The Spinners - I'll Be Around

The Spinners - Working My Way Back To You Girl

The Spinners - Games People Play

The Spinners - One Of A Kind Love Affair

The Spinners - Rubberband Man

For a certain Spinners fan:

For eight years here on DU, I've conducted the Late Lee Atwater Award for RW Evil...

Recent events have got me thinking about it.

I'm considering giving it up. I've never gotten a big response from the thing and I've felt that it's really not worth it anymore... If you're not familiar with it, it's something that I do every Halloween.

I know that wingers will never stop being evil, will never stop inspiring the destruction of this country and the people who live within it, to include, through white supremacist hatefulness, encouraging the murder of more black people, as we have seen. I just don't think that an "award" named after one of the worst people ever, a son of South Carolinian Confederacy who used racial hated for political gain, is worth it anymore.

Atwater is rotting is his grave right now. I only wish that racism in this country would rot in its grave right along with him.

If you all want another award this year, especially in light of the expanding Republikkan Klown Kar, I'll do it. Please post and let me know your wishes.

Otherwise... You probably won't miss it if it doesn't come around again.

Roof's murders all stem from this country's pathology of gun violence, sexism & white supremacy

He's the poster child for what's wrong with America.

He's also going to be a prime example of the fact that this country will never allow itself to question how we've come to be this way. He didn't happen in a vacuum, he's not "crazy" or a bad penny. He murdered black people because he rationalized that murdering black people was something that he was entitled to do and based on everything he's learned about America.

He was taught by witnessing unarmed black people being gunned down in our streets by police, police who are later exonerated.

He was taught by witnessing years and years of women being treated like second class citizens and thinking that second class citizenship is their proper place.

He was taught by being handed a gun by his own father, because guns are the tools by which white men achieve their due in this country.

His America is a place where white supremacy holds sway, where (white) women are property to be defended by (white) men, and done so through the use of a gun. This was the lesson that was taught to him and murdering black people in a church was how he passed his own test with flying colors.

He murdered black people in a church to make a statement, saying that armed white men rule America and should be willing to take any black life in order to maintain that rule.

The worst thing about him is the fact that this country will never question how something like this can happen. It's not a secret. We all know that white supremacy, sexism and gun violence are persistent problems, but no one really wants to do anything about them, even after one tragedy after another.

Now, I know that all of us here are appalled that these murders happened. That's the proper response of decent people. What isn't a proper response is thinking that questioning white supremacy is a condemnation of all white people, or that questioning gun violence is a condemnation on all gun ownership, or that questioning sexism is a condemnation of all men. Those good people thinking that this is about them, the guns they own, they're own maleness or they're own whiteness, are wrong if they respond as if they are being attacked. However, this is how America itself will surely respond. This country is pathologically unwilling to question itself and is resistant to even the smallest change.

So, expect more of this in the future.

Quite a few people will scream and shout, "Not me" and very little will be done, other than calling Roof "crazy" and running away from any conversation about sexism, white supremacy and gun violence. Will it always be that way? It doesn't have to be. Our nation will only change when we ALL decide to ask the right questions and work together toward the right solutions.

If we don't do this, let's not delude ourselves by not thinking that there are more Dylann Storm Roofs waiting to happen. It's only a matter of time when we all do nothing.

Jeb off, Jeb.

There's no such thing as "Transracial"

It's always been called "passing."

In Ms. Rachel's case, we can call it "perpetrating a fraud."

She could have been a perfectly fine ALLY of people of color without trying to impersonate one of us. There's nothing wrong with being a white ally and there has never been a requirement to hate one's own white skin in order to fight against white supremacy.

Like her life, this woman has only floated false narratives over what needs to be done in the struggle to fight injustice.

I know very little about her motivation, but I can only judge her actions. Is her heart in the right place? I have no idea.

Were her methods wrong? Yes, they were.

If she couldn't be honest about herself, how can she be expected to be trusted? She's yet to come clean, even after her fraud has been exposed.

Now we're stuck with this phony "transracial" ideology. Something that even white people who have been fully raised in black culture would never claim.