We Freed the Slaves, Say Thank You!

Gov. Paul LePage (YouTube/screen grab).

Gov. Paul LePage (YouTube/screen grab).

Supreme asshole bigot LePage is at it again, this time saying that Rep. John Lewis needed to show more gratitude to white people. C’mon, boy, tap those shoes and tip that hat, yeah? All the racist goons are delighting in slamming Rep. Lewis and all people of colour.

The Portland Press Herald reports that LePage slammed Lewis for questioning President-elect Donald Trump’s legitimacy during a regular appearance on a local talk radio show, and he said Lewis needed to show more gratitude to past white presidents who worked to free black people from slavery.

“John Lewis ought to look at history,” the governor told the George Hale and Ric Tyler Show on the Bangor-based radio station WVOM. “It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves, it was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant who fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.”

Christopher Cousins of the Bangor Daily News writes that LePage is simply incorrect when it comes to the history of Jim Crow laws, however, as Hayes agreed to “an informal deal after a contested election that gave him the White House in exchange for promising to pull Northern troops out of the South,” which thus “allowed Jim Crow laws to take root.”

As usual, white bigots who just can’t keep their mouths shut also can’t manage to check a few facts first. How about a “fuck you, go back to school” instead of a thank you? I think that would suffice.

LePage, who this past summer was caught on tape calling a Maine lawmaker a “son of a b*tch socialist c*cksucker,” also criticized the American left for being “so hateful” and “trying to bully us out of believing our constitution.”

:Laughs: Oh, there really isn’t any need for commentary, bigoted cons always manage to swallow both their feet before anyone can get a word in edgewise.

Via Raw Story.

Some People and Their Kids…

Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, left, his son Michael G. Flynn, second from left, and Boris Epshteyn, a spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump, third from left, board an elevator at Trump Tower in New York on November 17, 2016. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File.

Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, left, his son Michael G. Flynn, second from left, and Boris Epshteyn, a spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump, third from left, board an elevator at Trump Tower in New York on November 17, 2016. CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File.

On Monday night, Michael Flynn Jr. — son of and former chief of staff for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — tweeted out a story published on Voltaire Network entitled, “General Flynn’s Proposals to Reform Intelligence.”

The story, published last month with a Damascus dateline and authored by Thierry Meyssan — a 9/11 truther who published a book in 2002 entitled, “The Big Lie” — previews how Flynn plans to rollback “the big reforms that took place during the Bush and Obama years.”

Perhaps most significantly, the story says the “radical overhaul” Flynn is planning involves the elimination of the office of the Director of National Intelligence, an office created by President Bush in 2004, with power centralized under Flynn instead.

“The 16 agencies should no longer be accountable to the National Intelligence Director but only to the National Security Adviser,” Meyssan writes. “In other words, they will be accountable to General Flynn personally.”

The story cites anonymous sources, which some informed observers believe include Flynn Jr. himself.

[…]

In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly bashed reputable outlets like CNN as “FAKE NEWS” while linking to content from staunchly pro-Trump sites like One America News and LifeZette. In his most recent post on Gab, a social media platform that caters to white nationalists, Flynn Jr. struck a similarly anti-mainstream media tone, writing, “Im sick of these fake news media a$$holes pulling at strings, trying to pit Trumps cabinet against each other. Piece of advice, good number of his cabinet sat across from (in @GenFlynn case interrogated) members of Al Qaeda so nothing LSM can OR WILL EVER do to shake these TRUE PATRIOTS!!”

The full, depressing story is at Think Progress. We are in so much trouble.

Repeal of ACA and Native Lives.

marty-two-bulls-cartoon-011317-1

© Marty Two Bulls.

Mark Trahant has an in-depth article about the problems of no healthcare.  In related news, Trump’s Health and Human Services pick is busy trying to fan the stench of corruption away from himself, but the stink is speaking loudly:

Washington (CNN)Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.
Price bought between $1,001 to $15,000 worth of shares last March in Zimmer Biomet, according to House records reviewed by CNN.

Less than a week after the transaction, the Georgia Republican congressman introduced the HIP Act, legislation that would have delayed until 2018 a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation that industry analysts warned would significantly hurt Zimmer Biomet financially once fully implemented.

Full story at CNN.

I believe in a BIG god.

Mike Farris.

