That Peculiar Institution 2.0

CITATION

Rasheed, Muhammad. "That Peculiar Institution 2.0." Cartoon. The Official Website of Cartoonist M. Rasheed 20 Aug 2018. Pen & ink w/Adobe Photoshop color.

Baljeet Kaur - How is mass incarceration related to slavery?

Muhammad Rasheed - The great wealth of Western Civilization was built upon the anti-Black slave institution, and when slavery was abolished, it collapsed the American economy. The 1% legacy families that control the majority of society’s wealth were desperate to replace their gravy train streams of revenue, and they did so by exploiting the 13th Amendment loophole:

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

This effectively returned Blacks to slavery, particularly the vulnerable poor who were seized off the streets on frivolous charges. Interestingly, it was the North who held onto mass incarceration while the South used jim crow subjugation, but the jim crow conditions ironically enabled Black people to build and control their own wealth within the limits of the closed in systems where by law they were limited to how much of the Black dollar they were allowed to spend on white goods and services. Once jim crow was abolished at the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the South leaped at taking on the mas incarceration money maker for itself. Since then, corporations and politicians have schemed to increase the scope and force of this evil blight upon the Black community, and now it is rapidly approaching the wealth generating super business of its chattel slavery ancestor.

Christian Couture - I fail to understand the meaning of these drawings...  Is it to promote history or hate?

Muhammad Rasheed - Christian wrote: "I fail to understand the meaning of these drawings..."

The mainstream, dominant culture doesn't like to promote a dialogue about the nation's most enduring sin, since the economy is actually fed by anti-Black racism. The mass incarceration industry is just one of the ways the original slave economy revenue was replaced, for example. Consequently, the norm is for people to discourage talking about racism in hopes that the lack of dialogue will keep it going forever while a new narrative is created to protect it.

Naturally this practice only benefits the white racist aristocracy. My cartoons are designed to make people talk about the anti-Black systemic racism that lays at the heart of Western Civilization as a whole, and is the foundation of U.S. American society in specific. I prefer we discuss the actual economic-based root cause of racism, and not the surface-level "prejudice over skin color" marketing piece of it promoted by those trying to protect white supremacy.

I hope this helps!

Will Lester - If you're saying that all cops are racist and abusive. You're wrong on so so many levels

Brandon Bitros - All are abusive. They all put non violent people into cages. All of them

Timothy Brown - It honestly doesn't matter if there are good cops or not when the entire institution holds a very clear racial bias and the "good cops" do nothing to combat it.

Will Lester - All are not abusive. I've met many police that are respectful. The problem isn't the police.

Brandon Bitros - They ALL put non violent people in cages. ALL of them

Will Lester - Brandon... Criminals can be nonviolent bro....

Timothy Brown - Will... your missing the point. Just because you've met some good cops doesn't mean the institution they belong to isn't biased and racist. You're also not taking into consideration the privledge your skin color grants you with police.

Timothy Brown - according to a 2017 Justice Department review Black people are 10 times more likely to have excessive force used against them. 80% of all firearm use by police was against black people, 81% of all tazer use was directed at black people, and 83% of incidents with violence used against a minor was against black people (and 97% are against minorities as a whole). With these statistic how can you say the problem isn't with the police Will Lester?

Will Lester - @Timothy... The United States police forces aren't perfect. You're stereotyping them by all the bad cops. You see a couple bad cops and think "Man all cops are racists and beat black people." This drawing speaks truth but the police forces can't be perfect because no one is. So instead of bashing the unit as a whole support the good. Because I know for a fact that good cops extremely EXTREMELY outweighs the bad cops.

Will Lester - Timothy... The real police brutalities are towards the ones that

1. Are respectful to authority
2. Obey authority
And
3. Didn't have a criminal record

Muhammad Rasheed - Will, did you see all of those "80%" statistic numbers Tim posted? Are you really going to just step over them to talk at him with your well-rehearsed pet rhetoric?

