Lumpkin's Slave Jail

From a Los Angeles Times story: "The place called Lumpkin's Jail was indeed a jail, but it was much more than that. It was a holding pen for human chattel.
"In Richmond's Shockoe Bottom river district, the notorious slave trader Robert Lumpkin ran the city's largest slave-holding facility in the 1840s and 1850s. Tens of thousands of blacks were held in the cramped brick building while they waited to be sold."
Earlier this month the Lumpkin Jail was excavated in Richmond, Virginia, and this week "black and white Richmond residents walked together across the rain-slicked cobblestones . . . that mark the outlines of the old slave jail." Upon his death Lumpkin left the jail to his widow, Mary Lumpkin, a black woman and former slave. She in turn "gave the property to a minister who established a school for freed slaves. Over the years, the school evolved into what is now Virginia Union University, a historically black college."

"Adolf Hitler Campbell"

Heath and Deborah Campbell named their now three-year-old son Adolf Hitler Campbell. A ShopRite store refused the Campbells' order for a birthday cake with the child's name spelled out. Heath Campbell, invoking the name of President-elect Obama: "There's a new president and he says it's time for a change; well, then it's time for a change. They need to accept a name. A name's a name. The kid isn't going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did." A spokeswoman for ShopRite defended the store's refusal to provide the requested birthday cake, noting that past requests by the Campbells (including a request for a swasitika) had been denied.

The Campbells did find a store willing to provide the Hitler birthday cake: Wal-Mart.

Channel Flipping

Television broadcast of HEB Holiday Parade. Commentator/host says (I'm paraphrasing) "There's Santa with two Rockettes. I wonder what Mrs. Santa thinks about that?" Ah, the grown folks' spirit of Christmas.

Follow Up To December 3's "Sad Story" Posting

As noted in a December 3 posting, the workers' compensation insurer for the Dollar Tree discount chain had taken the position that the murder of 26-year-old Taneka Talley (an African American) by a killer allegedly motivated by Talley's race was not work related. Facing public anger over the insurer's stance, Dollar Tree has now announced that it has made an offer to pay the full benefit amount permitted by California law.

From "Stuff White People Like"

Read this "if you want to befriend a large number of white people at the same time . . ."

Words You Don't (I Didn't) Want To Hear

Saxby Chambliss of Georgia was reelected and will be returning to the United States Senate.

Judicial Appointments In Massachusetts

According to the December 5, 2008 edition of the Boston Globe, Massacushetts Goveronor Deval Patrick, who happens to be black, "picked two minority judges to fill 29 judicial vacancies since assuming office nearly two years ago, accumulating the worst record among recent Massachusetts governors."

Harris-Lacewell On The Election Of Obama

Princeton Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell, writing in The Nation:

In his prophetic turn-of-the-century treatise The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois reflected on the experience of being black in America as a constant awareness that others view one as a problem--to be observed, analyzed and solved. For black Americans our very self is the object of the slavery question, the miscegenation threat, the Jim Crow solution, the Negro problem, the black family crisis, the welfare dilemma, the crime concern or the nation's racial scar. It is difficult to live as the object of this amused contempt and pity.

When Barack Obama was elected as the first black president of the United States, African-Americans became the solution instead of the problem. For many black folks, Obama's victory has momentarily healed the double consciousness that is an ordinary part of our lives. To be a citizen in a democracy is to be not only ruled but also the ruler, to not only submit to law but to craft it, to not only die for your country but to live fully in it. In this moment, we are citizens.

We the people, who tilled the soil and cleared the forests and harvested the crops for no compensation. We the people, who endured the abortion of Reconstruction and carried the weight of Jim Crow. We the people, who swung from Southern trees and stood on the front lines of foreign wars. We the people, who taught our children to read even when the schools had no books. We the people, who worshiped a God of liberation even as we suffered oppression. We the people, who gave America back its highest ideals with our nonviolent struggle against injustice.

On Racial Disparities In The Criminal Justice System

From a Rick Casey Houston Chronicle article: In 2006 police raided an apartment and arrested an 18-year-old black man for selling cocaine, and "a white couple in their 30s who leased the apartment and made it available to the teenager in exchange for free crack for the wife." The husband had prior misdemeanor drug and weapons charges; the wife had previously been charged with theft, forgery, and prostitution. The judge presiding over the case gave the couple probation. The same judge sentenced the black teenager (whose record included unauthorized use of a vehicle and misdemeanor marijuana charges) to ten years in prison. According to prosecutors, the charges against the teenager were enhanced because an assault rifle and revolver were found in the apartment. (Those weapons belonged to the white man who leased the apartment.)

Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins' office, concerned about this racial disparity in sentencing, recently "withdrew the weapons charge, clearing the way for the judge to give" the teen "10 years' probation."

Gallup On Black Democrats' Views On Homosexual Relationships

According to Gallup, homosexual relationships are morally acceptable to 31% of black Democrats (compared to 61% of nonblack Democrats). Thirty percent of Republicans say such relationships are morally acceptable.

Sad Story

Consider this:"Taneka Talley was stabbed to death in March 2006 while she was working as a clerk at a Dollar Tree store in Fairfield [, California]. Her killer's only motive, prosecutors say, is that she was African American.
"That's also the reason the store workers' compensation insurer is denying $250,000 in death benefits to Talley's 11-year-old son.
"The boy's grandmother, the child's legal guardian, said Specialty Risk Services is taking the position that a racially motivated killing is personal, not work-related-even though the man charged with killing Talley had never met her before. The insurance company, Dollar Tree and their lawyers aren't talking publicly about the case but are defending their position before a state appeals board that hears workers' compensation disputes."

Crack News

A 20-year-old student in southern China jumped into the pen of a panda, Yangyang, seeking to cuddle. Yangyang, not interested in cuddling, attacked the young man. Zookeepers rescued Mr. This-Is-An-Incredibly-Bad-Idea-And Now-I'm-In-The-Hospital.

Proposition 8 And Black Female Voters

Charles Blow offers his theories explaining why "nearly twice as many black women said they voted for" California Proposition 8's prohibition of same-sex marriage "than black men."

On "Drank" And "Purple Stuff"

From the front page of the Houston Chronicle: "Sippin' syrup," a drink with Houston origins (also known as "Drank," "purple stuff," and "lean") is a mixture of codeine syrup and soft drinks or alcohol. Producer DJ Screw "extolled the use of the recreational drug in his songs before his death in 2000 of a codeine overdose." In 2007 rapper Big Moe, "who also sipped syrup and whose biggest hit was Purple Stuff, died of a heart attack"; thereafter, Port Arthur rapper Pimp C died from an overdose of cough syrup and sleep apnea.

Now available for purchase in black communities: Drank, a nonalcoholic and non-codeine "slow your roll" carbonated beverage containing melatonin, rose hips and valerian root. (Check out the Drank web site.) Ronald Peters, a professor at the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health, "worries that the new canned beverages could be a gateway for youth who want to experience the slowed-down effect of cough syrup abuse. He called the products a step in the wrong direction and criticized them as 'one of the most asinine things I have ever seen.'"

The Increasing Suicide Rate Of Young Black Men

The suicide rate of black men between the ages of 15 and 24 rose more than 83 percent in the last 20 years and is the third leading cause of death for younger African-American males, according to this story.

African Americans' Improved Access To Liver Transplants

An article of interest: "Blacks waiting for a liver transplant used to be more likely to die compared to whites. Now they have the same chance of getting a life-saving organ under a nationwide system that puts the sickest patients first, a new study found."

Words You Don't Want To Hear

"O.J.'s really mad at you."

The Supreme Court's Announcement Of Parents Involved v. Seattle School District No. 1

Click here for the audio of the Court's announcement of its 2007 decision in the Seattle and Louisville voluntary racial integration cases, and Justice Breyer's oral dissent.

Crack News

For Dr. Phil with hair, click here.

