The Freedom Riders: What A Disgraceful Event(s)

[ABM]

Just finished watching the rented Freedom Riders documentary. Wow, I really had no idea what these "heroes" went through. How sickening it was for me to watch those brutal acts of blatant racism....from the top...down!

It's a good wake-up call if you care to watch.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

When I lived in Memphis, it was like a different country. The racism was scary.

 

[ABM]

When I lived in Memphis, it was like a different country. The racism was scary.

Tell me about it. Living in Atlanta for 12 years told me all I need to know.

Sure, the city of Atlanta was cosmopolitan/respectable enough, but get 10 miles outside the city limits, and you may as well be back in the 60's. I HATED those southern flags a lot of folks had to have waving on poles in their front yards or otherwise on their respective properties! Disgusting, actually.

 

[RR7]

It's always funny to me when some people that were born and raised in Portland assume that racism just isn't that big a deal in the country anymore.

 

[magnifier661]

It's always funny to me when some people that were born and raised in Portland assume that racism just isn't that big a deal in the country anymore.

Yeah white people in SoCal are treated like shit!

 

[ABM]

Yeah white people in SoCal are treated like shit!

I'll bet that half pisses you off.

 

[julius]

It's always funny to me when some people that were born and raised in Portland assume that racism just isn't that big a deal in the country anymore.

It's always funny to me (and I'm not saying this to be snide or undermine what you said) when people say "liberals cry racism" at the drop of a hat, and then people point out that maybe racism is a little more active then we think.

I worded that poorly, but fuck it. I know what I meant.

 

[ABM]

....people say "liberals cry racism" at the drop of a hat, and then people point out that maybe racism is a little more active then we think.

Yep, racism is certainly alive and......sick in many parts of our country.

 

[santeesioux]

You'll see a confederate flag down here once in a while, it's downright weird. I guess some people like putting the SOUTHERN in Southern Oregon.

 

[julius]

Yep, racism is certainly alive and......sick in many parts of our country.

you don't even have to leave Oregon to find it. There's subtle evidence of it in parts of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Not nearly to the degree it is in other parts of the country though.

Whats weird is, the few times I've witnessed racism (and not blatant racism, but the subtle kind) it's always done in a way that makes the person saying/doing it come off as totally oblivious to the fact you don't have a similar opinion about things.

 

[The Professional Fan]

Outside of Portland there are a shit ton of racist hicks in Oregon. There just aren't any black people outside of NEP for them to project themselves upon. In the South, well, it's not too difficult to stumble upon a black person or two........every 1 second.

 

[RR7]

It's always funny to me (and I'm not saying this to be snide or undermine what you said) when people say "liberals cry racism" at the drop of a hat, and then people point out that maybe racism is a little more active then we think.

I worded that poorly, but fuck it. I know what I meant.

Hmm, not sure what you meant, sorry, or maybe I am reading it poorly, I apologize.

I'm saying that coming from Chicago. I have actually had a few people from Portland say oh, racism isn't even a big deal anymore, it's not all that prevalent. Coming from someone who lives in a very white city, and hasn't traveled much outside of the city, it just struck me as funny. Like well, of course you never see racism if there aren't other races around.
I fly back to Chicago and there's more black people that work at midway than live in Portland it seems like. I saw it all the time there.

 

[julius]

Hmm, not sure what you meant, sorry, or maybe I am reading it poorly, I apologize.

I'm saying that coming from Chicago. I have actually had a few people from Portland say oh, racism isn't even a big deal anymore, it's not all that prevalent. Coming from someone who lives in a very white city, and hasn't traveled much outside of the city, it just struck me as funny. Like well, of course you never see racism if there aren't other races around.
I fly back to Chicago and there's more black people that work at midway than live in Portland it seems like. I saw it all the time there.

I was kind of saying that, but it came out crappy.

 

[Denny Crane]

Hmm, not sure what you meant, sorry, or maybe I am reading it poorly, I apologize.

I'm saying that coming from Chicago. I have actually had a few people from Portland say oh, racism isn't even a big deal anymore, it's not all that prevalent. Coming from someone who lives in a very white city, and hasn't traveled much outside of the city, it just struck me as funny. Like well, of course you never see racism if there aren't other races around.
I fly back to Chicago and there's more black people that work at midway than live in Portland it seems like. I saw it all the time there.

Chicago was a most segregated city when I grew up there. There's north/south or whites/ blacks. But also by other ethnicities - Greek, Italian, Puerto Rican whole neighborhoods.

This is a progressive northern city, too.

The SF Bay area is also segregated. On one side of the 101 is Palo Alto, one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the nation. On the bay side of the 101 is East Palo Alto, almost entirely black, poor, and crime ridden. San Francisco and Oakland are similarly white/black. Welcome to the progressive People's Republik of California!

