Thursday, July 31, 2008

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."

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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."

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

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."

Thursday, July 10, 2008

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.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

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."

Monday, July 7, 2008

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."