Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes (D) went on CNN yesterday and attacked President Obama and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) for referring to rioters in Baltimore as “thugs” saying, “just call them n*ggers”. It is a familiar controversy for readers of this blog. Last year, various commentators objected to my writing about the “thuggish” behavior of Seahawks’ cornerback Richard Sherman
as inherently racist — a position that I rejected. I have continued to use thug as both a noun and adjective. Now it appears that President Obama and Mayor Rawlings-Blake are being accused of the same use of racist code words by Councilman Stokes.
In the meantime, City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young apologized to rioters for calling them “thugs.”
“What we’re seeing today is not about Freddie Gray,” Young said. “It is about the pain, the hurt and the suffering of these young people. There’s no excuse for them to loot, riot and destroy our city. I made a comment out of frustration and anger when I called our children ‘thugs.’ They’re not thugs. They’re just misdirected. We need to direct them on a different path by creating opportunities for them.”
On CNN, Stokes objected to the use of the word when prompted by the host and said
“of course it’s not the right word to call our children thugs. These are children who have been set aside, marginalized, who have not been engaged by us. No, we don’t have to call them thugs . . . “calling them thugs — just call them n*ggers. Just call them n*ggers. No, we don’t have to call them by names such as that. We don’t have to do that. That is exactly what we have set them to. Now, when you say ‘come on,’ come on what? You wouldn’t call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you would expect them to do.”
He added that he supported the recent video of a mother slapping her son for participating in the riots, but insisted that it was the right thing to do (not because of his participation in riots) but to keep the police from killing him: “she was trying to save his life. It is clear that it’s better that she hit him than the police hit him and brutalize him and take his life from him.”
In my view, Stokes is wrong on the use of the “thug” as well as his criticism of the President and the Mayor. He views mirror an effort to bar the use of words deemed to be “codes” when used to criticize minorities. The same objections were heard earlier on this blog and other sites. Beanie Barnes was one of those calling out those who use the word: “Suddenly he was ‘classless,’ a ‘thug’ from Compton, and any manner of other negative terms that one can substitute for the N-word. Sherman was no longer human, but a racist caricature.”
I disagree with this view, which ascribes a racist rather than a descriptive element to the use of the noun. The word “thug” has been used widely on this blog to rather to people of different genders, races, and backgrounds. It is possible for blacks like whites to act like thugs. It is their behavior that is driving the use of the word like burning police cars and robbing people in the streets of Baltimore.
No, neither President Obama nor Mayor Rawlings-Blake are racists. These rioters are thugs.
Mr. Schulte
An attorney has competency standards they must meet under ABA regulations. Since we have a right to counsel in many cases, that counsel is only really relevant if they compotent to practice law.
You are right the founding fathers didn’t speak to the competency of attorneys.
Paul,
So to you, basically, stealing trillions of dollars and committing torture and murder of civilians isn’t thuggish, is that correct?
Are you O.K. with Jamie stealing trillions of taxpayer money? If so, is that because he, “robbed with a pen, not a gun”? Why is stealing trillions of dollars acceptable under any circumstances? As a conservative, law and order person, why are you excusing robbery by a wealthy person. How is that upholding conservative values? Help me understand you here Paul.
If torture and murder aren’t acts of physical violence against other people, what are they?
Jill – never read into my statements something that is not there. What you see is what you get. You named a single person. I responded about a single person.
Please help me to understand how Jamie Dimon has stolen “trillions of taxpayer money.”
So Paul, Would you be willing to go into detail about how Clinton and Obama arrived at their pathological actions? Was it simply their broken homes? They both have high levels of education. What do you think caused them to “break bad”?
What about Jamie Dimon?. He has literally stolen trillions of dollars and plans to steal more from us. Do you have an explanation for his thuggish actions and extreme criminal pathology?
Would you be willing to discuss Jamie in the same level of detailed pathology as the rioters? The reason I ask is there does seem to be a huge class component to use of the word thug and condemnation of actions.
I agree that looting is thuggish, wrong and self destructive. However, in all honesty, the amount of financial damage done by these thugs is simply a drop in the bucket compared to our wealthy bankers and politicians. I notice that many people are ready to analyze and condemn actions when poor people do them but they give wealthy people a free pass for far worse actions. I think this is a big mistake.
So what does make the wealthy, highly educated and extremely privileged part of our population go for broke when it comes to heinous criminal activity and why do we citizens give them a free pass?
