Political Forums
Page 1 of 3 1 23
Show 40 post(s) from this thread on one page

Political Forums (http://www.politicalchat.org/index.php)
-   Current events (http://www.politicalchat.org/forumdisplay.php?f=26)
-   -   I'm Black and 'Well-Behaved,' but I'm Still Mike Brown (http://www.politicalchat.org/showthread.php?t=8065)

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 10:59 AM
I'm Black and 'Well-Behaved,' but I'm Still Mike Brown
 
I'm getting pretty sick and tired of only reading what white people think of this issue.

I found that Huffington Post has a section called "Black Voices" and I've decided to start posting some things from there.

And I posting the entire article on this one. It's short and I think it's something all white people need to read.

So if I get bitch slapped for doing it, I don't care.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tiffan...r=Black+Voices

Quote:
I'm saddened but not surprised by the silence of so many of my non-black friends about what's happening in Ferguson, Missouri.

I've seen you pour ice water on your heads for a good cause. I've seen you drape yourselves in flags in solidarity of your own. I've seen you walk and run to raise money. But now you lie silent.

I get it: You don't get it. How could you? You don't know what it's like to be black in this country. You may even truly believe that these victims are at fault.

If only he had complied....

He smoked, he drank, he stole....

He was "bad."

Here's what I say:

I grew up in Westfield, New Jersey, a predominately white town. There were literally three black kids in my eighth-grade class. I took honors classes. I don't drink or smoke, and I rarely curse. I have both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree, and now I spend my professional life giving back to my community.

I do all the "right" things at the right times, but Mike Brown's story is still my story.

I can remember going into Baron's Drug Store in downtown Westfield at 11 years old and being followed and asked to leave because we black people "steal."

I can remember being stopped and detained by the police near the Westfield train station at age 13 because "someone" had told the cops that my friends and I had been in a fight up the street and needed to be identified by the "witness," which was crazy, because how could I have been in a fight with the very girls I was walking and laughing with? I wasn't allowed to leave until the "witness" confirmed that it wasn't us. (All of us were black.)

I can remember being attacked and called the "N" word while working at Bally in Clark, New Jersey, at age 19, all because I'd offered to watch a man's children while he worked out, so that they wouldn't get hurt on the machines.

I can remember being justifiably stopped by the police last year when a friend made a U-turn because we were lost, but then having our car illegally searched as a result and also seeing my two friends, both black males, pat down in the middle of the street. Apparently there had been a robbery, but is that a reason to violate our civil rights? Once we proved that we weren't involved, we were allowed to leave. We didn't even get a ticket for the U-turn, but I would have preferred that. At least that was justifiable.

I hate the fact that people pretend that if you're black and keep out of trouble and do the "right" things, you'll be protected. That's a lie! I've never been in trouble, yet I'm almost always afraid of law enforcement. I've seen too many things to feel safe. I know that I might not be offered the same protection.

And as bad as it is for me, at least I'm a woman. It's many times worse for black men. I've seen friends ordered to the ground while I chatted with them outside. I've seen multiple police cars stop them in front of my house in Westfield as they dropped me off. I've seen police yell at my father and tell him to go away after a car accident, even after the other driver admitted that the accident was their fault.

I wish people would stop pretending that if only these men were "better-behaved," things would be different. So many of my non-black friends in Westfield drank, smoke, experimented with drugs and did a host of other things, yet they lived to see another day.

Why aren't we allowed to live? Why is it that once our lives are taken, our mistakes are used as a reason to justify our killing?

nailer 08-21-2014 11:07 AM
After the Civil War the Rebels and the Union were united in their belief that the white race was superior to the recently freed slaves. This belief lives on, but to a lessor degree.

Ike Bana 08-21-2014 11:15 AM
Well a simple, "It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand.", woulda saved several paragraphs.

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 11:18 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by nailer (Post 238765)
After the Civil War the Rebels and the Union were united in their belief that the white race was superior to the recently freed slaves. This belief lives on, but to a lessor degree.
True, and they have set up a socio-economic system to insure that most black people will be unable to escape the underclass in order to provide them with examples that they can use to reinforce those beliefs.

