November 23, 2015

About Catherina...

I know Catherina outside of DU. She is a beautiful black woman whose politics are passionately progressive and left leaning in the extreme. She is learned, well travelled, multilingual and one of the most intelligent people I've ever had the pleasure to call my friend. With a strong penchant for research, her contributions to DU have been legendary.

Catherina is a kind, compassionate human being who, as a citizen of the world, fights for the oppressed and the downtrodden of every hue. She's always been a staunch defender of equality and the basic human rights of LGBTQ people and of all peoples everywhere, regardless of party affiliation.

Several DU forum groups, as they pertain to the divisive 2016 primary season, have served to drive a wedge between well meaning, long time members of DU. Catherina's comment on twitter to Brother Ivan, "fuck those house ni**ers and their plantation mistresses," was a reference to black people who try to ingratiate themselves to the white power structure; because they got theirs and don't care about the more unfortunate who are left behind. It is a direct reference to Malcolm X's speech on 'the difference between the house negro and the field negro' which she had also posted on her twitter that same day.

‪

If certain DUers imagined themselves in Catherina's sites regarding this comment, it was only by proxy of their complicity at the HCS forum and then finding screen grabs of their chicanery posted on DU.

As Catherina is a black woman, I will defend her right to use the language of her choice when calling out people of color and their allies. If you've ever read BlackTwitter, you know that her comment was mild by comparison to the daily exchange of ideas found there. If people were to take offense at every single edgy comment found on BlackTwitter, they would be eternally outraged.

If you feel offended by Catherina's comments to another POC on twitter, you may need to take a step back and consider why you found yourself reading her tweets in the first place and why you thought her comments might possibly have included you. If you've been engaging in nasty exchanges about DUers on a password protected site that is separate from DU, then you probably already know the answer.

Catherina has a long, respected history here. Taking her words and twisting them into racist fodder to fit a particular GDP agenda and thereby rewriting history is disingenuous. The Hillary/Bernie primary wars have cast a deep division on DU.

For the record, I don't yet support any one primary candidate in particular; it's a zero sum game. I do, however, support the way I remember DU and the way that it used to be in the months leading up to an election. Sadly, and by comparison, those halcyon days appear to have come and gone.

If you're a neoliberal, then you've probably found yourself at odds with Catherina but that doesn't justify the night of the long knives. Hopefully, DUers can look at this latest outrage du jour and separate the wheat from the chaff. Catherina is not a troll. She just happens to be a strong advocate for the Bernie campaign, who has decided to take a break from the insanity that is currently DU.

I don't claim to know everything about Catherina's politics but neither am I willing to throw her to the wolves during a time of upheaval. She has proven her liberal bonafides and I will gladly stand by her side during this time of dissension and welcome her back if she should ever change her mind about leaving DU.

I would like to believe that I have friends on both sides of this controversy but after this post, I guess I'll find out. Meanwhile, we have an election to attend to and a candidate to choose.

TYY

November 10, 2015

Mormons BURNING Bridges...

TYY