Thursday, August 21, 2014
A Diatribe Against The Black Community By Johnathan Gentry
This video by Johnathan Gentry has gone viral in the conservative blog sphere, and it appears that for people who think it is a righteous answer to those who sympathize with the people of Ferguson, Missouri, I would point out a glaring problem about half way through Mr. Gentry's rant. If you don't pay close attention, you'd almost miss it. You can hear it around 3:19.
And what does Mr. Gentry say that belies his scolding and mockery of the black community?
This is what he freely admits in the video:
"I'm young and black and drive a brand new BMW and live in the Valley. How many encounters have I had with th police? MANY! How many times has it got out of ontrol? NONE! NONE! NONE! So I wanna debunk that myth about us getting mistreated..."
Neither Mr. Gentry nor the people who are using this video to shame the African-American community for protesting what happened in Ferguson, Missouri, are bothered by what Mr. Gentry himself admitted: that the police stopped him MANY TIMES while he, a law-abiding nice guy, drove around in his brand new BMW.
Presumably Mr Gentry is unaware of this irony because driving while black is so common and so unremarkable that even he is used to and accepts the insulting harassment.
I have a husband, son, nephews, male cousins, sons-in-law, and brothers-in-law just as upstanding as the young man in the video is, and they have NOT been stopped by the police MANY TIMES, (while driving white in their new expensive cars) as this young man admits. And that is quite an admission by him -- one he conveniently glosses over so he can impress people with how nice he is to the police who have mistreated him by stopping him "many times." (He never explains why he was stopped so often.)
The irony in Mr Gentry's admission while berating his own community is thick and sad and depressing.
Meanwhile the conservatives on FAUX NOOZ and in the blog sphere have found a new hero, a guy who is blind to his own mistreatment and rants about reactions to injustice while ignoring its causes.
Mr. Gentry also ignores the fact that the black community has come together many times to stop the violence and does care very much about crime within its communities. Mr. Gentry is just unaware of all this because it is easier to deal in histrionics and mock and blame your fellow citizens than it is to try to understand.
The video solves nothing, but it certainly makes a lot of people feel self-satisfied because Mr. Gentry told them that their own ideas and prejudices about African-Americans are justified and correct.
Poor Mr. Gentry. He should look up the word "irony" and be more careful the next time he mocks a community in pain.
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31 comments:
There's a small but lucrative market for black people who are willing to parrot conservative stereotypes, talking points, and prejudices about blacks. They provide a valuable service for the right wing, which is to provide someone the conservative can point to and say, "Hey what I'm saying can't be racist because here's a black person saying the same thing!"
I tend to think that those who do that are completely self-aware and cynical about it, and just do it for whatever reward they receive (money if they write for publication, or just the feeling of acceptance by a powerful group), but who can really know what goes on in their heads.
It's not only blacks, of course, there are similar "conservative parrot" Latinos, gays, and atheists as well.
This guy hasn't a f**king clue he's buying into the people who demean him and his brothers and sisters every day, the people who see all black people as rioters, looter, gangstas, this get him attention from the white community because as the Ifandel says, people pay attention and probably pay him to say those things ab ut his own people. it's disgusting and dishonest it's like calling all white boys mass murderers because most mass murerers are white men and boys.
Um hate to tell you but if you punch a police officer and try to grab his gun it ain't gonna turn out so good.
And looking at the video of Michael Brown pushing the store owner around prior to this incident, you can tell where his mindset was
ya, driving a nice car while being black....could be a problem.
GOOD friend of mine would repeatedly get stopped by the police while walking home from the University....wearing a suit, black wingtip shoes and a tie. Evidently, when you are a 6'8" big black dude wearing nice clothes....
....I used to get stopped late at night going home from work...evidently a dude with long hair,patched jeans and a honking black beard....must be a drug dealer....no matter I was walking home from the library.
we are still dealing with stereo types....and they are rampant, multi-faceted,trite,superficial and .....harmful.
To cite a few exceptions and then declare that stereo types are non existent is a display of naivety.
....which is why non-thinkers love them.
Anonymous, is what you wrote about Michael Brown grabbing the policeman's gun and punching him taken from an official report?
And no, Anon, neither you nor anyone else can tell where Michael Brown's "mindset was," since we can't read people's minds, but we can get a pretty good sense of what's in your mindset by reading what you wrote.
okjimm, I've read on one of the conservative blogs that features this video that African-Americans should just be polite to the police when they're pulled over again and again and again for petty or made-up reasons because we should expect black people to tolerate that sort of profiling in the interests of making white people feel safe. /sarcasm/
Telling white people the criminal justice system is racist makes them like it more
America's criminal justice system disproportionately hurts people of color, particularly black and Hispanic men. Supporters of criminal-justice reform tend to point to that disparity as a good reason to change the system.
