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Tag Archives: racism

The Reverend Al Sharpton

19 Sunday Jul 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Tags

Al Sharpton, Donald Trump, racism

The Reverend Al Sharpton is living inside Donald Trump’s (r) head these days, rent free.

Jesse Jackson, Benjamin Todd Jealous, Al Sharpton – NAACP National Convention – Kansas City, Missouri – July 14, 2010

Ten years ago I was issued a press credential to cover the 101st NAACP National Convention held in Kansas City, Missouri. While waiting for one of the press press conferences to start I got a lucky (for me) sequence of images using a Canon XT camera with an 18-55 mm kit lens mounted on a tripod – right before the press conference started.

In case anyone is wondering, the subjects for discussion today are almost exactly the same as the were a decade ago. America needs to do better. Much better.

Previously:

NAACP in Kansas City: Representative Sheila Jackson Lee on the tea party and human rights (July 13, 2010)

NAACP in Kansas City: Rev. Al Sharpton – “There clearly is some racial leaves in their tea bag…” (July 15, 2010)

The jerk

12 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Tags

Corona virus, COVID-19, Donald Trump, incompetence, jerk, pandemic, racism, snowflake, White House

Yesterday:

Remarks by President Trump in a Press Briefing on COVID-19 Testing
Issued on: May 11, 2020
Rose Garden
4:15 P.M. EDT

[….]

Yeah, go ahead, please.

Q [Weijia Jiang, CBS] Thank you, Mr. President. You said many times that the U.S. is doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q [Weijia Jiang, CBS] Why does that matter? Why is this a global competition to you if, every day, Americans are still losing their lives and we’re still seeing more cases every day?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they’re losing their lives everywhere in the world. And maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me; ask China that question, okay? When you ask them that question, you may get a very unusual answer.

Yes. Behind you, please.

Q [Kaitlan Collins, CNN] Do you want to follow up?

Q [Weijia Jiang, CBS] Sir, why are you saying that to me, specifically? That I should ask China?

THE PRESIDENT: I’m telling you. I’m not saying it specifically to anybody. I’m saying it to anybody that would ask a nasty question like that.

Q [Weijia Jiang, CBS] That’s not a nasty question. Why does it matter, when —

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Anybody else? Please, go ahead. In the back. Please.

Q [Kaitlan Collins, CNN] I have two –- I have two questions.

THE PRESIDENT: No, it’s okay. We’ll go over here.

Q [Kaitlan Collins, CNN] But you pointed to me. I have two questions, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Next. Next, please.

Q [Kaitlan Collins, CNN] But you didn’t — you called on me.

THE PRESIDENT: I did, and you didn’t respond, and now I’m calling on —

Q [Kaitlan Collins, CNN] Sir, I just wanted to let –-

THE PRESIDENT: — the young lady in the back. Please.

Q [Kaitlan Collins, CNN] I just wanted to let me colleague finish.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay –-

Q [Kaitlan Collins, CNN] But can I ask you a question, please?

THE PRESIDENT: — ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Q [Kaitlan Collins, CNN] But you called on me.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

END 5:16 P.M. EDT

Snowflake.

Bad combover. Check. Too long red tie. Check. Orange spray tan. Check. Tiny hands. Check. Cluelessness. Check…

Sen. Denny Hoskins (r): Shall we all take a tour around the 21st Senate District?

28 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

21st Senate District, Baltimore, Denny Hoskins, Donald Trump, Elijah Cummings, gaslighting, missouri, racism, social media, Twitter

From Donald Trump, yesterday:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
….As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place
4:14 AM · Jul 27, 2019

Well, look at that, openly racist. Not that anyone is surprised.

His consistent behavior gets normalized.

The reality:

More about Elijah Cummings’ 7th congressional district in Maryland

…Using data from the “Biggest US Cities” website, Nate Sliver…point[ed] out that Cummings’ district has “above-average college education rates and home prices, along with a pretty good mix of urban and suburban area (even some rural), and well-off, working-class and middle-class areas”

Silver also pointed out the district is the second-wealthiest majority-black district in the country, with a $58,000 median household income, trailing Maryland’s 4th Congressional District, which includes Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties. Cummings’ district is also the second-most-well-educated majority-black district because 37% of the residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, trailing Georgia’s 4th District, Silver added…

Senator Denny Hoskins (r) just couldn’t resist retweeting republican propaganda:

So, shall we compare?

Shall we take a photographic tour around Missouri’s 21st Senate District? Just asking.

Denny Hoskins (r) [2017 file photo].

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Have you talked to Mitch McConnell (r) lately?

