Bullseye on their backs, and a bold move from Cheerios.

Just a brief follow up on my post from last night. I will not write too much about it because of professional reasons. But the beat (literally speaking) still goes on for you young black men in America.

"A PROFESSIONAL photographer with a lengthy rap sheet died last week in a Philadelphia jail cell, and some people close to him are raising questions about the official account of his death.

The man, Zakee Vaughn, 29, of Willow Grove, Montgomery County, was shot May 12 by a Philadelphia Police officer on Oxford Avenue near Summerdale, in Northeast Philly's Summerdale section.

It was Mother's Day and Vaughn was with the mother of one of his two children. Lt. John Stanford, a police spokesman, said he was shot because he had tried to grab the gun from an officer's holster after cops, responding to the report of a domestic dispute, chased him on foot.

After eight days at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Vaughn was moved to the Detention Center on State Road, where authorities say he committed suicide by asphyxiation the first night....

Vaughn was a photography student at the Community College of Philadelphia and worked for a photo studio in Port Richmond. He had six arrests dating to 2003.

On the morning of May 21, having been released from Einstein the night before, Vaughn was found dead in his cell by workers in the Prison Health Services Wing at the Detention Center, a drawstring plastic bag wrapped around his head, according to Shawn Hawes, a prison spokeswoman. The Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a suicide.

Hawes would not say how Vaughn had obtained the bag. She said the investigation into his death had ended.

Vaughn's mother, Carol Vaughn, said that prison officials had told her nothing and that she was unable to inquire further. She said she was looking for a lawyer.

In 2011, Vaughn was convicted on three counts of driving under the influence and was sentenced to 90 to 180 days in prison, but was put on immediate parole with credit for time served. He had been arrested three other times between 2008 and 2010 on charges ranging from assault to drug offenses and a DUI.

Still, friends say, Vaughn had changed.

"He was definitely a different person," said Shadeed Bradley, 29, a friend of Vaughn's since middle school, who disputed the official account of his death. "He was doing big things for himself."

Vaughn's employer, Calvin Childs of Aperture Studios in Port Richmond, said that he knew about Vaughn's criminal record when he hired him as an assistant in early March, but that he found him to be an honest, hard worker to whom he often entrusted the keys to his shop holding thousands of dollars worth of photographic equipment." [Story]

Remember young black men, you can catch a beat down from the po po for just a stare. (h/t Tia)

BTW, you white folks are not immune from cops behaving badly, so before you go thinking that it's just those Negroes; think again.

I never thought that I would think of a breakfast cereal maker as being courageous. But here I am pouring high praise on the makers of Cheerios for their commercial featuring an interracial family with a...gasp, black man as the head of the household.

Madison Avenue always gives me the one black friend, the one who is always smiling with the group. I have even seen Gay couples and other interracial couples  before, but I have never seen the black and white couple with the male being black.

Still, this is America, and given the nature of some of our fellow countrymen we know that the "post-racial" buzz was just an illusion.   

The reality is quite different, and Cheerios had to disable the comments under the You Tube video because of all the vile racist comments that were being left.

And, speaking of comments, I found the following one under the New York Daily News article on the subject quite interesting.

"I just posted a  comment on another story of a white woman having various sex acts with a dog and recording these acts on her phone. I was lamenting the fact that it was the fourth story within the last nine or so months where animals were so savagely assaulted and the responses to such atrocities by the public were largely tepid.

I turned to this story about the cheerios ad which features a fictional mixed race family and all hell has broken loose. well,well, well... Those of you who like to claim that racism is over or non-existent, here is your empirical answer. The racist savages in this country are so sick and twisted that they believe that it is okay if a white person rapes a dog. But showing a fictional interracial family with a black man as the head -- it's heresy. That is why any time a black person alleges an act of racism against them I almost always believe. Because racism , even though it is dying, is still very much alive and still is a potent force in this country. There is an unnatural fear of the Black man. Whatever stereotypes that the racists have in their minds about black masculinity, it stimulates this dread that the black man and the white would get together and that would leave the white man out. This is not likely to happen; but fear is not a rational thing. In societies where races freely mix only a certain percentage of each race would mix. Most races and cultures would stay within.

The problem with racism is that the leaders of this country from the very outset embarked on demonizing and dehumanizing the black man. Not only was he enslaved, but the white power structure, spent many millions of dollars and hundreds of years to create a false and negative image of the Black man. The power structure also expended resources to make sure that blacks were poor and powerless and thus without the wherewithal to pull themselves up from the valley of oppression. Whites upon seeing the condition of blacks and hearing from the white power structure that they were superior to blacks , believed it. Because humans love praise. People enjoy hearing that they are better than others. That is why, even today, if a racist hears any spectacular story of black success they would either try to deny it or downplay it. It is not easy hearing all your life that you are something special then wake up one day to the reality that you are not. You would fight violently against that. For example if someone were to come up with proof that God does not exist, most believers would fight violently against that truth. They may even try to kill the messenger. Long held beliefs, whether right or wrong, are not easily discarded. They have been unquestioningly held for too long.

So what we are seeing is the racist violently spinning out of control because he is beholding a new world which he does not understand. He does not understand it because he believes he is losing control of it. He longs for the time when he could just go out there and kill a non-white person with impunity. He misses the days when he could rape a non-white woman and nobody would care. The racist long for the days when nobody would take the word of a non-white person over his -- no matter his reputation. He had absolute power then. But they say absolute power corrupts absolutely. The white racist is absolutely corrupt. And he is fighting to keep it that way."

I think I will have Cheerios for breakfast tomorrow.

 



 

Police shootings, and shooting off at the mouth.

