Race, lets make this serious! It is nearly 2013.

[Vrede too]

A Confederate memorial is to be removed from Arlington National Cemetery, despite some GOP pushback

In principle, I don't object to Confederate memorials in cemeteries. They are a reminder of dead slaver/traitors and dupes of slaver/traitors FAILURE. However, this monument is particularly offensive:

... The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: “They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

No, Union PATRIOTS beat Southern arms into plough-shares and pruning hooks.

Some of the figures also on the statue include a Black woman depicted as “Mammy” holding what is said to be the child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war.

Buh-bye.

... Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin disagrees with the decision and plans to move the monument to the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park in the Shenandoah Valley, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said....

Of course he does and will, to the site of a slaver/traitor victory. Why are the feds letting him have the statue? Anyhow, Sheridan and the United States of America went on to win the Valley campaigns of 1864.

[O Really]

New Market is a good place for it, I guess. Why not, they already commemorate the 15 year-olds they conscripted into service from VMI.

[Vrede too]

New Market is a good place for it, I guess. Why not, they already commemorate the 15 year-olds they conscripted into service from VMI.

Thanks, I considered mentioning that.
247 slaver/traitor cadets, including children

Forty-seven VMI cadets were wounded in the battle (around 23%). The following ten cadets were killed outright or mortally wounded: ...

[billy.pilgrim]

https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essay ... ts-of-1863#

“ The option to hire a substitute or pay a fee not to serve angered many Americans, who complained about the conflict’s being a “rich man’s war and [a] poor man’s fight.” With many tens of thousands of soldiers dying of disease, infections, and wounds, it was not surprising that large numbers of men tried to avoid the draft. More than 20 percent of those drafted refused to report for duty, fleeing to the West or going into hiding to avoid the provost marshals.”

[Vrede too]

"Race, lets make this serious! It is nearly 2013."

Nearly 2024 :

A white couple who burned a cross in their yard facing Black neighbors' home are investigated by FBI

... Federal civil rights investigators searched the white couple's home in Conway on Wednesday, according to FBI spokesperson Kevin Wheeler. The retired Black couple also recorded video of the cross being burned on Thanksgiving weekend and described days of repeated threats from their neighbors. The next week, Worden Evander Butler, 28, and Alexis Paige Hartnett, 27, were arrested on state charges of harassment and later released on bond....

Lock them up!



They look smart.

... One of the white defendants was heard on police body camera footage repeatedly using a racial slur toward the Black couple, according to the police report. Butler also shared the Black couple’s address on Facebook, and posted that he was “summoning the devil’s army” and “about to make them pay,” the report said. According to an arrest warrant, Hartnett also threatened to hurt the couple.

Xtians, figures.

South Carolina is one of two states in the country that does not impose additional penalties for hate crimes committed because of a victim’s race or other aspects of their identity....

Of course it doesn't. SC will always be first in hateful treason.

[Vrede too]

There goes the neighborhood:

Caucasian woman wins Miss Japan

Ukrainian-born model Karolina Shiino was crowned the new Miss Japan on January 22, 2024. A naturalised citizen who has lived in Japan for over 20 years, Shiino’s ethnicity still sparked debate on what it means to be Japanese and what could be defined as Japanese beauty.

Carolina Shiino

... She was born in Ternopil, Ukraine in 1998 and moved to Nagoya, Japan at the age of five. She moved to Japan when her mother Svitlana married a Japanese man. She received Japanese citizenship in 2022. Svitlana Shiino is also a model and a multiple winner of contests. Svitlana's mother Maria joined her daughter and granddaughter in Japan in the spring of 2022 as a Ukrainian refugee following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I wonder if solidarity with Ukraine (or dislike for Russia) played any role in her win.

Ftr, there are 3 Asian American Miss Americas:
2001 - Angela Perez Baraquio, Filipina American
2014 - Nina Davuluri, Indian American
2022 - Emma Broyles, neurodivergent and first openly bisexual, (half) Korean American

There are 2 Asian American Miss USAs:
1997 - Brook Lee, multi-ethnic (Chinese, Korean, Native Hawaiian, Portuguese, French, Dutch and English), also won Miss Universe
2022 - R'Bonney Gabriel, (half) Filipina American, also won Miss Universe

All or most faced prejudiced backlash

[O Really]

It's easier to fit a multi-racial person into "America" than it is to fit a caucasian into "Japanese"
America has long claimed to be a "melting pot" whereas Japan is traditionally pretty much uni-racial. And, racism notwithstanding, Americans have long appreciated a bit of exoticism in their definition of American beauty. And in many places, Asian-ish looks are commonplace.
But congratulations to Carolina - and perhaps to the judges for maybe looking past race.

