Womanist Musings: Blogger Paul Shirley To Haitians: Please Use A Condom Once In A While

Womanist Musings: "Thursday, January 28, 2010
Blogger Paul Shirley To Haitians: Please Use A Condom Once In A While

I wish that I could say that the tragedy in Haiti has caused people to recognize Western culpability in the state of that country. I wish I could say that now that eyes have been opened, that the worldview of Haiti will change but such thoughts are utopian at best. Even in the worst of circumstances there are always going to be those that hold onto their privilege with a death grip because to do otherwise would mean recognizing that they are not entitled to the life of ease to which they have become accustomed." Read more at Womanist Musings regarding this pathetic POS views on Haitians.

ACORN Pimp Arrested: FBI probe "activist" in Louisiana

Conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles poised as a "pimp" and "prostitute" in an attempt to uncover wrongdoing at community housing group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). They generated mainstream coverage after they filmed several workers talking about illegal activities.

The roller coaster of stupidity in the name of conservatism. James O'Keefe, 25 along with three other men were arrested for attempting "bug" Louisiana Democratic senator Mary Landrieu's main office in New Orleans.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing in the media, investigative journalism. Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger with ties to Matt Drudge was promoting videos by O'Keefe and his former girlfriend Hannah Giles. The pair were convinced that the community organization group ACORN was responsible for Barack Obama's victory in 2008 through "voter fraud" and "illicit activities". They traveled to ten ACORN locations and managed to videotape a few of the workers talking about "how to created fake voter registrations", "smuggling El Salvadoran children for prostitution" and convinced a woman to "admit that she murdered her husband". They wanted to expose the liberal lies and shame the group.

The CEO of the community group Bertha Lewis slammed the pair, Fox News (which heavily promoted the pair) and the Republican Party for creating a "witch hunt" and slander of an organization that helps low income families find housing. ACORN is currently in the process of suing Breitbart, O'Keefe and Giles for restitution and unauthorized filming in a private business.

The impact of the videos affected the lawmakers and many broke ties to the group. The House of Representatives and Senate have voted unanimously to sever funding to the organization group. The U.S. Justice Department is fighting the repeal the decision made by Congress.

Since the videos were posted on YouTube, O'Keefe and Giles became internet sensations. Unfortunately, Ms. Giles image was tarnished in the matter and hasn't been featured in many of the filming by O'Keefe.

To make matters worse, this arrest has been buzzing across the internet. Many liberals are thrilled to see this person arrest, and conservative voice despair and anger to the actions. One prominent conservative activist, Michelle Malkin dismissed him and severed ties to O'Keefe. In one of her postings, Malkin stated:

"Let it be a lesson to aspiring young conservatives interested in investigative journalism: Know your limits! "Know the law. Don’t get carried away. And don’t become what you are targeting."

Details on the matter: Associated Press

Conservative ties bind 4 La. phone plot suspects

New Orleans (AP) - Four men accused of trying to tamper with Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's office phones shared a common experience as young ideologues writing for conservative publications.

Federal authorities said two of the men posed as telephone workers with hard hats, tool belts and fluorescent vests and walked into Landrieu's office in a New Orleans federal building Monday. The others are accused of helping to organize the plan.

The most well-known suspect is James O'Keefe, 25, who posed as a pimp for a hidden-camera expose that damaged the reputation of the liberal community-organizing group ACORN and made him a conservative darling.

O'Keefe and suspect Joseph Basel, 24, formed their own conservative publications on their college campuses. A third suspect, Stan Dai, 24, was editor of his university's conservative paper and directed a program aimed at getting college students interested in the intelligence field after 9/11.

The fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, 24, wrote for the New Orleans-based conservative Pelican Institute and had recently criticized Landrieu for voting in favor of health care legislation after securing a Medicaid provision helpful to her state.

O'Keefe was a featured speaker at a Pelican Institute luncheon days before his arrest, though institute president Kevin Kane said Wednesday that he had no idea what happened at Landrieu's office or what the four were doing there. Flanagan, son of the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, was a contract worker for the institute, mostly writing for its blog.

"Robert has done terrific work and I think very highly of him, and am very sorry to see him in this difficult situation," Kane said.

It's not yet clear whether the plan was a prank intended to be captured on camera or a more serious attempt at political espionage, as claimed by state Democrats who dubbed it "Louisiana Watergate."

Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan said Republicans once praised O'Keefe as an American hero, "yet today, in light of these deplorable and illegal attacks on the office of a United States senator by their champion, Republicans have not offered a single iota of disgust, a whisper of indignation or even a hint of outrage."

In October, Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, sponsored a resolution praising O'Keefe and the woman who posed as a prostitute, Hannah Giles, for their investigation of "fraudulent and illegal practices and misuse of taxpayer dollars" by ACORN. Thirty-one Republican congressmen signed on as co-sponsors.

In response to the arrests, Olson said that "if recent events conclude that any laws were broken in the incident in Sen. Landrieu's office — that is not something I condone."

A witness told authorities O'Keefe was sitting in the waiting area of Landrieu's office and appeared to record Basel and Flanagan on his cell phone when they arrived posing as phone workers. Landrieu, who was in Washington at the time, said in a statement that the plot was "unsettling" for her and her staff.

A federal law enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device that could pick up transmissions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not part of the FBI affidavit. Another official said Dai was the suspect arrested outside.

All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"It was poor judgment," Flanagan's lawyer, Garrison Jordan, said. "I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime."

O'Keefe, Basel and Dai returned to the courthouse carrying suitcases Wednesday morning for private appointments with the department that handles arrangements with defendants before trial. None would comment as they entered and exited the courthouse.

Flanagan, who was not with them, is the only suspect who lives in Louisiana. Basel is from Minnesota; O'Keefe, New Jersey; and Dai, the D.C.-Virginia area.

As O'Keefe left jail Tuesday with Dai and Basel, he said only "Veritas," Latin for truth.

As he got into a cab outside, O'Keefe said, "The truth shall set me free." His father, James O'Keefe, Jr., of Westwood, N.J., said he had not spoken to his son in several days and did not know he had traveled to New Orleans, let alone why he went to Landrieu's office.

"That would not be something that I can even imagine him doing," he said. "I think this is going to be blown out of proportion."

The allegations were quickly condemned by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. Its political affiliates have registered hundreds of thousands of voters in urban and other poor areas of the country.

O'Keefe's arrest "is further evidence of his disregard for the law in pursuit of his extremist agenda," ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said in a statement. The organization's Twitter feed commented on the news: "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving soul."

Last year, O'Keefe used a hidden camera to record ACORN staffers who appeared to offer illegal tax advice and support the misuse of public funds and illegal trafficking in children.

The videos were first posted on biggovernment.com, a site run by conservative Andrew Breitbart. In the past, Breitbart has said O'Keefe — now a paid contributor to BigGovernment.com — is an independent filmmaker, not an employee.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Breitbart said: "We have no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts and events involving James O'Keefe at Senator Mary Landrieu's office."

Dai is a former assistant director of a program at Trinity Washington University that taught students about careers in intelligence, university president Patricia McGuire said. It was part of a national effort to interest students at liberal arts colleges in careers in intelligence but did not teach spy craft, she said.

He was listed as a "freelance consultant" in a Junior Statesmen program at the Central Intelligence Agency where he appeared as a speaker.

O'Keefe and Basel were also active in conservative publications at their respective colleges, Rutgers University and the University of Minnesota-Morris. They gave a joint interview Jan. 14 to CampusReform.org, a Web site that supports college conservatives on student publications.

"I happen to call what I do shoe leather journalism and not advocacy journalism," O'Keefe was quoted as saying. "So, I would consider it just journalism."

___

Associated Press Writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Pete Yost in Washington, Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles and Ben Nuckols in Baltimore contributed to this report.

Tea Party Disputes Take Toll on Convention

By KATE ZERNIKE The New York Times,
Published: January 25, 2010

A Tea Party convention billed as the coming together of the grass-roots groups that began sprouting up around the country a year ago is unraveling as sponsors and participants pull out to protest its expense and express concerns about “profiteering.”

The convention’s difficulties highlight the fractiousness of the Tea Party groups, and the considerable suspicions among their members of anything that suggests the establishment.

The convention, to be held in Nashville in early February, made a splash by attracting big-name politicians. (Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech.) But some groups have criticized the cost — $549 per ticket and a $9.95 fee, plus hotel and airfare — as out of reach for the average tea partier. And they have balked at Ms. Palin’s speaking fee, which news reports have put at $100,000, a figure that organizers will not confirm or deny.

Tea Party events exploded last winter, as increasingly large gatherings protested the federal stimulus bill, government bailouts and proposed health care legislation. While they vary by name, specific tenets and relative embrace of anarchy, such groups tend to unite around fiscal conservatism and a belief that the federal government — whether led by Republicans or Democrats — has overstepped its constitutional powers.

