There's always a fuss kicked up about Black minstrels and how much damage it can do to the people being represented, but no one says anything about White minstrels... Minstrels are often used to mock and humiliate the people they portray. Black people are represented as bumbling oafs. White people are often portrayed as bumbling hicks. This was initially meant to demean, diminish, and dehumanize these people so that they can be politically ostracized and/or exploited in some way. As is the case with Blacks today, now the White minstrel is used to humiliate and politically ostracize White people. However, there are different types of minstrels. The bumbling oaf is the comedic minstrel. The dark minstrel is the hyper-violent monster. For Black people, this is the menacing, street-stalking, raping brigand. For White people it's the racist, misogynistic Nazi or the menacing, backwoods stalking, raping hillbilly. Then there's the clever patronizations. I suppose "clever" can be a subjective term. In America we all seem to be aware of the fact that the government is pretty much full of it- whether you are conservative or democrat. They lie to get what they want. They say anything that will get them a vote. It's basically written on their forehead and yet they can still amass so much support. One of the humorous things that I remember was Joe the Plumber. This is a funny twist to the minstrel because it's a patronized minstrel. Rather than diminish a person, they prop up a characterization of their bases ideals and over-embellish it. Joe the Plumber is supposed to represent salt of the earth White Americans. A tall, tough, hands-on, do-it-yourself breed. But as the Arc of his spot in fame showed, he actually represented Americans, in general, pretty clearly. He immediately tries to cash in on his image and then does a number of cringey things to try and stay relevant before finally falling back into obscurity. Do elite White government officials care about the small business owner? Hell no. Does Trump? No. Hillary? No. But the symbol was one of the parties strongest boosts of support at the time. Often, a politician will actually take on the role of the noble minstrel- a figure he knows is scoffed at by his contemporaries, but adored by his base. Sarah Palin is another example of the noble minstrel- a figure from the lower castes of society whose propped up for that figures apparent virtues. Obama "got that dirt off his shoulder" and electrified his base with that noble minstrelization. But meanwhile both parties gut out the country. It's ironic that Obama ran under the "hope" ticket and won big, but it's not surprising because that is really the substance of the American voting system. We "hope" for change and never really get it unless we're threatening to tear something down and those people- White or Black- will be labeled as extremists. The violent minstrel. The Black Panther party started as a block-based organization that sought to pool the meager resources they had in order to help those that weren't being helped. They were steadily infiltrated by agencies like the FBI and then either framed for things they didn't do, characterized by extremist elements calling themselves Black Panthers, or framed. The Tea Party is very similar. It was a Grass Roots organization that attempted to start a new political union because they had become disillusioned with the Republican party. However, this party was destroyed by constant slander and attack on the news. The most extreme examples of the parties members were aired nationally and sometimes things were just made up. The Tiki-Torch Nazi's? How many were in that video? Did it represent the whole crowd? But they were able to shame everyone there that day by using the minority to smear the majority. That is how they effectively smear all Black-based movements. They will focus on the extremes to discredit the whole. It's a show and it's becoming more and more outrageous with each election. Coming up is 2020. Tell me it's not looking like "The Bachelor". It's dumb and now comes the major political season where I see a bunch of people get up on stage and convince people to support "fixes" to problems most of them have no comprehensive idea of. International economics? Wtf? Climate change? Do I look like a climatologist? I couldn't tell the real scientific data from the faulty one, how am I suppose to judge whether it's real or not? Because people tell me? Because I stick my finger in the air? Foreign policy? When the only thing a person knows about another place is Muslims and communists, I consider that to be less than sufficient to make national decisions. But none of that will matter.
