According to Richard Prince, Farai Chideya is replacing Ed Gordon as host of NPR's News and Notes program. The full story is available here. The half-life of a Black host on NPR seems to be about a year.According to Richard Prince, Farai Chideya is replacing Ed Gordon as host of NPR's News and Notes program. The full story is available here. The half-life of a Black host on NPR seems to be about a year.
From Jill Tubman at Jack and Jill Politics . . . . Also check out the interesting comments in response at MyDD.com, a well-established liberal blog.
RACIAL POLITICS THIS WEEK--A ROUNDUP
This week, a controversial photo snapped at a blogger lunch in Harlem with Bill Clinton is under much discussion in the progressive blackosphere. . . . I agree with Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft that: “There should have been a greater attempt made to include minority bloggers. But I think it was unintentional. I will bet that when there's another such event, and there will be, whether it's by President Clinton or another Democrat, there will be a greater effort to include a more diverse group of bloggers.”
There's a problem with this photo and what it implies about how the power structure is changing -- and who might get left behind. Let's not deny that and make excuses. . . . . .
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 66.91.246.41 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/17/2006 10:08:22 AM It's not like they didn't know who you were. You weren't left behind, you were taken for granted. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anthony EMAIL: alh@theipinionsjournal.com IP: 68.50.50.39 URL: http://www.theipinionsjournal.com DATE: 09/17/2006 10:13:42 AM Prof Overton, The problem with Merritt's rationalization is that claiming this oversight was unintentional is rather like claiming that filming 9 years of "Friends" in NYC without a single black character was unintentional. After all, inserting a token black amongst the friends - when it mattered little since, by then, the show had lost its appeal - was hardly a vindication for progressive political and social points of view. One wonders why it did not occur to these liberal bloggers, or "the first black pesident" himself, that there was something just a little too "conservative-Republican looking" about their gathering. Next time? Puleeese! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.209.202 URL: DATE: 09/17/2006 10:30:13 AM Pictures of liberals always look like a portrait of the audio-visual squad. Why would anyone with soul want to be included? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ebw EMAIL: ebw@abenaki.wabanaki.net IP: 67.142.130.32 URL: http://wampum.wabanaki.net DATE: 09/17/2006 02:15:12 PM he he. sc, that is the first thing you've written that i found funny. the a/v kidz. ha! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ed Dunn EMAIL: ed@dreamandhustle.com IP: 68.217.124.157 URL: http://www.dreamandhustle.com DATE: 09/17/2006 08:11:08 PM It does not surprise me that a "progressive blackospere" would make such a statement: "There should have been a greater attempt made to include minority bloggers." Tell your Bougie Negroes the correct statement should have been: "There should have been a greater attempt BY US made to EMPOWER minority bloggers." Imagine a Black collective blogging - not an elite bougie group - but a diverse collective who all come together on critical issues. Think about the kind of impact that would make on the social web. But these elite "progressive blackosphere" characters want to complain about being included when they are fully empowered to make a difference. Man, this is too much for me, don't know whether to laugh or cry. The funny part is most of my hood friends don't know how to blog but they know how to connect the Playstation up to the Internet to play Madden. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TO EMAIL: IP: 208.27.111.122 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 09:56:08 AM Perhaps you should explain how this particular event happened, and how the invite list was made... unless you mean to imply that Bill Clinton should refuse to be photographed with any group that doesn't include black people, no matter what the context. On the other hand, this is the first blog post I've seen so far not discussing the anatomy of the woman in the gray shirt, which is kind of nice. http://althouse.blogspot.com/2006/09/pursued-by-boobs.html http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2006/09/sexual-harassment-as-reactionary-prop.html http://feministing.com/archives/005710.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 01:46:37 PM The next photo will be a classic example of the white liberal "disassociation" I mentioned in the redneck article. Blacks matter to white librals/progressives only in a self serving way. That is to prove they are not racist, i.e. to disassociate themselves from racism. How else do you explain a progressive blogging conference with no representation from perhaps the most reliable progressive constituency? If blacks were really important this photo would never have been an issue because they would have been represented. I'm sure the next photo will include a fair quota of brown faces and white liberals/progressives will once again sleep well at night secure in their non-racism. They'll say see, look at the pretty picture!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vincent EMAIL: IP: 151.198.70.246 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 04:30:53 PM “There should have been a greater attempt made to include minority bloggers" implies that minority blogger are not included. Inclusion is a two way street. What gets people included is the interest they serve. This would be politically, socially or financially. I agree with elb1999 except that just about all inclusion is self serving. So whether the bloggers were all friends, have a financial interest/goal or if they should grab a few sista's off of the street for a photo-op speaks to self interest. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sewere EMAIL: drbiyi@netscape.net IP: 63.149.243.213 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 08:46:06 PM Prof. Overton, I, like you, believe it was unintentional because it is quite possible that black bloggers were invited but none could attend, given what could have been an impromptu invitation. I also think that it is important to note that appearances can be deceiving - what I mean to say is that anyone of the folks in this picture could be black but of mixed heritage and it may not be apparent by phenotype alone. I also think that it is equally important to note that there may be folks of color (who may be of mixed heritage or not) in this crowd who are just as committed to black empowerment as we are, and as such cannot be discounted because they are not "visibly" a person of color. To sum it up, I believe it is quite possible that there is more to this story than meets the eye and I honestly think we should be careful about how we identify people. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Geqfqa EMAIL: tajndjfsjg@ahkl.com IP: 168.210.113.133 URL: http://www.cementcity-harley.com/interracial.html DATE: 10/09/2006 12:55:24 AM ninja hentai titans hentai ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Geqfqa EMAIL: tajndjfsjg@ahkl.com IP: 211.215.17.73 URL: http://www.cementcity-harley.com/interracial.html DATE: 10/09/2006 12:56:08 AM ninja hentai titans hentai ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Geqfqa EMAIL: tajndjfsjg@ahkl.com IP: 64.190.54.194 URL: http://www.cementcity-harley.com/interracial.html DATE: 10/09/2006 12:56:48 AM ninja hentai titans hentai ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: thomson EMAIL: karel@gmail.com IP: 81.177.15.50 URL: http://www_1_1.gmail.com/ DATE: 10/17/2006 12:45:34 PM ionolsen20 Your site is very cognitive. I think you will have good future.:) ----- PING: TITLE: foreign drug store URL: http://bestdrugshop.org/foreign-drug-store.htm IP: 83.219.129.118 BLOG NAME: foreign drug store DATE: 12/17/2006 10:02:33 PM ----- -------- AUTHOR: tsmith TITLE: Politics, Race and Over-Ambition STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: politics & voting rights CATEGORY: politics & voting rights DATE: 09/15/2006 09:12:43 PM ----- BODY:Brooklyn’s 11th Congressional District, a black-majority Voting Rights Act district, retained black representation last Tuesday–but just barely. In a race that pitted three relatively well-known black candidates against a well-funded white city councilman (See “NY District 11: A Prism of Race and Politics in the U.S. ”), there was a high likelihood that a split black vote would lead to the same result that occurred in majority-black Tennessee District 9 : the election of a white candidate to represent a majority-black district. Much of the commentary on these contests, including my own, has explored their racial dimensions. But another salient factor should not elide analysis: over-ambition, both black and white.
Brooklyn councilwoman Yvette Clarke (pictured above) eked out a 5 point victory over David Yassky in New York District 11, but she and her black opponents, Chris Owens and Carl Andrews, should be summons to answer this question: why did you put your own personal ambitions ahead of the greater goal of black representation for black people? And to David Yassky, the white candidate, the question should be asked: why should black people entrust you with their vote if by your actions you suggest that none among them is more qualified than you to represent their interests? The same hard questions should be put to the thirteen black candidates and one (ultimately victorious) white candidate in Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. There, State Sen. Steve Cohen prevailed with 29% of the vote.
----- EXTENDED BODY:Cynics will undoubtedly respond that politics is the symbiosis of ambition, making the questions naive. I, too, am a cynic–but one who appreciates history. The struggles to obtain a black franchise, the lives that were lost, and more specifically the efforts to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965, were not endeavors to create employment opportunities for black political aspirants. In the words of the Voting Rights Act itself, the goal was to give black voters equal opportunity “to participate in the political process and to elect the representatives of their choice.” I think that goal is lost on black candidates when they risk black representation for their own advancement. Likewise, I think the goal of the Act is lost on white candidates when they exploit divisions in the black vote in the hopes of getting elected. It is not a question of whether a white candidate can adequately represent black interests. Anyone who takes a moment to observe the disproportionately white composition of all levels of government, and of the electoral contests that produce our governments, should know that most blacks vote for white candidates more often than they are even given an opportunity to vote for a black candidate. Thus, the question is, how can a white candidate whose candidacy in a black district per se illustrates an indifference to black under-representation possibly claim to be capable of representing black interests?
If the scenarios that played out in Tennessee District 9 and New York District 11 were replicated in the years immediately following passage of the Voting Rights Act, they would have significantly retarded the growth of black political power. Shirley Chisolm (pictured), the first black occupant of the seat in what is today New York District 11, did not face a potential split in the black vote, as she competed against only black opponents in the Democratic primary. But there was a prevailing understanding after the court-ordered creation of the district that its purpose was to reflect the wishes of black voters. That understanding has clearly dissipated, not just in reference to District 11 but regarding black districts generally.
Democratic Party efforts to stay afloat amid the flight of white voters from the party has led to the creation of fewer districts in which there are black super-majorities. A black super-majority district is one containing a black population of 65% or more. As a result, according to political scientist David Canon, even when blacks are elected from marginally black-majority districts, the white minority population exerts a dilutive influence, often helping to elect a more moderate black representative than is preferred by a majority of black voters. Representative Cynthia McKinney’s troubles can in part be traced to this phenomenon. Add to this already fragile state of affairs the inability of black political aspirants to discipline themselves–to think beyond the higher office or the larger salary–and the black body politic as we know it stands on the praecipe of extinction.
Black voters will ultimately have to take matters into their own hands by forming strong community-based satellite parties (often referred to as political clubs) to conduct informal caucuses among black aspirants as a means of winnowing the field. There’s nothing to compel the losers in such a process to abide the results, but there is likewise nothing to prevent the satellite party from punishing the sore loser, both by concentrating resources on its preferred candidate and by visiting electoral and professional retribution on the black candidate who risks a district’s loss of black representation for his own personal interests. Black voters cannot afford another District 11 scare or another District 9 defeat.
