Oh the things, I haven't forgotten at all...

For starters, I do remember the days when I was younger and saw acceptance from others due to my earlier struggles with my weight.  However, when one comes to terms to understand yourself from your race (and for some their ethnicity), it gets even more complicated when you add sexuality to the mix.  My sexuality has been more of non-factor for me because I have never really allowed it to be placed at the forefront of my personal identity.  On the other hand, when one does began to interact with their peers and form relationships, it does become a kind come into play along with the other aforementioned characteristics such as race, ethnicity, height, and body type (weight).

Anyways, to get to the point.  I came across this article from GMFA, a UK-based organization that promotes positive and good health practices for gay, bisexual, and queer males.  The article is very true and quite on point of some of the things many non-white but particularly black gay and bisexual males have to deal with when they are on their journal of self acceptance and confidence.  This interesting segment of the article stuck out to me:

As a 17-year-old, seeing the “no Blacks, no Asians” statement displayed on a profile would sadden me, but that was nothing compared with getting those remarks back as a response after I had broken the ice in a direct message. Rejection is always worse when you are not expecting it, and people can react to sexual racism in various different ways. Ten years ago it would have made me angry and I would have instantly questioned how the rest of the world was viewing me, but these days, I really don’t give a damn about the thoughts of people who are clearly incapable of at displaying common decency. My school days, when I would attempt to ‘fit in’ with the majority, are long gone, and I am not going to spend my time worrying about the sexual preferences of a bunch of morons! 

Honestly, that is my journey to now went except I was 19 versus 17.  At the point and time now, I am confident in myself and don't care for anyone regardless of race if they aren't attracted to me.   However, I do still sigh for many SGL of color that seek companionship with those that maybe white face rejection for their race.  I have said time and time again, that exclusively seeking any group is going to be recipe for constant rejection, but with time I have found myself desiring a long term relationship and companionship with another black male.  It's not to say I cannot be with somebody that isn't a non-black male, but the truth is the likelihood is very high considering how so often sexual racism and fetishization plays a heavy role in interracial interactions still on a same-gender loving (SGL) relationships.

At the moment, I have been happily dating someone new for 6+ months and yeah it is a black guy, but I still to remember those days of the past when this was one of my challenges of personal growth.

LOL

Paint me as unimpressed with the typical reaction of aversive biased white Alabamians reacting to Alabama House Representative Joe Mitchell's comments to the northern Jefferson County resident, Eddie Maxwell when he wrote his letter to state house representatives warning them to not to even attempt to draft a gun control bill in the Alabama legislature.  *The audacity and arrogance of this man alone deserves reprisal*

From: Eddie Maxwell

Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 10:54 PM

To: (all members of state legislature)

Subject: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Can the officers of our state government change our constitution when the change is forbidden by the people? The Supreme Court of Alabama has ruled that it cannot in an opinion dealing with another matter where change is forbidden. You have sworn to support our constitution. You have defined a violation of an oath in an official proceeding as a class C felony (C.O.A. Section 13A-10-101 Perjury in the first degree).

Do not violate your oath of office by introducing additional gun control bills or by allowing those already enacted to remain in the body of our laws.

Mitchell responded at first with response of the nature of why are you worried about this when shit has gotten real for years for black Alabamians...

From: Representative Joseph Mitchell

Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 11:59 PM

To: Eddie Maxwell

cc: (all members)

Subject: Re: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Hey man. You have used the word ‘except’ when I think you mean somethin’ else.

Hey man. Your folk never used all this sheit to protect my folk from your slave-holding, murdering, adulterous, baby-raping, incestuous, snaggle-toothed, backward-a**ed, inbreed, imported criminal-minded kin folk. You can keep sending me stuff like you have however because it helps me explain to my constituents why they should protect that 2nd amendment thing AFTER we finish stocking up on spare parts, munitions and the like.

Bring it. As one of my friends in the Alabama Senate suggested – “BRING IT!!!!”

JOSEPHm, a prepper (’70-’13)

Mobile County

Maxwell then responded with a "how dare you...because I have a black friend and my daddy helped blacks...."

From: Eddie Maxwell

Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 2:23 PM

To: Representative Joseph Mitchell

cc: (all members)

Subject: Re: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Rep. Mitchell and other members of the Legislature of Alabama,

That’s not the type of reply I expect to receive from a state legislator. The lack of response to your racist comments from your fellow members speaks volumes about the state of our legislature as a whole.

I’m not a racist and I find your reply to be especially offensive considering the position you hold.

My parents and grandparents taught me to love God and my fellow man as myself. My father was threatened by members of his church back in 1954 for inviting a black family to attend the church he pastored.

My father-in-law was threatened when he hired a young negro man to work in his shop back in 1968 in a community where several neighbors were members of the Ku Klux Klan. He didn’t allow those threats to keep him from treating people of all races equally.

In 1969, I was a draftee in the US Army and bunked with a young negro man named Earl Shinholster at Fort Benning. Earl later became a prominent leader of the NAACP back home in Georgia after serving with me in the Army. When I received numerous racist threats from negroes who knew I lived near Birmingham, Earl warned me of the knives they carried and cautioned me to be more careful around them. Earl had been watching me and he had come to know and respect me for my Christian values. Earl and I became friends and he helped me get through some tough times there.