Muhammad Rasheed - White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement | F.B.I

Will Lester - But instead of thinking logically you're just going to try and prove me wrong instead of looking at facts.

Muhammad Rasheed - He posted the facts and you side-stepped them.

Muhammad Rasheed - "80% of all firearm use by police was against black people"

Will Lester - How many of them were criminals?

Will Lester - The problem isn't towards the black community. The problem is in the black community

Timothy Brown - Not to mention all the videos of police killing black people literally for following their directions. Did you forget about Philando Castille who was shot because he told a police officer he has a legal conceal and carry and then proceeded to follow the police officer's directions and reaches for his license and registration. He was shot and killed in front of his girlfriend and her daughter for reaching for his license and registration. But police force only happens when people don't listen and are disrespectful right?

Muhammad Rasheed - If I was white I would say "100%."

Timothy Brown - @Will... do I need to explain why crime is such a problem in low income black communities again or did or ignore those facts in favor of own view that's not based in reality?

Timothy Brown - Or how about the black kid who was shot for literally playing outside with a toy gun?

Timothy Brown - And did you forget about the black man that was shot and killed for making a phone call in his grandma's backyard too?

Timothy Brown - @Will... you need to pull your head out of your ads and take your own advice to look logically at the facts and statistics.

Muhammad Rasheed - Will wrote: "The problem isn't towards the black community. The problem is in the black community"

I'm fascinated when white people see "White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement | F.B.I." and still recite that "Black on Black crime!!!" line without even blinking.

But this is supposed to be the superior race, amirite?

Muhammad Rasheed - "Violent crime in the United States has fallen sharply in the past 25 years. For the first time in a decade, violent crime in rural areas has surpassed the national average"

SOURCE

1.) 5 facts about crime in the U.S.

2.) In Rural America, Violent Crime Reaches Highest Level in a Decade

Will Lester - @Muhammad... Racist S.O.B

Muhammad Rasheed - And I am M. Rasheed. How do you do, Racist S.O.B.? 

________________________________
MEDIUM: Scanned pen & ink cartoon drawing w/Adobe Photoshop color.

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Uhhh... No, These ARE the Droids

Chuck Hammond - Both of these characters are fools

Muhammad Rasheed - You think so?

What makes each foolish?

Chuck Hammond - Their continual positions of hearing but not listening to the other guy ensures that only the status quo will remain. Things are neither as good or as bad as each avows. As long as nobody listens or works together they won't realize the facts on the ground while not great have changed.

Muhammad Rasheed - The Activist has listened to the other guy's position continuously (by force) for 500 yrs. What part of "I want white supremacy to continue and I don't want Blacks to be politically empowered and economically included" did he NOT get across?

Chuck Hammond - The haters will never get it. Time is passing them by and the successful citizens of each race have been too busy trying to be successful to get their brothers to see another way. The people you portray on either side are in the minority today from what was the norm just 50 years ago. Still not perfect but somewhat better.

Muhammad Rasheed - All you do is demonstrate you haven't researched the material, and prefer to armchair philosophy from a base of opinionating.

That's too bad.

Muhammad Rasheed - Plus you don't know what "hater" actually means.

Chuck Hammond - Perhaps, I don't know what hater means from your perspective. However, I suggest you go back to your grand dad and his peers who know what it was like again just a short 50 years ago to compare it to today and you will see amazing progress. Today progress is only gained in smaller increments. So you can chose to be part of it or stand on the sidelines or be a hater like the KKK , BLM and ANTIFA. Your choice which your ancestors didn't have w/o fear of lynching.

Muhammad Rasheed - I suggest you research "mass incarceration" and discover that the modern descendants of the enslaving bad guys of yesterday are still up to their old legacy family tricks, but are now using a more sophisticated marketing campaign to dupe folk like you into believing in a shallow "progress."

You don't know enough about the topic for your arm chair philosophizing to move me, Chuck. You sound no different than the folk I caricature.

