seriously?

[jlh]

(I'm posting this here because I don't want to rant in the journal of a friend who is really only reporting what someone else said to them.)

Are we seriously telling each other that if Barack Obama loses on Tuesday that all the black neighborhoods in major cities in the US will go up in flames? Seriously? You're going to tell my (white, jewish) roommate to pack an overnight bag and head to her parents' house in the 'burbs because we live in a predominantly black area of Brooklyn?

Of course, you're assuming that I'll be safe as houses since I'm a colored girl, which might be why no one's said anything about this to me before now ...

You do know that the last time that really happened in multiple cities was when Dr. King was shot, right? And that there were predictions of it at various points later but it didn't really happen? I just ... I am apoplectic right now with rage. You're all like, yay Obama! and voting for him and shit, and you might be a friend of mine, because hey, Barack and I are only half black, and we're educated, and all that noise. But you know, them folks in the ghetto, when they don't get what they want, they goin' burn that city to da ground, I tell ya!

ETA: Okay, I just talked to my coworker D, a white guy, whose response to this was, "That's ridiculous, but if he loses, I'll go to Detroit and riot with them." This mysteriously made me feel a little better, and I am no longer shaking with rage. However, I continue to think that this is the most racist bullshit I've heard all month. Seriously.

Comments

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Oh if he loses I will be FURIOUS but if we're going to riot why not drive to the red states that caused the problem instead of shitting in our own living rooms?

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Well, rioting is always about shitting in your own living room, actually; that's the weird paradox of rioting.

Also, everyone knows that black people don't own cars.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Well, that's why I said "if." I'm more of a civil disobedience kind of person in practice. But if crazy bigots are defining black people as angry people who want things to change for the better and base governing on LOGIC--and who will be angry if we end up with McPain? Then I would like to be considered a POC from now on please.

I don't have a car either. Can't afford it and don't need one in the city. But I live with other non-real Americans here.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

The thing that made me angry is that where I saw it, it wasn't crazy bigots, but just paranoid nice white middle class people who were saying things like "better safe than sorry." So it freaked me right out.

Let's hear it for the non-real Americans!

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

People who say things like that must be crazy bigots pretending to be nice white middle class people? I just can't deal with it otherwise. This is bring out my inner cynic who tends to think most people suck. I'm really trying NOT to think that.

On the other end of the spectrum from the paranoid people--my white sister in law and her black husband are going to Chicago on Nov. 4 to celebrate Obama's win--they are taking their two kids. They want to be there to share in the joy. I love them so hard.