Tea Party Nation, the convention organizer, started as a social networking site for the groups last year, a kind of Facebook for conservatives to “form bonds, network and make plans for action.” But its founders, former sponsors and participants are now trading accusations.

Philip Glass, the national director of the National Precinct Alliance, announced late Sunday that “amid growing controversy” around the convention, his organization would no longer participate. His group seeks to take over the Republican Party from the bottom by filling the ranks of local and state parties with grass-roots conservatives, and Mr. Glass had been scheduled to lead workshops on its strategy.

“We are very concerned about the appearance of T.P.N. profiteering and exploitation of the grass-roots movement,” he said in a statement. “We were under the impression that T.P.N. was a nonprofit organization like N.P.A., interested only in uniting and educating Tea Party activists on how to make a real difference in the political arena.”

Mr. Glass said he was also concerned about the role in the convention of groups like Tea Party Express, which has held rallies across the country through two bus tours, and FreedomWorks, a Tea Party umbrella. He called them “Republican National Committee-related groups,” and added, “At best, it creates the appearance of an R.N.C. hijacking; at worst, it is one.”

Erick Erickson, the editor of the influential conservative blog RedState.com, wrote this month that something seemed “scammy” about the convention. And the American Liberty Alliance withdrew as a sponsor after its members expressed concerns about the convention’s finances being channeled through private bank accounts and its organizer being “for profit.”

“When we look at the $500 price tag for the event and the fact that many of the original leaders in the group left over similar issues, it’s hard for us not to assume the worst,” Eric Odom, the executive director of the American Liberty Alliance and an organizer of the tax day rallies last April, wrote on the group’s Web site.

Sherry Phillips, who founded and runs Tea Party Nation with her husband, Judson, said Monday that it is not a nonprofit group.

Ms. Phillips said the American Liberty Alliance was “a for-profit company that takes donations.” The National Precinct Alliance, she said, demanded compensation of around $3,000. “Our budget on this convention is very tight and we could not afford them,” she wrote in an e-mail message.

She declined to comment on Ms. Palin’s speaking fee.

“If there is any profit,” Ms. Phillips said, “the money will go toward furthering the cause of conservatism.”

Mr. Glass denied that his group had requested money and said convention organizers had asked his group to pay $2,200 to speak.

As for FreedomWorks, it is not a convention sponsor. Tea Party leaders in training sessions at the group’s headquarters on Monday said their members, for the most part, could not afford the convention or were not interested.

An earlier version of this article erroneously said that Sherry Phillips called the Tea Party a "nonprofit" group.

Fox News leaves false report on Haiti uncorrected By Daniel Tencer

January 25th, 2010
By Daniel Tencer, reporter The Raw Story

Fox News is staying silent after bloggers and commentators criticized the news network for a January 13 report on its Web site that stated Cuba was "absent" from global aid efforts in Haiti.

Observers note that the communist country was, in fact, one of the first to arrive after the earthquake that is now estimated to have taken the lives of 200,000 people. That has led some bloggers to accuse Fox of using the devastation in Haiti to propagandize against Cuba.

In an online news story entitled "US Spearheads Global Response to Haiti Earthquake," Fox reported that "one geographically close country is conspicuously absent from the roster of helping hands. Cuba, which had evacuated some of its residents as a precaution in case the earthquake triggered a tsunami, has so far not offered any assistance publicly to its devastated island neighbor."

"The opposite is the case," reports Tony Iltis at Green Left Online. "At the time the earthquake struck, Cuba already had 344 doctors and paramedics working in Haiti. Also, in the past 12 years 450 young Haitians have graduated as doctors from Cuban colleges, free of charge."

Iltis reported:

From January 13, more teams of Cuban health workers, accompanied by Haitian medical students studying in Cuba, began arriving in Haiti with medical supplies.

A January 12 Granma article said that, within a week of the earthquake: “Cuban doctors in the Haitian capital [had held] 13,418 consultancies, with 1,078 operations, more than 550 of them considered major surgery. The Cuban doctors have also assisted 38 births.”

Notably, on the same day that Fox published its report, the network also ran an article from the Associated Press that stated, "Cuba, which already had hundreds of doctors in Haiti, treated injured in field hospitals."

Fox doesn't appear to have corrected the error. As of press time, the network had not responded to Raw Story's repeated requests for comment.

