Alabaster

Some reminders for my fellow people of European descent:

Yes, it does look like we're declining, or shrinking as a portion of the overall population. Productive or not, it's inevitable some are going to freak about this.

But if your concerned about your family's wellbeing, there's a fix. Recognize universal human rights. Accept that everyone should be able to live how they like. "Everybody" will include you, your children, your' children's children, etc.

Beyond

Learned helplessness is behavior typical of an organism (human or animal) that has endured repeated painful or otherwise aversive stimuli which it was unable to escape or avoid. After such experience, the organism often fails to learn escape or avoidance in new situations where such behavior would be effective. In other words, the organism seems to have learned that it is helpless in aversive situations, that it has lost control, and so it gives up trying. Such an organism is said to have acquired learned helplessness. Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from such real or perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.

Recent cases like Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile - fatal police shootings in which the victim was non-violent or out and out law-abiding - are horrific in themselves. There's probably ripple effects beyond that. Psychological effects. The actual odds of being in a violent confrontation with police may be low, statistically. But there's no way for some Americans to assure they won't be singled out. And then it's out of their hands. It's not a healthy situation, not for anyone.

You'll never gain weight from a doughnut hole

Look here and here for updates on a wacky Providence kerfuffle.

Okay, now here's my thing. If I'd been there at the time there's a good chance I would have told the young barista not to go there. We're all grownups here. No reason to assume that just because someone is on the police department they must have a problem with black people.

Except. Except. She made a rather unassuming, entirely unthreatening gesture of writing #blacklivesmatter on a coffee cup. Suddenly there's a push to get her fired? Led by a...colorful media personality with ties to the department. I mean, this must have gotten out somehow. Somebody chose to make it a vendetta.

So on the other hand, you can't really assume they don't have a problem with black people either.

Also, the "dancing cop" act may have been cute at first, but at some point these antics made traffic go slower than if there were no traffic at all, which could be annoying.

Linking not a compliment in this particular case

Okay so what annoys me about this article? Let me count the ways.

First off, if social scientists want to be taken seriously, they need to acknowledge that their gig is different from physical science. Some humility about final conclusions is needed in both, but much more so in social science. And coming to broad conclusions about decline in the ancient and modern worlds based on no more than a less-complete-than-you'd-like-to-think genome record is remarkably inane.

Second, the scientist appears to be kind of a quack, definitely one with an ax to grind, but he's taken seriously and treated as an authority here.

And last but not least, this article in short order attracted some world class jaw dropping racists. It may seem unfair to blame the Telegraph or Penman for this, but the comments are strangely in tune with the article itself.

G no

You know what's kind of interesting and kind of depressiing? Being the sounding board for an old biker who needs to vent. Especially when you look like the kind of pussy he naturally assumes you to be. That happened tonight, which was a weird experience. As much of a bad way the guy was in, he had some stories to tell.

You know what's just plain depressing without any compensating virtues? When at the end of a landmark nightmare year for race relations and police accountability in America, you hear noises emanating from behind Rudy Giuliani's joke shop teeth. The man became mayor of the nation's biggest city on the back of David Dinkins being punished for being black during a time when black New Yorkers were rioting. That pretty much set the tone, as Rudy petulantly hid from civil rights groups and shamed citizens for getting shot by police. Towards the end of his reign he became America's Mayor for guiding the city through the 9/11 attacks without saying anything stupid (at least by the standards used while Dubya was president.) Then a few years later he was a figurehead for the semi-official bullying of Sufi Muslims' Park51 project. In short, just about every stage of his political career has been a clumsy exercise in racial divide-and-conquer. So when heyaks about what causes police killings after minimizing when it goes the other way, believe me, I listen with bated breath.

2 thoughts

1: I just took out the garbage a few minutes ago.  When I threw the bag into the dumpster I heard something scurry out from behind it.  Looked down, sure enough there was a skunk walking among us.  Obviously I gave it a wide birth while I was on my way back in, because obviously I didn't want to get sprayed.  (They can also bite, if you really annoy them.)  One good thing about the new place, though, is that there's enough room out back to get stuff done regardless.  At my previous residence I saw a skunk near the trash cans one winter night and immediately made a u-turn.

