the absence of our media calling them out for FIBS, Nixon’s strategy has repeatedly produced a Republican president and Congress, and held a right-wing Supreme Court.

But the most recent presidential race especially showcased the “Bigotry” part of Nixon’s successful formula, in particular his “Southern Strategy,” which allowed Nixon to use coded racist appeals designed to secure racist voters without turning off moderate voters.

Trump the elder has taken it to the Roy-Cohn level.

In an example of the nut does not fall far from the tree, Donald Jr. recently “instagrammed” a meme that implied Vice President Joe Biden was a pedophile, a claim long held by individuals who promote notions like Michelle Obama is a man. When Junior was criticized, he said he was joking.

That covers fear, ignorance, and smear in the 2020 campaign. What’s left? Bigotry.

Donnie the elder enjoys targeting his predecessor, even though William Barr, Trump's appointed attorney general, said President Obama had nothing to do with the Michael Flynn investigation. Undeterred by facts, Donnie the elder claims President Obama committed a crime. Donald has offered no evidence. Only accusations. It echoed Donald’s claim that President Obama was not born in the U.S. until his predecessor produced his Hawaiian birth certificate.

Trump likes targeting Obama. First, he fears the man. President Obama has established a reputation of renown nationally and internationally. Donnie would say as much about himself, although few--even Republicans--would agree. Second, his attacks are dog whistles for the bigots of America.

From appearances, Donald has a parasitic nature. He feeds off the festering portions of American society rotting with distrust, anger, and simple-mindedness. He lies, tosses about inuendoes, and sows chaos. He possesses the empathy, insight, and understanding of a pre-adolescent bully. In the ensuing chaos, he feels regal, powerful, and omnipotent.

That vanishes when he goes toe-to-toe with the likes of President Obama. Donald lacks the wit, intelligence, and humor to keep pace with the nation’s former President, and that loss would destroy Trump’s Aryan heart.

He troubles me. If all he sowed vanished with his death, I would not be troubled. It will not. So, I fear not for myself or even my children, now adults, but for my grandsons and granddaughter. Trump has infected the American soul with cynicism and bigotry. He will leave a legacy, however minor, that will fester, and my grandchildren and their generation will need to cauterize decadent residuals lingering long after the Donald is worm food.

---

[1] I dropped their honorifics as they did for Senator Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

[2] Is this an intentional oxymoron?

[3] Does this mean Republicans will lighten up about abortion? Will they accept women who want them? Will they embrace the LBGQ community? Will this listen to “socialists”?

[4] The phrase was developed by pollsters. They noticed in the 1980s that subtle changes in the phrasing of a question could dramatically alter polling results. They theorized that the readers “hear” something that the poll writers did not.

Three Shotgun Blasts. A Black Man Dies. Is My Grandson Next?

A jogger was shot in Satilla Shores, just outside Brunswich, GA. His name is Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who committed the terrible crime of walking through an open construction site. Did he steal anything? No. Did the landowner think a crime was committed? No. Was there anything to justify lethal force? No.

Ahmaud Arbery

Travis and his father Gregory McMichael never considered those simple facts. They chased Arbery in a pick up truck. Having cornered Arbery, the younger McMichael approached with a shotgun.

A man approaches you with a shotgun. What do you do? Kneel and beg not to be shot. That is one possibility--especially if you're white (European American as I prefer). You're innocent. The law will prevail. What happens if suddenly you're an African American? You're still innocent, but does that matter. Well, not if history has any say.

African Americans are born into a country that legally says they are free, full citizens. It doesn't always hold true. Forget slavery, which you may call a national mistake although the word mistake would be a description well beyond euphemism (disillusion, lie, plain stupid). One hundred-fifty years ago, the nation passed the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and that change combined with the 13th and 14th ensured freedom for all men (it would take another half century or so for women to be recognized equally). Even with that freedom, has the African American community, particularly its men, struggled, battled, and died because of injustice? Yes. Was there a reason Arbery would consider his life threatened? Yes. Think Trayvon Martin. (I deliberately did not repeat the long list of African American men killed wrongly in the past decade.)

Trayvon Martin

Did Arbery have to retreat? No, but he tried. They chased him down. Did he have to ask for mercy? No. Did he believe his life was threatened? Hell, yes. He fought to save his life. Were Travis or Gregory McMichaels' lives threatened by a jogger? No. Why the weapons? Was Arbery armed? No. Should they have known better? Yes, at least the elder should have. He was a former police officer.

I feel for the Arbery family. In this era, it's unthinkable, unfair, and painful for a parent to outlive her/his child.

There's something else.

