When there is a riot going on somewhere in Black America, the important thing is to excuse the unjust, racist social order of the US. So, be sure to say the following (commenters can add their own suggestions below):
“Violence is counterproductive. Be patient. Let the system work.”
Because it has worked so well in the past, especially for Black people, especially when they do not rock the boat. Because the nation was already busily ending police brutality. Because justice in the US is colour-blind, even to the colour of money.
Apply the words “thugs”, “violent”, “lawless” and “unacceptable” to
rioters – but not to the police.
Because the police and police brutality are none of those things. Because violence and setting stuff on fire is only acceptable when your sports team has lost (or won). Or when there is a Pumpkin Festival. Or when it helps White Americans, like during the Boston Tea Party or the Vietnam War or fighting terrorism. Because ISIS has got away with killing way more Americans than the BPD.
“Why do they destroy their own community?”
Because, after all, poor Black people own so much! Because liquor stores help the community. Because CVS is Black-owned. Because Black people are destroying their chance of being treated like animals by Arab and Asian shopkeepers from behind bulletproof glass. Because those same shopkeepers hire so many Black people and do not drain money from the community. Because Wells Fargo and other banks have nothing to do with abandoned houses.
“Martin Luther King is turning in his grave.”
Because it was not Martin Luther King who said, “a riot is the language of the unheard.”
“Black-on-black crime”
Because when criminals break the law that is so much worse than when the police do it.
“Some of the cops were Black.”
Because when Black cops are brutal, there is no reason to get upset.
“The mayor is Black.”
Because US cities are independent, sovereign nations. Because mayors have absolute power. Because the Black elite is so in touch with ordinary Black people.
“The breakdown of the Black family”
Because White families are not breaking down too. Because racism is dead and there is nothing else holding Black people back. Because blaming the victim is morally comfortable – and allows Republicans to cut taxes.
“Failed Democratic policies”
Because Republicans cutting off money to them had nothing to do with why they failed. Because cutting taxes for the rich and giving away billions to big business is in the best interests of Black people. Because Republicans, like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, care about Black people.
“Years of poverty and oppression”
Because the issues facing poor Blacks are so huge, so abstract and so hard to understand that there nothing anyone can do about it. Because poor Black neighbourhoods are in a faraway country, possibly on another planet with different laws of physics.
Remain silent about police brutality.
Because the US is not a nation of laws. It only says it is.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- #CVSmatters
- BPD and police brutality
- ISIS
- White racist guides to:
- The term “thug”
- black-on-black crime
545
When It’s ok to riot in America for white people,When your sports team loses a championship game, when their sports team wins a championship game. America gets amnesia about white folks and riots. Wasn’t there something called the “Boston Tea Party where colonialist dressed up like Native Americans and dumped tea in the harbor? There were many race riots incited by whites that left many black people dead.The Tulsa race riots and in Florida the Rosewood riots also by crazed white people with many black people savagely murdered and brutalized by racist whites. I even read about something called the Astor Place Riots where they rioted about two actors at an opera house over which actor one a British actor and the other an American actor. This if i am not mistaken happen in New York City, May 10,1849 in Manhattan. But because of the racist news outlets wanting to demonize black Americans who are being oppressed by a racist system, America has developed Amnesia.
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MLK’s quote about “Rioting is the language of the unheard” I can understand that because the people of Baltimore and Ferguson are the unheard and ignored so they made themselves heard in the only way they know to speak through anger and frustration to an oppresive system that brutalizes and has it;s foot on their necks to keep them from rising up. By i feel Attorney Mosby at least in Baltimore is going to defy the status quo and things are going to change in that city. She is going to make a difference.
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^but i feel^^
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At all cost, give due process to those of law enforcement and patiently await the results of the investigation, even if it’s abundantly clear from the outset that the cops wrongfully murdered someone. Because those that live in high crime areas are automatically considered criminal suspects and other reprobates (especially if they are running) and are not afforded due process or any other constitutional right.
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Or when you’re running around naked at Burning Man.
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@King: When i was younger Burning Man looked cool to me and i wanted to go. But now not so much.
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Funny. I misread the title as The White racist guide to idiots. LOL!