On Army Sgt. Cornelius Charlton

Army Sergeant Cornelius Charlton died in June 1951 at the age of 21 after he led his platoon's effort to take a hill from the enemy in a battle near Chipo-Ri, South Korea. Charlton was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and was supposed to be buried at the Arlington National Cemetery. As Charlton's relatives approached Arlington with Charlton's coffin carried by a horse-drawn buggy they were stopped by people in pickup trucks carrying shotguns and could not bury their loved one and this war hero in Arlington, burying him instead in Pocahontas, Virginia. Thereafter, in 1989, Chartlton's remains were buried at the American Legion cemetery in Beckley, West Virginia.

Fifty seven years later, in early November 2008, Sergeant Charlton was laid to rest in Arlington. He "is the only black Medal of Honor recipient from the Korean War buried at Arlington; there are 15 other black Medal of Honor recipients buried there. Medal of Honor winners automatically qualify for burial at Arlington."

Leonard Pitts On Black Voters And California Proposition 8

The columnist writes that as African Americans voted for Barack Obama and "struck a blow against a history that has taught us all too well how it feels to be demeaned and denied," "some black folk chose to demean and deny someone else." African Americans supported the passage of Proposition 8, an initiative denying recognition of same-sex marriages, by a margin of more than 2-1. Noting that "the black experience and the gay experience are not equivalent," Pitts states: "Gay people were not the victims of mass kidnap or mass enslavement. No war was required to strike the shackes from their limbs. But that's not the same as saying blacks and gays have nothing in common. On the contrary, gay people know what it's like to be left out, lied about, scapegoated, discriminated against, held up, beat down, denied a job, a loan or a life. And, too, they know how it feels to sit there and watch other people vote upon your very humanity."

Post-Election Spike In Race Crimes

Troubling developments in the wake of the election of Barack Obama:
"Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting 'Assassinate Obama.' Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars. . . .

"From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alled crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delviered by adults, college students and second-graders."

On election night a black teenager in Staten Island, New York was jumped by two men carrying bats who said "Obama" and beat the teen on the leg and head. On that same night the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, home of a predominantly black congregation, was the target of one or more arsonists.

A "Free Public Hanging"

From the November 11, 2008 edition of the Bonner County Daily Bee:

"The U.S. Secret Service is being asked to review a sign a Bonner County landowner put up which suggests a 'free public hanging' of President-elect Barack Obama and several other political figures.

"The handmade cardboard sign also features a noose fashioned from a length of nylon rope."

Frank Rich On The GOP

The op-ed columnist writes: "The G.O.P ran out of steam and ideas well before George W. Bush took office and Tom DeLay ran amok, and it is now more representative of 20th-century South Africa during apartheid than 21st-century America."

Racial Profiling And The LAPD

Check out this report showing that African Americans and Latino/as are stopped, frisked, searched, and arrested more freqently by the Los Angeles Police Department than are whites.

$2.5 Million Verdict Against The Klan

In a lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center a Kentucky jury ruled in favor of Jordan Gruver, a young man attacked by members of the Imperial Klan of America, and awarded $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.

King County, Texas And The 2008 Election

King County, Texas has 198 registered voters; of the county's 287 residents, 11 are African-American. According to the county clerk, most of the voters in the county are Democrats.

Ninety three percent of King County voters voted for Senator John McCain; 8 persons (not 8 percent) voted for Senator Barack Obama.

Asked why so many voted for McCain, the county clerk responded, "I guess they just didn't want a Democrat this year."

Supreme Court Upholds Bill Of Rights

From The Onion: the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, upholds the Bill of Rights.

Observation

Watched the Florida-South Carolina football game today. One of South Carolina's quarterbacks is named Chris Smelley. Talk about an incentive to play well.

The Racial Slur Database

Click here. Sixty six pages and 2,649 slurs to date.

Black Head Coaches And College Football

The number of African Americans who will be head coaches of Football Bowl Subdivision programs at the end of this season: 4. Sylvester Croom, Mississippi State; Turner Gill, Buffalo; Randy Shannon, Miami; Kevin Sumlin, University of Houston. Two other black coaches, Ty Willingham at Washington and Ron Prince at Kansas State, will lose their jobs at season's end. "Since 1996, only 12 black candidates have been hired to fill the 199 coaching vacancies (6 percent). Last season, 30 percent of the candidates interviewed for 22 openings were minorities, with only two being hired. Sumlin, who not only was the first black head football coach in UH history but the first to be hired at an FBS program ni the state of Texas, was one of those two."

University Of Texas Football Player Expelled From Team For Obama Remark

Buck Burnette, a sophomore offensive lineman on the University of Texas Longhorn's football team, was kicked off the team after he posted a remark about President-elect Obama on his publicly available Facebook page. Burnette's election night posting: "All the hunters gather up, we have a [slur] in the White House." (The actual slur was not reported but you can guess what it is.)

The Isolated South

Adam Nossiter's New York Times' piece argues that election day may have ended "the centrality of the South to national politics." Of the 410 counties in the Appalachian belt running from New York to Mississippi, President-elect Obama won only 44. Merle Black of Emory University posits that the Republican Party has "maxed out the South" and has limited that party's "appeal to the rest of the country." Nossiter also notes the view of one woman in Lamar County on the Mississippi border who fears that blacks will now become more aggressive, and another woman's view that "there are going to be outbreaks from blacks. From where I'm from, this is going to give them the right to be more aggressive."

On President-Elect Obama And Maury Povich

I was sitting in the recliner today reading President-elect Obama's book The Audacity of Hope. The television was on, providing background noise. And I heard Maury Povich proclaim "You are NOT the father!"

What a country.

Ann Nixon Cooper

In his victory speech Tuesday night President-elect Obama "introduced the world" to Ann Nixon Cooper, "a woman who 'was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons--because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.'" As this story notes, Ms. Cooper was friends with W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope Frankin, and Benjamin E. Mays. In her words: "I feel nothing but relief that things have changed as much as they have. After awhile, we will all be one. That's what I look forward to."

George Wallace's Daughter On Her Father And President-Elect Obama

Check this out. A snippet:
"Healing must come, hope will be our lodestar, humility will reshape the American conscience, and honesty in both word and deed will refresh and invigorate America, and having Barack Obama to lead us will give us back our power to heal."

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Amazing, incredible, and an unforgettable life moment.

Barack Obama Is Malcolm X's Son

So says Pamela Geller Oshry. I was relieved that there is only one more day until the election. But this stuff won't stop; in fact, it will only get worse.

Don't Forget New Orleans

It's interesting but not surprising that post-Katrina New Orleans is no longer on the radar of an attention deficit disorder nation. I will always remember reading a report that Republican congressman Richard Baker told lobbyists, "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." And remember others who hoped that only the "good blacks" would come back and said that the root of the word "Katrina" is "cleansing."
Remember New Orleans.

Frank Rich's "In Defense of White Americans"

Check out Frank Rich's piece in the October 27 NYT. He notes, among other things, the 2006 incident in which then-Senator George Allen of Virginia called a young Indian-American "macaca" and welcomed him "to America and the real world of Virginia." (This past September the GOP staged a "unity" rally in northern Virginia in an effort to reach out to minority voters. One of the speakers at the rally--former Senator George Allen. That's not tone deaf, it's completely deaf.)

Planning An Assassination

Paul Schlesselman and Daniel Cowart have been arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate Senator Obama and murder black school children. Eric Lichtblau writes in the New York Times that the "assassination was to be the culmination of a 'killing spree' that would also single out children at an unnamed, predominantly black school, federal officials said. The men talked of 'killing 88 people and beheading 14 African-Americans.'" The numbers 88 and 14 are not accidental. "The number 88 is shorthand for 'Heil, Hitler'--H is the eighth letter in the alphabet--and 14 signifies a 14-word mantra among white supremacists: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.'"

On Obama Lawn Jockeys

Check out this Faculty Lounge entry.

The Ashley Todd Hoax

Ashley Todd of College Station, Texas (her no longer publicly available Twitter page can be seen here) falsely claimed that she was mugged by a large black man while she used an ATM in Pittsburgh, and that the assailant carved the letter "B" into her face. According to Todd, the alleged attacker told her "You are going to be a Barack supporter."

