Gerald Ford, R.I.P.

Former president Gerald Ford dies at 93.

Former president Gerald R. Ford, who inherited the daunting task of calming a divided nation when he assumed the presidency at the height of the Watergate scandal, died Tuesday at the age of 93

More on the late Gerald Ford, please go to:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-12-26-ford-obit_x.htm

Bush Remembers Ford's Integrity
Ford pardon sealed Watergate shut
Important Dates in Ford's Life

USA Today's Tribute To James Brown

Here are several more James Brown tributes:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/listenup/2006/12/james_brown_a_2.html

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061227/NEWS01/312270003

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-12-25-brown-obit_x.htm?csp=34

James Brown, R.I.P.

The Godfather of Soul James Brown died today at age 73. His music influenced generations of people around the world. Many artists today owe their success to Mr. Brown. His influences reached to funk, rap, R&B, rock, and hip hop. He is best known for his songs such as "Papa's gotta Brand New Bag", "A Man's World," "I'm Black and I'm Proud," "Living In America," "Please, Please, Please," among his many songs. May he rest in peace, always.

James Brown (1933-2006)


Links on the late singer James Brown:

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/entertainment/james_brown
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/viewer/index.php?pid=1
http://music.yahoo.com/ar-289615---James-Brown
James Brown's 'Soul on Top' Reissued
A Legend Dies from CNN News Network
The influence of soul 'Godfather'
James Brown Top 10 singles
James Brown- The Godfather of Soul Official Site

Bunch of Links 12-22-2006

Here are a bunch of links to various issues of the day:

On Blackprof.com, there are several postings regarding race, aesthethics and interracial marriage, esp. the one on Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel. Click here.
Then there's one on one grandmother's objection to the casting of a black dancer in a Christmas ballet, The Nutcracker. Click here.

Sailerfraud writes an entry on a xenophobic congressman who doesn't want to see Muslims aspire to higher political offices of this nation. Click here. The article also appears in Crooks and Liars. Check here.

David "the bigot" Yeagley is at it again with his bigotry and is lashing out at fellow Native Americans who don't share his racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynistic views he espouse on a daily basis on his website. The article at the counter-Yegley website is "What's Wrong With David?"

Xenophobes just can't take a break from their insecurities!

Mr. David "The Hater" Yeagley on Barack Obama

His stupidity gets worse every time he writes anything about people of Color. His latest target of hate is our Senator Barack Obama. He said, among many things, that he's not Black enough and that African-Americans and multiracial African Americans despise Africans. When did he get information like that? He got it from right wing conservatives anxious to divide and conquer people of Color. Here's his rant:

"The Obama Dilemma, the Obama Effect
The Democrat senator from Illinois, Mr. Barak Hussein Obama faces some interesting identity challenges. As Bad Eagle continues to examine the power of linguistics, the usurpation of words, and American political process and American society in general, Mr. Obama provides an opportunity to look at words and names even more closely.
Mr. Obama has been billed as an "African-American," but some commentators have noticed that this isn't exactly true, because Mr. Obama is half white. I say this is still missing the deeper point: Mr. Obama's father is Kenyan, that is African. From Africa. Even Sam Francis (VDARE.com) failed to make this point in his astute assessment of Mr. Obama. African-American, as used in this country, means American Negro--descendent of slave. This is a special heritage, not one that can be or should be manipulated. Mr. Obama is not "African-American" at all, in the American sense of the world. (And, after all, we are in America, lest we forget.)
On the other hand, Mr. Obama accentuates the fact that the name "African-American" for the American Negro is really a misnomer. American Negroes, for a number of generations now, are from America, not from Africa at all. They have no connect but for their genes. Most American Negroes know little or nothing about Africa, and couldn't care less, usually. (Some, like Keith Richberg, actually despise Africa.) "African-American" depicts no connection with Africa, but for historic origins of the race. American Negroes have outgrown all meaningful linguistic, religious, or cultural associations with anything nominally African. Their behavioral characteristics, though maintaining some possible similarities, have come to be understood as "American" Negroe, not African.
So, Mr. Obama is technically truly African-American, but in a sense of the word entirely foreign to way the American Negro uses the word. "

For more of his BS, click here.

Can he keep his pen to himself for once!

Rudy Youngblood

Awww... Isn't he just the handsomest new actor on the block? He's Rudy Youngblood in Mel Gibson's Apocalypto.

Already, we have some haters who are so jealous of him. David "the bigot" Yeagley is one. He's so resentful that a person of color is making it in Hollywood and is good-looking. He make so much of his race that he's blind to see talent when it's in front of him. So resentful that he writes not one, but two articles disparaging him.

Memo to Dave: If you don't have anything nice to say, be quiet and keep your evil thoughts to yourself. He's going to be a bigger star.

White Weddings- Part Two

Here are several links dealing with the ideology of white weddings:

Interview with Chrys Ingraham. Click here

Chrys Ingraham's book, White Weddings

An old Slate magazine article concerning the history of antimiscegenation laws in the United states at: White Weddings: The incredible staying power of the laws against interracial marriage.

An analysis on the the popularity of Western-style weddings at Westminster Papers. Click

here

The original ReviewJournal article on the lack of Black brides in bridal magazines. Click here.

Love Has No Color Website. An excellent website that has a wealth of resources regarding racial/ethnic intermarriage and its history in the United States.

Medieval Miscellany peers into class/gender aspects of marriage.

WHITE WEDDINGS

Here's an article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal saying that Brides of Color are rare in bridal magazines.



WHITE WEDDINGS: Bridal magazines reflect white world Study finds no black women on covers, fewer than 2 percent of brides in ads were black By LAWRENCE MOWER REVIEW-JOURNAL

UNLV assistant professor Erika Engstrom, above, along with University of Missouri assistant professor Cynthia Frisby, conducted a study that found that black brides are severely underrepresented in conventional bridal magazines. Photo by Craig L. Moran.
Thoughts of getting married generate images of white -- white dresses, white flowers and white wedding cakes.
But according to a recent study, they also generate images of white brides. White, thin and attractive brides, to be precise.


Women of different ethnic groups, particularly black brides, are continuously left out of advertising and content of the three major bridal magazines, creating a reflection of which group of people should get married in American society, according to Cynthia Frisby, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia.
Frisby, along with Erika Engstrom, assistant dean of the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, conducted a study that found fewer than 2 percent of brides featured in the three major bridal magazines were black.
The sampling consisted of covers and advertisements in 57 randomly selected issues of Bride's Magazine, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride published between 2000 and 2004.
Of the more than 6,000 ads, fewer than 2 percent featured a black woman as a bride, the study found. No black woman was featured on the cover, and the most frequent image of a black woman in the magazines was as a bridesmaid.
The phenomena points to a larger problem in society and could have negative effects on black women, according to Engstrom.
"It kind of tells black women who is supposed to get married, and basically re-establishes the concept of a white wedding being white," Engstrom said.
Statistics show that black women are less likely to get married than other women.
According to a 2005 U.S. Census report, 43.4 percent of all black women have never been married, a rate that is far higher than for whites, Hispanics and Asians. The national average for women who have never been married is 25.8 percent. Figures from 2004 show that 12.8 percent of the U.S. population is black.
The study, published in the fall 2006 issue of the journal Media Report to Women, also says the lack of black brides in the magazines communicates "a negative assumption that it is better for African Americans to stay in background roles as opposed to positions equal in status and power to their White counterparts."
Bridal magazines, because they consist almost entirely of advertisements for dresses and other wedding products, are an accurate projection of what group of people businesses cater to, according to Engstrom.
"Bridal magazines are basically a specialized form of publication. It kind of tells us something about society in general."
The results were little changed since a similar study looked at bridal magazines in 1999, she said.

