Um, dude?
Jena's in Louisiana.
Mississippi gets enough bad press already. 
LM -- you are one righteous dude. Keep on writing, what you say comes from your soul and gives such a powerful witness.
Thanks for the catch, Jude. Fixed it. Got my placed flipflopped around while writing about Till (Money, Mississippi) and Jena, LA.
I've been a lurker here, but I just had to say that you are one powerful writer LM. I believe that Steve would be proud.
LM:
I saw that pic of Emmitt Till when I was six. Six, I tell you.
And you should have seen the expression on my face when I commented that the pic was scary looking and who was that?
My father's face turned to stone; he muttered under his breath "cracker bastards" before struggling to find the words to tell his six-year-old baby girl about the virulent world of bigotry.
I shared this over at Crooks & Liars, and some fool named Johnny Samsonite tried to launch an "Instalanche" on me by pooh-pooh'ing the whole damned thing and trying to bring up how the Jena 6 were no angels.
To which I replied, "That kid who provoked the event which got him his ass kicked, was a damned SAINT?"
I told him to go pack himself inside his namesake and slink back to Instacracker's place to let him know that infesting the blogsphere with that shyt wasn't successful.
I understand Matt Stoller's very touchy about this issue, but I remind him that if he wants African-Americans at the progressive table, it requires taking all of us, with all our shyt and issues, and if those issues make them uncomfortable, they need to ask themselves "Why?".
Most people are agreeing that Arianna, Kos and others dropped the ball on this issue, and now they're whining because Pam Spaulding isn't acting like a good House Negress, because she called them out on their dereliction of journalistic duty. If they're really progressive, how hard could it have been to say "My Bad - I should have caught this."
Jane Hamsher did herself no favors with her "dog ate my homework" reason for not blogging about this. At least Americablog didn't try to front about why they mailed it in...
Kos is the biggest fraud of all. Too much group think and of those 140 posts Matt Stoller found, the authors got flamed for their trouble.
They're touchy right now, and they should be. If they want us to carry water for them and the progressive movement, they must also be willing to tote our water and drink their cans of STHU - cause we do have a way of staying home when they need us, and if they aren't careful, they'll find out how effective that tactic can be.
LM
I'm at work, so I must be brief, but am nearly reduced to tears by this writing. Not for sadness nor anger, and certainly not joy, but for truth. It is a rare element. Thanks.
good. very good again LM, although it's very good as usual for you. i remember emmett till, i remember george wallace standing at the university steps to try and stop james baldwin, i remember the folks getting beat up, hosed, and killed for doing inciteful, "uppity" things like order a sandwich at woolworth's. i remember all of that. i remember when the schools on my reservation were staffed by what ever white missionaries agreed to come amongst us heathens for a year or two. i remember being suspended for three days more than once for the crime of speaking apache on the school playground or in the halls.
and it's still happening. all fucking day every goddamned day.
they cut down that one tree, there will be another tree, or a place on the lawn or a table in the lunchroom or a part of the class that will turn into the next "white only" zone.
one very true thing my grandfather told me about them. . .(although he included the african american soldiers of the 9th cavalry in his classification of white folks)
they never quit coming. ever.
stupid, silly me, that was james MEREDITH!
please pardon my error and correct.
Bravo, LM, for your words.
The school superintendent had the damn thing cut down.
Unfortunately, that's how education bureaucrats tend to deal with anything that stirs up troubled waters... 
What the Wanderer said. Bravo, bravo, bravo. And what KyCole said, too.
Unfortunately, that's how education bureaucrats tend to deal with anything that stirs up troubled waters...
Trees and students both...
"They're touchy right now, and they should be. If they want us to carry water for them and the progressive movement, they must also be willing to tote our water and drink their cans of STHU - cause we do have a way of staying home when they need us, and if they aren't careful, they'll find out how effective that tactic can be."
The Political Junkie
-This could be said for the politicians as well (Hillary, Obama, Edwards, Pelosi and Reid, I'm talking about YOU; the Republicans don't give a shit, so I'm not wasting my time with them).