John Moody, the executive vice president of FOX News, had this to say:
It had to happen. . . .
If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.
If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.

Well, it was a lie and a hoax and Ms. Todd, who had received calls from both Senator McVain and Governor Palin, has been arrested and charged with filing a false police report. As for Moody's ridiculous statement, it is not only racial it is racist. What in his mind linked the alleged attacker to Senator Obama? One thing--Moody's racialization of Obama and all black men. And where is his follow up announcing the end of the McCain campaign? Keep waiting for it, I'm sure it's coming any day now.

Maryline Blackburn, Miss Alaska 1984

Maryline Blackburn, who happens to be an African-American, won the Miss Alaska beauty pageant in 1984. The runner-up: Sarah Palin.

Crack News

Jerry Lewis makes an anti-gay slur . . . again.

On African Americans And Baseball

Richard Justice writes: "Black players accounted for 27 percent of major league rosters in the mid-1970s. When the 1968 All-Star Game was in the Astrodome, the National League's biggest stars--Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey and Bob Gibson--were black."
"And then the decline came, first slowly, then dramatically. Only 8.2 percent of major leaguers were black in 2007.
"Reasons for the decline include economics, opportunity and marketing. Hundreds of inner-city high schools dropped baseball. Diamonds, which are expensive to maintain, were paved over."

The Best Fictional Black Presidents

Here.

Obama Campaign Bus Pulled Over By Southern Sheriff

From The Onion.

Nick Kristof's "Rebranding the U.S. with Obama"

From his column:
The other day I had a conversation with a Beijing friend and I mentioned that Barack Obama was leading in the presidential race:
She: Obama? But he's the black man, isn't he?
Me: Yes, exactly.
She: But surely a black man couldn't become president of the United States?
Me: It looks as if he'll be elected.
She: But president? That's such an important job! In America, I thought blacks were janitors and laborers.
Me: No, blacks have all kinds of job.
She: What do white people think about that, about getting a black president? Are they upset? Are they angry?
Me: No, of course not! If Obama is elected, it'll be because white people voted for him.
[Long pause.]
She: Really? Unbelievable! What an amazing country!

Senator Obama In Richmond, Virginia

Click here.

Newt Gingrich: Obama Would Be Like Rev. Wright

Appearing on and participating in a roundtable discussion on Sunday's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," Newt Gingrich argued that a President Obama's temperament would be like that of Reverend Wright if there were large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. I was watching the show when Gingrich made this statement. The host, George Will, Tom Friedman, David Brooks, and Donna Brazile did not react.

Senator Obama In My Hometown

Here is a great picture of Obama campaigning in St. Louis.

If "Black" Is A "Race" Then So Is "White"

For the Limbaughs and Buchanans and fellow travelers who are trying to reduce General Powell to (their essentializing version and warped understanding of) a black man: Have any white persons who have decided to endorse a candidate who happens to be white over a candidate who happens to be black been asked if they chose the white candidate because they were white? And if not, why not?

Powell Endorses Obama: The Reactions Of The Reactionaries

Here it comes. The usual suspects, Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan (an MSNBC commentator!!) are peddling the stupidity that General Powell endorsed Senator Obama because . . . wait for it . . . both are African American. Buchanan just spewed that filth on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Powell Endorses Obama

The endorsement, made on this morning's "Meet the Press," can be viewed here.

McCain's Robo-Calls

This BBC story contains a link to a recording of a McCain robo-call.

Crack News

Don Cornelius, creator and longtime host of "Sooooooooooooooul Train," arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence in Los Angeles.

Recommended

Ted Koppel's "The Last Lynching," currently being shown on the Discovery Channel.

Update On "Joe The Plumber": His Name Is Samuel

From Gail Collins' New York Times column: "Joe the Plumber, it turns out, is actually named Samuel and is not a licensed plumber. He has a lien on his house for unpaid taxes. While his professional life is still a little hazy, there is not much evidence he's ever going to become a small business owner. And he would be a beneficiary of Barack Obama's tax plan." And we do know, from those members of the national news media who have the time and resources to camp out at Joe/Samuel's home, that Senator McCain's plumber does not like Social Security and thinks that the Iraq War was a good thing.

"Is McCain His Supporters' Keeper?"

Click here for Professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig's answer. She argues, in part, that "Senator McCain is not responsible for the chants of his supporters (though his running mate Governor Sarah Palin has helped to incite them with statements that Sentaor Obama 'is palling around with terrorists.'). But, Senator McCain is responsible for his and Governor Palin's failure to utterly reject these crazy chants by hateful supporters and to call them for what they are: racist and revolting."

Racializing The Global Financial Meltdown

Emma Coleman Jordan discusses the "black people did it" argument.

The Obama Food Stamp

Yet another silly season example: The newsletter of a Republican group in San Bernardino County, California contained the picture of an "Obama Bucks" food stamp. A picture of Senator Obama is surrounded by a watermelon, a bucket of fried chicken, Kool-Aid, and ribs.

Racist McCain-Palin Supporters

A friend forwarded to me an account of racist statements made by McCain/Palin supporters, recorded by an Al Jazeera camera crew. The comments include the following: "When you get a Negra running for president, you need a first stringer. He's definitely a second stringer." And "I'm afraid if he wins, the blacks will take over. He's not a Christian! This is a Christian nation! What is our country gonna end up like?" (On whether the United States is a "Christian nation," see Geoffrey R. Stone, The World of the Framers: A Christian Nation?, 56 UCLA L. Rev. 1 (2008)).

(Oh No) Joe The Plumber

A few facts about Joe The Plumber (Joseph Wurzelbacher of Holland, Ohio), Senator John McCain's repeated reference point in last night's debate:
1. Joe is not a licensed plumber. (According to a building inspection official Joe must be a licensed apprentice or journeyman plumber to work in Toledo.)
2. Because he makes less than $250,000 a year he would be the recipient of an Obama administration's tax cut.

Now Joe is being vetted and may find out the good and the bad of 15minutes of fame.

More Obama And Osama Idiocy

From the Associated Press: "The official Web site of the Sacramento County Republican Party compared Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama to terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and urged people to 'Waterboard Barack Obama.'" The material and images showing Obama in a turban were removed at the request of the California Republican Party. Apparently some have no problem with publicly and stupidly slandering Obama and getting off on the violent imagery of waterboarding and torturing the Senator.

Recommended

Deborah Hellman, When Is Discrimination Wrong? (Harvard University Press, 2008)

Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery By Another Name: The Re-enslavement Of Black Americans From The Civil War To World War II (Doubleday 2008)

Barack "Osama" On The Ballot

Three hundred absentee ballots printed by election officials in Rensselaer County, New York list "Barack Osama" as the Democratic presidential nominee. The Democratic commissioner of the county said "we catch almost everything"; the Republican commissioner says it's just a typo. Oops? Just a typo? Yeah, right.

Clarence Page On McCain And Palin

From Page's October 12, 2008 column in the Chicago Tribune: "But these days McCain's political attacks have grown sharper and angrier. He unleashed his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, like an attack puppy against Obama. Together they have pushed their conservative audiences further right and, in some cases, over the edge." When some fool (my characterization) yelled "Kill him!" at a Florida rally "Palin smiled her way past the 'Kill him!' shout. Maybe she didn't hear it. At the same rally, a racial epithet was shouted at a black sound technician with a TV news crew."

This Just In: The KKK Is Not Endorsing Senator Obama

Click here for the shocking news.

Racism, European Edition

1. From the October 7, 2008 edition of the Daily Mail: Dube Egwuata was wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt in London while he was making a purchase in a store. A man approached him and began shouting racist slurs ("I f***ing hate n*****s") and subsequently shot Mr. Egwuata three times with a gas-powered ball-bearing pistol. Egwuata stated that "Obama inspires me, his educational track record alone is quite unbelievable-that is why I was wearing the T-shirt. I did not think for one minute it could stir up such powerful feelings of hatred and I never said a word to [the shooter]." No arrests have been made.