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What the? My comment is in moderation. Just so you know, Abagond, I’m not a sock puppet. 🙂
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So brilliant.this and the CVS matters are some of your finest work. All the conversations that make me want to slam my head into a brick wall are now uneccessary “read abagond or don’t but it is there waiting for you if you really want to understand.”
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@Mary Burrell: I think I know what you’re talking about with the Astor Place Riots and don’t forget the Draft Riots in New York, during the Civil War in which the poor Whites of New York, ran around killing any Black people they happened across. You can make entire movies about it and White people’s memories will not be jogged by this.
How about: It’s only okay when White people do it. Anybody else, and it’s pearl clutching and finger wagging time.
Also as an addendum to “Years of Poverty and Oppression” :
Be sure to treat that subject as if it’s something that just fell on Black people like a Natural disaster or Act of God. It just sort of happened and no one has any idea how all this oppression occurred.
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@ Mary Burrell
From the pictures…not to many sister’s there, Mary! I’m sure it, has it’s interesting parts, but there is so much drugs/random sex/nudity you really have to be somewhat into those things to enjoy the atmosphere.
This is one of those things that if it was Black people doing it it would e a proof of our degenerate savagery. But since Whites are doing it mostly, it’s seen as cool, innovative, and essential.
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@King: That was a desire of mine when i was young. Not so much today. I have a whole different mindset from that foolish youthful desire of adventure then. And yes, I had to think there were no black folks in that debauchery. I thought it was artsy when i was young but it just looks like drugs and freak nasty stuff not for me. You are correct in your statements. If black people were celebrating like this it would be us being degenerates and savages but when whites do it, it’s cool and edgy, and like you say innovative and essential. Double standards.
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I exhibited some poor behavior during the la riots but i got taken to task
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Oh! What was it that made you think about Christianity, Kiwi?
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Haha! I never made that connection! Maybe they could call it “Burning Cross” one year!
very “Artistic.”
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“Because Black people are destroying their chance of being treated like animals by Arab and Asian shopkeepers from behind bulletproof glass.”
Thanks for making me feel like trash, Abagond. I guess it’s true, when emotions run red, peoples true feelings are said.
http://www.trbimg.com/img-53ee28af/turbine/la-na-brown-surveillance-20140815/500/500×281
Here. I’m as dark as that shopkeeper and apparently as much to blame when rioters ransack my store.
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@ Abagond
Because poor Black neighbourhoods are in a faraway country, possibly on another planet with different laws of physics.
I often feel as if I live in a parallel universe whenever I try to explain basic economics or the concept of “have not” to people. Even to middle class people… who are strangely becoming more divorced from reality than the upper classes lately!
Because the US is not a nation of laws. It only says it is.
THIS I learned from my own painful experiences that laws only matter when they can be used to imprison and deprive you of liberty. Experience and fact has shown me now what I always knew to be true, that laws do not protect anyone but the people who write them, and those who can afford to purchase their protection. The middle and upper classes.
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@Ikeke35: Yes, I remember reading about the Draft Riots as well.
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White people will have to excuse me if I don’t take anything they say about riots seriously
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I think that simply noticing the riots is also racist.
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Haha! Randy is back! Where have you been hiding?
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@ King
He is probably another Randy, not the Randy Garver you are thinking of.
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Oh rats! I was hoping for some REAL fireworks!! Not a Dud.
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Hello, Abagond. I’ve been enjoying your blog for about 3 years now!
I was wondering if you could do a post on Ty Sawyer.
He was killed a white hockey player (who is a student at his university) while in a fight. The hockey play is a son of two police officers and the crime has been swept under the rug and covered up.
Another young black life has been lost, and I was hoping that you would help bring awareness to it
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I live an hour away from Huntington Beach, California. Huntington Beach is overwhelmingly White. Every summer the city host the U.S. Open of Surfing. The 2013 Van’s U.S. Open of Surfing started (7/20/13) in fun but ended (7/28/13) in a night-long riot. Unlike the Ferguson and Baltimore Riots, the Huntington Beach Riot did not get much attention from the mainstream media – and, yes, we know why. Fox News pundits played hush-hush with the H.B. Riot. These young White folks were upset because an annual tournament ended. The rioters and looters were privileged White people vandalizing stores in the downtown area of Huntington Beach. There were fights on the streets, especially among young White females, and burglary from young White males. The local news reporters and officials didn’t refer to these White rioters and looters as thugs. According to Whites and White-pleasing Black folks, the term “thug” denotes Black men. It’s the 21st century code word for N#!%er.
