Thinking of Civil Rights and Civil Disobedience

I haven’t written much in the past 7-10 days. I’ve been left thinking and looking things up, reading, re-thinking. I decided I needed to post some thoughts. They are not necessarily worded well, but I am happy to discuss them. Please read the thought thoroughly though before permitting yourself an initial emotional response.

1. I think ‘systemic racism’ is a bogus term and dangerous for real progress. I’m not arguing racism in organizations doesn’t exist. My concern is how quickly it has caught on as a buzzword and the consequences of it. At the end of World War 2, it was revealed that the Nazis operated extermination camps. Many Germans denied knowledge of this even though they HAD to have known in some areas (Gee, what’s the frickin’ smell of cooking meat and ashes regularly after 1,000 rounded-up minorities go there and we never see them again…hmmmm) In the end, a consensus built around group responsibility.The thing is–that let every individual off. It denied the need for personal reflection, denied direct responsibility of the individual. They could simply say “Well, it’s everyone’s fault.” This is the ‘All lives matter’ defense, circa 1945. Systemic bias is a great excuse on many topics–I like to rage against bureaucracy. Here’s the reality though–arguing about systemic racism permits people to avoid dealing with this on an individual level. It creates an excuse for not grappling with the issue as an individual. “Hey, what can we do…it was ‘systemic racism’, right?” What needs to be focused on is getting individuals to accept responsibility for their own actions, correcting individual racist views. If the US is about individual liberty, then that is the level we must fight on.

2. I find it disgusting how many corporations issue the same words–written by lawyers clearly–on what is going on. How many are taking action because they believe in it and how many are donating money (which is a convenient tax writeoff?)? What will their behavior on social issues be in six months? –and be skeptical because they’ve been saying they care about the environment for 30+ years…how’s the improvement going there?

3. It was revealed today that Fox News ‘accidentally’ conflated photos from Seattle and Minneapolis and created a mixed collage of images, superimposing armed gunmen into Seattle. How convenient for the narrative, huh?

4. I am concerned at how quickly some are willing to make accusations of ‘Racism!” against those who do not agree with them or else make salient opposing points. In the early ’50s, this was what McCarthy supporters did while stoking the Red Scare, accusing anyone who stood against them of being a “Communist”. This was effective enough it even worried Eisenhower. In 1968 at Berkeley, the Free Speech movement protested to have their radical views heard (it wasn’t just about free speech)–as soon as concessions were made, they immediately acted to muffle opposition to their views, decrying them as ‘suppressing free speech’.

5. Problems are not easily solved. Often different solutions must be applied at different levels. Sometimes problems overlap–in many regions, the issues of unethical police behavior is intertwined with racism. The solution to police problems is not the same as it is for fixing racism. The problems of the education system overlap with racism, but are not the exact same.

6. Police are put in an unfair position. Regardless of the situation, they are who is called to handle a situation, whether it is a drug overdose, a marital dispute, a flat tire, or a robbery in progress. They do not have the matching expertise for these situations. Instead of armed officers, communities should have other specialists (social workers) employed (who are less expensive to maintain than police officers, too) to handle these situations. Ultimately, I’d bet this has a knock-on effect of reducing incarceration rates, too.

7. People too readily believe memes and graphs put together on partial data. I saw one that said the US is to blame for slavery going back to 1500. That’s fine except–the US has only existed as a nation really since 1787 or 1776 if you want the point independence was declared. Before that we were British, but Britain’s first import of slaves into North America takes place in 1612, 112 years later. Does it help the situation by adding in historical inaccuracy? Isn’t it bad enough that slavery continued past the point of the slave-holders knowing it was morally wrong? A separate one points out a woman jailed for 5 years because she lied about her district to get her child into a better school, comparing her to the actress jailed for four days for giving a $15,000 bribe for college entry…outrageous, right? Except the meme doesn’t note that what the woman really went to jail for was being on parole and caught with an unlicensed firearm in her car–after her release for using a weapon in a crime.False information never helps your argument. All it does is give ammunition to the other side to deny legitimate points. What is your attitude towards someone who lies? Exactly–you don’t trust anything they say after that. This is the same thing.

8. It is great to demand action–but you should know how the system works. While there are times that radical moves are possible, the federal system in the US makes this nearly impossible. What is necessary is gradual, consistent change…small bites. This happens at the state level and eventually it happens in enough states that the change works its way into DC. Consider the “instant” acceptance of gay relationships in society. The instantaneous acceptance took 51 years, beginning with the Stonewall Riots of June, 1969. By 2020, most Americans (it will never be all) think it’s perfectly fine for gay people to be married and even *gasp* be parents.The difference with what is going on with racism is the events of the past 155 years. Lincoln started ending slavery in 1862. Reconstruction took power from plantation owners and in twenty years, the Redeemers had seized power (the former plantation owners). That led to another century of oppression, especially in the South. The Civil Rights Movement seemed to lay the groundwork for fixing those wrongs and there’s been improvement…and yet, here we are today. The root cause of the problems remains–Southern politicians. They tried to stymie civil rights as Democrats in the 1960s and by 1990 had moved to the Republican Party where they do this still today.