For nearly two weeks media watchdogs have been complaining that Fox News has been minimizing its coverage of the Haiti earthquake. MediaMatters reported that, in the first full day after the earthquake -- Jan. 13 -- MSNBC devoted 20 times as much time to Haiti as Fox News, and on January 14, the ratio was roughly five to one.

But other observers say the lack of coverage is more widespread than Fox News. Freelance journalist Dave Lindorff reported last week that Cuba was commonly overlooked when US news outlets reported on international aid efforts.

Far from “doing nothing” about the disaster as the right-wing propagandists at Fox-TV were charging, Cuba has been one of the most effective and critical responders to the crisis, because it had set up a medical infrastructure before the quake, which was able to mobilize quickly and start treating the victims.

If Cuba is to share any blame for the misconception that it's doing nothing, it may be that the government in Havana simply didn't put out a press release fast enough. A Jan. 13 article in Granma, the Cuban state-run publication, didn't mention Cuban relief efforts. That led bloggers to post the article as proof Cuba was absent from the rescue effort.

But news of the country's efforts is slowly beginning to trickle into the United States. On Monday, NPR reported that "the day after the earthquake struck the Cuban doctors reopened two hospitals. Since the Cubans live in the poorest neighborhoods amongst the most disadvantaged Haitians they were actually the first responders."

Note: Fox News didn't cover the Haiti telethon.

Nazi Group Adopts A Highway Near Brighton

Nazi Group Adopts A Highway Near Brighton

CBS 4 DENVER

1 of 1

An Adopt-A-Highway sign for the National Socialist Movement.

An unusual group has adopted a portion of one of Colorado's highways. The National Socialist Movement, who also calls itself America's Nazi Party, applied to participate in the Colorado Department of Transportation's Adopt-A-Highway program.

The group will be responsible for picking up trash along a one-mile stretch of Highway 85 south of Bromley Lane in Brighton.

A sign is already up in the area with the group's name on it. There's a Baptist church along the stretch of roadway.

The National Socialist Movement will be out picking up trash for the first time next Saturday.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Missing Black Woman Alert: Porsha Delano is missing

Missing Black Woman Alert. Porsha Delano of Chicago has been missing since 01/16/10 Learn more:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/missingblackwomen.html

#Haiti looting horror: Girl shot dead by #police for taking paintings

guardian.co.uk: The horrifying aftermath of Haiti's earthquake has claimed another victim in the form of a 15-year-old girl, an apparent looter, shot dead by police. Fabienne Cherisma was killed with a bullet to the head after taking paintings from a wrecked shop in downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday. Pictures of the teenager show her slumped face down over one of the paintings and a trail of blood seeping from the wound. Witnesses said it was unclear if she was deliberately targeted or accidentally hit while police fired in the air to disperse a crowd which was carrying goods from Rue Grand Rice. A conflicting account gave her name as Fabienne Geismar and said she was killed in Rue Marthely Seiee.Police armed with rifles shot over the heads of the people and kicked a man, part of a delayed effort to regain control of a capital which has been lawless – but largely calm – since the 12 January earthquake.

Latin American Leaders: International relief operation in Haiti is a cover-up for a military takeover

globalresearch.ca: Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua say the US is using the international relief operation in Haiti as a cover-up for a military takeover. Bolivian President Evo Morales said that he will request an emergency UN meeting to reject what he calls the US military occupation of Haiti. "It's not right that the United States should use this natural disaster to invade and militarily occupy Haiti," Morales told a press conference on Wednesday. "If you have all these problems with the injured and the dead from the earthquake, you have to go there to save lives, and you don't do that from a military standpoint," he added. An outspoken critic of US policies, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez also had accused Washington of occupying Haiti "under the guise of the natural disaster." Nicaragua also has taken a similar stance toward US with respect to the situation in Haiti. The United States is deploying up to 20,000 troops to Haiti. US servicemen have taken control of the country's international airport. The Pentagon has sent one of its biggest aircraft carriers to Haiti, along with other navy and coast guard vessels. On Friday, Arturo Valenzuela, the US assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs rejected that the US was occupying Haiti."Haiti is a sovereign country, everybody respects Haiti's sovereign country, the United States respects Haiti's sovereignty," said Arturo Valenzuela.