Chuck Hammond - Since your grand parents got to witness and participate in some of the real changes in America while still not enough, I will trust my and their memories over your polemics!! Let's end it for now before we start yelling at each other again. Face facts, we are from different worlds we may strive to get along but basically, I'm content with my positions and experiences.

Muhammad Rasheed - I know, I've caricatured your content with your own rhetoric demonstration within my political cartoon folio.

Muhammad Rasheed - You want me to believe racism is over, and to look the other way when you kill an unarmed youth because he was Black, or when you shoot up a bunch of innocent people in a Black church.

Muhammad Rasheed - Got it.

Chuck Hammond - I'm not an idiot of course racism is not over and will never end. However, if you lived in the past, you would realize how much better it truly is. These supposedly saintly unarmed blacks need to do a few things better like stop when the cop say stop and get on the ground when told to do so. Better demeaned than killed.

Muhammad Rasheed - You recognize that racism isn't over, yet you still refer to fighting against it as "living in the past." 🤨

Is this that famous "white man speaks with forked tongue" phenomenon I've been hearing about?

Muhammad Rasheed - Chuck wrote: "Better demeaned than killed."

War is better than slavery, Chuck. I owe the rudimentary freedoms I possess today to the rivers of blood that flowed during the Civil War, remember?

Your point of view is not my point of view. Yours literally wants me to think it's better to cower before you as a slave than fight for my freedom, which you consider foolish. We will never disagree more.

Chuck Hammond - I don't think that is exactly my point of view but we can move on to future discussions.

Muhammad Rasheed - Then explain exactly what you meant by "Better demeaned than killed," please.

Chuck Hammond - Ok, if you are demeaned and not killed you have a chance to live another day and work towards more freedom for you and your people. It isn't like every cop has only one goal to kill a young black man every day. Sadly, your fellow Blacks are doing a fantastic job at this endeavor.

Muhammad Rasheed - "Demeaning" me is a domestic terror tactic designed to break my spirit so I won't keep working towards freedom. The cops don't want to kill ALL Black people, just random samplings from the population to keep the rest in line, using the same strategy you used during the jim crow eras lynching period.

The "Black-on-Black Crime" Republican talking point is a fiction, and you destroy what little credibility your armchair philosophizing had with each new post.

Peter Grayson - Love your art work, but turning american against american seems a waste of good talent.

Muhammad Rasheed - Hi, Peter. I think it odd when people express that drawing cartoons about the problems is the same as the actual problems themselves. To me, that just shows the damage caused by us NOT being honest in our dialogues after all these years.

Temptations of the Fiend

Q: What types of mistakes do white people make when attempting to be allies to people of color, and how can I avoid them?

Muhammad Rasheed - The worst type of “white ally” is just a racist grifter who preys upon struggling, start-up Black Empowerment groups as money making opportunities for his or herself. Once invited in, the faux white ally centers herself as the leader/expert, shoots down all ideas that will actually empower the Black community, and vilifies the actual leaders in the group using the typical racist stereotype kit (“Why are you so angry? I don’t feel safe!”).

So don’t be like that. Show up and listen to the people with an open mind & heart, have funds flow from you and your affluent networks TOWARDS the Black community and not in the other direction, and help/aid the Black leaders of the organization implement their plans while refraining from being a critical, negative jackass.

Peter Nack - Muhammad, I understand your point. But, I have a 55 year political memory. I now consider a tragedy -- yes, tragedy -- when SNCC, et. al. expelled white members in the mid-sixties; whites had died for the movement. ..... I understand that black folk continued and still do bear the brunt of a racist society. However, expulsion? I get it that the leaders must be people of color. But expulsion hurt the cause, so please be open to us white folks now.

Muhammad Rasheed - Whites were expelled when the gov agent infiltrators were discovered in their midst. Hoover's hostile, anti-Black Empowerment COINTELPRO program actively sabotaged and dismantled the pro-Black organizations.

The fact that the movement stopped receiving financial support from white donors during this high-level attack -- and how the expulsion of whites and the radicalization of the movement was spun in the press and in subsequent literature, even into the modern day -- was clearly part of the attack. It was designed to demoralize those kids and the community.