19 Friday Jul 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Tags

4th Congressional District, Congress, Donald Trump, missouri, racism, Representative Ilhan Omar, Vicky Hartzler

So, does Representative Ilhan Omar (D) “hate America”? Should she be sent back where she came from?

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) [2018 file photo].

From Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):

Hartzler Statement on House Resolution Condemning President
July 16, 2019 Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (MO-04) made the following statement regarding House consideration of H.R. 489, the Democrat House resolution condemning President Trump:

“With four weeks of congressional session remaining before our government faces yet another government shutdown, the House of Representatives should focus on the job it was elected to do, not political theater.

“Instead of wasting time passing resolutions condemning the President, House Democrats should focus on the basic fundamental responsibilities of governing, like passing a budget and keeping the government functioning as well as addressing the challenges of illegal immigration, the flow of illegal drugs over our border, and the need for affordable health care. These are the issues I am working on and the American people are pleading with Congress to deal with – not efforts to impeach the President as called for by a growing number of Democrats in the House.

“There is little doubt that we have a loss of political civility on both sides of the aisle, and we are better than this. However, the political theatrics behind this resolution fail to address the urgent problems that the American people are passionately asking us to solve.”

-30-

Gaslighting? Check. In May 2019:

Democrats in Congress are getting things done. Trump and Republicans are just ignoring them.
[….]
Here’s a list of bills and resolutions the House has passed so far.

Health care
HR 259 — Medicaid Extenders Act of 2019
House Resolution 271 — Condemning the Trump Administration’s Legal Campaign to Take Away Americans’ Health Care
HR 986 — Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019
HR 987 — Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act
HR 1520, the Purple Book Continuity Act (bill aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs)
HR 1503, the Orange Book Transparency Act of 2019 (bill aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs)

Civil rights
HR 1 — For the People Act of 2019
HR 5 — Equality Act
HR 7 — Paycheck Fairness Act
HR 124 — Expressing opposition to banning service in the Armed Forces by openly transgender individuals

Gun control
HR 8 — Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019
HR 1112 — Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019

Environment
HR 9 — Climate Action Now Act
HR 1331 — Local Water Protection Act
S 47 — National Resources Management Act
HR 2578 — National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act of 2019
Military/foreign affairs
HR 840 — Veterans’ Access to Child Care Act
HJ Res. 37 — Directing the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress
SJ Res. 7 — To direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress
HR 31 — Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019
HJ Res. 30 — Disapproving the President’s proposal to take an action relating to the application of certain sanctions with respect to the Russian Federation

Mueller report
H.Con.Res. 24 — Expressing the sense of Congress that the report of Special Counsel Mueller should be made available to the public and to Congress.

Other legislation
HR 1585 — Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019
HR 1500 — Consumers First Act
HR 1994 — SECURE Act
HR 1644 — Save the Internet Act of 2019
HR 2157 — Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2019
HR 269 — Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2019
HR 251 — Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program Extension Act
S 24 — Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019
HR 430 — TANF Extension Act of 2019
Concurring in the Senate Amendments to HR 251 — Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard Program Extension Act
HR 790 — Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act of 2019
HJ Res. 46 — Relating to a national emergency declared by the President on February 15, 2019
H Res. 183 — Condemning anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States and condemning anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of the United States, as amended
H Res. 194 — Rule Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1644 and H.R. 2021
HR 2480 — Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
HR 375 — To amend the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 to reaffirm the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to take land into trust for Indian Tribes (also known as the “Carcieri Fix”)

Votes to end the government shutdown
HR 21 — Making appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other purposes
HJ Res. 1 — Making further continuing appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes
HR 265 — Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019
HR 267 — Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019
HR 266 — Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019
HR 268 — Disaster Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2019 (Disaster Supplemental and short-term continuing resolution through Feb. 8)
HR 264 — Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act
HJ Res. 28 — Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019 (Short-term continuing resolution through Feb. 28)
HR 648 — Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019 (Six conferenced bills minibus)
HJ Res. 31 — Making further continuing appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2019 (Short-term homeland continuing resolution through Feb. 28)
Conference Report to Accompany HJ Res 31 – Making consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other purposes

“…House Democrats should focus on the basic fundamental responsibilities of governing, like passing a budget and keeping the government functioning as well as addressing the challenges of illegal immigration, the flow of illegal drugs over our border, and the need for affordable health care…”

Ask Mitch McConnell (r), the Majority Leader in the Senate who won’t allow legislation to come to a vote.

Both siderism? Check.

