A Wrongful Death Verdict

From CNN: A Massachusetts jury awarded $71 million in compensatory damages and $81 million in punitive damages to the family of a woman who died of lung cancer. "Suffolk Superior Court ruled . . . that Lorillard Tobacco Company lured black children into smoking by providing them free cigarettes."

Hat Tip: MJD

Haley Barbour's Reality-Blind, Revisionist, And Disingenuous World

Profiling Mississippi Governor ("and likely presidential candidate") Haley Barbour in The Weekly Standard, Andrew Ferguson asked Barbour why Barbour beleived that Yazoo City, Mississippi "was perhaps the only municipality in Mississippi that managed to integrate the schools without violence." Barbour's response:

"Because the business community wouldn't stand for it. You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders. In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you'd lose it. If you had a store, they'd see nobody shopped there. We didn't have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City." (Note how Barbour did not give the full title of the Citizens Councils: they were "White Citizens Councils." As Diane McWhorter writes at page 98 of her book Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (2001), the White Citizens Council was "a resistance group started in the summer of 1954 in Mississippi by an Ole Miss football star turned plantation manager as a discreet alternative to the Ku Klux Klan. Its purpose was to mobilize the middle class behind the fight against the Brown decision. Its basic strategy was summed up by the Selma lawyer who had organized the first Alabama chapter: 'We intend to make it impossible for any Negro who advocates desegregation to find and hold a job, get credit, or renew a mortgage.")

On growing up during the Civil Rights Movement, Barbour said: "I just don't remember it as being that bad. I remember Martin Luther King came to town, in '62. He spoke out at the old fairground and it was full of people, black and white." (The following year Medgar Evers was assassinated by KKK member Byron De La Beckwith in Jackson, Mississippi.)

Ferguson also notes that Barbour's two sons were educated at the Manchester Academy, a private K-12 school built (in the words of Harold Kelly, Barbour's high school football coach and former principal of Yazoo High) "for people who didn't want their children to go to public schools after integration."

Called on his apologia for the White Citizens Council, Barbour isued the following statement:

"When asked why my hometown in Mississippi did not suffer the same racial violence when I was a young man that accompanied other towns' integration efforts, I accurately said the community leadership wouldn't tolerate it and helped prevent violence there. My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the 'Citizens Council,' is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country, and especially African Americans who were persecuted in that time." Um . . . OK (not). Now maybe he can explain what he meant in the early 1980s when he warned a staffer who commented about "coons" at campaign rallies that if the aide "persisted in racial remarks, he would be reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks."

Did Jean Toomer Pass For White?

Read this.

Teena Marie, Rest In Peace

Teena Marie has passed away at the age of 54.

Dionne: Don't Spin The Civil War

In his Washington Post column E.J. Dionne writes that "[t]here remains enormous denial over the fact that the central cause of the [Civil War] was our national disagreement about race and slavery, not states' rights or anything else." Dionne notes that in his March 21, 1861 "Cornerstone Speech" the Confederate's vice president, Alexander Stephens, stated that the "proper status of the Negro in our form of civilization" was "the immediate cause of the late rupture" and that Thomas Jefferson was wrong in his belief "that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature." Stephens continued: "Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the white race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth."

Dionne concludes that "there is to this day too much evasion of how integral race, racism and racial conflict are to our national story. We can take pride in our struggles to overcome the legacies of slavery and segregation. But we should not sanitize how contested and bloody the road to justice has been. We will dishonor the Civil War if we refuse to face up to the reason it was fought."

For South Carolina's, Mississippi's, Georgia's, and Texas' secession declarations, click here.

Richard Nixon On Blacks, Jews, Irish, Italians

From the mouth and mind of President Richard Nixon as captured in newly released recordings from the Nixon White House's secret taping system:

Commenting on Secretary of State William P. Rogers' views on the future of black Africans and Rogers' "blind spot on the black thing because he's been in New York": "My own view is I think he's right if you're talking in terms of 500 years. I think it's wrong if you're talking in terms of 50 years. What has to happen is they have to be, frankly, inbred. And, you just, that's the only thing that's going to do it . . ."

"The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality."

"The Jews have certain traits. The Irish have certain--for example, the Irish can't drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I've known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish."

"The Italians, of course, those pople . . . don't have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but . . ."

Discrimination Against Black Lawyers In Toronto

The Brampton Guardian recently reported that a "prominent Toronto lawyer has won a discrimination case against the Peel Law Association after he and two black colleagues were singled out in a rom full of lawyers and asked for identification."

Flava Flav's Fried Chicken And Liquor

From the "really?" category: "In his quest to continue to set the race back 400 years, Flava Flav is launching a chain of fried chicken restaurans called Flav's Fried Chicken. Did we mention he is also launching a brand of liquor called 'Le Flav Spirits'? No, we are not making this up, and you are not having a nightmare."

Race Riots In Russia

Read this story.

The Talented Tenth In Pictures

From The Root.

"Why They Call Us Uncle Toms"

John McWhorter addresses why he and other black conservatives are called Uncle Toms.

Patrick Hall, Rest In Peace

Patrick Hall, the son of my favorite cousin Pat, was killed on Friday in a home invasion in Dayton, Ohio. Killed at the age of 30. I have no words for this.

Al D'Amato Goes Off

Watch this.

The Candidate Speaks

Does he ever. Check out Phil Davidson.

Ronald Walters, Rest In Peace

Ronald Walters, longtime professor at Howard University and the University of Marlyland, has passed away.

"The Roots Of Black Homophobia"

Read this.

Congratulations YES Prep

U.S. News & World Report notes that in the past ten years 100 percent of the graduates of YES Prep, a Houston charter school, have been accepted to four-year colleges.

Floyd Mayweather's Sickening Rant

Watch this.

"What Are Words Worth?"

Melissa Harris-Lacewell shares her thoughts.

Who Is "We"?

In a recent column Leonard Pitts noted Glenn Beck's statement that "this is a moment that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement. . . . We will take that movement, because we were the people that did it in the first place!" Pitts continued, "Beck was part of the 'we' who founded the civil rights movement!? No. Here's who 'we' is.""

"'We' is Emmett Till, tied to a cotton gin fan in the murky waters of the Tallahatchie River. 'We' is Rosa Parks telling the bus driver no. 'We' is Dianne Nash on a sleepless night waiting for missing Freedom Riders to check in. 'We' is Charles Sherrod, husband of Shirley, gingerly testing desegregation compliance in an Albany, Ga., bus station. 'We' is a sharecropper making his X on a form held by a white college student from the North. 'We' is celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando and Pernell Roberts of Bonanza, lending their names, their wealth and their labor to the cause of freedom."

On Abolishing The "N" Word

Watch this young man's take on abolishing that word.

Hat tip: ddow

George Vashon

George Vashon applied for admission to practice law in Pennsylvania in 1847. His appication was denied because Mr. Vashon was black. In May 2010 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court posthumously admitted Mr. Vashom to the state bar.

Black Male Unemployment

The St. Louis American reports that black workers' unemployment rate is 17.3 percent, approximately twice the 8.9 percent rate for white men.

Christoper Hitchens On White Fright

Click here.

"The Changing Landscape Of The Lower Ninth Ward"

Take a look at this.

An Ugly Season Of Racial Politics

So says Charles Postel in this Politico column.

Anthology: Black Voices From the Pulpit

This Wall Street Journal article discusses the anthology "Preaching With Sacred Fire" and the African-American sermonic tradition.

Mexican Victims, Black Attackers

Beginning in April of this year, ten Mexicans have been attacked by blacks in suspected hate crimes in Staten Island, New York.

"The Woman Who Raised Emmett Till"

Bruce Kaufman writes about Mamie Till-Mobley in this piece.

Iowa's First Black Female Judge Is . . .

Romonda Belcher-Ford.

Ted Nugent On A "White Town"

Rock musician Ted Nugent recently put on a show at the Mississippi Moon Bar in Dubuque and made the following comment: "There's a lot of white people in this crowd--I like that! [Dubuque] is a white town." Nugent was also recently deputized by Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Krispy Kreme Cheeseburgers

I'm serious. Look at it.

Dr. Laura Schlessinnnnnnnnnnnger

If you haven't heard about Dr. Laura Schlessinger's n-word incident, read about and listen to it here. Leonard Pitts argues "that the most offensive thing about Schlessinger's gaffe wasn't her use of the N-word, but the air of smug entitlement with which she did so."