Every now and then I have to remind you Negroes in America that it's not a good idea to put yourselves in a dangerous situation with the po po.

Here in Philly our Commissioner actually asked the feds to step in because of all the police involved shootings taking place of late.

"With shootings by Philadelphia police rising to the highest level in over a decade, Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has asked the Department of Justice to review the department's use of deadly force.

The request follows a Philly.com story published May 14 documenting a 50-percent increase in the number of police shootings in 2012.
Police in Philadelphia shot 52 suspects last year. Of those, 15 people died. In 2011, police wounded or killed 35 people.

"When you have as many as we've had, it gets people wondering if they were all justified," Ramsey said. "We've been looking at this issue since December. The Civil Rights Division of the DOJ knows and agrees this is a good course of action." [Source]

Well at least Philly's finest is being proactive, which is more than we can say for other police departments.

Take, for instance, the city of St. Louis.

"Protesters rallied in St. Louis, MO on Wednesday over the death of 25-year-old Cary Ball Jr, who was shot 25 times by police officers last month. Police say Ball refused to pull over for a traffic stop, eventually crashed into a parked car, and started running. According to police, Ball pointed a semi-automatic handgun at the officers, prompting them to open fire.

Several witnesses who spoke to the family, however, say Ball threw his gun on the ground and was walking toward police with his hands up to surrender when he was shot. Some unverified reports say 7 of the 25 shots hit him in the back. Police say there was no surveillance video in the area to verify exactly what happened.

Ball was an honor student with a 3.86 GPA, majoring in human services at Forest Park Community College, where he had been celebrated as an “emerging scholar.” According to family and friends, Ball was working to reform his life after being convicted of armed robbery when he was 17. His older brother, Carlos Ball, said Cary probably ran from the police because, as an ex-convict, it was illegal for him to possess a gun.

The two officers have been placed on administrative leave as homicide detectives investigate the shooting, but this is hardly the first time questions have been raised over the St. Louis Police Department’s conduct. In February, a city cop was accused of choking a man in a wheelchair, who was then arrested immediately after testifying at the officer’s disciplinary hearing. A video showing a cop beating and pepper-spraying a man went viral in 2011, revealing that the cop had stayed on the force despite multiple lawsuits alleging brutality." [Source]

I know what some of you are thinking, so let me say it for you: What was he doing with a gun? It's a fair question. But is it a crime punishable by death to be in possession of an illegal firearm?

Well, it might be, if you are poor or a Negro in America.

How about a knife?

"STERLING, Va. (AP) — A female worker at a northern Virginia Costco store who authorities say went at two sheriff’s deputies with a knife and scissors has been fatally shot.

The shooting occurred about 3 p.m. Wednesday. Two Loudoun County deputies had been called to respond to a disorderly conduct complaint at the Sterling-area Costco. Police said the woman was threatening store employees.
Officials say the deputies ordered the woman to drop the weapons, but she advanced on them. Authorities say one deputy used a stun gun on the woman, but it was ineffective.

Police say the second deputy fired several shots, killing the woman. She was identified as 38-year-old Mhai Scott of Sterling.

Authorities say Scott worked for Club Demonstration Services, which provides services to Costco. The Washington Post reports Scott had been serving pizza.
One deputy was injured. He was treated and released at a local hospital." [Source]

Injured? From what? Slipping on a loose pepperoni?

Finally, it seems as if male wingnuts really don't like women that much.

Let's start with that loud mouth and mentally challenged FOX News host, Eric Bolling.

"Following the release of a Pew study that states 40% of women are now the sole breadwinner for their family, and Fox contributor Erick Erickson‘s subsequent controversial comments on the matter, another Fox personality named Eric said something on The Five today that may raise some eyebrows among those who view more women in the workplace as a good thing.

During a discussion about the study and its implications for American society, Eric Bolling said that if you dig into the research done by Pew, you find out that the reason 4 out of 10 women are the primary provider for their families is “the breakdown of the American family.” He continued, saying, “Women are forced to go out and be the breadwinners for the families and that is why the numbers are higher now — single moms.”

But it was the question Bolling asked next that really made a leap to new territory. “If you are a single mom, breadwinner of the family, and you get pregnant, aren’t we pushing towards more abortions? It seems like we are.”

Ok Mr. Bolling, I am sure that your barefoot wife who spends all of her days in the kitchen will appreciate those comments.

And then there is the other Erick.

"Fox News contributor Erick Erickson must be feeling the heat today over comments his made last night on Fox Business Network as he took to his Red State blog this afternoon to defend himself against the “feminist and emo lefties” who “have their panties in a wad over my statements.”

The conservative commentator was reacting to a recent Pew study that claims mothers are now the primary source of income in 40 percent of American households, when he went off on a tangent, suggesting it’s “anti-science” for liberals to reject the idea that men should take on the “dominant” role in the household.

In his defiant response today, titled “The Truth May Hurt, But Is Not Mean,” Erickson reiterated his point that “more women being the primary or sole breadwinners in families is harmful to raising children.” He also used the opportunity to express his disapproval of gay parents..." [Source]

It got so bad that their fellow FOX colleague had to chastise the wingnut boys club.

She wanted to know if they have "lost their minds". Yes Greta, they have. But they are winguts; their minds were not all there to begin with.

The charmed political life of the "Teflon man", and a wingnut says goodbye.

It is nice to be home. Time to get back to the grind and daily routine of life here in America.

I see that not much has changed since I have been away. The Fox News folks and their trolls who hang around web sites are still looking for a scandal that they hope will bring the beige one down.

