THE MODERN AMERICAN NOVEL: What kind of place is Franklin County?

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2020

What kind of place is the Washington Post?:
What kind of place is Franklin County, Virginia?

We have no real idea. We've been to Roanoke many times, and it's lies about twenty miles to the north.

That said, if memory serves, we've never been to Franklin County, not even to Smith Mountain Lake. In part for that reason, we can't tell you what kind of place Franklin County is, though we're willing to guess it's a fairly varied place with a varied array of people.

Admittedly, none of those people will be as brilliant and good as We are. Far too few will have prepped at Georgetown Day or will have graduated from Harvard.

That said, Franklin County's 56,000 people probably aren't all the same. We'd be reluctant to offer a sweeping portrait, especially if the portrait has been fashioned from poison.

We raise that question because of a passage from the Washington Post's recent portrait of Franklin County. The Washington Post does seem to know what kind of a place Franklin County is. Early in its highly novelized, Klan-drenched portrait, the Washington Post tells us this:
NATANSON (8/1/20): [Bridgette] Craighead had grown up in this county of about 56,000, which lies lapped in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is nearly 90 percent White. Rocky Mount itself is nearly 70 percent White, and in Craighead’s public school classes, she was almost always the only Black child in class.

It’s the kind of place where Confederate flags hang, twinned with Trump 2020 banners, outside homes and shops. Where local officials rebuilt and rededicated the Confederate statue in 2010 at a cost of more than $100,000, after a pickup truck driver accidentally demolished it and local historians compared its demise to a death in the family. Where earlier this year, the White superintendent pooh-poohed a ban on Confederate gear in schools, proposed by the school board’s only Black member, by asserting that nobody could possibly be bothered by “a little Rebel flag on a jacket.”

It’s the birthplace of prominent Black educator Booker T. Washington—now marked by a national monument—and home to the site where he was freed. But the county’s historical marker notes only that Confederate “General Jubal A. Early lived in this county.”
According to the Washington Post, Franklin County's that kind of a place! A comically awful photo caption even describes the troubling county as being "extremely white."

Just for the record, many counties in this nation are as much as 90 percent white. According to the Census Bureau, the state of Maine is 93.0% white (also, less than 1.7% black), yet many of the finest people have been known to summer there!

We'll also guess that there really are homes and shops in Franklin County which display Confederate flags. We'll guess that this would be true in many places, in a wide range of southern (and northern) locales.

That said, how many homes and shops in Franklin County display Confederate flags? As the late Ed McMahon might have asked, "How many homes and shops are there?"

As with many other complaints, the Washington Post leaves that question to our Klan-inflected imaginations. Comically, though, the famous newspaper does provide this puzzling photo caption, an emblem of its magisterial journalistic sloth:
PHOTO CAPTION: The Boones Mill Produce Co., on the main highway in Franklin County, has Confederate flags and Trump flags on display.
So the caption says. Above it sits a color photo of the Boones Mill Produce Co.—and that's where the unintentional humor comes in.

Go ahead—give it a try! Try as we might, we can't see a Confederate flag anywhere in the whole photo! There are several tributes to Trump on display, but unless we're missing something, no Confederate regalia of any kind can be seen.

It may well be that this roadside store does display and sell Confederate flags. We'll guess that other shops in Franklin Count may display and sell such items, though we don't know that for a fact, and we don't know how many.

That said, it's a tribute to the Post's journalistic sloth that it could post that photo caption while failing to notice the lack of confirmation in the photograph itself. So it goes when upper-end newspapers like The Post decide to start writing novels in support of their brave social stands, but also as a display of their unsurpassed moral greatness.

What kind of a place is Franklin County? It actually is the kind of a place where that Confederate statue got rebuilt "at a cost of more than $100,000." (The decision to do so seems to have been made in 2008.)

It's also the kind of a place where the errant driver's insurance paid for that rebuilding. Local officials put up only $500 of the cost, a point we mention only because it seems to be part of the truth.

It's also the kind of a place where the local twice-weekly newspaper, The Franklin News-Post, offered a recent editorial about that very issue. When it wasn't citing the findings of the progressive Southern Poverty Law Center, the editorial was offering such sardonic comments as these:
FRANKLIN NEWS-POST EDITORIAL (6/24/20): What supervisors didn’t know then, and what they didn’t know when the new statue was dedicated in 2010, was that they were putting up what seems to be the last Confederate statue erected on public property in Virginia—and one of the last in the country.

