In October 2018, Adam Serwer wrote an excellent essay in The Atlantic entitled “The Cruelty Is the Point”. As good as the essay is, Serwer’s conclusion was just a little bit off. The cruelty is the means, the fear is the point.
I truly think the scale of how horrified the Latino community is right now is not being understood, which is why the reporting about this moment is so important. So a quick story. I was chatting w/ a friend I met through the course of my work and she told me she had been crying.
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) August 6, 2019
“I mean he openly was discussing this like it was sports talk,” she told me exasperated. “After 20 people are dead. Disgusting.”
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) August 6, 2019
A story I’m sharing with permission from a young Latina pic.twitter.com/bLuu8anEXp
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) August 6, 2019
Another story I’m sharing with permission, from a Latina health care provider in another largely-Hispanic border city on what she should do if someone hateful targets her workplace. pic.twitter.com/PYxOfqNAyI
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) August 6, 2019
From a white man in Austin about his Latino family and their fear of taking his children to public spaces and that his legal citizen mother and father in law could be targeted nonetheless. pic.twitter.com/UNR3rROPrM
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) August 6, 2019
There are a lot more in Adrian Carrasquillo’s thread if you want to click across.
As I wrote here a few weeks ago, this year is the 100 year anniversary of the Red Summer of 1919, which, if it is remembered at all, is usually referred to as widespread race riots across the US. The Red Summer was not, in fact, a series of race riots across the US. Rather, white Americans, using almost anything as a justification, began localized campaigns of white supremacist terrorism targeting the African American communities in their cities and towns. African Americans, especially newly returned home African American veterans of WW I, quickly organized themselves and their communities f0r self defense. These acts of self defense, of course, further enraged and infuriated the white supremacists attacking the African American communities. As a result, because African Americans defended themselves, the Red Summer of 1919 is often referred to as race riots, when it was really no such thing.
The Red Summer is important. The African American communities in 1919 were terrorized by white supremacists. The point was fear, the means to achieve it the cruelty of the violence directed at them. The African American communities, or some within them, quickly moved past fear to resolve and a determination to defend themselves. Right now the President’s immigration policies, his rhetoric, the rhetoric of his supporters and surrogates, and that of almost all of the Republican Party and the conservative movement that sustains are all intended to generate fear. The actions and rhetoric are cruel, but cruelty is the means to the end. And that end is terrorizing Hispanic and Latinx Americans. The question, calling out to all of us Americans across 100 years from the Red Summer of 1919, when will the fear give way to resolve? And what action will result from that resolve?
Open thread!
Lapassionara
Thank you, Adam, for putting the present horrors in the context of history.
lamh36
Was reading that thread most of the morning, along with this thread from Maya Rupert, Julian Castro’s campaign manager.
Do yourselves a favor and read the ENTIRE thing!
lamh36
Hey Adam, did you see this?
He’s miliatry, so I assume he was maybe obligated or felt obligated to go? He does have that “I’m just here…” look on his face
But apparently chump told him something bout him being able to go on to do movies after this…and Mr Oakley was not amused by that.
Dan B
Great value to your post to show the link between terrorizing immigrants and how it moves into demonizing and terrorizing others. 90% of our neighborhood is Black, SE Asian (immigrant and 2nd gen), and Muslim – east African, and Filipino.
My partner’s family have turned into Trump / racist conspiracy believers. We have tried to tell them that we, as gay men, feel afraid. They believe we should love Trump because immigrants and Muslims hate gays. I’ve got half a dozen Muslim friends and know more who are very pro-LGBT.
They’ve told us that Marriage Equality is settled law as if that matters with our current judiciary. Anticipating the persecution generates dread. Our dread is dismissed.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: I had not seen that picture.
oatler.
Kill the pig!
cut his throat!
Kill the pig!
Bash him in!
Ladyraxterinok
The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot was part of this. When armed black vets showed up downtown, whites freaked out. Many blocks of the black community were destroyed . A group bombed the area from a plane they had.
The are known as Black Wall Street that was a beacon of black economic status was destroyed. That winter many Tulsa blacks lived in tents, a group of white tried to take over the whole area and develop it. That was stopped, I forget how.
There is an ongoing controversy over how many blacks were killed–a hundred? 1000s? Many blacks were rounded up and held in ‘camps’ at the fairgrounds east of town.
John Hope Franklin, the famous black historian , was small child living with his family in Tulsa at the time. His father moved the family away. Many other blacks left as well.
wmd
@oatler.:
Channeling Huey Newton.
debbie
@lamh36:
I saw him interviewed just after the shooting. This was no sort of reward for him.
lamh36
So apparently Fox News must have done a segment on Julian and Joaquin. So of course Chump as digusting as ever tweeted some dumb bullshit that I guess was supposed to be pitting brother against brother…smh
Trump is disgusting… KEEP ON FIGHTING Castro Bros!
