"Stephen" strikes again.

The Supremes punted to the lower court today in the University of Texas affirmative action case. No new groundbreaking law, just a note to the lower court to use a stricter level of scrutiny when considering things such as affirmative action. This is the toughest judicial evaluation allowed to consider whether government action is proper.

No problem. I am quite sure that universities have their ducks in a row and can justify how their admissions process works to create a better student body for learning. 

The Supremes were pretty much unanimous in their decision, except for our favorite Uncle, who, although he wrote a concurring opinion, had to go out of his way to point out why affirmative action is a bad thing. (This from a man who himself benefited from affirmative action.) Clarence actually compared affirmative action to Jim Crow segregation and slavery. Think about that for a minute. Slavery!
 
"Slaveholders argued that slavery was a 'positive good' that civilized blacks and elevated them in every dimension of life," Thomas wrote in his separate opinion on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. "A century later, segregationists similarly asserted that segregation was not only benign, but good for black students."

Thomas cited Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that led to the desegregation of public schools, in drawing a comparison between segregation and affirmative action.

"Following in these inauspicious footsteps, the University would have us believe that its discrimination is likewise benign. I think the lesson of history is clear enough: Racial discrimination is never benign," he wrote in the 20-page opinion. "The University’s professed good intentions cannot excuse its outright racial discrimination any more than such intentions justified the now-denounced arguments of slaveholders and segregationists." [Source]

But Uncle Clarence, race is but one of many considerations schools such as the University of Texas use to make up a diversified student body. They consider things such as your economic background, geography, family history, and whether you served in the military. Sadly, this Negro is so full of self hate that all he sees is the racial aspect of what schools are trying to do with their student body.

People like Clarence Thomas will never understand this, because he does not live in the real world. The poor man is still running as far away from Pin Point, Georgia as he can.

Anyway, while Clarence was comparing affirmative action to slavery, his fellow republican, Rand Paul, was comparing the NSA surveillance program to slaves being lynched back in the day. Something about the lack of due process.

Excuse me Rand, but there is no moral equivalence between the two. 

"One of them was when we judged the guilt of African Americans by lynching. People say, ‘Oh, that’s a dramatic comparison.’ Well that’s why we have steps and processes you go through to make sure you don’t have adjudication of guilt without a trial, without a lawyer, without a judge involved.”

Yes, but the last time I checked, Edward Snowden was not hanging from a tree with his eyeballs popping out and his skin turning gray.

*Pic from jobsjusticedreams


 

An old issue is back, and Stacey disses Obama.

*

Bless Abigail Fisher’s pure white heart. She was a straight A student in high school and even played the cello for good measure. Her sibling and her father attended UT Austin, and that is where she wanted to go. But, sadly for Ms. Fisher, she had to settle for one of Mrs. Field’s alma mater, LSU.(My heart bleeds.) Of course, like so many other white people in “post racial” America, she is sick of being discriminated against, so she is did what any red blooded American would do: she sued.

Now, four years later, her case is before the Supremes.
The University of Texas says that even without "affirmative action" Abigail wouldn't have made the cut. But Abigail doesn't believe it; she thinks that one of those minorities took her spot. Her spot.
 

So can a university select a student body it wants to look like the larger community and society at large? Does having a more diverse student body give students who graduate from said university a better opportunity to compete in the real world? The University of Texas seems to think so. 

Republican appointed jurist, Sandra Day O’Conner, writing for the majority in a case styled Grutter v. Bollinger, believes that it does as well. Abigail, --and  I suspect most white people in America-- does not.

You can’t use racial quotas, but you can certainly consider race as one of the factors. This seems reasonable to me if you consider other factors such as economic background and family hardships as well. I am all for a poor white kid who has been disadvantaged all of his or her life getting more consideration than a wealthy black kid with all the privileges afforded those with wealth in this country.

To me, there is affirmative action and what the University of Texas is doing. What they are doing is not affirmative action, what they are doing is trying to enhance their student body by bringing people of different backgrounds and experiences together.

But still, should we feel for some woe is me white folks like the ones I read about in Slate Magazine, today?

"I’ll start with the anger. J.R. Constable writes that after taking the community college courses he was told were required, he tried to transfer to California State University at Fresno, only to be told by a counselor there off the record: “ ‘We can’t admit you, because we have too many white males enrolled in your major.’ ” He says, “I was enraged,” and continues:

I wish I could say that within a few weeks I got over it, but I still find myself once in a while having the thoughts that I missed a promotion because of my gender, or race. Or that because I'm white I don't have as much potential, or ability. That I was being viewed as a failure. If life is supposed to be so much easier for me, why do I have to struggle so much?

