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The questionable intelligence and overpowering rage of a mind ruined by Fox News and the Right-wing noise machine are highlighted by how a person would allow the world to know that they read Bill O'Reilly's trash...and allow said book to be on their coffee table for a photo featured in The Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal has a short piece that explores the anger felt by white New Yorkers towards Mayor Bill de Blasio. The high levels of white racial resentment expressed by the mostly Reagan Democrat types who are interviewed by The Wall Street Journal is not a surprise.
The mayor is married to a black woman. He is the father of a black son. The symbolism of his family is a primer for White rage.
The angry white voters who hate de Blasio are supposedly upset about "crime". In American political discourse such concerns are usually a way of speaking in code for "the blacks". The Republican Party and its "law and order" "Southern Strategy" was (and in many ways remains) very effective because it can mine white racial animus and resentment towards black Americans by using the supposedly race neutral language of "reasonable" concerns about "safety" and "crime".
In all, it does not take advanced training in semiotics or media studies to read the not so hidden subtext of the profile in white rage offered up by The Wall Street Journal: white New Yorkers are upset that the cops can't go around killing black and brown people without consequence. The white racial animus fueled by a belief that de Blasio is "hard" or "unfair" to the thug cops of New York is bizarre precisely because said cops do in fact have a license to violate the civil liberties of, choke, beat, tase, club, and otherwise abuse black and brown New Yorkers almost at will?
Eric Garner?
As I have said on Ring of Fire TV and Radio, here on WARN, and elsewhere, America's police will not stop killing unarmed black and brown people because a large segment of White America is deeply invested--personally, psychologically, and financially--in such social evil.
It has been some time since we had fun with captioning a photo here on WARN.
What caption or description would you offer up for Rochelle Weinberg? Besides that damnable O'Reilly book, what other interesting tells of Right-wing madness do you see in the photo of her home?
To my eyes, she looks like a Right-wing human version of the Grumpy Cat celebrity.
43 comments:
Not sure how I would caption that, although as someone who teaches on the Upper West Side, I can tell you that even among many "liberals" the animus against DiBlasio has been there since the beginning. There is such an unspoken understanding among such people that the police be given carte blanche to use an iron fist in other parts of the city or else "they" will cause trouble. The person in this picture actually purchased a Bill O'Reilly history book, which immediately disqualifies me from taking her opinion seriously.
I lived most of my life in the south, where racist people were, for the most part, fairly open about their racism. When I moved to upstate NY it took me several months to figure out that white people up here spoke to other white people (even strangers) in a code language to express their racism. "Crime" was one of the main words used. We lived in a pretty low-income (and mostly nonwhite) neighborhood at the time, and when people I ran into at nice playgrounds (i.e. not in our neighborhood) and at church found out where I lived they always asked if I wasn't concerned about "all the crime" in my neighborhood. This was confusing (and I guess naive) for me because it seemed like I didn't have much crime at all in my neighborhood.
"This is how I look without my white sheet and hood."
Bill O'Reilly and history together. Geez. At least it was 30 percent off. Why do you think the so called liberals hate de Blasio too?
Most racist city I have been to is Boston. I can also pick out pockets of CT that would rival Birmingham during the King years.
Do you think that your neighbors are more honest in private or use "crime" as a way to tease out who is part of their racist tribe, thus they can drop the sheet?
The fact that she purchased a history book by Bill O'Reilly makes me wonder where the crayons are.
"This is MY happy place"
Their happiness is based on their fears being assuaged by the society and the state. Every conservative American has that kitsch junk in their house somewhere.
I enjoyed watching my family visibly uncomfortable at the prospect of a black president, but the flip side is now they are all more politically active, dumber than ever, and have this constant anger that beer and television just can't help them set aside.
Some of it is that they are anti labor, but mostly because they want a city that's for people like them: white and affluent. That was Bloomberg's priority, and it's obviously not DiBlasio's. It's really a kind of identity politics, but as you know, our political discourse refused to admit that white people have an identity politics.
Reading some of the comments in that article, you see exposed a key feature of how people like this woman and others quoted in the article think.
