The intent of this blog is to promote human equality, human progress, human peace and justice, and optimism. To accomplish this, to encourage the discussion of ideas after identifying and discovering problems, and then creating positive solutions for "we the people," in order to provide for the "general welfare" and "domestic tranquility" of America now and its "posterity" into the future. To encourage an emphasis on separation of religion and state for all, no matter if this is for those "of faith" in a Maker / Creator (Deists, God-loving people, Christians, various people of spirituality) and atheists or agnostics.

Posts tagged ‘systemic racism’

The Veil of Conservatism Used to Hide True Expressions Bigotry

When I speak with folks, I have come to recognize the ability to speak gloom and doom about America and try to connect with the “conservative” movement in America. I am learning.  The veil covers over true bigotry due to racism, anti-Semitism, sexual identity issues, and so forth.

For instance, the other day, The man spoke as if he was a “conservative” patriot when he said, “I don’t like watching football on TV any more. Such games and all of America has gone to hell all over the place. I don’t like them not standing and saluting the flag at the beginning of the game.

WHAT? WHO IS “they?”WHAT is the veil covering over the TRUE reasons?

I mentioned how I really no longer like to watch college or NFL football games, as I did in my younger years.  I did not give a reason why. I just my playing football in my younger  years, enjoyed playing football, and also did the enjoyment of watching football games, especially when purchasing tickets with “on demand” capabilities, entering a stadium, and not paying for the myriad of collective games with most of them being games I never watch.

The man was talking about his dislike of black people. Period. It was an example of systemic racist bigotry in America today, hidden under the veil of “conservatism.”   During Jim Crow, that veil of “conservatism” was up there, loud and clear, but I thought we had moved on beyond that.

People will defend this anti-human reaction as just being patriotic. If I had said anything, my reply would have been to mention that saluting the flag, for some people, involves a dislike of words like, “bombs bursting in air” and putting guns and violence first. White folks do it and validate this with the 2nd Amendment. That is supposed to be patriotic? It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who really endorsed the use of non-violence, in spite of the words in the national anthem.  It took a lot of guts to even consider, after white folks hidden in white robes were lynching black people. Still. Non violence being pushed by black folks.

Furthermore, how many times do white folks salute the flag while saying the ledge of allegiance? White racist bigots who are nothing but hypocrites.  When the words “…liberty and justice for all,” I see no white person even flinch a muscle as they are thinking to themselves, “I really don’t want liberty and justice for all.” That’s not true for ALL white folks. But there are still many who are hypocrites who repeat those words. And then they work to put down black folks who express their own “freedom of expression and speech” by kneeling rather than standing during the national anthem.  Systemic racism is about hiding true feelings and saying, “yes’r, no sir” with a smile while repeating and participating in the patriotism which evidently is only allowed for white folks.  The true feelings of bigotry and racism, I would wager, were behind what that man said, as he felt “America is going to hell.” He did not say it. But that “hell” is the equality earned by black folks which they did not have in the “good old days” which some white folk are longing to achieve.   Considering this aspect, it embarrasses me to think about being white myself and having to experience such vicious attitudes hidden under the veil of “conservatism” and some who are patriotic proclaiming they go along with the objections to kneeling, just to go along with a crowd they consider patriotic.  It truly is disgusting to consider living in such a nation with white people who don’t want to progress past the lack of coexistence between colored and white, gay and straight, and Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others.  To be patriotic is to say, “he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother,” even when someone kneels in expressing one’s own feelings for being a people which has been treated bad and now voter suppression and other means of putting people down are being used in Dixie again in order to “return to the good old days” of the environment like the poll tax and lynching.  Black folks who kneel are not taking the freedoms gained for granted and wish to be recognized in their expressions of protest. I cannot blame them, especially being a gay man who won’t take for granted the freedoms gained by the LGBTQ+

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Commentary, systemic racism

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Systemic Racism

Kudos to Jeffry Blau of Clarks Summit, PA, for his letter regarding one more systemic racist problem in America.  In reference to the lawsuit filed against the NFL by the former Miami Dolphins coach with regard to discrimination   What a shame to have to resort to lawsuits when this is an issue about human equality and justice.  Too many people are living in denial of such discriminatory practices and bigotry.  It takes people like Mr. Blau to continue to hit at these things through various forms of media such as this letter. Other modes of communicating human equality and human justice issues are blogs, online forums, and so forth.

