"Enough Already About Racism!! Racism Is a Thing of the Past."

The Field Negro has found another white man writing about racism. And in an ongoing effort to bring different perspectives about America's problem with race, I would like to offer a cut and paste post of the writings from another one of our friends from the majority population. 

The Field Negro education series continues:

"Racism is dead." "Too many black people are playing the race card." "Affirmative Action is unconstitutional and represents racism against white people." "All Lives Matter." "Political correctness is ruining America."

These and similar sentiments are common, perhaps prevalent, in these times. "Enough already -- slavery ended more than 150 years ago." "I'm not racist and am not responsible for what someone else did in the 19th century."

If that is indeed the case, please use the comment box to explain the following things to me:
Flint, MI is 60% black with 41% of its citizens living beneath the poverty line. Flint's children have been exposed to lead in the drinking water because of a decision to save money. The toxicity of the water was covered up for many months. Grosse Pointe Shores, MI is .6% black. 2.7% live below the poverty line. Please indicate what you think the response would have been if wealthy white children in Grosse Pointe Shores were exposed to lead in the water supply?

A group of heavily armed white men, labeled "activists" by the media, trespassed and occupied federal buildings in rural Oregon. The official response was to allow them to air their grievances, order supplies and allow the situation to defuse over time. Please comment on the likely police response if a group of heavily armed black men took over federal property.

Jim Cooley, a white man, carried a loaded assault weapon into the Atlanta airport. Cooley simply went about his business, supposedly keeping his daughter safe. John Crawford, a black man, picked up an air rifle from a shelf in an Ohio Walmart and was shot to death by police. Please explain what you think might have happened if John Crawford carried a loaded assault weapon into the Atlanta airport or if Jim Cooley shopped for an air gun at Walmart.

A prominent hedge fund manager in Manhattan is a leading advocate for "no excuses" charter schools, such as KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program), Success Academies and Democracy Prep. Well-documented reports reveal that children at KIPP have been punished by being labeled "Miscreants," students at Success Academies have wet their pants due to stress and the refusal to allow them to go to the bathroom, and children at Democracy Prep have been shunned, branded by wearing yellow shirts and literally forced into silence, with other children and adults forbidden to speak to them. This "reformer" is on the record saying that these means of discipline are necessary because these children, nearly all of color, "need it." His own daughters attend Nightingale-Bamford, a highly selective, expensive, majority white, girls school on Manhattan's Upper Eastside. Please indicate the way you believe he might respond if any of his daughters reported such experiences during their school days.

A quick web search yields hundreds of photos of smiling white men in public places, including stores and schools, openly carrying rifles or holstered handguns. Please comment on the likely response if a young black man, wearing saggin' pants with a large brimmed cap askew, entered a school or store with an assault weapon or loaded handgun.

Nearly every student of color in my school has been followed in a store or stopped and frisked by New York City police. I am not aware of any white student, during my 18 years as head of school, being subjected to similar treatment. Please describe the characteristics of these students that might account for the apparently different treatment.

A University of Chicago study examined the "call back" rates for job applicants with black sounding names as opposed to those with white sounding names. Their resumes were otherwise identical. Those with black sounding names received 50% fewer interview invitations than those with white sounding names. Please comment on the resume information that seems most likely to explain the lower number of interview opportunities for "black-sounding" candidates.
I will read your comments with great curiosity. [Source]

Don't read the comments here Mr. Nelson. You will only hear about what a N****r lover you are, and how deluded you are when it comes to knowing what is really going on in Barack Obama's America. And blah blah blah.

In other words, the reason we are still hearing about racism, is because of the abundance of people giving the negative comments you will no doubt read after your insightful essay.

*Pic from esl-educate-school-learn.blogspot.com

CAPTION SATURDAY.

I need a caption for this pic.

Example: Do you feel it? They call it a "Bern".

* Pic from politico.com

An "angry old white guy" speaks.

* People say that I don't have diverse view points when I feature my education series, so tonight I want to feature a cut and paste job from an "angry old white guy."

"I keep reading that people like me -- older white guys -- are angry about what is happening to their country. In recent years, their grievances have been voiced by Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck. Then they found an outlet in the Tea Party. Now they are filling the seats at Donald Trump rallies and perhaps propelling him toward what seemed unthinkable, the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump explained his own anger this way in the last Republican debate he took part in:

I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. Our health care is a horror show. Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it. We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief. Our country is being run by incompetent people.