An Old 2004 Article: The Barometer Needs Fixin by Matthew C. Stelly

The “Barometer” Needs Fixin’:  Analysis of a World Herald Editorial On Race  by MATTHEW C. STELLY



Chainz-Off Productions


December 14, 2004


INTRODUCTION

When a newspaper historically known as racist publishes an editorial on race relations, their motives are automatically racist. But in the case of the recent editorial, “Interracial Barometer: A Horrendous Assault Brings Reminder of Decline in One Type of Racial Bigotry,” (December 13th) more was displayed that the newspaper probably intended. Following are my views on this article, an article crammed with lies, historical distortions and the World Herald’s misinformed manifestations of social reality.


This short analysis of that article should serve as the basis of serious study and discussion regarding media credibility (or lack thereof), the role that race plays in analyzing social issues and, as I taught Tom Shaw several months back, the impact that bias has on editorial boards, most of which are lily-white as is the World Herald’s.

The article will also be used as but one more indicator to tourism entities that Omaha is not yet ready to deal with racial diversity.



THE ARTICLE: RACISM AND RELEVANT RESPONSE


Because the Omaha World Herald lacks racial diversity and indeed, uses white women to cover stories in the black community, its journalistic credibility should already be called into question. The fact that they see nothing wrong with this state of affairs is also an indicator of their collective ignorance of race and more importantly, of how the world is changing around them as they apparently opt to stand in place.


The article begins with the following description:

The windows of Joseph Parks’ Massachusetts house were smashed. He then was hit in the head, beaten, dragged to an apartment and stabbed in the chest with a knife. Burning cigarettes were placed on him. Racial slurs were written on his back. He was called a disgrace to his race, thrown out of a vehicle and dragged to the railroad tracks. Why? Park is a white man who once dated a black woman.


What was just described has happened to hundreds of thousands of black men over the years. When it happened in the South, the news media avoided printing these stories for the most part. When it happened in Omaha, the news media, led by the World Herald, did the same thing. In other words, the very institution that was supposed to be committed to providing news to the people was selective in what it chose to print. Why? Because of white racism, that’s why.

Now we have a white man who has been degraded because of his association with a black woman. But the World Herald doesn’t provide context. Was the man killed? Or was this one of those “warnings” that white folks gave their fellow race members for what they called “mongrelizing”? Without informing us of these facts, the World Herald is again showing how piecemeal and partial its reporting and even its editorializing truly is. It makes a big difference if the white man was killed or just beaten badly; it makes a difference how far back the “dating” went and what kind of relationship the two had. Was she his long-time companion? A concubine? A prostitute? What?


With this fundamental truth and contextual set of questions out of the way, journalistic rubrics that even the most defensive and ignorant individual can understand, we can proceed to the following passage:

An appalling story, from which society can take two things. The first is encouragement. Despite the hateful, disgusting display of racism inflicted upon Parks, it’s a story that thankfully has become a rare one told over the years.


First of all, the World Herald is in no position to inform “society” about how many things they can extract from a given story. This is ethnocentrism in its purest form: because these white males say there are two points, that is what every reader is supposed to believe? How about readers who have learned to read critically and can therefore think for themselves? It is not their role to tell the reader how many points a story contains: it is their job to present the story for the reader to glean. They could have wrote, “An appalling story, from which society can gather AT LEAST two points.” But that would have been too much like real journalism, wouldn’t it?


Secondly, the first thing we can take from the story is encouragement. Though Parks was beaten (and we still don’t know how severely), we are supposed to be thankful that this story “has become a rare one told over the years.”


This is called conjecture. Conjecture is, “Reasoning that involves the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence.” I have already informed the reader of this paper that white newspapers covered up, completely hid or otherwise circumvented stories regarding interracial relationships. So then, how can these nimrods conclude that the race hatred has declined just because the stories have?


As black people, we know about how the white man covers up stories. One white politician who was found dead a few years back was praised about what all he did. What wasn’t mentioned was that he was found in an empty North Omaha house dressed in women’s clothes. The World-Herald decided they didn’t want the public to know. The World Herald itself went out and bought in a polygraph examiner during Hal Daub’s mayoral campaign against Brenda Council and they HID the truth but printed what they wanted the public to know. When a black child was used for a Goodfellows campaign a while back, the World Herald changed the gender and race of the child – because THEY felt it was the right thing to do.


So I am making two points here: first, the World Herald’s track record disqualifies it from making any believable points regarding interracial relationships when they cover up the ones taking place right here in their back yard and secondly, that their conclusion that such incidents are diminishing is “jive-time journalism” and nothing more than an attempt to appease white suburbanites by convincing them that race relations are “getting better.” Racism is alive and, as such, interracial hatred is never going to be “rare.” As Fanon taught, “a racist in a culture of racism is therefore, normal.”

