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Are you George Zimmerman? (Another one beclowns themself)
The Bangor Daily News ^ | July 31, 2013 | Heather Denkmire, Special to the BDN

Posted on 07/31/2013 7:00:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

His really dark skin means he’s dangerous. Her wide nostrils remind me of a monkey.

As abhorrent as these statements are, they are thoughts I’ve had. It’s hard to even call them thoughts, as they occur so quickly and almost outside the scope of language. When I saw the Pew Research Center’s latest poll results showing that whites essentially think we don’t need to talk much more about racial justice issues raised by the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case, I wasn’t surprised.

We white people don’t like feeling uncomfortable. For us, racism is an intellectual experience rather than part of our everyday life. We do what we can to avoid it.

My own racism disgusts me. When I first realized it was there, I did what most white people I know have done. I felt “white guilt.” I made it about me. I wanted to apologize to anyone I could on behalf of all white people. I wanted black people to tell me how to make it better. I wanted to be one of the good white people.

I can’t be one of the good white people. Or, rather, I can’t be as good a white person — as good a human being — as I’d like.

I’m a racist, or at a minimum, I have ugly thoughts when I encounter brown people, because I’m a white person who has never lived somewhere that wasn’t almost entirely white. We humans make snap judgments about life all the time using faulty reasoning and emotional decision making. Shankar Vedantam, a science correspondent for NPR and former columnist for The Washington Post, calls this the “hidden brain,” in his book by the same name. The cognitive processes that include racist stereotypes and a desperate need to rid ourselves of discomfort happen so quickly we are typically not aware of them at all.

Without a doubt, the murder of 17-year-old Martin merits righteous indignation. When the Zimmerman verdict was announced, my well-meaning progressive friends were horrified. It seemed like everyone wanted everyone else to know they thought it was awful that a young kid was killed because that Zimmerman guy was a racist. But it’s precisely because it was a single event, with just two people, that people were able to feel anger and rage about the injustices of it. It was safe. It wasn’t us.

Where is the righteous indignation — the picture to put in the Facebook profile, the calls for legislation, the petitions, the status updates and tweets, the candlelight vigils — about the school-to-prison pipeline? Or, how are we quiet when five times as many whites are using drugs as African-Americans, but black people are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites?

Not only do our brains rely on feelings or ideas we’re not aware of, our brains also aren’t wired to comprehend large numbers. Because we white people don’t experience overt and covert racism in our everyday lives, it isn’t a part of our emotional experience. It remains in the realm of intellectual or logical concepts, and larger numbers hold little meaning. A single young man and a single shooter are concepts we can grab onto.

Because discussions about race make most white people uncomfortable, we want to be done with them as soon as we can. We address the travesty of justice that allows a man to go free after he kills an innocent child. In the process, we distance ourselves from the racism. It is Zimmerman who is the racist.

Sure, we will grant you that racism is pervasive, and we aren’t immune, but, we’re not like him. And, come on, why do you need to keep going on about all of this? We agree he was a bad guy. What else is there to talk about?

Here’s what I think we white people who think racism is bad should do:

• Recognize we have racist thoughts but don’t get sucked into the guilt about it.

• Notice when we feel uncomfortable regarding race.

• Don’t expect people hurt most by racism to solve the problems.

• Don’t be afraid to seem like a jerk — honesty will get us further than trying to be “polite,” and that overeager thing we melanin-challenged people do when we think a black person might like us is embarrassing to everyone involved.

• Identify areas in your life where you can help fight racism — drive brown people to the polls on voting day, loudly boycott companies with overtly racist marketing campaigns, learn about what needs to change in your neighborhood and go do that — in concrete, specific and productive ways.

Feeling guilty about the awful thoughts we have is fine, as long as we don’t dwell on it. Racism isn’t about how bad we white people feel. It’s about people facing life-threatening disadvantages based on perceptions about their skin tone and appearance.

