To celebrate Martin Luther King Day today, Donald Trump did absolutely nothing. No public event, no speech and the White House Twitter account had an obviously staff-written quote with Trump’s name pasted onto it.
Mike Pence, who has protected, supported and enabled the most racist words, actions and policies of Trump also had his name slapped on a bland (Pence’s favorite flavor) tweet.
Republicans in Congress are preparing to pervert justice in the Senate impeachment trial that begins tomorrow against Donald Trump…to protect Trump’s hateful, bigoted regime and help it continue to attack and oppress people of color.
The FBI, documented as spying on, harassing and trying to push to suicide, Martin Luther King, also tweeted a hypocritical recognition of him…instead of apologizing for having tried to destroy him.
And in Virginia today, the NRA and white nationalists descended on Richmond wearing camouflage, masks and carrying military weapons in their hands to terrorize the state government and citizens…especially those who aren’t white or in favor of madmen buying guns and committing mass shootings of innocent people.
Welcome to MLK Day in the Trump Era.
It is important on this day to focus on the moral crusade and self-sacrifice of Dr. Martin Luther King. At a time when those who dared to stand up for the civil rights of African Americans risked assault, imprisonment and being murdered, Dr. King bravely and defiantly stood up as a leader. There were others who either with him or separately, fought for racial equality in those times (and before and after) who also deserve recognition for their meaningful work. On this day though, we remember and celebrate the life of this exceptional man of conscience and action.
Clearly, this racial tension can’t be diffused by intensifying it with angry confrontation. It also would be misguided to believe that one can simply reason with racists into not being racists. There seems to be one peace-minded path and unfortunately, it is a longer path. In the near term, that is, this year of 2020, the approach that may be the most practical is to save resources from trying to change the minds of race-insecure white voters who now follow Trump and instead invest in greater turnout by the majority of fair-minded Americans who don’t.
If this results in a Democratic president in 2021, Democrats need to be good winners. Yes, among the first priorities should be to reverse the deterioration of civil rights that Trump and Republicans have been using especially to assault people of color. Additionally, an environment of tolerance towards all Americans but public confrontation and shaming of open racism could help strip it of validity drive it out of the mainstream once again (including when it arises in state election laws, policing and the justice system). And pairing this with a focus on economic justice, protecting and enhancing the social safety net for all, reducing the wealth gap, investing in housing, subsidizing schooling and investing in infrastructure could reduce the energy behind white insecurity and racism as it improves the standard of living for all Americans.
Right now, under Trump’s white nationalist rule, Americans are under siege and people of color are the biggest and most frequent target. If Democrats regain power in 2020, there would need to be a shift from the currently justified siege mentality to one of unity.
A Blue Wave becoming a rising tide that lifts all boats.
Happy Martin Luther King Day to all!
So trump’s legal team is defending him. What I gleaned from Jay Sekulow is that since assistance to other nations is frequently put on hold for legitimate reasons, it was within trump’s authority to place of hold on Ukraine assistance, for legitimate reasons.
The other defense so far, is that trump did not honor any subpoenas because the House did not have the authority to issue subpoenas. We all know, of course, that the House has SOLE POWER to impeach. So if they don’t have the power to issue subpoenas to determine if they should impeach, how can they impeach?
I wonder if trump’s legal team realize that their audience is more than trump. It is actually senators, most of whom are attorneys, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and the American people (not just trump supporters, but ALL of the American people).
It’s been nearly twenty years in my own life since I argued this with my peers. Back then it wasn’t Climate Change, it was racism. I’m speaking of High School and early College years.
You don’t reason with them. That being said, there are a a great many VICE like documentaries, some from Britain – it’s a keen subject of mine. Not because I was ever a white supremacist, but that my dad was brought up as one, and was proud to vote for Obama.
I believe I’ve brought this up before in years past, but my dad taught me how to fish out bullshit. He grew up with it, and taught me. Anyone can learn it, and I suspect everyone here can hear it. But, I know it.
