Friday Open Thread

Posted on August 26, 2016 by rikyrah

TGIF

Alabama Lynching Memorial to confront U.S. history of slavery

This entry was posted in African Americans, Black Lives Matter, Criminal Justice, Current Events, Democracy, discrimination, Jim Crow laws, Lynching, Open Thread, Politics, Racism and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

59 Responses to Friday Open Thread

  1. Liza says:
    August 27, 2016 at 7:06 pm

    The Memorial to Peace and Justice has been designed by the MASS Design Group. They have an interesting website.

    http://massdesigngroup.org/design

    Reply
  3. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2016 at 9:49 pm

    John Dingell ‏@JohnDingell Aug 25

    Donald Trump is a two-bit huckster, traveling the country with a fancy suitcase full of bad ideas and stupid hats.

    Reply
  4. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2016 at 9:46 pm

    Why Tika Sumpter Was So Nervous About Playing Future First Lady Michelle Obama
    The actress and producer of the film Southside With You, about Michelle and Barack Obama’s first date, reveals how she got over her fear of playing the role and why she thinks the film is special.

    BY: RONDA RACHA PENRICE
    Posted: August 25, 2016

    In coming months, we will be inundated with the endless highlights from our first black president’s historic two terms. One of the most delightful developments over the first family’s eight-year stay is the emergence of first lady Michelle Obama. Is there any doubt that she helped spark the #BlackGirlMagic that is our reality more and more every day?

    Over 20 years ago, though, today’s first lady was simply Michelle Robinson, living in her native Chicago when she and Barack Obama had their “first date.” It’s that one day that the film Southside With You captures on the big screen.

    This movie, from the Sundance Film Festival—starring Tika Sumpter of Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots and Ride Along fame, and relative newcomer Parker Sawyers, an American actor based in London, as the first couple—will finally be available for all to see when it hits theaters Friday. Sumpter came on board two years ago, before there was even a script, and is a producer on the film. During promotional rounds for the film, the very pregnant Sumpter sat down for questions following an advanced screening of the film in Atlanta. Here are some of the insights she shared:

    Reply
  6. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2016 at 9:37 pm

    Southside With You Turns First Couple’s 1st Date Into a Sweet Romance
    There’s a bit of politics and a lot of glimpses into what the Obamas would become.
    BY: TRACY L. SCOTT
    Posted: August 26, 2016

    How do great romances start? In most cases, especially in the days before the internet, there’s a meeting, a mutual attraction or interest, followed up by a first date. And that’s where we find Barack (Parker Sawyers) and Michelle Obama (Tika Sumpter) in the new film Southside With You.

    Writer-director Richard Tanne’s imagination fills in the blanks of the Obamas’ actual first date to offer a believable picture of what that initial outing might have been like for the professional colleagues who would, years later, become the first African-American president and first lady.

    There is a visit to an art exhibit, a movie, ice cream and a bit of tension, and not just the kind caused by attraction. A young Barack tries to hide his smoking habit at first, and Michelle is adamant about maintaining the lines of professionalism. The conflict, a mandatory element of any rom-com worth the popcorn, only serves to make their final kiss goodnight that much sweeter.

    Along the way, there are four notable elements that make Southside With You a film that sets itself apart from other romances:

    Reply
  7. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    August 26, 2016 at 9:30 pm

    Rikyrah,

    This nature photo is for you:
    https://twitter.com/EarthBeauties/status/766085442684891140

    Reply
  11. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2016 at 7:42 pm

    FYI:

    Update your iPhones and iPads Immediately

    by Adam L Silvermanat7:27 pm on August 26, 2016.

    An Israeli company, the NSO Group, that sells hacking solutions to governments to allow them to access people’s tech, has found a way to get around iOS security. So if you’ve got an iPhone or an iPad or anything else running iOS, go to settings and software update and download and install the patch that Apple pushed out yesterday!

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      August 27, 2016 at 12:22 pm

      Well, yeah. As a former southerner, I can tell you the correct way to eat watermelon is to get your face all up in it, but this kid needs it sliced. Those of you who cut up your watermelon into little cubes are doing it wrong.