Immediately after the incident, I was at the worst of my self-loathing, I was constantly hating myself for what I was, a white man. I hated myself for what I was becoming, a bigot. Race and gender went from being a non-issue, to being the only issue. I was crushed, and I dropped out of school. I settled in to the fact that because of something that happened to me at conception, that I had no control over, that is an insignificant part of the larger sum of me, I’d been doomed to being at the bottom.

 

J.R. says he was rejected from Cal State in the early 2000s, after California voters passed a referendum that barred the state from considering race, sex, or ethnicity in public employment, contracting, or education. He says he was told that the school needed more minorities in his major because of a federal funding mandate, and that trumped the state law. He also says he grew up poor, taking care of his disabled mother, and that he’s sure being on the losing side of affirmative action, as he sees it, was a terrible turning point for him."

An email from a man from Austin had the same flavor. When he didn’t get into the University of Texas at Austin law school in the mid-1970s, he was told that he’d met the minimum standard for test scores and grades, “but because of affirmative action and the fact that the University was trying to increase minority enrollment, there were not enough places for me. Tough luck.” He didn’t have the money to attend another law school, since he was living and working in Austin. “I never became an attorney,” he continues. “ I don’t harbor any ill will, but I guess just regret and sadness.

I checked on UT’s affirmative action policy in the ’70s. According to a 1994 court ruling, the law school had a separate admissions committee that considered applications from minority students and disadvantaged white students. In 1977, out of 500 applications, the committee admitted 68 minority students and three white students. So it’s true that the law school was trying to increase minority enrollment, and it’s possible that these efforts could have edged out a white student on the margin. For the man who wrote to me, that possibility is enough for a life’s worth of complicated emotion.
 

Robert Grant, who went to law school at the University of Mississippi in the 1990s, feels bitter about the scholarships he saw go to minority students. He’d just come out of the Air Force, the GI Bill didn’t cover graduate school, and he was working the graveyard shift at a local hotel to pay for school when he ran into a black classmate parking her fancy car. She was on scholarship; he was not. “This is justified as a remedy for past discrimination. Fine,” he writes. “However, I currently have over $100,000 in student loans. ... I wouldn’t be human if it didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth.” [Source]

How did he know that the black law school student "parking her fancy car" didn't have a rich daddy? Anyway, I feel his pain. Color arousal can be a b*&^# sometimes.

Finally, I wish that you Negroes would leave Stacey Dash alone. So she supports Mitt Romney, there is nothing wrong with that. (Wasn't her biggest movie called "Clueless"?) This is America, and she pretty much has a right to support who she wants to become our president. I know I slammed her on twitter, but I was joking. I was not the person who called her a house slave.

Rip Stacey for her acting career....wait, she has no acting career. OK, fine, rip her for messing with my girl LisaRaye; but not this.

“Believe me I wish things had worked out because I thought Stacey and I were great together. She was my age and we were working it. It was sex-symbol to sex-symbol. But she didn’t want to be there. I was disappointed about that. She had some issues. I’m not sure exactly what those issues were. In the end, she and VH1 made a decision.”

Well, now we know. The poor child was having buyer's remorse over his Oness.

*Pic from Slate magazine.
  

 

What I meant was.....

"Rather than engage in divisive ballot initiatives, we must have a dialogue and cooperation and mutual efforts together to provide every child in America to fulfill their expectations,"

That was Mr. Morton back in 1998 speaking out against an Arizona resolution to end affirmative action. Ahhh what a difference a decade makes. Today I read this little piece about the always salty one:

"..McCain, speaking on ABC's "This Week," said he backs a proposed ballot initiative in his home state of Arizona that would prohibit affirmative action policies by state and local governments."

Okay Mr. Morton, if you want to follow Ward Coonerly down that road, that's on you. But the flip flopping to get elected is troubling. I thought you said that the "O" man is the flip flopper? Don't tell me that you too will lie and parse words just to get elected. I guess you are no different than the "O" man then huh Senator? And to think I thought republicans were above such things.

But let's see how many people notice your latest pancake toss and comment on it. I bet not much, you talk about the press being in love with his "O" ness, but Senator, I gotta say; you get more passes thrown your way than a Vegas stripper.

Oh, and another thing: can you get a cohesive message and stick to it? All you did all week was attack and swipe at his "O" ness. You are starting to come off like a bitter and miserable old man. Well, you are a bitter and miserable old man, and senile to boot (yes that microphone is upside down in the picture that goes along with this post ), and you are making people start to notice that about you. Meanwhile, his "O" ness is back in all his sartorial splendor (Did you see that suit today?), trying to look presidential and saying all the right things.

