Him_over_there Offline

Him_over_there:
This chart is old. It only shows events as they stood at the end of Obama's second term in office.

Obama left the Whitehouse having authorised ten times more drone strikes than G.W Bush - and having been at war for longer than any President in US history.

Metaphorguy: Who cares they are the enemy they should be atomic bombs

chowomanishere in reply to Him_over_there: Obama wasn't perfect but I'd take him in a second over Trump ...

chowomanishere: Thanks Him ....

chowomanishere: I went to room today and it was empty

Him_over_there:
the 'Trump on Trial Room is now open - All Welcome - a Free Speech Room: Chatroom: Trump on Trial

Seiren: You underestimate the power of political art.

The BLM street lettering projects with municipal support have sparked communities to have real groundlevel reactions and conversations—there was a lot of outrage even in my own community; there was also, to my surprise, tremendous support. It’s unifying. Outrage will spark change in communities—I hope for the better, especially since we see cities are choosing diversity over white supremacy.

Why do you think feds are being deployed to some
of the most progressive cities in some of the most progressive states?

If even a southern city in the US coming out in public support of diversity and equality is, to your mind, just lip service... I think you’re missing a vital piece of what systemic racism actually looks like in America—particularly along class lines.

Silencing has been the most effective strategy for eternity—it’s been used to quell reform before it can even begin. Systemic racism in a southern town typically would have killed any of these projects on arrival. This, my friend, is what slow progress feels like. I’m honestly surprised I’m witnessing *something* being said and done *at all*.

Another example of the power of art? That cartoon. To my eyes? commentary in that cartoon is nothing more than a derisive rehash of dehumanizing racist tropes (I see “mammy”, “pickaninny”, and “uncle tom” up in front.)

To others? There’s no telling, really. But nothing like a little faux nuance commentary to confirm existing elaborate biases. It’s damaging any way you slice it.

Him_over_there in reply to Seiren:

Political art? Seriously! Big, yellow letters, laboriously imprinted on the road ‘political art’? I don’t think so.

On the contrary. This was an historic insult to an oppressed group at the height of their revolt. Here the ruling elite descended from their ivory towers and said:

"Listen.. you can play with the street" - "Aren't you lucky?" - “Here's some nice yellow paint, now write anything you like; we’ll even help!.. just don’t rebel.”

And the docile amongst the group found it soothing enough to console their discontent. The act representing nothing in of itself other than superficial virtue signalling by local politicians. Mere diversion.

As for the cartoon, I find it refreshingly honest; the derision well deserved. Those caricatures actually represent the mindset of many lumpen Blacks who are too meek to take a stand.

Seiren: You immediately generalize and conceptualize and dehumanize the entire movement—you deign to water down these ubiquitous political street mural projects just so it looks more like an ugly little yellow straw man you can blow right over.

They’re beautiful. And they’re everywhere. Some have since been vandalized, then repaired. Many were planned community-led projects, so that everyone could pitch in and each letter is different. In my town, local artists were commissioned by the city itself. They hired one artist per letter—each artist charged with designing their own letter. The city had contractors survey and outline parameters of the words on the downtown road—in front of Town Hall—waiting to be filled with color. Each artist would then translate their creation onto the pavement with the permanent road-ready paints provided.

It was a socially distanced event given the pandemic, but local news did come out and cover the event, it was all over social media, there were drones taking aerial photographs. My own small town.

I couldn’t have imagined this ever happening even five years ago.

Was there outrage over this government sanctioned project? Oh fuck yeah, there was. The city’s Facebook page exploded with shock and outrage—“not *my* town!”. E-mails filled up. Phones rang off the hook. Oh yes, city communications had their hands full; there was much fielding of those wailing, of those gnashing of teeth. Endless deluge of middle aged white folks, countless Karen videos descending on their FB pages struggling not to cry, struggling not to scream n—r. Oh The Great Nudging at their privilege, their city-favor in question.

But the small, yes very small, local victory was felt that week. Because it happened in a very red, very southern town.

The city was firm in its support of this movement, following the police murder of George Floyd; what continues to happen to Black people to this day.

I would have you go tell all the Black artists who poured their hearts, their sweat, their souls into this pavement how lumpen and meek they are for doing so.

I would. You could. But one. No. One of the artists has died. In December. He was only my age, 33. I never had the chance to meet him, but I followed his work on IG and FB closely. He was so fucking talented. Its a God damn tragedy he’s gone. I don’t know how he passed. I haven’t bothered asking anyone yet. I just feel grief over it. There has been an outpouring of community grief over his loss—his work is the best I’ve ever seen come out of my town.

You see, he painted the R. I imagine for the letter of his first name. And following the publicity of this project, he was finally getting the recognition and support he deserved for his gifts.

I know. I know, “yellow blocked letters” makes for an easy narrative, but there are real stories you’ve allowed yourself to ignore. The groundlevel invisible seemingly innocuous work you would ignore. Someone of privilege might be less adept at detecting the nuances of actual
social oppression; and by contrast the nuances of social progress. To some eyes—the yellow belly blocks and the lumpen meek caricatures you brandish with derision to support an idea that couldn’t stand on its own without facing reality—to some eyes that might just look like more blind racism.

Since this thing you shared, Stacey Abrams (who was swindled out of the Governor’s seat in Georgia) got her dues and baby she helped turn Georgia blue. With rallying voter turnout, she gave us senate majority. This will in turn actualize legislative progress. Oh I know. Two sides of the same coin, two wings of the same bird. Yadda yadda.

Come back down to reality, and see a person hungry enough to eat that bird.

What your macro-narrative misses are the threads. The social threads that communities have been tirelessly weaving this last year—that Black Americans have been weaving just to abide living under this oppression. Yeah, the docile ones. The docile folk Abrams lifted up. Maybe if you hang up all that work it looks a lot like just another flag. Maybe it looks like a tapestry of a common history—one I suspect you wouldn’t recognize or understand from over_there. Some of the threads? They can look a lot like colorful block letters and rollers of paint of a man now gone.

Symbols of meaning. Of hope. Like the youthful, hopeful words of Amanda Garmon. Yes, be cynical, she was a stand-in, lip service. Meh. I saw all the little girls behind her who would be lifted up by her words.

The artist who passed was witnessed by this community, by me, and the letters are still there reminding the racist white folks driving by that Black Lives Matter. I grieve the loss of his future works, I grieve never having known him. But I turn the leaf snd see there is still cohesion in such silly little acts as political art projects, and that it does coalesce on a grander scale.

Someone a long time ago once looked at a fiber and saw that spinning a bunch of them together would make threads, and then someone realized weaving those would make cloth. Colorful cloth. Tapestries. Not just yellow banners. Not just white flags.

But go on with your yellow megaphone and your cartoon and tell these Black American folks how they’re doing it wrong, and keep heckling for some wild spectacle of an American revolution safely from over_there.

chowomanishere: Super excuse me but Im not in any chains.... So save that crap for some one else okay?

chowomanishere: Truth what is truth ...

EYEOFTHEDESERT: Interesting quote

gronchbove: Breizgirl, How have any in the world profited from any of these wars?

John McCain has 10 houses. The military brass gets more money to buy more airplanes and missiles. But the citizens of the world are just killed.

It is sickening when you really look at the bottom line: making money off of death.

Him_over_there:

EYEOFTHEDESERT: This is horridous