      Reply
  21. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2016 at 6:47 pm

    From POU:

    Town dropped the truth:

    Town
    White people/Republicans know they’re being conned but they want to be conned because they want to believe in the larger con, which is when Trump wins, he will get rid of minorities (Muslims, Hispanics) and put the ones he can’t get rid of (blacks) in their place. Then America will be great again.

    In other words, half of this country will ignore the obvious con (Trump enriching himself off of this campaign) to believe in the bigger con, which is that Trump will make America WHITE again.

    If/when Trump loses in November, they will not take responsibility for willingly being conned because that would mean admitting they are white nationalists who liked Trump’s ethnic cleansing ideas so much they were willing to let a narcissistic incompetent con man flush the country down the drain.

    Reply
  23. Vinny Idol says:
    August 26, 2016 at 1:07 pm

    Great video. Ill make sure to share this with my friends and family. I hope the native americans in dakota win their fight against big oil.. did anyone hear about the black man shot for reporting a robbery? tragedy all around.

    Reply
  27. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 26, 2016 at 11:42 am

    America Isn’t a Hellhole

    Genocide of Native Americans
    Trail of Tears
    Slavery
    Jim Crow
    Bombing of Black Wall Street
    Police brutality
    Institutional racism

    No, I don’t see it….

    Reply
  28. Ametia says:
    August 26, 2016 at 11:29 am

    HERE’S HILLARY CLINTON & DONALD TRUMP CALLING EACH OTHER RACIST

    pot-kettle-black

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      August 26, 2016 at 4:53 pm

      LOL…Exactement..

      Same difference…

      The okey-doke, the non-stop spinning, the shameless spinners… the interference runners…they have all been a sight to behold though…

      If we were not all witness to the past 8+ years, it just might have worked…

      But to know what we know, and yet to watch the same racist folks who actively wielded, cultivated, utilized and exploited racism and the brazen racists and racist mindset these past 8 years, now clutching pearls and acting all suddenly ‘shocked’, ‘appalled’, ‘offended’, ‘outraged’ – and worse, all self-righteous and sanctimonious…

      This is all just too much…so amusing if it weren’t all so sad, manipulative, exploitative and mercenary…

      https://i.imgflip.com/160dmy.jpg

      Reply
  29. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 26, 2016 at 11:27 am

    America Isn’t a Hellhole if you don’t consider racism, enslavement, lynchings, torture, segregations, Jim Crow, Pig laws, Black codes, and mass incarceration of black people a bad thing?

    Reply
  30. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 26, 2016 at 11:15 am

    Well it’s about time you picked up the story @msnbc. Do better!

    https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/769202882784657408

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      August 26, 2016 at 11:22 am

      the media is always a da late and a dollar short. Social-media is driving the narratives these days. They just jump on the wagon when it blows up.

      Reply
  32. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 26, 2016 at 10:32 am

    President Barack Obama-True Colors

    Reply
  34. Ametia says:
    August 26, 2016 at 10:20 am

    Prince fans will get a Graceland of their own

    The Elvis Presley faithful turn to Graceland as their point of pilgrimage. Presley’s former estate in Memphis, Tenn., offers public tours and houses a museum dedicated to the King’s life and legacy.

    Now, Prince fans will have a mecca of their own. Paisley Park, the massive complex in Chanhassen, Minn., where the iconic musician lived and worked, will be open to the public starting Oct. 6. Tickets go on sale at 3 p.m. Friday.

    Prince hosted surprise events at Paisley Park, including one held days before his April death. But the iconic musician generally led a very private life, and few people have toured his estate.

    “Opening Paisley Park is something that Prince always wanted to do and was actively working on,” Tyka Nelson, Prince’s sister, said in a statement. “Only a few hundred people have had the rare opportunity to tour the estate during his lifetime. Now, fans from around the world will be able to experience Prince’s world for the first time as we open the doors to this incredible place

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/08/25/prince-fans-will-get-a-graceland-of-their-own/

    Reply
  35. Ametia says:
    August 26, 2016 at 9:52 am

    Good Morning, Everyone. Today, I’m traveling to the north shore for the weekend .

    Make a great day!!!!

