White People Are Running Scared As Their Long Reign Crumbles

Anti-racist blogger Shay Stewart-Bouley of Black Girl in Maine shared news of white backlash against Black History Month in the U.S. generally and targeting her specifically. She posted the above photo to social media platforms with her commentary and the predictable backlash from terrified, angry white people ensued. 

Her analysis of the "It's OK to be White" message is worth a read.

Coincidentally, my weekend kicked off with my 6 year old grandson sharing that he had watched Portland City Councilor Victoria Pelletier read a nasty letter she received and decided to publicize on social media.

(Note: I greatly appreciate my grandchildren's parents for their active anti-racist educational efforts in our mostly white family.)

My grandson remembered Councilor Pelletier from the community television show we do together as he and his mom had been in the studio audience last year. As a young constituent of Portland's 2nd District, he was concerned that people were "being mean" to Councilor Pelletier. 

Yup, me too, and kudos to Pelletier for lifting the rock and showing us the ugly racism that she and other people of color face constantly when elected to public office.

All this on the weekend of the Chinese weather balloon theatrics.

White people locally, nationally, and internationally are expressing their perception of being backed into a corner where their power over others and control of common resources is eroding rapidly. 

NATO, a white supremacist military alliance, has bombed, occupied, and pillaged populations around the globe. Now that Ukraine is being used in a proxy war to weaken China's strongest ally, Russia, the violence is targeting whites -- as it did in air strikes on Yugoslavia in the 1990's.

But NATO and its U.S. masters are watching their economic power slip away. 

This is what working class white people are experiencing domestically as well.

Arguments about fairness and equity fall on deaf ears. The fact that Black households in the U.S. have a mere 11% of the household wealth of white households doesn't matter to these terrified white folks. They can't afford enough food or heat and are panicking. Their healthcare options are pathetic, and access to luxuries like regular dental care are almost non-existent.

Media owned by billionaires have people in the U.S. trained to blame each other rather than the root of their common problems: corporate government that allows, even facilitates, profit from misery. 

Example of a false dichotomy narrative common in the U.S.

Big Pharma and weapons manufacturers spring to mind but there are many more.

The U.S. doing business as NATO is panicking, too. The Ukraine war sanctions on Russia harmed Europe's economy, not Russia's, and hastened the abandonment of the U.S. dollar as a currency for international trade. Billions of dollars and weapons later, Ukraine's military cannot prevail, and it has already lost in the humanitarian sense with neo-Nazis steering the ship of state.

Enter the weather balloon and cue the China-bashing hysteria in the press.

Most likely the PR aspect of hyping this appearance of a hot air balloon (there have been many in the past, but did you ever hear about them?) was to create a pretext for U.S. Secretary of State Blinken to cancel his announced visit to Beijing to meet with President Xi. This small step toward peaceful relations with China had to be stopped by those who want war and are very rapidly arming up in the Pacific region.

White supremacy has had its day. 

Delaying tactics are in some cases hastening its demise. Decisions made from fear are often not logical or ultimately beneficial to those making them.

It's logical to be fearful of losing the major privilege accorded those who appear white. Although they play the victim, white privilege is very much something they benefit from all the time. Enslaving labor plus other plunder of colonized populations and their resources has created an artificial standard of living for white people that could never have endured on a level playing field.

So, as loss of status plus economic disaster overtakes this group, they lash out in myriad ways to stave off the inevitable. 

From the micro level where leaders of color are insulted and threatened to the macro level where NATO moves nuclear weapons into place all over the globe and ramps up anti-China rhetoric, white people are running scared.

Nice Manners Uphold White Supremacy & Brutal Class Warfare

A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “A 22-year-old woman was arrested..on Sunday 11 September 2022 in connection with a breach of the peace.” This occurred during a public ceremony to recognize Charles as the new King of Scotland. Source: The National

One of the strongest messages a white baby boomer received growing up was the need to behave well. "Pretty is as pretty does," was one such admonition, particularly tailored for girls. "Fools' names and fools' faces are often seen in public places," was another. 

This conditioning must be overcome in order to raise a dissenting voice.

The changing of monarchs in the United Kingdom produced an outburst of fawning over crowned heads as well as an outburst of truth telling and its inevitable companion, tone policing.

