Meanwhile, Texas

[Sean Hayden]

--show that an entire board of trustees for one of the largest districts in Texas is women, and women of color at that, and nothing...

Here:



--feel better?

[laklak]

That's a pretty fucking Texas picture.

[Sean Hayden]

[Sean Hayden]

Mayors for the three largest cities in Texas: Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.



Sylvester Turner - Houston



Ron Nirenburg - San Antonio



Eric Johnson - Dallas

[Hermit]

Mayor of Alabama's largest metropolitan area, Birmingham




Mayor of Alabama's capital, Montgomery



Proves something, dunnit? I don't know what, but it does prove something.


By the way, my father was not a Nazi.



One of his best friends was a Jew.

[Sean Hayden]

Our previous mayor was an out and happily married lesbian. Nobody struggled to understand the significance of that.

--//--

I'm sorry your father was a nazi. It must suck knowing that.

[pErvinalia]

A former president of the US was black. The US isn't racist.

[Sean Hayden]

Can you imagine being anti-racist and feigning ignorance as to the significance of people of color, men and women, holding office in the US? It's embarrassing. Would they tell the civil rights activists of the 50s and 60s they don't know what a black mayor in the south proves --just shrug?

[JimC]

To me, it seems clear that there have been some positive changes over the past 20 or 30 years in the US in terms of racism. Examples of public figures and elected officials who are not white may well have increased. But that does not mean that significant systemic racism and economic disadvantage has disappeared. It also seems clear that a significant number of conservative white people have a reservoir of racial fear and anger, and that the minority of white supremacists remain active, unrepentant and dangerous.

[Sean Hayden]

Some positive changes?

--//--

White supremacists are the major violent threat today.

!=

Texas being close to teaching a white supremacist agenda in its schools...or any of a host of other ridiculous claims coming from those who never seem to bother with mundane facts like, who's running schools yadda yadda

[Svartalf]

A former president of the US was black. The US isn't racist.

A former president of the US was an evil crook, the US is the country of honest people.

[Svartalf]

Some positive changes?

--//--

White supremacists are the major violent threat today.

!=

Texas being close to teaching a white supremacist agenda in its schools...or any of a host of other ridiculous claims coming from those who never seem to bother with mundane facts like, who's running schools yadda yadda

Well, maybe white supremacists are a menace, but nowadays, they are regarded as a bunch of dangerous loonies, not so long ago, they were just regular people.

[JimC]

Some positive changes?

So, would you want me to say that the changes have been so massive and perfect that they have eliminated white American racism or the clear average disadvantage suffered by non-white US citizens?

[Hermit]

I'm sorry your father was a nazi. It must suck knowing that.

I just told you my father was not a Nazi! One of his best friends was a Jew! Can't you read?

One of my grandfathers definitely was, though.

[Brian Peacock]

It's very difficult to give a balanced response to extremism and extremist ideas. Politically and policy wise right-wing extremism might punch above its weigh in the public arena, but it's also seated a lot closer to Power (in both an ideological and functional sense) than even moderately left-wing politics. If right-wing extremism has a louder voice than it should technically merit then where do we find the balancing point between the extreme right and, say, the centre-ground - particularly when the far-right frame everyone and everything on the centre-ground as radical, far-left, totalitarian extremism?

I understand the criticism of AOC for tweeting what appears to be a kind of leftish version of 'dog whistle politics', but at the same time the kind of thing she's responding to are common parlance in right-wing circles - whether they're actually reflective of reality in schools or not. I don't think the answer to the stream of foetid stool water constantly dribbling from the right is to ignore it. The 'when they go low we go high' strategy just doesn't seem to have worked so far, not-to-mention that it runs the risk of letting the dangerous, divisive excesses of right-wing politics go unchallenged.