• Fredselfish @lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Those white fucking kkk should be run out of town. It fucked up to have a town that as no elections.

    Especially a town that is 89% black. They should come together and take their town back.

    And qualified immunity should not keep you away from breaking civil rights act. Fuck racist states.

    • ezmack@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      Small towns are rough man. People will run as both the dem and republican candidate in my town and you can’t vote in town meetings if you aren’t a property owner

        • ElRompeCulo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Oh it’s happening quite fast. My very small rural home town was already dwindling when I graduated 15 years ago. Now sports teams in the area are having to consolidate with neighboring towns and consolidating entire districts is in talks.

        • Dodecahedron December@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Great idea, now how do we do that? Cities gentrify and force people into towns and rural areas. Where do these people get to live, the unincorporated wilderness?

          The only real answer I have to that question is that leftists need to move to rural areas and help slowly change its political landscape. Or you know, let the elected official govern. Still, I don’t have an answer for this exact scenario. The ultimate problem is who (who have the power to do anything in that exact area) cares? We do, but we aren’t there and I am out of ideas.

      • steltek@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Where is this? Outside of HOA nonsense, I thought property ownership died as a requirement in the 1800’s.

        I guess the slightly less doxx-y question is: what states still allow that crap?

    • ██████████@lemmy.world
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      Two years ago, Braxton says he was the only volunteer firefighter in his department to respond to a tree fire near a Black person’s home in the town of 275 people. As Braxton, 57, actively worked to put out the fire, he says, one of his white colleagues tried to take the keys to his fire truck to keep him from using it.

      There ain’t that many one solid protest from the surrounding communities would wreck the towns racists

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Spoken by someone who has clearly never lived in the south.

        Brown people in the south are afraid for good reason, you can’t imagine the kind of terror those fat fucks will inflict because they know nobody can stop them.

          • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The governor would send the national guard with tanks.

            You don’t understand the south, black people aren’t citizens there, they’re the enemy.

            • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              🤔 I get what you’re saying. They’re very powerful, very well-armed and very organized. But that can’t stop us from stopping them from hurting us.

              We can look up the National Guard bases throughout a particular state and just steal the tanks beforehand so they can’t just roll up on us.

              You know, we ourselves could actually organize. Possibly claim a big land area and vote for it to be a new state so none of their bullshit is possible anymore.

              • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I think it’s a nice thought, I just don’t think it would work.

                When I lived there it felt like the entire social fabric of the source was founded deep down on unimaginable hate, I think they would gladly see everything burn before admitting they were equal in any way.

                There’s a reason the civil war and ww2 only ended when there was literally no other choice, hate closes doors.

                That being said, ww2 left Germany a much nicer place because all the most hateful people were not around as much anymore, we should have done the same after the civil war, maybe that’s a second chance.

              • abraxas@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                This has the same problem as the southern white NRA attitude.

                There aren’t enough untrained civilians to enact a violent rebellion without the support of our military. They don’t have to beat us to win, only stop us from beating them, and the law will take over from there. Unlike in Vietnam, the war of attrition would be against whoever rebelled. Nobody wants to be in a long and protracted war against the US, and if the rebellious behavior doesn’t break down, the perpetrators will stop being seen as heroes and start being seen as criminals.

                We saw it firsthand recently with CHOP/CHAZ. Ultimately, a vast majority of onlookers (including some members of CHAZ) were done with it all by the end.

                This small town in this snippet is not going to fix its problems by a bunch of people robbing tanks from the Federal Government.

      • abraxas@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        They would arrest and convict the majority, and move on. With state support, 275 people is just not enough. A few surrounding communities? Their police forces would join in.

        The small-town South Sucks if your skin isn’t white.

    • eldavi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      if all kkk members were run out of all rural town; there would be no rural american anymore except for the new places they created

      • TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        This rural town is 89 percent black. 59 percent of the black population in the US lives in the south in mostly rural places. Rural towns would still exist, they’d just be more pleasant and less racist. I’d even argue that rural America would thrive, because the majority of the population down there would be able to live their lives and do whatever they want, free of discrimination and prejudice.

