Tag Archives: politics

On the #BlackLivesMatter Disruption of Sanders’ rally in Seattle

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(x-post from my Facebook)

Look at it from the perspective of the protesters. The proper placement of protest tactics and targets are mattering less and less as‪ #‎YetWeAreStillDyingInTheStreets‬. We’ve used a variety of tactics before, only to get little product from it.

In Christianese, people like Bernie, Martin and Hillary are barely reachable, so they get these pearls, while all the GOP candidates are the proverbial swine. Yet, Bernie speaks at safer grassroots areas like Iowa, Colorado and Washington State, where he can expect a large turnout from his message’s resonance.

To date, AFAIK, he has not spoken in campaign mode in Chicago, or Atlanta, or New Orleans, or Baltimore, or St. Louis, or Houston, or Birmingham, or Jacksonville. Meanwhile, we can get Sen. Ted [‪#‎GrandpaMunster‬] Cruz coming to a church here in COLUMBUS, GEORGIA with the help of State Sen. Josh ‪#‎RFRA‬ McKoon.

But yet, it’s in these areas where PoC are heavy, and their issues intersect largely with “urban” crises.

This is why ‪#‎nn15‬ and ‪#‎Seattle‬ happened. Bernie, Hillary, Martin and the pitiful number of Dems running this season (and their pitiful number of debates) are going where it’s safe, not where their ears and eyes are needed. They’re not going where their vulnerability can be lent, without the expectation of a large crowd, but with the expectation that they will find recourse for our greatest domestic concerns.

Like Usher said: “Where are you now, when I need you around?”

Be here now. Don’t have us come to you.

‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬

Yet We Are Still Dying In The Streets

Politics, Uncategorized,

Look at it from the perspective of the protesters. The proper placement of protest tactics and targets are mattering less and less as #YetWeAreStillDyingInTheStreets. We’ve used a variety of tactics before, only to get little product from it.

In Christianese, people like Bernie, Martin and Hillary are barely reachable, so they get these pearls, while all the GOP candidates are the proverbial swine. Yet, Bernie speaks at safer grassroots areas like Iowa, Colorado and Washington State, where he can expect a large turnout from his message’s resonance.

To date, AFAIK, he has not spoken in campaign mode in Chicago, or Atlanta, or New Orleans, or Baltimore, or St. Louis, or Houston, or Birmingham, or Jacksonville.

Meanwhile, we can get Sen. Ted [#GrandpaMunster] Cruz coming to a church here in COLUMBUS, GEORGIA with the help of State Sen. Josh #RFRA McKoon. But yet, it’s in these areas where PoC are heavy, and their issues intersect largely with “urban” crises.

This is why #nn15 and #Seattle happened. Bernie, Hillary, Martin and the pitiful number of Dems running this season (and their pitiful number of debates) are going where it’s safe, not where their ears and eyes are needed. They’re not going where their vulnerability can be lent, without the expectation of a large crowd, but with the expectation that they will find recourse for our greatest domestic concerns.

Like Usher said: “Where are you now, when I need you around?” Be here now. Don’t have us come to you. #BlackLivesMatter

The Fake “Black Genocide”

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Christian anti-abortion folks who harp about a “black genocide” are some of the most uncaring, hard-hearted, shame-projecting liars.

  • As if any of them care one bit about AfAm women’s lives, equities or freedoms as much as their uteri.
  • As if any of them care that the fetuses which develop into infants will grow up into less-than-desirable AfAm women and men.
  • As if specifically *our lives* matter to the anti-abortion activists.
  • As if any of these activists think of AfAm women outside of the “welfare queen” “poppin’ out babies” stereotype.
  • As if any of these activists consider that birth control, condoms and other tools of hygiene should receive more investment and less demonization.
  • As if any of them are not the ick-attracted authoritarian jackasses who never offer solutions beyond “ban abortion” and “make sex sacred”.
  • As if you care much about the growth of the AfAm population for as long as abortion has been legal in this country, but that’s an inconvenient truth which disrupts your feigned “black genocide” martyrdom.

Seriously, I wonder why the Southern Baptists ever allied with you lying jackasses after their racist hissy-fit over integration. But you lie about a lot of things to get your ban in place, especially about AfAm women, their bodies and the women and men who love both.

You are as fake as the Exodus, Willie Lynch, the “War on Christmas” and American exceptionalism. We won’t live by your savior narrative. Look at yourself, and say no to #misogynoir. #BlackLivesMatter

On #RachelDolezal

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#RachelDolezal:

  1. 1) Tumblr’s “transracial” meme might have come to life.
  2. 2) The case of this woman may get to the heart of how externally-enforced that “blackness” and “whiteness”, as polar opposites, have always been. The one-drop rule. Good hair/natural hair. Adjusting early and silently to living within the external confines and internal networks of the African-American community. To have lived the experience, known it from within, entrenched oneself within the network and its effects for so many years, advocated for the dignity of the adopted “ethnic family”, effectively ceded the societal higher ground for a platform which is still constructing itself, is an experience which is odd, complicated and ethically gray. She may have experienced racism or colorism against her person because of this, and she reacted proactively against racism by joining/leading her local NAACP chapter. That’s how deep that Ms. Dolezal was. She subverted the personal tyranny of birth and blood to live as, and experience the good and bad of, the African-American experience.
  3. 3) I don’t begrudge those who actively “pass” as skin-color-related ethnicities, whether one “passes” as being of European or African descent (see Walter Francis White of the NAACP, and how he infiltrated the KKK). I just don’t like it when that pass, or even one’s advancement in social class, is used as a means for raging against the dignity of suspect class(es).
  4. 4) Euro-Americans who intermarry with slave-descended African-Americans, for example, often experience a closer interaction with the ramifications of race and skin color relations, being privy to many of the interior conversations which happen within African-American families. Anti-racist activists are privy to similar levels of interior conversations. Dolezal was even more privy than that, and she lived and breathed it.
  5. 5) I also disagree with Xeni Jardin (Boing Boing) in her comparison on Twitter with women who fake cancer to receive sympathy, since (a) it’s not a “disease” unless we consider the history of cultural perception of dark skin and African descent as a “problem” (b) one may consider oneself pregnant to the point of symptoms of a false pregnancy and (c) she freaking LIVED this and didn’t discard it at the end of the day. This is why I don’t call this a case of “blackface”, but of “passing”. Heck, this is the difference between drag and transgender. Do you take it off at the end of the day, or do you wake up, live your day, go to bed (or, as Diane Sawyer asked Caitlyn Jenner, “do you dream”) as the identity that you’ve crafted for yourself? And when your experience entitles you to interior conversations with people of like station in life, do you exploit those convos for personal gain while trumpeting your identity or do you pay it forward by working in their network and improving their lot in life? I’m fascinated by this experience and how people are taking it.

Something has to stand in the gap between (ir)religion and state

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Reading this post by Winnifred Sullivan on the Hobby Lobby and Wheaton College decisions, I got the gist of her argument: that we, no matter our political persuasion, have extended the legal “religious freedom” idea to its logical point of absurdity.

But something caught my eye in this paragraph:

But when the church and the state went their separate ways—when the church was disestablished—the intimate articulation of political, legal, and religious fictions lost their logic on a national scale. They no longer recognize one another. The legal and religious fictions of religious freedom have become lies designed to extend the life of the impossible idea that church and state can still work together after disestablishment. There is no neutral place from which to distinguish the religious from the non-religious. There is no shared understanding of what religion, big “R” religion, is. Let’s stop talking about big “R” religion.

This perhaps best articulates the disconnect between religion and the state in which organized religion – and the various means of power which it can assume – is much more free to run amuck over the rights of individual human beings.

I think that, rather than being content with this current separation of religion and state, in which the two “agree” to separate from each other (which has stopped applying in many places), something should stand in the gap between the two. Some sort of fiction – not just an institution, but an entire legal fiction – should act as a buffer between religion and the secular state, in such a way that the state would be able to eliminate any reference to the words “religion” or “faith” from documented law and jurisprudence.

In fact, for any institution or fiction which considers itself secular or nonsectarian (such as education), something should stand in the gap between religion and such-and-such nonsectarian institution.

But what could be strong enough, conducive enough to hold together that wall of separation?

Can the interfaith/intervalues coalitions – those organizations which classify themselves specifically as explicitly welcoming of multiple religions – be part of that wall?

Perhaps

Last night, I learned that the reason why #Alabama’s 1901 constitution is the longest extant constitution in the world is because it has a whopping 856 amendments to limit local rule, preserve white supremacy and solidify the hold of the Jim Crow Democrats. To date, most of these amendments have not been struck down or repealed. It’s a f*cking embarrassment of a document, ya’ll.

I just called Senator McKoon’s office, left my name/work with PFLAG Columbus, GA/opposition to his bill (which goes up for a floor vote in the State Senate today).

All this time, I’ve thought that these sorts of protections for homophobic expression are hypocritical. They’re being passed only – ONLY – because LGBT people are working for civic protections under law.

It reminds me of how Jim Crow laws were passed after slavery ended in order to protect racist ideology and a vengeful social architecture.

For every inch gained by the debased, someone feels “attacked”. For every expansion of the social contract to the unwanted, someone’s morality is offended and needs civic protection. Let’s be more inclusive.

#disclaimer Again, the craven bootlickers will say “FALSE NARRATIVE” and “OBEY THE LAW LIKE WE DO” and “DON’T RESIST”, just to derail this train heading off a cliff. Just know that I don’t care for your derailing or concern-trolling at this time. I really don’t.

You may be human and an American, but you still lick the boots of people who are trained to see their jurisdiction’s community, and often people who look like me, as a mortal threat worthy of death. It’s nicer to see that in #BDSM fantasies, not in real life. Please stop licking police boots for a few seconds and think about more than yourself or your personal resentments. Otherwise, law enforcement will continue to dehumanize every last one of us, including you. Yes, YOU.

