Huffy Flounce

Here's a weird fucking story:

The Sound of Deception: Country Rap’s Mikel Knight & His Notorious Street Teams

I don't know if the story's true. It it is, it's some wacky shit.

These guys just supposedly blew through Alabama and supposedly did what they supposedly do elsewhere. There are some details on the Families Against Mikel Knight and the MDRST Facebook page.

The dude does, as they mention in the article, have some music videos on YouTube. In fact, he appears to have at least two channels. Comments were disabled on the handful of videos I watched. It's exactly the kind of shit you'd expect to hear if you've ever had any country rap exposure. Well, to be honest, it's probably a little better than the usual fare. The usual fare is monumentally bad, though. It's hard to compare Mikel Knight's stuff to the usual fare and say which is better.

Some part of me wonders how this can even *be* real. You'd think they'd have been shut down by now.

Maybe Mikel Knight's people run the "Families Against Mikel Knight" Facebook page. Maybe it's all about creating mystique and an outlaw image. Maybe this guy is country rap's Insane Clown Posse.

You're probably wondering if country rap is also called "hick-hop." Wonder no more. It is.

So what do these people who are doing this think will happen? That every single African American will go "Fuck this shit! I am going back to Liberia!!!"

Maybe.

I still can't believe that you guys really think a flag is the problem.

I don't.

Neither do I.

Then you appear to be the enlightened ones (good name for a band).

Even though it's not the problem, it's part of a larger discussion. It may be a good thing that this discussion is finally happening on a national level.

I mentioned in this thread that what has become known as the Confederate flag wasn't one of the CSA's actual "national" flags. People on both sides have made this point and have said it's silly to be fighting over a flag that was, depending on its dimensions, either North Virginia's battle flag or Tennessee's battle flag. Regardless, it should be a cause for reflection.

One way or another, the Stars and Bars have become a symbol for the Confederate South. Why? Why, specifically, a battle flag? Does use of a battle flag carry with it an inherent sense of confrontation? If so, why use it and not a Confederate flag that wasn't a battle standard? Why is it so important to some that it stay up? Why is it so important to some that it come down? Why has it been flown by so many former Confederate states for so long? It's also not exactly right to suggest that the Stars and Bars design was never understood to represent the Confederacy. It was, after all, an element in the second and third of the Confederate's three flags. (Have a look.)

If you read the Folsom article I linked to in the Alabama thread, you'll see this:

The controversial banner had not always flown above Alabama's Capitol. Gov. George Wallace raised it in 1963, in defiance of a visit to the state by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

It was a reactionary thing done by our most famously segregation-happy governor during the visit of a person famous for fighting for Civil Rights and integration. It was an act not necessarily all that dissimilar to the addition of "under God" to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance during the McCarthy-fueled Red Scare. It was an angry and defiant gesture that stuck and became a part of the cultural landscape.

Again, I'm not sure that the flag needs to come down or should come down. I do think it should be talked about, and I also think those who want it flown and don't want it flown should be honest with themselves and with others when talking about why they want done with it what they want done with it.

If it leads to bigger discussions and greater understanding, that's a potential plus. If it leads to greater unrest, that's a potential minus. We'll just have to see how it plays out.

The flag has symbolic meaning, so I think it's at least part of the problem. I'm also frustrated by the fact that the discussion on race in America is getting bogged down by a discussion of a flag, but at least we're starting somewhere. Let's just hope we don't end the discussion there.

You're obviously not going to eliminate centuries of bigotry and violence by outlawing a flag, but you also have to look at what's been allowing this bigotry and violence to continue on for so long, despite the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Naturally, deeply held beliefs can be passed down from generation to generation, but what makes this transmission easier is an existing network of symbols and lore. Statements in defense of the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia keep going back to a claim of pride in one's heritage. Regardless of whether the person issuing such statements admits it, that heritage implicitly includes the exploitation of black slaves.

The point I'm trying to make is that one way to start combating this endemic problem that dominates the Southern U.S. is by taking measures to get rid of structures that perpetuate a view of history in which the Confederate States were wronged by the United States. It may seem dumb to focus on something as simple as a flag, but you can see by the reaction to the attack on this flag that it still constitutes a powerful symbol that needs to be taken down if some kind of transformation is to take place.

Damn it, Goiter!

Mal Shot First wrote:Damn it, Goiter!

That's not a bad name for a band.

The people in my Facebook feed who expressed dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court's recent decision feed were, in large part, from the same group of people who expressed dissatisfaction with the flag coming down. That's not all that surprising, considering their general political leanings. Something that was maybe a little surprising: there were definitely fewer people expressing dissatisfaction over the SC's decision than had expressed dissatisfaction over the flag coming down. These people also frothed at the mouth more over the flag coming down than they did over the SC decision.