        If all of the KKK were to leave their current towns and start their own, it would be relatively small. According to estimates from 2016 there are about 5,000 - 8,000 KKK members in the US.

        • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So, after brown v board desegregated parts of the south the response of the white community of Memphis was simple:

          They all picked up, moved 15 miles east through some wheat fields to set up a new city called Germantown.

          I’m Indian, I’ve never seen that level of weapons-grade racism, usually it’s just poor people, this was everybody.

  • Match!!@pawb.social
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    1 year ago

    Town of 275 people, 89% black? Total of 30 white people? They should just individually name the problem people in the article

  • AnonymousLlama@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Horrific article to read, old mate had to go to fires by himself and respond to emergencies from black people while all the white people hid. Terrible

    • IonAddis@lemmy.world
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      Not just that, but they locked and restricted his access to medical equipment so he had to make a detour to get a different one, and that time cost the person he was trying to save her life.

      Complete scum.

    • StealthToad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not just hid but tried to prevent him from responding at all.

      Undeniably racist and absolutely disgusting.

  • Silverseren@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I feel like we need to have a more concerted focused effort against the racist bigoted trash people, wherever they are. Because they are the ones that don’t belong in this country.

    • Uniquitous@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      And by “concerted focused effort” does that mean we beat them within an inch of their lives until they promise never to do it again? Because that’s what it’s gonna take.

      • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Why bother with stopping at an inch? We didn’t beat the nazis by doing that. Stamp out racism where ever it is found.

        • nUbee@lemmy.world
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          We didn’t fight Nazi Germany because they were racist. We fought them because they attacked us (through their ally, Japan). The sad truth is there were a lot of Americans who were ok with Nazi ideology.

    • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      From the looks of it it takes another civil war, where the less barbaric people remove the more barbaric people from power. Unfortunately i am afraid that nothing short of that will work, as the system is so unstanle that things like this can happen.

      • TechnoBabble@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        All a civil war will do is put a bigger boot on all our necks.

        Nobody rational wants to see that happen.

        Unless you enjoy the thought of American military might amped up to 11 and deployed on it’s own citizens.

        • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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          The US military putting racist authoritarian southern states into order seems like a fairly okay alternative to people constantly being supressed, denies their democratic rights and often being outright murdered without any consequences for the perpetuators.

          As you mention the might of the US military that could also mean the issues to be resolved within a short time and without much bloodshed, as the local cop gang probably is made up of pussy posers that only attack the weak.

          • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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            1 year ago

            As a bonus, many of those lunatics who have weapons “to protect themselves from the government” would finally see how laughable is the thought of a redneck with a gun overpowering trained soldiers in their prime.

        • a Kendrick fan@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          From the other side of the world, it would be fun to see that happen.

          Your racist uncultured citizens citizens duly deserve that and the collateral damage would be overlooked.

      • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        You really think the less barbaric people are going to win a fight? Lmao

  • SomeoneElse@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think this is the same guy who was arrested by his own police force not long ago for “trespassing”. The guy walked down the driveway of a house he thought was abandoned, the homeowner saw him, grabbed his gun and held him at knife point until the police arrived and arrested him. I’ll see if I can’t find a link.

    Edit: I was thinking of another (acting) black mayor of a southern state who’s being stymied by his racist colleagues. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna93318

  • Efwis@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    And yet a bunch of people, mainly good ol boys, from the south say racism isn’t real. How messed up has the US become. It doesn’t matter what your skin color is, what matters is your integrity. This is why I am actively trying to get the hell out of Texas, I can’t stand racism no matter who it’s by.

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I escaped Tennessee.

      All I can say is: It gets better.

      Get out as fast as you can, nobody deserves to have to live in the south.

      Beautiful states with the absolutely most ugly people.

