An Abysmal Nation Led By An Abysmal Racist

Whenever I post something about racial injustice, I feel some unease. By what stretch can I, as a white person who lives a comfortable existence, truly feel the murderous oppression that others experience? What right do I have to comment upon something that I will never experience? It is not as if aggregating and commenting upon such egregious crimes will make any difference in the world.

Is writing about it from my position simply something I do to feel better about myself?

I don't know the answers.

But I also know that the inaction of silence can never be the preferable alternative.

The repercussions of George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minneapolis police continue to unfold. Pouring fuel on the flames that have erupted, Donald Trump, true to form, unleashed an abysmal dog-whistle Tweet heard loud and clear by his baying, salivating followers:



He knew precisely the origins and implications of that Tweet:

Twitter said early Friday that a post by President Donald Trump about the protests overnight in Minneapolis glorified violence because of the historical context of his last line: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts."

The phrase was used by Miami's police chief, Walter Headley, in 1967, when he addressed his department's "crackdown on ... slum hoodlums," according to a United Press International article from the time.

Headley, who was chief of police in Miami for 20 years, said that law enforcement was going after “young hoodlums, from 15 to 21, who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign. ... We don't mind being accused of police brutality."

Miami hadn't faced "racial disturbances and looting," Headley added, because he let word filter down that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

The phrase was considered to have contributed to the city's race riots in the late 1960s, according to The Washington Post.

Headley, who died only a few months later in 1968 and had been denounced by civil rights leaders, was described in an Associated Press obituary as the "architect of a crime crackdown that sent police dogs and shotgun-toting patrolmen into Miami's slums in force."

And now America is led by a racist rabid dog intent on totally destroying whatever shreds of credibility remain in the first part of his country's name.

Requiescat in pace, oh moribund nation.

Kellie Leitch's Canada?

Thanks to Alison for this:



Meanwhile, Leitch's colleagues don't appear to favour her approach. Deepak Obhrai, who filed his own leadership candidacy papers yesterday, had this to say:

What I am really concerned about is the tone and the message this question puts forward. As you know, right now, there has been, during the British exit, Donald Trump, those anti-immigrant parties in Europe and everywhere have been giving a negative message about immigration. Nobody's talking about the merits of immigration. This country was built by immigration. USA was built by immigration. So immigration has been completely a positive thing in a country. It has been a strength for that country. Yet, we have seen this negativism going into the fears that somebody has about immigration.

In response to Leitch's sudden 'passion' for Canadian values, Obhrai opined,

They are world values, everywhere. When immigrants come here they already have those values. [...] Most immigrants are already following them at their own homes. There is nothing new about Canadian values. Which is why everyone is having trouble with what is a Canadian value. A Canadian value should be what is in the Charter of rights -- the right for religious freedom, the right to speak, the press and all your basic rights. That is the Canadian values that is not in many countries. But being anti-violent, being anti-abusing women...these are values which are universal.

Expect the condemnation of Leitch's approach by Obhrai and several other leadership contenders to have no impact on the psyche of this strange, strange leadership hopeful. She appears to be deaf to everything, save the shrill sound of the dog whistle.