Journal de la Reyna

RAW- Uncut Video of Seattle Police Punching incident - Warning- Extreme ...

2012-01-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

#comments#comments

2012-01-01T12:30:00.000-08:00

#comments#comments: JulianReal says:
October 20, 2011 at 4:23 pm
To ThatOneGuy who acts a whole lot like so many other white guys,
As a white male, I find your comment woefully soaked and bloated with white male supremacist (sexist and racist) assumptions about how you should be treated relative to people without your (and my) race and gender privileges, position, advantages, and status in white male-dominated and ruled societies. I’ll delineate a bit of what I find troubling in what you wrote.

Massacre At Wounded Knee - December 29, 1890

2011-12-29T15:16:00.001-08:00

Native American Netroots:: Massacre At Wounded Knee - December 29, 1890

by: navajo @ Thu Jan 03, 2008 at 05:18:05 AM UTC
Wounded Knee '73 (4.00 / 2)
Ah-ho My Relations, each year with the changing of the season I post this rememberance of Wounded Knee 73. I wrote it a few years ago when some of our brave people had walked to Yellowstone to stop the slaughter of our Buffalo relations. When I did I was surprised at the response from people who were too young to remember WK73 and I was pleased that some old WK vets wrote to me afterwards. So each year I post the short story again and invite you-all to send it around or use as you will. As you do I ask you to remember that our reasons for going to Wounded Knee still exist and that means the need for struggle and resistance also still exist. Our land and sacred sites are threatened as never before even our sacred Mother herself is faced with unnatural warming caused by extreme greed.

In some areas of conflict between our people and those we signed treaties with, it is best to negotiate or "work within the system" but, because our struggle is one of survival, there are also times when a warrior must stand fast even at the risk of one's life. I believed that in 1973 when I was thirty and I believe it today in my sixties. But Wounded Knee 73 was really not about the fight to me, it was about the strong statement that our traditional way of living in this world is not about to disappear and our people are not a "vanishing race" as wasicu education would have you believe. As time has passed and I see so many of our young people taking part in a traditional way of living and believing I know our fight was worth it and those we lost for our movement died worthy deaths. Carter Camp 2007

"Remembering Wounded Knee 1973"

Ah-ho My Relations,
Today is heavy with prayer and reminisces for me. Not only are those who walk for the Yellowstone Buffalo reaching their destination, today is the anniversary of the night when, at the direction of the Oglala Chiefs, I went with a special squad of warriors to liberate Wounded Knee in advance of the main AIM caravan. For security reasons the people had been told everyone was going to a meeting/wacipi in Porcupine, the road goes through Wounded Knee. When the People arrived at the Trading Post we had already set up a perimeter, taken eleven hostages, run the B.I.A. cops out of town, cut most phone lines, and began 73 days of the best, most free time of my life. The honor of being chosen to go first still lives strong in my heart.

That night we had no idea what fate awaited us. It was a cold night with not much moonlight and I clearly remember the nervous anticipation I felt as we drove the back-way from Oglala into Wounded Knee. The Chiefs had tasked me with a mission and we were sworn to succeed, of that I was sure, but I couldn't help wondering if we were prepared. The FBI, BIA and Marshalls had fortified Pine Ridge with machine gun bunkers and A.P.C.s with M-60's. They had unleashed the goon squad on the people and a reign of terror had begun, we knew we had to fight but we could not fight on wasicu terms. We were lightly armed and dependent on the weapons and ammo inside the Wounded Knee trading post, I worried that we would not get to them before the shooting started.

As we stared silently into the darkness driving into the hamlet I tried to forsee what opposition we would encounter and how to neutralize it... We were approaching a sacred place and each of us knew it. We could feel it deep inside. As a warrior leading warriors I humbly prayed to Wakonda for the lives of all and the wisdom to do things right. Never before or since have I offered my tobacco with such a plea or put on my feathers with such purpose. It was the birth of the Independent Oglala Nation.

Congressman apologizes for criticizing Michelle Obama’s ‘large posterior’ | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

2011-12-22T17:26:00.000-08:00

Congressman apologizes for criticizing Michelle Obama’s ‘large posterior’ The Ticket - Yahoo! News: A Republican congressman from Wisconsin has offered a personal apology to First Lady Michelle Obama after he was overheard at an airport lounge criticizing her "large posterior."
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner was overheard loudly complaining on the phone in the Delta Lounge at Reagan National Airport outside Washington about Obama's healthy food initiative.

Obama threatened, called 'monkey' by ex-Carson council candidate - latimes.com

2011-12-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Obama threatened, called 'monkey' by ex-Carson council candidate - latimes.com: Obama threatened, called 'monkey' by ex-Carson council candidate
December 20, 2011 10:00 am 2231A failed Carson City Council candidate drew the attention of federal law enforcement when he called for the assassination of President Obama, whom he described on Facebook with a racial epithet.
Jules Manson, who ran for office on a Libertarian platform in the Carson race in March, called Obama a "monkey" in an online screed on the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act. The act has raised the ire of activists because it permits indefinite detention without trial for some terrorism suspects.
In a comment on the Facebook post, Manson added: "Assassinate the [president] and his monkey children." He used an obscenity followed by a racial epithet to describe the president. The post had been removed from Manson's Facebook page Tuesday, but the blog Your Black Politics captured and posted a screenshot of it, including the coarse language.

Tea Partier Urges Obama Family Assassination in Facebook Rant

2011-12-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

Tea Partier Urges Obama Family Assassination in Facebook Rant

More hate.

The Most "Ghettoest" Girl I've Known

2011-12-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

Violence engulfs Kenyan tribe just miles from royal hideaway - Survival International

2011-12-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

Violence engulfs Kenyan tribe just miles from royal hideaway - Survival International

A Kenyan tribe living near the area famous for its links to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s engagement has been engulfed by violence after wildlife charities arranged to buy their land.

Kenya’s Laikipia district has been part of the traditional territory of the Samburu tribe for centuries until two US-based charities – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) – agreed to pay $2 million for their land, which was officially owned by former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi.

Soon after, the Kenyan police began a series of brutal evictions of the tribe, burning their villages, killing and stealing their animals and assaulting men, women and children. Survival has recently received reports of an elder being shot ‘in cold blood’.

2,000 Samburu families now live in makeshift squats on the edge of the land and 1,000 others have been forced to relocate entirely.

Conditions are appalling, and resources scarce. A Channel 4 documentary caught on camera the extreme nature of these evictions in the Eland Downs.

Kansas tea party illustration draws racism claims - Democratic Underground

2011-12-12T13:02:00.000-08:00

Kansas tea party illustration draws racism claims - Democratic Underground: HUTCHINSON, Kan. | A tea party group in Kansas says its depiction of President Barack Obama as a skunk is satire, not racism as the leader of a civil rights group alleges.

Hutchinson-based Patriot Freedom Alliance says on its website that like the president, the skunk is “half black, half white, and almost everything it does stinks.”

Local NAACP president Darrell Pope sees no humor in the depiction, which he calls a blatant statement of racism.

Massive Population Drop Found for Native Americans, DNA Shows

2011-12-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Massive Population Drop Found for Native Americans, DNA Shows Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published December 5, 2011

The number of Native Americans quickly shrank by roughly half following European contact about 500 years ago, according to a new genetic study.

The finding supports historical accounts that Europeans triggered a wave of disease, warfare, and enslavement in the New World that had devastating effects for indigenous populations across the Americas.

(Related: "Guns, Germs and Steel—Jared Diamond on Geography as Power.")

Using samples of ancient and modern mitochondrial DNA—which is passed down only from mothers to daughters—the researchers calculated a demographic history for American Indians. (Get an overview of human genetics.)

Based on the data, the team estimates that the Native American population was at an all-time high about 5,000 years ago.

The population then reached a low point about 500 years ago—only a few years after Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World and before extensive European colonization began.

OpEdNews - Article: Understanding American Racism

2011-12-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

OpEdNews - Article: Understanding American Racism: In recent times the New York Times, the York Daily News and Metro New York all reported on the expose that cops from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) had posted a series of racist rants on the social networking website Facebook. The threats to "drop a bomb and wipe them all out" and the characterization of a group of Black people from the Caribbean enjoying their culture in the adopted homeland as "animals and savages" underscored the nature of white supremacist racism and the fact that in the Age of Obama it's still very much alive and well.

If anything racism in the United States is on the upswing and threatens a social explosion that will define America in the 21st century. And it points to the fact that America has not yet confronted or come to grips with the legacy of white racism. Or maybe it's a DNA thing and it will take generations of inbreeding to "wash it out of the system." So while I am no sociologist and profess no training in race relations I crave the forgiveness of the intellectually informed for any mistake that I may make in writing this piece. But I believe that there must be a discussion on racism in American today.

Events, News — Historic Event for Mumia to be held on Dec. 9 at National Constitution Center

2011-12-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

Historic Event for Mumia to be held on Dec. 9 at National Constitution Center

* THIS EVENT WILL STREAM LIVE. TO WATCH CLICK HERE!
* ON DEC. 10 THERE WILL BE A FOLLOW UP FUNDRAISER TO THIS EVENT FEATURING PROFESSOR GRIFF, C RAYZ WALZ, REBEL DIAZ AND MANY MORE. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION!

ADMISSION/REGISTRATION IS FREE, YET REQUIRES REGISTRATION!
Reserve your ticket for pick-up at the door by 7:00 p.m. on December 9th at the National Constitution Center, by emailing december9maj@gmail.com.

FOR BUS/TRAVEL INFORMATION:
PHILADELPHIA: 267-760-7344
NYC: 212 -330-8029

FEATURING:
Cornel West, Michelle Alexander, Vijay Prashad, Immortal Technique, Mark Lamont Hill, Ramona Africa, Michael Coard, Louisa Hanoune, Amiri and Amina Baraka, IMPACT Youth Repertory Theater, African Dance Ensemble, and SURPRISE GUESTS!

Sugar Cain: Candidate Out The Race | Gingrich: High On The Hog [Of Stupi...

2011-12-03T18:55:00.000-08:00

The Marmar Experience - Pepper Spray Is Just the Beginning: Here Are More Hypermilitarized Weapons Your Local PD Could Use

2011-11-25T14:01:00.000-08:00

The Marmar Experience - Pepper Spray Is Just the Beginning: Here Are More Hypermilitarized Weapons Your Local PD Could Use: On Friday, November 18, a group of UC Davis students staged a sit-in to protect their Occupy encampment from destruction by a horde of riot police. Seated on the ground, the students defensively ducked as Lt. John Pike approached them. They were right to do so: Pike aimed a riot-extinguisher at them, showering the crowd of unarmed students with pepper spray as calmly as if he were watering his garden. A group of officers then proceeded to break up the crowd with batons and arrest them. The video of the incident has since gone viral.

The counterinsurgency-like tactics used to subdue unarmed, peaceful demonstrators at Occupy encampments around the country have left people shocked and appalled at the grotesque treatment of protesters as if they were violent enemy combatants. This dynamic was captured best by a photo published in the News Observer showing machine-gun toting police officers dressed in combat attire, pointing their weapons at unarmed Occupy Chapel Hill demonstrators.

City to Sharply Increase Solitary Confinement on Rikers Island � Solitary Watch

2011-11-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

City to Sharply Increase Solitary Confinement on Rikers Island � Solitary Watch: By Jean Casella and Dina Levy

Over the past year, the New York City Department of Corrections (NYCDOC) has quietly implemented a massive expansion in the number of solitary confinement units on Rikers Island. By the end of 2011, the number of “punitive segregation” cells at Rikers will have grown by 45 percent, from 681 to a total of 990 cells. Some of these cells, in which prisoners are isolated for up to 23 hours a day, hold juveniles, inmates with mental illness, and pre-trial detainees not yet convicted of any crime. Once the expansion is complete, New York City’s island jail will have one of the highest rates of solitary confinement in the country.

In increasing its use of solitary confinement at this time, NYDOC is bucking a national trend. A growing body of academic research suggests that solitary confinement can cause severe psychological damage, and may in fact increase both violent behavior and suicide rates among prisoners. In recent years, criminal justice reformers and human rights and civil liberties advocates have increasingly questioned the widespread and routine use of solitary confinement in America’s prisons and jails, and states from Maine to Mississippi have taken steps to reduce the number of inmates they hold in isolation.

Revealed: Mark Duggan was not armed when shot by police | UK news | The Guardian

2011-11-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

Revealed: Mark Duggan was not armed when shot by police | UK news | The Guardian: The investigation into the death of Mark Duggan has found no forensic evidence that he was carrying a gun when he was shot dead by police on 4 August, the Guardian has learned.

A gun collected by Duggan earlier in the day was recovered 10 to 14 feet away, on the other side of a low fence from his body. He was killed outside the vehicle he was travelling in, after a police marksman fired twice.

The new details raise questions about the official version of events. The shooting triggered some of the worst riots in modern British history, which began in Tottenham, north London, in response to the treatment of the Duggan family. The investigation into Duggan's death is being carried out by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), but the Guardian has learned new details of the shooting, and a much more complex picture than first revealed is emerging.

Chicago Journalism Professor: Chicago Police Department Detained Him and Deleted Video of Arrest � JONATHAN TURLEY

2011-11-18T11:36:00.000-08:00

Chicago Journalism Professor: Chicago Police Department Detained Him and Deleted Video of Arrest � JONATHAN TURLEY: Loyola University Professor Ralph Braseth in Chicago has shared with me a complaint alleging another incident of police ordering a citizen to delete videotape of an arrest taken in public. I have previously written about this worrisome trend. The difference is that Braseth is a journalism professor. The complaint raises some extremely serious allegations of censuring a journalist and violating core constitutional rights. If true, it is a telling retort to the taunting remarks of Judge Richard Posner recently about the “snooping” of citizens on police.

Braseth was producing a documentary on African American teenagers from the Southside that gather on Michigan Avenue on Saturday nights. He was shooting an arrest on Saturday, November 12, 2011 when he says officers spotted him and took him to their cruiser. They allegedly asked for his camera and erased the arrest footage and “told me I was lucky I wasn’t going to jail and let me go.”

A RAMBLING RESPONSE By Kalamu ya Salaam

2011-11-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

A RAMBLING RESPONSE

TO THE PLAY "MARIE CHRISTINE"

By Kalamu ya Salaam

Here is my initial reaction:

"it is difficult, if not impossible, for me to respond to this play, mainly because i am not interested in responding to racist fantasy. of course, that statement raises the question, what do i mean by "racist!"?

