Ilhan Omar and Jan Schakowsy Pen Op-Ed on the Dangers Posed by White Supremacists

    Ilham Omara and Jackie Schakowsky, two members of the House co-authored an Op-Ed warning of the dangers of white supremacists.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/house/443602-ilhan-omar-and-illinois-dem-co...

    The group that represents a clear and present danger to the United States of America. There is no organized effort to fight this treat.

    White supremacists have infiltrated police departments 

    https://www.revealnews.org/article/inside-hate-groups-on-facebook-police-officers-trade-racist-memes-conspiracy-theories-and-islamophobia/

    The White House employs Steven Miller, a white supremacist. Steve Brannon was employed by the White House. Trump found good people among Nazis. Hate crimes are increasing. The majority of hate crimes in NYC are aimed at Jews. The majority of terrorist acts in the United States is committed by white supremacists.

    We are in perilous times. We cannot pretend that both sides do it.

    Comments

     from the Omar/Schakowsky op-ed back on May 15.

    “White nationalists win when our two communities are divided. They seek to exploit our divisions and grievances to further an agenda of hate. But we know that when [we] are united, we are stronger,” they write.

    Subsequently:

    They were together on Van Jones' CNN show just this Saturday. @ 3:00 to 4:00 on this video you will see Schakowsky gently chide Omar for bringing up the "weaponizing of anti-Semitism"

    To me sounds like Omar's saying some of the right words about de-tribalizing her lingo, but she's still doesn't totally get it, and has got a lot to learn about being a congressperson that unites rather than divides, and that is an example.Luckily some like Schadowksy are willing to teach her and she's shown herself open to learning by joining the new caucus. But she's already done a lot of damage to her own reputation with earlier inflammatory muslim vs. jew tribal shit that it's going to a long road to repair it. 

    Still, both took this opportunity to stress stopping fighting each other, that that is the main way to counter white nationalism.


    Omar is not going to de-tribalize, as you put it, neither is Schakowsy. They are able to work together to fight a common enemy. The enemy they fight is the true threat. They are not distracted regarding the real danger. They remain tribal. Omar has her point of view, Schakowsy has her point of view, but they still join together. Tribes clobbered Custer by working together. White Supremacists will be attacking whether Omar and Schakowsy are tribal or not. Tribes are getting things done while others just sit on the sidelines and complain about people being tribal.

    There is nothing that the tribal critics have to offer but critism. The critics are as tribal as the groups they criticize. In fact, the critics are the real tribalists. Take, for example, to identify with groups who voted for Trump. When you show polling data that white voters who cast votes for Trump had racial bias, the critics identify with the Trump voters and accuse those who show the polling data of calling the critics racist. The critics identify with racially biased voters. It is group identification at the highest. The critics are the poster child for “my way or the highway.”

    Take an issue like whites calling the police on black people for sitting in Starbucks, barbecuing, attempting to use a swimming pool, etc. The critics would say this is pity olympics. Those concerned about the issue say that they have seen too many encounters with the police go south. The critics stand on the sidelines. The Tribe goes to work. A NY state Senator proposes charging people who call police on innocent black people with a crime.

    https://patch.com/new-york/prospectheights/calling-911-black-people-may-be-hate-crime-under-proposed-law

    A similar law was proposed in Grand Rapids. Michigan 

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/25/us/grand-rapids-racial-police-calls-trnd/index.html

    The Tribe gets better results than the critics, who in the face of seeing things like Omar and Schakowsy working together. Stand on the sidelines and yammer away. The critics are the Tribalists who only see one way of doing things. If things don’t fit the critics narrow mindset, we’ll they just criticize.

     


    It all seems funny to me because I've read your posts for years and you're a pretty left liberal. All the polls tell us there's a higher percentage of white liberal democrats than black liberal democrats. If it weren't for the perceived racism of the republican party at least 30% if not more blacks would vote republican. Blacks and Hispanics are the more conservative faction of the democratic party. Hopefully republicans will never solve their racism problem because if they do democrats are sunk.