Resources are a zero sum game to them. When something is being done for "others" who are supposedly equal in citizenship and thus due the same rights and expectations as people like this woman are, they see that as a direct "attack" against them. You hear their complaints about the "middle class" being denied, in order to "give" very meager benefits that are in many cases only symbolic in impact to "undeserving" poor and minorities.
What de Blasio is doing for POC and the poor in NYC, is a drop in the bucket compared to the salad days people like this woman enjoyed under Bloomberg and Giuliani. They were all too satisfied with police abuse to "control" them as their just desserts.
Racist code talk has become very subtle and nuanced, and thus even more effective. And it is mainstream now, allowing representatives of institutions such as the media and government to deploy it without seeming to appear bigoted,
When the Baltimore uprisings occurred in the wake of the Freddie Gray murder, as well as in Ferguson, mainstream news reporters reveled in the liberal use of the term "thug" in broad brush descriptions of all of the protesters, knowing that this translated into "n*gger" for the consuming white masses.
The mainstream media has been very effective in the use of racial code in their news reports, in casting the black community in the traditional stereotypical ways in which white supremacy has historically done, albeit more openly at one time in our history.
Now such open and direct talk is not "polite," even though middle and upper class whites who still have a need to consume this kind of talk since it assuages their fears and provides a "moral" justification as well as validation for and of their "superiority" in the social structure.
Middle and upper class whites want to think of themselves as "decent" and "good" and thus do not want to be directly associated with or openly approving of the crass, openly racist views and speech of many people you still find in some parts of the south and other parts of the country.
Caption: My happiness increases proportionately as that of people of color decreases.
"I don't have a problem with the blacks. My doorman is black and he's always nice to me."
Identity politics are not considered a bad thing as long as the identities are white ones and the agenda is against black ones.
off topic: I couldn't give much, but I gave. Your insights are indispensible: there is no other voice out there like yours, either on the web or in the world. Thank you!
I don't know if binary, zero-sum thinking comes naturallly to these people, or if they pick it up from their overlords at fox et al. Either way it strikes me as a very primitive, tribalist point of view.n Here's hoping that natural selection weeds them out, and soon.
Whether it comes natural or not, and I am inclined to believe this is learned behavior from literally hundreds of years of racially infused socialization, predating Fox and other modern means of disseminating bigoted wingnut talking points, this is how they approach the concept of sharing resources with those who do not look like them. Many of the people referred to in this article call themselves "democrats" and even "liberals" in some cases, supporting a party whose platform is based on a "colorblind" notion of equality, and this situation provides evidence of the primacy of race when it comes to "American" politics.
You're right, it is tribal in a very primitive sense, which is why it remains so deeply ingrained. It is "natural" to them to be and think this way, which makes change any time soon even more unlikely, because they see it as "normal," the natural order of things.
I used to think we hit what I like to call "peak racism" in the 60s in response to the civil rights movement, and that you could start the clock ticking from there in terms of the 400 years it would take to alleviate what it took 400 years to create. But now it seems we can't start that clock yet, as the election of a President who happens to be black overturned more rocks, releasing even more racist fervor than the civil rights movement did.
I guess what you mean is that it is racist to acknowledge that blacks are 12% of the population, but commit 50% of the murders?
Non-racists don't deal in facts, I take it?
Idioot. The book is a story of the death of General George Patton. Nice to know how bigoted and ignorant you are.
Idiot. Typo, just getting going in the AM. Late night.
you dumbasses and your obsession with Fox
Yes, you are right. "Crime" is a code word for racism. Living in the Northeast, I have learned that "rapist of an elderly person" is code for a black person, and "drug dealer" can mean either a black or Hispanic gentleman. However, "Carjacker" always refers to a black man. I have also heard people use "welfare recipient" to mean the same reference. Such coded references. I heard one the other day that i am researching some more. It's the term "democrat". I think that is a thinly veiled reference to the mentally handicapped.
What a kind gesture! I am still sending out thank you notes but such goodness means a great deal to me. One fut in front of the other as I say, I am only as good as the nice people such as yourself who encourage me forward.
That pillow she has is so telling. A bubble of lies, epistemic closure cultivated by Fox News and the Right-wing noise machine.
