"Just win baby", and racism hits "Sparty."

Let me start this post by saying R.I.P. to Al Davis. Those silver and black unis are still the best in the NFL, and you gave a black head coach a shot when none of the other owners would. You recruited the first black quarterback to USC, and you were the first to draft players from historically black colleges. As far as I am concerned; they can put Honorary Field Negro on your headstone.

Anyway, I am very disappointed with my dad's Alma mater. Tonight my racism chasing takes me to East Lansing, Michigan.

"The campus of Michigan State University has been rocked by recent acts of racial intimidation directed toward black students. The student body at the state's largest university made their voices very loudly heard on Tuesday night that these acts will not be tolerated.

"The incident that really jump-started this movement was an incident at Akers Hall where someone wrote 'No Ni**ers, please' on a door of a young lady's room," said Mario Lemons, the president of the MSU Black Student Alliance (BSA). "The residence life staff told us not to talk about. Of course, someone took a picture of it and sent it to one of us."

The picture set off a firestorm on campus and online, even starting the hashtag #MSUBlackUnity on Twitter. An estimated crowd of 1,000 MSU students of all races filed into Conrad Hall for a town hall meeting on the issue of racial intimidation on Tuesday night.

"We put it on Facebook and Twitter and started a dialog about it," said Lemons. "From that came more stories of other people going through things on campus."

These incidents included other racist messages being scrawled on doors; outright physical acts of racial intimidation; and the initial incident of a black doll being hung from a beaded noose in a chemistry lab shortly after the school year began in early September.

There are people overtly saying the n-word," said Lemons, a senior from Detroit, majoring in education. "People telling other students that they don't belong here, saying that they only got here because of Affirmative Action. Very unwelcoming things done to black people on campus."

The Akers Hall incident was directed toward Tinisha Sharp. Sharp was leaving her dorm room to go to chemistry class last week when she saw the slur written on the dry-erase board. Since she was the only black student living in the room with three other students, it was very clear the message was directed at her.

"I couldn't believe my eyes," said Sharp, a sophomore from Detroit. "It was very surprising to see a message like that. I really thought this type of discrimination had been ceased by this time. But I guess not." [Source]

Welcome to post racial A-merry-ca, Negro. But this is how you overcome racism: Get your education on, get your degree, and become a credit to your family and your race.

Oh, and stay out of the house. 
    

"By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them"

Oh my! I told you all that this was coming. Actually, it has been there all along. These good Christians on the right can only hold in their true feelings for so long.

 "Shortly before noon, reporters at the Values Voter Summit were handed a blue sheet of paper with a news alert: "Southern Baptist Convention Leader to Endorse Perry at Values Voter Summit." Dr. Robert Jeffress, a Texas pastor, was all set to introduce his governor, and he had some thoughts. "Do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person, or one who is a born again follower of Jesus Christ?" Get it? "In Rick Perry, we have a candidate who is... a committed follower of Christ." Get it?"

I think I get it. Maybe if you told me a little more:

"Okay, I'll get it for you: Jeffress doesn't like Mormonism. Scott Keyes reminds me that Jeffress became briefly infamous in 2007 for his rants against Mitt Romney, and the unacceptability of a Mormon nominee. Romney, he said, was a "cult" member.
I believe we should always support a Christian over a non-Christian. The value of electing a Christian goes beyond public policies. . . . Christians are uniquely favored by God, [while] Mormons, Hindus and Muslims worship a false god. The eternal consequences outweigh political ones. It is worse to legitimize a faith that would lead people to a separation from God.

At 2:30, Jeffress took the stage, as promised, and repeated his statement, adding to it. Perry was a "genuine follower of Jesus Christ!"

Perry walked onstage and thanked Jeffress for the endorsement.

"He really knocked it out of the park!"

UPDATE: After the speeches, Jeffress walked through the hotel doing interview after interview about his take on Mormonism."Article 6 of the Constitution says government can impose no religious tests," he said. "But private citizens can impose all the tests they like!"

In the scrum, I asked if he'd expressed these concerns to Perry. "No. He is not aware of my views on Mormonism," he said, "nor am I aware of his."

What does Romney's religion say about his judgment?

"There are a lot of good people who are mislead," he said. "Being a fine person with a great family and great values does not get you to heaven." [Source]

Got it!. Is this the same guy who told Anderson Cooper that Mormons were a cult? Yep, I think it is.

Mitt, that's what you get for lying about his O ness.

"CNN’s John King called out Mitt Romney for making false claims about President Obama apologizing while making speeches abroad, something he has repeatedly claimed before. “While (Obama) has said some things that make Republicans mad and are fair game for criticism, President Obama has not apologized for America in the way Governor Romney and many other Republicans assert.”

