B#tch Please.

I love how out-of-touch White Americans assume some pseudo authority on race relations. I love how they conveniently ignore the "One Drop Rule" when convenient. I love how they pretend that we're all holding hands across the nation singing "Kumbayah" while dishing racist vitriol. I love how they can be unhealthily obsessed with people of color and dehumanize us at the same time.

And I also love how they can rely on antiquated and ruled-out research that feminizes and racializes poverty. I also love how they can run off at the mouth without offering any solutions. Bitch please.

Why Is Georgia Rushing to Kill Troy Davis?

What’s the Rush?
By Bob Herbert

Troy Davis, who was convicted of shooting a police officer to death in the parking lot of a Burger King in Savannah, Ga., is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday.

There is some question as to his guilt (even the pope has weighed in on this case), but the odds of Mr. Davis escaping the death penalty are very slim. Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always perverted, but there’s an extra dose of perversion in this case.

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That’s six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.

Mr. Davis’s lawyers have tried desperately to have the execution postponed for those few days, but so far to no avail. Georgia is among the most cold-blooded of states when it comes to dispatching prisoners into eternity.

So the lawyers are now trying to get the Supreme Court to issue a stay, or decide before Tuesday on whether it will consider the appeal.

No one anywhere would benefit from killing Mr. Davis on Tuesday, as opposed to waiting a week to see how the Supreme Court rules. So why the rush? The murder happened in 1989, and Mr. Davis has been on death row for 17 years. Six or seven more days will hardly matter.

Most of the time, the court declines to hear such cases.

If that’s the decision this time, Georgia can get on with the dirty business of taking a human life. If the court agrees to hear the appeal, it would have an opportunity to get a little closer to the truth of what actually happened on the terrible night of Aug. 19, 1989, when Officer Mark Allen MacPhail was murdered.

He was shot as he went to the aid of a homeless man who was being pistol-whipped in the parking lot.

Nine witnesses testified against Mr. Davis at his trial in 1991, but seven of the nine have since changed their stories. One of the recanting witnesses, Dorothy Ferrell, said she was on parole when she testified and was afraid that she’d be sent back to prison if she didn’t agree to finger Mr. Davis.

She said in an affidavit: “I told the detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn’t know who shot the officer.”

Another witness, Darrell Collins, a teenager at the time of the murder, said the police had “scared” him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime. He said they told him that he might never get out of prison.

“I didn’t want to go to jail because I didn’t do nothing wrong,” he said.

At least three witnesses who testified against Mr. Davis (and a number of others who were not part of the trial) have since said that a man named Sylvester “Redd” Coles admitted that he was the one who had killed the officer. (More Stuff...)

For more information on Troy Davis, visit http://www.troyanthonydavis.org/

"So Sambo beat the bitch?" - Sarah Palin

Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”

by Charley James –
“So Sambo beat the bitch!”

This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively.

“It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole.

Then, almost with a sigh, she added, “But that’s just Alaska.”
Racial and ethnic slurs may be “just Alaska” and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.

Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.

But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.
No wonder the vast sea of white, cheering faces at the Republican Convention went wild for Sarah: They adore the type, it’s in their genetic code. So much for McCain’s pledge of a “high road” campaign; Palin is incapable of being part of one. (More Stuff...)


Let's see how the MSM spins this. That's if they even wanna touch it. They're so enamored with this politically empty woman with all of their coverage of her beauty pageant days and game-winning jump shots that they forgot to mention that she touched on nothing of grave concern to the American people in her RNC speech. Dumb voters get what they deserve though. Her fans are too busy consuming fluff rather than concerning themselves with where this country is going.

Palin's embroiled in a scandal, but who gives a fuck? I mean, giiirl, did you see her frames? Black and Brown girls are vilified for getting knocked up but we've got lay off her daughter? Conservatives are conveniently turning a new leaf on teenage pregnancy and the use of the gender card and only The Daily Show is brave enough to call them out on their shit? This "woman" is sharing a ticket with a man who is against equal pay for women, and her female fans aren't taking issues with this? This nutjob is still a staunch supporter of pro-abstinence education after her daughter is pregnant --- where's the sense in that? Even if a woman or girl becomes pregnant through incest or rape, abortion is still a no-no in her book. So we should be going back to the days of bloody hangers left behind in an alley, right?