"from my perspective, this is a play repeating and reinforcing the notion "it's in the blood" and the white supremacist thesis that there is a major bio/psychological species-difference between black and white. this is a play that ignores history to present fantasy. it is a play that offers decontextualized research masquerading as historical fact. it is a play glorifying the white male penis and its desire for the "color struck" mulatto female vagina. it is a play about the "tragic mulatto" who was historically a person created in the main by white male rape and extra-legal liaisons. it is a play about fantasy and sublimated desire, a dangerously well-crafted artwork that is attractive in its production values but repulsive in its meaning. it is ultimately a play about celebrating racist patriarchal power relationships, rather than human relationships."

towards art for life,

kalamu ya salaam

the above response is pretty standard political rhetoric, standard in that, like all political rhetoric, what i say is absolute and not relative, is abstract and not concrete, is general and not specific, and, ultimately, addresses what i “think” while avoiding how i feel.

but i decided not to stop with a rigid position, i decided to enter into conversation with myself, to engage, at an emotional level, an issue which is difficult to definitively grasp. i have decided to talk a bit about this: “as a black person who is a heterosexual male, what is my relationship to black women and to white women,” and see where that takes me.

but first a definition. mulatto can specifically mean the child of bi-racial parents (one of whom is black and one of whom is white), or mulatto can generally mean anyone of a mixed racial (again, the emphasis is on black and white) background. i use mulatto in the general sense. mulatto also connotes a person who appears to be closer to “pure” white than to “pure” black. moreover, in america, mulatto is not about whites mixing with other ethnicities, e.g. native american or asian. in the final analysis, when we say mulatto, we are talking about a white-determined, american preoccupation with the intersection of race and sexual desire.

once, when i was in my twenties, an elder woman said to me: i don't know why a man would need to go outside our race to find a woman because we have any kind of woman he might want among us. we were passing a bus stop. we were in new orleans.

the physical variety of skin tones, body types, hair textures, even eye colors among "black" women in the crescent city requires at least a computer monitor that can display 256 colors to even come close to the physical spectrum they represent including blond hair, blue eyes and thin frames. (i know, somebody is about to ask “but if she has blond hair and blue eyes, how can she be black?” well, you see, blackness is color, culture and consciousness; in very important ways, blackness is not simply nor solely a biological absolute but is also and more importantly a collective experience as well as a personal choice.)

my first wife was reared as what some would call a “creole” because of her light skin and the catholic/french-speaking heritage of her family. we had five children whose skin tones range from cinnamon to nutmeg, all of them have thick curly "naps." and they were reared to consider themselves and all of their friends, family members, and acquaintances as black regardless of the shade of skin.

however, unavoidably there have been bumps on that road of intra-racial equality. one daughter remembers her shock when she heard her mother say she wished her children had been darker. the shock was because my daughter never thought of herself as light-skinned and was taken aback that a lighter-skinned mother thought her darker-skinned daughter was "light" or at least "lighter" than the mother had wanted the daughter to be. later in brasil that same daughter is told that she is a “mulatto” and there is a double shock.

i have fought against reducing the human spectrum to absolute biological colors and defining individuals by their biology but, just like my daughter, i too have been affected by the race-based ideologies of this society. only as i have grown older have i realized that much of what i thought was just my personal taste as a young man was in fact an unconscious adoption of prescribed notions; race-based notions that “black is beautiful” inverted but did not deeply and thoroughly address, for beauty like biology tends toward diversity rather than absolutes.

although i have had dark-skinned lovers, the truth is that the majority of my lovers have been my skin color (which is dark brown) or lighter. this fact forces me to ask, is the female mulatto intrinsically more attractive than either the white woman or the black woman?

based on what i have witnessed in my life i say, yes, “mulatto” women have proven to be more attractive to men than have been dark-skinned women; moreover, judging mulattos more attractive than dark-skinned blacks is generally the rule for both black men and white men (even a casual perusal of rap and pop videos will support this conclusion—ironically, you will probably find more dark skinned women in pop videos than in rap videos). this preference is a socially induced preference, the result of being reared in a racist society that unceasingly prioritizes the male consumption of both a euro-centric definition of physical beauty and a male-dominant definition of female sexuality.

within a racist society, the female mulatto represents the highest taboo. she is usually envisioned, to one degree or another, as having the looks of the white woman and the sexuality of the black woman. but racism also splits sexuality into the too often mutually exclusive duality of procreation and pleasure. it is easy to see how a racist dichotomy could lead to white procreation and black pleasure.

the assumption of the play is that the mulatto woman is the object of desire, but the american truth is that the mulatto woman exists because of white male attraction to black women, not to mulatto women, not to women who look white, but to black women. black women. black. women.

as to the inverse, i.e. are black women fixated on white men? i don't think that is true in america. indeed my experience has been that while a brother might be proudly defiant or defiantly proud of his “snaring” a white woman, black women who are with white men tend to pursue their lives quietly, almost apologetically. part of the reason is that in this society women have been reared to please others, not to offend others, especially family and friends. part of it is that both the reality and the mythology of white male rape of black women is so painful, so long standing, and yes so real, that a black woman who chooses to be with a white man seems (at least at first glance on the sociological surface) to be a traitor to her own history and to her people's history.

so while we might have the same result, i.e. an interracial union, the dynamics are very, very different depending on the "color" of the male and the "color" of the female in such a union. i don't believe the play addressed any of those dynamics even though ostensibly the psychology of the creole is a major plot element.

while color continues to be a major divide between the races and a major psychological issue within the psyches of many black people, inter-racial sexual relations is all a very tiresome and ultimately wasteful concern, especially when divorced from class and gender issues.

interestingly enough, even though i am speaking as a black man, as far as the play was concerned, i did not exist. the non-creole black man literally plays no role in this production while the creole male was merely a foil to be ignored or, when he got in the way, eliminated. for as long as i, the black male, am not thwarting the actions of white men, and as long as i am not running around raping and killing white women (à la o.j.) i am acceptable (à la the o.j. of the glory days). there is a reason that othello remains relevant to this society.

although “marie christine” is male-centered, this play is not about black men and the views of black men, whether well balance or deranged. regardless of it’s other themes, this play is specifically about the color fetish of white male sexual desire. one would think that by now, this concern would have been worked through, but not so. even after close to five hundred years of white male-dominant contact, their mulatto fetish does not seem to be diminishing. so what's up with this need to consume women of color (check the liquor, cigarette and fashion advertisements, not to mention tanning and lip enlargements)?

to be clear, i am not saying every white male wants a black woman. i am saying that a major fetish in the arsenal of american sexual desire/fantasy is the sexual consumption and/or domination of a black woman. that is a norm that may be completely absent in some white men and totally present in others, but to one degree or another is a part of most men’s sexual fantasies.

moreover, the dominant influence of male sexuality in determining and/or shaping mores and behavior in this society is much larger than most of us are generally willing to admit. for example, white women are constantly dealing with questions of sexual adequacy vis-à-vis black women, hence the seldom discussed rift between heterosexual black women and white women on gender issues, a rift acknowledged but not explored in the play.
suffice it to point out that, unavoidably, there is a major tension around physical attractiveness whenever white women perceive themselves to be competing with black women. although color complicates the attractiveness issue, ultimately, in this patriarchal society, the question of women making themselves sexually attractive is driven by a socially perceived need for male protection and support even when there is no actual need for that protection or support, in other words, the female is “encouraged” to feign a submissive posture in order to attract the desired male.

thus, the bedroom becomes the most complicated room in the house. the social emphasis on sex is complicated by the moral emphasis on monogamy and the racial emphasis on purity. given that this is a male-dominated society, sorting through all of this is both complicated and easy. complicated if one chooses to avoid discussing the intricacies and intersections of color, class and gender, easy if one acknowledges the brutal fact driving and dominating american social interactions: the white male’s insistence on sexual conquest.

i'm simply saying men like to copulate (i would say "fuck" but given mainstream tastes, the use of an euphemism is preferred if not outright required in public discourse. moreover, the need for euphemisms reflects the american inability to admit sociological realities, but that's another discussion for another time. why else would viagra... need i say more?).

but let's get back to the issue at hand: racist obsession with black female flesh. i think white men want it both ways. they want to have the bread of propagating the white race, hence a "white wife," and they want to feast on the cake of black sensuality, hence a black or "mulatto" concubine, kept woman, or prostitute.

on the other hand, without “white wives,” the white race would, in a matter of a few generations, blend into the general colored populations of the world. from a racist position, that would amount to racial suicide. or, to flip the script: as i joke with fellow blacks whenever someone expresses a deep distaste for interracial unions, i ask, what would you rather see, white babies or mulatto babies?

i'm sure to most whites that is a shocking statement, but it's a factual statement. white people can not spread out all around the world, have human interaction with all the peoples of the world, and remain "pure white" unless they enforce a racist system that values white purity over racial diversity. my position is that i support racial diversity over the essentialism of so-called purity whether white or black, indeed, realistically what other position could i hold given that the overwhelming majority of african americans are of mixed heritage?

the natural result of human intercourse unfettered by racist ideology is diversity. indeed, race mixing has been and will continue to be the inevitable result of multi-racial societies in modern times, racially supremacist ideologies notwithstanding. yes, even under the most racist system, if the system is also patriarchal, you can bet that there will also be race mixing, because by definition, within a patriarchal system to be a man is to be able to consume any and all women.

if american history proves nothing else, it proves that white men are going to be white men and that there will continue to be a fascination among them about black women, and this sexual fetish will manifest itself, consciously or subconsciously, in the artwork of this country, especially that artwork which reflects the dominant ideologies regardless of the particular ideology, gender or race of the artist unless that artist consciously, honestly, and fearlessly decides to confront just what it means to write yet another play about a tragic mulatto.

Kalamu ya Salaam is a 1999 literature senior fellow at the fine arts work center in provincetown (massachusetts) and founder/director of nommo literary society, a black writers workshop in new orleans. salaam can be reached at kalamu@aol.com.

AND WE STILL AIN'T READY!

the essay above was commissioned by the lincoln center to appear in their theatre program guide. it did not appear.

when i was first asked about writing the essay, i asked: are you sure you want me to write for you? the editor assured me that she knew my work and did indeed want my participation. true to her word, once i turned in the essay, the early stages went remarkably well. the editing process was straightforward and helpful. everything seemed to be everything.

then, while i was in residence at the fine arts work center, less than two weeks before the issue was to go to press, i received a call from the editor's boss. seems the galley copy was circulated to the cast of the play, and… well, here's the relevant text from the formal letter i received about the decision not to print the essay:

Dear Kalamu,

Josselyn indicated that you'd like us to write to you as a follow up to our phone conversation of two weeks ago. I'm happy to do so.

We decided not to run your article "A Rambling Response to the Play "Marie Christine"" because the artists of the play felt your preface to the article would hurt the perception of the show. As you know, we inquired whether we could run the main body of your article alone, and when you declined, we decided not to run the piece at all.

I'm sorry this worked out this way, since we all liked the body of the article very much.

Sincerely,

Anne Cattaneo,

Executive Editor

She's right, it was my call to say run the whole thing or don't run it at all. publication in new york never hurts, especially if the publication is from lincoln center. moreover, offending editors is a risky proposition; as huge as new york may be, the publishing circles are really not that large. it didn't take me long to reach the decision i did, and so here we are, another failed attempt to bridge the gap.

On the one hand i fully understand that publishing the above essay in the official program would have been daff—if i were them, i certainly would not have done it, but then again, i certainly would not have been producing that play either!

I know there are many other black writers who would have been tickled to write a non-offensive essay for lincoln center. however, my position is simple: i'm not the one.

To me, the play was offensive, and to respond politely and inoffensively to such a play just is not an option. ultimately, what liberal america wants is to be integrated and at the same time continue perpetuating their fantasies. i don't know who called the final shots. i don't know who strongly objected to my article, but i do know, i sleep well at night. i do know they are clear that there is at least one intelligent black person who finds their play offensive and is willing to tell them so in a forthright and unambiguous manner.

None of this is life or death serious, and in the grand scheme of my career and the careers of the cast, crew and creators of the play, this little incident is but a minor skirmish. nonetheless, this was, in my opinion, a battle that had to be fought.

Some of us are not glad just to be accepted into the mainstream. some of us are not for sale. and we will speak up, even if the "we" is just one writer refusing to co-sign patriarchal fantasies about mulatto sex.

In the final analysis, it is these quiet battles, the ones outside of the limelight, the ones that others may never even know happen, it is these principled engagements that will determine how far we have come and how far we have yet to go before we can honestly dialogue across the racial divide without biting our tongues or censoring our thoughts.

a luta continua (the struggle continues)…

The Play, Marie Christine at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Christine
http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_m/mariechristine.html

New police tactics: Undercover cops active and aggressive | N9 Anarchist Bloc

2011-11-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

New police tactics: Undercover cops active and aggressive | N9 Anarchist Bloc: We saw a change in police tactics for the Nov 9 student demo in central London. Apart from the tightly regulated route of the march (each sidestreet was blocked by a small army of well defended barriers) police had introduced a new and potentially dangerous element into the policing of the demonstration – the extensive and transparent use of undercover police.

Previously police would simply deploy FIT [see here] at strategic points on the edges of the demo to identify “potential troublemakers” who if arrested would be by uniform cops away from the main march.

The Nov 9 student demo saw numerous undercover police (dressed, badly, as protesters) within the body of the march extracting often violently those they want to arrest. This change of tactic may be due to a new top cop in charge, may be a one-off strategy to prevent another Millbank or maybe the first outing of a new and potentially far-reaching approach to policing major demonstrations.

Shawn James, Black Freelance Writer: Sistas, Before You Get Involved With A White Dude…You Better Count The Cost.

2011-11-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

Shawn James, Black Freelance Writer: Sistas, Before You Get Involved With A White Dude…You Better Count The Cost.

Republicans Panic! | The Republican Culture War

2011-11-09T04:34:00.000-08:00

Republicans, time to panic!

Two controversial amendments from Republicans go down in defeat.

In Ohio, the controversial SB-5, a law that strips the public sector of their collective bargaining was defeated by the voters.

In Mississippi, the controversial "personhood" amendment was defeated also. The amendment was to make an embryo or fertilized egg a living being. It would put a hold on abortions and cause a threat to the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade.

These culture war battles were defeated by voters. The most important things that came to most voters, jobs.

A sign of disappointment in the public sector. Most voters are rejecting school levies. The voters can't afford paying more for schools. And with Republican governors cut funding for schools and public transportation, these sectors are going to make difficult cuts.

Republicans are not polling well. According TPM, President Obama and the Democrats have succeeded at convincing voters that Republicans are trying to delay economic recovery, according to a series of recent polls.

The new data suggests that about half the country, including a majority of self-identified independents, believe that congressional Republicans are using their political power to thwart Obama’s efforts to reduce unemployment, presenting Democrats an opportunity to make this argument more explicitly as the 2012 campaign moves forward — to undercut Republicans’ claims that Obama and the Dems bear full responsibility for the economy, and to make their pattern of obstruction a real liability for them.

Suffolk University polled registered voters in Florida and found that nearly half of voters, including large minorities of conservatives and Republicans, believed “Republicans are intentionally stalling efforts to jump-start the economy to insure that Barack Obama is not re-elected?”

On Monday, a nation-wide Washington Post/ABC News poll yielded similar results. The question in the Post/ABC poll was different — it asked respondents to choose between “President Obama is making a good faith effort to deal with the country’s economic problems, but the Republicans in Congress are playing politics by blocking his proposals and programs,” and “President Obama has not provided leadership on the economy, and he is just blaming the Republicans in Congress as an excuse for not doing his job.”

Once again, half of their respondents went with option one. But as Greg Sargent noted, that’s because Republican voters overwhelmingly disagreed. By contrast, a healthy majority of moderates and independents agree with the economic sabotage premise.

Also on Monday, liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas publicized the top lines of a PPP poll he commissioned, which closely mimic the the Post/ABC survey: “50% think GOP intentionally stalling economy, incl 51% of Indies, & 15% of GOPers. Details Tuesday.”

It’s not all good news for the Democrats. Polls still suggest Obama hasn’t opened a big gap between himself and the GOP on the question of who’s a better steward of the economy. But if the notion that elected Republicans are blocking economic recovery for political gain becomes a mainstream proposition, they’ve got big trouble — particularly if small but substantial numbers of their own voters believe this to be the case, and disapprove of the strategy.

