Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Saturday, June 20, 2020

"Prejudice is an emotional commitment to ignorance."


9 comments:

Jerry Critter said...

Good question! Powerful question!!!

Les Carpenter said...

OT - Watching the Dotard donnie Tulsa Oklahoma rally. I find myself totally embarrassed to say I am an American. Dotard donnie should cause every true patriotic American to feel embarrassment.

skudrunner said...

Above all else lets live in the past that way we cannot move forward. Preach that there is systemic racism because if pointed out that it is a small percentage of people who are racist it will not keep hate alive. As long as everyone is identified by their color we cannot have a united society. We destroy our past so we can rewrite our future and now botox nan removes the pictures of any confederate speaker but won't demand that Yale University change it's name.


NALM
Be Safe

Dave Miller said...

Skud... I'm confused. Are you mad that people are living in the past, or trying to destroy it? Should we move past our past sins, or keep them front and center for the sake of history?

There is a huge difference between people who owned slaves and did good stuff for the country, like Washington and Jefferson, and people who owned slaves and declared war on the country to continue that practice. There is a big difference between people who at one time owned slaves or belonged to the KKK and renounced those views while working to repay society and those who want to celebrate the culture, and behaviors that enabled those beliefs.

Sometimes, as Niebuhr wrote, you can redeem culture. And when someone works, as for example Sen Byrd, to redeem the culture around his previously racist behavior, we should celebrate that. That is a southerner we should all honor. But unrepentant men, like Lee, Jackson, Bragg and others, should never be honored. Studied, learned from yes. But never venerated.

Les Carpenter said...

Hear Hear Dave!! Spot on and very well stated. I'm with ya ALL the way.

skudrunner said...

Rev, No confusion but sorry I thought you would understand what I was saying. Everything seems to be reliving the past and not looking at the future. I do realize it is easier to blame than fix so it is understandable for our elected elite to take that path. Was the US systemically racist 50 years ago, probably, are there racists today, yes but it is not systemic racism although that is what the left is preaching. There were 104 shootings and 14 fatalities in Chicago last weekend and since it was black on black racism didn't play a part yet the news is all about the low turnout in Tulsa because that serves their desire to elect biden and destroy trump. Now that there is a push to defund police don't you wonder how it will affect the minority communities. The mansions in Boston will still be protected but brockton may suffer.

There is an attack on Columbus OH because he mistreated Native Americans. Statues of Custer, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull should be removed. Face it there is not a statue of any person who has not offended someone. Should we rename states and cities with a letter instead of a name. Your reference to Byrd was in jest I hope because he was a racist and democrat till the end.

If they are going to change the name of military bases then they sure need to change Yale University to something other than a slave trader.

RN, It shows that you put a lot of time in your comment. Hope it didn't occupy your entire fathers day.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skudrunner: "Everything seems to be reliving the past and not looking at the future."

SK: The past MUST be examined so that we stop repeating its mistakes in the future. As George Santayana said "Those who don't learn from the past are condemned to repeat it."

skudrunner: "Was the US systemically racist 50 years ago, probably, are there racists today, yes but it is not systemic racism although that is what the left is preaching."

SK: The racism in America IS systemic. Your next line in that comment sadly shows this to be true.

skudrunner: "There were 104 shootings and 14 fatalities in Chicago last weekend and since it was black on black racism didn't play a part"

SK: I'm sure you've never been concerned about the massacres that were committed by a majority of young white men on white people. We watched a young white man slaughter babies in kindergarten, didn't we, and then another young white man slaughter dozens of white people in Las Vegas, and another young white man shoot up a school and slaughter young people in Florida, and on and on and on.

Why do you cite black on black shootings? What is your point?

"Here's a stat on police shootings of African-Americans: The rate of fatal police shootings in the United States shows large differences based on ethnicity. Among Black Americans, the rate of fatal police shootings between 2015 and June 2020 stood at 30 per million of the population, while for White Americans, the rate stood at 12 fatal police shootings per million of the population."

Why do you suppose that is?

When Dylann Roof, a white man, massacred 9 people in church, the police gently arrested him and even bought him a hamburger.

Compare that to George Floyd's capture for ALLEGEDLY passing a fake $20 bill. Compare that to what the cops did to Eric Garner for selling individual cigarettes, compare that to the police shooting 12 year old Tamir Rice who was playing with a toy gun, and on and on...

That you don't see the systemic racism is very telling, because it's endemic in this country, and only people who are willfully blind to it because it makes them uncomfortable or it destroys their false image of America deny this.

You willfully missed the part that Dave wrote about Byrd. Byrd was repentent and remorseful for his past racism and spent the rest of his life working for equality and justice. Why did you do that?

The fact that you brought up Yale University also relates to our systemic racism. Very few in the past ever thought about the racism that ran through the founding and growth of America thanks to slavery. But now is the time for reckoning and coming to terms with it.

How that reckoning takes place is anyone's guess, but the time is finally here.

We've venerated and honored the atrocious insitution of slavery for centuries and the generals who committed treason agains America to preserve it.

I for one am grateful to see this change. There will be overreaching and overcompensating, but in the end, this will be fine and America will be better for it.

Les Carpenter said...

Sxrew you skud. Here's the deal, Shaw is free to banter with you for the 10 years uf she wishes. However skud I do not suffer fools gladly. So, I am done reading your rather irrational twaddle. Hope you had a nice fathers day.

skudrunner said...

Thanks Les I did have a nice fathers day although my kids are all over the place but they did call. Hope you had a good one also.