9. Today’s GOP is not the Republican Party of Reagan, Eisenhower, or Lincoln. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 for the express purpose of ending slavery and bringing about social and economic changes for the good of everyone regardless of skin color or wealth. This changed some beginning post-Lincoln when a group of Republicans decided to trade ethics to remain in power, resulting in the 1876 Compromise which started the backslide on equal rights for blacks. It changed back by the 20th century in many places and remained that way until 1972–when Nixon and his strategists decided it was better to be in power than stand on ethics/integrity.

10. People do not understand the terms they throw at one another. <1% probably realize you can be a liberal conservative or a conservative liberal–and that those aren’t contradictions in terms. If you are going to use words, treat them as precision tools not sledgehammers. In your field, you use proper terminology, you match tool to need—it is inexcusable to not do that with the language you speak and write. Inexcusable.

11. The Confederacy’s leaders were traitors to the United States. They should have been imprisoned, shot, hanged, and at the least banned from ever taking part in government in the US. This didn’t happen. It is a blemish on Lincoln’s administration. And it is about damned time those Confederate statues were removed–as always, know your history. Most weren’t put up until 50-60 years after the fact, certainly none during the time blacks were permitted in government in the 19th century. Many of the statues honor men who were never in those places in their lifetimes.

12. Don’t give me crap about ‘Not all Confederates were bad.” Yes, the leaders were. The officers were. If you were a slaveholder, you did bad things. The argument for Bob Smith, private in the 3rd Virginia, drafted into the Army…that is a different story…people understand that, but bringing him up in this context is simply a way to defend racist statues.

13. Don’t say “But it’s history. We have to preserve history!” When Stalin died, the Soviets removed almost every Stalin statue there was. You don’t find any monuments to Hitler in Germany–indeed, you only find memorials for the men who eventually saw the light and tried to stop him (such as von Stauffenberg et al.). No one will forget the Civil War.

14. As people ‘get involved’, the message is lost. Now it is no longer about police accountability, it is about funding various programs, forcing specific initiatives, general thoughts–this is not how you get things done. Stay focused on an issue, deal with it directly–don’t let people throw ‘What about’ crap in. There’s already the danger of things being forgotten as soon as the next crisis appears in the media (as if the current administration hasn’t caused enough).

15. Be careful to know the difference between vengeance and justice. I have seen comments that anyone who uses the N-word should immediately be fired, lose a scholarship, be made an outcast…but are we sure about that?A) There is a great deal of difference between a comment said in hate and one said in ignorance/carelessness of language.B) There is great difference between a 16-yr old’s comment and a 50-yr old CEO. Should those two be treated the same?C) What about the kid singing along to a rap song where the word is used?D) What if a black person uses the N-word–should they be fired/have a scholarship removed as well? If that is ‘different’–aren’t we now basing a decision on race in the opposite direction which logically is the problem we are fighting?E) Can it be used when quoting a historical document?

16. Don’t for a second believe the current president isn’t racist–and IF he isn’t, he’s ignorant and oblivious of what he says. He has quoted multiple segregationists, he set a rally for June 19th on the site of the worst massacre of blacks post-Civil War in Tulsa and now he wants the GOP Convention to be held in Jacksonville, FL on the 60th anniversary of the Ax Handle beatings of protesters by white police (who very carefully made sure to ONLY attack black protesters). If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck–it’s a duck.

Not related to those 16 points, there is a quick start that could be put in place instantly to help with the police: *Body cameras for officers should be mandatory. They must remain on at all times while on your shift. If the camera is turned off, it is grounds for immediate dismissal. (There are police who protest this saying “But what about when I go to the bathroom?”…as a guy, when I’m standing, I’ve never been able to point my shoulder or sternum downwards towards my business parts and the urine stream–that’s 100% BS) *Eliminate military surplus weaponry. The LA Police District in charge of schools has 61 M-16 rifles and mine-resistant vehicles. There are districts out there with *grenade launchers*. *Mandate police live in the district they are policing. An officer who lives 45 minutes away is not going to be as accountable as someone who lives within the community. *When police actions are brought up for accountability, they should be investigated by non-police civilian officials. *States should mandate that police cannot use potentially lethal force unless confronted with lethal force first…it can only be a reaction to direct action, not something anticipated….the US is one of only two 1st World nations without such a policy.