Race- Privilege, Relations, Racism, etc.

To break down the actual numbers: 31 satellite offices (including the 8 that have that 75% black population) will no longer provide driver services, and 5 national parks, 6 National Guard armories, and a surplus warehouse are all being shut down.

Sounds to me like a case of racism by way of omission: shutting down the services that they think will result in the "least complaints". (That qualification needs more emphasis than quotation marks can give.) So their criterion for which places to shut down may be colored by racism, but not the decision to shut places down themselves.

Alabama hasn't had a very good state economy for a long time, so this isn't surprising. The sad irony is that part of the reason that the state economy is in such bad shape is because of the Civil Rights Movement; businesses wanted nothing to do with investing in their cities after the water hoses were turned on (I trust you'll get what I mean).

Edit from the future: corrected an error about how many armories were being closed.

edited 1st Oct '15 3:21:21 PM by TotemicHero

They could get more blatant, yes.

But that'd actually be illegal.

No I don't. What do you mean?

They're shutting down the stuff that won't lose them votes, as black people don't vote for them the natural first choice for places to shut down is stuff in black areas.

I mean I wouldn't out it past them to actually be deliberately shutting down the places so. To deny black people the ability to vote (they did that with opening hours in some places didn't they?), but the more benefit of the doubt argument is that they're just be racist by targeting black people due to them not voting for them, rather than for explicitly being black.

@The Handle: I'm referring to the Birmingham march of 1963, where the police there turned high-pressure fire hoses (capable of stripping paint off buildings) on the marching black protesters. It was broadcast on national television, and the outrage it drew was a key turning point for civil rights.

Prior to that point, Birmingham was actually the economic center of the Southeast. After that, businesses pulled the hell out, because they didn't want the stigma of being known for heavily investing in that area. (The other part comes in when you realize the response of Atlanta's mayor at that time; he launched the "too busy to segregate" campaign, which lured many of those businesses over there and made Atlanta what it is today.)

To reiterate: Whoa.

Here you go, a textbook case of how to deal with people glossing over racism.

I hope we get this shit sorted out before I have children. It shouldn't be the job of parents to correct misinformation in textbooks.

Erasure is indeed quite real...

But, yeah, well done.

"Workers". That's hilarious.

I didn't even have to click the link to immediately know that this was Texas.

You know what, they can be their own bloody country, what do we need that state for anyway?

Military recruits and something for the rest of the states feel better about themselves, because for all their problems at least they aren't Texas (or Alabama).

Can you please not even joke like that? If Texas didn't have the federal government to reign in our state government, anyone who isn't a white cishet Christian would be in a very bad position.

Makes me glad my textbooks didn't gloss over slavery, racism, or Genocide.

I wasn't joking, I was just that angry and fed up.

Also living in a southern state like that is already a bad condition for them.

I've been scared of Texas for so many years. So many...

cishet:"an insult used on tumblr when you can't accuse someone of doing something wrong"

I don't get that....

So Texas would left everyone who isn't a white Christian that you can't accuse of doing something wrong in a bad position? You mean people that bribe the law? Because I can't believe you're meaning actual innocent people.

Cis basically means "not trans" and het is short for Heterosexual. That definition you got is from people that don't like social justice warriors.

So, sane people?

edited 5th Oct '15 7:24:23 PM by DrunkenNordmann

Racism people, racism. So, how the spanish are treating the Basques this week?

@Nord, Do you or do you not care about the cause of equality for all mankind? If so, congrats, you're a social justice warrior.

Just because some jackasses that want to continue to be big it's want to make social justice to be a slur doesn't mean social justice is no longer a cause worth fighting for. That is sort of what threads like these are all about.

Advocating for social justice is one thing, being a SJW a complete different one. So I'd rather not be called that, thank you very much. ;)

Wait, did something happen in Spain again that I missed?

edited 5th Oct '15 7:38:04 PM by DrunkenNordmann

I'm in Fort Worth, Texas. I already know how bad it is here. I'm just a county away from where Ahmed Mohamed got arrested for his homemade clock.

This is a touchy thing with me for a damn good reason. At least as it is the federal government can tell Abbott et al to step the fuck back.

The Basques are trying to pass a constitutional resolution to grant them independence in Spain last month and got a handful of seats, but I haven't heard much from there since.

Wait, I thought that was the Catalans?

Everyone except the Galicians wants to secede from Spain. :/

You're right I got into some translation names mixed up.

But the Basques are watching closely, as their chances of getting their own turf increases.