I add my own wrinkle with Confederate flags and history. I’m a double, triple whammy. I’m over 50% German, the rest is English and Scottish/Scots-Irish. I tend to identify as Scottish. I mean, I know how to wear a kilt, and my German is complicated – and proud.
I don’t much care to get into arguments anymore elsewhere, but don’t talk to me about the Confederacy. It was about Hate, not Heritage.
Racism is indeed a learned behavior. One personal example (and I have MANY) is when one of my daughters was six years old and was outside playing with the next-door neighbor’s daughter of the same age. A friend of the neighbor’s daughter came by and made the comment that the neighbor’s daughter was gross, because she was playing with a n***er. The little girl who said this was also six years old. Where do you suppose the little girl “learned” that attitude?
I want to make it absolutely clear my dad never used that word. Sometimes we say it in hushed tones when quoting sarcastically. Even then – not cool. Like we’ll say niii— and then go on. But, my, grandma never did either. Without getting lengthy, my Grandpa was born in Washington (the STATE – that’s a separate issue) and met my grandma from Savannah stationed in Georgia for WWII.
We lost my grandpa early. I never knew him. He survived long enough to hold me as a baby. My grandma made the most amazing banana bread, voted for Jimmy Carter (he was a Georgian), had a live and let live bumpersticker on the cadillac she couldn’t drive.
But were you to go to a sandwhich store she wouldn’t shout n****r. She would politely pay for it and discretely throw it away. I wrote a poem about that once.
That’s what people don’t get – especially – don’t get me started on the blatant stuff, but my grandma, who who I loved and who loved me, and who was an otherwise nice person, went to her grave as she was raised.
It was such an old TV but I remember us switching on MTV when they played videos still. And no remote. It was an old confabulation of a dresser type contraption, and we were getting the musics at Grandma’s!
Everyone was giving me a look. Oh, right, it’s rock’n’roll, and she’s older and likes the country station. I vaguely remember my dad taking me out and trying to explain it to me. This was before he talked about how he was raised.
I understood the rock thing… but it was apparently serious. Like – not in this house – serious. I didn’t do it again, but, fuck me if I still don’t get it. I try… as an intellectual experiment… I don’t. She was used to a certain order.
This isn’t an f-u because I loved her and take my clan (the Scottish kind – though….let’s not go down the family tree) tartan that I’m proud to wear. But, though I don’t believe in an afterlife, she read her Bible (again…), I’d like to believe she’s in heaven with people of all colors.
This was it though
I grew up in the Jim Crow south, so I understand the thing about, “that’s just the way it was”. During slavery and Jim Crow, white people did not have to apologize for being racist. That was just the way it was. And many white people who practiced racism and looked the other, even if they didn’t practice it a much as their family and friends, were actually fairly nice people. At this age and stage, I don’t hold it against them. However, I still don’t understand how a human could treat another human the way white people treated black people in those days.
And believe it or not, many white people still do it as much as they can get away it. Most of trump’s supporters and the GOP are comprised of that kind of people. But humans are not born with racist genes. It is something that is learned and taught from generation to generation, not so much now as in the past. I think when people of my generation die off, those who perpetrated it and those who were forced to endure it, it will help the decline in racism.
My dad, may he live to 100 says this. It will stay with me forever, or as long as your generation (mind you, alt-right is more stupid), fades away.
Let them keep talking.
They can’t help it. They don’t even know.
Kellyanne wrongway. The 9/11 terrorist got more justice than trump. Really? I think they are dead. Comparing trump to MLK? I can’t find the words except for how offensive it is to equate one’s self with the American civil rights icon especially if you are a white racist.
Happy MLK Day!
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Kellyanne Conway Links Trump Impeachment to the Injustices Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fought
https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/01/kellyanne-conway-links-trump-impeachment-to-the-injustices-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-fought/
Just get a divorce already.
Or a hysterectomy and therapy.