Romney made the erroneous claim at the Citadel earlier today. “Let me make this very clear,” Romney said. “As president of the United States, I will devote myself to an American century and I will never, ever apologize for America.”
King explained that the Republican meme began with a Karl Rove editorial in April 2009, in which, Rove labeled Obama’s speeches abroad as an “apology tour.” “He has apologized on three continents for what he views as the sins of America and his predecessors,” Rove wrote.

“I can tell you firsthand the President bristles at the apology tour label and the idea he doesn’t view America as an exceptional nation,” King corrected. “He has, though, on several occasions…used very deferential language, conceding America’s mistakes, flaws and even arrogance. He insists being more humble was necessary in those early days because of the hits America’s image took and the Iraq War and what they call George W. Bush’s broader cowboy diplomacy image.”
[Source]

The term strange bedfellows comes to mind. I wonder if Mitt realizes how much his fruit is starting to taste like the one that Mr. Jeffress and his followers are eating.

*Pic courtesy of uglyrepublicans.com

"..the noise of others.."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."~Steve Jobs~

As A-merry-ca and the world laments the loss of this industrialist/ visionary, maybe we should reflect on some of the words he spoke at that famous Stanford University commencement address.

A lot us are happy to be living the lives of others, and we have no problem dancing to whatever tune they are playing. It seems that we can't even function without the talking points. 

Consider the following: There is a growing movement in A-merry-ca to protest the nefarious acts of some folks on Wall Street. But [right] wingnuts won't participate because they think that it is funded by left wing politicians. There was (and still is) a right wing movement in this country called the tea party, and folks on the left won't participate because they think....Okay okay, it was funded by right wing groups and politicians, but you get the point. Folks only act when they get marching orders from the people pulling their strings. I wonder why there are so many puppets in A-merry-ca?

Steve Jobs was no puppet, and he was worth billions. Some poor working class stiff living in Morgantown, West Virgina, who thinks, like that idiot Hank Williams Jr., that Obama is a Nazi, will never be worth billions. In fact, he will probably never pay his bills on time. Why? Because he is a puppet. And his job in life is to keep other people in power, and make other people rich. Obama is not the one keeping him from becoming rich or paying his bills on time, the people he sends to Washington every time there is an election who are paid millions of dollars by lobbyist who are themselves paid by other people to protect their interest, (not his) are the ones keeping him from living the A-merry-can dream. 

Herman Cain is wrong, the folks on Wall Street are keeping a lot of people from becoming wealthy, because the system is rigged against them. And Wall Street is a perfect representation of the system. They are well represented on K Street.

I know a lot of hard working people in inner city Philadelphia who will never be as wealthy as Herman Cain, and I guarantee you that they have worked harder than Herman Cain all of their lives. Tell some poor single mother who works at Wal-Mart for four hours during the day then takes three buses to the burbs to clean some wealthy old woman's s*%@ for another eight hours that she doesn't work hard.--- FYI Herman, jigging 24/7 does not count as hard work. Negro, you done lost your mind.

Finally, I see that Barbara Walters dropped the N-word on The View. Apparently it led to a "tense discussion". I guess poor Sherri Sheperd did not realize that her boss could use the word with such ease.

"The conversation was centered around the controversy surrounding Rick Perry and a hunting camp he leased. The camp's entrance contained a rock with the term "Niggerhead" on it for many years. The Washington Post broke the story of the rock, and presented conflicting narratives about Perry's knowledge of what was written on it and his efforts to get rid of it.

Goldberg used the N-word (which was silenced throughout the conversation) first, while talking about Herman Cain's use of the word during a Sunday interview. It was when Walters used the word, though, that things got awkward. "It's very hard for me to say," she said. "It gives me chills." Goldberg said it was useless to "pretend" that the word didn't exist. "Let's call it what it said!" she said.

It was here that Shepherd cut in. "When I heard you say it, it was fine," she told Goldberg. Turning to Walters, she continued, "I didn't like the way you said it." In explaining this, Shepherd used the word several more times.
"I don't know if it's a semantics thing, but it's something that goes through my body," she said.

"It's because I'm white?" Walters said. Shepherd acknowledged that it was. "It's something about hearing you say it," she said. "I don't like it when you use the word ... when you say it it's a different connotation." [Source]

Sorry Dorothy, but "the more things change is the more they stay the same."

Poor Dorothy Cooper, I bet she thought the days of fighting institutionalized racism was over in these divided states of America. It's ironic that I would be made aware of this story on the day that Fred Shuttlesworth died. They haven't put poor Rev. Shuttlesworth down yet, but I bet he is already turning in the funeral home.

"Dorothy Cooper is 96 but she can remember only one election when she's been eligible to vote but hasn't.

The retired domestic worker was born in a small North Georgia town before women had the right to vote. She began casting ballots in her 20s after moving to Chattanooga for work. She missed voting for John F. Kennedy in 1960 because a move to Nashville prevented her from registering in time.

