Walking the final leg on the road to equality will require black people to unite with others against a common threat
“[Martin] spoke out sharply for all the poor in all their hues, for he knew if color made them different, misery and oppression made them the same.”
— Coretta Scott King
I wrote this article last year in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. I could see then that America was fast approaching a dangerous precipice in race relations, and I felt MLK’s message could offer a path towards unity. I never imagined that four months later cities across the country would burn from unrest following the horrific death of George Floyd. …
Rampant censorship is breeding paranoia and mistrust in America
According to the The Washington Post, nearly half of Americans today embrace at least one political or medical conspiracy theory. And there’s no shortage of theories to choose from.
Not long after the Coronavirus pandemic erupted, rumors surfaced that the virus was developed in a lab. Many even speculated that vaccine guru Bill Gates was using the pandemic to control the population. When Black Lives Matter protests gained momentum this summer, billionaire George Soros was blamed for instigating unrest in his quest for world domination.
While it’s obviously crazy to believe that conspiracies lurk around every corner, it’s probably just as crazy to think they don’t exist. After all, conspiracies aren’t fanciful figments of our imagination, like leprechauns or chupacabras. We’re talking about two or more people who decide to do something bad without telling anyone else. …
Russian meddling was bad, but this is a lot worse — and corporate media is downplaying the problem
Election 2020 may (or may not?) be over, and it’s been unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Recounts and litigation have spanned multiple states, and for the first time in U.S. history a sitting president has refused to concede as a President-Elect anxiously awaits a transition to the Oval Office.
There have been allegations of dead people voting, food trucks packed with bins of ballots arriving at precincts on election night, counties where the number of votes cast exceed the number of registered voters, and votes that were electronically “flipped” from one candidate to another.
This is the kind of sordid drama you would expect to play out in a banana republic, but it’s not. It’s happening in the country that’s “supposed” to be the beacon of democracy. …
Could the 2020 presidential race be much closer than “experts” are telling us?
If this election season were a movie, it would look a lot like one we rented four years ago.
Once again, experts have given a litany of reasons why Donald Trump can’t possibly win the White House: shifting state demographics; suburban white women fed up with his sexist antics; people of color fed up with his racist antics; his botched handling of the pandemic; and an economy thrashed by lockdowns.
Once again, Trump started off double digits behind in the polls with a seemingly impossible chance of closing the gap. …
Mainstream media insists they’re giving us the “real” facts. But where are they getting them from?
Once upon a time in America, it was okay to be misinformed. People weren’t hassled for believing the “wrong” thing or buying into a crazy conspiracy theory — because everyone had the right to be wrong or crazy. It’s what gave us an edge over people living under authoritarian governments who were forced to think in lock-step with everyone else.
But those days are gone.
Today, we have the freedom to believe whatever we want — as long as what we believe is “right.” Being misinformed is no longer an option and sharing the “wrong” information can even be dangerous.
Because people in the “freest” country in the world aren’t allowed to believe or think the “wrong” thing anymore. …
Our freedoms were on life support long before Trump showed up. But no one was freaking out.
America is in panic mode.
The desperate pleas are almost impossible to avoid. They’re in posts, headlines, and everyday chatter: Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to democracy. He’s delegitimized the electoral process, stifled civil liberties, and threatens to drag the country into fascism. If the man isn’t evicted from the White House on November 3, it’s game-over for America.
We’ve been warned by Hillary Clinton on Twitter: “Trump isn’t running against @ JoeBiden. He’s running against our democracy. Recognize this threat. Call it what it is.”
We’ve been warned by academics in The New York Times: “I Fear that We are Witnessing the End of American Democracy.” …
Democrat or Republican, POC or white, it’s time to defend what’s left of our country
I’m hearing the same stories from everyone now.
Not just from outraged progressives in blue states or trigger-happy conservatives in red states, but from a wide swath of family and friends.
You see, I’m old fashioned. I haven’t filtered my social network based on voter preference. I haven’t culled my circle of “deplorables” or ditched people who “drank the Obama Kool Aid.” I maintain deep connections with friends of all colors and political persuasions, some who see the world more or less as I do and others who seem to live on a different planet.
But the calls, emails, and texts I’m getting from all these people carry the same desperate tone. The anguished cries from Americans watching their country fall into…
This is our “new normal.” Are you cool with that?
When COVID-19 turned our world upside down in March, I had a gut feeling life would never be the same. We adjusted to pandemic-living so seamlessly. Almost effortlessly.
In a matter of weeks, we conditioned ourselves to recoil if someone got “too close” or moved in for a hug. We added “Hope you’re staying safe!” to our email greetings. We congratulated ourselves for finding ways to do previously-unthinkable things on Zoom — like pole dancing classes and weddings.
When ads for designer masks popped up on Facebook, I knew we’d hit the point of no return; a cottage industry was suddenly turning into big business. …
It won’t mean he doesn’t scare most Americans. It will mean the Left scares them more.
In a “normal” world, an incumbent who blasts his critics with kindergarten-style insults on Twitter wouldn’t have a shot at being re-elected. In “normal” times, a president saddled with a country mired in pandemic and facing the worst unemployment numbers since the Great Depression would be doomed to a single term.
But we aren’t living in a “normal” world, and these aren’t “normal” times.
While polls suggest Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have a comfortable lead nationally — by much as double digits — this election could be a lot closer than many people think.
It’s obvious many voters don’t like their choices. Some even loathe the options being presented to them. They’re being forced to choose between a candidate who may take their leg and another who might take an arm. They’re making cold, hard calculations about which candidate will allow them to bleed out more slowly. Because at this point, voting is really just electoral triage. …
If we associate common sense behavior with white supremacy, it will only deepen the effects of systemic racism
Last week, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) removed a portion of a new exhibit called “Talking About Race,” citing concerns that it hadn’t contributed to “the productive discussion” the curators had hoped. The move came after mounting pressure and criticism from conservatives.
But if we were living in less insane times, the outcry wouldn’t have been partisan. In a sane world, any reasonable person, regardless of political persuasion, would have seen this exhibit for what it clearly was: racist.
Yet that didn’t happen because we’re living in crazy town now. …
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