racism

Racism, Trump and Me

/ Katie Wigington / Leave a comment

Upside-down-US-flag-of-occupation

Perhaps I have angered you lately—with my pro protest posts.

I have listened to rhetoric and propaganda from both sides of the political spectrum. I have seen numerous people say their opinions should be respected. Well, no that’s not how it works. I respect your right to an opinion. There is no doubt about that. But to respect opinions that go against my own ethics would be ludicrous.  Especially if your opinion is not fact-based or based on hate.

I try to keep it real. I try to do my homework before I spout off about anything, but particularly politics. I have numerous friends much more left-wing than myself that I don’t always agree with and will say so. I’m generally not a demonizer, nor, do I put people on pedestals. I have no idols, just a few people I admire. I try not to hate.

The last election drove a huge wedge between me and the people I know, including some of my own family, who voted for Trump. (and perhaps they feel the same about my vote for Clinton.)

For me, it was an easy vote. I didn’t struggle with who was the better candidate. I never gave Bernie with his pointing finger and spittle mouth a second thought. I listened to what the GOP candidates had to say- and rejected them based on my own understanding of right and wrong. I watched every debate, I watched every news channel, (although admit that Fox gives me a migraine). I read every article- even the fake news ones. I researched. I watched 90% of the 11 hour Clinton interrogation in the Senate Hearing. (and frankly, I would have told them to go fuck themselves about hour 4.)

I know about Benghazi; I am a military mom. I don’t know – for the life of me- how you can blame the Secretary of State for those deaths, and not blame Bush/Cheney for the deaths of 5000+ troops in Iraq & Afghanistan based on lies. It makes no sense.

Afghanistan War 2001–present 1,954*
Iraq War 2003–2011 3,836*

*Source Wikipedia

And now… the Trump administration is using private email servers … so much for that issue. The corruption from this administration has put anything the Clinton’s ever did to shame. If you can’t see it… you aren’t looking.

I have watched this president (not capped on purpose) denigrate everyone that disagrees with him about anything. He is petty – like I knew he would be. He is knee jerk, he lacks depth, he seriously lacks empathy, he lacks historical facts, he lacks global knowledge, he lacks etiquette, he lacks vocabulary, he has made a fool of himself to the world with every single meeting he has with heads of states. He forgets their names, their titles, and admires thugs and murderers like Putin and Duterte. He is a global joke. He undermines his own cabinet. He insults women on a regular basis.  He always reminds me of the man that tried to put my head through a window when I wouldn’t serve him any more alcohol. He’s a spoiled, rich white guy that no one dare say no to. I have no doubt he has forced himself on women – I have met men like him.  But still, to me – his worst thing is that he is stupid. And by stupid I mean he lacks intelligence. He is not a reader – despite the pictures of his desk with reams of paper—he has lacked a complete understanding of the law. (Which by the way the rule of law is the backbone of our country.) He is not a successful businessman- he has stiffed so many people that he might as well have held a gun to them and stolen the money he owes. Yet people chose to overlook these character traits and voted for him.

And some people think he hung the moon. Some people have put their own morals aside (or maybe not) and decided that this man would do a good job. But has he?  Not by my standards.

So far he has tried to take medical insurance away from 20+ million people  (including many vets not covered by the VA) and sabotaged the market so that either way the American Health Insurance markets are screwed. Obama care or no Obama care – Health insurance is going to be unaffordable for most. And Medicare – that which those of us 65 and over-rely on – is in jeopardy as well. He would like to raise the taxes on middle class and cut the taxes for the very wealthy (proven to not work theory by top economists.)  He has created travel bans that are race/religion based (illegal) halted by the courts. He has rescinded DACA causing 15 States to sue the administration as well as 4 other lawsuits in a matter of 3 weeks. DACA Lawsuits

He has made legal immigration so difficult that it will probably lead to more illegal immigration.

He has loosened sanctions on EPA and National Monuments. He has pulled out of the Paris Accord- (then like a slippery dick, slid back in.) He has effectively dismantled just about any progress Obama made in his 8 years in office.

The article below by the BBC sums up this administrations successes and failures thus far. It’s not a great report card.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38663043

Trump’s support (as seen by lack of disdain and/or some respect) of White Supremacism/ Nazism was not a surprise to me- but what did surprise me was how many people were silent on the matter. (but some quite vocal about Black Lives Matter.) Afraid to speak out perhaps? Afraid to be political?  Afraid to make enemies of the true enemy of America?  Or was it because they held those same beliefs?