"Despite significant improvements in media representations of African Americans," the study stated, "images appearing in popular bridal magazines are fairly homogenous, and contribute to the notion African American women seem to be socially unimportant in this form of media."
Bridal magazines are available that cater to women of color, such as Brides Noir, but the report said those were insufficient and shouldn't be viewed as substitutes.
"We believe such demarcation between 'White' bridal magazines and 'Black' bridal magazines only emphasizes segregation of races," the report stated.
The study suggests advertisers, not readers, could be the only party interested in seeing only white brides.
"Whether bridal industry advertisers and those who publish bridal magazines believe this or not remains to be seen," the report stated.

For more reading on the racial/class/gender aspect of the bridal industry, please read Chrys Ingram's White Weddings.

Update: Keith Turner Sentenced

Keith Turner Sentenced to 90 Years in Prison
01:20 PM CST on Monday, December 11, 2006
From 11 News staff reports

A 17-year-old suburban teen was sentenced Monday to 90 years in prison in the brutal attack of a Hispanic boy who was beaten, kicked, stomped, burned and sodomized with the plastic pole of a patio umbrella.

For more information on the sentencing of the teen in the hate attack, please go to:

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou061211_ac_turnertrial.1a991b54.html

He got what he deserved!

Links for 12-11-2006

Links for 12-11-2006:

Writer/activist Sonia Sanchez and ten grandmothers were arrested in Philly for trespassing while protesting against the war. Cindy Sheehan isn't the only one protesting against the war. Click here.

Dartmouth's Conservatives (Try to) Demonize Indians by Rob Schmidt

Read that, David Yeagley! Since he's too quick to judge other people except himself.

A suburb of Houston objects to the building of a mosque within the city limits. Click here.

Black Women's Beauty

Why is Black and Mixed Black women's beauty politicized, demeaned, and so controversial to mainstream america?

Two articles discusses what America is so afraid of, i.e., Black women's beauty:

The "Batty" Politic: Toward an Aesthetic of the Black Female Body Janell Hobson.

Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture - Review

What are your thoughts?

Mr. Yeagley's At It Again

Mr. Yeagley's is at it again with his hateful racist remarks on Black folk. He defends the use of the slur in his sickening, hateful article here. It doesn't stops there. He consistently bashes Middle Easterners, Muslims, women in general, Latinos, and just about anyone who isn't a white, christian, American male.

There are articles that counteract his hateful bigotry. There's an article at Davidyeagley.org, sort of like a SteveSailerSucks website that keep tabs on right-wing bigotry.

My fellow BloggerRachel Sullivan has this to say about bigots similar to Mr. Yeagley with two articles on her website. Click here and here to read both articles posted by Ms. Sullivan. Thank you, Rachel for writing the articles.

Links for this week 12-8-2006

Here are some of the links for 12-8-2006:

John Ridley at Chickenbones writes about the disturbing trend of some neoconservative Blacks in blaming Blacks and using hate words in order to curry the favor of mainstream conservatives. Click here.

Christopher Rabb writes an excellent essay on society in general tend to view Black life, especially Black men, less than other people. Read the article from AlterNet here.

Another article, Beyond Blaming Kramer, discusses the use of the "N" word in past and present America.

Also, read some of my favorite essays by astute writer, James Lamb Jr.:

The Revenge of C. DeLores Tucker
The Love Below
Desperate Housewives
The Melanin Machine
Porcelain Goddesses

Bebe Moore Campbell Dies

The following post is from Dr. Lamont Hill Blog:

R.I.P. Bebe
Moore Campbell
Marc Lamont Hill @ 11:44 am
2006 continues to be a
very tough year for Black geniuses. Yesterday, best-selling author Bebe Moore
Campbell died of complications from brain cancer.
In her groundbreaking
novels, Campbell, discussed critical yet sensitive issues in the Black
community, such as racism, poverty, and mental illness. Her detailed characters
and complicated narratives have earned her comparisons to literary legends Edith
Wharton and Anton Checkhov.
In addition to her books, Campbell’s journalism
appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Ebony magazine and
elsewhere.
Born Elizabeth Bebe Moore in Philadelphia, she received a
bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Pittsburgh
before she began a career as a schoolteacher. She married Tiko Campbell. The
couple settled in Washington, D.C., and had a daughter, Maia Campbell, before
the marriage ended in divorce. Campbell later married Ellis Gordon Jr., and they
settled in Los Angeles. They had one son, Ellis Gordon III.She was 56-years
-old.Contributions in her name can be made to the National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill at NAMI Urban Los Angeles, 4305 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
90008; or to the United Negro College Fund, 8260 Willow Oaks Corporate Park
Drive, P.O. Box 10444, Fairfax, VA 22031.
May she forever rest in peace.

Thanks, Dr. Hill.

More on Ms. Campbell's death at:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/11/28/obit.campbell.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Ms. Campbell is known for her books on race/gender relations.
Her first
novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, deals with race relations in
segregated
South. It gotten recognition by the NAACP Image Award back
in 1992.
Her other book, Brothers and Sisters, deals with the
aftereffects of the L.A.
Riots.

May she rest in peace- Stephanie B.

For literary lovers, please visit Bebe Moore Campbell.com

Robert Altman, R.I.P.

Robert Altman dies at 81. He's known for directing the popular TV drama, M.A.S.H. My heart goes out to his family. May he rests in peace.

Tuck Gets Life For Brutal Racist Hate Crime

All I can say, thank goodness that no-good racist is getting life in prison!

Tuck Convicted in the hate crime

Tuck Convicted in Brutal Pipe Attack"

Lee McGuire's 11 News at Noon report Wendell Edwards 11 News at 5 report
HOUSTON -- A Houston jury Thursday convicted the teen described as a neo-Nazi of savagely beating and sodomizing a teen at a party in Spring.

David Henry Tuck, 18, showed no emotion when the verdict was read.

He faces up to life in prison for aggravated sexual assault.

The jury of 10 women and two men took about five hours to reach a verdict.

The victim's family was relieved.

"It's a great uplifting situation today. I mean I think it's just step one," said Carlos Leon, the victim's family attorney. "I mean we're excited, we're happy, but we still have punishment phase. We still have another trial in a month so it's a good first day."

Tuck’s defense attorneys said in closing arguments that their client was innocent and blamed a 16-year-old boy and his 13-year-old sister for the attack. The prosecutor said racial hatred fueled the four- to five-hour attack in which the victim was beaten, kicked and sodomized with the plastic pole of a patio umbrella.

During the trial, 16-year-old Gus Sons and his 13-year-old sister Danielle offered graphic testimony about the attack a party at their home in the Houston suburb of Spring. The youths at the party were drinking, smoking marijuana, snorting cocaine and taking Xanax, according to testimony.

They said the attack was triggered by the victim’s drunken pass at Danielle Sons, then 12, and by an alleged attempt to steal drugs from Gus Sons.

“That day, who had the motive to want to hurt (the victim)? All he is doing is putting Mr. Tuck’s name on what he did,” defense attorney Ken Goode said.

The defense called Gus Sons a "lying scumbag" and said his testimony isn't nearly enough to convict Tuck.

An earlier defense witness testified Danielle Sons told her she participated in the attack.

Trent told the jury of six white people, five black people and one Hispanic that the Sons siblings were not likable but they were telling the truth. He also reiterated earlier comments about Tuck being a skinhead and a neo-Nazi.

“They wanted to kill him, violate him in any way they could,” Trent said of Tuck and 17-year-old Turner, who will be tried separately in the attack. “This man is guilty of about the most heinous crime you will ever see where the victim survived.”

Hinton told jurors the attack was not racially motivated, despite testimony referring to swastikas on Tuck’s possessions.

“You’ve heard about the swastikas and all that stuff; that’s not what this case is about,” he said. “It’s about a bunch of guys all messed up on drugs and someone wound up getting hurt.”

