Posted on 06/27/2015 11:54:19 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
~~Well-intended forgiveness has been seized on by the media and those in power as an excuse to ignore white supremacy~~
Unfortunately, forgiveness, that element of moral sanctity which facilitates assuaging of grief, has morphed into a barrier obstructing the path to justice and accountability in the United States — a place weakened by the ubiquitousness and insidiousness of racism.
Although it’s tough to direct a critical lens at the concept of forgiveness when the situation involves grieving family members tearfully addressing an expressionless, depraved killer who isn’t even asking for it, for posterity’s sake this must be done. What happened in Charleston, South Carolina, last week wasn’t an anomaly or isolated incident. It’s just the latest of many incidents of racial hatred exploding into a violent expression of a flawed, commonly espoused belief: that black people are to remain dehumanized and oppressed.
One has to admit it’s absolutely stunning to hear a hurt family member speak publicly so soon after the loss of a family member to such a heinous crime as the one that resulted in the sanguinary terminus of a prayer meeting in one of the most sacrosanct places: a place of worship. What kind of twisted criminal justice system does South Carolina have that would even encourage a family member to address a killer before a trial has even transpired? Charleston County Chief Magistrate James B. Gosnell Jr., a person who allegedly once uttered the word “n***er” in court, ought to be ashamed of himself for even exposing grieving family members to videotape of the cretinous killer standing with his back to armed guards less than 48 hours after the shootings. The looming question is: Who is protecting and advising these families which are now permanently damaged by the massacre of their loved ones in this moment of extreme shock, sorrow and bottomless dejection?
It should be argued the people who benefit most from a public offering of forgiveness are those who actually don’t have those moments of deep introspection that cause them to walk away from hatred, abject ignorance and the pervasive tentacles of systemic racism. It lets them off the hook in the same way Dylann Roof’s family, friends and the sick culture he comes from have been let off the hook. It’s the status quo, and none of the people who benefit from it the most are willing to or convicted enough in their hearts and souls to change it.
Renouncing white privilege in a society where the dominant culture suffocates and subjugates any forms of otherness and maintains its tightening grip on the jugular of blackness is something most white people either refuse to or simply manage to avoid doing. That’s understandable. Why would someone suddenly exchange the birthright benefits of being white to board the same sinking ship everyone else is chained to ad infinitum? Yes, poor whites often say they have no privilege, but they are confused about something: Simply being white opens all kinds of doors even the richest black people never have access to.
To be white isn’t just a race thing, but often also a money thing. The two are inextricably linked, not mutually exclusive. Read any book by Ferdinand Lundberg, especially “The Rich and The Super Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today” and “America’s 60 Families,” and it becomes clearer how power structures operate here and how most Americans — not just black people — are actually poor. Lundberg’s focus wasn’t on race, but he deftly and inadvertently examined the American beast from inside out and outside in. All the unhealed sores and festering wounds of racism the beast knows about but refuses to seek ointments and tinctures for continue to be under-examined and unhealed.
The truth is, President Obama needs to bring the hammer down when it comes to race and stop worrying about what some deluded, disengaged white people think by circumventing the obvious ugly truths. For anyone to be willfully obtuse in these times is a luxury none of us can afford. Ducking and dodging when it comes to systemic and cultural racism only keeps the racist inebriated as if said person just drank a whole bottle of moonshine and doesn’t have a care in the world. And this country was built in part on the genocide of Native Americans, the crippling Three-Fifths Compromise and a number of other originally flawed documents, including the U.S. Constitution — all of which justified systemic racism.
Charleston, South Carolina, like Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is such a beautiful town. Except for all the markers of slavery customs and monuments to the Confederacy, it’s actually one of the few places in America that looks like a painting come to life. The beauty of the place is false, though. It’s still one big functioning plantation in the 21st century. It’s a place where time just sat under the bridge like an ogre and decided to curl up and die. Nothing has really changed there. It’s easy to wonder why a black person would even want to live in such a place, but packing up and leaving doesn’t necessarily solve the problem. The real problem are all those people who are comfortable with racist beliefs and do absolutely nothing to address their own shortcomings in this area.
It’s not just a South Carolina problem or a Southern problem, but a nationwide problem. And though this incident has rightly been labeled a massacre and an act of terror, it’s also an assassination. Why are so few people using the term assassination in reference to the shooting of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who also served as a South Carolina state senator — a man deeply concerned, ironically enough, with the aftermath of the Walter Scott shooting? The loner tropes and outlier narratives being ascribed to Mr. Roof are part of some larger spiel to get us to forget all the real ugliness of racism and hatred behind these killings.