----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Gandalph Mantooth EMAIL: tetsuwanatom1@gmail.com IP: 71.228.199.206 URL: http://dorknation.wordpress.com DATE: 09/16/2006 03:07:10 AM I worked in TN Dem politics for several years a decade or so ago. Coincidentally I also have ties to the 11th and NYC politics. As for the 9th, I seriously doubt it is as simple as ambitious politicians letting their dreams get ahead of The Dream. Not every Black candidate who ran in the 9th has serious ambitions, meaning that they were not the most viable candidates, and some never will be, not for a Congressional seat. Cohen's ambition for that seat has been known for a long time, and perhaps felt like when Ford Jr. jumped in and ran after his father retired, he was passed over. Everyone also knew the only way Cohen could win was to split the Black vote. Period. Cohen did his time like a good soldier, waiting his turn, not running against Ford Jr. One may make their own inferences, however, it appears as if Cohen's victory in the primary was as much machine politics as it was "race and over-ambition." Also telling, Cohen earned 81% of the White vote. Progressives in Memphis were furious with Black voters who chose to go with one of the Black candidates. Then looky there, all the White people voted for the White guy. Of course we know he was just the most qualified . . . ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: black realist EMAIL: IP: 67.82.26.34 URL: DATE: 09/16/2006 07:24:51 AM Mantooth, When non-viable black candidates enter the race and aid and abet the splitting of the black vote, it's even worse than over-ambition. It's downright delusional on their parts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the dissent EMAIL: IP: 70.108.43.114 URL: DATE: 09/16/2006 11:40:57 AM This series of posts is disturbing on several levels. Professor Smith claims to have an appreciation for history, and yet he pines for the days of the political machine. The idea of “visiting electoral and professional retribution” on those who don’t walk in lockstep with the boss is astonishingly regressive. Yes, let’s consolidate power in a tiny elite, turn a blind eye to graft and other means of corruption (which are part and parcel of any machine), and punish free thinkers by boycotting their businesses and snubbing them at cocktail parties. That’s the answer. And if white people are, as Professor Smith says, “[in]capable of representing black interests,” does the same hold true the other way? Are black people incapable of representing white interests? If Barack Obama is elected president, will he represent only the 12% of the population that identifies itself as black? I’m a white person living in the District of Columbia. Will Mayor Adrian Fenty, who is black, not represent me? The worst part of Professor Smith’s proposition, though, is that it is self-defeating. No doubt, it would send a few more black members to Congress. (Though perhaps only a very few; despite Professor Smith’s contention that “there was a high likelihood” that the 11th would elect a white man, it emphatically did not.) But by advocating a racist political machine in the heart of one of the world’s great progressive cities, he makes it very difficult for whites (who, like it or not, make up some 70% of this country) to help. White people are part of the problem, but because of their numbers, they will have to be part of the solution as well. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: avid reader EMAIL: IP: 70.108.43.114 URL: DATE: 09/16/2006 12:20:55 PM "Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant—the one who wanted to help the Muslims and the whites get together—and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying?" "Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then—like all [black] Muslims—I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me twelve years." "That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days—I'm glad to be free of them." Malcolm X 1965 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: black realist EMAIL: IP: 67.82.26.34 URL: DATE: 09/16/2006 06:40:58 PM To "the dissent": Let's at least be accurate about what Professor Smith's post acutally said: "It is not a question of whether a white candidate can adequately represent black interests. Anyone who takes a moment to observe the disproportionately white composition of all levels of government, and of the electoral contests that produce our governments, should know that most blacks vote for white candidates more often than they are even given an opportunity to vote for a black candidate. Thus, the question is, how can a white candidate whose candidacy in a black district per se illustrates an indifference to black under-representation possibly claim to be capable of representing black interests?" Your response does not begin to reconcile the contradictory conduct of showing indifference to black under-representation by reducing that representation and simultaneously purporting to be capable of representing black interests. As for your question of whether a black can represent whites, they can and they do--usually better than whites do. I refer you to "What's the Matter With Kansas," a telling expose on white voters' inability to rationally comprehaned their own self-interests, interests whites would realize coincide with those of black voters if whites were not hamstrung by their own racism. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: michael EMAIL: pbrrules22@yahoo.com IP: 70.143.97.200 URL: http://drinksoakedlawstudents.blogspot.com/ DATE: 09/16/2006 08:24:27 PM I agree with the dissent. "And to David Yassky, the white candidate, the question should be asked: why should black people entrust you with their vote if by your actions you suggest that none among them is more qualified than you to represent their interests?" It is racist to suggest that a white candidate shouldn't be elected to represent blacks based on her skin color. That judgment should be made based on the policies that they support and their qualifications, not their skin color. Who do you think better serves black interests - condoleeza rice or hillary clinton? John kerry or colin powell? Stephen Breyer or Clarence Thomas? The posts on this site have been getting more and more radical... I am a strong supporter of affirmative action but posts like this are ridiculous. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the dissent EMAIL: IP: 70.108.43.114 URL: DATE: 09/17/2006 12:03:25 AM Thus, the question is, how can a white candidate whose candidacy in a black district per se illustrates an indifference to black under-representation possibly claim to be capable of representing black interests? I reject this question for a couple of reasons. First, it’s tautological. It’s like asking, “How can a blind man claim that he can see?” It makes sense internally but it doesn’t go anywhere. Second, I disagree with the outrageous claim that any white person who runs in a heavily minority district is per se indifferent to black under-representation. This extreme proposition is easily refuted with a hypothetical: what if a white child was adopted and raised by a black family in the 11th district? Would she too be incapable of representing black interests? Or take the case of Steve Cohen, who recently won the Democratic primary in the largely black 9th district of Tennessee. Cohen has spent his career fighting for poor black folks, and, by some accounts, is the most liberal politician in the state. Yet according to Professor Smith, all of that is irrelevant. What matters is skin color. Cohen, a white man, is automatically dismissed as indifferent to his constituents and incapable of representing them. Professor Smith, have you really that little faith in humanity? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the dissent EMAIL: IP: 70.108.43.114 URL: DATE: 09/17/2006 01:36:52 PM Black Realist: The book you refer to—What’s the Matter with Kansas?—is compelling only if you accept the author’s premise: that economic values are the only values worth voting on. But this is rarely the case for voters of any stripe. If it were, then blacks who reach the highest income tiers would all become Republicans. George F. Will makes this point nicely in his column this morning: “All would be well if voters would vote based on important issues—material, economic concerns; their wallets—rather than unimportant ones such as abortion, the definition of marriage, the coarsening of the culture and other moral anxieties. But if those issues are unimportant, why is it that liberals, adamantly supporting partial-birth abortion and celebrating judicial redefinitions of marriage, are so uncompromising about them?” ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: black realist EMAIL: IP: 67.82.26.34 URL: DATE: 09/17/2006 02:07:47 PM To the dissent: Actually, the premise of What's the Matter with Kansas is considerably more sophisticated than you describe it to be. The author posits that white conservatives elevate social issues--many of which, I would add, are stalking horses for various forms of prejudice--above their own economic well-being. The net of effect of this, the author argues, isn't the achievement of social conservatism, a goal most elected conservatives aspire to only on a polemical and theoretic level. Rather, the net effect is the advancement of the economic interests of the richest 1 or 2% of the population, most of whom who are utterly unconcerned about the lives of the clamoring white conservatives or anything or anybody else aside from the preservation of their wealth. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the dissent EMAIL: IP: 70.108.43.114 URL: DATE: 09/17/2006 02:41:13 PM Black Realist: I don’t disagree with anything you said in your last post. In fact, I agree that many conservatives in Kansas are motivated, in part, by vaguely bigoted worldviews. However, they do have reasons for the way they vote, and we liberals would be wise to listen to them. The past few elections have shown that you can’t win with big cities alone. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David C. EMAIL: IP: 24.12.118.170 URL: DATE: 09/17/2006 04:38:51 PM The "over-ambition" of black candidates in these races is represented by the distinct advantages of incumbency in Congressional elections. The truth is, once you send folks to Congress they only leave when they decide to -- two-time loser, Cynthia McKinney nothwithstanding. This surely motivated the folks in Memphis and in New York's district. Surely Harold Ford Jr would have been easily reelected, as would have Major Owens in NYC had they decided to run. So the strength of Congressional incumebency is probably the biggest explanation. Also, the question I'd pose to Prof. Smith (one that I am sure he has a ready answer for) is: "Where else are they going to get elected?" Many of these folks are not serious candidates for city-wide office because of the dynamics of race, which lead to them focusing their ambition on Congressional seats that can be won, if they are lucky enough to get the Democratic nomination, right? The not so subtle glass ceiling on the electoral ambitions of black elected officials is real. Just compare the career of Kurt Schmoke as compared to Baltimore's current (white) mayor O'Malley. Democratic incumbency in the governor's mansion notwithstanding, black elected officials do not dream as high as their white counterparts. I think this helps to explain much of the intense intra-racial competition here. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Terry S. EMAIL: IP: 150.108.67.66 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 06:42:50 PM David, I don't think we disagree about a root cause of what prompts blacks to covet these congressional seats. Indeed, I'm well aware of your (if you're David Canon) theory of "bottled up" black political aspirations. I simply believe that the time has come for black candidates to reckon with the potential adverse consequences of this bottled up ambition. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David C. EMAIL: IP: 24.12.118.170 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 08:44:26 AM Prof. Smith, I am not the David of whom you speak, but I do think we agree about the causes, but I am at least midly suspicious of the solution that you offer, but I think that you raise an important suggestion worthy of serious consideration. I would also like to offer up New Orleans' congressional race as one that warrants serious attention. Katrinia dispersion of the black population notwithstanding, there are at least six serious black candidates challenging Bill Jefferson in this upcoming election, which is likely to have the consequence of re-electing Jefferson (which would be a horrible mistake at this point) or the election of a white candidate -- possibly even a white Republican. Here, rather than an "open" seat we are faced with a very vulnerable, but well-financed incumbent. I am wondering if you think this would be an example of black overambition or whether there are just too many dynamics going on in NO to be able to draw any conclusions. I would also like to offer up what I take to be the poisonous side of overambition, that is the extent to which black candidates will not challenge for a seat while it is held by a white, but as soon as a "pioneer" black wins a formerly white seat, black politicians will then begin to see the seat as available to them and challenge the black "pioneer". Again, I am suspicious of claims of desert in political office, but this raises the "crabs in the bucket" issues in black politics that I think your post hints toward. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Terry S. EMAIL: IP: 67.82.26.34 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 09:55:22 AM David C., The NO scenario that you refer to is not unique to NO. In Brooklyn, NY, Edolphus Towns, one of the least effective or representative black congressmen, was re-elected largely because his two black opponents split the opposition vote. A coin toss--or, as I propose, a local caucus--should have decided who the opponent would be. I think your point about black over-ambition manifesting itself only for black seats and/or against black opponents has some factual basis. Elliot Engel is a white congressman from the Bronx who represents a majority-minority district. He has not been subjected to a serious electoral challenge in years, but rest assured that when he retires, all manner of black, brown and yellow candidate will surface. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 04:11:26 PM a coin toss or local caucus? When a community; district etc. cannot see its way clear to reject a clearly ineffective or corrupt representative then it gets what it deserves. How is it even conceivable that someone busted with $90,000 of bribe money in his freezer would win an election. I don't care if there were 200 people running. If the constituency is reasonably responsible, then he should come in 200th place and certainly not in first. That non worthy incumbents regularly get re-elected is more of a commentary on the electorate than it is on those with the ambition to seek political office. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Terry S. EMAIL: IP: 67.82.26.34 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 11:34:28 PM elb1999--Electoral structures often distort electoral outcomes, irrespective of how reasonable voters may be. For instance, to pick up on your example, if there are 200 candidates, and no run-off requiring the ultimate victor to win a majority of the votes, it's possbile for a corrupt candidate to win with a plurality, even though a majority of voters (reasonably) voted against him. Fortunately, in Louisiana, there is a run-off requirement where the winner of the first election does not win 50% plus 1. This may lead to Jefferson's defeat at the polls. ----- -------- AUTHOR: hlewis TITLE: What's Killing Black People? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: race CATEGORY: race DATE: 09/15/2006 01:15:31 PM ----- BODY:A study released this week by the Harvard School of Public Health provides shocking data on life and death in America.
