The discussion of social issues and happenings across the South (sometimes the nation). Along with some rants about things such as the media (radio, TV, and internet), music, etc. from a socially progressive yet politically independent perspective.
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*
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...
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 actually had high hopes that US Attorney General Eric Holder was going to announce the issuance of stay or motion in federal court that would place a hold on the voter suppression laws that have been passed across the nation, but primarily in the South by GOP-led state legislatures.
Instead US AG Holder did a speech today in Austin on the discussion summed up in the quote "don't take voting rights for granted." Well, that is comforting but has no legal teeth behind it. It seems like AG Holder is holding back on doing anything or is the US Justice Department although voter suppression will be widespread come next year. He also expressed there are ongoing investigations involving some cases of voter suppression but no specifics.
Le sigh! I guess it will be another episode of rewind that has been orchestrated by the social regressives/conservatives that love to expressing their false accusation of voter fraud when the real agenda is to block the ability to vote of those unconventional citizens such as non-whites, college/graduate students, and seniors.
Also I find it sad that the case of Dorothy Cooper, the 96-year-old black woman from Chattanooga, was swept under the rug in October after the state of Tennessee passed a new law that requires voters to have a photo ID to certify voter registration. In Mrs. Cooper's case, she needed her marriage certificate along with other documents including her birth certificate, rent receipt, copy of her lease, and voter registration card to verify herself to get a photo ID from the Tennessee Drivers Service Center in east Chattanooga, but was denied anyway. The new law creates this situation where all documents including documents verifying name changes, in case of marriage, has to be present when registration occurs. Obviously, Mrs. Cooper was prepared because she had all the aforementioned document in a sealed Manila envelope with the exception of her marriage certificate. Mrs. Cooper never learned to drive so she didn't have a Tennessee Drivers' License, but prior to was able to vote in every election except 1960. Instead the Hamilton County Administrator of Elections, Chattanooga's home county, told her to vote with an absentee ballot, and that is the provision is the thing allowing the federal courts to uphold this regressive law in TN as well as Indiana (no surprise considering how non-whites are pretty much in Chicago suburbs of NW Indiana and Indianapolis).
What has gotten me about this whole situation is the fact it took the voter suppression of a 84-year old elderly white woman, Ruthelle Frank, of Brokaw, Wisconsin being forced to pay $200 to get a birth certificate in response to the new law in Wisconsin requiring such to register to vote. The ACLU of Wisconsin along with the National Law Center on Homeless and Poverty is filing a lawsuit in federal court against the state due to the hardship it causes for those. The suit names embattled Wisconsin governor Scott Walker among the defendants.
Le sigh! It's a good thing this problem has been exposed and I'm socially egalitarian and all for the fight for the everyone to have a fair and equitable society. However, why does it take even in 2011 (almost 2012) the suffering of whites to spotlight the oppression of the 'undesirables' in our society including non-whites? That's all I'm asking, why are we still a myopic society where this still occurs?
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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...
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.
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.
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 -- TheNew 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 Wrightwrote 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)
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THAT I WAS A ONE-SIDED INDIVIDUAL, WELL I'M NOT!
Case and point, Bill Maher. On Friday night on last week's installment of Real Time, he decided to make a pop shot at President Obama not being a "real black president". He goes on a diatribe about how Obama should carry a gun under his shirt like a "real black person" and threaten to shot somebody in the foot at a meet with BP officials.
"I thought when we elected a Black president, we were going to get a Black president. You know, this is where I want a real black president. I want him in a meeting with the BP CEOs, you know, where he lifts up his shirt where you can see the gun in his pants [saying]; "'We've got a motherfu*king problem here?' Shoot somebody in the foot.
Now, that's the last fuckin' straw in my book. Yeah, I'm about to go into rant mode...