On the subject of the freedom riders, JFK and RFK sat on their hands for quite a while, when the freedom riders were literally getting their asses kicked. Ike sent the national guard into Bill Clinton's home town of Little Rock to segregate the schools. Go figure.

 

[jlprk]

It's so rare to see a thread, or anything on the internet, say that real racism is bad, and worse yet, alive. People nowadays think that racism means using a word inappropriately, since semantics were the main trick that feminism used to justify its own existence. A sincere racism conversation, as this one began, soon becomes political, as Denny tried. Isaiah Rider said that 50 miles outside Portland there were open racists. He was speculating, and got hated for saying it.

50 miles outside of Seattle, try talking to the people of Sedro Woolley. 30 miles north of there, I got an earful of racism from my dentist and his assistant. When I visited New Orleans, I was befriended by a young female who talked about nothing other than how bad black people are. It's alive and strong.

 

[Denny Crane]

I think I detailed how racism is still alive. My point is that it's not specific to southern locations, but to progressive and northern states as well.

Ike was flamed for violating states' rights. JFK took a while to get it.

 

[MARIS61]

Outside of Portland there are a shit ton of racist hicks in Oregon. There just aren't any black people outside of NEP for them to project themselves upon. In the South, well, it's not too difficult to stumble upon a black person or two........every 1 second.

Having been raised in LO, lived in Portland and Milwaukie, spent a year in Hollywood,CA, and the last decade in Beautiful Central Oregon, I have to say the reverse is true.

The bigger and more diverse the population is, the more prevalent and rabid the racism is. Portland and Hollywood are the only 2 places I've lived where entire sections of the city were unsafe to travel after dark, simply due to being caucasian. Also the only 2 places I've been hassled, harassed or insulted due to skin color. Also the only 2 where I've faced openly discriminatory employment practices.

 

[crandc]

Yep, racism is certainly alive and......sick in many parts of our country.

Go to the comments in the Fox News story on the death of Whitney Houston - page after page of n word, crack ho, etc etc

 

[porkchopexpress]

Having been raised in LO, lived in Portland and Milwaukie, spent a year in Hollywood,CA, and the last decade in Beautiful Central Oregon, I have to say the reverse is true.

The bigger and more diverse the population is, the more prevalent and rabid the racism is. Portland and Hollywood are the only 2 places I've lived where entire sections of the city were unsafe to travel after dark, simply due to being caucasian. Also the only 2 places I've been hassled, harassed or insulted due to skin color. Also the only 2 where I've faced openly discriminatory employment practices.

Is this a serious response? You're really judging how racist a place is based on how you, a white male, gets treated? Of course you're not going to be discriminated for being white in Eastern Oregon. Everyone is white.

 

[PapaG]

Outside of Portland there are a shit ton of racist hicks in Oregon. There just aren't any black people outside of NEP for them to project themselves upon. In the South, well, it's not too difficult to stumble upon a black person or two........every 1 second.

Plenty of black people in NEP that have beaten up whitey on the Max, though.

Or does that type of racism not count?

 

[PapaG]

One person's social justice is another person's racism. My favorite type of hypocrite is the white liberal who bemoans 'racism', but only when that racism goes one way.

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/126825018.html

Witnesses tell Newsradio 620 WTMJ and TODAY’S TMJ4 of a mob of young people attacking innocent fair-goers at the end of the opening night of State Fair, with some callers claiming a racially-charged scene.

Milwaukee Police confirmed there were assaults outside the fair.

Witnesses’ accounts claim everything from dozens to hundreds of young black people beating white people as they left State Fair Thursday night.

Authorities have not given official estimates of the number of people involved in the attacks.

“It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people,” said Norb Roffers of Wind Lake in an interview with Newsradio 620 WTMJ. He left the State Fair Entrance near the corner of South 84th Street and West Schlinger Avenue in West Allis.

“They were attacking everybody for no reason whatsoever.”

“It was 100% racial,” claimed Eric, an Iraq war veteran from St. Francis who says young people beat on his car.

"I had a black couple on my right side, and these black kids were running in between all the cars, and they were pounding on my doors and trying to open up doors on my car, and they didn't do one thing to this black couple that was in this car next to us. They just kept walking right past their car. They were looking in everybody's windshield as they were running by, seeing who was white and who was black. Guarantee it."

Eric, a war veteran, said that the scene he saw Thursday outside State Fair compares to what he saw in combat.

"That rated right up there with it. When I saw the amount of kids coming down the road, all I kept thinking was, 'There's not enough cops to handle this.' There's no way. It would have taken the National Guard to control the number of kids that were coming off the road. They were knocking people off their motorcycles."

Another witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said, "it was like a scene you needed the National Guard to control."

"To me, it looked like a scene out of a movie," claimed the anonymous witness.

