John Crawford, but the names seem to be usually lumped together inappropriately, imo. TM, Crawford, Castille and others were going about their law-abiding business, and other than skin pigment, are unrelated to the Michael Brown and George Floyd incidents. I believe part of the reason it's easy to generate public mob action over these deaths is the fear, valid or not, of corrupt and/or badly inept law enforcement or an inept vigilante.
Of course they're all lumped together inappropriate. Racial identification is inappropriate, period. Did you know it's against the the law for the Census to ask your religion? So why is it OK to say Michael Brown represents black men? Or that there's something consistent about 'black crime' or 'black unemployment' from Chicago to El Paso and from Portland to Miami? Or more specifically, why do Americans believe that 'The Wire' is the most accurate portrayal of black life ever made? Basically because cops and robbers is the black metaphor. Black Lives is a crime drama, and that's all there is. Therefore America needs the Party to do.... and that's the whole narrative. Dispute it and you're 'racist'. It still works.
Just reviewing your contemporaneous take on the Trayvon Martin shooting. Have you reviewed what you said back then and bounced it against the facts known today? How do you rate the results of that comparison? Perhaps you've already written on the matter elsewhere; if so, could you please direct me to your published views in light of the facts of the case as revealed during and after the Zimmerman trial? Thank you.
Wow. I remember blog comments... The one thing I said that I think best resonates with my thinking is the following:
Actually, none of the above is really my point now that I think about it. My point has to do with my Peasant Theory and why people who think they have a lot to say actually do not. 'Who is your Leviathan' applies here. I say it's a wash when peasants take and/or defend each others lives, because on the grand scale of things it doesn't really matter. None of these people is Archduke Ferdinand and whatever their life's deeds signify, they only signify them to people of similar trivial backgrounds. Where the rubber meets the road is that here in America, we elevate peasants to officialdom and train & swear them in to serve the law. Service to the law is *always* a higher calling than defending the honor of peasants. Let me repeat that. Service to the law is *always* a higher calling than defending the honor of peasants. So if the law says Zimmerman goes free and the peasants want him burned at the stake, then to hell with what the peasants want. If the law says Zimmerman is to be shot at dawn, drawn and quartered, and the peasant want a statue erected in his honor and a national holiday, then to hell with those peasants as well. Understand? Because when you nullify the law you uncivilize. There are no two ways about it. If you don't like the law, or the effect of the law, then change it by the legal process. But the legal process must be served, period. Everything else, all the symbolic protests, all the blathering editorial, all the tweets in the world, all the neighborhood watches, stand below the civilizing effect of the legal process, without which there is nothing save peasant barbarity. If anyone hints at any suggestion otherwise, let him form his own lynch mob. (or tv commercial, or charity event, or letter writing campaign, or sit-in, or bbq or lottery with whatever color ribbons are on sale at the Dollar Store).
The only reasonable thing that could come of this, and I think that something to that effect has already been done, is to demonstrate incompetence of the DA for not pressing charges or arresting Zimmerman promptly. My impression was that this was because of some pseudo auxiliary function Zimmerman provided the understaffed and pooh butt police force in Bugger County or whereever this Sherwood Forest is. yay.
---
I think that at the time, I had not yet attended citizen's police academy. I think I would have been a bit more consistent in my talk about the role of citizens in concert with police, the nature and need for vigilantes and what levels of skill are required to resolve violent conflict with the minimum of damage. On the whole my sentiment is still, goddamn the bastards who broadcast this into our homes. I miss Nakajima.
Thank you for your quick response. I'll have to consider your interesting take in view of the predictable reactions of the public based on tribal identification and prejudice drawn forth by various media, judicial, and pundit narratives. Almost as if those narratives were designed to invoke those responses, though to what end I still can't fathom.
Thank you for your thoughts on this issue. It's funny that we as a culture acknowledge diaspora exists, but fail to understand how differences within groups show up today. The hot take on the current idea is always being pushed.
Foe example, I am a movie fan. I keep waiting for the Black Samurai, Frederick Douglass or other awesome, heroic, black historical figure film, but we don't get that. Nor a cool modern film that doesn't focus on a black person's daily conflicts with racism. It doesn't fit the dead black body mold that you highlight. Like, Inside Job, Red Belt, or Night of The Living Dead (Original and Tony Todd remake). Amazing films, great black leads.
Doesnt mean we dont need those stories, but, all Jewish media being about the Holocaust denies what has happened since. Similarly, focusing on slavery and civil rights only, limits the collective consciousness regarding who black people are and their daily lives. There are so many amazing people and stories to tell!
Yeah Inside Man was one of my favorites. But I also thought Aaron the Moor in Titus was an extraordinary performance by Harry Lennix. At some point the 'black' flavor we crave in entertainment has to be disambiguated from cultural lessons. There was nobody I grew up with who didn't see themselves in Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner. Heroes are just heroes. The sooner you learn that, the easier it is to learn more. Like the way I learned to surf. I didn't need a heroic black role model. Nobody should need one. Nor should we need a racialized foil for the hero.
But yeah that confusion of race & ethnicity with culture & virtue is an old stupid idea that millions of yokels keep alive in this country. It actually doesn't take much to step beyond it. Easy for me to say. I think I wrote it down somewhere. Let me check. Nope. It's coming. Stay tuned.
Yeah. 'Night of the Living Dead' was an excellent black and white film, in both ways. So was 'The Defiant Ones'. But there's only going to be one Sidney Poitier and he set the standard before I was born.