White Nationalists Want White Women To Trap White Men With Oops Pregnancies » Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Technology

2011-11-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

White Nationalists Want White Women To Trap White Men With Oops Pregnancies » Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Technology: A White Nationalist said this on Dalrock’s blog:
Here is a somewhat unusual, anecdotal point of view on this subject. In my professional millieu, I am around a lot of smart, attractive late 20s / early 30s girls who have long term boyfriends that to my best judgment are greater betas to lesser alphas, but no marriage or children on the horizon. Further, those girls are really wanting to get that ring and start a family. I talk to a few of them, and overhear conversations of others. The boyfriends won’t shit or get off the pot. And I want those girls to have children.
Now, I understand the legal perils and other things that are causing those guys to hold off on getting married, or having a kid. But somethign must give, or entire crops (LOL at my econ-speak) of smart, beautiful girls will not have children like themselves.

Report paints 'An Unsettling Profile' of Native Americans in Multnomah County | OregonLive.com

2011-11-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

Report paints 'An Unsettling Profile' of Native Americans in Multnomah County | OregonLive.com: One in five Native American children in Multnomah County is placed in foster care, often with non-Native American guardians, one of the highest rates in the country, according to a densely-detailed profile of the county's Native population released today.

That compares to one in 63 for Native children across the country and one in 18 for those in Oregon, says the 113-page report, "An Unsettling Profile," produced by the Coalition of Communities of Color, Portland State University and the Native community.

NYPD COPS CAUGHT DIRTY DANCING AT WEST INDIAN DAY PARADE

2011-10-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

NYPD Police Officers Bump and Grind at West Indian Day Parade Video

2011-10-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

Conservatives Create Class Warfare Game| Republican Culture War In A Board Game!

2011-10-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

Jillian Rayfield October 27, 2011, 5:55 AM 4300 69

There is no “Go” space in the anti-welfare board game “Obozo’s America,” but rest assured — you can still collect welfare benefits as you pass the “First Of The Month” space.

The game is called “OBOZO’S AMERICA: Why Bother Working for a Living?” with the tagline “The Most Timely and Original Board Game of the Decade!” The website describes it as “a fun fantasy board game based on the preposterous notion that a Marxist clown, running on the vague and shaky platform of hope and change, could become President of The United States.”

The object is to keep collecting benefits while avoiding the “Working Person’s Rut.” From the rather embarrassingly low-tech website:

Get your initial $1,000 cash grant at the First of the Month, then maneuver along Obozo’s Welfare Promenade. Get cash for your out-of-wedlock children. Draw from a stack of Welfare Benefit Cards. Get extra cash from Saturday Night crimes: Gambling, Armed Robbery, Drugs, and Prostitution. Play the lottery and the horses. Get your live-in a job on the Government Cakewalk. Experience the Jail Jaunt. Avoid landing on one of those dreaded “Get a Job” blocks forcing you onto the Working Person’s Rut (Somebody has to pay for Obozo’s Welfare Promenade). 50 Welfare Benefit Cards. 50 Working Person’s Burden Cards. Lots of funny money.

The site features the game’s mascot “Obozo The Marxist Clown” — who also graces the game’s fake currency — and boasts of the “welfare benefit cards” like “you lose perspective and apply for a job, but are denied it. Oboze says: Scream ‘racism’ until welfare lawyer gets you $1,000 settlement.”

In the Economy version of the game, you get “a stack of over a half-a-million dollars in play money (we’re talking serious welfare fraud here), 50 Welfare Benefit Cards, 50 Working Person’s Burden Cards, 30 Out-of-Wedlock Children.” The Deluxe version has a spill-proof surface and the out-of-wedlock children are easier to cut out of the paper they’re printed on.

Here’s the play money:

And the board game:

You can see the full-size board as a pdf here.

The game was created by Ron Pramschufer and Bob Johnson, who run Hammerhead Enterprises in Maryland, and was originally released in 1980 as “Public Assistance: Why Bother Working for a Living?”

“We didn’t invent this game, government liberals did,” Johnson said then. “We just put it in a box.”

In a press release Wednesday, Johnson announced that the game was coming back, claiming it “was forced off the retail market in the 1980s by government officials working with the NAACP, NOW, and other welfare ‘rights’ groups.”

“We intended the game as a parody of government liberalism, with a special focus on the able-bodied loaferism, welfare fraud, and social chaos its domestic policies promote,” Johnson wrote in 2009. “Threatened by the game’s popularity, embarrassed liberals successfully implemented a nationwide government plan to ‘remove the game from the marketplace.’”

The game was entangled in a number of lawsuits after several government officials and the NAACP criticized it as racist and sexist for its depiction of “welfare queens” and other stereotypes. Pramschufer and Johnson first sued (sub req.) a New York City official who sent a letter to retailers urging them not to sell the game, saying “keeping this game off the shelves of your stores would be a genuine public service.” They lost the case and their ultimate appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court, but they also filed a suit against the NAACP and NOW, according to the AP (sub req.).

But in the 90s when they re-released the game — complete with a new “Criminal Justice” side of the board — and claimed it had been banned, the Attorney General of Maryland said there was never a ban on the game. “The state wouldn’t have had the authority to ban this game whatsoever,” then-AG Kathy Schultz said (sub req.), according to the Washington Times.

Via Ashley Lopez of The Florida Independent.

U.N. Experts to SEC: Conflict Minerals Bill is Working in Congo | Enough

2011-10-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

U.N. Experts to SEC: Conflict Minerals Bill is Working in Congo | Enough: The United Nations Group of Experts on Congo wrote to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to say, in sum, “Since the signing into law of the Dodd Frank act, a higher proportion then before of tin, tungsten and tantalum mined in the DRC is not funding conflict.” The full letter is posted as a pdf here.

This is a significant statement, coming from an internationally mandated group that has done in-depth research at hundreds of mines across eastern Congo over the past year. The group highlighted several key points:

White Men’s Hostility to Black Women: A Deeper Look

2011-10-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

White Men’s Hostility to Black Women: A Deeper Look

Florida Welfare Drug Testing Law Blocked By Federal Judge | The Republican Culture War

2011-10-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge temporarily blocked Florida's new law that requires welfare applicants to pass a drug test before receiving benefits on Monday, saying it may violate the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

Judge Mary Scriven ruled in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father who sought the benefits while finishing his college degree, but refused to take the test. The judge said there was a good chance plaintiff Luis Lebron would succeed in his challenge to the law based on the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals from being unfairly searched.

The drug test can reveal a host of private medical facts about the individual, Scriven wrote, adding that she found it "troubling" that the drug tests are not kept confidential like medical records. The results can also be shared with law enforcement officers and a drug abuse hotline.

"This potential interception of positive drug tests by law enforcement implicates a `far more substantial' invasion of privacy than in ordinary civil drug testing cases," Scriven said.

The judge also said Florida didn't show that the drug testing program meets criteria for exceptions to the Fourth Amendment.

The injunction will stay in place until the judge can hold a full hearing on the matter. She didn't say when that hearing will be scheduled.

More than two-dozen states have also proposed drug-testing recipients of welfare or other government assistance, but Florida was the first state to enact such a law in more than a decade. Should any of those states pass a law and face a court challenge, Scriven's ultimate ruling would likely serve as a legal precedent.

The law's proponents include Gov. Rick Scott, who said during his campaign the measure would save $77 million. It's unclear how he arrived at those figures. A spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families deferred all comments to the governor's office.

"Drug testing welfare recipients is just a common-sense way to ensure that welfare dollars are used to help children and get parents back to work," said Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Scott. "The governor obviously disagrees with the decision and he will evaluate his options regarding when to appeal."

Earlier this year, Scott also ordered drug testing of new state workers and spot checks of existing state employees under him. But testing was suspended after the American Civil Liberties Union also challenged that policy in a separate lawsuit.

Nearly 1,600 applicants have refused to take the test since testing began in mid-July, but they aren't required to say why. Thirty-two applicants failed the test and more than 7,000 have passed, according to the Department of Children and Families. The majority of positives were for marijuana.

State officials said Monday that applicants previously denied benefits for testing positive or refusing the test could reapply immediately. The Department of Children and Families will also approve all pending applications that await drug test results.

Supporters had argued applicants skipped the test because they knew they would have tested positive for drugs. Applicants must pay $25 to $35 for the test and are reimbursed by the state if they pass. It's unclear if the state has saved money.

Under the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program, the state gives $180 a month for one person or $364 for a family of four.

Those who test positive for drugs are ineligible for the cash assistance for one year, though passing a drug course can cut that period in half. If they fail a second time, they are ineligible for three years.

Lebron, who is the sole caretaker of his 4-year-old son, said he's "happy that the judge stood up for me and my rights and said the state can't act without a reason or suspicion."

The ACLU says Florida was the first to enact such a law since Michigan tried more than a decade ago. Michigan's random drug testing program for welfare recipients lasted five weeks in 1999 before it was halted by a judge, kicking off a four-year legal battle that ended with an appeals court ruling it unconstitutional.

Hate Groups Channel Their Rage At Illegal Immigrants and Hispanics/Latinos!

2011-10-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

Anti-Latino Hate Crimes Rise As Immigration Debate Intensifies

Huffington Post writer Cristina Costantini notes the growing right wing rage at immigration reform. The culture war Republicans started includes this and many other noted controversies. Not one of these issues focuses on jobs or the ailing economy.

Juan Varela was shot in the neck in his front yard in Phoenix, Ariz., last May by his neighbor Gary Kelley. Moments before killing Varela in front of his mother and brother, Kelley yelled, "Go back to Mexico or die!" Varela was not an illegal immigrant, but a fifth generation American of Mexican descent, said Carlos Galindo, the family's spokesperson in a phone interview.

In May 2009, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul Flores were murdered by members of a Minuteman vigilante group. The child and her father were both American-born U.S. citizens. Leader Shawna Forde broke into the Flores home in Arivaca, Ariz., with two men she recruited to help her fund her splinter Minuteman organization. After the group shot and killed her father, Brisenia pleaded with the Forde and her accomplices, saying, "Please don't shoot me." One of the masked figures then shot her in the face at point blank range, her mother, the lone survivor, said in her testimony. Forde was convicted of first degree murder in February of 2011 and sentenced to death.

Last November, two Mexican nationals, cousins Alex Cauich and Jose Omar Cauich, were brutally assaulted by a group of white men while standing in front of a bar in San Francisco. Witnesses on the scene heard the assailants yelling "run like you ran across the border" during the incident. Last week, three men with connection to a white supremacist group were convicted in the assault. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who worked as a police officer in Arizona and California for more than twenty years, told The Huffington Post that he perceives this crime and others like it to be part of rising anti-Latino sentiments around the country.

Recent studies conducted by the National Institute of Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the FBI and the Pew Research Center seem to show that these incidents were not isolated hate events, but part of a greater trend.

The preliminary findings of a congressionally-mandated study by the National Institute of Justice suggest that anti-Latino hate crimes rose disproportionally to other hate crimes between 2004 and 2008. The study estimates that in 2003 there were 426 hate crimes against Latinos, while in 2007 there were 595 nationally.

According to the same study, California and Texas saw the most anti-Latino hate crimes, as well as more dramatic increases of such incidents than other states. Data collected by the FBI also indicates a steady rise in anti-Latino hate crimes across the country from 2003 to 2007.

A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit civil rights organization based in Montgomery, contends that the number of "radical right groups" in America -- including hate groups, "Patriot" groups and nativist groups -- increased in 2010 for the second year in a row.

Although recent studies indicate anti-Latino hate crimes have been on the rise over the last decade, many believe their numbers are even greater than those reported. Mark Potok, a spokesperson for the SPLC, said in an interview with The Huffington Post that, "one thing to understand is that Latinos, and in particular undocumented immigrants, are among the least likely to report hate crimes because they fear deportation."

RACE AND POLICY DEBATES

Many, including the family members of victims, associate a rise in anti-Latino hate crime and an increase in anti-Latino sentiments with the on-going, virulent immigration debate around the country.

Varela's family in Phoenix told The Huffington Post that they believe his murder was provoked by the heated controversy surrounding the passage of Arizona's S.B. 1070 law two weeks prior. According to Carlos Galindo, the family's spokesperson, Kelley's attorney admitted in court that his client was going to the Varela home on the day of Juan's murder in order to discuss the the family's attendance at an S.B. 1070 protest. Galindo also said the immigration debate created a dangerous environment for Latinos in his state.

"It's gone from a frustration with the federal government not doing their job, to a frustration with the immigrants and with Latinos in general," said Galindo. "People are encouraging this kind of demonization and this culture of hatred which results in violence," he added.

In 9-year old Brisenia's murder, the Associated Press reported that Shawna Forde was motivated to break into the Flores home because she "considered Raul Flores a drug smuggler and wanted to use his drug proceeds for a paramilitary organization to seal off the border to immigrants." According to CNN reports, no drugs were found in the Flores home.

Raul "Junior" and Brisenia Flores were killed by a minuteman group with ties to the White Nationalist Movement.

George Gascón, the San Francisco district attorney, said in an interview with The Huffington Post that he associates the brutal assault of the Cauich cousins and a "recent surge of anti-Latino hate crimes" in his city, with economic factors and the immigration debate. Gascón believes that immigration debates in Arizona, Utah, Georgia, South Carolina and now Alabama have been "fueled by race-based sentiments."

"It's going to take a lot of good people with a lot of good intentions on both sides of the debate to shift the dialogue away from race, and back to policy," Gascón said.

Mark Potok, the SPLC spokesman, believes that reporting around the immigration debate has led directly to a more hostile environment for Latinos in America because it "focuses a lot of negative attention around Latinos." He explained, "When leaders and politicians get press and promote stereotypes, it encourages others to hate Latinos as well -- so it helps to spread the poison... There are ways of having a debate about immigration without demonizing one group of people."

But while Potok also blames "nativist" groups like Minuteman organizations for spurring hatred against Latinos and immigrants, Howie Morgan, the national political director of the Minuteman Project said in a phone interview with The Huffington Post that his organization has never framed the debate in racial terms.

Shawna Forde, a former prostitute, beautician who has ties to a white supremacist group. Her involvement in a minuteman group that killed Raul "Junior" and Brisenia Flores. Forde is currently sitting on death row for the murder.

"We have never demonized Latinos. In fact, we have been demonized as racists by 'La Raza' -- which means 'The Race' by the way... When we have come across organizations in the Minuteman movement that align themselves with racism, we've thrown them out and repudiated their statements. We continue to make sure this not about race, but about policy. We are a pro-immigrant organization, and calling us racist is simply inaccurate," he told HuffPost. Morgan was referring to the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) which considers itself the "largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization" in the country.

But Gascón, thinks the Minutemen are ignoring an "elephant in the room."

"I'm glad the [Minuteman Project's] official stance is that it shouldn't be a race-based conversation," Gascon said in a phone intervew. "But the elephant in the room when you talk about immigration is that a very large number of immigrants come from Latin America. If you start talking about illegal immigration, what comes to mind? Do you think of someone from Eastern Europe or Asia or do you think of a Latino?"

According to a 2009 study, more Americans think that Hispanics are the targets of discrimination in American society than say the same about any other major racial or ethnic group. According to Mark Hugo Lopez, the associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization that seeks to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population, the PHC's studies found that, prior to 2009, African Americans were perceived to be the group most discriminated against.