Well intended forgiveness is actually being manipulated, as it always is, when a black person dies so violently for reasons which suggest black skin is itself perceived as a weapon. Forgiveness in itself has unfortunately been twisted into a narrative; not by the families, but by the mainstream media, the systems in place, politicians, and the public. Forgiveness, which is a right and also often a necessary component of healing — a moral bridge between devastation, solemnity, and true peace with freedom attached — should never be used in the way it’s being used now: as an escape hatch to a neverland where the deep rooted problems of this country are never fully confronted and never resolved.
Last month, Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, someone who often says the wrong thing at the wrong time, said black people need to forgive America for slavery. There are plenty of backwards (sometimes, unctuous or clueless) people who want black people to forgive, forgive, forgive, as if that is the main portal we all must enter to solve the problems of this country. Again, forgiveness has its place; it should be a more personal space, though, and not a “carrot” dangled publicly in front of those who’ve done no work towards being worthy or towards resolution. Now that the Voting Rights Act has been eviscerated and it seems as if the specter of Jim Crow is dancing a jig right now, it’s also worth pointing out there is an air of anti-black sentiment which continues to threaten and undermine America’s integrity and position as a global power.
Racism isn’t some gargantuan Sasquatch hiding in the hills, who only occasionally makes appearances in the South. Racism is practically encoded in the DNA of the majority of people who think we’re living in a post-racial, evolved society. It exists in every state of the Union. All the recent incidents of police brutality against unarmed black citizens prove there is no place of safe harbor for black people anywhere in this country. Malcolm X effectively hit the nail on the head when he said, “As far as I’m concerned, Mississippi is anywhere South of the Canadian border.” Isabel Wilkerson’s Jan. 10, 2015, New York Times column titled “When Will the North Face its Racism?” complements the idea of racism being a ubiquitous phenomenon.
Still, the shackles and strictures which have been placed on black South Carolinians for centuries do need to be addressed. The bloody Stono Rebellion of 1739, which occurred near Charleston, claimed 44 black lives and 21 whites, is a reminder of how racism functions to stifle and oppress. The black slaves, under the leadership of a commander named Cato, wanted to escape South Carolina to join the Spaniards in Florida. Denmark Vesey, one of the founders of the church which later became Emanuel A.M.E. Church, was executed along with five other black slaves on suspicion of organizing a slave revolt in 1822. The “South Carolina Black Code” dated December 21, 1865 was used against black citizens in a post-Civil War environment suggesting there would be no true upward mobility for former slaves. The Orangeburg Massacre, which transpired in Orangeburg, South Carolina on February 8, 1968 claimed the lives of three young black men: Delano Middleton, Samuel Hammond, and Henry Smith; numerous others were also injured. Black residents of Orangeburg were simply protesting segregation practices at the local bowling alley called the All-Star Bowling Lane.
Bakari Sellers, a former member of South Carolina House of Representatives, had the right idea when he typed the following words: “In 2015 you can get murdered because of the color of your skin. Let that process for a moment. Then pray. #CharlestonStrong.” Perhaps the best way to honor the nine victims of the church massacre is to do away with racism once and for all. Tears, flowers and discussions are a good starting place, but true progress has to be the end result.
Forgiveness is a biblical principle, of course leftists reject it.
Only the victims can forgive, and they are dead; these relatives can’t speak for them.
Are Americans finally succumbing en masse to collectivist propaganda? Is the magnificent and unique American mind finally dissolving, and Americans finally mutating into sheep-like Europeans who are incapable of independent though outside of the Marxist paradigm? As I said, I've never seen the like:
We're living through the midst of mass hysteria. Politically Correct collectivist Tyranny is on display in its most breathtaking extremes.
People, companies, and institutions are vying with each other to see who can be the most conformist agents of the politically correct state.
This behavior is worthy of the most profound authoritarian collectivist regimes, and the vast majority of People are snapping quickly into line.
The level of political submissiveness and the complete lack of independent and critical thought is absolutely incredible, and should be studied and cited as an illustrative example of societal delusion and mob behavior.
The impulse which is driving this phenomenon is exactly the reason that pure democracy is to be feared and abhorred. This is precisely the type of thing that led to Jews being rounded up and murdered en masse during WWII.
It's really something to sit back and observe. The vast majority of the People appear to have been thoroughly conditioned, and are ready to embrace socialist Tyranny in all its oppressive and murderous facets.
We should expect to see more and more efforts for the totalitarians to seize control, but, as is their wont, they are likely to severely overplay their hand, and when they do, the backlash is going to be overwhelming!
I think that 2016 is going to be very interesting election cycle. The very existence of the Republic likely hangs in the balance, and who the GOP nominates is going to play a critical role in the outcome, because if they end up with some globalist insider, then the two-faced, one party system will become totally ascendant, and the tribulation of true Patriots will begin in earnest.