2: I remember I was in college during the first World Trade Center attack.  You know, the one with the truck full of explosives that didn't actually do what it set out to do.  Not just in college, I was also on the school paper.  A story occurred to me regarding possible upticks in actions against people of Middle Eastern descent.  I thought getting some white supremacists on the record might lead to a good - or at least attention getting story - and I considered going undercover.  Bad, bad idea in retrospect, and it's good that it died from inertia.  While I'm fairly stoical about a lot of things, expressions of hatred do visibly get under my skin.  Also even though I'm entirely of Protestant British Isles heritage, some byplay of genetics has left me looking faintly Jewish.  Like both Jews and antisemites have noticed this.  So I wasn't going to cut it as a fake neo-Nazi.

Out of the (recent) past

Civil War guy Ken Burns has co-directed with his daughter a documentary on the Central Park Five. The case popularized the word "wilding" in American English, although perhaps mercifully it has not remained popular. Burns talked about the CP5 in a recent interview

.

Q. What I found most affecting was, from the point of view of a parent, inevitably thinking, what if my son had been one of these kids? Maybe the most powerful moment, for me, was when Raymond [Santana]’s father says —

A. “I sent him into the park that evening.” This has been very moving for me to work with my daughter. Also very moving to get to know these five —

Q. Who are such impressive men.

A. Incredibly impressive. With a noticeable lack of overwhelming bitterness. With a kind of weariness, but also wisdom. We’ve been out on the road with them appearing before audiences, and it suddenly felt as though we were merging families.

It almost goes without saying, and yet still needs to be said, that no one was talking in 1989 about how impressive these men were. The assault on the Central Park jogger was one of a series of highly publicized racial incidents - most of them occurring in New York City - during the late 1980s and early 90s. The publicization of these incidents seems to have been aimed expressly at raising moral panic against black and Hispanic urbanites and creating an us-v-them mentality

An admittedly quick web search failed to turn up any stories contemporary to their arrest and trial. Whether this is by accident or design I don't know. It would be morbidly interesting to see again how it was covered in, say, The New York Post. My memories align with this.

The Central Park Five are the five men who were wrongfully convicted for the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park. A few weeks ago I wrote about the Central Park Five for the Guardian. It’s a heartbreaking case — the jogger barely survived the attack, and suffered enormous physical trauma. The city was enraged and hungry for a conviction. Donald Trump put out a “bring back the death penalty” ad in response to the crime. Five black and Latino boys were interrogated for hours and deprived of sleep until they confessed; once actually arrested and charged with the crime, they recanted. Racial tensions boiled, with racist caricatures of of-color youth going “wilding,” prowling the streets in a “wolf pack” for innocent white victims proliferating in the white-dominated media. While the woman was generally treated as an innocent victim, even she didn’t totally escape victim-blaming — writing about this case even 20 years later inevitably leads to many people asking, “Why was she jogging in Central Park late at night? What did she think was going to happen?”

The point to remember is that these youths weren't just unjustly convicted, although that is an abomination unto itself. They were also unjustly condemned, and held up as the worst of humanity. And all because there was a culprit-shaped hole that the law couldn't fill with the right guy

The other thing that needs to be remembered is that this isn't ancient history. It's not even distant history. If you were to compile a list of people who made gravy on this, who profited in politics or the media, you'd almost certainly find some who still have high positions. The eddies are still rippling out.

We have met the enemy and they are dumb

I believe this will be my 1,000th post on this blog.  Let's see if we get a blare of horns or something.

Tonight I was working on a short story and came to a point where I wanted to describe how a police detective would be dressed.  Or at least how someone looking to look like a detective would dress.  For the second, pop culture images would be fine, and I have watched cop shows on TV.  But still, I went to Google image search for a refresher.  One of the images that came up was unusual because the subject had a tattoo on her neck.  She was also black, a detail that becomes relevant in a moment.

I was curious, so I followed the image to its source.  From what I can tell, the person in the picture wasn't a cop.  The site I had arrived at was a blog dedicated to obsessively cataloguing every murder and assault committed by black Americans, with cute comments along the lines of  "What do all these people have in common?"  I didn't stay long because that's not the kind of place I like to be, online or off.