Racism is not exclusive to my own people. I learned that before 1955. It is just as ugly now as it was then, regardless of the race of the person who is consumed by it.

I love my country and my state, and I vowed to support and defend our constitutions. I expect you and all of our representative to do the same.

Sincerely,

Eddie Maxwell

Anyways, Mitchell responded in due regard by reading that motherfucker for the filth and then some.  I mean he read his ass...

From: Representative Joseph Mitchell

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 5:09 PM

To: Eddie Maxwell

cc: (all members)

Subject: Re: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Eddie. I grew up in Albany Ga. I was a military brat for most of my youth. Air Jump Master and DI USMC. Because I preference my issues with the values that I learned in ‘the heat of battle’ during the mid-fifties through the ‘70’s and into today might tell you what and who I am. I find no need to define it or explain it to you because you can identify with the threats of reprisals against your folk for helping somebody of African Descent. I know ol’ Ft. Benning and Columbus like the palm of my hand.

Where were you during the Albany Movement? Oh…. You shoulda been there. I am certain that your experiences through how your kin folk ‘helped’ colored folk would have helped us a lot when we were bombed in Albany, Leesburg, Newton and Sylvester.

I apologize for the restless nights your folk endured out of fear of the Klan. At least as they stood on the sidewalk watching my cousins and me get beat up by some of your neighbors they were able to push you out into the street to physically intervene. They did do that didn’t they? Oh …. Well, I rear where you were one of the first to integrate the all-colored school to prove your parents point.

Do you that your fathers ‘black’ friend was unable to get FHA benefits? Knowing about those knives and stuff were of benefit but did you know that colored military typically carried knives to protect themselves from folk who looked like your father? Historically, violence on Black folk was committed by White folk. It’s a fact but is it ‘racist?’ It is ‘racial.’ I had seven uncles and three aunts who served in three different ‘encounters. My father was Regular Army.

Eddie, a person without the power to exercise a threat cannot be a racist because he or she will be eliminated. A person who can, by merely stepping back on the sidewalk’ ore being quiet can support racism and benefit from the ‘first hired,’ affirmative action, preferential treatment fostered by systemic racism and bigotry.

It is unlikely that I, through sharing my many experiences on the receiving end, will convince you of your errors. For that matter, you will never convince me that our discomforts were comparable. Let the next generations resolve this continuing story.

Lock and load.

jmitchell

Meanwhile, House Representative Patricia Todd of Birmingham, also the only openly gay member of the Alabama Legislature responded with this:

From: Patricia Todd

Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 4:41 PM

To: Eddie Maxwell

Cc: (all members)

Subject: Re: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Mr. Maxwell:

I am Patricia Todd, a member of the house. I just received this chain of emails and wanted to let you know that I am with you on the gun issue and am saddened by the tone of my colleagues email. All of us have suffered from the racism of the past and I thank you for your civic and thoughtful response.

We all have different life experience that shapes our values. I pray that we can all respect, and, celebrate, our differences. That is what make America the greatest country on earth, scars and all.

This member hears you loud and clear. 

Now Todd could have kept that $5.02 to herself.  Although she has been a victim to the idiocy of the Alabama Democratic Caucus's and Joe "the Jackass" Reed's Alabama Democratic Coalition's homophobia and racial prejudice because they don't want an openly gay, white woman as the representative for the heavily black 54th house district of Alabama, but still...  I am not here for Todd's "oh but I understand...blah, blah, blah..." to that assclown Maxwell from northern Jefferson County.   Maxwell's ass feels entitled due to his white privilege, Southern upbringing, and being a male, whom clings to his gun because his inferiority complex to make up for his likely "fear of the others taking over this nation".

Also the Birmingham News' website and its comment section is perpetrating allowing individuals that share this entitled and myopic philosophy a way to pretend to be faux victims via this incident.  This is why Alabama is held back because so many white Alabamians whine and dramatize things that almost never happen like this but ignores the true inequities like how majority black school districts are underfunded by the archaic Alabama Constitution along with other institutionalized measures. So pathetic.

Things I don't miss about the Chattahoochee Valley...this incident reminds me why

Things like this idiotic child.

He is obviously a product of this environment.  Where blacks and whites intergrating into a social setting is this particular area is damn near impossible.

Anyways, 17-year-old Derek Shrout wrote in a journal that he left at school wanted to commit a violent act against a number of students that attended Russell County High School in Seale, Alabama.  Shrout also proclaimed himself a "white supremacist" wanted to kill numerous black students and 1 assumed gay student.  He plead not guilty at his pending charges.  His parents bonded him out at $75,000 soon as his court arraignment was over.  (Probably for his safety known this locale is in the middle of the Black Belt, and loaded with more blacks behind bars than whites whom have nothing else left to lose knowing this about that idiot...) 