I have been arguing with people for 2 weeks about NFL and taking a knee issue and I am done. People will believe what they want to believe. No amount of logic and /or facts will change the will of some people. They want to be where they want to be. I see that as narrow-minded. Perhaps they see me the same way. Eventually, the facts will prevail.

And from BLM’s and Colin Kaepernick taking a knee- and trumps tweetstorm shit-show about the NFL when Puerto Rico is dying was just about the final straw for me. An insult to the flag and the troops and the anthem– not at all. I know this country is split in half about this – most of the veterans I know personally say they fought for this right (to protest) even if they don’t agree with it. When a silent protest is seen as unpatriotic I have to wonder what kind of protest is okay with you?

You want to know the real insult to the troops? Wars for no reason. The killing of 18–30-year-old people in the name of a war that has only made the issue of terrorism worse. We (the US) have effectively insured the terrorist of the future are the orphaned and homeless of the war-torn countries of today. We have a country full of veterans from wars since Vietnam until today with PTS due in large part to the fact they realized it was all for nothing, that they were killing people that wanted the same things we want- food, shelter, education, good health, and their children to be safe.

Another insult to the flag and patriotism is the heinous racism in our country. I have always been painfully aware of racism but lately it’s so overt I don’t know how anyone can deny it’s happening – and yet they do. Under trumps leadership (for lack of a better word) it has become okay to hate people of color. Newsflash folks – it’s not okay. The so-called “race card” is a misnomer. The “card” is issued by white people to denigrate blacks even further—the card is used by whites when they don’t have the intelligence to have a real conversation about race. The race card – is a term invented by whites who hate blacks.

If you wonder why I am writing about all this now- it’s because these thoughts eat me alive until I spit them out, because I can’t sleep thinking about this—and because I want to make sure that it’s clear that I have not come to these conclusions lightly- but not with great difficulty either. My core values have led the way.

My core values consist of equality, truth, and belief in humanity. The latter isn’t always easy for me–humanity lets me down on a regular basis, yet I continue to hope – and sometimes I see hope prevail. Recently someone asked me if I ever lose hope… I can honestly say that I have- but not for long. I lost hope this last election – for weeks I was depressed, angry, tearful and fearful. It was a blow I was not prepared to handle. I had to vow to myself to make sure that I leave my son and grandson a legacy they can be proud of to restore my positive energy  (hope) so that I am able to fight racism, hatred, fascism and all things intolerable to our Constitution as Americans and humanity in general. I don’t have much to leave anyone, just an abundance of tenacity and some words that tell the story of who I am. Who I hope to be.

I really don’t care if I am alone in the fight- though I know I am not and grateful for that. And I don’t think that everyone I know has to think the way I think – but some basics are a must. I will not tolerate racism—just like I will not tolerate rapists, murderers and child molesters. They are all the same category to me—unacceptable. If your racism is showing I am going to call you on it. I won’t be a coward and look the other way. I won’t worry about hurting feelings or losing a friendship. No one should allow that kind of behavior – as long as we do it will prevail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Lives Matter

/ Katie Wigington / Leave a comment
My credentials:
  • Daughter of a police officer, great-grand-daughter of a police officer.
  • Have dated or been friends with many police officers.
  • Mother of mixed race (adult) child former member of USMC who served in Iraq.
  • Aunt of mixed race children.
  • Caucasian
  • Champion of freedom and human rights in all countries.
  • Witness to passive and overt racism, oppression, segregation and bigotry every single day.
  • Human Being
HUGE DISCLAIMER: I do not hate the police- in addition to family members, I have had several friends in law enforcement. But I don’t put anyone on a pedestal. I have known plenty of bad police. Plenty of police that thought nothing of beating the crap out of someone with a Billy Club, or molesting hookers because they were hookers. So I’m not in denial about the black community and crime and I’m not in denial about the white racist police.
 
I bet a few of you have been waiting for me to weigh in on this subject. I needed to wait until I had more information and until I could no longer stand what I was reading in the news and on social networks. Until I could write without anger.
 
