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Black Kos, Week In Review: "I am not a racist, but..." Yes, you are! [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-14
Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
“What did you think about the Super Bowl halftime show?”
(Before I could round up my mouth to respond) “I tell you, I’m not a racist, but in my mind that was pure nonsense. Did you watch that?”
Me: “I’m curious why you prefaced your statement with that disclaimer?”
“You know me. You know I’m not a racist, but I didn’t understand a word of it.”
Me: “Of course, not understanding ‘a word of it’ doesn’t make you a racist, but that’s a separate issue, isn’t it? You first dismissed it as pure nonsense, and then you admitted you didn’t understand a word of it. I mean, I don’t speak Italian, yet I’ve sat through at least one opera performed in that language without ever coming away thinking the performance was pure nonsense.”
(Changes tactic) “Well, clearly you didn’t think it was nonsense. Help me understand. Tell me what I missed.”
Me: “Maybe some other time. But I’ll leave you with this: Kendrick Lamar is a Pulitzer Prize-winning artist. What you witnessed and casually dismissed was a master at his craft. That was a multi-layered, multi-dimensional tour de force. That was a history lesson, a commentary on current events, a call to action, a redemption story, and a path forward all wrapped in one. Catch you later.”
“Okay...”
(Me interrupting as I prepared to walk off) “And you might want to sit with the fact that you and MAGAland are in total agreement on this one. What story is that telling, I wonder.”
“Don’t be mad at me. You not mad at me, are you?”
(I pretended I hadn't heard her question as I hurried out of the room.)
The phrase “I’m not a racist, but...” is a preemptive defense mechanism. It’s a clear acknowledgement that you know you are about to cough up an opinion that is belittling or dismissive at best. It means that you are fully aware that your words will be offensive and you’ve made a conscious decision to totally ignore my Black reality and my Black sensibilities. At this point in history, that’s not ignorance and there’s nothing passive about the use of that preamble. It is pure undiluted aggression—a full frontal attack. And as such, I reserve the right to tell you to kiss my Black ass.
As to the performance itself:
x The Kendrick Lamar halftime show explained in case you didn’t catch the meaning behind it….🔥 pic.twitter.com/ppIu26lKKB — Fuckin’ Princess (@8WithaTiara) February 10, 2025
x “Kendrick Lamar’s Masterclass in the Key of Subversion”
Kendrick didn’t perform,
he prophesied,
each word a wound,
each pause a pulse
beating against the borders of thought.
This wasn’t music.
It was Morse code for the masses,
a cipher disguised as a symphony,
hidden messages… pic.twitter.com/lwRX4ViiLI — Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali 🤙🏾✊🏾 (@EJinAction) February 10, 2025
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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The GOP Leans into white nationalism Newsone: Missouri AG Sues Starbucks Because Its ‘Workforce Has Become More Female And Less White’
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In today’s episode of White Conservatives Want To Be Oppressed So Bad, a Republican attorney general is suing Starbucks because — *checks notes* — its ” workforce has become more female and less white.”
According to a news release from his office, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday accusing Starbucks of “discriminatory” hiring practices. Bailey claims his suit is meant “to halt this blatant violation of the Missouri Human Rights Act in its tracks.” Like virtually all white-and-eternally-fragile anti-diversity complaints, Bailey appears to have decided that the very existence of a workforce that isn’t overwhelmingly white and male, in and of itself, proves white men are being discriminated against.
“Starbucks’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is mere pretext for its actual commitment to unlawful discrimination,” Bailey wrote in the 59-page lawsuit, citing Starbucks’ employment data from 2020 to 2024 as evidence. “In other words, since 2020, Starbucks’s workforce has become more female and less white.”
Again, Bailey’s lawsuit assumes anti-white male discrimination is happening at the coffee chain simply because fewer white men are working there than there were four years ago. MAGA conservatives have fostered an environment where white officials can walk into an establishment, notice there are too many women and people of color employed, call it discrimination and file lawsuits demanding that businesses end it by replacing non-white male employees with white male employees. We always knew this was what they meant by “make America great again,” and now they don’t even feel the need to hide it.
Also, Bailey has completely jumped off the logic train by inconceivably deciding that fewer white men working at Starbucks has caused an increase in the prices of the company’s products.
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Though Tubman is most famous for her successes along the Underground Railroad, her activities as a Civil War spy are less well known. Newsone: How Harriet Tubman Became A Spy For The United States Army
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Harriet Tubman was barely 5 feet tall and didn’t have a dime to her name.
What she did have was a deep faith and powerful passion for justice that was fueled by a network of Black and white abolitionists determined to end slavery in America.
“I had reasoned this out in my mind,” Tubman once told an interviewer. “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive.”
Though Tubman is most famous for her successes along the Underground Railroad, her activities as a Civil War spy are less well known.
As a biographer of Tubman, I think this is a shame. Her devotion to America and its promise of freedom endured despite suffering decades of enslavement and second class citizenship.
It is only in modern times that her life is receiving the renown it deserves, most notably her likeness appearing on a US$20 bill in 2030. The Harriet Tubman $20 bill will replace the current one featuring a portrait of U.S. President Andrew Jackson.
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A plan for Russia to establish its first naval base in Africa will go ahead, Sudan’s foreign minister has confirmed, after years of delays over the Red Sea military port.
If the agreement is implemented, Russia would join the US and China in the region; they have bases to the south in Djibouti.
The announcement came during a visit by the foreign minister, Ali Youssef Ahmed al-Sharif, to Moscow where he met his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. After their meeting, Sharif said the two countries were in “complete agreement” on establishing a Russian base “and there are no obstacles”.
The Red Sea is one of the world’s most strategically important waterways, connecting the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean. About 12% of global trade passes through it.
Sudan first floated the idea of allowing Russia to have a naval facility on its coast in 2017 during a trip to Sochi by Omar al-Bashir, the then president, who was ousted in a 2019 coup. A deal was eventually signed in 2020 that reportedly permitted Russia to keep up to four navy ships, including nuclear-powered ones, in Sudan for a period of 25 years.
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The Proud Boys logo has officially been repurposed to benefit the same Black community they once terrorized.
After winning the official trademark for the “Proud Boys” name, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal, a historic Black church in Washington, D.C., has started selling merch with the revamped logo.
Presently, there are two limited edition shirts up for grabs, each for $20. Both shirts are black and have been emblazoned with golden yellow laurels around a bold “PB.” One shirt says “Stay Proud, Stay Black,” and the other, “Stay Proud, Black Lives Matter.”
The Proud Boys logo has officially been repurposed to benefit the same Black community they once terrorized. “We are doing Spirit work, soil work, and solidarity work,” Reverend William Lamar, the church’s pastor, told his congregation during Sunday’s livestream, which included a QR code for the shirts, per Rolling Stone magazine. He added that the shirts are “our version of the trademark that now belons to us.”
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WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
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