Let’s put riots in their proper perspective. Black riots are the result of racial injustice. White riots are the result of a victory or defeat of a local sports team. That’s the fundamental difference. Black people don’t riot for sport and play. Dr. MLK was highly against riots but he did say that rioting is the voice of the unheard. The ‘unheard’ are marginalized, powerless Black people.
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Photos of the 2011 Vancouver Riot (A must see):
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/photos-riots-fire-destruction-after-vancouver-loss
1986 Huntington Beach Riot
2013 Huntington Beach Riot (A show thread)
http://www.thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=90820&page=2
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Reblogged this on oogenhand and commented:
“Because Black people are destroying their chance of being treated like animals by Arab and Asian shopkeepers from behind bulletproof glass. Because those same shopkeepers hire so many Black people and do not drain money from the community.”
Arabs and Asians? Lateral violence?
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As opposed to behaving like the white race rioters? You know, destroying the businesses and residences of other neighborhoods, brutalizing and sometimes killing the residents? Whites that pose that question (accusation) are woefully ignorant of the history of race riots in the U.S.
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@ Michael Cooper
Funny, the White narrative on the Huntington Beach riots was that Mexicans and other latinos “ruined” their surf event by rioting. It wasn’t White people (obviously) it was those hot -blooded latinos who did all the looting!!
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@Michael Cooper
I have found that when white people start going on about black people rioting and how white people don’t do that, the best way to shut down that conversation is to present one of those white riots they seem to ignore.
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Yes, the finger- waggers are conspicuously silent when it comes to that particular topic.
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If you do bring up one of their riots, they’ll claim it “wasn’t as bad”, no matter how much was destroyed and for what reasons.
Just like a white person killing a black person warrants a shrug(because black on black crime) but a black person even looking too hard at a white person is an affront against God
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“Because Republicans cutting off money to them had nothing to do with why they failed.” Democrats are the champs of cutting off money to programs form the 1960’s. I’m thinking of Bill Clinton and his “ending Welfare as we know it”.
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What’s crazy is that these riots in Baltimore are getting so much publicity and generating so much fear yet the nearly annual riots that happened at the hands of mostly white people in San Francisco whenever the Giants won the World Series wasn’t publicized nearly as much. The shocking level of disregard for public property and civility in every one of the SF Giants riots in the past five years alone was really no different from the mess of the Baltimore riots:
Lighting a whole bus on fire and destroying people’s cars, fighting and shooting guns randomly because a baseball team won the World Series is acceptable, but rioting because of blatant income inequality, lack of opportunity and disregard for black life is not acceptable? Only white people can rationalize something like that.
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Reblogged this on replace white supremacy with justice.
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@ King
You’re right. The White supremacists blamed the Latinos and Arabs for the Huntington Beach Riot in 2013. What’s funny is that the White supremacists blamed the Arabs for the 1986 Huntington Beach Riot. What’s laughable is that Arabs and Latinos are always the accused “Brown N#%!ers” when it comes to White riots, but both – Arabs and Latinos – are White people when it comes to inventions and ancient civilizations.
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Malcolm X:
More:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3WMfAmg3Bo)
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@ kevinblyton
Read what I said carefully. I am not bad-mouthing all Arabs or Asians, just those who are racist or exploitive. Likewise with Whites.
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@ Abagond
Malcolm couldn’t have said it any better.
I noticed that the week-long peaceful (nonviolent) protest in Baltimore went unnoticed. There was no response from the mayor and other city officials. But as soon as our young Black people resorted to the streets with mayhem just about every city official came from behind their glued desk.
America understands chaos and mayhem very well – it’s the mother tongue of her independence from her mother-nation – Britain.
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This is akin to a sociopathic liar who has to make up a million stories about himself to survive. Sometimes he has trouble keeping his stories straight. Sometimes he actually believes his own lies…
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I have to keep it 100, about 99 percent of Arab and Asian (Korean) merchants in urban areas do NOT give back to the community that they take from. Honestly, I don’t see any Black person working in their stores. They will hire a Latino or any other non-Black person before hiring a Black person who lives in the community. If there is an employed Black person, which is rare, it’s an employed Black woman who knows a lot about Black hair in their beauty supply stores or an employed Black man who is posted as a security guard in their shopping center or swap meet. This is what I know and see with my very two eyes.
