Month: November 2014

Barack Obama, Ferguson, and the Evidence of Things Unsaid

Violence works. Nonviolence does too.

Black people know what cannot be said. What clearly cannot be said is that the events of Ferguson do not begin with Michael Brown lying dead in the street, but with policies set forth by government at every level. What clearly cannot be said is that the people of Ferguson are regularly plundered, as their grandparents were plundered, and generally regardedas a slush-fund for the government that has pledged to protect them. What clearly cannot be said is the idea of superhuman black men who “bulk up” to run through bullets is not an invention of Darren Wilson, but a staple of American racism.

What clearly cannot be said is that American society’s affection for nonviolence is notional. What can not be said is that American society’s admiration for Martin Luther King Jr. increases with distance, that the movement he led was bugged, smeared, harassed, and attacked by the same country that now celebrates him. King had the courage to condemn not merely the violence of blacks, nor the violence of the Klan, but the violence of the American state itself.

Barack Obama, Ferguson, and the Evidence of Things Unsaid

How To Support the Ferguson Library – BOOK RIOT

Many other orgs closing. But we will stay open to serve people of #Ferguson as long as safe for patrons & staff, up to 8p. Love each other. — Ferguson Library (@fergusonlibrary) November 24, 2014 No matter what emotions you … Continued

If you want to help the children of Ferguson, the public library there has been providing support since the beginning. They’ve provided activities and a gathering space for the families and they need help.

How To Support the Ferguson Library – BOOK RIOT

12 things white people can do now because Ferguson

White people who are sick and tired of racism should work hard to become white allies.

The article is the best thing I’ve seen about ‘what to do next to undo the system’. Regardless of how you feel about this incident, knowing more about the systems of racism, how to recognize them in yourself and in the institutions of American culture is deeply important and needed. Now.

12 things white people can do now because Ferguson

Why did Michael Brown, an 18-year-old kid headed to college, refuse to move from the middle of the street to the sidewalk? Why would he curse out a police officer? Why would he attack a police officer? Why would he dare a police officer to shoot him? Why would he charge a police officer holding a gun? Why would he put his hand in his waistband while charging, even though he was unarmed?
 
None of this fits with what we know of Michael Brown. Brown wasn’t a hardened felon. He didn’t have a death wish. And while he might have been stoned, this isn’t how stoned people act. The toxicology report did not indicate he was on PCP or something that would’ve led to suicidal aggression.
 
Which doesn’t mean Wilson is a liar. Unbelievable things happen every day. The fact that his story raises more questions than it answers doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
 
But the point of a trial would have been to try to answer these questions. We would have either found out if everything we thought we knew about Brown was wrong, or if Wilson’s story was flawed in important ways. But now we’re not going to get that chance. We’re just left with Wilson’s unbelievable story.

Officer Darren Wilson’s story is unbelievable. Literally. (via wilwheaton)

methedras:

“I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Strider, Chieftain of the Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the sword that was broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!”

esteefee:

scorchedangel:

kelcipher:

206                                                       Coyote Road

He gave a sour laugh.”You stole them.” 

“Nobody else was using them.”

“Well, it’s not an Audi A3”

Well, this is depressing.  “They removed to the remote and secluded village of Jamestown, in the mountain solitudes of east Tennessee.”  (from The Autobiography of Mark Twain, which I am using as laptop desk.)

Bwhahaha ‘What do I do if people are the problem?’