The article continues:

Gone are the days when a black man was lynched for dating, or even speaking to, a white woman. Gone are the days when interracial couples had to go to court to challenge the legality of their marriages. Gone are the days when the majority of people in this country considered the union of people from differing races as wrong.


The World-Herald’s definition of “lynching” is not appropriate and therefore, their conclusion about the diminishing of lynchings is inaccurate. According to the late, great sociologist Oliver C. Cox, in his magnus opus, Caste, Class and Race, a lynching takes place any time a group of white men use their numbers and race to attack a single black man. Is this behavior on the decline?


What about crowds of white boys throwing soda on black men at a basketball game? What about the white judicial system ganging up on young black men and giving them time away from their families? What about white cops who single out black men and ram plungers up their asses (Abner Louima case) or gun them down “by accident” as they did Amadou Diallo? In fact, every cop killing is a lynching because it involves a system (white cop is sanctioned) against a lone black person.

It stands to reason that the World Herald would consider such actions on the decline. The newspaper has historically looked the other way when such “lynchings” occur. They did it when Vivian Strong was killed, did it people like Kellin, Ammons, Bibins were all killed by racist cops. None of them had guns. That was a lynching. So when these white editorial writers talk about “declines” they cannot even make that stick here in Omaha, let alone on the national level!


As for the white woman, perhaps the editors should read my 180-plus page response to a recent article that appeared in Newsweek. The Newsweek article was titled, “The Secret Lives of Wives,” but it missed so many points I had to respond. In like manner what the World Herald doesn’t understand is that the white man has conceded his woman to men of color. He knows what she’s about and she’s sick of him for the most part. True enough, television and movies don’t reflect this reality – yet. But they soon will.


With that understanding, there is no need to lynch a black man for dating or marrying a white woman. That is the white system’s way of getting to “Slaves” for the price of one. In many cases she’s isolated and shunned and forced to live with black folks. In most cases they both work so the system wins. It’s about the money, not about a black man taking one of their blondes away. The fact is, Malcolm X wrote that the act he was most often asked to perform as a pimp was to have sex with a white woman while her husband watched. And this is still going on, right here in Omaha, today. And the World Herald’s editors know it all too well.


The issue of interracial couples having to go to court to challenge the legality of their marriages – this was never a major issue or concern. There were widely publicized cases when it happened (again, the media making sure that these cases were publicized, complete with the addresses of the couple involved), but these people knew who was in charge of the courts: the same white boy who is in charge today. The World Herald is grasping at straws in order to buttress its lies. And they should be ashamed.


But the final lie, the deathblow, is where this team of white men claims that the days are gone when the majority of people in this country “considered the union of people from differing races as wrong.”

Say what? On what planet are these fuddy-duddies residing? Later, in their own essay, these same men write that, “Even today, mixed couples are still subjected to disapproving looks, rude comments and silent, yet noticeable, signals of rejection.” If this is the case, then aren’t those looks a physical manifestation that the person doing the looking considers those relationships “wrong”?


But more profoundly, where is the data that supports this incredible fabrication of reality? How does the World Herald know? On what do they base this contention? Because surely, if those days are gone, then gone too would be the days of white people viewing RACISM as wrong! If white people could stop viewing interracial relationships as wrong, this would mean that they would see nothing wrong with the gradual browning of their race. This would mean that they accept people of color. And this would mean that white racism is on the decline.


Anyone who believes that white people are less racist than they were 400 years ago is either naïve about race relations or a total idiot. These crackers are just more afraid now because black people are not as controlled as we were back then. Their fear fuels their racism as much as their hatred did back then. But the effects are still the same: look at the murders of blacks by white cops, look a the prisons and take a long look atthe black unemployment rate. Racism has not subsided or decreased; it has merely changed (but not in its intensity).


When those days are “gone,” so too will be white folks (as they define themselves today, at least).

But once you have a distorted view of social reality (as evidenced in the World-Herald’s stories on “black progress” that have permeated its pages this year), any conclusion you arrive at is going to be warped. For example note the following excerpt:

The lack of stories like Parks’ is a sign that society has come a long way in its acceptance of interracial unions. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to be done. An impetus for growth also can be taken from this story.