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 11:19 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ike Bana (Post 238772)
Well a simple, "It's a black thing, you wouldn't understand.", woulda saved several paragraphs.
You don't want to understand.

It would be too uncomfortable for you.

Ike Bana 08-21-2014 11:20 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238779)
You don't want to understand.

It would be too uncomfortable for you.
Don't hurt yourself bending over to extract that rod from out your ass.

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 11:21 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ike Bana (Post 238785)
Don't hurt yourself bending over to extract that rod from out your ass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMzd40i8TfA

Zeke 08-21-2014 11:21 AM
"Why aren't we allowed to live? Why is it that once our lives are taken, our mistakes are used as a reason to justify our killing?"

1. Your mistakes.
2. Because you chose them.

The problem is that the author, knee deep in rationalization, is trying to draw parallels between herself and a social class (not defined by race but racists always make it so) who deserves what they get for their choices.

To wit, "If only he (Brown) had complied....

He (Brown) smoked, he drank, he stole....

He (Brown) was 'bad.'"

Well, he certainly wasn't good and in trying to draw a linear comparison to themselves all anyone does is report personal belief that such is okay.

It's not.

You're only Mike Brown if you embrace him. If you embrace him, appropriate social repercussion is by your choice.

3. Social adults live with that.
4. Social children write whiny op eds.
5. Social apologists reprint them on web boards.

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 11:25 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke (Post 238787)
"Why aren't we allowed to live? Why is it that once our lives are taken, our mistakes are used as a reason to justify our killing?"

1. Your mistakes.
2. Because you chose them.

The problem is that the author, knee deep in rationalization, is trying to draw parallels between herself and a social class (not defined by race but racists always make it so) who deserves what they get for their choices.

To wit, "If only he (Brown) had complied....

He (Brown) smoked, he drank, he stole....

He (Brown) was 'bad.'"

Well, he certainly wasn't good and in trying to draw a linear comparison to themselves all anyone does is report personal belief that such is okay.

It's not.

You're only Mike Brown if you embrace him. If you embrace him, appropriate social repercussion is by your choice.

3. Social adults live with that.
4. Social children write whiny op eds.
5. Social apologists reprint them on web boards.
You just don't want to hear it.

You've got it all figured out.

Zeke 08-21-2014 11:27 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238792)
You just don't want to hear it.

You've got it all figured out.
Heard it?

I've seen it, born witness to it, lived it and been immersed in it.

Apologism is the problem and you promote it.

piece-itpete 08-21-2014 11:28 AM
Ever live in a black neighborhood Tom?

Pete

djv8ga 08-21-2014 11:29 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by piece-itpete (Post 238795)
Ever live in a black neighborhood Tom?

Pete
Isn't he from Little Cuba?

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 11:29 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by piece-itpete (Post 238795)
Ever live in a black neighborhood Tom?

Pete
No.

I haven't a clue what it's like to be black.

That's why I listen to black people, instead of white people that claim to know all about it. .

Ike Bana 08-21-2014 11:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238786)
Perhaps...but right now what I'm having the most trouble handling is your monumentally persistent dour mood. Give us a smile TJ, I promise to put a band-aid on your face wherever it cracks.

Pio1980 08-21-2014 11:34 AM
Mike Brown is not the poster figure for this battle, he's an embarrassment to those who work to better themselves and leave a better community for their fellow citizens. It's those that deserve respect and a defense when the system wrongs them and other ordinary people, not someone one has to excuse when his halo turns out to be ill fitting stolen righteousness.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

piece-itpete 08-21-2014 11:38 AM
DWB is real for sure.

In Ferguson, they're 70% of the population? They could have the police force under heel.