2. From the October 6, 2008 edition of the Daily Mail: Lisa Ring, a nursery school teacher and supervisor and mother of two from Haverhill in Suffolk, was charged with racially aggravated harassment after she made monkey noises at an 18-month child who happened to be black as he played with a plastic banana. Asked by another staff member to stop that and other despicable conduct she was engaging in, Ring responded that what she was doing was "just a bit of fun." Found guilty by a magistrates' court, Ring was fined and was fired by the nursery.

3. From today's New York Times: Abdul William Guibre, who was born in Burkina Faso and was raised in Italy, was beaten to death in Milan, Italy by the father and son proprietors of the Shining Bar, a coffee shop. Fausto and Daniele Cristofoli believed that Mr. Guibre had stolen money and cookies from the shop; they beat Guibre with a metal rod, shouting "dirty black" as they killed him. "Although there is some debate about whether the killing was racially motivated, the attack on Mr. Guibre was the most severe in a recent spate of violence against immigrants across Italy. The attacks are fueling a national conversation about racism and tolerance in a country that has only recently transformed itself from a nation of emigrants into a prime destination for immigrants." Giovanna Giulio Valtolina, a scholar at MIlan's ISMU Foundation, remarked that "a black Italian is a very new thing." Apparently.

On Lending To "Minorities And Risky Folks"

Last month on Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto host Cavuto, discussing the federal government's decision to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship and the culpability of Congress, said the following to his guest, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA): ""I'm just saying, I don't remember a clarion call that said, 'Fannie and Freddie are a disaster. Loaning to minorities and risky folks is a disaster." Talk about being blamed for everything. Just reporting, you decide.

On "Not Us" And Being "An Arab" Or (Not And) "Decent"

Last Friday at a McCain campaign rally a woman said to Senator McCain: "I can't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's not, he's not us--he's an Arab. He's not . . ." Shaking his head and taking the microphone from the speaker McCain said: "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not [an Arab]."

McCain has been applauded by some for his response. But that response is troubling. Obama's "not us"? The classificatory and exclusionary "us versus them" mentality revealed in and by that statement could not be clearer. As one of my colleagues mentioned to me today, no one made the point that there is nothing wrong with being "an Arab." McCain's reply left in place the notion that being "an Arab" and being a "decent" man and citizen (persons of Arab descent are not and cannot be citizens?) is an either/or and not a both/and proposition. That's disturbing on surface and deeper levels.

"The Obamas Are Uppity" And More (Or Why I Never Trust Polls)

1. As reported in The Hill:
--U.S. Representative Lynn Westmoreland, Republican of Georgia: "Just from what little I've seen of [Michelle Obama] and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity."
--U.S. Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, on the purported relevance of Obama's middle name "Hussein": "Then the radical Islamists, the al Qaeda, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror." (In case you're wondering, John McCain's middle name is "Sidney").
--U.S. Representative Geoff Davis, Republican of Kentucky: "I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button. He could not make a decision in that [situation] that related to a nuclear threat to this country."

2. From Lisa Falkenberg's recent column in the Houston Chronicle: Charles Bowers, a Yellow Dog Democrat and retired pastor: "Frankly, I was raised during the days of segregation and am not ready for a black family in the White House. . . . But I'm praying for a way out of my prejudice and think I just may be over it. If I vote for Obama, I will be over my prejudice for sure."

3. From a recent Nicholas Kristof column in the New York Times: There are "widespread theories that Mr. Obama just may be the Antichrist. Seriously." (Click here if you want to purchase a T-shirt with an "O" with horns over the caption "The Anti-Christ").

4. From George Packer, writing in The New Yorker's October 13, 2008 issue:
--An unnamed man in Glouster, Ohio, explaining why he was undecided but now supports Obama after McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate: "I just think the guy Obama picked would do better if he got assassinated than McCain's if he died of frickin' old age in office."
--Bobbie Durham, a retired fourth-grade teacher: "But I really don't trust Obama. He only says half-truths. He calls himself a Christian, but he only became one to run for office. He calls himself a black, but he's two-thirds Arab."
--Retired state employee J.K. Patrick of Inez, Kentucky: "There's a lot of white people that just wouldn't vote for a colored person. Especially older people." Patrick: "I really don't want an African-American as President. I think he would put too many minorities in positions over the white race. That's my opinion."
--Latisha Price, who runs the Service Employees International Union's office for Obama in Athens, Ohio, on approaching persons in that state's Meigs County: "Meigs County is one of the worst. . . . I have heard, pardon my French, 'Get the fuck off my porch, I'm not voting for no nigger.'"

The Culture Of Ron Artest

As stated by new Houston Rocket Ron Artest, responding to Yao Ming's concern about the impact Artest's joining the Rockets may have on team chemistry: "This is Tracy [McGrady] and Yao's team, you know. I'm not going to take it personal. I understand what Yao said, but I'm still ghetto. That's not going to change. I'm never going to change my culture. Yao has played with a lot of black players, but I don't think he's ever played with a black player that really represents his culture as much as I represented my culture."

The "N-Word" On "The View"

A few weeks ago "The View" cohosts Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselback had a heated argument over Jesse Jackson's use of the word "nigger" prior to his appearance on "Fox & Friends." Hasselback stated "We live in a world where pop culture uses that term and we're trying to get to a place where we feel like we're in the same place. How are we supposed to then . . . move forward if we keep using terms that bring back such pain?" Goldberg: "I can tell you how, here's how we do it, you listen and say 'Okay, this is how we're using this word and this is why we do it,' and you have to say, 'I understand that, but let's find a new way to move forward." Hasselback: "We don't live in different worlds. We live in the same world." Goldberg: "We do live in different worlds, it's just that way. It is Elisabeth."

Free Speech For Military Bigots

As reported in the Seattle Times, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, by a 4-1 vote, has ruled that racist statements made online by Army private Jeremy Wilcox were protected by the First Amendment. Wilcox's defense attorneys demonstrated that there was no evidence that Wilcox's racist views adversely affected his military performance. Dissenting Judge James Baker asked, "What parents would want their daughter or son to serve in a unit they thought might be infected with white supremacists and closet skinheads? What soldier (other than a white supremacist) would want to have 'Wskullhead' [Wilcox's online name] on his right or left in combat?"

Pull Up Those Pants

Any person showing three or more inches of their underwear in public in Lynwood, Illinois are subject to a $25 fine pursuant to an ordinance recently passed by the Chicago suburb. The ACLU believes that young men of color are targeted by the law.

The End Of White Flight

Recently reported in the Wall Street Journal: "Decades of white flight tranformed America's cities. That era is drawing to a close." The proportion of whites living in eight of the nation's fifty largest cities increased in the period 2000-2006. "Beloved institutions in traditionally black communities--minority-owned restaurants, book stores--are losing the customers who supported them for decades. As neighborhoods grow more multicultural, conflicts over home prices, taxes, and education are opening a new chapter in American race relations."

Proving Our Colors

Consider this from Naira Ruiz: "While on a seven-country tour this week, dignified and presidential images of Barack Obama have replaced last week's cartoon image of him as a fist-bumping, flag-burning terrorist.
"This isn't the first time that questions of Obama's patriotism and loyalty have been raised, then quieted, by an inspiring speech or image. Throughout this presidential election, Obama has had to go above and beyond to prove that he, too, loves this country. It's insulting and disheartening."

Racism In NASCAR

Dave Zirin writes that NASCAR officials "understand that if their sport is ever to go global, burning rubber can't be associated with burning crosses." Mauricia Grant, NASCAR's first black female inspection official, has filed a $225 million harassment suit against NASCAR alleging 23 incidents of sexual harassment and 34 incidents of racial and sex discrimination occurring over a two-year period. Grant claims that she was called "Nappy Headed Mo" and "Queen Sheba" and that a white NASCAR official by the name of David Duke (I'm not making that up) sent her the following text message: "I love all Yall mofos i am that niggaHAHAHAHollaPIMPALICIOUS."