Apparently, an African-American male living in a major U.S. city is likely to die almost 21 years sooner than an Asian-American woman living in New Jersey. (See Gwen Ifill’s interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer).
And its not (only) for the reasons you think.
WMDs?
When asked what is the leading cause of death or injury for African-American male children and men many folks would immediately say (or think) “gun violence”. And those more well-known statistics are still shocking:
The firearm death rate for Black males ages 15 to 19 is more than four times that of White males the same age. More Black children and teens have been killed by firearms over the past six years than all the Black people of all ages we lost in the history of lynchings. (From a 2006 Children’s Defense Fund report)
Although the death rate from gun violence is lower for them, Black women and girls in urban communities are no strangers to violence either.
“Gun culture” is not a “Black thing”, although it is certainly an “American thing”. Unfortunately, as recent events in Montreal demonstrate, it is also the deal in too many places in the world (the portrayal of seemingly non-violent Canadian life in “Bowling for Columbine” notwithstanding).The impact of violence is heightened by the easy availability of handguns (among the “small arms” which Secretary-General Kofi Annan called “weapons of mass destruction, in slow-motion”. The UN figured out that small arms even kill more people each year than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. But, as usual, I digress.
“Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired”?
According to the new study, there are other insidious attacks on Black communities—chronic diseases: high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke. Add to those the well-known impact of HIV/AIDS, the numbers waiting for organ donations (often as a result of the other diseases), stress, and clinical depression.
We’ve been hearing for years about racial and ethnic disparities in health status, access to care, and quality of care. (See, e.g., Centers for Disease Control, “Health Disparities Experienced by Black or African Americans—United States” (Jan. 2005). Grassroots organizers like the Black Women’s Health Imperative and their community partners (formerly the National Black Women’s’ Health Project), NGOs like Physicians for Human Rights (see its webpage on “Racial Disparities in Health Care”) and legal resources such as “Race, Health Care and the Law” (a website run by Professor Vernellia Randall) organize around racial disparities and the right to health.
But most of us do not yet think of these slower destroyers of our communities as crises.Black Public Health as Politics?
According to the press release, the study “concludes that disparities seem to be caused by a number of risk factors such as chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer and … injuries with well-established risk factors like alcohol-related traffic accidents. Income, infant mortality, violence, HIV/AIDS, and lack of health insurance only explained a small percentage of the differences.”
The comparisons were made along racial and regional lines. (Apparently, Asian-American women living in Bergen County, New Jersey are at the high end of 91 years, while Native Americans living in South Dakota are at the low end (at 58 years).
The researchers expressed hope that public health measures such as those against high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking (and described as “cheap and effective”) could then be further tailored for toward the groups most at risk.
What does this mean for those trying to support Black folks’ own efforts to keep surviving and thriving through law and other means? Do the study’s findings ring true? If so, will it be supportive of Black community-based organizing on public health and well-being? Will it
add fodder to the “straighten up and fly right on your own” chorus?
Do they mean, instead, that race and ethnicity and class-conscious public health work in our communities are an essential part of the overall social justice struggle?
I wanted to provide some immediate space for folks to voice any thoughts, comments, and ideas concerning the first episode of Survivor: Cook Island, which aired Thursday night at 8:00 EST. I suspect that others contributors will likely want to write their own posts on the matter in the coming days. In the meantime, I invite you offer your preliminary reactions in this thread.
First, a quick recap:
As most of you are aware, contestants on this season’s Survivor are grouped into tribes based upon ethnicity – African American, Asian American, Latino, and “Caucasian.”
The first challenge was puzzle-based – each tribe had to assemble a boat, paddle out into the sea to a buoy to light a torch, paddle back, assemble a compass puzzle, use pieces from the boat to create a ladder, place the assembled compass puzzle into position on a wall/tower structure, climb the tower structure, and light the torch at the top of the tower.
The first three teams won immunity. The last team went to “tribal council” during which one of their members was voted off.
The Asians came in first, the Latinos came in second, the “Caucasians” came in third, and the African Americans came in last. And last by a significant margin, I might add.
Where is Claude Steele (Mr. Stereotype Threat) when you need him?
The African American team was made up of two men and three women. Initially, the two lighter-skinned women bonded, and appeared to exclude the darker skinned woman. The two men likewise bonded, and excluded all the women.
After the tribe lost the challenge, the three women came together, despite efforts by the two men to bring the dark-skinned woman on to their side.
At tribal council, it was three votes to two – and the biggest, darkest male (who, by the way, had attempted to assume a leadership role in the tribe), was the first person to leave the show.
Now, some initial thoughts:
As an initial matter, the producers trafficked heavily in stereotypes – at least to my eyes. The communal and cooperative Latinos. The Asian refugee with mysterious healing powers. The lazy African American male. The chivalrous white male. I wasn’t shocked by what I saw – more disappointed at the missed opportunity to explore racial and ethnic difference in a new and interesting way.
Second, I wanted very badly to know how the African American team felt losing the first challenge. Did the team view this as a confirmation of some stereotype? Some of the tribe members had spoken of representing “the race” or “the community.” How did they feel they represented?
Third, I wanted to hear more from the other tribes about what their first “victory” (ie. not coming dead last in the first challenge) meant to them, and what they thought of the fact that the African Americans came in last.
Fourth, I was somewhat taken aback when I heard the African American tribe members speak in terms of representing the race. I honestly didn’t feel that I was represented. And I can imagine a number of other folks (southerners, baby boomers, etc.) feeling the same way.
Finally, I think that one of the most interesting storylines will be the relationships on the Asian American team – specifically between the refugee and his teammates. There is a tremendous cultural gulf there, and I’m anxious to see if it gets explored more deeply in subsequent episodes.
Anyway, these are just a few of my preliminary thoughts. What were yours?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the watcher EMAIL: IP: 68.61.191.51 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 11:03:39 PM i found the whole premise disturbing. what does it prove if the black or caucasians tribes win in the artificial scenarios presented by this "reality" show? nothing. likewise, what is revealed if the opposite results hold? nothing. yet many people will apply the results to reinforce many stereotypes that they already hold. i am not against politically incorrect queries or artistic endeavors so long as they are intellectually honest. clearly, the latest survivor is all shock value, providing no redeeming social or intellectual value to justify these racial contests. in the end, it can only cause dissension. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TO EMAIL: IP: 208.27.111.122 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 10:27:55 AM I agree with "the watcher." The premise is a bit disturbing, and there's a less than subtle implication that each team's results should be generalized to the rest of "the race." Thus, every team has the "lose, and you'll confirm or racial stereotypes." It seems unfair, especially for a relatively randomly selected group. On the other hand, to play devil's advocate, this may reflect reality more than many of us care to admit. Jesse Owens had to compete against stereotypes in the Olympics. Black quarterbacks in the NFL are often asked about stereotypes and are held up as test cases to confirm or disprove the validity of the notion that black people can't be effective quarterbacks in the NFL. Maybe this show will make more people aware that many minorities are asked to "represent their race" instead of being evaluated as individuals, and maybe more people will think about what sort of a burden that puts on people and whether it's fair. That said, however, Survivor has never struck me as a show that makes people think--especially not the people who most need to do some thinking. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: saint james (african american, black, american negroe EMAIL: IP: 206.40.161.130 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 03:20:45 PM I also found the premise a little disturbing. I thought about it for a long while and came to the conclusion that I was afraid that certain stereotypes may be reinforced by the groupings. I was shocked when Sekou actually took a nap in the middle of his tribe trying to build a fire (lazy black man stereotype). I must admit I also smiled to myself when the senior white male "stole" a chicken from the asian group (Oppressive colonialist white male sterotype). I'm sure this will stir a lot of crap up for me and those in the country who watch. I wonder what the native americans thought of that move. I also wondered why they weren't invited as a group. We've already seen a good number of white folk participate on this show. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: BigDogg EMAIL: IP: 71.109.29.239 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 10:02:20 PM Interesting how these white supremist tv producers can put on a show and get Black people arguing about its social impact. In case you haven't figured it out yet: it is just entertainment. How about some of you Black intellects getting together to create a tv show which can demonstrate Black people's determination to be self-sufficient and empowered. Black schools and colleges to educate Black students, Black businesses supported by Black people, a Black political party addressing the needs and wants of Black people. Or are you content to continue waiting for these white supremist to display you in the most negative ways possible and you arguing about it? white supremist rely on you reacting the way you do when you see something you find controversial. Let's show ourselves that we can be proactive and disciplined: a Black first agenda. (Black = all descendants of Black Africans) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: GWBush EMAIL: IP: 69.115.133.170 URL: DATE: 09/16/2006 09:26:01 PM Well just goes to show....Latinos can build rafts.. Asian are good at the puzzles. the whities did ok.. and the blacks can't solve puzzles or do well in the water.. Maybe next week's challenge will be easier!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: terry hallinan EMAIL: terryhallinan@hotmail.com IP: 24.59.2.62 URL: DATE: 09/16/2006 09:41:07 PM What team do George Allen's macacas get to be on? There is forensic software available that can provide the mix of continental ancestry and eye color of a perp or an unidentifiable corpse. It has been instrumental in tracking down a serial killer. And it is rarely used. Think about it: our society would prefer to allow the violent murders of more innocents rather than use a politically incorrect hint about the looks and ancestry of the killers. BTW Allen's maccacas are, of course, predominantly caucasian. That would, no doubt, be disturbing news to George. Best, Terry ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: GI EMAIL: lovesettlement@yahoo.com IP: 67.188.96.243 URL: http://lovesettlement.blogspot.com DATE: 09/16/2006 11:00:54 PM Bracey says, "I’m anxious to see if [cultural difference] gets explored more deeply in subsequent episodes." Um. Have you watched Survivor? It's a game show. Nothing much gets "explored deeply" ... except maybe petty annoyances. I mean, watching the fire burn down is "island TV" and bowel obstructions are major plot points. A few seasons back the tribes were segregated by sex and there was much overconfidence on the part of the young males. The boy team ended up losing challenge after challenge because they couldn't work together. Does that say something about the sexes? Something, I suppose. I get a kick out of Survivor. You can't predict who is going to get to the final circle. Last season pudgy black city girl Cirie (doing the ew-icky dance over the dustiness of leaves while setting up camp) ended up in the final few because she was smart about people (and got over her squeamishness over the environment) and because she wasn't the shrinking violet she seemed. If she'd had one more day to practice making fire I'd have bet on her winning the whole thing. Does that say something about race? Something, maybe, but what? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: terry hallinan EMAIL: terryhallinan@hotmail.com IP: 24.59.2.62 URL: DATE: 09/17/2006 09:06:29 AM