Defense attorneys said there was no physical evidence linking the pole to Tuck or Turner, who is being tried next month.

They said authorities didn’t find any of the victim’s blood on Tuck’s knife, and that they never tested a knife that Sons had.

Trent said Tuck and Turner probably cleaned the knife while pouring bleach all over the victim’s body. He also told jurors the victim’s blood was found all over Tuck’s clothing.

The victim, who was seated with his family near the front row during closing arguments, testified Wednesday he remembered nothing of the assault. He glared at Tuck while sitting on the witness stand.

The victim is a high school senior who spent more than three months in a hospital recovering from his injuries. He initially was not expected to survive. He told jurors he has undergone 20 to 30 surgeries.

The victim’s family has said it believes the attack was a hate crime and law.

Authorities have said they didn’t prosecute it as a hate crime because it wouldn’t affect the possible punishment.

The punishment phase of the trial begins Friday at 10 a.m.

link:

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou01116_ac_tuckclosingarguments.41a3e5dc.html

Hate Crime in Houston

This came to me from Ann via e-mail. Please take a look at this video of a racially-motivated hate crime by two skinheads in Houston several months ago. Please view the video and please don't tell me that these are exceptional. They're not. They're part of the climate of intolerance and bigotry that is curren

From 11 News Staff Reports

Click to watch video

It is up to a judge to decide whether jurors will be allowed to see a videotaped confession from a teen accused of a brutal sexual assault of a schoolmate.
Prosecutors showed David Tuck's videotape in court Friday.

Tuck, 18, and his friend Keith Turner, 17, are accused of attacking and sodomizing a teenager at a party last April.

Friday Tuck’s attorneys asked the judge to stop the video from being shown next week when his client's trial gets underway.

HCSO
David Tuck's videotaped confession
Tuck’s trial on aggravated sexual assault charges.

Friday's reveal of the tape showed Tuck sitting down and saying he wanted to tell his side of the story.

Tuck tells detectives that he just started swinging and didn’t know what he was doing.
"All I know is I started swinging. I blacked out. I didn't know what I was doing and that's why I had blood on my pants," said Tuck in the video.

Tuck said all he did was use his fists and that's why he was sore.
He also told detectives he didn't use a weapon.

When one of the detectives asked about a pike and whether Tucker and Turner used it on the victim, Tuck asked to see a lawyer.

Authorities said that during a gathering last April, the two white suspects attacked the Hispanic teen, stomping him in the head with steel-toe boots. They then sodomized him with the plastic pole from a patio-table umbrella into which they had poured bleach, then doused the boy’s body in bleach.

Through the attack, Tuck and Turner shouted racial slurs, authorities said, prompting a push for tougher hate crime laws.

They nearly killed the teen who suffered severe internal injuries, cuts on his chest and head injuries.

KHOU-TV
Police said David Henry Tuck and Keith Robert Turner showed no remorse.


He was hospitalized for weeks, but is now recovering and has returned to school.
Some youths who were at the home where the boy was attacked later that night have said they smoked marijuana and took Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, while there.

Tuck and Turner have told investigators they beat the boy because he kissed a 12-year-old girl at the home.

Neighbors and schoolmates of Tuck described him as a skinhead with Nazi tattoos who had terrorized the neighborhood.

In one instance, David Tuck angered families in his subdivision when he trained young children to bow down and praise Hitler, said Richard Rogers, Tuck’s next-door neighbor.

Alvaro Rivera, who lives near Tuck, said he once had to stop his car because Tuck was frozen in a Nazi salute, blocking Rivera, whose and wife and children were in the car. Rivera said Tuck and his friends laughed at the family as they drove by.

Two years ago, Tuck hung a swastika flag above the family’s garage but it was later taken down on subdivision officials’ orders, Rogers said.

KHOU-TV
David Henry Tuck's trial is scheduled to begin Monday.

On Martin Luther King Day about two years ago, Tuck paraded in his neighborhood with a swastika flag, said high school classmates Jason Savage and Tommy Peterson.

Tuck’s mother, Sharon Tuck, 54, has denied her son has Nazi sympathies.


"Savage beating suspect wants taped confession out of trial"

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou061110_jj_sodomizesuspectincourt.22ba052b.html


Thanks Ann for the article and the accompanied links.

Gerald Levert, R.I.P.

Gerald Levert Dies at age 40.

Another great has passed from this good earth. This time the talented singer Gerald Levert, the son of Eddie Levert of the legendary O'Jays.

He left a legacy of hits, starting with Casanova and (Pop Pop Pop Pop) Blows My Mind back in 1987. Also the hit 1991 duet with his dad, Baby Hold On To Me. His latest songs include Thinking About It on his last CD.

More on Mr. Levert, please click here.

Also, leave your condolences at Gerald Levert .com

My heart goes out to the Levert family. May he rests in peace!

Gerald Levert (1966-2006)

Teena Marie

Soulful after all those years in the music business. She has a beautiful, talented daughter, Alia Rose, following her footsteps. She even have a part in both of her mother's latest CDs, La Dona and Sapphire, respectively.

Here's an article on Teena Marie back in 2004 at:

http://www.soulshine.ca/news/newsarticle.php?nid=579

Ed Bradley, R.I.P.

Ed Bradley dies at 65.

Ed Bradley of CBS Dies by Louis Hau, Forbes.com

Ed Bradley, the veteran CBS News correspondent, died Thursday of leukemia at the age of 65, CBS reported.
Bradley, who was with the television network for 35 years, was best known for his long tenure as a correspondent for the CBS (nyse: CBS - news - people ) news magazine show 60 Minutes, which he joined in 1981.
In contrast to the confrontational style of his 60 Minutes colleague Mike Wallace, Bradley approached his interviews with sensitivity and empathy, which served him well whether he was speaking with Muhammad Ali, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak or Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who granted Bradley his only TV interview.
A particularly memorable example of Bradley's deft touch was his 1981 interview with Lena Horne, during which the singer opened up about the pain she endured early in her career trying to succeed in a white-dominated entertainment industry.
The interview snared Bradley an Emmy Award, one of 19 he would eventually win. Bradley also garnered the George Foster Peabody Award, the George Polk Award and the Overseas Press Club Award during his career.
Bradley was a native of Philadelphia, where started his broadcasting career in 1963 as a reporter for WDAS Radio, a focal point for the local African-American community.
Last year, the National Association of Black Journalists honored Bradley with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In his acceptance speech, Bradley recalled how much things had changed for minority journalists during his career.
"It doesn’t seem like it was a lifetime ago when we held the first [NABJ] meetings in New York – just a small band of brothers and sisters new to this business of journalism,'' he said. "There weren’t many of us then but we knew we needed to be together…I look around this room tonight and I can see how much our profession has changed and our numbers have grown…All I have to do is turn on the TV and I can see the progress that has been made.”

More on Ed's untimely passing at:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/09/obit.bradley/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Love on Trial: The Alice Rhinelander Story

In the 1920s, interracial marriages were at the center of controversy. None of them compare to the controversy involving the Jones and Rhinelander families of NY.