So far, though, it doesn't seem to be working. The president's approval rating is actually going up, and the economy chugs along while he cuddles a charmed republican governor for all the world to see.

That cry you hear is from republicans who are trying to take back the White House in 2016, and who want to close the popularity gap with those evil dumbocrats.

So what do you do if you try to push a scandal and the public doesn't cooperate"? Well, if you are Fox News, you keep on pushing and hope and pray that there is a smoking gun somewhere to link the Teflon man to some of these stories.

Meanwhile, they are wondering how Americans can already have scandal fatigue when they were never engaged in the first place.

What they need is a scandal with something salacious in it. (Think Bill and Monica.) I bet they thought they had one Tuesday when they saw that lipstick all over Obama's collar. Sadly for them, though, O had an answer for that as well. 

The irony of all of this is that a looming scandal actually brought down a popular Tea Party politician.

"Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican whose status as a leading voice of the Tea Party movement in Congress has faded in the wake of a failed presidential bid and a widening investigation into her campaign spending, said Wednesday that she would not seek re-election.

Mrs. Bachmann, defiant as ever as she insisted that she would have won re-election had she tried, also said the legal inquiries had nothing to do with her decision. She vowed to continue to fight for the principles she said she holds dear: religious liberty, traditional marriage, family values and opposition to abortion.

“I fully anticipate the mainstream liberal media to put a detrimental spin on my decision not to seek a fifth term,” she said in a gauzy network-television-quality video posted on her campaign Web site. “They always seemed to attempt to find a dishonest way to disparage me. But I take being the focus of their attention and disparagement as a true compliment of my public service effectiveness.”

      

Mrs. Bachmann spent heavily in her last Congressional campaign and eked out a victory by less than two percentage points. She would have been one of the Democrats’ top targets in the 2014 elections, but her decision not to run by no means guarantees them a victory in the conservative-leaning district.

      

In addition to a tough fight for re-election, Mrs. Bachmann also faces growing legal troubles. The Office of Congressional Ethics, a quasi-independent House agency that acts like a grand jury to examine allegations of ethics violations, has been conducting its own review of Mrs. Bachmann and her staff since early this year." [Source]

In her farewell video Michele actually said that she is not leaving because of the looming investigations or the fact that she is down in the polls to her potential opponent.

"The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported this month that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was also conducting an inquiry, joining the Federal Election Commission and the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee on the growing list of investigative bodies examining her campaign activity.
      

Among the allegations Mrs. Bachmann is facing is that her campaign improperly used money from an affiliated political action committee, MichelePAC, to pay a fund-raising consultant who worked for her during the 2012 Iowa caucuses. Her campaign has also been accused of making secret and improper payments to Kent Sorenson, an Iowa state senator and popular Republican conservative leader in the state, in advance of the caucuses. And she has been accused of improperly using her presidential campaign staff to help promote her book, “Core of Conviction.”  [Source]

 

Oh ohh. It looks like we might have a real scandal on our hands. I wonder if FOX News will cover this one.  

 

      

 

 

When minoritty outreach goes wrong.

Those poor folks in the GOP just can't seem to get this minority outreach thing right.

"Oh, Republican governors! When they’re not losing track of the one Latina they hired, they’re digging up a Latino white supremacist to serve on their reelection committees. Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) has come under fire this week after the Southern Poverty Law Center noticed that one member of her “Grassroots Steering Committee,” Roan Garcia-Quintana, is a board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which SPLC calls a “white nationalist hate group.”
MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton reported on Gov. Hayley’s pal on last night’s PoliticsNation, citing the SPLC, which, when convenient, conservatives like to label as partisan. However, even the Anti-Defamation League calls the CofCC a “white suprema­cist” organization, and reported on Garcia-Quintana’s membership last month:

Roan Garcia-Quintana, a direc­tor of the white suprema­cist Coun­cil of Con­ser­v­a­tive Cit­i­zens (CofCC), is closely tied to anti-immigrant orga­ni­za­tions in the United States. Garcia-Quintana is a well-known leader in the CofCC, a group descended from the White Cit­i­zens Coun­cils, which opposed deseg­re­ga­tion of schools dur­ing the Civil Rights era.

He is a fre­quent speaker at CofCC regional events and national con­fer­ences. The CofCC has called mixed-race mar­riage “the mon­gre­liza­tion of the races” and is openly hos­tile to immi­gra­tion. The CofCC state­ment of prin­ci­ples says, “We there­fore oppose the mas­sive immi­gra­tion of non-European and non-Western peo­ples into the United States that threat­ens to trans­form our nation into a non-European major­ity in our lifetime.”

I know I know, the guy was Hispanic, but you republicans better start doing your homework before you go grabbing the first so- called minority you see. Just think of my man E. W. Jackson in Virginia.

But wait, it gets better.

In my homestate of Pistolvania, the GOP governor says that he can't find one Hispanic in the entire state to put on his staff. Well as it turns out.....

"The liberal media can be so very, very unfair to Republicans. In remarks being widely publicized this week, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett ......responded to a question about whether he had any Latinos on his staff by replying “No, we do not have any staff members in there. If you can find us one, please let me know.”

Predictably, the likes of MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton tried to use this to malign GOP minority outreach, but it turns out Corbett does have one Latina staffer. So there.
Gov. Corbett, who last month said that part of Pennsylvania’s unemployment problem is that area employers “can’t find anybody that has passed a drug test,” made his remark at a Philadelphia Union League roundtable last Friday. Moderator Sabrina Vouroulias, Managing Editor of Philadelphia’s Al Dia, asked Corbett “Do you have staff members that are Latino?”