Adam L Silverman
@oatler.: Ummm?
Adam L Silverman
@Ladyraxterinok: I separated them out because, you know, the Red Summer was 1919 and the Tulsa Race Riots were 1921. Very similar, almost identical, types of events separated by two years.I’m not trying to pick favorites between them.
Jay
debbie
It’s been very dispiriting to see Jews supporting Trump and these behaviors, even as they are always ready to rub someone’s nose in the Holocaust. “Never forget,” my ass.
HalfAssedHomesteader
We had an overt racist in the WH then too.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: I am not amused.
lamh36
Adam L Silverman
@HalfAssedHomesteader: Did a post on that a while back too.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve either already done a post on that or will be doing a post on that is my new existential experience.
TomatoQueen
@debbie: This needs to be withdrawn.
Ladyraxterinok
@Ladyraxterinok: Interesting that Daniel J Boorstein’s father moved his family to Tulsa in 1916? to escape the Georgia where Leo Frank, a Jewish man, was lynched in 1915 on the belief that he had murdered a 13 yr old white girl (‘Jewish blood libel’ claim was involved , I believe) . The family did quite well in Tulsa, and Daniel went on to become another famous historian.
TenguPhule
So the answer is for people of color to fort up en masse and prepare for a whole bunch of white folks to try and kill them? //
debbie
@TomatoQueen:
I disagree.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: Oy vey.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
1921: “You gave 1919 more coverage then me!”
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: No. Please do try to keep up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
TenguPhule
Good news.
Ladyraxterinok
@lamh36: Remember the other young black man James Shaw Jr who saved numerous people at the waffle House shooting shortly after the massive school shooting in FL?
TenguPhule
Not so good news.
dimmsdale
I’m sitting here looking over a leaflet from the American Friends Service Committee called “Do’s and Don’ts for Bystander Intervention,” which is all well and good. At the moment, though, I’m feeling temperamentally woefully ill-equipped to actually step in (or even to document, in situations where white assholes go off on people of color) should an incident occur (and I’m anticipating about a 99% certainty that they will).
Years ago I took a terrific self-defense course given by Prepare, Inc. that included some boundary-setting exercises under somewhat adrenalized conditions, so that one kind of got used to keeping on task, keeping boundaries tight and keeping focused, even when nerve-jangled by catcallers.
Anybody know if that type of training is offered for dealing with potential bystander-intervention situations?
(I will now go voyaging through the internet to check it out. Anyone has any ideas, they’d be welcome!)
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: At least he had steady employment…
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
You did beg the question.
Adam L Silverman
What’s this? New player?
A Ghost To Most
@TenguPhule: Probably that we should realize that everyone is exposed to the dangers of fascism, some much more than others, and we should stick together as Americans. Score keeping is not helpful.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I did not beg it. I called my order in ahead of time for take out.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: I am loving that it went to Judge Jackson. It would seem Strzok has a very real case.
I was sickened by how the Trump admin forced him and Andrew McCabe out.
Mike in DC
@Adam L Silverman: Prior to the 1960s, most “race riots” involved whites going apeshit and beating and murdering nonwhite citizens, be they black, latinx(zoot suit riots) or Asian.
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most:
Are we talking about the same Democratic party here? //
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: So you’re the one who’s been complaining that the food is awful and the portions are too small! //
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in DC: I’m aware. I’m just trying to be explicit here that what are deemed riots were really domestic terrorism sometime met with a self defense response.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: My general rule is that even if the food is good, very good, or excellent, the portions are too small.
SFAW
@oatler.:
Beelzebub might already be occupying the WH?
@wmd:
Not quite
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Eat two MREs then.
Jay
https://www.latinousa.org/2016/03/11/the-history-of-anti-mexican-violence-and-lynching/
debbie
@Elizabelle:
McCabe should sue for his pension.
TenguPhule
@Omnes Omnibus: The main reason to have an MRE around is to motivate you to find something else to eat beside the MRE.
Mike in DC
@lamh36: I kinda know Ms. Rupert, though I won’t say how here. She has a surplusage of dignity and grace.
Omnes Omnibus
@TenguPhule: I am actually quite familiar with them.
Chetan Murthy
@debbie: With respect, It’s not “Jews”, but -some- Jewish people. And it’s correlated with a particular …. political party and movement in Israel, which, sure, is on the ascendant. But there are lots of Israelis who aren’t racist assholes, and FOR SURE there are a ton of American Jews who aren’t racists — indeed, I think it’s a minuscule minority who are racist.
I myself have encountered ONE such Jewish person so far. He was …. pretty outrageously racist, both against Muslims and (when I -gently- pushed back, hoping he was just overwrought) American Black people. At which point I let him have it with both barrels, b/c it was clear he was just a stone racist. To be clear, I have family who are African-Americans, so it’s personal for me.
