Thursday, May 28, 2015

Shameless Self-Promotion: Chauncey DeVega's (Extended) Conversation on Ring of Fire TV About Waco, Race, and Media Bias


My guest spot from tonight's Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV is now online.

This was a very unusual opportunity in that Farron and I had such an extended and good (to my eyes at least) dialogue about racism, media bias, Waco, and Baltimore that Ring of Fire decided to post the whole uncut segment on their website.

The on-air conversation was about 13 minutes; the "Director's Cut" clocks in at about 25 minutes.

I do not hold back here, as I also speak a bit of truth to power about how Fox News and the corporate media hurt the cognitive, emotional, and thinking processes of their viewers, the damage done by Whiteness to its owners and beneficiaries, as well as call out self-hating black conservatives and their role in today's broken politics and society.

As always, your suggestions, insights, and comments are always appreciated.

How do you think I did? Is 25 minutes of Chauncey DeVega a type of cruel and unusual punishment?

17 comments:

Myshkin the Idiot said...

Local news stations have shared the fact that right wing white people are the biggest threat to law enforcement and you never hear the same garbage like, "take out the garbage" or "these animals need to be put down" or "there's no place in civilized society for such monsters."


Online commentary is forgiving of them. Excuses are made about how life is hard, their rights are being undermined, or how their grievance is legitimate. There really is no dialect of white criminality and any attempt to engage in any conversation about white criminality is shouted down from many sides.


Excellent video. Your head size looks better than the last time I saw you. Listening to the podcast with Leonce Gaiter now, it's excellent. There are no black victims. Any violence perpetrated against them is justified in some way.

drspittle said...

From the same Dept of Shameless Self Promotion - I emailed you a satiric skit I've written that deals with these very issues.

SW said...

I thought you really drove home a nice point there at the end about unplugging, and really trying to understand the dynamics of power to get some real perspective.

chauncey devega said...

It was a good segment. I tried to slow down. We covered lots of material. I am exploring doing more of those types of segments. Who knows, given the resources and time--if we can pull them together--it may become a feature here on a semi-regular basis.

chauncey devega said...

I am going to read it today. Are you actually going to produce it? With permission maybe I will share it here.

chauncey devega said...

I took pills for that :) Leonce is spot on and his work deserves a much bigger readership. I really enjoyed out convo it just flowed with ease.


What you point our are just a few examples of how white privilege and white racism hurt white people. Good luck making them see that fact.

drspittle said...

I'm thinking about doing YouTube video with a couple of friends. I appreciate you taking the time to read it. Thank you.

Myshkin the Idiot said...

It was a great conversation. Thank you for all the work you do.

joe manning said...

Hope you can do more of these extended videos. Your words have so much more impact when I can see you. You deftly described the social scene that, in a word, constitutes fascism. I like that you ended on the optimistic note that its everyone's responsibility to maintain the common good.

James Scaminaci III, PhD said...

You are a great wordsmith. Classics: "human chaff," "defense shield," and "complexion for the protection" of Whiteness. I've got to remember to use those.

I did not see the motorcycle gangs as examples of "white" or "whiteness." My background was analyzing, from an intelligence perspective, organized crime, particularly in Europe. Organized crime gangs are essentially organized by ethnicity or nationality. Thus, there are entire criminological literatures on Russian, Ukrainian, Chechen, or Italian, or Nigerian or Japanese or Chinese organized crime gangs or networks of gangs. The ethnicity is just an identifier to differentiate one criminal network from another and to show how different ethnic criminal networks cooperate. In essence, racism does not impede the illicit flow of goods, services, and people.

Even American organized crime is organized and studied in terms of Jewish, Italian, or Irish organized crime. No one in this criminological or sociological literatures makes the leap that Jews or Italians or Irish have a culture promoting crime.

Within an ethnic network, let's say Italian, then one distinguishes between organized crime in Sicily or Naples or Calabria. The literature will delve into the historical factors giving rising to these criminal gangs. But, this literature makes no commentary on Italians being prone to engage in criminal behaviors or Germans or Russians or Nigerians. For example, I have never encountered a study of the Japanese Yakuza that claims that the Japanese are prone to criminality. The literature essentially will claim that the Yakuza fit into the gaps in the Japanese way of doing business between government and business.

Thus, to me, it was just a motorcycle gang. There are dozens of motorcycle gangs operating in America and Europe engaged in drug trafficking, human trafficking, etc. Their ethnicity or nationality is just an identifier to differentiate one from another.

But, your point is well taken and absolutely correct that if the motorcycle gangs in Texas had been Black, well, the entire narrative changes. That point is unassailable. We would still be talking about the "Black subculture" of motorcycle gangs.

And, yes, the mainstream media as proponents of the White Gaze could not really discuss the underlying economic and police violence that gave rise to the uprising because it calls into the question the very foundations of the system--white supremacy and what we now call neo-liberal economic policies.

You are correct that there is an overwhelming propensity in America to perceive "blackness" as criminal and threatening. However, not seeing the motorcycle gang as "white" may not necessarily indicate being involved in the White Gaze or White Frame. Or, it might. I'm not sure in my case. I just did not make that connection or leap.

And, I am in complete agreement on the eliminationist rhetoric coming from one sector of the white conservative Christian religious-political movement that has effectively captured the Republican Party. Combining their fervent belief in an inerrant and literally true Bible with its advocacy of genocide and their more secular eliminationist rhetoric makes them a frightening political-religious or religious-political force---depending upon which variable is emphasized. I have argued that they are softening up their base to acquiesce to genocide on a massive scale.

chauncey devega said...

As always, we are smarter after hearing your thoughts! I marvel at how professionals talk about a problem and by comparison the hot mess that generalists (myself included at times) misunderstand about a thing.


I am working hard to have a guest on who has written about outlaw motorcycle culture. His book is excellent and the author deserves a bigger audience stateside.

chauncey devega said...

Maybe as a random treat. I was glad they made the longer one available. As long as folks don't run frantically from my big head and creepy features :)

chauncey devega said...

Thank you for being such long-time supporter of the site. Your good energy keeps things moving forward.

joe manning said...

You're a handsome dude.

chauncey devega said...

Don't give me the vapors...

James Scaminaci III, PhD said...

Yes. I'm not sure about the Irish, but the Sicilian mafia arose in reaction against a domineering, exploiting government to protect the peasants. We all know how that turned out.


I would not say your analysis is a "hot mess." I think it is right on the money. It is just that professionals on organized crime and motorcycle gangs are so far away from the mainstream--publishing in specialist journals and talking to each other--that we can be safely ignored; and are.

joe manning said...

A couple of points: Organized crime, including motor cycle gangs are dues paying members of the Establishment that work "off the books" in coordination with bonafide officials toward social control. The point being that mafias and gangs have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

And there's distinctions to be made between a rumble, a riot, and a revolution. A rumble is a somewhat organized turf war. A revolutionary uprising entails symbolic acts against officialdom, while a riot is associated with senseless acts of violence and vandalism.