He was assaulting women while blackballing Janet in the industry. Again, this is a *POWER STRUCTURE* organized around racialized sexual violence in which wealthy WM hold the most power & poor BW/WOC hold the least. This is how colonialism/slave plantations were organized and...1/

https://twitter.com/RonanFarrow/status/1038809900187574272

...all of modern white capitalism (incl. the American entertainment industry) is an outgrowth of the plantation system. This is why I don't have patience for folks trying to shift focus to redemption for individual offenders when the issue is *SYSTEMIC* sexual violence 2/

The historical practice of not indicting a sitting president is based on the assumption there's a functioning Congress willing to act in its role of applying checks and balances to executive power 1/ But to say a president who’s committed crime can’t be indicted under any circumstance— including a circumstance where the president’s party in Congress refuses to impeach him and in many ways aids his attempts to obstruct justice— is to say that the president is above the law. 2/

"White" is a socially constructed identity that didn't exist prior to the development of systemic racism. The inclusion or exclusion of various European ethnicities in "white" identity changes & evolves as needed to reinforce the white power structure. 1/

https://twitter.com/oppagenda/status/1029192796622741504

For ex., the trans-atlantic slave trade was initially dominated by Spanish & Portuguese. The notion that Spanish & Portuguese ancestry is a marker of non-white identity is a modern one influenced by how white identity has been defined in the United States (English protestant) 2/

White racists in US have shown time & again they'd rather burn the republic to the ground than have racial equality in America.

This Trump-Putin situation is just a continuation of that dynamic. The commitment to white supremacy is stronger than commitment to western democracy Any president prior to 45 would've been ousted by the white power establishment if they had been a blatant threat to national security like 45 is.

BUT 45 IS THE PRESIDENT WHITE AMERICA CHOSE TO REINFORCE RACISM B/C THE BLACK PRESIDENCY MADE THEM UNCOMFORTABLE

So here we are 🙃

MLK on white moderates who are more bothered by social disruption than injustice:

"First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate..." 1/

https://twitter.com/desiderioDC/status/1011339694217617409

"...I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice;" 2/

White supremacy (that is, the belief in the inherent racial & cultural superiority of Anglo-America) is the dominant culture that gave rise to the Trump presidency. It is the root problem of the so-called "culture war". 1/ Opposing sides of the ruling class (that is, the Democratic and Republican parties and the billionaires who finance them) both have vested interest rn in narrowing the focus to Trump as opposed to a broader examination of white supremacy as a system 2/

Everyone who is able to vote needs to vote b/c there are oppressors holding positions of power making deadly decisions on a day-to-day basis that need to be replaced immediately. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, saying voting is the single most impactful thing we can do is not true 1/ Ppl often offer voting as an alternative to political & social disruption. It is dangerously ahistorical to claim that voting alone in the absence of disruption is enough to secure freedom & democracy (especially considering the right to vote is itself under relentless attack) 2/

"Progress in public policy and social practice is not something that happens as an inevitability with the forward progression of time. Rather, it is measured by the tenacity of those seeking freedom, equity and justice generation after generation."
-@breenewsome

1/

https://twitter.com/AndySpecht/status/1008745394057154560

Small point of clarification on my comments above:
The notion of "progress" in America and how it is defined is itself a debatable topic. 2/

Black Americans have been trying to secure full citizenry & nationhood for ourselves since Emancipation. Garvey' Back to Africa mvmt called for exodus. 1/

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Similar to Hebrews in Book of Exodus following 400 yrs of enslavement, Black Americans exist in many ways as a colonized nation housed within the American empire. We are descended from Africans who were stripped of their indigenous identity & who formed their own unique culture

The idea that a black person is a "free thinker" simply b/c their opinion is contrary to the majority of black ppl implies we as black ppl are incapable of making assessments about our own condition at any given point in time. 1/ It's the same anti-black sentiment underlying the notion that "Lincoln freed the slaves." We, Black people, are slaves until the white power structure deems otherwise. Now, as emancipated Black ppl in 2018, we apparently are incapable of judging our current condition 2/