********

Heather Denkmire is a writer and artist who lives in Portland with her two young daughters. After a few challenging years, she is growing her small business, where her team helps nonprofit organizations win grants. She can be reached at heather@grantwinners.net. Her columns appear monthly.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: racism; trayvon; whiteguilt; zimmerman
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To: TheBigB
"A goofball with no real job who spends all her time looking for things to be offended by."

Of course she has a "job" - she started a business, look-

"After a few challenging years, she is growing her small business, where her team helps nonprofit organizations win grants."

In other words, she has made a business out of "helping" some people get money from others - presumably, the taxpayers. Isn't that peachy?

41 posted on 07/31/2013 8:22:34 PM PDT by free-in-nyc (Freeping from the heart of the occupation)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
When the Zimmerman verdict was announced, my well-meaning progressive friends were horrified. It seemed like everyone wanted everyone else to know they thought it was awful that a young kid was killed because that Zimmerman guy was a racist.

Heather, you drooling cretin.

Zimmerman took notice of Martin because (1) there had been several recent break-ins in the neighborhood, and (2) Martin was standing alone in the rain on the grass just staring at a house that had recently been broken into.

Perhaps as a drooling cretin you find that behavior unremarkable. When it rains, you probably go outside and stand on the lawn in front of some random house and just stare at it, drooling, until the sun comes out. When people complain about your behavior, you call those people "racists." You don't know what the word means, but it silences the complainers and makes you feel morally superior.

There is no tiny little shred of evidence to support the notion that Zimmerman killed Martin because of racism. You have an emotional need for Zimmerman to have been motivated by racism, so you pretend that your fantasy is fact. You ignore the FBI report that strongly refuted the racism claims, you ignore Zimmerman's mentoring young black kids, you ignore that he took a black woman to the prom, you ignore his black neighbors/friends, and you ignore at least one of his black relatives.

Not to worry, Heather, we understand your massive disconnect from the real world. It's your illness, it's not you! Sorry we can't invite you inside.

42 posted on 07/31/2013 8:24:20 PM PDT by TChad
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
We white people don’t like feeling uncomfortable. For us, racism is an intellectual experience rather than part of our everyday life. We do what we can to avoid it.

How dare this insolent, arrogant, air-headed twit claim to speak for all white people? Who the hell appointed her a "white leader"?

43 posted on 07/31/2013 8:31:44 PM PDT by Maceman (Just say "NO" to tyranny.)
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To: Maceman

Yeah, I thought that was Chris Matthews.


44 posted on 07/31/2013 8:35:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I aim to raise a million plus for Gov. Palin. What'll you do?.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Heather Denkmire is as dumb as a box of rocks.


45 posted on 07/31/2013 8:43:37 PM PDT by Gator113
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To: MeshugeMikey

Oh No...Michelle Obama sat on another white man!

“Carney, is that you Jay?”


46 posted on 07/31/2013 8:49:47 PM PDT by Gator113
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Brothers must be laughing their *ss off at these self hating, guilt feeling white folk.

She should move to the ghetto like this guy did:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9rHEDb/www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81081063/

You have to click on it to make it bigger.

Have a cookie.

47 posted on 07/31/2013 9:06:11 PM PDT by Lx (Do you like it? Do you like it, Scott? I call it, "Mr. & Mrs. Tenorman Chili.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
We ain't mad at ya!


48 posted on 07/31/2013 9:29:05 PM PDT by John 3_19-21 ("as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.")
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To: smoothsailing

There are going to be a slew of posts like these from media types who want US to walk away from attacking the media for their complicity in supporting this socialist regime now in power .Time to remind all of US what the MSM is doing and continues to do.

correction
-—— Original Message -——

To: ElRushbo@eibnet.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: investigate travelgate II

Too many on both sides are playing with the truth of the Zimmerman trial.. The regime and the media set the premise for the trial narrative and their presentations ignoring the setting where the incident took place..An area having a “Neighborhood Watch”. If some of those so called conservative talk show hosts had interviewed guests who run such watches they would have exposed the regime and the media for the frauds they are. Particularly a “gated” neighborhood watch.When you enter one of these and start wandering around no matter if you are white, blue, red, green, or black. You can be asked your purpose for being there. You are on private property. And yes those on patrol can and do leave their vehicle and follow on foot if they lose sight of the person they’re observing.. .

