Thank you, and Good Night.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm looking at some troubling analytics, and they paint a pretty undeniable picture. "We're Past All That" is not getting any social media bump. It's getting the same thirty or forty people clicking on every link (and it was the same 30 or 40 people from when we first started). We're not reaching any more people beyond my Facebook posts, and the point of this endeavor (sans satire) has always been to force people to see how these events are a daily reality, and not part of some distant past. I returned to this blog three weeks ago but despite my efforts, I can't seem to push beyond that same 30-40 people.

I was reaching more people simply by sharing posts on Facebook with the text "Today On 'We're Past All That'" I even know a few people who kind of got it because of that.

I invite everyone to come visit or friend my public Facebook Page where I will continue to dedicate a post each day to how much past all this stuff we are.

Coincidentally Unconnected Ideas

The State of the Union always brings out political tweets, but in this case it also brought out some decorating observations in an unfortunately placed comma splice.

Clearly this person feels that The White House is in need of a new coat of paint. They also have some political ideas. That's okay. Not everyone is a democrat. The eagle of liberty needs both wings.

Of course some cynics might choose this moment to be grammatically ungenerous and think that this is some kind of white man/white house thing, but she CLEARLY states that she's not racist, so I'm not sure how that is even a possibility.

I mean if we can't trust people who say they aren't racist, the next thing you'll be telling me is that we're not past all that.

ETA: I have been informed that this tweet has been around since 2012, so clearly some race baiters decided to put it out to rouse rabbles. Obviously even if it weren't a simple case of two ideas in an unfortunately structured tweet, we have clearly gotten past all that in the last two years.

Muslim Isn't a Race

Good thing you can't be racist against Muslims. Ever. In any way. (See, because they're a religion, not a race.) This kind of bigotry is totally acceptable since it has nothing in common with racism.

I mean sure it's focused on Arabs even if their Christian or Sikh and sure it has all the familiar tropes of racism including slurs, othering, double standards, Texas sharpshooting, and hasty generalizations, but clearly you can't actually be racist unless a race is involved, even if you're behaving exactly the same small-minded way.

Otherwise I might think we're not actually past all that.

Unknown X Factor

It's nice to see that with the recent rash of police...possible "slight" overreaction to things like BB guns and 12 year olds playing with toys, in this case restraint has won the day.

This time the cop gets shot four time and isn't even arrested. See, they really are listening to the national outrage, and beginning to act in a more measured way.

Now some people, people who choose to make everything about race, may notice that there are certain....statistical....anomalies about who gets shot and who does the shooting and who gets called thug and who gets told to respect the police and who gets a pass....on even being arrested. These cynical cynics might try to cynically point out that Whites sure do get a lot more slack than Blacks when they encounter any aspect of the criminal justice system.

Those people clearly haven't accepted that we're past all that. This is a post racial utopia...

....goddamn it

Police Use Black Mug Shots For Target Practice

The North Miami Beach Police might be accused of gross insensitivity but let's not blow this out of proportion and call it racist. After all, that might be the only available page or maybe they just do one page at a time and this one happened to be all black people. Maybe Thursdays is white boy day.

Whatever happened, I'm certain it's not the case that if a sheaf of white people's pictures had been used someone would have objected to the tastelessness of the whole thing. That's just bitter cynicism that suggests that cops would see white people as human and black people as target practice. I mean that seems like it's just going out of its way deny that we now live in a post racial utopia.

We're past all that.

What's Ten Million Among Friends?

The Sony hacks have apparently revealed that Charlize Theron was set to make 10 million dollars less than her male counter part in an upcoming movie.

Obviously this was simply an egregious oversight, because as soon as she pointed out to Sony that we are actually past all that, they immediately corrected their mistakes. I'm sure a few cynics think it's because they got caught, but obviously they wouldn't intentionally pay women ten MILLION dollars less for the same work.

Because we're past all that.

Income Disparities

There's a new report out that Blacks with four year degrees make less than white people without.

I'm sure that this is just reflective of how white culture values useful degrees. I mean if there were actual substantive evidence of wage disparity, someone might suggest that we don't live in a post racial utopia--that we are not, in fact, past all that.  

Um...cultural work ethic?  

Hang on. I'll think of something.