Glenn Beck: Health Care Reform Is Really Reparations

Enjoy.

When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong

Discussions about and debates over Henry Louis Gates' alleged behavior and actual arrest reminded me of this Dave Chappelle take on when keeping it real can go wrong.

Malcolm Gladwell On Atticus Finch

Writing in the New Yorker, Gladwell argues that Atticus Finch, the fictional lawyer in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, was "a good Jim Crow liberal" who "dare[d] not challenge the foundations" of the white male jurors sitting in jugdment of his client, Tom Robinson. An interesting passage in Gladwell's piece: "But in cases where the status quo involves systemc injustice this [efforts at changing hearts] is no more than a temporary strategy. Eventually, such injustice requires more than a change of heart."

The Census And Counting Prisoners

A recent op-ed by Anthony Thompson, a law professor at NYU, notes that state prison inmates, who are disproportionately from urban areas, are counted as "residents" in the rural area state prisons in which they are incarcerated. "As a result, resources and electoral authority are transferred from inner cities to rural jurisdictions."

Dear Birthers

OK, let's try this again. Here is an actual picture of PRESIDENT OBAMA'S birth certificate. And here is a picture of the stamp and seal on PRESIDENT OBAMA'S birth certificate.

"Kill Me A Cop"

Twenty year old Antavio Johnson wrote a rap song entitled "Kill Me A Cop." He has been convicted under Florida law of the crime of "corruption by threat of public servant." Anita Allen comments on the "outrageous" conviction and sentence.

The 1999 Jewish Community Center Shootings

A short note on white supremacists' attack on the Jewish Center in Los Angeles as well as photos can be found here.

"A Summer of Race Talk Gone Bad"

Sherrilyn Ifill's The Root column argues, among other things, that structural racism "should be the focus of our 21-st century race talk," and that a "conversation about structural racism would invite us to examine how notions about race are deeply embedded in our legislative policies, our policing practices and our legal decison making. Yet we never got to this."

Huh?

Russell, on tonight's Big Brother After Dark, referred to Jeff's "self-defecating humor."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

A historic moment today as the Senate confirmed her nomination.

Crack News

Splitsville: Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian.

"Presumed Guilty"

While reading Bob Herbert's op-ed on the arrest of Prof. Gates (see the preceding post) I remembered his December 2006 piece entitled "Presumed Guilty." There Herbert wrote that the "death of Sean Bell at the hands of undercover police officers, who also wounded his two companions in their 50-shot barrage in Queens nine days ago, brought to mind a case from a few years back in which undercover cops, acting on bogus information, attacked an innocent group of young people in a car in Manhattan. . . . The cops . . . assumed that the people in the car were lowlifes. They were all Ivy League graduates, and one is currently clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens." Read Herbert's account of how the occupants of the car (two who happened to be black, one of "mixed parentage," and one from the Philippines) were treated and arrested after the police acted on a mistaken computer report that the car was stolen. The driver of the car, then-25 year old Jason Rowley (who happens to be black), stated that "a lot of the officers told me that if this had been elsewhere--for example, if this had been in the Bronx or Harlem--I'd have been dead."

"Anger Has Its Place"

This is the title of Bob Herbert's op-ed on the Gates arrest and President Obama's suggestion that the incident be viewed as presenting a "teachable moment." Herbert: "[S]o far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it--especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill. . . . I have nothing but contempt for that message."

And: "Most whites do not want to hear about racial problems, and President Obama would rather walk through fire than spend his time dealing with them. We're never going to have a serious national conversation about race. So that leaves it up to ordinary black Americans to rant and to rave, to demonstrate and to lobby, to march and confront and to sue and generally do whatever is necessary to stop a continuing and deeply racist criminal justice outrage."

Boston Cop Likens Prof. Gates To A "Banana-Eating Jungle Monkey"

Boston police officer Justin Barrett was suspended after he sent out a mass e-mail stating that Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was a "banana-eating jungle monkey." Barrett's attorney "explained" to CNN that his client "did not call professor Gates a jungle monkey or malign him racially. He said his behavior was like that of one. It was a characterization of the actions of that man."

Can't make this stuff up.

Stanley Crouch On The Obama-Gates-Crowley Beer Summit

Check out Crouch's Daily Beast entry.

Shem Walker

From The Root, a story entitled "What About Shem?" According to the story, Shem Walker was recently killed by an undercover police officer. Please read this.

The 911 Call And The Gates Arrest

To hear the call, click here.

From the Associated Press: "The 911 caller who reported two men possibly breaking into the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not describe their race, acknowledged they might just be having a hard time with the door and said she saw two suitcases on the porch." Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested Gates on a later dismissed charge of disorderly conduct, spoke with the caller, Lucia Whalen, after he arrived at Gates' home and wrote in his report that Whalen told him "that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch." Whalen's attorney says that Whalen never mentioned the mens' race to Crowley. The New York Times reports that Crowley's attorney, Wendy Murphy, said that Whalen "never used the word black and never said the word backpacks to anyone."

Recommended

"Prom Night in Mississippi," a documentary airing on HBO about the first ever racially integrated prom ever held at Charleston High School.

Leonard Pitts On The Gates Arrest

The columnist writes that Professor Henry Louis Gates "is a man who did the things African Americans are always advised to do--work hard, get a good education, better yourself, only to discover that in the end, none of it saved him. In the end, he still winds up standing on his front porch with his wrists shackled, just like any drug dealer or carjacker anywhere."

"Because sometimes, they just don't see you. It's one of the most frustrating verities of African-American life. Sometimes you simply know: they are looking your way but seeing their fears, their preconceptions, their stereotypes, that other black guy who did them wrong--everything except the one and only you."

Harold Hill (Glenn Beck): President Obama Is A Racist

According to Hill . . . uh, Beck, President Obama has a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture." And, "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. . . . This guy is, I believe, a racist."