"Oh fuck the issues. She brought the championship home for her high school." - Stupid Americans

The Obama Problem: Being Uppity Niggers That Don't Know Their Place

Obama Is Just Not A Good Negro
by Earnest Harris

I'm about at the end of my rope as it relates to giving certain people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to how they respond to and treat Barack Obama and his family.

By "certain people" I am referring to the mainstream media (MSM) and to be frank, conservatives, most of whom are white, but by no means is this category limited only to whites. And by the way, I include some Hillary supporters and other Democrats in this category as well, because I don't for a minute believe just being in the Democratic Party makes one truly liberal or progressive.

But I have tried for quite some time in this campaign, and even before, as it relates to other situations in my lifetime, to give people the benefit of the doubt, to offer potential excuses for behavior that is so undeniably indicative of at minimum a double standard for how minorities are treated as compared to whites, and at worst, outright racism, and I do hesitate most of the time to use that word.

What has become very clear to me in the aftermath of Obama's historic trip to the Middle East and Europe is that the root of the opposition to, and extremely palpable dislike for Obama (and Michelle), is that he is just not behaving like the good negro that is expected of him. He has stepped out of his "place," beyond his station, into a position that was not agreed to and chosen for him by others. In short, he is being "uppity," that ultimate charge leveled at blacks for generations when they dared try to equate themselves with those who they should know are better than them.

Just look at some of the things that have been said, loudly and quietly, about Obama since this trip, which clearly pushed some of these people over the edge. In report after report, comment after comment, you could hear the grumblings. Obama was acting like a rock star; Obama was already acting like he was President; Obama was presumptuous; the trip and his talking in front of large crowds are symptomatic of Obama's hubris, his arrogance.

It was truly strange. Here you had an American man who was welcomed with open arms, indeed with great excitement about a new era that he just might represent, and many on the right (and some in his own party) were acting like he did something wrong. The double standard that couldn't be missed was that John McCain had essentially taken the same trip, and more, since he also went to Mexico and Colombia. And not once do I recall the MSM, or even the Democrats, questioning his right to go and the value of such a trip. Not once. But Obama goes and is greeted with much more excitement (an understatement) and he has to defend the trip. Outrageous. It is like Obama said himself at the Unity Conference this weekend in Chicago, it's like he is being punished for doing the trip better than McCain could. And for being more popular.

But you see, I don't ultimately think it is about whether or not Obama did it better or not. It is increasingly clear that this is about the fact that seeing a Black man (at least one who identifies as such in his case) in front of that crowd in Germany, seeing him with those heads of state, in a role as possible leader of the free world, was just too much. True colors are just starting to bleed through. We could see it coming with some people even before this trip. There were comments that Barack and Michelle were trying to act like the Black Kennedy's and there was, and still is of course, the much talked about charge that they are elitists. This charge has always been the most curious. It has come mostly, though not entirely, from Republicans who elected a current President who comes from generations of money and truly elite circles. How much more elite can a person be when their father was a President? Even McCain and his wife fit the definition of elite better, his father a Navy Admiral and his wife from one of the wealthiest families in the country. The Obama's, by all accounts, are from working class homes with no one in their families in a position to have "given" them anything they got. And yet it is the Obama's who are called elite.

No, they are not elitist. They are just minorities who are above and beyond what certain people are used to seeing, are better than what certain people are comfortable accepting since they do force the undeniable realization that they are indeed anybody's equal. And that just seems to be too much for some people to handle. (More Stuff...)

Well said Mr. Harris.

I mean, really. How in the world is Dubya more relatable than the Obamas? He's an American blue blood that had everything (including his terms as president) handed to him. And McCain and Hillary are not more relatable either. Hillary was killing me with that "elitist" mess. I don't care how many drinks you throw back with working class folk at a bar --- you ain't down wit 'em.

Anyway, the Obamas were working class (Barack was a welfare kid and Michelle's dad was a city employee for those unbeknownst) and had to overcome racial hurdles to get where they are today. Of course Michelle wasn't working class by her naysayers' standards cuz she didn't come out of Cabrini-Green. Last I checked, "working class" and "blue collar" can be used interchangeably. But I'll let the naysayers revise terms and argue semantics to suit their moot arguments.