But I don’t generalize from him to all Jewish people, or even to nontrivial percentage thereof, b/c I know from experience and lots of studies, that MOST Jewish people I’ll meet are the opposite of racist.
BTW, would you say this about Italians and the Mafia? They’re all criminals, aren’t they? I mean, look at John Gotti, amirite?
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy: IIRC debbie is herself Jewish. You might now want to get too far over your skis here.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Only if absolutely necessary.
JanieM
@dimmsdale: Green Dot training has gotten a bit of press where I live, in Central Maine. The Lewiston-Auburn group seems to be a subset of this. I haven’t had any personal experience with them, and at the moment it looks like they do trainings only when requested by a specific business or group. I don’t know if it works that way in other locations.
debbie
@Chetan Murthy:
With equal respect, you haven’t met my family members who support Trump. Perhaps you don’t know many Republicans who are also Jewish. I do.
And just to be clear, I say all this as a Jew.
P.S. It is YOU who inferred I meant all Jews.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: I’ll trade my peanut butter and crackers for a fruitcake if you have one.
SFAW
At some point in the not-too-distant future, those motherfuckers will become a 21st-century version of “good Germans.” Of course, instead of “Juden ‘raus!”, they’ll probably go with “M****os afuera!” [I prefer not to write out the M-word, because my understanding is it’s as bad, or almost as bad, as the N-word.]
Chetan Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: @debbie: debbie, O.I.C. OK, I get your point now. And yes, it’s dispiriting, isn’t it? As a South-Asian American, to learn that there are Indian-American associations here-and-there that hosted Trump fundraisers is ….. awful to contemplate. They’re so bound up in their Islamophobia (from back in India, I suppose) that they can’t see straight. And then there’s D’felon D’vorce D’Spousa, and Nikki Haley, Raj Shah, Ajit Pai, Seema Verma, and on and on and on. Traitors to America and America’s values ALL.
I just remember that no race has a monopoly on assholes, nor on decency. And that at least, South-Asian-Americans, by and large, have been pretty good.
Also, it helps that I remember those interviews with Latinx and even Black people, who were Trump supporters, and not even insane nutjobs. Normal, somewhat same people of color, and they’re Trump supporters. It’s nuts, but then (again) I look at the numbers, and realize that they’re just a vanishing minority.
Dan B
@lamh36: Awful.
What next – withdraw suffrage?
Jay
On the bright side, our two Nazi terrorists have been found, dead in the bush. Apparently their survivalist cosplay didn’t provide the skill set needed.
SFAW
@JanieM:
The first time I heard someone up there refer to “the LA area” — I think I was listening to ‘TOS or something similar — I was confused. Of course, not as confused as the Mainiacs who call it that, but still …
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ll consider it.
Jay
Jay
JanieM
@SFAW: “The LA area” — we know what we mean. ;-)
TOS: Thoracic Outlet Syndrome?
rikyrah
Good post. Knowing history, it’s why I always took Dolt45 seriously.
Outside of our slave catchers…the rest of the community know what time it is.
Mike in DC
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Tucker Carlson Insists Every White Supremacist In America Could Fit In Stadium But That Tickets To TuckerCon Won’t Last https://trib.al/OtMRiOD
2:39 PM – 7 Aug 2019
1,157 Retweets
5,138 Like
SFAW
@Jay:
One of the replies to the linked tweet suggested that Fucker Carlson’s taking tomorrow off to celebrate 8/8. Interesting
dimmsdale
@JanieM: Thanks, Janie, I’ll look into it. Actually I’m on the American Friends Service Committee website; at the moment I’m partway thru a webinar they’ve posted; it’s bystander intervention training and seems to be exactly what I was looking for. There’s a good amount of information there, if anyone’s interested.
SFAW
@JanieM:
WTOS FM = “Top Of Sugarloaf” out of Skowhegan
ETA: Quickie quiz: What’s the big rock station broadcasting from Madawaska?
[Trick question: there’s NOTHING in Madawaska. Or Houlton. Or Masardis.]
RedDirtGirl
@lamh36: Thank you so much for sending me to that thread!!!!!
Jay
SFAW
@Jay:
I thought that tweet was joking, just riffing on the pro-Gideon ad. Apparently she really did say that.
Good Christ, what an evil motherfucker she is.
randy khan
@lamh36:
They could, you know, spend the money that’s going to the lobbyists on paying the team.
JanieM
@Jay: God she’s a disgrace. Good for ThinkProgress for pointing out that by that vicious logic, there’s never a time in this country to talk about gun violence.
SFAW
@JanieM:
You are FAR too kind.