So when she learned last month at a community meeting that under a new state law she'd need a photo ID to vote next year, she talked with a volunteer about how to get to a state Driver Service Center to get her free ID. But when she got there Monday with an envelope full of documents, a clerk denied her request.
That morning, Cooper slipped a rent receipt, a copy of her lease, her voter registration card and her birth certificate into a Manila envelope. Typewritten on the birth certificate was her maiden name, Dorothy Alexander.

"But I didn't have my marriage certificate," Cooper said Tuesday afternoon, and that was the reason the clerk said she was denied a free voter ID at the Cherokee Boulevard Driver Service Center.

I don't know what difference it makes," Cooper said.
Cooper visited the state driver service center with Charline Kilpatrick, who has been working with residents to get free photo IDs. After the clerk denied Cooper's request, Kilpatrick called a state worker, explained what happened and asked if Cooper needed to return with a copy of the marriage certificate.

"The lady laughed," Kilpatrick said. "She said she's never heard of all that."
Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman Dalya Qualls said in a Tuesday email that Cooper's situation, though unique, could have been handled differently.

"It is department policy that in order to get a photo ID, a citizen must provide documentation that links their name to the documentation that links their name to the document they are using as primary proof of identity," Qualls said. "In this case, since Ms. Cooper's birth certificate (her primary proof of identity) and voter registration card were two different names, the examiner was unable to provide the free ID."

Despite that, Qualls said, "the examiner should have taken extra steps to determine alternative forms of documentation for Ms. Cooper."
Kilpatrick has had to call the state at least twice after taking someone to get a photo ID or have a photo added to the driver's license. State law allows anyone 60 or older to have their picture removed from their license.

The state has been working diligently to make the process easy for residents, Qualls said." [Story]

The state of Tennessee might be working to make "the process easy" , but republicans certainly aren't. What happened to  poor Dorothy Cooper is exactly the kind of effect that they were looking for. If you discourage enough Dorothy Coopers away from the voting booth guess who wins elections?

Down in Texas Governor Big Hair and his peeps are doing the same thing. He signed into law a voter ID bill requiring proper ID to vote. ---For the record, a college ID is not considered a proper form of ID, but come on down with your hunting license there Bubba and you are cool. 
 
"State Rep. Tommie Brown, D-Chattanooga, said Tuesday that Cooper's case is an example of how the law 'erects barriers' for the elderly and poor people -- a disproportionate number of whom are minorities.

"What you do, you suppress the vote," Brown said. 'You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out."'

Well Ms. Brown,  given that no one seems to give a damn maybe you do.

The wait is over. Sort of...

"Never can say goodbye
No no no no, I
Never can say goodbye

Even though the pain and heartache
Seems to follow me wherever I go
Though I try and try to hide my feelings
They always seem to show
Then you try to say you're leaving me
And I always have to say no...
Tell me why
Is it so

That I
Never can say goodbye"

I bet republicans are all singing that song Clifton Davis wrote for the Jackson 5 back in the day. Sorry folks, it's not going to do you any good; Governor Krispy Kreme officially told you goodbye, today. (What's FOX News going to do,now?)

And what a long goodbye it was. Honestly, the only thing bigger than the Governor's ego is his waist size. I swear at one point he said that it was all about me.

But the question remains: why can't republicans find a good populist when they need one? Now they are stuck with Mitt Romney, a man so buttoned down and stiff that he can't even lose his dress shirts when he is at a barbecue. The guy is right out of central casting, but I am thinking that republicans don't want Hollywood right now, they want Main Street.

“What people are really looking for today is authenticity, and they like bold and brash, especially on the Republican side right now,” said Mark McKinnon, a Republican political strategist who has worked for George W. Bush and John McCain and was among those encouraging Christie to run. “That’s why there was an initial attraction to Rick Perry. And Chris Christie is bold and brash.”
Romney, by contrast, “is seen as more cautious and safer,” McKinnon said.

David A. Keene, president of the National Rifle Association, said Christie’s clashes with unions and budget cutting in New Jersey “has made him something of a folk hero” -- a term that would not likely be applied to Romney, a former venture capitalist.

“A lot of the establishment Republicans like the idea of Chris Christie because he appeals to the Tea Party types without being one of them, and therefore they see him as somebody who can grab the popular imagination,” said Keene, the former chairman of the American Conservative Union, who had endorsed Romney during his last bid for the presidency but has not backed any candidate this time." [Source]

Poor Mitt must feel like the pretty girl at the prom who can't get a  dance because all the boys know that she will hold out at the end of the night. Better to hook up with the not so cute girl who will give up the goods if you know what I mean. Christie would have given em the goods. Red meat galore. And the kind of populist talk that right wingers love. Mitt, not so much. He is too programmed, too robotic. He won't get in Obama's face and stare down the uppity little Ivy Leaguer.  