The killing thing is that some of his classmates noticed a change in his behavior in the past few months.  Shorout went from a being a teen dedicated to the JROTC to a one that congregated and focused around others with white power oriented activities even doing the Nazi salute and chant.  He apparently is a military brat and relocated with his family from Kansas to Alabama in the past year.

I'm not surprsed at his fellow (white) classmates being so non-chalant about his views on non-whites and other societal minorities.  However, what is more embarrassing is the black male student in 1st link being dumbfounded at this possibly happening at Russell County High School.  I wasn't that naive in at that age...SMH

Oh course, the media (WTVM/Columbus) doing their job of speaking to familiars to this loon.  His mother was saying "he is a good boy" (cue eye roll).  However, I thank Gawker for this article because it spells it out in long form why the US media does such dubious things for only white males when everybody else is assumed to be guilty-as-charged.

Yeah, another one of these situations...

When will the deranged and white males stop gunning down black male youths because they think they are a threat?  I honestly don't know but this incident in suburban Jacksonville will go down as another one of those situations.

Jordan Davis was gunned down last Friday (November 23rd) at a  gas station on Jacksonville's Southside while in a car with friends.  Apparently, the music in the vehicle was "too loud" for Michael Dunn's tastes.  In return, Dunn confronted the teens in the vehicle over the music which led to Dunn getting his gun and shooting into the vehicle hitting Davis.  Davis suffered multiple wounds from the gunfire and was pronounced dead on arrival to the Shands Hospital on Jacksonville's Southside.  *SIGH*

Dunn was arrested in Brevard County at his condominium and charged the following day.  While arraigned before a Brevard County justice as his reason for shooting up the vehicle was him feeling threatened by the black teens. (WTF?)  Dunn was extradiated back to Duval County (which is the City of Jacksonville) and had the audacity to say "the teens had a shotgun in their vehicle".  (WTF?) 

Jordan Davis will be buried in Marietta, Georgia in the Metro Atlanta area.

I knew something was up when actual study showed that anti-black animus was up.  This is just more prove that some white Americans have to slow their groove on anti-black & brown racial animus because this nation is becoming more and more racially diverse with time...

Links and photos courtesy of WJXX/WTLV.

So amount of Americans possessing anti-black hate is up, so...

Guess what the US, you have more anti-black people now than you did 4 years ago!  Not really I'm not lying.

It's not really a surprise because there are some many people that hate on President Obama, the sitting president, like they hate on somebody whom is doing something with their lives.  Black people beware, we are all in for something fare against more anti-black malice...

I'm going to dedicate 5 minutes of my life to say this about black-white SGL dating...

Rarely nowadays do I comment on the racial politics of SGL male dating, but let me be honest about this whole white-black dynamic. Preface, yeah there are more racial combinations in the world, but in the US the white-black contrast is always the most contentious.  Back to topic, white-black racial combo in relationships is always tricky.  You may ask, "why do you say that?".  Well for starters, black LGBTs are still the bottom of the racial hierarchy in the US because "the mandingo, i.e. supposed 'big black dick'", "they are all thugs", "they aren't very well rounded or educated", "they are lazy and shiftless", or "they all have AIDS and/or HIV" stereotype.  Many have taken these stereotypical myths and applied to dealing with black males as only cutbuddies/fuckbuddies or hook up only material rather than dating.

In my personal experience, there has been a lot of objectification that goes on throughout the gay/bisexual fold of men in general, but there is a special set of rules that seem to exist just for black-white sexual & relationship interactions.  Where the black guy suppose to be the "dominant top with a big dick" and the white guy is "submissive bottom that loves big dick".

Also have to interject the problematic age disparity of some white guys when it comes to dating or being open to having a relationship with black guys.  Many will intentionally wait until they are "used up" or 30+ years in age to engage or "explore this" after many of their fellow "more appealing" (in the aforementioned supposed hierarchical terms) are tired of them or unattainable anymore.  This perplexes me considering I, like many other black guys whom aren't racial specific, was like this since day one when we encounter white guys whom are much older than us always approaching us like we are "their last resort".  My motto is this, "if you didn't want to deal with a black guy when you were a 'hot commodity' then don't deal with one when you aren't anymore".

Now personally, I am not a "top" at all and generally non-discriminatory when it comes to anything including dating although I lean more towards other black guys.  I have dated a couple of white guys and have experienced this silliness first hand. I do find this dynamic annoying to say the least.  I also find that this expectation to be off-putting when it comes to interracial dating with guys.  Let's not forget in the South and in many parts of the US in general, a significant majority still believe in the aforementioned negative connotation about black guys.  It's just a double negative as to why I'm extremely choosy about dating white guys, period.

If I get a hint of a reason to believe that person is that way then, I'm chucking up the deuces...

Love is love, and it shouldn't have any color boundaries or limitations because of the social construct known as "race".

Uh huh, so you want to deal with NYC...

Yeah, I will say this.  I'm not exactly the biggest fan of New York (City) for a number of reasons including it being overrated.  So this op-ed piece that appeared on the Huffington Post by Leigh Owen.  He basically said in a sort of words, "if you are black or Hispanic, you need to leave NYC, ASAP".  This stresses my sentiments of why I am lacking in fascination of that city and its surrounding region.  Don't get me wrong it would be nice to see and visit but in realistic terms on livability for myself, nope.