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/04needs/sex05.htm

Here's an article written by Seattle Weekly on the 1925 case:

Skin-crossed lovers
A failed interracial romance can't escape scrutiny.
By Judy
Lightfoot
LOVE ON TRIAL: AN AMERICAN SCANDAL IN BLACK AND WHITEby Earl
Lewis and Heidi Ardizzone (W.W. Norton & Company, $26.95)
AT THE HEIGHT
of the Roaring Twenties, Kip Rhinelander, the wealthy son of white New York
plutocrats, fell in love with Alice Jones, an attractive young woman of
mixed-race ancestry who occasionally worked as a domestic. In 1924, after a
three-year romance that included the exchange of nearly a thousand love letters,
they married. Almost immediately, a court battle began that gave newspapers
throughout the nation front-page stories for more than a year: Rhinelander
sought an annulment, alleging that Jones had deceived him into thinking she was
white.
Could a member of the elite class in a racist society have failed to
notice, after spending countless hours with the Jones family, the dark skin of
his lover's father and brother? Prior to the marriage, hadn't Rhinelander told a
friend that he didn't care what race Jones belonged to? Was Rhinelander's
father, a bigoted real-estate magnate worth millions, secretly forcing his son
to seek an annulment so the family name would stay "pure"? What did Jones'
racial identity mean, anyway? Did the fact that her father was born in England
give his skin color a different significance?
Historians Earl Lewis and Heidi
Ardizzone address such questions in Love on Trial: An American Scandal in Black
and White, a well-researched social history aimed at a general audience. It's a
fascinating, suspenseful (if sometimes redundantly told) tale of interracial
love in an era of radical change. The book alternates dramatic episodes in the
lives of the main characters with lively commentary on race, immigration, class,
female sexuality, and popular media during the Jazz Age.
Especially
interesting is the theme that American ideas about race have always been
shifting social constructions. Sometimes a drop of blood in the veins made a
person black; sometimes people were categorized as octoroons, quadroons,
coloreds, Negroes, and mulattoes; sometimes those with a black ancestor came to
be considered white if they had pale skin, European parents, and no connection
to the black community. But, as this book vividly shows, all such definitions
had a common purpose: to maintain clear boundaries between the races, even after
blacks and whites were made equal under law throughout the U.S., and mixed-race
marriages were legalized in many states, including New York.
AMERICA'S
NEWSPAPERS and judicial system supported this policing of racial lines. During
the Rhinelander trial, reporters described Jones as "dusky," a "tropical
beauty," or "of a Spanish complexion," and photos of her face were captioned
with the question that readers were expected to agonize over: "Does she look
like a Negro?" The judge actually approved a motion by attorneys to have Jones
disrobe before the jury and reveal her true color.
The trial was an ordeal
for both parties. Sometimes the press and the court made Rhinelander appear to
be "an example of what wealth and privilege produced: inarticulate,
self-centered, powerful, frivolous, and carnal." Sometimes they painted him as
stupid and gullible, seduced by a lascivious, dark-hearted vamp whose sole
desire was to enter the upper class.
Yet Jones told reporters she felt
indifferent about questions of social status and didn't see "a single wholesome
thing in the life of the so-called 400 [best families]." She quietly insisted
that she married Rhinelander because she loved him. Rhinelander's physician
testified at the trial that Jones' tender affection for her lover had begun to
heal his chronic stammer and other nervous afflictions. We'll never know the
true quality of this relationship or the true motives of either partner. These
stories were destroyed, along with the marriage itself, by the one told in court
and by the national media.
Love on Trial unforgettably dramatizes the
American use of race to define the self, decide what others are like, and draw
lines that separate or connect the self and others. Even now, 75 years after the
Rhinelander scandal, the habit is hard for many of us to shake.

A Hard-Hitting Essay On the State of Hip Hop

James Lamb Jr. delivers a hard-hitting essay on the state of Hip Hop today. He contends that today's Hip Hop culture resembles the slave past when Black bodies are up on the auction block for sale and profit. Here's the link to the article at:

http://www.jameslambjr.com/2006/10/revenge-of-c-delores-tucker.html

Read the article. Then discuss it with a friend or a fellow blogger.

The Latoyia Figueroa Trial

Finally, Latoyia's family is receiving justice. The murder trial of Mr. Poaches began on October 13th. This man is responsible for the disappearance and murder of Latoyia Figueroa, 25, last July. She has been the focus of the media's inattention to missing women of Color.

Here are the links:'

Trial Opens in Slaying of Latoyia:

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15747395.htm?
source=rss&channel=dailynews_local

Latoyia's Dad: He Deserves What He Got:

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15785307.htm?
source=rss&channel=dailynews_local

Defendant unfazed by Figueroa's rotting corpse:

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15777208.htm?source=rss&channel=dailynews_local

Guilty in death of pregnant girlfriend:

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061017/NEWS/61017041


Man Guilty Of Slaying Girlfriend Who Refused Abortion:

http://www.wgal.com/news/10101859/detail.html?rss=lan&psp=nationalnews

Sailerfraud gave me the article on how mainstream media almost always focus on beautiful young white middle class women who are missing. Latoyia's case is the exception. Even that came about because of the pressure from bloggers and concerned people around the world.

http://www.latoyiafigueroa.faithweb.com/

Latoyia, Rest in peace always.

A Counter-Yeagley Website

Finally, a website written by a thoughtful academic that counteract all the lies of David Yeagley. Mr. Yeagley's hatred of humanity must be challenged by all good people around the world.

http://www.davidyeagley.org/

The Subversiveness of BF/WM Marriage

Black women. White men. Now that’s subversive.
Posted by marthasouthgate on Sunday, April 24th, 2005 at 12:35 pm


Nicholas D. Kristoff sounds off on Hollywood’s refusal to feature an interracial on-screen romance, despite the explosion of interracial marriages.
As of the 2000 census, 6 percent of married black men had a white wife, and 3 percent of married black women had a white husband — and the share is much higher among young couples.
Yet …
… When will Hollywood dare release a major movie in which Denzel Washington and Reese Witherspoon fall passionately in love?
For all the gains in race relations, romance on the big screen between a black man and a white woman remains largely a taboo. Americans themselves may be falling in love with each other without regard to color, but the movie industry is still too craven to imitate life.
I agree wholeheartedly with Kristof. Hollywood is behind the curve on reflecting how race is lived in America. That goes for movies and television.
But one thing keeps hanging me up in this discussion of portrayals of race in mass media. Why is the black man-white woman relationship seen as the epitome of racial progress in America?We’ve had this discussion before.
The simple answer is that black men and white women elicit angry stares and death threats.
Don’t be fooled: White women deliver stares that are just as angry — I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Ironically, the white dude involved was a multi-racial Nuyorican who just came out looking white. And black men? They assume that black women who date white men are are just out for dough.
But the truth is more complex (and I posted this same thing a few minutes ago in the comments of a previous post).
As Rajen Persaud explained in an MLive.com article last month:
The stereotypes, especially that of the hypersexual and aggressive black male and the virtuous, pure white female, are a result of social engineering by slave owners of old. They desired a society that would condone slavery, so they created images that would dehumanize blacks and exalt whites.
In other words, the reason why black woman-white men relationships don’t get the hype is because black women have been deemed inferior. We’re either overweight, asexual, undesirable mammies, or hypersexual, always ready never-say-no Jezebels.
That’s why white men get so upset about seeing “their women” with black men (What? Dating down? Couldn’t find a white man who’d want you?). It’s why white women get so upset about seeing a white man with a black woman (Why would you want her? I mean, she’s not as good as a white woman.)
And here’s the kicker: it’s the same reason why black men get so upset about seeing a black woman with a white man (I’m sayin: I’m cool. I got a big dick and e’erythang. Why does she want ol’ lil dick Oppie? It must be the money.)
So to me, the true sign of racial equality in society and Hollywood would be black women being loved (by folks generally, but whites in particular) — and not as rescue projects, prostitutes, or struggling single mothers who have just lost their children and wind up sacrificing their dignity and self-worth trying to change the hearts and minds of racist cops (*cough* “Monster’s Ball” *cough*) — but as equals.

An Interesting Debate on Slavery and Rape

There's an interesting debate on DarKush regarding slave rapes of Black women during slavery and beyond:

http://darkush.blogspot.com/

As usual, Ann nailed it down to a T! Please read and meditate on her comments to Steve Barnes at:

http://www.haloscan.com/tb/sebarnes/116051650881522459

I hope he gets it this time around.