Hey, Donald! I'm angry, too. But the sources of my anger are quite different than yours. Let me explain.

I was born in 1954, just a few months after the Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, dealt the biggest blow to white supremacy since the beginning of the republic, when a bunch of property-owning white men -- to whom the franchise was restricted at the time -- drafted a constitution in which Black slaves were considered three-fifths of a human being.

When I was in grade school, Betty Friedan wrote The Feminist Manifesto, and the pill liberated women to begin the long and still-incomplete march to full participation in the workplace and in political life. A vibrant and courageous civil rights movement brought about the landmark civil rights acts of the mid-1960s, which also saw the establishment of Medicare and the end of racist immigration quotas.
 
When I was in high school, the Environmental Protection Agency was established, and the Stonewall uprising marked the dawn of the modern gay rights movement whose arc, yet unfinished, led to last year's glorious Supreme Court decision making marriage equality the law of the land.
 
When I was in college, the Roe v. Wade decision ended back-alley abortions and affirmed the right of women to control their own bodies and therefore their full personhood.

I'm angry not because all these things happened. I'm angry because they are in jeopardy from the likes of Donald Trump and his fellow Republican presidential candidates. They rail about "political correctness" to justify bigotry and cruelty, when in fact the most vigorous enforcer of political correctness is the far right "base" of the Republican Party and its amen corner in the media. Thanks to them, no candidate may dare buck the NRA's absolutist -- and murderous -- stance against any sensible gun regulation. No candidate may acknowledge the reality of climate change and what is needed to save the planet, or the humanity of immigrants and refugees who deserve a medal for enduring untold hardships to make it to this country -- where they are a vital part of its economy and its very fabric -- not the scorn and abuse that has been heaped upon them.

I'm angry because I'm sick and tired of the lies we have been told. That raiding the Treasury for huge tax cuts for the rich will trickle down to working people, when in fact the gulf between the superrich and everyone else has grown to unsustainable dimensions which threaten the very social compact. That waging a war of choice in Iraq would usher in a democratic resurgence and make us safe, when it has left the Middle East in lethal turmoil, cost the lives of many thousands of young soldiers, maimed many multiples more, and sapped the country's capacity to attend to the urgent needs here at home, like roads and bridges and schools. When my grandson's pre-K teacher tells us that she has to spend hundreds of dollars from her own pocket for school supplies, it makes my blood boil.

I'm angry because the first African American president, elected to do something about the wretched mess he inherited, with a financial system on the brink of collapse and a soaring unemployment rate -- and who has done something about it -- has been opposed and vilified at every turn, from a right-wing which questions his very legitimacy (down to the facts of his biography) and whose most passionate cause is to strip away health security from millions who now have it, thanks to this President, for the first time in their lives.

I'm angry because Black Lives Matter is so necessary, given the epidemic of police murders of Black and Brown people trying to go about their lives. The law, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, may not be able to make a man love me, but it can stop him from killing me. But when it is the law that is killing you, we have come very far from King's hopeful promise.

I understand that many white men -- and women and people of color as well -- who have been left out of this economy, who can't make ends meet, who feel that the American dream is not working for them, are very angry about this, and justifiably so. But I cannot countenance the misdirection of their anger, and the ugly bigotry that has been stoked by opportunistic politicians like Donald Trump. Their anger should be focused on the greedy and lawless and their enablers in politics, not on those who, like themselves, are casualties of a political and economic system that operates for the benefit of a privileged few, not for all of us.

My grandson will grow up in a country in which most people don't look like him, in which people of color and women will be the overwhelming majority. If work hard to restore the momentum toward a just and inclusive society that filled my younger years with optimism and hope about the future, this new majority will take its rightful place in the leadership of our key institutions, from boardrooms to capitols. There will be room for him, too, if we turn this country's priorities around. But he will make his way without benefit of the rigged rules that men of my generation grew up with, where women and minorities were largely excluded from the game. When everyone is included, everyone benefits. That's why I'm channeling my anger into pushing for policies and the candidates who will back them, that make our democracy and our economy work for all people." [Source] 

I am feeling you "angry old white guy".  So I take it that you don't want to "make America great again". You know, in your heart, that it's already great, and that those are just code words for something sinister being played out in the heart of the xenophobe.

