{"id":761,"date":"2008-06-03T09:10:43","date_gmt":"2008-06-03T13:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/?p=761"},"modified":"2008-06-03T09:11:48","modified_gmt":"2008-06-03T13:11:48","slug":"hill-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/?p=761","title":{"rendered":"Hill Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"You<\/a>
\nIt takes one to know one: Hillary counts on her peeps<\/em><\/p>\n

I never get tired of news footage that documents blatant racism. Also, when it’s coming from Al-Jazeera English<\/a>, you know it’s got to be good. It’s going in some direction that the self-congratulatory, corporate U.S. media, still suckling the dry, cracked teat of American exceptionalism, is completely unwilling to go.<\/p>\n

This clip, which I first saw on Street Knowledge Media<\/em><\/a>, doesn’t necessarily dig up anything explosive. In many ways, it’s similar to the video from my post a couple of weeks ago, “So, Let Me Get This Straight: I\u2019m Inferior<\/em> To These People?”<\/a>, documenting West Virginia voters’ thoughts on the then upcoming Democratic primary.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

(This new one was shot in Eastern Kentucky though, not W. Virginia. Which\u2014many Kentuckians and W. Virginians might be shocked to know\u2014would draw a massive, “And?<\/em> What’s the difference?” from millions of Americans.)<\/p>\n

What the 3:06 clip does most, though, is plaintively make an argument about what white supremacy means in this election, at the ground level.<\/p>\n

\"Kentucky<\/a>Particularly as Clinton’s campaign prepares to hoist the white flag, the Al-Jazeera short is instructive. At one point in the piece, for example, the voiceover cites coal miner Johnny Curnutte, right, pointing out that “generations of people here have been raised looking down on Blacks as former slaves and, what they consider, second-class citizens.”<\/p>\n

Curnutte then shares childhood memories of his grandfather’s response to seeing Black people on the tube. “He would say, ‘Turn the TV off ’cause I don’t wanna watch that ni@@er sh#t.'”<\/p>\n

Watching the piece, it wasn’t the grandfather’s quote that struck me. It was the voiceover. That white people “have been raised looking down on Blacks as former slaves” and that they “consider [us] second-class citizens” is a statement so artless and lacking in nuance it doesn’t make the news. You’d almost never expect to see Brian Williams say it. Not, at least, without that characteristic, almost imperceptible pause and axial head nod that means, “Isn’t anyone who says this kind of thing just backward<\/em>?”<\/p>\n

\"\u201cOhh,<\/a>At another point, the voiceover speaks to white fears of Black retribution under a Black president. Then, retired coal miner Oakley Delong says that “The white people have put the”\u2014there’s just a minute hiccup, as he loads the correct word\u2014”negroes in the back of the bus for years. And if we’re not careful, we’re gonna be in the back of the bus and they’re gonna be in the front.”<\/p>\n

These are the “hard-working Americans, white Americans” of Hillary Clinton’s second- or third-to-last outrageous remark, the one in which she cited the same as supporting her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is the plain talk of “whites who have not completed college”\u2014the ones Obama reportedly needs and can’t get, going into the general election. It’s good to hear those people speak, as opposed to hearing newscasters talking about them as abstractions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It takes one to know one: Hillary counts on her peeps I never get tired of news footage that documents blatant racism. Also, when it’s coming from Al-Jazeera English, you know it’s got to be good. It’s going in some direction that the self-congratulatory, corporate U.S. media, still suckling the dry, cracked teat of American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46,33,7,9,20,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/harryallen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}