We are post-racial America, and we are so mad, tho

Before Thanksgiving, I published a piece in Time that took the Ferguson riots and defended them in the light of the historical context of the country, calling out the systemic problem of oppression and asking that the problem of violence be tackled from that end, rather than from the easy-chair route of blaming rioters as animals or just bad individuals who like to ruin shit for funsies. Are those rioters animals and bad individuals who like to ruin shit for funsies? Maybe. I'm not talking about that. Whether they are or not, the issue of the political and societal climate that forces a population to its last resort to be heard needs to be addressed. This problem can't be solved by shaking our heads at it or wagging our fingers at the aggressors. It can't even be solved by helping the business owners get back on their feet (though that will help the community and the innocent victim of this cultural rage). It can only be solved if we look at the root racial problem in this country, open communication, and train both our law enforcement officers and the communities they protect how to interact with each other.

Saying this really got a lot of middle aged white men mad at me. Like a lot of them. They're still emailing me about this. So, I thought I'd round up post-racial America's response to a call for systemic change in the face of last-ditch violent efforts to be heard by oppressed and marginalized peoples.

Let's start with a set of emails from someone calling himself ghetton1gger (isn't that lovely?)

First he attacks the fact that I stay at home with my kids. Which is yawn. I've been in the mommy wars since 2008, and those women are more vicious than poor GN can ever hope to be. Then he invoked the "purple people" argument, amid a lot of other silly, worn-out arguments that say Mike Brown deserved to die.

You should be ashamed of yourself, writing an article that promotes rioting. Even for a stay-at-home-mom, this is idiotic. Your article hits all the hot buttons: unarmed black youth, marginalized voices, pen-up anger. This is the jargon of someone who sits on her bottom at home and doesn't have access to the real world. Here's the reality: Michael Brown weighed 295 pounds and was 6'4", he had just robbed a convenience store, he attacked a police officer, he refused orders to comply. And he was shot dead. Unfortunate? Not if you value law and order. Anybody doing these things--whether white, black, brow, yellow, or purple--would have been shot dead. It just so happens that blacks are far more likely to be involved in violent crimes than any other demographic group. Hopefully, you won't fall victim to black violence. Even if you did, you would find a way to rationalize it as the fault of society. Liberals like you preaching zero accountability are what is causing America to crumble at its very foundation.

By the way, if I ever did "fall victim to 'black violence'" I totally would blame it on society. So there's that.

When that got no response, he wrote me again, a full week later.

Perhaps it is time for you to write an article advocating law and order in the "black community." Negro thugs will continue getting shot by police until they begin to learn some very simple and fundamental lessons. 

Oh. You're so right. There is no racial stereotyping in this country anymore. I don't know what I'm even on about.

I have a bunch more emails, but I want to move on to my social media. So I will just leave you with this gem, which is hands down my favorite comment about my article. Email is from Dan.

You are a typical, liberal, know-it-all cunt. Your attempt to justify the savage rioting in your “article” by animals who do not deserve to walk free in this society is not only asinine, it is just stupid. I hope you continue to live in squalor. It is a shame that you have procreated because you are an obvious example of where a gene pool should end. Fuck off and I hope you burn your turkey.

Sadly for Dan, my turkey came out deliciously. Probably because I know it all. I also love "not only asinine, it is just stupid." Like my friend said, that's not only redundant, it's just repetitive. Please note that to Dan, I live in squalor. This is important because apparently on Twitter, I'm a super-rich lady, living in the lap of luxury.

Speaking of Twitter, let's go there.

Here's one of the more sane tweets:

Nov 25: @DLoesch @parentwin: There is no defense in ruining the livelihood of innocent people who did nothing to warrant selfish thuggery.

I hear that, I do. But that's not what I'm talking about. There is a difference between condoning riots and the havoc they wreak, and explaining the underlying forces that create an atmosphere where riots can exist.

Moving on, there are a ton of tweets where people who are so incredibly against rioting go ahead and advocate people riot in my neighborhood. Because I made them mad. And so, they kind of prove my point, don't they? And they haven't even been marginalized in society for decades. They're just throwing a middle-class, white man tantrum. "I DON'T LIKE RIOTING. THEY SHOULD RIOT ON YOUR MOM'S FACE."

Great.

Nov 26: Is @parentwin inviting rioters onto her street or is it only justified when black people are burnt out and looted -- http://

Nov 26: People should riot over Mike Brown in @parentwin's neighborhood. Let's see if she writes this then --> http://

Nov 26: Is @parentwin going to post her home address so the rioters know where to go after #ferguson is destroyed?

@parentwin @jtLOL I'm feeling a rage at the imbecility of this ruling racist Liberal. Rioting in her neighborhood is my only option. 

@parentwin One, you're a stupid liberal hag. Two, there is NO defense for them rioting. I hope YOUR neighborhood gets the torch. Dumbass.

Dec 2@parentwin I hope the first place rioters target is your family's home, you useless moron.

There's a lot of "they did this to themselves" and a lot of "Mike Brown did this to himself" out there, too. Lots of straight up racism.

@parentwin If they (black lives) matter so much why do they kill themselves in such high number? They matter SHIT to me until they matter to themselves!