Scots were arrested protesting the ascension of the rather unpopular Charles III. Some with signs were put in handcuffs, while others who boo'd appear to have gotten away with it.

The quintessential tone policing remark was predictable. As reported in The National:

Donald Maclaren, 64, of Livingston, said: “It’s very disrespectful, there is a time and a place if you want to protest, but this isn’t it."

 

See, his mother just died, so it's not the time and place to protest a man who just inherited a vast fortune and is exempt from the 40% inheritance tax others must pay. 

No matter how rich you are, you are likely to be totally clueless about how bad tone policing makes you look. Billionaire labor nemesis Jeff Bezos chastised a Black academic on Twitter who wrote: "I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating." 

His criticism and the pushback to it greatly elevated her original tweet (which now appears to have been censored by Twitter). More tone policing came from Carnegie Mellon University where she is employed. They said her remarks did not reflect their values despite Dr. Uju Anya's explanation to a journalist:

"I am the child and sibling of survivors of genocide. 

From 1967-1970, more than 3 million civilians were massacred when the Igbo people of Nigeria tried to form the independent nation of Biafra.. 

this genocide was directly supported and facilitated by the British government.. 

weapons, bombs, planes, military vehicles, and supplies were sent to kill us and protect their interests in the oil reserves on our land."

If you're white and live in a racist country like the U.S., you've probably been in lots of situations where you were hearing white supremacist rhetoric while wondering what to say in response.

 That's if you could find the courage to speak up at all.

You might have been at a family holiday dinner.

You might have been in a hair salon where the person you angered could be holding scissors next to your face.

Is it a coincidence that the part of the U.S. where many still revere the Confederacy has the reputation of being especially polite?

No matter where you live in the U.S., you were probably raised to be conflict averse in a society where "conflict" is a euphemism for war. 

So there's likely an element of fear of violence involved in the calculus about what to say or whether to say anything.

Doris Lessing, one of my favorite authors, grew up white in apartheid colonial Africa, the part that is now Zimbabwe. Her penchant for telling the truth about British colonialism among other things did not always make her popular. She died in 2013 but I'll give her the last word:

A White Supremacist Nation Is Not And Cannot Ever Be Great

Portland, Maine May 31, 2020 photo credit: Kelly F. Merrill

A white supremacist country is not and can never be great.

Our tax dollars are spent on vast amounts of weaponry and violent crowd control technology and equipment every year; this year we learned what weak investments were made to provide for a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the disease began to spread in the US, mass shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) have resulted in health care providers working for months now with inadequate protection, and a mere fraction of the population being tested due to shortages of items as basic as nasal swabs.

People are fed up with unaccountable policing that targets Black men, women, and children and deals out injury and death without meaningful consequences. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in all 50 states in cities including but not limited to Minneapolis, New York City, Portland (both Oregon and Maine), Louisville, Austin, Dallas, and Flint. Mostly peaceful protests have been plagued by agents provocateurs committing acts of property damage, and marred by police employing tanks, drones, and shooting at residents on their own front porches. Journalists have particularly been targeted -- shot at and arrested -- while attempting to do their jobs.

Portland, Maine May 31, 2020 photo credit: Kelly F. Merrill

Meanwhile, the President who failed to contain the pandemic is tweeting inflammatory messages intended as stochastic violence. That is, cueing his white supremacist followers to attack protesters and escalate nonviolent protests to violent ones.

It is possible to imagine that a President facing an election he seems destined to lose would see fomenting civil war as a way out of the necessity of holding elections in November.

It is clear that community control of police is imperative if the US is to heal and move forward. 

It is unclear what National Guard soldiers think they are doing when they follow orders to attack Americans at their own homes. The Posse Comitatus Act made it illegal to use the US military against the American people. It is clear that the President is often confused about the provisions of the Constitution he swore to uphold. Recently he accused the private company Twitter of violating the 1st amendment which guarantees the right to protected political speech among other rights, exhibiting a misunderstanding of the Bill of Rights' function to protect our rights from encroachment by government.

A white supremacist nation is not and cannot ever be great.