But as reforms move from proposals to actual bills, the key question is how to persuade the general public that change is needed. A new study suggests that highlighting racism in the criminal justice system is not the answer, and in fact pushes white voters in the opposite direction. Even when whites believe the current laws are too harsh, they're less likely to support changing the law if they're reminded that the current prison population is disproportionately black.
Infidel753: "...but who can really know what goes on in their heads."
Apparently Anonymous at 1:22 can read a person's "mindset" by looking at a video. And lots of other people have chimed in on what they think they know about Michael Brown, and they think they know all about him from what some irresponsible reports and reporters have told them.
Shaw,
Why even bother replying to an AnonyMouse troll. A total waste of time - yours, mine and ours. When a troll argues in bad faith, the rodent is essentially hijacking a comment thread. Call animal control; get a cat; or use the delete, delete, delete button - LIBERALLY!
Michael Brown grabbing the policeman's gun and punching him is from the officer's version of events, but as CNN points out, there are "dueling narratives in the Michael Brown shooting".
As for "America's criminal justice system disproportionately hurting people of color", there is a reason that is true, and it's called institutional racism... which is something the Right would (no doubt) deny exists (that, and White privilege).
I agree with what Infidel753 said, BTW. That any African American would go along with this Rightwing narrative that harassment by the police due to being Black is acceptable is sad and depressing... although there does seem to be many who will.
It's not only blacks, of course, there are similar "conservative parrot" Latinos, gays, and atheists as well.
I'm a person with conservative fiscal views, libertarian social views, a strong work ethic, and I am atheist.
I find the "parroting" remark most distasteful as it pigeonholes me according to your biases.
Hmm
Funny how people of the Left are almost never willing to give any credence, or show proper respect to a Black Person when he (or she) fails to conform to whatever "narrative" favor's the Left's point of view and best serves the LEFT'S Power Agenda.
The problem I see with Leftists in general is their determination always to remain on the attack no matter what, and their absolute unwillingness to entertain even the faint possibility they could ever be wrong.
The arrogance, smugness, flippancy, sarcasm and lack of humility emanating from the Left is stunning.
None of us sees himself as others see us. I'm willing to stipulate that, and God knows I've been told often enough what leftists from various walks of life and levels of society think of me and the things I believe in, but it's unusual for leftists to listen with polite attention to what others outside their community think of them.
Now you've been told, IF Miss Shaw sees fit to print this billet doux.
FT: "Funny how people of the Left are almost never willing to give any credence, or show proper respect to a Black Person when he (or she) fails to conform to whatever "narrative" favor's the Left's point of view and best serves the LEFT'S Power Agenda."
This post does not in any way disrespect Mr Gentry. It merely disagrees with his rant and points out the irony of Mr. Gentry's admitting he's been stopped "many times" by police for no reason he reveals, while telling the black community to essentially shut up about that sort of profiling and make nice with the police who do it.
FT: "The problem I see with Leftists in general is their determination always to remain on the attack..."
Please don't say things like that, Mr. F.T., because you use your blog to attack liberals (calling them all sorts of names, including Communists and other vile things and blaming them for every problem this country faces -- and I won't even mention your calling President Obama a "dirty bastard." So when it comes to attacking, you, Mr. F.T., should not throw stones. You probably don't see what you say about liberals as attacks because you see nothing of any value in them. So no. I won't listen to you, Mr. Kettle, talking to Ms. Pot.
"...no matter what, and their absolute unwillingness to entertain even the faint possibility they could ever be wrong."
The above statement, Mr. F.T., perfectly describes you and your fellow travelers as well.
F.T. "The arrogance, smugness, flippancy, sarcasm and lack of humility emanating from the Left is stunning."
Your lack of self-awareness in your attacks, flippancy, smugness, sarcasm, and your lack of humility that you express against liberals at every chance you get is equally stunning. Again you have no self-awareness and that's a real problem with what you've written here.
F.T. "None of us sees himself as others see us."
Exactly. And that's why people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
F.T. "...it's unusual for leftists to listen with polite attention to what others outside their community think of them."
Really. Have you NEVER paid close attention to the level of malice, acerbity, animus, vengefulness and downright filth your comrades hurl at any liberal who dares to discuss anything on conservative blogs? Any time a liberal gives an opposing point of view the trolls invade your blog with the lowest level of invective and malignity anywhere to be found on the internet. But because you agree with their basic attacks, you don't see yourself as condoning their malice against "libtards, Commies, and America-haters."
