What’s Wrong with McKinney TX is What’s Wrong with America.

[riqster]

https://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/whats-wrong-with-mckinney-tx-is-whats-wrong-with-america/

Source info at the link.

All across the USA, people have been pointing judgemental fingers at McKinney, Texas: pointing at the town’s racism, pointing at the town’s homophobia, and pointing at the town’s police misconduct. All such fingers implying a certain superiority on the locale of those doing the pointing.

And those assumptions of superiority are, of course, misguided at best and lies at worst. Let’s take a few of McKinney’s recent “sins” and see how our states, cities, and neighborhoods stand up in comparison, shall we? Oh yes, yes we shall:

Homophobia: Kids who wore t-shirts supporting a bullied friend were harassed, publicly shamed, and otherwise penalized for having the words “Gay OK” on their shirts. The bullies were not, and have not, been punished. Think your town’s schools administrators are better? Probably not.

Racism: White people caused the recent dustup at that pool party, and let’s not pretend otherwise, OK? The white 911 caller was a racist (and has a criminal record), and the white woman who started the pool party fight is an obviously racist POS. Neither of them got so much as a glance from the idiot cop who pummeled an innocent black teen.
Think your town is better? Maybe it is, but probably not.

And let’s not even get STARTED on police misconduct, OK? Just check out the nationwide stats on skin-color-based differences in how law enforcement treats our citizens. No place is immune.

Yes, McKenney has racists, bigots, and crazy cops. So too does Ferguson. And, Staten Island. And, Cleveland. And so too does America as a whole: a wonderful, but deeply f***ed-up country. Until we realize that racism, homophobia, bigotry and other forms of hatred infest our nation from coast to coast and top to bottom, we’ll never get this place cleaned up.

Instead of pointing fingers at others, let’s put our digits to work. fixing our own problems.

[Baitball Blogger]

1. "For the good of the community"

My town is just better at producing a meme that hides its racist agenda. You have a mix of true racists and people who are just tag-alongs-to-get-alongs. And if there is one glue that brings them together, it is the potential for job opportunities and social facilitations in their inner circles.

The need to create a higher cause that gives them the feeling of self-righteousness will always result in discrimination against those who are seen as a threat to their entitled way of life.

[riqster]

2. Very true.

Last edited Thu Jun 11, 2015, 01:57 PM - Edit history (1)

Remember the "Clyborne Park Improvement Association" from A Raisin in the Sun?

[olddots]

3. this could happen anywhere and it is happening everywhere .

how we stop it isn't thru social media but thru human to human communication .

[riqster]

4. I'd say we use every form of communication we possess.

Words, art, songs, online, offline, any way we can get the point across.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Very difficult to resolve differences on a community level,

when people who have the most to lose are willing to lie to maintain their privileged way of life.

[riqster]

6. S'truth. Especially the lies they tell themselves.

[ananda]

7. Yup

I have some very racist, privileged, rightwing relatives
who live in McKinney.

In fact all my Texas relatives live in outlying white towns
and suburbs... except for siblings.

[riqster]

8. I have such family and acquaintances across the country.

[jalan48]

9. Good post-change begins at home.

[riqster]

10. Indeed.

[calimary]

11. Totally, riqster! DAYUM - when I think of the trillions that we've squandered on the Pentagon...

Even a slice of that big a pie could fund an awful lot of domestic good.

I think people forget (or it simply doesn't occur to them) that things like racism, bigotry, sexism, overzealous policing, just like the economic imbalance - it all gnaws away at our national security.

THIS, TOO, is NATIONAL SECURITY!!!!!

If you have to LIVE with this in your community, or worse - if this shit is directed AT YOU; if YOU are victimized directly or indirectly by this shit, the unrest and upheaval and divisiveness where we all start setting upon each other for the sake of our differences rather than for the sake of what binds us together into one great collective - THIS, TOO, is NATIONAL SECURITY. Every bit as much as worry about terrorism and bad guys with beards and turbans and guns and dark skin.

I'd bet that what terrorizes most Americans to the greatest extent - is the idea of the WOLF at the door, NOT some masked Middle-Easterner ringing the doorbell while wearing a suicide bomb belt. I'd bet that more people in this country feel far more terrorized and targeted and fearful for their lives - when facing a police officer than they would feel when confronted by some crazed jihadist.

[riqster]

12. That "lost" 4.7 Trillion bucks from the Pentagon would be a good start.

[heaven05]

13. indeed

, but "lost" forever it is.

[heaven05]

14. couldn't agree more

[daleanime]

15. K&R.....