No Effigy Left Behind. Rhode Island Teachers hang Obama Effigy in Classrooms

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. – A teacher at a failing school where he and all his colleagues are being fired hung an effigy of President Barack Obama in his classroom, apparently in reaction to Obama's support of extreme measures to ensure accountability in schools.
The teachers union on Thursday condemned the effigy, discovered Monday in the teacher's third-floor classroom at Central Falls High School, saying it was wrong and cannot be condoned under any circumstances.
The effigy was found in the teacher's classroom by Superintendent Frances Gallo, Rhode Island Department of Education spokeswoman Nicole Shaffer told The Associated Press. Shaffer said the department would not have any further comment.
Gallo told the AP on Thursday evening that the foot-tall Obama doll that she saw Monday was hung from its feet from a white board and was holding a sign that said, "Fire Central Falls teachers."
"I was deeply saddened," Gallo said. "It's a horrific — a startling — kind of picture when you walk in and see that."
She said that the teacher had been issued a "strong letter of reprimand" and that she considered it an internal matter.
Obama had called the firings in Central Falls an example of holding failing schools accountable. The White House declined to comment Thursday. U.S. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said the agency was aware of the doll but declined to comment further.
The president of the Central Falls Teachers Union, Jane Sessums, said in a written statement that the teacher, whose name wasn't disclosed, hung the doll "as part of what he described as a lesson plan."
A spokesman for the union said he could not immediately explain what that meant. He said he did not know how long the effigy had been in the classroom.
The union has been fighting the firings at Central Falls High School, one of the state's worst-performing schools.
All the school's teachers, administrators and support staff will lose their jobs after the end of the school year. Under a plan approved by the state to improve the school, fewer than half could be rehired next year.
Sessums said the teacher who hung the effigy verbally apologized to his students and asked Gallo if he could also apologize in writing.
"He understands that his actions affect not just his students but all of us," she wrote. "There is no excuse for what he did."
Several students and recent graduates interviewed by the AP on Thursday said they hadn't heard about the effigy, which was hung in an area of the school that's used for the English as a second language program. Those interviewed said they hadn't heard anyone expressing anger about Obama's comments, but many were disappointed.
"A lot of teachers supported Obama," said Karen Zuniga, who graduated last year and started a Facebook group to protest the firings.
"He hasn't even been here," said Jonathan Beltran, another 2009 graduate who opposes the firings. "He doesn't know what's going on."
Senior Valerie Florez said emotions have been running high among the school's teachers, with some telling students the firings are unfair and at least one breaking down in tears during class.

Hate speech infiltrates social-networking sites, report says

By Jesse Solomon, CNN

March 15, 2010

Online hate speech is "almost all in the social-networking area," Rabbi Abraham Cooper says.

• Internet's unregulated nature has aided proliferation of cyber-hate, report says
  
• Number of hate-affiliated Web pages jumped 20 percent in past year
  
• Personal blogs, mainstream social-networking sites are affected, authors say

New York (CNN) -- The unregulated nature of the Web has aided a proliferation of cyber-hate, according to a report the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance released Monday.

The report, Digital Terrorism and Hate 2010, notes that there are about 11,500 hate-affiliated Web pages, a 20 percent jump from last year's study.

According to the Wiesenthal Center, personal blogs as well as mainstream social-networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter are easily flooded with racist and terrorist-related content.

"The spike is not in traditional Web sites in the United States," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "It's more global and almost all in the social-networking area."

Mark Weitzman, director of government affairs for the Wiesenthal Center and a co-author of the report, said home-grown terrorism suspects have an active online presence. He cited the case of a Pennsylvania woman who officials say called herself "Jihad Jane."

The woman, Colleen LaRose, has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and kill a person in a foreign country. She had been on the radar of the Wiesenthal Center for the past year, Weitzman said.

"We ask, 'Are they just coming out of the woodwork?' and the answer in every single case is the Internet link," Cooper said.

Although these sites are monitored, the report's authors said, they have become increasingly alarmed by the "lone wolf" effect, making it difficult for law enforcement to discern which threats are legitimate and which are simply talk.