This just goes to back to the failed effort to niggerize the Obamas. The Obamas don't fit the sordid stereotypes of Black folks that can be found ad nauseam by a Viacom network. The next strategy (that seems to be sticking with the feeble-minded, Archie Bunker types) was to Muslimize him. *Sighs* Only in American can you be a jihadist Muslim that frequents the church of a "radical," "anti-American," and "racist" preacher.

And why is being Muslim bad again? Oh yeah. Because of what happened twice at the WTC. Funny though, I don't see anyone vilifying disturbed White war veterans because of what happened in Oklahoma City. I guess it's sensible to have a selective memory and to be selective with the types of people we fear.

And why is being Muslim such a bad thing all of a sudden? I mean, we don't seem to mind their oil one bit. Islam's evil cuz of the WTC and other 9-11 attacks yet Christianity and Catholicism were, and are still used as tools to propagate some of the most heinous crimes to humankind. And with knowing that, I still don't feel the need to vilify Muslims and Christians/Catholics. Logic trumps media-controlled emotion in my book.

The Archie Bunker types puzzle me. Why is being stupid easier? Does critical thought cause headaches and rashes?

Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Crocodile Tears

*Sighs*

She was getting her Hillary on in that video wasn't she?

You know, I understand that there are Whites who were so sheltered that they're ignorant to the experiences of POC. Elisabeth is not of the aforementioned sheltered variety. She is running a hustle. Her hustles toggle amongst being a victimized neo-con, a picked-on White woman, and a blond airhead. Rinse. Repeat. Since I recognize game and am allergic to bullshit, I'm utterly bored with her feigned ignorance and pseudo-utopian views of race relations in the States.

For Elisabeth to say, with a straight face, that she and Whoopi live in the same world is patronizing and a boldfaced lie.

I mean, has she ever been advised to name her children "safe" names so as to ensure that they will be employable in the future? Has she ever been put in the position of speaking for her race? Has she ever been robbed of her emotions so as to not intimidate others and/or confirm their negative stereotypes about her? Has she ever had to pay a "White Tax" to prove that she's half as good as a Black person? I'll answer for her and say "No."

She's never walked a day in a POC's shoes so I can't take her myopic bullshit of a point-of-view seriously. And she seems to have a problem with LISTENING and loves to talk over people. She just wants to prove her case no matter what bullshit flies out of her mouth. I'd like to hear her challenge the LGBT, Italian, Latin, and other communities for their affectionate use of slurs directed towards their respective communities. I hope that she's challenging White women who embrace "bitch" and "on the rag."

The fundamentals of in-house jokes aren't rocket science. If my family called me "peanut head" or "stink butt," that doesn't give some outsider the right to use it as well. What's confusing about that?

Aside from her feigned concern for race relations, I was very annoyed by her turning on the waterworks. That was a great way to finish off the victimized neo-con, picked-on White woman hustle. Her act is sooo transparent but it amazes me that there are people (who are hell-bent on protecting White damsels in distress at any cost) who stay falling for the okey-doke. They say a sucker's born every minute. Seems like the lot of them watch Faux News.

How can Whoopi, Joy, and Sherri stand her? Are they in on this hustle?

CROSS-POST: Verizon in Trouble Over "TechNigga" Partnership; "Mastermind" Apologizes

From The 9 Elements.

Several civil rights activists and media watchdog groups are calling on Verizon Wireless and company CEO Lowell C. McAdam to drop its contract and distribution deal with Loren Feldman and 1938 Media for promoting stereotypes about African Americans.

1938’s president Loren Feldman—who is white—hosts and stars in a skit titled “TechNigga” on the company web site.

In the three minute long skit, Feldman wonders aloud about the lack of black technology bloggers on the Internet.

“I’d love to see the black tech crunch and get a different cultural view on technology, that would be unbelievable,” he says in the skit. “I wonder what that would be like.”

After the screen fades out, Feldman comes back draped in a wave cap and costume jewelry representing fictional site “TheTechNigga.com.

”He is later seen on camera drinking and discussing another fictional site, “HoTracker.com.”

"Feldman has a history of using the Internet to promote racism and demeaning and negative racial stereotypes against African Americans on his internet site,” Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope said in a statement.

