From Oregon to North Dakota and Across the Land: White Privilege Everywhere You Turn
Yes, there is a cruel, stupid irony about living in a country when, on the same day, a bunch of gun-toting rubes who have less understanding of the Constitution than a wombat does of nuclear fusion get acquitted after an armed takeover of federal property in Oregon while, half a country away, peaceful protesters doing nothing but praying on land to which they have a right guaranteed by treaty get rousted, roughed up, and hauled away by a militarized police force acting largely at the behest of a private company. For those of you who are sorry you missed the last Gilded Age, hang in there. You're going to get your wish fairly soon.
The white privilege embedded in the two competing narratives is almost too garish to contemplate, and it is beyond argument.
This week gave us an appalling view of American "justice" in all its white privilege and cognitive dissonance: The acquittal of a bunch of ignorant, armed, white, male hooligans who laid boisterous claim to Oregon land that was never theirs, and the tear-gassing, shooting and arrest of peaceful, praying Standing Rock Sioux seeking to protect their own revered land/water from destruction - to "do something good and right." After 500 brutal years, shame, America, again. . . .
Lesson to the already pitchfork-wielding red corners of the country: You can forcefully take whatever, and ask for snacks while you do, if you're white and male. Also known as "White Dudes Getting Away With Crazy Shit—Case #5,000,000,000,000,000."
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