Ferguson

[Content Note: Police harassment; racism; threats.]

Last night, things were quieter in Ferguson again. Imagine that: Attorney General Eric Holder comes to Ferguson and promises a real investigation and suddenly things get quieter. That snark, in case it isn't clear, is not directed at protesters, but at the police, whose tactics demonstrably escalated the site of protesting every night things were less quiet. They didn't seem to care when "we" were watching, but they certainly seem to care that the US Department of Justice is.

And "quieter" merely means that police weren't firing teargas or rubber bullets, but they were still arresting people for walking and using intimidation tactics. As @thewayoftheid notes here, that might be a "success" for the police, but it's not a success for the people of Ferguson, whose reports of police harassment far predate the killing of Michael Brown.

Meanwhile, a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign in support of Officer Darren Wilson has already raised $200,000. Even though, as @ScottMadin pointed out, Wilson has "been put on indefinite paid vacation and not charged with any crime." And here is what happens to someone who vociferously objects.

This hasn't just radicalized people who advocate for racial equality; it has radicalized people who advocate against it, too.

And finally: There is this heap of shitty racism apologia in the Minneapolis StarTribune in which a white man talks about the black women who were domestic workers for his white family in the South, and how they were "family." Amazingly, the title of this "counterpoint" piece is not "Not All White People."

There is a long history of white folks invoking black domestic workers as evidence of racial equality, and it is always bullshit. Elle deconstructs it in spectacular fashion here: "Same Script, Different Cast." If there's one thing you read today, read that.