So, does it makes sense when a non-Black business becomes victimized by rioting in the Black community? Many marginalized and victimized Black folks think so.
Many Whites, coonish Blacks and other non-Black people love to ask the question: “Why are Black people destroying their own community?” The logic is that the businesses that are destroyed or turn into carbon ash is NOT theirs to begin with.
Many Whites, coonish Black and other non-Blacks will say: “Black people will not benefit from burning down businesses in their community.” Never does the world hear these same people – Whites, coonish Blacks and other non-Blacks – say anything about Black people respecting and protecting their Black-owned businesses. I know – it’s not in them to say that.
Personally, I believe that a code of Black conduct needs to be orchestrated. That simply means (not in this necessary order):
1. Community organization
2. Black leadership alliance (in religion, activism, politics, etc.)
3. Black street gang alliance (e.g. Crips and Bloods or Gangsta Disciples and Vice Lords alliance)
4. Non-patronization of non-Black businesses in the community
5. Community protection from people who don’t have Black people’s best interest at heart
6. Patronization of Black businesses
7. Aggregation (part of group economics)
I and others in L.A. are organizing other Black people to abide by a code of conduct. We’re stressing the 7 benefits of the code of conduct (above). Before practicing any of the seven benefits of the code of conduct Black people need to know:
(1) What is a code of conduct?
(2) How does a code of conduct works?
(3) Who benefits from a code of conduct?
(4) Who is affected by a code of conduct?
A code of conduct works by a group of people putting aside their differences. For us, Blacks, it has to be our ideology and religious differences, first.
A code of conduct works by organizing and aggregating NOT integrating.
A code of conduct benefits our children and children’s children and so on. Like in other Black countries like Uganda and Fiji, children are a nation’s greatest resource. No offense, but Uganda knows that homosexuality affects future generations (just look at America’s present-day generation). Fiji makes sure that 83 percent of its land is owned by its people, which will be passed down to future generations (83% of land ownership for Black Fijians (natives) is in the Fijian constitution).
A code of conduct affects people who don’t have our best interest at heart. ENOUGH SAID!!
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Tim Wise nails it again:
“In the 1990s, The Johns Hopkins-affiliated Kennedy Krieger Institute knowingly exposed children and families—most of them black—to potentially dangerous levels of lead, as part of a study to determine the most cost-effective methods for removing lead paint from older buildings in poor neighborhoods. Their research entailed recruiting poor families to move into apartments and houses where three different levels of lead abatement had been utilized (telling them little or nothing about the risks involved) and then observing the lead levels in the children’s blood over time. Although most children saw reductions in the levels of lead in their blood, some of the kids in homes where the less expensive and thorough method of lead abatement had been used were exposed to lead levels high enough to have significant effects on brain development. Rather than simply eliminate the lead entirely, regardless of the cost, or knock down lead-infested buildings and start over again with new and non-toxic housing for Baltimore’s poor, prominent and respected researchers used low-income black families as guinea pigs. That I could reference here Tuskegee and most white folks would have no idea to what I was referring speaks volumes. And no, I won’t hyperlink it. If you have to look it up you have proved my point.
Others in Baltimore, not part of the Kennedy Krieger study, were similarly subjected to lead paint, often without even the pretense of attempted abatement or removal. One such family settled a lawsuit against slumlord Stanley Rochkind in 2010, he having been previously fined $90,000 by the Maryland Department of the Environment, and forced to remove lead paint in nearly 500 rental units he owned in the city. As regards that family for whom the 2010 settlement was obtained, one of the sons in that family, when tested, had levels of lead in his blood that were 2-4 times what the Centers for Disease Control considers cause for concern, and as much as twice what the state of Maryland deems official lead poisoning.
That son’s name? Freddie Gray. Perhaps you’ve heard of him”
Boom. Drop the mic Tim.
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^ Do you have a link for that quote (in case we want to read more)?
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Hi Jefe,
I read it at Raw Story:
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/anti-racist-scholar-tim-wise-white-america-is-oblivious-and-they-want-to-keep-it-that-way/
And it’s probably on his website too.