I know somebody that is a former (an ex) that is relocating there and his premise of doing such is because he is tired of the South.  His rants included the overzealous nature of the religious particular religious blacks and "intelligent people" in Atlanta and the South in general.  Also the fact that one doesn't need a car in NYC as well with 24/7 mass transit.  Yeah, it is true that NYC and the Northeast Megalopolis lacks overt religiousness compared to the South and higher than average people with education attainment.

However, that doesn't translate to the devoid of religious blacks because US blacks in general are a very pious demographic group as whole regardless of location.  Also I might add that yeah, NYC has 24/7 mass transit but so does Chicago, Philadelphia, and the PATH of Northern New Jersey.  I admire NYC for being "that big city" but it is also a very hostile environment for black and Hispanic males due to its screwed up police force (NYPD), stop-and-frisk policy, and trigger-happy practices of gunning down innocent parties.  To be plain and simple, it's not a good place to be black and even the US Census reported that blacks have fled from New York in droves.

As quiet as it's been kept, I would prefer Chicago over New York.  At least I know what I'm getting into and it has a quaint, charming character that New York lacks which is 5 boroughs battling over whom is the most dominant.  All I have to say to him is this, I wish you well and have fun (also learn to be honest with yourself).  I'll be in DC or Chicago where those places have mass transit and are more my flavor because I like my cities with character and diversity not braggadocios places with deep seeded racial problems.

The Suspiciously Quietness of the racially charged incident at the RNC event

The $10,000 question is what really happened when the 2 alternate delegates during the RNC convention on Tuesday pelted CNN camerawoman, Patricia Carroll, with nuts?  The unusual silence of CNN and the expected covering of their assess for fear of negative publicity, RNC, seems extremely suspicious.  CNN is as many know has been trying to live up to the faux "fair and balance" journalism role that I pointed out in the  entry on US media outlets about 2 months ago.

Now after getting word from a specific commentor on the Washington Post columnist, Erik Wemple's blog how on Wednesday, the Alabama Republican Delegation head, Bill Armistead, was interview by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman.  The commentor was pointing how he was acting as if he knew whom it was and what state exactly but didn't want to reveal the identity of the 2 individuals.  Interestingly, now how they want to reach out to Ms. Carroll and apologize now.  I guess to cover their asses if their names are ever revealed...Also something tells me it was 2 members of the Alabama delegation because they would be good for old fashion racial animus considering how it is so involved in ignorance running amok without anybody willing to check them on it.  Hell, as I pointed out the Alabama Democratic Party isn't too much better because they placate ignoramuses to keep their rolls up on memberships, can you say Craig Ford from Gadsden? 

This whole incident shows CNN needs to stop placating ignorance and expose it.  Hell, the BBC is owned by the British government via being a public broadcasting entity yet they will call them out in a heartbeat.  It just goes to show how scary and manipulated so easily for fear of reprisal by the GOP.

Am I Surprised? No

I certainly am not surprised by the recent report released by the Urban Institute about the state of social equity in Greater Birmingham.  Not at all, Birmingham has the unique sociological condition where its citizenry on both sides of the two predominate racial groups to have this separatist disposition.  What I mean by this?  Anytime there is an election in Birmingham itself, there are is always a candidate running for office that has the secured black establishment vote then there is a candidate that has the progressive vote, which includes socially egalitarian blacks, whites, and usually the politically active/aware LGBTs in the city.  Unfortunately, the black establishment candidate always has to say or allow one their supporters without checking them make a derogatory statement about the LGBTs in the city, thus reinforcing the division between blacks and other predominately socially progressive voting blocs.

If you want to expand this to the entire region, the "Over-the-Mountain" suburbs like Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, and Hoover, other regional suburbs like Trussville, Gardendale, Fultondale, and those places in Shelby County seem to be reluctant allowing any form of regional cooperation between the duplicated entities in the region.  Usually, there is more racial and some class-based bias that is tied to why the refuse to cooperate with Birmingham.  It's quite stark how the comments on al.com are usually white posters behind their computer screens making off-base statements and generalizations about blacks and Birmingham inhabitants being 'poor, lacking morals or responsibilities'.

What's is even more embarrassing is Birmingham is the only major Southern metropolitan area aside from New Orleans that gotten this reputation.  However, it is not really a surprise.

Another reason why I'm vacating Alabama soon.  I can stomach this type of crap in my youth and rather be around like-minded individuals in other places because there is more to life than constantly fighting over rehashed bullshit that should be resolved years ago...

People and things that needs to get got...

Let's see, I said back in the summer of 2007 when the Democratic presidential primary season was already in a very early full swing that Hillary Clinton was going to "get got" because of the fuckery she was pedalling towards then-Illinois U.S. Senator Barack Obama.  In 2011, well I have to say another person is going to "get got" if they don't STFU soon.  That person is Minnesota's 6th District Congresswoman, Michelle "Chickenhead" Bachmann.

