..sorry, this may be a 9 min read -- but the initial wash-over is going to be a couple of hours: and then I'll need to take a walk and maybe even reread a bit. Just know I'm working on it and appreciate that you've put this out here..
Please, please, please expand “Let’s Address This” to Northern Nevada. Plans for data centers are exploding in Dayton, Reno/Sparks, and Truckee (Lake Tahoe). City councils have been trying to implement plans without public input. Reno put a temporary moratorium for now (after public outrage), but city leaders are itching to get rich. We need help! Northern Nevada is a light purple (imo), but sometimes it’s hard to tell because the red hats are loud & boisterously hateful and pickup trucks with two flags are everywhere.
Question: We often discuss the influence that wealthy donors have on…well, everything. That huge campaign donation often dwarfs even the combined small contributions of thousands. But, do the rich structure their big gifts in such a way that they’re delivered slowly, a drip at a time? It would be a control mechanism that keeps a pet politician’s nose in the right dish. Just curious.
I been following you, brother Qasim, for quite some time now, and this has to be your greatest article to this day! I will share this piece with everyone I know that needs to marinate on it. Thank you for this inspiration. Go well, stay well.
As a child of WWII as I grew, I Iearned about the Quislings, the collaborators, the people who tried to pass unnoticed by the Nazi's and who claimed after the war to have been resistance fighters. WWII was a pressure cooker for the moderates. Post War, they slid back into their local grievances, local scapegoating, local bigotry and only under the pressure of the Civil Rights Movement, did their children start kicking over the old buckets of thoughtless discrimination. Under the current would-be dictatorship, all the old poison seeps out again, creeping across thresholds, giving license to the ill will white supremacy that has always made the US the not quite democracy it has always been.
Thank you Qasim Rashid for shedding light on this topic. I’ve always been told to stand up for justice my whole life, and I will never stop fighting for this and equality for all. I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn and everybody helped one another regardless of the color of their skin or ethnicity or religion. It taught me to respect all people. I was shocked when I moved to Southern California, to see that in the inner valleys there’s a lot of racism and discrimination. My son experienced it in high school and he was ostracized because he was Jewish. 🥲 We must fight this ignorance and not be silent because our skin is white. We must never forget and fight for equal rights. 💙❤️
King’s “white moderate” warning keeps aging like scripture nobody in power wants read aloud. The Klan is easy to recognize because it brings its own torches. The harder obstacle is the polite politician who speaks fluent justice at campaign rallies, then discovers “complexity” the moment courage sends an invoice. Negative peace is still the favorite drug of comfortable people: no tension, no disruption, no donor panic, no moral inconvenience. But justice delayed for the sake of order is not moderation. It is oppression with better manners and a grant-writing team.
In Australia such people are called right wing (or bloody right wing). Don't get me wrong, we have idiots too. Before the rest of the world had the evil Murdoch family they controlled a lot of "thought" (political and other) here. I wish you were in Australia doing your good trouble! 😊
Yes! Sparked a lively, deeply felt response from readers. Quasim’s lesson of the day hits home giving voice once again to the corrupting Corporate influence. I’m outraged by these (D) sell-out governors. Also feeling duped by their campaign rhetoric and disappointed in myself for not researching funding sources.
I fully agree with the statement that “shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” The first group is often much larger than the second and is not easily identified as the actual biggest obstacle to desired social progress.
Only after reading a few years ago *We Slaves of Surinam*, - a book written by Anton de Kom (1898-1945) and published in the Netherlands in 1934 - , I realized to belong to the group of whites with “shallow understanding” of racism.
Then I realized that you can only be non-racist if you actively think and act in an anti-racist way.
For example, no smug smiling when someone makes a racist joke but telling the joker his joke hurts because it’s racist. Ashamed I admit to have failed in doing so consequently ‘to keep the peace among friends and acquaintances’, which is the “negative peace” you’re writing about that “ignores actual justice for actual people”.
Not wanting to be a racist requires active anti-racism, as being a good citizen requires that you constantly ask yourself whether you are doing the morally right thing in all your relationships.
I wonder if it’s justified to label “white moderates” as cowards, and whether that’s wise.
I think that might alienate people who are well-meaning but sociologically naïve. Which would be counterproductive to reaching the wished for vibrant, democratic, inclusive, and diverse society governed by rule of law, where everyone is guaranteed a decent standard of living and has the opportunity to reach their full potential, and where there are only modest disparities in personal wealth.
Straight-up facts! Dr. King ahead of his time!
Bravo, Qasim. ☮️
Malcolm X was right.
Bc white liberals still prefer the #whiteness to any other skin colour..
I have read fiction by black authors as f.e. Richard Wright's /Negro/ in norwegian. I understood then what white racism really was and is.
Great article. It certainly opened my eyes. I am in CO and I am disgusted by Polis. He took the good he did and stained it with the insult of deceit.
Absolutely!