It’s the second time the President of the United States has interjected himself into a confrontation between those in authority on legal grounds reasonably questioned and released someone involved in a curious activity. Could this attitude be based from the idealized communist concept that there is no such thing as “private” property because the state (collective) owns the land ? .

In both cases those representing “authority” were reported as “white” . In the second case the person working security was attacked after questioning an activity while on private rights of way and allowing the person to continue on their way. Who then doubled back and attacked the “neighborhood watch” worker beating him severly on the ground and the attacker was subsequently killed in a struggle over the Neighborhood Watchman’s legal pistol.

In the second case both were dark skined.

Since the Zimmernan not guilty verdict has been rendered, the facts of this case are still being shamefully being concealed by the media to the extent they are advancing and are complicit in permitting a putrid injstice to be committed of the worst order,organized and instituted by our governent.While denied. It began as a miscalculation when a surname of a Jewish origin shot up and lighted the heavens like a star shell in the darkest of nights. It would have been difused if the media used pictures of both side by side because they look like cousins. And the area where this occured of paycheck to paycheck struggling homeowners of all races trying to protect themselves had been reported and not some ritzy all white enclave.they portrayed..

Worse yet the media is still pilling it on with ABC editing a a black jury members (remember when they were all white)t remarks to make it sound like she accused Zimmerman of murder .

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3048225/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3048631/posts

The result as we have seen is that another marxist axiom (division) has been implemented which has resulted with gangs of black youths murdering happless whites who happen into areas usually where a black population is the majority. Those media outlets who by their delberate misuse of the instrument of the 1st amendment are just as complicit in those deaths as the regime is.

Instead the party that hypenated itself from God at their 2012 convention into demo-coms, and believe that all groups should be hyphenated , Afro-American, Hispanic-American, etc..Decided Zimmerman to be the egg that is to be broken,. sacrificed, so that we have an omlet..Just like Stalin did to the Ukrainian land owners known as Kulacks whom he executed, (and used that egg example) in a soclal engineering plan to organize collectives during a Russian drought..Because as we have learned there seems to be the intention to use a collective data base to create collectives.where a utopia of uniforimity of conformity exists. As was done in Detroit, and Oakland California.only this time a poor whitey or blacky won’t be able to move,.

Just as with the energy plan where the cost of fuel used for energy and transportation and that includes raising the price of transporting gas and oil by rail, that favor a key contributer while recently ridiculing the pipeline, has skyrocketed those costs. Placing many on fixed or limited incomes dependent on government handouts. Resulting from this regimes socialist policies which go blameless.

Now call for the sacrifice of Zimmerman who must die for another communist plan.. We all move together in centers designed and approved by comrades running the collective who (just like Obamacare aren’t in it) won’t and never live there.

What should the Rebuttal and counter charge be ?

Why is this being done ? To cover up Fast and furious, IRS, Bengahzi, Solar panel gate, NSA spying on US,over-riding the constittution? Those are blamed on others .But not who accompaines Obama on his many trips around the world at taxpayer expence ? Were they the heavy hitters or their friends holding the president’s hand ? Never looked into either by the House and certainly not even speculated about or reported on by the media.

Seems like that could be considered pay back at US taxpayer expence. Isn’t that an impeachable offense ? Now if somebody even suggests impeachment. What better way to discourage any investigation into malfeasance and corruption by organizing the base for riots in the streets ?


49 posted on 07/31/2013 9:34:37 PM PDT by mosesdapoet (Serious contribution pause.Please continue onto meaningless venting no one reads.)
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To: Gator113

I live in California, that Woman is as dumb as a Box of Barbara Boxers.

Rocks would be offended being compared to that Maroon. LOL


50 posted on 07/31/2013 9:45:44 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (They can follow the Communist, I'll follow the Constitution...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

(snide)
George Zimmerman shot a guy that attacked HIM and was pounding his head into the sidewalk....

THE BASTARD!...

( / snide )


51 posted on 07/31/2013 10:13:00 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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