Portland Maine May 31, 2020 photo credit: Kelly F. Merrill

I am calling on Congress to either return to Washington DC or begin working remotely, immediately, to address the vacuum of leadership during these dangerous times.

I am calling on the legislature in my state to invest in anti-racist education preK-12 to be delivered remotely starting as soon as possible. This urgent need cannot wait until regular school programming begins in the fall. Only education can address the racist assumptions and misconceptions at the heart of rampant police violence against people of color.

I am calling on the governor in my state to include an indigenous (non-immigrant) Black person, that is, someone descended from African slaves kidnapped and brought to America, in every decision making body under her jurisdiction. This includes committees charged with recommending policies for economic recovery, education, policing, housing, food production and distribution and, especially, health care policy.

The disproportionate number of Black people who are arrested, tried, and incarcerated in Maine as compared with their presence in the population speaks for itself -- the problem is here, it is us. The disproportionate rate of infection and death among Black people from the COVID-19 disease here in Maine is further evidence of a racist economy, and a racist health care system.

Portland, Maine  May 31, 2020  photo credit: Kelly F. Merrill

Our budget priorities are racist, our criminal justice system is racist, our education system is racist, and our health care system is racist.

A white supremacist state is not and cannot ever be great.

Report Back On Maine For Mainers Anti-Immigrant Picnic #mepolitics

Here's the report back from Andy Bourassa who stood with Stacie Bourassa and Ryan Celli on the road outside the "Maine for Mainers" anti-immigrant picnic.

The event had been publicized by unknown actors who mailed this flyer to residents living nearby in Canaan:

Several Maine newspapers, and even the Associated Press, carried the story of the flyer and the push back from organizers who objected to being characterized as white supremacists (despite their online history as such).

This is Andy's account:

We arrived at about 1:40. At that point, Ryan Celli was already there and parked on the opposite side of the street-about 500 yards from Camille's property. Fox/ABC channel 7, was already there also. 

As soon as we parked our car TOM K approached us. He asked us if we were supporters, protesters, or something else. 

I stated we were here to watch, document, and make it know we didn’t support his mission or presence. 

I began to record at this point, as he and Ryan began debating where we could and could not stand or be. 

Ryan stated he had spoken with the road commissioner and was clear on what he could and could not do. Stacie and I also had consulted on the law in Canaan. 

TOM argues that we could not follow those guidelines. Ryan made him aware that Camille had threatened him, and TOM said Camille has a tendency to give over excited and carried away. We never addressed him until he spoke to us. After I called him out on this-because he said we were arguing with him...he walked away to complete his FOX interview further up the road. 

After reporter finished with him-she came down and interviewed all three of us.

Her questions were things like-do we expect more people, how did you hear about this, and what did you think about the flyer (they say they didn’t send it)?

At 2:00- Ryan and I walked up the street and planned to stand about 50 yards away from Camille's driveway in the shade-on opposite side of the road and document. As we walked by the property, Camille came out and engaged Ryan. She started arguing with him about us being there and saying she had called the police. At that point -Ryan stopped walking and said, I guess I’ll stand right here. Just off the property line-on the side of the road. 

Camille has some young guy in a Gandhi shirt (go figure) stand guard at the entrance to the drive. He silently shadowed Ryan for awhile.

A car arrived, with two older white men (60+). They pulled up and asked me if this was the white supremacist picnic. I planed my video up so they wouldn’t see me recording and wouldn’t get their faces. But you can hear the exchange on the video. They were from out of town and saw the event and wanted to come support TOM and Camille.

Because they stopped and chatted with me, when they tried to go in- Camille stops them and says they need to leave immediately and that they are on camera trespassing. She gets upsets and tells them to leave now! All that is on video. She actually turned away supporters-because she was so worried about infiltrators.  

After they left, Camille again addressed and argued with Ryan and then walked away. The guy that had been shadowing Ryan, suddenly took three steps toward him and reached into his pocket. It happened so fast I didn’t catch it on video-just saw it. Ryan pulled up his shirt and showed the guy that he was carrying a weapon and warned him not to approach any further. The guy pulled out his phone and started recording, (this I have on video I shared) as he narrated a false tale. In my video I correct him and he changes his story three times-but eventually says exactly what I said in his own words.  