"A Brief History of Intolerance in America"

Check out this Time magazine photo gallery.

One In Five

That'a the number of Americans who believe that President Obama is a Muslim, according to a Pew Research Center poll. And Rev. Franklin Graham "think[s] the president's problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name." Oh.

"The Enduring Relevance of Affirmative Action"

Randall Kennedy's American Prospect article argues that the survival of affirmative action "is a triumph not only for race relations but also for the liberal vision of an inclusive society with full opportunity for all."

Deonte Bridges' Valedictorian Speech (Posting No. 800)

Watch this.

More From Michael Steele

Republican National Committee chair Michael (What Up?) Steele urged supporters of the Republican Party to "get on the bus" and predicted that "Nancy Pelosi will be in the back of the bus." Interesting word choice.

Does Attorney General Eric Holder Hate White People?

No, says Jason Zengerle in this New Republic article.

6.1 Million

That's the number of uninsured Texas residents.

Is There Racism In Cuba?

Yes, says The Root.

Russia's First Black Elected Official

Jean Gregoire Sagbo "is the first black to be elected to office in Russia. . . . In a country where racism is entrenched and often violent, Sagbo's election as one of Novozavidovo's 10 municipal councilors is a milestone. But among the town's 10,000 people, the 48-year-old from the West African country of Benin is viewed as simply a Russian who cares about his hometown."

Pat Buchana's "Losing White America"

The latest from Pat Buchanan (still an MSNBC commentator!)

"The Real Story of Racism at the USDA"

Read this.

The Incarceration Rate In The United States

From The Economist: in the United States "[o]ne American adult in 100 festers behind bars (with the rate rising to one in nine for young black men). Its imprisoned population, at 2.3 m, exceeds that of 15 of its states."

Race In America

This topic was the focus of last Sunday's Face the Nation roundtable discussion.

Inside The Supreme Court

A panoramic look.

The Roberts Court

Adam Liptak looks at the Supreme Court and argues that in the last five years "the court not only moved to the right but also became the most conservative one in living memory, based on an analysis of four sets of political science data."

"The Racism Faux-Scandals"

John McQuaid discusses this subject in The Huffington Post.

Shocked Black Parents

From CBS News: "How did Ben and Angel Ihegboro, a black Nigerian couple living in London, give birth to a white daughter?"

Andrew Breitbart Interview

Watch this.

The "Black Power" Sundae?

From the Bangor Daily News: A vacationing President Obama and his family stopped in the "Mount Desert Island Ice Cream" shop in Bar Harbor, Maine for ice cream cones.

"Photos of the impromptu visit were taken and posted online, where several bloggers noticed that the shop's logo of an upright black fist clenching a spoon resembles the clenched black fist that was adopted as a black power symbol in the 1960s.

"In a claim that many people think could have been lifted from the satirical news outlet The Onion or 'The Daily Show,' several right-leaning bloggers have suggested that the decision by Obama, the nation's first black president, to patronize a shop with what one site called 'such a politically-sensitive logo' has hidden, intentional meaning."

For what it's worth (apparently not much in this hysterical silly season), the shop "is owned by a white woman and . . . Maine's population in 2008 was estimated to be 95 percent white and only 1 percent African-American . . ." The owner, Linda Parker, explains "that she went with the spoon-in-fist symbol to differentiate her company from other larger ice cream makers . . . It's just ice cream."

Is "Lift Every Voice And Sing" The Black National Anthem?

Professor Timothy Askew is not sure.

Abigail Thernstrom On The New Black Panther "Story"

Politico discusses Thernstrom's views.

On Black Sprinters And White Swimmers

The UK Telegraph notes that "two US academics have risked controversy by publishing a theory that attempts to explain the contrasting performance of black and white athletes using the laws of locomotion." Enjoy.

Limbaugh On Steinbrenner

CNN reported this Rush Limbaugh comment, made on the day following Steinbrenner's death: "George Steinbrenner was a 'cracker who made a lot of African-American millionaires.'"

Colorism

Sharon Bramlett-Solomon discusses colorism--"color prejudice that values and privileges light skin tone over dark skin tone"--in this Arizona Republic article. "Since U.S. slavery days, African-Americans with light or near-White complexions and Eurocentric features have been privileged over those with darler skin. Colorism can be traced to when slave masters had sex with female slaves and fathered light-skin children, who were allowed to occupy the master's house and were accorded preferential treatment."

The Full Shirley Sherrod Video

Watch it here.

Mel Gibson And Hate

"Apparently, Mel Gibson is a better actor than anyone knew," Leonard Pitts writes. From the column:

"People tend to have this naive notion about hate. They think it's something you can see at 20 paces, something obvious and over-the-top, like the Nazis Jack Kirby drew for Marvel Comics; you always knew they were evil from their craggy teeth and bad skin.

"But hate looks like a grandmother baking cookies, a teacher standing in front of the class, a preacher opening his Bible. It looks like you or me, like anybody anywhere."

Perspectives

An article in the Los Angeles Times commended young people in Oakland, California for their campaign for nonviolence following the verdict in the Oscar Grant case. For another take, see Heather Mac Donald's article in the Weekly Standard.

Whoopi Goldberg's Ten Most Controversial Moments

Click here for the slideshow.

McWhorter On NAACP And The Tea Party

John McWhorter: "Much to my surprise, I'm with Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP on this Tea Party business this week."

Vonetta McGee, Rest In Peace

The actress has passed away from a heart attack.

"The Myth of 'Acting White' and the Achievement Gap"

Check out this piece by Latoya Peterson in the Root.

Honorary Degree To Be Awarded To Mary Price Walls

In 1950 Mary Jean Price (now Mary Price Walls), salutatorian of Lincoln High School in Springfield, Missouri, applied to Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield. Her application to the college, the first ever from a black student, was denied; she never attended college. On July 30 she will receive an honorary degree from the school (now Missouri State University).

"White Flight" From Myspace?

Technology Review discusses this question.

Vernon J. Baker, Rest In Peace

Vernon J. Baker, the only surviving African-American recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II, has died at the age of 90.

Scott Stinson's Letter To Whoopi Goldberg

Click here.

Sign Of The Times?

From ABC News: "The allure of the blockbuster 'Twilight' books and movies appears to have spawned a troubling trend: Teen couples are biting one another to show affection, sometimes biting so hard they draw blood."

Rest In Peace Walter Hawkins And Hank Jones

Gospel artist Walter Hawkins and jazz pianist Hank Jones have died.

More On Mel

To listen to Mel Gibson's latest eruption, click here.

He Said What?

From the USA Today: Responding to Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert's (critical and harsh) letter to Cav fans following LeBron James decision to play for the Miama Heat, Jesse Jackson stated that Gilbert's "feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave."

Jason Whitlock has criticized Jackson and those who agree with him. "We look foolish. We look hypocritical. We come across like people who have little genuine interest in seeing racial prejudice disappear and more like people who just want it to swing in our favor."

"The Lost Children Of Haiti"

Scott Pelley of CBS News reports.

A Proposed School Closing In Biloxi, Mississippi

Read this story.

Rick Barber's "Slavery" Campaign Ad

Watch this.

Removing The Simkins Name From Residence Hall

University of Texas president Bill Powers will propose that the university's Simkins Residence Hall be renamed. William Simkins, who taught at the university's law school from 1899 to 1929, has been linked to the KKK.

The "Black Y"

The Evanston, Illinois YMCA, known as the "black Y," "served as the heart of the African-American community for more than 50 years after opening in 1914."

Mickey D's Hip-Hop Menus And Ads

From Bloomberg: "The music industry has long sold black culture to white Americans. Now McDonald's Corp. is doing much the same. It's taking cues from blacks, Hispanics and Asians to develop menus and advertising, in an effort to encourage middle-class whites to buy smoothies and snack wraps as avidly as they consume hip-hop and rock 'n' roll."

Justice Thomas And McDonald v. Chicago

In a Washington Post column Courtland Milloy discusses the Supreme Court's decision in the McDonald v. Chicago gun rights case and focuses on the "scorcher of an opinion" by Justice Clarence Thomas "that reads like a mix of black history lesson and Black Panther Party manifesto . . ."