Mike Farris.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian hate group, has a new prez, Mike Farris. Mike is intent on “winning”, meaning he’s all fired up to make sure that certain people are not accorded full human rights, what with their being subhuman and all. Primarily, this means all who fall under the LGBT+ umbrella, and women. Mike believes in a BIG god, so he’s confident. Just once, I’d like to see any of you Christian assholes actually leave something up to that god of yours. We both know you can’t do that though, because there is no god out there just waiting to stomp all over people. Unfortunately, this sort of wishful thinking is capable of a great deal of harm, not that these sanctimonious, so-called lovers of life care about that. Unwanted children? Eh, who cares. Dead women? Eh, who cares. Queer people subjected to violence and discrimination? Eh, who cares.

Farris described himself as a problem-solver by nature, and said ADF was founded to address “the general erosion of religious freedom” as well as “attacks” on marriage, human life, and the right to “preach the gospel” and “live the gospel.”

There has not been one single instance of erosion in regard to religious freedom. Religious freedom has expanded, in truth, and you don’t like that at all, no sir. You can’t stand the fact that secular people are allowed to have their own little scenes up in public, you can’t stand that the narrative isn’t just yours anymore. So, say what you really mean: we aren’t a fuckin’ dictatorship anymore, and we want that back! There’s been no attack on marriage. Again, that has been expanded to be more inclusive. No one is knocking on your door announcing “marriage dissolved!” and glitter bombing you. Although that’s a tempting thought. Since when don’t you have the right to preach the gospel and live the gospel? Just who in the fuck is stopping you? From my perspective, you asses never manage to shut up, and your gospelish lives aren’t terribly impressive, so there’s not much there to keep one’s attention. In short form, no one cares. Live your bloody life however you like. All that’s asked in return is that you allow others the same. Oh, but can’t have that, can we?

Winning means religious freedom is robustly protected. Winning means Roe versus Wade is reversed. Winning means that same-sex marriage by judicial edict is reversed, and we go back to the states and let the states make their own policy on this.

Religious freedom is already protected. That’s not what you want. You want to rule, much like Lucifer did. Is it really all that much to ask that you jackasses pay mind to your own fairy stories? Roe v Wade, yes, because viewing women as autonomous human beings who have a right to make their own personal medical decisions is unthinkable, someone must think of the wonders of misogyny, yes? After all, what’s the point of being a patriarch if you don’t get to make women miserable, that’s one of those perks, ennit? Oh, and marriage. Marriage is marriage is marriage. Marriage is a legal contract, it only has to do with a god if you decide that matters. So, some people have church a/o god based weddings, and some people have civil ones. Me, I went civil. It’s all marriage. Mine is not invalid because it did not invoke a god. It’s not invalid because I chose to not have children, even those of your view do consider childfree marriages to be invalid. Basically, it’s none of your business. The right to marry is a basic human right, you don’t get to withhold it from those you don’t like. If we could do that, I’d certainly never approve of you being married or breeding, Mr. Farris. You’re much too busy passing on hate for my tastes. However, that is not the case, so I have to accept your marriage. That’s how these little social contract thingies work.

The “left elites” want to restrict religious freedom, he said, and “that battle is at a pitched fever [sic] right now.” Farris said winning won’t be easy because “the other side is well funded, well organized, smart, and they don’t play fair.” But, he said, “I believe we can win because I believe in a big God and I’ve seen Him deliver before.”

Oh ffs. This idiocy again. I’m left, yes. Elite, no. I’m certainly not swimming in the same money pool as all you Christian hustlers and swindlers. A con, every single one of you, fleecing money left and right from those who can most ill afford it, while you live the high life, busy spoonfeeding lies and hate into those who think the sun shines out your arse.

Mostly, I’d like you to shut up and mind your own business. That’s all. You live your life, and let the rest of us live ours. I’m perfectly willing to make peace, but you aren’t. No, you must rule, you must destroy, you must always be at war of some fucking kind or other. Without your hate, you have nothing. Ugh. I just can’t go on, I feel like vomiting all over this awful excuse of a human being. The whole mess is at Right Wing Watch.

Trump: The Chickening.

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UPRISE / ANGRY WOMEN Exhibit artwork, The Untitled Space Gallery, New York – CARA DEANGELIS- Donald Trump with a Crown of Roadkill.

After angrily spitting out spiteful tweets at John Lewis, a true hero, comes the chickening. Once again, Trump displays a capacity only for pettiness and chickenshit behaviour.

Donald Trump’s transition team said on Sunday that the president-elect has canceled a Martin Luther King Jr. Day visit to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture which features civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)

According to ABC News, sources on the Trump transition team said that “the visit was removed from his calendar due to scheduling issues and was not fully planned out.”