Lopez also said that on average, Latinos are thinking about discrimination and immigration as bigger issues for their community than they did just a few years ago. In 2010, 61 percent of Latinos believed that discrimination against Hispanics is a "major problem," up from 54 percent in 2007. And in 2010, when asked to state the most important factor leading to discrimination, a "plurality of 36 percent cited immigration status as most important, up from a minority of 23 percent who said the same in 2007," reported Lopez.

In an interview with a local paper, Gilberto Esquivel, a member of the Riverside Human Relations Commission, said that the 50 percent increase in hate crimes against Latinos in California in 2010 was directly tied to the passage of the S.B. 1070 immigration law in Arizona. In Esquivel's county alone, the FBI documented 21 hate crimes in 2010, up from 12 in 2009.

Esquivel believes "anti-Latino and anti-immigrant remarks became more numerous and hateful on conservative talk radio, in newspaper letters to editors and on the Internet."

"The hate is there," Esquivel said. "[S.B. 1070] gives it legitimacy."

Jury Finds Aggravating Factor in Neighbor's Murder: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

The Quiet Republican Culture War: Concealed Firearms In Bars!

2011-10-13T06:33:00.000-07:00

The Ohio Republican legislature passed a open firearm in bar bill in 2011. The governor John Kasich, first term has been marred in controversy. The SB 5 bill which strips public sector unions of collective bargaining, calling the Upper Arlington police officer who stopped him "an idiot", partisan redistricting to favor Republicans, and his golf outing with Ohio House Speaker John Boehner, Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama has sunk job approval to low 40s.

Governor Kasich, the former host of Fox News program Heartland also has ties to NewsCorporation, Incorporated. The media network is involved in a major scandal over here and in the United Kingdom.

Here's an example of putting water on a grease fire: Ohio's controversial firearm in bar laws was passed an example of not following the rules is this person here, Chad O'Reilly is facing serious charges.

Chad O’Reilly / Provided

Written by

Dan Horn

Facts about Ohio’s new gun law

• The law allows people with concealed-carry permits to keep their guns with them when they enter one of the state’s 17,000 bars, restaurants or nightclubs where alcohol is served. The law also allows a permit holder to have a loaded handgun in a vehicle even if the gun is not secured in a holster or container.

• Businesses still can ban guns on their premises by posting a sign stating guns are not permitted.

• No one is allowed to drink alcohol while carrying a gun. Doing so is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

• Eight other states specifically allow people with proper permits to carry guns into bars. A dozen other states prohibit guns in bars.

A Deer Park man became the first in Greater Cincinnati to face charges under Ohio’s “guns in bars” law Wednesday when he was arrested for threatening to kill a fellow bar patron.

Chad O’Reilly’s arrest came two weeks after the law took effect and immediately reignited debate between gun-rights activists and those who wanted to continue a statewide ban on guns in bars.

“This law is so absurd,” said Toby Hoover, director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence. “Without this law, maybe some fists would have flied. Instead, he’s waving a gun around.”

Supporters of the new law say it worked as intended in this case. They say O’Reilly will lose his concealed-carry permit and could face up to five years in jail if he is convicted of violating the new gun law – stiffer penalties than he would have faced under the old law.

“This fellow made a serious mistake,” said state Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, who supported changing the law. “Nothing in the law allows you to do anything other than carry a gun into an establishment if you have a permit.

“It does not give you license to brandish a gun and wave it around.”

Police say the incident occurred around 2 a.m. Wednesday when O’Reilly, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, got into a heated argument with another man at the H&H Tavern on Ohio Avenue in Deer Park.

They say O’Reilly, 25, walked out of the bar and returned a short time later with a .40-caliber semiautomatic Glock pistol in his hand.

According to the arrest report, O’Reilly shouted a racial slur at the man, who is Hispanic, and said, “I’m going to kill you.”

Deer Park police say O’Reilly’s friends ushered him out of the bar and police arrested him at gunpoint a few minutes later. He did not resist and no one was hurt.

O’Reilly, who police said had been drinking, was charged with aggravated menacing, ethnic intimidation, possession of a controlled substance (injectable testosterone) and illegal possession of a firearm in a liquor establishment.

The latter charge is related to Ohio’s new law, which allows concealed-carry permit holders to bring weapons into bars, restaurants, nightclubs and other places that serve liquor as long as they do not drink alcohol.

Ohio law previously had forbidden guns in those businesses, with or without a concealed-carry permit.

Because O’Reilly had been drinking, police say, he violated the new gun law. The other charges relate to the threats he is accused of making while brandishing the gun.

Ohio is one of several states to adopt some version of the guns in bars law, with gun-rights advocates arguing it makes sense to allow law-abiding citizens to carry their weapons rather than keep them at home or locked in a car when they go out.

The law does not allow drinking while carrying a gun and gives bar owners the option of putting up a sign banning guns on their premises.

The H&H Tavern had no such sign, but owner Dave Anderson said it soon will. He said his bar never had a problem with gun-toting patrons before and blames the new law for the incident Wednesday morning.

“I believe in the right to bear arms, but I believe that law was made in bad judgment,” Anderson said. “It’s not good for any small business to have people carrying firearms in.”

Deer Park police Lt. Daniel McCormack said O’Reilly told police he tucked his gun into his waistband, without a holster, before entering the tavern. The bartender told police he served O’Reilly two beers before the incident.

“I’m a shooter and I believe in concealed carry,” McCormack said. “But any time you have alcohol and guns, it’s just not a good mix.”

The same argument was made often when legislators debated the new law earlier this year. The Ohio Restaurant Association, with more than 2,400 members, opposed the law on grounds that alcohol and guns are a bad combination.

Seitz and others, however, have said the nearly 250,000 Ohioans with concealed-carry permits are law-abiding citizens who should be allowed to keep their firearms with them.

To obtain a concealed-carry permit, a person must complete at least 12 hours of training, including two hours on a firing range, pass a criminal background check and pay various fees.

Seitz said the potential penalties O’Reilly faces for violating the law should discourage other permit holders from drinking while carrying a gun.

“The draconian sanctions on those who violate this law will act as a deterrent on those who would do something foolish in the future,” Seitz said.

Anderson, the bar owner, said he just doesn’t want a repeat of what happened Wednesday morning.

“We’ve been in business 21 years,” he said. “We’ve never had a thing like this happen before.”

Another Ridiculous Culture War Distraction! Operation Fast & Furious Scandal

2011-10-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

This issue has circulated through the conservative blogs and media for the last three months.

Operation Fast and Furious was a sting run by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) between 2009 and 2010 as part of Project Gunrunner in its investigations into illegal gun trafficking. The stated purpose of the operation was to permit otherwise-suspected straw purchasers to complete the weapon's purchase and transit to Mexico, in order to build a bigger case against Mexican criminal organizations suspected of being the ultimate buyer.

During the operation, the sale of at least 2,000 guns were facilitated by ATF knowing most would be trafficked to Mexico. By June 2011, the guns have been linked (through eTrace, ATF's electronic tracing program) to some 179 crime scenes in Mexico.

Of the 2,000 guns knowingly released by ATF agents, only 600 are reported as recovered by officials. The remaining 1,400 guns have not been recovered.

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-California) is heavily involved in the Operation Fast & Furious scandal. The Republicans and conservatives call for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign. Republicans once again have their asses wrapped around the American flag in defense of another "culture" war. Instead of worrying about what they were elected for, we see the Republicans wasting time, money and patience.

Woman is the “N” of the World? : Ms Magazine Blog

2011-10-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

Woman is the “N” of the World? : Ms Magazine Blog: In 1969, Yoko Ono coined the phrase, and I quote, “Woman is the N****R of the World.” Shortly thereafter, she and her husband, the late John Lennon, wrote and he recorded a song with that same title.

According to Wikipedia (which is ALWAYS questionable), at that time (don’t know where they would stand today) Dick Gregory and Ron Dellums defended the song.

Several Black feminists, including Pearl Cleage, challenged Yoko Ono’s racist (to Black women) statement. “If Woman is the “N” of the World, what does that make Black Women, the “N, N” of the World?”

Lawrence O'Donnell Gave Herman Cain And The Right Something To Rant About!

2011-10-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

Way to go, Lawrence! You just gave the right wing something to whine about on radio, television and the blogs.

If one is to believe that interview was out of line, then you're not the only one!

For one thing, Republican candidate Herman Cain was a stand up guy for appearing on a clearly partisan show! It shows that the candidate is at least willing to take on a political enemy as the right put it in the network MSNBC.

Second, if Lawrence O'Donnell would have stayed focus on interviewing Cain on his policies and then focus on his controversial statements, this wouldn't be the talk in the right wing media.

Third, Cain now is a established front runner. After this Florida Straw Poll, and a CBS poll putting him in a statistic tie with former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, Cain is riding in the limelight.

After scandals affected Rick Perry's campaign, Herman Cain quietly came into the focus.

O'Donnell should have not went into the "culture war". That's like picking with a hornets nest!

The right will drive this issue for weeks to come!

Sean Hannity Goes After President Obama Speech To Congressional Black Conference!

2011-10-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

Sean Hannity is a notoriously known race-baiter. He wants to paint the president as a person with "radical" views.

In his latest made up attempt at creating a controversy, Hannity debates two Black commentators over the president's speech to the Congressional Black Conference.

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill and Reverend Wayne Perryman are debating over the president's speech.

This is the amended version.

A Repost of Suheir Hammad's Exotic

2011-10-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a repost of Ms. Hammad's Exotic:

Suheir Hammad's Exotic

This poem is my favorite. This one really touched many women of color as we all face everyday sexualized racism, whether from family, work, school, the general public, and the ever-present mass media in one form or another.

exotic

by suheir hammad

don't wanna be your exotic

some delicate fragile colorful bird

imprisoned caged

in a land foreign to the stretch of her wings

don't wanna be your exotic

women everywhere are just like me

some taller darker nicer than me

but like me but just the same

women everywhere carry my nose on their faces

my name on their spirits

don't wanna

don't seduce yourself with

my otherness my hair

wasn't put on top of my head to entice

you into some mysterious black voodoo

the beat of my lashes against each other

ain't some dark desert beat

it's just a blink

get over it

don't wanna be your exotic

your lovin of my beauty ain't more than

funky fornication plain pink perversion

in fact nasty necrophilia

cause my beauty is dead to you

I am dead to you

not your

harem girl geisha doll banana picker

pom pom girl pum pum shorts coffee maker

town whore belly dancer private dancer

la malinche venus hottentot laundry girl

your immaculate vessel emasculating princess

don't wanna be

your erotic

not your exotic

Here's her video of Suheir's "Exotic" at Youtube:

Ms. Hammad's poem is still relevant today. As you see from the photos, past and present, women of color are still fetishized and exoticized in mainstream popular culture, media, and politics. The images comes from various Disney films, pop music videos, and paintings from the 19th century onwards. They show the various ways women of Color are portrayed in film and in culture in general. Those images do have a big impact on how people view us, whether they give us respect or contempt. Love, or lust/fetish that has to be hidden from public view. Public policies whether to help women of Color or to marginalize, as in debates on immigration, feminism, etc.

What are your thoughts about the poem and the views it expressed?

Obama To CBC: Stop Complaining! Fight For Your Share!

2011-09-25T05:42:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — In a fiery summons to an important voting bloc, President Barack Obama told blacks on Saturday to quit crying and complaining and "put on your marching shoes" to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity.

And though he didn't say it directly, for a second term, too.

Obama's speech to the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus was his answer to increasingly vocal griping from black leaders that he's been giving away too much in talks with Republicans -- and not doing enough to fight black unemployment, which is nearly double the national average at 16.7 percent.

"It gets folks discouraged. I know. I listen to some of y'all," Obama told an audience of some 3,000 in a darkened Washington convention center.

But he said blacks need to have faith in the future -- and understand that the fight won't be won if they don't rally to his side.

"I need your help," Obama said.

The president will need black turnout to match its historic 2008 levels if he's to have a shot at winning a second term, and Saturday's speech was a chance to speak directly to inner-city concerns.

He acknowledged blacks have suffered mightily because of the recession, and are frustrated that the downturn is taking so long to reverse. "So many people are still hurting. So many people are barely hanging on," he said, then added: "And so many people in this city are fighting us every step of the way."

But Obama said blacks know all too well from the civil rights struggle that the fight for what is right is never easy.

"Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes," he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. "Shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do."

Topping the to-do list, he said, is getting Congress to the pass jobs bill he sent to Capitol Hill two weeks ago.

Obama said the package of payroll tax cuts, business tax breaks and infrastructure spending will benefit 100,000 black-owned businesses and 20 million African-American workers. Republicans have indicated they're open to some of the tax measures -- but oppose his means of paying for it: hiking taxes on top income-earners and big business.

But at times, Obama also sounded like he was discussing his own embattled tenure.

"The future rewards those who press on," He said. "I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on."

Caucus leaders remain fiercely protective of the nation's first African-American president, but in recent weeks they've been increasingly vocal in their discontent -- especially over black joblessness.

"If Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House," the caucus chairman, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, recently told McClatchy Newspapers.

Like many Democratic lawmakers, caucus members were dismayed by Obama's concessions to the GOP during the summer's talks on raising the government's borrowing limit.

Cleaver famously called the compromise deal a "sugar-coated Satan sandwich."

But Cleaver said his members also are keeping their gripes in check because "nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president."

Still, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., caused a stir last month by complaining that Obama's Midwest bus tour had bypassed black districts. She told a largely black audience in Detroit that the caucus is "supportive of the president, but we're getting tired."

Last year, Obama addressed the same dinner and implored blacks to get out the vote in the midterm elections because Republicans were preparing to "turn back the clock."

What followed was a Democratic rout that Obama acknowledged as a "shellacking."

Where blacks had turned out in droves to help elect him in 2008, there was a sharp drop-off two years later.

Some 65 percent of eligible blacks voted in 2008, compared with a 2010 level that polls estimate at between 37 percent and 40 percent. Final census figures for 2010 are not yet available, and it's worth noting off-year elections typically draw far fewer voters.

This year's caucus speech came as Obama began cranking up grass-roots efforts across the Democratic spectrum.

It also fell on the eve of a trip to the West Coast that will combine salesmanship for the jobs plan he sent to Congress this month and re-election fundraising.

Obama was leaving Sunday morning for Seattle, where two money receptions were planned, with two more to follow in the San Francisco area.

On Monday, Obama is holding a town meeting at the California headquarters of LinkedIn, the business networking website, before going on to fundraisers in San Diego and Los Angeles and a visit Tuesday to a Denver-area high school to highlight the school renovation component of the jobs package.

UC Berkeley: Racially Themed Bake Sale Got Students Upset!

2011-09-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

Racially heated posting sparks UC Berkeley outrage

Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer

BERKELEY -- A Facebook post announcing plans by a UC Berkeley Republican group to sell baked goods priced according to race, gender and ethnicity - "White/Caucasian" pastries for $2 and "Black/African American" pastries for 75 cents, for example - has drawn outrage on campus.

"I'm ashamed to know that I go to the same school with people who would say stuff like this," responded student Skyler Hogan-Van Sickle on Facebook. "I'm really trying to figure out how someone can be this hateful."

The campus Republicans, who expect to go forward with their "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" on Tuesday, say the event is meant to mock an effort by the student government to drum up support for SB185, a bill to let the University of California and the California State University consider ethnicity in student admissions. It's awaiting approval or veto by Gov. Jerry Brown.