"To Kill A Mockingbird" At 50

Harper Lee's novel was published on July 11, 1960.

Malcolm X

Clicker here and here to watch videos of Malcolm X.

Verdict In Oscar Grant Case

Johannes Mehserle has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Oscar Grant III.

Is My Dog Racist?

A friend of Raina Kelley asked her that question. Here's her answer.

From The Daily Show: The Amazing Racists

Watch this.

Renting White People

This CNN story begins: "In China, white people can be rented."

"40 Burgers That Can Kill You"

From The Daily Beast.

Limbaugh Racializes President Obama And Oprah

According to Rush Limbaugh, Barack Obama "wouldn't have been voted president if he weren't black," and Oprah Winfrey has "a lot of money because she's black."

Black Church Site Is Vandalized

Here is the story.

Michael Steele's Gaffes

Republican Party chair Michael (What Up) Steele has said and done some interesting things. Some of his greatest hits are noted here.

The Oldest Living Pullman Porter

Lee Wesley Gibson, the oldest surviving Pullman porter, is 100 years old.

Dahlia Lithwick On The GOP And Thurgood Marshall

In this Slate posting Dahlia Lithwick discusses two tactical mistakes made by Senate Republicans who criticized Thurgood Marshall during the Kagan confirmation hearing.

Slideshow: Oscar Grant

Take a look at this.

Black Patriots Who Fought In The Revolutionary War

Read this.

Honoring Carl Brashear

Carl Brashear, the United States Navy's first master diver who happened to be black, was recently honored by American Legion Post 249 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Jack Johnson v. Jim Jeffries

July 4 marked the one hundredth anniversary of boxer Jack Johnson's victory over Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight championship bout in Reno, Nevada. Click here and here for stories on the fight.

"The Karate Kid"

While watching the movie "The Karate Kid" with her 8-year-old son, Lonnie O'Neal Parker saw "something new. Jaden Smith was playing a black boy in three domensions: vulnerable, contemplative and in possession of a wholly formed interior world."

The Fourth Of July

Frank Rich's recent NYT column, "Fourth of July 1776, 1964, 2010," should be read. A snippet: "But the story of America and race is hardly resolved, and progress is not inexorable."

On Frederick Douglass And Being Black In America Today

Jack White shares his views in The Root.

Marketing Suggestion

MSNBC should sell Morning Joe "coffee smugs."

Recommended

Jerry Kang & Kristin Lane, Seeing Through Colorblindness: Implicit Bias and the Law, forthcoming in the UCLA Law Review.

The Conservatism Of Thurgood Marshall?

In The Wall Street Journal Juan Williams asks, "Was Thurgood Marshall a conservative?"

He's Back

Mel Gibson has issues. Check out this Radaronline story about "one of the most explosive, racist and vile outbursts by a celebrity ever caught on tape."

Purple Drank

ESPN's Outside the Lines examines the use of "Purple Drank."

"I Have A Dream"

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous speech can be watched here.

Homey The Clown At Christmas

From In Living Color.

From "The Onion"

Story: "Speculation About Where LeBron Will Play Could End When He Signs Contract"

Glenn Beck And Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Watch this.

Acting White

John McWhorter addresses the "acting white" phenomenon in the context of public school desegregation.

From "The Root"

"The Down-Low Delusion": On "The View" television show, "comedians-turned-talking heads" D.L. Hughley and Sheri Shepherd made statements concerning "down low" African-American men and HIV infections among African-American women. Hughley: "They are getting it from men who are on the down low." Shepherd: "Thw down low is African-American men who have sex with men and then have sex with their girlfriends--or their wives. They're husbands, as well. It's very prevalent in the African-American community. Very." Kellee Terrell's Root article comments that "neither one of these comedians-turned-talking heads is an AIDS expert," and that "nowadays, having expertise (or an ounce of knowledge on a topic) is not mandatory for a media platform. Anyone with a camera aimed at them can spout off at the mouth, claiming that fiction is fact, and it goes completely unchallenged." While "closeted black men exist, . . . contrary to popular belief, the DL is not a major force in the rise of HIV infections among black women in this country."

"Trashing Thurgood Marshall": Sherrilyn Ifill writes that "Republican members of the [Senate Judiciary] committee used their opeing statements to unleash an orchestrated disparagement of the record and legacy of Supreme Court justice and civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall . . . The invocation of Marshall (35 times by Republicans) was a surprising new low, even for the shameless opportunism of modern confirmation hearings."

Dorf On "Race and Guns"

Consider Mike Dorf's take.

On Barak (Not Barack)

In a 2006 awards ceremony then-Harvard Law School dean and current Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan introduced Aharon Barak, retired president of the Supreme Court of Israel, as "my judicial hero" and as "the judge or justice in my lifetime whom, I think, best represents and has best advanced the value of democracy and human rights, of the rule of law and of justice." Senator Jeff Sessions, R.-Ala., has stated that Kagan's introduction of Barak is "very troubling" and "might provide real insight into her approach to the law." Interestingly, Judge Barak will be returning, as a visiting professor, to the University of Alabama School of Law this coming fall semester.

"Kermit's Song"

Please watch this.

Name Change?

From the Wall Street Journal: "The University of Texas is grappling with whether to change the name of a campus dormitory . . . that for 55 years has honored a late law professor and Ku Klux Klan leader."

What??

From the mouth of Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Paul Kanjorski as he discussed a Pennsylvania program providing assistance to low-income persons facing home foreclosures:

"Because of the longevity of the recession, these are people--and they are not minorities, and they're not defective, and they're not all the things you like to insinuate that these programs are about. These are average good American people. Most of them have been veterans who served, responsible, have worked all their lives, but they're not full of money. They live pay check to pay check and they always will because they are in the lower margins of our society."

Lou Barletta, Kanjorski's Republican opponent, has accused Kanjorski of saying that "minorities are not 'average, good American people.'" The congressman's office says that Kanjorski said nothing that requires an apology.

President Obama Is "A Boy"?

A.W.R. Hawkins thinks so.

President Obama And The "Angry Black Man" Stereotype

John Blake discusses the issue here and here.

Tupac Shakur And The Library Of Congress

Tupac Shakur's song "Dear Mama" is among the songs of cultural significance selected for preservation by the Library of Congress.

Should Angelina Jolie Play Cleopatra?

Some folks say no.

"Brown Bloggers" Invited To White House

Read this.

Dahlia Lithwick On The Kagan Nomination

Check out Lithwick's Slate article.

Food Deserts

This article in The Grio discusses food deserts, "communities where there is limited or no access to foods necessary to maintain a healthy diet. Food deserts occur mostly in low-income or rural areas where it's either cheaper or easier to purchase a burger and fries combo than fresh produce."

"How Should Barack Obama Confront Racial Injustice?"

Charles Ogletree addreses this question in an excerpt from his new book The Presumption of Guilt recently published on The Root. A snippet: "If America can elect an African-American president, the thinking goes, how can we be accused of having a racially discriminatory society? The mistaken assumption is that since we have achieved so much racial progress, we should discontinue all the efforts to address racial discrimination in the 21st century. Those who believe that we are in a post-racial environment are naive at best or racially insensitive at worst."

Strom Thurmond's Son Loses To Black Candidate

South Carolina state representative Tim Scott defeated Paul Thurmond, the son of Strom Thurmond, in last Tuesday's Republican primary to select that party's candidiate for an open U.S. House of Representatives seat in South Carolina. Scott won 69 percent of the vote. John Nichols writes that "[i]n the heart of Dixie, in the state that . . . spawned the States' Rights Party and then merged that party's politics into the GOP, it should mean something that Strom Thurmond's son just got beat in a Republican primary. And it should mean something more that the man who beat him was African-American."

Slow Jammin' the News

Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams slow jammed the news on last night's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon show. Watch it here. Cracks me up.

The Council Of Conservative Citizens On The World Cup

From the Council of Concerned Citizens website:

"Certain groups of sub-Saharan Africans have specific physiological traits that give them an edge in sports like basketball. Of course, we just saw the whitest team win the NCAA championship this year.
"However, soccer requires great endurance. It is the sports that require the most endurance that white people excel the most."

A colorblind world indeed.

Ban Blood Donations From Gay Men? From Black People?

Consider William Saletan's Slate piece.