[Vrede too]

It's easier to fit a multi-racial person into "America" than it is to fit a caucasian into "Japanese"
America has long claimed to be a "melting pot" whereas Japan is traditionally pretty much uni-racial. And, racism notwithstanding, Americans have long appreciated a bit of exoticism in their definition of American beauty. And in many places, Asian-ish looks are commonplace.
But congratulations to Carolina - and perhaps to the judges for maybe looking past race.

Otoh, there are some areas where male White supremacy still reigns and people will whine and lie incessantly to keep it that way:

How right-wing influencers turned airplanes and airports into culture war battlegrounds

[O Really]

Apparently not everyone was pleased with a Caucasian Miss Japan.
"Ukraine-born Miss Japan 2024 relinquishes title following report of affair" Hmmm, wonder where that "report" came from.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-born ... 29706.html

[Vrede too]

Apparently not everyone was pleased with a Caucasian Miss Japan.
"Ukraine-born Miss Japan 2024 relinquishes title following report of affair" Hmmm, wonder where that "report" came from.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-born ... 29706.html

I'm sooo sure that Japanese beauty queens never fool around with married men. It must be the White girl in her that made her so sinful.

I opened this with some trepidation:

6 Privileged Phrases That White People Say Without Realizing It

Phew. I never would have said #s 1-5. I'm not as sure about #6, but I was taught about racism at a young age and think I would have erred on the side of younger rather than older. Y'all?

[O Really]

Those are not things I say, except maybe #3, in different context. It's tragically clear that Black people have much to fear from police, even while innocently waiting for their Uber. But I've probably said something similar regarding public surveillance cameras and applicable to everybody.

[GoCubsGo]

Nope.

I don't really post on social media or have kids so I guess they're not really applicable.

[billy.pilgrim]

Nope to all.
Other than having my wife post on Marketplace a couple of times, this forum is the extent of my social media experience.

Never to all. Admittedly racist before I turned 16, but the phrases still don’t fit my (minor nervous) racism then. Since my epiphany on racism at 16 I’ve always been too overly cautious to have said anything like this.
#6
I believe that I’ve told my bus driver story before - it was a proud moment.
- The kid comes home from 1st or 2nd grade excited about his bus driver being an old friend of ours. He couldn’t remember the guy’s name and began describing him - black hair, mustache, well built, tall, was military officer. Finally, after his frustration devolved into a series of “you knows”, one of us - I think it was mrs pilgrim who says, “Was he black?” and Bingo, we knew.

It seems that we can stop anything. This little 7 year old son of a man raised in central Alabama during Jim Crow had been raised to believe that skin color wasn’t even a descriptive feature - He has since learned that color can be descriptive of features, but not so abilities.

It’s helped him in life. He lives and works in a fairly upscale majority black community.

[Vrede too]

Those are not things I say, except maybe #3, in different context. It's tragically clear that Black people have much to fear from police, even while innocently waiting for their Uber. But I've probably said something similar regarding public surveillance cameras and applicable to everybody.

3. “There’s no need to worry about the police if you’re not doing anything illegal.”

Latinos, indigenous Americans, dissidents and poor people of any color, along with Blacks, have to worry about the police.

Michigan lawmaker loses staff, committee assignment after online racist post
A Republican lawmaker in Michigan has lost his committee assignment and staff, days after posting an image of a racist ideology on social media

... State Rep. Josh Schriver, who is white, shared a post on X — formerly known as Twitter — that showed a map of the world with Black figures greatly outnumbering white figures, along with the phrase, “The great replacement!”

The conspiracy theory says there’s a plot to diminish the influence of white people.

Schriver, who represents portions of Oakland and Macomb counties, can vote on the House floor. But Tate removed him from a committee and told the House Business Office to oversee his staff members, who still can assist constituents....

“I’m opposed to racists, race baiters and victim politics,” Schriver told The Detroit News. “What I find strange is the agenda to demoralize and reduce the white portion of our population." ...

Bigots are really really stupid. He IDed himself as a racist, race baiter and perpetual victim in the very next sentence.

[billy.pilgrim]

AGENDA

Today’s agenda announcement is about babies. We need to have more.

[Vrede too]

AGENDA

Today’s agenda announcement is about babies. We need to have more.

Depends on how "We" is defined, doesn't it?

Affluent White folks are the bane of the nation.

Developers Got Backing for Affordable Housing. Then the Neighborhood Found Out.

They met at a country club

[Vrede too]

Nope to all.
Other than having my wife post on Marketplace a couple of times, this forum is the extent of my social media experience.

Never to all. Admittedly racist before I turned 16, but the phrases still don’t fit my (minor nervous) racism then. Since my epiphany on racism at 16 I’ve always been too overly cautious to have said anything like this.
#6
I believe that I’ve told my bus driver story before - it was a proud moment.
- The kid comes home from 1st or 2nd grade excited about his bus driver being an old friend of ours. He couldn’t remember the guy’s name and began describing him - black hair, mustache, well built, tall, was military officer. Finally, after his frustration devolved into a series of “you knows”, one of us - I think it was mrs pilgrim who says, “Was he black?” and Bingo, we knew.