The big surge was in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which coincided with the rise of Jim Crow laws
, and a second wave in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which coincided with Southern resistance to integration orders. You can draw your own conclusions about cause-and-effect there.
We can't find the promised Part 2 of that sardonic editorial. Rather plainly, the editorial seems to argue a current left-liberal line concerning that cause-and-effect.

At any rate, Franklin County is the kind of a place where some journalist was willing to offer that sardonic take on this newly current topic. We'll guess that the people of Franklin County are not all just alike.

Franklin County actually is the kind of a placer whose "White superintendent" made that remark about wearing Confederate gear to school. That said, it's also the kind of a place where the school board has in fact decided to ban the Confederate flag from the public schools' dress code.

You're told that in the Post's report, in a somewhat murky way. But you have to read all the way to paragraph 68 to be told about the dress code ban. The superintendent's comment gets cited right at the start of the piece, right there in paragraph 7.

Is Franklin County the kind of a place whose sole historical marker "notes only that Confederate 'General Jubal A. Early lived in this county?' ”

Actually, the county has many historical markers, but the one the Post cites does exist. You can see that marker here. It's nothing more than a roadside sign saying you've entered the county.

The sign was erected in 1940. We'll guess that no one has stopped to read it since 1941. But it helped the Washington Post compose the Scary Story it liked about this Klan-drenched place.

What kind of a place is Franklin County? We have no real idea. We do know it's the kind of a place whose current Teacher of the Year is black.

It's the kind of a place whose public school enrollment is only 8 percent black—but the school system doesn't seem to hate its black kids.

At the Franklin County Pubic Schools web site, two photos of students are featured. At the risk of possible error, we'd score the demographics like this:
Students shown in Franklin County Public Schools photos:
White kids; 5
Black kids: 4
Hispanic kids: 1
Notices about the coronavirus are posted in English and Spanish. The first photo you see at the site? It's an aerial shot of a bunch of kids spelling out this motto:
BE KIND
The Washington Post could possibly learn from that photo! With that in mind, we move on to a second question:

What kind of a place is the Washington Post?

For starters, we'd be willing to guess that the Post is a fairly varied place, with a varied array of people. Some of those people are doing good work. Others, perhaps, a bit less so.

On the one hand, the Post is the kind of a place which has published today, once again, an aggressive editorial about the still-unexplained shooting death of the late Bijan Ghaisar.

Three years later, Bijan Ghaisar's shooting death still hasn't been explained. To its credit, the Post is still pushing for answers. The mainstream press hasn't bothered reporting this story for reasons which are obvious.

On Monday morning, we expect to start a new set of reports by reviewing that editorial. That said, the Washington Post is also the kind of a place where editors recently rushed to cover their own ascots about a two-year-old Halloween costume brouhaha.

In the process, they threw a 54-year-old woman under the bus, getting her fired from her job in the process. In its most repulsive sectors, the Washington Post can also be also that kind of very dumb, nasty place.

For this week's purposes, the Washington Post is the kind of a place which was willing to publish that journalistically embarrassing, highly novelized "Franklin County confidential."

As journalism, the piece is maximally non-journalistic. Mainly, though, it's a scary novel, a novel that's ugly and dumb.

We've written about several aspect of this heavily novelized tale. We've written about the segregated town pool which apparently isn't segregated and plainly isn't a town pool.

We've written about the Klan redoubts which almost surely aren't Klan redoubts. We've written about the highlighted statement below, a monument to pseudo-journalistic Current Derangement Syndrome:
NATANSON: The women had arrived two hours early to hang signs from the empty green stalls—a bedsheet reading “BLACK LIVES MATTER” and smaller posters saying “If I comply, will I still die?” They had set up a booth to register voters and another to encourage residents to complete the 2020 Census. They had ordered 20 pizzas from Domino’s.

Sun sparkled off an inflatable bouncy house, and children milled sticky-fingered in the heat, faces half-hidden behind columns of cotton candy. Three officers from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office stood guard, summoned because of rumored plans to disrupt the protest, including a vow that the old boys of Franklin County would ride again that night.
So cool! The Washington Post was repeating a scary rumor. It was repeating a scary rumor it didn't even bother to source.

According to this blindingly stupid rumor, "the old boys of Franklin County" were going to "ride again that night." Assuming the rumor really existed, did anyone really believe it? If so, we have a bridge to the minus-third century we'd be willing to sell them.

As a matter of journalism, you simply can't get dumber than that; there's just no way to do it. There's a good chance that no one in all of Franklin County is as dumb as the editor who was willing to wave that ugly dreck into print.