Obama's "Talking Down To Black People"

So said the Rev. Jesse Jackson into a live microphone while awaiting the beginning of a Fox News interview. (Jackson also said that he was going to cut off a part of Senator Obama's anatomy; that castration was on Jackson's mind and came out of his mouth is simply bizarre). Jackson apologized to the Obama campaign after Fox News announced that Jackson's remarks would be broadcast on the O'Reilly Factor. The silly season continues.

The AMA on African American Physicians And Organized Medicine

The Journal of the American Medical Association contains a report on the history of organized medicine's bias against and exclusion of African-American doctors and the current manifestations of that discrimination on black doctors and the patients they serve. See also this story on the AMA's apology for its past trangressions.

Memin Pinguin

From the Houston Chronicle: "Beloved by Mexicans for his dim wits, street smarts and playful disposition, long-running comic book chaacter Memin Pinguin--a little black boy whose face resembes a monkey--is at it again." Books in the series have been available for purchase at Wal-Mart stores, "prompting community activist Quanell X to demand that Wal-Mart apologize for selling the racially charged books."

Black Models, White Models

Go here for a discussion of black models' difficulty in finding runway work. Designer Miuccia Prada has "turned chiefly to Eastern European girls. Prada's spring show featured just one black model, Jourdan Dunn--and she was the first in 11 years for the label."

"Why did so many African-American women support R. Kelly?"

Newsweek reporter Allison Samuels recently addressed the question posed in the title to this post. Upon annoucement of the verdict acquitting R. Kelly of 14 counts of child pornography and child endangerment, "dozens of black women (and some black men) cheered outside the courtroom as the singer made his way past them to his waiting tour bus." Samuels reports that the site What About Our Daughters posted a petition "urging black men to stand up for black women and to stop supporting anyone who exploits their daughters, sisters and wives."

The Looming Transition To Digiial TV

On February 17, 2009, television stations in the United States will no longer broadcast in analog signals and will begin digitial broadcasting. According to a report by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, millions of households will not be prepared for the change and will lose television service. Negatively impacted will be communities reliant on free over-the-air television: "low-income Americans, seniors, persons with disabilities, non-English speakers, and minorities" owning a disproportionate number of analog TV sets requiring a digitial converter box.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (The Next Ronald Reagan)

Worth reading: this profile of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (who is, according to Rush Limbaugh, the "next Ronald Reagan"). According to author Deepa Fernandes "Jindal has been accused of snubbing NAACP invitations and was given an F rating on issues of race for his policy choices and political stances." During protests in the Jena Six case, in which six black teenagers were charged with second-degree attempted murder after a school fight, Jindal told a group of students that the protesters were "outside agitators." (Sound familiar?)

Hitchens On Helms

Whatever Christopher Hitchens writes is worth reading, even (especially) if I disagree with what he says in a particular article. Consider his views on the passing of Senator Jesse Helms, who died on July 4.

"It seemed somehow profane that Sen. Jesse Helms should have managed to depart this life on the 232nd anniversary of the declaration of American independence. To die on the Fourth of July, one can perhaps be forgiven for feeling, is or ought to be a privilege reserved for men of the stamp of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom expired on that day in 1826, 50 years after the promulgation of the declaration. One doesn't want the occasion sullied by the obsequies for a senile racist buffoon." Noting that, among other things, Helms opposed the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and defended white Rhodesia, Hitchens writes, "The way to mark Helms' passing is to recognize that he prolonged the life of the old segregated South and the Dixiecrat ascendancy and that in his own person, not unlike Strom Thurmond, he personified much of its absurdity and redundancy."

Expunging "South Central" L.A.

From the Los Angeles Times: "Five years ago, [Los Angeles] expunged the name 'South Central' from its maps and replaced it with the more general 'South Los Angeles.' The change was meant to erase the stigma of riots and blight that marred an area south of the 10 Freeway and along Central Avenue, a place renowned in the 1940s for its thriving black culture--restaurants, jazz clubs and businesses."

Stephen Carter's "Affirmative Distraction"

Commenting on the thirtieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Stephen Carter writes that "[w]e still fight over affirmative action and pretend it means we're fighting over racial justice. We debate its pros and cons in order to avoid coming to grips with more fundamental challenges." In Carter's view, "University affirmative action programs, whatever their benefits, are no remedy for the problems of the black poor." And restructuring such programs "would in the end, like the Bakke decision, amount to more tinkering around the edges. Unless racial justice one again becomes the centerpiece of American politics, with both parties willing to rethink their positions, those who are suffering most from our legacy of racial oppression will continue to fall further behind."

For my own views on this subject, see On Palliative, Palatable, and Paralytic Affirmatve Action, Grutter-Style, in Law, Culture & Africana Studies 103 (James L. Conyers. Jr., ed. 2008).

Menthol Cigarettes And Black Smokers

Consider: "The Congressional Black Caucus is calling for changes to a House tobacco-regulation bill, demanding that the legislation place restrictions on menthol cigarettes, the type heavily favored by African-American smokers." Lorillard has urged smokers of Newport, the company's leading menthol brand, to contact their Congresspersons and "tell them to oppose any amendment to ban menthol cigarettes."

Pulling BET Ads

General Motors and Proctor & Gamble have pulled their advertisements from Black Entertainment Television's Rap City and 106 & Park shows. The Chicago Defender story on this development quoted Rev. Delman Coates, chairman of the Enough Is Enough campaign: "We let (advertisers) know that the Enough Is Enough campaign is seeking to challenge lyrical and visual content, in the hip hop industry in particular, that sexually objectifies Black women, portrays Black men as pimps, gangsters and thugs, glorifies violence, criminal activity, drug use. We made them aware that they're currently running commercials during (programs that feaure this content.)"

The Black America Study

Interested in a survey of the views of the nation's 30 million African Americans? Click here.

Slurred By The Sheriff

Secretly recorded conversations between former Orange County Sheriff Michael Corona and a confidant contain racist and sexist slurs.

Diversity At Skadden

Christine Hurt's recent posting on the Conglomerate blog notes this interesting story in "Facet," "Skadden's Diversity Publication."

"Why Barack Obama Owes Clarence Thomas"

Jack White draws "a straight line between Barack Obama's White House aspirations and the embarrassing spectacle of Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court confirmation." His thesis: "Largely because he was black and conservative and affluent and educated and Republican, Thomas drove a stake through the heart of the ignorant assumptions about all black folks: liberal and poor and dumb and Democrats. After him, there's no denying that some black folks aren't on the Democrats' reservation." Thus, Thomas "deserves credit--or blame--for reshaping popular notions of what it means to be black and American. And, win or lose in November, Obama is already an historic beneficiary."

And check out White's article "Barack, Here;s How to Get the White People".

Condemning Mugabe

From Cynthia Tucker: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have expressed support for President Bush's call for the imposition of stronger economic sanctions against Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe.

And this from Nicholas Kristof: "When the white supremacist regime of Ian Smith oppressed Zimbabweans in the 1970s, African countries rallied against it. Eventually, even the white racist government in South Africa demanded change and threatened to cut off electricity supplies if it didn't happen. . . . Yet South African President Thabo Mbeki continues ot make excuses for Mr. Mugabe--who is more brutal than Ian Smith ever was--out of misplaced deference for a common history in the liberation struggle. Zimbabweans suffered so much for so many decades from white racism that the last thing they need is excuses for Mr. Mugabe's brutality because of his skin color."

Nathan Allsbrook, Rest In Peace

Fifteen-year-old Nathan Allsbrook was shot and killed by an apparent stray bullet while walking with a friend in Harlem. "The shooting was the latest in a violent month in and around Harlem, and it was a block from a shooting spree on May 26 that left six teenagers wouldnded along Lenox Avenue."

Cloaking Racism

From the Chicago Tribune: "Tomeika Broussard thought it was so absurd when she overheard her supervisor refer to her as a 'reggin' that she just laughed. Then she realized that it was the n-word spelled backward." According to federal officials, complaints of workplace racial harassment involving coded words and images are on the rise, including but not limited to "you people," "Cornelius" (the ape character in the movie "Planet of the Apes"), and "Bruce Lee" (used by an employee when referring to his foreman who was of Italian and Chinese ancestry).