"I have not seen anything like this in my life. It was a huge mob, and it was a fight that maybe lasted one to two minutes."

Roffers claimed that as he left the state fair with his wife, crowds near that entrance were large, and someone in that crowd.

"As we got closer to the street, we looked up the road, and we saw a quite a bit of commotion going on and there was a guy laying in the road, and nobody was even laying there. He wasn't even moving. Finally a car pulled up. They stopped right next to the guy, and it looked like someone was going to help him. We were kind of stuck, because we couldn't cross. Traffic was going through. Young black men running around, beating on people, and we were like 'Let's get the heck out of here.' The light turned, and I got attacked from behind. I just got hit in the back of the head real hard. I'm like, 'What the heck is going on here?' I heard my bell ring."

Roffers further described what witnesses said happened to the man who was lying in the street.

"People were saying he was on a bike. They tore him off his bike and beat on him. We were walking to the west on Schlinger. I was watching behind me a lot more diligently, making sure there wasn't anybody coming to get us anymore."

One person claimed that someone was knocked off a motorcycle.

TODAY'S TMJ4 video shows West Allis police handcuffing at least one person, but they won't say how many people they took into custody.

Some witnesses described attacks on the State Fair Grounds as well.

Milwaukee Police said that their officers were sent to State Fair Park for "complaints of battery, fighting and property damage due to a large, unruly crowd."

A police sergeant told TODAY'S TMJ4's Melissa McCrady that the number of calls describing injuries are still coming in, so they could not give an accurate number of people who were injured.

That sergeant explained that some injuries were serious, and local hospitals were attending to the injured.

As of early Friday morning, Milwaukee Police said they had no one in custody.

One woman told police that she was sitting in her car with a window down when some teenagers reached through her window and started attacking her.

"I think once we get all the info in it'll be just like that, like what happened in Riverwest," said the police sergeant

 

[PapaG]

FYI - statistically, black on white crime occurs much, much more often than white on black crime.

 

[PapaG]

Is this a serious response? You're really judging how racist a place is based on how you, a white male, gets treated? Of course you're not going to be discriminated for being white in Eastern Oregon. Everyone is white.

No, only white liberal males like you can decide what is racist and what is not.

It's in the Constitution or sumthin'.

 

[porkchopexpress]

No, only white liberal males like you can decide what is racist and what is not.

It's in the Constitution or sumthin'.

Ok...so there is no racism in Eastern Oregon because a white male doesn't get discriminated out there? Right. I never said anything about racism being one sided. Oh, and I'm not white, so good assumption there.

 

[PapaG]

Ok...so there is no racism in Eastern Oregon because a white male doesn't get discriminated out there? Right. I never said anything about racism being one sided. Oh, and I'm not white, so good assumption there.

I never said that.

Since you're not a white liberal, you can't possibly know what racism is, either.

Although you calling MARIS a "white" male is interesting and a bit telling on how your own mind works.

 

[magnifier661]

Okay this reminds me of this story that happened like 10 years ago.

I was at this club and I was good friends with this black bouncer. We were talking it up outside, then all the sudden a fight breaks out. Of course he goes in to break it up. It was between two white guys. Well one of the white guys pushed my friend and my friend lit him up; and I mean BIG TIME. Then the bouncers were breaking up my buddy and this poor white guy.

Anyways, the story ends with management confronting my friend. They asked why he went out of control. My friend said "Well he called me a Ni**er". Then that was the end of it and went on their way. I cracked a joke to my friend saying "Well played!" He laughed and told me "Works everytime!"

 

[porkchopexpress]

I never said that.

Since you're not a white liberal, you can't possibly know what racism is, either.

Although you calling MARIS a "white" male is interesting and a bit telling on how your own mind works.

Well, Maris did call himself a Caucasian, so that may have given his race away. I did assume the male part, so you got me there.

 

[RR7]

Plenty of black people in NEP that have beaten up whitey on the Max, though.

Or does that type of racism not count?

I don't think anybody is saying it doesn't count. Or that the above story in Milwaukee isn't racially motivated. I don't see where anyone is saying racism only goes 1 way here. Just that it still exists.

 

[PapaG]

Well, Maris did call himself a Caucasian, so that may have given his race away. I did assume the male part, so you got me there.

Just having fun. It's naive to think that racism doesn't exist in every corner of the US. I happen to view racism as more than just a whites hating blacks issue, though.

 

[PapaG]

I don't think anybody is saying it doesn't count. Or that the above story in Milwaukee isn't racially motivated. I don't see where anyone is saying racism only goes 1 way here. Just that it still exists.

I was referencing julius' posts. I assumed by reading that that only racism by white people counted. Anybody who lives in the PDX metro area should know that there have been black on white issues in NEP, and specifically the Interstate MAX area, over the past few years.