I realize pretty much everyone on the internet but me has seen this but, just in case you’re one of the few that, like me, ducked when this Awesome Ball came toward you, have a look.
“Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black” – Tim Wise
Tim Wise is a white guy who writes about racism (his blog is HERE.)
In this essay, he goes through a thought experiment, what Albert Einstein called a gedankenexperiment. He imagines what it would be like if the teabaggers were black. Here’s an excerpt but do yourself a favor and read the whole essay. It puts all of the madness and pathos and illogic of the entire “Tea Party” movement into perspective.
Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans?
[…]
Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.”
[…]
Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies.
[…]
To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic.
Brilliant, brilliant thinking and writing. Something for hacks like me to aspire to.
I’m just sayin’…
