White Fragility Digest #10: 23 May 2018

[MrScorpio]

Candidate criticized for saying displaced Puerto Ricans shouldn't be able to vote in Florida

Link to tweet

By Clare Foran, CNN

Washington (CNN)A Republican congressional candidate is facing a backlash after saying that Puerto Ricans who moved to Florida in the wake of Hurricane Maria last year should not be able to register to vote in the state.

In a video uploaded to YouTube by the campaign of a Republican rival, John Ward -- a candidate in the GOP primary for Florida's 6th Congressional District -- is asked by a voter how he would respond to Puerto Ricans who have "moved either temporarily or permanently to Florida" when "they say that they need more help and that the aid to Puerto Rico is not enough."

Ward replied by saying, "First of all, I don't think they should be allowed to register to vote. It's not lost on me that, I think, the Democrat party's really hoping that they can change the voting registers in a lot of counties and districts, and I don't think they should be allowed to do that."

The candidate went on to say that "we should be looking to put the Puerto Ricans back in their homes. The idea that they can come to the mainland United States, I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but I think we should be thinking about it in terms of getting them back home and providing the capital and resources to rebuild Puerto Rico, which is, I honestly think, is where they belong."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/22/politics/florida-republican-candidate-puerto-ricans-voting-registration/index.html

"White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium."

Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D

The Digest will be posted as needed...

White Fragility Digest Archive:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210609305

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210612268

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210616002

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210620209

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210623832

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210627625

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210636806

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210639960

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210642814

[MrScorpio]

1. Behold BeelzeBecky: White Woman Seen on Video Trying to Get Man Driving Through Her Neighborhood Kil

Link to tweet

Michael Harriot

If you have ever wondered what would happen if Tomi Lahren had a baby with Thanos, a Nevada man may have found the answer.

Facebook user James Ochoa, a Mexican American, claims to have encountered the queen of all Beckys while working at a Las Vegas home. Ochoa wrote that he had to use the bathroom while working on a driveway. “I had went to go to a portable restroom & I found some but they were occupied,” Ochoa explained in a Facebook post. “So I made a u turn on this lady’s street to go find other ones.”

Ochoa alleges that he stopped his vehicle when Beckzilla’s dog ran in front of his car. He stopped to let the woman retrieve her dog, and that’s when Ochoa says he encountered pure evil:

“I said nothing at all to her & she yelled saying “get off my street” I said “what did I do ma’am” & she continued to argue & call me names. So I had some words back, then I eventually drive off & just go back to work which is only a block away. She pulls up talking shit then she drives up the street & turns around rolls down her window & points a gun at me.

I didn’t know what to do, so eventually the project manager seen everything going down so he asked me to leave & meet at his office. So I did we called the cops, she admitted to pulling the gun out & the cops took all her weapons from her home. So now we have a court date, I am fighting against her cause I had to leave work for 2 days & it’s not right what she did.”

https://www.theroot.com/behold-beelzebecky-white-woman-tries-to-get-man-killed-1826150663?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=The_Root_twitter

[MrScorpio]

2. 'Before You Call The Cops' On Him, Watch His Powerful Monologue On Racism

Link to tweet

“I hate that anyone at all might possibly be afraid of me.”

By Lee Moran

Tyler Merritt just wants “you to get to know me better before you call the cops.”

The Nashville, Tennessee, actor shines a light on the recent spate of incidents in which people have called the police on black people without valid reason in a moving monologue that NowThis shared online Tuesday.

Link to tweet

Merritt, in the clip, reveals tidbits about his life to show that he’s a regular guy. He hates spiders and bananas, is a vegetarian, can recite every word from the musical “Oklahoma!” and NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” album, spends most Sunday mornings teaching kids, has “never been to jail,” “never owned a gun,” and hates “that anyone at all might possibly be afraid of me.”

“I’m a proud man,” Merritt says. “I’m a proud black man.”

But he then asks: “Does any of this really matter?”

“No. I just wanted you to get to know me better before you call the cops.”

The video struck a chord with people on Twitter, who called it “excellent” and “powerful.”


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/before-you-call-the-cops-video_us_5b03f997e4b07309e05c1951?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

[salin]

8. Very Powerful Video.

Thanks for this, for this edition, and for putting together and sharing these OPs.

[MrScorpio]

3. The reality of black anxiety in white spaces: a Q&A with Elon James White

Link to tweet

'This is not paranoia on my end. This is literally self preservation.'

SAM FULWOOD III

On Monday morning, as news spread across the nation about the arrest of two black men sitting in a Philadelphia Starbucks coffee shop, Elon James White ventured from his home in search of a breakfast sandwich and cup of coffee.

But as White, a black man who lives in a predominately white neighborhood in another part of Philadelphia, walked up and down a nearby commercial strip, he felt a familiar unease — one he says black people often share among themselves about their fears and concerns when they’re surrounded by white people.

“You feel it in your chest, the hyper-awareness of everything around you,” White told me during a phone interview. “I’ve had so many white people say that they have anxiety, but they’ve never considered black people would feel the way I feel when I’m in white spaces.”

With the Starbucks issue dominating conversations about race and media, White tapped out a series of tweets which offered his followers a very intimate and revealing glimpse into how uncomfortable he felt that day. His narrative struck a viral nerve, prompting conversations across the Web and elsewhere.

Link to tweet

White — a writer, performer and founder of “This Week in Blackness,” a multimedia digital platform dedicated to bringing diverse voices and perspectives within media — spoke about the waves his threaded Twitter story made on social media in a column about the Starbucks situation for NBCNews.com:

On social media, many white people expressed shock. Who hasn’t ducked into a local Starbucks to take advantage of its bathroom or internet or electrical outlets? But this simply is not the experience of many black people, myself included, who know all too well the pressure to buy something unwanted or unnecessary in order to avoid added scrutiny — a Black Tax, if you will….

Looking beyond Starbucks, the mistreatment and subsequent denials of our reality aren’t simply frustrating. They hurt the black community in diverse and measurable ways, both psychologically and physically.

https://thinkprogress.org/elon-james-white-black-anxiety-in-white-spaces/

[lunasun]

6. " Black anger is looked at as a bigger problem than any transgression that is done towards us"

Other useless retorts used that he highlighted -
The That never happened to me (white person) so it can not be true so you are lying or imagined it
Also , I was not born rich, so I can't have privileges others do not have

[irisblue]

4. Thanks for these

[heaven05]

5. thank you

It just seems to me sometimes, we can't solve this hate because it is so ingrained in so many after GERNERATIONS of feeling hateful and racist, while passing it along to their children. Don't get me wrong, I'll keep fighting along with millions of others, AA, Asians, Hispanics, women, gays to rid our country first of this hateful tendency of wypipo to judge others on superficial criteria.

[Mc Mike]

7. Rec, thanks. Nt

[oberliner]

9. In the 2010 United States Census the total of Puerto Ricans that identified as White was 75.8%

White Puerto Ricans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Puerto_Ricans

[treestar]

10. Too bad for him

Once they move to a state, they are a resident there, and can vote.

[gratuitous]

11. But isn't he generous?

Ward says he doesn't necessarily have a problem with Puerto Ricans - citizens that they are - coming to the mainland, but maybe they could just, you know, not register to vote or participate in civil society.

Wotta guy!

[treestar]

12. So kind of him

White privilege oozing out - and failure to realize PR is 78% white. Ya know the hispanic sounds make someone seem not so white!

[mountain grammy]

13. "Criticized?" He should be booted from the ticket

oh wait, Republicans can do or say anything.