This is some wild stuff. We are living in very interesting times.
WOW>> Salon really, really hates Jesus Christ!
The cunning Clintons showed how to get filthy rich using "tolerance and compassion." Obama labeling groups "victims" triggers billions in federal payouts.
All of the federal largesse must be seen against the back-drop of Obama and the wife gearing-up for the big Foundation payday.
Groups and countries w/ big bucks give humongous honoraria, astounding donations, a cut of their natural resources, business interests, etc etc etc.
The key reason why Obama looks on benignly.... as ISIS and global ISLAM blow up everything in sight, Putin and China do what they please, and so on.
First Clinton rule is to never e-v-e-r utter a discouraging word e-v-e-r...... no matter how savage the behavior.
Lefitists can never forgive. Leftists must kill when they can.
People, companies, and institutions are vying with each other to see who can be the most conformist agents of the politically correct state.
This behavior is worthy of the most profound authoritarian collectivist regimes, and the vast majority of People are snapping quickly into line.
The level of political submissiveness and the complete lack of independent and critical thought is absolutely incredible, and should be studied and cited as an illustrative example of societal delusion and mob behavior...."
---------
The Sixties spawned "peace, love and understanding" and with it anti-American academics who took over and built Big Education and the think tanks -- who produce the "studies" that have pushed and built Big Government, that have "informed" Social behavior, lowered, dumbed down and used public education to indoctrinate, and caused the "hat in hand" lemming behavior of business.
Check this out. This is what Walker is moving against.
“The truth is, President Obama needs to bring the hammer down “
Since the scotus ruling more than one FReeper has opined that “in ten years time...” and I am stunned that there could possibly be people on a forum like this one who think the Left at this point is going to wait ten years to do anything. THIS is their moment THIS is the time. They WILL NOT let it pass.
Maybe if we all forgive Erika, her head will explode. Bless her heart.
They’ll never have a better opportunity than with Obama the Destroyer in office, so no ... they won’t wait.
I think your post is dead on the money. Oh, and your tagline, my response is ME TOO!
“I’ve always figured that if you cannot substitute White then the group is inappropriate. I think this is still very importantly valid.”
Too simple for many people to understand. It is amazing how some can think that National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a fine name even though many of the members would call a white person racist for referring to them as “Colored People”. On the other hand any organization promoting the advancement of White People will be branded racist by those same “Colored People”. It is beyond satire.
We have a president who claims to be black even though the woman he says bore him was as white as any on the Earth, he must have been elected by WHITE people because only about an eighth of the population identifies as black, a black person is something like eighty percent more likely to have a job in government than a white person and some of the richest and most influential people in this country are black and yet we continue to hear the FICTION that there is oppression of black people in America. I think there are a lot of people on this Earth who would like very much to be so oppressed.
Some still preach the fantasy that South Carolina is the most racist state in the nation, I suppose they think it has to be because this is where secession began, they may know about or have seen the old slave market at Charleston so they think Charleston must be a bastion of white racism. Strangely enough if you go there you dont’ see all that racism.
I don't forgive anyone at Salon in particular, or media shills in general.
The time to fight is now.
Public opinion is quickly turning away from freedom, personal liberty, and the rule of law. Soon we will be a despised minority.
Heck, white people are a now almost a minority in America when you count the true numbers of illegals.
I never thought I’d say this but bring on the CW2.
The reason why rioting and looting didn’t erupt in Charleston is because the city is mostly white, and the whites are armed.
Ericka, pay attention to this, carefully: I do not care about the grievances promoted by the left. I don’t give a damn.
White & conservative (or black conservative), SHUT UP!
Men, SHUT UP!
Christian, SHUT UP!
Heterosexual, SHUT UP!
American citizen, SHUT UP!
You forgot one other one:
Own a gun, SHUT UP!
Apparently we have no say. No counter argument is tolerated by the left.
Lucky for us the house and senate are controlled by the republi................... Oh, never mind.
The most fundamental commitment of the left since the time it got that name from the seating arrangement in the French National Assembly has been hatred of the Gospel.
Of course forgiveness is dangerous to the left. It is part of the way Christian society has operated without the guiding hand of an omnicompentent state regulating minutely all human relations, the very way of life the left has always wanted to uproot and replace with the mirage of the shining future when everyone is happy under the beneficent omnicompetent secular state.
Post #56 may have some validity to it as well. But, the Christian aspect is certainly in play. We lived in “the south” for over 40 years and there is a different mind set. Had this happened in Atlanta, all bets would be off. Stories I could tell. :>}
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