    Republicans are in too deep to give up the racism. Blacks encounter White Republicans at work, so we understand their politics. It boils down to “I’m not racist, I just like his policies”. Painter objects to calling out people who vote for racists like Trump and the Governors in Georgia and Florida. When whites leave the Republican Party, it is not because they reject the racism. I pointed out previously that Never Trumpers like George Will and Max Boot had no problem with the racism. 

    Black voters are pragmatic. Democrats represents the best option. Voter suppression, education, etc. unites the black vote. In this election cycle, we see Democratic candidates actually craft policies that directly address concerns in the black community.

    The Republican Party is the common enemy. Nothing funny about that. 

     


    Have you talked to any black people about their feelings about Trump and the GOP.

    Here is a snippet of a black Republican and a black Democrat regarding the abuse that a black family received from the police in Phoenix. A pregnant woman was threatened.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/Shermichael_/status/1140593236001599488

    Both men are pissed off. The GOP, in particular, abandoned black people. There is no surprise that most blacks consider the Republicans the enemy.

    Whites are entertained by Diamond & Silk as modern day Bojangles. They can point to the duo to say that Republicans are not racists.

    Shermichael Singleton is a true black Republican who is disgusted by the current Republican Party.


    I'm with him on this whole thing, except that I was tired of it a long time ago, way before Trump:

    I am tired of fools, closet Trump supporters or Russian trolls who say they are Democrats and then take to social media to call most voters in key swing states (PA, MI, WI, OH, FL etc.) racist or uneducated. We don’t change people’s minds by telling insulting lies about them.

    — Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) June 17, 2019

    Omar will eventually figure out that she'll get nowhere in Congress if she only thinks from the Somali-American "community" perspective 24/7 and doesn't at least understand the whole of Minnesota, much less the entire U.S. If she does, she'll be both more successful in her goals and a valuable asset to the Dem party. Or she doesn't figure it out, then she won't.


    There are people who have already left the Republican Party. Trump took a 4-month old away from his parents. Republicans were in court in Virginia trying to keep racist gerrymandering laws intact. Trump is obstructing justice. If people are still with him, there is little that can be done to win them back. Democrats will do outreach, but I think people have already left.

    Ilhan Omar won her political race. She is working with Schakowsy. Still not enough for critic Painter. Richard Painter lost his political race in Michigan.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/401600-tina-smith-defeats-former-bush-ethics-lawyer-in-minnesota-primary

    Perhaps Richard Painter is better at standing on the sidelines criticizing rather than giving political advice. Here’s a hint, if you call people’s concerns as identity politics, you might get your behind whipped in an election. Long live the Tribe!


    Overpraising the morals and ethics of the American public and selling it back to them is one of our oldest cottage industries. Yeah, we're largely a pig-ignorant loutish racist isolationist bunch with occasionally enough mythology thrown at us to get us to rise above ourselves. #1 in everything, exceptional, God's Chosen, whatever. Manifest Destiny rings out on every block despite a fair amount of unneeded squalor and repression and basic meanness, but it's our story and we're sticking with it. Each 4th of July we wash away our sins and revel in our awesomeness, and start the cycle again.

    Somewhere Joe and Joetta Six,pack just need these issues presented in compassionate human terms and they'll be on board, even though their Xtian beliefs and preacher tell them to back Trump and lock up/brutalize the refugees and keep pulling guns on and beating up npacks and anyone who mouths off to police, cuz that's how justice works.


    There were moral arguments about slavery ignored by a subset of whites.

    After losing the Civil War, the myth of the Lost Cause arose and statues to Confederate traitors were erected.

    There were moral arguments against Jim Crow ignored by many whites

    Martin Luther King Jr. was a commie and hated by many whites until he died

    After death, King became a hero.

    Trump got elected with a majority of the white vote.

    If voters are still hanging with Trump after all the atrocities, why compassionate message will change their hearts?

     


    Why did you post this as a reply to mine? I don't see any relevance.


    We live in separate worlds. You want compassion. When it comes to racial issues, we had to fight a Civil War and combat Jim Crow  with blacks facing police dogs and fire hoses, to make progress. We have a white supremacist in office and a segment ready to vote him back in. What appeasement do we need to make? 

    Trump is a liar. Trump is obstructing justice. Trump is allowing foreign nations to interfere with our elections. All of this is out in the open. What compassionate message do you think will change minds? Democrats will do outreach, but they better focus on their base and Independents if they want to win.