"Our bake sale will be at the same time and location of a phone bank which will be making calls to urge Gov. Brown to sign the bill," posted six students who created the Facebook page. The purpose "is to offer another view to this policy of considering race in university admissions. The pricing structure of the baked goods is meant to be satirical."

But students say the joke is anything but funny. More than 200 students responded to the event, most opposed, and some violently so. One threatened to burn the table and set the cupcakes on fire. At least four student groups sent complaints to campus administrators, and a student-only meeting was set for Friday evening to discuss it.

"It's offensive because of the tactics that they chose," said Joey Freeman, a vice president with the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley's student government. "This should be done for constructive dialogue and debate. But not in a way I thought was, frankly, racist."

The posting describes five price levels for pastries, with the highest for "White/Caucasian," and the lowest for "Native American." A 25-cent discount is offered for women.

"If you don't come, you're a racist," the post declares.

Berkeley's tempest follows a series of racial and anti-Semitic incidents across UC campuses, which prompted UC officials to focus new attention on fighting hate speech among students.

In March at UCLA, a student posted a video of herself ranting about Asians. In 2010, UC San Diego students posted racial slurs and caricatures on Facebook, and used campus TV to belittle black students. Someone also hung a noose from light fixture in the library.

At UC Davis, six swastikas were found, including one carved into a Jewish student's door, and someone defaced the gay students' center.

At UC Merced, a video mocking efforts to create a Chicano studies program was posted on Facebook.

In 2010, UC President Mark Yudof described the incidents as "quite simply the worst acts of racism and intolerance I've seen on college campuses in 20 years." He created a committee to help campuses strengthen anti-hate policies. And next year, all students and employees will be asked to take a survey about campus tensions, said UC spokesman Steve Montiel.

At Berkeley, the Facebook posting violates no campus policy, said Gibor Basri, vice chancellor for equity and inclusion.

"The only policy it violates is the principles of community," he said, adding that a campus-wide letter will go out Monday. "We can use this as a teaching moment."

Shawn Lewis, president of the Berkeley College Republicans, was surprised by the number of critics and their harshness and said he agrees that race-based pricing is discriminatory.

"But it's discriminatory in the same way that considering race in university admissions is discriminatory," he said.

E-mail Nanette Asimov at nasimov@sfchronicle.com.

White kids shot and killed execution-style by blacks in Tulsa

2011-09-24T17:09:00.001-07:00

Friends speak out after grisly homicide

2011-09-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

Young murdered couple remembered

2011-09-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

Vesta Williams - Special

2011-09-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

Herman Cain Wins A Straw Poll Causing A Major Blow To Frontrunner Rick Perry!

2011-09-24T15:43:00.000-07:00

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain came out on top in the Florida straw poll on Saturday.

The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza won the test of conservative strength with roughly 37 percent of the vote. Texas Governor Rick Perry came in second place, followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who did not actively compete in the event. Here's a full breakdown of the results:

Herman Cain: 37.11%
Rick Perry: 15.43%
Mitt Romney: 14.00%
Rick Santorum: 10.88%
Ron Paul: 10.39%
Newt Gingrich: 8.43%
Jon Huntsman: 2.26%
Michele Bachmann: 1.51%

Perry, who was expected by many to win the straw poll, signaled his belief earlier in the day that it was a "big mistake" for rival candidates like Romney and Bachmann to opt against campaigning for support in the event.

HuffPost's Jon Ward reported from Florida on Friday:

Just a few weeks ago, the Texas governor was taking the Republican presidential primary by storm, but his star has fallen rapidly over the course of his first three debates. On Thursday night, it came crashing down.

Conservatives flocked to the three-day conclave here – kicked off by the Google-Fox News debate Thursday night – "ready to marry" Perry, but left "spooked" by his performance, said one Florida Republican with contacts among both campaign operatives and grassroots activists.

That discontent has been building, though it's not final in any sense. Perry's fortunes have fallen in large part because of a series of gaffes that demonstrated his lack of discipline and experience on a national stage. In several key moments during the past few weeks, the governor showed a tendency to undermine some of his best moments and to make tough or difficult moments even worse. His potential supporters have grown leery of Perry as the list of his unforced errors has grown longer.

Before hitting bumps in the road, Perry experienced a surge in the polls after announcing his candidacy for president of the United States. The Texas governor jumped into the GOP primary race the same day as the Ames Straw Poll. He did not actively compete in the event, which was won by Bachmann.

Irresistible Revolution

2011-09-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

From: Irresistible Revolution:

"Tell me, Maria, why I see her dancing there
Why her smoldering eyes still scorch my soul.
I feel her, I see her, the sun caught in her raven hair
It's blazing in me out of all control"

--"Hellfire" from Walt Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"

Images are one of the most powerful forms of social control. Images tell us stories about who we are, where we come from and what our place in the world is. Images narrativize and normalize history and shape our collective social conscious. In a not-so-post colonial, white supremacist, heteropatriarchal world, the images we see are often shaped by intersecting oppressions, and without critical consciousness we risk imbibing and perpetuating the lies of the oppressors.

Morgan Freeman: The Tea Party Actions Are Racist!

2011-09-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Morgan Freeman laid down the chips on the Tea Party in a new interview with Piers Morgan that is due to air Friday night.

The Oscar-winning actor sat down with the British TV host and, amongst other things, discussed his belief that the right wing Tea Party's anti-Obama stance is rooted in racism.

When asked by Morgan whether Obama's presidency has made racism in the United States better or worse, Freeman, who once played apartheid-defying South African president Nelson Mandela, frankly stated that his time in office has made it worse, as he has become a target of the right's aggression.

"Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term," the actor said. "What's, what does that, what underlines that? 'Screw the country. We're going to whatever we do to get this black man, we can, we're going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.'"

Declaring once again that "it's a racist thing," Freeman said the group's rise has shown the hate still lingering in America.

"Well, it just shows the weak, dark, underside of America," he said. "We're supposed to be better than that. We really are. That's, that's why all those people were in tears when Obama was elected president. "Ah, look at what we are. Look at how, this is America." You know? And then it just sort of started turning because these people surfaced like stirring up muddy water."

The actor continued, saying that he understood President Obama not fighting back, seeking to stick to his principles, but wishes that he'd be more aggressive now.

Freeman endorsed Obama during his run for the presidency, but declined to campaign with him, saying that he was an actor, not a politician. He attended a White House Civil Rights concert in 2010.

Troy Davis Was Executed...Black Men's Lives Don't Mean A Damn Thing In A...

2011-09-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

Ga. execution leaves debate over guilt unresolved

2011-09-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ga. execution leaves debate over guilt unresolved

Georgia executes Troy Davis after his last pleas fail

2011-09-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Georgia executes Troy Davis after his last pleas fail

Study: Only 3 "Good" Black Men For Every 100 Black Women | News One

2011-09-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Study: Only 3 "Good" Black Men For Every 100 Black Women News One: The chances of a Black woman finding a “Good” Black man are extremely slim, according to a study by Best Black Dating Sites.
The study claims that only about 3% of Black men fulfill the criteria of being a good, qualified partner.
The criteria was primarily based on data compiled on whether the eligible Black men were heterosexual, good-looking, successful, or childless.

GIVE ME A BREAK!! BROTHAS ARE NOT "FLAWED" MEN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA MAKE THEM OUT TO BE.

Matt Drudge Proves That Even A "Parody" Spawns His Racist Supporters!

2011-09-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

A race-baiter who has a mission to destroy President Barack Obama and the Black community. The Drudge Report is a hub to conservatives who have issues with race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, political and economic stands.

A rapper by the name of MrEBT makes a parody video that spoofs using a food stamp card, and here comes the racism.

Black Love is DEAD?....hell NO!!!

2011-09-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

('http://www.youtube.com/p/D764CD6A22BE60C2?version=3&hl=en_US',)

It's A Start...

2011-09-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

Cops Wilding Out On Labor Day 2011- Daggering On The Parkway ( Grinding ...

2011-09-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Disgusting!!!!!

BROTHA WOLF

2011-09-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

BROTHA WOLF

Maury Po’ Bitch « BROTHA WOLF

2011-09-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

Maury Po’ Bitch « BROTHA WOLF: “Why Maury Povich ‘is the father’ of black trash TV” written by Michael Arceneaux. Also, if you are a fan of Maury, Jerry, reality TV or any other forms of pointless entertainment and you take offense to my essay, you should leave now.
I’ve written about Maury Povich’s show a while back in 2010. I still believe that his show is offensive in that it perpetuates negative stereotypes about black men and black women, and that it does so more often with black people than they do with non-blacks. I’ve stopped watching the show as soon as I realized what I was looking at was just a series of hour-long “What the hell is wrong with black people–according to White people” circuses. The host Maury is white, and most of his guests concerning his popular paternity test episodes are black and apparently highly promiscuous and irresponsible.

VMA Shocking Announcement: Beyonce is Pregnant

2011-08-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

Another year, another unbelievably action-packed Video Music Awards. As expected, viewers were treated to mind-blowing performances and several jaw-dropping surprises. The most unexpected moment came courtesy of Beyoncé Knowles, who not so subtly announced to the world that she and husband Jay-Z are expecting their first child.

When B unbuttoned her sparkly jacket and rubbed her belly with a knowing smile, after which the camera panned to a visibly elated Jay-Z and Kanye West cheering from the audience, the Nokia Theatre was bursting with warm and fuzzy well-wishes for the soon-to-be parents. And that very public moment of celebration was just the beginning.

When Beyoncé returned backstage to her dressing room, she was greeted by a team of people who enveloped the visibly happy star with hugs, cheers and congratulations.

Click for photos of Beyoncé's big VMA night.

"I'm free!" she said to one of the well-wishers, indicating that she and Jay are thrilled to not have to keep such a big secret any longer. "We're all free!" she said to the group.

A few minutes after her arrival backstage, she was joined by her husband, a very excited West (whose first words upon entering the dressing-room area were "Where is Beyoncé?" as if he could not wait to give B a huge hug) and her former Destiny's Child ladies, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Even with the doors to their dressing rooms closed, the applause and whoops of joy could be heard everywhere backstage.

"That was an eventful night, to say the least," Jay, still smiling, said to some of the revelers in the hallway, who continued to shower him with congratulations and hugs.

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards have wrapped, but the real action is just getting started! Stick with MTV News for winners, fashion pics, video and behind-the-scenes stories about everything that went down.

Mom, boyfriend charged in 'neglect' death of toddler found at mo - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-

2011-08-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

Mom, boyfriend charged in 'neglect' death of toddler found at mo - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-

Sad.

Idris Elba: "Black Men Are Never Called Sexy" (Video) - The Snob Blog - Danielle Belton's The Black Snob

2011-08-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Idris Elba: "Black Men Are Never Called Sexy" (Video) - The Snob Blog - Danielle Belton's The Black Snob

Oakland Should Fire Racist Schools Police Chief Pete Sarna : Zennie Abraham : City Brights

2011-08-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

Oakland Should Fire Racist Schools Police Chief Pete Sarna : Zennie Abraham : City Brights: Oakland Should Fire Racist Schools Police Chief Pete Sarna
5 More at Zennie62.com Follow me on Twitter! Get my widget! Visit YouTube Visit Facebook.com

UPDATE: Chief Pete Sarna quit before he could be fired.
According to Matier and Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland, California School Police Chief Pete Sarna went out on a charity golf tournament, and, well this is how Matier and Ross explain it:
The district is looking into accusations that the chief, who is white, let loose July 18 with a half-hour tirade loaded with racist epithets against his two sergeants and a police driver - who apparently was called to the event at the Sequoyah Country Club in Oakland so no one would be driving drunk.
Sarna allegedly told the African American sergeant, who lives in Orinda, that "the only good n- is a dead n- and they should hang you in the town square to prevent any other n- from coming in the area."
That's racist. Pure and simple. Racist. (As a note, we're talking about the Oakland Public School's Police Chief, not the Oakland Police. But to someone like Oakland Tribune Photographer Jane Tyska, that didn't matter when she was assaulted by then Oakland Schools Police Art Michel, who also retired.)

Off “The Last Temptation” Apologize if I sayyy.. anything that I don’t mean.. ( The Police Chief Pete Sarna Story) Somewhere over the “racist rainbeau”! A real “Interested Observer” BME Project continues (Oh yeah Baby on Pick up Truck) BWE movement take a turn for the “worse”. | Mr Laurelton Queens - A Lively discussion on race, dating, and politics in the Black Community

2011-08-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

Off “The Last Temptation” Apologize if I sayyy.. anything that I don’t mean.. ( The Police Chief Pete Sarna Story) Somewhere over the “racist rainbeau”! A real “Interested Observer” BME Project continues (Oh yeah Baby on Pick up Truck) BWE movement take a turn for the “worse”. Mr Laurelton Queens - A Lively discussion on race, dating, and politics in the Black Community: Off “The Last Temptation” Apologize if I sayyy.. anything that I don’t mean.. ( The Police Chief Pete Sarna Story) Somewhere over the “racist rainbeau”! A real “Interested Observer” BME Project continues (Oh yeah Baby on Pick up Truck) BWE movement take a turn for the “worse”.

Please read this!

Anti-Black Websites Continue To Thrive Online And Social Networks.

2011-08-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

Digital Hate: Report shows bigots' influence on Internet

Exposing bigotry on Facebook, YouTube and other social media

Bigots have ramped up sharply on Facebook, YouTube and other social media, with very anti-social aims -- including racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and Islamophobia -- according to a new report on the topic.

"They come for all the reasons everyone else does," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said during a recent visit to South Florida. "For bigots, it's a way to reach the mainstream with its message."

Cooper was sharing the results of "Digital Hate," an annual report issued by the Los Angeles-based center.

The 13th annual report analyzes the spread of prejudice over blogs, message boards and other new media.

The rabbi was in South Florida to share the material with religious leaders, alerting them on what to watch for.

He plans to return in mid-April to brief law enforcement officers and political leaders, he said. And he has plenty to share.

The current report counts 14,000 sites, up from 11,500 just last year. They're run by everything from Klansmen to neo-Nazis to radical Muslims to Bulgarian, Japanese and other nationalist extremists.

And they're increasingly using otherwise legitimate sites like Twitter, MediaFire, even eBay. The report says "Arrahmah.com" uses the Flickr.com photo-sharing site to post free wallpapers, or desktop computer pictures, glorifying the three terrorists who bombed a nightclub in Bali in 2002.

They even spoof or imitate other sites, the Wiesenthal researchers have found.

"Real Zionist News" looks like a Jewish newsfeed, but the articles instead say Jews control the White House and are attacking Christianity worldwide.

That's a standard theme of anti-Semites: that Jews control nations from behind the scenes. "800 Pound Gorilla," which uses the Wordpress blogging site, blames Jews for the terrorist attacks of 9-11. The site also denies the Holocaust and connects Kaballah with Freemasonry.

Bigots also have their own music stars. Alcoholocaust is best known for its black-hating and Jew-hating song "Joo Slaughter," posted on YouTube. People Haters produced "Day of the Rope," which adds gays to the death-wish list -- to a background of giggling children.

The "subculture of hate," as the Wiesenthal Center calls it, includes hate games. "Ethnic Cleansing" lets a player hunt blacks, Jews and Hispanics. And in an Iranian version of the old game "Snakes and Ladders," the snakes bear British and Israeli flags and Obama's face, the Wiesenthal report says.