We became silent about things that matter. That’s why we lost.

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The good news: Muscogee County went blue for Carter, Nunn and Bishop. Incumbent state reps Hugley (unopposed), Buckner (against a Republican challenger), and Smyre (unopposed) all won Muscogee, and no Democratic incumbents lost in the General Assembly.

The bad news: Only Bishop is going to federal office. None of the Democratic slate won statewide office. Roslund lost against McKoon for the state Senate. Wasn’t even close.

The post-mortem meeting for the Democrats in Columbus-Muscogee is on Saturday morning. Words will be traded. Fireworks may go off.

But I appreciate this month that I spent volunteering on the campaign with so many forward thinking, proactive people.

  • Patricia Lassiter, who spent months out of this year working campaigns, making and answering calls, taking crap from some fools and desperate activists, knocking on doors across Columbus to get the vote out – first for Mayor Tomlinson in May and second for the statewide Democratic slate of candidates. I personally admire Patricia’s personality, work ethic, ability to organize and progressive politics.
  • Mary-Kate Clement, who graduated from Marquette and flew from Chicago to Georgia to join Patricia in helping the county’s coordinated campaign. I stayed late in the office with Patricia and Mary-Kate on several nights when they had to get things wrapped up and called in. I am so sorry that she had to see her own home state go to a Republican governor (and Wisconsin, where she previously interned for Mary Burke, going back to Walker for another term). Her mother, who came by our office several times, is cool. Hope they do well in the future.
  • David Smith, spirited and knowledgeable 17-year-old who made phone calls and knocked on doors for the campaign. He is a party activist in the making.
  • William Viruet, native New Yorker who GOTV’s on a very down-to-earth level and does a mean massage.
  • All of the people – of all ages, even slightly underage – who gave their time and energy to this campaign – Berlinda, Tom, both Bills from the UU Fellowship of Columbus, Charlotte, LaVon, Marlyne, Alice, Eddie (Mr. “Souls to the Polls”), James, and several others. You all did the great work for a Blue Muscogee.

But now I am furious, and the colleagues who I met over this month know how furious I am with what just happened.

The Democrats lost across this country. Low turnout happened in several states, and yet it was not for a lack of African-American voters. Older voters, as usual, turned out more for the vote than younger voters.

And yet, progressive legislations won on the ballot at the SAME DAMN TIME. Across the country!

  • Minimum wage increases passed by voters in Arkansas, Nebraska, Illinois (advisory), Alaska and South Dakota
  • Marijuana possession decriminalized by voters in Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., while Florida gained 57% in favor but not the 60% necessary for passage. 6 Michigan municipalities’ voters passed similar measures.
  • California voters passing the reduction of dozens of nonviolent property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, resulting in potential thousands leaving California’s prisons.
  • A severe anti-choice “personhood” amendment being defeated in Colorado and North Dakota.
  • A fracking ban being passed in Denton, Texas and Athens, Ohio.
  • Dallas voters retain SOGI-inclusive NDO for city workers
  • Washington voters backed a criminal background check on all guns.

And I’m not the only one who noticed this. The Nation noticed this contradiction of voters supporting progressive legislation and voting for regressive candidates in the same election, so did Ring of Fire Radio. And I wonder “WTF just happened?”

And I’ve learned so much from reading articles about how populism won at the local and state levels, even as the GOP expanded their reach in many state legislatures.

A few words to the Democrats and to progressives all over Georgia, especially the state leadership in Georgia.

  • Stop being cowards on our principles. Stop apologizing.
  • Support our president and Obamacare.
  • If party leaders are cowards, throw them out. They are bums.
  • Shut up about money. No seriously, DNC/DSCC/DCCC/DGA/DLCC, stop sending me emails asking for contributions to the party’s war chest every damn day. I’m sick of being begged by career party activists for money when they don’t pull their weight.
  • Embrace your constituencies like your life depended on it.
  • Campaign on economic justice like your life depended on it.
  • Meet more often, like the party is your second, more secular church.
  • Don’t be afraid to remove those who don’t adhere to progressive principles.
  • If you can’t throw out the bums, do everything to make their political lives difficult.
  • Primary those who won’t carry their weight or have gotten too soft in their seats.
  • Campaign on issues. Not party, not personality, not demographics. ISSUES. Hear the issues, speak the issues, vote on the issues, poll the issues, build alliances around the issues, raise money on issues, publicize the issues, saturate local media with issues, recruit and test your candidates on the issues.
  • Do NOT disrespect progressive activists who are doing the work if you’re not doing it yourself. Or else you will get ripped a new butthole, in public, by me.

I have more to say, but all in all, let’s up off of our asses and campaign as progressives, not the “NON-REPUBLICANS”.

As MLK said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter“. The voters cared about issues. We didn’t. We need to care about issues, to push them by whatever means necessary, and to embrace those who care about them, like our President. We need to care about the compassion of our government, and we must say it every time we get. Or else, there is nothing progressive about us.

#YesWeCan