I thought America was already past this in-your-face type of racism and was more into the less obvious types of racism.
Maybe I’m right and Texas is special. While the rest of the US is more subtle about it but still have it.
Not trying to shit specifically on America. Racism is a worldwide problem. I just thought America was beyond that type of super obvious discrimination.
What a guy. His Wikipedia page is like an album of Republican shittiness greatest hits. Some snippets:
Rollins described Atwater as “ruthless”, “Ollie North in civilian clothes”, and someone who “just had to drive in one more stake”.
Then this section has racism and fear of OTHER others! Plus personally attacking somebody’s medical history.
Atwater’s tactics in that campaign included push polling in the form of fake surveys by so-called independent pollsters, to inform white suburbanites that Turnipseed was a member of the NAACP.[8] He also sent out last-minute letters from Senator Thurmond telling voters that Turnipseed would disarm the United States, and turn it over to liberals and Communists.[9] At a press briefing, Atwater planted a fake reporter who rose and said, “We understand that Turnipseed has had psychiatric treatment”.
The censoring in this one is something I had to add myself.
Atwater: Y’all don’t quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, “Ner, ner, ner". By 1968, you can’t say "ner”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.
And the fucking cherry on the top. Things are going bad for me so now I realize that other people matter.
In a June 28, 1990, letter to Tom Turnipseed, he stated, “It is very important to me that I let you know that out of everything that has happened in my career, one of the low points remains the so-called ‘jumper cable’ episode”, adding, “My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood, and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything.”
Yeah, the racists aren’t afraid anymore. For a while, people (mostly) weren’t in your face with the racism. Racism definitely still happened, but it usually wasn’t overt. It was the slow, quiet, insidious type of racism. The manager who takes over a department, and slowly makes all the black people quit one at a time. The HOA president that only cites houses owned by BIPOC. The police getting called because a black person went for a jog, and that’s somehow “suspicious”. The loan officer increasing interest rates for black families looking to buy a home. 12 year old kids being treated as adults by the legal system, and grown adults being talked down to like children.
It’s all still very damaging, but it’s hard for any one person to prove, so the racist is allowed to continue doing it. It’s the type of stuff that requires months or even years of paperwork in order to establish a pattern of behavior. The type of stuff that is so spread out that no single person has enough evidence to prove, even when they’ve all been harmed by it.
All of those covert forms of racism still happen, but it also includes all of the overt racism now. We have legislators who have incorporated racism directly into their campaign promises. We have nazis holding rallies and recruitment drives. America is not okay right now, and it’s going to take a lot more than one or two election cycles to fix things.
Maybe I’m right and Texas is special. While the rest of the US is more subtle about it but still have it.
this isn’t wrong; I’ve lived all over the US, but only in Texas did I see blatant outright racism time and time again explained as “well that’s just the way we are sweetie it’s not racist that’s just Texas”.
In short, Texas is crazy racist, even compared to the racism experienced throughout the US.
Remember that the reason Texas fought a war of independence was partially because of slavery. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, and among other grievances, the Guerrero Decree was a BIG reason why Texas seceded from Mexico - slavery made Texas a hell of a lot of cash, like it did for every other Southern state.
Valid point, most texans don’t even know it was a primary pain point that drove the Texans to secede from mexico, inciting the Alamo. They certainly didn’t teach me when I was growing up there.
Texas has a unique history. Before it was part of the USA, it was it’s own nation. And before that, it was a Mexican State. The first time Texas seceded, it was from Mexico, because Mexico had banned slavery, and Texas, being run by cattle barons before it was run by oil barons, did not like that. It became it’s own independent State known as the Republic of Texas. However, the Mexican military was quick to attempt to stifle the rebellion. Texas did not really have the ability to stand on its own as a country, but the USA made them an offer to help defend Texas in exchange for being annexed into the United States. The US had not yet banned slavery, so Texas was quick to agree and join the US. Then the Mexican-American War happened.
Maybe I’m right and Texas is special. While the rest of the US is more subtle about it but still have it.
As a general example, Texas and California are almost like their own unique countries in many ways, and are very different from each other.
In California, especially Central and Southern California, so many different peoples and cultures live together next to each other, so those kind of concerns about looks/difference and “the other” doesn’t even come into play, day to day.
Texas (with the exception of the City of Austin perhaps), are very much focused on a specific religious mindset and culture, and “the other”/different are seen through a magnifying lens.
Not trying to shit specifically on America. Racism is a worldwide problem.
