TIL: Today I Learned

[Takhisis]

Well, I was at one time a car salesman, so there is little I can say in my defense here.

‘Was’?

 

[Kaitzilla]

TIL that one of the consequences of the 1875 Civil Rights Act in the US being -partially- repealed in 1883 was that whites-only gas stations, hotels, markets and even entire cities (i.e. sundown towns) were so widespread that blacks had their own holiday guidebook, called The Negro Motorist Green Book, which told them where they could go and be served and/or not arrested or run out of town, and that publication only ended in the 1960s.

I already knew the effects of many discriminatory policies, including the one-drop rule, but the land of the free never ceases to amaze me.

Sundown Towns were crazy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town

According to author Kate Kelly, "there were at least 10,000 'sundown towns' in the United States as late as the 1960s; in a 'sundown town' nonwhites had to leave the city limits by dusk, or they could be picked up by the police or worse.

And more recently.

On June 7, 2017, the NAACP issued a warning to prospective African American travelers to Missouri, suggesting that if they must go to Missouri, they travel with bail money in hand. This is the first NAACP warning ever covering an entire state.

What did Missouri do?
https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/06/us/missouri-naacp-travel-advisory/index.html

Here is the Negro Motorist Green Book for all years from 1936 to 1966.
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-green-book#/?tab=about

From the Introduction to the 1949 edition: With the introduction of this travel guide in 1936, it has been our idea to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trips more enjoyable. The Jewish press has long published information about places that are restricted and there are numerous publications that give the gentile whites all kinds of information. But during these long years of discrimination, before 1936 other guides have been published for the Negro, some are still published, but the majority have gone out of business for various reasons. In 1936 the Green Book was only a local publication for Metropolitan New York, the response for copies was so great it was turned into a national issue in 1937 to cover the United States. This guide while lacking in many respects was accepted by thousands of travelers. Through the courtesy of the United States Travel Bureau of which Mr. Chas. A. R. McDowell was the collaborator on Negro Affairs, more valuable information was secured. With the two working together, this guide contained the best ideas for the Negro traveler. Year after year it grew until 1941. "PM" one of New York's great white newspapers found out about it. Wrote an article about the guide and praised it highly. At the present time the guide contains 80 pages and lists numerous business places, including whites which cater to the Negro trade. There are thousands of first class business places that we don't know about and can't list, which would be glad to serve the traveler, but it is hard to secure listings of these places since we can't secure enough agents to send us the information. Each year before we go to press the new information is included in the new edition. When you are traveling please mention the Green Book, in order that they might know how you found their place of business, as they can see that you are strangers. If they haven't heard about this guide, ask them to get in touch with us so that we might list their place. If this guide has proved useful to you on your trips, let us know. If not, tell us also as we appreciate your criticisms and ideas in the improvement of this guide from which you benefit. There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please, and without embarrassment. But until that time comes we shall continue to publish this information for your convenience each year.

 

[Takhisis]

It's already a telling fact that there has to be a NAACP half a century after the civil rights legislation.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

‘Was’?

I took an ethical step in the right direction and took up robbing banks.

 

[Arakhor]

"What is the crime of robbing a bank, compared with the crime of founding one?" Berthold Brecht

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Sundown Towns were crazy.

Dude I lived in one of those in southern Illinois. They still had the 6:00pm siren... Parents there would take their kids to the local lynching tree to warn them not to date outside their race and the ugly directness of the racism was a real shock to me coming from the south of all places. They are nastier in the rural and suburban Midwest on race issues than anywhere else I've lived.

 

[The_J]

...how long time ago was that?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

10 years ago. One of my very first experiences in that town (I had moved there days before) was when a black lady walked into a Quiznos with her white boyfriend/husband and their kid...and were promptly shouted out of the restaurant.

Experiences like this are why I react so reflexively and angrily whenever I see posts that suggests the rural areas (especially in the Midwest) are paragons of civil society or whatever compared to more urban areas in the US.

 

[The_J]

That's...terrible.