“…There is little doubt that we have a loss of political civility on both sides of the aisle…”

Representative Hartzler (r) thinks her constituents are stupid. That’s reason enough to vote for someone else in 2020.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): owning it (July 16, 2017)

I did Nazi that coming…

18 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist, social media

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bigot, Donald Trump, Fascist, Nazi, racism, Representative Ilhan Omar, Resist, social media, Twitter

Donald Trump (r), after yesterday’s Nuremberg rally where he incited the crowd:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Just returned to the White House from the Great State of North Carolina. What a crowd, and what great people. The enthusiasm blows away our rivals on the Radical Left. #2020 will be a big year for the Republican Party!
10:51 PM · Jul 17, 2019

Actually, we did see it coming. Which side are you on?

#resist

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): owning it

16 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

4th Congressional District, Donald Trump, HR 489, racism, social media, Twitter, Vicky Hartzler

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r) [2016 file photo].

All in with Donald Trump (r):

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 482
H RES 489 RECORDED VOTE 16-Jul-2019 6:49 PM
QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Resolution
BILL TITLE: Condemning President Trump’s racist comments directed at Members of Congress
—- AYES 240 —
Clay
Cleaver
—- NOES 187 —
Graves (MO)
Hartzler
Long
Luetkemeyer
Smith (MO)
Wagner
—- NOT VOTING 6 —

[emphasis added]

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) on Donald Trump’s (r) Racism

16 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Donald Trump, Emanuel Cleaver, missouri, racism, social media

“Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” – Elie Wiesel

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) [2018 file photo].

Yesterday afternoon on Facebook, from Representative Emanuel Cleaver II (D):

Emanuel Cleaver II
After reading President Trump’s remarkably racist tweets about four of my colleagues, my most agonizing pain results from the seamy silence and notorious neutrality of those whom I believe to be principled people. When the President of the United States says something so racially vulgar, carte blanche, and then doubles down on such rhetoric, then great and widespread is their sin. Although I have a public and political record of not calling individuals racist, even when they are, right now I am being tested like never before.

Some of the responses:

Congressman, respectfully, it’s time. He needs to be called exactly what he is… Liar, racist, etc.

This is one of those times history is going to remember.

After the Holocaust, it was “Never Again…” except “Never Again” is right now and we can NOT let racism and hatred win. We can not let a man like this, and his followers, destroy the fabric of this country.

Emanuel Cleaver II, the majority of us need you to start calling it like it is, here. Your voice is louder since it’s ours collectively. Trump has crossed line after line. ENOUGH! Call him out!

Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. – Elie Wiesel

Perhaps you are being “tested,” but not to remain silent, but to remain vigilant to the cause of justice. Perhaps you are to “test” the “seamy silence” that called your name so loudly. Perhaps it is your voice, Mr. Cleaver in a coalition with others needed to “test” Trump!

Please speak out. Our country needs to hear the voice of reason.

The silence is deafening. Thank you for speaking up. I’m so disappointed in those who say nothing!

Please go ahead and say it.

Scream it from the roof tops. It is the truth.

Could not agree more. How I’m the name of decency can they remain silent?

Dr King said, “Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our souls when we look the other way.” The racist-in-chief needs to be chastised loudly and long for the hateful rhetoric he spews which gives courage to the very worst in our society.

The “Silent Majority” of Americans which believes that diversity is what makes our country strong need to be shouting it from the rooftops! Please, be my voice in Washington, Rev. Cleaver!!

time to say it. way past time.

I’m so sorry. I’ll say it for you. They’re racists.

Congressman Cleaver, it is the Declaration of Independence which places the urgency in your soul. Whomsoever wantonly attacks the equality of citizens does not respect the ideal of our United States. We beseech you to not let the gravity of this attack go unanswered.

If this is not a sterile form of lynching then I don’t know what is.
I urge you to take a page out of the playbook of our beloved friends Daniel and Plillip Berrigan and made your voice indelibly heard.
We elected you to speak for us.
Feel our prayers and support as you go forth.

I can carry that load for you brother. Donald J Trump is a racist.

The latest news coverage of the “Caravan”

10 Saturday Nov 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in media criticism, Resist

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#resist, bullshit, Donald Trump, fear, GOP propaganda, media criticism, racism

After the November 6th election:

Just what we thought.

Old media, trumped once again. You’d think they’d learn at some point.

Who’s the phoney, Farm Bureau? Hawley or McCaskill – or is it just plain old racism?