    Martin Luther King Jr. did not appease. He was bold enough to say that a person of good conscience could not vote for Barry Goldwater. King said that Goldwater was willing to work with white supremacists to gain votes. That was King’s compassionate message.


    You didn't answer my question. I responded to AA's quote re: Richard Painter.

    You're like some social media bot that perhaps finds a word, perhaps not, to trigger a pre-canned spew of unrelated points. If you want to start some new thread of whatever, MLK + Civil War + whatever other trip down memory lane, don't do it after my comments unless relevant to my comments. You can like click "New comment" rather than "Reply", or if it has nothing to do with the original diary, click "Blog now!" or "Submit news".


    I found my response appropriate

    Edit to add:

    You mentioned presenting issues with compassion. I cite historical record to suggest that is not going to be effective. 


    I stand by my historical reference 

    Here is more perspective 

    Over the weekend, an argument broke out online about the legacy of Jim Crow, sparked by comments that Joe Biden made in South Carolina about voter-suppression tactics being deployed by Republicans. “[Last] year, 24 states introduced or enacted at least 70 bills to curtail the right the vote … mostly directed at people of color,” the former vice-president and 2020 presidential candidate said. “We’ve got Jim Crow sneaking back in.”

    Matt Lewis, a Daily Beast reporter and CNN commentator, tweeted in response, “Jim Crow? Aren’t there enough legitimate problems [with] Trump that Joe shouldn’t have to engage in such irresponsible hyperbole?” Lewis added in a follow-up tweet: “This sort of crying wolf is part of the reason I think a lot of working-class white voters are tuning out Democratic politicians — and ignoring their (otherwise valid) criticisms of Trump.”

    As no shortage of respondents were quick to point out to Lewis, laws and practices that impede voting rights proliferate across the United States. Intimidation measures used under Jim Crow to keep black people away from the ballot box are echoed today by frivolous voter-fraud prosecutionspursued by local officials, and the varying degrees to which civilians have been empowered to challenge others’ right to vote. A version of the poll tax — a Jim Crow–era imposition that endowed the franchise with financial burdens that most black people could not shoulder — passed recently in the GOP-controlled Florida legislature, requiring re-enfranchised people with felony convictions to settle court fines and fees before getting their rights back.

    That these and other such measures affect black would-be voters disproportionately is either the intended goal or a convenient side effect for Republicans, who seem congenitally unable to win the black vote in a fair fight.

    Still, Lewis’s suggestion that we are not witnessing a literal resurgence of Jim Crow is worth engaging, particularly in light of his follow-up claim that Democrats “crying wolf” is why white working-class voters reject them. The dynamic that he implies can be summarized thusly: Donald Trump is a racist, but rather than rebuke him because of his racism, many white working-class voters are driven into his fold because Democrats exaggerate how bad racism is.

    It is an odd argument, and not only because white support for Republicans across class lines has historically been driven by GOP appeals to white bigotry, rather than despite them. It is especially odd because it assumes that Trump supporters would be motivated to fight racism — or at least not reject political figures who talk about it — if the stakes were presented to them in a measured and reasonable manner that accurately assessed the scope of the problem.

     

    http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/republican-party-and-jim-crow.html

     

     


    As I said, you pick out 1 word and launch into your spiel, and didn't even notice I used the word completely facetiously. Wow.


    Didn’t think it was facetious. Discussing tribes is OK. Discussing race, well we do it too much. Race, slavery, the Civil War are part and parcel of many issues herein the United Stars. I didn’t see the joke.

     


    There was a post that noted Richard Painter objected to calling people racists

    I responded by noting MLK said that Goldwater associated with racists and that people of good conscience could not vote for Goldwater. I felt that was an appropriate comment

    When you told your joke about a compassionate message, I wondered what message would be effective.


    For example, anything that starts with Joe Sixpack fir example tends to be facetious, tongue-in-cheek, in my experience.

    Anyway, you don't strike me as the "oops, I made a mistake" type, so this is all a charade of nothingness.