“Verizon CEO Lowell C. McAdam needs to demonstrate that Verizon understands they should demonstrate corporate responsibility and will not tolerate racism, or bigotry. The Verizon distribution deal with Feldman sends a horrible message that Verizon seeks to partner with racists like Feldman and that Verizon and CEO McAdam find nothing offensive with 'TechNigga',” he added.

Ali and Project Islamic Hope, The National Action Network, L.A. Humanity Foundation, Sister Tammy Lee of Sister Lee Media Group, and Industry Ears are also calling on people to contact Feldman concerning the deal with 1938.

He can be reached here.

A national day of protest is in the works if Verizon fails to take action and drop its deal with 1938. SOURCE

How in the world did Verizon miss this one? Don't they have someone on staff to do their homework for things like this?

I find it ironic that for the past couple of years Verizon has been voted as a top diverse leader.

You kmow, I plan to leave T-Mobile soon and I was debating between switching to Verizon or Sprint. I guess Sprint won this one.

Peep Feldman's sorry-ass apology:

"I want to apologize to all the black tech bloggers. It could have been any ethnic group. It could have been gay guys, could have been Jews, could have been micks, skinnies, chinks, any of them...It was just your guys' bad luck that it went down that way...I'm a fucking idiot comedian and I did this." More Stuff...

A Sign of Progressiveness [/Extreme Sarcasm]

*Sighs* I took the above pic at Astor Place on the 6 train line in liberal, progressive NYC. Whatever. There are neighborhoods that my Black ass wouldn't be caught dead in. The South isn't anymore racist than the North and I'm sick of the myth suggesting that the South is worse. The South has James Byrd, Jr. and The North has Sean Bell. No need to argue.

I was livid when I read that insult in the above pic. I felt very hurt. I felt insulted. I saw red. Like I haven't been this enraged in my life. The type of rage I had is the kind that you have after watching a marathon of Roots, Eyes on the Prize, and the Rodney King beating video. That's how pissed I was.

Racism always tests my rationale. Acts like this always leave me distrustful of White people. I know it's wrong. I know plenty of good White people. I should know better but. I know. But I can't help the thoughts that run through my mind when I'm angry. Who knows if the vandal is actually White though.

With all of this hatred leveled at Obama, I wonder "Why are White people scared of us?" "What warrants the hatred?" They make up over 75% of the country so what gives? Is there a fear of a revolution amongst Black people? I don't see that happening. A number of us Black folks are content with their byproducts of Americanism (e.g., HD TVs, iPods, auto financing), think racism is becoming a thing of the past, or are riddled with apathy. Then there's the number of us who know the obstacles that we face yet continue to persevere. I'm a member of the aforementioned group but still I wonder how that works. Like how mentally stable are we?

Does racism seem a tad bit overt now since Obama's campaign? How should one deal with racism? What say you?

"I'll take my diversity to go."

I've come across a lot of articles (print, online, and blog) that discuss assimilating and how a lot of Black people feel pressured to do so. I found an article on AfroSpear dealing with the topic and I left the comment below.

Well said.

I remember when I was interviewing for jobs and my coworker (a sista) asked me "Don't you think that your hairstyle may be a hinderance?"

I said "If it is, fuck 'em. This is New York City where I see successful Black people with unprocessed hair all over the place. My hair's neat, my appearance is clean and conservative, I'm articulate, I'm personable, I have a bachelor's, I have work experience, and I have no problems doing work and showing up on time to do so. If my braids are too distracting, then fuck 'em."

She laughed at me. Not at what I said (maybe she was laughing at me, LOL) but my delivery was in my usual sass. But yes, she's very much a proponent of assimilation. She even argues that assimilation be extended into choosing first names for kid.

The problem I have with that is what exactly is so defective about Black people that we have to compromise our uniqueness? The idea of validating racism and chauvinism by way of altering my appearance doesn't sit well with me. If the goal is to achieve a diverse work environment, why not hold people to the standards that they're trying to set? There has to be something more satisfying than just seeing us peppered amongst a sea of White people.