[…]

The decision to cancel the museum visit comes after Lewis questioned the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency due to Russian interference in the U.S. election. Trump fired back on Twitter, accusing Lewis of not taking enough “action” to help his constituents.

Way to go, Donny Dumbass.

Via Raw Story.

No Middle Ground.

Photo by Benson Kua.

Photo by Benson Kua.

Compromises designed to safeguard both religious freedoms and LGBT rights won’t fly among many of America’s most influential conservative Christians.

Leaders from nearly 90 evangelical seminaries, publications, ministries, and churches—as well as Catholic and Orthodox clergy—signed a statement last month rejecting any legal efforts to protect sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).

“[We] believe that proposed SOGI laws, including those narrowly crafted, threaten fundamental freedoms,” they wrote as part of the “Preserve Freedom, Reject Coercion” campaign, hosted by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

[…]

Heritage Foundation research fellow Ryan T. Anderson and Princeton University professor Robert P. George wrote for Public Discourse about the legal and moral concerns with such laws more broadly:

SOGI policies attempt to impose, by force of law, a system of orthodoxy with respect to human sexuality: the belief that marriage is merely a union of consenting adults, regardless of biology, and that one can be male, female, none, or both, again, regardless of biology. SOGI laws impose this orthodoxy by punishing dissent, and by treating as irrational the beliefs that men and women are biologically rooted and made for each other in marriage.

There are days when it’s hard to believe these asses just don’t drop dead from an overload of cognitive dissonance. And irony poisoning. And heavy hypocrisy poisoning too. No, there’s no attempt, in any way, to legislate a system of sexual orthodoxy. It’s an attempt to include all people in the circle of full human rights. Marriage certainly should be between consenting adults, and what does it matter what their gender or orientation is? If anyone is attempting to legislate a sexual orthodoxy, it’s creepy Christians. This absurd idea that somehow, somewhere, queer marriage will utterly shatter and destroy hetero marriage. Oddly enough, no one has noticed this happening, although Christians still have the highest incidences of adultery and divorce. Perhaps your focus should be there, as clearly, something isn’t working. Perhaps inviting god into your bed every night isn’t such a good idea, after all, it disrupts that whole “one man, one woman” business.

Inclusion laws punish dissent? Huh, news to me. Oh, this about gay wedding cakes and other isht, right? Well, everyone should know the cake is a lie. You should not be able to legislate hate or bigotry. If people open up a shop, there’s an implicit relationship with the public. You’re offering a service, and people agree to pay you money for said service. If you are really that terrified of possibly being tainted by a queer customer, perhaps owning a shop is not a good path for you.

As for “treating as irrational the beliefs that men and women are biologically rooted and made for each other in marriage”, yeah, it is irrational. Part and parcel of the whole irrational god belief nonsense. In case it slipped your notice, you asses are always busy treating anyone you consider other as horrible, sinful, disgusting, and evil. You might want to note, you’re free to do that, and I’m free to fully consider you as irrational, willfully delusional assholes out to harm others. So? It’s hardly our fault you can’t wrap your head around actual science. Anyroad, all over the world, there are hetero people happily coupling, so what’s the problem? I don’t care, and it’s difficult to see why you would. I’m bisexual, and happen to be married to a man because that’s who I fell in love with. If I had fallen in love with a woman, I’d dearly like to think I’d be happily married to her for 38 years. Why on earth that would possibly get your knickers in a knot is unfathomable to me. Love is good. Love should be celebrated. That’s never the focus from the religious asshole sector though. No, everything from there is exclusion and hate. Hate, hate, hate, and never-ending judgmentalism, even though your book of myths says that sort of thing ought to be left to your psychopathic god monster.

You are truly terrible, indecent, immoral people. People who can never manage to get their noses out of other peoples’ crotches. And we’re the ‘indecent’ ones.

Via Christianity Today.

Sunday Facepalm.

facepalm_estatua

In the really bad news department, evangelicals have found themselves in government heaven. Last month, Right Wing Watch reported on the Pendejo-elect’s transition team giving religious right activists, specifically, the members of his evangelical advisory board unprecedented (sb. unpresidented?) input in shaping the new administration. A member of that board, Richard Land, was busy boasting in gleeful surprise about this recently.

Earlier this week, one of the members of that board, Richard Land of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, appeared on the “Point of View” radio program, where he told host Kerby Anderson that he has been shocked by how much influence he and other Religious Right activists have had over the make-up of Trump’s administration.