"I am a strong supporter of affirmative action when properly structured so there it is not a quota, but it is acknowledging and taking into account some of the hardships and difficulties that communities of color may have experienced, continue to experience, and it also speaks to the value of diversity in all walks of American life,..."

Nice! Mr. Morton, you should be taking notes.

Black male savages.

I know that I have this reputation of being somewhat of a sexist, and believe me it's not justified. Still, I have never believed in wasting my time or energy trying to convince folks that I am not the person they think I am. Having said that, it's with some trepidation that I write this next post. But I am going to write it anyway, because, quite frankly, I have never been one to bite my tongue.




My man Francis L. Holland recently made me aware of a book called "The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environment" or some shit like that. And he led me to this blog, where the author, to her credit, seemed to be speaking out against it. The book was written by a feminist progressive (and I use that word loosely) by the name of Amanda Marcotte. So far so good right? I mean I really don't care about what or who feminist choose to write about. They have a cause, and god bless them if they want to advance it. But what bothered me and the reason for me even mentioning this book, was some of the images that were found in it: Powerful, superhuman white woman, defeating the black and brown savages from the jungle. [I posted a pic with this post for you to judge for yourself.]



I have always had some issues with the white feminist movement in this country. First, they benefited from affirmative action, yet you would think that only black folks did. Second, white women belong to the most protected class in this country, so I have always been somewhat confused as to just what the fuck they have to complain about. And finally, feminist or not, they all hold their purses a little tighter on the elevator, not when they see a white man or a black woman; they hold that bitch a little tighter when they see me, a black man coming.


So when I see shit like this it only serves to reinforce some of the negative perceptions and stereo types that I have for this group. I guess you could call it a a mutual and natural mistrust. And before I forget, let me give a shout out to my sisters, because I did see some of them calling out the author in the comments section of this blog, and it might have been what caused the host of said blog to rethink her position.


This political season has really put a strain on the relationship between black men and white (and dare I say some black) feminist. They say your true feelings come out when your back is against the wall. And with Hillary and the "O" man going at each other to become the dumbocratic nominee for the President of these divided states, we are starting to see how some of these feminist really feel about us.


Now these pictures might just have been another example of poor judgement being used by this publisher, and there might not have been any thought of race when the author and the publisher decided to use the images that they did. But it sure as hell reminded me of yet another group in A-merry-ca that I am always going to keep my eyes on. Because at the end of the day, the pie is only so big. And since some folks have made up their minds that people who look like me don't deserve an equal share, I will be damned if I am not going to grab some of that bitch [the pie] without even asking.

A conservative jumps on Barack.

Shelby Steele happens to be one of the few black conservatives that I admire or even take the time to listen to. I think his book, "The Content Of Our Character" , is an American classic. And when some of my people slammed him in the past, I defended him. Having said that, I can't help but be amused at his latest musings about Barack Obama.

Steele, who is anti affirmative action, actually argues that Obama will never win the democratic nomination for president; because, as he puts it, Obama is caught between pleasing black folks and whitey. Steele argues that "Obama has adopted a mask to appease white A-merry-ca's fear of being thought of as racist by offering them the opportunity to embrace a non threatening black". OK no news there. The field and like minded people have been saying this all along. It's just that it seems kind of strange coming from a black conservative. A man who argues that everything in A-merry-ca should be based on a color blind construct. Whatever happened to being judged by the content of ones character and not the color of ones skin? Isn't Mr. Steele now arguing that Obama's race is in fact an issue with most A-merry-cans? And shouldn't Steele take Obama for who he says he is, and not try to create some type of racial ulterior motive to Obama's persona?

“He needs a self. There’s no self there. I think it comes from a lifetime of being bound up and playing one side, and another side, and never feeling that he had the right to be his own man,” ... “This is the tragedy, certainly, of the black intellectual class in America. They don’t think they have the right to be individuals, so they’re all just predictable, victim-focused, old line. It’s a generation that’s failed to really take us further. Obama is a part of that. There’s nobody there.”

Shelby, I hate to break it to you, but you could be easily talking about yourself. The only difference is, instead of being "victim focused", you and others of your ilk seem to focus on blaming the victim and finding ways to make yourselves palpable to those in the majority. Which, ironically, is the exact same thing you are accusing Obama of doing.

Steele also argues that blacks in America typically wear one of two “masks”: He goes on to say that they are either challengers or bargainers. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are challengers: Such blacks assume whites are racist until they prove otherwise. Bargainers, on the other hand, make a deal with whites by not rubbing their faces in a history of racism — think of Louis Armstrong or Oprah" he says. What is this Shelby, a new twist on the old house Negro field Negro dichotomy among us black folks? If this is the case, you might want to add Shelby Steele and all your conservative brothers and sisters to the list of "Bargainers", or should I say house Negroes? I mean honestly, what's the difference? You call Obama a bargainer? Pot, meet kettle.