And then there is the M word. One of the beautiful things about having a blog is that some folks consider popular is that I get books sent to me from publishers all the time. I was recently sent a book called, "Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters?" by a former Mormon named Tricia Erickson. The outline of the book reads like this:

"The information in this book goes much deeper than the unveiling of Mitt Romney's political record. For the first time in history, we could see a Mormon President at the helm. Do you have any idea what this possible next President believes? Why should his religious beliefs matter to you? When you get through Part I of this book, these questions will be answered. This is NOT a Kennedy Catholic moment. Mitt Romney's beliefs and convictions are so uncanny that you will most assuredly question his judgment to be in charge of the highest office in the land. If Part I does not shake you, Part II will, by exposing the reality of what Romney has "done" in his political career, versus the conservative façade that we are led to believe. Will his rhetoric match his deeds as President? One look at his record herewith will cause great concern."

"Great concern"? They won't say it, but a lot of the republican evangelical voters have "great concerns" about Mr. Perfect.

Oh well, it looks like the republicans are stuck with Mitt, Rick, Newt, Michele, Herman, and the rest of the gang to take on O in 2012. (BTW, Governor Perry, it might be time to consider heading back to Texas) Mitt and his handlers are all high fiving each other tonight. You would be high fiving too if the only man with a shot beating you in the primary just said good bye, and the man you are trying to beat is looking more and more like a one and done president.

Good luck Mitt, just don't party too hard; you still have a year to go. A lot can happen in a year. Just ask Governor Christie.

The big wait....

So Governor Krispy Kreme is getting closer to deciding if he is going to throw his hat into the presidential race for president.

Good luck with that. Fighting those evil unions in Jersey isn't the same as fighting terrorist in the Middle East. But I think that my man has the bug. It might have been his speech at the reagan library that took him over the top. But we will see.

I know one thing; his fellow republicans are jonesing for a savior. Anybody.  Now that Governor Big Hair fooled around and did the unpardonable: Being exposed for doing publicly what I am sure most Southern men of a certain age have done.... privately: endorsing the use of, or using the word, nigger. [Digression alert!] Why the big deal with the Governor naming his hunting compound Niggerhead? Are we supposed to be shocked that this goes on in Texas?Ever wondered why this never came out before after his long political career in Texas?

"Now to be fair, the word "Nigger" was used for hundreds of geographic places in their official government names across this country for centuries. Post reporter Stephanie McCrummen writes about how the U.S. Board of Geographic Names had changed many of these en masse 50 years ago (although, hilariously, they'd often just change "Nigger Creek" to "Negro Creek," "Nigger Mountain" to "Colored Mountain," etc.) New York State just got around to renaming "Nigger Lake" on government maps this past summer.

But the "Niggerhead" sign on the Perry property was a private sign, painted in large letters on a large rock. Perry used the property as a gathering place for his politicos, and he's running for president. So he's got some explaining to do.
To hear Perry tell it, according to the Post, as soon as his family started leasing the land in 1983, he ordered "the offensive word" painted over; he believed the rock was eventually turned upside-down.

But McCrummen writes that she spoke to over two-dozen people for her story, including "seven who said they saw the rock [and] said the block-lettered name was clearly visible at different points in the 1980s and 1990s. One, a former worker on the ranch, believes he saw it as recently as 2008."

One who saw it, "a retired game warden who began working in the region in 1981...said he guided three or four turkey shoots for Rick Perry when Perry was a state legislator between 1985 and 1990" and found that the sign "Kind of offended me, truthfully." (Italics ours.)

Rick Perry is between a rock (with a racial epithet painted on it) and a hard place." [Source]

Relax Governor, your numbers will once again go up among republican primary voters after this one.

Anywhoo, back to my man Governor Krispy Kreme. I wonder if these tea party types know what they are getting. Dude actually believes in science. (Memo to wingnuts: the world is not flat.)He doesn't think that all those Muslims are evil, he wants to be able to keep Xuanlong assault rifles out of the hands of lunatics, and he realizes that true immigration reform will not come by rounding up little Mexican children and kicking them out of school.

So we weight wait for the big announcement. I guess that if Governor Krispy Kreme wins and becomes our president it will be somewhat fitting. (No pun intended) With almost half of the people in our country being obese there is nothing wrong with having a president who is a true representation of his country's population. Obama, with his slender physique, looks more like a European president. -He even smokes for crying out loud.- My man Governor Krispy Kreme can't hide his vice. It's on full display every time he makes an appearance.

      


  

"Is Marriage for White People?"

If anyone out there reading this knows how to tackle, please send your resume to the Philadelphia Eagles. Folks, that splashing sound you just heard was another Eagles fan jumping off the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.  

The only saving grace to all of this is that the cowgals lost, the New York small men are losing, and the deadskins still stink.

