Posted on 08/01/2013 5:55:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
"Today... I'm proud to be an American.”
– Robert Zimmerman Jr., on Twitter, following his brother's acquittal
An ABC News-Washington Post poll reveals that a full two-thirds of white Americans believe that Trayvon Martin’s killing was justifiable. Therefore, that same two-thirds of white folks also believe that George Zimmerman's acquittal in the second degree murder trial against him was also justifiable.
Historian and activist Paul Street writes in BlackAgendaReport.com that these poll numbers reflect the “separateness in perspective that reflects very real, savage, and profound, literal segregation” of the races in America.
“That’s a lot more than just the segment of the white population that’s Republican or Tea Party. There’s a lot of Democrats in there, and that probably includes a whole bunch of ‘liberals.’ This isn’t just about cracker whites in the South.”
Street is also author of The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama and the Real World of Power.
As Street indicates, on the other hand, the same ABC-Washington Post poll shows that 86 percent of black Americans disagree with the jury's verdict. Blacks wholeheartedly support the bringing of federal civil rights violations charges against Zimmerman. Eighty-six percent.
Opinion
In any statistics course in any university, one of the first thing one learns is that polls represent only a “snapshot” of that particular sample's thinking at that particular time.
Not so in this case, however.
This poll highlights an ongoing and pervasive “divide” between the “races” as to the question of “race.” For example, this poll also shows that most white people do not believe that “race” played much of a role in the Zimmerman trial at all; while black people see race as the absolute and defining issue in the matter.
And, despite (or perhaps because of) President Obama's recent framing of the killing of Trayvon Martin and Zimmerman's acquittal as based in “racial profiling,” most white folks reject this characterization, while most black folks welcome it.
So, what's really going on?
Those white poll respondents who agree with the Zimmerman verdict have little or no personal experience grounded in oppression solely because of the color of their skins. It is just plainly, simply, damn near impossible for them to even imagine such a thing. They have gone through life believing – experiencing – the “American Dream” as a lived reality, something that is achievable if only they work hard enough, obey the law, and treat everybody right.
The black experience is a whole different kettle of fish, however. For black people in this nation-state, the color of their skins has always – always – being the singlemost defining characteristic that determined their social, political and economic outcomes vis-a-vis a white-dominated society. No amount of education, hard work, or honest dealing with others has ever changed this dynamic for the masses of black people.
Individuals, yes. Certain, select black individuals – usually those who must disavow any relationship with “blackness” – are allowed a modicum of success outside the black paradigm.
And so these poll results are not particularly surprising.
So black people must retrench and regroup. It goes without saying that this has not been a particularly good period for civil rights.
What we are witnessing is a long, slow old-style “white backlash” and white retrenchment into a new-style white supremacy. Many simply cannot accept or stand Obama's black presence in their “White” House.” Overwhelming approval of the Zimmerman verdict is just one, therefore, among many ways and means of expressing that distasteful reality.
As the saying goes, “It is what it is.”
The Author
“For black people in this nation-state, the color of their skins has always – always – being the singlemost defining characteristic that determined their social, political and economic outcomes vis-a-vis a white-dominated society.”
And this author, and others like him, are working hard to keep it that way.
“No amount of education, hard work, or honest dealing with others has ever changed this dynamic for the masses of black people.”
Never? Really? What about successful black people, like...
“Individuals, yes. Certain, select black individuals – usually those who must disavow any relationship with “blackness” – are allowed a modicum of success outside the black paradigm.””
So, wait a second. Certain individuals blacks can achieve success, but it isn’t because of hard work, honesty, etc? It’s because they aren’t “black” enough? It seems like the standard the only way the author would consider someone “black” enough is if they were a failure in life.
I could also say that, by the way he restricts “a modicum of success” to exclude the millions of blacks who have decent jobs, educations, own homes, and whatnot, that his standards of success must be simply wealth, political power, and fame. That means that this “modicum of success” is also being denied to the masses of white people. Maybe we are not acting “white enough” to have success granted to us? If I start playing golf and listening to Lawrence Welk, will that get me the big promotion?
Did he somehow forget who the president, attorney general and national security advisor are right now? Or Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice? Or General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., back in the 1940’s?
Thanks. Unfortunately as conservatives, we have to expend as much effort countering the lies as we do presenting the truth.