Now YOU'VE been told. And I'm happy to hold a mirror up so that you can see yourself as others see you.
Good evening.
RN, I think you misunderstood Infidel753. He wasn't attacking you or libertarians at all.
A friend and sometime commenter here at P.E., Robert D., has emailed me to tell me some idiot on the conservative blogs is pretending to be him and using his name. I told him that is a disease of the right and is especially virulent on certain rightwing blogs. They steal other people's identity and words because they are too stupid to create one of their own.
Another example of their nastiness and dishonesty that seems to run like a river through their narratives.
Sorry, Robert D., that you've had this happen to you. I suggest you create a blog ID, but even then the wart-brains on the right who do this will steal that too.
Jonathan sounds like he's suffering from Stockholm Syndrome
Shaw, I don't believe I misunderstood his comment I italicized at all. In any case perception is reality, or so it has been said.
BTW, it was clear he wasn't talking about me. He was talking about the great many he would unjustly pigeonhole with his remark.
Hey Robert D, create a blog ID, a blog, use a picture of the real you , and start posting and blogging away. Then, if your lucky you might have asshats on the right and asshats on the left impersonating you.
Wear it as a badge of honor if you do. Being capable of pudding off the left and the right from time would likely mean you would be doing something right.
@FT --
The problem I see with Leftists in general is their determination always to remain on the attack no matter what, and their absolute unwillingness to entertain even the faint possibility they could ever be wrong.
-----
The problem I see is that you can't understand that it is not reasonable to expect people to accept being stopped simply because of skin color.
Or in another right wing meme on your blog today, "take responsibility for your reality".
So just how long do you "take responsibility" for being stopped because of nothing but skin color before you lash back.
How often do you take a frisk from some cop (who is assigned a quota) whose probable cause is that you are black and dressing loose before you lash back.
Shaw,
I could never understand why you bother giving such people as FT a platform to verbally assault the good people of this forum.
The man is little more than embittered old crank and a toxic narcissist, whose bellicose rants and cartoon dilettantism serve merely as cover to mask his failings – his hypocrisy and willful lack of self-awareness among the most noteworthy. There is no common decency, humanity, or substance to the man, and there never will be.
I am lily white and droge a delivery van in the South Bronx and Harlem and. Was stopped almost every day because surely I was there to score crack.
Hmm now I ask who was getting stereotyped?
(O)CT(O)PUS, it is true that Mr. F.T. is assaultive toward liberals and blames them for everything that's wrong with America.
But I also know a side of him that is kind, caring and even generous to a family in need that has suffered real tragedy. I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know how some people can be both bitter and sweet in their personalities, but in this case, I know someone who is.
I let him post here because he does follow my rules and does not attack any of my commenters but lets loose his feelings on political matters. He also does not allow personal attacks on me when I visit his blog to give an opposing POV on a subject.
A liberal commenter who frequents P.E. and who goes by the name of "Ducky's Here" also visits those conservative blogs almost daily where he counters their political assertions with a liberal POV, and he actually maintains a cordial relationship with the keepers of those blogs. I bring this up to demonstrate that the other side allows counter opinions on some of their blogs.
Does any of this do any good? I don't know, but if I allow only comments from people who agree with me, then I feel I'm talking to myself. And what's the point in that? If we don't listen to each other, we'll never get to know what's making us so angry.
So long as people like Mr. F.T., skud, Les, and KP, et al., who have different opinions from mine, come here and don't attack me or my commenters, I allow them to state their opinions and see if anyone, besides me, can counter them with opposing arguments.
I don't know if this explains anything, but I hope you understand why I run this blog the way I do.
Ducky, I don't expect any white man or woman to understand how our African-American brothers and sisters experience their lives in this country. Just because they know of a Johnathan Gentry or a Ben Carson or a Condoleeza Rice who tell them there is no racism in America and people like them can become successful if they want to, they believe that their stories are the same for all African-Americans. Of course we know better, and we've seen a microcosm, in the events in Ferguson and St. Louis, of why those stories are the exception in this country, not the rule.
I don't believe any white person (including me) can really understand how pervasive racism is in this country.
RN,
Is "pudding off the left and the right" even better than pissing them both off? ;)
Sorry Anonymous, anecdotal stories like yours and Mr. F.T.'s prove nothing. They don't dispute the fact that African-American males goet pulled over and stopped, as some reports have shown, up to SEVEN TIMES more often that do non-African-Americans.
“Does any of this do any good? I don't know, but if I allow only comments from people who agree with me, then I feel I'm talking to myself. And what's the point in that? If we don't listen to each other, we'll never get to know what's making us so angry.”