“No, we do not have any staff members in there,” Corbett replied. “If you can find us one, please let me know.”

“I am sure that there are Latinos that…” Vouroulias began.
Corbett turned to the crowd, and asked “Do any of you want to come to Harrisburg?” and, to laughter from the crowd, exclaimed “See?”

So, what’s worse than being asked if you have any Latino staff members and replying that you can’t find any Latinos to hire? Maybe being asked if you have any Latino staff members, and forgetting that you do. Philly Magazine‘s Simon van Zuylen-Wood reported this yesterday:

Calm down lefty media hyperventilators! After you all jumped down Tom Corbett’s throat for his comment about having no Latino staff members, the Governor’s people put out a press release smack-down, pointing out that in fact they’ve actually got ONE Latino staffer, Maria Montero, the Director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs.

I would have published this sooner, but I was waiting from a response from Corbett’s people confirming that there’s really no one else. In fairness, the administration also used to employ preternaturally grumpy Eli Aliva as Secretary of Health and nominated Ken Trujillo for Commissioner of the PLCB.

See, liberal left loons? Governor Corbett’s Director of Latino Affairs is Latina, which his office totally remembered days later, so SHUT UP!"

Yes, that Corbett dude is no rocket scientist, but I am not sure if that makes him racially insensitive like the rest of his GOP pals.

I mean the man did have a black son in law (no "Jungle Fever" jokes, please) for crying out loud. 

Memorial Day in America.

It's Memorial Day in America. A big shout out to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Anyway, just a reminder to you Negroes in America;  you are not alone when it comes to Rodney King style beatdowns at the hands of the po po.

Let' s go to Sacramento for cops behaving badly.

"A man taken into custody by the Sacramento Police Department has died, and police are currently investigating the events leading up to the man’s death after being beaten by a female police officer, reports CBS Sacramento. ^[1]

According to police, a man walked into a local Metro PCS store and frightened a female employee with “unintelligible” statements. She called 911 and when police arrived, he attempted to barricade himself in the store.

Though witnesses claim — and video shows — that police were on top of the suspect, who was a White male in his 40s, SPD officers feel justified in their actions because the man was being uncooperative:

“He is obviously not in handcuffs and he is not complying,” said Sacramento police Officer Doug Morse.

Two SPD officers are on routine paid leave after cell phone video surfaced of them violently striking the man with a baton.

An cross investigation, between the department’s homicide, internal affairs and crime scene investigation units, as well as the city’s office of public safety and accountability and the district attorney’s office, is currently underway. The autopsy results will determine exactly how the man died." [Source]

Oh my! Killed for being "uncooperative"?

Memo to KJ: instead of investing all of your time and efforts in keeping that pathetic excuse of a basketball team, you might want to start training your police department in how to handle these types of situations.

They don't celebrate it where I am blogging from today, but Happy Memorial Day to all of my friends in America.


 

The American right and racism.

  

 Why I can't support the right in America. 

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"Racism has been a consistent thread weaving through the American Right from the early days when Anti-Federalists battled against the U.S. Constitution to the present when hysterical Tea Partiers denounce the first African-American president. Other factors have come and gone for the Right, but racism has always been there.

Though definitions of Right and Left are never precise, the Left has generally been defined, in the American context, by government actions – mostly the federal government responding to popular movements and representing the collective will of the American people – seeking to improve the lot of common citizens and to reduce social injustice.

The Right has been defined by opposition to such government activism. Since the Founding, the Right has decried government interference with the “free market” and intrusion upon “traditions,” like slavery and segregation, as “tyranny” or “socialism.”

This argument goes back to 1787 and opposition to the Constitution’s centralizing of government power in the hands of federal authorities. In Virginia, for instance, the Anti-Federalists feared that a strong federal government eventually would outlaw slavery in the Southern states.

Ironically, this argument was raised by two of the most famous voices for “liberty,” Patrick Henry and George Mason. Those two Virginians spearheaded the Anti-Federalist cause at the state’s ratifying convention in June 1788, urging rejection of the Constitution because, they argued, it would lead to slavery’s demise.

The irony of Henry and Mason scaring fellow Virginians about the Constitution’s threat to slavery is that the two men have gone down in popular U.S. history as great espousers of freedom. Before the Revolution, Henry was quoted as declaring, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Mason is hailed as a leading force behind the Bill of Rights. However, their notion of “liberty” and “rights” was always selective. Henry and Mason worried about protecting the “freedom” of plantation owners to possess other human beings as property.

At Virginia’s Ratification Convention, Henry and Mason raised other arguments against the proposed Constitution, such as concerns that Virginia’s preeminence might not be as great as under the weak Articles of Confederation and that population gains in the North might erode Virginia’s economic welfare.

But the pair’s most potent argument was the danger they foresaw regarding the abolition of slavery. As historians Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg wrote in their 2010 book, Madison and Jefferson, the hot button for Henry and Mason was that “slavery, the source of Virginia’s tremendous wealth, lay politically unprotected.”

The Slavery Card

At the center of this fear was the state’s loss of ultimate control over its militia which could be “federalized” by the President as the nation’s commander in chief under the new Constitution.
“Mason repeated what he had said during the Constitutional Convention: that the new government failed to provide for ‘domestic safety’ if there was no explicit protection for Virginians’ slave property,” Burstein and Isenberg wrote. “Henry called up the by-now-ingrained fear of slave insurrections – the direct result, he believed, of Virginia’s loss of authority over its own militia.”

