handsupdontshoot

White Privilege and Joe Scarborough

"Good "ol’ boy Joe" pretends to be sophisticated by using GQ photos of  him in designer clothes prominently displayed between segments.  In most of these photo usually has has the the brains behind his show, the dazzling Mika, at his side.   But when the hood comes off he his angers comes out like a red bolt of lightening and Joe reveals his true colors.   His rants about the Michael Brown case show just how little he understands about White Privilege and how the demonstrations are about much more than Michael Brown.

One night a white kid I know was stopped by the police.  The kid was questioned about where he was going, where he had been and what had he been up to by a very polite policeman.  The offense my nephew had committed to cause this kind of grilling was a one of his license plate lights had burned out. He was given a ticket.  To my nephew’s credit, even at 17, he knew that this was  one BWD stop because he had his best friend a black kid in the car.   

Had the policeman stopped Joe or his son, a warning would have been issued. But because one of the kids was black these two honor students and leaders in their school had to be punished so a ticket was issued.  

It shouldn’t be happening. If you are a black male in a car driving through affluent Kansas and Missouri communities you can bet you will be stopped and you better have a good excuse for being in that neighborhood or you could find yourself in jail something good ol’ Joe will never experience.  

So calm down Joe let’s see you and Donny become part of the solution instead of being the problem.  Start a real dialog on your show about race and maybe you might actually become a show that is worth watching.

 

AT WAR AGAINST EACH OTHER

Although my series on guns was not in reference to their use by police perhaps it should have been.   We in Missouri are living with the consequences of polices forces that have been given weapons and vehicles designed to be used in wars.   Department of Defense weapons/vehicles are now being used against citizens. Just yesterday an AME minister was shot with a rubber bullet for standing between police and protestors. The weapons change the dynamic, no longer are police given the job to protect the people but to be at war against the people.

Just imagine the number of small towns in Missouri that are KLAN governed being given such weapons.  Explosive situations happen.   People are shot in this ‘us against them’ environment.  International news sources are showing a war zone in “Ferguson”.   People around the world are shocked by video and photographs coming out of America.   It is time for a major reappraisal of what we are doing with the excessive amount of weapons left over from unnecessary wars.   Do we really want to arm the police like an army? Are we so desperate to be at war with someone that we are willing to be at war against our fellow citizens?

                                                                                     Elaine Mills

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