The BART Shooting Case

Back in January 2009 I noted the death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, an unarmed young man who was shot to death (in the back) in Oakland, California by Bay Area Transit Authority police officer Johannes Mehserle, and linked to a video of the shooting.

Mehserle is now on trial for murder. The defense contends that the officer intended to shock Grant with a Taser and mistook his gun for a Taser. For a story on the trial, click here.

Looking Back At Ray Charles

Check out this Billboard look at the life and legacy of Ray Charles.

Rep. Steve King: Obama "Favors The Black Person"

From the can't-make-it-up file: Representative Steve King, R.-Iowa, has stated that President Obama "has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race--on the side that favors the black person."

The Oil Gusher In The Gulf And The Obama Administration

Check out this Rolling Stone story, "The Spill, The Scandal and the President." Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar takes some hits.

Black Children, Swimming, And Drowning

From ABC News: "Black children drown at a rate more than three times that of white children." According to an American Academy of Pediatrics study, 40 percent of white children have no or low swimming ability; the percentage for Black children is 70 percent, for Latino children 58 percent. "African-Americans say that a lack of access to pools, the expense of swimming lessons and the idea that recreational swimming is a culturally white activity are factors that inhibit them from learning how to swim . . ."

"What My Son Taught Me"

Peter Goodman discusses "[l]essons learned from being a white man raising a black child in a color-struck world."

Race, Genetics, And The Human Genome Project

Conside this article by Osagie K. Obasogie.

The Resegregation Of Public Schools

Patrick Jonsson and Stacy Khadaroo address the subject in the Christian Science Monitor.

Slim Thug: Black Women Should "Bow Down"

As stated by Rapper Slim Thug:

"Most single black women feel like they won't settle for less. Their standards are too high right now. They have to understand that successful black men are kind of extinct. . . . It's hard to find us, so black women have to bow down and let it be known that they gotta start working hard; they gotta start cooking and being down for their man more . . ."

There's more:

"White women treat they man like a king and black women feel like they ain't gotta do that s**t. Black women need to stand by their man more. Don't always put the pressure of 'if I'm f**king with you, you gotta buy me this and that.' Black men are the ones that [women] need [but] I think a lot of them need to step it up too . . ."

Bow down and stand by. Ignorance on display.

On America's Decades-Long Culture War

The views of Melissa Lacewell-Harris.

A 150-Year-Old Photograph Of Slave Children

Look at this.

Crack News

Sarah Palin: "No, I have not had implants."

Interesting Website

Free The Slaves.

Justice Thomas For President In 2012?

Here's the argument.

A "Whites Only" Real Estate Sign. In 2010

"A law firm recently put property on the market, stating that the land was for sale to 'whites only.'" For real. Seriously. Apologies followed.

Indictments In The Henry Glover Case

Five officers have been indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with the death of Henry Glover in the days following Hurricane Katrina. One officer allegedly shot Glover with an assault rifle; his body was found in a burned car parked on a levee near a police station.

Loving Day

June 12 marked the forty third anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Loving v. Virginia, wherein the Court struck down Virginia's antimiscegenation law proscribing the marriage of interracial couples. Christopher Shay discusses the case and the idea for Loving Day, a day for the celebtration of multiracial families. The Loving Day website can be viewed here.

Sarah Palin's Appeal To White Evangelical Women

Lisa Miller addresses this topic in a recent Newsweek article.

Found: A Thurgood Marshall Interview With Mike Wallace

Watch this.

Fireball Hits Jupiter

Check out this video.

Happy Juneteenth . . .

to one and all.

Crack News

It has been reported that Real Housewife of New Jersey Teresa Guidice and her husband owe about $11 million to various persons and entities, and that they "only make $79,000 a year" supplemented by "$129,000/year in 'assistance' from family members."

Oops

CNN recently aired a song containing the word "nigga". Apologies followed.

How Lack Of Sleep Harms Poor And Black Children

Click here.

"Art fuels racial slur in Arizona"

Watch this.

Racial Discrimination In Jury Selection

The Equal Justice Initiative has issued an important study of racial bias in jury selection.

Justice Souter On Judging

I am working on an article entitled "On Discretionary Originalism, Brown, and Loving," and noticed Justice David Souter's statement about originalism in his recent commencement address at Harvard: the theory "has only a tenuous connection to reality." Souter on Brown: "For those whose exclusive norm of constitutional judging is merely fair reading of language applied to facts objectively viewed, Brown must either be flat-out wrong or a very mystifying decision." On the difference between Brown and Plessy v. Ferguson: "Actually, the best clue to the difference between the cases is the dates they were decided, which I think lead to the explanation for their divergent results."

The Spelman College Robotics Team

Last year the robotics team from the historically black Spelman College tied for first place in the RoboCup World Championship competition. Spelman tied with Japan's Fukuoka Institute of Technology in the humanoid robot category.

22 Percent

That's the number of African-American men who married a woman who was not black in 2008. Another data point: "Among all married African-Americans in 2008, 13 percent of men and 6 percent of women had a nonblack spouse. This compares with nearly half of American-born Asians choosing non-Asian spouses."

For more on interracial or interethnic marriages in the United States, see this Pew Research Center study.

"Black Parents vs. the Teachers' Union"

A Nat Hentoff piece. "In Harlem--as elsewhere in this city, state, and nation--there is a sharply rising struggle between teachers' unions and black parents."

Artur Davis Loses In Alabama

Artur Davis, running to be Alabama's first African-American governor, was defeated in the Democratic primary, with his opponent, Ron Sparks, receiving 63 percent of the vote. Sparks, who happens to be white, beat Davis in several overwhelmingly African-American counties.

FiveThirtyEight's analysis of the Alabama election can be found here.

Buckwheat On Rand Paul

Here is Jack White's "conversation" with Buckwheat.

The Destruction Of Black Wealth And Income In Memphis

Read this important story. "The median income of black homeowners in Memphis rose steadily until five or six years ago. Now it has receded to a level below that of 1990--and roughly half that of white Memphis homeowners . . ."

Rand Paul, The Republican Party, And The Civil Rights Act Of 1964

Writing in The Root, Sherrilyn Ifill argues that "what has been most illuminating about the fallout from the [Rand] Paul controversy is the reluctance of some mainstream Republicans to forcefully and clearly support the Civil Rights Act." Her conclusion: "Some Republicans have made the political calculation that openly and heartily embracing the provisions of the Civil Rights Act will alienate key segments of their voting constituency."

Eugene Robinson On Rand Paul

Check out Robinson's Washington Post article.

At Least Spell The Racial Slur Correctly

Check out this little green footballs post: Dale Robertson, leader of TeaParty.org, [is] in trouble for appearing at the February 27, 2009 Houston Tea Party with a sign containing a racial slur. And it's a misspelled racist slur, just for that extra bit of tea bag goodness."

Mississippi's MLK And Robert E. Lee Day

The state of Mississippi designates the third Monday in January as a legal holiday and day for observing the birthdays of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert E. Lee. Interesting.

Leave Malia Obama Alone

Yesterday Glenn Beck mocked and questioned the intelligence of Malia Obama. Eleven-year-old Malia Obama. Disgusting. But he apologized, so it's all good, right?

Garrett Epps On Rand Paul

Garrett Epps comments on Rand Paul's argument that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is constitutionally suspect. From the piece: "Dr. Paul was channeling ancestral voices--in his case literally, because his father ('Big Paul'?) cast the lone House vote against a resolution saluting the fortieth anniversary of the Act."

Gary Coleman, Rest In Peace

Gary Coleman has died at the age of 42.

Trying Jon Burge

Jon Burge, a retired police commander in Chicago, is currently on trial for lying in a civil lawsuit about abusing and torturing dozens of suspects in the 1980s in order to obtain confessions.

Black Owned Or Not?

Check out this list.

Recommended

"A Place Out of Time-The Bordertown School" on PBS.

CNN's "Black Or White: Kids On Race"

Click here for CNN's special series on children's attitudes on race. The series is based on a version of the "doll test" developed decades ago by the late Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark. The CNN study tested white as well as black children. A 5-year-old Georgia girl, who happened to be white, viewed five cartoon pictures of girls ranging in color from light to dark. "When asked who the smart child is, she points to a light-skinned doll. When asked who the mean child is she points to a dark-skinned doll. She says a white child is good because 'I think she looks like me,' and says the black child is ugly because 'she's a lot darker.'" The mother of the child, watching these responses, cried.