Henry floated conspiracy theories about possible subterfuges that the federal government might employ to deny Virginians and other Southerners the “liberty” to own African-Americans. Describing this fear-mongering, Burstein and Isenberg wrote:

“Congress, if it wished, could draft every slave into the military and liberate them at the end of their service. If troop quotas were determined by population, and Virginia had over 200,000 slaves, Congress might say: ‘Every black man must fight.’ For that matter, a northern-controlled Congress might tax slavery out of existence." [More]

Thoughts?

Coloreds fried chicken and Negroes, and the big R follows Michael to his grave.

Today my racism chase takes me across the pond.

I am sure that you all know about the Sergio Tiger feud by now, and about Sergio going all Fuzzy Zoeller on Tiger at a dinner recently, and then his clumsy apology for the "unintended" racist remark. (Digression alert: I happen to like fried chicken. It's a shame that it's not really good for you and I have to limit my intake of the stuff. So I have never understood why white folks use fried chicken as a putdown of us black folks. Especially when I see white folks tearing into the stuff on a regular. The Colonel did not get rich serving fried chicken to only black folks. Remember that.)

So anyway, Euro Tour CEO George O'Grady was apologizing on behalf of Sergio, and the poor guy came off looking worse than Sergio himself when it comes to this racial sensitivity thing.

"In trying to defend, or at least rationalize, Sergio Garcia's "fried chicken" shot at Tiger Woods, European Tour CEO George O'Grady took to the airwaves of Sky Sports. And in the course of his defense, O'Grady offered up this gem: "Most of Sergio's friends are colored athletes in the United States.''

Ouch. Yes, go ahead and look at your calendar ... this is indeed 2013. Golf has a reputation for being stuck in the past, and nowhere is it more apparent than at moments like this." [Source]

Well, as noted in the article, maybe "colored" has a different meaning across the pond than it does here in America. But my man in his position should have known better. As a white man, you can't just drop the C word when addressing racism from a position of power in 2013.

O'Grady immediately issued a statement of apology: "I deeply regret using an inappropriate word in a live interview for Sky Sports for which I unreservedly apologize."

Relax George; my racism meter is not registering with you. My stupid meter, on the other hand, is blowing up.

Speaking of stupid, someone ought to try and give the school district up there in New York a clue.

"In the annals of political correctness run amok in American schools, this story — if true — is easily an all-timer.

 

A junior-high school Spanish teacher has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired from P.S. 211 in the Bronx in March 2012 because of a misunderstanding over the word “negro.”

The non-tenured teacher, 65-year-old Petrona Smith, maintains that she was instructing her class about how to say the various basic colors in Spanish, reports the New York Post. The word “negro” naturally came up because “negro” is the Spanish word for “black.”

A seventh-grade student in the class took offense at the term, however, believing the word to be a racial slur. It’s not clear if Smith directed the term at the student. Whatever the case, he reported the incident to school officials.

But, wait. It gets better. Smith, a native of the West Indies, is black. And to top it all off, P.S. 211 is bilingual.

Smith’s attorney, Shaun Reid, called the charge that allegedly led to his client’s termination ridiculous.

'They haven’t even accounted for how absurd it is for someone who’s black to be using a racial slur to a student,' Reid told the Post.

School officials refused to make any comment about the allegations in the lawsuit. As such, the publicly-known facts are tremendously one-sided at this point." [Source]

OK, I suspect that the school district might have wanted to get rid of this teacher and that this was just an excuse to do so, or some sort of tipping point for past sins. But come on now, Negro?!

"But Field, what's the difference between 'colored' and 'Negro"'?

It's all about context.

Now while what George and Petrona said might not have been a case of racism, this certainly is. It's a damn shame that not even the "Magic Negro" from The Green Mile can rest in peace here in these divided states of America. The big R can literally follow you to your grave.

Finally Field hands, I will be out of the country for the next few days, so I am not sure how my posts are going to go. I will try, but life doesn't always cooperate with this blogging thing.

If they let me back in the country, I will be in full blogging mode again sometime next week.

Peace.

"Nooney Tunes" and "Witch Hunts".

A few years ago I co-founded the Afrosphere [spear]collective with a few like minded bloggers who wanted to push political thought and inspire critical thinking on the Internet.

One of the people who came out of the Afrosphere movement and who writes very insightful and thought provoking articles is a brother from Texas by the name of Eddie Griffin.

I recently got an e-mail from Eddie with a wonderful article about the recent happenings in Washington, which I think is worth reading:

"I.R.S. Witch Hunt: First Stop

By Eddie Griffin

 

Witch hunts are always ugly. Innocent witnesses are badgered into submission and potential defenders intimidated into silence. The accused is always the unpopular and hated. And, for sure, no one is more hated than tax collectors.

 

But before a congressional lynch mob gets this fire started, we need to store sanity to the evidence-gathering process. For starters:

 

A Sept. 28, 2010 letter from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus to then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman demanded deeper scrutiny by the agency of 501(c) organizations’ political activities.

 

Specifically, the letter called on Shulman to “survey major 501(c)(4), (c)(5) and (c)(6) organizations involved in political campaign activity to examine whether they are operated for the organization’s intended tax exempt purpose… Baucus specifically referenced a Sept. 16, 2010 Time article, “The New GOP Money Stampede”… Baucus also referenced “a group transforming itself into a non-profit under 501(c)(4) of the tax code,” ensuring, as the Time article put it, that the group would “not have to publicly disclose any information about its donors.” That “group” Baucus referenced was actually Crossroads GPS.

 

Why does Sen. Baucus seem to suddenly have a case of amnesia? In Congress started this inquiry into non-profits acting as political fronts, why are they now looking for an apology and a pound of flesh from Douglas Shulman?"   

 

Because hypocrisy rules the day in American politics. People choose political sides and then pretend that they care more about the country than the political gang they belong to.