For example, the late James W. Von Brunn, the 88-year-old who was charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington in June, kept a Web site called the Holy Western Empire. On it, he blamed a "Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys" and "a Jew judge" for a six-year prison term he served in the 1980s.

However, "there's no equation that says someone who posts a rant ... is going to go on a shooting rampage," said Weitzman, who has testified in front of Congress and the United Nations on the issue of digital hate.

Perhaps even more chilling are the growing numbers of "how to" Web sites in which terror groups routinely post instructional manuals and videos on bombmaking and computer hacking.

The study also explored e-commerce and how it can be used to market hate. In February, an eBay merchant offered "an original Holocaust ring," claiming that it came from his uncle who was posted at the Dachau concentration camp during World War II. EBay pulled the Web page before a sale was made.

Founded in 1977, the Simon Wiesenthal Center was named after a Jew who survived the Holocaust and became famous for his career as a Nazi hunter.

Congressional Black Caucus member discusses meeting with President Obama.

Congressional Black Caucus member discusses meeting with President Obama.

At President Obama's invitation the CBC meet with him on March 11. Hear a statement for CBC chair Barbara Lee and from Yvette Clarke a CBC member that was at the meeting by using the link below:

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

Study: Median Wealth for Single Black Women: $100, Single Hispanic Women: $120, Single White Women: $41,000

www.democracynow.org: "The Insight Center for Community Economic Development released a report on the gender wealth gap to mark International Women’s Day. The report found nearly half of all single black and Hispanic women have zero or negative wealth, meaning their debts exceed all of their assets. The median wealth for single black women is only $100; for single Hispanic women, $120. This compares to just over $41,000 for single white women. We speak with the chief author of the report, Mariko Lin Chang and C. Nicole Mason, Executive Director of the Women of Color Policy Network. [includes rush transcript]"

Natalie Randolph, first woman named coach of high school football team

Natalie Randolph, first woman named coach of a high school football team.

Natalie Randolph an African American woman has been named head coach of the varsity football team at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in Washington DC. She is believed to be the first woman to be named a head coach at the High School level.

Read more by using the link below:

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

The Haterade against Michelle Obama- Right Wingers' Easy Target Against President Obama

People, please read this article and understand that we Blacks are human beings, not animals, not as the "others".

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The Vile Fascination with the Monkey Image of the Obama's (and African-Americans) by Earl Ofari Hutchingson




The worst thing about the CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association Walt Baker's silly, sick, demeaning depiction of First Lady Michelle Obama as a chimp ironically is not the depiction. It's Baker's clueless defense. The instant the storm broke, and Nashville's mayor, the state's GOP leaders denounced him, and the contract was summarily yanked from his marketing firm, Mercatus Communications, to help promote the city's new convention center, Baker predictably wailed that he's not a bigot, racially insensitive, and the cartoon was nothing but political humor.


He fervently believes that. He just as fervently believes that lampooning Michelle Obama, and President Obama as a monkey, ape, gorilla is just can't you take a joke fun and games. He and the pack of race baiting websites, chat rooms, and of late, college frat parties, and student websites that ridicule the Obama's (and African-Americans) in assorted off beat, crude, vile cartoons and always with the vile depiction as monkeys or apes is by now standard fare. It's no accident that it is.

The long, sordid and savage history of racist stereotyping of African-Americans has been the stock in trade of race baiting and racial ridicule and for more than century. A few grotesque book titles from a century ago, such as The Negro a Beast, The Negro, a Menace to American Civilization, and the Clansman depicted blacks as apes, monkeys, bestial, and animal like. The image stuck in books, magazines, journals, and deeply colored the thinking of many Americans of that day; that day?

In the movie version of Rudyard Kipling children's classic, The Jungle Book, the Disney Studios in 1967 graduated from the other standard animal depiction of African-Americans as black crows to depicting African-Americans as the Monkey like jive, gibberish blathering King Louie. The film was remade in 1994.