 
Upfront: Looting is NOT protesting. Protesting is legal and an American right. Looting is illegal and stupid… mass hysteria never helps anything.
 
I know people (I’m sorry to say) that say “black” like I say “child molester”. To them being black is a disease, an inferior disease that thank God they weren’t born with. God… thank GOD because we all know he didn’t intend to make anyone black.  Having a black president has unfortunately widened the divide and increased the hate 10 fold. No one ever says, the President is half white. Never.  People seem to embrace their racism, and own it—“I hate blacks” they say. They call black people stupid and lazy, monkeys and apes, and of course they are all on welfare– and don’t they know about birth control? They should all be spayed, like cats and dogs. I mean seriously, if you are dirt fucking poor why would you keep having kids? They keep playing the race card, when will they get over the whole slavery thing?  We haven’t had slaves for over 200 years.  (That would be incorrect.)  Or, I’m not racist but if they act like animals…
 
So, I decided to tackle some of these statements. And, I know- going in, I will not change one stupid racist mind. But, this is for my son, my grandchildren, my nieces and nephews and anyone who would like to support the fact that we all bleed red and the color of our skin should not matter. And if we don’t wake up—and start treating people right, we are no better than any other country who subjects their citizens to various forms of tyranny. We might as well be the Middle East.
 
I read an article called How Often are Unarmed Black Men Gunned Down by Police? in the Daily Kos that was mind boggling. I’ll recap a bit here for you—but you should read the whole thing.
 
One source, in a report called “Operation Ghetto Storm” says that in 2012 that of the 739 “Justified” shootings shown above from 2012, 313 of them were Black.  44% of them or 136, were unarmed. 27% of them (83) were claimed by Law Enforcement to have gun at the time of the shooting, but that could not be later confirmed or the “gun” was in fact, a toy or other non-lethal object. 20% of them (62) were confirmed to have been armed with a gun, knife or cutting tool.
 
This report, which was gathered by searching media reports, obituaries and even facebook pages of deceased persons includes the following table as an example.

 

The report goes into much further detail- but here is where I want to interject my own thoughts.
I have a feeling that Officer Wilson was afraid of black people when he shot Michael Brown. I say that because of statements he made during his Grand Jury testimony—and well, his actions on that fateful day. But also because I see it in everyday life. I walk a lot. And I noticed that when white people see a group of black teens or Hispanic teens walking, they cross the street. But not if it’s a group of white teens. Personally, I think all teens have obnoxious potential, but when I stay on the same side of the street, this is what I hear almost all of the time. “Cute dog. Can I pet your dog?” Scary right? Big bad black teens. Or they say nothing. They keep their heads down and have no eye contact, because that’s what they have been taught. Don’t even look at white people… it makes them mad.  Now if you think I’m exaggerating let me tell you that many years ago I heard someone say when talking about black men, “You should see how they look at my daughter.” The truth is- everyone looked at her daughter that way because she was a looker, and she turned heads. That is a whole different problem—for another day. The difference though, when a police officer a “peace officer,” is afraid, the dynamic changes. Scared policemen are one of two things, they are either bullies, or nervous Nellies. Neither one is going to make them better at their job.
 
 
I’ve written before that I don’t think it’s always about race. And while I still think that is true I understand a little more now than I did at the time I wrote that and now I see how racism has permeated just about every walk of life. So it’s no wonder things come to a boiling point—and spill over from time to time. How could it not? Even if it doesn’t appear to be about race- I can see where it would almost always feel like it is.
 
I keep seeing this stupid meme floating around the internet about how white people didn’t protest when OJ Simpson got off. But the truth is there were marches, non-violent protests and certainly grand disappointment through-out Nicole Browns and Ron Goodman’s communities. The case was divided racially, and sadly, it’s because of that, that I believe justice was not served. How these racial divides started is history. Our American history that we often sweep under the carpet and try to sugar coat. I’m particularly appalled by the following things I’ve heard people say. “Not all slaves were treated poorly. Or  “Slavery ended 129 years ago, get over it.”  People have this “Gone with the Wind” view of slavery and the white folks loving their slaves (though whipping them if needed) and said slaves loving their white folk. Fictional half-wits, feet shuffling, numb-skulled, down right stupid black people. How would we feel if almost every portrayal of white people was like that? For 100 years – for 200 years? Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmons) wrote Huckleberry Finn and created a black character with honor and wisdom and heart. While the era he was writing about used words which we no longer find acceptable, his intent was not to demean when he used those terms. His intent was to enlighten his generation of bigots. He took some heat for that.
 