At the time that I had that discussion with my coworker, I had cornrows that weren't of the Allen Iverson variety. Normally, I'd pulled the braids into one big braid that laid on my back or I would ball it into a bun. I think that's professional, no? None of my White coworkers gave me weird looks; I got some compliments; thankfully, no one had the nerve to touch my hair; and one White coworker thought my hair grew over night, LOL!

I wear braids because I’m transitioning back into my natural hair texture and because of the very low maintenance. There’s no better feeling in the morning than to just get up and go :-) No way am I tryna go back to the garden variety Make You Wait Hair Salon. There will be a whole lot of kicking and screaming on my end. And besides, the same ingredient that helps unclog your sink is used in relaxers. I think I'll have to pass on that.

With regards to the name argument, I think people have the right to name their child whatever they want. I don’t like that some people challenge those like me for wanting to give my future kids African (e.g., Chioma) or Hebrew (e.g., Malachi) names. So long as the name has a meaning to it, or sounds really pretty, I can appreciate it. Now, there are three arguments that I’ve heard from nay-sayers: 1) “Those (read as “Rejected by White folks”) types of names affect people’s chances at landing a job,” 2) “You’re in America, you’re American-born, so why go for that type of name?”, and 3) "Multisyllabic names are hard to pronounce." I can’t help but sigh.

The first argument is definitely true as I have seen and read studies to substantiate that hinderance claim. What that argument fails to consider is that being a non-White male can also be a hinderance. You don’t know what’s going through the minds of these interviewers. They could be thinking, “I’ve already fulfilled that quota. NEXT!” or they could assume that you fit some negative stereotype.

Another thing that’s overlooked are zip code lookups. Your name could be as mainstream as Bob and Becky, but if you’re coming from an undesirable neighborhood, your resume could have a meeting with the trash bin.

I really hate the second argument about going the American route with names. I mean, what the hell is “American?” No, seriously. What is it? You’ve got members from every part of the globe in this country with unusual (read as “non-English”) and lengthy first and last names but then assimilators wanna suggest that there are American names and that you should give your child such names. Huh? Ummm...I’ve met Americans with first or last names like Levi, Juanita, Renee, Wale, Chan, Ramadan, Kapalski, and Jackson and not one of those names are of American origin yet those people are as American as they come.

The third argument is comical. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an actor turned governor, Shoshanna Lonstein is a fashion designer, yet my short, Nigerian last name stays butchered. Whatever.

Let’s keep it funky since we know what’s the real issue: Americans DON’T like diversity unless it comes in the form of a dish. Oh yes. I said it. Chicken Tikka Masala is sexy, trendy, delicious, and diverse. Now, Parmita the Indian cook, she gets the stink eye cuz she ain’t the type of “diversity” that’s all that appreciated.

Diversity should be about tolerating and/or appreciating someone’s differences. Don’t just pepper me in there tryna kill two birds with one stone. That's insulting and the goal of diversity obviously isn't an honest effort.

Now, on to the million-dollar question: "Should Black people be conducive to White people?" Other people of color are welcome to leave a comment as it may pertain to your experiences.

Undebatable Racial Disparities

This article was forwarded to me today. It's a well-written must-read. This piece can also be found on TaylorSiluwe.com.

Different Standards for Black and White Preachers
By Cenk Uygur

Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.

Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.

Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.

Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.

Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think. John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."

What separates all of these outrageous preachers from Barack Obama's? You guessed it. They're white and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not. If it's not racism that's causing the disparity in media treatment of these preachers, then what is it?

I'm willing to listen to other possible explanations. And I am inclined to believe that the people these preachers go after are more important than the race of the preacher. It's one thing to go after gays, liberals and Muslims - that seems to be perfectly acceptable in America - it's another to accuse white folks of not living up to their ideals.

I think there is another factor at play as well. The media is deathly afraid of calling out preachers of any stripe for insane propaganda from the pulpits for fear that they will be labeled as anti-Christian. But criticism of Rev. Wright falls into their comfort zone. It's easy to blame him for being anti-American because he criticizes American foreign and domestic policy.

If Rev. Wright had preached about discriminating against gay Americans or Muslims, there probably would not have been any outcry at all. That falls into the category of "respect their hateful opinions because they cloak themselves in the church."

But one thing is indisputable - the enormous disparity in how the media has covered these white preachers as opposed to Rev. Wright. Have you ever even heard of Rod Parsley? As you can see from what I listed above, all of these white preachers have said and done the most outlandish and offensive things you can imagine - and hardly a peep.