Thank You, LM.
Also, "Thank You" to all the posters.
You bring something extra, and it is much appreciated.
Thanks once again, LM...
And if InstaSucka and Maglalang weren't bad enough, here's another "So What" piece from the Moonie Times' resident House Negress, Deborah Simmons:
http://washingtontimes.com/artic.../1013/
editorial
Prepare to laugh, or be pissed off. And I wouldn't mind if one of MLK's lightning bolts came within, say, two feet of this clueless broad...
LM, this adds another scene to the movie that keeps playing in my mind, the movie of your previous post, the family reunion, the one Spike Lee should make. The 200+ family members, the uncle in his new overalls slamming his hand on the table, the father and son in the men's room, the son crying in private ... and now the son, younger, seeing the picture of Emmitt Till.
Your assessment of the bursting boil is spot on.
Thank you. Thank you also to the commenters and Pam Spaulding and everyone who is ON this.
The famous picture of the black student girl entering the school in Little Rock is all over the place this week ... it was taken by a scrawny red-headed Arkansas kid named Wil Counts, a young man with a physical disability who went out and snapped phenomenal pictures of the violence in the civil rights actions around the South. He was a friend of my mother as he taught at the Indiana University School of Journalism, and he died a few years ago - but not before he engineered the reunion and reconciliation of the student and the screaming white woman in that picture. Unfortunately the reconciliation was short-lived, since the white woman's people were angry that she would become friendly with a black woman.
Festering boil needing to be burst, indeed.
Powerful, LM
Thanks.
Keep it up.
Thanks, LM. I was just a little white girl in the South when all this started happening, and I knew even then it was wrong. It grieves me, and grieves me again, that it just keeps on happening, and happening and happening.
Your words moved me to tears. I hope we never forget what was, and never stop working to make sure that it never is again.
Thank you for this. The Jena 6 story has still not gotten the coverage it deserves--as of last week, NPR reported that there had been more than 11,000 media stories about Michael Vick and only about 400 concerning Jena.
Also, the media are vastly underreporting the numbers of people in Jena on September 20. I was there. The organizers estimated 50-60 thousand.
I haven't ever seen the photo of Till, and I didn't click the link in your post either. I get very upset by violent images (almost never see war movies for that reason), and I have two young boys.
Thanks for the post.
I know that picture. My Mama couldn't see it. I can, but barely. Emmetts Mama was right.
Thank you LM.
I'm wondering--didn't the Neo-Nutzi say something that could be construed as threatening, and hence illegal?
Would someone who knows the law better than I do [I am neither a cop nor a lawyer] please comment on this?
"Even when progressive White America wants us to fit in, which they in many ways do, there is that myopia—that blind spot—on issues that affect Black folks in the dead-center of our hearts. I'd like to think that Pam's bringing that to the forefront will sensitize folks on our side of things a bit. I truly, truly hope it does."-LM
Even more reason to mourn the loss of The Big Fella. I bow to you on this one Political Junkie in regard to the sentiment expressed in your comment. Right on the money - hope Pam keeps pissin' in their "progressive" soup.
Thank you for saying what needs to be said.
first point, things are getting better...its slow bt they are gettign better(50 years ago the jena six are allready martyers).
second....the scilence on the left is damming and revealing....don't you see, we are suposed to kindly thank our betters when they condisend to help us.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker: its only a crime if its prosecuted...you think the local DA is going to a damm thing about it
Group News Blog -- ha ---more like a left-wing"lets-rant-about-the-right" myopic group think clusterf*ck.
You're overly dramatic, LM, and like most actors I've repped you are too much bluster but very little substance - hatred and venom pours forth from you - how are you any different from Malkin who you vilify?
Shit floats whether it leans right or left!
damm halo scan eats my post but not the trolls..whats with that.
bad haloscan, no cookie
“and like most actors I've repped”
Typical “agent”. A performer can never find one unless he's got negative, silly shit to say.
“how are you any different from Malkin who you vilify?”
1.) I've never called for the internment of an entire group of people in America based on historical fallacies and naked xenophobia.