 
Bigotry isn’t just about black people. I see the same issues happening with Hispanic immigrants, and indeed, some Hispanics who were born here—since unless you ask for a birth certificate, like they did with President Obama, you really have no idea where someone is born. Interesting enough, this never happens with white immigrants. There are 1000s of Russian and Irish immigrants (some illegal) in San Francisco; I’ve never heard a soul complain or request a birth certificate.
 
In the historical, semi-guide book “The Cool Gray City of Love” Gary Kamiya speaks of the hatred towards the Chinese “in 1877 when more than 500 [white] men stormed San Francisco’s Chinatown from two directions and were beaten back by two phalanxes of policeman, one on Pine and one on Broadway.”
 
Five years after that episode the first significant immigration law, the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted severely limiting Chinese Immigration.  An expression used at the time went like this: “We hate the Negroes because they are citizens and we hate the Chinese because they won’t be.” (Early Chinese settlers had no desire to be American Citizens.)  
 
Earlier this year, over 200 white protesters stopped busses full of Illegal immigrants (mostly children) who were being transported for processing to be deported. These unaccompanied illegal immigrants, predominantly from Central American countries, such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala were fleeing their country for one reason—they didn’t want to die. While the protests were non-violent, the anger was evident to me. The protesters didn’t even want the deportation process to be in their city because they were positive they would be over-run by illegal children.
 
People have been using the term “White Privilege” and many whites go into defensive mode when they hear that but its origins are legitimate. Common replies to that “accusation” are “I have worked hard all my life.” “I have never asked for a handout” – the point is being missed.  White privilege is not about how hard anyone works. White privilege is about the fact that white skin is valued more than black skin. White schools are better, white kids have more opportunities; fewer whites are arrested for the same crimes as blacks. And it goes farther than that—but that is a different article too. 
 
When I lived in North Carolina it took me a while to realize why there was a private school on every corner (across from the church on every opposite corner). That was how the South initially (and in my opinion, still) got around desegregation. I worked with a black woman who had a college degree and was married to a banker, lived in a good neighborhood and wanted her kids to go to the predominantly white school because that’s where the better teachers worked, and that was where the  most money was spent on education. This was a big topic of conversation on talk radio when I lived in North Carolina. A very heated topic because whites did not want blacks in their schools.
 
A week after Michael Brown was shot to death my son posted this on his facebook page. It made me proud.

 
Racism is a plague. It’s so deeply rooted that many of us don’t even know we are being racist. I said black person to someone once, and there was a black person within ear-shot and the person I was talking to shushed me. So let me be clear. You can say black to a black person. It will be another at least 100 years before we are color blind. If you can’t start talking to black people and Hispanic people and Asian people, things will never change.
 
 
This is not about Ferguson, this is not about Michael Brown. This is about disproportionate statistics and reality regarding crime and people of color.
 
From a ProPublica articleby by Ryan Gabrielson, Ryann Grochowski Jonesand Eric Sagara : The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police.
 
And finally- today’s news from the New York Grand Jury to not prosecute a white policeman, who put an illegal chokehold on a black man for illegally selling cigarettes. It’s starting to look like it’s okay to kill people for stealing cigars or selling contraband, it’s starting to look like it’s okay to kill a kid in a hoodie that looks scary. Even resisting arrest—should not be an excuse to shoot someone when there are several other options to knock him or her on their ass.  It’s starting to look like white Americans would rather shoot someone than use the legal system to punish them for their crimes.
 
 
When my son was here last week he taught me how to say hi in Chinese. I was so excited I couldn’t wait to try it. I couldn’t believe I never knew, growing up in San Francisco. He picked up Arabic when he was in Iraq, and speaks it fairly well. Whenever he hears people speaking Arabic and it’s not a private conversation, he always says hello and a few pleasantries. Nice right? Bridging the gap—making friends. He has friends from all walks of life, and I’m so glad that both his dad and I were able to surround him with many different cultures and let him learn—we all bleed red.
 