This fool just doesn't quit.  Let's see, she hates LGBT/SGLs, she thinks black children were better off under slavery, she thinks the White House is joking about defaulting on its debt payments, and the list goes on and on an on.  Everyone that keeps up with politics can tell she is (or has) been gunning for the "ranting white lady spot" that Sarah Palin's ass kept in herself in.

Also in Alabama State Senator, Scott Beason, of Gardendale needs his ass to be gotten for sure.  He is not only a racist that doesn't think much of black Alabamians, but an all-around bigot.  He is trying to defend his asinine bill-turn-into-law on immigration in Alabama before the world.  It's like a horrible episode of some idiotic sitcom from the 1950s running-a-mok.  This eurocentric bullshit is what is contributing to the breakdown of civility in our society.

However when it comes to Beason,  the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), ACLU, and others organizations are fighting back.  Today, a lawsuit was filed in federal court against this regressive Alabama law  that basically gives the A'OK for law enforcement to racially profile anybody that isn't white.

(h/t to Left in Alabama)

The decline of Jefferson County, yet again

As of yesterday (June 18th), Jefferson County placed 547 employees on administrative leave without pay, i.e., they are laid off.  It's another sad chapter in the history of the most populous county in Alabama.  It seems the same character that produced one of the most bigoted pieces of legislation in modern history, has single-handedly blocked any chance of the citizens of Jefferson County any opportunity to vote upon their own future.  Instead of proving a point, he is going to cause his own constituents that reside in unincorporated Jefferson County irreparable harm via lack of basic services following a natural disaster, public protection, or reduction of public nuisances.

It's funny how history repeats itself with this place and why I'm not longer a resident of Alabama or Greater Birmingham.

In related news, Scott Beason, the bastard that is the cause of both the racially bias Alabama immigration law and Jefferson County government's decline, proved that he is also a rabid racist, whom harbors personal animus against blacks, especially the ones that votes and likes to gamble at electronic bingo casinos.  During the federal corruption trial involving a number of current and former Alabama Legislative officials, audio from Beason himself where he called blacks "Aborigines" and said they are so illiterate and ignorant they have to be bussed to the polls and enticed to vote with free food and entertainment.  


It's obvious that asshole doesn't like blacks or other people of color, so the question is will the constituents in Alabama's 

Alright, now

I'm back to posting for this short in-between semester break and will try to continue throughout the summer when possible.  First thing first, my personal life...single again but by choice.  Couldn't deal with the idiot I dated for over a year so it had to cease and desist.  Secondly, I'm doing good academically with a 4.0 graduate-level GPA, so hopefully I'll continue this trend until the end, next year.  Third, what the hell is wrong with some people in south of the Greater Birmingham region in Alabama?  I swear this region is like the abyss for intelligence outside of these college campuses.  I've met 5 people non-affiliated with the university I attend for graduate school, Auburn University, and only 2 of them have shown any ability to hold my attention beyond 5 minutes.  Now I know why people don't deal with this region...

Anyways, on the societal issues.  Yeah, Birmingham (and Tuscaloosa but to me all of it is Birmingham since it's all one urbanized region) got hit hard by the April 27th tornado outbreak.  It turned out the tornado outbreak was quantitatively larger and deadlier than the Super Outbreak of 1974, but it is debated on the strength comparison.  I just know I was in the middle of finals when this outbreak occurred on that now historical Wednesday stuck doing presentations and examinations throughout the day.  It along with the April 16th tornado outbreak in North Carolina has shown Alabama and the world that nature still has plans under its sleeves for our increasingly belligerently ignorant and divisive society.  Raleigh and Birmingham will be dealing with the aftermath of these significant weather phenomena for the next few years.

On politics, I swear the aversive racists have shown their asses literally.  First, President Obama listens and folds to Front Lace Wig aka Donald the Chump over his birth certificate, and there was no merits to the bullshit claims.  Then, he takes out Usama bin Laden and the racists keeps adding flames to the fire by whining about seeing his body.  Then the brigade of assholes on the GOP ticket running for the presidency is laughable from Newt "I'm a whore" Gingrich to Mitch Romney.  The idiocy begins and this time it's racial.

So if the T.E.A. Party had their way then nobody that didn't own property would vote?

It's no surprise that the T.E.A. twats are still peddling their aversive bias and classist agenda across America.  It so ironic the same group of people have screamed, "We want our country back!" by verbatim would allow another one its "leaders" venture into this territory again.

Well, Judson Phillips of Nashville-based "Tea Party Nation" said on his internet radio show of the same name that went along the lines of defending the original laws that only allowed property owners the right to vote:

The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn't you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you're a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you're not a property owner, you know, I'm sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.

Thanks to the gigantic ponzy scheme orchestrated by the U.S. government (primarily under the Bush administration) and financial industry, nearly 1/3rd of US residents are ineligible for homeownership. 

David DeGerolamo, a North Carolina tea party leader and founder of NC Freedom, a state-wide tea party umbrella group went even further saying he wants the 14th Amendment repealed.  