Oh man, it looks like we have a bunch of People with too much time on their hands. Look out for the bad words, OMG.
Look at Crime Statistics. Black People are killed by other Black People at a rate 20 times that of White / Hispanic People killing Black People. In fact, a White / Hispanic Person is likely to be killed by a Black Person than another White / Hispanic Person by the same 20 to 1 odds.
How about we start looking at the real Problem, Black Males between the ages of 16 to 35 who commit 50% of the Violent Crime while composing of only 3% of the overall Population. Thanks to the LBJ Great Society, these so called Men have no Male role models in the Home. Entire Generations of Young Men wandering aimlessly through Life, hanging with the other losers and never wanting to better themselves and contribute to a Productive Role in Society. What a waste of Humanity. Better to blame the imaginary Racists than pick yourself up and become something. Life just isn't fair, blah, blah, blah.
I know, facts are Racist. Tell that to the Little Black Children in Chicago that are mowed down every week by some Vermin Gangsta types. Tell it to their grieving Parents.
What a bunch of BS the Perpetual Victim Class spews with impunity. Poor, Poor me. Get over yourselves for God's sake.
I too feel very differently about America than I did before 2008. It's a terrible feeling, a kind of grief.
Caption: "I like my Happy Place like I like my New York: meticulously managed, monochromatic and socially isolated"
This is my happy place because white people are allowed.
opps, i meant "only" white people are allowed
"Crime" is no more a code for "black," than "rap" is.
Crime comes in all colors. And no one likes it.
Here are 1,090 well sourced examples of Obama’s lying, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc. http://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/obama-252/
If I want to see what 'diversity' has wrought, I have to drive a couple of hours. Haven't done it yet, and don't foresee the need to do so.
there is an old cliche that the third rail of american politics is social security, ie. touch it at your own peril. but the real third rail of american politics is attempting in any way to aid the black community. the moment any politician even raises a finger to help african americans, or expresses any kind of affinity or compassion for their situation, white people froth with rage. i know many nyc "liberals" who detest diblasio, but cannot really articulate any cogent, tangible reasons for their antipathy. for most american whites, liberal or conservative, urban or rural, the first purpose of government is keeping the Ns in their (rightful subordinate) place.
Niggers=crime, that's a fact Niggers are walking disease vectors, and perpetrators of crime against humans.
Niggers are not even human, they are a separate species. Us humans know this, yet live in PC world where we have to speak to each other in code, lest some agitated negro get upset with problems their own species created, and refuse to accept responsibility for.
And the happy place in which this woman is situated is where.... Harlem?
There's lots of ignorance here, both in the original post and the responses. If one (regardless of skin color) acts in a socially acceptable manner, one is not likely to suffer negative consequences.
Simple, isn't it?
There's a lot of opportunity out there, look for it rather than dwelling on the negatives and you'll likely do well. :-)
this is disgusting and whoever typed it is a repulsive cretin
NlGGERS!
You're full of shit.
"If one (regardless of skin color) acts in a socially acceptable manner, one is not likely to suffer negative consequences."
spoken like an other deliberately obtuse white man
Your discussion of the appropriation of language reminded me of a week-old article I found today. In a freakish perversion that only great power can attain, the phenomenon dubbed "manspreading" (in which men expect women in public spaces to accommodate their use of space) has been used as the pretext for the midnight arrest of two Latino men on the subway by the NYPD.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-first-arrest-has-been-made-for-manspreading-10285011.html
The judge thought the arrest was spurious but still decided to give the men ACDs (just in case we wanna throw them in prison later).
NIGGGGERS HAVE DESTROYED AMERICA.
WHATEVER PEOPLE CALL 'BLACKS' WILL SOON BE CALLED RACIST. NIGGGGERS, JIGABOOS, THUGS, AFRICAN AMERICANS, COLOREDS, ON AND ON IT GOES. IT ISN'T THE WORDS THAT ARE OFFENSIVE, IT IS THE BLACKS THEMSELVES! THAT ARE OFFENSIVE!
On the other hand, I do love Wayne Knight. Oh he is so well-spoken.
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