It seems that we can stop anything. This little 7 year old son of a man raised in central Alabama during Jim Crow had been raised to believe that skin color wasn’t even a descriptive feature - He has since learned that color can be descriptive of features, but not so abilities.

It’s helped him in life. He lives and works in a fairly upscale majority black community.

Nice. Somewhat related, could have gone in several threads - Visual Arts, Other Countries, Heroes, etc - but this is mostly where we've discussed removing slaver/traitor statues.

Inspired by a dream, this photograph became a symbol for a transformative protest movement

Nine years ago, Sethembile Msezane stepped on top of a plinth, wearing a black body suit and stiletto heels, her arms adorned with wings she fashioned out of wood, velvet, and hair. Behind her, a statue of a man can be seen being lifted in the air. “Chapungu — The Day Rhodes Fell” has since become an iconic photograph, capturing the spirit of the #RhodesMustFall movement which led to the removal of 19th century colonist Cecil Rhodes’ statue at the University of Cape Town.

Msezane was a studying for a Master’s degree in Fine Arts at the university during the protests, which saw students call for the Briton’s statue to come down, citing his legacy as being tainted with racism....


Artist Sethembile Msezane on a plinth in front of the statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes. Its removal was the culmination of a month of protests by students.

The dreams centred around “Chapungu,” a sacred Zimbabwean bateleur eagle who Msezane embodied atop the plinth with her wings.

Eight of the birds — which hold great spiritual value for the people of Zimbabwe — were immortalised in green-gray soapstone in the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe. As the site fell into disrepair, six were subsequently looted, and in the 1800s, one statue of Chapungu was given to Cecil Rhodes. While several have now been returned, to this day, it remains at Rhodes’ former home at the Groote Shuur estate in Cape Town, Msezane explained.

“There have been political calls for her to return home, but for some reason, these calls have been denied,” she said. “There is a mythological belief that until she is returned home, there will be social unrest in Zimbabwe.”

... The image is currently on display in London as part of the South London Gallery and V&A Parasol Foundation’s exhibition “Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and the Art of Protest” which takes a journey through female-led resistance around the world, from the perils of illegal abortion in Chile, Poland, and the United States, to women-led protests in Iran and Bangladesh....

[GoCubsGo]

Wasn't quite sure where to place this. It's disturbing but not surprising.


Bombshell plot exposed: ‘Secret men-only right-wing society’ plots Christian government takeover

[billy.pilgrim]

Wasn't quite sure where to place this. It's disturbing but not surprising.


Bombshell plot exposed: ‘Secret men-only right-wing society’ plots Christian government takeover

These are for sure crazy people

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... order-sacr

Christian nationalist prayers
An April 2021 email Yenor sent to his wife’s work address has an attached PDF – “SACR-prayers”. The document features a “long prayer – formal and inaugural occasions” and a “short prayer – regular meetings”.
The long prayer draws biblical and historical parallels for SACR’s activities: “May God unite us in this mission as Joshua’s men when they defeated the mighty walls of Jericho, as Nehemiah’s men who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, as St Constantine’s men when they conquered in the sign of the cross. May the light of Christendom be restored in our homeland, and may America not fall to those who hate God.”
Brad Onishi is the author of Preparing for War, a critical account of Christian nationalism, the host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, and an academic with appointments at UC Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. He is also a self-described former Christian nationalist.
In a telephone conversation he said that the prayers include “coded” references that may function as justifications of violence.
Explaining the reference to the story of the conquest of Jericho in the book of Joshua, Onishi said: “What happens when the walls fall down? Joshua’s men go in and kill everyone: men, children, women, animals.
“It’s an attempted genocide, right?”
“In that prayer they’re saying we’re Joshua’s men. We’re the type of men who trust God,” Onishi added.
“And when God, when God gives us the signal, we’re going to go kill everybody. That’s what we do.”


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3 ... ent-Regime

“Several stories have emerged about the Claremont Institute-supported mystery fraternal group with the non-threatening name, Society for American Civic Renewal.  Jason Wilson at The Guardian has reported on tax records and research about the secretive male-only “lodges” in an increasingly extensive story that has reached into connections with Republican Party candidate Ron DeSantis and other Florida legislators.  
The real focus should be on the Claremont Institute, a think tank with deep reaches into political and religious leadership.  Documents obtained revealed a solidly Christian autocratic agenda: “The trove also contains an “internal” SACR “mission statement” with a far more radical edge than the public “vision” now recorded on the organization’s website. “


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Haywood

Crazy man

[GoCubsGo]

The human species is devolving.