What was needed was not more white people, but the unity of the Black community. This much is obvious, both during the time period and in hindsight. Your own oft-repeated version of how you lot prefer to interpret those events, Peter, is falling on me as an offense. But I remain open to hearing a solid argument that makes sense from you as the representative of that group.

Institutionalized Child Abuse 101

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CITATION
Rasheed, Muhammad. "Institutionalized Child Abuse 101." Cartoon. The Official Website of Cartoonist M. Rasheed 16 Aug 2018. Pen & ink w/Adobe Photoshop color.


Brianna Ruffin - What is it like to grow up as a black person in a mostly white community in the United States?

Muhammad Rasheed - In Rich Benjamin's Whitopia TEDTalk, he quoted the sentiment expressed by the hosts who allowed him to interview them:

"One black man is a delightful dinner guest; 50 black men is a ghetto."

White communities are traditionally very protective of their closed-in, white racist aristocracy, and expend a great deal of time attempting to control the Black people that find themselves within that reach. Consequently, Black people routinely experience continuous aggressive behavior — that range from the brutal, white supremacist ‘lynchings by cop,’ all the way to the more frequent micro-aggression harassment — that force them to be in a high-alert, semi-paranoia, stressful state the majority of the time. It’s been this way since the founding of the country.

Joshua Hodge - Why aren’t there any Blacktopias?

Muhammad Rasheed - Reason #1: Atlanta race riot

Reason #2: Tulsa race riot

Reason #3: Chicago race riot of 1919

Reason #4: Rosewood massacre

Reason #5: Red Summer

Reason #6: Springfield race riot of 1908

Reason #7: New York City draft riots

Reason #8: East St. Louis Race Riots

Goshen Mosby - I wonder how well a white person might do in a predominantly black community?

Muhammad Rasheed - They would make her president of the NAACP chapter.

Goshen Mosby - Oh, I'm sure.

As you are probably already aware, racism simply doesn't exist in black communities.

Michael Rasinski - M. Rasheed wrote: “White communities are traditionally very protective of their closed-in white racist aristocracy"

Exactly how can this be logically assumed? I’d say a white communities are traditionally ignorant of other cultures’ problems as most cultures are. If you were hoping to somehow influence them to dismantle this system, then insulting them for things they didn’t know they were doing is not the way to gain an ally, it’s how you make enemies. Approach is everything. One must be willing to teach before any are willing to learn, and you’ve made it clear your past the point of teaching and are instead pushing a radicalism agenda down there throat and ordering them to swallow. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink… especially when that horse has protection under law saying it does not have to drink.

Muhammad Rasheed - You’re saying that if I would only just take my hat in hand, look at the floor and adopt a submissive posture when I kindly ask you to finally stop subjugating, exploiting and plundering my people, that you will be more likely to comply with my wishes. I find this opinion difficult to accept at face value.

Marc Ian Payne - Respectfully, I disagree that Mr. Rasheed is pushing a radical agenda. He utilizes language that is not conciliatory, unapologetically. He could have said “Some ‘Whites’ attempt to maintain distance from Persons of Color by creating insular, gated communities facilitated by the practice of modern redlining.” This is functionally the same statement. That does not change the veracity of the statement.

Muhammad Rasheed - Marc, tell them that if they dismantle anti-Black systemic racism and payout Reparations to the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) then I promise to soften my tone so they won’t get triggered as much.

Michael Rasinski - You assume things that are unfair to assume and accuse people of things they cannot be expected to know. Just below you refer to white people is "them". Like your sorting an item, a thing, a lifeless designation for a being undeserving of a name. It's not okay. Like you've drawn a line between people and asked them to somehow be closer together. I hate when people assume things of other people that they don't have the evidence to prove. I try to assume the best in people. There are two sides to each story.

I have sympathy for German soldiers in WW2, the "terrorists" from the Middle East, people who wave the confederate flag for their ancestry, and Gay pride for wanting to be excepted. Yet I have trouble sympathizing with you.