JanieM
@SFAW: I’m out of words to keep up with these people. I will be giving every penny I can to her opponent, plus volunteer time, letters to the editor, whatever it takes.
RedDirtGirl
@dimmsdale: Thank you for mentioning this. I grew up in a quaker family, but often forget about some of the resources they provide.@JanieM: And thanks for your links. I’m flying to Bangor tomorrow. I’ll wave to you as I fly over.
West of the Rockies
@Jay:
Oh, God, Collins is disappointed yet again. No doubt her voice quavered with well-rehearsed emotion.
JanieM
@RedDirtGirl: Will wave back! Safe travels.
SFAW
@West of the Rockies:
But was her brow furrowed? Or merely knitted?
Omnes Omnibus
@JanieM: Be honest. You say that you will wave at RDG’s plane. You just stand outside and wave at every plane, don’t you?
JanieM
@Omnes Omnibus: No, only the floatplanes that buzz my house when they take off from the lake across the road. And then I’m waving only to show them my middle finger.
Ksmiami
@Dan B: then cut them off and out of your lives- it’s liberating in a way
Jay
catclub
I will just note that the ICE raids in Mississippi came on … Election day – primary.
Fucked up mississippi has governor and statewide elections on the off ODD year to keep turnout down to a minimum.
Joy in FL
@dimmsdale: Thank you for this site. I bookmarked it to come back to.
Tehanu
@Chetan Murthy:
I agree with you, but… I have a colleague who’s black and who told me she thought Trump was “doing all right.” When I expressed, um, polite skepticism, she said, “Well, right after he got elected, I got a job.” I didn’t (and still don’t) know what to say to that.
cwmoss
@Adam L Silverman: Quoting Orwell
StringOnAStick
I was driving t work this morning and NPR was interviewing the brother of the guy who he and his wife were killed in El Paso, leaving behind 3 kids, including a 2 month old that they shielded with their bodies. The surviving brother is still a tRump supporter, thinks he isn’t saying racist things and that the idiot is doing good things for the country. Apparently being inside the Fox news bubble means not noticing that your community is being targeted. I was shocked to hear the guy praise the president whose racist spew just killed his older brother and wife. I was not shocked that NPR highlighted this story.
Yutsano
@Jay: I thought that was a parody for a moment. But holy shite she actually did say that. Who’s the Democrat running against her? She needs to wrap this around Suzie Q’s neck.
Chetan Murthy
@Tehanu:
I’m assuming that you find her to be an otherwise honest and trustworthy person? So not a grifter? In which case …. well, maybe she’s just really, really, really stupid? I mean, I know this is gonna come as a shock to you, but …. half the population has a IQ under 100! I know, I know …..
*grin* Just joking! But seriously, when someone who is in the cross-hairs doesn’t realize it, and they’re otherwise honest and trustworthy, I have to conclude that they’re just an idiot.
chopper
@lamh36:
does trump actually think that he has the kind of ability it takes to turn someone against his own twin brother…with tweets? in all seriousness.
Yutsano
I r moderereated. Please to liberate?
Chetan Murthy
@StringOnAStick:
Sometimes, I wish I were religious, so I could pray for people like this man. The poor, poor deluded man. I think there’s a Christian phrase that I’ve heard used for situations like this: “Jesus wept”.
Raven Onthill
Our President is beloved of terrorists. The Republican Party supports terrorism.
There are not words.
Mnemosyne
@debbie:
They seem to be a pretty small minority. There’s also the group of mensches called Never Again Means Never Again that have been teaming up with immigrant groups to protest and get themselves arrested. They were part of the group that physically blocked off the main ICE office in DC a couple of weeks ago.
Mart
@Chetan Murthy:
Jesús lloró
Tehanu
@Chetan Murthy: Well, that’s just it, she’s not a stupid person and, as far as I can tell, not a grifter. So I really can’t account for it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tehanu: A person can be very intelligent and well educated and still be an idiot.
Ruckus
@Tehanu:
You could say that she got the job because she had the skills, had applied for the job and was the best candidate for the position and that the two events have nothing else in common other than timing.
Ruckus
@Chetan Murthy:
Jesus wept because there really is no explaining any rational concept to some people. And it may not be that they are actually stupid, it’s just that some people don’t grasp logic in any fashion. In some circles these are known as “Hold my beer!” people. OTOH some do lack the ability to add two plus two and get any numeral answer.
prostratedragon
@Chetan Murthy: Afraid of retaliation?
NeenerNeener
@Jay: One of the possible answers is a rich gay man who was in love with Epstein. Nothing illegal there, just stupid. I lived in Columbus in the late 80s and heard the rumors about Wexner.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Not so small where I live, and even less so with Trump’s support of Bibi and Israel.
No One of Consequence
@debbie: What the hell is this shit?! Get outta here with that.
– NOoC