“Some of my conservative friends and I, we have been pinching ourselves, are we hallucinating or is this actually happening?” Land said. “I know a good number of people on the transition team and I can tell you right now, about half of them, Kerby, think I’m liberal. I mean, these are very conservative people.”

Indeed. Nazis and fascists in general are “ultra-conservative” by typical standards. One could phrase it more precisely as rigidly evil.

Land, a longtime activist and former Southern Baptist Convention official, said that he has “been solicited five times for personnel recommendations” by the Trump administration, which is something that never happened under any previous Republican president. As such, Land said, “this administration is going to have more conservative Christians, Catholic and evangelical, in it than any administration that I’ve been associated with or had contact with, and I’ve been doing this since Reagan.”

For those of us who eschew willful delusions, this is very bad news indeed. “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” I would say they would soon be eyeing suitable candidates for kindling, to set that cross ablaze, but there’s no soon about it. Already happening.

Via Right Wing Watch.

Conservative Outrage Over A Coin.

American Liberty 225th Anniversary gold coin (US Mint).

American Liberty 225th Anniversary gold coin (US Mint).

Oh my, the mint has decided to be inclusive looking on some gold coins that most people won’t ever see. Well, I guess it’s the thought that counts, but that thought has brought out all the conservative anger. Messing with Lady Liberty, oh noes! Lady Liberty is not black, she’s white! I confess to never having seen the statue in person, but she’s always looked rather green to me.

The U.S. Mint is unveiling a commemorative $100 gold coin that depicts Liberty as a black woman — and conservatives are predictably freaking out.

The 2017 American Liberty 225th Anniversary Gold Coin, which will be released April 6, shows the year of the mint’s founding, 1792, and the woman’s head in profile, reported the Associated Press.

The mint said the coins were intended to reflect “the cultural and ethnic diversity of the United States,” and others in a series of 24-karat gold coins will feature designs representing Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Indian-Americans.

Not only were unthinking cons upset about it, but it was an excuse for them to spew bigotry.

DeplorableTony Armas @Tarmas55

@AP The discrimination of white people by the @obama administration continues

The discrimination of white people? I don’t think that means what you think it means. Nope.

Chad Groves @ChadGroves10

@AP doubt lady liberty talks at top volume in movie theatres

Been a long time since I’ve been in a movie theatre, but I’d rather put up with a person of colour who is a talker, than a short tempered white person who decides to open fire with a gun. Aren’t stereotypes fun?

WALLTOWN NEWS @DennisKeithRic2

@AP I’m surprised that it’s not a MUSLIM.

How do you know if the person on the coin isn’t a Muslim person? We haven’t reached the point where belief shows up in fluorescent ink on our skin, y’know.

David S Handler @davidradiowntp

@AP this administration doing everything to change history,including changing Lady Liberty from what the French sent us. Pathetic racism!

You mean the mint has made duplicate Lady of Liberty statues to reflect diversity, and will be switching them out at intervals? Wow!

Drg @drg9766

@AP i wouldnt pay a dime for it. This proves that the Obama’s are racist.

The grammar, painful it is. No, no, this doesn’t prove racism on the part of Barak and Michele Obama. It does heavily point to racism on your part, though.

William Moore @williamfytylga

@AP take a close look at the Statue of Liberty. Obviously lady liberty is a white European. This is ridiculous!

There have been a great many observations made about the Statue of Liberty over the years. This is a remarkably stupid one. Obviously Lady Liberty is a green French woman.

Via Raw Story.

“Clovergender”

CG

While I’ve been dozing under my rock, yet another type of insidious bigotry is drenching the ‘net, based on the time immemorial pastime of linking LGBT peoples with pedophilia.

Martin Shkreli has given the LGBT community another reason to despise him.

The pharmaceutical executive, who rose to infamy by hiking the price of a drug used for an AIDS-related condition by more than 5,000 percent, is now promoting “clovergender,” an identity concocted by trolls to mock LGBT people.

Before his Twitter account was suspended for harassing a Teen Vogue writer, Shkreli urged his followers January 4 to “please spread clovergender awareness.” The term, which has sprung up on several social media accounts early this year, appeared to be used by adult individuals claiming to be “a child trapped in a man’s body who is attracted to other children.”

However, “clovergender” is a hoax. Snopes debunked it, tracing the birth of “clovergender” and this definition, which ridicules the identity of transgender and gender-nonbinary people, to a 4chan thread from December 31.

