Saturday, December 21, 2013

This is a wonderful piece and worth reading.  It is what the Democratic Party engenders --smart, thinking, rational, thoughtful and humane people and why again it will be SO important to elect Democrats in 2014 across the nation and keep the presidency in 2016!
SPLC
December 20, 2013
Dear Natalie,
I’ve never seen "Duck Dynasty," but like many of you, I’ve been hearing a lot about the remarks of Phil Robertson, one of the stars of the reality show seen by millions.

Robertson said some highly offensive things about LGBT people in an interview with GQ Magazine and, after much criticism, has been suspended indefinitely from the A&E Television Network.
But I want to talk about what the 67-year-old from Louisiana said about African Americans during the pre-civil rights era:

“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’ – not a word! … Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

That’s simply breathtaking.

I don’t know anything about Robertson’s experiences. But I grew up on a small cotton farm in Alabama and also worked in the fields alongside African Americans. It shouldn’t even be necessary to say that they were treated as second-class citizens, most of them mired in abject poverty and with very little opportunity for anything more. There was no such thing as equality in any sense of the word.

And of course black folks didn’t go around saying anything about “these doggone white people.” The threat of racist violence was ever present, and there was virtually no chance any white person who harmed a black person would face anything close to justice. I wonder what Robertson would say about the four little black girls who were killed in the Klan bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church – or the many, many others who were lynched over the decades? What would he say about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old who was murdered for supposedly flirting with a white woman in Mississippi? Were they happy about their situation, too?

Those like Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who trot out First Amendment arguments to defend the offensive speech of Robertson and bemoan the consequences they face, are equally misguided. Sure, Robertson has every right to say hateful, offensive things wherever and whenever he wants. But there is no First Amendment right to have a TV show. There is no First Amendment right to be free from criticism. No one is calling on the government to shut him up.

Maybe Robertson simply doesn’t understand the hurtful nature of his words. Maybe he was blind to the reality of life for African Americans when he was growing up. Maybe he still is. Being oblivious to the suffering of others is at the root of racism. 

But why is anyone in this day and age defending segregation and attempting to paint over the terrible injustices that took place during Jim Crow?  

Regardless of Robertson’s personal experiences, this idea that African Americans had it good during Jim Crow is the same kind of historical revisionism that we hear from Holocaust deniers who want us to ignore the lessons of history. It must be denounced loudly and clearly.

Sincerely,

Morris Dees
Morris Dees
Founder, Southern Poverty Law Center


Make a contribution to support our work fighting hate, teaching tolerance, and seeking justice.
Take advantage of corporate matching gift opportunities. Contact your employer's HR department to see if they will match your contributions to the SPLC.


We welcome your feedback.

Contact us online.
400 Washington Ave.

Thoughts on Leviticus

I watched the show "Duck Dynasty" once and felt like I needed a bath. Nothing about these low intellect right wingnuts appeals to me. It does not have to. I LOVE my state, I love the people in my neighborhood and I love the millions that are supportive of those who want to love whom they do. Nothing about love between two consenting non-incestuous adults in any way is "sinful" as if anyone on this show even could debate what sinful is.

A few thoughts on the prohibitions in the "Old Testament" section of Leviticus: Prohibition against eating pork, Mandating of animal sacrifices, Human slavery sanctioned, Prohibition against eating crab, clams, oysters, (This one is especially terrific) The profanity of disabled individuals - quoting


“For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sights or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles; no man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s offerings by fire; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God…He shall not come near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries…” (Lev. 21:18–23)

I rest my case!

NOT ANYMORE

  I wrote this last week and for the most part sat on it because I did not want my writing to imply anything against Israel. As stated agai...