October 24, 2014

Get your daily dose of white privilege right here, folks! I was determined to ignore what the Bill-O and Bernie show might say about Ferguson, but alas, I couldn't. It is a case study in what white privilege looks like.

To understand these goons (if that is even possible), you have to understand that they come from a place where every single word that comes from a cop is immediately true. So when Bill-O refers to 'evidence' what he's really talking about are leaks from the police, prosecutor and possibly even the Grand Jury, which he assumes are factual without a trial or other process which might establish facts.

So to Bill and Bernie, all of the leaks are true if they came from the police or the prosecutor. That means Michael Brown might have been rushing the cop, or he might have been falling to the ground when he was shot. That's what the leakers have tried to get people to believe, after all, and so they believe.

Then they take it to a whole different level, one where they're going to analyze what's wrong with those black people who just can't accept untried facts as facts! Remember, Bill-O and Bernie have this whole thing all figured out. As they say, "Al Sharpton could see the videotape and still think the cop is guilty."

Also? The pronouncement that if the good citizens of Ferguson don't get a trial for Darren Wilson with a guilty verdict there will be violence. Perhaps there wouldn't be such a demand for a trial if police conducted themselves in a fashion that invited trust, gentlemen.

Cop good. Black kid bad. End of story. So what comes next is predictable and horribly insulting.

Bernie Goldberg, with "all sincerity" (sure thing, Bernie), wants everyone to know black people are scarred -- SCARRED, I tell you! So he pronounces judgement. "Slavery, segregation, and the humiliation that Blacks suffered under Jim Crow has turned some people socially paranoid."

Easier translation: Forget all those bad things that happened and just let white guys be white guys.

He forgot about Rodney King, I guess. And more recently, John Crawford, the young black man who was shot in a Wal-Mart because of a deranged 911 caller and a cop too quick with his trigger finger. Or any number of young Black men who are stopped, frisked, harassed and all too often shot by police.

He forgot about how Ferguson residents were treated by police. Unjustified traffic stops that drove them into debt and cost them jobs and their living.

Or he didn't forget. He just doesn't get it, because he's white and things like that don't happen to white dudes.

Here's something you won't hear Bill-O and Bernie discuss. Amnesty International just released a report about the numerous human rights abuses rained down on Ferguson protesters by police. Here's a taste:

Late in the evening on Aug. 18, following the use of tear gas and stun grenades, often known as flash bangs or concussion grenades, to disperse the crowds on the south end of W. Florissant Avenue, Amnesty International decided to leave the scene for the purpose of securing delegation members' safety. The delegation needed to cross a police line in order to reach their automobiles on the other side and approached the police line next to the media staging area with their hands up and clearly wearing shirts which identified them as human rights observers. One officer directly in front of the delegation pointed his weapon at the delegation and shouted "get on the ground!" A staff member at the front of the delegation knelt on the ground and informed the officer, "We are human rights observers." A St. Louis County commanding officer immediately waved the delegation through the police line with his gun in hand. As the police line parted, officers nearest the delegation kept their guns trained on the delegation until they passed through.

And that's just a little nibble. Read the rest here.

It's easy to dismiss these guys as irrelevant old bigots, but they're playing right to racist tropes that make it impossible for people of color to break free of the constant reminder that at one time in this country, we allowed white people to own black people and treat them as if they weren't even human.

I hope every Ferguson protester out there keeps standing, keeps fighting, and shoves their middle finger right in Bill-O's face.

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