Death and taxes used to be the only two certainties in life — but no matter how much progress it feels like we’re making sometimes, the sad fact is you can probably slide racism into that list. Are we in a moment of uprising that feels like it has the potential to create real, systemic change? Yes. Do people and organizations still show their ass on a daily basis? Oh, most definitely. And to keep tabs on all that ass-showing, we’re pleased to introduce our weekly racism surveillance machine. If you already get our newsletter, Minority Report, you’ve likely seen this — but now the rest of the internet can get a taste.
🗑 Harlem Globetrotter goes on local Alabama TV, receives official Alabama welcome (hint: it’s not an Edible Arrangement)
Back in January, Maxwell “Hops” Pearce went on Birmingham’s local Fox affiliate to shoot a live segment promoting a Globetrotter game taking place in the area. As part of the segment, he gave a ball-handling demonstration, at which point the station’s meteorologist and one of its anchors began throwing fruit at him to see if he could catch it. First, a tangerine; annoying, obviously, but the man’s a damn Globetrotter, so he handled it like a champ. Then came a banana. Here’s where the record scratches and the restaurant goes silent. See, if you’re a human being, you likely understand that throwing bananas at people is some Class A Bullshit — and that when said people are Black, you’ve upgraded to all the way to Misdemeanor-Level Evil. You know who didn’t realize that? Fox6 anchor Clare Huddleston, who gave an “oops, didn’t mean to offend you!” on-air apology only after Pearce spoke about the incident last week. Wait, you mean a Fox-owned network showed a fumbling ignorance about racist subtext? There must be some kind of mistake! (CNN)
🗑 Mississippi school board member goes on a racist rant; in other news, Mississippi has school boards
Okay, what the hell is happening with local politics?! First it was that Virginia mayor cracking an Aunt Jemima joke, then it was the Michigan “country road commissioner” who refused to wear a mask because of BLM demonstrations in Detroit. And now it’s Dan Stuckey of the Lawrence County school board, who during a meeting last week filibustered for more than 20 minutes about “radical Black pastors” who were upsetting the [checks notes] unimpeachable race-relations tradition Mississippi is known for. “We don’t have a race problem,” said Stuckey before going on to issue the piercing analysis, “You ever notice the people doing what they’re supposed to do don’t have no trouble with the police?” Tell that to Jacob Blake, Dan. (WLBT)
🗑 Tired of Southern states monopolizing boneheaded racism, Idaho says, “Hey, what about our White supremacist militias?”
In early June, with the country embroiled in near-daily demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism, the high school kids of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, got in on the act as well. As they marched through town, they found themselves flanked by hundreds of White dudes wearing camo and armed to the teeth. They were just there to protect the students from encroaching antifa hordes, they claimed — which, lmaoooo — but soon belied their own bullshit by screaming expletives like “n****r-lover” at the demonstrators and in one case telling a 17-year-old marcher that she deserved to be raped for protesting. Welcome to north Idaho, where militias like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters operate with near-impunity despite their explicitly anti-government stance and in many cases preaching racial separatism. “If [civil war is] coming,” one resident says, “North Idaho is the heart of the new confederacy.” All together now: YIKES! (Idaho Statesman)