Ralph Nader: Obama Tries To "Talk White"

In a June 2008 interview with the Rocky Mountain News Ralph Nader complained that Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has not urged "a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson?" According to Nader, Obama "wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up."

Rather than express his disagreement on the merits or demerits of Obama's positions and emphasis or lack thereof on particular issues, Nader racializes Obama and accuses the Senator of not being black enough (whatever that means) as defined by Nader. Obama does not care about the plight of and issues facing African Americans? Ridiculous. That Nader assumes the hierarchical position and power to lecture Obama (and, by extension, other African Americans) for not doing what Nader thinks they should be doing is itself an arrogant act of racial condescension.

The Murder Of A Daughter-In-Law

Chiman Rai, a Mississippi businessman born in India, has been found guilty on seven charges, including felony murder, related to his plot to murder his African-American daughter-in-law because "he believed she would bring down the family stock." "Ms. Rai was found strangled with a vaccuum cleaner cord and stabbed more than a dozen times weeks after her March 2000 wedding to Mr. Rai's son, Ricky Rai."

Racial Disparities In Connecticut Prisons And Jails

From The Sentencing Project: Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell (R) has signed legislation requring pre-enactment assessment of the racial and ehtnic impact of new sentencing laws. The rate of the incarceraton of blacks persons in that state is 12 times higher than that of whites. Connecticut joins Iowa and Wisconsin in promulgating laws and policies addressing racial disparities in prison and jail populations.

The Crisis This Time

From Cynthia Tucker: "If you counted black men under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system--on probation, in prison or on parole--you'd find that their numbers are higher than those pursuing a college degree. And on any given day, about one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 (more than 475,000) are locked up in city or county jails or state or federal prisons . . ." And "happily . . . there are far more young black men in college--about 530,000, ages 18 to 24--than in prison--about 106,000 in the same age group."

Tuskegee Airman Chuck Dryden, R.I.P.

Lt. Col. Chuck Dryden, one of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen, has passed away at the age of 87.

The Papers Of Professor Derrick Bell

Here is a link to Professor Bell's papers in New York University's archives.

Congratulations To Florida Chief Justice Peggy Quince

Chief Justice Quince is the first black woman to head any branch of Florida's government.

The Racial Slur Database

Interested in page after page after page of racial slurs and the definitions and origins thereof? Enjoy.

The Justice Clarence Thomas Appreciation Page

Here it is.

On Blackdar

Check out Shawn Parker in The Onion.

Ranking Law Firm Diversity

Go here for a listing and ranking of the AM Law 200 firms based on their percentage of minority lawyers. The firm holding the Number 1 position? Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Happy 90th Birthday Nelson Mandela

"John Kerry With A Tan"

So said Grover Norquist to the Los Angeles Times as he discussed the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. Look for the forthcoming non-apology apology and the feigned bewilderment that anyone could even possibly think that the statement has anything to do with the fact that Obama is an African American.

Fake "Black Names" In School Yearbook

The published yearbook of the Charter High School in Covina, California contains fake names (including "Tay Tay Shaniqua" and "Laquan White") for members of that school's Black Student Union. The names, supplied by a student on the staff of the yearbook, were not caught and corrected in the proofreading stage of production. The matter has been described as a "regrettable mistake" by the superintendent of the school district. "It's disrespectful. It gives a bad name ot the school," said one student.

South African Chinese, Reclassified As Black

As the result of a decision by South Africa's high court, Chinese South Africans have been reclassfied as black people. Not qualifying for contracts and work promotions under laws designed to address the legacy of apartheid because they were regarded as white or of mixed race, and contending that Chinese South Africans "had faced widespread discrimination during the years of apartheid when they had been classified as people of mixed race," the Chinese Association of South Africa filed a legal action seeking the reclassification--and won.

PCBs And Port Arthur, Texas

The predominantly African-American city of Port Arthur, Texas may soon be the site for the incineration of 40 million pounds of PCBs imported from Mexico. The Environmental Protection Agency has tentatively approved Veolia Environmental Services' proposal to bring the chemicals to Port Arthur from Mexico and burn the materials at an incinerator located just outside the city limits. Community activist Hilton Kelley: "We don't want to set a precedent in this community, where we are set up and prepared to take toxic waste from the world. It's not fair to children, or to me."

On Black Models

"Racial prejudice in the fashion industry has long persisted because of tokenism and lookism," writes Cathy Brown. But Italian Vogue's July issue features only black models photographed by Steven Meisel. "I thought, it's ridiculous, this discrimination," Meisel said. "It's so crazy to live in such a narrow, narrow place. Age, weight, sexuality, race--every kind of prejudice."

Pat Buchanan, MSNBC Commentator

Pat Buchanan, adviser to President Nixon and currently seen on MSNBC's various chatfests, recently shared with The New Yorker's George Packer a copy of a confidential 7-page memo, written by Buchanan for Nixon, entitled "Dividing the Democrats." According to Packer's May 26, 2008 article the memo stated, among other things, that the White House should "elicit white working-class support with tax relief and denunciation of welfare," and recommended, "Bumper stickers calling for black Presidential and especially Vice-Presidential candidates should be spread out in the ghettoes of our country." According to the Buchanan memo, "We should do what is within our power to have a black nominated for Number Two, at least at the Democratic National Convention." This would "cut the Democratic Party in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half."

Interesting to see Buchanan on the air today commenting and prognosticating about the presidential aspirations of Senator Barack Obama. Thanks MSNBC.

President Bill Clinton And "The Comeback Id"

In his much discussed Vanity Fair article on former President Bill Clinton, Todd Purdum reports that Clinton's campaigning on behalf of Senator Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina Democratic primary "damaged his own relations with many prominent blacks, just as black voters were flocking to Barack Obama for the first time in large numbers."

More: "Whatever the explanation, much of Clinton's behavior on the campaign trail this year has been so maladroit as to constitute malpractice: his blowups at television reporters, his derisive dismissal of Obama's unwavering anti-war stance as a 'fairy tale,' and most of all his denigrating comparison of Obama's performance in the South Carolina primary to Jesse Jackson's victories there two decades ago (which even one of his closest former aides described to me as insensitive at best)." "Congressman James E. Clyburn of South Carolina . . . called Clinton's behavior 'bizarre.'"

Worth reading.

When A Judge Talks About Slavery

From Law.com (May 23, 2008): "The Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct has issued [a] public warning[] to a Fort Worth judge who tried to discuss slavery with an African-American attorney representing clients in a case before him . . ." The commission ordered Judge Keis to complete an eight-hour course on racial sensitivity.

Another Non-Apology Apology

Johnny Miller, golf analyst for NBC Sports, has apologized for saying that golfer Rocco Mediate, who lost to Tiger Woods in the U.S. Open, "looks like the guy who cleans Tiger's swimming pool." And: "Guys with the name 'Rocco' don't get on the trophy, do they?"

After stating that his remarks had "abolutely nothing to do with [Mediate's] ethnicity," Miller apologized to "anyone who was offended by my remarks. . . . I chose my words poorly and in the future will be more careful." Another non-apology apology.

Overheard

"Latin players are soft," said a co-host on the Sporting News syndicated radio show earlier today. Stating that Roberto Clemente was the exception to his rule, this all-knowing commentator shared his view that "Latin" players in major league baseball are soft, and noted those players (all Anglo) who were leaders on their ballclubs. Nice.

Recommended

Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (Doubleday 2008); Charles Lane, The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction (Henry Holt 2008).

White Supremacists For Obama

From the Southern Poverty Law Center: "With the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate clinched, large sections of the white supremacist movement are adopting a surprising attitude: Electing America's first black president would be a very good thing." As noted in a recent SPLC posting, a growing number of white supremacists "think that a black man in the Oval Office would shock white America, possibly drive millions to their cause, and perhaps even set off a race war that, they hope, would ultimately end in Aryan victory." That view is held by David Duke: "My bet is that whether Obama wins or loses in November, millions of European Americans will inevitably react with new awareness of their heritage and the need for them to defend and advance it."