“We’re creating a new gender to trolls SJWs with,” posted an anonymous user, in a reference to “social justice warriors.” They then coined “clovergender” and ascribed fake preferred pronouns like “cl / clir /climself.”

“We will be trolling on Tumblr and Facebook,” the user stated. Another replied, “I see potential in this.”

Just what this sociopathic asshole has to gain from this, I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. I guess it’s just his way of getting his kicks. The potential for damage is overwhelming though, and it’s not like people in general don’t already have a whole lot of hatred for LGBT peoples anyway. They do, and those who are always looking for any reason to fire up that hate will grab this garbage and run with it. We have one state after another attempting to legislate bigotry and hate, and I imagine there will legislators who will seize on this as well, in order to shore up their always faulty reasoning.

After gaining momentum on the message boards of 4chan and Reddit, the term did indeed find its way to broader social media. A new Facebook page claimed to be created in response to “the horrible pain and backlash somee [sic] Clovergender people receive. We are against that. We think a kid should do what he wants.”

[…]

Several Twitter accounts, which follow and retweet LGBT outlets and influencers, are also attempting to intertwine the fake cause with the real-life movement. At least one has attributed Shkreli’s Twitter ban to clovergender discrimination.

The ruse duped some folks on social media, who reacted with disgust to the “clovergender” community.

The myth of the sexual predator has dogged the LGBT community since time immemorial. The call for “bathroom bills,” which prohibit transgender people from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity, is the most recent example of how conservatives are painting queer people as perverts. “Clovergender,” if it perpetuates, will only continue to stoke these mistruths and biases.

So. We find ourselves back at the beginning again, folks, having to fight this blatant lie again, over and over. Be aware of this, spread the word, get the truth out there, we all know the drill.

Full story at The Advocate.

The Alabama Privacy Act.

gender-neutral-bathroom

Like many other states, legislators are rushing in all their transphobic policies, attempting to turn bigotry and hate into law. Alabama’s attempt is a bit different, seeing as it demands lavatory attendants. The purpose of said attendants isn’t entirely clear.

While several conservative states are preparing “bathroom bills” for the upcoming legislative session, Alabama’s anti-LGBT bill is changing the game by requiring costly bathroom attendants.

The bill, prefiled by Alabama Sen. Phil Williams, is called the “Alabama Privacy Act.” If passed, the bill would require public places with bathrooms or changing rooms to have single-person rooms, rooms for multiple people of the same gender, or rooms for people “irrespective of their gender” staffed by a bathroom attendant.

If a public place fails to provide these options, a fine of $2,000 will be imposed for the first violation, increased to $3,500 for each violation afterward.

The bill’s language is odd for several reasons. First, the bill does nothing to define what “gender” means—something that other conservative legislatures have taken great pains to do in opposition of the transgender community. Second, it’s not entirely clear what purpose a bathroom attendant would serve in gender-neutral bathrooms. The bill says they would “monitor the use of the restroom and answer any questions or concerns posed by users.”

Answer any questions? Really. Umm, I’d think people who had no problem with a unisex type lav wouldn’t have any particular questions. Just what are they expecting here, someone to rush in with an urgent need to piss, and must know, right now, should they stand or sit? I’m pretty sure all the homophobic and transphobic bigots out there don’t want to be going into a all gender lav. Or maybe they do, what do I know?

Full story at Out.

The Painting Hated by the GOP.

David Pulphus's painting in response to the Ferguson unrest, "Untitled #1", won first place in Missouri's 1st Congressional District in the 2016 United States Congressional Art Competition.

David Pulphus’s painting in response to the Ferguson unrest, “Untitled #1”, won first place in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District in the 2016 United States Congressional Art Competition.

Each year since 1982, the Congressional Institute has sponsored a high school art competition whereby students submit artwork to their congressional representative’s office, which in turn selects a winner. The 435 winning artworks are then exhibited in Washington, DC, hung salon style in a hallway between the Capitol Building and Longworth House Office Building for a year. The office of Representative William Lacy Clay, a Democrat from St. Louis, Missouri, selected a painting by Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School senior David Pulphus in early May 2016. Early this month, the untitled painting was hung in the Capitol. A few days later, the Independent Journal Review, a right-wing website with a mixed record on factual reporting, published an article titled, “Painting of Cops as Pigs Hung Proudly in US Capitol.” A cycle of outrage began. Fox News picked up the story. In a ginned up moment, Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican from San Diego, California unscrewed the painting from the wall, delivered it to Representative Clay’s office, and went to Fox News to brag about it. Today, Representative Clay and members of the Congressional Black Caucus rehung the painting. Shortly thereafter Representative Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado, removed it again, only to have Representative Clay rehang it again. Congressional Republicans are discussing how to remove it permanently.