I am calling out racists. I’ve been doing it for a few years. It’s not right to judge people by the color of their skin – whether you are morally guided by a religion or intellectually guided you should know for a fact that racism in any fashion is wrong.
 
 
Do you think you are a racist?
 
 

A Lesson from My Mom

/ Katie Wigington / 1 Comment

 

Mom Approx. 50 Years Old



My mother used to proudly tell people, including her children, that she was part black, or whatever term she used back in the day, probably colored, maybe negro. She said she was a direct descendant of Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia. She explained this by telling us it happened during Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in the early 1930s, which was when she was born—but in San Francisco. Not Ethiopia, not Italy.

I don’t know why she told us this. I like to think it was to teach us a lesson. I like to think that she was as appalled by racism as I am, but I really don’t know. Maybe she just liked messing with people’s minds. Closed minds, small minds. Her prejudice was for stupid. Like me, she was guilty of her own stupidity, but had little tolerance for the stupidity of others.

It could have been a believable tale. She had big brown eyes and beautiful full lips. Her auburn hair wasn’t curly but had a lot of natural wave. Her skin, naturally olive, would turn chocolate brown in the sun.

My mother never blinked when I introduced her to my Japanese boyfriend, and later, when she found out I was going to have his baby, she was thrilled. She never mentioned mixed race, or any of the issues that might come up– that did come up, due to crossing some line that some people drew. Her own kids looked like the League of Nations and she often said so. My older sister is dark with a Latin appearance, like my mother’s Southern Italian ancestors, I’m a blue eyed blonde like my father’s German grandmother, my little brother was more olive and Italian like my mother, (She was French and Irish on her mother’s side and Italian on her dad’s.) then later my little sister, who is a nice blend of Northern Italian from her dad and Southern Italian from my mom. For a short time when I was very little, we had two Korean foster children—my auburn haired mother turned many curious heads when we were all with her.

When I was pregnant with my son, people I knew asked me what I was going to do as a single mom with a mixed race child. That was such a crazy question to me. I just thought of him as my baby, not a race. It never occurred to me there would be any issues. And for me… there were no issues until bigotry crept into my life. When people would stare at us on the bus or in the store and shake their heads in disgust, or ask, “Did you adopt?”  No, I’d tell them, I have the scar to prove he’s mine. And while that question alone is not overtly bigoted, the implication is. This was in the melting pot Bay Area. I could only imagine what it was like in different parts of the country. The thought scared me.

Since 9/11/1, I have seen the same kind of hate for the Muslim religion and /or anyone that may look like they are of Arab descent. Never mind that most people don’t know the difference between a Sikh  (not Arab) and a Muslim (maybe Arab maybe not), don’t know the difference between an Afghani, Iraqi or Iranian, don’t know the difference between Farsi and Arabic, everyone that looked like they were  from any part of the Middle East became an instant suspect. People who had immigrated to the US to flee their war torn countries, to have religious freedom, to have human rights, were shunned because of the way they dressed or talked. It hasn’t gotten much better 13 years later.

With the recent events surrounding the racial intolerance of the Clippers Basketball Team owner Mr. Sterling and the crazy cowboy in Utah, Mr. Bundy, I have to wonder how far we have come as a country in regards to racial equality—since the Civil War. Not far at all, I’m afraid.

I am sensitive to it because I see it through my son’s eyes.  I’m sensitive to it because my niece has three little girls that are half Mexican. I’m sensitive to it because my mother, in her infinite wisdom, or maybe unknowingly made me aware of the ignorance many people have regarding race and cultural sensitivity.

Trying to have a frank conversation about race relations, religious freedoms, and sexual orientation freedom is difficult.  Sometimes I think the freedoms my son went to war for are nonexistent. He came back from Iraq with a better understanding of freedom and of the cost of freedom, but to a country that didn’t get it.

I read a great essay Pretending Racism Doesn’t Exist Doesn’t Make it Go Away  the other day written by Jeff Yang. The last two paragraphs wrap it up nicely; the whole essay is worth reading more than once.

“But denying racism doesn’t delete it. It simply allows it to live on in obscurity, drifting in the shadowy margins or lurking beneath the polished surface of polite society, where it can erode our most cherished shared values in secret, or erupt in fits of dark and terrible rage.

As Cliven Bundy and Don Sterling have demonstrated, as much as we claim that something is “not racist,” the “but…” continues to trail on behind it, keeping a foot in the door for the things we’d rather keep hidden.”