Maher clearly has racial issues, and that's just scratching the surface. He has gone on the record on a number of stereotyping black folks including the time where conscious rapper, activist, and actor Mos Def had to check him on his foolishness. Also there is Maher's habit with dating black women, but according to Karrine "Superhead" Steffans herself that he like to have ignorant, uneducated black women around that he can always argue down and degrade. The irony of this statement alone is something for referencing again and again coming from Maher when he falls within this very demographic group on ABC's This Week back in April:
The finally death-knell in my opinion is his arrogance towards religion. Although I'm not a religious person (rather spiritual that prays every night to God) who has issues with a number of modern religious congregations, I don't deride people's ability to have faith in religion to maintain their sanity through tough times in their life. Maher alleges that panelist is his friend, S.E. Cupp, yet he ridicules her for empathizing those who are religious and relies upon it for the aforementioned reasons.
Bill Maher is an arrogant, racially biased asshole who has proven even to me that he needs to put up a sippy cup of STFU and gulp down a huge swallow of reality and self-evaluation. Even if he does give fodder for liberals on socially conservatives' stupidity and I'll admit there have been the moments. His lack of ability to write for himself and yeah that was proven during the writers guild strike of 2008 when his monologue was missing. However, this guy is an asshole, plain and simple, and that's unforgivable.
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...
Well since Arizona is apart of the Sunbelt, in my humble opinion a de facto extension of the South, so I'll speak on the Florida-esque state where they recently passed one of the most racebaiting laws in modern history against Hispanics in particular. (Don't act all brand new, come on you know they were aiming for them...)
I just love the quotes of the Arizona's appointed governor, Jan Brewer, who was put in place last year after Janet Napolitano became Homeland Security secretary said:
"We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act, but decades of inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unacceptable situation."
Now I will say the immigration situation has gone on for far too long, but remember the under the 8 years of the Bush administration nothing occurred either. The pragmatic part of me says "yeah, I agree Gov. Brewer", but the rational socially alert practical side of me sides "Uh, this heifer just gave the A'OK to racial profiling by responding to conservative white ignorance to preserve her seat in office for a full term come election time." This law is so poorly written that even municipal police chiefs including the former chief of Phoenix suburb, Mesa, are against it, and that says A LOT.
I just love that good ol' anti-Washington sentiment where the talking conservative dittoheads do their dirty work blaming everybody but their own conservative representatives in Congress (HUH, John "I talk out of both sides of my mouth on everything" McCain, John Kyl, and the rest of the Congressional Republican brigade from AZ!). Anyways, it gets even better when she said this:
"This bill strengthens the laws of our state, protects all of us, every Arizona citizen... It does so while ensuring that the constitutional rights of all remain solid, stable."
Aww, how cute! You are feeding the fodder for the alarmist crowd with the notion "we are now safe, now don't worry your pretty white head about those god-awful Mexicans". A recent poll published in the Arizona Republic shows that the majority of the (white) Arizonians support this fuckery by 70%. Yeah, this is bullshit at it extraordinarily worst, and we can see some white people will give life to ANYTHING and the foolish in the GOP (and to certain extension the Democratic Party) will feed into their ignorance to stay in office. Yet the entire state of Arizona was a part of Mexico once upon a time, so the whites pushing this law are not only racist but subjecting those whose families may have a long history with the land than there was a state known as Arizona to racial profiling because of their paranoia. TISK, TISK, TISK....
However, there is a more! Arizona State House passed a bill about 2 weeks ago that requires the subjective declaration that Presidential candidates are native-born American citizens and want to see proof of their birth certificate shown to the Arizona Secretary of State, who handles candidates who appear on the ballot and other electoral issues. In other words, they want to require the current sitting president, Barack Obama, proof of natural born citizenship before he can be placed on the ballot in 2012. Yeah, these idiots are UNBELIEVABLE in Arizona, but at least they are now topping Virginia these days for once. However, we are seeing the retrograding of previously pseudo-progressive or forward-thinking states, but Arizona has always been more conservative since it's high older white retiree population like Florida. Also let's not forget it was the last 2 states (along with New Hampshire) to recognize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday as a state holiday in 1990 (co-thanks to John McCain and then-sitting AZ governor Evan Mecham)...