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Good post. I think the looting is inexcusable though. I also feel as though the protest was eventually hijacked by no-gooders who didn’t care about the actual shooting.
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Yeah; people make the mistake of thinking that black people are destroying “their own business”.
Well; no its like the riots back in the 90’s, its a chance to attack another rival minority close by and destroy “their business’s” not black peoples.
Its a chance to destroy a korean, arab, indian etc…business and open up a chance for one of their own to flourish.
Its like when white people burned down rosewood or the black wallstreet in oklahoma.
Of course it could be argued that by bringing in a business where none existed before, everybody is actually profiting to some extent.
But to some people if its not your own race in charge of it, that’s all that matters.
And of course; bitter jealousy, others succeeding where you haven’t.
As for white riots, they tend to last only a few hours and do substantially less damage.
I mean the total cost of basically every riot from the 90’s up associated with white people is what 20-50 million, whereas the long term costs from the LA riots is what in the 3.8 billion range?
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What’s interesting to me is; people being angry at these store owners for taking safety precautions in places with high crime, that given the option would burn them to the ground.
Why is it surprising they feel threatened?
Why is it wrong?
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“I mean the total cost of basically every riot from the 90’s up associated with white people is what 20-50 million, whereas the long term costs from the LA riots is what in the 3.8 billion range?”—-The cost of the LA riots were 1 billion. Now when you say long term costs what are you referring to? Do you not think those white riots carry long term costs? Of the white riots I know of, only two seem to be willing to give numbers, so do tell how the 20 to 50 million came about?
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Though a major difference in black riots vs white riots is reports on black riots are willing to put the cost of damage up. Whereas reports on white riots seem to be vague in costs.
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@V-4,
Have you ever patronized those stores with bulletproof glass and service counters with revolving windows or drawers which only open on one side, so that there is no contact between the customer and the shopkeeper, in neighbourhoods where nearly all the stores are like that, esp. the ones operated by Asian or Arab shopkeepers?
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@Sharinalr
General idea; most riots only cost in the few hundred thousand range, some a few million.
But considering the short term nature of them.
http://mic.com/articles/116680/11-stunning-images-highlight-the-double-standard-of-reactions-to-riots-like-baltimore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_riot
http://www.alternet.org/11-stupid-reasons-white-people-have-rioted
@Jefe
Nope; but does that change anything I’ve said?
These are people operating in extremely poor, crime ridden neighborhoods who have a legitimate fear for their lives and property but now they are being demonized for taking safety precautions and being victims?
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@V-4
Unless I am missing something in the links you provided, general idea seems to not provide a sum of damage costs at all. Of those that are provided the majority seem to be in the millions and the minority in he hundred thousands.
What does short term nature have to do with the amount of damage? People can destroy a lot in short term. On top of that I am missing how a short term riot makes it more acceptable.
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Was the riot over pumpkins a sport thing?
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I guess the question I would have to ask here is….if these arabs and Asians are so afraid of the area then why set up shot there to begin with?
Why would you want to work in a place where you fear for your life regularly?
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@SharinaLR
Short term; makes it cheaper, less damage to social structures and business’s, less people die or get hurt etc….and so on.
Something that only lasts 4 hrs versus one that last days, weeks or months. Even when damage being done at the same rate, only doing it 1/30th of the same time/length is just going to make it much cheaper to deal with by default.
Not so much as morally superior but it does explain why police don’t’ come out in force as much. By the time they get going it might already be over.
And if there is one thing cops are; its lazy.
As for setting up shop.
Money, chance for profit. Wherever they come from might be even worse. Because they are denied opportunities in other area’s. That sort of thing.
Can they be racist? Of course; like when that one asian women shot a young black girl in the back of the head because she thought she was shop lifting. But when the cops went through her back pack there was nothing.
Even if she had been shop lifting, killing someone over what might amount to nothing more than $5 worth of stuff requires some level of dehumanization. Either racist or a sociopath. Either way; it’s not good.
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@ sharinalr
“I guess the question I would have to ask here is….if these arabs and Asians are so afraid of the area then why set up shot there to begin with?
Why would you want to work in a place where you fear for your life regularly?”
I can’t imagine those shop keepers have an abundance of economic opportunity. It’s the equivalent of daying to workers who fight for labour rights: “Just work somewhere else.”
