P-R-O-J-E-C-T-I-O-N

[struggle4progress]

I was looking at a photo online the other day, and the women seemed to me intelligent and gentle. Then I wandered through some other websites. I came across the photo again when I was closing tabs, and the woman now seemed angry. It was a picture from twenty or thirty years ago, without much context, and I really don't know anything about what might have been happening in her head -- but what was happening in my head affected how I understood her face

I think this happens with everybody: our own thoughts and ideas influence our reading of everyone else. The mechanisms may be complex. Nietzsche once said: Memory says, 'I did that.' Pride replies, 'I could not have done that.' Eventually, memory yields. As memory yields, it becomes convenient to blame some agent (other than oneself) for the deed, and one naturally finds scapegoats

Some of this strange human psychology may be needed to understand (say) the origins of the racist ideology motivating the Charleston assassin, who reportedly made statements such as “I have to do it. You rape our women.”

... During the summer of 1850, Newsom purchased from a slave owner in neighboring Audrain County a sixth slave, a fourteen-year-old girl named Celia. Shortly after returning with Celia to his farm, Newsom raped her ... Over the next five years, Newsom would make countless treks to Celia's slave cabin ... and demand sex ... Celia gave birth to two children between 1851 and 1855, the second being the son of Robert Newsom ...
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/celia/celiaaccount.html

... Recy Taylor was raped and held at gunpoint by seven white men in Abbeville, Alabama on September 3 in 1944 ... Because the multiple men who raped her were white men from priveleged families, they never went to jail or went to trial, although they openly admitted to the viscous gang rape ... She is now 91 years of age and resides in Alabama ... Alabama State Rep. Dexter Grimsley personally apologized to Recy and her family for Alabama’s failure to prosecute her rapists ...
http://feministing.com/2011/03/23/alabama-may-finally-acknowledge-jim-crow-era-rape-of-recy-taylor/

[BainsBane]

1. There is a very readable little book on Celia

http://www.amazon.com/Celia-Slave-Melton-A-Mclaurin/dp/0380803364

Yes, the irony of citing rape of white women as a justification for the mass murder, when the history of black women under slavery was one of near ubiquitous sexual assault. There is not one narrative of a female slave that doesn't talk about her being raped by a master, member of his family, or overseer.

[catrose]

2. And shooting a group of mostly women while citing that rape

Thanks, jerk and murderer [Dylann, if there's any doubt], but in my lifetime, it's been cis white males who raped and abused. Honestly? I don't care about the color of the skin of my rapist/abuser.

BB, I haven't seen any narrative of female slaves without rape either. My mother's response was, "It takes two to tango," apparently not understanding the concept of choice or consent.

[struggle4progress]

3. Thanks! It's in my local library! I'll read it

[AuntPatsy]

4. Horrific, sickening, and God we obviously have such a long way to go ....

No more words , I'm so sickened by these animals with no conscience who continue to walk and talk among us