It's like Rand Paul and his bullshit all over again.  Now I'm awaiting the "strict constitutionalists" come out the gate defending this bullshit.  We live in some sad time in this nation when racist and classist bullshit can be defended.

(h/t to the Institute for Southern Studies) 

UGH!!! There are too many idiots in this world, but way too many in the Nashville area

The foolishness of the fighting over a Muslim mosque in suburban Nashville has once again reaffirmed idiocy still is prevalent in modern society.  The on-going fight over a proposed mosque in Rutherford County, Tennessee, near Murfreesboro, has boiled down to the argument that Islam is attempting to take over the Westernized world to enforce Shariah law.  ***EYE ROLL***.  The attorney of the opponents of the mosque, Joe Brandon, Jr., has been pedaled ignorance involving this case to the point of absurdity in the Rutherford County Chancery Court.  Brandon has used random accusation saying the Rutherford County Planning Commission has predeclared the case prior to the vote on it over the summer to saying that Shariah law promotes pedophilia.   According to the Tennessean, even the Rutherford County Attorney, Jim Cope, has said this case has turned into a circus.

All I have to say about this is, "See I told ya that there are still some lunatic white Southerners whom will say ANYTHING to perpetuate fuckery that they feel is justified..."  You don't see any black Southerns that damn stupid to take some bullshit like this to court because they know it wouldn't fly.  Idiots.

An objective take on the Florida senatorial race situation

It looks like there will be likely a runoff with Mark Rubio and Charlie Crist in the senatorial race in Florida.  However, the foolishness and bullshit of Bill Clinton to push for Kendrick Meeks isn't as "out-there-in-left-field" as most would perceive on the surface.  There is a practical reason for this, whether it is right or not, for him trying to do this.

1) Florida wasn't going to elect a black Democrat for shit, and that is a reality.  We are talking about FLORIDA, the state where if you are black then you better be light and damn near white to be considered "normalized" by the state's standards.  2) The political climate of this year and it being FLORIDA again.  The state is a "bellwether" that bounces from one end of the "moderate/swing" to the other.  It all depends on the marketability of the candidate.  We are in a time where black politicos and political figures are under attack thanks to the fuckery pedaled by the "Angry White People Coalition", the mainstream media and their agenda-setting habits, and duplicity of a number of black congress members for their antics over the past few months.  It's like a cornucopia of "get the darkies" that hasn't helped someone like Kendrick Meeks candidacy for nothing.  I hate to to be the barer of a reality check, but his candidacy was D.O.A. from day 1 thanks to the circumstances presented.  Meeks is from a "safe district" for Democrats and progressives, liberal alike in Florida, but statewide Florida is STILL a Southern state at the core, which means NO BLACKS for prominent offices unless they paint themselves in "our [white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant] values".

It's disheartening for me personally as a black male, but it's the truth.  The people and forces at work in our society still wants to play "let's get the nigger/darkie".  As pseudo-egalitarian as our society pretends to be (especially some whites), there is still the propensity for it to still blame all blacks for the actions of a few... 

As slimy and two-timing as Bill Clinton is (and Lord knows I can't stand him), his stunt with Meeks (like the one with Sestak in Pennsylvania) was pertinent to this situation this year.  He was essentially trying to keep the Democratic roles filled so the Dems can stay in power and keep the radicalized candidate on the Republican ticket out of office.

If we didn't already know, Joe Reed is a JACKASS!

It just seems like that splaboo doesn't spare any clockwork when he proves to the entire world along with the entire the Alabama Democratic Party (ADP) that he is one.  Instead of having some dignity and showing that he isn't a pompous egregious bigot about race (and sexuality), NO!!!!  He had to prove that he likes to be all about race and direct representation of it.

In the curious case of the replacement of Kenya Lavender Marshall, a lawyer whom was suppose to be the Democratic nominee for the Jefferson County Circuit Court seat come November (since there is no Republican competition), whom wind up disqualified and disbarred for using clients funds for personal usage.  The Alabama State Democratic Executive Committee had to appoint a replacement in time for the August 27th deadline, which is 45 days after the run-off.  Meanwhile, where comes the mighty splaboo, Joe Reed, to sweep in with his usual brand of down-home splabuvian ignorance that has been recorded time and time again on this blog.  Instead of appoint the runner-up in the Democratic race, Nicole Stills, the ASDEC (lead by that splaboo) appoints Elisabeth French, some random lawyer whom happens to be black, to the seat because Reed wants a black person to represent since a black woman won over a white woman (Stills).

If we have learned anything from all this crap is that playing racial politics in the South never bodes well for anybody especially progressives.  Reed is so ignorant and pathetic because all this type of buffoonery is going to lead to is destruction.  It's like Reed wakes up in the morning and says, "I wonder how in the world can I screw up the possibility of Alabama ever getting a decent black politician elected from a statewide office?"

I'm too through with this crap and the ADP because they gave him the keys to its destruction when they let his racially bigoted ass into the executive committee nearly 4 decades ago...

The only upside to this story is that the Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC) and the Birmingham chapter of the SCLC called out this foolishness.

When will this sh*t end????