      • Efwis@lemmy.zip
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        Facts. I transplanted here from Iowa in 2011. Everything was great until 2016 when the racist overtones really came to a head. My wife is a born Texan and she is liking the idea of moving to Colorado for more than the lack of of racism we see here.

        I live in east Texas and the racism here is so prominent by all colors that it’s no longer appealing.

        • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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          Highly recommend Colorado, it’s beautiful and the people are good too.

          We just let the south stay the same after the civil war, that’s our mistake.

          • abraxas@lemmy.ml
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            It took my pacifistic ass years to see the truth of that.

            When you take down a regime that bases itself on such anti-social behavior as chattel slavery, you really need to end it as completely as a termite infestation. Just one of them able to come into power again is all it takes to roll everything back.

            Every single person involved should have faced federal prosecution, permanently lost their right to vote, and the states on a probationary “no vote” federal oversight where the government re-educated the idea of black property out of their fool heads before the they could be treated as states again.

    • Menachem@midwest.social
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      you’ve got to consider that to a lot of these people racism “isn’t real” because their bar for what qualifies as racist is set incredibly high. “how could that be racist if it’s true?”

      you can see a similar anti-trans sentiment in the people who defend jk rowling. “she’s just saying gender can’t mismatch assigned sex, how could the truth be transphobic?” nothing could ever be transphobic or racist or whatever to these people when they think very concept of being bigoted isn’t legitimate

    • AnarchoYeasty@beehaw.org
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      My white former mother told my black wife both that A.) Racism is everywhere you go and also B.) Racism isn’t that bad and she must be doing something to deserve the racism that our entirely white town was giving her. And that’s why she’s my former mother.

      • Efwis@lemmy.zip
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        Another sign of a racist, deny and deflect. Classic narcissistic attitude. I can’t be racist it must be something you did

  • CandyRushSweetest@lemm.ee
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    That’s just cruel. Someone shouldn’t be not allowed serve soley for the color of their skin. That’s not the point of the election – it’s meant to be for the citizens elected this person! They’re just being racist at this point and it’s obvious!

    • behindthesailboats@lemmy.world
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      I agree with you, with the caveat that the article says that there wasn’t an election - it was a win by default as the only person to qualify / submit candidacy.

        • abraxas@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Sorta.

          From the article, they’re such a “good ol boy” community that the people in power just kinda picked the mayor, who served until he was ready to retire and pick another. He was the first person in town, basically ever, to properly fill out electoral paperwork. So they had a mayor picked out (not him) and they basically just pretended he didn’t do it the right way because it isn’t THERE way.

          Until I say the next thing and just looking at that, you could kinda see the back-and-forth about how the town’s so messed up his situation was like a loophole, and no doubt if it were a white person winning the mayorship on those terms people might have taken issue and justified a repeat election…

          But his reason for running for mayor puts the whole thing into much clearer contrast. When he was a volunteer firefighter, they’d take away the keys when he tried to respond to fires at black folk’s houses, and when he made it he’d be the ONLY firefighter there. They wanted to let those residences burn because of the color of the residents’ skin. As one of the town’s medics, he was specifically locked out of the station for racist reasons and it led to a patient dying.

          It’s THAT good-ol-boy a community, and it’s such an overwhelmingly black-majority town (like 80%) that going all democratic just won’t work for them. So fuck em. If they win their defense on claims of qualified immunity of an office they don’t actually hold, immo go down there and declare myself governor.

          EDIT: Yet on reading more carefully, it’s complicated. The “lame duck” city council voted on a re-election where he did not get the paperwork, and elected themselves back into office, all before he and the new council were sworn in. They may have managed to push the whole thing into a legal grey area in their favor depending on what the local and state laws are. But the problem is that quite literally everyone is telling him “you’re not the mayor” when he tries to execute ANY mayoral duties. The bank is refusing him financial access. The staff at public buildings is refusing him physical access.

