jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 21045
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 Posted: 04/10/18 3:23 pm ::: OK too dull around here, how about some Stephon Clark |
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Time to liven this place up with some jammer-juice.
Stephon Clark
Inspired an article in the New York Times called...
Stephon Clark and the Golden State's Shameful Secret
The tragedy became California’s latest addition to the long list of high-profile law enforcement shootings of unarmed black people, but to me, a native of the state, Mr. Clark’s death on March 18 was also a reminder of one of California’s best-kept and most shameful secrets: In a manner that belies its liberal reputation, day-to-day life for generations of black residents there has long been shaped by discrimination and inequality.
Hey! Breaking fucking news there. Okay, that SOUNDS like a promising opening, but the truth is, this is a snore-fest of an article that could have been written in the 1970s. It's really the same old surface argument that doesn't go any deeper in actually SPILLING any of California's many shameful secrets, or even one of them.
So everything touching California along these lines the jammer must jump all over and this article elicited a couple of fine comments from yours truly. I'll post them here. But THEN...  in an ongoing answer to Howee and so many other skeptical voices here who have given me the side-eye when I talk about California, I'm going to post a comment by a young black guy named Conroy, and a few others that I'm seeing that might make the final cut.
I doubt this thread will take off. A purely old school debate thread on Stephon Clark's death and the subsequent protests would, but we've done that so many times. We hate ourselves over this shit. So this is about California. And hells bells, let me just go ahead and start with voices other than my own. Even a young black male voice.
Conroy
Los Angeles, CA
April 5
As a still relatively young black man who has lived in the South (Miami, Tallahassee, Atlanta), NYC, DC and now resides in LA, I must say that the racism practiced here is Southern California is some of the most sophisticated, refined and penetrating that I have ever experienced. At least if someone calls you a pejorative in the South (which rarely if ever actually happens in real life) they have acknowledged your existence. Here in CA white liberals are practiced in the fine art of building walls (the irony) both physical (highways and segregated neighborhoods) and metaphorical (e.g. hiring practices) between you and them and then declaring you invisible. I find this to be especially true on the city's Westside, where the richest, whitest, most progressive Obama/Hillary voters reside. It has been an amazing thing to witness it in person. Don’t believe me, try to find a black/brown person who works behind the camera/stage/recording studio, in any capacity in the entertainment business and ask them.
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John
NH NH
April 5
California liberal? Come on, California is only liberal to the degree that its wealthy, educated, urban elite need and allow a liberal veneer to cement their control of the wealth and people of the state. Caring is about visuals only; the values in California are about wealth, passing on privilege to the kids, control of a perpetual undereducated immigrant class, and celebrity.
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I can't compete with either of those for perspecitve and succinctness, respectively. But I will add my more detailed attack on the realities as I see them. It's all old news to any of you guys who have bothered to read my shit here over the years.
jammer
LAApril 7
"Notwithstanding policing and economic discrimination, California emits a golden halo in the progressive American imagination..."
You are way too soft on California. California doesn't have a shameful secret. California is an ocean of shameful secrets about race, class, immigration, and how all of that interacts with extreme wealth and privilege.
You bring up law enforcement and all you have is the age-old American civil rights issue of blacks and the police?
There are so many bigger stories here regarding these overarching subjects, with complexities that would dazzle the rest of the country. Why isn't any of that in this piece?
Let's start with racial discrimination. California is home to the largest mass instance of employment discrimination based on race or ethnicity this country has ever seen. And blacks are the primary victims of that.
How many restaurants are on Pico, Santa Monica, Wilshire, Sunset, from downtown to the sea? The number is mind-boggling and that's just four streets in LA. How many blacks are working in those kitchens? You want to talk about a wall? There's a real one.
Where are the blacks cleaning houses in a state with ten times the $1M-plus homes as any other? Who's keeping up the sprawling properties? Not blacks. Or working class whites either.
You think all of that is an accident? Or that it doesn't effect the Stephon Clarks of California? By the way, what was Mr. Clark's occupation at the time of his death? What was his line of work?
18 Recommend
jammer
LAApril 7
Particularly in agencies and institutions? In California? How about putting the blame on who has the power in California? The affluent.
It is the individual affluent households who stopped hiring African Americans for domestic work, groundskeeping, nanny services, etc. It's the affluent individual and independent employers who stopped hiring blacks and whites for construction work and now only employ Latino workers. It's the individual restaurant owners who allowed a takeover of their kitchens by Latino workers.
The affluent of California is who have reduced black Americans to being less than human members of the critical working society here in the Golden State. Black population numbers are plummeting in Los Angeles and that trend is ONLY going to accelerate as, hello, on the top end, the most affluent people in the world continue to pour into California. Rents and property values continue to skyrocket.
The pressures on everyone here who is not ridiculously well-off are becoming overwhelming for even those who have good jobs. A good job is nothing in Los Angeles. So for African Americans on the bottom end of the economic ladder here in California, it's practically lights out. Their numbers have been diminishing for decades.
But the least we can do in memory of their once strong presence here is tell the many unpleasant truths about how their fortunes changed in the Golden State and there are many untold aspects to that story.
16 Recommend_________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 21045
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| Posted: 04/10/18 7:31 pm ::: |
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But it's different, pilight. Yes, CA has the same kind of racism that other parts of the country has that manifests itself in these textbook examples.
But this other stuff? Come on. This is a different animal altogether. Outside of LA, the world of OTHER liberal Democrats and progressives have no idea of how this place is and what's happening here and what beats in the true hearts of the most powerful elements of their political party.
I just had a thought while shaving. All my time out here on the KPFK far left Pacifica radio station and in every other progressive environment, you hear the phrase, black and brown people. Black and brown people. Black and brown people. Black and brown people.
So here is a 'this is what needs to happen now' moment from the jammer. In CALIFORNIA, we need to stop referring to minorities as black and brown people. Black and brown people, African Americans and Latinos, are on COMPLETELY different trajectories living completely different lives from each other. They are not some unified thing that is together except where progressives and political and community leaders on the Left meet and try to voice a unified message. This is 50 year old bullshit. We absolutely need to separate these two ethnic minorities for the purpose of analysis and diagnosing the ills they both uniquely face._________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
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