This ongoing propaganda war that the racially aversive, predominately white, social conservatives are attempting to wage on those with conscientious lore of our society.  Now there is a new twist to the tit for tat of the past 2 weeks, and this time it to place their aim at Shirley Sherrod's husband, civil rights activist, Charles Sherrod.  Now this video from him speaking at the University of Virginia questioning if he is "racist" according to the aforementioned latter group in the first sentence.  Let's not forget the proverbial question of how did Shirley Sherrod wind up working for the same organization that her family with others filed a class action lawsuit (and later won) against.

I'm beyond TIRED of this convoluted attempt to diverse the attention from what has been occurring in this nation for centuries and the institutionalized bias and impediments for non-whites for decades for economic empowerment or quality of life.  They need to stop trying to beat a damn dead horse because it's getting to a point of absurdity as those whom seem to be reaching for ANYTHING to cling to yet refuse to address the elephant in the room, institutionalized racism...

GEEZ!!!

Oh yeah, another tit for tat...

I guess since last Monday when the NAACP decided to rebuke the Angry White People Coalition, i.e. "the T.E.A. Party" for their growing racially bias forces amongst their ranks.  Then the strike back by 'spokesmen" for the T.E.A. Party Express, Mark Williams, with this racist ass letter calling the NAACP an organization of "coloreds looking for a free ride".  Also let's not forget the number of terrorist threats from certain individuals. 

Now the shadow organization nearly always responsible for the divisiveness and derision in this nation, FOX News, decided to use a video of the now former director of rural development for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Shirley Sherrod, professing a 24-year-old story about her and white farmer from South Georgia.  Yeah, FOX News decided to use that as their "tat" for the NAACP's "tit" at the faction that FN has been shilling for since its beginning...

Unfortunately, now Sherrod is the "whipping item" for the everyone right now.  She has lost her job and has been rebuked by the same organization that she has been a made her speech.  The NAACP is now trying to deflect the issue from themselves to keep it upon racial bias of the T.E.A. Party.  Sherrod has addressed that only part of the story has been told by the FN and that she fixed her prior actions as well going above and beyond the call of duty to help the farmer.   Of course, FN wants to go for the jugular and twist the story for their bias purposes.  Even the farmer involved in this case denies the allegations of racial bias.


MORE BACK STORY INFO: There is apparently more to the story.  Sherrod was a victim of the intolerance policy of the USDA, which occurred up until 1980s, lead to her and her husband lost their share of 6,000 acre farm owned along with other black farmers.  According to Anita Rose, Sherrod's former legal representation in the class action federal suit that lead the reward of $13 million in restitution from racial discrimination from the USDA, Sherrod's father was murder as an adolescent by the KKK.  None of the assailants were convicted of the crime.

This introduces a paradoxical view into what might be the reasoning behind Sherrod's perspective on race in our society and why she could hold pause in general as her formerly appointed federal position.  It reveals that there is more to the story behind the discrimination involving race and class in westernized society.  

Maybe just maybe, people will finally realize those like FOX News, corporate suits are attempting to uses weapons of divisiveness to beacon more acrimony in our society so they continue to rape us of our rights and privileges as US citizens...

UPDATE: Now the NAACP retracts their statement rebuking Ms. Sherrod, and CNN even interviews the white farming couple to prove the story has been fabricated by another socially conservative, ring-wing con artist.  Yet, nobody at FOX News wants fully own up to the hack job ending the employment of Shirley Sherrod, even after the white farming couple owes their preservation of their farm to her.  The question is WHO FORCED SHERROD OUT OF HER JOB AT THE USDA????

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Andrew Breitbart is now under federal investigation of defamation of character and could face prosecution along being made an example of "internet harassment". 

OH YEAH, HERE IS THE FULL VIDEO OF THE SPEECH:



I swear sometimes I want to dropkick those idiots at NewsCorp for pedaling foolishness into the world...

Blind justice or inherent ignorance?

I don't know what to make of the situation of the verdict of the Bay Area Rapid Transit officer that killed an unarmed black male, Oscar Grant, in January of 2009.  According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the verdict was "involuntary manslaughter" for former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. 

Although there were protests as a result of the verdict, according San Francisco Bay Area ABC owned-and-operated station KGO-TV "ABC7",  the Oakland Police the protesters were mostly outside agitators attempting to take advantage of the situation.  Regardless, if there are outside agitators or not the vast majority of the anger and aggravation associated with the verdict of the case is understandable.  The looting and property damage/destruction isn't excusable at all, but a significant number of East Bay (of the San Francisco Bay Area) citizens are upset that this verdict doesn't fit the crime.

It also vexes me as an independent thinker and black male as to why would a jury after realizing that if there tables were turned that the verdict would have highly likely harsher.   (In reference for those don't understand what I mean is if somebody was being apprehended by a police officer and the officer is accidentally killed in pursuit of the person).

The grasping of the conceptualization of why that the existence and lives of black American males is seen as the lowest of the low in the westernized world.  This can also be applied to the lives of any non-white males.  In particular, black males deal with the paranoia of everyone since we are seen as the "boogeymen" of society since there are higher incarceration and death rates. 