Tamara Dobson, R.I.P.

Tamara Dobson(1947-2006)

Star of Cleopatra Jones Films Dies By Associated Press

Tamara Dobson, the tall, stunning model-turned-actress who portrayed a strong female role as Cleopatra Jones in two "blaxploitation" films, has died. Dobson, 59, died Monday of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis at the Keswick Multi-Care Center, where she had lived for the past two years, her publicist said. At 6 feet, 2 inches tall, Dobson was striking as the kung-fu fighting government agent Cleopatra Jones in 1973. She reprised the role in 1975's "Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold." "She was not afraid to start a trend," said her brother, Peter Dobson, of Houston. "She designed a lot of the clothing that so many women emulated." Dobson also appeared in "Come Back, Charleston Blue," "Norman, Is That You?" "Murder at the World Series" and "Chained Heat." She had TV roles in the early 1980s in "Jason of Star Command" and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century." Dobson lived most of her adult life in New York, her family said. She was diagnosed six years ago with multiple sclerosis.

More on Tamara Dobson at:

FOX News.com: Tamara Dobson Dies

New Blog Dedicated to Black Women

Ann has a new blog called "Beautiful Also Are The Souls of My Black Sisters"

or URL:


Let's support our beautiful Sister of Color by assisting her first blog!

Way to go, Ann!

Sheriff: Race a factor in kidnap case

Sheriff: Race a factor in kidnap case
By KATHARINE WEBSTER, Associated Press Writer

SALEM, N.H. - A Maine couple accused of tying up their 19-year-old daughter, throwing her in their car and driving her out of state to get an abortion were upset because the baby's father is black, a Maine sheriff said Tuesday.

Katelyn Kampf, who is white, told Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion that her mother "was pretty irate at the fact that the child's father was black, and she had made a number of disparaging remarks about that," he said.

Katelyn Kampf escaped Friday at a Salem shopping center and called police, who arrested her parents, Nicholas Kampf, 54, and Lola, 53, both real estate developers from North Yarmouth, Maine.

The Kampfs were apparently taking their daughter to New York to try to force her to get an abortion there, police said.

The parents were arraigned Monday on kidnapping charges. The judge set bail at $100,000 each and ordered the Kampfs to have no contact with their daughter. They posted bail Tuesday afternoon.

If convicted of kidnapping, the Kampfs face 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison. Dion said he expects to bring charges in Maine also, after investigators consult with the district attorney Wednesday.

Defense attorney Mark Sisti said Tuesday that a sworn statement by Salem police who interviewed both Katelyn Kampf and her parents said nothing about the father's race.

"This whole race-card thing is ridiculous and objectionable," said Sisti, who represented both of the Kampfs for their arraignment Monday, but is now representing only Lola Kampf. "There wasn't any mention in the sworn affidavit to the court about race being a factor in any way, shape or form."

Sisti also maintained there was no evidence a kidnapping had taken place in New Hampshire. The sworn affidavit said Katelyn described talking cordially with her parents during the trip from Maine.

But Salem Police prosecutor Ryan McFarland said in court Monday the Kampfs had their passports, rope, a rifle and ammunition in the car. He argued they posed a danger if released and could flee the country.

Dion said Katelyn Kampf told him her parents got upset when she called them Thursday night and told them she was pregnant. The Kampfs had met her boyfriend before and been friendly, but the pregnancy apparently "changed the dynamic," he said.

Katelyn Kampf said her mother "kept referring to the baby as a thing, as 'It,' and there were other comments made," he said.

They invited Katelyn, who is living in Portland with her boyfriend's mother, Peggy Johnson, to come to their house Friday morning. Dion would not say whether the Kampfs were already prepared to abduct their daughter when she arrived.

In a court affidavit, Salem Police Officer Sean Marino wrote that Katelyn told him her parents "chased her out into the yard, grabbed and tied her hands and feet together." Her father carried her to the car and they headed to New Hampshire, he wrote.

Katelyn Kampf escaped from her parents in Salem after persuading them to untie her so she could use a Kmart bathroom, police said. After her father went into the men's room, she ran to a nearby Staples store and used her father's cell phone, which she had swiped, to call 911, police said.

The boyfriend, 22-year-old Reme Johnson, last week began serving a 6-month sentence for theft at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, Maine. He also has previous felony convictions for burglary and receiving stolen property, the Portland Press Herald reported. He is also a self-styled hip-hop artist who has gone by the name Young Merk.

Authorities in Maine said the parents apparently thought that, in light of their daughter's stage of pregnancy and the different abortion laws in each state, the abortion should be performed in New York. It was unclear how many weeks pregnant she was.

Big Box Retailers and Race/Class in Chicago

Mayor Daley vetoes minimum wage for Walmart.



Click here

Black women demand respect

Here's another article on Black Women. Ms. McCloud is right on the money on how mass media and politicians attack Black Women. Let's not include Black men in it, for they too also benefit from Black Womens' degradation by society at large. Look at MTV, BET, the networks, cable, magazines, newspapers, hate radio, media pundits. They all have a role in the devaluation of Black women and girls. The hatred continues to spread to all quarters of American society. We export those hateful views around the world today. Here's the article below:



By MELODY McCLOUD
Published on: 09/12/06
Black women demand respect

Why are black women so increasingly ignored, abhorred, disrespected and rejected in this country?

Who declared "open season" on us, and why?

Increasingly over the past decade, the media have projected images of black women as battered about, cast down, kicked aside, ignored, denigrated and disrespected at the will of all who take delight and sport in doing so. It is tantamount to a public flogging in the modern-day town square — the media, the Internet, TV, movies and music videos.

The latest venue? The University of Georgia in Athens, where Chi Phi fraternity pledges flashed naked images of black women to passers-by. Why? Because they could. It's acceptable sport in the 21st century. They're just black women; who cares? One student told a reporter he thought it was funny. It's not.

The late comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, enjoyed a lifetime of fame and fortune and received many a laugh saying, "I don't get no respect." Many of today's black women may feel Dangerfield's battle cry is one they, too, can claim. But hardly any are laughing.

More and more, black male models and actors are readily cast opposite white and Hispanic women, to the blatant, total exclusion of black women. Magazine ads frequently engage colorism — favoring light-skinned blacks over brown-skinned ones. Lighter black women often get the sexy ads and poses; they're positioned to look soft and desirable while brown-skinned women are posed stern, frowning and even masculine with bald heads.

It also seems that the media are ever eager to show black women as "crazy " — think U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), model Naomi Campbell, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth of the TV show "The Apprentice" and others — but won't allow others to be heard or seen. It seems, "well, there's Oprah," so that's all the room they'll allow for "good" black women.

Sadly, too, those blacks in position to present black women in a better light, including Oprah, often fail to do so. Tyler Perry and Martin Lawrence, more so, get rich on the image of the fat, gun-toting, loud black granny.

Shonda Rhimes, the black female creator/producer of "Grey's Anatomy," has the black male character sleeping with Asian Sandra Oh (who brushes her teeth in the kitchen sink), while Chandra Wilson, the lone black actress on the show, is "the Nazi."

And MTV — whose president, Christina Norman, is a black woman — recently aired a cartoon to young Saturday morning viewers entitled "Where My Dogs At," which had black women squatting on all fours, tethered to leashes. In 2004, U.S. Army reservist Sgt. Lynndie England subjected Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib to the same denigration and was convicted and sentenced to prison. Where is the justice for black women?

Someone must speak out against this societal poison. White women aren't going to say anything because they readily benefit from negative images of black women. Many white men — media executives, and obviously some UGA frat brothers — are having too much fun and cash flow at the expense of black women's dignity and social value; and sadly, many black men are inexplicably silent, standing on the sidelines.