Since I criticized you a while back I've continued to check your comics. They never really change. The American-Africans are displayed as righteous and good and their cause always seems just. They are often being physically harmed or personally insulted. The White American is always displayed as wrong, blatantly ignorant, stupid, and mostly, privileged. They are often fat, bald, and willingly taking part in some heinous and racist act. When I've questioned your more radical approach I receive the same links, the same response, It's an echo chamber. I love hearing the other side of the story, yet many stories I've found for the reparations are stories of events long past. Pain caused by dead people, dead societies, dead ways of life, and a dying ideology. It's history and I believe you are free from your parents mistakes because your blood doesn't define who you are. I'm getting off track as always, but the point is that your view is an opinion, just as mine is. Neither of us are for certain right not wrong. As I write this I wonder if I myself am wrong. If you are truly passionate about something you will never stop questioning it.

The second part is: This country is a Republic, not a democracy. This means that laws and actions of the government are not a reflection of the people in it. We're lucky if half the people vote who are supposed to. Those who vote consistently are often the most radical and go for the most radical candidate. Basically, the fact that we have a republic and a two-party system means the people's voice is weak so that only the loudest are heard so it is unfair to account government actions as actions of the people.

Maybe it's just me, but your comics scream offensive. I suppose in the end, I want to see what drove you to cling to the past so desperately, what keeps you writing the way you do, but mostly, what makes you so sure you're right? Surely not every voice that doesn't concur with your view is wrong.

PS: I could care less if you use my name, or draw a depiction of me (I'm tall, lean, dirty blond with messy short hair), or decide to point out my spelling errors. I acknowledge each word I've ever written and will not delete it (unless my boss tells me too) as it reminds me that I can make mistakes, I can be wrong, and that what I write now may be wrong later. If I inspire a comic I'm depending on you to send it to me.

PSS: What's up with the tails?

Muhammad Rasheed - Michael wrote: “You assume things that are unfair to assume and accuse people of things they cannot be expected to know.”

I’m not assuming anything since my work here is backed by the body of scholarship literature. Since you admit to the knowledge deficiency on the topic, I suggest you work to fix it before passionately ranting at length in a public forum, since the demonstration does you little credit.

Michael wrote: “Just below you refer to white people is ‘them.’”

And I will continue to do so. I suggest you get over it.

Michael wrote: “It's not okay.”

Sure it is.

Michael wrote: “Since I criticized you a while back I've continued to check your comics. They never really change.”

They’ll change once anti-Black systemic racism is dismantled and Reparations are paid out to the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS). Insha’Allah.

Michael wrote: “Maybe it's just me, but your comics scream offensive."

White supremacy is MORE offensive. My work is the very necessary response to it.

Michael wrote: “I suppose in the end, I want to see what drove you to cling to the past so desperately…”

This is your severe knowledge deficit talking for you. Reading books can cure this ailment. White supremacy is a global blight that is now 500 yrs old and counting. It is hardly confined to the past.

Michael wrote: “What's up with the tails?”

IKR?!

Picking at the Lock

Matthew Em Jones - Is it possible for a white person to dislike a black person without it being racist?

Muhammad Rasheed - Yes, it’s technically possible. In light of Abi Wilkinson’s findings from her alt-right profile publishing in The Guardian, however, I don’t think it’s likely.

Based on the modern, middle-class white racist’s desire to be able to effectively hide his racism, it’s much more likely that the vast majority of these types of questions are actually from hardcore racists probing to figure out how to be better secret squirrels.

Debra VanAusdale - If you dislike, distrust and/or disparage an entire group of people (Black folks, homosexuals, women, disabled people) you are a ___________. Fill in the blank with the appropriate label.

If you dislike, distrust and/or disparage one person, you are probably not a bigot, or a racist, or a homophobe, or a sexist. There. I've given you a list of appropriate words to fill in the blank.