Adam Serwer of American Prospect summed it up quite eloquently:

I want to focus for a moment on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. To convict on the higher charge of voluntary manslaughter, the prosecution would have had to prove that Mehserle's fear of Grant and his friends was "unreasonable." It decided the crime was involuntary. In other words, Mehserle's fear? That was reasonable.
Fear is at the core of questions of justice involving the deaths of black people at the hands of the authorities in the United States of America, dating back to when Toussaint L'Overture put the fear of G-d in slaveowners by revealing that their "property" might someday rise up against them. L'Overture still has that effect on some people. Following emancipation were the days when "justice" was meted out in the South by terrorists posing as vigilantes. Even then, when such atrocities were an accepted part of black life, people inside and outside the South found ways to sympathize with the anger and fear white Southerners felt toward their black neighbors -- The New York Times editorialized in the 1890s that no "reputable or respectable negro" had ever been lynched.
Even decades after the civil-rights era, a cop shooting an unarmed black man is barely a crime -- a 2007 ColorLines investigation of police shootings in New York City found that in 12 instances when the victim was unarmed, only one officer was found criminally liable. There hasn't been a murder conviction on a police shooting in Oakland since 1983.  As Kai Wright wrote in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict, "American law has been sanctioning the killing of black people to mollify white fear for centuries. ... We scare the shit out of America. And that fear excuses just about any reaction it spawns." Mehserle is profoundly unlucky to be punished at all.
Times change, but the radioactive fear of black people, black men in particular, has proved to have a longer half-life than any science could have discerned. This is not a fear white people possess of black people -- it is a fear all Americans possess. It makes white cops kill black cops, it makes black cops kill black men, and it whispers in the ears of white and nonwhite jurors alike that fear of an unarmed black man lying face down in the ground is not "unreasonable." All of which is to say, while it infects all of us, a few of us bear the brunt of the suffering it causes.

After all this "post-racial notions" of the election of Barack Obama there seems to be no end in sight to mollify the negative connotations associated with the black male.  Instead, we still live in a society where there is more "reasonable" fear of our existence than anything else.  Me being a generally non-temperament, usually varied dress, and friendly individual would still be accused of being "wild, temperamental, and aggressive" since I am black and a male.  Sad, just plain, sad.

The only upside to this case is the U.S. Department of Justice is considering looking into this to see if the case was taken too lightly by California state officials. (courtesy of KGO-TV)

Rand Paul, the politician and the clueless when it comes to public policy

 

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Rand Paul, son of that aversive racist, self-proclaimed libertarian yet politically identified Republican, Ron Paul, has proven that he is an idiot when it comes to public policy and obviously A'OK with racial bias in the private sector.  Although the Civil Rights of 1964 has prohibited such business that uses public services and has products and services that crosses state lines, Rand Paul has made it known that it shouldn't be left up to the federal government to impose their views on private businesses.  In other words, he is A'OK with it, but won't say it up front because he knows that any political opponent or interest group would nail him to the wall. Instead, he decides to avoid answering the question and create a diversion to allude to the obvious on MSNBC's The Rachael Maddow Show (seen above) like he did in a NPR interview on a prior date.  It seems to that he wants to have it both ways, and it doesn't work that way...

This just goes back to what I've been saying for a while now, libertarianism is good in theory but very impractical and unrealistic in policy making or enforcement.  The ideology is very detrimental to social judicial policy-making and the fixing of what is wrong with our society.  Instead, it shows that many of them are just simple-minded individuals that doesn't realize (probably doesn't care) that this is another weapon to further impede social equity for everyone.  As I'm said awhile back, the T.E.A. Party is basically a group of angry, closed-minded white people that seem to be more reactionary than practical in thought process.

Oh yeah, word to those federal same-sex union (or in some words "same-sex marriages") advocates,  Rand Paul and his father isn't allies at all of your cause, just look here and here. 

Also the libertarian purist mindset that Ron and Rand Paul along with their followers in the T.E.A Party are just as delusional as the extreme liberals and social conservatives.  Hence why as the old saying goes even with politics, do everything in moderation, and why I'm a progressive.  In the end, this fool like his father are dangerous and talk a big game but lacks the insight or objectivity to produce social progress for all just for eurocentric-worldview, radical social conservatives.

UPDATE: The gift that keeps on giving, I've obtained the footage of his stance on the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).



So Rand Paul is A'OK with 2nd class citizenship of even disabled Americans because he doesn't want to impose such regulations on a private business owner and rather let local governments decide (***SIDE-EYE***).  This guy is a piece of work for sure, and you see his handlers see that Paul is an idiot and doesn't want anymore proof of this being exposed.  If you left it up to local and state governments then, most of the disenfranchised and minority groups would have been clamoring for their rights and privileges to this very day (especially in a state like Alabama, where the state legislature act as anything that doesn't evolve the protection of "moral values" is unimportant).  There are 2 words that comes to mind, "tacit consent", and this is of racism and racial bias.  I might contradict myself with this sentence but here I go, he and his father might not actually be "racists" but they do give tacit consent of racial bias by private businesses...