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Oh, and the ultimate...
I have met African-American inmates who refused to be treated by anyone BUT white doctors. And who were anti-Paddy/honky/etc otherwise.
Somehow I'm not flattered.
posted by
majroj
on September 29, 2007 at 10:26 PM
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American has enough for all. We can marginalize bigots.
And when I say bigot, I include anyone who opens her/his mouth and says
"WHAT'S IN IT FOR MY PEOPLE?".
posted by
majroj
on September 29, 2007 at 10:10 PM
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maj, calling them on their bs, fer sure.
There is a long Clayton Powell type of tradition that many men wish to emulate.
I have heard some leaders speak sense on CSPAN and on BET upon occasion and am hopeful that their listening public expands exponentially.
I say, "Play the real card first and the race card second." My girfriend used to blame everything on race, until I constantly pointed out truly and sincerely possible alternatives to her. Then, I found that she was sometimes correct in her assumption that the bad circumstance Had Come from her blackness and not much else. We balance each other as we discuss each day in life...
But, she plays the race card second now and I am grateful. I think that it frees her a bit (and me, too. I don't have to apologize for white people constantly. We can just be adults discussing life now and no longer examples for our races.) and I think that she would agree.
posted by
benzinha
on September 29, 2007 at 7:38 AM
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My "Brother, where art thou?" (no pun intended)
was about African American professionals who will not serve "their" community once they've made it. I'm not asking them to live in L.A./Watts or South Chicago, and it is not my place to ask them or dis them for not working there. However, when kids will not listen to teachers because they are white, people refuse to seek help from the police because they are white, or refuse to participate in elections because the candidates are either white, or "too white", (or when these reasons are fronted as excuses for personal sloth), there is no rescue until their community either fills their need, or calls them on their BS.
posted by
majroj
on September 27, 2007 at 12:04 PM
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Our Tucson padres start Sanctuary and No More Deaths movements and
put water in the deserts with parishioners and lead, lead, lead, by quiet example, humanitarain teachings....
Most Tucson padres are known for this....I love them, the Jews' rabbis, too. We do lots of community building between the people of the different names of god.
We all stood in a circle around the mosque near campus after September 11th, when many Americans went brain dead and turned really, horribly, insanely nasty and dangerous to the children in the mosque's school and to their parents. Jeeeeeeesh.
I usually, mostly, almost completely agree with you, except when you sound like my two oldest sons, and then, I just listen politely to your mistaken ideas, like I do to theirs. Heeheeheeheehee
posted by
benzinha
on September 26, 2007 at 6:03 PM
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maj, my baby brother is a public defender of federal cases.....and it isn't
the money that keeps him there.
He speaks Spanish and most cases are mexicanos who have raped, murdered, drugged, tortured, kidnapped, etc., someone from their own country, usually. Also, Navajos and some bikers...
His payment is a defendant who promises to 'look him up some day to proerly thank him in person", for their 30 years or so.....when the death penalty had been on their table andhe had successfully removed it for them....sigh.
So, I too follow Law and Order and all that. Baby brother is the most adamant in our family over the loss of human and civil rights in America....tho' he follows the law, as he is a judge periodically, too.
But Air America and Randy somebody has got him going....he's becoming rabid as I quiet down in my old age....you should see his bumper stickers. I have bought many of them for him, as I research stuff really well.
posted by
benzinha
on September 26, 2007 at 5:57 PM
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Benzinha, I havae been around inmates, lawyers, politicians, and cops
plus a few real Reverends.
Most attorneys are in it for the money and the challenge. Minority cases often offer neither. My brother in law (not the one who was a cop) was #2 in the Los Angeles Public Defender system. Is he black? No. Hispanic? No. Are there better-paid attorneys in LA than he who are black or hispanic? Betcher ass. So what we have here kis a bad case of "Brother, where art thou?".
The real Reverends I met through politics, but they eschewed carrying the cross into the fray. Once you call God (or Allah) on your side, the demogogues take over and reason flies. Always has to be neutral so the result is neutral.
It would feel good to swarm in and kick the ass of everyone you find repulsive and intolerant, but then one day or night it's your turn.
posted by
majroj
on September 25, 2007 at 11:43 PM
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maj, your magic words, hit and run, sure are apt here.....
posted by
benzinha
on September 25, 2007 at 9:11 PM
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Remove the Reverends and I am all for the gathering. But, America
always tries to bring in the biggest guns in any situation. We like to take things up a notch. I'll see you one governor and raise you one friend of MLK. So, now we will bring Jesus into it and that should sanctify the whole scene.
God bless us, every one, I say.
But, I sure hope that they circle some buses loaded with ICE'd mexicanos with their cameras one day, and speak of our shame when televising it and not of the shame of the poor Mexicans.
I hope that they bust officials who are spying, well, I could and won't go on about all that I wish, but I sure do wish it were all talked about and not swept under the Emmy and Idol and Family Jewels' rugs.
We would rather watch uninteresting Americans screw up than anything else. We deserve our future and I fear it.
Spectacle over small, concrete solid changes for the better within schools, prisons, cities and families and city, state and national governments and their tyrannies.
posted by
benzinha
on September 25, 2007 at 9:07 PM
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majroj
From north of the border -I fully agree! I thought it was an appalling spectacle, and I think these people have hurt their own cause...
posted by
Nautikos
on September 24, 2007 at 6:29 PM
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