Jill – to me “thuggish” behavior requires the person to engage in some type of physical violence against another or their property. I do not see Jamie Dimon doing this. He appears to have worked his way up from the bottom to the top. Dad didn’t give him the job.
Squeeky and others who believe like her,
Do you have a sociological analysis of why the wealthiest and most powerful among our citizens have committed heinous crimes such as murder, torture and stealing of at least 23 trillion dollars from the public coffers?
Did these criminals come from broken homes? Do you think it was genetic? What is your feeling concerning these criminal thugs? Seriously, do you have a theory about them?
Jill – Clinton and Obama come from broken homes.
It’s in the best interest of all Americans to try to fix our internal problems:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/ten-shocking-facts-about-baltimore?akid=13046.147321.t9K268&rd=1&src=newsletter1035560&t=1
Many lives of apparent privilege on display here.
I. Annie,
Yep.
What transpired in Baltimore did not take place in a vacuum. What we saw was not a spontaneous uprising, for lack of a better word.
TJustice, correct or darn close on all counts @12:07 AM.
old nurse:
“People who steal things, destroy property and cause harm to others are thugs.”
Yes. (And this doesn’t apply to Richard Sherman.)
old nurse:
“People are also capable of justifying absolutely anything.”
While I agree, if you wouldn’t mind elaborating?
Dear TJustice, you have fulfilled your aim of not impressing anyone here on this blog with your grammar. What does DBQ´s age have to do with anything?
The irony of all this is the black community complains about the government and police abuse but fail to realize that the majority of areas where they live are overwhelmingly Democrat. The cities with the most vilified, brutal police forces are in places like NYC, LAPD, Chicago. New Orleans. All run by Democrats. The more oppressive and Big Brother like the city is, the more Democrat it is.
If the Black Community wishes to truly protest and cause issues without rioting there are a few things they can do.
1. Start requesting jury trials for everything you possibly can. Refuse plea deals and take everything to jury trial. The system will completely seize up. The system at this stage is incredibly dependent on plea deals. Dockets filled with jury requests would be catastrophic for ‘The Man’. Eventually it would force prosecutors to start dumping bad arrests or petty offenses.
2. Stop electing Democrats or Big Government Republicans aka RINOs. Vote for actual small govt politicians.
The more a government grows the more police, codes and general oppression, you will have. Small government keeps it in check. Libertarian would be the most ideal party for the black community.
The Democrats have taken great advantage of the black vote. They tell them they need them. They keep them dependent on public aid. They isolate them with masked racism by segregating them in housing projects. For 50 years they have kept the black community chasing a carrot on the stick.
Then the Democrats turn and sell out the black workers to import new Democrat voters in the guise of ‘immigration’. The Democrats view this as a win win. They get more votes and they keep the blacks on the reservations aka public housing. Their jobs? Unemployment is of no concern because they will just keep giving them welfare. Keeping them chained to the state. Then they get to hire cheap help to clean their houses and mow their lawns.
Systematic racism. Get the black voters dependent on the state and then pretend to be defenders with the Republican boogeyman of threats of taking public assistance away. A very clever game the Democrats have played. They have conned many people for a very long time, including myself.
Make no mistake. I detest the Republican party as well.
“Let me control the media and I will turn any nation into a herd of pigs” Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
“Politicians should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we can identify their corporate sponsors.” – Robin Williams.
Mr. Schulte
Those incredible founding fathers included a provision in the constitution which is interpreted to mean all US citizens receive component counsel, even the thugs.
TJustice – the founder fathers said that you had the right to counsel, said nothing about it being either component or competent.
Food for thought:
10 Shocking Facts About Baltimore
A quarter of the city’s inhabitants live in abject poverty.
By Bill Quigley / AlterNet April 28, 2015
Were you shocked at the disruption in Baltimore? What is more shocking is daily life in Baltimore, a city of 622,000 that is 63 percent African American. Here are 10 numbers that tell some of the story.
5: Blacks in Baltimore are more than 5.6 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than whites even though marijuana use among the races is similar. Baltimore county has the fifth highest arrest rate for marijuana possessions in the USA.
5.7: Over $5.7 million has been paid out by Baltimore since 2011 in over 100 police brutality lawsuits. Victims of severe police brutality were mostly people of color and included a pregnant woman, a 65-year-old church deacon and an 87-year-old grandmother.
6: White babies born in Baltimore have six more years of life expectancy than African American babies in the city.
8: African Americans in Baltimore are eight times more likely to die from complications of HIV/AIDS than whites and twice as likely to die from diabetes related causes as whites.