But enough football. This post is for the fairer sex. Ladies, I need your help with a little issue that I have been meaning to address of late. I am moved to post about it because of a post by Michael Smerconish (Mike, I still need you to acknowledge that you bit my logo) in my local paper. His excuse to write it was all the little Mick Jaggers (their daddy is a Rolling Stone) running around in the African American community. -Somehow he tied it into the Obamas.- But I will let you all read it for yourselves.

"That too many African American children are growing up in single-parent households isn't news. But Stanford law professor Ralph Richard Banks has initiated a provocative debate that analyzes why black women are the most unpartnered group in our society.

In his new book, Is Marriage for White People?, Banks explains: "The percentage of black children born to unwed parents exceeds 70 percent not because single women are getting pregnant more often, but because black women are so much more likely to be single. Unwed childbearing is yet another consequence of the marriage decline."

In other words, the prevalence of unwed black mothers is not attributable to differing sexual mores between whites and blacks, but rather to the fact that black women are living what Banks describes as a segregated existence. Asians, Latinos, and even black men are much more likely to marry outside their race. But black women, according to Banks, face social pressure to marry within their race - they are encouraged to marry "down" before they marry "out." And those social pressures do not apply to black men.

"Pressures to marry within a group are receding for
all groups, including black men," Banks told me. "But for black women, they are seen as having a special responsibility to black men and to restore the black family, but those efforts are counterproductive and have been unsuccessful.
"They end up not marrying out but within the race. . . . A majority of college-educated black women who do marry marry a less-educated man."

Typically, Banks notes, the more educated a woman, the more likely she will marry. But that's not so with African American women. They're dealing with a shortage of potential male partners, which Banks surmises is caused by a high incarceration rate, interracial marriage (which he writes "depletes the pool of men for middle-class, college-educated black women"), and economic trends that have benefited women more than men (and that are much more pronounced among African Americans).

By his logic, the first family is unique in a way I didn't appreciate before reading the book. Regarding President and Michelle Obama, Banks writes: "As African Americans, they are extraordinary in the most ordinary way: They are a married couple raising their children together."

Banks' work was an eye-opener for me, and probably the sort of dissertation on a touchy subject best coming from someone within the community. Where many, including Obama himself, have exhorted black men to assume greater responsibility for their children and the state of the African American family, Banks sheds rare light on the equally significant plight of black women. Their problem isn't so much frequent pregnancy as a dearth of appropriate partners.
Which gets to the most controversial aspect of his assessment:

"At the core of the problem is that nearly twice as many black women as black men graduate from college. So what are educated black women going to do when there are only half as many black men in their college classrooms or professional environment?" he wondered during our conversation last week.
So what's the answer?

Banks told me that if he had a daughter, he'd advise her to look outside her race. "It is amazing it hasn't happened more," he said. "Black women have the thinnest pool of partners within their race."

The blogosphere is alive with criticism of his counsel that black women be more open to partners of different backgrounds.

"One of the points of the book is to undo that problem and give black women the freedom to make decisions that are right for them. That will often entail crossing the race lines," he said.

This isn't just a discussion about the black community. After all, the book's subtitle is How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone.
"Part of the reason I wanted to write the book was to change the conversation - to enrich and deepen it," he told me. "It is a sad commentary that if it were written by a [white person] it would not be so well received.

"The same forces that undermine marriage for African Americans are actually in operation throughout American society and are reshaping or undermining marriage for everyone," Banks said. "One of those forces is that men are doing less well relative to women, and we see it starkly among African Americans but also among whites. . . . The economy has disproportionately hurt men."
I wondered why the title wasn't Is Marriage ONLY for White People?

He said the title was meant to be ambiguous. "It asks, is marriage for white people, and it also asks whether marriage is for white women," Banks said. "The trends are moving in the same direction for blacks and whites but more pronounced for blacks." [Source]

My two cents: Marriage hasn't been so great for white people, either. I say that because of the divorce rate in this country. But there is no denying that there is a dearth of professional good black men remaining for sisters who choose to go the chocolate route.

I am not mad at my sisters for crossing racial lines. Girlfriend, you have to do you and worry about your own personal happiness. That's just real talk.

So tell me, is what Ralph Richard Banks wrote about in his book true? And, if it is, why do you think that is the case? Or is he just trying to sell his book and be provocative ---like a typical academic-- so that white folks like Michael Smerconish can write about it? 






 

Are some black intellectuals just as bad as the KKK? And can white liberals be racist?

I see that his Oness is continuing to kick ass on the "war on terror". If he was a republican the GOP boys would be calling for some modifications on Mount Rushmore right about now. Now if he can just get us some jobs here on the home front. 

Anyway, I will move on.

Maybe the fact that I like Melissa Harris-Perry so much is clouding my judgment with a story I saw about her recently. I have to agree with Elon James-White who wrote an article for News One about the subject:

 "Race in America is a difficult subject. When it comes to race America has the mental maturity of a 7 year old that, on occasion will plug its ears with its fingers and sing “La, la, la.” Being American and Negro I understand this. I don’t really have any choice but to understand it. I can’t decide that racial matters or discussions are silly because I’m actually affected. I can’t speak of it philosophically and talk racial theory because for me its NOT theory. I’m Black. This is real. End of story.