It’s actually a species problem, it’s so deeply hardwired into our lizard brains, the " ‘other’ is dangerous" mindset, but it takes a lot of higher thinking to override it, not something that everyone bothers or wants to do.
I just thought America was beyond that type of super obvious discrimination.
No, we’ve always just been two countries in one geographical location. It’s just these later years that the cultural norms, the unspoken rules, have all been broken, so the truth of things are coming to the surface.
I thought being American was about freedom? Right? Isn’t that what these folks usually croon about?
I thought America was already past this in-your-face type of racism and was more into the less obvious types of racism.
Maybe I’m right and Texas is special. While the rest of the US is more subtle about it but still have it.
Not trying to shit specifically on America. Racism is a worldwide problem. I just thought America was beyond that type of super obvious discrimination.
deleted by creator
Racism is a really great way to get the exploited to hate the “other” exploited rather than the exploiters.
Lee Atwater knew…
What a guy. His Wikipedia page is like an album of Republican shittiness greatest hits. Some snippets:
Then this section has racism and fear of OTHER others! Plus personally attacking somebody’s medical history.
The censoring in this one is something I had to add myself.
And the fucking cherry on the top. Things are going bad for me so now I realize that other people matter.
Four years of Trump did so much damage to our nation. We were already not doing great.
Yeah, the racists aren’t afraid anymore. For a while, people (mostly) weren’t in your face with the racism. Racism definitely still happened, but it usually wasn’t overt. It was the slow, quiet, insidious type of racism. The manager who takes over a department, and slowly makes all the black people quit one at a time. The HOA president that only cites houses owned by BIPOC. The police getting called because a black person went for a jog, and that’s somehow “suspicious”. The loan officer increasing interest rates for black families looking to buy a home. 12 year old kids being treated as adults by the legal system, and grown adults being talked down to like children.
It’s all still very damaging, but it’s hard for any one person to prove, so the racist is allowed to continue doing it. It’s the type of stuff that requires months or even years of paperwork in order to establish a pattern of behavior. The type of stuff that is so spread out that no single person has enough evidence to prove, even when they’ve all been harmed by it.
All of those covert forms of racism still happen, but it also includes all of the overt racism now. We have legislators who have incorporated racism directly into their campaign promises. We have nazis holding rallies and recruitment drives. America is not okay right now, and it’s going to take a lot more than one or two election cycles to fix things.
this isn’t wrong; I’ve lived all over the US, but only in Texas did I see blatant outright racism time and time again explained as “well that’s just the way we are sweetie it’s not racist that’s just Texas”.
In short, Texas is crazy racist, even compared to the racism experienced throughout the US.
Remember that the reason Texas fought a war of independence was partially because of slavery. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, and among other grievances, the Guerrero Decree was a BIG reason why Texas seceded from Mexico - slavery made Texas a hell of a lot of cash, like it did for every other Southern state.
Valid point, most texans don’t even know it was a primary pain point that drove the Texans to secede from mexico, inciting the Alamo. They certainly didn’t teach me when I was growing up there.
Texas has a unique history. Before it was part of the USA, it was it’s own nation. And before that, it was a Mexican State. The first time Texas seceded, it was from Mexico, because Mexico had banned slavery, and Texas, being run by cattle barons before it was run by oil barons, did not like that. It became it’s own independent State known as the Republic of Texas. However, the Mexican military was quick to attempt to stifle the rebellion. Texas did not really have the ability to stand on its own as a country, but the USA made them an offer to help defend Texas in exchange for being annexed into the United States. The US had not yet banned slavery, so Texas was quick to agree and join the US. Then the Mexican-American War happened.
Oh wow, I didn’t know that. Amazing.
As a general example, Texas and California are almost like their own unique countries in many ways, and are very different from each other.
In California, especially Central and Southern California, so many different peoples and cultures live together next to each other, so those kind of concerns about looks/difference and “the other” doesn’t even come into play, day to day.
Texas (with the exception of the City of Austin perhaps), are very much focused on a specific religious mindset and culture, and “the other”/different are seen through a magnifying lens.
It’s actually a species problem, it’s so deeply hardwired into our lizard brains, the " ‘other’ is dangerous" mindset, but it takes a lot of higher thinking to override it, not something that everyone bothers or wants to do.
No, we’ve always just been two countries in one geographical location. It’s just these later years that the cultural norms, the unspoken rules, have all been broken, so the truth of things are coming to the surface.
I think it was a Trevor Noah quote, but racism is the South is explicit and direct, and racism in the north is subtle and indirect.