This year, I wrote Marc Cherry, creator of the hit show "Desperate Housewives." Normally, to see a black woman get a recurring role in the No. 1 prime-time network program would be a major coup, a step in the right direction for American media and black imagery. But alas, once again, the lone black woman — on a show that mostly deals with sexy, alluring women with kinky trysts and family matters — is portrayed as a psychopath who chains her son in the basement.

I suggest congressional hearings to effect a tangible change in the depiction of women in music videos. Black women who participate in such videos must stop; there are better, more respectful ways to gain acceptance. Black men need to step forward: Say and do something. Honor your women. Speak to young boys.

Black film and music producers need to be socially conscious and think what effect the images they set forth have on the community and the world. White media and ad executives must advance past colorism; they also need to cast black actresses and models of all hues in loving, desirable roles.

White parents need to stop teaching racist attitudes to their offspring. And UGA students need to find something else to do in the town square. Denigrating and disrespecting black women is not a sport. It's sad that members of the Chi Phi fraternity think it is.


Dr. Melody McCloud is a physician and writer living in Roswell.

Find this article at:

Atlanta Journal: Black Women Demands Respect

Links for 9-7-06

Devon Carbardo has written a post at BlackProf about racial profiling in dating/marriage ads. It's entitled Race and Desire

There's another article in Blackprof regarding racial stereotypes and academic achievement, Stereotypes and the Achievement Gap. This article appears around the same time news reports keep telling us that there's a real gap between Whites and People of Color with regards to internet access. In my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, city leaders are doing their best in making sure that internet access is available to all. I give Dayton Public Schools and the Dayton Metro Library System my props for making internet access available for all people. Keep up the good work! This is all I have for today, folks.

Rachel's Excellent Post on Transracial Adoption

Rachel's post on Reframing Transracial Adoption on her blog is excellent. She tells about mainstream media's tendency to posit transracial adoption in dichonomous terms such as good white parent vs. bad black parent, etc. She also wrote that media outlets have gone overboard on the black/white aspect of TR adoption while ignoring Asian, Latino, Native American children adopted by White couples. In fact, while Whites overwhelmingly adopt children from their own race, they adopt far more nonblack children of color than Black/Biracial Black ones. The media has it all wrong on that account.

Fetishizing Multiracials- Tired Junk

The media never gets it. Here they go again perpetuating such nonsense. Can academia and media pundits accept the humanity of multiracial people without resorting to fetishism and objectification? This book, Breeding Between The Lines by Mr. Ziv not only fetishize multiracials but sexualizes them as well. Mixed Media Watch has the good sense to reject it but bigoted pseudoscientists such as Steve Sailer endorsed it. There's a thread at AABLC.com regarding this stupid book.

I've seen enough fetishization of multiracials from Hollywood, mainstream media, BET, MTV, Madison Avenue, and, of course, academia. They cannot accept the fact that multiracials are human beings like everyone else. It's time to accept the humanity of all!

Aaliyah- Five Years Later

I really missed my Aaliyah. She would have been 27 this year and have a very successful music/acting career by now. Her life was cut terribly short by a plane accident in 2001. Aaliyah's influence is still felt in the music world, with singers such as Beyonce, Ashanti, Ciara, Christina Milian, Keyshia Cole, Cassie, and Teirra Mari today.
Here are several websites dedicated to Aaliyah's memory:

Aaliyah.com

A weeping willow tree in Aaliyah's memory at Central Park

AaliyahOnline.com

May Aaliyah rest in peace, always in our hearts and minds!

Negative Views on Black Women

I came across a conservative website on the internet just to be curious. One of the articles deal with the attractiveness of Black women. It's an old entry but let me tell you, it's racist, sexist, and offensive. Here's the link:

Black Chicks


and this one. Click Here

These people have perfected the fine art of Black woman bashing. We're not gold-digging predators, okay?

Then read the article by one author defending Black women:

Click here

Hurricane Katrina- One Year Later

Here are some articles on Hurricane Katrina and its effects upon the national soul. I hope people get a chance to read these articles. Spike Lee has a movie documentary on Katrina. I hope people go home and watch it tonight. Over the past year, there were and still divisions, mean spirted commentaries by powerful media pundits on the behavior of Black, Brown, Creole, and poor people of Southern Louisiana, the nasty comment by House speaker on the condition of New Orleans.

Here are just several of the articles:

Spike Lee Turns Camera on Katrina

A Year Later, Hurricane Katrina Evacuees Call N.C. Home

Summary Box: Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Michigan

Wynton Marsalis organizes Hurricane Katrina anniversary event in New Orleans

MTV Draws Fire for Cartoon Depicting Black Women on Leashes

More devaluation of Black women. How low can pop culture and society in general can get? MTV is known for its rampant sexism, racism, and homophobia. Here, they no-good network is showing a cartoon depicting black women on leashes. Here's the article from Black America Web:

MTV Under Fire For Cartoon Depicting Black Women on Leashes

Disgusting display of misogyny and racism inherent in the cartoon.
Do yourselves a favor, don't watch MTV or BET. Maybe they'll get the message.

Fashion and Diversity

From Mixed Media Watch.

Please go to: Fashion and Diversity, From Mixed Media Watch

Lack of Food Options in Black Chicago Neighborhoods

In Chicago, Black neighborhoods are far more likely to have fast food restaurants than a grocery store, according to the news article:

In South, West Chicago, More Fast Food Restaurants than Grocery Stores.

Links for this week 8-7-06

Here are a few posts worth looking at for this week:

From Mixed Media Watch:

Military Nicer to IRs

Condoleeza Rice Under Attack in Palestinian Media

From Rachel's Tavern:

Sterotyping and Racism

Breastfeeding Controversy

More Racist and Inappropriate Comments Directed at IRs

From Kim Pearson:

Race and Journalism

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.

Hats off to Ms. Hammad!

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

Overweight, sassy black woman thrives in advertisements

The following article is from the Mixed Media Watch:

Overweight, sassy black woman thrives in advertisements
CVK- Mixed Media Watch

I gotta give props to The New York Times for tackling a subject we discuss a lot on this blog and on our podcast, Addicted to Race. Check out, for example, the rant I did in episode 8 where I counted down the top 8 most racist stereotypes of black men and women perpetuated by the media.

The article discusses the fact that the archetype of the loud, sassy, overweight black woman continues to pop up time after time, especially in advertising. The latest example is a Dairy Queen commercial (I haven’t seen this yet - anyone want to weigh in?) in which one of these black women freaks out after someone accidentally drops luggage on her head.

I’m shocked — shocked! — that Dairy Queen, inventor of the oh-so-cleverly-titled MooLatte (coffee + milk = brown + white, get it?) would be capable of racial insensitivity. Their ad agency, Grey Worldwide, of course claims that the writing and casting process was colorblind:

…the script was not written with a black actress in mind.

“We basically cast the funniest person,” he said. “We didn’t specifically cast for a black woman. We said, ‘Wow, she’s really funny.’ And she happened to be black.”

Uh huh. If the “I can’t be racist, I’m in an interracial relationship!” excuse was the top trend of 2005, then the emerging top trend of 2006 must be using “colorblind” casting as a way to sidestep accusations of racism. We’ve already seen David Crane, producer of the new CBS show “The Class” defend his all-white cast by claiming that they used a colorblind casting process and that the final cast just happened to be the best actors, regardless of color. As I told MacLean’s magazine, I don’t think there is such a thing as “colorblind casting.” All these casting decisions are very, very deliberate. More after the jump…


The NYT article lists other recent commercials that rely on the big, sassy black woman archetype: Pine Sol, Captain Morgan, Twix, Universal Studios, etc. It also does a good job of pointing out that these images are particularly disturbing because for the most part, they are created for white people by white people:

The lack of diversity on Madison Avenue has been a long-standing issue. In fact, the New York City Commission on Human Rights is investigating the hiring practices of advertising agencies in the city and is looking at how they have approached employing blacks…

Ms. Gumbinner and Mr. Cusato of Grey Advertising, however, said no black writers were involved in either of their campaigns.