2.) I've never sicced a group of mouth-breathing troglodytes on people I disagreed with, putting the disagreed with in physical danger via cavalierly giving out their personal information on the internet.
3.) I've never let Bill O'reilly smear hot falafel all over me while diddling himself silly in return for ratings-killing appearances on his fine, fact-based program.
Now...back to my Othello rehearsal!
More on the blogers ignoreing the race issue. Girl just got arested in the boston airport for having a "fake bomb". It was a name tage for teh MIT job fair( breadboard with blinky lights) others wore the same nametage in that airport that day...he only diference, shes one of the brown people (hawian) so of course she is a terrorist that has to be cirnered by cops carrying sub machinguns.
Shit floats whether it leans right or left!
It's so hilarious when transparently racist (and often just as homophobic) knuckle-dragging right-wing trolls show up here and try to fob themselves off as some kind of centrist.
Loveandlight:
And damned entertaining, too.
Kos is the biggest fraud of all.
His interest in and (lame)attempts at purging the party ideologically are disturbing.
Too much group think
It doesn't matter the issue. Too often threads will be started by some self described expert who spouts 10% crazy with no room for discussion.
Anyway his and the others sites are lily white. Stop tossing money at the "progressive" candidate de jure. Give to the UNCF instead.
You made me cry. Again. Keep doing that, please.
Thank you.
Great piece, beautifully written, and your passion and rage are inspiring.
But the link to the Till photo doesn't work.
Thank you Steve T. Link is fixed.
Best,
LM
That violent Nazi asshole Bill White actually scares me. I met him once when he was trying to infiltrate a political group I was involved with, before he "came out" as a Nazi. He is one belligerent, hyper-aggressive asshole. Like every Nazi punk in American History X, and a violent criminal record in Montgomery County to boot.
LM:
I commend your passion and certainly admire your skill with words, but frankly, I could care less about these white progressives and their silence on this issue, because I long ago determined that they're part of the problem. I've also come to the understanding that the black community is going to have to step into the 21st century and begin handling our business way differently, but that's a conversation not intended for this particular blog. All that's been revealed is how particularly arrogant they are in the belief that the next election is only about them and their issues and that black people will rally around their candidate since the repugs so blatantly spit in our faces. In other words, they don't have to put themselves out over issues like the Jena 6. What blacks are reluctant to accept is that they're tired of us, too. They just ain't hanging any nooses about it.
Be warned: that's the mentality that wound us up with Bush 1 and 2.
Ultimately, the way that blacks suffer in this country changes very little regardless of the occupant in the WH. The Jena 6, Katrina, all of that is just more of the same. That so-called liberals didn't do a dance of disgust over this and point out how ludicrous these racist crackers in these small towns must look as the rest of the world scratches its head in disbelief over the sheer audacity of America to think that we are paragons of virtue in the liberty and freedom dept, while backwoods knuckle-dragging knuckleheads are still fighting the outcome of the Civil War. Talk about a missed opportunity! Face it: we look like assholes!
It's no small wonder they didn't want to touch it. Better to ignore it and hope that it goes away. Better to imply that maybe these black kids are somehow responsible, you know, what with hip hop culture and all. Oh the horror: they stomped a white boy instead of allowing themselves to be stomped, lynched and remain the long-suffering poor Negro into perpetuity. It doesn't matter that the appearance of a noose is a blatant threat to kill, forget bodily harm. How dare these kids allow themselves to be pushed into any kind of act of aggression? Don't they remember that solitary tear that fell down Denzel Washington's face in Glory as he was about to be whipped? That's how Negroes take their punishment. (Yes, I'm off the fence and so over this kind of imagery. It's among the many reasons why I scoff at the notion of liberal Hollywood.)
But, this is the attitude that will, mark my words, put another Republican in the WH. And who knows, maybe that is their hidden agenda. One never knows with white progressives and so-called liberals especially on matters of race.
Political Junkie -- at least my homie, Dave Neiwert, stood up and took his lumps like a man. And apologized for being slow on the uptake. And meant it.