I heard George Will on one of these Sunday talk shows declare; if Obama wins the presidency it will put Sharpton and Jessie out of business. In your dreams Mr. Will. Electing a black man to be president won't change the heart of the millions of bigots in this country. In fact, it will only serve to harden it. And Reverend Inc. will probably be busier than ever. Civil rights is not a business Mr. Will, and Barak isn't some CEO you can put in charge to do away with the problems that make our civil rights hard to come by.

But on one point I will agree with Steele. Obama will never win by trying to appeal to the conscience of the well meaning white folks among us, or to the white A-merry-cans fear of being thought of as racist. Besides, if he does win, and white A-merry-cans can use his victory to excuse racism, what would be the point? We would still be the same fucked up country we were before he got elected. The only difference is that our country would be led by one of us. Or, well, a half one of us.

*****Hat tip to my man over at African American Political Pundit for turning me on to this story.

All Four Are White Males

Seems a couple of the Supremes, Uncle Clarence Thomas, and Anthony Kennedy, had to go before a house sub committee down in Washington and face some tough questions recently. Why you say? Well apparently, even the Supreme Court needs money, and in order to justify their $66.5 million budget, they have to face the music once in awhile too. Thank God for Subcommittee Chairman Jose Serrano (D) New York, who asked this tough question: "How is the court doing in recruiting minority law clerks, and are they looking beyond the ranks of Harvard, Yale, and Stanford law grads?" Which led to this little gem from the slimy, self hating, slave catcher, Thomas. " I don't think all intelligence resides in the Ivy League" Thomas went on to say that only one of his four law clerks were Ivy League grads, but he added, "all four are white males".

Yes you read that correctly, ALL FOUR ARE WHITE MALES. Gee, thanks Clarence, you are really helping to advance your race, and mentor , as well as uplift black people. ALL FOUR ARE WHITE MALES. If there is a bigger self hater in America than Clarence Thomas I have yet to meet him or her. Folks, you have to understand, that a clerkship for a Supreme Court Justice guarantees the clerk great things, and a great future. It would be analogous to a young aspiring movie director fresh out of film school, getting to be an assistant for Stephen Spielberg. Or, a young entrepreneur out of B school, getting a chance to be an apprentice for Donald Trump. And of the thousands of minorities graduating from very fine law schools all over the country every year, Clarence Thomas chooses to give his clerkship hook ups to FOUR WHITE MALES. (Ahhh field you are just jealous. Damn right I am) But why should Clarence help anybody? If you hear him tell it, he didn't get any special treatment, he didn't benefit from affirmative action. Why should he help any minority law school graduate, no one helped him. Or so his ignorant black ass thinks. Clarence, you had plenty of help, and you stood on the shoulders, and you were the beneficiary of the blood sweat and tears of many honorable and brave people. Brave souls who sacrificed to get you where your ignorant self hating ass is today.

This type pf mentality really pisses me off given the type of people that I was fortunate to hang around with this past weekend. People who are the very antithesis of what this loof (That's a backwards fool in case you were wondering) represents. People who really care about young black people and advancing our race. People who are putting their money and their time where their mouth is. Unlike Clarence who puts his mouth.....ah never mind, some of you reading this might be eating.

And don't ask my why, but I really got pissed at Clarence after almost being confronted by a little thug in South West Philly today. There I was skipping the man's job a little early, and heading to the "hood" to meet with a potential witness in one of my own cases. I visited the lady and was walking back to my car, and there is this young brother sitting on one of the steps and giving me the fuzzy eyeball. I am thinking it's one o'clock in the afternoon, and why isn't this little mother f****r in school? He has on a black hoody not going anywhere in particular, and he is just watching the block. I am guessing he is just a lookout for a drug house. Still, the little mother f****r won't stop eye balling me. ~~~Don't let this suit fool you fam I will go Kingston 12 on your ass~ I am a little annoyed, so I stare back at his little ass. (An act that can get you killed very easily here in killadelphia) In retrospect, I don't know what the f**k I was thinking? Dude could have shot me. As it turns out though, he knew the field; I had helped his older brother with a gun case about a year ago and he remembered me. "Yo what's up lawyer man" I must admit, I felt relief. "Hey, what's up young buck, why aren't you in school?" "Ahhh just chillin, I already been to that jawn" (jawn is a noun for anything you want it to be in Philly. Me and my jawn going to the movies, I am going to the jawn tomorrow, have you seen my jawn) "Early dismissal huh" He laughed, I laughed back with him, but the sh** wasn't funny. He really should have been at school instead of watching a notorious drug corner in the middle of the day. The sad thing is, he doesn't realizes that he has less of a chance to make it out of this very neighborhood alive than a U.S. soldier does in Baghdad. As I get into my car I ask him how his brother is doing. He tells me that he just got locked up on a robbery charge, but his spirits are up "cause his shorty just had a baby".