It was informative to learn from Mr. Blau about how the brain injury issue in football has been treated in a distasteful and disdainful way against black folks. It is bizarre to think that black folks are not being as well treated as white folks when it comes to the treatment for brain injury due to the lower “cognitive nature” of black folks. How absurd to consider such a thing. I wa a professor and educator for some 40 years in colleges in very multi-racial environments.  We are all human beings. Some have better cognitive abilities than others. Some have various reasons for cognitive skills, good or bad, as well as visual, auditory, or physical handicaps. There is NOTHING which indicates white is better than black. In fact, there are times when a black student is better than a white; vice versa.  But as an educator, such qualities of color were never part of my consideration. The black student who came to me to show me the A+ he received on each Advanced Calculus test. That does not mean there were no white students who could achieve the same score. It is a human consideration, not a racial consideration. 

What a shame, too, that there are such stupid fools in America who work to block the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. What foolish SOBs who do this. Human equality in voting, too, damn it. Stop the crap from those with money who block such equality. Stop the crap in many states in Dixie who are doing gerrymandering and voter suppression so as to put white supremacists in office. Shameful, shameful America which allows this to happen without the people of America getting up in arms. To repeat. We need to appreciate what peopl like Mr. Blau say and the virtual “microphone” given to him to let this be known so we do it far and wide in America.

Mr. Blau mentions a comparison to Big Tobacco living in denial over the impact of smoking and likens those events in big corporations which lack and morality and ethics for human equality and justice.  In that case, too, much was solved to hold Big Tobacco accountable for the costs of healthcare for Americans who succumb to lung cancer. Who and what political group was responsible for that? Anybody realize? That too, came from Florida.  Before the Republican one-party dictatorship was established in Florida (about 1998 when Jebbie Bush became governor), it was DEMOCRATIC PARTY GOVERNOR LAWTON CHILES. Chiles played a major role in the lawsuit filed. Sad that he mysteriously died in 1998 and never got a chance to run for president.  There is too much complaining about Democrats by using false statements. This statement about Lawton Chiles is not in error. You don’t believe me, then do the research to find out.

Finally, Mr. Blau was right on point as he mentioned Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate, Dave White, as White “promises in campaign ads to block public school curriculums that expose students to America’s history of racism.”  Such candidates are in denial and do make “America’s largest plantation, also known as the NFL.” Together with other types of plantation owners, this nation is full of systemic racism and that needs to be stopped.  If not, then when the day comes and white folks are no longer the majority, they will not be very unhappy. That is, unless they wish to carry rifles, as plantation owners did to execute black folks; or like the Jim Crow, white  vigilante groups carrying ropes for lynching. The true reason for being against gun control and safety and the NRA has nothing to do with the U.S. Constitution, but about systemic racism and the fear that one day white folks will no longer be the majority population.  Thus, such white folks are scared and frightened right now so as to fake things about government or validating gerrymandering only if Republicans do it for their benefit, and all the other stuff perpetuated by such white folks.

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Commentary, democracy, human-rights

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It’s Humanity, Stupid, Not Politics & the Mush of McConnell, the Corrupt Demagogue of Systemic Racism of a White Supremacist

It’s humanity, you stupid jerk, not politics. McConnell needs to be removed because those remarks are treasonous to America, laced with a tone of systemic racist attitude.

First of all, his tone is to differentiate between African Americans and Americans.  That is my interpretation and it might be wrong. Or is it? “Americans,” as I have heard from many (not all) who are from Kentucky, are about “white” Americans.

Secondly, McConnell was saying this in order to defeat the John Lewis Voting Act and validate the Republican states which ARE attempting to legislate voter suppression of the African-American population.  In other words, this damnable statement by McConnell is to make it all sound good, but to validate those who are working to REDUCE what ever numbers of black folks voting which now exists in America.

