Full disclosure: The story I opened with happened twenty-odd years ago. It was a time when black and white folks weren’t getting along so well, and it happened in Oakland. I’m a punk chick and the other person was a teenage girl. I got harrassed every day. People with a strong personal presence seldom seem to understand this, but anyone who has ever been picked on will tell you: you know when a given person is going to mess with you. I wasn’t “reading her mind.” It was obvious.
The correlation I was trying to make is that to some people, it is not enough to hate others privately. They seem to actually be pissed off that they have to be “PC” and not be able to hate people right to their faces.
Hahahaha. You have quite the imagination. You jumped to the conclusion that someone you don’t know, and have never met, was going to attack/assault/insult you.
So you decided to wander down the street with your eyes closed???
How far can you actually walk - in a straight line - with your eyes closed? 3 feet? 6 feet? 5280 feet?
Did you veer into her path as if you were drunk, or high? Could she have thought that your bizarre (and closing your eyes while walking down a city street is bizarre) behavior was intimidating or aggressive?
And then you jump to the conclusion that she was infuriated that you were taking away what she considered her right to insult me???
And you did this without actually talking to her. Fascinating.
Why would she need your eyes open so she could insult you? She obviously knew you could hear her. Not buying this bizarre scenario for an instant, including your psychic awareness that you knew what she was thinking as soon as you saw her.
Well, that’s too bad because it’s too late. They control the government, or will very shortly once they take office. They do get a free pass, and there’s nothing we can do to stop Trump doing anything he likes or letting the bigots do as they please.
And I think it’s going to be a lot worse than insults. I think we’re headed back to the days of Jim Crow, lynchings and raceriots, with white mobs invading black and brown neighborhoods, burning and killing everything they come across. While the police look on in approval, or join in.
With even more rape because hatred of women is as much a factor as racism, this time around.
Apparently, you’ve never been harassed, not regularly, anyway. I understood immediately what she meant. I’ve no doubt it happened. It’s quite an insight on human (mis)behavior.
I’ve been harassed a few times in my life and the very last thing I would ever consider is closing my eyes and giving the harasser even more ammunition (not to mention rendering myself defenseless).
The pessimistic scenario is that the US is going to go full-bore white nationalist, and launch an outright nationwide ethnic cleansing campaign resulting in the death or deportation of the non-white, non-Christian population. And yes, I know just how many people that would be.
Do you truly believe this? I know that we’ve had some bad times in America, but I have a hard time accepting that this would happen today, no matter who’s the president. I’d like to think that citizens are more likely to step up today in solidarity than in years past.
And,* it doesn’t matter;* the bigots have seized the levers of power. Nobody’s going to stop them from doing as they please, nor can they.
Protests? Protestors will be ignored, or beaten into submission by the police, or just shot. Most likely to the acclaim of the public.
Voting? Voting suppression is going to run rampant; if you aren’t a white male in a Republican area, you probably effectively no longer have a vote. Just trying to vote will probably get you assaulted, and if you actually get to a polling place you’ll find your registration no longer exists.
But what’s really gonna hurt is when the sky falls and crushes us all!
But at least it’ll get the [del]black-hating, Mexican-hating, Muslim-hating, gay-hating, trans-hating, woman-hating, school-hating, liberal-hating, progress-hating, drug-hating, crime-hating, science fiction-hating[/del] Republicans too.