The World Herald again errs, much akin to their earlier perceptual mistake: it is not “the lack of stories like Parks’ that is a sign that society has supposedly “come a long way,” it is the lack of reporting and media coverage of these stories that is the flaw. The media wants to “play nice” and not report issues of race against interracial couples because it has to take into consideration the city’s image, the impact on tourism, the politics of the discrimination, the status of the couple being harassed and so on. The World-Herald knows this: they didn’t report those beatings that Daub used to administer to his Asian wife, Cindy, did they?


But even if the World-Herald was correct and the incidents themselves were on the decline, how is this a sign of society coming a long way? This goes back to that white man’s thinking that Gunnar Myrdal helped to create in his study, An American Dilemma. All the time the white man felt that what black people wanted was sex with them when, in reality, interracial sex ranked last among the things blacks wanted. The white man’s fears of interracial sex have always been rooted in the way that his mind works: because he raped black women for centuries, he felt the black man wanted to do the same thing to the white woman. This is how the myth got started and the myth, in turn, fanned the hatred that white men had for black people, in general.


Interracial dating and marriage. This was the first thing that those white boys in South Africa “allowed” when apartheid was crumbling. Not more jobs, not better housing, not more liberal policies toward economic development. No. The first thing they said was, “you may now screw our women.” Look it up. This contention in itself is racist and a definite put-down of black woman, an issue I will address more thoroughly in a few minutes.


Because the newspaper knows it is lying, it has to qualify its claims that America has come a long way. So they add in the worn cliché, “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to be done.” The first thing that should be done is that the World-Herald – along with the rest of the American media – should stop lying. White boys in England still refer to white women who date or marry black men as “slags.” College campuses are filled with white women dating black athletes who have to hear the names they are called in doing so. The campus newspaper doesn’t cover these things. The local newspaper, because they need advertisements from the university, don’t address it. But just look at who is used to recruit black athletes: white girls. Black people have known this for years. The white man knew, but he was making money prostituting those coeds, so he kept quiet.


These are but a few facts that should show you, the reader, “there is a great deal to be done.” There is as much to be done today as there was to be done back in the 1950s, a time the white man dubs, “the golden years.” Why were they golden? No black people to worry about. Their sports teams didn’t have to compete against us, and white women knew their “place” so the white man had it all to himself. He could act “cool” because there were no brothers to compete against.


But after the Black Power Movement and the Civil Rights Movement loosened things up, white records in sports fell one by one. The white man’s control began to falter, and his manipulated “domination” of popular culture disappeared. The “golden years” of the Cleavers of “Leave It to Beaver” and “Donna Reed” were gone. He’s tried to relive those times in his movies and TV shows (“Happy Days”), but he knows his time is past. So he pretends as if interracial relationships are more accepted, but offers on evidence to prove it. This is a racist approach in itself: these writers are saying, in essence, “it is true because we say it is so.”


These people claim that, “an impetus for growth also can be takenfrom this story.” And what is that? They explain:

It wasn’t along ago – 2000 – that Alabama finally removed a law banning interracial marriage (though it hadn’t been enforced in years). That same year, Bob Jones University ended its ban on interracial dating. And while society has traveled far in its ability to be open-minded, there still are some people who react negatively when a black man and a white woman, or a Latina woman and a white man, or any other combination, are dating and marrying each other.

You call this “evidence”? One of the most racist states in the union, one that still flies the Confederate flag, decides that it shouldn’t be legislating morality and you call this progress? You call it a sign of growth because Bob Jones University ended its ban on interracial dating? You know why they ended it? Because Clinton threatened to take away their Federal dollars, that’s why! So once again, the white man had to be bribed to do the right thing in regard to displaying some “humanity.”


Having shot down the two examples that the World-Herald office as evidence of “growth,” these nitwits with notebooks nevertheless have the gall to claim that society “has traveled far in its ability to be open minded.” This has not been established in a single thing that the newspaper has written down. Look at their own city: what is there to point at that shows equitable race relations? The black community is as segregated today as it was in 1950 – the only difference is that the area is larger. Look at their own newsroom: no blacks in the 1800s and only three in the newsroom today. How can these liars draw conclusions about change when they, themselves, have resisted change?


The World Herald, in a hypocritically moralizing tone, writes that “there are still some people who react negatively when a black man and a white woman, or a Latina woman and a white man, or any other combination, are dating and marrying each other.”