Camille comes back out and starts yelling at Ryan again. 

At this point, Camille says: “Have you ever heard the phrase don’t shit where you sleep? You have kids-you fool. Someone could come to where you live...” 

At this point Ryan called the state police and reported threatening of his family. Police said they were on their way. 

After 25 minutes the police showed up. State police Sgt. Bryant. 

He was kind and calm. He spoke to Ryan first, then me, then went to speak with Camille and party. Stacie recorded this interaction with us-it is 15 mins long. 

Officer took a very long time with them at the picnic. We waited for 45-60 mins in the sun like he asked us to. I made the comment that I would have left sooner than that if he hadn’t made us stay-it was state sponsored protesting because he wouldn’t let us leave the scene:) 

We waited at the end of her drive while he spoke to TOM, Camille and other party goers. At some points they got heated with the officer and seemed quite upset. Overall they had the state police at their picnic for about an hour-so hard for TOM to talk.

While waiting to be released, two people left the party. One looked right at Ryan and I as he left in his pickup and said: “those people are friggin nuts!” 

The officer finally came back and told us we were being warned for Disorderly Conduct. He acknowledged we had not broken any laws but said if we persisted and they were called back we would be arrested. I challenged that as I had reported to him as a cooperating witness with video that he reviewed. How was I being disorderly. I also challenged his notion we were invading her space. All interactions happened in the easement or public roadway so it was a disagreement between two parties in public-not on privately owned land. We asked if Camille was also getting a warning and he said he would “talk” to her. We challenged that and said if we are being warned -she has to be too. Ryan also asked that the officer provide a formal warning of harassment and cease and desist on any further contact -per threats and warnings she had already sent and received. Based on evidence Ryan provided he did issue her and official no contact. Camille violates that the same night by posting at and about him on Facebook. Which the officer said specifically was not allowed. 

There were about 8-10 people in total. Camille and her partner Dave, and TOM...were three of the 8-10, and two people left. So overall, maybe 5 members showed and stayed.

We left at 4:15 when the officer released us. At that point they were mostly done.

For context, here are a few screenshots of hostess Camille Cheaney Patterson's threats posted to Facebook prior to the picnic.

To put faces with names:

A couple of thoughts about all this:

*  White privilege probably allowed Stacie, Andy, and Ryan to feel safe interacting with a state trooper the way they did. It also protected them as they stood in a public space witnessing the picnic and documenting who attended:

* People of color would not likely have felt safe in this space or these interactions.

* I wouldn't have felt safe knowing that Ryan was carrying a concealed weapon. The probability of someone being injured or killed goes up significantly in spaces where guns are present. I have asked Ryan to comment on his choice to do this, and thus I won't guess what his motivation and reasoning may have been.

* Why is avowed white nationalist Tom K. wearing an Indian kurta in the photos with his wife and Camille's partner Dave? Because Hindu Brahmins were the original white supremacists?

Racism Report From Central Maine -- It's Not Good; Black Family With Sick Child Harassed At Skowhegan KFC

People I know in Canaan, a rural town near Skowhegan, Maine, received this charming notice in the mail recently. It appears to refer to this event organized by a group associated with one of the most vocal of the (now retired) mascot keepers.

As you can see here, the event was created by the infamous white nationalist who was fired from his job as town manager of Jackman, Maine based on racist posts to social media.

Some people who I respect say, Why give the white supremacists this kind of free publicity? And I get that. So, the name of the fired town manager is in an image, not text that could be searched, and I won't be putting his name in the Labels (tags) section of this blogging platform either. But, here's why.

Because Maine for Mainers and "The Way Maine Should Be" are dog whistles for white supremacy. 

And white supremacy beliefs lead to tragically cruel behavior toward people of color. Like this, which happened this week in Skowhegan:

Is it ironic that KFC, a brand associated with a stereotypical old white Southern guy, is in the same store as Taco Bell? 

Is it unrelated that Rep. Jared Golden has his office staff in DC tell constituents that harassment of people of color by ICE "doesn't really affect Maine's 2nd District" and thus "isn't really on his radar" because it's mostly white, mostly rural Maine?

