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.