Don't get us wrong! Almost surely, there are some angry, unpleasant people in Franklin County, Virginia. The Post reports some of their (ugly) comments; it does so early and often. Sensibly or otherwise, the heavy emphasis placed on those comments and gestures helps make this a Scary Tale.

One pitiful part of this story remains—the frightening trip to The Hub. This takes us back to the year 1912. It helps us source the scary claims which drove this useless tale.

The Hub is a restaurant in Rocky Mount. It sounds like it's been there for quite a long time although, like everything else in this lengthy piece, that point never quite gets explained.

A scary trip to The Hub is described. Because so much is left to explain, we'll extend our report to the morrow.

Tomorrow: The source of these novelized tales

58 comments:

  1. "That said, if memory serves, we've never been to Franklin County, not even to Smith Mountain Lake. In part for that reason, we can't tell you what kind of place Franklin County is, though we're willing to guess it's a fairly varied place with a varied array of people."

    Even if Somerby had been to Franklin County, he wouldn't be able to say what kind of place it is for black women, because he hasn't had that life experience. The way that people there treat a white stand-up comedian and the way that they treat black women may be very different. Somerby should acknowledge that, but he seems to think that his experience is everyone's experience, although he does seem to want to distance the majority of people of Franklin County from the actions of those who are racial bigots.

    That raises the issue of how much people are responsible for their neighbors, whether someone who chooses to live among bigots is able to distance himself from them or is responsible for that choice. BLM protesters are speaking out on behalf of others, demanding that everyone be treated fairly. Can people in the South live among bigots and say nothing, refusing to insist on basic fair treatment for all, including the targets of racial bigotry? Or should those who are silent bystanders be asked to speak up and choose a side?

    Somerby seems to think that the existence of good people in Franklin County balances off the existence of bigots (who he alternately challenges the existence of and then admits may exist there). He thinks the county is being unfairly characterized by the Post for talking about the disreputable residents and not only focusing on the good people. How else will the good people be encouraged to take a stand against bigotry if discussion of the seamy side of Franklin County is relegated to the experience of black people and never exposed to the light of day? It is the job of a good newspaper to expose the seamy side, the things people would like to ignore or pretend doesn't exist. That is part of journalistic tradition. Somerby thinks it is muckraking (another fine journalistic tradition) and objects, which speaks volumes about whether he is a liberal and his weak-kneed support for racial justice.

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    Replies
    1. How was the seamy side exposed?

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    2. By mentioning all that stuff that Somerby objects to, for example: (1) the fact that the Klan is still active, (2) the fact that black people feel like they are restricted in what they can do, where they can go and where their kids can swim, what diner they can visit, (3) the fact that relics of confederacy worship are still found around town, even supported by the Sup. of schools, who should know better, (4) the need to have 3 deputies protect a BLM booth during the daylight hours, (5) the lack of black families in the county (in the Southern US where many black people reside), and so on. All the things Somerby objected to as being possibly untrue because black people said it.

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    3. @3:44 PM
      Now that you know that there are some anti-black bigots in a VA county(and in probably every other county in the US) what do propose to do about it?

      Delete
    4. I do what I can, how about you? There are some books out recently about how to be an anti-racist. You can check for them at Amazon.

      Delete
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    6. Anonymous August 7, 2020 at 10:28 PM said:
      I do what I can, how about you? There are some books out recently about how to be an anti-racist. You can check for them at Amazon.

      Assuming the Washington Post wants us to do what we can about stopping racism, did this article inspire you to do anything, specifically?

      Delete
    7. It inspired me to object to Somerby's assholery (and yours). It made me glad I don't live in the South.

      Have you forgotten that there is an election coming up?

      If you keep this up, I will track down BLM online and send them some money. Will that make you happy?

      Delete
    8. Glaucon X,
      One of the best things we can do to stop racism, is to stop electing racists to positions of power.

      Delete

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  2. "Three officers from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office stood guard, summoned because of rumored plans to disrupt the protest, including a vow that the old boys of Franklin County would ride again that night."

    Somerby says several times that he doesn't think the night riders are real, but apparently the police considered the threats real enough to send not one but three officers to protect the protesters from those who might assault them. I guess they know their county better than Somerby does.

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  3. "What kind of place is the Washington Post?"

    Washington Post is an important part of the liberal-hitlerian cancer-media.

    This ends today's installment of Simple Answers to Simple Questions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Owned by a corporation, of course.
      Trump is President, because America doesn't enforce white collar criminality.