I don't know what, if anything, this says about the South's current cultural climate. It's too big a leap to suggest that Alabamians are less upset by the idea of gay people marrying than they are by the idea of the Confederate flag coming down. I don't have any stats. It's all anecdotal.

I realize my Facebook feed doesn't speak for Alabama. I also realize the people complaining about the flag coming down might have already worn themselves down. They might not have had as much energy to complain about the SC decision. The Facebook rainbow flag profile filter might have also had something of a shaming/quieting effect for some. They might have also felt the SC decision was a touchier topic than the flag removal. (If this *is* the case, does it say something that they felt this way?)

I did see a couple relatives making posts about marriage being between a man and a woman in the eyes of God, and I saw people responding to those posts by telling them they were disappointed and were unfriending them.

I also read an article about Dale Earnhardt, Jr. made a statement about the Confederate flag belonging in history books. The comment section for that was... quite a read. They fly Confederate flags at a bunch of the NASCAR races. A lot of his fan base was pretty upset about it. Some were swearing him off. Some were swearing off all of NASCAR. They said he should know his fan base better and should be more appreciative of who's been buttering his bread all these years. Some were accusing him of pandering to black people and northerners in hopes of converting Formula One and IndyCar fans.

I think the whole Confederate flag issue is a good symbol for the issues with racism in America. The same people who insist that it's just a symbol of Southern pride are the same ones who don't want to acknowledge that racism is institutionalized in America, with years and years of economic disadvantages and violence not being overcome by having a black dude in the White House.

Although I see that kind of denial from people up North, too, who just insist that no one is really racist anymore, but don't consider the years and years of property, job, judicial, and educational discrimination that has created a mountain of disadvantage that is hard to surmount.

It's rare for the lioness to acknowledge she has it better than the antelopes. "What're they bitchin' about?" asks the lioness. "They can run almost as fast as we can, and they can do it for longer."

Caught on Video: Woman in Arkansas Allegedly Steals, Crashes Police Vehicle

Man Mocks Alligators, Jumps in Water, and Is Killed in Texas

There are much longer videos of the woman available for your viewing pleasure. Here's a longer version if you have any interest. (Lots of frustrating and potentially suspicious mutings, unfortunately.) It's interesting to watch. She keeps shouting "Shoot me!" (She also says "Give me a pistol and I will do it myself!" at one point.)

She escapes cuffs, steals a cop car, flips said car, and continually shouts "Shoot me!" while going for a cop's firearm, and she does all this without ever getting shot. Pretty impressive. She gets a pretty vicious tasing, so that's something.

I'm surprised she managed to get out of the cuffs--though the cuffs do look a little loose, I guess. Her wrists and palms are visibly starting to work through the cuffs before she's deposited in the back of the car. You read all those stories of cuffs being cinched so aggressively that they went on to cause the cuffed people nerve damage (even those who did no discernible resisting), but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

It looks like the cops went out of their way not to hurt her. This has led, predictably, to people arguing over whether or not she would have been treated differently if she hadn't been white.

Look at this.

I like that the flag has "COME AND TAKE IT" written on it.

Original reports indicated that the military personnel killed at the recruitment center in Nashville had no firearms and were unable to defend themselves. The public was told this was because recruiters were not allowed to carry firearms with them to recruitment centers. Unsurprisingly, both the left and right began their spin in the wake of this.

It's now being reported (first by the Navy Times, then by Fox News) that two of the personnel had firearms on them and returned fire.

We can anticipate brand-new spin from both sides.

Tensions Flare as Confederate Flag Supporter Reaches for Gun When Confronted by Protests

Here's the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial mentioned in the article, by the way:







The South is very proud of it. It features prominently in Klan history. It was started by the guy who would go on to carve Mount Rushmore, but he abandoned it. I can't remember why. It was then abandoned next guy who worked on it. I think the second abandonment had to do with the Great Depression. They consider it complete, now, but the original plan was for it to look like this:



It was a favorite destination for A/B honor roll and class trips. I think I took at least two school-funded trips out to it. I turned down a third.

I know what you're thinking. "Stone Mountain" is an incredibly creative name for a mountain made of stone.

You'll notice that the cop pictured in the article isn't pulling a gun on the guy reaching for his gun. It's good to see a cop not pulling a gun on somebody for a change.

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, this happened. I don't know why it happened. I don't know the context. I don't even know if that's a real cop.

And Cleveland. Is Cleveland real? I've never been there. How'm I s'poseta know?

This happened, too:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 99604.html

That protester looks eerily like the post-brain-cancer version of my father. Jesus Christ. It's uncanny.