These actions are not only taking place in states like Kentucky, but in many other states such as Florida, too.  For more than 20 years, the Florida gerrymandering and imprisonment of young black folks in Florida for the purposes of a hopeful way to create criminals by having them living among the hardened ones in jail and thus remove such people from the voting rolls. The use of a privatized penal system run by Wackenhut is designed with a focus on one group of culture (black), due  to making a profit by keeping the cells full.  A racist Wisconsin Republican politician has made statements of praise about what Jebbie, Rick the Prick, and DeSatan of Floirda have done to create this environment of suppression of voters. I was a Republican who watched, in Florida, as the one-party state was created in Florida, with the use of corrupt power and control practices. Florida has become a one-party state similar to Putin’s Russia. Russia with its Soviet Union was once a one-party communist state. After all, Putin was a communist KGB agent at one time.  Jebbie, Rick the Prick, DeSatan, McConnell, and other Republicans provide a fake facade about being against that type of government in the former Soviet Union, while pushing the idea of autocratic government, the common thread between Putin and the Hitler Nazis and Mussolini fascists. 

I repeat. It’s about HUMANITY, stupid, not politics. The power and control by McConnell is done by a corrupt man who gained his money off the back of taxpayers and sits in the U.S. Senate, lying to the American people. He spins things around by using a systemic bigoted racist tone in his phrases.  For crimes against humanity, McConnell needs to be brought down. For unethical and immoral crap more dangerous to America’s future than any other similar crap, McConnell needs to be brought down.  Why are we not playing hardball on this? So we can have an America like that of Putin, STalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Mao Tse-Tung, Castro, Batista, or others?

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Commentary, democracy, systemic racism

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Do You Take it for Granted?

Headlines read that several Asian-American women are murdered in cold blood in Atlanta. Several years ago, we read about a black congregation in Charleston, South Carolina is attacked and numerous people lose their lives. Systemic racism. Do you take this for granted and think that you are not affected, so what the hell? Are you white and think, “who cares?” Are you white and think you don’t believe this to be a serious matter, so just leave me alone. I don’t want contention.

Recently, a movie came out about the story of the despicable way black singer named Billy Holiday was treated by an FBI with a lunatic gay-bashing latent homosexual who dressed in drag, J. Edgar Hoover, emboldened his agents to attack black folks in false and foul ways. The movie is titled, The United States vs. Billy Holiday. It stars a performance befitting a person deserving an Oscar, Andra Day.

Brilliant performance, in the eyes of retired Professor Cornwell. Cornwell has always enjoyed the singing of Billy Holiday and Andra Day was able to imitate Holiday’s sound in a great way. A sound based on sensitivity as she sings, even if her style is different from what the high brow elitists might enjoy hearing. Professor Cornwell loves the sensitivity of the sounds of Renee Fleming’s voice within the genre she sings, but also finds a very sensitive voice in Billy Holiday, in the genre in which she sings. Professor Cornwell also recalls the sensitivity in the voice of Janis Joplin and in another different way.

Cornwell wonders, though. If the commentary to berate the voice of Billie Holiday due to being in the closet regarding racism and covering over such feelings of racism by casting aspersions on Holiday’s voice? Is it mirroring and loving the actions of Harry Anslinger (actor Garrett Hedlund) who was doing the duty assigned to him to take down Billie Holiday, due to her song, “Strange Fruit,” while hiding the actions behind a veneer of law and order against drugs? In this way, do you take it for granted that there is nothing serious about what Billie Holiday was trying to speak out with regard to the Dixie lynchings?

In that case, then you must think the truth hurts and this is the manner to which you are accustomed and hope to continue the status quo, ignoring the truth. The truth will set all of us free, even if it hurts, even when you do not lose a life, as was the case of those lynched in the South or in the case of the Asian-Americans who were recently viciously shot in Atlanta when they did not deserve such a fate. No one who has faced such things has deserved such a bloody ordeal.

​Benjamin Franklin: “​Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are ​affected.”

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Commentary, New Comments

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Systemic Racism, Hidden Racism Among Many White People?