Distortions even creep onto otherwise legitimate sites. Answering-christianity.com, which tries to persuade Christians to become Muslims, says the whole United States is the Antichrist. The site also argues that the 9-11 terrorist attack was an "inside terrorist job" of the U.S. and the Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

The Wiesenthal report also notes a rise in online attacks against religious and ethnic communities.

"Bulgarian National Union" is an anti-immigrant, anti-gypsy and homophobic group, the Wiesenthal Center says. "Zaitokukai" focuses Japanese resentment against Koreans, Chinese and Christians in Japan. The group has grown almost purely through the web, Cooper says.

And the hate often goes beyond words. Several sites offer instructions for making poisons, explosives and cell phone detonators. "Black Tearful Days," a posting in December on several jihadist sites, has diagrams showing how to place bombs in a vest and an SUV.

"If you believe in religious freedom, you're committed to a world in which families should be able to go to prayers and return to their homes without fear of intimidation or violence," Cooper said.

Computers themselves become weapons. Members of a group based in Algeria, Turkey and Morocco say they hacked several Israeli websites, including jerusalemonline.com, the Wiesenthal report says. Reposting on the Al Qassam forum, they showed pictures and propaganda that they'd planted.

Cooper shares the "Digital Hate" report not only with local groups, but also the FBI and Homeland Security.

The group's website, wiesenthal.com, also sells the CD to the public for $20.

Finally, the Internet can police itself, the rabbi says. Social site managers can ban users who violate terms-of-service-agreements, which usually cover bigotry.

Once alerted, Facebook took down "Burn a Jew Day," "Kill a Jew Day" and "Kill a Jew Year." The site has also removed pages by Canadian neo-Nazi Kevin Goudreau. Each time, however, Goudreau simply starts another page -- more than 20 times thus far.

Cooper smiles. "Facebook is our biggest problem and our biggest ally."

Matt Drudge has cool new white supremacist fans!

The neo-confederate Council of Conservatives Citizens notes that the Drudge Report looks like their site these days

By Alex Pareene

AP Matt Drudge

Remember how news aggregator Matt Drudge has basically turned his site into a one-stop shop for news about black people being scary? ThinkProgress has found some people who are really excited about this development. They are, of course, the white supremacists of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

ThinkProgress and the Southern Poverty Law Center report that the neo-confederate CCC recently crowed on their website that Mr. Drudge's famous report looked remarkably like their own work.

"Drudge Report currently resembles CofCC.org," goes the headline.. (Heads up: link goes to neo-confederate white supremacist site!) "The extremely popular news aggregate Drudge Report appears to be the only major news outlet bringing up the astronomical amount of black crime taking place." And then there is the link to Drudge's list of all the "melees" and "chaos" that happened during a holiday weekend when lots of drunk revelers across the nation sometimes get rowdy (and are sometimes shot dead, by police officers).

So: Nice new friends you have made, Matt.

You know how every so often the lamestream media publishes or airs a bunch of stories about how influential and important Matt Drudge is? And it's proper "news" when he hires right-wing journalists to help him "cover" the elections or even when he simply promotes a friend's book? How come no one besides a couple commie liberal bloggers has actually said anything about Matt Drudge's impossible-to-ignore habit of blatant, shameless race-baiting, exactly?

A Teenage Murder-Suicide Sparks Racist Fliers In West Chester, Ohio

2011-08-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

Kareem Elgazzar/Staff photographer Amy Hosier, 35, of Deerfield Twp., shows one of the many fliers she picked up off of cars in her neighborhood, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011. "If I saw (the fliers), I threw them away, " she said. There's never a reason any of it should happen."

By Denise Callahan and Gin Ando, Staff Writers 6:21 PM Tuesday, August 9, 2011

DEERFIELD TWP. — A national organization has targeted a neighborhood here to pass out raciest fliers pertaining to the Aug. 3 shooting deaths of two teenagers.

The National Alliance placed the racist letters on car windshields, telephone poles and on doors in the area of the Four Paws Grooming and Kennel on Landen Road.

Four Paws is where Troy Penn, an 18-year-old black Kings High School senior, and shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, 17-year-old Amanda Borsos, with a shotgun. He then fled the scene and staged a brief standoff in his nearby home before killing himself with the same gun.

The letter is addressed to “White Parents” and warns “Don’t let your daughter date blacks, it might be a matter of life and death.” The two-page diatribe attacks blacks and those of Jewish faith and refers specifically to the murder-suicide.

Warren County Sheriff Larry Sims said nothing in the fledgling investigation into the murder-suicide points to a racial motivation. He said it looks as if the incident was over a breakup.

Sims’ office is investigating who is passing out the fliers.

“On the surface we don’t know that there is anything criminally wrong, but they certainly are inciting,” he said. “The language in there is certainly very disturbing, we’d like to know the motivation behind it. There is no indication at all this homicide-suicide was racially driven.”

Sims said the flyers began appearing on cars and telephone poles, and one was even posted on the day care sometime after midnight on Tuesday.

The National Alliance is located in Hillsboro, W. Va., according to the group’s website. The group is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks such organizations. The National Alliance was for decades the most dangerous and best organized neo-Nazi formation in America, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A neighbor who lives near Penn’s home, Amy Hosier, has been collecting and disposing of the “offensive” messages.

“If I saw (the fliers), I threw them away. There’s never a reason any of it should happen,” she said.

“Anytime they can get their pedestal and soapbox, they do.”

The owner of Four Paws, Rob Ashe, who was Borsos’ boss, said his staff was upset when they arrived to work.

“The staff came in this morning and they were disgusted,” Ashe said.

Sims said it will be a couple weeks before they are finished with the shooting investigation, including where Penn got the shotgun.

Borsos was buried on Saturday and funeral arrangements for Penn have been kept private.

Mississippi Still Burning! Young Men Charged With A Hate Crime Murder!

2011-08-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Prosecutors in Jackson, Mississippii say that Deryl Dedmon, Jr. and John Aaron Rice were looking for a black person to hurt when they left a party on June 26.

“Let’s go fuck with some niggers,” Dedmon had reportedly said to friends.

Dedmon, Rice and several other teens drove from a white suburb to a prominently black part of town where they came across James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old black auto plant worker.

Witnesses claimed that after beating and kicking Anderson, the teens yelled “White Power!” and other racial epithets.

When the beating was over, security footage showed Dedmon’s Ford 250 truck driving over Anderson, killing him instantly.

“I ran that nigger over,” Dedmon allegedly told the other teens in a phone call.

“He was not remorseful,” Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith told CNN’s Drew Griffin. “He was laughing, laughing about the killing.”

“This was a crime of hate. Dedmon murdered this man because he was black,” Smith added.

Anderson family attorney Winston Thompson agreed, saying, “It appears there is no doubt that this was a racially motivated killing.”

Dedmon has been charged with murder and faces a double life sentence. In July, Judge William Barnett reduced the murder charges against Rice to aggravated assault. He was released on $5,000 bond.

Other teens involved in the case have not been charged.

“Life sentences?” The Root’s Nsenga Burton wondered. “Why not the death penalty? We’re also wondering why Rice and Dedmon, Jr. are the only people being charged in this senseless murder? If multiple teens participated in the beatings and were in the car during the murder, shouldn’t they also be charged?”

Love in black & white: Janet Langhart and Bill Cohen speak out on racism and interracial marriages

2011-08-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Love in black & white: Janet Langhart and Bill Cohen speak out on racism and interracial marriages

by Lynn Norment

Comments .123Next ..Spending time with Bill Cohen and Janet Langhart is to be immersed in a great American love story--but also into a frank, sometimes emotional discussion on race and politics and interracial relationships in America.

For some, the couple--he a retired U.S. senator and defense secretary and she a former newscaster and civil rights activist--symbolize love between two people from distinct backgrounds who came together across a "major divide" despite racism and taboos against such unions. For others, the Cohens, now married 12 years, represent a reality viewed with scorn. Interracial marriage still makes some people, including some African-Americans, uncomfortable, if not outright angry.

That's okay with the Cohens. They gladly accept the role of catalysts for discussion, even debate, on race and love in Black and White in a society they say is still plagued with inequities. It is time, they say, to discuss openly why racism and negative views about interracial relationships continue to tinge our society. "It is shameful how we [Blacks] have been treated and continue to be treated in America," says Langhart, known for speaking her mind. "The racism here is a disgrace to a nation that claims to the world it is fair and just. Katrina demonstrated that our dirty little secret of racism isn't a secret anymore.

"Many Americans say they are tired of hearing from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Well, where is the White leadership that is saying to their own, 'This is wrong!'--in the Jena 6 case, the Black girl who [reportedly] was raped [in West Virginia], the Imus issue, the nooses and swastikas. Where is the leadership of the free world, President Bush? It is we, Blacks, who have led America to face up to her claim of justice and equality for all. America is not who she says she is."

The Cohens maintain that because racism is so pervasive in our society, taboos against Black-White marriages persist. "Bill and I still get those looks and stupid things said to us despite the so-called 'elite' circles we travel in," Langhart reveals. "A U.S. senator once asked Bill which one of my parents was White. When Bill said neither and asked why, the senator replied, 'Well, because she's so intelligent.' That's more than racism, that's stupid. It's interesting, when Bill and I are in public, Blacks recognize Bill and like him--because of his political views and because he is married to me. A group of Black guys at a [Washington] Wizards' game gave him high-fives and said: 'This is a cool dude. He's married to a Sista'... I tease Bill that Black people like him for choosing me, but question me for being with him. This race thing is all so warped."

Both Langhart and Cohen acknowledge that mixed marriages are more accepted by Blacks than society at large. "Yet, within the Black community," says Cohen, "it is as though they are saying, 'She married a White guy, that means she wants to be White.'" He adds that some are confused as to whether Langhart is Hispanic or Arab or African-American. And many are not aware of her social activist background, that she led an effort to get an apology for the lynching of Black men. "Janet--she's Black, trust me," says Cohen. "Janet has always been that way, and has sacrificed her career by speaking out on Black issues. It cost her virtually ever job she's had. She followed Malcolm X more than Dr. King. King was her mentor, but he wouldn't let her march. She was too angry."

In turn, Janet says people don't realize her husband as a senator worked hard to overcome racism and inequities, that "before my husband married me he was on the Senate floor talking about affirmative action," that he was involved in civil rights marches in Maine "when it wasn't cool to be in those kinds of parades."

Regardless, they are devoted to each other. "She is the most exciting woman I know," Cohen says, looking proudly at his wife seated next to him in their Chevy Chase, Md., penthouse. "She is so smart, so passionate and so underused."

"I look at my husband," Langhart says. "He's an extraordinary man. He's bright. He's handsome. He's kind. He could have had anyone he wanted. Just like that wall that keeps us out, it keeps them in. But he walked right through the wall." And toward Langhart.

Social commentator Michael Eric Dyson and his wife, Marcia, are long-time friends of the Cohens. "Bill and Janet are one of the great love stories of our time," says Dyson. "The magic they share is exhilarating and contagious... Bill and Janet are the epitome of love across racial lines, a couple that draw on their strengths and differences while forming a dynamic duo. Janet has never struck a false racial note in toadying to the White folks ... She is gracious and majestic, but she remains a true Black woman to her bones. The plight of her people is never far from her heart; the cause of her race is never from her lips."

In an August 2007 Gallup Poll, more than 75 percent of Americans say they approve of marriages between Blacks and Whites. As recently as 1994, less than 50 percent approved. The poll also indicated that Blacks are more likely than Whites to approve of interracial marriages: 85 percent of Blacks say they approve while 10 percent disapprove.

It was 40 years ago that the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, declared laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional. In 1967, such marriages were illegal in 27 states and made up only 2 percent of all marriages. Today, about 7.5 percent of all marriages are interracial.

The persistent negative attitude about interracial relationships is one reason Langhart insisted on delaying marriage until Cohen retired from politics. "I just didn't have faith in America," she says. "I just didn't have confidence that the people in Maine" would re-elect their senator if he had married a Black woman. The couple first met in the 1970s when Langhart interviewed the senator on her Boston television show. In the late '80s, after he divorced and her husband died, they began dating.

It was about that time that Langhart began to experience turbulence on her job. Her bosses complained that she was "too threatening to White women" and "didn't speak Black enough." She got into trouble when she asked why it was wrong for Andy Young to meet with the PLO. "I was told to stop talking about race on television because the audience didn't think of me as Black," Langhart recalls. When relegated to selecting lottery numbers, she responded, "My name is not Vanna Black," and was fired. As she pursued other career options, she ran into a series of roadblocks--many because of race. A job at BET didn't work out either--she says because she was "too fair [complexioned]." A spokesperson for BET says she is not familiar with the matter and has no response.

"People misjudge her," Cohen says of his wife. "They think that because she is lighter, that somehow she's just White. She is the most unappreciated talent, I think, in this country. She was penalized because of her attractiveness."

When Langhart finally consented to marry Cohen after he announced retirement from the Senate, she wanted the ceremony to take place in the Capitol, which she says is "symbolic of how Black slave labor built this country." What was conceived as a small ceremony turned into an event that political insiders asked to attend. She recalls vividly how the first person she saw when she walked down the aisle was longtime South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, who had a "paternalistic gaze." She now feels he was thinking about his own (then secret) mixed-race daughter. "My grandparents would have been turning over in their graves at the thought of Strom Thurmond, who still symbolizes racism for many, at my wedding," Langhart says.

Initially, Langhart's own family was not pleased that she was marrying Cohen. "My sister was not keen on this," she recalls. "She liked Bill, but said she'd never date White." When Langhart was 17, she recalls her mother's words on interracial dating: "You can date him, but you will never be accepted by them. And when it's all said and done, you'll have to come back over to this side. This is home."

Fox Nation Calls Obama Birthday Party 'Hip-Hop BBQ' (PHOTO)

2011-08-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Media Matters for America, a non-profit liberal media resource group has been gunning for Fox News over the past few years. With the first African American to be elected as president, Barack Obama and the network have been at odds over issues. And with that, comes the blatant disrespect and subtle racism to him.

The conservative network wasted no time trying to tie the high educated Obama with racial stereotypes of Black culture. Last year, the president stated that his interest in hip-hop music rappers like Nas and Lil' Wayne, the website Fox Nation post the president's love for gangster rappers. First Lady Michelle Obama host a poetry session at the White House and invites rapper Common. Common becomes a "cop killing" rapper. Three days after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Now as the president celebrates his birthday at the White House and invites Chris Rock and Jay-Z to the event, it's a "Hip-Hop BBQ".

Say what you will—Fox Nation knows how to keep things unique. We also love the url for the item:
http://nation.foxnews.com/president-obama/2011/08/05/obama-parties-chris-rock-jay-z-and-whoopi-while-rome-burn

Towards the end of a recent interview with Rolling Stone, President Obama was asked about his musical preferences, he replied:

My iPod now has about 2,000 songs, and it is a source of great pleasure to me. I am probably still more heavily weighted toward the music of my childhood than I am the new stuff. There's still a lot of Stevie Wonder, a lot of Bob Dylan, a lot of Rolling Stones, a lot of R&B, a lot of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Those are the old standards.

A lot of classical music. I'm not a big opera buff in terms of going to opera, but there are days where Maria Callas is exactly what I need.