12 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Claire McCasill, Donald Trump, immigration, Josh Hawley, Missoouri Farm Bureau, racism, Tariffs, Trade War

I was surprised by the decision of the Missouri Farm Bureau to endorse our lackadaisical Attorney General Josh Hawley in his run for the U.S. Senate. You might be surprised by my attitude since the Farm Bureau has for some time been reliably Republican, a position practically dictated by the perceived competition between out-state (GOP) and urban (Democratic) interests. But it’s true.

Remember when our Attorney General and GOP senatorial contender Hawley first tried out a little lame trash talk trash about Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill? He called the down-to-earth Missouri Democrat, one of the few Missouri pols to hold town halls – even during the height of the raucous Tea Party anti-Obamacare frenzy – a phony who was out of touch with Missouri voters. Rich B.S. indeed, as we have shown in an earlier post, coming from an elite Washington lawyer who, according to emails to colleagues, only returned to Missouri in 2011 to enter politics.

But more important to the question at hand, are farmers likely to get anything out of Hawley that’s good for them? Consider the question of Trump’s mindlessly escalating trade war which has triggered massive agricultural tariffs: Not good for Missouri Farmers, especially in the long run since Trump doesn’t seem to know how to find a way out now that he’s escalated the hostilities.

McCaskill has the backbone to call Trump out on an an impulsive and sloppy approach to the issue. Hawley, on the other hand, resolutely sticks to vague GOP talking-around-the-issue-points. Despite the looming potential for disaster for many Missouri farmers – if not this year, next – Hawley will just “trust” that the attention-addled reality TV-star and failed construction mogul Trump knows what he’s doing when it comes to economic theory and all will work out before there are too many bankruptcies in that out-state Missouri that loves to hear GOPers tell it like (they think) it is.

Nor do these highly flexible folks, such as our prim little Josh Hawley seem to want to stand up for the principles that they espoused so fervently during the Obama years: you know, that stuff about bailouts – bailouts that, incidentally saved our auto industry and which were repaid. But hey, a $12 billion in one-year farm bailouts to be  handed out right after a budget-busting, deficit-building tax cut for the wealthy – no big deal to folks like Hawley – who doesn’t seem to care about much more than fighting the far-right religious wars and pushing conservative evangelical orthodoxy down the throats of the rest of us. How’s that for phony?

So why has the Farm Bureau decided to go with Republican comfort food? even though it could end up killing them? Don’t despair. I think I may understand just what the real appeal of GOP – and Josh Hawley – right or wrong, weak or strong, might be.

In an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch today on why so many Trump supporters voted against the anti-union Proposition A,  a union man – after praising the ways his union gave  him a good life – and apparently unaware of Trump’s bad history with unions –  justified his support for Trump and, presumably, anti-union Trump supporters like Hawley, by appealing to the demographic fears that the “good old days” of white privilege will disappear if too many of those brown folks make it over the southern border:

“I like what Trump is doing for the country, though I don’t agree on all of his policies,” [ Scott] Long said. “If you want to be a citizen, you shouldn’t just walk across the Southern California border. … I like how Trump wants to close the border down.”

And, even more explicitly:

Dennis Brinkler, a union electrician who voted against the legislation, also cited immigration as a reason he’s supporting Trump and state Attorney General Josh Hawley, an anti-union Republican who is challenging Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, in November.

If you doubt that there’s an underlying racist theme there, the same article cited some union leaders who attributed union support for Republicans like Trump and Hawley explicitly to “protests of police shootings of unarmed black men” and fear of black protest against a repressive status quo:

“Some of the guys I represent in their 50s, it’s hard for them to grasp shutting down a highway because of an incident that may have happened with the police, and often that’s people on our side of the party,” White said, referring to protests in Ferguson after Michael Brown was killed by a police officer four years ago. “That’s hard for a lot of the old white guys to grasp.”

There you  have it. Trump’s calling card: playing on white resentment and the old folks’ racial fears.

And you can bet that the oh-so-educated and refined  Hawley is going along with it, helping to demagogue the thinly disguised racism of Trump’s immigration policies. As the St. Louis American put it after Hawley defended Trump’s cruel and ill-considered immigration policies, particularly the forcible separation of children from parents seeking asylum in the U.S., an undeniable human rights violation carried out so incompetently that many of the children cannot be reunited with the parents:

[…] Hawley backed and defended Trump’s political play of using the forcible separation of children from their families to force Democrats to support the construction of his absurd border wall and pursuit of more punitive immigration policies. Hawley should return to whatever rock he crawled out from under and leave it to actual human beings with blood in their veins to enact public policy. Hawley is a representation of a new generation of Republicans willing to accede the party and its values to the disaster of the Trump administration.

