A Rolling Stone article entitled, “How Trump’s Win Is Changing Stand-Up Comedy” was published yesterday. Here’s an excerpt:
New York-based comic Jon Laster says that, a week after the election, his personal frustration reached a boiling point when he performed at Gotham Comedy Club in Chelsea. When the evening's sets – some of which featured anti-Trump jokes – were complete, a white, middle-aged attendee Laster casually said to him at the bar, "Man you were really funny, and you're black!" Laster says he and the small group around him awkwardly waved the remark off. But the man wasn't through. "Since Trump won the election," he continued, "there's a lot America needs to reconsider. We need to put that 'politically correct' stuff to bed; now I should be able to call you 'nigger.'" Laster recoiled and admits he nearly punched the man, who quickly tried to apologize. Laster composed himself and left the club.
In a subsequent Facebook post, Laster wrote: "I've spent the entire weekend disgusted that we have to deal with this and disgusted that I didn't break his jaw [and] it's not an Alabama problem. These type[s] of Trump peeps are here in Manhattan, Williamsburg, in comedy clubs and on comedy stages." He indicated he could easily see how he'd be perceived as "the bad guy" if he'd retaliated with a physical assault on an audience member in a comedy club, and added that black men are going to have to figure out how to deal with such out-in-the-open expressions of racism because incidents like the one he'd just endured are "the tip of the iceberg of what's headed our way." He asked others to write him with suggestions as to how to face such offenders because he doesn't have "the energy or the desire to spend every weekend in jail," nor does he "want to feel this mistrust of white comrades either."
The incident shook Laster so much that he's removed all political jokes from his act. "It's just not worth it," he says, adding that once he has more thoroughly contemplated the reality of a Trump presidency, and thoughtfully crafted new material, he may return to offering observations on the topic. "I don't want to throw barbs out there, pissing people off without really adding anything to the conversation."
Laster may be right that this is just the tip of the iceberg. What unholy power has been unleashed in what a Canadian "snowbird" friend of mine characterized last year as, "A once great nation that I've been pleased to own a vacation home in and proud to invite my wonderful, generous American friends over to?" What is going on in our nation, with this plague of white supremacists roiling over the psychological landscape of America, and "getting in everybody's face" with their venom? And why is it these people think that they can re-introduce the n-word into the national conversation with impunity? Writer and activist Chip Berlet offered an insight into how Trump voters excuse extremism:
“...demonizing others is nothing new in American politics. It comes and goes in cycles that are not regular. So it’s not a pendulum. There’s no time frame. [...] If people have been pushed down the economic, social or political ladder, well, that’s real. If people feel they’ll be pushed down the ladder, that’s real, too.
I did a bunch of interviews before the election down in San Antonio, just talking to dozens of people. A lot of the sentiment was, ‘We’ve been screwed over, now we’re going to screw them over.’ It wasn’t so much that people liked Trump — or Clinton. They figured both parties were ridiculous. And neither of them was going to do what they promised, because politicians never do. So to hell with the whole system.
That’s a pretty dreary place to be in a democracy.
"Pretty dreary," is putting it mildly. Every day more incidents are published which depict a profound disconnect between Trump voters and 21st Century societal norms. In one week's time in New York and in Cincinnati there were identical hate crimes: in each instance a black man and his family came home to find that their home had been burglarized and vandalized and that the words, "Go Back To Africa," and "n**ger" were spraypainted on the walls amidst swastikas. But it does reflect the theme of "now we're going to screw them over." That is clearly the operant motive behind the acting out of deranged individual Trump voters, over and over again. And Trump voters believe, clearly, that they are justified, yea, even entitled to do these things.
Rick Perlstein, writing in The Washington Spectator, speculating about a future day when historians look back at this time in history, said the following:
They will study, from the evening of November 17 on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” a searingly courageous and astringent interview with white supremacist Richard Spencer, no punches pulled. He wanted to talk about how school kids naturally sort themselves into races in the cafeteria, and how New Yorkers eye each other warily on the subway: nothing more. Then, for any listener who might find temptation to locate this within the warm bounds of civic reason, reporter Kelly McEvers very effectively and patiently relocated him to the chilliest corners of a civic Antarctica. The edit of the interview led with him pronouncing, “What I would ultimately want is this ideal of a space effectively for Europeans.” Her probing then revealed his affection for the swastika—“an ancient symbol”—and his approval of “people who want to get in touch with their identity as a European”—just not via “physical threats or anything like that.”
They always walk back the racism and the white supremacy and no one does this more than Donald Trump. The day that the Ku Klux Klan endorsed him in its official newspaper Trump denied any connections with the KKK and son Eric, being interviewed on Denver radio station KHOW stated on the air that it would be, "a good idea to shoot David Duke in the head." When Duke was asked to comment he said that he was busy "on project," and would check back later. He never did.
So we know where we stand right now, and that is in a pretty dark place, on a moonless night in a gnarled wood, watching the republic slowly sink into a quagmire of racism and overall intolerance. So where the hell do we go from here? Mike Lux at Crooks & Liars in an article entitled Darkest Before The Dawn opines that some of this societal insanity actually makes sense, based on history and moreover that there is light at the end of the tunnel, if we can just stay the course and keep the faith.
So here's my message: assume nothing; work your ass off for the greater good; but always, always keep hope alive. Our beloved nation has schizophrenia built into its DNA -- I guess that's what happens when the man who wrote our country's founding document declaring that we are all created equal and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was also a slaveholder.
The same government that handed down Dred Scott emancipated the slaves six years later. The most pro-corporate trust president ever elected (McKinley) had his VP (Teddy Roosevelt) follow him in office and launch a trust-busting campaign. The president who signed into law the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and the War on Poverty took us deep into Vietnam. And now our first black president, the one with the Muslim immigrant's name, will be succeeded by Donald J Trump.
Maybe it takes acting on our worst instincts to make our best instincts flower into progress. The next four years are going to be as ugly as hell, but keep hope alive, my friends. You can't organize other people to do good when you are depressed. We may well come out of the Trump years and have a new birth of freedom.
Amen. May we see our best instincts flower and may our higher angels answer the call in this our hour of need. If ever there was a call to arms, it is here and it is now. May we collectively find the strength to walk through this dark passage in our history and come out the other side, together, into the light of a better, stronger America.
Thursday, Dec 15, 2016 · 4:38:22 PM +00:00
·
ursulafaw
“A student at Atholton High School posted a photo of herself in blackface last month, with a caption reading, “I’m finally a n****r.”
Another white student at River Hill High School posted a photo of herself holding what appeared to be a handgun, captioned, “I’m boutta shoot some n****rs.”
About 400 students walked out of Oakland Mills High School last week to demonstrate support for a proposed change to district policy that would require administrators to notify students and staff of any threats made by other students.
A white Mount Hebron student’s racist rant about police violence went viral in February.
“I mean, seriously, who the f*ck cares about some black man who dies?” the student said in that video.”
These news stories above were just taken off of RawStory two minutes ago. They speak for themselves. I am appalled. Hey, thanks guys for getting this to the rec list. It’s important that people see this material.