Support Your Local Chiefs
THIS ICONIC PHOTOGRAPH, often subtitled “Support Your Local Sheriff”, appeared in Life magazine in 1967. Lawrence A. Rainey, oozing the in-your-face belligerence of a crooked southern sheriff, was on trial for violating the civil rights of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, three young civil rights workers murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in June 1964.
Rainey’s easy confidence was not misplaced. In Mississippi, in the early 1960s, the chances of an all-white jury convicting a white law enforcement officer for the murder of an African American were practically nil. Men like Rainey were elected by their white neighbours (the sort of men captured grinning at the camera in Life’s famous photograph) and adhered to exactly the same viciously racist beliefs.
Since the 1880s, virtually the entire law enforcement and judicial infrastructure of the South had been dedicated to the preservation and enforcement of white privilege. If the Klan was there to terrorise and murder southern blacks, the role of sheriffs and judges was to make sure that the persons responsible were never brought to justice.
In this endeavour law enforcement and the judiciary could rely upon the willing co-operation of white juries. In the rare event that a district attorney brought a white person to trial, jury members could be relied upon to ignore the prosecution’s evidence. By contrast, the testimony of defence witnesses – no matter how outlandish – was taken as gospel. For an accused Klansman, acquittal was practically certain.
That the Jim Crow South of the 1950s and 60s was a hotbed of white racism and violence is hardly news. In 2016 we have no difficulty whatsoever in understanding how the racist communities of the southern states banded together to protect their racial privileges. We certainly know better than to believe them capable of delivering justice to their black neighbours.
Why then are we surprised and offended when the NZ Rugby Union produces a report which utterly fails to deliver even the most rudimentary justice to the young woman whose experiences called it forth? If we can understand how the deeply racist culture of the American South consistently failed to deliver justice to its black victims; why couldn’t we anticipate how the viciously misogynistic attitudes pervading New Zealand’s Rugby culture would similarly fail to deliver justice to Scarlette?
It is easy to imagine a host of witnesses lining up to perjure themselves in the name of White Supremacy. Why, then, is it so hard to imagine a host of “independent” witnesses hurrying forward to defend the honour of their macho code by denying that anything untoward happened to Scarlette at that Matamata spa?
It’s a pity there was no Life photographer present when these good ole boys were giving their “evidence” to the Rugby Union’s lawyer. What are the odds that their faces all wore expressions very similar to Sheriff Rainey’s?
‘Why, then, is it so hard to imagine a host of “independent” witnesses hurrying forward to defend the honour of their macho code by denying that anything untoward happened to Scarlette at that Matamata spa?’
It isn’t.
Modern NZ culture is now characterised by mendacity and denial, selfishness, greed, brainwashing, corporate profiteering, faux tribalism, and complete disregard for the environment in the present or the future. And all these highly undesirable aspects are being driven by and reinforced by the government and opportunists, and by the propaganda delivered 24/7 by the corporate-controlled mass media, with all the mechanisms to challenge this thoroughly sick culture (other than Internet blogs) removed or rendered ineffective.
That is one of the reasons why NZ (along with all other nations that have followed a similar path over the past 40 years) is now ‘falling off the cliff’ and why the rate of descent will increase.
The attitudes and behaviour of adults is very much influenced by the attitudes and behaviour those adults witnessed as children, and then mimicked in order to be accepted by those around them. It naturally follows that a large portion of the current echelon of children will grow up to be almost completely dysfunctional adults. Dressed in black, fenced in, strapped in, and restrained by physical barriers and prohibitions, they are not allowed to do things children did 50 years ago, and are given digital devices that increase the brainwashing -corporatized sport being a major component of the brainwashing.
It’s always been that way but it’s becoming more and more apparent as our governments continue to support the Greed is good paradigm. The capitalists sociopathy is becoming ever more apparent as they become ever more gloating in the wealth that they’ve stolen.
You have heard have you Chris. No one cares about people who get offended any more. If you feel offended, maybe go to a safe corner, or talk to a SJW .
I thought you would have heard the news Chris.
No one cares about people who take offence any more.
Maybe you could go to a safe corner till you feel less offended.,
Take an SJW with you.
Yes this one is so much better honed than your first, slightly gauche attempt. Or should I say Hone-d?
Well done Paul. You add depth and insight to the discussion.
All us SJW are moving to a safe space – we’re moving in with you. I certainly hope your ultra-macho two fisted attitude to Chris’ entry will protect us from the angry lefty-lesbo-feminists who will be coming through the french doors anytime now.
The sexist, chauvinistic attitudes of the old boys club is alive & well in the rugby union
Well said Valleyman, as too with its patron, the Pony Tail Puller from Parnell John key and his National government.
None of the paid institutions are there for “justice”. They are there for individual power and control, and to provide propaganda to the masses. If there is something at stake, the institutions will do everything in their enormous power to sweep it under the rug. They’re there to feed the illusion that there’s “nothing to worry about”, that “if something goes wrong, we have a justice system that will take care of it”. It’s a siren’s lullaby, designed to protect and further individual and state power and control, inhibit social progress, and to keep the public myopically ignoring what is taking place under their own noses in our own backyards.
I enjoyed the read. Thanks Chris!
The “young woman whose experiences called it forth” you refer to Chris, did not go to the police but went to the media. Her claims are just that, her unsubstantiated claims. Her own attitude on her facebook page says it all “F*#K you, Pay me”.
You’re victim blaming Tim.
It has moved on from past racist networks to now establishment networks, where colour and ethnic background are not quite as important as they used to be.
As long as rugby players are loyal to the networks that run the show, whether white, brown or whatever, as long as they pay servitude to the bosses of their organisations and their commercial interests, all is fine for them.
Having any stain put onto the reputation of any organisation, we are talking of corporate like franchises, that is a death knell to a club or organisation, so all join the ranks and stonewall, if need be.
I am not at all surprised, as I know what goes on in this little nation, it happens all over the show, in business, in government, in administration, in legal circles and so forth, they close the ranks and shut up, backing their mates, male or female professionals, same as rugby players do, as their livelihoods and reputations are at risk if they do not.
New Zealand is in my view anything but a transparent and non corrupted country and society, what is called corruption elsewhere is called “networking”, “relationships”, “mates rates” and “collective interest” and so forth.
I am unimpressed, by any of this shit. It just confirms my dim view of much of what goes on in NZ Aotearoa.
I’ve got my tinfoil hat on and I’m up for a big stretch of the imagination.
This attitude is another offshoot of neo-liberalism. The old winners and losers thing. How it must be your own fault if you lose in some way.
It connects with the nostalgia for First Past the Post – winners and losers and the glorious opportunity to enjoy Cullen’s ‘We won you lost eat that,’ comment.
We’re talking about a woman who ‘doesn’t know her place’ and has the cheek, the cheek, dammit, to want to be paid like a bloke. Stupid sheila. (That’s sarcasm BTW)
And that’s the culture we’re ALL wallowing in, left and right. Pity.
PS Mike in Auckland – you have it so right. Thanks.