I myself am an african american and as much as I hate to claim the race card, it holds true in open carry situations.
I've been places with a white friend and we both open carried and law enforcement felt the need to detain me, seize my gun, THEN check my permit (in that order). But my white friend was not treated this way. His permit wasn't even checked.
Just to give a little extra information, that day I was coming from a job interview, I was clean shaven, neat, wearing slacks, shirt, and tie, so I did not present the gangster hoodlum image, at least not in my view.
I've once been pulled off of a train by 5 leos, stripped of my gun, slammed against the wall and humiliated only to find that I was in possession of a very valid permit (weapons carry license as it's known as in georgia).
I've had 911 called on me, even joined blackgunowners.org and was told that my experience was the norm for a man of color.
Any other black men or women here have any oc experiences?
In theory, the Gun Right is unified by a fetishistic and paraphilia-like worship of firearms. This mutual love of guns should trump differences of race, class, gender, and sexuality. In practice, the Gun Right is one of the key components of the Tea Party GOP alliance. It is joined together with the other elements of movement conservatism--Christian Dominionists, corporatists, Ayn Rand Austerity neoliberal libertarians--like dogs in heat.
Their owners need more than fire hoses to separate such a freakish Right-wing ideological orgy...assuming they are not enjoying the show.
As I have pointed out on many occasions, the Tea Party GOP and movement conservatism in the post civil rights era represent the full union of racism and white supremacy.
Despite any common overlap on political issues, race still matters and often trumps any particular shared ideological tenets for the American Right-wing.
Their reframing of reality involves convincing their members, as well as the broader white American public, that fictions such as "reverse racism" are real, white folks are somehow oppressed, and that racial "colorblindness" is noble and ideal--and those of us who dare to tell the truth about white supremacy and racism (institutional, personal, old fashioned and modern) are the "real racists".
Of course, there are people of color who are members of the Gun Right. For those of them who are not self-hating black conservatives, I wonder, how do said black and brown members of the Gun Right navigate the racism among their ideological kin?
Likewise, how do white members of the Gun Right negotiate matters of racism and discrimination when one of their black "brothers" in the metaphorical (or real) dutch rudder and tummy sticks "my Precious" gun clique is forced to deal with the reality that his or her skin color shapes life chances in America irrespective of if they own a fire stick or "liberty musket"?
The website Opencarry.org has a very revealing thread in which one of its black members is forced to confront the realities of racism. Watching his white gun brothers struggle with the reality of white racism while navigating the white racism denying language of "playing the race card" is great theater.
There is also something very sad and vulnerable about the whole dialogue.
The thread can be found here.
What follows are some choice comments.
Superficial cues about "good" and "bad people" are very compelling:
I have 100% sympathy to you and what you are going through. I don't like for a race card to be pulled at every situation that one feels there is justificaiton. But you sir ARE justified today when you deal with that. It is true, sadly that they can't look at the clean shaven, well dressed man and see color of skin to associate. Don't buckle, don't break down, down faulter. Keep goin' on because one day even black people, latinos and every one els will be able to ignore race.
I for one don't ever judge on race alone. Clothing, attitude, speach and overall the way you carry yourself is how i make an opinion about someone. We all have our trash and it's not a racial thing anymore. It's the scum of humanity. The murderers, rapists and theives and they come in all shapes and sizes. We can quickly recognize many of them by the oversize pants hanging off their * and the overall lack of decent grooming. The danger is the ones you can't easily identify but they are right there on our TV, radio, and political office sometimes. College educated, well dress, groomed for success SoBs that don't care about you or me. They steal our rights if we don't watch them and ignore them. Alas I rant now...
Carry on, sir. You have done nothing wrong. You know this. Take it each time they abuse you, that is a little victory. You are lawfully carrying though they don't want you to. But they can't take it away from you, can they? Smile everytime this happens because though they might harrass and hummiliate you, you won because you went home. And it will make them even more angry when you walk away with a smile on your face. It's like a little "neener-neener neener-neener."
A typical "colorblind" racist:
My First Thoughts...
And I will not legitimize this thread with any other response.
WHAT "AA"'s are you talking about?
This is AMERICA!!! Land of the free, and home of the brave. We've had ENOUGH comments about "african" this or that to fill our gut to busting, particularly as our numbers come from ALL continents! We've grown up and worked with blacks and all OTHER races all our live-long days, so your making a mountain out of a molehill strikes us as "opportunistic."
Please: GROW THE ** UP. We're human beings. Grow a brain. I'm sick and tired of seeing racist ** being presented as the crux of an argument when it has NOTHING to to with the issue at hand.
Dear ABC/CBS/NBC/MSNBC/AP: KNOCK IT OFF. We're sick and tired of your jack-wipe leftist politics that everyone here in America can see straight through with open and rather disgusted eyes.
I can't ask you to grow a brain, as the substrate remains very unripe. See you in about twenty years? Ok, yes - until then. In the meantime, we'll see you in the history books while we go on with the business of recovering our country from the single most detrimental dictator we've ever seen.
The perfect story for "colorblind" post racial civil rights era America:
Well...I am an old white fat man! On the other stuff...not so much.
One night in a campground, I suggested that a drunk take his obnoxious venom back to his own RV. He said, "Admit it...you wouldn't want your daughter to marry a [pejorative term for black person]!"
To which I replied, "Why not? My son did." He stared for a second and then walked away. My wife said that the look on my face could freeze water; maybe it clued him that things might take an ugly turn. I grew up in a totally white community and overt racism was the norm. I even bought into it -- ignorance being a major part of prejudice -- but being in combat pretty much snuffed out the idea that the amount of melanin in one's skin means anything at all. (Well, actually, later in medical school I learned that melanin helps to protect against skin cancer, but except for that...) My daughter-in-law is an awesome gal and if you're insulting her, you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me!
Freedom is where it's at! The freedom to be an American exercising the rights of an American in defense of America! As a military doctor, I've treated war-injured of every conceivable race and a considerable number who can claim multiple races and every one of them is a hero to me.
Americans who overcome obstacles like racism and disability to exercise their rights and show others the way are heroes to me as well. Keep up the good fight!
How do you read and interpret the conversation about racism over at Opencarry.org? What are the various genres of speech and logic that are deployed to work through the relationship between guns and the color line.