Jon Stewart apologized to his audience Thursday night for not having any jokes for them, as he just dropped the comedy to get serious about Charleston. He said, “I honestly have nothing, other than just sadness.”
“By acknowledging it,” Stewart pointed out, “by staring into that and seeing it for what it is, we still won’t do jackshit. Yeah, that’s us. That’s the part that blows my mind.”
He contrasted how the U.S. does whatever it can to protect everyone from foreign threats, but has an “eh, what are you gonna do?” attitude to domestic threats.
Stewart brought up the racial wounds being opened in Charleston, especially invoking how South Carolina still flies the Confederate flag and has roads named for Confederate generals.
Confederate Flag still flies high in South Carolina
NBCNews.com reports:
In solemn tribute to the nine people gunned down at a Charleston church, two flags atop the statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina, were lowered to half-staff on Thursday. They will stay there for nine days in honor of each victim.
But in a bewildering display, a Confederate flag on statehouse grounds is still flying high. It wasn’t an oversight. It’s because of state law, according to reports.
So long as the former Confederate states of this country cling to their racist history, there will be no credibility in their surface scratching attempts to address racial disparities.
South Carolina Governor Releases Strangely Obtuse Statement On Black Church Shooting
An act of terrorism unfolded on American soil last night when nine people were killed by a gunman at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically black church, in Charleston, South Carolina.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) posted a noticeably defensive statement on Facebook as the details unfolded.
Really!? She doesn’t understand why?
Liberals fuel racism, and have been doing it for years.
Here is a black man making that point very convincingly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwqpJVQarUI
“Alan” you clearly don’t get the concept of IP addresses do you? I won’t out your identity, but have the courage to post this drivel under the name you usually do.
It’s appalling that these Republican dolts can’t seem grasp racial symbolism—or they refuse to in order to cater to their bigoted constituencies.
Last night I got into a rather heated argument with a fellow who tried to deny the role slavery had in causing the civil war–he went on to invoke tariffs, states’ rights, and other peripheral casual factors. So, in response, I chose to actually sift through every cause that was stated on various websites and categorize them by being either 1) “associated with slavery,” or 2) “not associated with slavery.” It’s a long list but I thought that I would share my list with your site:
“Via the links below:
1) Slavery
2) Dred Scott Decision (associated with slavery)
3) Abolitionist movement (associated with slavery)
4) Harriet Beecher novel (associated with slavery)
5) The Underground Railroad (associated with slavery)
6) The Missouri Compromise (associated with slavery)
7) John Brown (associated with slavery)
8) Raid on Harper’s Ferry (associated with slavery)
9) Election of Lincoln (associated with slavery as he was a against it)
10) Southern Secession (associated with slavery– the South seceded in order to maintain immoral system that was economically beneficial. Created Northern envy)
11) Ft Sumter (associated with slavery)
12) Constitutional question of slavery/Three Fifths Compromise (1808 clause–associated with slavery)
13) Economic envy between North and South (associated with slavery–free labor vs paid labor. North was industrialized, but Northerners were nonetheless jealous)
14) Social reformation (associated with slavery–interpretations of Bible were changed in order to topple slavery. Women’s Movement played a huge role in changing this perception)
15) Nat Turner’s rebellion (associated with slavery)
16) Gag Rule (associated with slavery)
17) Amistad Slave Ship (associated with slavery)
18) Annexation of Texas (associated with slavery–brought in as slave state)
19) Popular Sovereignty Slavery (associated with slavery)
20) Alta California (associated with slavery)
21) Compromise of 1850 (associated with slavery)
22) Fugitive Slave Act (associated with slavery)
23) Kansas-Nebraska Act (associated with slavery)
24) Bleeding Kansas (associated with slavery)
25) Eli Whitney Cotton Gin (associated with slavery–increased demand for slaves)
Not associated with slavery:
26) Tariffs (not associated with slavery)
27) States vs federal rights (not associated with slavery)
28) Industrial Revolution (not associated with slavery)
29) Nullification Crisis (not associated with slavery)
30) Manifest Destiny (not associated with slavery)
31) Mexican American War (not associated with slavery)
32) Election of Democrats/Whigs (not associated with slavery)
33) Lincoln-Douglas Debate (not associated with slavery)
*The Previous two can be associated with slavery if one considers the subject matter of the debates/elections. Slavery was one of the primary issues that was ran on.
Totals:
Factors associated with slavery: 76%
Factors not associated with slavery: 24%
Who has the more cogent argument? I do. And while some factors may be more heavily weighted, most of those exist under the “associated with slavery” category.”
Sources: http://www.historynet.com/causes-of-the-civil-war
http://www.civil-conflict.org/civil-war-history/causes-of-the-civil-war.htm
The man was quick to retort with same argument and chose to bypass my argument–a clear sign of a lack of critical thinking. Individuals, like the man I argued with, are contributing to racial tensions. Rather than accept the racist underpinnings of the Confederate flag, they try to alter its history by interpreting it as representing states’ rights: another euphemism for the right to enslave, persecute, and discriminate.
Disappointingly, candidates, like Ted Cruz, are feeding this ignorance with their refusal to accept the racial origins of a treasonous flag. It truly frightens me. How can we ever transcend racism if we never address America’s historical demons? This is why the Republican brand is failing–they have become the party of bigotry, hate, and ignorance.
Here are a few articles that you (and your followers) may enjoy reading (I wrote one of the two) as they relate to the topic of racism.
http://stupidpartymathvmyth.com/1/post/2015/06/the-mathmatics-of-domestic-terrorism.html
http://stupidpartymathvmyth.com/1/post/2015/05/from-tulsa-to-baltimore-racism-is-not-dead.html
Racism is alive and well: the Charleston shooting is absolute proof of it.
http://stupidpartymathvmyth.com/1/post/2015/05/from-tulsa-to-baltimore-racism-is-not-dead.html