The Trayvon Martin "Blackface" Halloween Costume

If you have not yet seen the photos I'm sure you will very soon and so I'm not even going to re-post them. I will however comment on the most infamous post by a young female adult living in Florida by the name of "KT Cimeno" (Caitlin Cimeno) who's originally from Oak Bluffs, MA (Martha's Vineyard). She posted a "nice" and happy photo of two young white men dressed up in costume this past weekend mocking the killing of Trayvon Martin. The one white person portraying Trayvon was sporting very dark shoe polish styled "Blackface" with a hoodie on and a blood stain on his chest. The other man (who turned out to be her brother) was dressed as George Zimmerman with a "neighborhood watch" tee, gleefully pointing his finger like a gun at "Trayvon's" head with the caption by Cimeno reading "Happy Halloween from Trayvon and Zimmerman."

(side note: turns out the guy dressed as Trayvon is 25 yrs old and was arrested previously for auto theft)

This sort of ignorance and stupidity, although temporarily shocking, should come as no surprise to us. The idea that we live in a Post-Racial society is one of the bigger lies in current existence in America and that hard truth once again becomes crystal clear at moments like this.

But, this was not even Ms. Cimeno's most ignorant and hateful Facebook post. She had previously in August posted a photo of a young black girl wearing a "Black Girls Rock" tee and attacked the little girl saying "your mommy lied to you." I have posted that photo because I think it is more important than the Trayvon Halloween image in that it shows what sort of person(s) we are dealing with. This is not your average accidental racist or a person with some basic ignorant prejudices. This is a full-fledged, very hateful, very racist, and very ignorant young woman.

While the first reaction to such hatred might be to fire back with verbal attacks and put-downs, that's certainly not the most effective way to deal with this sort of thing. I have heard that the girl was fired from her job due to the negative publicity and complaints from people all around the country (much of this being exposed on Twitter -primarily via #BlackTwitter and #KTCimeno). She should of course face the consequences of her actions but ultimately what will be learned by any of this? She herself may never learn, and may simply become more isolated, more hateful, and more dangerously racist, which sadly is a missed opportunity if that's what ends up happening.

More importantly though, this is a time for ourselves to learn a lesson or at least briefly remind ourselves of who we are and what we stand for. I'm sure many of us, regardless of skin color, just recently enjoyed the company or entertainment of American's of all races over this past weekend. Whether it was through the diversity of a Halloween party, enjoying the musical talents responsible for creating our favorite songs, or the athletic exploits of our favorite sports teams... We are a melting pot of diversity in America whether we choose to embrace that fact or not. You might be the "whitest white person" or the "blackest black person," but most likely you are somewhere in between. Either way we are all citizens, neighbors, and human beings, and I think its important that we collectively face this sort of vile hatred and stupidity head on, and recognize it for its blatant ignorance, and check with ourselves to make sure that we do not in any way support or perpetuate such behavior.

There's always going to be some extremely ignorant KT Cimeno's running around in this world but our job is to make sure that such behavior is not at all accepted or tolerated, and that we do not personally carry or endorse any similar prejudices, even if on a more minor level. Like, the "my friend is black, black joke, Haha thing" is generally not that cool either in most cases (but maybe you should talk about that with your friend first before making the comment next time!?). So yes, if there's a teachable moment that presents itself with such people, and you have that opportunity or ability to drop some knowledge, go for it. However the most important thing we can do is simply take a basic stand and let everyone around you know that you don't stand for stupid shit like this. That should be the American thing to do.

Capitol Hill Shooting Magnified By "Shutdown" Drama

As expected CNN is making this Capitol Hill incident into a REALLY BIG DEAL. 

They're interviewing DC staffers and congressmen who look hella shook over hearing gun shots. That tubby little clown Blake Farenthold (R, Texas) looked like he was going to shit his pants. Maybe he thought someone was mad at him and Ted Cruz (wonder why?) or maybe he just momentarily realized shit could get real. 

This shooting though sounds like basically a lady went crazy and the police shot her and her car. Luckily the child inside is okay. Maybe this had something to do with the shutdown, maybe not? There's probably been 10 shootings across the country since this story broke but "the networks" will be stuck on this one until some other relevant TV drama happens.


I bet "the networks" would secretly love some good old fashioned Republican vs Democrat violence to go down in DC right about now. I wonder if the GOP in DC are prepared for bringing about such violence? I does not look like they are ready for it judging from shitpants Representative Farenthold's interview. They talk a tough game but it's all about their bullshit spinster political reality of tug of war. They don't really realize they are playing with people's lives. It's just a game to them. On camera Mitch McConnell and Paul Rand pretend as if they are really in this for the greater good of the nation but off camera they whisper to each other like petty little girls ganging up on the new girl in school because "how dare she."


Meanwhile, the Tea Partiers that now seem to be dictating the wayward Republican agenda happily push things toward an explosive confrontation with the debt ceiling looming amidst the shutdown. You literally have misguided, misinformed, and moreover nut-jobs, from all over the place ready to hop in semi-trucks and pop-off shots at the White House because they think "Socialism" is taking over... yet none of them could actually define socialism and apply it accurately to our current reality which is conversely hyper capitalistic.


Seeing these people on CNN freak out just now over a few gun shots on Capitol Hill really shows me that these people are very out of touch with reality. The Republicans in DC are truly playing with fire like a punk kid that doesn't know what to do once he "accidentally" sets the entire hill behind his house on fire. 


America is totally unstable right now. People are getting shot every day in poor neighborhoods like its no thing. People are going crazy cuz they don't have proper mental health care. Since 2007 people have been losing homes, jobs, and their minds. And you have politicians and media busy ramping things up with phony "buzz words" adding legitimacy to illegitimate movements and illegitimate solutions. Instead of asking tough questions and working to fix this broken ass nation.


I have friends reaching out to me telling me that they are Conservative but they do not support what the GOP is doing. I have independent folks reaching out and talking about the fact that they can't stand to see our country being divided like this as if we are reverting backward to the days of the confederacy and civil war.


Personally, it's been hard for me to support Barack Obama when he continually sides with Wall Street, Big Business, and Insurance companies, and pushes hawkish foreign policy like the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan. But when I see these Tea Party phonies being controlled by greedy billionaires playing puppeteer and stoking the fires to divide the nation along racial lines and radical political ideology in attempts to either crash the economy and/or the Government for their own reckless gains its hard not to choose a side, even if it is once again the lesser of the two evils.


Maybe we should just not give a shit and let them destroy everything so we can rebuild? But I don't really think that sounds like a great plan at this point.


Ultimately, we all deserve better than this. We deserve much more than the Tea Party and these crooked toothed GOP electeds. But we also deserve more than what the Democrats have been able to give us which is promises of major change but ultimately they cannot deliver and are aligned with many of the same corporate interests as the other side. At the end of the day we are only able to discern one party from the other because the Republicans have been pushed so far right that the right is now the center, and the left mostly only exists if you now consider the radical Tea Party to be a normal example of conservative. It's totally ridiculous and not representative of our nation.


Unless we as a people realize that the phony "right vs left" drama is just divisive bullshit, and that they want us to fall for it so they can better manipulate our minds and our votes... Until we wake up and realize that big business is controlling both parties and that big business does not care about the middle class, or small business, or the poor, or children, or elderly, or schools, or police, or fire, or soldiers, or parks, or beaches, or music, or the future, or America... our nation will continue to spiral downward.