Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Black Women Are Less Attractive Than Other Women?
In a Psychology Today article Satoshi Kanazawa wrote that black women are "far less attractive than white, Asian, and Native American women." While the article has been removed from that site, you can check it out here. Can't make it up.
The "Huxtable Effect"?
Did "The Cosby Show" transform racial attitudes? That question is addressed here.
Ron Paul And The 1964 Civil Rights Act
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has made clear that he would not have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. For more on Paul, check out this May 2010 posting.
Fifty Three
According to the Pew Research Center, that's the percentage of Americans who say that the Civil War continues to be relevant today.
Driving While Black In Houston
According to the Houston Chronicle, a Houston Police Department study reports that in 2010 African Americans (23% of Houston's population) represented 33% of drivers stopped by the HPD.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
On Soul Patrols
First boxer Bernard Hopkins claimed that Washington Redskins (Redskins--that's a whole 'nother story) quarterback Donovan McNabb is not black enough. Now Professor Cornel West opines that "I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men." "All he has known culturally is white." "When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening." Disappointing.
Check out Professor Melissa Harris-Perry's reaction to West's comments here. A few snippets: Regarding West's "fear of free black men" and culturally white statements, Harris-Perry writes that West "has spent the bulk of his adulthood living in those deeply rooted, culturally rich, historically important black communities of Cambridge, MA and Princeton, NJ." Noting West's critique of President Obama's economic policies, she writes that West "remains silent on his friend Tavis Smiley's relationship with Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, and McDonald's--all corporations whose invasive and predatory actions in poor and black communities have been the target of progresive organizing for decades."
Who's "black enough" is such a tired question and weapon of mass distraction. But check out all of the linked materials.
UPDATE: Check out Paul Devlin's "The Professor and the Bellhop."
Check out Professor Melissa Harris-Perry's reaction to West's comments here. A few snippets: Regarding West's "fear of free black men" and culturally white statements, Harris-Perry writes that West "has spent the bulk of his adulthood living in those deeply rooted, culturally rich, historically important black communities of Cambridge, MA and Princeton, NJ." Noting West's critique of President Obama's economic policies, she writes that West "remains silent on his friend Tavis Smiley's relationship with Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, and McDonald's--all corporations whose invasive and predatory actions in poor and black communities have been the target of progresive organizing for decades."
Who's "black enough" is such a tired question and weapon of mass distraction. But check out all of the linked materials.
UPDATE: Check out Paul Devlin's "The Professor and the Bellhop."
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
President Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate
If you want or have a need to see President Obama's Certificate of Live Birth (what a world we live in), go to this White House blog posting and click on the link provided therein.
Why does Donald Trump's fantasy and other conspiracy theories about the President (he did not write his books, his real father was not Barack Obama, Sr., etc.) continue to persist? Consider this from David Remnick: "Let's say what is plainly true (and what the President himself is reluctant to say): these rumors, this industry of fantasy, are designed to arouse a fear of the Other, of an African-American man with a white American mother and a black Kenyan father. . . . Let's be even plainer: to do what Trump has done . . . is a conscious form of race-baiting, of fear-mongering. And if that makes Donald Trump proud, then what does that say of him?"
Trump a race-baiter? I'm sure The Donald would disagree with that view. After all, he's told us this: "I have a great relationship with the blacks. I've always had a great relationship with the blacks." Oh.
Why does Donald Trump's fantasy and other conspiracy theories about the President (he did not write his books, his real father was not Barack Obama, Sr., etc.) continue to persist? Consider this from David Remnick: "Let's say what is plainly true (and what the President himself is reluctant to say): these rumors, this industry of fantasy, are designed to arouse a fear of the Other, of an African-American man with a white American mother and a black Kenyan father. . . . Let's be even plainer: to do what Trump has done . . . is a conscious form of race-baiting, of fear-mongering. And if that makes Donald Trump proud, then what does that say of him?"
Trump a race-baiter? I'm sure The Donald would disagree with that view. After all, he's told us this: "I have a great relationship with the blacks. I've always had a great relationship with the blacks." Oh.
Russ Douthat's Thinking About Black And Brown Folks
In his April 17, 2011 "The Middle-Class Tax Trap" op-ed in the New York Times, columnist Russ Douthat drops this gem:
"[T]he working-age America of the future will be far more diverse than the retired cohort it's laboring to support. Asking a population that's increasingly brown and beige to accept punishing tax rates while seniors receive roughly $3 in Medicare benefits for every dollar they paid . . . promises to polarize the country along racial as well as generational lines."
Commenting on Routhat's piece, Hendrik Hertzberg writes that Routhat thinks that "taxophobic people of color will take out their Ayn Randian anger on the old, sick, and the white. (Never mind that brown and beige seniors will be just as 'entitled' as white ones to a ride on that three-bucks-for-a-dollar Medicare gravy train.)"
Colorblind my . . . well, you know the rest.
"[T]he working-age America of the future will be far more diverse than the retired cohort it's laboring to support. Asking a population that's increasingly brown and beige to accept punishing tax rates while seniors receive roughly $3 in Medicare benefits for every dollar they paid . . . promises to polarize the country along racial as well as generational lines."
Commenting on Routhat's piece, Hendrik Hertzberg writes that Routhat thinks that "taxophobic people of color will take out their Ayn Randian anger on the old, sick, and the white. (Never mind that brown and beige seniors will be just as 'entitled' as white ones to a ride on that three-bucks-for-a-dollar Medicare gravy train.)"
Colorblind my . . . well, you know the rest.
On Red Lobster And Black Diners
Steven Barboza asks, "Why is Red Lobster so popular, particularly among African Americans?"
46 Percent
That's the number reported in a poll of Mississippi Republicans who were asked about their views on interracial marriage and answered that such marriages should be illegal.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
A Racist Image Of The President
Check out this story and the racist image of President Obama. No worries, though, the person who sent it out apologized.
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