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."