But hey, anger sells, and a great salesman has found that out. Now he is selling it to the country, and we have all bought in.

*Pic from rawstory.com

The takeover.

   The next republican debate is just a few moments away, and there is still no sign that the leading contender to represent the party will participate. 

Mr. Bad Hair just took his ball and went home. (Find another ball)

He is leading by a lot, so why should he give the also- rans a chance to beat up on him?
Dude is taking on the media arm of his own party and seems to be winning. It is driving traditional conservatives nuts.  All those millions Jeb is sitting on might as well be Monopoly Money, because it will not help him in this presidential race.

Anyway, this might be a good time to cut ad paste in the middle of an interesting article I saw in The New Yorker:

"The last real outsider to take over a party was Jimmy Carter, in 1976. In a piece I wrote for the magazine on the 2012 race, I cited the reaction of Averell Harriman, the former governor of New York, when he learned of Carter’s impending victory. “Jimmy Carter? How can that be?” Harriman said. “I don’t even know Jimmy Carter, and as far as I know none of my friends know him, either.” But even Carter was an elected official (a state legislator and one-term governor from Georgia) and had been active in the Democratic National Committee. On the Republican side, you have to go back to Senator Barry Goldwater’s nomination, in 1964, to find a Republican who captured a party against the will of the party’s élites.
 

Donald Trump’s attempt at a hostile takeover of the G.O.P. is astonishing in its breadth. He is not just competing against a large field of candidates for votes in the primaries; he is at war with nearly every power center in the Republican Party—and he is winning. How is he doing it? One of Trump’s strengths is that he has effectively co-opted a conservative counter-establishment that has been growing during the Obama years, which has seen the rise of a movement on the right that dislikes Republican leaders almost as much as it dislikes the President. Trump is finding that the anger of this movement can be harnessed to attack a broader array of targets than just Washington politicians.
 

Take, for instance, Trump’s war with Fox News. The fight started when Megyn Kelly, the Fox anchor and one of the moderators of a Republican debate last August, asked Trump about his pattern of insulting women with terms like “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” After the debate, Trump seemed to make Kelly’s point by attacking her in a vulgar way. For months he has continued to belittle her, despite on-again, off-again truces reportedly negotiated between Trump and Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News. Certain shows on Fox—though not all of them—soon became hubs of anti-Trump voices, and Trump, who is well-known for holding grudges, responded by publicly attacking Fox pundits by name, especially George Will and Charles Krauthammer.
 

This week, according to Fox News, Trump’s campaign tried to muscle Kelly out of her moderator chair for a debate on Thursday. The fight descended into a volley of schoolyard taunts between the two sides, and Trump pulled out of the debate and said he would organize his own competing event, in Iowa, to benefit veterans. Trump’s campaign continued to escalate its attack on the network. “Fox News Corp. has donated over $3,000,000.00 to the Clinton’s [sic]. Makes you wonder what goes on behind the scenes….” Daniel Scavino, Jr., Trump’s senior adviser, tweeted. The number apparently combines donations to Clinton political campaigns and corporate philanthropic donations to the Clinton Foundation, though Scavino’s sources and methodology were unclear.
 

Fox News has long been considered the most influential news organization for conservatives. In an e-mail newsletter today, the longtime Republican consultant Alex Castellanos called Fox “the most powerful Republican institution in contemporary American politics” and “the stage on which Republicans play.” He added, “Most Republican candidates kneel before it, supplicants hoping to sip airtime from its chalice.” No matter how unfair the coverage, few Republican candidates dared to launch the kind of assault that Trump and his aides have initiated. It was considered a death sentence in a Republican primary. Similarly, Trump has been attacking, and been attacked by, the main organs of conservative opinion—National Review and The Weekly Standard—which were previously considered the enforcers of conservative ideology and institutions to be flattered rather than condemned." [More]

They created this monster; he is their totalitarian. The man who a certain segment of the population is reaching out to and yearning for after eight years of the Negro in charge.

Let the trumpless debate begin.

 

Hands up in Oregon?