"ALL FOUR ARE WHITE MALES" I swear I hate Clarence Thomas.

Some White Folks Get It

"Unconventional Wisdom Listen up, white folks: Your racism cuts deeper
By Alfred Lubrano
Inquirer Columnist

Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about white racism. What about black racism?, dozens of you wrote me.
How come I didn't mention the inappropriateness of ESPN analyst Michael Irvin's opining that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (of Mexican descent) must have had an ancestor who copulated with a black man to account for his superior skills?
Irvin, who is African American, is foolish , but that's hardly the point. I didn't think I had to say this because it's so obvious:
America is a white-majority country. When one group has substantially more power than all others, its biases, prejudices, and mouth filth matter more.
And if whites possess the keys to the White House, the executive suite, the law firm, the construction company - not to mention the gun lockers in the police stations - then what they think about black people has greater weight and consequence than what black people think about them.
Of course, black people can be as prejudiced as whites. I've lived it. On a day I thought would be my last, a group of black guys beat me down on a New York subway train; years later, black demonstrators spit on me and opened my head with rocks. In both cases, my only sin was skin color.
But lots more black people than whites have endured systemic, organized violence in this country. And my ancestors walked off the boats that brought them here unchained.
From when I was a kid, the croaks of racists slimed my ears. Today, neighbors in rural South Jersey take me for a coconspirator, referring to "them people" and identifying certain farm weeds as N-word-heads. In white neighborhoods everywhere, you can hear far worse.
Crime. Unwed mothers. Dope. Black problems, right? When I tell people that the white Appalachian neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio, I once covered had the precise same pathologies, they stare at me dumbly.
It's poverty, not melanin. It's class-based misery. It's watching your kids crawl around without Pampers or hope. It's sucking down Ho Hos and malt liquor because the sugar and the buzz feel better than the boredom and terror of each day.
White working-class people I know erroneously believe that government programs such as affirmative action give African Americans unfair advantages.
If they had a genie's wish, I ask white folks, would they beg for their kids to turn black so they could enjoy all those goodies?
I lived below the poverty line for four years in New York and I still had it better than lots of black people.
It is true that working-class white people live tough American lives.
But store owners don't automatically think they're criminals, and their kids don't have to be warned not to mouth off to cops for fear of getting tortured with a plunger.
Some psychologists of race will go so far as to say that white prejudice is proactive, while black prejudice is reactive. America began with whites thinking of blacks as animals and property. U.S. history then moved to cross burnings.
We've since progressed, but if your people get lynched and shot enough times, you might develop suspicion of all the guys with the ropes and guns.
Today, lots of people are learning to interact. But racism is a hard-to-kill bacterium. How do I know? Many of you readers told me so, with acid e-mails and racist phone messages.
You hate that a white guy is saying this. White people have to say this. Or we're not getting anywhere."

Folks, whenever I read a column like the one above, I realize that there is hope for our country, and that there are white folks in this country who really do get it. I almost never lift an entire article but this one from my home town paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, was too good not to share with the rest of you. Yes, I loved the article, and I also loved this letter to the editor from a lady by the name of Laura Modon from Havertown, Pennsylvania:

"Your article gave me hope for the future of this country and the world.

In my estimation, you are one of a minute group of men with white skin who 'get it' and who have the courage to say so. (The others who come to mind: former President Jimmy Carter;Bono; former President Bill Clinton; professor and author Jared Diamond.)

In everyday life, there are fewer still whom I have met; my own father was one. You constitute a tiny minority of pale skinned males who acknowledge the understand that the poisons of hatred and bigotry- ignited by greed and ignorance, and initially released over 400 years ago in the forms of conquest and slavery-still permeate this land.

Talk about toxic waste. But their exists a cure; the necessary 'superfund cleanup' is very simple. It is truth, and its vaccine is education."

Damn that was deep. Right on Ms. Mondon, how soon can you open a school to bring others to that place where you are? Your sh** was profound!

The field is heading out of town for a few days for a little R&R and of course the Christmas holiday. I will bring my laptop of course. Hopefully, I will be able to do the whole mobile blogging thing while I am on the road. We will see.

Enjoy your Christmas, and go Eagles!!!!!