Last night I came across an article that I was so offended by that I reserved comment until I had a full nights sleep. I thought to myself that it was so insulting, so idiotic that it couldn’t be as bad as I was perceiving it to be. I needed to literally go to bed, take a mental break, and come back. That article was Gene Lyons “Obama’s Bridge too Far” on Salon.com. The article, a poorly thought out and terribly executed piece which wasn’t even cohesive as a whole should have been axed in the editorial process. But it wasn’t. Take a look.

This just in: Not all the fools are Republicans. Recently, one Melissa Harris-Perry, a Tulane professor who moonlights on MSNBC political talk shows, wrote an article for the Nation titled “Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals Are Abandoning Obama.”
See, nobody ever criticized Bill Clinton, another centrist Democrat who faced a hostile Republican congress. Indeed, he was “enthusiastically re-elected” in 1996. Therefore, “[t]he 2012 election is a test of whether Obama will be held to standards never before imposed on an incumbent. If he is, it may be possible to read that result as the triumph of a more subtle form of racism.”

You can like Dr. Harris-Perry’s theory or not, but 1) its a theory not an etched in stone condemnation and 2) it’s based in reality. It’s based in feelings many in the Black community have wondered when hearing attacks from White liberals. It’s based in issues that have been previously pointed out within the progressive movement. You could make the argument that race has nothing to do with White liberals issues with Obama and I wouldn’t have an issue with that. But to dismiss one of the great Black public intellectuals of our time because it made you feel uncomfortable is completely ridiculous.

And that’s the problem. Dr. Harris-Perry made folks feel uncomfortable.
White liberals enjoy the concept that they are immune to accusations of racism. They’re LIBERALS. They obviously are totally and completely not racist so how could you ever dare even pose the possibility of such a thing? Matter of fact? Since White liberals are so “obvi” not racist they can dismiss this feeling amongst Black folks as silly and tell them to stop it. You can even get all Dave Sirota on us and say how this hurts the civil rights movement. Because questioning the possibility of racism obviously makes equality harder right? Thanks sir!
But Mr. Lyons isn’t done.

The professor actually wrote that. See, certain academics are prone to an odd fundamentalism of the subject of race. Because President Obama is black, under the stern gaze of professor Harris-Perry, nothing else about him matters. Not killing Osama bin Laden, not 9 percent unemployment, only blackness.
Furthermore, unless you’re black, you can’t possibly understand. Yada, yada, yada. This unfortunate obsession increasingly resembles a photo negative of KKK racial thought. It’s useful for intimidating tenure committees staffed by Ph.D.s trained to find racist symbols in the passing clouds. Otherwise, Harris-Perry’s becoming a left-wing Michele Bachmann, an attractive woman seeking fame and fortune by saying silly things on cable TV. (emphasis mine)

Lyons actually wrote that. To question possible racism is to be the photo-negative of the KKK. To dare question White folks who were nice enough to treat you almost fairly is to be the Black equivalent of the KKK. And to possibly question race is only helpful in gaining tenure–because you know. Blacks and tenure at colleges? We gotta play that race card right? And PHD’s find race in everything. It’s not that they might have studied history and race long enough that they actually understand the systemic problems within our society based on race and privilege–they just see it in EVERYTHING. Silly educated people.

Lyons compared the Scholar Harris-Perry to the publicly mocked known idiot Michelle Bachmann. How did Lyons think that was going to work out? You mock the concept that as a White man you might not always understand everything about racism, then you degrade a brilliant Black mind and compare her to a wilful White idiot who has said websites full of dumb shit. Oh yeah. You’ve just won me over. White Liberals are sooooooo not racist." [Source]

Oh yes, liberals can be racist,too. I consider Mrs. Harris-Perry a friend, and there is nothing about her that says KKK to me. Nothing.

I suspect that Mr. Lyons knows this, (or maybe not) but let's be honest folks; some people just can't change who they are. It doesn't matter if their political ideology leans left or right.

"Extreme color arousal", the n-word 101, and Target shopping.

The guys in the pic belong to one of my favorite bands of all time,(Third World) and they have absolutely nothing to do with this post.

From the personal experience files: "Extreme color arousal" almost got some poor lady and her kids killed today.

So I was at lunch in Center City, Philadelphia-- sans suit as I was in a training seminar. (That's important) I am on the corner of 12th & Market waiting for the light to change, when I spot a late model station wagon making a right turn towards 12th Street from Market.

Now those of you from Philly know that you can't make a right on 12th from Market because it is a ONE WAY street going South. I noticed two adorable little rugrats perched (one in baby car seat) in the back, while mommy was alone in the front and looking quite clueless as she drove towards certain death.