I am no stranger to opposing viewpoints and participate in conservative and libertarian forums, as you know. Even after a heated exchange, basic friendship assuages the wounds of partisanship – and a restoration mutual respect. Look no further than John Milton in Paradise Lost; an appearance of civility often masks a malignant intent.
Selective acts of compassion and kindness do not necessarily turn a two-dimensional person into a complex character. Some acts of kindness can be decidedly self-serving; narcissists validate themselves in self-serving ways all the time. They avoid cognitive dissonance by “compartmentalizing” deeds from feelings. Does this turn narcissists into better people? Hardly!
Consider a notorious despot who kept a Jewish mistress but facilitated the mass slaughter and genocide of her people. Did the keeping of a Jewish mistress exonerate Mussolini!
How about the infamous segregationist known as Strom Thurmond. After his death, Essie Mae Washington-Williams revealed that she was his daughter – and her mother was African-American. Did a private indiscretion exonerate his public reputation! Hell no! If anything, it turned him into a most malicious hypocrite.
FT may be an insignificant person compared to Mussolini and Thurmond, but his words are loud and clear:
FT: “This country was conceived, designed and developed by WHITE, PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN MEN and their wives. ;-)
As long as we stuck to THEIR concepts and abided by THER ideals, we did very well. Once the "Progressives" won a large share of public confidence, we've been plunged into incessant turmoil, and a long series of costly battles, and an enormous increase in Self-Pity along with an increasingly gasping "Entitlement Mentality." Coincidentally, the national IQ has been dropping like a stone ever since.”
Or this:
FT: "Quietly go to visit Progressive Eruptions and its parent site The Swash Zone … Then, after you have witnessed the endless barrage of vilification, shrill mischaracterization, fact-based prevarication, chastisement, castigation and condemnation, the insolence and contempt, remember these words:
Blesséd are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake ... The way of the ungodly shall perish.."
My point: The framing is not unlike Storm Front or the website of any extremist cult – white supremacist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, and eliminationist in the name of God.
Far be it from me to dissuade you, Ducky or RN from visiting FT's hate-ridden blog. Speaking for myself, I will not "compartmentalize" this miserable excuse of a man from his words.
By Lanre Akinsiku @Gawker
To be black and interact with the police is a scary thing. The fear doesn’t have to come from any kind of historical antagonism, which, trust me, would be enough; it can also come from many data points of personal experience, collected over time. Almost all black men have these close-call-style stories, and we collect and mostly keep them to ourselves until one of us is killed.
You know how the stories go: I was pulled over one day and the cop drew his gun as he approached my window; I was stopped on the street, handcuffed and made to sit on the sidewalk because the cop said I looked like a suspect; I had four squad cars pull up on me for jaywalking. We trade them like currency. And it almost goes without saying that these stops are de facto violent, because even when the officer doesn’t physically harm you, you can feel that you’ve been robbed of something.
The thing to remember is that each of these experiences compounds the last, like interest, so that at a certain point just seeing a police officer becomes nauseating. That feeling is fear.
I had not read those words from F.T., (O)CT(O)PUS. It is interesting to note how he bellows about "vilification, shrill mischaracterization, fact-based prevarication, chastisement, castigation and condemnation, the insolence and contempt," as descriptions of P.E. and T.S.Z., not for a minute realizing that it is HE who is practicing it by labeling everything on these blogs as such. I often remind him of HIS constant "vilification, shrill mischaracterization, fact-based prevarication, chastisement, castigation and condemnation," of liberals and their leaders, but none of that gets through to him.
And he doesn't stop and think about the fact that his blog is never attacked in this vicious way.
But you can't get people who refuse to see themselves as others see them to admit they're ever wrong.
Free Throw said, "The arrogance, smugness, flippancy, sarcasm and lack of humility emanating from the Left is stunning."
hmmmmm...and the pontification of Free Throw in his statements is stunning. He most certainly puts his right shoe on first,or perhaps, only wears right shoes.
Senility is a bitch, I guess.
Someone told you that you anger the right wingers to the point of distraction, so you've done a great job in countering their lies and distortions. Anyone who has them reading coming to read a liberal blog every day and then stamping their little feet because you disturbed their universe is to be commended. Bravo! Well done.
"But you can't get people who refuse to see themselves as others see them to admit they're ever wrong."
Narcissists never do, and never will. That is why I consider them a waste of time.
Jerry Critter said... RN,
Is "pudding off the left and the right" even better than pissing them both off? ;)
Damn auto spell correct.
No, pissing them off is better. :-)
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