·         I’m not racist BUT, a black president, no thanks.

·         I’m not intolerant of any religion, BUT this country was founded on Christian beliefs we should not allow Mosques to be built here.

·         I’m not a bigot BUT, two men should not get married to each other.

·         I’m not a bigot BUT, I don’t want Mexicans living in my neighborhood.

·         I’m not a bigot BUT… FILL IN THE BLANK.

I wish my mom were here so I could talk to her about this. I would ask her why she told everyone she was part black and why sometimes she wore a Star of David even though, she was baptized Catholic. I would ask her if she thought she was ahead of her time in bringing these issues to the forefront, or did she just like to mess with minds of stupid people?  Either way, I have to say, she is my hero for this lesson. I hope I’m living up to her expectations as a human being and a daughter—I certainly am trying.

My mother, if she were still alive, would be the grandmother of seven, one is one-half Japanese, the others are a mixed bag of nuts, like me, a little bit of everything, and great grandmother to four, three of whom are half Mexican girls. She would have loved all of them and they would have loved her.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom, I miss your beautiful brain.

 
 

The Good Old Days

/ Katie Wigington / Leave a comment

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A lot of people send out emails talking about the good old days…mostly about the 50s and 60s. After several years of reading these selective memory, partially fictionalized notes– here is my response.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and I can tell you without a doubt – they were not great. Many women were slaves to their kids and husbands, many of them were physically and mentally abused with zero recourse because divorce was frowned upon and the law didn’t care. Parents could beat their kids bloody without consequence. (Save for the doctor bills and psychiatric care later.)  War veterans suffered in silence because it wasn’t manly to wake up screaming from nightmares or the have the shakes every time they were in a crowd. Black people still couldn’t vote or go to the same schools as whites, and were hung for sport, and just forget about being gay—you would have to go live in Europe if you were out of the closet gay. Our president was assassinated, we lived in constant fear of war, the McCarthy Erawas born and stomped all over the rights of many Americans who dared to have an opinion about anything.  The Cold War, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam War ; inequality on myriad levels, all served to make the 50s and 60s a blight on America’s history.  “Leave it to Beaver” was a ridiculous delusion.
Mom, me, Bama, baby Johnny & Linda 1955 Alemany Blvd. San Francisco
I have some warm memories. I remembering visiting my Great Grandmother, my BaMa, in Santa Rosa on Sundays, feeding the chickens and looking for their eggs, and her teaching me to sew on her Singer sewing machine, and bake the best German butter cookies in the world. Watching the birds in the aviary while sitting in the sun-drenched kitchen, the German canaries singing their glorious songs, and the homemade jams spread on the homemade breads. Papa Carl playing solitaire for hours on end and not saying much of anything but letting me sit on his lap and help. We’d sit outside in the shade under the grape vines that grew over a trellis, and sometimes pick berries to make jam.
In the fall, we would gather walnuts from the giant walnut tree and spend what felt like hours, cracking the shells, then baking chocolate chip cookies and warming her house and filling it up with the smell of fresh cookies coming from the old Wedgwood oven.
Easter 1960ish  in San Bruno @ Uncle Pete Scanlon’s house
I was lucky to have those memories. My innocence was lost long before my innocence was lost. My parents, until their divorce when I was four, had knockout, drag down fights that left my older sister and I trying to be invisible, curled up in our beds, often huddled together – a temporary peace treaty between water and oil. Still, she remembers the 50s with more kindness than me. I have a steel-trap memory—with amazing clarity, sometimes it’s a curse, but for the most part I’m glad I remember what’s real.
Kids were kidnapped, molested and murdered—just like today. The difference between then and now is there are more people now, and we now receive news from every city in the nation.  In 1960 you read your local paper, which had local news, unless it was about the President or a war. In the early 1950s 25,000 cases of polio were reported a year, killing many people and crippling even more. If you had cancer, leukemia or heart disease—you probably died. In the 1950’s-60s, if one was born premature, they probably died or were severely brain damaged and the doctors would tell the devastated parents to put the child in state or private care. If you had any kind of mental illness, you would have been institutionalized and/ or forcibly treated with electro-shock therapy or worse, a lobotomy, which would render you semi-comatose for life. Menopause was treated as mental illness.  Teenagers (some I went to school with) were forced to give up their babies or marry if they got pregnant out of wedlock. (Often ruining lives.)
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We have our problems now; there is no doubt. We have been at war for well over 10 years. We have a multitude of veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI. We have gang violence, too many guns on the streets, homelessness, untreated mental illness and the economy, while improving is not quite there and many people are jobless and living far below the poverty level. We have many diseases yet to be cured; global poverty, the War on Terror. Yes, we have our problems.
But, I will take now over then anytime. We have vaccinations if not cures, for polio, chicken pox, measles, mumps, pertussis and more. We have prosthetic devices that look and feel like part of your own body. We have heart, lung, kidney and liver transplants. We have face transplants. We have medication for schizophrenia. Breast cancer is not a death warrant. People are living longer and healthier than they ever have before. Life expectancy is 10+ years more than in was in 1950.
The 50s and 60s may have had some bright spots but none that out weigh the repulsive bigotry, the disgusting lack of respect for the Constitution of the United States and the people’s right to privacy and the overall head in the sand denial of the nation.
As I age, I hope to remember the unabridged past and not the one made up for email forwards, Facebook posts and chain letters. If there was innocence in the 50s and 60s it was self induced. I don’t think we should make that mistake again. I would rather face a hard truth than live an easy lie. The truth is… drinking water from a garden hose is not a good idea.