And because that’s the case, it’s important to look at why people are laughing. Are they laughing with the image or at the image?

Some whites, Ms. Dates said, may laugh thinking, “Wow, she’s so ridiculous. My people aren’t like that.” She added: “They wouldn’t consciously feel that way. But there is something going on subconsciously because that’s what advertising is all about. They’re trying to tap into some feeling, some emotion, some psychological hang-up.”

Blacks, meanwhile, might laugh because they can identify with the character, Ms. Dates said. “It’s for both the people who want to snicker and say, ‘See, that’s how they are.’ And for people to say, ‘There’s one of us.’ ”

As I discussed in episode 21 of Addicted to Race, this issue — who is laughing at racial humor/satire and why are they laughing — is exactly why shows like The Boondocks and The Chappelle Show make me uncomfortable. Of course, Chappelle himself became uncomfortable with this as well and it’s one of the reasons he was driven to walk away from the show. Don’t these types of representations simply give people permission to laugh at and enjoy racist stereotypes?

Check out what other bloggers are saying about this story.

TheThink makes an interesting point about the vague headline NYT chose for the article:

I find it odd that the Times, a U.S. based company, wouldn’t use the word ‘black’ in this title, but an international newspaper, with publishing partnerships in Israel, Greece, South Korea, Japan, Lebanon, Thailand, and Spain (to name a few), would have no problem using the phrase ‘big black women’. Interesting, to say the least.

Shavar Jeffries, writing for blackprof.com, says:

Media is the principal contemporary means through which society transmits cultural norms. Mass media is especially salient on racial matters: because of continued residential segregation, the country comes to know itself, cross-racially, through media. One’s values; one’s political beliefs; one’s family structure: media signals provide cues for us all, cues that concretize into caricatures the longer we live with them.

Ann sums it up in her post:

“What do you think about the white man who is repeatedly stealing the guys frosty oh so good drink ? (the white man is sneaky and steals, and has not self control?)

I would think that all white men are thieves by nature.

For all my life I thought that white men were natural-born rapist because of the racist treatment they dealt out to black women by singling out and targeting black women for rape.

Not white women.

Not Native American women.

Not Latino women.

Not Asian women.

Black women.

I thought this way about white men up to only a few years ago, but, then can you blame me?

America popular culture is rife with stereotypes of black women. Either we are fat, sassy women or the oversexed jezebels. Examples: Bringing Down the House, Monster's Ball, Soul Plane, and the more recent movie, Prairie Home Companion. Remember Maxim's use of caption in describing Persia White? When do we ever get any kind of relief from the haterades in pop culture? Ever? Never? Now? When?

Thanks Carmen V.K. of Mixed Media Watch for being aware and tackling vicious stereotyping black women go through day in and day out.

Dixie Square- Symbolic of Disinvestment in the First Suburbia

I recently went to Dixie Square.com to see what is all about. And what I saw was unbelievable, but not surprised, for I live in an inner suburb in Ohio. Dixie Square is a symbolic of the disinvestment of poor, working, and middle class first suburbs that are home to many people of color. I think corporations and institutions deliberately encourage disinvestment in the communities mentioned.

Here are several links to this depressing mall in America. I'm sure that there are many

Wikipedia: Dixie Square Mall

Dixie Square: The Movie

What are your thoughts?

Rich, Poor Live Poles Apart in L.A.

The gap between the rich and the poor is widening at an alarming rate. Soon, this country would resemble feudal Europe/antebellum with a very small elite and legions of the poor and struggling. This doesn't bode well for democracy and socio/racial equality.

Rich, Poor Live Poles Apart in L.A.

More on the Racial Hate Crime in S.C.

More on the Racial Hate Crime in S.C.

It does matter’
Sheriff’s Dept., NAACP talk through hate crimes
By Brian Jarvis


BRIAN JARVIS/Manning Times

Chief Investigator Tommy Burgess of the Clarendon County Sheriff’s Dept. answers questions regarding recent assaults on two African-American women. Nearly 100 concerned citizens showed up for the joint meeting of the Clarendon and Manning chapters of the NAACP Sunday at the Society Hill A.M.E. Church.
The Manning and Clarendon branches of the NAACP deviated from their normal program Sunday to hear representatives from the Clarendon County Sheriff’s Dept. discuss a pressing concern: the sexual assault of two African-American women in the last month and whether the culprits responsible committed a hate crime.

“We’re all aware of recent events,” said Bobby Fleming, president of the Manning branch of the NAACP, to a packed house at the Society Hill A.M.E. Church. “What shocked me was hearing the comments of what was said by one of (the suspects).”

Jeremy Sweat, 24, of Quail Trail Circle and Dustin Evans, 21, of Raccoon Road, both white males, were charged with two counts each of kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct and battery with attempt to kill a 45-year old Summerton woman and a 15-year old girl from Manning less than two weeks later. Both crimes were noted for their brutal and serial nature, and one suspect claimed affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan.

“There’s definitely racial issues that we’re looking at,” said Chief Investigator Tommy Burgess, who first began to classify the attacks as hate crimes after a round table discussion with the U.S. Marshall Service and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Outlining the chronology of events leading up to the July 3 assault, Burgess noted the Sheriff’s Dept. had one of the suspects in custody within 12 hours due to tip-offs from neighbors and residents.

“You would not believe the outpouring we’ve had from this community, and that’s what we need,” he said.

Burgess also said that during an interview, Sweat claimed that he placed little value on the lives of the targets because they were black and poor. Due to their race, the suspect felt, law enforcement would say the crimes simply didn’t matter.

“Well, folks, it does matter,” Burgess insisted. “These guys are violent. They don’t deserve to be on the street.”

According to Burgess, the attacks fit the description of a hate crime defined by the U.S. Congress in 1992 as “motivated by hatred or prejudice based on race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.”

Since the crimes became public, at least four African-American women and one Asian woman reporting being approached by the two men, and Burgess encouraged others to come forward as well.

“Yes, there’s a stigma attached. We’re trying to overcome that. We want to assure victims of their safety and get them the counseling they need. We want to heal them,” Burgess said. “But with (the suspects) being in jail, it’s not over. That’s just the first step. We’ve got to prosecute them and put them in prison where they belong so they can’t harm anyone else. That’s where I need the public and the community to come forward on these issues. I need your help to keep them where they need to be.”

According to the Sheriff’s Dept., Clarendon County has not had a hate crime since the church burnings that took place in the mid-1990s.

“We take a very stiff role against hate groups in this county and will continue to do so,” Burgess said.
While South Carolina has no specific laws for hate crimes, the state ranked third in the nation by number of active hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, fueling debate that it may be time to put a hate crime law on the books. In California, for example, hate crimes can tack on an additional 20 years to a sentence.

But in the case of Sweat and Evans, a hate crime classification will likely occur anyway thanks to a nationalized reporting system. As it stands, the suspects face prison sentences of well over a hundred years each.

When Henry King asked how to prevent such incidents in the future, Burgess suggested parenting classes such as the ones offered at the Manning Early Childhood Center.

“There are lots of programs out there that don’t cost a thing but aren’t being taken advantage of,” said Burgess, who also stressed that parents shouldn’t push their responsibilities onto schools.

“We have to take our children back,” Burgess said. “I have two young boys. I’m worried to death what they’re facing. But we’ve got to be positive and teach them while they’re young. I think a child is worth our time.”

When questioned if the assaults could inspire dormant hate groups to commit similar attacks, Burgess said the Sheriff’s Dept. had no knowledge of active hate groups in the area but stays on the lookout thanks to reports updated daily from the South Carolina Information Exchange.