I am terrified for my own family.*

My grandsons are African American. The elder of the two roams his neighborhood on his beautiful trail bike he received as a birthday present. He is proud of his bicycle. He enjoys long rides, much as Arbery enjoyed long runs. My grandson is tall for his age. He could pass a few years older than he is. What are his chances of becoming a target of some misguided and bigoted individual? Better than mine or his father's ever were (we're both European American). What are the chances that he or his brother could end up on a slab in a morgue? Umpteen times greater than my son or me. Is there any justification for those odds? Again, hell, no.

So I was distressed when my son told me that my daughter-in-law and he finally had The Talk with him.

Not sex. That would have been easy.

Bigotry and the n-word.**

They explained that some people--non-African Americans--will hate, distrust, or think less of him simply because his skin is dark. They asked if he ever heard the word nigger or had he been called such. (In this instance, I deliberately used the word because that is the word my son had to use in order for my grandson to understand.) His answers to both questions: No. He was confused by the word. It had no meaning to him. They explained, and feelings of frustration and anger welled up in my son (I presume my daughter-in-law as well but I did not talk with her about the conversation). As the conversation wound down, my son was teary.

My grandson approached him and gave him a hug.

"What's the hug for," my son asked.

"You looked like you were going to cry," my grandson responded.

* I deliberately didn't include the names of my family or their location.
** I hate the expression "n-word". I understand the reasoning for it. The word nigger is offensive. It should be. When spoken, bile should accompany it in one's mouth. It's vulgar, more vile than fuck, shit, and whatever vulgar word you might want to come up with. That is a good thing. The word should remind us of our nation's grievous of sins, never venal, always mortal.

Justice for All. Not for Arbery.

https://nyti.ms/3dTFATG

The video was produced by the New York Times. This is the caption that ran
with the video: "Using security footage, cellphone video, 911 calls and police reports,
The Times has reconstructed the 12 minutes before Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead."

Dignity Denied / Opportunity Lost

At the end of April the New York Times ran the following:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled last week that the state of Michigan had been so negligent toward the educational needs of Detroit students that children had been 'deprived of access to literacy' — the foundational skill that allows Americans to function as citizens — in violation of the 14th Amendment. The ruling came in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of Detroit public school students that cited a litany of severe deficiencies: Rodent-infested schools. Unqualified and absentee teachers. Physics classes given only biology textbooks. "Advanced" high school reading groups working at the fourth-grade level. When "a group of children is relegated to a school system that does not provide even a plausible chance to attain literacy, we hold that the Constitution provides them with a remedy," Judge Eric L. Clay wrote for a 2-1 majority.

Some individuals might argue it was Detroit's fault. (Some senators currently are making the same argument about financially helping local governments during the COVID-19 crisis.) doing about an aid package for local governments.) Let's assume the adults screwed up. It has happened before. It will happen again. Should the children pay the penalty for the adults' fiscal errors? Those individuals may argue that happens when a family goes bankrupt. The children suffer for the errors of their parents. Yes, they do. Yet, and this is important, state and local services, such as schools, enable them to recover—if not immediately, then in the future.

More important, illiterate children become illiterate adults. In the 21^st century, can individuals with only minimum skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic contribute economically for their and our societies success? No. Is there a higher probability that the illiterate will become an economic burden for society as a whole? Yes. Remember some 32 million American citizens are functionally illiterate. Is there a higher probability that they will end of up jail? Yes. Sixty percent of incarcerated adults are illiterate. It's 85 percent for juvenile offenders. In the federal penal system, it costs more than $37,000 a year to keep someone in jail. The federal government could pay their way through college at that rate.

The formula is simple: The better educated, the more successful.

So why are a bunch of students forced to take a state to court to get what they deserve, to get what is best for the state of Michigan, to get what will improve our society?

No Racism in America? An Addendum

Yesterday, I claimed the plague of racism rages in America. I will admit that it's nothing like the racism prevalent prior to the Civil Rights Act.

An act of Congress, no matter how powerful, cannot eliminate a mindset. Therefore, racism still exists.

It affects individuals.

It kills them.

I repeat myself because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the following to all health care workers:

"The effects of COVID-19 on the health of racial and ethnic minority groups is still emerging; however, current data suggest a disproportionate burden of illness and death among racial and ethnic minority groups.  A recent CDC MMWR report included race and ethnicity data from 580 patients hospitalized with lab-confirmed COVID-19 found that 45% of individuals for whom race or ethnicity data was available were white, compared to 55% of individuals in the surrounding community. However, 33% of hospitalized patients were black compared to 18% in the community and 8% were Hispanic, compared to 14% in the community. These data suggest an overrepresentation of blacks among hospitalized patients. Among COVID-19 deaths for which race and ethnicity data were available, New York City identified death rates among Black/African American persons (92.3 deaths per 100,000 population) and Hispanic/Latino persons (74.3) that were substantially higher than that of white (45.2) or Asian (34.5) persons."

