jimmybob dickhandler, world-class rumpmaster

native-detroiter:

intellectual-aesthetics:

callingoutbigotry:

countrybaby18:

If this flag offends you then you need a history leason

actually you might be the one who needs a history lesson, since this flag was used by the confederate states starting in 1863 AKA during the civil war. this wasn’t a ‘southern pride’ thing, it was a ‘we’re proud of owning slaves and being racist scum’ thing.

I do not think this flag has anything to do with bigotry at all. Not all slave owners were horrible people either. The 13 stars represent the 13 original self-governed colonies, the stars are laid out in the pattern of an X, and the blue bands are put on the thirteen stars to show that the southern states no longer wanted to be a part of the union. The southern states seceded which led to the Civil War. Yes the civil war erupted over slavery but that flag has absolutely nothing to do with that. It’s merely a flag. And quite frankly this argument is almost as stupid as that dude who wanted to change the carvings on Stone Mountain. Why do people look for something to complain about with things which can’t be changed? This happened like 150 years ago. You weren’t even born then. Hell, your great-great-grandparents weren’t even born then. Whyyy??

slave owners were not horrible people. slave owners were not horrible people. SLAVE OWNERS WERE NOT HORRIBLE PEOPLE.

speaking as someone descended from slave owners?  yeah they were mostly objectively horrible people, as were lots of folks back then!  racism couched in “well that’s how it was” is still racism, and oppression is oppression, and slavery is slavery, and treating people as subhuman, no matter how “nice” the person is otherwise, is still objectively terrible and should be shunned

as for the flag, it may not have STARTED as something terrible, but it was used by terrible people for a terrible cause- namely, enslaving an entire population of people based on the color of their skin

and that taint will never, ever be wiped clean from that flag

i hate going for nazi analogies generally, but it honestly is like putting a swastika on something and saying “WELL IT’S JUST A GERMANIC SUN SYMBOL” without acknowledging that for most people it has a terrible, horrifying association with the systemic slaughter and oppression of god only knows how many people total

so the confederate flag?

racist as hell imo, and so is flying it and defending it

(via dwntotheundrgrnd)

thepeoplesrecord:

The troubling viral trend of the “hilarious” Black poor person
May 7, 2013

Charles Ramsey, the man who helped rescue three Cleveland women presumed dead after going missing a decade ago, has become an instant Internet meme. It’s hardly surprising—the interviews he gave yesterday provide plenty of fodder for a viral video, including memorable soundbites (“I was eatin’ my McDonald’s”) and lots of enthusiastic gestures. But as Miles Klee and Connor Simpson have noted, Ramsey’s heroism is quickly being overshadowed by the public’s desire to laugh at and autotune his story, and that’s a shame. Ramsey has become the latest in a fairly recent trend of “hilarious” black neighbors, unwitting Internet celebrities whose appeal seems rooted in a “colorful” style that is always immediately recognizable as poor or working-class.

Before Ramsey, there was Antoine Dodson, who saved his younger sister from an intruder, only to wind up famous for his flamboyant recounting of the story to a reporter. Since Dodson’s rise to fame, there have been others: Sweet Brown, a woman who barely escaped her apartment complex during a fire last year, and Michelle Clarke, who couldn’t fathom the hailstorm that rained down in her hometown of Houston, and in turn became “the next Sweet Brown.”

Granted, the buzzworthy tactic of reporters interviewing the most loquacious witnesses to a crime or other event is nothing new, and YouTube has countless examples of people of all ethnicities saying ridiculous things. One woman, for instance, saw fit to casually mention her breasts while discussing a local accident, while another man described a car crash with theatrical flair. Earlier this year, a “hatchet-wielding hitchhiker” named Kai matched Dodson’s fame with his astonishing account of rescuing a woman from a racist attacker. But none of those people have been subjected to quite the same level of derisive memeification as Brown, Clark, and now, perhaps, Ramsey—the inescapable echoes of “Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife!” and “Kabooyaw,” the tens of millions of YouTube hits and cameos in other viral videos, even commercials.

It’s difficult to watch these videos and not sense that their popularity has something to do with a persistent, if unconscious, desire to see black people perform. Even before the genuinely heroic Ramsey came along, some viewers had expressed concern that the laughter directed at people like Sweet Brown plays into the most basic stereotyping of blacks as simple-minded ramblers living in the “ghetto,” socially out of step with the rest of educated America. Black or white, seeing Clark and Dodson merely as funny instances of random poor people talking nonsense is disrespectful at best. And shushing away the question of race seems like wishful thinking.

Ramsey is particularly striking in this regard, since, for a moment at least, he put the issue of race front and center himself. Describing the rescue of Amanda Berry and her fellow captives, he says, “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!”

The candid statement seems to catch the reporter off guard; he ends the interview shortly afterward. And it’s notable that among the many memorable things Ramsey said on camera, this one has gotten less meme-attention than most. Those who are simply having fun with the footage of Ramsey might pause for a second to actually listen to the man. He clearly knows a thing or two about the way racism prevents us from seeing each other as people.

Source

Now that you know this is a thing, please stop sharing these memes. Poor Black people speaking candidly about various serious incidents isn’t a hilarious joke.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

“One city, one license for all.” A sit-in at the Washington D.C. Mayor’s Office protesting a bill that would give a driver’s license labeled “illegal immigrant” to undocumented residents.

In solidarity with Marybeth, Lizbeth, Prerna and Roxana sitting in D.C. Mayor Gray’s office right now!

Call 202-741-0922 to support one city, one license for all

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

May Day 2013 - San Diego, California

witchsistah:

karethdreams:

The Wage Gap: A Handy Visual Guide

So much for WW’s claim that MoC have it all over them.

(via eyjayy)