  I was just kind of wondering if the folks who support those terrorist in Oregon see the irony of them saying that Robert LaVoy Finicum was murdered by authorities when they were the very same ones proclaiming that  Michael Brown deserved what he got in Ferguson, Missouri.

They are claiming that he was "murdered" with his hands up. (Sounds familiar?) Now Mr. Finicum is being viewed as a martyr in some circles. Which, if you think about it, is probably what he wanted in the first place.

Finally, this debate between trump and FOX VEWS leaves me in somewhat of a quandary. I honestly do not know whose side to take. It's kind of like choosing between HIV/AIDS and Ebola. None of the choices are particularly good.

All I can say is that they deserve each other (Trump was on FOX tonight), and this all smells like a big publicity stunt for both network and charlatan.

Are we really supposed to believe that trump hates Megyn Kelley? I don't think so. He really didn't seem like it here.  But this is the game they are both playing on the American people to stay in the news and keep us all talking about both the network and the candidate. Don't be surprised if trump has a huge announcement tomorrow to announce that he will be debating after all.

"Why should the networks continue to get rich on the debates?...Why do I have to make Fox rich?”
 
Donald, you didn't make them rich; your supporters did. And the networks get rich on the debates because the American people want to know where the man who could be their next president stands on the issues.

Wait....did I say issues? Donald, maybe you should skip the debate.

*Pic from usnews.com




  

10 white people who used to be black.

In lieu of some white dude declaring that Stacey Dash is no longer black, not to mention all the racial confusion we had with folks like Rachel Dolezal earlier this year,  I have decided to publish a list of ten white people who used to be black.

1. Stacey Dash- This was a no-brainer. This washed up actress used to get roles primarily on Black Entertainment Television, and pose for pics in black male magazines. [see pic] But then she started getting older and less attractive, so she decided to become white, as she is quite aware that there are some white folks who will no doubt appreciate her for her intellect.   

2. Clarence Thomas- I know that this dude still looks black, but that's just an illusion. Believe me when I tell you, he is white. Or at least he really wishes that he was.

3. Don Lemon- This (former)Negro was born and raised in Louisiana, where they have the brown bag test. He passed it so much that he actually started believing that he was not a part of the folks who failed it.

4. Allen West- If you ask Allen he will tell you that he was never black in the the first place. He just has a really nice tan from living in Florida.

5. Pharrell- Hey, I love Pharrell too. But we have to let him go, people. 

6. Raven-Symoné- Raven started off as a black child star, but she stared getting whiter as she got older. The transformation is now complete.

7. Harris Faulkner- Girlfriend had me fooled for a minute. Not anymore.

8.  Ben Carson- There is no way a black man could get all those evangelicals from the Midwest to support him. I think Dr. Ben hypnotizes those poor old people with his voice. **I am white, I am white. ** 

9.  Amy Holmes-The networks like to bring on Amy to add some diversity to their lineups. The joke is on them.

10. O.J. Simpson-Wait, this is a mistake. My bad folks. O.J. was actually white for awhile, but apparently he is black again.

(Hmmm, I need at least one sports figure......)

Ok, I will go with Tiger Woods. Although something tells me that he will be black again real soon.

Pic from King Magazine. 

How low can she go?

OK, I get it right-wingnuts take a break from the personal responsibility meme long enough for Sarah Palin to blame Barack Obama for her son putting a beat down on his girlfriend.

Let's forget, for a minute, that Palin's son Track (yes, that's his name), was drunk, and that he never saw "a second" of actual combat before his alleged PTSD.

This is just more of Sarah Palin doing the unthinkable: Using her own children to score cheap political points and create sound bites for her fatuous base.

Instead of Palin denouncing domestic violence and the horror that comes with it, she blames the president for her son's cowardly actions.

Poor John McCain must be full of regret for introducing the country to Glen's former jump-off. I know his daughter is. Watching Palin endorse a man who said that her father was not a war hero had to have been hard. But she can take comfort in the fact that it was Sarah Palin. A woman who has become a national joke. And she is so much of a joke that it's hard to differentiate between her and the actual comedian who plays her on television.

Finally, did you hear the one about the James O'Keefe wannabe who tried to go undercover and film alleged scenes of Planned Parenthood selling body parts? Of course you did. Conservatives were all over it this past summer.