Last season pudgy black city girl Cirie (doing the ew-icky dance over the dustiness of leaves while setting up camp) ended up in the final few because she was smart about people ...Does that say something about race?Don't know. You haven't told us what her race is. Presumably the "girl" is an African-American but that only describes her cultural affiliation. Skin color is indicative of ancestry but so are many other things. Wouldn't it be nice if we could use the language of science rather than the language of prejudice with its tribal connotations? The difference between what the DNA tells us and what bigots claim can be the difference between life and death in medicine and in other aspects of our culture. Best, Terry ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: AC EMAIL: IP: 68.68.240.72 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 12:31:28 AM I'm way late on this, but I made an interesting notation. They already put tribes together with men and women. I noticed that the two teams that came in last both had three women and two men, whereas the two teams that came in first had three men and two women. Further, the 'Asian' team that won had three athletic men and two athletic women, while the Latino team had that one big, really slow guy. And, no offense to the three black ladies, but none of them seemed that athletic at all (they refered to themselves as city girls I think), and the dude who was voted off who tried to make himself 'the leader' was as out of shape as that hefty latino guy. Those two are clearly the deadest weight, and I'd hazard a guess that that other guy is voted off ASAP by his team (they previewed the complaints about this guy already anyways). ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 02:41:25 PM I have to agree with what many people have said on this post- Survivor is nothing more than a game show, therefore NOTHING can be learned from it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Chrissy EMAIL: IP: 24.125.85.28 URL: DATE: 09/21/2006 09:20:44 PM Yes, it is true; survivor is just a game show. However, let's not be naive about this. In the perfect world that is what all viewers will think. In the real world people are sitting at home waiting for stereotypes to be fulfilled. They expect to see the black team struggle with tasks and everyday living. This will only reinforce how other races feel about blacks being inferior. Therefore, I think the black tribe should prove that we are a race to be reckoned with an prove to be the superior tribe on the island, not the weakest link. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/23/2006 12:04:17 PM "In the real world people are sitting at home waiting for stereotypes to be fulfilled. They expect to see the black team struggle with tasks and everyday living. This will only reinforce how other races feel about blacks being inferior. Therefore, I think the black tribe should prove that we are a race to be reckoned with an prove to be the superior tribe on the island, not the weakest link." Yes Chrissy you're right about this. But tell what's the point of trying to educate ignorant people? Do you really believe that if the black tribe won that these people would think any differently of blacks? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: topicstarter EMAIL: karel@gmail.com IP: 81.177.15.89 URL: http://www_4_1.gmail.com/ DATE: 10/16/2006 12:46:51 PM ionolsen19 Your home page its greatwww_4_2 www_4_3 www_4_4 www_4_5 www_4_6 www_4_7 www_4_8 www_4_9 www_4_10 www_4_11 ----- -------- AUTHOR: sjeffries TITLE: The True Beneficiaries of Affirmative Action STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: race CATEGORY: race DATE: 09/14/2006 07:59:13 PM ----- BODY:
I’m amused by those who oppose higher-education affirmative action on the grounds it represents a deviation from the purportedly meritocratic means by which power is allocated in this society. We know the narrative: race-conscious admissions policies contradict the objective, neutral indicia of merit that otherwise determine admission to selective colleges and universities; affirmative action therefore should be ended to restore the primacy of these criteria. Many defenders of affirmative action then expend inordinate time and energy arguing that such alleged deviations are justified on the basis of remedial, diversity, or other reasons.
This narrative of course distracts from the fundamental challenge affirmative action seeks to address: the structural predisposition of institutions to privilege criteria that correlate more closely with race and class than any meaningful notion of merit. In the newly published The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way Into Elite Colleges, former Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Golden exposes and substantiates these institutional biases in favor of White elites and the extent to which these sorts of preferences predominate over others.
The critical have long known that legacies and applicants identified by development offices comprise large proportions of admittees at selective colleges and universities — and, further, that these sorts of preferences inure inevitably to White elites. The numbers of White students receiving legacy and development preferences, as a consequence, greatly outnumber the comparatively few African-Americans and Hispanics attending these schools, let alone the number receiving affirmative action. And these preferences don’t even include the distortions precipitated by the SAT and the availability of expensive test-prep courses — the wealthy often obtain artificially the test scores they so piously proclaim as indicative of qualification.
The publication of Daniel Golden’s text, in this way, reminds us of the brazen hypocrisy of critics who discern anti-meritocratic preferences only when it suits their political purposes. If for that reason alone, his book is an important contribution to the affirmative-action debate.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cmoney EMAIL: IP: 68.48.19.250 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 08:26:12 PM George W. Bush is against affirmative action because he thinks it means that it would help unqualified people would get into schools the way he got into Yale. Affirmative action is nowhere near as favorable a tool for admission as are the legacy admissions policies of some schools. Affirmative action requires that the applicant at least be qualified for admission. Legacy admission requires little more than having a parent who graduated from the institution and is current on his alumni association dues. Bush's misapprehension of affirmative action is likely based upon the means by which he was admitted to Yale. I think most minorities would rather be in the position to accept legacy admission than rely upon affirmative action any day of the week. As long as this inequitable legacy policy continues, affirmative action will be needed at these instituions. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anon EMAIL: IP: 151.200.237.9 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 08:49:06 PM If meritocracy is a good thing--and I've never heard a compelling argument that it wasn't--then this post strikes me as a good argument for abolishing legacy preferences and demanding class-based affirmative action to make college admission more meritocratic. It does not strike me as a good supporting argument for race-based affirmative action. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DM EMAIL: IP: 64.231.173.218 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 09:25:47 PM I am tired of the AA debate right now. Can we create the conditions in which black students excel academically and gain admission is decent numbers without the benefit of AA even if the present system continues? This strikes me as a more important issue. That said, I'll respond to Anon's post. You're right, it’s not a good argument for supporting AA, but that's because it isn't intended -- not directly anyway -- to do that. It is intended to undermine one argument used in opposition to AA. The arguments for AA -- the convincing ones anyway – will refer to a racist history’s a legacy of disadvantage, contemporary racial stigma, and the like. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the watcher EMAIL: IP: 68.61.191.51 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 10:53:44 PM This narrative of course distracts from the fundamental challenge affirmative action seeks to address: the structural predisposition of institutions to privilege criteria that correlate more closely with race and class than any meaningful notion of merit. What criteria would you use to define merit? Please take into account that admissions committees have limited resources and time. What other criteria correlates highly with college performance? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anon EMAIL: IP: 151.200.237.9 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 11:23:26 PM DM, I agree with your first point entirely. Frankly, I think the AA debate distracts far too much from making much needed changes to K-12 education. As for your second point, that Prof. Jeffries "intended to undermine one argument used in opposition to AA", I don't think his post does that either. Prof. Jeffries exposes, correctly to my mind, that many people who argue from "meritocracy" are hypocrites. But attempting to undermine the argument that race-based AA is anti-meritocratic by pointing to the speaker's hypocrisy--even when correct--is the very definition of the ad hominem fallacy. The only way to undermine the hypocrites' argument is to show either that race-based AA is, in fact, meritocratic or to show that meritocrasy isn't worthwhile in the first place. I don't think it's possible to show the former and I'm not sure that anyone believes the latter; I always thought true meritocracy was the long-term goal. If it is, I think we stand a much better chance of getting there by eliminating old anti-meritocratic policies rather than off-setting them with new ones. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DM EMAIL: IP: 64.231.173.218 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 12:56:53 AM Anon, I make a claim about the intent of the argument, specifically that it is intended to undermine one argument in opposition to AA, not (directly) support AA. You seem to respond by saying that the argument in question is not convincing. This is completely beside the point as far as my post goes. In any case, I don't think you're right. I mentioned "one argument" without saying which one I had in mind. In fact, I did not even have in mind the particulars of Prof. Jeffries’ post. I meant arguments along the same general line. Here he may have highlighted the hypocrisy issue, but there is another, more important point to be made: This is that, on the assumption that legacy admissions are OK – which is not an unreasonable assumption in this context since so few of AA’s opponents seem to be against the practice – the argument that because AA deviates from a strict norm of objective merit it is unjustified is unjustified. I think arguments of this kind – which I take the argument of this post more or less to be – are convincing. (I agree, however, that if you are not willing to grant that legacy admissions are OK all you’re left with is an hypocrisy argument.