 

Fortunately, most of the people in America seem to be coming around and are beginning to understand what is really going on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virginia is only for lovers if both lovers look the same.

Today my racism chase is taking me to Virginia. The thing about the big R is that it affects all of us both black and white.

In this latest case its latest victim was a gentleman from the majority population. (h/t my twitter fam Robin for this story.)

 "A Virginia couple was shocked to find a police officer in front of their home when they returned from running errands, but they were even more surprised by the reason for the cop's visit-- to question whether or not they were in fact their children's parents.

Joseph, a white man who didn't want his last name revealed, and his black wife Keana told Fox5DC that they were outraged after the policeman told them a security guard at their local Walmart had suspected Joseph of kidnapping his three young daughters.

"He asks us very sincerely, ‘Hey, I was sent here by Walmart security. I just need to make sure that the children that you have are your own,’” Joseph said.
"I was dumbfounded," Keana said. "I sat there for a minute and I thought, ‘Did he just ask us if these were our kids knowing what we went through to have our children?’

The couple, who have been married for 10 years, have a four-year-old daughter and two-year-old twin girls. Joseph had taken the girls to a Walmart near their Prince County home to cash a check and left after spending a short time in the parking lot. After speaking with the officer, they called the store demanding an explanation.

According to Keana, she was told a customer was alarmed after seeing her husband and children.

"Well, the customer was concerned because they saw the children with your husband and he didn't think that they fit," Keana told the news station. "And I said, ‘What do you mean by they don't fit?’ And I was trying to get her to say it. And she says, ‘Well, they just don't match up.’” [Source]

Lord have mercy! And you all wonder why I don't like Walmart.

The Lovings must be turning in their graves.

Finally, if you think that political spin and cover ups are new in this country, read this story and get back to me.

The selective outrage over all things O is amusing to me, because I know the true motivation of his political enemies.

As I have said many times in the past, his presidency is what it is. He may not end up on Mount Rushmore, but he will not go down in history as another Carter, Bush or Nixon, either. The lunatics on the right who are declaring that his presidency means the end of the republic as we know it need to take a serious look around them, grab a history book, and check their motivation for those statements.

The political truce is over.

"The reheated Benghazi "scandal" and other two aimless "scandals" are nothing but political junkie fodder. Neither will end in anything substantial. Collective yawns from the public as the tea party queens flog themselves with their laminated copies of the constitution that they can't read."

~Comment left on Mediaite~

Ouch!

I think we are far enough away from the tragedy in Oklahoma to declare an end to the cease fire when it comes to political s*** talking.

Of course the wingnuts couldn't even wait until the wind stopped swirling to start with their political cheap shots.

"That’s exactly the premise of a tweet that Fox News contributor Erick Erickson sent in the aftermath of the devastation. “I wonder when President Obama will find out about Oklahoma,” ...Erickson went on to scold his critics as humorless and “self-righteous,” even as he tweeted “Confession: I often hesitate to retweet pastors because of the unbridled hate from the hell bound that might then get directed at them.” [Source]

Erickson is a moron and a racist, so his very inappropriate and ill- timed tweet is not all that surprising. 

Bill Bennett, on the other hand, surprised me a bit. I expected a  little more from him. But there he was on his radio show this morning belittling and making fun of the poor people who suffered during Katrina and praising the folks from Oklahoma for their "fighting spirit" and their "patriotic American can- do attitude". [No links, but if I am lying, Bill Bennett is free to try and to sue me.] Bill Bennett, like all those of his ilk, is a sanctimonious dope.

And, as if this wasn't enough,a wingnut politrickster found it necessary to play political games with a national tragedy.

"As of this morning, at least 51 people, including 20 children, are dead in the suburbs of Oklahoma City, following one of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history. Rescue teams worked through the night, especially in the devastated city of Moore, and local officials fear the death toll may yet rise significantly. [Update: as of this afternoon, the death toll had been revised down to 24, not 51.]

Ordinarily, so soon after a disaster of this magnitude, discussions about political agendas and ideologies are put on hold, which is why it came as a surprise when one of Oklahoma's U.S. senators staked out a far-right position on federal disaster relief just five hours after the storm hit.

The tornado damage near Oklahoma City is still being assessed and the death toll is expected to rise, but already Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says he will insist that any federal disaster aid be paid for with cuts elsewhere. 

CQ Roll Call reporter Jennifer Scholtes wrote for CQ.com Monday evening that Coburn said he would "absolutely" demand offsets for any federal aid that Congress provides. 

Coburn added, Scholtes wrote, that it is too early to guess at a damage toll but that he knows for certain he will fight to make sure disaster funding that the federal government contributes is paid for.

I've seen many note overnight that Coburn is at least consistent -- there are plenty of politicians who've balked at disaster-relief funds when there's a devastating storm, only to change their minds when their constituents are among the casualties. Coburn, however, has routinely questioned emergency funding for everyone, and apparently wants to apply the same standards to his own home state.

But while consistently is welcome, it doesn't change the questions about unnecessary callousness.

---

For many years, federal disaster relief was effectively automatic -- there was bipartisan support for quickly responding to American communities in their time of need. It was a reflection of who we are as a people -- when disaster strikes, we're there for the people in affected areas, regardless of politics.

But in recent years, many Republican lawmakers have decided to change the standards. Under the new approach, they'll consider emergency resources, but only if Democrats agree to cut a comparable amount from the budget elsewhere. There's no real economic rationale for this, but for much of the right, the ideological rationale is sufficient."' [Source]

Overheard in the Fox newsroom: "Is it safe to talk about Benghazi and the IRS now?" 