8.4: Unemployment is 8.4 percent city wide. Most estimates place the unemployment in the African American community at double that of the white community. The national rate of unemployment for whites is 4.7 percent, for blacks it is 10.1.
9: African American babies in Baltimore are nine times more likely to die before age one than white infants in the city.
20: There is a 20-year difference in life expectancy between those who live in the most affluent neighborhood in Baltimore versus those who live six miles away in the most impoverished.
Isn’t behavior part of the use of words? Thugs, the people breaking windows and stealing. Everybody in a hoodie yesterday was looking for trouble, being a part of chaos turned up. I had hoped to see more mothers walking down the streets today, grabbing their own or someone else’s they knew.
One woman crying and asking these kids where am I going to work? Take care of my family? The lack of understanding how a community helps itself. Standing around outside is not going to make me go in those stores. The owners could be black buying a store, with a big name. I think everybody walking around with faces covered should be taken to jail. Are you ashamed of your color? That Mama created a turnaround. Al Sharpton stay out of Baltimore, we mothers are talking control. I hope the police work with those mothers.
@Po
I just report the news. I am waiting to see an official report before I flop one way or the other. FWIW, my BFF Fabia Sheen, Esq., an attorney, had a client who banged his head against the cell bunk and the walls until he had a concussion. He told us if he acted crazy, that he figured he could get sent to a hospital, and then released. It was like an armed robbery charge. Darned if he wasn’t right because his subsequent public defender got him probation on account of his mental problems.
Sooo, I don’t doubt the story, but am going to wait and see.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
G. Mason
And someone with an ounce of honesty and integrity steps up! I love humans with a backbone.
Many arrests in New York City. Now I better see people on here calling these people thugs. They did the same thing as people in Baltimore or Ferguson, defied the law and law enforcement when y’all didn’t agree.
TJustice – Thugs are thugs and some day you may have the pleasure of defending them.
The real problem is, we have criminalized everything under the sun.
We have states that create new codes and violations for every petty thing in in existence for the purpose of creating new revenues.
We have a failed Drug War.
We have Marijuana still illegal and a Schedule 1 drug on top of it.
We have increasingly hostile and abusive law enforcement agencies.
We have zero repercussions for bad cops.
We have a compliant and coercive prosecution. DA’s that should be filtering out bad charges are instead overcharging to force plea deals. They are supposed to be an independent agency from the police to help insure the security of our liberties. Instead they conspire when they are supposed to be questioning. Often they instead proceed with bad arrests simply to attempt to avoid lawsuits. There is no justice in that.
We have a failed judicial that is supposed to be the last filter for the liberties of the people. A judicial who is required to be independent and unbiased that instead now acts as a 3rd agent of Law Enforcement.
We have a monetized and privatized Corporate prison system. A profit based system that must be fed.
We allow our local, state and Federal govt to do all of this without repercussion.
We have a monopolized political system that have allowed the wealthy to usurp control from the masses.
We have a government that no longer operates for the will of the people.
We claim to have a Representative government do we not? Then explain to me why we still do not have term limits. Why do we still have wars for Wall St? We do we have bills passing that the people are overwhelmingly are against?
We no longer have a representative govt.
We have an Oligarchy. I challenge anyone here to argue with me that we do not.
We can blame the ‘criminals’ in Baltimore, Ferguson, etc etc all we wish. However they are often MADE into criminals, rather than becoming criminals. Yes, there is a difference. At the rate our Big Brother Government of all levels is going, we will soon ALL be criminals, if we are not already in one regard or another.
One thing I will state. I absolutely LOATHE the race card. The term ‘Thug’ is not racist. I despise Political Correctness. It causes many problems in society today. However, that said….
It is intellectually dishonest to say that the black community has been anything but oppressed and mistreated by the police of the country. To deny it is either a lie, idiocy or blatant racism. Stop and Frisk statistics in NYC verify this and this is New York we are speaking of, the hot bed of Progressives.
I shall leave you with some relative quotes to consider.
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
Thomas Paine
“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.”- James Madison
“[T]he accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny”.- James Madison
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”- Thomas Jefferson
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” Frederick Douglass
“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”
Thomas Jefferson
” The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”
Samuel Adams
It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is will be tomorrow.” – James Madison, Federalist no. 62, February 27, 1788
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” George Washington
Squeek, I can smell bullish from afar, and this breaking news seems like BULL ISH. Another blame the victim attempt as we see everytime a black man is killed by the cops. Hope you have the decency to apologize when it is debunked.
I know, that’s asking way too much 🙂