Jack & Jill Politics

From ptcruiser over at Prometheus6 in the comments:

Here is the article in question – Professor’s Arrest Tests Beliefs on Racial Progress, and the quotes P6 highlighted:

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I Disliked This Article
On July 24th, 2009 ptcruiser says:

This is a petulant post from me but I disliked this article. I disliked the equivocating way in which it was written and I disliked the quotes from one or more of the black men who were interviewed. I really don’t care if Henry Louis Gates is deserving of a universal embrace to the collective bosom of the Black Electorate or not. I don’t care, too, if he violated some unwritten agreement between black folks, especially black men, and white cops that is much more honored by black folks than it ever was by white cops. I also dislike the way that this unwritten rule is written and talked about among some blacks – especially the ones interviewed by the MSM – as if Gates and others lack some essential particle of mother wit or home training that resulted in them violating some acceptable custom or norm.

Gates was arrested, in my opinion, because he refused to show proper deference as a black man to a white cop. Rodney King was beaten down in the streets like a rabid dog because he refused to show proper deference to white cops. All of the talk about how Gates should have acted in his own house is utterly beside the point. Gates had every right, if he chose to do so, to use his cane to break all the crockery and mirrors in his house. He also had a right while in his house to use profane language and to talk about Crowley’s mama. If Crowley didn’t like what he was hearing, then he should have let the door hit him where God split him. It was Gates’ house, not Crowley’s.

I grew tired long ago of the essential hypocrisy of the white libertarian-conservative right in this country when it comes to the civil liberties and constitutional rights of black folks. None of these people, including the person who posted on another thread here yesterday defending Crowley, would ever tolerate the police invading their homes and arresting one of them for the alleged crime of being angry. Yet, they believe – to a man and woman – that black folks need to take low and grin and bear it.

I am also tired of so-called liberals and their never ending equivocations masquerading as the intellectual process necessary to make judgments and render justice. These folks will debate the pros and cons of you being lynched while the mob has tied a noose in the rope and is dragging you off the porch of your home. They will tut-tut as you are being strung up and then, later, write histories and do interviews on NPR explaining why, unfortunately perhaps, your behavior was a contributing factor in you being transformed into another piece of strange fruit.

Am I being unfair to some extent?. Damn skippy I am because what happened to Gates happens day-in and day-out in America and folks act as though they are powerless to stop it. Well, the butt-naked truth is that they don’t want it to stop. Not now, not ever. They keep looking in the margins for reasons to justify or explain away the most gratuitous assaults on black folks, especially black men. And what is worse, far worse in my opinion, is that we, black folk, are complicit in this madness. We are complicit every time we offer up some trite bromide or prescription as to how black men like Gates are supposed to deal with arrogant cops like Crowley.

Tell it, ptcruiser.
TELL IT.