So Bill-O did an interview with the Candidate Trump recently. In the course of their exchange, Bill wanted to gain further understanding of the candidate's plans to create professional opportunities for people of color. Bill posed his question thusly: "How will you get blacks jobs when they're ill-educated with tattoos on their foreheads?" Well, we at least have to give him credit for not actually saying that we're all ill-educated with tattoos on our foreheads. He only suggested it. Points for that Bill!
Yo, Bill-O! This is my forehead. See my tattoo? Yeah, me neither.
If asked, I'm sure Mr. O'Reilly would tell you that he's not a racist but his latest offering certainly would give the lie to any such claim.
I'm sure there are plenty of insightful commentaries on Bill O's latest entry into the Racism Much Olympics. All I have is a cross reference to my earlier post Chicken or Egg? with a quiet reminder that in the absence of real conversations about race and what race has always meant in this society, folk like Bill will continue to exist. Not only will they continue to exist, they will continue to infect others.
I read a post this morning, about the many teachers who are reporting the distress children are feeling at the prospect of a Trump presidency. Youngsters, immigrant and non but mostly Black and brown, are deeply concerned about the tone of the presidential contest and what certain outcomes might mean for their families and their friends.
The Bill O's and the DT's of this world are creating psychic misery. Not that they care. Why would they? This society was built on the creation and dissemination of psychic misery. Our entire economic model is built on fear and the creation of misery in entire swaths of the populace. Things have only recently got ugly because the recipients of that misery have started to look more like the majority. When those on the receiving end looked a certain way, we could keep pretending that this system worked just fine. Now that the pain is spreading, well we absolutely have to take stock and make some changes! Um hm.
That being the case, Bill O is entirely correct to claim that you can't create jobs for Blacks "when they're ill-educated with tattoos on their foreheads". That's not a line tossed out there for shock value and to get a guffaw. Nope. That is either what Bill (and his interviewee Trump) really believe, or it's what they're hoping to get their listeners to believe. They have to believe this stuff because if there are perfectly well-educated Blacks who can't find consistent work; if there are non-tattooed Blacks who can't catch a break then maybe something else is wrong? Neh! It's gotta be them!
Unless and until we reckon with the truth, we're going to continue to play this game of "See, they really were only 3/5ths human". We will keep on voting for troglodytes like Trump and listening to imbeciles like Rush and Bill who do everything but scream at the tops of their lungs that "the Black man has no rights which the White man is bound to respect" (quoting Justice Taney in the dreadful Dred Scott decision of 1857).
This entire society was built on the dangerous and toxic landfill of a foundation of exploitation. We gotta reckon with that. We gotta figure out what that has meant and continues to mean in terms of public policy. Sans that reckoning, mostly men though a few women too - White, straight, rich - are going to keep coming on the television and writing in the news of these 'others' among us as if they are less than. Those folk will continue to pretend that the playing field is level and that application of the shoulder to the proverbial plow is all that it takes to bring in a bountiful harvest, never mind they do everything humanly possible to dam up your rivers and the block the sun and tell you it's your fault your field's yield is so low. It's your fault (thanks to the tattoo on your forehead), that you're in the straits you're in. Um, K.
Only the truly under-exposed are still buying what's being sold here. Too bad so many are still so woefully under-exposed eh.
Yo, Bill-O! This is my forehead. See my tattoo? Yeah, me neither.
If asked, I'm sure Mr. O'Reilly would tell you that he's not a racist but his latest offering certainly would give the lie to any such claim.
I'm sure there are plenty of insightful commentaries on Bill O's latest entry into the Racism Much Olympics. All I have is a cross reference to my earlier post Chicken or Egg? with a quiet reminder that in the absence of real conversations about race and what race has always meant in this society, folk like Bill will continue to exist. Not only will they continue to exist, they will continue to infect others.
I read a post this morning, about the many teachers who are reporting the distress children are feeling at the prospect of a Trump presidency. Youngsters, immigrant and non but mostly Black and brown, are deeply concerned about the tone of the presidential contest and what certain outcomes might mean for their families and their friends.
The Bill O's and the DT's of this world are creating psychic misery. Not that they care. Why would they? This society was built on the creation and dissemination of psychic misery. Our entire economic model is built on fear and the creation of misery in entire swaths of the populace. Things have only recently got ugly because the recipients of that misery have started to look more like the majority. When those on the receiving end looked a certain way, we could keep pretending that this system worked just fine. Now that the pain is spreading, well we absolutely have to take stock and make some changes! Um hm.
That being the case, Bill O is entirely correct to claim that you can't create jobs for Blacks "when they're ill-educated with tattoos on their foreheads". That's not a line tossed out there for shock value and to get a guffaw. Nope. That is either what Bill (and his interviewee Trump) really believe, or it's what they're hoping to get their listeners to believe. They have to believe this stuff because if there are perfectly well-educated Blacks who can't find consistent work; if there are non-tattooed Blacks who can't catch a break then maybe something else is wrong? Neh! It's gotta be them!
Unless and until we reckon with the truth, we're going to continue to play this game of "See, they really were only 3/5ths human". We will keep on voting for troglodytes like Trump and listening to imbeciles like Rush and Bill who do everything but scream at the tops of their lungs that "the Black man has no rights which the White man is bound to respect" (quoting Justice Taney in the dreadful Dred Scott decision of 1857).
This entire society was built on the dangerous and toxic landfill of a foundation of exploitation. We gotta reckon with that. We gotta figure out what that has meant and continues to mean in terms of public policy. Sans that reckoning, mostly men though a few women too - White, straight, rich - are going to keep coming on the television and writing in the news of these 'others' among us as if they are less than. Those folk will continue to pretend that the playing field is level and that application of the shoulder to the proverbial plow is all that it takes to bring in a bountiful harvest, never mind they do everything humanly possible to dam up your rivers and the block the sun and tell you it's your fault your field's yield is so low. It's your fault (thanks to the tattoo on your forehead), that you're in the straits you're in. Um, K.
Only the truly under-exposed are still buying what's being sold here. Too bad so many are still so woefully under-exposed eh.
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