Well as it turns out it wasn't Planned Parenthood that was breaking the law. 

"HOUSTON — A county grand jury here that was investigating allegations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood has instead indicted two anti-abortion activists who made videos of the organization. 

In a statement, the Harris County district attorney, Devon Anderson, said Monday that the director of the Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, had been indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs.

 

Another center employee, Sandra Merritt, was indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.

 

The Center for Medical Progress had covertly shot videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the provision of body parts from aborted fetuses for research. Mr. Daleiden, 26, had posed as a biotechnology representative to infiltrate Planned Parenthood affiliates and surreptitiously record his attempts to procure tissue for research.

The activists have claimed that Planned Parenthood has engaged in the illegal sale of body parts — a charge the organization has firmly denied.

 

Ms. Anderson said in the statement that grand jurors had cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing. She did not specify in the statement what record or records were allegedly tampered with.

 

“We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast,” Ms. Anderson said. “As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case.”

 

The case started in August, when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and an outspoken opponent of abortion and Planned Parenthood, asked the Harris County district attorney to open a criminal investigation into the organization. His request came after the release of an undercover video taped at a Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast office in Houston with a research official for the organization. Mr. Patrick said the video showed the group “discussing the gruesome and barbaric work of Planned Parenthood and what appears to be its profiteering from selling body parts from aborted babies.”' [Source]

 

Hi David, my name is Karma.  

 

*Pic from slate.com

 

"The blacks" will "love" him.

 "The African-Americans love me...because they know I’m gonna bring back jobs......They’re gonna like me better than they like Obama. The truth is Obama has done nothing for them.”

That's Donald trump talking about his relationship with "the blacks".  I know it all sounds like a script from a bad Mel Brooks movie, but it's not. It's really the leading republican candidate for president talking about his relationship with "the blacks" America as if they are some kind of alien entity. 

Of course nothing trump says to us will surprise us anymore, and nothing he says will change the minds of his supporters about what a great president he will be.

Hey, he said so himself.

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters,"

Yes you could Mr. trump. You could rape his wife, commit an act of bestiality with his dog, and kidnap his children, and they would still vote for you. You have that kind of effect on them. And hey, there are no doubt a few black folks who support you as well. I found one of them right here. I am sure that there are more Omarosa Manigault types out there, which no doubt gives Donald trump his sense of cockiness when it comes to getting the support of "the blacks".

"Kurtz asked Trump if he seriously just said black people will like him more than they do the first black president. Trump admitted President Obama has a “slight advantage,” but promised when he’s completed his term of office, African-Americans will love him so much." [Source]

Wait a minute now Donald, you might be getting a little ahead of yourself.

If you do, however, happen to get elected, I think I speak for all "the blacks" when I say that at this point, we will just be glad to be able to vote at the end of your term.

*Pic from npr.org.



 

CAPTION SATURDAY.

I need a caption for this pic.

For example: How do  load it? I have a meeting with Ted Cruz.


*Pic from nytimes.com

If the race draft was held today.....

 In a way you have to feel sorry for Stacey Dash. She is an aging "actress" (and I use that term loosely) who is way past her prime, and whose best roles are long behind her.

What else was she going to do to stay relevant? She had no choice but to hook up with FOX VIEWS and become their house coon. The black person they call when they want to have a black person bash other black people.  Kind of like Crystal Wright does over at CNN or whatever network calls her to give some face time to make her ignorant and ill-informed comments. 

But back to the coon of the moment (her cousins' words, not mine), Stacey Dash.

Poor Stacey doesn't realize that she is being used by these white folks, and that she will never be accepted by them.

I suspect, though, that she doesn't care. As long as the checks don't bounce and she can stay in the public spotlight, she is fine with her current role as the black person who wishes that she was white.

“BET lies to American black people by telling them that the rest of America is racist, so stick close to your own kind,” she wrote in a blog post titled “How BET Lies To Black People” posed on Jan. 21. “My problem goes back to the notion that every area of life needs to break down exactly according to demographic ratios except in those areas in which black people have decided they want to have their own space. I don’t have a problem with black people having their own space. I have a problem with the folks at BET absolutely freaking out when other institutions don’t match up to what they think is best.” [Source]

"THEIR OWN SPACE"? Well we have to give it to Stacey, at least she has already accepted the fact that she is no longer black.

