What’s the link?
[ETA] I see it now! Thanks!
Didn’t pay attention to the url
I did have a moment’s reflection earlier today that made me feel a bit better: human nature is such that once someone’s position and salary is in place, it’s a lot less likely that they will do anything to dismantle the framework they’re dependent on.
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I would argue that describes all of them at this point. They are all working to the best of their abilities to demolish the framework of government that this country was based on.
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I’m not saying the child was adopted, just that implying that the most likely reason he had a child of a “different race” on his lap was through abduction is an insult to a huge number of families, whether they be families that adopted or “mixed-race” families or any of the other ways that that could happen through love*.
* I understand that may be a difficult thing to imagine for Jefferson Sessions, but he most likely has family members that he loves, and they may be regularly empathetic people.
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My understanding of that case is that it was brought when a majority Black grand jury, led by a Black foreperson, asked for intervention of allegations that the votes of “aged, infirmed, or disabled” people were being changed or manufactured. It was all about two democratic Black candidates alleging that their opponent was engaging in fraud. It was never about White suppression of the Black vote.
“I have known Sen. Sessions for many years, beginning with the voter fraud case in Perry County in which my parents were defendants. My differences in policy and ideology with him do not translate to personal malice. He is not a racist,” the Perry County commissioner said in a statement. “As I have said before, at no time then or now has Jeff Sessions said anything derogatory about my family. He was a prosecutor at the Federal level with a job to do. He was presented with evidence by a local District Attorney that he relied on, and his office presented the case. That’s what a prosecutor does. I believe him when he says that he was simply doing his job.”
Agreed. I was just adding trivia.
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I really wish i didn’t have to give you a like for that.
…
But i do.
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[quote=“Mindysan33, post:49, topic:92664”]
But you didn’t answer my question about when there was a period when communism was okay to southern politicians.[/quote]
I’m not here to defend Southern politicians. On the contrary, I’m here because this development worries me. If I seem reluctant to settle on just “racism” to describe the nature of this threat, it’s because I know that all Alabamians are presumed racist, so I doubt that whoever passed this verdict bothered to give it much thought. While I’m at it,
Well, he called an African American a “boy”… hard to spin that as about communism
I’ve been called “boy” lots of times. Granted I was literally a boy, but it was only ever meant in the same spirit as above, meaning “asshole.” It’s not a term of respect, but it’s not specifically an epithet.
There was another instance where some politician called a black man “boy”, and it also made its way onto this site. I made the same comment, and someone 'splained to me - can you understand my irritation about being 'splained to?
I’m well aware who the dixiecrats were, thanks.
Yes, I think you can. Someone 'splained to be how I’m mistaken, and that, in the South, “boy” is racist. Thing is, I’m from the area in question, and I have original research to the contrary. But I am Alabamian and Alabamians are racist, so my testimony was invalid. Q.E.D.
Maybe I’m naive for identifying myself as Alabamian and expecting presumption of good will in a discussion about race. Either way, I’m bowing out.
Actually, I was looking back to 1865.
For the non-yanks: one of the issues in the Civil War was whether the states could ignore Federal law. The “no” team won, and took away everybody’s slaves.
The following article says that this war on terror/islam is not about pipelines, but if the gov is actively (or will actively) work(ing) towards helping private companies does it just mean that pipelines are a factor ?
Did you read the article? Whites got away with voter fraud through absentee voting which was ignored while Sessions decided to prosecute black activists employed absentee voting to help rural voters get access to voting which they otherwise had a hard time doing.
Please stop pulling out the “he’s got a black friend” card, because, once again, it’s not about him as an individual, it’s about how he consistently has stood against civil rights legislation in various ways.
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Okay, how about not put words in my mouth. I never called you or everyone in the state of Alabama racist (since I know at least a few people there) - I’m talking about institutions that were created by people and still function in the south. Since I actually grew up about 20 miles from the Alabama line, I understand that not everyone down here is a red neck KKK member. But I also understand that the institutions that upheld racism still exists and are real - and people like Sessions indeed worked to uphold them over the course of their careers, in ways that are often subtle. I also understand how people deny it when it still exists and I still see it when I’m not in Atlanta.
But if you’re offended because I defended my position using knowledge that I have, I suppose this conversation is over.
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I think it’s complicated and not the only animating factor, but it’s not the core reason - but if we’re going to carry this tangent forward, we should start a new thread maybe?
To the tangent thread
I did read the article by Ms. Bazelton. ( and many of her previous pieces at Slate ) I also read the original documents from the case. I wish we lived in an era when you could link or refer to a NYT article, and I could read it and feel that the article represents a reasoned and well researched examination of all sides of the issue. Sadly, that is no longer the case. I am not sure that mainstream journalism is useful at all when it seems like it is always necessary to go back and read the original source material to learn in which direction and to what extent the story has been “spun”.
Sessions did not just decide to prosecute the Perry county case. The two candidates who believed that they were the victims of vote fraud, Reese Billingslea and Warren Kinard, complained to their district attorney, Roy Johnson. His office investigated the claims and contacted Craig Donsanto (Head of the Election Crimes Unit,Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice), who also investigated. Donsanto prepared the indictment, and asked Sessions to proceed with the prosecution. The complainants were Black candidates, who alleged that Black voter’s right to vote was being infringed.
http://openjurist.org/812/f2d/1568/united-states-v-hogue
https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/812/812.F2d.1568.85-7518.html
I guess it is foolish to rebut charges of racism by posting the testimony of those who actually know and work with the person in question. The real power of the accusation of racism is that one can never really disprove such accusations.
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easy solution:
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Once again, this isn’t about Sessions as a person, but about the structures he has supported through his work.
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I usually hate slate headlines (clickbaity bullshit, often at odds with the articles themselves) but Bouie’s article on this is extremely well labeled
Jeff Sessions Fights for Racist Outcomes. Who Cares What’s in His Heart?
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