by Travis Mateer
While the reaction on Twitter is fairly entertaining, the monstrosity below is supposed to be an artistic rendering of “The Embrace”, a picture of Martin Luther King hugging his wife, Coretta.
Here is a better angle, along with the image this sculpture is supposed to be referencing for context. Ask yourself, what is the message of artistically decapitating the heads of this loving embrace?
Here in VERY WHITE Missoula, the socio-economic reality of those struggling to survive is given a back seat to the liberal obsession with RACE whenever possible, as exemplified by this article at Missoula Current about housing, titled City housing review suggests racism, violations in Fair Housing. From the link:
Through its outreach, the city gleaned several key themes that impacted fair housing in Missoula including constraints in the rental market, the experience of voucher holds, “choice and autonomy,” systemic racism and perceived restrictions in current zoning, particularly related to traditional single-family neighborhoods.
Many of the issues mentioned by Harris-Shears landed at the feet of landlords. She referenced tenants facing rising rents during renewal, confusing evictions and non-renewal of leases, fear of retaliation when seeking maintenance or property support, and alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act.
“Fair housing concerns came up a lot in our listening sessions,” Harris-Shears said. “We heard about denials based on sources of income. We also heard about language discrimination, where property owners or management companies told people who didn’t speak or read English as a primary language that unless they could respond to emails in English, they wouldn’t rent to them.”
Yes, that’s right, our enlightened liberals in Missoula thought it was a GREAT idea 8 years ago to bring refugees into a rental market with a vacancy rate that’s been under 5% for years, then, when the predictable barriers arise, these idiot do-gooders complain about it endlessly, using “listening sessions” and surveys to beat Missoula residents over the head with how supposedly racist they are because refugees with no credit or rental history can’t find an affordable place to rent.
If you’re one of these idiot do-gooders with a burning desire to self-flagellate yourself with white guilt, St. Anthony’s Catholic Church will have something for you, including some kind of performance by Ja’Ton Simpson, a black man who popped up two years ago to tokenize himself after Black Lives Matter became a lucrative “movement”.
If you find this post at all offensive, imagine how a black family who had their loved one euthanized in Missoula must feel when they see how quickly this community virtual signals while their quest for answers about what happened inside the Poverello Center and that hospital room three years ago remain unanswered.
Until that changes, Missoula will remain a community of surface-level concern sitting on top a dark river of hypocrisy.
Thanks for caring.
Yeah, the xenophobic anti-refugee rant is offensive. Missoula is hardly unique as far as gentrification, economic cleansing, low rental vacancy rate, collapsing retail industry, etc., etc. Msla isn’t in a Twilight Zone, capitalism globally is accelerating toward another gigantic constriction of availability, massive upward wealth & real estate transfer, and industrial failures, consolidations, bankruptcies and acquisitions. The US is party to the Treaty on Refugees and as both a signatory and under international human rights law, has a duty and obligation to accept its fair share of refugees.
The second reason the piece could be criticized as offensive for reason of racism, is its pontification by a white man on the legitimacy of a black man’s BLM activity. The third aspect of the piece that is arguably racist, is the way it segués into the Sean Stevenson matter, the sole commonality between the two focal topics being their specific skin color references. BUT, I get the irony and hypocrisy conveyed — and hope all.other readers do, as well.
I do think that you’re right, prioritization of.communities for refugee resettlement should be based in part on housing availability. But I remember all too well the disgusting rampant racism directed against Viet Namese, Laotian, Cambodian, Hmong & Thai refugees admitted into the U.S. in the wake of Uncle Sam’s withdrawal from Viet Nam. They were disparagingly labeled “boat people,” a pejorative that became a common slur against persons of Asian and South Pacific Island descent. The numbers were large. The government built housing, paid a basic monthly income, food stamps, hospital care, job preferences, educational grants, etc. Archie Bunkers popped up everywhere denouncing the “handouts to the boat people.” I see it this way: accommodating so many political and economic refugees, and giving them a hand up rather than entrenching them in new ghetttos, was the least we could do after so many years of making war on them and poisoning their ecology. The refugees from that war theater boosted the economy and their contributions to the nation’s welfare are immeasurable but vastly exceed what was invested in resettling them. So, IF it were true that the BLM movement was very lucrative, who are we to judge? We paid reparations to Viet Nam; when will the government pay reparations to descendants of slaves?????
OTOH, I agree with the general precept that this and many other communities are big on virtue signalling and hypocritical in practice. I also agree that as part of a facade of progressivism, our city (like the Democratic Party) tends to exploit identity politics and the struggle of LGBTQ+ persons not merely because it represents progressive thinking, but also because it mollifies the milquetoast liberals, deflects scrutiny, and facilitates continuation of class warfare from above.
Of course, there is substantial intersection between race and poverty. Third Way Hillary Clinton types bash democratic socialist Bernie Sanders as being insensitive to race, part of the Democratic Party neoliberal identity politcs dodge.
Perpetuating this false dichotomy and weaponizing it, allows the Democratic Party to join in with the proto-fascist Repugs, to thwart class consciousness which threatens the capitalist order.
This post isn’t offensive to me, but I can see how a lot of ‘woke’ liberals wouldn’t like what it says.
I’m still trying to figure out how the definition of the word ‘woke’ changed from coming out from sleep in the morning to being morally sensitive.
Every MLK day is cringe-worthy, IMO, just because there are a lot of other people more deserving in our nations history, who didn’t have Kings character flaws.
Eric, the state killed King. Fuck your character flaws.
I know Hoover hated King – but I think a minister who uses his churches money for parties with prostitutes could be described a number of ways, and that ‘Character Flaws’ are a gentle euphemism. And yes – the State probably did set up his death.
If you are worried about church leaders doing amoral things, you better pay attention to my coverage of the LifeGuard Group.