I guess "The Drop Squad" worked faster than I thought this time.

Finally, I am going to be stuck under at least 20 inches of snow this weekend. I need some suggestions for a good book to read just in case my power goes out.


*Pic from twitter.

     

Bernie goes black.

  Oh ohh, as they say in the hood; "Shit just got real"

Is it me, or does it look like the democratic primary is starting to look more and more like the one on the republican side?
 
Bernie and Hillary of course realize that without the black vote they will not win the democratic primary to compete with the Mr. Bad Hair to become president of these divided states of America.

I saw a picture of Bernie down South, and he had a lot of black folks around him. Bernie is from Vermont, so I am guessing that he hasn't had that many black folks so close to him since he marched in the sixties with Dr. King and company. (Props to you Bernie if that's you in this pic.)  

Hillary is married to the "first black president", so she was already given a black card. The problem is, of course, that when she ran against the real first black president, she and her husband raised some eyebrows with their characterization of the then young Obama. If it's one thing I know about black folks, y'all don't forget shit. 

Anyway, one writer who I have a lot of respect for has questioned Bernie's stance on the very serious issue of reparations for black folks. Apparently Bernie is not too enamored with the idea.

"Last week Bernie Sanders was asked whether he was in favor of “reparations for slavery.” It is worth considering Sanders’s response in full:

No, I don’t think so. First of all, its likelihood of getting through Congress is nil. Second of all, I think it would be very divisive. The real issue is when we look at the poverty rate among the African American community, when we look at the high unemployment rate within the African American community, we have a lot of work to do. 

So I think what we should be talking about is making massive investments in rebuilding our cities, in creating millions of decent paying jobs, in making public colleges and universities tuition-free, basically targeting our federal resources to the areas where it is needed the most and where it is needed the most is in impoverished communities, often African American and Latino.

For those of us interested in how the left prioritizes its various radicalisms, Sanders’s answer is illuminating. The spectacle of a socialist candidate opposing reparations as “divisive” (there are few political labels more divisive in the minds of Americans than socialist) is only rivaled by the implausibility of Sanders posing as a pragmatist. Sanders says the chance of getting reparations through Congress is “nil,” a correct observation which could just as well apply to much of the Vermont senator’s own platform. The chances of a President Sanders coaxing a Republican Congress to pass a $1 trillion jobs and infrastructure bill are also nil. Considering Sanders’s proposal for single-payer health care, Paul Krugman asks, “Is there any realistic prospect that a drastic overhaul could be enacted any time soon—say, in the next eight years? No.”

Sanders is a lot of things, many of them good. But he is not the candidate of moderation and unification, so much as the candidate of partisanship and radicalism. There is neither insult nor accolade in this. John Brown was radical and divisive. So was Eric Robert Rudolph. Our current sprawling megapolis of prisons was a bipartisan achievement. Obamacare was not. Sometimes the moral course lies within the politically possible, and sometimes the moral course lies outside of the politically possible. One of the great functions of radical candidates is to war against equivocators and opportunists who conflate these two things. Radicals expand the political imagination and, hopefully, prevent incrementalism from becoming a virtue.

Unfortunately, Sanders’s radicalism has failed in the ancient fight against white supremacy. What he proposes in lieu of reparations—job creation, investment in cities, and free higher education—is well within the Overton window, and his platform on race echoes Democratic orthodoxy. The calls for community policing, body cameras, and a voting-rights bill with pre-clearance restored— all are things that Hillary Clinton agrees with. And those positions with which she might not agree address black people not so much as a class specifically injured by white supremacy, but rather, as a group which magically suffers from disproportionate poverty." [Source]

Ouch!

I too must admit that I view a lot of what Bernie is doing with some skepticism. I find a lot of his supporters to be people who are focused on things that have no significance to my life as a black man in America. Yes, I like the fact that if he wins Bill O'Reilly would "flee" to Ireland, and I like the fact that he is closer to being a Socialist than Hillary, but not all Socialists are created equal.

Jelani Cobb summed up the disconnect perfectly in this tweet:

jelani cobb @jelani9

Candidate emerges, says let's radically reimagine American democracy. Black person raises hand & then it's "Hold on... Let's be realistic."