All this history of Arizona and its fuckery is enough to definitely hamper their economic development ventures among other things. What ashame! I once upon a time wanted to move to Phoenix, but after learning all this about Arizona and its socially conservative and aversive racist history and mindset, NOPE!
It's a time like this when we really need ACORN because they have fought long and hard for the people against predatory lending involved in the housing crisis, jobs, living wage, voting right, and education reform. Last fall, the ignorant brigade of Angry White People Coalition and idiots and so-called "progressives" like Congressman John Conyers voted to strip the critical funding that the federal government gave to the organization. Those idiots were reacting and believing that garbage from that idiotic white boy who prove to be a fraud and a criminal himself. ACORN did win a court battle that they fought to get their funding back, but unfortunately the damage was done...
This shit disgusts me to no end because this organization actually helped those who couldn't speak for themselves. The New Orleans-based organization's mission was always to fight to the hardships of those who were either impoverish, undeserved, or non-white, but of course this will go into the abyss because healthcare... SMH
While the healthcare debate comes to a head, I mean vote, there have been hoards of TEAbaggers in DC around the governmental buildings cutting up like roaches in an empty nasty house. Those jackasses were calling out names at John Lewis of Georgia's 5th Congressional District (which is pretty much all of the city of Atlanta and some of the surrounding areas) and openly gay Massachusetts' 4th district Congressman Barney Frank. The terms "nigger" and "faggot".others such Missouri's 5th district Congressman Emmauel Cleaver was spat on. Meanwhile, the supporters of the "movement" is purportedly denying the existence of racial bias (however, I doubt that one for sure). Now they aren't going to be as nice about the whole homophobia at all because that is openly accepted. However, it's disgusting yet not surprising that some white people are showing their TRUE COLORS within the "Angry White People Coalition". What's even more tale-telling is how obvious some people are to this for all this time when in reality there the indicators have been there from jump, the TEA Party movement is the closed-minded, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant crowd that doesn't give a flying fuck about anybody but themselves and obviously abhors the thought of having a non-white president because it shows they are losing control of the nation's leadership positions.
Kennett, MO. – Heather Ellis, a young college student out of Kennett, MO is now facing 15 years in prison if she is sentenced after being accused of cutting line at a local Walmart. Her case has gotten the attention of the nation, and has been the subject of extensive online protests.
Heather was in a Walmart store 3 years ago with her cousin. The two split up to find the shortest line. Since her cousin was in the shorter line, Heather joined him. That’s when the clerk accused Heather of cutting in front of the other customers. An argument ensued, leading to the manager and security guard being called, and finally the police.
The incident left Ellis, an honor student on her way to medical school, charged with disturbing the peace, trespassing and two counts of assaulting a police officer. After Heather refused to sign a plea agreement, Stephen Sokoloff, the town’s prosecutor, filed felony charges against Heather.
Ellis goes on trial on November 15th and faces 15 years in prison. The community has expressed its outrage with rallies and protests, which have led to threats from the Ku Klux Klan. A police officer delivered a card to the family from the Klan and Heather’s father believes that the officer’s delivery of the card was part of a broader plot to intimidate the family. He also argues that Walmart should release the surveillance tape to show that his daughter is innocent.
Dr. Boyce Watkins, a prominent black professor at Syracuse University, has stepped in to become involved in Heather’s case. Watkins, along with the Your Black World Coalition and National Action Network, have created a website, “SaveHeatherEllis.com,” and have generated thousands of signatures in support of her case. He has also called for the prosecutor in the case, Stephen Sokoloff, to be investigated by the Justice Department.
“I have spoken with the family and other residents of the Kennett community, and the truth is that there does not appear to be justice for African Americans in this town,” says Dr. Watkins, who appears weekly on the Al Sharpton Radio show. “This requires that the prosecutor be made to realize that his power is not omnipotent and that he cannot destroy lives at his own discretion.”