Until Blacks get over it, not dwell on it, they will never achieve anything. I am white, was born with a handicap that keeps me from doing certain things. I accept that and continue with my life, not try to pass laws that bring everybody else down or give me an advantage.
“Back in the ’50s and ’60s, white supremacists would take their victims back into the woods and beat, shoot, burn and lynch then mutilate them there, usually under cover of night, but often in the glow of gargantuan gasoline-soaked Christian crosses. Now, because of the advancements in technology, they may simply stalk the Trayvon Martins of the world in broad open daylight, like some dangerous animal, while talking to the local constable on their I-phones as they do so. Contrary to Clarence Thomas’ assertions, Trayvon’s was a real “high-tech lynching.””
Herbert Dyer Jr. is an African American writer in Chicago. Herb also works at Roosevelt University’s “Life Skills and Re-entry Program” as a tutor in computer skills, language training, job-readiness skills to ex-offenders. He has a masters degree from Governors State University in Political & Justice Studies and can be reached at: accra0306@yahoo.com.
Those white poll respondents who agree with the Zimmerman verdict have little or no personal experience grounded in oppression solely because of the color of their skins. It is just plainly, simply, damn near impossible for them to even imagine such a thing. They have gone through life believing -- experiencing -- the "American Dream" as a lived reality, something that is achievable if only they work hard enough, obey the law, and treat everybody right.B*!!$h!+! The only real oppression *in* this country victimizes *only* white people, or "white Hispanics" like George Zimmerman. There's no equal protection -- instead there are extralegal "hate speech" and "civil rights" and quotas in school admissions and hiring. Anyone who disagrees with that is either absurdly stupid or a baldfaced liar.
You know dat right.
It is true that if you want to define "blackness" as a poor attitude and a paranoia that everybody is against blacks, yes, others will not want to work with you because the tension and drama is distracting.
Every group has norms that they want observed. If you constantly remind everyone by your behavior that you don't want to be part of their group, they will shun you.
Some groups are easy to blend into, others just aren't a good fit for you so you move on. It happens to all of us.
Obama is one eighth Arab, three eighths African, and half Caucasian.
Zimmerman is one eighth African, three eighths Native South American, and half Caucasian.
I have worked with plenty of professional blacks. Never once felt any concern about them. I would have trusted two of them with my wallet. It’s about the man, not the skin.
A strong public application of that statement would shut a lot of those liars up. It’s up to people who get to speak into the big microphone to do it.
= Republicans, tea partiers, southern whites are expected to be racists, but not regular whites.
Excuse me! I can count off a dozen times I have been victimized by black punks. So I have personal experienced grounded in oppression by blacks on me. Starting from when I was a kid, getting my basketball taken away by a black kid who beat me. Getting a tooth knocked out in junior high. Getting jumped several times in high school by black mobs. A previous girlfriend getting pushed down stairs in high school because her hair was blond. My wife was also beaten and victimized, going home with black eyes after a beating on a public bus in junior high. Her crime, not being black.
There are a lot of non-black people who have personal experiences of oppression at the hands of blacks. Unlike the feral black punks who assaulted us, we are civil towards those who don't threaten us. But some of us are grown up, armed, and prepared to take down any black punks who threaten us now. That's a promise.
We have to speak to those who have an open mind and can be swayed with fact. I spent an hour going over the details with a relative two weeks ago to convince him. That is one person. We have to muck this out, it is the only way to fight the disinformation.
Eric Holder's Peeps might want to learn something from another minority-Asians. Asians, who look physically different from everyone else are on the whole very successful. Asians survived wars, confiscation, etc., yet they succeed. Why?
http://www.8asians.com/2010/08/01/asian-men-have-the-highest-salary/
Fixed it.
Attitude, ma’am. Attitude. Asians are allergic to pity parties.
I can’t believe that people are still believing Kenneth Lamb. He offered no proof to support his allegations, ask fellow FReeper Beckwith how trustworthy Lamb is. He’s half Luo, and they’re a black East African ethnic group, though totally different from the Yoruba, and other West African groups who were the ancestors of most “African Americans”. Also, I saw a pic of Barack Obama Sr., and while I’m certainly no anthropologist or ethnographer, he didn’t look even the slightest bit Arab.
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