      Delete
  4. "Just for the record, many counties in this nation are as much as 90 percent white. "

    Somerby compares to Maine, but neglects that Franklin County is in the South, where slavery was prevalent and the majority of black people in our nation still live. For a county to be 90% white in the South implies that it is not an hospitable place for black people. Black people live in large numbers all over the south, but not there, and you have to ask why.

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    Replies
    1. So what percent white would you consider necessary for a county to get your seal of approval and be declared hospitable to black people?

      Delete
    2. How about the same average % as in other Southern states (or even Virginia statewide) or close to it.

      Delete
    3. @ AnonymousAugust 7, 2020 at 10:27 PM
      You don't have any idea what the percentages are, do you? Or how nonsensical it is to expect all the counties in a state to have an exact match with the state racial demographic.

      Delete
    4. Who said "exact match"? Only you. I could look those %s up but I am not going to put in the effort. I know it isn't 7.9%, which is the % of black people in Franklin County. I posted %s a few days ago. Did you read them? Apparently not.

      Delete
    5. Stop backing away from what you said and tell us how you would achieve your great plan of creating "about the same average %" of black people in every country in Virginia.

      Delete
  5. "That said, how many homes and shops in Franklin County display Confederate flags? As the late Ed McMahon might have asked, "How many homes and shops are there?""

    How many do there have to be? Somerby neglects to tell us the magic number that makes Franklin County just another Southern place with its warning to blacks to know their place, and a really bad place with its warning to blacks to stay the fuck away.

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  6. "It's also the kind of a place where the errant driver's insurance paid for that rebuilding. Local officials put up only $500 of the cost, a point we mention only because it seems to be part of the truth."

    And yet they could have used that money to put up a different kind of statue. Go figure! They chose to put that confederate back on his pedestal.

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    Replies
    1. They should have replaced the statue with one of 2nd Amendment martyr, Micah X. Johnson.

      Delete
  7. These myriad objections to the Post's reporting demonstrate how diligent an apologist for racism Somerby has become. It isn't pretty.

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  8. "According to this blindingly stupid rumor, "the old boys of Franklin County" were going to "ride again that night." Assuming the rumor really existed, did anyone really believe it? "

    Those three black women who reported it to Natanson believed it. They live there. But their experience doesn't matter because they are just black women, and their fears don't matter (despite racial history full of such events), because Somerby, from his seat beneath his pear tree where he can better infuriate his neighbor by watching leaves drop, doesn't believe there is vandalism and terrorism aimed at blacks and specifically BLM protesters, any more in the good old South.

    BLM protesters were active in my little town this past weekend. The good residents of my town shouted obscenities at them to the point that the police declared the protest illegal and used force to shut it down. One car full of anti-protesters broke through police barriers and drove erratically through police and protesters until stopped by police. Is daytime violence aimed at protesters a form of night-riding? Only if you are fond of linguistic quibbles.

    Bigots become uglier under cover of anonymity. That's why the hoods, and the waiting of darkness to hide their faces as they throw fire bombs and attack those they hate. Somerby cannot possibly think since violence is a thing of the past when we have recent attacks motivated by race all over the country.

    Confederate flags are intimidation. Confederate statues are intimidation. Harassing those women in their booth is intimidation. If Somerby thinks it would stop there and go no further, he is being willfully obtuse again. He cannot say whether those rumors are true or false, but he seems way too sure they are false nevertheless and willing to chide the Post on that basis -- with nothing but his assurances that there is no Klan in Franklin County, despite evidence to the contrary posted here yesterday.

    Somerby has left restraint behind and is letting his flag flag fly.

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  9. You can look for racism in TDH all you want. You can also complain till you are blue in the face that Somerby does nothing but bash "Us" over here on the left. But the fact of the matter is that Somerby zeroes in on media presentations he feels are slanted, doctored, tailor-made to reinforce the view of things "over here in our tribe" because he thinks we can take the criticism and even benefit from it, try to think for ourselves rather gobble up what we are being served. I think for much the same reason he ignores Fox for the moat part, except when they happen to look at something our favorite media outlets are ignoring. I'm fairly sure he thinks that the more ludicrous right wing media like OAN or Breitbart aren't worth following because they are irredeemable. I think he wants to go down fighting for what he believes is a worthy cause, namely to show how "our side" of the media circus is behaving like "their side," since if there is any hope left for reasoned discourse, it resides in saving us from becoming a tribe of ditto-heads. One may find him tiresome, obnoxious, wrong-headed, but denouncing his alleged racism strikes me as a battle some of the folks here are fighting for reasons of their own, but in doing so, they really seem to miss his point.