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@V-4
“Short term; makes it cheaper, less damage to social structures and business’s, less people die or get hurt etc….and so on.”—–I get you.
@Kartoffel
“I can’t imagine those shop keepers have an abundance of economic opportunity. It’s the equivalent of daying to workers who fight for labour rights: “Just work somewhere else.””—–I don’t see it that way. Most of the Asian shops etc. that I know of do not have “Bulletproof glass and service counters with revolving windows or drawers which only open on one side, so that there is no contact between the customer and the shopkeeper.” Something Jefe pointed out. These same Asians and other immigrants are in similar poor crime ridden neighborhoods. The difference could be that the Asians and immigrants I speak of have formed a bond with the community enough to trust they will not be victim or trust that if victim then perps will simply be caught. At any rate they do no seem to subject themselves to mental fear and precaution.
Is the stress of that situation really worth it or is the money they make off of these type neighborhoods worth more?
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@ sharinair
In Baltimore, the average liquor store is encased in bulletproof glass with a turnstyle. The liquor stores in Baltimore are often more extreme in all of the goods being behind the bullet proof glass with the customer space being nothing but a dirty dingy run-down hallway where underage drinkers and old people alike loiter. In DC, you have many Ethiopian owned liquor stores which is different.
In a city like Baltimore, Asians are rightfully looked at in the same vein as well-off suburban whites to the resentful impoverished economically disenfranchised ghettoized underclasses of both blacks and poor whites. There are no sizable poor Asian populations in Baltimore city or anywhere in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Despite the unfounded claims of what people like Jefe say, there is very, very little Asian American ghettoization on the East Coast compared to California. This is why Asians and blacks get along much better in many places in California, mostly in urban Northern California.
Most Asians in the Baltimore-Washington corridor are Koreans who own liquor stores, deli’s, laundromats and even large supermarkets and shopping centers from the suburbs to the inner city. The entire Route 40 corridor from Howard County into Baltimore city is dominated by Korean owned businesses from liquor stores to restaurants to entire shopping centers like Lotte Plaza. Much acts of violence have been directed at Asian Americans in Baltimore throughout the years. Most notably, a nearly all-black jury did not convict a black man who had much evidence to have killed the son of an Asian American shop keeper in 1995. Black people killing Asian shopkeers in Baltimore happens once every few years.
But Asian shop owners in Baltimore are very much a part of the oppressive power structure. But Korean shop owners represent the exploitable wedge of a group of people with the balls to open up shop in the inner city where wealthy white business owners and corporate business chains would never set up shop because of extreme fear for personal safety. Whites from the suburbs go into Baltimore city ghettos only if they are hopelessly addicted to opiates and need their heroin fix from the pusherman, which is very, very common out here.
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Sharina,
There are Asian & Arab stores in middle class, or working class black neighborhoods which are not enclosed in bulletproof glass with revolving windows or drawers opening on one side, but you will see them in the really poorer black neighborhoods. If I hadn’t seen them before, how would I describe what they look like. Many of them use a turnstile just like what SanFranpsycho415 described.
I saw them in Asian owned shops in Anacostia, but not so much in the working class black neighborhoods in PG county (except for the really poor ones). It makes me think that the Korean business directory must have businesses specializing in bulletproof service counters. I saw them in the stores operated by Fujian Chinese, and they all seemed to know each other very well.
In the middle class and lower middle working class black neighborhoods, I do see more of a bond forming between the Asian shopkeepers and black customers, but in the poorer neighborhoods, it is very much that bulletproof glass with turnstile or drawer thing with limited interaction between shopkeeper and customer.
@Kartoffel,
3rd race people like Asians and Arabs (and formerly Jews) have found a solid economic niche in black neighborhoods since post reconstruction — over 135 years.
You may recall I wrote about Chinese who settled in Mississippi who ran grocery stores serving blacks in the South for about 100 years (1880-1980). Most had already left by 1980.
