Reckoning time in Memphis?
My little brother John, who lives in Memphis, called awhile ago with a fun heads-up. Al Sharpton is going to lead a rally tomorrow urging city leaders to remove the names of Jefferson Davis (president of the Confederacy) and Nathan Bedford Forrest (a founding father of the Ku Klux Klan) from two city parks. Says D’Army Bailey, a Shelby County Circuit Court judge and self-proclaimed activist:
“Names and symbols represent either an allegiance to or disavowal of something,” Bailey added. “It’s well past the time to remove allegiance to those whose prime intention was to erase a whole race of people.”
It’s going to be interesting how this all shakes out. The “black” position in this is obvious, and the white/cracker response is going to argue about “heritage” and point out that Forrest is being honored not as a Klan leader but as a military leader and that the Civil War wasn’t really about racism at all, etc.
Speaking as a Southern White Male, I’d like to see folks playing that card demonstrate a little capacity for sensitivity, enlightenment, and generally exhibit some sign that they know what century they live in. If you need to fly the rebel flag in order to feel good about yourself, there’s something profoundly sad about your life. On the other hand, these symbols are to so many American blacks what the swastika is to so many Jews, and we’re not improved as a culture when one group feels it’s critically important to exercise their right to hurt another group.
Do they have the right? Sure. But we talk so much about our rights sometimes and way too little about the responsibilities that attend them. We have the responsibility to bring freedom to Iraq, of course, but not to Memphis?
Mr. Mayor, the time has come. Stand down.
lullaby pit 
I’m not really a racist, but speaking also as a Southern White Male, I happen to love the Stars and Bars. I’m not happy the Stars and Bars has been hijacked. I’m just an old Florida Cracker, but it is one thing I’m proud of.
Now, the FSU Seminoles can’t use their proud name in post season because some northern elitist liberal has decided that indian names are offensive. Nevermind the fact that the Seminole Tribe here in Florida has sent a note of protest to the NCAA.
Whatever action you take, you will find someone that is deeply offended by it. You can have a Congressional Black Caucus that is restricted by race…..If you had a Congressional White Caucus, can you imagine the uproar? If you nad an NAAWP along with the NAACP, can you imagine it? If you had a United White College Fund, the liberals would cry foul.
In my humble opinion, the South is much less racist than the liberal North. I saw much more racism in Minneapolis, than in Little Rock: The racism in the Northis more subtle and insidious than in the South.
They’ve been trying to integrate Cicero, Illinois for 35 years, how come the the Yankees aren’t rallying to the cause. As far as the North and South, people should take a look at their own backyards before commenting on their neighbors.
Aloha,
Jeff
I’m not really a racist, but speaking also as a Southern White Male, I happen to love the Stars and Bars. I’m not happy the Stars and Bars has been hijacked. I’m just an old Florida Cracker, but it is one thing I’m proud of.
Now, the FSU Seminoles can’t use their proud name in post season because some northern elitist liberal has decided that indian names are offensive. Nevermind the fact that the Seminole Tribe here in Florida has sent a note of protest to the NCAA.
Whatever action you take, you will find someone that is deeply offended by it. You can have a Congressional Black Caucus that is restricted by race…..If you had a Congressional White Caucus, can you imagine the uproar? If you nad an NAAWP along with the NAACP, can you imagine it? If you had a United White College Fund, the liberals would cry foul.
In my humble opinion, the South is much less racist than the liberal North. I saw much more racism in Minneapolis, than in Little Rock: The racism in the Northis more subtle and insidious than in the South.
They’ve been trying to integrate Cicero, Illinois for 35 years, how come the the Yankees aren’t rallying to the cause. As far as the North and South, people should take a look at their own backyards before commenting on their neighbors.
Aloha,
Jeff
>>I’m just an old Florida Cracker, but it is one thing I’m proud of.<<
But here’s the question. Would you feel a need to fly it in your yard if you had black neighbors that you knew were hurt by it? I’m sure I do all kinds of things that I know offend people, but if we’re talking about symbolism like this I like to think I can restrict it my own private sphere.
>>Nevermind the fact that the Seminole Tribe here in Florida has sent a note of protest to the NCAA.<<
This is a different issue, and my take on this is sort of like yours. The Seminole tribe has no problem at all with FSU, and I also remember back in the late 80s when an ECHL team in Tennessee (Knoxville, I think) called itself the Cherokees, and the Cherokee tribe not only approved, they collaborated on marketing agreements and merchandising I think.
That’s different from cases where people honestly have problems with depictions, though, and not all Indian mascot representations are equal. “Redskin” is a legit epithet, and I once had a Lakota chief spend a few minutes explaining why “Brave” was bad, as well (perfectly nice and polite, too – the guy wasn’t foaming at the mouth or calling names; he was merely making a historical/cultural case, and doing so civilly and respectfully).
So to the extent that the people who are allegedly offended turn out NOT to be offended and approve, I think we should all shut the hell up. In other cases, maybe we need to look at it. One size doesn’t fit all, and one-size-fits-all policies often create as much havoc as they solve.
>>Whatever action you take, you will find someone that is deeply offended by it.<<
And all offense isn’t equal, either. People were offended by Lincoln freeing the slaves – does that somehow make his action equal to other cases where yahoos are offended? Some complaints are legit and some are stupid and as smart people we have an obligation to use our minds to sort one from the other.