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    1. 12:40
      I don’t agree with you.

      Somerby has an agenda. He despises any talk of “racism” or “sexism” or other “identity politics” issues.

      That doesn’t make him a bigot, in my view. But it does ally him with so-called leftists like Michael Tracey or Matt Taibbi and the Jacobin crowd who hate Democrats and the Democratic “establishment” and attack the party’s interest in so-called identity politics. They often use the term “liberal” as a pejorative.

      His quoting of Andrew Sullivan, a conservative, but also a staunch opponent of “identity politics” should be another clue.

      Whether it is purely because Somerby thinks it loses votes, or if he doesn’t believe there is racism or sexism, or what, isn’t clear.

      As a thought experiment: Somerby could focus on any issue, such as global warming or abortion, and denounce the coverage, making you wonder if the conservatives maybe have a point. But he chooses “identity politics” almost exclusively.

      He chides the press for not questioning or contradicting the BLM narrative. But isn’t that just a way of questioning or contradicting the BLM narrative?

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    2. Why would the press or anyone not question the BLM narrative? Why would anyone unquestionably accept a narrative?

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    3. mh,

      In the final analysis it may well be that we're both "right" to some extent, in that you have grounds to make your case, and I like to think I have grounds to make mine as well. You'll note that I didn't say Somerby was never 'racist" although there are times when he says something and some folks pounce on it and shout racism, and I question whether they are always justified in those specific instances. Almost anyone's statements can be examined under a microscope and found to contain elements of various -isms, of which they may or may not be aware. So in that sense almost anyone is vulnerable, even the most well-meaning. I intend to follow the leads you offer, those sources you cite, Jacobin, etc. Sullivan I don't follow so much. I got fed up with him when he functioned as an apologist for G. W. Bush. But to reiterate my point, whatever other agenda can be found in Somerby's writing, his conscious agenda, one he pursues relentlessly, is a critique of what he sees as intellectual dishonesty or incompetence in the so-called liberal media and the way "our side" may be doing itself a disservice in buying into their presentations. Maybe not you, but I know plenty of folks who do buy in.

      Delete
    4. 2:22
      I respect your views, and there is value in his questioning of the press, his skepticism. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be reading him.

      It just seems to me that he chides the press for their coverage of racial issues because he dislikes the liberal focus on them, not simply because the coverage is flawed.

      I assume if he thought liberals were wrong about abortion, for example, he would post about the coverage of that. But he doesn’t.

      Delete
    5. 2:13
      That is exactly my point. If you disagree with a narrative, you would question or contradict it.

      If Somerby were a global warming skeptic, then he would likely criticize press coverage that assumes the truth of AGW.

      But he does not.

      Delete
    6. Why would one not question a narrative they believe in? How would one believe a narrative without questioning it?

      Delete
    7. Yesterday AC/MA mentioned that he was pretty sure that Somerby voted for Bernie (he doesn't say whether in the primary or the general election). A substantial number of disappointed Bernie diehards voted for and supported Trump. In fact, Trump's campaign coordinated with Bernie and helped fund his efforts, which Bernie responded to with a shrug and a comment about why should he turn down any support.

      Being for Bernie doesn't make someone liberal, nor does being progressive. It may be that Somerby is attacking the so-called liberal media precisely because it is liberal, and not because it is dishonest or misleading or scripted, or whatever.

      Note that Bernie is supporting Biden now, but Somerby is not. This may put Somerby in the Trump-loving category among Bernie enthusiasts. He may, like Susan Sarandon, think that we must blow up the system in order to rebuild it, and Trump is certainly doing a bang-up job of destroying everything that liberals have accomplished since FDR, with some bonus destruction of agencies like the post office and public education.

      Bernie doesn't care if women got the vote. Read his early writing on the subject of women and you'll see where he's coming from. Bernie thought that if you achieve economic parity that all social inequities would disappear (parroting Marx). You can't get much whiter than Vermont, when it comes to racial and other minorities. It is why he never could seem to get any black people to vote for him.

      The bros, who Bernie would never rein in, are as ugly and dishonest a group of people as you will ever meet. Somerby fits right in with that bunch. While Somerby pretends to critique the media, he selectively quotes and manipulates info to give a misleading and incorrect impression of the wrongs of whoever he is targeting. That is worse than anything he complains about. It would get him fired from an actual writing or teaching job. His blog is a farce and those who think he is sincere are gullible enough to follow someone like Bernie or Trump.