Racial Bias In America Surveyed

Jon Cohen's and Jennifer Agiesta's story in the June 22, 2008 edition of the Washington Post reports on a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicating that 3 in 10 Americans "acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice," with approximately one half of Americans saying that race relations in the United States "are in bad shape."

More On Fear And The Obama Candidacy

Yolanda Young opines that the assassination of Martin Luther King "still profoundly affects the psyche of black Americans" and that some in the black community have confessed fear that the same fate as King's might befall" Senator Barack Obama. Cue Senator Clinton's reference to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy as a reason not to end her campaign for the presidency. Cue former Republican candidate and ordained Southern Baptist minister Mike Huckabee's "joke": "[Obama] just tripped off a chair. He was getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him, and he dove for the floor." (Followd by the obligatory "I regret that some may have been offended" blah blah blah.)

On Obama And Oprah

Is Oprah Winfrey's "crown . . . beginning to look a bit tarnished" as a result of her endorsement of Senator Obama? Noting that Oprah's average audience has declined 7 percent this year, Ed Wyatt writes that Oprah's endorsement of Obama "appears to have alienated some of the middle-aged white women who make up the bulk of her television audience, many of whom support Senator Hillary Clinton." "Since the endorsement . . . angry criticism of her political stance became a regular feature of the message boards on Oprah.com."

Fear And The Obama Candidacy

From Bob Herbert:
"From the time that Barack Obama announced that he would run for president, the thought that he might be assassinated because of his race has been widespread.

"A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 6 in 10 Americans said that they worried that someone would try to harm Senator Obama if he became the Democratic nominee. More than 8 in 10 African-Americans expressed fear for his safety.

"I've spoken with a number of black voters who wondered whether they might not be doing Mr. Obama harm by casting a ballot for him. Said one woman: 'I fear for him, the closer he gets to his goal.'"

Race And Adoption

As recently reported, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute has called for changes in the federal Multiethnic Placement Act which would allow adoption agencies to consider race and culture as factors in the selection of foster care parents. Ron Nixon reports that in 2003 the state of Ohio paid $1.8 million in fines after a white couple accused social workers of mandating that the couple prepare a plan addressing a black child's cultural needs and evaluating their neighborhood's racial demographics. Two years later a South Carolina social services agency was fined $107,000 for what the federal government determined to be an overemphasis on race in a database matching children and potential adoptive parents.

On Shelley v. Kraemer

In Shelley v. Kraemer, decided in 1948, the United States Supreme Court held that state judicial enforcement of racially restrictive covenants constituted state action violative of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The vote in the case: 6-0. Three justices (Robert Jackson, Stanley Reed, and Wiley Rutledge) did not participate in the case as each were owners of property covered by the challenged covenants.

Post-Law School Debt

"After the JD: First Results of a National Study of Legal Careers," a study of new lawyers recently published by the National Association for Law Placement, finds, among other things, that minorities and women are likely to carry larger debt loads after attending law school than are whites and men. The study can be found at www.nalpfoundation.org.

Trouble In Monroeville

Parents of black junior high school students in Monroeville, Alabama (the hometown of Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird) are the plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging racial slurs, segregation, and the harsher punishment of black students. The school system's attorney has denied what he characterizes as the suit's "baseless" allegations.

Racism In Sports?

Consider William C. Rhoden's column discussing the issue of racism in sports. At one time, Rhoden writes, racial quotas "were a way of life in professional and college sports. Quotas were entrenched: management was pandering to what it thought its fans wanted." Colorblindness on the part of fans reflects an "attitude . . . that racism is something for the archives, especially in professional sports, in which so many black and brown athletes are richly compensated. In fact, racism is a constant irritating hum in contemporary life--too distracting, too draining, too time-consuming to deal with constantly. Ignore the hum and pick your spots. Sometimes the spots pick you."

Spike Lee On Clint Eastwood

Spike on Clint:
"Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total, and there was not one Negro actor on the screen. If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that. That was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."

Zelma Henderson, The Last Surviving Brown Topeka Plaintiff

Zelma Henderson passed away last week after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Ms. Henderson was the last surviving plaintiff from the Topeka, Kansas litigation that was part of the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. As noted by Barbara Hollingsworth in the Topeka Capital-Journal, "Finally, she saw a black man running for president. And while she welcomed the chance to talk about her place in history, she wasn't one to constantly tout her role as one of Topeka's 13 plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education."

The Birthday Of Malcolm X

Melissa Harris-Lacewell writes, "Malcolm X would have turned 83 today. Do more than buy a T-shirt."

Brown, Age 54

May 17 of this year marked the fifty fourth anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Black Smokers, White Smokers, And Menthol

The United States Congress is currently debating granting to the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco. In seeking a reduction in youth smoking, the proposed legislation would allow the FDA to ban clove, cinnamon, and other flavored cigarattes, but would exempt from regulation mentholated cigarettes comprising more than one quarter of the $70 billion market in the United States.

Consider this: "Menthol is particularly controversial because public health authorities have worried about its health effects on African-Americans. Nearly 75 percent of black smokers use menthol brands, compared with only one in four white smokers." According to the CDC, menthol "may increase the absorption of harmful smoking constituents," and other evidence suggests that smokers of mentholated cigarettes experience greater difficulty in kicking the habit. Black men get lung cancer at a rate 50 percent higher than white men, according to another report. "One theory suggests that menthol in cigarettes, by providing an additional pleasurable sensory cue to smokers, reinforces addiction."

For more on the marketing of menthol and other cigarettes to African Americans, see this story.

Race And The Race

"I'll never vote for a black person." So said a white person in Muncie, Indiana to Danielle Ross as Ross solicited support for Senator Barack Obama, according to Kevin Merida of the Washington Post in his May 13, 2008 article. Responding to a phone bank call from a retired social studies teacher during the Pennsylvania primary campaign, a caller stated that he could not possibly vote for Obama, concluding "Hang that darky from a tree!" And this from a Pittburh union organizer: "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people." In an incident occurring at 2 a.m. before the Indiana primary Obama's Vincennes, Indiana office was vandalized; one spray-painted message on a window: "Hamas votes BHO."

And, as the New York Times reports, 2 in 10 white voters in West Virginia stated that race was an important factor in their vote; of those voters, 8 in 10 supported Senator Hillary Clinton.

Ward Connerly's Missouri Ballot Initiative Fails

Ward Connerly's effort to place an anti-affirmative-action measure on the November 2008 ballot in Missouri has failed as he was unable to obtain the number of signatures required for ballot placement. Connerly withdrew the same initiative last month in Oklahoma, and is reportedly facing allegations of fraud in connection with attempts to obtain signatures in Colorado.

Karen Bass, Speaker Of The California Assembly

On Tuesday of this week Karen Bass, Democrat of Los Angeles, was sworn in as the speaker of the California Assembly. The second woman to hold that position, Bass is the first African-American woman to hold the position, and "the Assembly becomes the first state legislative body in the nation to be led by a black woman".

The Rise In Hate Groups

According to this Southern Poverty Law Center report, the number of hate groups in the United States rose from 844 in 2006 to 888 in 2007. In addition, hate crimes against Latinos increased 35% between 2003 and 2006.

In the "it's all relative" "good news" category, the number of chapters of the Ku Klux Klan fell from 165 in 2006 to 155 in 2007.

The "Confrontational" MLK Sculpture

Take a look at this model of what was to be a 2 1/2 story sculpture of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. and the centerpiece of the King memorial in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has determined that the sculpture is too "confrontational" in character, is reminiscent of the "Social Realist style" of political sculptures recently pulled down in other countries, and must be reworked so as to display "a more sympathetic idea" of King.

Further work on the memorial cannot proceed without the commission's approval of the sculpture.

Historical Event At Morehouse

Joshua Packwood is this year's valedictorian at Morehouse College, "the country's only institution of higher education dedicated to the education of black men." Packwood, the first white valedictorian in the school's 141-year history, was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship and will be working at Goldman Sachs in New York.

