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.