      Somerby hides behind layers of obfuscation and never says what he means. It is impossible to discuss anything with such a person, and that leaves nothing but propaganda here, stinking anti-liberal propaganda. Somerby has nothing to teach.

      Delete
    8. I mostly agree with TDH and I agree with the post by Anonymous August 7, 2020 at 12:40 PM

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    9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    10. @ Anonymous August 7, 2020 at 3:57 PM ---You're engaging in sick anti-Bernie novel writing. You've produced no evidence that Somerby does not support Biden. I believe he has supported every Dem nominee for President.

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    11. On what do you base your belief? Thin air, since Somerby hasn't said who he supported, but he has said lots of negative things about the Democratic candidates.

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  10. If Somerby wants to teach his readers, it would be a good idea if he showed us the right way to talk about racism. He only shows us how not to talk about it.

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    Replies
    1. Good point. Rather than use the vague term "right way," I suggest "most productive way," meaning a discussion of race that includes possible solutions. Does this Washington Post story lead us on a productive solution seeking path regarding race?

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    2. Yes, it suggests that when BLM members come to your community, instead harassing them you might engage them in productive (your word) discussion. That's all these women were seeking -- they were trying to educate their neighbors. They had a booth set up with educational materials. And three armed guards because the assholes who live in Franklin County think that is too much change.

      The purpose of the Washington Post story is to garner support and sympathy for BLM protesters and to show what they face when they ask for the simplest of changes.

      You seem to be saying among your various posts this morning that if the change isn't big enough it isn't worth doing at all. That's another way of saying "don't change anything."

      Delete
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    ReplyDelete
  12. So now that the Washington Post has convinced us that Franklin Co VA is a hopelessly racists place, what do we do about it? Send in federal troops and begin a second Reconstruction era? Forcibly remove the whites and send them to reeducation camps? What?

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    Replies
    1. Stop mocking the black women who have set up a booth to try to talk to their white neighbors, maybe. As Somerby is doing.

      Delete
    2. ...and stop pretending you care about black women when we know you don't.

      Delete
    3. I did answer the question. Buy a book about anti-racism and follow the suggestions therein. Support the efforts to change embodied by BLM and similar movements. Try to be less of a racist schmuck yourself. Set aside race if you are involved in any form of decision-making so that you are not part of the problem. Try to be nice and less suspicious of the next black person you meet. You know how to do it.

      Stop defending Somerby when he wants to pretend that racism left the planet back in the 1960s.

      Delete
    4. Since you can't recommend a single book or action you have ever done. All I've got to go on is your videos that show the things you ACTUALLY DO to improve race relations. You're just another violent thug who's doing more harm to race relations than. any Klan member could ever hope to do.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdWG87mXoqM

      Delete
  13. "PHOTO CAPTION: The Boones Mill Produce Co., on the main highway in Franklin County, has Confederate flags and Trump flags on display."

    The Washington Post reported to it's shocked readership that Confederate and Trump flags are being displayed in a county in VA that voted 68% for Trump in 2016. I can't wait to tell my friends about this amazing finding!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The point is that this kind of thing makes black people feel unwelcome, because of that whole slavery/civil war thing. People have the right to display what they want, but Somerby is seriously trying to argue that these three BLM women are being paranoid and imagining a whole "South rises again" vibe in their community. You affirm what Somerby has been trying to deny.

      Delete
    2. Don't you think black people living in a Southern state like Virginia have seen Confederate symbols since long before the Washington Post decided to single out this particular place? You can blindly accept WP's novelization that there is something special happening there if you want. But I lived in the South for four decades and I don't see anything atypical. White Southerners voted Republican in overwhelming numbers for decades and they did so for Trump. This would be a shock only to the ignorant, which I guess explains your comment.

      Delete
    3. So, if black people are used to racism that makes it OK? If racism is typical, that makes it OK?

      If black people want change, you can support their efforts or stand in their way. It seems clear which path you have chosen.

      Delete
    4. "White Southerners voted Republican in overwhelming numbers for decades.."

      5 decades, in fact. Just after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
      Probably due to 'economic anxiousness". LOL.

      Delete
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  15. Having herpes is not the end of life there many treatment to cure herpes infection with the help of  Dr Alika herbal product.  I was positive to the deadly virus called HERPES and i lost hope because i was out casted and rejected even by my closet friends.
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  16. Hoe ik mijn huwelijk heb kunnen redden.
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