          It’s interesting because he’s tried to bring in several lawfirms, and they have mostly just taken his money and failed him. This is, at local scale, to too unlike the federal Constitutional crisis we almost had on 1/6/21. What do you do when a town says you’re not its mayor and the laws are unclear?

      • TechnoBabble@lemm.ee
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        Sounds like a town so devoid of life that it would be more productive to just let it collapse.

        There’s a bunch of tiny rural towns that have basically no jobs and no real reason to exist anymore.

        Globalization was not kind to rural America. And people listen to snake oil salesmen like Trump because he’s the only one talking at them with a distorted compassion.

        • Formless@lemmy.world
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          https://youtu.be/p3O6bKdPLbw

          That vid does a good job of showing what some of the people that live in those towns are like. He doesn’t really ask them any pointed questions but you can get a better sense of the communities and why they might cling to someone like trump (even if it is bad for them)

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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    Wow, anyone who feels like we just have the “casual racism” of some people being impolite to other races needs to read this article. Full of stuff like:

    Two years ago, Braxton says he was the only volunteer firefighter in his department to respond to a tree fire near a Black person’s home in the town of 275 people. As Braxton, 57, actively worked to put out the fire, he says, one of his white colleagues tried to take the keys to his fire truck to keep him from using it.

    It’s worse than the old cross-burning shit. Horrific. Not sure how to combat it when a whole town’s leadership and infrastructure is so overtly racist.

    • Barbacamanitu@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      With bricks through the windows of all their homes. Fuck these racist fucks. They’re willing to let black peoples houses burn down for no reason? Yeah fuck them.

      • abraxas@lemmy.ml
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        Perhaps not just “let”. Look up the lady that’s been helping him. Her house recently burned down. I didn’t dig deep enough to know if anyone has tried to tie it to this particular town, but I’m gonna let them be guilty until proven innocent in this particular case.

  • Pavidus@lemmy.world
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    Jesus, that article just kept getting worse the more I read. Thanks for posting this. I was able to send a donation their way.

  • Jordan Lund@lemmy.one
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    Here’s what I don’t get… town is 85% black and only has 275 people.

    That means a 234 to 41 split black to white. 5.7:1 ratio.

    If those 41 people really are that racist and regressive, you haul them all out of their homes, tar and feather them, and ride them out of town on a rail.

    https://youtu.be/SMFWqh6oHx0#t=1m20s

    • CannaVet@lemmy.world
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      This. Violence is not the answer.

      Until it is. Violence sometimes only can be corrected with violence.

    • gamer@lemm.ee
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      I suspect (based on nothing, really) that most white people in this country are not racist. It’s the tiny pockets of diarrhea like this town that are disproportionately racist, and have disproportionate representation in national politics.

      I wonder if WFH could change this, as liberal white people from places like California start moving to different states, and begin to turn them blue. Or maybe I’m being too optimistic?

  • minnieo@kbin.social
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    what’s new? thats such disgusting behavior. can’t believe this shit still goes on in 2023

  • CIWS-30@kbin.social
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    Sounds about right. When I joined the military I met people from Alabama, and even people from other Southern states had nasty things to say about that state. I didn’t believe it at first, but then I saw enough over time to realize, “I hate to say it, but maybe they’re right. At least about some of the smaller towns and more rural areas.”

    I met a few nice people from Alabama, yes. I also met… a surprising number of not so nice types. I’m Asian by the way, not White. I’ll let people fill in the gaps.

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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      Asian who had to live in the south before I managed to escape.

      It’s probably worse than you’ve heard, I loved the midwest, but the south was just vile.

    • gogozero@lemmy.sdf.org
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      these people’s misplaced loyalty and abhorrent actions speak for themselves. there is no need to resort to slurs that demean others

      • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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        That slur was very clearly directed at the orange retard, not anyone else. He’s demeaning the exact person he means to demean.

    • krolden@lemmy.ml
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      If theres one thing that pisses me off about lemmy its the word filter. I have no idea what you said.