Black Teabaggers in an Alternate Universe
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An interesting thought experiment made by Tim Wise, anti-racist speaker and author of Between Barack and A Hard Place:
Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.
Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.
Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.
The article is brilliant. The whole excerpt can be found on Ephphatha Poetry. Read for yourself here.
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I always feel like a usurping cracker where Native Americans are concerned. They could ask for anything from the government and I would be in favor of granting it. Instead they play on the vices of the whites and fleece them at the casinos. Good for them!
Mother Hen,
You are no cracker and you are not usurping! You’re born where you were born.You are a good person, you lead a good life. And you are aware of those who were here before. Nothing more could or should be asked.
Except for the chickens. That’s kinda weird.
Even my slightly demented mind has realised that America is a very different place to England.
On those grounds this is a very good post indeed.
Question?
What if Native Americans descended armed to the teeth in Washington and demanded the return of their country?
Just a thought – and I don’t have many so value it please…;-)
This Tim Wise piece seems to be going viral, I have been seeing it for several days, glad it showed up here.
His thinking is quite simple, yet stunning. When black people did take to the streets in 50s and 60s, the majority of their protests were Gandhi inspired. Imagine if they had been Teabagger-ish. What a different America we would be living in. Shudder.
Everything is always different when Negroes and the swarthy do it. Sheesh. What’s next, Mr. Wise, telling us ice cream is delicious? Crazy ass socialist black panther hippie potheads.
Honestly, I’m tired of people who don’t even get a chance to look at the long standing history of portraying the stereotypes of black people as violent for example and realize that this is a continuation of that stereotyping by not even looking into the facts, but jumping to the conclusion that since now a black guy is in office, now white people are oppressed.
Also, You need to stop with the name calling of “socialist hippie pothead” stuff. It’s ridiculous. This is not just a “liberal” (which honestly just means free thinker, which is a good thing in comparison to being a “close-minded” person), this is about how people are treating other human beings. Socialism is not bad. Both absolute Capitalism AND Communism are things that do not work.
People like you continue to ignore history and ignore and say that ALL claims of the “Original Racism” these days is just someone playing the “Race Card”, which is not true. There are times when people do play the race card, but most of the time, it is simply pointing out the “subtle” racism that they witness. Try being black in an upscale department store and once or twice you might be followed too closely by a clerk. Try being Muslim/Middle Eastern/South Asian and having to be detained for hours and interrogated more so than any other person at the airport, even more than someone who might actually be doing terrorism. Imagine being a Mexican-American in Arizona and you an your family have lived in AZ for generations including when AZ was still a part of MEXICO, and then suddenly, in result of this new immigration law, one of your family members is deported into Mexico and you are never able to see them again.
Yes, it’s a rant, but it speaks the truth about it. And call me a Pothead all you want (besides the fact that I neither smoke, drink, nor do any type of drugs but am pretty much a liberal who has an open mind to both conservative and liberal views, so I won’t condemn you for it, but don’t just rush into those ridiculous stereotypes) I am saying what is fact.
Excellent post!