Anywhoo,I stepped forward (trying to seem as non threatening as possible with my biggest black republican smile) and tapped on her passenger side window. I wanted to alert mommy to the fact that she was about to turn the wrong way on a very busy street.

So what do you think mommy did? You guessed it. She looked up and saw the bald headed black man tapping on her window and shot out the wrong way down 12th Street.(That look.) Fortunately for her, the brakes on her car were in proper working order and the light on 12th street was showing red. Mommy soon attracted a crowd of like minded individuals who acted as traffic cops while she maneuvered her way back to Market Street. (Who said Philadelphians are mean?)

Folks, the moral of my little experience is this: Do not let "extreme color arousal" (thanks for that word, Francis) cloud your judgement and get you killed.

Speaking of color arousal, they are teaching "n-word" classes at Arizona State University.

"Neal Lester has never been called a ni**er. But his Italian wife was once called a "ni**er-lover."

"We were just friends at the time, but people assume when they see a black man and a white woman that there must be some type of intimacy," Lester told theGrio. "There's a lot of history there."

It's those type of experiences and misunderstandings that helped inspire Lester, dean of humanities and former chair of the English Department at Arizona State University, to create a course called "The N-word, an Anatomy Lesson."

Every fall, students can learn about the n-word, in all its complexities and connotations.

Click here to view a Grio slideshow: The top 10 n-word controversies of the decade

Lester designed the single-credit, first-year course for students to explore the n-word in a cultural context. Course materials include popular music tracks, magazines, newspaper clippings, television commercials, political campaigns, children's' play toys and other elements of pop and mainstream culture.

A literary scholar, Lester first made the class available in 2008 and again in 2010. It is open to all students.

While there have been recent attempts to get rid of the n-word, including a symbolic public burial four years ago by the NAACP with then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Lester says that words cannot be buried. There have even been efforts to remove the n-word from the dictionary..." [Source]

I just wonder if Mr. Lester's wife took the class.

Speaking of class. Our very classy First Lady was out shopping at Target recently and was trying to be all incognito while doing it.

"Yesterday, AP photographer Charles Dharapak snapped pictures of the first lady shopping (sort of) incognito at a Virginia Target, holding a couple of bags and pushing a cart.

In the images, she's wearing a floral-print button-down over a yellow v-neck. It seems a Nike baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses did the trick when it came to staying anonymous -- CBS News reports that during her 30-40 minutes of shopping, the cashier was the only one to recognize her." [Source]

Oh lawd, I can hear the wingnuts now: "Why not Wal-Mart Mrs. Obama?" Or, "Why not K-Mart? Is it because the Target logo and the O for Obama are similar? Is it because Target's colors are red and your husband is a Socialist? Is there some subtle political message in your little jaunt Mrs. Obama?"

Don't laugh folks, the wingnuts really are upset:
 
"In a September 29 blog post, Michelle Malkin attacked Michelle Obama for shopping at an Alexandria, VA, Target store, writing that Obama went "about as 'incognito' as Lady Gaga's outfit at her younger sister's graduation." Malkin went on to call the first lady "the glamour queen" and further stated that Obama's Target visit was "to counter the negative diva buzz" and that it "looks like she left the bling at home." From the post:

The East and West Wings of the White House are guilty of more cheesy stage-managing than the Emmy, Oscar, and Tony Awards shows combined.

Last week, the glamour queen wore more than $40,000 worth of diamonds while partying with hubby at several high-priced fundraisers in New York. Her bling made international headlines and photos.
To counter the negative diva buzz as most Americans face hard economic times, Mrs Obama somehow managed to turn up at an Alexandria Va. Target (with her "shopping assistant" in tow)." [Source]

Do they sell breaks in Target? Doesn't matter, because poor Michelle couldn't buy a break even if she wanted to. Michelle, it's all your husband's fault.

Finally, for those of you who still believe in the death penalty, please consider the following:

"The execution of Troy Davis in Georgia last week despite tremendous doubt about his guilt has brought the issue of capital punishment into the national spotlight. As a country that supports use of the death penalty, America is in poor company with “the world’s great dictatorships and autocracies [such as] Iran, Zimbabwe, China, North Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Cuba, [and] Belarus” according to The Atlantic — while we are supposed to be the land of the free.

Far above and beyond the politically nasty associations with capital punishment is of course the moral concern over accidentally putting innocent people to death. It is likely that the average American believes this is a rare occurrence worth the social value of the death penalty as a deterrent from violent crime. Unfortunately innocent people are often placed on death row. In a study of executions in 34 states between 1973 and 1995, Columbia University professor James Liebman found that: “An astonishing 82 percent of death row inmates did not deserve to receive the death penalty. One in twenty death row inmates is later found not guilty.”

