no. 422

In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement…. Fortunately for the South, she found a race adapted to that purpose to her hand. A race inferior to her own, but eminently qualified in temper, in vigor, in docility, in capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her purposes. We use them for our purpose, and call them slaves.

Senator James Henry Hammond, a South Carolina plantation owner, in a senate floor speech from 1858 (a statement made pre-civil war, obviously).

Tell me, just how different is this idea from the idea currently being used to justify our current level of income inequality; that the rich somehow "deserve" their wealth while the poor "deserve" their poverty.

no. 288

“I know black women in Tennessee who have worked all their lives, from the time they were twelve years old to the day they died. These women don’t listen to the women’s liberation rhetoric because they know that it’s nothing but a bunch of white women who had certain life-styles and who want to change those life-styles. They say things like they don’t want men opening doors for them anymore, and they don’t want men lighting their cigarettes for them anymore. Big deal. Black women have been opening doors for themselves and lighting their own cigarettes for a couple centuries in this country. Black women don’t quibble about things that are not important.”

Wilma Rudolph

via

no. 278

"U.S.A: Where abortion is murder and the murder of Black people isn’t."

Socialism Art Nature

no. 237

"Only in America can a dead black boy be put on trial for his own murder."

attributed to Syreeta McFadden

no. 184

"The various races are a result of thousands of years of isolated xenophobes fucking their cousins.

Keep this in mind the next time you’re going to make fun of the shape of someone’s eyes, you inbred hillbilly."

The Virgin Prince

no. 147

"Here’s what you need to realise about anti-racism: It’s not about you. It’s not about your feelings as a white person. What you just said is that you’ll entertain the idea of listening to POC talk about ways they’ve been fucked over by whiteness, white privilege, and white people as long as they don’t hurt your feelings.

To put it another way: you’re saying that not having your feelings hurt is more important to you than actually trying to understand PoC’s experiences of enduring racism—which is, itself, perpetuating racism. No, maybe you didn’t partake in whatever act of racism we’re talking about in this very moment, but if you’re white, then you are benefiting from the systemic racism that allowed it to happen, whether you like it or not.

Yes, listening to the ways that your privilege fucks over other people is uncomfortable. Yes, it can be embarrassing & lead to feelings of guilt, but it is not up to People of Color to censor ourselves to spare your delicate fee-fees. If you truly want to be considered anti-racist, you need to deal with those feelings with other white people & not add to the burden of PoC’s experiences of racism by saying that you won’t take us seriously unless we’re ‘nice’ about the emotional & psychological violence that we endure simply by being PoC in a racist society.

So literally, all I want you to do is understand that being anti-oppression (of any kind) is about understanding how the oppressed group is affected & then countering those systems, activities, mindsets, etc. It’s not about you being comfortable, because if you’re doing it right, it’s not going to be comfortable. Period."

findalaska commenting at Clever girl

no. 123

"You know... If the only Black people I knew were Clarence Thomas, Michael Steele, Tom Sowell and Herman Cain? (IOW - If I were a Republican?) If THAT was the extent of my sample population?

I'd probably be racist too."

"Niceguy" Eddie

no. 105

"Just for anyone who is still wondering about the racist implications of this flag… here’s a fun fact. A lot more of these started popping up after Obama took office.

A more honest and open version of this sticker would read, when I look at all these black people all over the place in America, I realize that slavery wasn’t really worth it in the end.

Oh but it’s heritage, not hate. We don’t hate them. We just wish they weren’t here, you know, trying to be equal to us."

stfuconfederates, responding to the photo below.

Maybe it is about heritage. But it's also about racism, at least for some. The two don't necessarily apply to everyone who like the flag, but it applies to the flag itself, through simple usage and history. To deny this is like saying that the swastika is a religious symbol and so all that "extra" Nazi stuff doesn't really apply.

no. 28

"Reihan Salam says that cranky old white conservative nostalgics aren’t racists they’re just white people who are nostalgic for a whiter, more racist America."

Matthew Yglesias