Few people get angry when a Latina woman and a white man are together because many Latinas have white skin. Unlike the black woman, who is stigmatized, the Latina has the stereotype of the “hot Latin” working for her. Where OWH editors got their information is beyond me. As for a black man and a white woman, this is the most hated relationship by far. Others pale (no pun intended) in comparison. The twin myths (both concocted by the white man during slavery) of the black rapist and sacred white womanhood still exist today. In another major paper, I look at movies like “The Pelican Brief,” “Drive,” “I, Robot,” “The Bone Collector,” and others where a handsome black man is not allowed to be anything to the white female lead but a “friend.” This is an extension of the anti-black taboo alluded to earlier.


Those “some people who react negatively”? Guess who most of them are? White males – like the ones sitting in that editorial room writing this bullshit for the gullible Nebraska public to take in.


The article concludes:

Even today, mixed couples are still subjected to disapproving looks, rude comments and silent, yet noticeable, signals of rejection. So take some comfort in knowing that most of those who find love outside their race aren’t subjected to the horrors that Parks faced. But remember that even one such case is one too many.

Mixed couples? Does the World Herald care enough to provide an operational definition of what they mean? Are they talking about interracial couples? Are they talking about couples from different ethnic groups or religions. Because a “mixed couple” and an “interracial couple” can be two different things.


Furthermore, the editors order the public to “take some comfort in knowing” that “most of those who find love outside their race aren’t subjected” to what Parks was subjected to. How does the lily-white editorial board of the OWH know this? Where is there evidence? Are they speaking locally, statewide or nationally? This brings us to a final point – the title.

How can one incident be a barometer of race relations on any level? How can a “horrendous assault” show a “decline in one type of bigotry”? Even if racial abuse DID decline in that one type of bigotry, would that be enough to offset the institutional manifestations that plague people of color day by day and year by year? Of course note.


When racists like these write about issues of race, they show how little they care by not providing hard data or documentation. They have a preconception about what they want to writeabout and what they want their conclusion to be. This biased approach is what I tried to tell reporter Tom Shaw about when he made the asinine statement about reporters being “objective.”

Now I see that Shaw was not alone. The interracial barometer, at least the one that the World-Herald is in possession of, is clearly broken.


And it’ll take more than a room full of old white men to fix it.


Matthew C. Stelly
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WORKS CITED

Omaha World Herald (2004, December 13). Interracial barometer: A horrendous assault brings reminder of decline in one type of racial bigotry.

Police brutality charge by African teen disturbs mayor

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said he is "very
troubled" by claims that a Homewood high school student was beaten by
undercover police. Jordan Miles, 18, was treated at a hospital twice after an arrest
last week by three plainclothes Pittsburgh police officers. Police
suspected he had a concealed gun and -- after a chase and a struggle with the Creative and Performing Arts High School senior -- concluded he was holding a bottle of Mountain Dew instead. He was charged with aggravated assault and resisting arrest, but when officers did not show for a court hearing Thursday, the matter was postponed. Mr. Miles took several blows to the head and face, was Tasered and
had a chunk of hair ripped from his head, his lawyer said. He was
walking between homes owned by his mother and grandmother when police stopped him. Police claimed that they identified themselves to Mr. Miles and
repeatedly tried to subdue the 18 year old after he fled. Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10023/1030533-53.stm#ixzz0dSGORqqE

Honour and secrecy for families of gay Muslims

Pink News: Last week, the LGBT homeless charity Albert Kennedy Trust warned it was seeing an increase in the numbers of gay Muslims fleeing from forced marriages and family violence. However, for one gay Muslim, the experiences of gay EastEnders character Syed Masood are closer to home. While I haven't been a fan of the show for quite some time, I was intrigued when I heard that EastEnders was to feature a storyline outlining the struggles faced by gay Muslims. Being someone who is both gay and (quasi)religious in their Islamic faith, I was interested to see how they would cover it. As many people know, the relationship between religious communities and homosexuality can be volatile with both sides often holding open contempt for each other, but nowhere is this shown more than in the families of gay Muslims.

Australia, N.Zealand order review of 'bible' gunsights

Yahoo! News: SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia Friday ordered its military to look at removing biblical references from weapons used by troops in Afghanistan, after New Zealand banned the "completely inappropriate" inscriptions.Australia's Defence Minister John Faulkner said the military had been unaware of the meaning of the letters and numbers etched into the US-made gunsights, which refer to passages in the New Testament. I have asked Defence to examine the options available to deal with this matter without compromising the safety of our troops and critically important capabilities," Faulkner said. Faulkner's comments came as neighbouring New Zealand condemned the inscriptions as potentially inflammatory.