Leonard Pitts' column on the CNN series is recommended. He writes: "Children are not idiots. They hear and see us. They watch television, they listen to radio, they read magazines, they live in our world. So very early on, they know what we think. And often enough, it becomes what they think, too."

"Angry White Man"

In January 2008 James Kirchick wrote this story on Ron Paul.

Sam Tanenhaus On Rand Paul

Check out this interesting discussion of Rand Paul,"a kind of libertarian originalist."

Black Women And Reality TV

From Kristan Brent Zook: "From 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta' to 'What Chilli Wants,' these days, reality TV is fixated on black women. But only when we act the fool."

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Dropped The N-Bomb

Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, "drunk and disorderly," reportedly used the N-word during a flight on United Airlines.

The Black-White Wealth Disparity

A study conducted by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University found that between 1984 and 2007 the disparity in wealth between black and white households more than quadrupled. A policy brief on the study can be found here; a story on the study can be found here.

Aiyana Jones, Rest In Peace

Aiyana Jones, a 7-year-old girl, died during a police raid in Detroit videotaped for the A&E show "The First 48." Aiyana was sleeping on a sofa under a window through which police threw a stun grenade and died when she was struck in the neck by a bullet.

Crack News

Rumor: Lebron James' mother had an affair with his teammate, Delonte West.

Fighting Racism In Cuba

From The Grio: "According to Afro-Cuban activists, racism against blacks in Cuba is systemic and institutional. They say, to this day, blacks are excluded from tourism related jobs, relegated to poor housing, have poor access to health care, are excluded from managerial positions and are more likely to be imprisoned."

"Should Hair Braiders Be Licensed?"

From M.F. White.

Acquitted

Story: "A jury . . . acquitted a white police officer accused of shooting a young black man in a case that attracted widespread attention in Texas because the victim's family accused the police of racial profiling."

43 Percent, 63 Percent

According to CBS News, forty three percent of African Americans who enter college graduate, compared to sixty three percent of whites.

Lena Horne, Rest In Peace

This Los Angeles Times obituary notes the passing of Ms. Horne.

John McWhorter On "Treme"

If you watch "Treme" on HBO and are interested in John McWhorter's take on authenticity and New Orleans, read this. A snippet: the show is "mesmerizing in its ways (I intend to keep watching) but leaves you beaten over the head every week about just how vibrantly real New Orleans is. Realer than where you live. Realer, really, than you."

Bob Herbert On Violence Against Children In Chicago

In a recent New York Times column Herbert notes that "[d]ozens of children school-aged and younger are murdered in Chicago every year. More than 150 have been shot (but not all of them killed) during the current school year. . . . That we tolerate this incredible carnage, that there is not even much of a national outcry against it, is a measure of how sick our society has become.""

"Malcolm X's Complex Legacy"

Check out Maya Francis' article in The Root.

Wes Moore

"One is a Johns Hopkins graduate and the other is serving life in prison. Both grew up in the same neighborhood and share the same name, Wes Moore. Russ Mitchell has the story of how their lives diverged so drastically."

"How to save America's black students"

Geoffrey Canada shares his views on this important subject here.

Racial Profiling In Arizona

The Los Angeles Times reports that "Latino activists and civil rights attorneys contend that profiling is already a reality in the Maricopa County, where two-thirds of the state's residents live."

The "Chitlin' Test"

Take the test, provided by The Root.

Senator Arlen Specter Woos Black Voters

Politico reports.

"How we became white people"

Christian Lander takes part in a CNN special series in which persons describe how they see their identity.

"The Washington Post Mistakes Barack Obama For Malcolm X"

This is the headline of the Huffington Post's posting on a Washington Post story on President Obama with a picture of Malcolm X and not the president. Come on.

From The Daily Show

"Republicans Want Michael Steele to Fail" and "Law & Border."

Black Women Are Increasingly Dying When Giving Birth

Essence magazine discusses the issue.

A Harvard 3L's E-Mail

An e-mail written by a third-year student at the Harvard Law School contained the following observation: "I absolutely do not rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent." The e-mail was forwarded to the Harvard Black Law Student Association list-serv with the writer's name and then went viral.

Mayor Ray Nagin's 23 Most Memorable Quotes

To hear the quotes, click here.

"14CV88"

14CV88 was the license plate number of a personalized plate issued in Virginia to the owner of a Ford truck. The coded message contained therein: "The number 88 stands for the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, doubled to signify 'Heil Hitler' . . . 'CV' stands for 'Confederate veteran' . . . And 14 is code for imprisoned white supremacist David Lane's 14-word motto: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.'" The Department of Motor Vehicles has canceled its approval of the plate number.

Discrimination At The Naples, Florida Ritz-Carlton?

From the Guardian: "A British family has been banned from staying at a chain of luxury hotels after allegedly requesting not to be served by 'people of colour' at a Florida resort."

Henry Louis Gates On President Obama And Reparations

In his recent New York Times op-ed Henry Louis Gates contends that "Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to reshape the debate over one of the most contentious issues of America's racial legacy: reparations, the idea that the descendants of American slaves should receive compensation for their ancestors' unpaid labor and bondage."

Stanley Crouch argues that Gates has struck a "blow to the 'victim's studies' hustle."

From The Colbert Report: The Word--No Problemo; Drive-Through Rapping

Watch this and this.

Patricia Williams' "Not-Black by Default"

Read her piece.

"Why Can't a Successful Black Woman Find a Man?"

Nightline asked the question; Melissa Harris-Lacewell shares her critique of the program.

Arizona

From the April 22 edition of the Christian Science Monitor: "In the past six days, the [Arizona] legislature has passed the nation's strictest anti-illegal immigration bill, a law permitting concealed weapons, and the House has approved a bill requiring a presidential candidate to show his or her birth certificate to appear on the state ballot."

Michael Steele On The GOP And Black Voters

Republican Party chair Michael Steele on why African Americans should vote Republican: "You really don't have a reason to, to be honest--we haven't done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True."

The Williams Syndrome Neurodevelopment Disorder

Check out this interesting story in nature.com: "Children with a neurodevelopment disorder called Willams Syndrome . . . do not develop negative attidues about other ethnic groups, even though they show patterns of gender stereotyping found in other children."

Racial Isolation In Mississippi Schools

Troubling developments in Mississippi public schools are noted in this Washington Post story.

Rest In Piece, Dorothy Height

Dorothy Height has died at the age of 98.

Send Obama Back To Kenya?

This from former Rep. Tom Tancredo about President Obama: "If his wife says Kenya is his homeland, why don't we just send him back?"

"The Women Of SNCC"

Check out Jack White's piece in The Root and his argument that "the civil rights movement could never have succeeded without the extraordinary creativity and courage of female organizers."

On The State Of The Black Church

Samuel Freedman discusses this topic here.

Racism In Online Video Games

This article discusses the ways in which players of the XBox Live version of Call of Duty "exchange hate speech over their headsets as they stalk each other across the virtual battlefields. Players trade racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic insults so frequently that game makers are taking steps to tone down the rhetoric."

The Obama Speech On Race

Always worth watching.

Killing For Rims

Read this Houston Chronicle story.

Joshua McMackie, Rest In Peace

Joshua McMackie, an 18-year-old student at Texas Southern University, was shot and killed at a street party early Saturday morning. Breaks my heart.

Frank Rich's "Welcome to Confederate History Month"

Definitely worth reading.

On Idris Elba

Nice story on actor Idris Elba, who played Stringer Bell on "The Wire," my favorite televisions series.

Police Shootings In New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has published a series of excellent stories on this subject.

Crack News: 50 Cent Is Removing His Tattoos

People magazine has the story.

Recipe: Add "Freshly Ground Black People"

An Australian cookbook, the Pasta Bible, had a recipe for spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto. The recipe should have called for adding "salt and freshly ground black pepper"; instead, it called for the addition of "freshly ground black people."

Oops. The cookbook has been pulped and reprinted by the publisher.

Prison Sentence For White Supremacist Who Plotted To Kill Obama And Others

Paul Schlesselman, a 19-year-old white supremacist, has been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to kill then-presidential candidate Barack Obama and 88 African Americans and the beheading of 14 black persons.