I expect Hawley’s – probably more timid – dog whistles will increase over the next couple of months as Big Daddy Trump gets even more explicit about  his overt racism. Sadly, it looks like lots of Missourians are inclined to be responsive

* 1st word in title changed from “whose” to “who’s” (8/18, 4:35). Thanks to comment noting the original error.

Police state flag waves over West St. Louis County

14 Monday May 2018

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, BMW of West County, police brutality, racism, Thin Blue Line Flag

512px-Blue_Lives_Matter_flag.svg.png

You may have seen the flag above as you are out and about. If you live in West St. Louis County, you may have seen it waving proudly on a row of light posts fronting the BMW of West County showroom on Manchester Blvd., alternating with the traditional American flag. A few folks in St. Louis County display them in front of their houses. Most of these displays, at least those that I’ve seen, also have signs declaring their support of the police which are far more common.

The flag is known as a “Thin Blue Line” flag or, as it  has been controversially labeled more recently, utilizing the phrase most often employed in opposition to “Black Lives Matter,” a Blue Lives Matter flag.  The thin blue line stands for the idea, according to Wikipedia, “that law enforcement is a Thin Blue Line that stands between chaos and order or between criminals and the potential victims of crime, and it is primarily used to show solidarity with police.”

Where’s the controversy, you ask? We all support the police. If government is to be effective it must have a well-funded enforcement arm. It’s that well funded part that should ensure that it’s also well-directed and in possession of sufficient funds to hire the very best candidates and guarantee that they serve all the people in an accountable and transparent fashion.

But for some, the fact that a policeman did it, whatever it is – and as long as it’s not done to them – means it’s okay. That attitude certainly means that we can hire our police lots cheaper, and since plenty of fools think keeping taxes hyper-low is the name of the game, no matter how it may endanger civic well-being, one can see the appeal. There is also the tendency to, in the words of conservative Federalist contributor Rachael Lu, “virtue-cloak” a profession that we respect, insisting, against any emergent evidence to the contrary,  that all members of the profession are what “we know they should be.”

In this regard, I am reminded of many of the policemen I’ve encountered in my life – some of them family members and their friends. Most have been conscientious, kind people who just want to do a difficult job well. But I have to admit that some – including some of those family members – lacked the mental frame of reference necessary to facilitate that desire. This is America: there’s always the question of overt or unconscious bias. There’s also the fact that there are lots of sad losers who are attracted to occupations that let them throw their weight around. It’s gratifying to little men to play at being the big man. Serious educational requirements, solid, ongoing training and rigorous psychological screening could easily address such problems.

But you get what you pay for. Support good policing standards with cold cash and you might get better policing.

The situation is also complicated by the fact that for many citizens the chaos and criminal behavior from which police have to hold that thin blue line  has a black face. And they want their armed representatives to employ whatever force necessary to keep that black face where it belongs – out of their line of vision. These are, by and large, the people who have tried to distract us from Black Lives Matter concerns by elevating the police to, in the words of  Lu, “quasi-sacerdotal” status.

Evidence? Remember when you saw your first Blue Lives Matter sign or flag? I don’t know about you, but I never saw any of these devices until just about the time black folks took to the streets to demand accountability from a police force they experience as out-of control instruments of white repression. When black people began to use cell phones to document police behavior, the Blue Lives Matter train seems to have well and truly pushed out of the station, tooting it’s big old dog whistle loud and clear.

Blue lives do matter. But the fact that they are ever at risk is simply a given of the job policemen have chosen to perform – and another argument for better pay and benefits along with the outsize power over people lives that we now grant them. But hey, black lives still matter just as much as they did before elderly white folks in my neighborhood started to tie blue ribbons around the trees in their yards. And the fact that black lives are at risk, not because of their freely-chosen but risky jobs, but because they are demanding that the police serve them too rather than catering to the the prejudices of a shrinking segment of the population ought to help put those Blue Lives emblems in the proper perspective.

What really scares me about all this furor over whose lives matter? We’ve got a president sending out authoritarian feelers while encouraging police brutality, an Attorney General who makes no bones that he shares the belief that the worst criminals on the other side of the thin blue line are African-Americans, while supposedly solid, salt-of-the-earth Middle Americans find that the American flag, the one that stands for all citizens, regardless of religion or race, just won’t do the job any more. Instead they hoist flags arguably meant to encourage a special, protected police status in the face of blue line rampage. And don’t let them fool you. They understand what they’re saying when those flags go up.

By the way – maybe someone ought to give the proprietors of BMW of West County an earful. It’s their right to display whatever flag they choose, but it’s our free-speech right to let them know if we’re offended.

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