Posted on 03/21/2015 11:56:09 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fanatics believe their opinions are unbiased and unassailable. Conservatives, who contemptuously ridicule everything Barack Obama, believe their opinions sacred and his ideas sacrilegious. They have not come to terms with the fact that a black person occupies the White House as president, and not as a cook.
Many conservatives grudgingly admit that his Bloody Sunday speech in Selma was a great speech, but could not resist belittling it. He has been accused of fomenting strife, opening old wounds and politicizing the event. Bloody Sunday was politicized when the Congressional GOP leadership announced they would not attend. They were pandering to a tea party base that has no civil rights wounds. The move was not surprising, considering the hatred and disrespect they have shown for the president.
Standing arm-in-arm with Obama in Selma would have shown solidarity for a cause he espouses. Their absence only illuminated their hypocrisy, and illustrated how badly out of touch they are with the poor, the marginalized and the "others" among us. Those with power work only for those with power. That is the legacy of our democracy. It is what Martin Luther King Jr. talked about, wrote about and walked about.
The cauldron of discord did not need to be stirred by the president. Discord and distrust were fomented by the memory of police behavior that demonstrates again and again that the lives of black males are worthless. The caustic brew was stirred by those who work tirelessly to reverse the advances made by minorities and women. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a public policy organization with close ties to the GOP. ALEC is guiding the efforts of lawmakers to curtail voting rights, abortion rights and matrimonial rights. The agenda of ALEC fuels the antitheses of equal rights for minorities and women.
To argue that statements from Barack Obama are fueling more strife is spurious and without merit. The recent shooting of two white policemen in Ferguson, Mo., serves the purpose of Obama detractors. They will blame his Selma remarks for the outrage. The responsibility is the rampant culture of disrespect for people of color in America. Justice needs to be served for that act, as it was for the shootings by policemen.
Whose wounds are we talking about here? These are the wounds of minorities and women. We, who have been bloodied for centuries, are counseled to hide our wounds. Our wounds are grim reminders of injustices imposed by slave masters, Ku Klux Klansmen, hate-filled politicians and others. These organizations have morphed into neo-Nazis, skinheads and other racist groups. Our wounds help us not to forget. The eyes of the world have grown accustomed to America's hypocrisy regarding race, gender and civil rights.
Let us not forget the wounds inflicted by the culture of "white privilege" in America, the 2015 variety of "segregation" and "white supremacy." This view holds that whites are privileged in every respect — a birthright. It is the norm. Nobody sits around and strategizes about white privilege. It is so ingrained in our society that we take it for granted. Look consciously and you will see it in action. Power in America is wielded by whites, mainly white men. And they do whatever it takes to keep it. This is not to see all white people as racists. That stoops to the level of racists. And, most assuredly, not all minorities are saints. White privilege is simply the world into which we are born.
Some white parents talk glibly about expecting a son to be killed if he attacks a policeman during an arrest or confrontation. White privilege guarantees that a white son is given immunity from such a confrontation. My sons and Obama's son, if he had one, would be certain of such a confrontation. The culture of white privilege prevails no matter the race of the policeman. Those who benefit most from this form of racism shout loudest for the "others" to pull themselves up by their boot straps. Their focus obscures the absence of boots and straps. These are people like Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, GOP presidential candidates. Success for either would cause a decline in the middle class. A decline much worse than the recent financial crises from which Obama rescued the U.S. economy.
A study by the Justice Department unearthed the cancerous racism that white privilege has created in Ferguson. The results of that study portend worse outcomes for all of us than black leaders speaking for the voiceless. The unhappy truth is that Ferguson is not an isolated case. White transgression, especially if it is against minorities, is expected to be excused, forgiven and instantly forgotten. What would a similar study reveal about Tuscaloosa and its policing policies? Not accusing, just asking.
Wounds constantly being ripped open will never heal. The untimely deaths of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and others at the hands of white policemen are symbolic of our wounds being ripped and torn. Many would have us remain silent in the face of the kind of aggression and malevolent treatment they would not tolerate. These are the same conservatives who admonish us to hide our wounds, for fear the exposed wounds may get diced and sliced by the twin daggers of racism and sexism. This would create more discord. Their primary concern is the discord, not the wounds.
I am grateful that the president made the journey to Selma. He admonished us all to remember ,"Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished…. Two hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation's founding, our union is not yet perfect. But we are getting closer."
America is not an inherently evil or irredeemable place. That does not mean I think America and Americans are above criticism. We must all work to make it what it professes to be; a place where all of us are equal under the law. All but the most narrow-minded will agree that in 2015, not all Americans are equal under the law. Obama sees America as neither sinless nor broken beyond repair. He believes as fervently as I do that together, we can fix our great country. To do so, we must stop believing that all white is all right and all black get to the back.
******
Oscar Tucker is a retired Tuscaloosa educator. Readers can email him at otucker@ comcast.net.
He fails to realize that he is the fanatic.
The obvious solution is to start lynching white people.
Well, he’s right about some being unequal under the law. We would be in jail for not paying taxes, as Al Sharpton has done.
Well, Oscar, it ain’t that he’s black (or half-black), it’s that he’s a Communist Muslim homosexual.
Yes, what he said.
“Well, Oscar, it ain’t that he’s black (or half-black), it’s that he’s a Communist Muslim homosexual.”
Well, Tucker certainly does fit the definition he himself opened the article with.
Tucker is also a racist and a bigot of the first order.
You are only calling him that because he is black.
Oscar is just another ignoramus talking out of his a.. I’ve read numerous screeds over the decades. Nothing ever changes....evil whitey is to blame for all black problems.
What are Democrats, Alex?
>>They have not come to terms with the fact that a black person occupies the White House as president, and not as a cook.<<
No point in reading after that. Someone should have schooled this fool: *ppssstt* you play the race card at the END of your diatribe!
To argue that statements from Barack Obama are fueling more strife is spurious and without merit.
“CARRY THROUGH” as advice to the rioters in ferguson was what????
oscar needs to lay off both the coffee and the weed.
Translation:
Oscar Tucker has been filling the minds of his students with hatred for many years.
The author has no clue that conservative’s view of Obnama has nothing to do with his skin color.
They were pandering to a tea party base that has no civil rights wounds. The move was not surprising, considering the hatred and disrespect they have shown for the president. ................................................ Damn, that Yea Party again, when will they ever learn that being inept is a sign of great Democrat leadership regardless of one’s color?
The title is a non sequitur.
If “White privilege” ensures inequality, then such inequality is not “inherent”, but extrinsic, forced, alien.
Unlike the article which is inherently lazy, sloppy, meandering and squishy.
ok .... my 2 cents for the idiot that somehow managed to pull ‘a flaming bunny’ from his alimentary orifice, and script this piece:
“In your eyes, what privilege do -I- get, for being a half-breed Mojave?”
Dah injun part .... (yes, I said that).
or,
Dah white part?
Make way white person coming through! I get to go to the head of the line.
You see that all the time. White people being waved to the head of the line.
I’m a White person! I call white privilege!
My house and car and everything i own was bought for me.
I get an additional $1000 a week just for being white. A lot non-white people don’t know about that. Shhhh.
Whitey coming through!
When blacks finally create a dominating society (maybe in twelve thousand light years), then they can make up the societal rules.
Based on what Haiti and Zimbabwe look like, my guess is that many won’t want to live there.
Gee, does that include even presidents? Unless they are black, of course--then it's racism, right?
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