Watkins is planning to participate in a rally to be held in Kennett at the courthouse near the date of the November 18th trial. The date and location for the rally have not been set, as the family has received resistance when attempting to get permits to hold rallies. For more information, you can visit SaveHeatherEllis.com or you can join the Your Black World Coalition by visiting www.YourBlackWorld.com.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University and Resident Scholar for AOL Black Voices. He is also the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. For interviews with Dr. Watkins or a family member of Heather Ellis, please call (901) 413-0203 or email information@boycewatkins.com. ###
I commend Dr. Boyce Watkins for taking up this issue and bring it to the national forefront. Maybe we'll see him on CNN Newsroom in the upcoming days so that everybody can be abreast on this case. The prosecutor in this case is an asshat and he knows it and that police officer who delivered that card from the KKK needs to be fired ASAP. This institutionalized racial bias of some governmental officials needs to cease and desist as it is more and more evident that the US is regressing rather than progressing on racial issues.
OH YEAH, once again it reaffirms that racism isn't something that is unique to only the South...
"Aversion to have a black person as president.”
“I think it’s unprecedented to attack a president, wishing he were dead, and equating him with animals and Adolf Hitler. That was the point that I made.”
Well, you have to give it up to President Carter because he is saying what most rational and coherent individuals without presumptuous ideals about the controversy surround President Obama have been saying for awhile now. The LGBTs have been complaining, but due to the inactivity associated with the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and federal hate crimes laws covering sexual orientation and gender identity. However, that doesn't really lie along the lines of true aversive racism rather privilege idealism and impatience.
Now, the fools associated with the "tea parties" also known as the "Taxed Enough Already" groups, they seem to focus on things that should have been talked about during the Bush administration. This will talked about right now since this past weekend on CNN Newsroom, Don Lemon interviewed Tim Wise, an anti-racist author and public speaker from originally from Nashville, spoke about how much of the Republicans and Libertarians that have been gawking about the President's "out of control" policies is based on "white racial guilt".
Interesting because I've been wondering that myself about most of this resentment even before this outburst and all that jazz. Ironically, I know of one gay Army reservist that is white and "Libertarian" that tries his damnest to ignore the foolishness of so many of the "tea parties". I mean how many signs does one need to see to know that there is something up with some white Americans in this nation with this presidency. There was little to no real controversy aside from the liberal Democrats booing Bush during joint sessions and other meetings, but it seems that these conservatives and border-line anarchistic individuals seems to be hell-bent on destroying the Obama administration because he is black more than he is a Democrat.
Clinton had dealt with the foolishness of the social conservatives and Republicans by just throwing it back at them and essentially shutting down Washington in 1996. However, Obama has to tread shallow waters of not seeming to be bias on basis of race, party, or ideology.
Geez Kanye, why in the hee haw hell would you do this? I was laughing at all your antics up until this incident which was tacky, classless, and so uncalled for.
I mean I'm not a fan of Taylor Swift either, but let the girl have her moment and then you and your Beyonce worship has gone too far. You just like to attention whoring, but then yet we all know that since your mother has passed nobody can put you in check. Also he was apparently drunk because he was carrying a bottle of Hennessy on the red carpet. Also Amber Rose needs to sit down because she is not that hot and she looks like somebody's mama in that get up.
SMH, at why Rod 2.0 was praising Kanye just last week with "his new look". You gotta look deeper than praising this fool because it's not worth it. Just because it looks good doesn't mean it's good for you...
Oh yeah, in related news: there is a huge number of tweets on Twitter calling Kanye a nigger, coon, and the works. Oh another lesson in "look for a reason to talk shit about black folks" file. Kanye thank you for setting black entertainers and regular folks back and thank you ignorant white Twitter users for showing that you obviously one episode away from using racial epithets. America needs to have a catharsis on its covert racial issues because this episode brought out amongst some white Americans that love to use the epithets when its so convenient.
He doesn't represent me as a black person, but still...
Well apparently, he has a financial issues. According to the Congressional Quarterly Politics (CQ Politics), he has more debts than assets.
In Wilson's case, he updated a form revealing what he owned in 2008. The new version, filed at the end of July, has different assets than he identified in May.