I grew up with Will Smith, from Fresh Prince on TV, to Independence Day and Men In Black. Everyone understood K is the old guy and we all wanted to be J, the new kid. Not as great an actor, but he played such universal roles
John Crawford, but the names seem to be usually lumped together inappropriately, imo. TM, Crawford, Castille and others were going about their law-abiding business, and other than skin pigment, are unrelated to the Michael Brown and George Floyd incidents. I believe part of the reason it's easy to generate public mob action over these deaths is the fear, valid or not, of corrupt and/or badly inept law enforcement or an inept vigilante.
Of course they're all lumped together inappropriate. Racial identification is inappropriate, period. Did you know it's against the the law for the Census to ask your religion? So why is it OK to say Michael Brown represents black men? Or that there's something consistent about 'black crime' or 'black unemployment' from Chicago to El Paso and from Portland to Miami? Or more specifically, why do Americans believe that 'The Wire' is the most accurate portrayal of black life ever made? Basically because cops and robbers is the black metaphor. Black Lives is a crime drama, and that's all there is. Therefore America needs the Party to do.... and that's the whole narrative. Dispute it and you're 'racist'. It still works.
Just reviewing your contemporaneous take on the Trayvon Martin shooting. Have you reviewed what you said back then and bounced it against the facts known today? How do you rate the results of that comparison? Perhaps you've already written on the matter elsewhere; if so, could you please direct me to your published views in light of the facts of the case as revealed during and after the Zimmerman trial? Thank you.
Wow. I remember blog comments... The one thing I said that I think best resonates with my thinking is the following:
Actually, none of the above is really my point now that I think about it. My point has to do with my Peasant Theory and why people who think they have a lot to say actually do not. 'Who is your Leviathan' applies here. I say it's a wash when peasants take and/or defend each others lives, because on the grand scale of things it doesn't really matter. None of these people is Archduke Ferdinand and whatever their life's deeds signify, they only signify them to people of similar trivial backgrounds. Where the rubber meets the road is that here in America, we elevate peasants to officialdom and train & swear them in to serve the law. Service to the law is *always* a higher calling than defending the honor of peasants. Let me repeat that. Service to the law is *always* a higher calling than defending the honor of peasants. So if the law says Zimmerman goes free and the peasants want him burned at the stake, then to hell with what the peasants want. If the law says Zimmerman is to be shot at dawn, drawn and quartered, and the peasant want a statue erected in his honor and a national holiday, then to hell with those peasants as well. Understand? Because when you nullify the law you uncivilize. There are no two ways about it. If you don't like the law, or the effect of the law, then change it by the legal process. But the legal process must be served, period. Everything else, all the symbolic protests, all the blathering editorial, all the tweets in the world, all the neighborhood watches, stand below the civilizing effect of the legal process, without which there is nothing save peasant barbarity. If anyone hints at any suggestion otherwise, let him form his own lynch mob. (or tv commercial, or charity event, or letter writing campaign, or sit-in, or bbq or lottery with whatever color ribbons are on sale at the Dollar Store).
The only reasonable thing that could come of this, and I think that something to that effect has already been done, is to demonstrate incompetence of the DA for not pressing charges or arresting Zimmerman promptly. My impression was that this was because of some pseudo auxiliary function Zimmerman provided the understaffed and pooh butt police force in Bugger County or whereever this Sherwood Forest is. yay.
---
I think that at the time, I had not yet attended citizen's police academy. I think I would have been a bit more consistent in my talk about the role of citizens in concert with police, the nature and need for vigilantes and what levels of skill are required to resolve violent conflict with the minimum of damage. On the whole my sentiment is still, goddamn the bastards who broadcast this into our homes. I miss Nakajima.
Thank you for your quick response. I'll have to consider your interesting take in view of the predictable reactions of the public based on tribal identification and prejudice drawn forth by various media, judicial, and pundit narratives. Almost as if those narratives were designed to invoke those responses, though to what end I still can't fathom.
Thank you for your thoughts on this issue. It's funny that we as a culture acknowledge diaspora exists, but fail to understand how differences within groups show up today. The hot take on the current idea is always being pushed.
Foe example, I am a movie fan. I keep waiting for the Black Samurai, Frederick Douglass or other awesome, heroic, black historical figure film, but we don't get that. Nor a cool modern film that doesn't focus on a black person's daily conflicts with racism. It doesn't fit the dead black body mold that you highlight. Like, Inside Job, Red Belt, or Night of The Living Dead (Original and Tony Todd remake). Amazing films, great black leads.
Doesnt mean we dont need those stories, but, all Jewish media being about the Holocaust denies what has happened since. Similarly, focusing on slavery and civil rights only, limits the collective consciousness regarding who black people are and their daily lives. There are so many amazing people and stories to tell!
Yeah Inside Man was one of my favorites. But I also thought Aaron the Moor in Titus was an extraordinary performance by Harry Lennix. At some point the 'black' flavor we crave in entertainment has to be disambiguated from cultural lessons. There was nobody I grew up with who didn't see themselves in Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner. Heroes are just heroes. The sooner you learn that, the easier it is to learn more. Like the way I learned to surf. I didn't need a heroic black role model. Nobody should need one. Nor should we need a racialized foil for the hero.
But yeah that confusion of race & ethnicity with culture & virtue is an old stupid idea that millions of yokels keep alive in this country. It actually doesn't take much to step beyond it. Easy for me to say. I think I wrote it down somewhere. Let me check. Nope. It's coming. Stay tuned.
Yeah. 'Night of the Living Dead' was an excellent black and white film, in both ways. So was 'The Defiant Ones'. But there's only going to be one Sidney Poitier and he set the standard before I was born.
I grew up with Will Smith, from Fresh Prince on TV, to Independence Day and Men In Black. Everyone understood K is the old guy and we all wanted to be J, the new kid. Not as great an actor, but he played such universal roles
Yes, Bugs or Daffy for me.