Fifteen years later, New York Post Cartoonist Sean Delonas ignited a firestorm with his casual depiction of President Obama as a monkey. He did it precisely because that image didn't die a century, half century, a decade, or even a year ago. In 2007 Penn State researchers conducted six separate studies and found that many Americans still link blacks with apes and monkeys. Many of them were young, and had absolutely no knowledge of the vicious stereotyping of blacks of years past. Their findings with the provocative title "Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization and Contemporary Consequences," in the February 2008 issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, was published by the American Psychological Association.

The overwhelming majority of the participants in the studies bristled at the faintest hint that they had any racial bias. But the animal savagery image and blacks was very much on their minds. The researchers found that participants, and that included even those with no stated prejudices or knowledge of the historical images, were quicker to associate blacks with apes than they were to associate whites with apes.

This was not simply a dry academic exercise. The animal association and blacks has had devastating real life consequences. In hundreds of news stories from 1979 to 1999 the Philadelphia Inquirer was much more likely to describe African Americans than Whites convicted of capital crimes with ape-relevant language, such as "barbaric," "beast," "brute," "savage" and "wild." And jurors in criminal cases were far more likely to judge blacks more harshly than whites, and regard them and their crimes as savage, bestial, and heinous, and slap them with tougher sentences than whites.

(The haterade against Michelle Obama, favorite target of frustrated right-wingers and HBDers)
First Lady Michelle Obama is a woman, a black woman, and a soft target for the frustrations and even scorn of the Obama loathers. During the campaign Obama opponents eagerly latched onto out-of-context statement she made at a campaign rally in which she allegedly questioned her faith in America, and made a supposedly less than reverential reference to the flag. They brutally tarred her as a closet anti-American, race-obsessed, black radical. That made her an instant campaign liability. For weeks she virtually disappeared from the campaign trail.


She has played a relatively low key role in the White House, and has succeeded in pretty much staying out of harm's way from the hits of hubby Obama's avowed enemies. That is all except when it comes to the image assault from the eternal animal mockery of blacks, an image that Baker and legions of other see nothing wrong with. It's an image that the First Lady and the President haven't seen the last of it. It's just too juicy, vile and hurtful to die. It's been that way for a century.


Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His nationally heard talk show is on KTYM-AM 1460 AM Los Angeles Friday 9:30 AM and KPFK Pacifica Radio 90.7 Los Angeles Saturday Noon PST.

Tennessee CEO sorry for comparing Michelle Obama to chimp in email

This is the type of nonsense that falls under the radar


An emailed "joke" from an Tennesee CEO comparing the First Lady to a famous movie chimp ended up being no laughing matter.
The CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association issued an apology this weekend for an offensive e-mail he recently sent to several people, including members of the press and a public official, comparing Michelle Obama to Cheetah from the Tarzan movies.
"I deeply apologize to anyone who is offended by this action," Walt Baker said in a statement.
"I hope that those who know me realize that the message was not intended to be malicious or hurtful in any way and can find it in their hearts to forgive me."
However, Baker is apparently confused on why someone would find it offensive, describing the joke as "political humor."
"I did not think or consider its implications, other than that it was political humor," he wrote. "I am saddened that anyone misinterpreted the sentiments behind the e-mail."
Baker's e-mail, which someone had sent him and he forwarded, contained a photo of Michelle Obama along side a photo of Tarzan's chimpanzee sidekick.
"I have never considered myself bigoted, or racially insensitive, or a racist," Baker told News Channel 5.
The president of Nashville's Convention & Visitors Bureau, Butch Spyridon, was one of the people to receive the e-mail, and said he was "embarrassed" by the gag.
"The content is deeply hurtful to all in our city and beyond," he wrote in a statement. "The attitudes expressed in the email are both appalling and unacceptable, and are not shared or condoned in anyway by the NCVB or by me personally."
Spyridon said Baker's marketing firm, Mercatus Communications, has since lost its contract to help promote the city's new convention center.
"The e-mail was extremely offensive," Nashville's Mayor Karl Dean said in a statement. "It does not reflect who we are as a city and our values."
According to WSMV Channel 4 News in Nashville, this isn't the first time an e-mail with racist content has caused a controversy in the southern city.
Back in October, several hundred state workers received an e-mail proclaiming "white pride," and shortly after that, 20 Senate staffers were sent an e-mail from a legislative aide with President Obama seen on a black background as just a pair of eyes.
"I regret having done it," Baker said on News Channel 5. "I wished I had not pushed that button."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/03/07/2010-03-07_tennessee_ceo_walt_baker_sorry_for_humor_email_gag_comparing_michelle_obama_to_c.html#ixzz0hb02o8S7