Yes wingnut, the truce is over.

 





 

"This is like a war zone", and more ghetto tours.

I have to start this post by saying that my thoughts go out to the people of Oklahoma after those massive storms hit them today. Twisters, my friends, are no joke. They can do some serious damage.


I am just hearing that several students who were trapped in an elementary school were pulled out alive. I can't imagine what the parents of the children who are still missing their children are going through. Some of those parents are trying hard to get to their children but are being held back.

It is times like these that we realize we need the federal government. Hopefully those folks will get all the assistance they need in a timely fashion.

I just saw some videos of the area of devastation again and does in fact look like a war zone. Just wow!

Finally, as our hearts go out to the people of Oklahoma, foreign tourists are invading the Bronx to see what a real American ghetto looks like.

"Foreigners, who are looking to witness from a safe distance, what a “real ghetto” looks like are paying $45 a pop to take a bus tour through the Bronx, and borough politicos are up in arms, according to the New York Post.

Real Bronx Tours are taking mainly White Europeans and Australians on a tour of the Bronx with stops at for photo ops at a food-pantry line, “pickpocket” park, and housing projects.

According to an unnamed patron on the tour, one of the guides, Lynn Battaglia (pictured), from Pittsburgh, poked fun at impoverished areas, describing the South Bronx, in particular, as a crime-ridden borough infested with poverty and violence, which has plagued the area since the 1970s.

At one point during the tour, Battaglia allegedly told the tourists in front of pantry line, “I don’t know what that line’s about, but every Wednesday we see it,” Battaglia told the tourists. “We see them go in with empty carts, and we see them come out with carts full.” [Source]

I have blogged about these types of tours before; this type of thing is nothing new. People will always profit from the suffering of others. It's one of our many flaws as human beings.

Hopefully the good in the human spirit will come out in Oklahoma over the next few days.

Telling "black folks business."

President Obama was at Dr. King's alma mater today, and he had some strong words for the young men there.

Some of you Negroes are saying that he was just having a Sistah Souljah moment at the expense of the Morehouse men, and that he is always airing black folk's dirty laundry when he speaks to a large black group.

I have to respectfully disagree. That message the president sent today was on point and it needed to be delivered.

"Obama spoke in very personal terms to the 500 young men as he urged them to not only become leaders in their community, but also good fathers and good husbands. Obama, who was raised by a single mother and grandparents, lamented the absence of his father in his life and urged the graduates to make family their top priority.
Obama told the Morehouse men they are also obliged to set an example for other black men.

"Keep setting an example for what it means to be a man," Obama said. "Be the best husband to your wife, or boyfriend to your partner, or father to your children that you can be. Because nothing is more important."

What is wrong with what he said? Last time I checked his daddy was a black man, and he wasn't exactly a role model. I am not sure I can blame the president for having some issues with that.

Look, without getting too personal, I work in an area of law that unfortunately has to confront a lot of dysfunction when it comes to families, and I can say without question that not having a good father figure at home is a major cause of problems with families here in my city. I suspect that this is the case all over the country. Asking young African American graduates to go out into their communities and be good family men is exactly the type of message that the president should be sending.

"But Field, why didn't he deliver a similar message to the graduates of Ohio State University? Why doesn't he talk about being a responsible parent when he talks to white folks? Why does he only choose to lecture us? 

Because, as a black man, he has a stake in how we progress as a race.

More than likely one or both of his daughters will marry a black man, and he understand that in spite of his white mother,his place in the American melting pot is with you black folks.

Mitt Romney, as America's president, would not have spoken at Morehouse College (or any other HBCU), and Anne Romney would not have been caught dead speaking at Bowie State University in her capacity as First Lady. (Loved how Michelle Obama went there about black kids thinking other black kids are acting white if they are hitting their books.) So rather than rip the man for telling you Negroes what you need to hear, you need to take stock of yourselves and see why there is a need for him to say it in the first place.

Finally, speaking of black men, I see that the Tea Party has recruited one to run as their candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Unfortunately for them most black folks in Virginia would probably rather vote for the very purple Barney than this guy. Because, quite frankly, he is nuts!

Sadly, this is what happens when you don't know too many black people; you tend to have to pick your friends from a very small pool.   

Umbrellagate is growing.

I am not sure if that picture with the four presidents and their human umbrella holders is a photoshop job or not. And, quite frankly, I don't care.

This "Umbrellagate" thing is getting out of hand. Wingnuts still can't get over the fact that president Obama asked a young white man Marine to hold an umbrella over his head.

"It is against the law and Marine protocol for crying out loud! This Negro done lost his mind!"

I know I know. The word uppity comes to mind.

"Of course, there's no rule against the president acting like a selfish asshole. That just comes naturally to Obama. We used to have dignity in our presidents, especially when George W. Bush was in office. This president is just an egotistical prick."
Some fringenuts are positive that what president Obama did was illegal and they are demanding answers.

Sadly, as is always the case with the black helicopter crowd, they are wrong.

"Yes, the Marines are often forced to get wet while standing outside the White House because they cannot hold an umbrella. Yes, the Marine Corps uniform regulations state a Marine cannot hold an umbrella. But Marine spokesman Capt. Eric Flanagan explained to the Washington Post that, according to Title 10 of the U.S. Code, Marines must "perform such other duties as the President may direct." So when the President asks you to hold an umbrella over his head, you hold an umbrella over his head." 

That's right; even when it's a black president.