I think the failure of Democrats like Golden and Nancy Pelosi to stand up against Nativist, racist harassment of people of color is a huge factor in today's climate of fear for people of color.

Even little children of color who suffer from chronic, life-threatening illness.

When my (white) friend's (white) daughter with seizure disorder has one in public in Skowhegan, people rush to help them. I've been there to witness it, more than once.

Is Skowhegan the only or even the most racist place in Maine? Hardly. But it racked up a national reputation for itself due to the many ugly, violent statements and threats made by the Skowhegan "I__n" Pride group during the 2015-2019 period of struggle to replace their offensive high school mascot.

Photo credit: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty

What does it say about where we're headed when brown toddlers are penned up in stinking pens at the border? The same thing it says when Katelyn and her friends mock a Black father for praying in Arabic as his little girl seizes while he prepares her medication.

White does not make right.

Compassion makes right. Care for other human beings makes right. Courage to stand with targeted groups makes right.

Maybe you have wondered what you would have done during the historical tragedy of the Holocaust that persecuted Jewish people in Europe and resulted in 6 million being murdered -- many in concentration camps.

Now you know, because you're doing it.

White Privilege On Display In Skowhegan Mascot Controversy Is Ugly

White privilege on display in the Skowhegan mascot controversy has not been particularly appealing.

Firstly, there is the business owned and operated by an actual member of the school board that oversees Skowhegan Area High School and its team names. Maine Fire Equipment owner Todd Smith advertises many products with the name and cartoonish depictions of "Indian" human beings on them.

Screenshot from Maine Fire Equipment website provided by Ann McMichael

I shared some of the racist imagery from their website in an open letter I wrote to both Smiths (wife Karen is on the board also) pointing out that they might have a financial interest in voting on issues related to the team name/mascot. I later found out that both of them had in fact voted against holding a public forum on the mascot issue which took place on January 8.

The only feedback I got from the board or this local business is that Todd's employee Jessica Pinkham asked politely that I take down the screenshot with her elementary school age daughter wearing an Indians scarf. And I did that on my online post of the letter. (A redacted version of my screenshot can be seen above.)

So, it's okay for a white parent to use her child's photo to sell merchandise that is harmful to other people's children, but it's not okay to use the child's photo in an argument about why board members who profit from selling racist merchandise are unqualified to vote on the issue. Got it.

The Skowhegan "Indian Pride" group has made it abundantly clear that they feel is also okay to disregard and even insult Native parents who argue that the stereotyping represented by continued use of mascot is harmful to their children.

Several of them called the Penobscot Nation tribal office this week to demanding to speak to "someone with a brain" i.e. not the tribal ambassador Maulian Dana. SIP leader Jennifer Poirier, also a board member, emailed Penboscot chief Kirk Francis to say that the tribe would be subject to a lawsuit unless he reined in Maulian on the mascot retirement campaign.

Then came the comment thread on this article by Doug Harlow about a bill introduced in the new legislature sponsored by Rep. Ben Collings, An Act to Ban Native American Mascots in Maine Schools (LR 2188). I was quoted in the article saying that a lot more education about Maine Native history and culture is needed in Skowhegan. This is a screenshot from part of the thread:

Disclaimer: I do not now nor have I ever had "something to do" with the prestigious summer residency art program founded by, among others, the late social realist artist Ben Shahn.

Another disclaimer: I am unaware of any effort to change the team name to Savage's [sic], as was alleged by this Facebook post with an unidentified photo of gratuitous violence (presumably committed by Natives because of the arrows?).

The reason that violent language and imagery is dangerous is that hearing hate speech primes your brain for hateful actions. 

A study by cognitive psychologists at at Arizona State University goes a long way toward explaining a persistent aspect of hate crimes: they are virtually always preceded by hate speech. Rehearsing an act of violence activates the very same neural pathways in the brain as actually committing the same act of violence. Thus, all genocides are preceded by a long campaign of violent language against the targeted group.

Fragile white people will no doubt attack me again for using the r-word to describe their actual cultural appropriation of the images and ceremonial objects of people that survived attempted genocide.

More education is also needed about white privilege -- why it exists, and how it works.