Still, Burgess urged the community to come forward if they hear something, and never to assume their information is not valuable to law enforcement.

“It’s not an ‘I’ game, it’s a team game. All of us work together as a team,” Burgess said. “Call us, we want to hear from you.”

Elder Jack Nelson, who performs legal redresses for the Clarendon County NAACP, complimented the Sheriff’s Dept. afterwards for giving a stellar presentation.

“It was done very professionally in a way that eased tensions,” Nelson said. “South Carolina should give itself a hand for the improvements that it’s making. People are starting to treat each other like people. We’re all in the same boat, and we’ve got to have love and respect for each other to make a better society.”

But perhaps the most impassioned speech came from Dot Josey, wife of Sheriff Keith Josey, both of whom were in attendance.

“It’s our responsibility to our families to go out and tell 10 people what we learned today. One incident should not tear down our relationships,” Josey said. “Every day, our relationships get better. It’s not like the area was 50 or 100 years ago. Our children play together in school, we go to church together, spend holidays together. I can go to your home and feel safe and you can come to my home and feel safe. We need to teach it in our homes; don’t leave it to schools or Sunday school teachers. It might be the key to keep women from being harmed or to keep young men from losing their lives.”

Afterwards, Fleming said that he thought the meeting went well, adding that the local chapters of the NAACP and the Sheriff’s Dept. have enjoyed a long history of working together.

“We left with information we didn’t have before,” he said.

Fleming concurred with the Sheriff’s Dept. that the crimes were isolated incidents of racism and didn’t see cause for further alarm.

“It’s always a concern, but not at the present time,” Fleming said.

Also in attendance Sunday were State Senator John Land, Manning Mayor Kevin Johnson and County Auditor Patricia Pringle. House Representative Cathy Harvin was unable to attend but sent a letter of support and Julius Adger, president of the Clarendon County chapter of the NAACP, was in Washington, D.C. attending a national convention.

If anyone doesn't see it, then where on earth have they been?

Where's the Outrage?

Where's The Outrage?



Where's the outrage from the public when Maxim magazine website shows Persia White with the offensive and hateful caption above:

Have we had enough offensive stereotyping of Black and multiracial Black women in the media around the world? Have we learned our lesson from the Duke rape case and the hate crime in S.C.? From the evidence I see, I say no because the media has a vested interest in the devaluation of Black women in America. Let me say that again, devaluation. These hateful images justify the worst atrocities against these women for centuries and continued today. This is why a lot of people have a hard time believing black victims of sexual harassment or rape. Ask Anita Hill, Desiree Washington, the two recent victims of the horrific hate crime in S.C. recently and many other women who are victims of such crimes, past and present.

Thanks should go out to Mixed Media Watch and Real Men Are Not for looking out for the best interests of all people around the world. To read the articles, click here and here, respectively.

More on the S.C. Racist Hate Crime

More bloggers are covering the racially motivated hate crime in S.C. Michelle Says So is covering the story along with many missing person, several of whom are people of color.

Keep up the good work, Michelle.

Latoyia Figueroa Memorial Service

Marking a year since Latoyia Figueroa died
By CHRISTINE OLLEY
olleyc@phillynews.com 215-854-5184

Amid a small, tight-knit group of family and friends in Southwest Philadelphia last night, Melvin Figueroa tearfully recounted what the last year has been like without his daughter, Latoyia.

"I went to the cemetery yesterday, and it took a lot out of me," he said, standing on South Ithan Street near Spruce. "It's been tough."

Tuesday marked a year since his daughter's death.

Latoyia Figueroa, 24, vanished last year after going to a prenatal checkup with Stephen Poaches, the father of her unborn child.

Her body was later found dumped in Chester County.

Poaches was charged with her murder and the murder of their unborn child after a tip led police to follow the suspect to where the body was found.

Police say he intended to move the body, but never got the chance.

The case became a symbol for lack of attention given to cases involving missing minority women.

Philadelphia Prisons Department spokesman Bob Eskin said Poaches is awaiting trial in an undisclosed location in another jurisdiction.

"We're just paying our respects to Latoyia today. As for Poaches, he's been convicted, and I am glad," said aunt Michelle Perez, who recalled her niece's "free spirit."

"I hope that he rots in hell for what he did to her, because he denied it to the very end," she said of Poaches.

Citing the recent violence in the city, Melvin Figueroa prayed for peace.

"With 215 people already dead this year, it's hard, but you have to help," he told the assembled group.

Councilman Juan Ramos, a cousin of the Figueroas, led a prayer, blessing the efforts of Latoyia's father in trying to find his oldest child, and also asking for peace.

"We have to remember how sad this day is," he said. "Latoyia lost her life and we can't forget."

Then, in a final send-off with pink balloons for Melvin's slain daughter and blue balloons for his recently slain nephew, Eddie Figueroa, the crowd released them into the air.

Ending the vigil, Figueroa said, "Be careful out there and be well. You can't just lock the doors anymore, because they aren't just taking hostages, they are taking bodies."

Latoyia Figueroa

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Latoyia Figueroa's disappearance and death in Philadelphia. Ms. Figueroa's killer has yet to stand trial. Why so long? Latoyia's family wants closure. The justice system in Philly is taking its sweet time with the case.

Oh, and one other thing, the news media still place more emphasis on missing white women, ignoring women of color who are currently missing. Example: the saga of missing high school graduate Natlee Holloway.

Here's a brief bio of Latoyia Figueroa at Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia.com: Latoyia Figueroa.

Here's an article provided to me by Timothy Stelly about the low value this society places on lives of people of color:

Natlee Holloway Case Has Racial Overtones Thanks, Mr. Stelly.

More on James Dobson's Intolerant Views

Here are several links documenting Mr. James Dobson's views on Gays.

James on Gays: Click here
Click Here
James on IRs: Click here.
Click here.

James on Women: Click here.

Another article on the hate crime in S.C.

More on the hate crime from the State(Columbia, S.C.)

"Attacks prompt call for hate crimes law
The Anti-Defamation League says S.C. is one of only five states without such a law"
Click here.

Interesting and Important Response Regarding the Hate Crime in S.C.

At Alas, A Blog, there are many intelligent response to the news of a very horrific hate crime in S.C. It's very clear to me that mainstream media chose not to cover this one. Here's a posting by Gimmar:

ginmar Writes:

July 15th, 2006 at 8:29 am
I don’t think she’s remarkable. I think fifteen-year-old girls are a lot more intelligent and resourceful than the culture paints them as. As a matter of fact, when guys whine about how they get portrayed in the media, they have nothing to complain about when compared to how teenage girls get slammed as slutty, shallow, illiterate, vain, stupid, and vicious. They’re not granted any innocence or intelligence. That said, she was faced with a terrorist situation, and she came out alive. She deserves a frickin’ medal.

Here's another from Ann from Rachel's Tavern:

The severe psychological trauma she is suffering is devastating right now. She will need the constant support of her family, community and a skilled therapist in helping her overcome this tragic ordeal.

And it does not surprise me that one of the perps stated to the law authorities: “she (sic) was someone society wouldn’t care about, wouldn’t be missed”. With the long history of this society treating the rapes and murders of Black women and girls as less than worthy of human consideration, this so-called human’s words are just a Freudian slip of how devalued Black women’s lives still are in this country.

More from Alas, a Blog. I've just send Sailerfraud, an antiracist Asian American man who tracks hateful white supremacist groups the news about that horrific hate crime involving two white men raping and attempting to murder two black women in S.C.

It's time to be aware that black women are victims of hate crimes because of both race and gender instead of rationalizing such situations by blaming the victim and saying that she deserved it. Such racist views permeate American society and is destroying the lives of black women daily.