Wilson now reports that his assets at year's end (not counting his residence) fall somewhere between $952,000 and $2,030,000.
Much of that was tied up in property owned by the Moseley Wilson Partnership.
His debts, in the form of personal loans and mortgages, fall somewhere between $880,012 to $1,930,000.
The major differences between the two reports are the addition of Exxon-Mobil stock worth $15,000 or less and a property in Springdale, S.C., worth between $50,001 and $100,000.
Well, looks like his gamble, I mean outburst was an attempt to get the fundraising efforts off the ground. However, according the DCCC his Democratic opponent, Rob Miller, has raised over $2,000,000 from 25,000 contributors in the last 48 hours. Damn! That some major dough in 2 days.
Also according to the Institute of Southern Studies, Addison was one of the many South Carolina State Senators that voted to keep the Confederate flag on the SC State Capitol grounds in 2000. He's also a member of the Sons of Confederacy, which doesn't scream "non-bias" at all. ***eye roll***
This is a quote from Addison discussing the vote and defending the Confederacy from a BBC News report:
"That's offensive to me that they would take my heritage and make it into a Holocaust era type description. I find that very offensive, and it's not true," Senator Wilson said. "The Southern heritage, the Confederate heritage is very honourable."
Oh, how precious! He thinks the radical group of individuals fighting to maintain to right to enslave people to maintain their economic dominance was honorable. You get a gold star for being an a-hole. This guy is a gift that keeps on giving and his skeletons are just creeping out of the closet.
In 2003, Wilson called it "unseemly" for the mixed-race daughter of Sen. Strom Thurmond, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, to identify the longtime South Carolina senator as her father after his death.
"It's a smear on the image that (Thurmond) has as a person of high integrity who has been so loyal to the people of South Carolina," he told The State newspaper of Columbia. Wilson had worked as an intern in Thurmond's office. After a public outcry, he said he had the utmost respect for Washington-Williams.
Apparently, his last election wasn't a "clean sweep" in South Carolina's 2nd Congressional district. He beat his opponent Rob Miller by only 8% in a district that is more right-of-center. So its doesn't bode well for Addison Graves Wilson, Sr. come next year after all this stuff have come out of the closet, or does it? You never known when it comes to the South and its bizarre congressional districts because all the odds could be stacked against the idiot candidate (in this case is a socially conservative and obviously not racially progressive Republic) and they can still win. Just look at what happened here in Birmingham where the idiot candidate won even though his opponent was clearly the better choice.
Yeah, I'm going to say it, some white Americans have decided to hijack the definition of racism and wants to attempt to use it to disprove their bias. Meanwhile, many of them will still commit subliminal actions such as not living in a "mixed" neighborhood, not allow their kids date "outside their race", and so on. However, when somebody makes a statement like "I have black friends" or "my **** is black" although they did or said something that can be interpreted as racially bias or insensitive makes me just shake my head and roll my eyes.
Being black and an Alabamian, I've probably dealt with the ugly underbelly of America with issues with the social concept known as "race". Just look at Birmingham, it's a city that is a poster-child of what happens with whites doesn't want to live near blacks, but justify their bias because of the "crime" and "corruption". Now,I'm not giving black people a pass because anyone dumb enough to elect somebody that instigate racial issues like Larry Langford as mayor then you are just as guilty as some whites.
American black and working-class white populous are both victims of what happens when you have an elite set in this nation that hijacks everything but realizes they only can keep things as status quo is "divide and conquer". Many working-class whites (those guilty of running from Birmingham as soon as interpretation occurred) because 1) they were taught by their parents that blacks aren't as "civilize" as them and 2) ignorance due to lack of social interaction in intimate settings such as being next-door neighbors, attending the same school, or the same church. In general, Alabama is a poster-child for this situation. All one has to do is read Alabama in the Twentieth Century by Auburn University professor, Wayne Flynt, and know this to be true.
Well, after reading these two articles on the usage and definition of the word racist and working-class whites from The Root, I believe some people needs to come to grips about their racial bias and realize that it is about the something much bigger at work.
