Watermelon Patch At The White House?

From That Minority Thing: Los Alamitos, California Mayor Dean Grose sent "out an Email featuring . . . a watermelon patch replacing the White House garden." Grose on sending the e-mail: "The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests."

And then . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . Grose apologized: "It was poor judgment on my part, and I am deeply sorry." But he couldn't stop there: "It was not sent to a whole bunch of people, and it went through my personal e-mail. People e-mail things all the time, but that's not an excuse."

UPDATE: Mayor Grose has announced his resignation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Black History Month Page

Click here for an economic snapshot of black America.

Black Teacher Beaten By Austrian Police

Mike Brennan, a 34-year-old teacher from Jacksonvile, Florida who happens to be black, was in a Vienna, Austria subway. Two undercover police officers "came out of nowhere" and, without identifying themselves, attacked and beat Brennan, putting him in the hospital with swelling, bruises, and a sprained back, neck, and hands. An apologetic Vienna police mistook Brennan for a drug dealer. Brennan is going to sue.

Alan Keyes: President Obama Is A Threat To The U.S.

Watch the excitable Alana Keyes on YouTube.

RNC Chair Michael Steele And Hip Hop

In an interview with the Washington Times, Republican Party chairman Michael Steele expressed his plans to attract to the GOP younger voters and blacks and Latinos. Steele: "We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings. [W]e need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets." (Huh?)

One comment on Steele's remarks: "Hip-hop. Really? That's Chairman Steele's reductive take on people of color? That unless 'principles' are framed in rhyme and break beats we will have no interest in them?"

Indictments In KKK Initiation Rite Shooting

Four persons have been indicted on second-degree murder charges by a grand jury in the shooting death of Cynthia Lynch during a Ku Klux Klan initation in Louisiana.

Wal-Mart's $17.5 Million Settlement With Black Workers

Wal-Mart has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that the company had engaged in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination in recruiting and hiring truck drivers.

HBO On Being "Black In Bellaire"

The shooting of Robbie Tolan by Bellaire, Texas police is the subject of a segment on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (described here). Catch the show, it's must see TV.

On "The Next Generation Of Black Medical Genius"

See neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson's conversation with Dr. James Frazier here.

Attorney General Eric Holder's "Nation Of Cowards" Remark

The Root reports on Eric Holder's speech to members of the Justice Department and the Attorney General's statement, "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." Dayo Olopade writes that Holder's statement "was a punch in the face to America. As top cop of the United States, it's his job to play the disciplinarian--but the lengthy admonition, given in honor of Black History Month, by the first African American attorney general, was the verbal equivalent of shock and awe."

President Obama And The Ape Shot In Connecticut

From That Minority Thing: "African Americans criticized a New York Post cartoon as racist Wednesday, saying it likened President Obama to an ape--a potent image in the history of racism toward blacks." The cartoon can be viewed here.

UPDATE: The New York Post has now apologized (sort of) for the cartoon.

The Masking Habit Of Black Americans

According to Shelby Steele: "To belong to an oppressed group always meant that you could not pursue your self-interest by acting directly on the world. You first had to account for the oppressor who had so much power over you. So you inevitably wore a mask that helped you navigate the oppressor's bigotries, ignorances and self-absorptions. For the oppressed, the mask was power itself. And the four centuries of oppression we black Americans endured gave us masking as a cultural habit."

The Dumb N*gger Receipt

Click here to watch this video. It is 2009 right?

Is Black History Month a Problem?

Cynthia Tucker answers that question in the affirmative. "The history of America's black citizens cannot be segregated from the nation's history because black people have been here from the very beginning. The nation's past is one huge tapestry woven from the threads of many peoples, many cultures, many lives. From Crispus Attucks to buffalo soldiers to Tuskegee airmen to Ralph Bunche to Condoleeza Rice, the story of black Americans is America's story."

"Killing Stirs Racial Unease in Texas"

An interesting story in the New York Times on race relations in Paris Texas.

"Are Black Republicans Obsolete?"

This question is addressed in The Root.

MLK, Obama, And Houston Mayor Bill White

The campaign of Houston Mayor Bill White (who is running for the United States Senate) purchased an ad in the Houston Defender. The ad (you can view it here) displays a picture of White in between the faces of Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Barack Obama. According to a January 29 story in the Houston Chronicle, White said that he had not seen the ad. "Nobody who knows me hears me saying that I deserve to be thought of as Dr. King. I'm sure, if our president were here, he would make that same statement about himself, as well." That same story stated that a White campaign staffer approved the ad sight unseen.

Two comments. (1) Let's not bring the President into this, he's busy running the country. (2) May be a good time to go over the "let's take a look at the ad before it's published" rules.

The Bobby Jindal Watch

From The Root: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is the "next Ronald Reagan," according to Rush Limbaugh, and the "future of the GOP," says Michelle Malkin. "But there's one question that isn't coming up that seems central here--whether or not Jindal runs [for President in 2012], would Republicans even be talking about a possible Indian-American presidential candidate if it weren't for Barack Obama?"

Chris Rock's "Good Hair" Documentary

Chris Rock's entry at the Sundance Film Festival is a documentary entitled "Good Hair," described in one account as "a hilarious examination of the cultural pressures that prod blacks into costly, often painful methods to care for their hair."

Channel Surfing

Today I saw tap dancer Arthur Duncan on The Lawrence Welk Show.

The GOP's First Black Chairman

Go here for a story on the Republican Party's election of Michael Steele as the GOP's next chair.