Nobody feels riots are only option. Savages are opportunstic b/c they know police won't maintain peace due to "PC" concerns. @parentwin

Nov 26: @parentwin @TIMEIdeas .. YOU'RE CONDEMNING WILSON B/C HE'S WHITE ..NOT B/C MIKE BROWNS ACTIONS ..PLEASE FIRE THIS WOMAN!

@parentwin You condone violence and destruction of property. You are part of the problem. Brown catalyzed his own demise. PERIOD.

Dec 1@parentwin @TIMEIdeas Go ahead, walk your 2 white kids down one of those streets at night then report back. I DARE you.

Then there are the tweets stretching it to the piece promoting the destruction of black communities and calling me racist (which I am because I'm white and can never understand, and have really big metaphorical balls talking all over a black issue with my whiteness...but not for the reason they say.)

Nov 26: Elite white @parentwin defends burning & looting in predominantly black neighborhood. Not racist at all - http://

Nov 26: @parentwin IS THE TYPICAL PROGRESSIVE RACIST WHITE SURBUBAN WHO THINKS SO LITTLE OF BLACK FOLKS

Nov 26: @AG_Conservative @TMZ_Politics @parentwin If that doesn't sum up the soft bigotry of low expectations.

(As an aside, having high expectations for society is not the same as having low expectations for communities.)

Privileged white TIME magazine writer @parentwin encourages poor blacks to burn down their own neighborhoods

Grotesque white leftist views blacks as animals, which is why she can't judge them by human standards: @parentwin 

Oh, and they really didn't like it when I said I was racist because I'm white. Because not all white people, obviously.

.@dennisprager You nailed it: Self-loathing FTW. MT @parentwin "If anything, I am #racist because I am white.

@parentwin dumbass white apologist who voted for a prez cuz hes black..I feel sorry for your children...GOFY!

@parentwin Okay, sure. But this idiotic bit about how if you're white you're racist is ridiculous. You don't know jack about race relations.

And, of course, Twitter wouldn't be complete without making absolutely no sense.

Nov 27: @presidentlazy2 Darlena wants to enslave people and bring the country down. She thinks she can still watch Maddow & drive an SUV.@parentwin

Nov 30@parentwin Your Time column, while calling for lynching as punishment for self defense, does poor job of explaining why you support lynching

I also got spammed with lots of anuses, so, you know, there's that, too. Let's move on to Facebook.

There's Rod, who's convinced reverse racism is a thing.

If anything, I am racist because I am white." Back in the mid-80's, I moved from Canada to the USA. I didn't know what racism was until I moved to this country. Within the first week I was accosted and punched in the face at a streetlight by a gang of black thugs out of pure jealousy (due to a scooter I owned which my mother just bought me due to my bicycle being stolen by another gang of blacks). If I hadn't escaped, I'm sure they would have continued to pummel me senseless. Fortunately I was able to escape with only a bloody nose, in shock that someone would attack me for no reason at all except "white privilege". If racism = being white, then racism = being any color, and racism means nothing at all. Your definition of racism is empty, void of all meaning. Fast forward to 2004. My company moved their headquarters to the edge of town, where mostly blacks live, in order to prove how "progressive" they were. I was attacked on my way to my car in broad daylight by a gang of black youth. While they were beating on my car, I was able to escape and call the police, who rounded them up within minutes. I declined to press charges, but when I asked why they attacked me, it came down to the color of my skin. Now tell me again, who is a racist? Your article made me sick to my stomach. You are no journalist. A real journalist would be accurate and fair. You might want to read the code of ethics for journalists.

Bill thinks it's a shame I don't give out my address to get some of what's coming to me.

Most journalists are fools. Too bad that this yo-yo won't volunteer her home as a target of acceptable "Black rage"!

Jonathan is one of those who hates rioting. Unless it's at my house. Because I made him mad.

While I steadfastly condemn rioting and the destruction of innocent people's property and belongings that had nothing to do with the altercation between Wilson and Brown, if someone is going to riot anyway, I might think it makes the most sense to riot at Darlena's home and destroy her property. After all, she would be supportive of that...

Glenn is really concerned about my parenting.

Darlena Cunha is a former television producer turned stay-at-home mom to twin four-year-old girls. When she's not parenting, she's writing novels, freelancing, going to grad school BUT NOT WATCHING AND RAISING HER TWINS or blogging at http://parentwin.com.
There is no defense of riots, only in Ferguson it is evident neglectful parents such as Darlena Cunha abandoning her twin babies to write such inflammatory criminal statements should have visits by the Child Protective Services which apparently they neglected in the case of the Brown’s matured boy into a hooligan, thief and thug! Where are her twins going?

Jeff: "The idea of white privilege is absurd." Oh.

". If anything, I am racist because I am white. Until I have had to walk in a person of color’s skin, I will never understand, I will always take things for granted, and I will be inherently privileged. " Excuse my ignorance, but is not white a color? Also, the idea of white privilege in today's age of liberal extremes is absurd.