Packwood's comment on attending Morehouse when he could have gone to an Ivy League school: "I've been forced to see the world in a different perspective that I don't think I could've gotten anywwhere else. None of the Ivies, no matter how large their enrolment is, no matter how many Nobel lauerates they have on their faculty . . . none of them could've provided me with the perspective I have now."

One of Packwood's Morehouse colleagues remarked, "You don't see skin color with him anymore. You start looking more at his character."

It Can Be Done

Check out this great column on the Mississippi Freedom Project, " nonprofit program, tucked into an obscure corner of an obscure place, offering academic enrichment, martial arts, media production classes, mentoring, exposure to writers like Rudyard Kipling, Alice Walker, Albert Camus and field trips to such far-flung places as Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Orlando." Median family income in the Mississippi Delta: $25,000. Teen pregnancy rate: 25 percent. Youth growing up in poverty: 50 percent.

According to the project's executive director, Greg McCoy, "Students who stick with the program and make it to that sixth year thus far have had 100 percent college enrollment and high school graduation rates." It can (it must) be done.

Justice Thomas On Being Segregated

Speaking at the University of Georgia's commencement this past Saturday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told the audience that, but for racial segregation, he would have been that university's first black graduate. "Forty-one years ago, when I graduated from high school in Savannah, attending the University of Georgia was not an option. Thankfully, much has changed in my lifetime. Knowing what I know today, I would go to school here in a heartbeat. Georgia is home and Georgia is where I belong." Thomas received a standing ovation; twelve hundred persons had signed an online petition protesting his selection as commencement speaker.

The "Stuff White People Like" Blog

No, seriously. Check it out here.

The Secret Service's No Longer Secret Racist Jokes

Discovery in a federal lawsuit brought by black agents in their discrimination action against the Secret Service reveals racist and sexist messages sent to and from the accounts of Secret Service supervisors. The "jokes" included a message about a "Harlem Spelling Bee" and so-called black slang. Another message about Rev. Jesse Jackson (referred to as the "Righteous Reverend") referred to a missile striking an airplane carrying Jackson and his wife and concluded that it "certainly wouldn't be a great loss and it probably wouldn't be an accident either."

E. Desmond Hogan, the black agents' lawyer, commented that his clients were "shocked but not surprised by the late production of significant evidence of racism at high levels in the Secret Service."

Adolp Reed: Not An Obama Fan

Click here for Adolph Reed's views on Barack Obama. As you will see, Reed, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, warms up by describing the senator as a "vacuous performer with an ear how to make white liberals like him."

Blacklash

Darryl Fears' Washington Post article describes the ways in which Bill Clinton, Tavis Smiley, and Rev. Jeremiah Wright "landed in the black community's doghouse after being viewed as endangering Sen. Barack Obama's chances of being elected president."

For instance, Fears reports, when Smiley expressed his irritation that Obama did not attend Smiley's Covenant With Black America program in New Orleans, the "resulting backlash left Smiley feeling 'hammered' and 'barbequed' by black Americans." "There's all this talk of 'hater,' 'sellout' and 'traitor,'" Smiley said at the time. "They are harassing my mama, harassing my brother." Smiley recently announced that he will be discontinuing his commentaries on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. And one African-American woman's take on Bill and Hillary Clinton: "The more he opened his mouth, the more I was against her."

1 In 100, 1 In 9, 1 In 36

As noted in a New York Times editorial, 1 in 100 adults in the United States are currently in prison; the rate for African-American men is 1 in 9, for adult "Hispanic" men, 1 in 36. From the editorial:
--Reports by The Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch "show large disparities in the rate at which blacks and whites are arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses, despite roughly equal rates of drug use."
--"Black men are nearly 12 times as likely to be imprisoned for drug convictions as adult white men . . ."
--"Between 1980 and 2003, drug arests for African-Americans in the nation's largest cities rose at three times the rate for whites, a disparity 'not explained by corresponding changes in rates of drug use,' The Sentencing Project finds."
--Four in 10 drug arrests are for possession of marijuana, and in 2006 there were 1.86 million drug-related arrests nationwide.
This is a crisis.

Is Obama The Antichrist? COME ON CNN!

CNN Headline News (?) host Glenn Beck, chatting with Reverend John Hagee, made the following lunatic observation: "There are people--and they said this about Bill Clinton--that actually believe he might be the Antichrist. Odds that Barack Obama is the Antichrist?" CNN, the most trusted name in news. Yeah, right.

Nelson Mandela: Terrorist????

As recently reported, Nobel Prize recipient and freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, along with other members of South Africa's African National Congress, are included in the United States government's terrorist watch lists. Describing the listing as "embarrassing," Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and members of Congress have vowed to correct the problem.

What Did She Mean?

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, quoted in USA Today, made clear her view that "Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again," while "whites in [Indiana and North Carolina] who had not completed college were supporting me."

Remember . . .

New Orleans. Darfur.

Colson Whitehead's "Visible Man"

For an interesting, insightful, inciteful and (for me) funny take on race and Amnerica in this political silly season, see Colson Whitehead's recent op-ed in the New York Times.

On Jeremiah Wright and Frederick Douglass

As the Reverend Jeremiah Wright saga continues in all its opportunistic glory, Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell reminds us that Frederick Douglass, "speaking in the tradition of the biblical prophets," was also "a master of the jeremiad." Consider the professor's quotation of the following exemplar of Douglass' prophetic pronoucements:

"Statesmen of America beware what you do! The soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. Nations, not less than individuals, reap as they sow.
"The dreadful calamities of the past few years came not by accident, nor unbidden, from the ground. You shudder today at the harvest of blood sown in the springtime of the Republic by your patriot fathers."

Laurence Fishburne On "Thurgood"

Check out this root.com interview with Laurence Fishburne, currently starring on Broadway in the one-man play "Thurgood."

Pat Buchanan On Those Lucky Black Folks

In a recent post on his blog entitled "A Brief for Whitey," Pat Buchanan, regular contributor to MSNBC's filling-air-time chatterfests, recently shared with the world his view that "America has been the best country on earth for black folks." How so? Buchanan: "It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known."
Wait, there's more: white Americans have spent "untold trillions" on "welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream."
He's not done: "Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America" or that "illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?"
For those who hold (but won't openly express) the repugnant belief that ungrateful and inferior Negroes just don't know how lucky they are, good old Pat has your back.

When The Professor Sues The Student

As reported here in the New York Times, University of Arkansas at Little Rock law professor Richard Peltz, "an authority on freedom of speech," has filed a lawsuit against two third-year students at the law school as well as other defendants (including the law school's chapter of the Black Law Students Association). According to the Times article, the professor alleges that the students "defamed him by unfairly describing him on campus as a racist" after he displayed a satirical article belittling Rosa Parks, criticized affirmative action, and "promised to award black students who scored as high as white students on an exam an extra point." Peltz is seeking monetary and punitive damages.

The Black House

At a dinner honoring University of Colorado president Hank Brown, a businessman reading pretend telegrams to the honoree said, "I have a telegram from the White House. They're going to have to change the name of that building if Obama's elected." The audience reportedly gasped. The businessman has apologized.

Hit And Run

Black Entertainment Network founder Bob Johnson, at a South Carolina campaign appearance with Senator Hillary Clinton, said the following to the audience: "And to me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood--and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in the book--when they have been involved."

What was Johnson referring to? Obama's published admission of past drug use. What did Clinton say about Johnson's statement when she spoke after Johnson? Nothing. That's not even plausible deniability.

Johnson later explained that he was only speaking about Obama's "time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else." To be polite, that's simply not true. And the game continues.

Shucking And Jiving

Last week New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo made the following statement in a radio interview in which he discussed primary campaigning: "You have to sit down with 10 people in a living room. You can't shuck and jive at a news conference; you can't put off reporters, because you have real people looking at you, saying 'answer the question.'" Cuomo's spokesperson, Jeffrey Lerner, later explained that Cuomo "meant no offense to either candidate because he was praising both in the interview. 'Bob and weave' would have been a better phrase . . ." You think?