If the disparity in coverage isn't racist, then what is it?

© 2008 Huffington Post All rights reserved.

CROSS POST: The Epitome Of Racism Is Pat Buchanan

I came across this very thoughtful piece on AfroSpear:

“Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.” – Pat Buchanan, as if white people don’t use welfare.


Pat Buchanan is a disgusting example of a sub human being. This man has the audacity to say that people in the black community should be on their knees thanking the white community for bringing our ancestors to America, subjecting them to slavery, denial of humanity, Jim Crow laws, segregation, denial of civil rights, and denial of opportunity. While the dominant community worked to keep black people within the strict confines of subjugation, the white community reaped the benefits of low cost black labor and the benefits of black people being artificially prevented from competing fairly in a capitalistic environment. The black American today should be thankful that although we live in the richest country in the world and earn wages that exceed many blacks elsewhere, we pay much more than many blacks around the world in order to exist without healthcare, equal wages, equal opportunities for education and employment, and the other social ills that run the gamut.

Black people need to be thankful that white people hanged our ancestors from the local tree. We should be thankful that our ancestors were used for government sponsored experiments on the effects of syphilis if left untreated. We should be down on our knees thanking god that white people sprayed our elders and ancestors with water hoses for having the audacity to demand to be recognized as an equal part of this society that works so hard to protect racial disparity. We should be thankful that prisons hold a disproportionately excessive number of our brothers and sisters while on the flip side the American corporation employs a disproportionately inadequate number of black people.

We should be thankful for all of this disparity that has become the norm of American society. According to Mr. Buchanan, this is a grievance that the white American community has against the ungrateful black people. White people paid good money to other white people to buy our ancestors. Why aren’t we more thankful?

Then again, why aren’t more people of Jewish ancestry more thankful to Nazi Germany for all the things the Nazis did for them? The German Nazi party spent a lot of energy building all of those concentration camps to house those Jewish people. Why aren’t more Jews more thankful for the sacrifice that Germany made for their ancestors and elders? How come there are no Jews thanking the Germans for all of those train rides that allowed them to see the countryside from the inside of a railcar? The Germans provided Jews with food, at least every now and then. The Germans actually set in motion a series of events that led to the establishment of Israel. It would not have happened without Adolph Hitler’s help. If we follow Mr. Buchanan’s racist logic, every person of Jewish descent should be on their knees thanking the Nazis for everything that happened to them.

But no one would seriously suggest that the Jewish people should be on their knees thanking Nazis for their sordid past. The German Nazi party abused and misused its Jewish population. Jews exist despite what the Nazis did to them. The same is true about the relationship between America’s black population and the dominant society. If racist white people had their way, the black community would continue to have no rights and to exist in nothing more than a subservient role to the white community. It is this blatant tolerance for racism against black people in this country that allows the white mindset of people like Mr. Buchanan to flourish and to publicly express some of the most asinine concepts with regards to the relationship between blacks and whites. Black people need to get down on our collective knees and thank white supremacist, kidnappers, enslavers, rapists, murderers, and many other white criminals simply because we continue to exist in an environment of racial disparity. How racist and self centered can you get?

However, in one respect, Mr. Buchanan is very correct. His assessment that America’s dominant community is directly responsible for the condition of the black community is very true. He is mistaken in his opinion that we should be thanking the white community for what they have done. A victim of rape wouldn’t roll over, get on his or her knees, and thank the rapist for a good fuck. A crime was committed. The dominant community needs to face the facts that it has abused the black community just like the Nazi Germany had to come to terms with the fact that it had abused its Jewish community. We would never tolerate anyone publicly saying that the Jews should drop to their knees and thank god for the Nazis and for all the abuses of the Jewish community simply because the Jews are thriving. What on Earth would drive a person to think that the black community would drop to its knees and thank America’s dominant community for all the abuses our ancestors, our elders, and we have suffered? The mere suggestion is intended as a slap in the black community’s face.