It further demonstrated what I've thought for a while though.  Privacy on the Internet is a fine thing, and I wouldn't want it to go away.  At the same time, it encourages people to express opinions and feelings that people were learning to keep to themselves for the previous thirty years or so.  They were learning that because these opinions are stupid and hateful.  Now you get a lot of chances to see them.  One hopes visibility is higher than influences.

Racial expressions

Reading this from Ta-Nehisi Coates struck a cord with me.

All of this is to say, I wonder at the strength and nature of our democratic norms. Was there ever a time where our representatives seriously placed loyalty to democracy over partisan interests? And granting that there was, what was that compromise, that sacrifice, premised on? What undergirded our democratic virtue? Was it the promise that, in a country explicitly understood as constructed for the white man, the majority could never sink as low as the cursed minority? If we grant that the past few decades have been a particularly trying time for our democracy, is it mere coincidence that this happens just as African-American power begins to morph into reality?

This may sound dramatic. Well sure it does, and it is. For a long time I figured that race - and specifically racism - was becoming a marginal force in American political life. Sure it still existed, but no one was standing on the steps of any given state house crowing about "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!"

My views on that have been somewhat revised. What you won't see are huge conflagrations like Wilmington and Tulsa. But you also don't see much in the way of pushback over racially tinged decisions like Bush v Gore (2000) and the recent spate of voter ID laws. I think a number of whites in this country believe deep down that they're losing a zero sum game, and that moves that hurt blacks will keep them (whites) from falling too low. Even when this is demonstrably false, the belief is still there.

Not happening

The Trayvon story deserves further attention. More than, realistically speaking, I'm going to give it. So mainly I'm just linking to this story, which shows the dread that this incident must arouse in black parents. (In this case the author is a white parent of a black child, but the principle holds.)

Good quote:

If the colors here were reversed, if a white man were dead by gunshot, do you think for a minute that the black man would be walking around free?

I have an impossible time imagining a black man shooting a white child and being seen as some kind of para-law enforcement. I can more easily picture hovercar freeways over Wilmington, Delaware.

Don't you just love culture war?

If there is a compliment that needs be payed to American television, it's that there's stuff on it that pisses off these people. It's hard for me to comprehend being more offended by seeing Chaz Bono on a dance competition than lynch mob stirrer Nancy Grace on the same show, but there it is. Unfortunately they actually seem to have some power. Of course the forces of backlash usually do.

Presented with very little comment

Mark it. This is the week in which Donald Trump went from "dull pop culture annoyance" to "guy who gives evil a bad name."

Lucky 13

For those of us who like the numb tingle of floorboards against our jaw, this, and thanks to blogger bjkeefe.

In Iowa, the state Republican Party is calling for the “reintroduction and ratification of the original 13th Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution — a provision that the state party’s spokesman admits is focused solely on Barack Obama.
The current 13th amendment bans slavery, and Iowa Republicans are not in favor of its repeal. They are, however, interested in reintroducing an amendment originally put before the states for ratification back in 1810. It outlawed any person who accepts a “title of nobility” from a foreign country from ever holding political office. The amendment was ratified by 12 states but never got the 13th state that it needed, and thus, never became law.

Rough translation: "We're not bigots or anything. We just want to take a phantom law that's never been used against anyone, and nail the first black president with it."

You guys are beautiful. Don't ever change.

4 color revolution

The Westboro Baptist Church? Fred Phelps? Yeah, you've heard of them. They've found reason to protest the funerals of Iraq War soldiers for aligning themselves with the homosexual agenda, and that's with Don't Ask Don't Tell still in effect.

So it's not much of a surprise that this same group went to San Diego to protest the Comic Con over something... the continued existence of Joss Whedon maybe? The surprise--and a pleasant one it is--is that this group of conventioneers was so well prepared for them. Who's cooler? The Bender with the "Kill all humans sign"? Or the Velma Binkley* with the sign raving about the Cylons. I may put up a poll later, but I might never make up my mind.

*It's a cute chubby girl with glasses. Given the context, Velma seems the most likely identity.

... perhaps not the most enlightened...

Another George Pal cartoon, this one with a sort of self-referential frame.

It's a little hard to overlook the troubling aspects of the cannibal stuff at the end. At the same time, it's hard not to appreciate the craftsmanship on display. If you're going to enjoy it, you kind of have to create your own context.