Thanks to Reggie [Love, the president's personal aide], my rap palate has greatly improved. Jay-Z used to be sort of what predominated, but now I've got a little Nas and a little Lil Wayne and some other stuff, but I would not claim to be an expert. Malia and Sasha are now getting old enough to where they start hipping me to things. Music is still a great source of joy and occasional solace in the midst of what can be some difficult days.

Soul, folk, rock, R&B, jazz, "A lot of classical", and some rap; sounds like a fairly diverse musical palate. This represents the musical tastes of a number of Americans of the president's generation, especially those with school age children. Diversity is good, unless you are reading the Fox Nation website. According to Huffington Post, Fox Nation took this description and briefly posted the headline, "President of the United States Loves Gansta Rap" with photos of tattoo laden Nas and Lil' Wayne thrown in for "flava".

How does the president's acknowledgment of an appreciation for rap music become a love for "gangsta rap"?

This is not too subtle code language from conservative media that the "de-racialized" President Obama has an affinity for some element of African-American culture and this is something to fear. Here is another example in a long list of examples of how some elements in the media and politics continue to play to the fears of too many in America by fanning the flames of prejudice and racism.

Since his days as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois Barack Obama has talked about equality and one America. During his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention he said that the greatness of this nation can be summed up in the declaration, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal... There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." In his famous "race speech" in 2008 Senator Obama talked about continuing the long march, "of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America."

For too many in this country, this de-racialized race-neutral politics coming from a man of African decent is something to fear. Former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo opened the Tea Party convention by calling for a reinstatement of Jim Crow type literacy tests for voters and saying, "This is our country...Let's take it back." Who's country is it and Tancredo wants to take it back from whom?

Recently in an interview with National Review's Robert Costa former House speaker Newt Gingrich said,

"What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? ...This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president." Again, not so subtle code language playing to the fear of President Obama's Kenyan heritage and to the unfounded rhetoric of the "birther" movement. Actually, anti-colonial behavior is a good thing if you are a victim of colonialism.

According to Rep. Pete King (R-NY), President Barack Obama is "probably the most threatened president ever." Most of these threats are not because of health care reform, the stimulus bill, or the problems with Israel. There are still too many people in America that refuse to allow him to govern as the president; they will oppose him at every turn because he's an African-American who is the president
.
Numerous cartoons have featured President Obama and/or first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, terrorists, or Muslim suicide bombers. What are they afraid of? President Obama has called for change not Mau Mau revolution. He is working within the established structure, not working to overthrow it. The president loves gansta' rap? During the Henry Louis Gates arrest in Cambridge, President Obama said that the arresting officers "acted stupidly" not as NWA said, "F**k the Police".

The Fox Nation claim that the "President of the United States Loves Gansta' Rap" is a bit far fetched and nothing but a scare tactic. It's the latest example in a long line of contradictions that are grounded in a fear of the African-American influence in a fictitious "post-racial" America. Or as Public Enemy would say, "Fear of a Black Planet".

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program "Inside the Issues With Wilmer Leon," and a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: wjl3us@yahoo.com.

Fox News and The Drudge Report caters to the worst of society. Subtle racism and misinformation creates the toxic environment that spawns in the conservatives who support the Tea Party let alone the entire Republican Party.

Minnesota School Faces Lawsuit Over Racist 'Wigger Day'

2011-08-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

A Minnesota school district allowed a homecoming event called "Wigger Day," during which students wore clothes and behaved in a manner that "from their perspective, mimicked black culture," according to a federal a class action lawsuit filed against the district on Friday.

The suit alleges that despite student council voting on a "tropical theme" for homecoming in 2009, a group of approximately 60 students from the predominantly white school instead attended the event dressed for "Wigger Wednesday" in "oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball hats cocked to the side and 'doo rags.'"

"Wigger is a pejorative slang term for a white person who emulates the mannerisms, language and fashions associated with African-American culture," the complaint explains.

Students also referred to the activity as "Wangsta Day" -- meaning "white gangsta" or "Red Winger gangsta" -- and created a Facebook group advocating for the event. (Warning: This Facebook link contains offensive language.)

The plaintiff, former Red Wing High School student Quera Pruitt, an African American, claims that the school's lack of intervention caused her "severe emotional distress including depression, loss of sleep, stress, crying, humiliation, anxiety, and shame." Pruitt filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Minnesota on behalf of an unnamed class of "all students who experienced discrimination as a result of Wigger Day." The complaint states the class could include more than 40 people.

Pruitt's attorney, Joshua Williams, says her family hoped the incident would be addressed following "Wigger Day" 2008. While it was never an officially-sanctioned school event, the family discovered "Wigger Wednesday" was something of a tradition.

After the 2009 incident, "[Pruitt's] mom came up to the school, attempted to reach out to the school board, the superintendent, and the principal, but Red Wing's response was essentially to sweep this under the rug and act like it didn't happen," Williams told The Huffington Post.

According to Williams, Pruitt became depressed, quit the cheerleading squad, left student council, skipped her senior prom and even considered dropping out of school.

Pruitt also declined to participate in the school's Martin Luther King Day ceremonies, considering the memorial a "farce." She graduated in 2010 and moved back to Little Rock, Ark.

Williams added that the school district has acknowledged that "Wigger Day" took place in 2007 and 2008, but neglected to prevent the event from happening in 2009.

Red Wing principal Beth Borgen and school district superintendent Karsten Anderson, both defendants in the suit, say the school is committed to creating a learning an environment free from discrimination.

According to a 2009 article on KARE-11, students participating in "Wigger Day" that year were immediately sent to change their clothes, but no additional punishment followed.

Williams, who is seeking $75,000 in damages for his client, did not know whether "Wigger Day" took place again in 2010.

A statement from Anderson obtained by HuffPost says the district "denies the allegations that it has created a racially hostile environment and looks forward to meeting these allegations in court."

Williams says that position is "symptomatic of Red Wing's response to 'Wigger Day' form the onset."

"The students shouldn't have felt empowered to hold 'Wigger Day' in 2009," Williams said. "These students were not disciplined, they were not counseled and they were not punished. This could have been a teachable moment."

Rosa Parks' harrowing essay by revealing when she was nearly raped | Mail Online

2011-07-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

Rosa Parks' harrowing essay by revealing when she was nearly raped Mail Online: "'I was ready to die but give my consent, never': Harrowing essay by Rosa Parks reveals how she was nearly raped
Six-page memoir details white neighbour's indecent approach while she was working as housekeeper in 1931

An essay written by the 'mother of the civil rights movement' saying how she was nearly raped while working for a white neighbour is set to be auctioned.

Rosa Parks penned the harrowing six-page memoir about her experience as a housekeeper many years after the 1931 incident.

It is among thousands of her personal items up for sale that are predicted to fetch at least $8million

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2020207/Rosa-Parks-harrowing-essay-revealing-nearly-raped.html#ixzz1TXZsuZlI

I wish Americans read the letter and stop denying that Black women can't be raped.

Aiyann Hirsi-Ali Is Having A Baby: To Sellout BWE, it's okay to be a baby mama, as long as he is White

2011-07-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Obsidian Files - Bravenet Blog:

"That post, is her declaration that anti-Islam firebrand Ayaan Hirsi-Ali, really ain't a Baby Mama because, well...the Baby Daddy is White. See, such a term only applies to Black Women who have babies with 'DBRBM', dont'cha know. But so long as it's White, it's alright."

Which brings me to comment:

These so-called BWE sistas are so delusional that they may seek out racist white men who hook up with Black women as examples that they overcame their racism through so-called relationships. Most of us know better.

These women are suffering from hypergamy, "post-racial-colorblindness" and "Ms. Anne" delusion Given the disgusting and sordid history of America regarding BW/WM relationships, I'm ashamed of those women who are willing to have a non-Black man at any cost. Just look at Bill Maher's ex- girlfriends. The ongoing saga between Halle and Gabriel. Take the lady who called Laura Schlessinger for advise regarding her racist husband and family member.

I hope all Brothas stay strong and keep your heads up because the BWE sistas are getting worse by the week.

Here's the story from London's The Daily Mail:

TV historian Niall Ferguson is having a child with his Somali-born feminist partner

Also, read the blog post from Mr. Laurelton Queens regarding this sordid affair:

http://mrlaureltonqueens.com/2011/07/28/off-dark-knight-is-is-better-to-be-the-white-mans-whore-or-the-black-mans-wife-bwe-blogger-halima-failed-the-niall-ferguson-story-this-is-the-payback-for-scratches-you-left-on-my-back-y/

#11 Asian Girls « Stuff White People Like

2011-07-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

#11 Asian Girls « Stuff White People Like: "It makes perfect sense. Those libbie SWPL men wouldn’t touch a Black, Latina, Native American, Pacific Island, Arab/Muslim women with a 50-foot pole, yet they go ga-ga over East Asian(as opposed to South Asian) women. Hypocrites who talk a good game about racial equality, the beauties and glories of diversity, etc., are not the ones who date/marry/procreate-have a familiy with any women other than the Euro-American/East Asian kind."- La Reyna

"Skinhead" threatens to stab black man, gets knocked out

2011-07-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

Posted: Jul 11, 2011 12:55 PM by Meghann Cuniff
Updated: Jul 12, 2011 9:20 AM

A self-proclaimed skinhead was knocked unconscious by a black man after threatening to stab him last weekend in Bayview, Idaho, officials said Friday.

Daren Abbey, 28, was arrested on a malicious harassment charge after being treated at a hospital for facial fractures.

Abbey reportedly threatened to to stab Marlon Baker inside J.D.'s Resort on July 3 in Bayview after telling Baker he didn't belong in the bar because he was black.

Baker then left the bar to avoid a fight, but police say Abbey followed him to a marina about 300 yards away, called him racial slurs and again threatened to stab him.

Baker punched Abbey once in the face, knocking him to the ground unconscious.

Lt. Stu Miller said Baker acted in self-defense: "He felt threatened - there was an actual threat that was made that he was going to get stabbed."

Abbey told authorities that he is living as a transient in the Coeur d'Alene area after moving from Montana; he remains in jail on $75,000 bond for felony charges of malicious harassment and battery.

UPTOWN Magazine » Review: ‘Is Marriage for White People?’

2011-07-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

UPTOWN Magazine » Review: ‘Is Marriage for White People?’

Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco leaving the Bouquet aft...

2011-07-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Andrea Bocelli Royal Wedding Ave Maria Prince Albert Monaco July-2011 Li...

2011-07-04T15:58:00.000-07:00

200 BMW 7 for the Wedding of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco [HD]

2011-07-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

Royal Wedding of Prince Albert II of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock 1. - ...

2011-07-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Charlotte Casiraghi at the Prince Albert II and Charlene's Wedding

2011-07-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

2011-07-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2011/07/02/monaco.royal.wedding.wrap.cnn

Here is the picture of the Royal Wedding in Monaco:

Prince Albert of Monaco faces paternity test after wedding, officials confirm - Telegraph

2011-07-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

Prince Albert of Monaco faces paternity test after wedding, officials confirm - Telegraph

Prince Albert Balcony Speech + Civil Wedding Ceremony - Monaco Royal Wed...

2011-07-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

Prince Albert of Monaco Weds Charlene Wittstock

2011-07-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press: Monaco's bride seeking to make her own mark

2011-07-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press: Monaco's bride seeking to make her own mark: "Monaco's bride seeking to make her own mark
By JENNY BARCHFIELD, Associated Press – 5 days ago
MONACO (AP) — Charlene Wittstock has not one, but two tough acts to follow.
As the future princess of Monaco and wife to longtime bachelor Prince Albert II, the Zimbabwe-born, South Africa-raised former Olympic swimmer is to succeed Grace Kelly, whose 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier III is still widely seen as the gold standard for royal nuptials.
And as if the blue-eyed Hollywood beauty-turned-beloved princess didn't cast a long enough shadow, Albert's long-awaited marriage to Wittstock comes on the heels of the royal wedding of the decade, Kate Middleton's union with Britain's Prince William."

Campbell and Lagerfeld on royal wedding guest list

2011-07-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

Campbell and Lagerfeld on royal wedding guest list

Albert weds Charlene in Monaco marriage

2011-07-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

Supreme Court Decision (5-4): Wal-Mart Wins Major Civil Lawsuit!

2011-06-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of female employees in a decision that makes it harder to mount large-scale bias claims against the nation's biggest companies.

The justices all agreed that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cannot proceed as a class action in its current form, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. But they split 5-4 along ideological lines over whether the plaintiffs should in essence get another chance to make their case.
The lawsuit could have involved up to 1.6 million women, with Wal-Mart facing potentially billions of dollars in damages.

Now, the handful of women who brought the case may pursue their claims on their own, with much less money at stake and less pressure on Wal-Mart to settle. Two of the named plaintiffs, Christine Kwapnoski and Betty Dukes, attended the argument. Kwapnoski is an assistant manager at a Sam's Club in Concord, Calif. Dukes is a greeter at the Wal-Mart in Pittsburg, Calif.

The ruling could make it much harder to mount similar class-action discrimination lawsuits against large employers.

The majority agreed with Wal-Mart's argument that being forced to defend the treatment of female employees regardless of the jobs they hold or where they work is unfair.

Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion for the court's conservative majority said there needs to be common elements tying together "literally millions of employment decisions at once."

But Scalia said that in the lawsuit against the nation's largest private employer, "That is entirely absent here."
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court's four liberal justices, said there was more than enough uniting the claims. "Wal-Mart's delegation of discretion over pay and promotions is a policy uniform throughout all stores," Ginsburg said.

Story continues below

Business interests lined up with Wal-Mart while civil rights, women's and consumer groups have sided with the women plaintiffs.

Both sides have painted the case as extremely consequential. The business community has said that a ruling for the women would lead to a flood of class-action lawsuits based on vague evidence. Supporters of the women feared that a decision in favor of Wal-Mart could remove a valuable weapon for fighting all sorts of discrimination.

"The court has told employers that they can rest easy, knowing that the bigger and more powerful they are, the less likely their employees will be able to join together to secure their rights." said Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center. "The women of Wal-Mart, together with women everywhere, will now face a far steeper road to challenge and correct pay and other forms of discrimination in the workplace."

The lawsuit, citing what are now dated figures from 2001, said that women are grossly underrepresented among managers, holding just 14 percent of store manager positions compared with more than 80 percent of lower-ranking supervisory jobs that are paid by the hour. Wal-Mart responded that women in its retail stores made up two-thirds of all employees and two-thirds of all managers in 2001.

The company also has said its policies prohibit discrimination and that it has taken steps since the suit was filed to address problems, including posting job openings electronically.

SP-California to Host Bobby Seale

2011-05-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Socialist WebZine: SP-California to Host Bobby Seale

The Socialist Party of California announced today that it will host an evening with founder, chairman, and national organizer of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale, on Saturday, June 25th at 6pm, at the Los Angeles Workers Center, 1251 South Saint Andrews Place in Los Angeles, California. This special event is open to the public. Seating will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. There is no cover charge. Donations are welcome.

Mr. Seale’s program for the evening will focus on “community controls of economic frameworks that retail and produce services and goods and political institutions that affect our lives.” His speech will be followed by a Q&A session and a brief meet-and-greet. Mr. Seale will also autograph copies of Black Panther and Bobby Seale books and DVDs, which will be available for sale at the event.

This event came to fruition after a recent Socialist Party meeting, where Local leaders from Los Angeles County, Orange County and Riverside County discussed hosting a revolutionary leader to address the needs of the community, motivate the working class to take power back into their hands, and provide continued inspiration to those who are currently working on behalf of the people. Bobby Seale, one of the nation’s most dynamic defenders of civil rights and champions of social power, was an obvious choice.