This is how people with the white mindset respond to a call for some kind of dialog to start the healing process to end America’s racial dysfunction. The white mindset doesn’t want to end it because these people are benefiting from the divide. The white mindset wants to keep this dysfunction going just like the plantation owner would do anything to keep slavery going. The white mindset wants to be thanked for what they have done that has caused the black community such despair. This is the face of compassionate conservatism. Mr. Buchanan has zero compassion for the black community or racial healing. It is because he is profoundly deep in his psychosis of white supremacy he maintains his delusion that black people need to be grateful for the crumbs America throws its way. No one is this much of a callous bastard by accident. Mr. Buchanan is making a conscious decision to never come to terms with America’s racism, the racist past, or the racial dysfunction that continues to support white privilege and black subjugation.

And unfortunately, Pat Buchanan is in no way operating individually or in a small club. Mr. Buchanan is part of a very large fraternity. He is the type of white man that would be more than happy to beat an enslaved African to within an inch of his life and then demand that the African lick his boot to show allegiance. He’s the type of white man that would turn a dog without a muzzle on black people conducting a peaceful protest. He is the type of white man that would turn to a group of black children and threaten to make their lives disappear if they don’t quit making trouble for white children who hang racially provocative nooses. He is the type of white man who would drag a black man behind his pickup truck with a chain around the neck and then get pissed when the black man doesn’t offer to pay for his gas. He is the type of white man that would turn loose a fire hose on blacks in a peaceful march and complain that the blacks didn’t thank him for not using bullets. He is the type of man who would deny black children an education. In fact, he’s more likely to suggest that we could reduce crime by aborting all black babies. He is the epitome of white privilege. He is a disgusting example of a sub human being.

Obama's Popularity Obsoletes Affirmative Action - WTF?!

Affirmative action foes point to Obama
Say candidate is proof effort no longer needed
By Joseph Williams and Matt Negrin

WASHINGTON - Leading opponents of affirmative action are increasingly seizing on Illinois Senator Barack Obama's historic run for the presidency as proof that race-based remedies for past discrimination are no longer necessary.

Influential Republicans and a growing number of policy specialists at conservative organizations, including the Goldwater Institute, Project 21, and the Manhattan Institute, are citing the fact that large numbers of white voters are supporting Obama, who leads in the race for Democratic delegates, as evidence that affirmative action has run its course.

Ward Connerly, a black conservative who is leading a national effort to ban racial preferences, vowed to use Obama's success as evidence for anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives his organization is promoting in five states. Connerly, who helped dismantle affirmative action policies in California universities and public hiring in the 1990s, said he has donated $500 to Obama's campaign.

"I've been saying for a number of years that the American people are not institutionally racist," and Obama's strong support among white voters proves it, said Connerly, founder of the American Civil Rights Institute, an organization that backs proposals to end affirmative action in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. "It underscores my position . . . that affirmative action is an idea whose time has passed.

"The whole argument in favor of race preferences is that there is 'institutional racism' and 'institutional sexism' in American life, and you need affirmative action to level the playing field," he said. "How can you say there is institutional racism when people in Nebraska vote for a guy who is a self-identified black man?"

*Sighs* Please use more than one example to strengthen your argument. This is as bad as arguments that suggests that "it's better for Black people. Look at Oprah and all of these athletes." *Rolls eyes*

Obama's take on affirmative action:

Obama, who graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, has said he is firmly behind efforts to expand diversity, particularly in higher education. However, he has implied that such programs should be reexamined, and perhaps be more closely tied to class instead of race.

Asked if his young children would be candidates for affirmative action when they reach college, Obama said their middle-class upbringing should disqualify them.

"I think that my daughters should probably be treated by any [college] admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged," Obama said in an interview with ABC News. "We should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed."

More stuff...

I don't know about all that. I knew these affirmative action antagonists would pop up and use Obama's electability for their reasoning.

"A More Perfect Union"

When I get a chance, I'll search for a video and post it. My wonderful job blocks YouTube :-/ so I can't do a search right now.

Update: Found a video.



Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
"A More Perfect Union"
Constitution Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

More stuff...

Gerry Ferraro Defends Herself and Diminishes the Black Female Experience a la Gloria Steinem

From Daily Breeze:

Ferraro defends controversial comments on Barack Obama
By Gene Maddaus

In a follow-up interview today, Ferraro said her company had been deluged with vicious e-mail messages accusing her of racism.

