ShivaX
5647
They’re taking down Calhoun’s statue in Charleston and all I can think is:
“Calhoun wished he ever looked that good.”
The opposite of modern shaving practices… shaving everything except the neck hair.
Or maybe the dude had some mega chest hair that peaked out above the collar?
Timex
5649
Say what you want, the dude had some impressive hair.
KevinC
5650
He was the country’s first lycanthrope.
He looks like a Malkavian.
aeneas
5652
John Malkovich should play him in the movie.
Thrag
5653
Is he about to draw on the photographer in that last one?
The role Michael Shannon was born to play.
That’s very much not the point. The point is that they know of him now. As does all of Norway (VG is the biggest national newspaper)
I understand that the only people you care about are the card-carrying anti-racists. But that’s a very short-sighted view. This is not about the people who are out on the streets protesting. In any given situation, even in the US right now, they are a small minority of the population. It’s about the 95% who aren’t.
Demonstrations can galvanize action, but permanent change only comes about through policy. And the vast majority of the time, policy happens because politicians look at what their voters think, and react to that. What that 95% of people think, matters, because at the end of the day it is the majority opinion that determines which way the winds of policy blow.
But even if the only people you care about are anti-racists, many of these people work in activists organizations that mobilize support for a variety of worthy causes - climate change, refugees, poverty through both fund-raising and demonstrations. And many activists who do private fund-raising via social media, etc. Articles like the one I quoted - which was incredibly mild (VG are not exactly Fox news) - make their work on behalf of BLM significantly harder. While all of the racist politicians/journalists are busy sharpening their virtual pencils in preparation for their next opinion/column and thanking the people who did this.
I don’t particularly care about the statue. I do care about seeing meaningful change happen, and not having yet another wave of outrage and violence peter out into meaningless platitudes and inaction. That requires winning - and keeping - the hearts and minds of the majority.
Literally the only person who is raging about this, is you.
Really? I’m getting Willem Dafoe vibes:
That’s no doubt part of it (given she’s on a stage), but never rule out actual racism. I’ve met my fair share of colored people who share the exact same biases as other racists about other PoC (including PoC of their own ethnicity). The human mind has an incredible ability to compartmentalize and a strong urge to conform to societal bias - “I’m one of the good ones,” etc.
Either way, it’s despicable.
I know you’re not American, so just FYI the term “colored people” has a whole bunch of racist connotations and you probably don’t want to be using it. “People of color” is an accepted blanket term.
Welp.
https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2020/06/24/fired-wilmington-cop-we-are-just-going-to-go-out-and-start-slaughtering-them-f-ni-i-cant-wait-god-i-cant-wait-free-read/
On June 4, just days after protests began in Wilmington regarding the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, a Sergeant Heflin was conducting monthly video audits — a routine part of her job — when she came across what was labeled as ‘accidental activations’ from Piner’s car.
After skipping through the video, which was largely video of his backseat, she found a conversation between Piner and Corporal Jessie Moore — a police officer with the department since 1997.
She reviewed the conversation she ‘heard comments, extremely racist comments made by both Piner and Moore,” according to a summary provided by police.
The video also recorded a conversation with Officer Gilmore who apparently had pulled up next to Piner’s car.
“Their conversation eventually turned to the topic of the protests against racism occurring across the nation. Piner tells Gilmore that the only thing this agency is concerned with ‘kneeling down with the black folks.’ Gilmore then said that he watched a video on social media about white people bowing down on their knees and ‘worshipping blacks,’” according to the summary.
The conversation then turned to other police officers in the Wilmington Police Department — black officers.
The audio has Piner calling one of the officers ‘bad news’ and a ‘piece of shit.’
“Let’s see how his boys take care of him when shit gets rough, see if they don’t put a bullet in his head,” Piner said about a fellow officer.
“Moore began telling Piner about an arrest he had made at work the day before. During that conversation, Moore refers to the female as a ‘negro’ and a ‘ni—-‘ on multiple occasions.”
He also referred to a magistrate judge, who is also black, as a ‘fucking negro magistrate.’
“At one point, Moore states, ‘she needed a bullet in her head right then and move on. Let’s move the body out of the way and keep going.’ Piner responds, ‘That’s what I have been trying to tell you,’” according to the documents.
After more derogatory comments about the arrestee and the magistrate, the conversation takes an even bleaker turn, as the two officers discuss an upcoming ‘civil war.’
“Piner tells Moore later in the conversation that he feels a civil war is coming and he is ‘ready.’ Piner advised he is going to buy a new assault rifle in the next couple of weeks. A short time later Officer Piner began to discuss society being close to ‘martial law’ and soon ‘we are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them fucking ni—–. I can’t wait. God, I can’t wait.’ Moore responded that he would not do that. Piner stated, ‘I am ready.’” according to the summary.
“Officer Piner then explained to Cpl. Moore that he felt society needed a civil war to ‘wipe ’em off the fucking map. That’ll put ’em back about four or five generations.’”
“Each officer admitted it was their voice on the video. They did not deny saying any of the things heard on the video. Each officer pointed to the stress of today’s climate in law enforcement as a reason for their ‘venting,’” according to the investigation.
All three officers were fired.
Ah okay, when I saw that it was a tabloid my mind went to tabloid journalism. Would you describe VG as being a middle-market publication?
Oh yeah, fire them to give them a grievance and with a lot of free time. Nothing bad can come of that…
The comments were made during a heated gaming moment.
VG is definitely tabloidy, but it’s a serious news organization and it completely dominates the Norwegian media landscape - almost half the population visit their site every day (primarily because they are the most up to date on everything - e.g., their national Covid-19 statistics are literally better and more up to date than the ones published by the government).
Corrected my earlier post. Mind was in non-english mode when writing that, I think.