    Reply
  37. SouthernGirl2 says:
    August 26, 2016 at 9:34 am

    Folks don’t like it when you hold the mirror up to them. Paul LePage, you are a bigoted racist! Don’t be racist and folks won’t call you one. See how that works?

    https://twitter.com/CNN/status/769167034034839553

    Reply
  38. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    August 26, 2016 at 9:15 am

    Excerpt from PBS about the video below:

    “Based on [Douglas A.] Blackmon’s research, ‘Slavery by Another Name’ spans eight decades, from 1865 to 1945, revealing the interlocking forces in both the South and the North that enabled this “neoslavery” to begin and persist. Using archival photographs and dramatic re-enactments filmed on location in Alabama and Georgia, it tells the forgotten stories of both victims and perpetrators of neoslavery and includes interviews with their descendants living today.”

    https://youtu.be/UcCxsLDma2o&rel=0

    Reply
  39. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    August 26, 2016 at 8:39 am

    https://youtu.be/GUwmz2QOp9Q&rel=0
    “EJI [Equal Justice Initiative] challenges poverty and racial injustice, advocates for equal treatment in the criminal justice system, and creates hope for marginalized communities.”

    Reply
  40. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    August 26, 2016 at 8:33 am

    This video was posted by the Equal Justice initiative in 2015:

    https://youtu.be/r4e_djVSag4&rel=0
    “The myth of racial difference that was created to sustain American slavery persists today. Slavery did not end in 1865, it evolved.”

    Reply
  41. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2016 at 8:19 am

    Bryan Stevenson is a national treasure.

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    August 26, 2016 at 6:19 am

    Good Morning 😊, Everyone 😆

    Reply
    • yahtzeebutterfly says:
      August 26, 2016 at 7:59 am

      Good Morning Everyone :)

      Thank you, Ametia, thank you for this most important post. I, and our country, need to confront deeply our history of slavery and lynchings. It is a history of violence and terrorism on a horrific level.

      Bryan Stevenson asserts that when we confront our history of slavery and lynchings

      You change your identity, and you change your relationship to these histories of mass atrocity and violence.

      But when you don’t do that, things linger. The smog created by that history of racial inequality continues to compromise our health. And, in this country, we haven’t done that about slavery, about lynching, about segregation…

      We’ve got to resurrect this history. We’ve got to talk about the challenges created by slavery. We’ve got to talk about the challenges created by lynching. People don’t understand that that was terrorism. We menaced and traumatized millions of African Americans in this country.

      At the beginning of the twentieth century 90% of the Black population lived in the deep South. And, then they fled by the millions.

      And the Black people in Milwaukee, in Cleveland and Chicago and Detroit and New York and Los Angeles didn’t come to those communities as immigrants looking for new economic opportunities. They came to these communities as refugees and exiles from terror in the American South.

      And, if we don’t talk about that history, we’re not going to understand the challenges that have been created.

      Bryan Stevenson pointed out that

      We’ve created a narrative of denial. We’ve a narrative of that says, “We’re not going to talk about the mistakes we make.” We do the Olympics great; we do success great; we do pride great; we do victory great. But, we don’t do mistake very well in this country. We don’t do error very well. We have a hard time collectively saying, “I’m sorry.” I think it’s because we’ve become such a punitive society. We think if we own up to our mistake, something bad is going to happen to us. We’re going to get punished. And, I’m not doing these projects because I want to punish America. I want us to be liberated from the chains that this history has created.

      The Equal Justice Memorial:
      https://youtu.be/vYM3HAVPPG8&rel=0

      Reply
      • Ametia says:
        August 26, 2016 at 10:18 am

        Thank you, Yahtzee!

        SLAVERY & LYNCHINGS HAPPENED & HAS EVOLVED

        Reply
      • Liza says:
        August 27, 2016 at 12:25 pm

        The design for this memorial is absolutely ingenious.

        The concept, in some ways, reminds me of the Vietnam memorial in Washington DC.

        Thanks for all of these posts, Yahtzee.

        Reply
      • yahtzeebutterfly says:
        August 27, 2016 at 1:57 pm

        Yvw, Liza.

        What I think is brilliant is the idea of then having the same type of columns in the ground outside engraved with the names of the counties and those lynched and the museum having the program for counties to claim their column and remove it and plant it in their county. That’s the beginning of the acknowledgement that needs to take place in order to bring on the conversation and healing.

        Reply

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