"It didn't matter that there's a long history of Marines and Secret Service members holding umbrellas for the President, no matter which side of the aisle they represent. It also didn't matter that there are easily discoverable pictures of Sarah Palin having an umbrella held for her. They wanted to add more headaches to the President's very bad week. But, oh well. So much for Umbrellagate. It had a nice ring to it, too. "

More desperation from the right. Although I can't say that I blame them. Three "scandals" in one week and the man's approval rating didn't even take a hit.

Sorry guys, it would take his Oness having an affair with Kerry Washington to get most Americans to pay attention. That's just how we are built here in these divided states of America.

"A Confederacy of Dunces", and now comes umbrellagate.

It looks like the feeding frenzy around the faux scandal in Washington is causing journalists down there to turn on each other. I swear you just don't know who to trust anymore.

"One day after The White House released 100 pages of Benghazi emails, a report has surfaced alleging that Republicans released a set with altered text.

CBS News reported Thursday that leaked versions sent out by the GOP last Friday had visible differences than Wednesday's official batch. Two correspondences that were singled out in the report came from National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

The GOP version of Rhodes' comment, according to CBS News: "We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don't want to undermine the FBI investigation."
The White House email: "We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation."

The GOP version of Nuland's comment, according to CBS News: The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda's presence and activities of al-Qaeda."
The White House email: "The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings."

The news parallels a Tuesday CNN report which initially introduced the contradiction between what was revealed in a White House Benghazi email version, versus what was reported in media outlets. On Monday, Mother Jones noted that the Republicans' interim report included the correct version of the emails, signaling that more malice and less incompetence may have been at play with the alleged alterations."

Of course we now know that republican operatives fed folks like Jon Karl phony information and he ran with it. How is this for irony? ABC went looking for a scandal and found themselves trying to fend off one of their own.

Only in America.

"What did they know and when they did they know it? That question has been posed to the White House a lot this week — but it should also be put to ABC News, which has been caught reporting as fact emails about the Benghazi controversy that, it turns out, were doctored by Republican aides. There’s no indication that ABC and its reporter, Jonathan Karl, knew the emails were manipulated before reporting them, of course. But the network may run into trouble for overplaying its hand in claiming it had “obtained” emails that, we learn today from CBS News, were actually notes taken by GOP aides being briefed on the emails."

Don't worry Jonathan, there will be a job waiting for you over at FOX NEWS when this is all over. You seem like just their type.

Speaking of the FOX NEWS type, I see that Sarah Palin has denounced the N****r in the White House for daring to ask a Marine (and a white one to boot) to hold an umbrella for him while it rained on his press conference.

O, you are one uppity N****r. No wonder some of these folks hate you.

"The conservative Daily Caller wrote up the incident with the headline, “Obama breaches Marine umbrella protocol.”

“Mr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas,” former Alaska governor Sarah Palin tweeted.

“These guys aren’t valets,” one conservative blogger wrote, though he also guessed that previous presidents had done the same thing “because the optics are sufficiently bad that Team O wouldn’t have tried it without precedent to cite in its defense.” Another wrote, “This is the nuclear version of bad optics.” The conservative Move America Forward PAC put out a fundraising e-mail on the subject:

Fundraising off Obama’s umbrella FTW. twitter.com/aseitzwald/sta…
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) May 17, 2013 " [Source]

They are right about one thing, when certain people are looking, it is "bad optics."

This is what is known in certain quarters as pure "hateration". Consider the fact that Sarah Palin herself had someone holding an umbrella for her not too long ago.

Honestly, we knew that there was a serious short in her brain cells, but we didn't think that she had a short memory as well.

The Field comes clean: An open letter to my readers.

Dear Field Hands and friends of the Field Negro:

 

It is with a heavy heart that I write you this letter.

 

I am forced to write it because it would appear that some of you have been right all along about his Oness and all the terrible things that he has done as our nation's 44^th president.

 

Unfortunately, I let the president's race and the historical significance of his presidency cloud my better judgment.

 

I found myself defending him over and over again against attacks that I thought were unfair and were only directed at him because of his race.

 

I failed to look at the cold hard facts regarding his presidency and the things that he has done so far throughout his tenure.

 

Yes, I know that the DOW, Nasdaq, and the S&P 500 keeps chugging along at a record pace, that unemployment has been on a steady decline, and that the budget deficit is shrinking much faster than we expected; that home prices are rising, and, that according to the Fed Chairman, the economy is looking up.

 

I know that he has overhauled the food safety system, expanded the children's health insurance program (CHIP), advanced women's rights in the work place, and ended don't ask don't tell in the military. And I know that he has increased funding for veterans, and reversed the torture policies of the previous president.    

 

I  know that he appointed two pro life women to the Supreme Court, signed into law a fair pay in the workplace bill for women, and that he passed the hate crimes bill and the fair sentencing act as well.

 

I am familiar with his  Obamacare (health care reform after five presidents failed), which, among other things, ended the practice of medical insurance companies denying medical claims for pre-existing medical conditions, and the fact that he signed an executive order which called for tougher emissions controls on automobiles.

 

Then there is that Osama Bin Laden fellow;  I think he killed him (not to mention many of his top lieutenants) , ended the war in Iraq as promised , and that he is withdrawing the troops in Afghanistan.

 

I also know that he bailed out and turned around the auto industry, and that he passed the stimulus plan when the country was on the brink of a total financial disaster. Oh, and he also recapitalized the banking system, kicked banks out of the federal student loan program,  and expanded Pell Grant spending.

 

But still,  I understand that in spite of these things, he pales in comparison (no pun intended) to the great presidents who came before him.

 

I should have recognized the obvious and not have been in the tank for this man.

 

 

I hope that you all will accept my sincerest apology.

 

Your humble servant,  the Field Negro.