10:16 AM - 20 Jan 2016

Anyway, as was to be expected, one of Bernie's most popular African American supporters, Killer Mike, came out and publicly defended him.

Killer Mike basically said that the current president, who is black, has not been asked about reparations, and he is black. OK, that's true.

Still, even though a lot of folks seem to be "feeling the Bern" and he is, like trump on the right, becoming a rock star in political circles, black folks (with al due respect to Killer Mike) just aren't feeling him like that.

The polls look good for Bernie in these early states, but let's be honest, you can fit all the black  folks in Iowa and New Hampshire in Bernie's campaign bus. What is he going to do when he heads South to places like South Carolina and Mississippi? If he really wants to beat Hillary he will have to figure that one out. Maybe he can  recruit a  few more Killer Mike type cats to be his surrogates.  Or he can just sit back and hope that Hillary's recent e-mail issues will cause the long arm of the law to snatch her from the campaign trail.   

*Pic from yahoo.com

The Oscars and black people.

*Some of y'all  aren't going to like where I stand on this white out at the Oscars controversy. I know it's the popular thing among racism chasers like moi to bash the Academy for their lack of diversity and their cluelessness when it comes to inclusion. But what did y'all expect? Look, I am not going to go all Aunt Viv on you all, but you have to understand that these are white folks living in a liberal paradise that is closer to the make believe world that they create in one of their movies, than the real one that we have to struggle in day in and day out.

I am all for calling out racism and insensitivity, but at some point, my people, we have to move on from trying to be accepted into the mainstream and just create our own space within our own  reality.

Now folks like George Clooney and Lupita Nyong'o are speaking out, and the condemnation of the very white --and male--- academy voters seems to be universal. Folks are upset that the fine acting of those such as Idris Elba (above) in Beast Of  No Nation went unrecognized.

But again I say, why are we surprised? Of course they are not going to recognize great acting by people of color that is equal to what is being done by their peers of the Caucasian persuasion. A tie is always going to go to the person who looks like I do.

Anyway, speaking of clueless, that infamous one trick pony of an actress, whose only claim to fame was a bit acting role in a movie named for her persona, came out today and agreed with my point of view for a totally different reason.

"I think it's ludicrous," the Clueless alum told Steve Doocy. "We have to make up our minds. Either we want to have segregation or integration, and if we don’t want segregation, then we have to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the Image Awards, where you’re only awarded if you’re black. If it were the other way around, we’d be up in arms. It’s a double standard."

My lord this child is dumb! First of all, like HBCUs, we have BET and Image Awards because people of color have been traditionally shut out of everything folks in the majority did. As a result, we had to create our own. Second, there have been white winners of these awards. Just ask Sam Smith.

This is the same argument white racists like to use whenever a discussion such as this comes up: You people have Miss Black America and your own networks, why do you complain when us white folks leave you out of our stuff? This would be a fine argument if white folks would just come out and declare that these types of programs are off limits to black folks because they are for whites only, but they do not. We are told that in our great post-racial American society color is not an issue, therefore these types of programs will reflect the true makeup of our society.

Sadly, though, when controversies like this Oscar white out pops up, we are forced to confront the false virtue of color blind declarations from those in the majority population.

"If you think back 10 years ago, the Academy was doing a better job. Think about how many more African Americans were nominated. I would also make the argument, I don’t think it’s a problem of who you’re picking as much as it is: How many options are available to minorities in film, particularly in quality films?"

I feel you Mr. Clooney, but maybe it's time that more African Americans start making their own films. Maybe it's time to stop depending on Hollywood and, as black folks, start supporting more independent film makers of color who produce quality work.

Then maybe we wouldn't be having this discussion. And we wouldn't have people like Stacy Dash to making clueless public pronouncements that embarrass her race and her family.

Chris Rock, a black man, will host the Oscars this year. I can't wait to hear what he has to say. That is, of course, if he decides to show up.

*Pic from essence.com (Mrs. Field, I hope you are satisfied.) 





 

Sarah gives a boost to "The Donald."

     I can't post tonight. I have some real life issues causing me to put in some overtime on the work front.