Pete

bobabode 08-21-2014 11:39 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pio1980 (Post 238802)
Mike Brown is not the poster figure for this battle, he's an embarrassment to those who work to better themselves and leave a better community for their fellow citizens. It's those that deserve respect and a defense when the system wrongs them and other ordinary people, not someone one has to excuse when his halo turns out to be ill fitting stolen righteousness.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
Well put Steve.

I'm baffled as to why the streets of Ferguson didn't empty completely the moment that video of Mike Brown robbing the liquor store came out.

nailer 08-21-2014 11:39 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke (Post 238794)
Heard it?

I've seen it, born witness to it, lived it and been immersed in it.

Apologism is the problem and you promote it.
LBJ's Great American Society was in part an act of contrition.

Ike Bana 08-21-2014 11:39 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238797)
No.

I haven't a clue what it's like to be black.

That's why I listen to black people, instead of white people that claim to know all about it. .
I think the blonde knows pretty well what it's like to be black, after almost 20 years of teaching on the west side of Chicago. And there's proof. We were at a faculty Christmas party one year...and I'll tell ya, those teachers really let loose. Anyway, the blonde was needling her black girlfriend colleague unrelentingly and mercilessly all night over some girlfriend shit I couldn't understand. Finally, Barbara had enough, spun around, got right in the blonde's face and screamed, "Will you shut the fuck up, nigger!!!"

Without question the most powerful total blurring of racial lines that I had ever experienced.

Just another story for the book, eh Pete?

Zeke 08-21-2014 11:40 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238797)
I haven't a clue what it's like to be black.
It's pretty much the same as being any other racially and ethnically different minority in a land where white folks pretend to be benevolent for "listening to you" but -- in actuality -- have their heads lodged in the posteriors, are desperately trying to solve their white guilt under the guise of understanding, and spend their time in post state worker retirement trying to rationalize asocial behavior via the idea that a subjective social understanding will lead to objective condoning of deviant behavior. :rolleyes:

1. Call it deviant.
2. Reject it.
3. It's social, not racial.
4. I see right through you.

Hilarious.

You're not listening to "black people," you're listening to people who "say they're Mike Brown."

You're the worst promoter of racism and stereotypes, doing it under the guise of goodwill...

Zeke 08-21-2014 11:41 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by nailer (Post 238807)
LBJ's Great American Society was in part an act of contrition.
No doubt.

White Guilt on a national level. :(

djv8ga 08-21-2014 11:41 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pio1980 (Post 238802)
Mike Brown is not the poster figure for this battle, he's an embarrassment to those who work to better themselves and leave a better community for their fellow citizens. It's those that deserve respect and a defense when the system wrongs them and other ordinary people, not someone one has to excuse when his halo turns out to be ill fitting stolen righteousness.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
Awesome post. :cool:

Zeke 08-21-2014 11:43 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobabode (Post 238806)
Well put Steve.

I'm baffled as to why the streets of Ferguson didn't empty completely the moment that video of Mike Brown robbing the liquor store came out.
Mob entitlement and rage, as discussed.

They don't care what Brown did, the looters believe they're owed something. :rolleyes:

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 12:03 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke (Post 238809)
It's pretty much the same as being any other racially and ethnically different minority in a land where white folks pretend to be benevolent for "listening to you" but -- in actuality -- have their heads lodged in the posteriors, are desperately trying to solve their white guilt under the guise of understanding, and spend their time in post state worker retirement trying to rationalize asocial behavior via the idea that a subjective social understanding will lead to objective condoning of deviant behavior. :rolleyes:

1. Call it deviant.
2. Reject it.
3. It's social, not racial.
4. I see right through you.

Hilarious.

You're not listening to "black people," you're listening to people who "say they're Mike Brown."

You're the worst promoter of racism and stereotypes, doing it under the guise of goodwill...
So I take it you're a black man Zeke?

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 12:05 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ike Bana (Post 238808)
I think the blonde knows pretty well what it's like to be black,
:rolleyes:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlA35y0bGQc

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 12:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by djv8ga (Post 238796)
Isn't he from Little Cuba?
Now that you mention it, we did have a lot of Hispanics in Florida.