American capitalism is built on the enslavement of kidnapped Africans & their descendants. Anti-black racism is therefore the central organizing principle & ideology of the nation's economy as well as its social & political institutions. 1/ huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/sla… It's true that socialism itself is not a cure for racism, that socialist initiatives undertaken by the US gov't in past have often excluded black ppl AND ALSO it's important to recognize why American capitalism requires structural racism & is at odds w/ black liberation 2/2

I've made the point several times myself that the NRA didn't defend the rights of Philando Castile b/c racism. Yet I find it problematic if folks mention Castile only to criticize the NRA & not also to challenge the idea that gun control is a color-blind issue 1/ When I say "idea that gun control is a color-blind issue", I'm referring to efforts to "all lives matter" the issue of gun violence in USA & to push for gun reform in a way that doesn't require the power establishment to confront issues of racism, poverty & militarism... 2/

[THREAD] The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was repealed in 1864 as the Civil War neared its end, but the social dynamics it established between police, Black Americans and white vigilantes remain in effect. 1/ History recap: In 1850, the nation is half slave, half free. The Underground Railroad is in full force and hundreds of enslaved Black Americans, particularly those living in border states, are regularly escaping north and creating a crisis for southern white slaveowners 2/

Yeah... this idea that people secure freedom by gaining the empathy of those oppressing them is ahistorical and will lead movements astray. You have to shift power and make it untenable for status quo to remain 1/ We didn't come out of chattel slavery because abolitionists convinced everyone to empathize with the enslaved. There was an entire 5 year long Civil War in which thousands of people died and Black people were still organizing for Civil Rights 100 years later in 1965 2/

If we would focus on improving the quality of life for the oppressed, the marginalized and the most vulnerable in our society, it would resolve most of our issues, but folks often want solutions that don't require real social change 1/ European colonizers came to this land and planted a bad seed. In that seed was slavery, colonialism, genocide, violence, guns, racism & a lust for material things and money. That seed has grown into a tree... 2/

Reflecting on the amount of state violence and police repression that Black youth & student organizers have faced in the past 5 years while following in the direct historical legacies of groups like SNCC & the Freedom Riders... 1/ There seems to be an effort to forget everything that happened before the Trump admin including how the election of Trump itself was part of a racist white backlash against Black youth proclaiming their lives mattered 2/

The American obsession with the gun is connected to its history as a major tool of white supremacy and the spread of European colonialism. 1/ Restricting gun access for white men is not simply an issue of the gun industry but also of white supremacist culture 2/

[Thread] The “tragic mulatto” is a common racist trope that imagines “mixed race” people as suffering when their “Black blood” denies them full entry to white society but their anglo features elevate them socially above unambiguously black people 1/ Like other racist tropes I’ve highlighted in the past (the mammy, the magical negro) the "tragic mulatto" trope is about how Black people exist through the white gaze. 2/

I frequently say racism is structurally built upon oppression of Black women & I can imagine some being confused by that statement, thinking I'm excluding others, but I'm not. I'm speaking to how racism has been legally & socially structured in America. I'll explain: 1/ Chattel slavery was constructed around laws that legalized the raping of Black women and the selling of their children. Rape of BW was so pervasive that the prevalence of "mixed race" children posed a threat to white supremacy & the slave system. 2/

White sports fans damaging property after a game is a *RIOT*. Black people damaging property after centuries of oppression & yet another racist police killing is an *UPRISING* against white supremacist capitalism 1/ If the function of police was simply to protect property in any circumstance, the police response would be the same in either scenario. We see greater violence used against Black ppl b/c the real function of police is to enforce & maintain white supremacist capitalism 2/

We can't have honest discussions about colorism because it forces folks to confront how they've been conditioned through generations of oppression to hate & devalue black women in service to white supremacist patriarchy & black enslavement. 1/ For many, it's still too raw & traumatic. But it's also annoying when feign unawareness re: this concept or how it operates. Again, one doesn't have to know term "colorism" or history of it to participate in it. It's a pervasive aspect of white supremacist society 2/