It recommended that health care professionals "identify and address implicit bias that could hinder patient-provider interactions and communication." (The boldface was the agency's emphasis.)

The agency also lists details about how it will study and deal with the issue of disproportionate deaths among African Americans and Latinos. It is covered environmental conditions common to these two groups that make it easier for them to contract COVID-19.

The center's research and warnings are important. For centuries African Americans have not received top care from the medical industry, and as noted in the New York Times, there's research to support this claim. The problem goes deeper. The medical field has experimented, exploited, and mistreated African Americans, creating suspicion. "Now comes Covid-19, and the fear among many families, social scientists and public health experts that racial bias might be contributing to the disproportionately high rate at which the novel coronavirus is killing African-Americans," as noted in the Times .

Lick the suspicion, and maybe we'll lick more COVID-19 hotspots. Don't, and we--meaning all Americans--will encourage the virus to continue its nasty work.

No Racism in America?

Too often I hear European Americans (white people) say one of the following: there's no racism in America, it's not that big a deal, we're headed for a race war, or people are too sensitive.

The first two statements are stupid, deniers, people afraid of the change that needs to come. The third makes no sense strategically, tactically, or from a purely human point of view. People hate wars. At least sane people do. There is some truth to the last comment. We can be too sensitive, but it does not come from some distortion of reality. The sensitivity emerges from a steady stream of---let's call it inconsistencies--in the attitude of too many European Americans toward people whose ancestors are from Africa, Latin American, or Asia.

For example, more people of color are getting sick with and dying from COVID-19 than European Americans. Is that racism? No. The economic and societal limitations on people of color causes the difference, and no one is addressing the issue (except for leaders from those communities). That's the definition of systemic racism.

Also, how can a non-racist society foster a subculture that is girding itself for the war of the races. They are called accelerationists. Here's the strangest of their thoughts: the COVID-19 pandemic could ignite that war, which they call the boogaloo--a weird (and probably obtuse) choice to describe a war. I grow up doing the boogaloo or my approximation of the boogaloo. (Type in Doing the Boogaloo and you'll hear the music.) It's a dance, not a war.

That point is lost on too many people. There are some 125 boogaloo groups on Facebook, 60 percent more than last year, and I am referring to those fearing a race war. They have posters, patches, and manifestos. They are not dance groups.

Spelling and consistency are not their hallmarks. Some call themselves the big igloo and others big luau. The latter explains why so many individuals donned Hawaiian shirts at the protest in Lansing against Michigan's continued closure because of the pandemic. It certainly had nothing to do with Lansing's April climate.

Not enough.

Why can't a black guy jog through a white neighborhood? He can, you may say. That was not the case for Ahmaud Arbery, an avid runner. He was running in a white neighborhood of Brunswich, GA. He made one mistake. He ran past Gregory and Travis McMichaels. They assumed he was a suspect in a string of break-ins. Armed with shotgun and pistol, the McMichaels hopped in their pickup and chased the unarmed runner. Eventually they cornered Arbery. There was a struggle. A shot. Arbery died of his wounds.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation needed two months before it brought charges against the McMichaels, and those charges were announced two days after a video of the incident went public, a video the police had access to for two months.

You need more.

Why did the New York Police Department issue more citations and make more arrests of people of color for not following social distancing procedures than whites? The ratio was one white person versus more than 74 people of color.

Still not enough. How about this report from Tom Abate from Stanford Engineering:

"The largest-ever study of alleged racial profiling during traffic stops has found that blacks, who are pulled over more frequently than whites by day, are much less likely to be stopped after sunset, when 'a veil of darkness' masks their race.

"As further evidence of bias in traffic stops, Stanford researchers find that while blacks tend to get pulled over more frequently than whites, the disparity lessens at night, when a “veil of darkness” hides their face.

"That is one of several examples of systematic bias that emerged from a five-year study that analyzed 95 million traffic stop records, filed by officers with 21 state patrol agencies and 35 municipal police forces from 2011 to 2018.

"The Stanford-led study also found that when drivers were pulled over, officers searched the cars of blacks and Hispanics more often than whites. The researchers also examined a subset of data from Washington and Colorado, two states that legalized marijuana, and found that while this change resulted in fewer searches overall, and thus fewer searches of blacks and Hispanics, minorities were still more likely than whites to have their cars searched after a pull-over.

“'Our results indicate that police stops and search decisions suffer from persistent racial bias, and point to the value of policy interventions to mitigate these disparities,' the researchers write in the May 4th issue of Nature Human Behaviour."