    It's the same old strawman thing he does. You disagreed with my comment, but he's got to ignore that nuance to make you part of the enemy tribe. There can't be three positions in rmrd world, there's got to be two tribes, black and white, and it's necessary to preach the gospel over everything else. Anyone who tries to introduce nuance or complexity must be transformed into a friend or enemy. Arguments must be simplified into a simple black and white message divisive message. You are either part of the pep rally or you are an enemy. It's not helpful to bring up nuance. You have to cherry pick the most inflammatory news and preach the gospel. Those who haven't seen the light yet and don't preach the gospel, they must be made into the opponent.  I didn't answer his reply. You often agree with me, therefore you must be made into someone who always agrees with me to keep the Manichean thing going.


    p.s. I'm so beyond the issues with him. I am into just stating back how I feel and when I find the preaching offensive. BECAUSE: why is he doing this here? What is the purpose of preaching at us few? Are we like guinea pigs to try out sermons or what? We all know each other a long time, but he keeps at this robotic preaching instead of getting more personal and social. In particular he never says what he feels personally, he purposely always uses a tribal "we" and talks for all blacks as if they are a single tribe.  He never says something like "most blacks feel this way and I do too", he never differentiates from tribe.

    It is the same thing the Russian bots mean to exploit with inflammatories, it is the same thing Trump seeks to exploit when he dog whistles. 

    And to me, this is the biggest problem of our times, the exploitation of tribalism. So it often sticks in my craw when I see him doing it.

    As I've said before, I hated pep ralllies back in high school. I didn't like it when TPM Cafe became a partisan activist place (for clicks, yet, that's why Josh Marshall did it, I am convinced it was a cynical business decision, he needed to grow the audience but he holds himself above that fray) rather than a political analyst place. I came here when forced out of there because even thought the founders of site were Obama activists, overall they were also into smart analysis rather than tribal partisan preaching. (Tho they let Hal in to preach his sermon over and over--he was an outlier, hah.)


    AA

    He never says something like "most blacks feel this way and I do too", he never differentiates from tribe.

    rmrd0000

    There is no surprise that most blacks consider the Republicans the enemy.

    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/18/2019 - 6:57am

     


    Some numbers from the before the midterms 

    Nine out of 10 African-Americans surveyed on the eve of the election said they were voting or had already voted early for a Democrat in the congressional races, up from 77 percent who said so in July, according to the survey by the African American Research Collaborative. And while a number of GOP candidates distanced themselves from their party's controversial leader or just tried to ignore him, polling showed Trump might as well have been on the ballot himself, the survey indicated.

    Nearly 8 in 10 African-Americans said Trump made them "angry," while 85 percent of black women and 81 percent of black men said Trump made them feel "disrespected," according to the study. Similar majorities of African-American voters – 89 percent of women and 83 percent of men – said Trump's statements and policies will cause "a major setback to racial progress."

    That Trump effect filtered down to damage even candidates in the Northeast and California, where the GOP contenders did not necessarily align with the president, and may have affected other ballot choices as well, Henry Fernandez, a principal at the collaborative, told reporters in a conference call. "African-American voters and other voters of color are associating Trumpism with all Republican candidates," Watkins said. "Even with Trump not being in the ballot, Trumpism was effectively on the ballot. The entire party has now been branded," he said

    https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2018-11-19/trump-drove-bla...

     


    If you have to explain the joke.........

    Edit to add

    Urban dictionary 

    Your average American. Used by excessively by Sarah Palin during the vice presidential debate.

    Sarah Palin: that normal Joe SixPack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency...

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Joe%20Sixpack

     

    Diverting from the fact that Painter is wrong. 

     

     


    Fuck you.


    PP, now I'd like you to go back and reconsider Painter's comment.

    Rmrd wants to be able to throw in you and me and Oceankat and Goldwater with one of two tribes, the racists. There's only two kinds of people: racist and anti-racist. He thinks this is the best way to proceed that this will affect change. (He also thinks this is what MLK did.) I'm still with Painter: it is not a wise tactic.Rather, it makes things worse. It's escalation of tribal fighting.  (And coincidentally it is not what MLK pushed, it is not non-violence theory of confronting and de-escalating an adverserial situation and changing the frame, etc.)


    [pedantic overquoted history lesson deleted - PP]


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