"Post-Racial" America? Yeah, right

I marvel at the people who say things like, "I'm not racist, but ..." and then they go on to say something racist. Never have these human compost heaps been more bold or more loathsome than they've been this past year, though, since the election of America's first African-American president. The racists apparently are acting out in large part because they're just so overwhelmed and aghast at the idea of a Scary Black Man in the White House.

Some good news for those of us fighting against the racist onslaught came through this week as Veterans' Day parade organizers in Homestead, Fla., finally came to their senses and voted not to permit the hate group Sons of Confederate Veterans to display the Confederate flag at this year's parade. (Blast Off! covered this story a couple of weeks ago and drew some, um, colorful comments.) However, on the very same day as the Homestead decision, the outrageous racist beating of a Georgia woman before the eyes of her 7-year-old daughter reminded us that we have far to go.

It certainly seems that the racist roaches aren't scattering when you turn on the lights quite like they used to. But it doesn't always have to be a public display of a symbol of hate or a highly-publicized attack ... no, sometimes the racism is more subtle.

Blogger and doctoral student Roxane Gay reveals some of the more endemic racism she encounters in her humorous yet poignant piece FUNNY WOMEN #2: A Play About Post-Racial America in Seven Acts. The subtitle explains: "Seven Things White People Have Really Said to Me Since November 4, 2008." It's the kind of thing you read and think, "I can't believe people actually said that." Yet they did ... and they do.

A sample:

ACT FOUR

Scene: While watching the inauguration live in the student union, a white colleague I’m sitting with turns to me.

COLLEAGUE: Do you know Elizabeth Alexander?

ME: Why do you ask?

COLLEAGUE: You’re both black writers.

ME: That’s true. We do all know each other.

[...]

ACT SIX

Scene: January 2009, a few days after the inauguration. A grimy auto repair shop. The mechanic and I are engaged in idle, polite chatter while he processes my credit card transaction.

MECHANIC: No offense, but there was just no way I could vote for a colored man even though I hated the other guy. I just can’t see respecting a colored man like that, taking orders from him or nothing like that. Again, no offense.

ME: What year is this?

Wow. I don't know whether the people Ms. Gay encountered and quoted are openly, unapologetically racist -- other than, obviously, the mechanic in "Act Six" -- but this is the kind of subtle, routine racism that happens thousands of times every single day in America. I don't know why people -- that is, white people -- aren't more sensitive to this stuff, except that we don't see it directed at us on a regular basis or, more to the point, I guess many of us just don't care.

But we should. And it shouldn't take a heinous, headline-making assault to make that happen.

Racists to fly their flag in Homestead

For some reason, Florida seems to be a magnet for the slack-jawed racist community and their ubiquitous Confederate battle flags. Whether it's the despicable attempts to garner state sanction for their hate through a proposed (but, fortunately, not yet produced) Confederate flag license plate or the world's largest Confederate flag welcoming visitors to the Tampa area, America's Wang™ has proven to be a fertile breeding ground for the hate group known as the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

After their attempts to march in a Veterans' Day parade in Palm Beach County last year ended with the cancellation of the parade, SCV's white separatists took their flag to Homestead, angering the Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP. This year, they're likely to do it again, because parade organizers have decided they're powerless to stop it.

Jeffrey Wander, chairman of the military affairs committee of the Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce that plans the parade, said Thursday that his group is hoping controversy will be avoided by the Confederate group keeping the flag away.

"We are going to run the parade the way we've been running it," Wander said.

"We can't take a position on this. But we hope the Sons of Confederate Veterans don't bring the battle flag."

Well, yeah, I hope the morons protesting the president's speech next week suddenly see that they're complete idiots, too, but I'm not holding my breath.

Of course you can take a position on this, Mr. Wander! Where are your balls? Even if the First Amendment protects the racists' right to display their symbol of hate (and I think I can make a cogent argument that the First Amendment doesn't even apply here*), you can take a stand as the Chamber of Commerce of an enlightened community in the year 2009 and say that while the SCV may have a right to march, your organization does not support nor condone their beliefs. But, no, I guess you'd rather hide behind the First Amendment and wash your hands of the whole mess ...

And as a result, it's like to get worse before it gets better:

For those who wanted to bar the flag, the decision represented a big step backward. It also signaled that mediation with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Miami-Dade Community Relations Board may have come to an end.

"This is a very sad day for our community," said Pat Mellerson, former vice chair of the Homestead/Florida City Human Relations Board and a business owner in Homestead. "We just don't need to have any conflict."

The Rev. Jimmie Williams, vice president of PULSE, a civil rights group, said protests, boycotts and election changes were back on the table now.

"Everything we worked so hard for has been in vain," he said.

Heckuva job, Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce. You could have done something truly meaningful here, even without banning the yokels from their public display of ignorance. But you didn't. I do hope you won't regret that.

---

* Generally, the First Amendment only applies to government action; that is why, for example, private clubs may discriminate freely. It may be that something like a parade permit by the city or county constitutes sufficient government action in this instance to bring the First Amendment into play, even if the parade is privately organized and sponsored, but if you want to do the legal research on that issue yourself, be my guest ... you can even post your findings in the comments below.