For those interested in learning more than they know, here's a good place to start. "White fragility: why it's so hard to talk to white people about racism" by Dr. Robin DiAngelo can be read and pondered at The Good Men Project website.

Refusal To Retire Skowhegan Indian Mascot 'Tearing Families Apart'

Professor Charlene Teters, Spokane, a founding mother of the movement to retire Native sports mascots.

The greatest benefit of working to help retire Skowhegan Area High School's team name "Indians" has been furthering my own education. Today I learned about Charlene Teters, an artist/activist who has been leading this work for decades. Later in this post I'll share some of the resources coming my way, mostly shared by people I've gotten to know as a result of doing white people's work to address our systemic racism.

But first a word about that work, and why so many people who could don't join in the call to dismantle white supremacy.

Georgina Sappier-Richardson testifying at a Maine Wabanki-State Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission hearing. Photo: Ben Pender-Cudlip, courtesy Upstander Project.

For one thing, the controversy is tearing families apart. While Harold Bigelow sits on the MSAD#54 school board and obstructs change, the younger members of his family cringe at being associated with what they perceive as antiquated racist practices.

At the board meeting in my own school district, which is near Skowhegan, they spent nearly an hour debating sports programs this month. This is not unusual. In my experience in Maine, school boards are about sports. They cleverly hide the true cost of sports programs funded entirely by local property taxes; budget line items such as administration, maintenance and transportation have tens of thousand of dollars in sports-related costs. 

Teaching positions are routinely eliminated without debate, but try and cut a sports program and watch board members sit up and start paying attention.

Heck, just try and postpone getting new uniforms by a year and then sit back and watch the fireworks.

At the MSAD#54 school board meeting on December 6, there were no speakers from then ranks of school staff or students. No coaches, no teachers, no civil rights team advisers. Nor did the assistant superintendent, Jon Moody, who is charged with compliance in non-discrimination practices, weigh in. The superintendent, Brent Colbry, felt free to school board members on correct use of Roberts Rules of Order, but then stumbled his way through a complete disavowal of agency or influence on the team name controversy. This is disingenuous of him, and he knows it.

Two school board members are actively leading an online group which has in the past posted threats of violence against Penboscot leader Maulian Dana and her children. Here are some recent posts:









In the very limited worldview of board members like Ring and Poirier, this is a local issue.  The national scope and significance of retiring white claims on Native culture and heritage is lost on them.

Their status as alumna is of paramount importance in their own minds, and it trumps concerns about adverse effects on the children they were elected to educate.

I believe that the root of this problem of cultural blindness is lack of education. So in the spirit of life-long learning, I offer a few resources.

First and foremost, this short video on the historic work of Professor Teters and the forces of opposition she met in her struggle to retire "Chief Illiniki" of the University of Illinois, "In Whose Honor?"



Next, very exciting to this history major, a recording in the Library of Congress of an Ancestral Voices Roundtable on Passamoquoddy culture and language. It was shared with me by one of the participants, Dwayne Tomah, who recommended it as a good source. Part of the description of this recording for researchers notes:

This panel discussion highlights a collaborative initiative to digitally restore, provide access to and curate the oldest recordings in the Library of Congress collections, the 1890s wax cylinder recordings of the Passamaquoddy tribal nation of Maine... Passamaquoddy elders have been reviewing the sonically restored recordings, transcribing songs and stories in their language...

The discussion focuses on several aspects of the initiative, ranging from control of indigenous intellectual property to digital repatriation to emerging digital technologies to ethical curation and community outreach. 

In particular, Passamaquoddy community members describe the critical importance of ethnographic field recordings for sustaining cultural memory, preserving native identity and stemming the loss of language. 

They perform songs learned through listening to the recordings, including the first public performance of a song not heard since its documentation 128 years ago.

Father and child on Penobscot ancestral territory. Photo: Ben Pender-Cudlip, courtesy Upstander Project.

My final offering for today is this excellent teaching guide created to accompany the documentary Dawnland. Passamoquoddy and other Native children were removed from the rich culture documented by the Library of Congress and punished for speaking their languages. In the 1970's. By the State of Maine.

Read this sorry history of white supremacy, weep, and then resolve to help undo these harms.