It’s Not Always About Race

/ Katie Wigington / Leave a comment
Anyone that knows me knows I am not a racist. I decided sometime last year that I would start calling bigots what they were- right to their faces. And I do so- without hesitation. I don’t care about age, gender or reasons why. A bigot is a bigot. But the same character trait that pulls at me to call these people out- is forcing me to call another issue the way I see it.
Not everything is about race.
 I used to work with an African American girl who thought no one liked her because she was black. She called me mom because I was always dispensing unsolicited life advice to her. “Try being polite” I would say.  “Get rid of that chip.” I would tell her. “Don’t drink so much, don’t date jerks, try to get to work on time, stop playing the race card!” 
“Okay Mom.”  She would reply.
She was really a sweet girl under all the bitterness and misplaced anger.
I recognized a lot of my young self in her. I recognized her poor choices in men and lifestyle: her reluctance to take responsibility for her own actions. It is always much easier to blame your parents, your school, the world in general, then to look at your own faults.
Natalya was angry about slavery.  She was from Atlanta, Georgia. And, yes Georgia had slaves, but not in her lifetime- or her mother’s lifetime or her grandmother’s lifetime. Natalya came from a middle class family just like me, went to good schools, (her mother was a teacher) she was not raised in the projects, and had never been beaten by white people.  In her lifetime, she had never been denied the right to vote and never had to sit in the back of the bus. Her anger was taught to her –somewhere along the line- someone said be angry…because life is not fair.
And yes- some people are bigots. Some men hate women, some women hate men, some people hate Chinese people, some people hate Mexican people some people hate African American people. Some people hate dogs some people hate cats. It’s not always based on anything substantial- just passed down from father and mother to son and daughter. Like the cancer gene.
So when Officer Johannes Mehserle was arrested and charged with the “murder” of  Oscar Grant, it turned into a race issue- because Oscar Grant was black and Johannes Mehserle is white. There was no question about it. It was a race thing.
The press went to work fast. Convicting the BART policeman in the press before he ever got to court. He was white- and a policeman- therefore it stands to reason he is prejudiced, and hates black people enough to shoot them in the back. It must have been planned- because they charged him with first-degree murder. What a crock.
Johannes Mehserle made a huge mistake. And in doing so- he took the life of another human being; of this, there is no doubt. Did he wake up that day and say to himself… “I’m going to shoot someone today”? Probably not.
Mehserle was responding to a call at the Fruitvale BART station on New Year’s Day 2009. Whether confused by the melee or scared for his own life- because he thought Grant was going for a gun- Mehserle lost his bearings and grabbed his pistol instead of his taser and shot Grant in the back.
Any kind of murder charge would have been unjustified. The Judge in his case, (which was moved from Oakland to Los Angeles so Mehserle could get a fair trial)  found that he could be charged with involuntary manslaughter but not murder due to lack of evidence– involuntary manslaughter assumes that the death was unintended- still though, finds criminal negligence.  On top of that there was a special circumstance clause because a gun was used in the commission of a crime. But wait. Johannes Mehserle was  a policeman right? They are issued guns. It’s not like he was some street hood that had a gun in his hoodie sleeve. 
Citing the motion for bail – the police investigation report stated:
“Officer Pirone directed Officer Mehserle to arrest two of the individuals who had not been handcuffed. One of the individuals to be arrested was Oscar Grant, and Officer Pirone’s direction to Mehserle was overheard by Grant. Grant, upon hearing that he was under arrest, attempted to stand up, but was forced to the ground face first. Both Officer Mehserle and Officer Pirone attempted to restrain Mr. Grant and to seek his compliance by ordering him to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, but Mr. Grant resisted and refused to submit to handcuffing. Officer Mehserle was pulling at Mr. Grant’s right hand and arm, which remained under his torso near his waistband. Mr. Grant had not been searched by any officer for weapons, either prior to his initial detention or after being seated near the wall.”