Why 88 and 14? According to the Urban Dictionary, 88 refers to H, the eighth letter of the alphabet, and represents "Heil Hitler," and 14 to the following words: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

"Black by Choice"

Melissa Harris-Lacewell's The Nation article discusses President Obama's choice to identify himself solely as black when he completed his United States Census form, a choice that "disappointed some who have fought to ensure that multiracial peopele have the right to indicate their complex racial heritage" and "confused some who were surprised by his choice not to officially recognize his white heritage."

"All blacks leave the store."

Remember the recent incident in which a 16-year-old boy in a Wal-Mart store in Turnersville, New Jersey told all blacks to leave the store? It happened again, this time in a Whole Foods store in Edgewater, New Jersey, when a 14-year-old girl grabbed a store microphone and said, "All blacks leave the store." She has been charged with bias intimidation and harassment.

Benjamin Hooks, Rest In Peace

Benjamin Hooks, leader of the NAACP from 1977 to 1992, has died.

Dear Governor: Could You Restore My Right To Vote?

An individual convicted of a non-violent crime who seeks the restoration of her voting rights in Virginia must submit a personal letter addressed to the governor explaining "the reasons why you believe the restoration of your civil rights is justified." Erika Wood's The Grio article argues that this requirement "introduces an entirely arbitrary and subjective standard that allows the most powerful elected official in the state to play fast and loose with one of America's most fundamental rights."

Photos Of Post-Earthquake Makeshift Homes In Haiti

Click here.

"In Living Color"

For some of the best moments from this television show, click here.

Belated Happy Jackie Robinson Day

On April 15, 1947 Jack Roosevelt Robinson became the first African-American player to play major league baseball in the 20th century.

It's 2010, Right?

From the Washington Post: "A federal judge Tuesday ordered a rural county in southwestern Mississippi to stop segregating its schools by grouping African American students into all-black classrooms and allowing white students to transfer to the county's only majority-white school, the U.S. Justice Department announced."

Is This Guy A Racist?

Watch this story on Carl Paladino, Tea Party candidate for the position of governor in New York. It has been reported that Paladino has forwarded racist and offensive e-mails to friends and coworkers.

Stanley Crouch On Michael Steele

Crouch comments on GOP chair Michael (What Up?) Steele's use of the civil rights credit card.

More From Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan (still an MSNBC commentator!) defends Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's declaration of Confederate History Month sans any mention of slavery. Buchanan argues that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. "Secession was--that and Lincoln's determination to drown the nation in blood if necessary to make the Union whole again."

Glad he cleared that up.

"Silence kills even the best in our city"

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Somebody knows who killed Percy Day and Tyrone Williams.

But nobody has tipped the police because too many people in Chicago confuse doing right with snitching.

And so the killer of two good young men walks our streets even now, free to kill again.

Notre Dame's First Black Valedictorian

Katie Washington, a biology major with a minor in Catholic social teaching, will be the first black valedictorian at the University of Notre Dame.

The World War II Internment Of Japanese-Americans At The Santa Anita Racing Park

Watch this interesting account from ESPN's Outside the Lines show.

"Southern Discomfort"

In his recent New York Times op-ed Jon Meacham comments that "it is revealing that Virginia's neo-Confederates are refighting the Civil War in 2010."

Racial Attitudes In The Tea Party Movement

This subject is examined in this University of Washington survey.

Recommended

David Remnick, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama (Knopf 2010).

"How the mass incarceration of black men hurts black women"

This Economist article addresses the negative impact of this nation's mass incarceration of black men on black women. From the article: "Between the ages of 20 and 29, one black man in nine is behind bars. For black women of the same age, the figure is about one in 150."

The Urban Prep Charter School

The graduation rate for African-American boys in Chicago is 40 percent. That city's Urban Prep charter school (previously noted in a March 20 posting) has announced that all 107 young black men in its first graduating class have been accepted by a four-year college.

From The Louisiana Gun

I don't know how to accurately describe this, so just click here and watch.

John Judis: Why Obama Isn't Black

In this New Republic article, Judis argues that President Obama "confirmed an enduring legacy of American racism" when he checked the "black, African American or Negro" box on the United States Census form.

Jack Balkin's Commemoration On Confederate History Month

This is definitely worth reading.

The Tiger Woods Ad

If you haven't seen it watch it here. After my first viewing the word "creepy" stuck with me for quite awhile.

Bullicide

On the rise of the bullying of young people and the disastrous consequences, check out this article.

Glenn Beck Compares Himself To Rosa Parks

For real. Seriously. This is not a joke.

35 Percent

That is the number of black males who enter college and graduate in six years (compared to 59 percent of white males, 46 percent of Latino men, and 45 percent of black females).

Happy Confederate History Month

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has issued a proclamation recognizing April 2010 as Confederate History Month. The proclamation does not use the word, and says nothing about, slavery as it declares that "this defining chapter in Virginia's history should not be forgotten, but instead should be studied, understood and remembered by all Virginians . . ."

McDonnell's action has been duly criticized as "bringing back ideas and symbols that many Americans--including many Southerners--find offensive and divisive. It could derail efforts to win favor among Democrats, not to mention Southern blacks, and it could drive a cultural wedge into the Republican Party as it looks for ways to win in November."

Update: Governor McDonnell has apologized for not mentioning slavery in the Confederate History Month proclamation. "The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has ben offended or disappointed."

Black Barbie $3; White Barbie $5.93

These pricing choices were made by a Louisiana Wal-Mart store.

Is White The New Black?

Kelefa Sanneh discusses this question.

The End Of Income-Based School Integration Policy In North Carolina

On March 23 the Wake County, North Carolina board of education decided, by a 5-4 vote, to end its program of assigning students to schools on the basis of family income. The Economist discusses this development.

More Michael Steele

This ABC News report states that Republican National Committee Chair Michael (What Up?) Steele played the race card when asked "if he has a slimmer margin of error because he is African American." Steele stated that he tends to "come at it a little bit stronger, a little bit more street-wise, if you will. That's rubbed some feathers the wrong way."

Divorce Court

A recent Nightline program looks at the syndicated television show Divorce Court and Judge Lynn Toler, my law school classmate and moot court partner.

"The invisible underclass"

Gene Washington's Washington Post column on a horrific event "in the poorest, blackest, most crime-ridden quadrant" of Washington, D.C.

The All-White Basketball League

Another The Daily Show segment, this one on a poor soul who wants an all-white basketball league. I previously posted about this in February.

Fear Of A Black C-SPAN

Check out Jon Stewart on a racist caller to a C-SPAN program.

Receiving A High School Diploma--60 Years Later

Eight persons have been given honorary high school diplomas from a DeKalb County, Georgia school system that did not give such diplomas to African Americans more than six decades ago.

April 4

The date of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

President Obama Checks "African-American" On The Census Questionnaire

As reported by the New York Times.

A Belated Recognition Of The Birthday Of Cesar Chavez

March 28.

President Obama And His Black Critics

For those who contend that President Obama should have an explicitly black agenda and that he has not done enough for black communities, Angela Glover Blackwell presents this rebuttal.

Slow Jamming The Health Care Bill

This from Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams.

"Why Are So Many Black Women In Poverty?"

Latoya Peterson takes up this question in her Salon article. From the first paragraph: "Black women have a median net worth of $5."

Did A Tea Partier Spit On A Black Congressman?

Some doubt that this actually happened. Here's a video--what do you think?

From Frank Rich

In his March 28, 2010 New York Times column Rich, discussing the anger over health care legislation, argued that the "conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House--topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman--would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play."

And in his most recent column Rich writes that one of his friends, "a prominent liberal Obama supporter," "wondered if white liberals who voted for Obama expected a 'sweeping Republicans-be-damned kind of agenda' in part--and he emphasized 'in part!'--because 'they expect a black guy to be intemperate, impetuous, impatient' rather than 'measured, deliberate, patient.'"

Trying To Resuscitate A Possum

Donald Wolfe was arrested by authorities in Pennsylvania after he tried to resuscitate a dead possum on a highway. Can't (wouldn't want to) make it up.

In April 2006 Mitt Romney Said . . .

This about an individual health care mandate (as E.J. Dionne reminds us):

"By law, emergency care cannot be withheld. Why pay for something you can get free? Of course, while it may be free for them, everyone else ends up paying the bill, either in higher insurance premiums or taxes."

