Let's talk about Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, and how unbelievably fucked up this all is

He's coming to Cleveland next month, you want me to arrange something?

That Nugent thing is kind of surreal, although he's always been openly racist (despite his love for Howlin' Wolf), hasn't he?

Trayvon Martin viciously attacked him causing great bodily harm and threatening his life

Is the medical examiner a race-baiter too?

Also, has any of GZ's defenders commented on why shooting TM to death was necessary for him to be able to defend himself, as opposed to e.g. just showing TM his gun or firing a warning shot?

How skeptically did the prosecution examine Zimmerman's claim that Martin was "reaching for [Zimmerman's] gun?" How would Martin even have known that Zimmerman HAD a gun?

Huh, thought this thread would be bumped by now

posting this here just cause it took me a minute to find the full text,

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/obama-talks-about-trayvon-in-surprise-speech.html

well that's only going to fan the flames of white outrage

yeah twitter has been a treat for a while now

lol i typo'd that as "for a white now"

well that's only going to fan the flames of white outrage

― the late great, Friday, July 19, 2013 2:42 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

when it comes to the flames of white outrage, Obama's mouth might as well be a bellows

the most racist president in all of history

just to go back to the comments box thing, i am half-convinced some of these comments box voter are bots. i was looking at the anti-obama comments on cnn.com and some of them are going up by three votes per second. i sort of doubt that many people are looking at the cnn/com comments.

Caleb Bonham @CalebBonham 10m
Why did the Lord give such a divisive man the amazing gift of communication. Barack, use ur gifts to unite, stop dividing #TrayvonMartin

@DanRiehl: If you ever had any doubts, Obama is the first Racist in Chief

when will obama stop being racist

Time for a li'l fireside chat about PROJECTION.

when it comes to the flames of white outrage, Obama's mouth might as well be a bellows

― Cap'n Conserv-a-pedia (Hurting 2), Friday, July 19, 2013 2:45 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbc, I mean from the point of view of white outrage. like nothing this he could say would be perceived otherwise

people are fucking idiots

obama needs an awesome GIF of communication to calm the white rage

Speaking of.

What a nation of imbessils...

it is hardly fair to call him the most racist, he's only the most racist because he's the first racist president

I think the single most salient thing this points out to me, a middle-aged white guy, is that the first rule of white privilege is 'never be wrong'. Even if you have to double-down on racism to prove that you're not racist, it's your right and duty to do so. Every single white-hot, pissed off commentator out there is missing the fact that the President, apparently an adult, called for respect for the verdict and some national soul-searching. How is that not conservative? Rational? Patriotic? Decent?

^Stand Your Ground.

ie., the legal doctrine has its own intellectual analogue.

any true statement that makes a white person somewhere uncomfortable = "race-baiting"

reminding others that non-white people exist = "racist"

i also sense in all this a really striking roll-back of some what has served as one of the more fundamental aspects of moral existence: the effort (impossible, imperfect) to put oneself in another's shoes, to imagine for a moment the world as it might be perceived by another person, from a different perspective.

the "reasonable man", a concept consonant with the enlightenment, was always highly problematic in its application, but at least it upheld a pretense of objectivity (itself a problematic concept, duh). now, i'm not sure there's even a pretense. the "reasonable man" as applied in stand your ground cases has become a solipsist, encased in his own universe, "reasonably" obeyant to his own paranoias and prejudices. Hallucinations and motes in one's eye now justify slaying someone in self-defense. Who needs a panopticon when all that matters is what's in your head?

And team and ideology and brand and national and 'racial' loyalty are the only things most people can be bothered about

Are we not men?

Yes, it feels like devolution.

maybe we should start coopting "Politically Correct" the way the right coopted "racist." Like whenever conservatives do their bizarre reverse-race-baiting schtick.

I like that^ Correct is correct, after all.

good luck w/ that

geez

pooper of parties! thrower of blankets that are wet!

PC was already co-opted from the left.

sure, but politically correct as a dismissive sneer is ripe for the repurposing

i shudder to think about reading a book called "Politically Correct Fairy Tales" as a kid, seeing it later as an adult and realizing how vile it kinda was

shudder!

wow even the NYT comments box is filled with awfulness

there are good ones too

Marc New York City NYT Pick

The President understates the issue because he must try to explain but not inflame. His experience with being followed, or having similar types of encounters, is common for black men and it permeates our lives. I am an older black manager in an office in Lower Manhattan, not threatening in size or demeanor (and I even wear a tie), but I have been followed in stores, twice accused of stealing (while I was on my way to the register to pay for goods), refused service in a restaurant, told by security guards that I alone could not stand on a well known public plaza in Midtown, received irrational hostility from police, etc., etc. I had the police called on me when I was taking a picture, from a well-populated public park in Queens, of a sunset framed by the NYC skyline --the caller suggested I was taking photos for terrorist purposes with my average Canon SLR--and the police came and questioned me as a result. None of this makes sense. I don't share this stuff often with my white co-workers because they don''t believe it. But black males, many of whom have endured far more (such as my older brother), can trade endless stories. Protest is almost futile. Any miscalculated response can lead to our being arrested or worse, just because. The President was just dropping a hint, telling black citizens he understands, knowing that there is great skepticism, or outright acceptance of such conditions, by his white constituency.
July 19, 2013 at 12:50 p.m. RECOMMENDED 436

^the REAL racist

the positive way to think about this is that if the president's comments hadn't provoked any racist bullshit, that would have meant they weren't useful

the "reasonable man" as applied in stand your ground cases has become a solipsist, encased in his own universe, "reasonably" obeyant to his own paranoias and prejudices. Hallucinations and motes in one's eye now justify slaying someone in self-defense. Who needs a panopticon when all that matters is what's in your head?

― collardio gelatinous, Friday, July 19, 2013 2:29 PM (2 hours ago)

And team and ideology and brand and national and 'racial' loyalty are the only things most people can be bothered about

― Lectures of Pelé (Michael White), Friday, July 19, 2013 2:33 PM (2 hours ago)

^^ this, dead on.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/07/19/the_very_polite_conservative_response_to_obama_s_trayvon_martin_speech.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0721-20130721,0,6446588.column

Kass is such a fucking jackass

shudder!

― mundane peaceable username (darraghmac), Friday, July 19, 2013 11:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

another fantastic contribution to a serious thread, thanks for your effort.

xxx

I'd say more but I don't want you accusing me of ad hom and threatening to get the mods on me.

Very wise *slaps hand with rubber sap*

Shut the fuck up, dude

sorry guys, stevie otm i have been a dick around the place lately and this especially is not the thread for it. i'll absent myself.