>>If you had a United White College Fund, the liberals would cry foul.<<
There’s an awfully compelling case to be made, in the light of opportunities available to minorities versus the bias they face, that the mainstream of the culture represents an NAAWP mindset. Is it as bad as it was 50years ago? Of course not. But we both know that minorities face serious bias in a lot of places in the US, and solutions are sometimes about as troublesome as the problems (I understand where Affirmative Action comes from, but it also gripes me at the level of basic principle that such a thing exists, and every time I apply for a job where women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply, I wonder if I’ll hit a situation where gender and race bears more on the decision than I’d like, and I was on an academic search committee that took a very heavy-handed approach to recruiting minority applicants, etc. All of which is to say, I’ve seen life from both sides now…)
>>In my humble opinion, the South is much less racist than the liberal North.<<
They’ve been trying to integrate Cicero, Illinois for 35 years, how come the the Yankees aren’t rallying to the cause. As far as the North and South, people should take a look at their own backyards before commenting on their neighbors.<<
And here you have beautifully pegged one of MY pet peeves. I wondered as a kid why the Yankees were so intent on integrating our schools while they were still having damned racial integration riots in Ted Kennedy’s back yard, and then in HS I met a kid from the Chicago burbs who went to a school with 2000 people and only 3 of them were black. I have routinely encountered, like you, as much or more racism in the North, Midwest, and West as in the South. So on this item I couldn’t agree more.
On the Memphis issue, though, and on the starz/barz issue I attached to it, I keep coming back to how we sometimes engage in what I’d characterize as a hurtful, negative exercise of our rights. I have the right to stand in the street and call people names as they walk by, perhaps, but in what way does the exercise of that right serve the goals of our society? In what way does it make me or you or us or them better?
I guess I feel like the rights we have come packaged with an understanding that we sometimes have a responsibility to NOT exercise them.
>>I’m just an old Florida Cracker, but it is one thing I’m proud of.<<
But here’s the question. Would you feel a need to fly it in your yard if you had black neighbors that you knew were hurt by it? I’m sure I do all kinds of things that I know offend people, but if we’re talking about symbolism like this I like to think I can restrict it my own private sphere.
>>Nevermind the fact that the Seminole Tribe here in Florida has sent a note of protest to the NCAA.<<
This is a different issue, and my take on this is sort of like yours. The Seminole tribe has no problem at all with FSU, and I also remember back in the late 80s when an ECHL team in Tennessee (Knoxville, I think) called itself the Cherokees, and the Cherokee tribe not only approved, they collaborated on marketing agreements and merchandising I think.
That’s different from cases where people honestly have problems with depictions, though, and not all Indian mascot representations are equal. “Redskin” is a legit epithet, and I once had a Lakota chief spend a few minutes explaining why “Brave” was bad, as well (perfectly nice and polite, too – the guy wasn’t foaming at the mouth or calling names; he was merely making a historical/cultural case, and doing so civilly and respectfully).
So to the extent that the people who are allegedly offended turn out NOT to be offended and approve, I think we should all shut the hell up. In other cases, maybe we need to look at it. One size doesn’t fit all, and one-size-fits-all policies often create as much havoc as they solve.
>>Whatever action you take, you will find someone that is deeply offended by it.<<
And all offense isn’t equal, either. People were offended by Lincoln freeing the slaves – does that somehow make his action equal to other cases where yahoos are offended? Some complaints are legit and some are stupid and as smart people we have an obligation to use our minds to sort one from the other.
>>If you had a United White College Fund, the liberals would cry foul.<<
There’s an awfully compelling case to be made, in the light of opportunities available to minorities versus the bias they face, that the mainstream of the culture represents an NAAWP mindset. Is it as bad as it was 50years ago? Of course not. But we both know that minorities face serious bias in a lot of places in the US, and solutions are sometimes about as troublesome as the problems (I understand where Affirmative Action comes from, but it also gripes me at the level of basic principle that such a thing exists, and every time I apply for a job where women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply, I wonder if I’ll hit a situation where gender and race bears more on the decision than I’d like, and I was on an academic search committee that took a very heavy-handed approach to recruiting minority applicants, etc. All of which is to say, I’ve seen life from both sides now…)
>>In my humble opinion, the South is much less racist than the liberal North.<<
They’ve been trying to integrate Cicero, Illinois for 35 years, how come the the Yankees aren’t rallying to the cause. As far as the North and South, people should take a look at their own backyards before commenting on their neighbors.<<
And here you have beautifully pegged one of MY pet peeves. I wondered as a kid why the Yankees were so intent on integrating our schools while they were still having damned racial integration riots in Ted Kennedy’s back yard, and then in HS I met a kid from the Chicago burbs who went to a school with 2000 people and only 3 of them were black. I have routinely encountered, like you, as much or more racism in the North, Midwest, and West as in the South. So on this item I couldn’t agree more.
On the Memphis issue, though, and on the starz/barz issue I attached to it, I keep coming back to how we sometimes engage in what I’d characterize as a hurtful, negative exercise of our rights. I have the right to stand in the street and call people names as they walk by, perhaps, but in what way does the exercise of that right serve the goals of our society? In what way does it make me or you or us or them better?
I guess I feel like the rights we have come packaged with an understanding that we sometimes have a responsibility to NOT exercise them.
>>I’m just an old Florida Cracker, but it is one thing I’m proud of.>Nevermind the fact that the Seminole Tribe here in Florida has sent a note of protest to the NCAA.>Whatever action you take, you will find someone that is deeply offended by it.>If you had a United White College Fund, the liberals would cry foul.>In my humble opinion, the South is much less racist than the liberal North.