(https://abagond.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/chinese-americans-in-the-deep-south-after-1882/)
After the Great Migration (1940s – 1970s) to cities in the North and West, large urban poor black communities formed. White businesses fled the neighborhoods and banks would not lend money or credit to operate businesses in those neighborhoods. Yet the residents still need to consume, which opens up a niche for these “3rd race” people who are socially connected and who do not share the same social attitudes that whites or even wealthier middle class blacks have about operating businesses in poorer black neighborhoods. I think until the 1960s, there were a lot of Jews doing that, but after the immigration laws were changed, there were East Asians (Chinese and Koreans) and Arabs or Asian Indians (in some places) entering that field by the 1970s. There is a definite economic need there, but it is mostly filled by new immigrants who do not know much English nor hold advanced degrees and who have few occupational options (esp working for whites). BUT, they are very socially well connected within their ethnic group, so you see a large concentration of them in certain economic niches. THAT is the reason why you see so many of them there.
Typical Scenario: a new Korean immigrant with little money works in his cousin’s or brother-in-law’s shop for several months, and then opens up his own with a modest amount of savings. His relatives lend him money and vouch for him among the supplier network. A slew of Korean owned businesses (eg, lawyers, accountants, security systems, credit unions, etc.) exist specifically to support these businesses.
I think that in the early years, ie, before WWII, there was a much stronger bond between the Asian shopkeepers and the black customers, but the civil rights movement challenged that as Asians were viewed as trying to distance themselves from blacks. It is the white power structure that created the ghetto, but the Asian /Arab shopkeepers are viewed as milking the community of its economic resources. They then become surrogate targets of rage within the community.
In the 1960s, blacks attacked and looted the Chinese grocery stores in Mississippi during the civil rights movement.
In the 1990s, Korean stores were attacked and looted AFTER the Rodney King beating incident.
In the 2010s, we see this during the recent protests in places like Baltimore.
We have plenty of history of this happening over and over again. Does the white power structure or the police care? No. The Asian / Arab shopkeepers cannot depend on the police for security, hence the bulletproof glass, their decision to own and use guns, etc.
You see why I think the Model Minority stereotype was an evil invention created to reinforce white supremacy and pit Asians against blacks.
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@ Jefe
I do remember your post about it. But I don’t see how that is a counter argument to my post. It rather seems to suport it.
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@Jefe
“f I hadn’t seen them before, how would I describe what they look like.”—I was not saying or implying that you had not. I believe full well that you have.
Kartoffel wrote my comment off as “It’s the equivalent of daying to workers who fight for labour rights: “Just work somewhere else.”
I thought your comment was a great descriptor so I decided to simply use it. My point to him was this is not something I see here in poor neighborhoods and if the Asians here can carry on business without such extremes then why not those that use bulletproof glass and so forth. I just don’t see that level of fear as worth it. It could be just me.
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@SanFranpsycho415
” there is very, very little Asian American ghettoization on the East Coast compared to California. “—-I agree with you here. Though I am going to have to admit that my idea of ghetto may be different from others.
“Asian shop owners in Baltimore are very much a part of the oppressive power structure”—Do you mind going into detail? How so?
“But Korean shop owners represent the exploitable wedge of a group of people with the balls to open up shop in the inner city where wealthy white business owners and corporate business chains would never set up shop”—-Fully agree. Where I live it is Korean’s in poorer neighborhoods. East Indians mainly run the liquor stores here. The Chinese usually conduct business in more upscale areas.
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@Kartoffel,
I should have quoted your text, but my point was that it was not a simple matter of packing up and moving to “less dangerous” neighborhoods. Also, there is undoubtedly economic opportunity there, otherwise why would they be there. And those shopkeepers more often than not are able to buy their own house and send their kids to university, all from operating shops in those neighborhoods.
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Oh my, I read the whole article in shock. I can’t believe that I have used some of the words and belief systems of White racists in times like this especially
”“Why do they destroy their own community?” ”
” “Years of poverty and oppression” ”
”“Black-on-black crime” ”
Honestly, I thought I was summing up the whole situation and trying to help things not add onto the racists’ beliefs. It makes me sad because it makes me think that I probably internalized anti Black sentiments from the media without even realizing it. It sucks because police brutality is a big issue that affects Black and brown people around the nation and I want to speak up against it not contribute to the problem.
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@Adeen:
It happens. Sometimes, usually due to anger, you have no idea what to do and think. White people attack you for something that you are not, yet you quickly become so hostile as to forget why these things are not even happening. But the only thing that will help is comprehending how the current structure came to be.
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