And, to Orcinus' credit, I'd linked over to LM's piece well over a week before he did that. Which tells me that the deliberate diversity of the community we're trying to build here (and will expand as we add writers in the future) is going to help keep us all informed and communicating on each other's issues. That's the plan, anyway.
I knew about this because I was here, and had LM to tell me about it. The Web does tend to let us wall ourselves off into our own little silos; we're trying to make a place here where that doesn't happen so much.
mimi:
You have a point.
I suppose the reason I didn't think much about the “blackout” was because quite frankly...
I kind of assumed it was gonna be ignored by a lot of those folks anyway. Not maliciously...but just in a benign, “I got other fish to fry” kinda way. Which quite frankly...sucks.
Bottom line, I've written about Rudy, Libby, Rove, Petraeus, McCain, Vitter, Craig, O'Reilly, Lieberman, Willie-fucking-Nelson, and Apple Pie recipés.
As well as on Jena, Al Sharpton and racism in general.
I doubt I have that many more functional brain cells than other bloggers beyond this place, and I work hard to broaden my blogging palette.
They can, too.
mimi I only have one point of contention with your post...the rest of teh world is as racist or more racist then america is....so no the world didn't think that samll twon was backwards...in fact a lot of humanity is right there with them.
But, this is the attitude that will, mark my words, put another Republican in the WH.
Well, that and also blatant election chicanery upon which the corporate media will never, ever call the ReThugs.
Sara said: The deliberate diversity of the community we're trying to build here (and will expand as we add writers in the future) is going to help keep us all informed and communicating on each other's issues. That's the plan, anyway.
Yes.
Hubris Sonic (a white man in Tokyo), Lower Manhattanite (a black man in New York) and I (a white man in Seattle) founded this on the work of Steve Gilliard (a black man in New York) and Jen (Gilly's white jewish female co-publisher in New York.)
Then Sara Robinson came on-board (a white woman in Vancouver.)
Whom ever we put on the masthead next -- short of someone we simply have to have will be female, and will be diverse in some other way.
I would LOVE to bring a Latina on as Staff Writer. We are not up to speed on Hispanic issues, which I take very personally, having grown up from 8-17 & 22-24 in Tucson, with my Mother living there most of my life and my best friends still in Arizona. If y'all have a terrific Latina blogger for us to read, send her URL to Sara & I to check out first.
If I can't get me a Latina, then a lesbian. If I can't get me a lesbian, then an Asian woman.
My current favorite new blogger (a lesbian poet, yeah!) is Maggie Jochild.
Go check her out & tell her that the Group News Blog sent you. Artistic as hell, enormous passion, deep, rich, textual. But new.
If I could give her one bit of advice for the new blogger it would be, each post must answer this question very quickly: Why do I care? If the reader doesn't have a reason to care, it's just information. May be terrific information presented brilliantly. But who gives a damn? You have to make the reader give a damn, Maggie, and you have to make them give a damn damn quickly...or they'll just.click.away.
That said, I think Maggie Jochild is the most promising blogger I've seen in quite a while. Question is, can she keep it up, hmmm? Go check her out and let me know what YOU think. I'm curious about the GNB reader perspective.
We are committed, flat out determined as writers, but more importantly, as people, that diversity matters, starting with us. I learn from these three all the time. The very first words I often say when a new post of any one of theirs goes up is, "Damn... I had no idea." Sometimes it's not just the story & people, but the entire subject field.
How the hell can we learn what we don't know we don't know if the only people we talk to are, well, us?
Women of diverse backgrounds who can kick-ass write... I'm looking for your URL.
(No hurry. GNB is doing fine. I'd seriously rather wait six months for the right person, than take just anyone, ya know? *smiles* Y'all are a demanding bunch so we can't give the gig to just anyone, not even temporary. All that blood on the blog walls...eeew, messy.
So patience. When the right person matches up... *smiles*)
Hell, Jesse, Sara's outnumbered. I say you need a sista on this blog as well as an Asian and a Latino.
I'm the sista, and I hereby nominate myself, dammit. 
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