Happy 200th birthday, Jefferson Davis, from the state of Florida

Welcome to Florida: home to the world's largest Confederate flag! How apropos, considering that America's Wang™ is one of only three states to celebrate Jefferson Davis' birthday as a state holiday. Davis was born on June 3, 1808 -- two hundred years ago today.

And so, in light of this momentous anniversary, I'm sure the Florida tourism office, "Visit Florida," is thrilled about the fact that the largest Confederate flag in the world soon will be flying over one of the state's busiest highway interchanges. See what happens when you turn down the Rebel license plate?

The Sons of Confederate Veterans in Tampa plan soon to raise what they claim is the world's largest Confederate flag on a private triangle of land tucked near where Interstates 75 and 4 meet. The flag [picture at right is a photoillustration of the flag as it might appear when erected] measures 50 feet by 30 feet.

John Adams, commander of the organization's Florida division, has spearheaded the flag project, which includes plans for an accompanying memorial park. And he wants to make sure that the only objections the group faces are based on opinion, not the law.

"You're going to hear some complaints about it for sure," Adams said. "But it's a free country as far as I know."

[...]

The flag will be the group's third in the state, but will be not only the largest, but will also fly square in the middle of one of the most highly-trafficked intersections in the state. An estimated 124,000 cars pass by the highway ever day. The two Interstates link the Tampa Bay area to Orlando to the northeast and Miami to the south.

The pole, which will be anchored by a 100,000-pound concrete base, is the tallest the Federal Aviation Administration would allow in that spot. The 1,500-square-foot flag was ordered from a Chinese company after an American flagmaker begged off, citing union objections to making the flag. It will be illuminated by spotlights at night.

Adams said the project, which will cost an estimated $80,000, has been going through approvals with the Hillsborough County government for more than two years. The park that accompanies the flag will feature landscaping and parking as well as plaques detailing the state's historical contributions to the Confederacy. One will even pay tribute to the small group of black soldiers who fought on the Confederacy's behalf, Adams said.

Throughout the permitting process, Adams admits he never revealed to officials that it was the Confederate flag he intended to fly atop the pole. He had no reason to, he said. "The flag is political speech so it's not like they can do anything about it," he said. "You cannot simply discriminate because the message is one you don't like."

Dude's name is John Adams. The irony, it burns.

Of course, Visit Florida also brought us the one-word racial-epithet-cum-tourism-slogan, so maybe they aren't as offended as, you know, the non-racist-fuckwad population, like Hillsborough County's only African-American commissioner, Kevin White:

White fears that drivers who might have planned a stop in Hillsborough County will drive right through when they see the massive flag. "They might have stopped for lodging or to get something to eat," White said. "Now they'll say, 'Maybe I'll just keep driving and get out of this county altogether.'"

Oh, come on, Mr. White -- think of all the mouth-breathing racist dipshits who'll flock to Tampa because of the flag! Think outside the hood, man! The possibilities are endless ...

How about a Rebelland theme park, complete with slave auction? Or maybe a county park, cleverly (if slightly inaccurately) called Nathan Bedford Forest, to honor the Confederate general who later founded the Ku Klux Klan? You could bring back "colored" restrooms! Rename Hillsborough County for David Duke! Embrace the racism! Embracism!

Ouch. That's too much sarcasm for me to handle all at once. I just hope the racist fucks crawl back into the slime from which they slithered.

(h/t Joe Bardi at The Political Whore)

Confederate license plate revenue would fund hate group

I've no idea if Frank Cerabino at the Palm Beach Post or anyone in the mainstream corporate media even knows this, but as Xan pointed out in a comment to my earlier post on this subject, the Confederate Heritage license plate bill provides that revenue from the plate would go to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the SCV as a hate group.

At its August [2006] convention in New Orleans, SCV delegates selected as their national commander Chris Sullivan, a longtime ally of outgoing commander Denne Sweeney and a fellow South Carolinian. Sullivan is the editor of Southern Partisan, a controversial neo-Confederate magazine that has depicted antebellum slaves as happy and slave traders as benevolent. Other Sweeney allies were elected to top posts in the SCV's three "armies," or major geographical subdivisions.

For four years, the SCV has been split by an internal civil war between moderates and radicals with hard-line racial views. The radicals have sought to turn the SCV into an explicitly political group that pushes racist neo-Confederate ideas and issues. The latest election was a clear victory for the radical faction.

"We should all [now] resolve to work to defeat the Marxist Socialists that are waging war on Southern culture," Ed Butler, a newly elected leader of the Army of Tennessee, exulted after his victory. The League of South, a neo-Confederate hate group sympathetic to the radicals, was pleased, too, enthusing on its website that "The Sons of Confederate Veterans have endorsed a radical direction."

The election also solidified the hold on the SCV of Kirk Lyons, a white supremacist North Carolina lawyer, and his Southern Legal Resource Center, which specializes in defending Confederate symbols. Two SLRC board members -- Roy Burl McCoy and Bragdon Bowling -- won posts on the SCV's executive board. In addition, a new constitution, largely written by Lyons with Sweeney's approval, was adopted. The document gives unprecedented power to the national commander.

There is more to the story here. It would be nice if some media outlet besides this sucky blog would pick up on this little tidbit ... but I won't hold my breath.