"Some of my libertarian friends balk at what looks like an individual mandate. But remember, someone has to pay for the health care that must, by law, be provided: Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian."

Calling President Obama "Buckwheat"

That's what Corey Poitier, a candidate for Congress in Florida, said. Check out this story.

Harris-Lacewell On "A Right to Life for the Living"

Melissa Harris-Lacewell shares her views on Georgia Right to Life's posting of billboards and efforts to encourage black women not to exercise their legal right to an abortion. The author notes that this effort "taps into the troubling legacy of eugenics-inspired efforts to broaden birth control access and legalize abortion" and that "[f]amily planning pioneer Margaret Sanger was a eugenics proponent who sought to reduce birthrates among the poor, the disabled and racial and ethnic minorities." Harris-Lacewell proposes additional billboards: "Poverty Is Genocide." "Inadequate Education Is Genocide." "Racism Is Genocide."

Segregated Schools In New York City

Nat Hentoff discusses the racial segregation of public schools in New York under the Bloomberg administration.

Scary (But Not Surprising) Poll Numbers

In The Daily Beast John Avlon reports on the results of a new Harris poll:

--57% of Republicans believe that President Obama is a Muslim.

--45% of Republicans agree that the president "was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president."

--38% of Republicans said that the president is "doing many of the things that Hitler did."

--24% of Republicans stated that the president "may be the Antichrist."

The Cute Little Boy At The Health Care Bill Signing

The young black man standing near President Obama as he signed into law the health care bill is Marcelas Owens. At the bill signing the president stated: "I'm signing it for 11 year old Marcelas Owens who is also here. Marcelas lost his mom to an illness, and she didn't have insurance and couldn't afford the care that she needed. So in her memory he has told her story across America so that no other children will have to go through what his family has experienced."

Courtland Milloy On Apologists For Racists

Courtland Milloy, writing in the Washington Post on the "tea party" people and the racism on display in Washington, D.C. last weekend: "I am sick of these people--and those who make excuses for them and their victim-whiner mentality." He asks why those who don't like deficits and oppose what they view as the government's takeover of health care "didn't refer to white Democrats using racial epithets. No one yelled 'white trash' or 'redbeck cracker' at any one of those congressmen. And none of their own ever stands up and declares that such practices are morally wrong."

Recommended

"Life" on the Discovery Channel.

"Is this the Birth of a Nation?"

Melissa Harris-Lacewell argues in the above-referenced article that parallels drawn by Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow between the health care battle and the civil rights movement miss the mark:

"But there is a very important difference between Bloody Sunday of 1965 and Health Care Reform Sunday of 2010. In 1965 [Rep. John] Lewis was a disenfranchised protester fighting to be recognized as a full citizen. When he was beaten by the police, he was being attacked by the state. In 2010 Lewis is a long time, elected representative. When he is attacked by protesters, he is himself an agent of the state. This difference is critically important; not because it changes the fact that racism is present in both moments, but because it radically alters the way we should understand the meaning of power, protest and race." "When protesters spit on and scream at duly elected representatives of the United States government it is more than an act of racism. It is an act of sedition."

The relevant comparison and analogy is mid-19th century Reconstruction, Harris-Lacewell continues, when "in 1877 the federal government abdicated its responsibilities to new black citizens and withdrew from the South. When it did so it allowed local governments and racial terrorist organizations like the KKK to have the monopoly on violence, force and coercion inthe South for nearly 100 years."

Check out the entire article.

Racism And Social Networking

The Wall Street Journal reports on "the use of social-networking sites to spread racism."

Don't Like The Health Care Bill? Fire Some Epithets

Representative Andre Carson, D.-Ind., told a reporter some persons in a crowd at the Cannon Office Building chanted the n-word 15 times as Carson and Representative John Lewis (D.-Ga.)(both happen to be black) left the building this past Saturday. It was also reported that a protester spit on Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D.-Mo.), who also happens to be black, and that protesters yelled anti-gay slurs at Representative Barney Frank (D.-Mass), who happens to be gay.

Republican National Committee chairman Michael (What Up?) Steele and other Republicans condemned these incidents. (But check out the take by Representative David Nunes (R.-Ca.).) As Colbert King notes, Steele separated himself and the Republican Party from "idiots out there saying stupid things." King: "The people who shouted the slurs weren't 'idiots . . . saying stupid things.' They were racists and homophobic bigots uttering hateful and inflammatory language. They should have been called out as such."

Access To Water

From The Root: "Not All Americans Have Enough Access to Water."

Congratulations To Chicago's Urban Prep Charter Academy

The entire senior class of Chicago's Urban Prep Charter Academy has been admitted to a four-year college or university.

The Harlem Educational Activities Fund

Stanley Crouch writes that ninety nine percent of Harlem Educational Activities Fund students graduate from high school, with ninety eight percent enrolling in four-year colleges and eighty percent graduating in five years or less. "These are so-called minority students from low-income communities."

Jon Stewart's Glenn Beck Moment

Watch this parody.

Malcolm X's Killer Granted Parole

Thomas Hagan, convicted along with two other men of the 1965 murder of Malcolm X and sentenced to 20 years to life, has been granted parole.

Did Ex-Journey Singer Make A Racial Slur?

Comedian Sarah Silverman states in an interview that former Journey singer Steve Perry (who she did not identify by name) said to her, "You're my favorite comedian. You have the best nigger jokes." Perry denies that he ever sued the n-word in his conversation with Silverman.

Announcement:: "All Blacks Leave The Store"

That announcement was made over the public address system at the Turnersville, New Jersey Wal-Mart by an unidentified male.

UPDATE: A 16-year-old-boy has been arrested for making the "blacks leave the store" announcement and charged with harassment and bias intimidation.

David Simon's New Series

David Simon, the writer and producer of "The Wire" (my favorite television series), has a new HBO drama "Treme" which will debut on April 11. Wyatt Mason profiles Simon in this article.

Torii Hunter On "Imposter" Latino Baseball Players

Torii Hunter, center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, said this in discussing the number of African-American players in major league baseball: "People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they're African-American. They're not us. They're impostors. Even people I know come up and say: 'Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?' I say, 'Come on, he's Dominican. He's not black.'" Hunter later apologized for his "wrong word choice."

For a thoughtful and informative analysis of the issues raised by Hunter's statements, see Kevin Blackistone's "Hunter, Baseball Need History Lesson."

John McWhorter On People Black History Could Do Without

Check out McWhorter's top ten list of who should be erased from black history. The list includes Malcolm X and O.J. Simpson.

Sign At The Harlem Chuck E. Cheese

A recently installed sign at the Harlem Chuck E. Cheese: "No gang-style apparel, including but not limited to hats, shirts, buckles, bandanas, towels. . . . No gang-type conduct or behavior, including verbal slogans, greetings, hand signs or intimidation. No weapons [of] any sort whatsoever, including knives, chains, screwdrivers, glass cutters." Sad.

From Leonard Pitts

"The burden of being first."

Black Folks Need Less Sleep Than Other People

That's according to the National Sleep Foundation's "2010 Sleep and Ethnicity" study.

Michelle Alexander On "The New Jim Crow"

Refuting the notion that the election of President Obama signals a "triumph over race," Michelle Alexander argues that "[r]acial caste is alive and well in America." Note the facts set out in her article and in her book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," published by the New Press in January of this year.

Is "Precious" Bad For "Black Culture"?

Click here to watch one person's answer to that question.

A Black History Month Parade

Three elementary school teachers (teaching the first, second, and fourth grades) in Los Angeles were recently suspended for three days without pay for requiring their students to display pictures of O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman, and RuPaul in a Black History Month parade. The teachers will be reassigned to other schools.

A Racist Receipt

This story from my hometown, St. Louis: On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Karl Mayberry bought a pizza from Pizza Hut. He noticed that at the place on the receipt where he should have found his name, the receipt had two words--"big" and "black." Mayberry complained and Pizza Hut gave him two $50 gift cards and a letter of apology.

Howard Stern On Gabourey Sidibe

I'm late to this, but Howard Stern said this about Gabourey Sidibie, star of "Precious" and an Oscar best actress nominee: she's the "most enormous, fat black chick I've ever seen" who will not have a career. Sidibe has already been cast in an upcoming series and movie, nothwithstanding Stern's bigoted prognostication.

Want O.J. Simpson's Suit?

No, said the Smithsonian Institution.

