Monday, July 26, 2010
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."
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."
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?"
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."
"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."
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."
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
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."
"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.
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."
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