Bias incidents roil University of California - Yahoo! News

Bias incidents roil University of California - Yahoo! News: "Bias incidents roil University of California
By CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press Writer Christina Hoag, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES – Swastikas, nooses, a KKK hood, graffiti, epithets and jeers.

An ugly spate of bias incidents has crossed several University of California campuses over the past month, causing consternation, outcry and fear that bigotry is alive among the young and educated."

Three Waves--Each One White-capped: A Racist History of Feminism

Ain't I a Woman?  Are we WOC woman or not?

Once again, Julian Real is right on the money on this one.  Again and again, the needs of WOC, working class women, immigrant women, poor women, disabled women are disregarded by the mainstream feminist movement.

Three Waves--Each One White-capped: A Racist History of Feminism

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I don't speak white.

Hi this is George Cook and I wanted to share with everyone this article I read by Taylor Trammell. She is a senior in High school at Detroits Mumford High School. The article deals with how it feels to be told that you "speak white" and what this one remarkable young lady has gone through.

Read the article here: http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html

Angela Bofill - Winamp

How about some old school music, anyone?  Let's listen to the soulful voice of talented music artist, Ms. Angela Bofill.

Angela Bofill - Winamp

John Patrick Bedell: Killed After Firing On Police Officers At Pentagon

The Rise of Right Wing Extremism.

The recent incident in Washington, DC proves the Southern Poverty Law Center report on the rise of extremism in America. With the economic recession, unemployment and perceived fears of racial privilege, many Americans are becoming domestic terrorists.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League has on record nearly 1,000 hate groups. And this disturbing pattern of "lone wolf" gunmen are becoming a new tradition in the movement. John Patrick Bedell, of California was killed by Pentagon officers after he opened fired on them when they asked for identification.

The alleged shooter posted videos on YouTube (note: YouTube may remove the video upon police inquiries):



Writings from the shooter.

“I am determined to see that justice is served in the death of Colonel James Sabow, as a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions and institutions such as the coup regime of 1963 that maintains itself in power through the global drug trade, financial corruption, and murder, among other crimes. My work to develop information currency is an effort to create a framework for information management that uses financial markets to create the economic signals (prices) that will effect complex human actions in the real world based on specified information.

“My desire for justice led me to violate what I think is one of the most unjust laws, cannabis prohibition, by growing 16 cannabis plants on my balcony in Irvine, CA from March 2006 to June 2006.

One desired result of my effort is (will be) billions and billions of carefully cultivated, highly valuable cannabis plants growing throughout the United States with complete security of property. I have posted the image to the right in order to illustrate the use of cannabis as a monetary system using digital financial instruments.”

Official: Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell dies after confrontation with police

The Associated Press

Pentagon Police Chief Richard Keevill speaks with reporters about a shooting at the Pentagon, Thursday, March 4, 2010, in Washington. A gunman coolly drew a weapon from his pocket and opened fire at the teeming subway entrance to the Pentagon complex, wounding two police officers before being shot and critically wounded, officials said. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)


WASHINGTON -- The chief of the Pentagon police says the gunman who shot two Pentagon police officers was well armed with two 9 millimeter semiautomatic weapons and several magazines of ammunition.

Chief Richard Keevill said authorities also found more ammunition in the shooter's car, parked in a Washington area parking garage. John Patrick Bedell, 36, of Hollister, Calif., was identified as the shooter. He died Thursday night from head wounds received in the exchange with police.

The two officers injured have been released from the hospital. One suffered a thigh wound and the other was hit in the shoulder. Keeveill said both were superficial injuries.

Keevill said they'd found no immediate connection to domestic or foreign terrorism. He said it appeared he had acted alone.