The full story is at Hyperallergic. For people who almost never shut up about being persecuted or censored (or criticized), conservatives are always the first ones to try and censor anything they don’t like.

The Red Wave.

Creatas Images / Getty Images.

Creatas Images / Getty Images.

Another journalist has gone running to the nazi side, in this case, the co-founder of Politico, Mike Allen, who is described as one of the most powerful journalists in D.C. Allen has apparently decided to do everything in his power to normalise the fascist state we now find ourselves in, to the point of praising Breitbart’s journalism to the skies. Why yes, made up bullshit is just great journalism, didn’t you know? Just this tiny snippet, because the whole damn things sickens me.

Describing how he approached a speaking engagement in front of a Trump-friendly audience in Wyoming shortly after the election, Allen said he decided to “shut up” so he could “listen to you about what you liked about Trump, how you came to your decision, what your inputs were.”

“A lot of it is also psychic and sociological and social. The anti-PC thing I think is a huge part of it,” he said, before going on to recount a conversation he had with a Trump-supporting friend on a train shortly after the election.

“People in America [were] just living their lives as they always have, and things were just changing too fast. ‘I’m living my life the way I always have and all of the sudden I’m the bigot, I’m a bad guy,’ and I think that was a huge part of this red wave.”

All of a sudden you’re the bigot, the bad guy. Well, if you are a bigot, yes, that makes you a bad guy. Right here in the open is why people voted for Trump – they want to be able to stay on top of the people pile, being bigoted assholes with the ability to make other people miserable. It’s disgusting. Repulsive. Sickening. Bad guy isn’t enough. Evil asshole, perhaps.

Full story at Think Progress.

Whitesplaining Apologies.

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Lawrence Ware at Fusion addresses the massive facepalming wrong of whitesplaining apologies by people caught doing things which are racist as hell. Mr. Ware lists the 5 worst whitesplaining strategies, which also apply to other types of notpologies.

1. “I apologize to anyone who may have been offended.”

This is the classic non-apology. To say that these words have meaning at all is pushing it. The person in the wrong isn’t expressing remorse over what they’ve said or done; they’re merely acknowledging the response of the offended. This statement is but a logical step away from saying, “Y’all just need to stop being so damn sensitive.”

2. “I have black friends.”

Somehow a white person caught doing something racially problematic thinks having a black person as a favorite in their iPhone absolves them of racism. Someone should tell them it just doesn’t work that way. Put succinctly, we don’t give a damn if a white racist has a black friend.

3. “I know MLK quotes.”
Some white people have a tendency to take MLK’s words out of context. When King wrote in Where Do We Go From Here, “Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn,” he was probably talking about the same white folks who are misusing his words, like Seattle Mariners backup catcher Steve Clevenger, who apologized for his offensive comments about the Charlotte, North Carolina, protests by harkening back to MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech: “I am also proud that my inner circle of friends has never been defined by race but by the content of their character.”

4. “You misunderstood.”

This is insulting. The statement implies that what the offended party heard was not actually what the offensive person said. A slightly more authentic, yet just as problematic, approach is the “that’s not what I meant” defense. In that case, one owns that what they said might have been distasteful, but insists that they didn’t intend for it to offend. It’s similar to a 5-year-old who accidentally hits their sibling, but thinks screaming “I didn’t mean to do it” will sufficiently solve the problem. Just because a person didn’t mean for something to be racist, doesn’t mean that they didn’t do something hella racist. Just ask the folks who believe that the Confederate flag is all about heritage. Yeah, white folks who say this sound about as dumb as them.

5. “I don’t see race.”
Aside from the fact that it is nearly impossible, this is a statement centered in white privilege. In Racism Without Racists, Edwardo Bonilla-Silva argues that pretending that race doesn’t exist only perpetuates white privilege because it doesn’t force us to address the systemic nature of oppression. Racism is not just interpersonal—it’s also institutional.

A few words of advice to white folks caught being racist: Just own it. It’s not cool, but admit it and learn from your mistake. Your attempts to whitesplain your way out of having said something racist is coming off about as ridiculous as Shaggy’s attempts to prove his fidelity in “It Wasn’t Me.”

Full article at Fusion.