Philando Castile

Although the Second Continental Congress declared our independence on July 2, we once again celebrate this event on the fourth, when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The most recognized segment of the declaration is of course these words:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Ironically, these words were an inspiration to America’s enslaved and free alike. Since the document’s signing, our country has spent centuries fighting over who gets to be endowed with those unalienable rights. This quarrel continues with the election of a President who accuses Black and brown people of stealing elections. Trump sees Muslim citizens as a Jihadist enemy, staying silent when they are killed by enraged bigots or their places of worship are flanked by armed belligerents. He believed the first Black president was a foreign interloper. The President is backed by forces determined to trample the human rights of LGBTQ citizens in the name of religious liberty. Continue Reading →

I was traveling on a Greyhound bus enjoying the 36 hour voyage home from college. A mother and her small son were sitting behind me. The little kid suddenly looks up at me in my big ugly cowboy hat through the space between the seats and asks if my hat was brown because I was brown. She instantly sputtered an apology. I wasn’t upset because the child didn’t call me anything offensive. He just made an innocent association. If he had been a grown man, however, I would infer he was trying to be provocative. Unlike children, we expect adults to take some time considering the effect of their words before speaking. Most of us are socialized to do our best not to piss off other people unnecessarily.

But when people rail against Political Correctness, they are saying that being courteous to minorities, homosexuals, or women is way too much trouble. Being polite to Black people is a terrible burden. Want to call undocumented immigrants murderers and rapists? Why not. Need to compare Black Lives Matter, an organization dedicated to restraining extreme state violence, to terrorists like ISIS, an organization that routinely beheads people on video tape? Go ahead. Every society has certain standards of civilized behavior. It is not wrong to consider every citizen in these standards. Continue Reading →

When I took a government course in college, the class was sometimes split into sections. The teaching assistant leading our group asked us what we thought America’s future challenges would be. Students gave various answers. Then one student stunned the class with his concerns. First, he believed english would become a second language in our major cities. Second, that the faggots would take over the university. The other students were stunned. His answer did not surprise me then and the election results did not surprise me now.

Trump always managed to connect a particular ethnic or religious group to almost every problem. Savage undocumented Mexicans were raping and killing citizens. Global Warming was a Chinese plot to undermine American enterprise. Terrorists must be stopped by halting Islamic immigration and registering Muslim citizens. Stopping and frisking Black and brown people was necessary for the public order. In fact, those same Black and brown citizens should also be monitored when they vote to prevent fraud. But he failed to specify the ethnic identity of the oppressive establishment responsible for punishing the hard working middle class. Why? Because railing against the WHITE establishment would ruin the WHITE Nationalist narrative he was trying to carefully construct.

I am told many Trump supporters are not racists. Most may not be racists, but so what. These voters heard him demonize whole groups of fellow Americans, deciding they didn’t care. It wasn’t their problem. And I’m not just talking about white supporters either. Continue Reading →