The motion also states that the man sitting next to Grant also told police he heard Mehserle say “I’m going to taze him.”
Mehserle then stood up, unholstered his gun, and fired a shot into Grant’s back. Immediately after the shooting, Mehserle appeared surprised and raised his hands to his face; according to Michael Rains, Mehserle’s criminal defense attorney, several eyewitnesses described Mehserle as looking stunned. Witnesses say Mehserle said “Oh my god!” several times after the shooting. and many saw him put his hands to his head.
I’ll concede: Perhaps Johannes Mehserle was not great cop material. Perhaps his own fear got the best of him that day.  Perhaps he had the jitters because earlier that day two guns had been recovered in separate incidents along the rail line. Immediately before he arrived at the Fruitvale Station , Mehserle was involved in an incident at the West Oakland station where a teenage boy with a semi-automatic pistol had fled from police and jumped off the station platform, breaking several bones.
Mehserle had a spotless record prior to this incident. Grant however did not. He had been convicted of several felonies and had served two terms in state prison. One of those incidents he was carrying a gun. He had been out of jail a mere three months prior to this BART incident. Mehserle would have no knowledge of this information,  however- a good cop usually has a sixth sense- and maybe the hair on the back of Mehserle’s neck stood up when Grant tried to reach into his pocket while being arrested.
Oakland police work very hard for their money. And while BART Police are not Oakland police they work in the same crime ridden city where guns, thugs, drugs and shootings are commonplace. Parts of Oakland on any day are not safe- and on New Year’s Day- when morons like to shoot guns- it’s even less so.  Three months and twenty-one days after the New Year’s Day incident- four Oakland City Police were killed in the line of duty- by gunfire. The assailant in that case was a 26 year old who had spent most of his life in prison. After a brief shoot out with police- he was killed.  People tried to make him a hero. The police are hated in Oakland.
This was never about race- until the press made it so. This was about fear. Fear on both sides- no doubt. Grant afraid he would be arrested or perhaps killed for something he did or didn’t do, Mehserle afraid he would be shot and killed when he had a new baby on the way.  This was about lack of training, lack of education and lack of communication.
The riots that followed the incident did nothing to help the black cause. It was teenagers looting, breaking windows and stealing anything they could get their hands on. It was not about race or rights. Black leaders half-heartedly asked for peace- but in my opinion did not do enough to show young people how to get there.
This week the sentencing of Mehserle, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter was announced. He is to serve two years with credit for time served.  He will for the rest of his life, live with his mistake.
More riots followed the sentencing and over 100 arrests were made. Cars were smashed, windows broken and fires started.
 Oscar Grant’s family is unhappy they wanted a murder conviction and maximum sentencing. Of course, their pain will last forever. Losing a child is a pain that never goes away.
Perhaps someday the press will find a way to tell the truth. This was never about race. This was about fear. Until people are ready to have an open dialogue with each other, this will continue to be a problem. Crime is a problem- no matter what color you are.
Prejudice isn’t a one way street. Stop waiting for the government to fix everything, get off your butts, and start confronting your fears. Don’t be a Mesherle or an Oscar Grant. Don’t be a victim.  Lose the chip on your shoulder. Lose your knee-jerk reactions. And start telling the truth no matter how ugly it is- because that is the open door to all communication.