November 21, 2011

Are we all Black and Palestinian Now?



Maybe this happens to hipsters as they grow up age - you think you've encountered something new and obscure, you're really on to a new niche here, and then you learn that all those old people down at the senior center have known about this since like forever. Sort of like my Dad drinking PBR.

Say you're a privileged mainstreamer - you're the norm, plus/minus one standard deviation. Bad things are happening to another, smaller group in society. Do you respond? Do you resist? Or, if it doesn't affect you directly and you're busy, do you move along?



These bad patterns persist for decades. The malefactors become more rigid in their behavior, and as they train the successive generations those habits become dogma. Sheriff Jim Clark trains Deputy Inspector Tony Bologna in the way things really work, and they themselves are dehumanized by the experience.



Is it possible that after 50 years, the abuse of the minority becomes so accepted that, under stress, the power structure extends it to the majority? Does the military training, equipment, and mindset given to once-civilian police departments after 9/11 accelerate the trend?

... this sort of abusive behavior is reported routinely by people of color and by people of lower economic status. Yet their complaints are routinely dismissed or ignored in the media. Sometimes it takes middle and upper class white people getting hurt to get the media moving (Fallows)




Congratulations. Post 9/11, now we're all Black. And Palestinian.

Not to say that we're familiar with their issues, understand their culture, and can converse with them - nowhere near that.

But that cop/soldier, who's been treating Black people and Palestinian people that way for a long time, has reached a place where he's going to start treating you that way. Not all cops/soldiers, just the fringe. The Tony Bolognas and the John Pikes see you that way.

You think you've discovered a new problem, but "some people" have been dealing with it for a long time. Kind of educational, isn't it?

Gosh. If "we" had known back in the day, maybe we could have avoided this.




A Countdown of Sorts: 7 Days and a WakeUp

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is really stupid.

So some young well-fed hippies got sprayed, and now suddently they are the new face of teh Oppressed?

Really really stupid.

spork_incident said...

Congrats on the Fallows link!

Anonymous #1 - Do try and pay attention sometime. Otherwise someone might think you're an authoritarian who believes that everything you don't like should be dealt with with force.


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spork_incident said...

(I'm able to comment with Safari but not Firefox so the problem is on my end.)


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Anonymous said...

As my African-American wife has told me in many a similar context: the world is a ghetto.

Nothing stays in the 'hood forever.

Anonymous said...

On the andrewsullivan blog there is a story about what he called the flaw in Occupy. The idea is that the protesters are mostly white and there is the question of why more people of color don't join. The reason is given that the issues aren't new to black people so they they don't want to join orshould not join spoiled white privileged protesters. They are missing the point, it is not the participants as much as it is the issues being raised, which affect both whites and people of color. Some people like to divide folks and give people sides to take, not me, the issues are what is more importantly being exposed not who is shining the light. It was probably a Rethugnut provocateur stirring up and trying to divide Progressives, don't fall for it.

Anonymous said...

911 was an inside job done so they'd have an excuse to take away our freedoms and start treating us all like dangerous criminals. It is to embed the mindset that we deserve to be abused and "cared for" by the NWO.

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