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.222.153 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 07:30:04 AM There no inherent superiority to any shoe size over another. Good fit to the foot is clearly superior to poor fit. Not getting into a Hate America Ivy school, becoming a millionaire plumber by working hard to help others is OK. In my field, the standard brand names were behind. Those seeking cutting edge skills had to have insider info about the best places, at Midwest or Southern public universities. Any held assumptions or using US News lists led to dead ends as far as prestige and earnings. These best places were not overly subscribed, and were open to anyone with the minimum of qualifications, without a negative attitude about minority students. Yet few minority candidates took advantage of excellent opportunities, hanging like ripe fruit. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anon EMAIL: IP: 70.88.114.162 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 12:30:30 PM DM, Thanks for your responses. I'm not sure that your assumption that critics of AA generally have no problem with legacy preferences is a reasonable one, but I may be biased. I'm certainly not willing to grant that legacy preferences are OK, and neither are the thoughtful critics with whom I associate. While many think that legacy preferences are not open to the same constitutional challenges as race-based AA, they nevertheless recognize that such preferences are profoundly anti-meritocratic and oppose them on policy grounds. I will grant that there are undoubtedly many opponents who are not this thoughtful. I will also grant that, to the extent that any of them argue that AA perverts what would otherwise be an objectively meritocratic system, Prof. Jeffries's post undermines their argument, even if it is pretty low-hanging fruit. But I suppose even very weak arguments are worth refuting, if only to clear the table for more substantive debate. I've enjoyed this dialogue. Thanks again. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anon EMAIL: IP: 70.88.114.162 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 12:32:06 PM I notice that in writing my post, I used the same cliche ("low-hanging fruit") as SC. Next thing you know I'll be calling myself a rent-seeking criminal cultist. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 01:05:08 PM 'I notice that in writing my post, I used the same cliche ("low-hanging fruit") as SC. Next thing you know I'll be calling myself a rent-seeking criminal cultist." Anon Eeeeek! Please, I beg you, we do not did another SC!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.209.202 URL: DATE: 09/16/2006 12:11:41 AM Deb: When I am through with the lawyer profession, you will kiss my hand in gratitude. Your salary will be double, as will your public and self-esteem. Not even your mother will have done as much for you. There will be 800,000 lawyers, instead of 1.3 million. And every self-declared goal of every law subject will no longer be in utter failure. You need more more faith in my unconditional but corrective love. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ed Hopkins EMAIL: IP: 71.33.67.248 URL: http://www.maxambit.com DATE: 09/16/2006 10:39:06 AM Lani Guinier's "confirmative action" is the position I support. I've found her to be the most persuasive scholar participating in these affirmative action and meritocracy in academia debates. I request that one of her colleagues or former students ask her about the release date for her forthcoming book, Meritocracy, Inc.: How Wealth Became Merit, Class Became Race, and College Education Became a Gift from the Poor to the Rich, and submit a post on Blackprof.com about her book before it hits the streets. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/16/2006 12:57:28 PM okay- whatever you say SC. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ed Hopkins EMAIL: IP: 71.33.67.248 URL: http://www DATE: 09/17/2006 10:20:20 PM I read Golden’s book today. This book covers much more than legacy boosts. I thought I knew of all the tools the aristocracy and the “glitterati” (celebrities) used to buy admissions boosts at elite schools for their underperforming kin. I was very wrong. Golden schooled me, but he did not surprise me. Affluence can buy much more for kin than elite private K12 educations, great health care, safe communities, cosmopolitan lifestyles, leisure time (affluent teens probably hold fewer part-time jobs during high school than less affluent teens), test prep courses, and private tutors. For some wealthy teens, all that stuff just ain’t enough. In the book’s final chapter, Golden recommends that six types of preferences for undeserving wealthy should be abolished at elite schools. I believe all his recommendations will be ignored unless significant media pressure and political pressure all but forces elite schools to run their fund-raising and admissions operations as Caltech’s. Golden describes Caltech’s wealth-blind and very meritocratic approach in Chapter 9. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paradigm shift EMAIL: IP: 68.40.194.84 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 12:33:37 AM Meritocracy is a noble ideal worth working towards, but it is a myth that has never existed in this country. I worked in undergraduate admissions for 2 years with a top 50 school and affirmative action comes in all forms. This is why I support the use of race as ONE factor in the admissions process. That being said, I must concede that "diversity" goals have undermined our movement towards meritocracy. At least at my former institution, diversity reached a point where I felt we were admitting too many "take-a-chance" (the term we use for students that are marginally qualified at best) black students, simply to improve our "diversity" numbers. Academic qualifications almost became a secondary concern once our leadership put pressure on us to increase the number of black and latino students. My own experience has led me to conclude that no amount of affirmative action will lead to the proportional representation of under-represented students anytime soon. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: thomson EMAIL: thomson@gmail.com IP: 81.177.15.58 URL: http://www_4_1.gmail.com/ DATE: 10/17/2006 03:32:01 AM ionolsen20 So interesting site, thanks!www_4_2 www_4_3 www_4_4 www_4_5 www_4_6 www_4_7 www_4_8 www_4_9 www_4_10 www_4_11 ----- -------- AUTHOR: cbracey TITLE: One Man’s “Nigga” is Another Man’s “Redneck” STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: history CATEGORY: culture CATEGORY: history CATEGORY: race DATE: 09/14/2006 06:06:19 PM ----- BODY:Professor Armour’s “West Coast Nigga Thinking” posts brought to mind an essay by conservative scholar Thomas Sowell. The essay, entitled “Black Rednecks and White Liberals,” provocatively argues that what most folks today understand to be African American “urban ghetto” culture is in fact a bizarre (mis)appropriation of what Sowell calls “redneck” or “cracker” culture.
According to Sowell, this redneck culture is sourced from particular regions of England and Scotland that are the ancestral homes of many white southerners. Redneck culture, Sowell argues, is characterized by an aggressive and pugnacious disposition, braggadocio, self-indulgence, apathy, and disregard for the future.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. Sowell observes that this culture “long ago died out where it originated in Britain, while surviving in the American South.” He goes on to note that, in later years, the culture “largely died out among both white and black Southerners, while still surviving today in the poorest and worst of the urban black ghettos.”
In other words, Sowell suggests that American black society inherited this “redneck culture,” and that modern African American ghetto culture is, ironically, just a variant of “redneck” or “cracker” culture.
Now, Sowell finds upsetting not only that certain blacks have embraced the worst of the European cultural tradition, but that this black version of “cracker culture” has come to represent black identity. And who does Sowell blame for the promulgation of distorted black identity?
White liberals.
According to Sowell, white liberals have “aided and abetted the perpetuation of a counterproductive and self-destructive lifestyle” among black Americans. In particular, Sowell points to support of welfare policy, opposition to strict “law and order” policing, and suburban white support of what he calls “gangsta rap.” As Sowell puts it,
The chafing restrictions of civilization, which can at times become irksome to people of any color, may be vicariously thrown off by those white intellectuals who cheer on outlandish and even lawless behavior by black hoodlums or entertainers. Blacks in effect become the mascots of these intellectuals, symbolizing and acting out the latter’s resistance to “society” – or, more accurately, civilization.
So let me pose a few questions for discussion. As a threshold matter, is Sowell’s argument that “ghetto” culture is really just a black version of “redneck” culture persuasive in your mind? If so, what does this tell us about racial identity and authenticity of racial identity performance? Second, is Sowell correct to blame white liberals for the longevity of redneck culture in black urban communities? And finally, are you persuaded by Sowell’s conclusion that blacks who adopt a “ghetto culture” identity are in effect the mascots of gutless white liberal, anti-establishment intellectuals – mascots that perform the ritual of resistance to society, but unlike their white intellectual promoters, bear the tragic scars of their anti-social lifestyle?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 206.176.148.135 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 06:34:53 PM Sowell's theory is very interesting. I can't get pass the first question though. I have no frame of reference to posit that black ghetto culture sprung from white redneck culture. I just don't see the connection b/t the two. What's his basis for proving up this theory. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the Rising Jurist EMAIL: trj@onebluesun.org IP: 66.188.116.97 URL: http://www.onebluesun.org/trj DATE: 09/14/2006 06:53:57 PM I suppose it depends on what qualities we consider prototypically "redneck" and "urban/ghetto." I am a white male, raised in the rural South, so I can speak to the first half of the equation. I think Sowell's definition of redneck culture, while accurate to a point, is far too broad. I think the actual behaviors are secondary to what motivates them. Rednecks tend to be less educated, and content with that fact, because their life track doesn't require higher education. They plan to have jobs in manufacturing, transport and agriculture. There is a high value placed on familial bonds and religious networks. There is an inherent distrust of authority and a general "I'll mind for me and mine" attitude. And then there is the underlying racism, which I see as a key distinction, especially if we want to use the term redneck (as opposed to hick, for example). So the question is, for people more familiar with the urban half of the issue, are the similarities that strong? My white-man-looking-in feeling is that they might be. Many of the qualities are there, albeit tweaked for life in a setting that is urban rather than rural. As for the idea that white liberals created the ghetto redneck, did white liberals also create the rural redneck? It seems that this is more of a family thing; if you were raised a redneck, you'll raise rednecks. This is an interesting one and I will be curious to hear some more thoughts. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ricardo EMAIL: Ricardo_R_Je@hotmail.com IP: 68.80.78.94 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 08:28:03 PM This is really an interesting post to me. I have long observed that urban northern African-Americans although different from the 2oth century immigrant white Europeans: Italian, Greek, German, Polish, Jewish, Scandanavian, etc., are not different from the Scotch-Irish and English of the South and Appalacia. Like it or not, they lived together crossed bloodlines, music, language and eatting habits. It just makes sense that African-Americans share many cultural traits with rural poor whites whose ancestors immigrated from the British Isles in the 17th and 18th centuries. That said I do have one problem with Sowell's theory, it fails to consider the agency of black people in those areas of the South and Appalachia where Anglo-whites settled. Even in the most oppressive systems, the powerless retain agency. Thus, society is always dynamic with influences moving back and forth across class and race lines. If this blog presents a cogent picture of Sowell's theory, the latter surrenders all facets of African-American identity to either "rednecks" or "white liberals". If anything, the South became a cultural melting pot of Anglo-European and African cultures. Afterall, the banjo came from Africa, but is played by Southern and Appalachian whites. However, Sowell's black mascot critique should not be dismissed. I think that elites look to people living at the margins of mainstream society for entertainment. America has a love hate relationship with central power and authority. From inception, the United States was about bucking authority. Today, conformist elite and middle class America look to the chaotic lives of poor "wild" blacks as a source of rebelliousness and noncomformity without actually leaving the shores to found a new country and rebel. The Italians and Latinos have served a similar function in American culture. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TO EMAIL: IP: 208.27.111.122 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 10:31:17 AM This is a very interesting post, but it seems to me that one can't agree or disagree with Sowell without doing a bit of research. I hope to read his essay soon. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: redneck scholar EMAIL: redneck@scholar.edu IP: 128.192.31.42 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 10:56:54 AM As someone from the redneck background, I think that the description provided here (aggressive, braggadocio, etc.) coupled with some of the comment descriptions (familial bonds, distrust of authority, etc.) have it about right. I would only add "ignorance as a virtue" to the depiction. I think that many of the posts have illuminated this situation quite well, so I wont add too much; just two main points: 1) it is quite likely that redneck culture wasn't "borrowed" by blacks, but rather, while blacks certainly suffered in ways that redneck whites did not, both groups (in addition to prior Scottish groups) were drawn to this culture because of social and economic dynamics associated with their relatively impoverished situation. So, it isnt one causing or yielding the other, but rather a common cause of both. Sowell's theoretical causality may be spurious. 2) Regarding the ghetto culture being perpetuated by white liberals - I would suggest that consistent with #1, both ghetto and redneck culture are perpetuated by elites, both conservative and liberal, who have every incentive to maintain these perhaps unhealthy cultural stereotypes and associated behaviors. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Patriot EMAIL: IP: 66.56.74.26 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 03:57:03 PM First of all and most disturbly is the fact that we have whites in our blog. What gives? Oh yes I see now... Anyways,from my exprience living in the South now for over ten years, I find Sowell's theory to be very accurate. It would be typilcal of whites knowing their nature to acusse the ones they opress of anything negitive just to keep the spotlight off of them. I have seen more drug dealing, steeling, killing, etc. from whites then i have fron any other race. Look at their past and you will see them. Also keep in mind that part of the medias job is to keep them looking normal. Lastly as we begain to see the truth as it is we must remember that Superimacy root word is super and I have yet to find the white to be that. Unless he's keeping his ability to fly, leap tall buildings in a single bound.... You get my point. Until then we need to stop giving them credit they don't desurve. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.209.202 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 08:56:08 PM Prof. Bracey: This blog post is correct. End of story. Going beyond, this culture is the face of America abroad, and popular, imitated by youths, including youths among our enemies, and makes America a lot of money. The lifestyle is compelling enough that a high murder rate before age 30 does not deter it. This element of complexity should be addressed by Sowell. It explains its stability and intractability. It will be around, for a while, in part, because we all want to live the lifestyle. Sometimes, I feel really stupid going to work. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paradigm shift EMAIL: IP: 68.40.194.84 URL: DATE: 09/17/2006 12:28:44 AM Bingo! God Bless Sowell for not caving into the politically correct culture of silence that has indirectly helped perpetutate the commercialization of ghetto nihilism. If more scholars and opinion leaders had the courage to confront the moral decadence that characterizes America and hip hop culture, instead of simply focusing on "structural impediments", maybe more brothers would get respect coming out of college than coming out of jail. The fact that 3-6 Mafia received an Oscar is enough evidence that white liberals are jeering on "black rednecks." Those of us who defend the "wayward blacks" lose sight of the fact that drug dealers and pimps probably make more than all of us. Contrary to conventional wisdom they aren't victims, they're victimizers and immoral opportunists. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 10:44:05 AM Not only have I read the essay, I've read the whole book by the same name, which is well research and goes deeper into the topic. Sowell argument is very convincing. It would do us all good to cast aside the stigma of "black conservative" and start reading people like Sowell. He and those of the same intellectual bent have alot to contribute to the dialogue about what we need to do in black america. On white liberals he is also right in my opinion, but Shelby Steele takes it even further and deeper in his new book "White Guilt". He argues that the civil rights movement left whites with absolutely no moral authority around issues of race. In an attempt to regain moral authority, they have had to try to prove at every instance that they are in fact not racist. He claims they do this by a practice he labels as "disassociation", i.e. they attempt to disassocaite themselves from everything that might be construed as associating them with the legacy of racism. The result is that almost everything that whitel liberals have championed over the last 40 years has been less about helping black people as hit has been about asuaging white guilt over it's racist past. The great society, school desegregation, open ended welfare, affirmative action, social promotion in public schools, etc., etc. all have been meant to say "see we're not racists", (disassociation). The implications of what those policies really meant to and for black people was really not the issue. What was important was that it made white liberals feel that they were not racist and therefore allowed them to gain back some of the moral authority around race they lost because of historic racism. Another interesting theory put forth by a black conservative. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ricardo EMAIL: Ricardo_R_Je@hotmail.com IP: 68.80.78.94 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 08:48:43 PM Many of you ignore black agency. I'm I correct to understand that many of you see culture as flowing singularly from whites to blacks in America? I really have a problem with that top down, one way view of the American experience. Is it not at least somewhat paternalistic, if not racist to hold whites accountable for the cultural atributes of blacks? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paradigm shift EMAIL: IP: 68.40.194.84 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 12:24:17 AM Ricardo- It is racist- and that's the point. We tend to laugh off conservative arguments against affirmative action like "the soft bigotry of low expectations" but this is precisely the racism that underscores the racial views of many white liberals. The "redneck argument" does not seek to absolve blacks of agency. Instead it highlights a pernicious alliance between the liberals that remain silent on black moral & cultural decadence in the name of political correctness (in the case of whites) or solidarity (in the case of blacks), and the "rednecks" that cash in on the moral relativism of our era. Furthermore, Sowell's argument seeks to trace the origins of this ghetto culture, while pointing out the erroneous assumptions we make about "black culture." Those not familiar with Sowell- should know that he has been one of the leading critics against the notion that blacks cannot compete with whites on "eurocentric" curricula. His research has shown that in the early 1900's black test scores in Washington DC were higher than white test scores. He also shows that northern blacks outscored southern whites on IQ tests for much of the 1st half of the 1900s. This bolsters his argument that southern redneck culture- with it's anti-intellectual stance- is the real culprit for lagging black achievement. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 09:55:58 AM Ricardo, It is neither singular nor a commentary on black culture in general. Most of what is black culture is a direct result of the limitations placed on us during our oppression, i.e. makin something out of nothin. (Food, music, spirituality, communication styles, etc.) All of that indicates black agency. But there is an undeniable strain of black culture, (black ghetto culture), that can clearly be linked to white cracker culture. If you read Sowells essay or better yet the book, the evidence he provides is convincing. It's not a matter of black agency, it's matter of what can happen when cultures collide, especially when one is so much more dominant. The real question now is why does black ghetto culture persist. I think Paradigm hit it on the head. The PC of liberals, (which is another form of Steele's disassociation theory) and the "West Coast Nigga Thinking" of people like professor Armour in the name of solidarity. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cash EMAIL: Georgec@acpwa.org IP: 166.107.152.136 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 01:47:50 PM The MaCoys and the Hacketts ,family fighting family and everything goes with the lost concept of morals and values along with the dope zombies that remind you of night of the living Dead.While the upper elite punks cruse the night slumming for vice. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: didrex EMAIL: didrex_ziy@mbkf.com IP: 218.16.122.88 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 07:30:42 PM Nice site, really! Please visit my homepages too: [url=][/url] Good luck! :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: workathome EMAIL: workathome@013wt3ax46.com IP: 67.176.217.162 URL: http://workathome.blogo.pl/ DATE: 10/02/2006 06:12:33 PM workathome ----- PING: TITLE: 1976 act reform tax URL: http://rxsafemeds.org/1976-act-reform-tax.htm IP: 83.219.129.118 BLOG NAME: 1976 act reform tax DATE: 01/19/2007 10:20:37 PM ----- -------- AUTHOR: soverton TITLE: Congressional Primaries STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: politics & voting rights CATEGORY: politics & voting rights DATE: 09/14/2006 11:47:12 AM ----- BODY:
Two interesting contests . . .
Donna Edwards (right, above) challenged incumbent Al Wynn (right, below) in the Democratic primary in Maryland (Prince George’s County and Montgomery County), accusing him of voting with George W. Bush on Iraq and other issues.
At this point, Al Wynn is slightly ahead of challenger Donna Edwards, but provisional ballots are still being counted. Wynn’s opponents characterized him as a “Joe Lieberman” (who was defeated in the Connecticut primary by Ned Lamont).
Commentary is available in the Gazette, The Washington Post, and on MyDD.
Keith Ellison (right) won the Democratic primary in Minneapolis in a majority white district, and he could very well be the first Muslim in Congress. Details are in the Washington Post.
This seven minute film, A Girl Like Me, was made by Kiri Davis, who is 17. It's about how European features - especially light skin and straight hair - are still perceived as more attractive than African features and the effect on black girls. The movie contains an extraordinary sequence in which African-American children are asked to choose between black and white dolls. Ms. Davis told JET magazine "I heard about [Kenneth Clark's 1940s Doll Experiment that was instrumental in the Brown v. Board of Education case] in middle school and I never really forgot about it. I wanted people to get a mesage about [color complexes]. I just wanted to make a film about what me and my friends were going through."