RE: “‘Strange Fruit’ – still ripe for debate” (USA TODAY byline, Patrick Ryan).

The article in today’s “Go! Binghamton” section of the Press & Sun-Bulletin (March 11, 2021), was an interesting and inspiring account of jazz singer, Billie Holiday and a new movie about Ms. Holiday on Hulu (The United States vs. Billie Holiday). The wonderful achievements of Billie Holiday are important to point out and that was done quite well by Mr. Ryan of The USA Today network.

When Billie Holiday and this song was presented to a room full of young students of all colors at a Black History Month presentation in the college library where I was a professor, most of the students were weeping when they listened and viewed the “strange fruit” which was represented by black people hung from trees during the Jim Crow era. The author of the article gives a good overview of this. It is very informative to realize that the FBI had gone after Billie Holiday for singing such a song. In other words, a 1930s era FBI of law enforcement which likely would have no disapproval of what has recently happened to people like George Floyd. No surprise, but for a historian, there is a recognition that the events of the 1930s in which there was the FBI which went after Ms. Holiday on the tail of a one-term president of Herbert Hoover and the KKK of those years. The actions of the administration that followed Herbert Hoover, to be able to curtail some of that (but not as completely as it should have been, in my humble opinion) is the reasoning behind hatred of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. After all, the New Deal was about a deal for EVERYONE, not just white folks who rubbed each other’s backs, asked for favors to be restricted within the white community and an expectation of handouts. Without these things, such white folks carrying Confederate flags don’t appreciate what they have received from this wonderful nation over the years.

It is important to teach Americans about the venomous racism of Jim Crow so as to end the systemic racism today which is an extension of a war which was one in 1865 and those traitors carrying Confederate battle flags lost. It was the end of a war, not the end of one battle and invoking more battles over time.

For those who read to the end of the article, they will notice, once again, support of anti-racist ideas is “left-wing progressives.” Never are far-right-wing mentioned with their ties to bigotry and contention with equality of the races. How sad that is. They will also notice the use of the word “reality” to describe what exists, as if to say, “too bad, too bad, there is nothing to be done.” The “reality” is one dictated by wealthy white snotty piggish white folks from groups like Duke’s KKK and the John Birch Society. Folks who refuse to INTEGRATE groups like the Daughters of the American Revolution which rejected black singer Marian Anderson from appearing before an event sponsored by the DAR and for which Eleanor Roosevelt expressed her disdain for the DAR because they refused to acknowledge the fact that ancestors of black AND black/white folks follow a positive “tree” in which they are not hung like fruit. In other words, their “tree” includes their ancestors who DID fight to fight for independence from the Crown.

Same thing with the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) in not allowing black people to become members when they are able to PROVE an ancestry from American Revolution patriots. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that a black man was the first to lose his life when the British first fired on a colonist crowd near Boston. How many of the white people in that crowd which was there to fight the British are members of the SAR or DAR? Then compare whether there are any descendants of the black man or other black people who were fighting for our independence allowed in the SAR or DAR?

Then there are the segregated Masonic orders. And why has the AME not joined with other mixed denominations of religious orders?

Reality is dictated and reality can be changed by helping all of us rid ourselves of the conditions for maintaining a status quo of systemic racism. It is NOT an issue of politics, but an issue with no debate among human beings.

Finally, I have to ask who wrote the headline for this article? Was it the local Press & Sun-Bulletin or USA Today? This headline of “‘Strange Fruit’ still ripe for debate” is inappropriate and meant to sensationalize this article for white supremacist and bigots. Argue as you may about my conclusion. Could the headline been a bit more tempered? Bottom line. This issue is NOT for debate. Learning about what Billie Holiday had to say with this song is not open to debate. I know plenty of conservatives and liberals alike who DO NOT embrace such lousy attitudes about white supremacy. It DOES NOT describe left-wing or right-wing when discussing such matters as “strange fruit.” And if you are one who feels it never impacted you, especially if white, so why care about it, then shame on you for your lack of love and preferred hatred of fellow Americans. Hatred is what it is and there is NO validation for it.

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