And there are so many more. So, so many more. This is just a smattering. Something almost all the commenters have in common? They are all white men. Seriously. 97 percent of these comments came from white men. The other three percent came from white women.

But really, white men on social media, you are right. The way we are doing things as a country with regard to race is perfectly fine, and everyone should just shut up about it, already. Obviously, you see no color and have no preconceived notions.

 

Riots may be a necessary part of societal change...until we change society

Riots are a necessary part of the evolution of society. Unfortunately, we do not live in a universal utopia where people have the basic human rights they deserve simply for existing, and until we get there, the legitimate frustration, sorrow and pain of the marginalized voices will boil over, spilling out into our streets. As ‘normal’ citizens watch the events of Ferguson unfurl on their television screens and Twitter feeds, there is a lot of head shaking, finger pointing, and privileged explanation going on. We wish to seclude the incident and the people involved. To separate it from our history as a nation, to dehumanize the change agents because of their bad and sometimes violent decisions—because if we can separate the underlying racial tensions that clearly exist in our country from the looting and rioting of select individuals, we can continue to ignore the problem.

While the most famous rant against the riots thus far comes from Kevin Sorbo, where he calls the rioters “animals” and “losers,” there are thousands of people echoing these sentiments. Sorbo correctly ascertains that the rioting has little to do with the shooting of an unarmed black man in the street a few weeks ago, but he blames it on the typical privileged American’s stereotype of a less fortunate sect of human being—that the looting is a result of frustration built up over years of “blaming everyone else, The Man, for their failures.”

Because when you have succeeded, it ceases to be a possibility, in our capitalist society, that anyone else helped you. And if no one helped you succeed, then no one is holding anyone else back from succeeding. Except they did help you, and they are holding people back. So that blaming someone else for your failures in the United States may very well be an astute observation of reality, particularly as it comes to white privilege versus black privilege. And, yes, they are different, and they are tied to race, and that doesn’t make me a racist, it makes me a realist. If anything, I am racist because I am white. Until I have had to walk in a person of color’s skin, I will never understand, I will always take things for granted, and I will be inherently privileged. But by ignoring the very real issues this country still faces in terms of race to promote an as-of-yet imaginary colorblind society, we contribute to the problem at hand, which is centuries of abuses lobbied against other humans on no basis but that of their skin color.

Sorbo is not alone. One of the Tea Party’s pages has hundreds of comments disparaging the rioters, bemoaning the state of our country, and very much calling skin color on the carpet as the culprit of this debauched way of dealing with the state of our society.

“To hear the libs, one would think that burning and looting are a justifiable way to judge negative events that effect (sic) the black,” commented Ray Hause. “I intentionally used black because of a fact that you do not hear of these events when another skin color is in play. It is about time that the blacks start cleaning their own backyards before they start on ours.”

However, the conservative group to which Hause belongs gets its name from the founding riot, The Boston Tea Party. For those who need a quick history brush-up, in 1773 American protesters dumped an entire shipment of tea into the Boston Harbor to protest The Tea Act, which colonists maintained violated their rights. In response to this costly protest and civil unrest, the British government enforced The Coercive Acts, ending local government in Massachusetts, which in turn led to the American Revolution and created our great country.

Samuel Adams wrote of the incident, claiming it “was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest and the only remaining option the people had to defend their constitutional rights” according to John K. Alexander, author of “Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician” (pg. 129).

That protest back in 1773 was meant to effect political and societal change, and while the destruction of property in that case may not have ended in loss of human life, the revolution that took place afterward certainly did. What separates a heralded victory in history from an attempt at societal change, a cry for help from the country’s trampled, today? The fact that we won.

In terms of riots being more common in black communities, that is true only when the riots are politically aimed.

The obvious example here is the L.A. Riots of 1992, after the Rodney King beating and verdict. I would put forth that peaceful protesting is a luxury of those already in mainstream culture, those who can be assured their voices will be heard without violence, those who can afford to wait for the change they want.

“I risk sounding racist but if this was a white kid there would be no riot,” commented Thom Nielsen on the Tea Party page. “History shows us that blacks in this country are more apt to riot than any other population. They are stirred up by racist black people and set out to cause problems. End of story.”

Blacks in this country are more apt to riot because they are one of the populations here who still need to. In the case of the 1992 riots, 30 years of black people trying to talk about their struggles of racial profiling and muted, but still vastly unfair, treatment, came to a boil. Sometimes, enough is simply too much. And after that catalyst event, the landscape of southern California changed, and nationally, police forces took note.

And the racism they are fighting, the racism we are all fighting, is still alive and well throughout our nation. The modern racism may not culminate in separate water fountains and backs of buses, but its insidious nature is perhaps even more dangerous to the individuals who have to live under the shroud of stereotypical lies society foists upon them. 

Take Jerry Lister’s comment for example:

“I believe the only way to stop the blacks from rioting is to film every person involved and prohibit them from receiving ALL public assistance for life.”

Instead of tearing down other human beings who are acting upon decades of pent-up anger at a system decidedly against them, a system that has told them they are less than human for years, we ought to be reaching out to help them regain the humanity they lost, not when a few set fire to the buildings in Ferguson, but when they were born the wrong color in the post-racial America.