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.