But I did see that Sarah Palin endorsed Donald trump. (She used that squirmish word again. The word is Skirmish, Sarah. S.K.I.R.M.I.S.H.)

I am curious to know your thoughts.

*Pic from cnn.com

The wolf at Liberty University.

 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."

That is from the book of Matthew from Donald trump's favorite book, the bible.

But if I were some of these evangelicals who are falling over Donald trump I would heed the words of that scripture.

Because, well.... "Trump, a longtime casino proprietor who left the first of his three wives for his then-mistress, was not known for talking publicly about his religious life."

Nothing says Christian like dumping your wife for your mistress.

I saw clips of trump giving a speech at Liberty University today, and all I can say is now I understand how some of these mega churches survive. Clearly the man is a "false prophet", and he lying to the faithful for political gain, but they couldn't see past their hatred for Hillary and the evil democrats to notice it.

The Donald got so comfortable running his fake Christian routine on the faithful that he even started quoting scriptures at one point.

But then....

"After vowing to protect Christians across the globe, Trump read a verse from Second Corinthians — one of the books in the New Testament. But Trump flubbed the name, pronouncing it "Two Corinthians," as it's often written in text."

"Two" and not second, Donald? Folks, raise your hands if you have ever heard a Christian refer to a book in the bible as something like "Two" and not Second. And here I thought the bible was his "favorite book."

Still, to me, that was not the worst part of his speech. Him invoking the name of Dr. King had that beat. It was disgraceful, and the way he did it was particularly egregious.

"Trump said little about Martin Luther King Jr., whose holiday happened to fall on the same day as the school's first convocation of the semester. Instead, he ambled through a PG-13 version of his usual stump speech, at times asking the crowd whether he could say certain things and claiming record attendance. "We're dedicating the record to the late, great Martin Luther King," he said."

The Donald is the opposite of everything Dr, King ever stood for. If he wasn't so blinded by his ego he would have seen just how absurd and farcical him dedicating the size of one of his crowds to a man who gave his life for peace and tolerance--- on the day that we celebrate his legacy--- truly was.

*Pic from patheos.com










 

The dems debate. Will Hillary feel a BURN?

     The dems will be debating tonight. I swear, it's as if these guys don't want folks watching their debate.  They have these democratic debates at the strangest times.

Anyway, I hope to see a spirited debate between Hillary and Bernie. (Sorry Martin, you have zero chance of winning this thing.) Apparently a lot of folks have been "feeling the Bern" ,and he is closing on Hillary.  Maybe he will cut his Mr. Nice Guy act on the stage tonight.  If he doesn't Hillary will chew him up and spit him out like she did a certain republican Benghazi panel.

The general consensus is that Bernie is a Socialist and therefore cannot be elected president of these divided states of  America. Not! Let me say, as someone who should know, Bernie Sanders is not a Socialist. But I get it, he might be the closest thing to that particular political ideology on the American political scene these days.

Hillary, of course, is far from a Socialist. Hillary, I think it's safe to say, is someone who is a center/right politician when it comes to foreign policy and economics.

She is hated by the right, not really loved by the left, but is Bill's wife and has been in the public eye long enough for most of us to conclude that she is competent enough to hold the job as president.

I have some advice for Bernie, though, if you really want to beat Hillary you are going to have to find a way to get a large percentage of the black vote. Hillary, for now, has the Negro vote on lock, but that could change. Quite a few black folks feel like Katt did in this skit.  "Wait a minute, b****, we don't know you like that; we liked your husband"

 For now, though, it's still Hillary's race to lose. She is a professional politician so I don't expect her to self-destruct. Unless the FBI comes knocking on her door before the democratic primary vote, Hillary should come out on top.

Here is hoping that unlike those other folks we will get some answers tonight from the dems about how to solve some of the problems we have in this country, and that they will not just demagogue the other guys and their politics.  I swear that when I listened to the republicans I thought Barack Obama was going to be on the ballot again in 2016.

It's less than 20 minutes before the start of the democratic debate. I am going to try and watch, but I am guessing that I will be sleeping before the second commercial break. 

As I was with the republicans, I will keep an open mind. Hopefully between Martin, Bernie, and Hillary, there will be enough there to keep me up long enough to give me something to think about.

*Pic from crooksandliars.com