You'd hope we'd be further right now than this.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I think there was a recent incident somewhere where a black man was arrested for having the gall to visit a bank to withdraw some money.

 

[Takhisis]

There was one such instance in which he was actually going to collect on a discrimination suit… two months ago, maybe.

I took an ethical step in the right direction and took up robbing banks.

Actually I meant that I'm not sure you've ever stopped being a used car salesman in your innermost heart. I've seen you play mafia games.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

There was one such instance in which he was actually going to collect on a discrimination suit… two months ago, maybe.

Actually I meant that I'm not sure you've ever stopped being a used car salesman in your innermost heart. I've seen you play mafia games.

Changing careers doesn't mean you lose a skill set.

 

[IglooDame]

It's already a telling fact that there has to be a NAACP half a century after the civil rights legislation.

What's the existence of the JDL...er, I mean, ADL tell you?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I think there was a recent incident somewhere where a black man was arrested for having the gall to visit a bank to withdraw some money.

There was an incident not that long ago where a man was shot for having the gall to be black in his own home, so this seems relatively reasonable.

 

[The_J]

Just had to think off @aimeeandbeatles (in some way) , forgot in which threat the blood donations were mentioned, and it kinda fits here, so:
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6479/753.7

The physical sensation of pain may depend on how people psychologically construe it. Wang et al. conducted a series of studies to demonstrate that engaging in painful activities to help others is associated with reduced perceptions of pain.

 

[Berzerker]

the Great Pyramid has 8 sides

they become visible by the interplay of sunlight and shadow on the equinoxes

each of the 4 sides actually form ~179 degree angles in the middle

 

[Timsup2nothin]

the Great Pyramid has 8 sides

they become visible by the interplay of sunlight and shadow on the equinoxes

each of the 4 sides actually form ~179 degree angles in the middle

Now all we need is for someone to say that's pure coincidence, just like the ratio of the height and perimeter "just happening" to come out to 2*pi most be just coincidence since the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with the concept.

Or, is it possible that the historians who said they were unfamiliar with the concept might have been wrong? Nahhhh, of course not.

 

[Berzerker]

https://www.ladbible.com/more/inter...mid-of-giza-has-eight-sides-not-four-20160610

And apparently its unique... One of those pictures shows it as a big sundial. I wonder if anyone has excavated sites where the tip sits on the equinoxes and solstices. Thats strange, according to current research the Great Pyramid was built by Khufu/Cheops and his sons built the other two, but they didn't incorporate this feature into their pyramids. Maybe they didn't know, they didn't seem to know about the interior design of Dad's or had some other reason for burial pits below ground level with no upper chambers.

Another thing I didn't know, the 2nd pyramid is actually steeper (53 13') than the Great pyramid (51 50' 24") and the 3rd (51 20'). I gotta believe those angles are astronomically significant.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Comparison_of_pyramids_SMIL.svg

Here's a cool feature comparing some pyramids. Run the cursor over the superimposed pyramids to see how they stack up against each other.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Now all we need is for someone to say that's pure coincidence, just like the ratio of the height and perimeter "just happening" to come out to 2*pi most be just coincidence since the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with the concept.

Or, is it possible that the historians who said they were unfamiliar with the concept might have been wrong? Nahhhh, of course not.

They just translated a bunch of Babylonian clay tablets that contain lessons on trigonometry. They're about a millennia older than the accepted discovery of trig in Greece and implement a novel way of using ratios for calculations that apparently has not been re-invented by mathematicians since then.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Another thing I didn't know, the 2nd pyramid is actually steeper (53 13') than the Great pyramid (51 50' 24") and the 3rd (51 20'). I gotta believe those angles are astronomically significant.

The Pyramid of Khafre was built to appear taller than the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Along with the steeper sides, the pyramid is built on ground 10 metres higher than the base of the Great Pyramid. Earlier pyramid designs did experiment with steeper angles, but because of the size and mass of the pyramids, the steeper angles made the pyramids unstable.