Most death row inmates do not have the resources or time necessary to determine their innocence before it is too late. Hopefully, Troy Davis’ case and others like his will show U.S. citizens how the death penalty destroys innocent lives. Over 1,000 people have been executed since 1976. We may never know how many went to death in error. Here are just a few who we know for sure were likely innocent — but this was discovered too late." [Source]

"Sweet Home Alabama" is only for the ducumented.

Down in the heart of Dixie they are passing laws to make sure that those illegals stay out of their state.

"Interim State Superintendent Larry E. Craven said Alabama schools are prepared to check the citizenship status of new enrollees, as required by the state's new immigration law. But he emphasized that no student will be kicked out of school if their parents fail to provide the documentation.

Craven said a memo was sent today to local school superintendents informing them a judge had cleared for implementation the section of Alabama's new immigration law requiring schools to check citizenship status.
"We will comply with the law," Craven said today.

School systems will ask parents and guardians to provide a copy of a child's birth certificate when they enroll in public school for the first time. If none is available, they will be asked for additional documentation and to sign a declaration that the student is a legal citizen or immigrant." [Source]

Thanks to HB56, some of those undocumented folks are already fleeing the state. I guess that the law is doing what it was intended to do.

It should be interesting to see what happens a few years down the road. Since those evil immigrants were taking all the jobs, let's see if the unemployment rate goes down in Dixie.

Finally, why are republican candidates for president so angry? Newt is cursing out reporters, and the usually mild mannered John Huntsman is in a twitter war with the Donald. And don't even get me started on Herman Cain. That is one angry Negro. He thinks that the rest of you Negroes have been brainwashed and that you are all trapped on the democratic plantation. (Mmm, what if there are two plantations and he is just on the one with less black folks?)

I guess you have to show anger and resentment to properly represent your constituency. They are, after all, very angry these days. They want someone out there who can show their anger to the rest of us. -OK, we get it; you want your country back.- I guess that this current crop of candidates are just giving their people what they want.

Let's see how they start working back to the middle come general election time. A-merry-cans don't want anger, they want hope and optimism. Times are tough out here, the last thing they want is some "woe is me" type politician preaching gloom and doom.

From George to Troy.

"Many black men have an absurd dark comic lurking inside them, inspired by the experience of racism in America-which is one of the biggest dumbest jokes in the history of the world..." ~Patrice Evans writing in Negropedia.~

"all the things that you wrote are completely off. we know how much you people love to fight! we know that when you are not picking on a white person you are picking fights with eachother. thats why we don't want you savages anywhere near us! ive never considered black people as religious. onfact i see all of you as hypocrites because you are always going to church singing (trying to outsing eachother) (competeting aka fighting) and then go rob a hard working mexican. this is only a little bit. but u are wayyyyyyyyy off. i hate all you people i hope you all die!" ~Anonymous commenter responding to a post by the field~

I am sure that a lot of you do wish that we would die. And back in the day you damn sure knew how to make it happen.

Along those lines, I was reminded of the story of George (Junius) Stinney while reading over at the theGrio today.

"It's 1944, and police escort a 14-year-old boy into the death chamber. He stands just 5'1 and weighs a mere 95 pounds. He is so small in stature that dictionaries need to be stacked on the seat of the electric chair so that when he sits in it his head reaches the height of the electrodes. His chains are loose around his narrow ankles.

This young boy is about to be the youngest person ever to be executed in the history of the United States. Before there was a Troy Davis there was George Junius Stinney, Jr. and the state of South Carolina electrocuted him.

Stinney was accused of murdering two young white girls. They were eleven year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames. The two girls went missing one day after they were riding their bikes while looking for flowers on the wrong side of the tracks in a small working class town of Alcolu, South Carolina where whites and blacks were separated by railroad tracks. The girls went missing and were later found dead in a ditch, murdered with a railroad spike.

George Junius Stinney was even part of the search crew and told a bystander simply that he had seen the girls earlier that day. This claim was enough probable cause for the South Carolina police to arrest Stinney for the double murder, even though, the idea of him being strong enough to kill not one but two girls is a stretch. Despite this fact, the police hauled Stinney into the station for hours of intense interrogation, without the presence of either of his parents. Reports claim the police offered Stinney ice cream if he confessed to them that he committed the double murder.

Stinney confessed. There is no written record of his confession in the archives. There is no physical evidence linking Stinney to the murder. There is no paper record of Stinney's conviction.

The lack of any physical evidence or archived police and court records is the reason South Carolina attorney Steve McKenzie, who detailed Stinney's story to TheGrio, said he wants to re-open the case of the execution George Junius Stinney, Jr. McKenzie said he believes Stinney was innocent of the murder and with "no investigative notes, no trial transcripts, no written confession, and nothing to indicate guilt," it is clear Stinney's trial and subsequent execution were suspicious at best and a miscarriage of justice at worst. (Story)

Yep,it kind of reminds me of another story from the deep south, recently.