Satoshi Kanazawa Causes Firestorm After Claiming Black Women Are Less Attractive

2011-05-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

Psychology Today blogger Satoshi Kanazawa sparked a firestorm with his latest posting entitled, "A Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature."

In it, the evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics argues that black women are less physically attractive than other women. The article was quickly removed from the site, but not before screenshots made their way onto BuzzFeed. Some excerpts:

What accounts for the markedly lower average level of physical attractiveness among black women? Black women are on average much heavier than nonblack women. The mean body-mass index (BMI) at Wave III is 28.5 among black women and 26.1 among nonblack women. (Black and nonblack men do not differ in BMI: 27.0 vs. 26.9) However, this is not the reason black women are less physically attractive than nonblack women. Black women have lower average level of physical attractiveness net of BMI. Nor can the race difference in intelligence (and the positive association between intelligence and physical attractiveness) account for the race difference in physical attractiveness among women. Black women are still less physically attractive than nonblack women net of BMI and intelligence. Net of intelligence, black men are significantly more physically attractive than nonblack men. [...]

The only thing I can think of that might potentially explain the lower average level of physical attractiveness among black women is testosterone. Africans on average have higher levels of testosterone than other races, and testosterone, being an androgen (male hormone), affects the physical attractiveness of men and women differently. Men with higher levels of testosterone have more masculine features and are therefore more physically attractive. In contrast, women with higher levels of testosterone also have more masculine features and are therefore less physically attractive. The race difference in the level of testosterone can therefore potentially explain why black women are less physically attractive than women of other races, while (net of intelligence) black men are more physically attractive than men of other races.

Kanazawa, whose prior, controversial works can be viewed in part here, was met with widespread backlash. Jenée Desmond-Harris at The Root wrote, "The blog's presentation of the allegedly scientific findings had a decidedly informal tone, especially given the highly contentious conclusions. It struck us as so outrageous that we almost thought it was a hoax of some sort, and we double-checked the URL to make sure it didn't include 'The Onion.'"

Latoya Peterson at Racialicious opined: "Justifying racism using 'science' isn't new, by any means. Every few years, it appears that someone needs to provide a rationale for bigotry, so they publish some sort of madness and hope most of the readers suffer from scientific illiteracy. The problem is that even with a thorough debunking, people latch on to articles like this to confirm their own biases."

Kaja Perina, Psychology Today's editor-in-chief, didn't explain why Kanazawa's piece was removed, however she told NPR, "Our bloggers are credential[ed] social scientists and for this reason they are invited to post to the site on topics of their choosing. We in turn reserve the right to remove posts for any number of reasons. Because the post was not commissioned or solicited by PT (in contrast to a magazine article), there was no editorial intent to address questions of race and physical attractiveness."

Kanazawa hasn't made any public statement, although, as NPR notes, his personal website does disclaim,

"Prepare to be offended."

Story continues from The Guardian.

On Monday, Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, published an article on his Psychology Today blog that sent shockwaves across Twitter and the blogosphere and reminded many of us of just how dangerous this kind of "science" can be.

In his incendiary piece, which has since been taken down, Kanazawa discussed the scientific basis for "why black women are less attractive than any other women". Note that Kanazawa did not claim to have discovered why black women are perceived to be less attractive, or why he believed that black women are less attractive.

After bombarding the reader with colourful bar graphs and a set of numbers, he asserts that he has found the answer as to why black women are "objectively" less attractive than women of any other race, and it has something to do with testosterone and genetic mutations.

Following the backlash that ensued, the headline, "Why are black women less physically attractive than other women?", was first edited, before the article was taken down in its entirety. This is interesting, because it implies that the editors didn't initially accept that there was anything wrong with the article itself – only a headline that needed tweaking. However, even the poorest-performing psychology undergrad at a university at the bottom of any league table will tell you that the article oozes bad science.

From the article, the entire study appears to be based on the perspectives and opinions of adult respondents, Kanazawa reports his findings as "objective facts": that "black women are significantly less attractive than women of other races". He fails to provide information on the sample size for his research, or the social or economic factors (including race) that would have impacted on his findings so that readers can deduce for themselves as to what extent these findings can be generalised across time and space. As some tweeters have noted, it's a classic trick in which pseudoscientists blind you with multicoloured graphs and three decimal place figures to convince lay readers that their research was thorough and is conclusive. I mean, who can argue with three decimal places?

Pseudoscience and racism have a long history together. Many people who read Kanazawa's article were instantly reminded of Nazi claims to Aryan superiority. In his tome The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, Houston Stewart Chamberlain claimed to have discovered biological evidence for Aryan superiority based on his deeply flawed concepts of human speciation. This text and others of its ilk were the basis for the attempted extermination of Jewish people under the Nazi regime but were unfortunately not without precedent. Before Chamberlain there was the likes of Georges Cuvier and his contemporaries, whose treatment of Saartjie Baartman – also known as the Hottentot Venus – early in the 19th century was premised on the apparent biological inferiority of people of African descent, once again "proven" by bad science. Could colonialism or slavery ever have been justified without these and other pseudoscientific claims?

In 2011, we have peer review and editors. So it is of great concern that Psychology Today let Kanazawa's awfully premised, poorly presented and racist article even slip through the cracks. Of course, many social scientists were quick to spot the fallacies in his argument, but these standards don't exist to protect those who work in the ivory tower. They exist to protect the general public that may have nothing more than a passing interest in learning more about the world in which they live.

Kanazawa's article insulted and denigrated women of African descent all over the world, insinuating that some inevitable genetic development forces them to the lowest rung of his imaginary rigid scale of "attractiveness". As if a world in which the images of the most beautiful have oscillated between Michelangelo's Creation of Eve and Iman's statuesque frame could ever have a rigid, scientific standard for "attractiveness".

For his folly, Kanazawa has been duly chastised. But what about Psychology Today? Will they escape censure for letting this offensive tripe go out in the first place? Recalling that this is the same Kanazawa who asserted that he had also "discovered what's wrong with Muslims" in the same rag that published this "attractiveness" study, isn't it about time that someone got hauled over the coals for letting this nonsense go out? Psychology Today has said the article was not specifically commissioned and hasallowed some of its other writers to come out and criticise Kanazawa but has stopped short of issuing an apology for its carelessness.

“Here’s a little thought experiment. Imagine that, on September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers came down, the President of the United States was not George W. Bush, but Ann Coulter. What would have happened then? On September 12, President Coulter would have ordered the US military forces to drop 35 nuclear bombs throughout the Middle East, killing all of our actual and potential enemy combatants, and their wives and children. On September 13, the war would have been over and won, without a single American life lost.

Yes, we need a woman in the White House, but not the one who’s running.”

Suprising that such filth would come out of a person with probable JAPANESE ancestry -considering what Americans did to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I digress…

And will the LSE, still under the spotlight for the Gaddafi fiasco, send a clear signal that it will not tolerate its brand being associated with the kind of eugenic discussion that Kanazawa seems intent on engendering? After all, he has been here before. In November 2006, Kanazawa published a paper in the British Journal of Health Psychology alleging that African states were poor and suffered chronic ill-health because their populations were less intelligent than people in richer countries.
Or are we back to allowing science to be used to justify prejudice?

Israeli forces violently arrest demonstrators (including American, Dutch, German and Canadian nationals) in al-Walaja

2011-05-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

Israeli forces violently arrest demonstrators (including American, Dutch, German and Canadian nationals) in al-Walaja | Occupied Palestine | فلسطين

At 11 AM on al-Nakba remembrance day, 500 residents from the West Bank village of al-Wallajeh and international supporters marched towards the Israeli Apartheid Wall. The Wall was built to separate the villagers from their original land from which they were expelled in 1948. The demonstration was violently attacked by the Israeli military with rubber coated steal bullets, tear gas and protesters were beaten
with batons and rifles. One youth was hospitalized after being injured by a rubber coated steal bullet .

Eight Palestinians including twins aged 11 and 6 internationals (American, Dutch, German and Canadian nationals) were arrested. The army proceeded to raid the village and invade each house, searching for people who had participated in the demonstrations. The raids as well as confrontations between the army and the village youth are ongoing.

The Arrested Palestinans are:
Mazen Qumsiyah
Basel Al Araj
Ahmed Al Araj
Mohammad Al Araj
Allah And Mohammed Abu Tin 11 year old twins
Tarek Abu Tin
Adel Abu Tin

Detroit's Controversial Library Renovation

2011-05-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Detroit Library Rehab Included Costly Trash Cans: MyFoxDETROIT.com

Controversy Over White House Invite Has Hip Hop Artist Common Feuding With Fox News Host Sean Hannity!

2011-05-12T01:04:00.000-07:00

A "Vile" rapper by the name of Common is attending the White House at the discretion of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. You know the two radicals who are destroying our nation with their "socialist" policies, their lack of judgment, their lavish parties while everyone else is living paycheck to paycheck!

Common who's radical ties to Trinity United Church, you know the church with racist Jeremiah Wright saying "God Damn America" and "America's Chicken's Coming Home To Roost!"

The conservatives will flutter down the comments page defending their actions to go after First Lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama and rapper Common.

Sean Hannity in particular, is not backing down from the controversy. The talker devoted a segment of his radio show and television program to complain about the decision to allow Common to perform at the White House.

He once again goes on and on about the same old narratives that helped Barack Obama win the election.

Conservatives are trying their best to avoid mentioning the recovering economy, the decline in fuel and oil prices, the steady growth in jobs and the killing of Osama bin Laden. They have a pretty weak field of candidates for the Republican nomination. And what's left....

Classic race-baiting.

Osama bin Laden Dead.

2011-05-02T00:24:00.000-07:00

To see America's most wanted terrorist killed in a neighborhood outside of Islamabad, Pakistan, is a thrill to many who lost families on September 11, 2001.

President Barack Obama announced that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed. Republicans who were pushing this bigoted campaign to paint the president as "soft on terrorism" are in spin control.

They Did It!

2011-04-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

They Did It!

Oklahoma GOPer: It's A Fact That 'Blacks' Don't Work As Hard

2011-04-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

Jillian Rayfield

Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R) says that she's seen "a lot of people of color who didn't study hard because they said the government would take care of them."

The remarks came during a debate on an amendment to the state's constitution that would eliminate Affirmative Action in the state government. It was proposed by State Rep. Leslie Osborn (R), who said: "This proposed constitutional amendment makes clear that all men are created equal and should be treated as such by their government. If voters approve this constitutional amendment, state government will not be allowed to discriminate against Oklahoma citizens based on race or gender - period."

Kern voted for the amendment, arguing that minorities earn less because they don't work as hard. "We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that's tragic," Kern said, "but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don't want to study as hard in school?

"I've taught school," she added, "and I saw a lot of people of color who didn't study hard because they said the government would take care of them."

Kern also noted, as the Tulsa World reports, that women don't earn as much money as men because "they tend to spend more time at home with their families."

The proposed amendment passed by a vote of 59-14 Wednesday, after having passed the state Senate. It will get on the ballot in November of 2012.

Kern has a long history of bringing controversy to the Oklahoma House. She has introduced a bill to ban Sharia law in the state, and another that would allow teachers to question evolution. Kern also claimed that "gays are infiltrating city councils" and gay people are "the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat."

Kern did not immediately return TPM's request for comment.

Missouri GOP Leader Jokes About Flooding Poor Black Town!

2011-04-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

Huffington Post article: Republican leader jokes about flooding poor Black majority town. From the hometown of conservative radio king Rush Limbaugh. Cape Girardeau, Missouri State Representative and Speaker of The Missouri House makes a insensitive joke about nearby town Cairo, Illinois being overwhelmed by a potential flooding crisis.

Due to high rains, waters at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers are running dangerously high, and the mayor of Cairo, Illinois, located at the confluence, has asked residents to evacuate the town.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering a plan to destroy a levee, which would lower the floodwaters by a few feet and help protect Cairo. But the state of Missouri has vigorously objected to the plan, because it would badly damage around 130,000 acres of farmland, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Missouri's Republican House Speaker Steve Tilley was asked by reporters about the dilemma. "Would you rather have Missouri farmland flooded or Cairo underwater?" Tilley is asked.

Without hesitation, he replies, "Cairo. I’ve been there. Trust me. Cairo.”

As another reporter prepares to ask another question, Tilley goes on. “Have you been to Cairo? OK, then you know what I’m saying then.”

Cairo, Illinois (pronounced KAY-roh) was at the turn of the 20th century a bustling trade center. The 2,800-person town is now largely abandoned, two-thirds African-American, and deeply impoverished: nearly 50 percent of children under the age of 18 in Cairo live below the poverty level.

Many criticized the Speaker for what they described as insensitivity in the remarks. The Capitol Fax, which posted the video of Tilley's remarks, also has a press release from Illinois State Senator Gary Forby:

During a time when people are being asked to evacuate their homes and leave behind their belongings, it absolutely blows my mind that that type of dialogue is being thrown around by the Missouri Speaker. Not only is it in poor taste, but it absolutely disgusting that Speaker Tilley would joke about putting the lives of Cairo residents at risk by choosing farmland over a community.

The St. Louis Beacon notes that the Speaker has since issued an apology:

"I was asked a question about blowing up a dam in Missouri and the negative consequences that happened to Missouri," Tilley said. "As the speaker of the House, (I believe) my first responsibility is to Missourians. And in my effort to defend them, I went on to say some pretty insensitive and inappropriate remarks about Cairo."

Watch the remarks by Speaker Tilley:

Illinois State Senator Gary Forby (D) is speaking out after a YouTube video was released of Missouri Speaker of the House Steven Tilley (R) saying he would rather see Cairo underwater than Mississippi County, Missouri.

In the video taken by Freelance Reporter Jason Rosenbaum, Tilley, from Perryville, was asked about the plan to intentionally break a levee in Mississippi County.

"I've heard of that," Tilley said Wednesday. "I haven't had an opportunity to visit with the local people and figure out what their, clearly I mean when you start blowing up a levee and you're going to flood thousands of acres of farmland, that's a pretty significant decision and you know, I'd like to take a look at what the alternatives are before I say whether I agree with it or disagree with it."

"Would you rather have Missouri farmland flooded or Cairo underwater?" someone asked Tilley off camera.
"Cairo," Tilley replied. "I've been there, trust me, Cairo."

"Have you been to Cairo?" Tilley asked. "Ok, you know what I'm saying then."

"This is no laughing matter," Senator Forby (D-Benton) said in a released statement. "During a time when people are being asked to evacuate their homes and leave behind their belongings, it absolutely blows my mind that this type of talk is being thrown around by the Missouri Speaker. He should be ashamed of himself."
Tilley apologized for Thursday in another YouTube interview posted by Freelance Reporter Jason Rosenbaum.

"I was asked a question about blowing up a dam in Missouri and the negative consequences that happened to Missouri," Tilley said. "As the Speaker of the House my first responsibility is Missourians and in my effort to defend them I went on to say I think some pretty insensitive and inappropriate remarks about Cairo. I want to apologize for them and I think politicians that say something stupid or say something incorrect should admit that they say something dumb. And so first, if anyone that I offended in Cairo I apologize. I certainly wish no ill will to Cairo. I will continue to fight for the citizens of southeast Missouri and the farmers and the residents there, but it shouldn't have led to any kind of inappropriate comments about Cairo. For that I regret it."