I don't see that so much in here in Mobile.

nailer 08-21-2014 12:14 PM
Oh mama can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with those Memphis blues again

djv8ga 08-21-2014 12:18 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238826)
I don't see that so much in here in Mobile.
Any plans to go to Talladega Raceway?
I would love to see a Cup race there.

Zeke 08-21-2014 12:18 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238823)
So I take it you're a black man Zeke?
Nice -- lame -- attempt to redirect a post that publicly kicked your ass. :D

piece-itpete 08-21-2014 12:20 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ike Bana (Post 238808)
I think the blonde knows pretty well what it's like to be black, after almost 20 years of teaching on the west side of Chicago. And there's proof. We were at a faculty Christmas party one year...and I'll tell ya, those teachers really let loose. Anyway, the blonde was needling her black girlfriend colleague unrelentingly and mercilessly all night over some girlfriend shit I couldn't understand. Finally, Barbara had enough, spun around, got right in the blonde's face and screamed, "Will you shut the fuck up, nigger!!!"

Without question the most powerful total blurring of racial lines that I had ever experienced.

Just another story for the book, eh Pete?
Yep :) Proves she was accepted for sure!

When I was in the hood it was 'my nigga', or my nig for short. I was my nig, you were my nig, anyone you knew and didn't hate was my nig. All youalls are my nigs :D

Pete

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 12:20 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke (Post 238833)
Nice -- lame -- attempt to redirect a post that publicly kicked your ass. :D

Taking the fifth on that one Zeke?

Zeke 08-21-2014 12:22 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238837)
Taking the fifth on that one Zeke?
No.

I could show all sorts of lineage to all sorts of things going back to LONG before we were a codified nation.

It just doesn't matter as I am not claiming to be "like Mike Brown" or endeavoring to apologize for folks that are.

That would be you.

Pio1980 08-21-2014 12:26 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by djv8ga (Post 238831)
Any plans to go to Talladega Raceway?
I would love to see a Cup race there.
Been once on VIP tickets from a bud working the race. Fun experience, they took back grounding footage for The legend of Ricky Bobby before the race with a camera car loaded with Panavision cameras pointed everywhere lapping the track, so technically I'm in the movie.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 12:28 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by piece-itpete (Post 238835)
Yep :) Proves she was accepted for sure!

When I was in the hood it was 'my nigga', or my nig for short. I was my nig, you were my nig, anyone you knew and didn't hate was my nig. All youalls are my nigs :D

Pete
Whadup Fam mah nigga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glOv...lOv4MIyNSE#t=0

djv8ga 08-21-2014 12:29 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pio1980 (Post 238844)
Been once on VIP tickets from a bud working the race. Fun experience, they took back grounding footage for The legend of Ricky Bobby before the race with a camera car loaded with Panavision cameras pointed everywhere lapping the track, so technically I'm in the movie.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
I bet it was a blast! :cool:

piece-itpete 08-21-2014 12:31 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238846)
I gots no sound :(

Pete

Zeke 08-21-2014 12:32 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Joad (Post 238846)
Yet you apologize for Mike Brown?

Let me make the metaphor plain in the context of your video: Brown was NOT the guy in the suit... :confused:

4-2-7 08-21-2014 12:48 PM
I'm Dan and I have lived, worked,have many best friend who are black, along with direct family members and am godfather to two black twins. Hardly need a perspective in the black community. Everyone of the black people in my life would call Tom Joad an idiot who is overreacting to something he has done.

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 12:55 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by piece-itpete (Post 238850)
I gots no sound :(

Pete
Sorry about that. :(

Tom Joad 08-21-2014 12:56 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke (Post 238851)
Yet you apologize for Mike Brown?

Let me make the metaphor plain in the context of your video: Brown was NOT the guy in the suit... :confused:
I posted that for fun Zeke.

It wasn't meant for you as you are completely devoid of a sense of humor.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:40 PM.
Page 1 of 3 1 23
Show 40 post(s) from this thread on one page

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.6
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.