Muhammad Rasheed - For the many who only ask such questions because they are probing for information to help them more effectively hide their surface-level racism with a convincing poker face--the way the alt-right long to do--your list is not appropriate at all.

CountryBalls - considering i disagree with 90% of these, this one I think is probably the most accurate one. still like the art work tho.


See Also: BATTLE MODE: Duel with the 'Alt-Right'

Negotiating Freedom

The Seductive False Ease of Coonery's Cowardice

Barry Bookhart - Why do some white Americans tell black Americans to get over slavery?

Muhammad Rasheed - It’s not just slavery. The evil ‘instruction’ also spitefully implies that we get over the continued effects and sequels of anti-Black chattel slavery like jim crow, voter suppression tactics, mass incarceration and all other ways the white racist aristocracy has inflicted disenfranchisement and economic exclusion upon the Black American ethnic group.

The reason for telling Black people this is embedded within the comment and decoded thusly:

“Get over the wrongs we whites do to you Blacks because we’re never going to stop abusing and exploiting you. You should just get used to it and accept this as your permanent normal.”

Whites hope to not only continue plundering the wealth of Blacks to perpetually continue widening the infamous wealth gap, but they also hope to avoid the economic justice of Reparations that will make up for the centuries long evils of systemic racism.

Guardians of Whiteness

Adam Efimoff - Why is there so much hatred towards Blacks in the USA?

Muhammad Rasheed - The hatred is a tool designed to protect the artificially-elevated social status of the white racist aristocracy. Whites will sacrifice their personal comforts and way of life to make sure they are ranked higher socially than Black people, and will deliberately sabotage programs to economically exclude Black people from mainstream society gains and perks.

"When whites saw a threat to their economic advantage over minorities, they were more likely to want to cut social safety net programs, but only if those programs were portrayed as primarily benefiting minorities. Not if they were portrayed as benefiting whites."

_______________________________________
SOURCE

1.) Privilege on the Precipice: Perceived Racial Status Threats Lead White Americans to Oppose Welfare Programs | Social Forces | Oxford Academic

2.) Status threat, not economic hardship, explains the 2016 presidential vote

3.) Intolerant Whites Prefer Authoritarian Rule If Democratic Rule Means Granting Rights to Minorities

DECODED: "Stop Resisting"

The Terror of Social Justice

Patrick Parcivel - What is the best way to argue with a moderate who attempts to equivocate Antifa and neo-Nazis?

Muhammad Rasheed - The best way is to simply make fun of them and trigger them until they feel as silly as they look. The reason for this approach is because that group is in active war with you; they have zero interest in facts or hearing a logical opposition position since their whole shtick is the support of the White Supremacist Ideology and protecting it from the ever-vilified “other.” They want only the following items:

• to hoard the majority of wealth for themselves
• to tolerate non-whites only if they agree to be abused and exploited to feed the white racist aristocracy
• to control all knowledge flow and institutions of learning to better protect the extreme Eurocentric White Supremacist Ideology their systemic racist network indoctrinates the masses with as truth

They literally don’t care what you say to them—outside of mining it for quotes they can twist into pro-Nazi soundbite propaganda—so your over-generous hope of swaying them to the light is futile and just makes you look the fool when you treat their arguments seriously at all. They are absolutely the Bad Guys. There is literally nothing wrong with treating them that way since they proudly stand in that role.

Fight them with logic, reason and wit, but do it from the battle position of merciless mocking satire.

CountryBalls - the comic is funny, but Antifa has been declared in some states to be a domestic terrorist group and it is. Antifa has a habit of beating up anyone who opposes them not only trump supporters, but also willing to attack journalists, liberals, bystanders, etc. the KKK and neo nazis are just incels with secret hentai collections. this has been proven in studies.

Muhammad Rasheed - The same body that declared Antifa to be terrorists also dismantled all pro-Black groups (see: COINTELPRO) while allowing the KKK to terrorize unopposed, so I'm not likely to take comments like this one seriously, Country.

Ayric Thomas - I really like this one!

Mabel Lara - boo. that's hilarious.