Posts tagged Racism

karnythia:

Mississippi Church Refuses to Marry Black Couple

ladypandacat:

But how can this be? It’s 2012 and all racism has been magically gone for years! *sarcasm* This is honestly horrible. One day before their wedding the pastor says he refuses to perform the ceremony at their church because they’re black.

Mind you, this was the church they had been attending for years. The pastor wanted to perform the service & switched locale at the last minute to protect them from members of the congregation who were angry that a black couple might be married in “their” church.

(Source: ladypandacat)

jalylah:

by Bro. David Muhammad of 99Problems.org

1. Spooner was known by his neighbors, police, and local officials as a gun collector. In the past reported burglary, Spooner alleged that four shotguns were taken.

2. The police had already done an investigation several days prior of burglaries at Spooner’s residence, including an interview with Simmons’ family, concluding that no one in from his household was involved. Patricia Larry, Simmons’ mother, had only lived in the home for a month.

3. Spooner saw Alderman Bob Donovan, a casual acquaintance, at a restaurant earlier that morning, venting his anger at the police response to his home being burglarized, stating “there are other ways to deal with situations” that police couldn’t solve.

4. Simmons and his mother were taking out the garbage when, Spooner confronted and threatened Simmons. His mother attempted to verbally defend her son against the accusations when Spooner drew his 9mm.

5. Spooner shot Simmons with a 9mm handgun five feet away from him in the chest, in front of his mother.

6. Simmons was shot once in the chest with his hands raised. He ran to escape and collapsed at the corner, while Spooner attempted to shoot him in the back, and tried to fire a third shot.

7. After police arrived, Darius’s body remained on the sidewalk, while police questioned his mother, Patricia Larry, in a squad car for approximately two hours.

8. During the police investigation of the shooting, they searched Ms. Larry’s home again. Finding nothing, they then proceeded to arrest his older brother for having truancy tickets.

9. In contrast, Spooner’s family was allowed to go into the home and remove “items” despite it being the crime scene.

10. John Spooner was given a $300,000 bail, (only $30,000 would have to be posted for him to be free). This is uncommon when the charge is murder in the first degree.

You may ask, in a city with such high rates of violent crime, particularly among people of color, why this case matters?

In the same way that the Frank Jude case exposed the racist element of the Milwaukee Police Department, this tragedy reveals the pervasive mindset that sees black and brown youth as criminals, guilty until proven innocent. Already, the media has attempted to portray the confessed murderer as a sad victim of crime, who had enough and decided to take it out on the wrong person. For Milwaukee media, Spooner is being characterized as “Falling Down” versus “Menace II Society.”

A deeper look reveals that even the police showed more sympathy for the murderer than for the victim or his family. Even many in the black community, upon first hearing about it, summed it up as “Southside Milwaukee” racism; as though it was the fault of the mother for living across the viaduct from the predominately black north side.

The incident also exposes the deep segregation of Milwaukee’s urban communities. Many in the black community still do not travel across the viaduct that Father Groppi led marchers across in the ’60s. The 16th Street area is now the heart of the Hispanic community, with many African-Americans calling it home. It is worth noting, that it was the Southside Organizing Committee and Alderman Jose Perez, who came to aid the family, offering a sign of potential black and brown coalition building.

What is clear is that Spooner was a white hold out in a neighborhood that had turned Hispanic and black, two communities who suffer violence daily but still don’t generalize about its perpetrators. Spooner on the other hand, was armed to the teeth and, installed surveillance cameras, had a dog, and still didn’t feel safe. Perhaps he was more threatened that a black family had moved in, just one month earlier, automatically making a 13-year-old boy a suspect in his eyes.