That's Mr. James Crow to You

It would be nice to think that a Senate candidate warning that making lunch counters serve Negroes is a slippery slope has just committed political suicide. There are definitely parts of the country where it would be. Is Kentucky one of those places? I'm going to withhold judgment and not make any bold predictions.

It takes a website of dozens to hold us back

One thing that has puzzled me about the threats to Trey Parker and Matt Stone is the apparent lack of consequences. Does the posting about them winding up like Theo Van Gogh count as a threat? Um, well, doesn't it? Sure, Revolution Muslim has a measure of deniability. It's like "Will no one rid me of this meddling priest?" or "You know what happens to nosy fellows? Wanna guess?" It's not 100% explicit, but there must be enough to warrant investigation. But I haven't really heard about law enforcement being on this. And of course, Comedy Central caved, hence doing 90% of the work of terrorism on themselves.

Not too surprisingly, the incident has been taken in some quarters as evidence that the Saracen enemy has stepped up their invasion. Glenn Greenwald has a refreshing corrective, pointing out that RM is an extremist website from any community's standpoint. (And bizarrely enough, founded by a convert from a similarly militant branch of Judaism.) And there's a partial list of the other people in America who have made threats and called for censorship. Quite a popular pastime.

Ignorance is bliss (or at least a steady writing gig)

I haven't really blogged on Haiti, mainly on the basis of, what can you say? It's a horrific tragedy, with the number of people losing their lives running into the hundreds of thousands. It's not really something you can editorialize on.

Case in fucking point! The fact that this guy uses a picture where his eyes are closed is eerily on-point. (Link from Roger Ailes)

One more time for the World. Vodou is not Satanism. It's an indigenous spiritual tradition that overlaps with Christianity. And you might want more background in it than the laundromat showing Serpent and the Rainbow before you start bloviating.

Neutrality fail

Gotta say, not helpful.

The sponsors of the initiative provoked complaints of bias from local officials and human-rights groups with campaign posters that showed minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman. Backers said the growing Muslim population was straining the country “because Muslims don’t just practice religion.’’

“The minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage, and genital mutilation of girls,’’ the sponsors said.

They said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey compared mosques to Islam’s military barracks and called “the minarets our bayonets.’’ Erdogan made the comment in citing an Islamic poem many years before he became prime minister.

First of all, a law that this explicitly targets one religion, well...? How do you not call that religious discrimination.

The security rationale boils down to, "We heard this guy in Turkey say something once that sounded sort of threatening."

And laws like this make it difficult to tell the Muslim world that the West isn't making war on them en masse. The fact that this law seems to have shown up on the streets before it was written into the books doesn't help either.

The Swiss People's Party, which embraces fringe right policies well beyond immigrant policy, seems to have political power in the country out of proportion to their membership. American progressives disgusted by the Big Two often envy Europe, where parties are smaller and people give a damn about them. Both systems appear to be flawed.

Peanut farmer addresses elephant in room

Here's a fun little timewaster. Google phrases like "nigger socialist" and "president Obongo." Go to the links relating to Barack Obama. Read the comments and subtract the blatantly racist language, then see how well the comments match statements in the blogospher, in the conservative press and at teabag-style protests. And you might not have to do the subtraction part.

That's why it strikes me as kinda nutty that Jimmy Carter's observations are at all controversial, buch less fuel for a Republican backlash. Obviously it would be stupid to say that all criticism of the president is racist, and Carter didn't say that.

But consider that Bill Clinton was also a Democrat. He was about as liberal as Barack Obama in most ways. And he had a truth problem in certain areas that his enemies made the single defining fact of his life. Yet never did some hillbilly legislator yell "You lie!" during one of his addresses. Why? Because it was understood you didn't do that to the Chief Executive. For some reason, that understanding is now being eroded. Hmmmmmm.

Michael Steele calls Jimmy Earl's comments "a pathetic distraction by Democrats to shift attention away from the president’s wildly unpopular government-run health care plan that the American people simply oppose." But while Jimmy Carter may still be a registered Democrat, he is so long out of the game that he doesn't have much of anything to do with the official party. That's why he can state obvious truths others ignore. And if Steele believes his own rhetoric, he's gotta get a lot of echoes in that bald head of his.