The Declining Number Of Minority Attorneys At Large Law Firms

This story notes that, according to the American Lawyer's annual diversity scorecard, the percentage of minority attorneys at this nation's largest law firms dropped in 2009; that decline is the first in the ten years in which the survey has been conducted.

Is the Tea Party All About Race?

Bob Cesca answers that question in this Huffington Post piece, arguing that "when you strip away all of the rage, all of the nonsensical loud noises and all of the contradictions, all that's left is race. The tea party is almost entirely about race, and there's no comparative group on the left that's similarly motivated by bigotry, ignorance and racial hatred." According to Cesca, TeaParty.org founder Dale Robertson once "brandished a sign with the (misspelled) word 'niggar.'"

Graduation Rates And HBCUs

For historically black colleges and universities with high graduation rates, click here.

Three And Four Times More Likely

United States Department of Justice information shows that blacks and Latinos are three times more likely as whites to be searched by police. As for the use of force, blacks are four times more likely to be subjected to police force than are whites.

No Massa

To now retired Rep. Eric Massa: Please. No more interviews. Please.

When A White Sorority Wins A Step Off . . .

Zeta Tau Alphas from the University of Arkansas recently won a national step contest in Atlanta (watch their performance here).

A few days after that victory the sponsor of the contest, Coca-Cola, announced that a "scoring discrepancy" had been found and that the Alpha Kappa Alpha team (a black sorority) from Indiana University would also be awarded the prize of $100,000 in scholarships. The scoring discrepancy was not explained.

Recommended

My friend, colleague, and co-author Meredith Duncan's Houston Chronicle op-ed "Race still has a role to play in a post-racial America."

Floyd Mayweather And MLK And Malcolm X?

Boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. recently compared himself to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz). For real. Seriously.

John Freeman's Letter To Thomas Jefferson

An account of an 1804 letter written by John Freeman, a slave, to President Jefferson.

On The Relevance Of HBCUs

Consider this piece on historically black colleges and universities.

Who Has, And Who Does Not Have, Health Insurance

The Gallup Poll reports on the variability of health insurance coverage across population segments in the United States.

Renaming "Negrohead Mointain"

The mountain in California has been renamed Ballard Mountain after John Ballard, a former slave and blacksmith who purchased land on the mountain in 1880.

Sharpton vs. Smiley

Al Sharpton and Tavis Smiley recently had a fight over President Obama and the merits of the pursuit of a targeted agenda for and on behalf of persons who happen to be black. The audio can be heard here.

The "Compton Cookout"

The Koala, a student media organization at the University of California, San Diego, aired a TV episide making fun of reactions to a "Compton Cookout" fraternity party; parytgoers were asked to dress "ghetto" in commemoration of Black History Month.

Minorities In China

Check out this interesting story on the Dai people.

Mayor's Apology To Africville

The mayor of Halifax, Canada has apologized for the razing of Africville, a black community established by slaves fleeing the United States in the early 1800s. The community was destroyed in the 1960s to make way for a bridge.

This Is Definitely Not "Bipartisan"

Check out Rep. Anthony Weiner (D.-N.Y.) speaking on the floor of the House of Reepresentatives.

From "The Root"

"Black Folks We'd Like To Remove From Black History."

"The Blackest White Folks We Know."

4

The number of years that have passed since Justice Clarence Thomas last asked a question during an oral argument before the Supreme Court.

Question

Why are some self-anointed, self-appointed negrophiles also negrophobes?

Marlon Greene, Continental Airlines' Pilot

Continental Airlines has introduced a new Boeing 737 bearing the name of Marlon Greene, an experienced African-American pilot who Continental refused to hire many years ago because of his race. Green fought and ultimately beat Continental in court. Unfortunately, Green did not see the naming of the plane--he died last July at the age of 80.

(If you read the linked story, take a look at some of the comments.)

The British National Party: Blacks And Asians Can Now Join

The constitution of the British National Party has been changed. No more whites-only policy. Now persons who happen to be black and Asian can join. If they want to.

John Mayer Uses The N-Word

In a Playboy interview musician John Mayer used the n-word (comparing a "hood pass" and a "Nigger pass") and explained his "white supremacist" (his words, not mine) penis. An apology followed.

"My Race-Based Valentine"

Time magazine looks at race and those looking for love online.

Butchering "Lift Every Voice And Sing"

At the end of the White House Civil Rights Concert the black national anthem, James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing," was butchered by attendees who did not know the words of the song. What happened, and the lyrics of the song, can be read here.

The Congressional Black Caucus: Show Me The Money

This report examines the fundraising prowess of the CBC and monies received from major corporations.

Nelson Mandela

The life and career of Mandela are examined here.

Who Killed Apartheid In South Africa?

Check out this interview with Howard Barrell.

Michael Steele And The Race Card?

Republican National Committe chairman Michael "What Up?" Steele recently complained: "I don't see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation. Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?" (Love it when people go third person.)

Rush Limbaugh On The "Uppity" Obama (But Not Because He's Black)

Watch this.

The Eddie G. Robinson Museum

This museum honoring the renowned coach of the Grambling State University football team has opened.

Slideshow

On the unsung heroes of black history.

The 1955 Killing Of John Earl Reese

The FBI is investigating the 1955 murder of John Earl Reese, a black teenager, as part of its cold case initiative. Reese's death is one of 108 unsolved racially motivated homicides from the civil rights era.

Transracial Adoptions

Angie Chung discusses this subject in The Root.

Will White People Work In Factories?

Check out this answer from Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami: "You don't find white people who are willing to work in factories. And our history proves, you know, lots of itme when they, you know, the white people come to work in a factory they either want to be supervisors or they want to be, you know, paid more than the average person."

The New Yorker's Interactive Portfolio On The Civil Rights Era

This is definitely worth viewing and saving.

Obama Administration Proposes Increased Funding For HBCUs

The Obama administration's budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning October 1 proposes $279.9 million for historically black colleges and universities, an increase of $30 million over the fiscal 2010 proposal and $13 million more than what Congress appropriated last year.

Stanley Crouch Is A "Negro"

He explains why here.

"The Invisibility Of Whiteness"

Consider Brian Tamanaha's discussion of discrimination against Asian-Americans applying for admission to the nation's universities and colleges. "The only justification I can think of is this (put bluntly): America is a white society, so universities--the training ground for our next generation--must maintain a substantial white majority of students to properly acculturate our youth. If that's the explanation, universities should have the courage to state and defend it on these terms (which won't be easy)."

President Obama's "Balancing Act" On Race

Sheryl Gay Stolberg discusses what she describes as a "balancing act that has frustrated some black leaders and scholars, who are starting to challenge Mr. Obama's language and policies." She also notes that on Martin Luther King's birthday the President installed a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in the Oval Office.

Pitts On The Paradox Of Black Sacrifice

Leonard Pitts writes:

"It is the enduring paradox of our centuries here.

"It is the paradox that stood its ground at Bunker Hill, paradox that made a doomed charge on Fort Wagner, paradox that stormed San Juan Hill, advanced through the Meuse-Argonne, landed on Iwo Jima, liberated Seoul, and was taken prisoner in Hanoi.

"It is the paradox: black men, will you defend America? Leave skin and blood in foreign lands fighting for ideals that do not include you?"

"Why Black Men Silently Suffer"

Watch this.

Recommended

Lawrence Lessig's Nation article "How to Get Our Democracy Back." From the article: Yet a year into the presidency of Barack Obama, it is already clear that this administration is an opportunity missed. Not because it is too conservative. Not because it is too liberal. But because it is too conventional. Obama has given up the rhetoric of his early campaign--a campaign that promised to 'challenge the broken system in Washington' and to 'fundamentally change the way Eashington works.' Indeed, 'fundamental change' is no longer even a hint."

On The Term "Negro"

Read Erin Kaplan's L.A. Times column.

SCOTUSblog's Black History Month Series

Sherrilyn Ifill's The Root column notes her surprise at the lack of diversity in SCOTUSblog's "Race and the Supreme Court" series. Of sixteen scheduled commentators, three are black men, none are Latino or Asian-American, and none are women of color. Arguing that "the decision to publish a nearly all-white lineup of scholars for its Black History Month program seems careless--or arrogant," Ifill lists by name scholars and litigators of color "who have important and compelling points to make about the role of the Supreme Court on race issues."