(Source: 99problems.org, via karnythia)

somewhitenonsense:

I am an educator.  Not a teacher by training, profession, or plan; not compensated; rarely appreciated.  But I educate.  Mostly, I educate white people.  I don’t have to do this, and I often resent doing so, and it comes at great personal cost.  But life has taught me thus far that if I wish to be respected and understood as a whole human being, I must teach white people to see me as such.  So, mostly, I do it for myself.  And I do it for other people like me who lack the words, opportunity, energy, platform, or ability.  I wrote this weekend about an unsettling exchange with a white, male authority figure.  I took the risk of reporting a racial microaggression to him, in response to a recent request of his that I help elucidate the ways in which our academic environment is unwelcoming to students of color.  In response, I was accused of sounding racist against white people, admonished to be more sensitive to white people, and requested to educate him at length about why and how the incident was offensive.  This led to me feeling anxious, having my one day off this week marred by worry and apprehension, taking hours out of my time to find additional resources for him to read (focusing on scholarly articles so that he will be open to the ideas within them), writing and re-writing my thoughts with extreme care, concern that I would be reprimanded for speaking out, difficulty sleeping, second-guessing myself, and feeling unpleasantly vulnerable.  Despite this, I am still engaged in an e-mail conversation with this man.  Because the alternative is to let him go blissfully on ineffectively leading, teaching, and mentoring people of color in his sphere of influence.  And it always comes down to this: someone’s gotta do it.  I guess it has to be me.

Love to you.  

(via somewhitenonsense-deactivated20)

racismschool:

My Grandmother (my Mother’s Mother) was a racist. Not a regular racist. The kind of racist that other racist people point to as “Racist.”

My Great Grandparents were racist too. Extreme racist. Hard core. Hated all things not white. My Grandmother treated me like I was gold. She was racist and she treated her half black grandchild like a perfect human being. Never once was my skin an issue. Never once did she say anything that was even the tiniest bit racist to me. Not ever. Yet, she was still one of the most racist people I have ever met. Her love for me didn’t suddenly make her realize the error of her ways.

This is why, when I hear someone say “I’m not racist, I have black people in my family.” I know that you ARE a racist. Non-racist people don’t need a reference point. 

So my Grandmother, who loved me dearly and treated me as such, was a racist.

But wait…there’s more.

My white Grandmother, who was an extreme racist, was with the same black man for over 30 years.

Did your eyes just pop out of your head? You didn’t misread that. This woman, who was a hard core racist was with a black man. Not just experimenting with a black man, WITH a black man for over 30 years. Wrap your head around that for a second. Never once did I hear her call him the n-word. Not ever. He was a horrible man. A real shit of human being. The kind of guy scum would give the finger to. Yet, no matter how he treated her, no matter what he did, she never brought race into it. This EXTREMELY RACIST WOMAN never brought race into it. Think about that.

Now, on top of all that, this racist white woman with a half black grandchild and a black boyfriend of over 30 years, also had a half black child herself.

As with me and her boyfriend, race never came up with my Aunt. Although, my Aunt was white washed. 

When you say “I’m not racist, I have/am dated/dating a black person” I know you are racist. Again, a non-racist person would never need a reference. 

When I hear racist people using these kinds of defenses against their own racism, I think of my family. I know better. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it. You are going to have to try something else to convince me.

Just to add one last mind blowing family confession, remember the Aunt I was talking about? She is half black. She only identifies as white and gets extremely angry when you point out the race of her father. She is…you guessed it, an extreme racist. She will be happy to tell you that she “Talks” to anyone. She will even tell you that she “Dated a black guy once.” Then, in the same breathe will tell you that she would never allow her daughter to date a black guy because she wants to teach her the “Right things.” «<This came from an ACTUAL conversation I had with her.

I wish I’d said “I think you mean the white things.” I didn’t. I don’t think I said anything. I was so shocked by it. I was young and really had no defense against this stuff. I didn’t know half of what I know now. If I still spoke to her, I would love to have the racial conversation today. 

She has dated Nazi’s and not “Seen anything wrong with it.” She has defended them and their “Rights.” When I say Nazi I don’t mean it in the way some people do. Anytime someone says something racist they call them a Nazi. No, the guy she dated was an ACTUAL NAZI. That was how he identified. He was covered in Swastikas, rebel flags and even had a Hitler tattoo.

Yet she dated him and he dated her. THINK ABOUT THAT.

I tell you all this to say, if you find yourself being called a racist and your immediate reaction is to mention some PoC in your life as a reference, you are a racist.

The things in my family are not abnormal. They aren’t odd. I have friends and extended family members who deal with the exact same thing. Racism is stupid. Racists are stupid. Trying to make logic out of an illogical person’s thinking is absurd. This is why your referencing a PoC in defense in any way, tells me and everyone else that you are a racist. 

All of this.