..sorry, this may be a 9 min read -- but the initial wash-over is going to be a couple of hours: and then I'll need to take a walk and maybe even reread a bit. Just know I'm working on it and appreciate that you've put this out here..
Please, please, please expand “Let’s Address This” to Northern Nevada. Plans for data centers are exploding in Dayton, Reno/Sparks, and Truckee (Lake Tahoe). City councils have been trying to implement plans without public input. Reno put a temporary moratorium for now (after public outrage), but city leaders are itching to get rich. We need help! Northern Nevada is a light purple (imo), but sometimes it’s hard to tell because the red hats are loud & boisterously hateful and pickup trucks with two flags are everywhere.
So well written, expertly reasoned, and beautifully crafted. It’s valuable because it is absent the white hot RAGE I feel about the moderate Dems. TY.
Question: We often discuss the influence that wealthy donors have on…well, everything. That huge campaign donation often dwarfs even the combined small contributions of thousands. But, do the rich structure their big gifts in such a way that they’re delivered slowly, a drip at a time? It would be a control mechanism that keeps a pet politician’s nose in the right dish. Just curious.
I been following you, brother Qasim, for quite some time now, and this has to be your greatest article to this day! I will share this piece with everyone I know that needs to marinate on it. Thank you for this inspiration. Go well, stay well.
I love it, too.
As a child of WWII as I grew, I Iearned about the Quislings, the collaborators, the people who tried to pass unnoticed by the Nazi's and who claimed after the war to have been resistance fighters. WWII was a pressure cooker for the moderates. Post War, they slid back into their local grievances, local scapegoating, local bigotry and only under the pressure of the Civil Rights Movement, did their children start kicking over the old buckets of thoughtless discrimination. Under the current would-be dictatorship, all the old poison seeps out again, creeping across thresholds, giving license to the ill will white supremacy that has always made the US the not quite democracy it has always been.
Thank you Qasim Rashid for shedding light on this topic. I’ve always been told to stand up for justice my whole life, and I will never stop fighting for this and equality for all. I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn and everybody helped one another regardless of the color of their skin or ethnicity or religion. It taught me to respect all people. I was shocked when I moved to Southern California, to see that in the inner valleys there’s a lot of racism and discrimination. My son experienced it in high school and he was ostracized because he was Jewish. 🥲 We must fight this ignorance and not be silent because our skin is white. We must never forget and fight for equal rights. 💙❤️
And I thought California was so liberal. Sure fooled me.
Really surprised me. Yes California mostly is liberal. It is a small minority that isn't.
King’s “white moderate” warning keeps aging like scripture nobody in power wants read aloud. The Klan is easy to recognize because it brings its own torches. The harder obstacle is the polite politician who speaks fluent justice at campaign rallies, then discovers “complexity” the moment courage sends an invoice. Negative peace is still the favorite drug of comfortable people: no tension, no disruption, no donor panic, no moral inconvenience. But justice delayed for the sake of order is not moderation. It is oppression with better manners and a grant-writing team.
In Australia such people are called right wing (or bloody right wing). Don't get me wrong, we have idiots too. Before the rest of the world had the evil Murdoch family they controlled a lot of "thought" (political and other) here. I wish you were in Australia doing your good trouble! 😊
ALL THIS!! Excellent piece of journalism!
Yes! Sparked a lively, deeply felt response from readers. Quasim’s lesson of the day hits home giving voice once again to the corrupting Corporate influence. I’m outraged by these (D) sell-out governors. Also feeling duped by their campaign rhetoric and disappointed in myself for not researching funding sources.
You and Dr King are so right. Someone who takes the middle path is not showing leadership at all. This only leads to stagnation.
I fully agree with the statement that “shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” The first group is often much larger than the second and is not easily identified as the actual biggest obstacle to desired social progress.
Only after reading a few years ago *We Slaves of Surinam*, - a book written by Anton de Kom (1898-1945) and published in the Netherlands in 1934 - , I realized to belong to the group of whites with “shallow understanding” of racism.
Then I realized that you can only be non-racist if you actively think and act in an anti-racist way.
For example, no smug smiling when someone makes a racist joke but telling the joker his joke hurts because it’s racist. Ashamed I admit to have failed in doing so consequently ‘to keep the peace among friends and acquaintances’, which is the “negative peace” you’re writing about that “ignores actual justice for actual people”.
Not wanting to be a racist requires active anti-racism, as being a good citizen requires that you constantly ask yourself whether you are doing the morally right thing in all your relationships.
I wonder if it’s justified to label “white moderates” as cowards, and whether that’s wise.
I think that might alienate people who are well-meaning but sociologically naïve. Which would be counterproductive to reaching the wished for vibrant, democratic, inclusive, and diverse society governed by rule of law, where everyone is guaranteed a decent standard of living and has the opportunity to reach their full potential, and where there are only modest disparities in personal wealth.