But far from backing off from her initial remark, Ferraro defended it and elaborated on it.

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

This is foolishness. You discredit the value of Obama's potential and make him out to be some faulty affirmative action token candidate all the while being a token VP in '84? Obama's lucky to be Black yet why hadn't that "lucky to be Black" fortune rubbed off on previous Black presidential hopefuls Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Carol Moseley-Braun?

Ferraro said she was simply stating an obvious truth, as seen in exit polls that show Obama taking as much as 80 percent of the black vote in the Democratic primaries.

"In all honesty, do you think that if he were a white male, there would be a reason for the black community to get excited for a historic first?" Ferraro said. "Am I pointing out something that doesn't exist?"

And (White) women aren't enraptured in Hillary's gender? So many White women are completely comfortable with voting for their vaginas and admitting to it. And Obama had more than his share of nay-sayers in the Black community before the Clintons threw Black people under the bus. Obama had to work for those votes because a lot of Black people were in love with the Clintons. It wasn't like Black people were saying "Let's give brothaman a chance."

Here are Gerry's remarks about Obama's campaign manager David Axelrod:

"He knows damn well that the best thing to do in a situation like this is to come back and hit with race," Ferraro said, adding that the response is a sign that the Obama campaign is "worried" about the first-term senator's lack of experience.

Hillary does not have a world of experience. Like I've said before, riding shotgun for years doesn't purport that you're a good driver. Hillary stayed with Bill and kept her married name for a reason.

Ferraro said she was not trying to diminish Obama's candidacy, and acknowledged up front that she would not have been the vice presidential nominee in 1984 if she had been a man.

The only sensible thing she's said so far.

But she also echoed remarks of feminist leaders like Gloria Steinem, who argued in the New York Times that Obama would not have succeeded if he were a woman because gender is "the most restricting force in American life."

"Sexism is a bigger problem," Ferraro argued. "It's OK to be sexist in some people's minds. It's not OK to be racist."

How would you know White woman? Step into a Black woman's shoes for one day and I might let you tell it. Gerry and Gloria are two foolish peas in a pod.

Left-Handed Endorsement/Compliment From Some?

Leonce Gaiter
Hosannas Spiked With Contempt

What does it say when those who have held you in open contempt lavish sweet praise on one who vies for your allegiance and claims to speak for you? That's the question I find myself asking in regard to Barack Obama. In the Guardian, writer Gary Younge quoted Hardball host Chris Matthews saying, "I don't think you can find a better opening-gate, starting-gate personality than Obama as a black candidate. I can't think of a better one. No history of Jim Crow, no history of anger, no history of slavery. All the bad stuff in our history ain't there with this guy."

Let's review: "No history of Jim Crow. No history of anger, no history of slavery..." No history of "all the bad stuff."

According to the line of thinking put forward by Matthews, for a significant number of people, the fact that Obama has a white mother, a Kenyan father and no cultural relationship to the sons and daughters of African slaves save voluntary ones makes his blackness no more than a genetic quirk of the skin. Obama lets them feel "colorblind" because his color is not attached to their shame--their historical, legally sanctioned viciousness toward black men and women. When we black Americans mention it, we're accused of conjuring "white guilt." Statements such as Matthews', however, suggest that we don't need to conjure it. People are so busy projecting it onto us that they obviate the need.

Andrew Sullivan, who to this day defends his endorsement of "The Bell Curve" and its theories of black genetic inferiority as a "speaking truth to power," is another Obama fan. He wrote a wet, sloppy kiss to the candidate in the Atlantic entitled, "Why Obama Matters." In it, he claims that Obama, in classic "Magic Negro" form, will heal the divisions in America, and in the world at large.

"What does he offer?" Sullivan asked. "First and foremost: his face," was the answer.

Source

Let's be clear (White) people: This not addressing all White people. This is clearly addressing those who offer left-handed compliments and endorsements for Obama. If you're not guilty of it, do not take offense to this article. If you do take offense, oh well.

Ban Shirley Q. Liquor

If you are disturbed by this image of a gay White man paying "homage to Southern women," then please sign the petition.

I guess I'm gonna have to fight as fervently as the gay community did in getting Isaiah Washington fired from Grey's Anatomy.
http://www.banshirleyqliquor.typepad.com/my_weblog/