Watch it and weep.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 11:44:42 AM In a society that is predominantly white, exactly what do we expect the dominant images to be? If we were the dominant culture, what would the dominant images look like? It is up to us to take responsibility for how we are portrayed when we have the opportunity. That means in our homes, our schools and our media. I wonder how many of these little black girls have actually been exposed to anything other than the images of the dominant culture through the TV screen. How many books about proud, happy, beautiful little black girls have been read to them? How much imagery of beautiful black women are on the wall in their homes? How often are they told how beautiful they are or how pretty their hair is? How often do they see images of black women not being admired, but sexualized at the hands of their own media? This is an internal problem people and one WE have to fix. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: NomDeDroit EMAIL: nomdedroit@gmail.com IP: 206.18.111.5 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 02:39:28 PM I don't have a cite handy, but I thought that the Clark study has been found bogus (either that, or that SCOTUS misconstrued its findings). I thought that was the current consensus. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: NomDeDroit EMAIL: nomdedroit@gmail.com IP: 206.18.111.5 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 02:44:26 PM Actually, it looks like the study was valid, but didn't show that segregation caused these negative feelings, because Clark got identical results in non-segregated states - but failed to disclose that to the court. Thus, Brown v. Board wrongly stated that segregation caused the negative feelings in the dolls study. "Indeed, as former NR bright light Ernest van den Haag noted in 1960, the tests Clark conducted were, at minimum, irrelevant--and Clark was more than a bit dishonest. Writing in The Villanova Law Review, van den Haag noted that Clark also ran doll tests in integrated schools up North, and got the same or even more dramatic results as he did in segregated schools. Black kids everywhere chose white dolls over black ones; segregation was irrelevant. Clark didn't tell the Court about those tests." This point probably makes the general point of this post stronger, though. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 02:45:31 PM “In a society that is predominantly white, exactly what do we expect the dominant images to be?” In a society which is multicultural, I would expect to see a variety of females of different shades of color, not the stereotypical “blond haired, blued eyed, anorexic ‘beauty’” The funny thing is that the majority of white girls do not fit this image thus how can we these images possibly reflect the dominant culture? “It is up to us to take responsibility for how we are portrayed when we have the opportunity. That means in our homes, our schools and our media. I wonder how many of these little black girls have actually been exposed to anything other than the images of the dominant culture through the TV screen. How many books about proud, happy, beautiful little black girls have been read to them? How much imagery of beautiful black women are on the wall in their homes? This is happening daily, yet when it comes to beauty, females will always look to the media to define “beauty”. “How often are they told how beautiful they are or how pretty their hair is?” Often I’m sure by both their parents and peers alike but what can you do when the dominant society obviously doesn’t find your features attractive. Race and beauty is just one analogy we can draw, yet the same can be said about weight and beauty. No matter how often you tell an overweight woman that she is beautiful, most likely she will look at the media (popular culture) and doubt that this is true, thereby “idealizing” thin women. It just goes to say that beauty is a very sensitive topic to women. How often do they see images of black women not being admired, but sexualized at the hands of their own media? Often which is sad. Then on the same token, this is the case with white women too. As for white women, it is not bad as with minority women because they have many more positive depictions in media to offset these many negative images. But the funny thing is that when even when black women are not sexualized (white and black media), they are often depicted as asexual “mammies” in the (white) media. It’s practically a no win situation, although now it is improving. This is an internal problem people and one WE have to fix. It’s both an external and internal problem that WE (meaning black, white and every other shade in-between media) must address. On the yahoo news today, an article explains how Spain has banned anorexic models because it’s detrimental to the self-esteem of young women. Now my guess is that their parents are not telling them that anorexic looking girls are attractive. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060912/od_nm/spain_models1_dc ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: NomDeDroit EMAIL: nomdedroit@gmail.com IP: 206.18.111.5 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 02:46:24 PM check out the wikipedia entry on racial segregation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation ): The decision made clear that the justices were influenced in part by studies by Kenneth B. Clark showing that segregated education had a negative psychological effect upon black school children. Significant doubt was subsequently cast on these studies, especially Clark's "doll study." Black students in segregated schools were shown both black and white dolls and asked which one they liked better. A majority of black students preferred the white doll, which was believed by Clark to demonstrate lowered black self-esteem as a result of segregation. Clark, however, did not present to the court his own research which showed that black children in integrated schools were even more likely to choose the white doll than those in segregated schools. Furthermore, when Asian children were segregated around the turn of the century, they consistently outperformed white children. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: NomDeDroit EMAIL: nomdedroit@gmail.com IP: 206.18.111.5 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 02:49:24 PM An article in Black Issues in Higher Education discusses the reexamination of the dolls study: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_3_21/ai_n5996501 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 03:20:34 PM Debbie, We may be a multi-cultural society, but that culture still has one dominant culture. White European culture which dominates to the tune of 65 to 70 percent. In that respect the expectation to see just as many "other" images of beauty as you see of that dominant culture is not realistic. More over you comment about what the media portrays not even being a fair representation of white women begs the question is this predominantly a question of race as much as a question of how women are depicted in general. At my age I don't watch TV all that much, but when I do I have noticed that a variety of black women are being depicted in both commercials and series. I've seen varying shades and to my biggest surprise natural hair styles. I think your reference to the Nell Carter asexual mammie character is out-dated. If she is still around then I stand corrected and even if she is, I think the character base has somewhat expanded. Additionally if would be interesting to re-create this experiment with asian and hispanic girls since they are portrayed in the media less than we are. What would it say if they chose dolls of their own likeness? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 03:34:09 PM That was an interesting article in the Black Issues in Higher Education. However, I am left wondering how racial segregation leads blacks to have negative feelings/ self-esteem? One can only internalized that they are supposedly inferior when it is evident to them that they are being treated worse than others based on their skin color. The negative feelings/ self-esteem most likely came from a variety of other factors (lack of black dolls/ faces in popular culture, self hatred amongst the black community, etc.). Two quotes in the article that struck me were: "I don't think there is true diversity, when Black dolls are just dipped in different skin colors. The uniqueness of race isn't even acknowledged," she said. "Through our history we've used dolls to transport and mutilate racial sentiments. It's been just one manifestation of race relations. If we can't address it at this level there's little hope at the adult level." This reminds me of Halle Berry, Beyonce, Tyra Banks, and Naomi Campbell. Do black people really think these models/ actress really represent true black beauty? Halle has very Caucasian features with bronze skin (however, in all fairness she is half white), the same applies to Beyonce and Tyra, however their other “black feature” is that both are noticeably curvy. Although Naomi looks the most “ethnic” black (dark skinned and thick lips), she, too, overwhelming has “white” features (narrow nose, long, straight hair, skinny/ anorexic body). I understand and appreciate that there is a range of black beauties, but why hold all these similar-looking females as the “token” black beauty? Why not Alek Wek, India Arie and Lauryn Hill? “Thomas also rests some blame on many Black parents who want Black dolls for their children but will settle for the more prevalent White dolls. They don't want to insist that the sales assistant look in the back of the store or contact manufacturers.” This is interesting because my sister had this same problem when she was shopping for a doll to get her 2-year old daughter. She asked the sales assistant to look in the back for a Cabbage Patch doll she wanted that happened to be black. The sales assistant simply replied that all the items in stock were already on the shelves. Another thing is that my sister lives in a predominantly black area and although a good number of dolls on the shelves are black, the majority of dolls are white. Contrast this to the area I live in which is majority white, and yet it is scarce to find a black doll. Nonetheless, I think its ideal to give children dolls of diverse skin color/ ethnicity since we live in a multicultural and multicolored society. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 206.176.148.135 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 03:48:33 PM I'm surprised that there is much debate about the discounted value of dark skin. I cannot point to the exact study but, thoughout the world, with very few exceptions, darker peoples of the world are view negatively as compared brighter ones. Black Americans are acutely aware of this within our own community even though I believe the color complex is less virulent today. Go to every corner of the world and you see the same thing. South America's devaluation of black skin is well documented and so is India's. Even in Japan, lighter skinned Japanese women are prized over darker skinned Japanese. Why is that? I honestly don't know but it's been prevelant for hundreds if not thousands of years. I assume, however, that its origins are based on conquest rationales. Europeans and otherwise white arabs conquered darker skinned populations and began domination through racial distinction. That obvious difference b/t the conqueror and the conquered persists today. So I believe the devaluation of dark skin is not due to "dominant culture" but rather white supremacy in its most basic form. I know many people roll their eyes when they see the word "white supremacy" but in this case it's not meant label but rather to explain the devaluation of black skin. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: m EMAIL: IP: 69.140.196.248 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 04:18:44 PM "what can you do when the dominant society obviously doesn’t find your features attractive." - Debbie Says who? There are plenty of whites who think black people are attractive, if not beautiful. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 04:26:40 PM elb1999 “We may be a multi-cultural society, but that culture still has one dominant culture. White European culture which dominates to the tune of 65 to 70 percent. In that respect the expectation to see just as many "other" images of beauty as you see of that dominant culture is not realistic.” It is realistic, after all many commentators (particularly conservative) would argue that racism is not the biggest driving force between strained black/ white relationship, it is economics. It would, therefore, seem smart (and ideal) to see diverse images of beauty. Soon people would embrace this concept, and in itself, that business would boom. Remember when television was all white, and then along came the Cosby, Fresh Price and Family Matters, all which did economically well? How would we have ever guessed it would be so successful it we never gave it a try? 30-35 percent of popular representation focused on an ethnic minority would not be unrealistic. “More over you comment about what the media portrays not even being a fair representation of white women begs the question is this predominantly a question of race as much as a question of how women are depicted in general.” I think it is a question about both – race and how women are depicted in general. However, its hard to talk about image without relating it to race and females (as you brought it up in your post). “At my age I don't watch TV all that much, but when I do I have noticed that a variety of black women are being depicted in both commercials and series. I've seen varying shades and to my biggest surprise natural hair styles. I think your reference to the Nell Carter asexual mammie character is out-dated. If she is still around then I stand corrected and even if she is, I think the character base has somewhat expanded.” I do not watch much television, but I do enjoy watching movies. Often one can observe how black female’s characters are never deeply evolved and/ or are either to the extremes of being hypersexual of asexual (the “mammie” part I added was unnecessary). And also I acknowledged that the situation (depiction of black women) is improving, perhaps you forgot that part. )Halle Berry may beg to differ as lately she’s been complaining about the lack of acting roles being offered to her.) Additionally if would be interesting to re-create this experiment with asian and hispanic girls since they are portrayed in the media less than we are. What would it say if they chose dolls of their own likeness? Unfortunately, I can’t answer that because there is no study I know of that has done on this. But I will say that in many Asian/ Hispanic cultures European features (light skin, thin nose, thin lips, slender frame) are highly prized features. But then what was the point of bringing this up as it relates to nothing I said in response to your post? I still beg to differ on you on these points and pay attention to the last comment you wrote about this being an “internal” that we (I assume you were talking about blacks) have to fix. What exactly was the point of your post as I address sentence from sentence what you said and you have not directly addressed most my comments? Meaning what can be done when parents are already instilling self love in their children, but these children are learning (grasping) the opposite from popular culture and everyday life? As I mentioned, the problem can only be solved both internally and externally, not one factor or the other. “It is up to us to take responsibility for how we are portrayed when we have the opportunity. That means in our homes, our schools and our media. I wonder how many of these little black girls have actually been exposed to anything other than the images of the dominant culture through the TV screen. How many books about proud, happy, beautiful little black girls have been read to them? How much imagery of beautiful black women are on the wall in their homes? This is happening daily, yet when it comes to beauty, females will always look to the media to define “beauty”. “How often are they told how beautiful they are or how pretty their hair is?” Often I’m sure by both their parents and peers alike but what can you do when the dominant society obviously doesn’t find your features attractive. Race and beauty is just one analogy we can draw, yet the same can be said about weight and beauty. No matter how often you tell an overweight woman that she is beautiful, most likely she will look at the media (popular culture) and doubt that this is true, thereby “idealizing” thin women. It just goes to say that beauty is a very sensitive topic to women. This is an internal problem people and one WE have to fix. It’s both an external and internal problem that WE (meaning black, white and every other shade in-between media) must address. On the yahoo news today, an article explains how Spain has banned anorexic models because it’s detrimental to the self-esteem of young women. Now my guess is that their parents are not telling them that anorexic looking girls are attractive. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060912/od_nm/spain_models1_dc ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ETS EMAIL: escott@alumni.unc.edu IP: 204.155.172.17 URL: http://www.azcentral.com DATE: 09/14/2006 04:27:11 PM I am so sick and tired of black people being blamed for "not doing enough" to help society accept our blackness. Are you serious?! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 04:32:04 PM m "Says who? There are plenty of whites who think black people are attractive, if not beautiful." I know that there are plenty of people of various skin colors who find black people attractive. However, this is not being reflected in popular culture (movies, toys, magazine, etc.) because the dominant culture does not equate black with attractiveness. I, for one, find all people attractive regardless of skin hue. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TO EMAIL: IP: 208.27.111.122 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 05:49:26 PM Of possible interest to some of you, Boondocks seems to be dealing with similar issues this week. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: m EMAIL: IP: 69.140.196.248 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 05:56:06 PM I simply have to disagree that black does not equate with attractiveness in American culture. Walking through Washington DC today - downtown K-Street, so not a "black area" - I saw huge posters of Beyoncé promoting her new album. Now people may differ on their opinion, but speaking as a "white" man (I cringe writing that because it makes me feel like a box of vanilla ice cream, but I am sticking with the terms we live by), I have seen less attractive posters in my life. The photos are head shots, and very tasteful. And how can you say that blacks are not being represented in movies and magazines? (I can't comment on toys) There are images - both positive and negative - of black people everywhere. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 06:36:17 PM “I simply have to disagree that black does not equate with attractiveness in American culture.” Let me make it clear that I do believe that blackness is attractive; however in popular culture, blackness (meaning black females, with black men it is different) is not equated with beauty. One only needs to look at popular media to see this (watch television/ movies, read magazines). Look at magazine covers/ run-way shows, watch children’s movies/ beauty pageants and/ or shop for baby dolls. You tell me what you notice? Walking through Washington DC today - downtown K-Street, so not a "black area" - I saw huge posters of Beyoncé promoting her new album. Refer to an above post I wrote. Yes Beyonce is beautiful, yet does she reflect “true” black beauty (i.e. where is her thick lips, broad nose, dark skinned, and short, kinky hair)? “And how can you say that blacks are not being represented in movies and magazines? (I can't comment on toys) There are images - both positive and negative - of black people everywhere.” I never said this. I commented on the fact that black females weren’t represented well in the media, but I also pointed out that this holds true with white females. Black beauty, on the other hand, is under-appreciated (and hardly worth mentioning) in both movies and magazines. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DM EMAIL: IP: 64.231.173.218 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 09:07:39 PM The question of relation of race, beauty and inequality is profoundly underappreciated. I wish more scholars would study the issue. I think that, given the current circumstances, the best thing to do is to ensure that in our own movies, magazines, TV shows and the like we give pride of place to dark-skinned women with ‘black’ features. Sadly, this is not the case. It’s not the case in our R& B and rap videos, nor is it in our movies, our magazines (like Essence) and so on. We can’t bemoan the relative absence of black women in the mainstream media, etc. and then feature racially unrepresentative women in our versions of the same. But this is exactly what happens, and there is no outcry about it. One question is interesting though: if we did do what I am suggesting – feature more dark-skinned black women with ‘black’ features in our movies, etc. – would black people pay up as much as they do now? Sadly, I don’t think we would. The lesson, as I see it, is that in an important sense we’ve already lost – we’ve already lost to white supremacy. The black movements of the 60s were about more than the average black income, the number of black doctors and so on. They were about our minds and how we value of ourselves. In the intervening 40 years many have been assiduously concerned with black graduation rates, employment rates and so on. All this is important, no doubt. But it seems to me that it is almost as important (if not equally or more so) that we keep track of progress of our minds – with respect to our collective racial self-esteem – as well. But we haven’t been doing so. And now we have lost, though not irreversibly so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 68.232.163.70 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 02:06:45 AM debbie, sorry for not adressing your respins directly. Lt me now address the internal vs. external issue. It may not be conscious but I think it is intuitive that no success happens until an individual, community,tc. takes full responsiblity for the issue at hand. What i mean is sayingno matter how this problem came about and who si responsible for creating it, t will not be solved until I take full responsibility for solving it. I'm not saying others can't participate in the solution, but to expect others to be the driving force it the solution is not realistic and quie frankly is not going to happen. I'm sorry but white america doesn't really some of our kids prefer white dolls. Thatfact is not important to them. And you can shout about it all you want and you cn be totally correct in the fact that the images they put forth have a lot to do with it and they still won't care. The botom line is that it is our responsibility to correct it and the sooner we understand that the better. Responsibility is power and when you give it up, you give up power. That is the great tragedy of the post civil rights movement. Our power was in the our new found ability to chart our own course outside of the chains of segregation and jim crow. It was not a perfect situation as racism still existed and still exists. But t was far beyond what we had ever experienced. Instead what we choe to do was beg and cajole white folks into making us whole. That is an abdication of power. Anytime you are asking you are abdicating power. And it is the same with the image situation. When we ask/demand that white folk do something about how blacks are portrayed, we are abdicating power. As I said before we are a people and we have the responsbilty and the ability to determine how our people; men and women are portrayed. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DM EMAIL: IP: 64.231.173.218 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 11:47:09 AM This issue is so important that there should have been a moratorium for a few days on new posts by all bloggers so that we can concentrate and reflect on it. Instead posts about elections and TV shows have pushed this off the radar. This is a shame. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/15/2006 01:01:42 PM Elb1999 “It may not be conscious but I think it is intuitive that no success happens until an individual, community,tc. takes full responsiblity for the issue at hand. What i mean is sayingno matter how this problem came about and who si responsible for creating it, t will not be solved until I take full responsibility for solving it. I'm not saying others can't participate in the solution, but to expect others to be the driving force it the solution is not realistic and quie frankly is not going to happen.” I never once mentioned that I expect others to be the driving force of the solution, in fact, as you mentioned, this is quite unrealistic. I simply stated that everyone is responsible for addressing the issue/ problem. The individual must take responsibility, in addition the community must take responsibility too- however the community includes both the black community and white community. “I'm sorry but white america doesn't really some of our kids prefer white dolls. Thatfact is not important to them. And you can shout about it all you want and you cn be totally correct in the fact that the images they put forth have a lot to do with it and they still won't care. The botom line is that it is our responsibility to correct it and the sooner we understand that the better.” As I mentioned it is the responsibility of both white and black Americas to correct the problem. I am not denying responsibility for any party. You assume that white America does not care about black issues, but the truth is that “black problems” really are American problems whether we say it or not. Black crime, unemployment rate, broken homes/ school inadvertently affects all Americans- white or black (costs of prisons, welfare, etc.). Thus, it is a stretch from the truth to assume that whites will not/ do not care about black problems. You may however correctly argue that the issue of beauty is so petty that no one (black/ white) really cares about the issue; this is true to a large extent, but then when we see what Spain did (recently) we realize that the issue may not be insignificant as we would like it to be. Example, while I understand that suicide/ eating disorder are issues that predominantly affect the white “community” (population is a better word choice), this does not excuse blacks from taking concern about the issue. When we hear of these problems, they are not “correctly” labeled as “white people’s problems”, rather they are properly identified as American problem. “Responsibility is power and when you give it up, you give up power. That is the great tragedy of the post civil rights movement. Our power was in the our new found ability to chart our own course outside of the chains of segregation and jim crow. It was not a perfect situation as racism still existed and still exists. But t was far beyond what we had ever experienced. Instead what we choe to do was beg and cajole white folks into making us whole.” No one is denying responsibility to anyone- black or white. Unless you are advocating a complete separate state for black Americans (as the Black Panthers and/ or Nation of Islam seem to advocate), most blacks understand that FULL equal rights will only come about by shared (thus equal) cooperation between whites and blacks. I mean after all, blacks do live in a separate box. Anyways, it seems to me that this point is almost straying off the original topic. Then again, I must ask is a healthy sized women “begging” and “cajoling” for skinny people’s help into making her whole again when she addresses (and asks for changes) the issue of the unhealthy/ unrealistic depiction of women on screen? What about when veterans, the elderly, handicapped addresses issues that primarily concerns them, are they “begging and cajoling” for others help into making them whole again? “That is an abdication of power. Anytime you are asking you are abdicating power. And it is the same with the image situation. When we ask/demand that white folk do something about how blacks are portrayed, we are abdicating power. As I said before we are a people and we have the responsbilty and the ability to determine how our people; men and women are portrayed.” I understand that we have the ability to determine how our people, men and women, are portrayed- this I never denied (nor did I exclude this from my post). When we ask/ demand that white folk do something about the way blacks are portrayed, we are not “abdicating” power. As I mentioned before, black peoples’ problems are not only “black problems”, they are American problems. However, when we expect that only white people can handle/ solve these problems, that is when we are relinquishing power. Yet, I never once suggested that this is problem needing to be fixed by whites solely. (I sit here wondering how successful the Civil Rights Movement would have been if MLK Jr. did not appeal to whites to change their attitudes/ behavior. I mean according to your beliefs what did MLK Jr do that was so significant since blacks were (still are) always “charting our own course outside of the chains of segregation, jim crow, and slavery”?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 10:09:11 AM "I mean according to your beliefs what did MLK Jr do that was so significant since blacks were (still are) always “charting our own course outside of the chains of segregation, jim crow, and slavery”?)" Debbie, He forced white america to stare it's hypocrisy squarely in the eye. He did not beg white america to "fix" it's race problem. He simply held up a mirror for them. The the important thing here is that it was their problem to fix not ours. Surely their problem created problems for us, but make no mistake segregation was their problem. Our problem was figuring out how to get white america to deal with the problem of segregation. And King took responsiblity for our problem and he solved it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 03:02:01 PM Elb1999 “He forced white america to stare it's hypocrisy squarely in the eye. He did not beg white america to "fix" it's race problem. He simply held up a mirror for them. The the important thing here is that it was their problem to fix not ours. Surely their problem created problems for us, but make no mistake segregation was their problem. Our problem was figuring out how to get white america to deal with the problem of segregation. And King took responsiblity for our problem and he solved it.” Yes, MLK did do this and you’re right about this. But MLK Jr did understand that without the cooperation of whites, the problem of racism would not be solved in America. Therefore, MLK appealed to whites to change the hatred they had in the hearts. Therefore as I stated before, MLK Jr. realizing this is by no mean “begging” for help. And, relating back to the original post which dealt with beauty and race, the problem will not be fixed unless both black and whites worked together to fix it. Therefore, blacks (as many are doing) now must realize that blackness is beautiful, in addition blacks must appeal to the mainstream media (mostly white) to realize this. This is in no way “begging” for help so please I would advise you to use a better (and more appropriate) word choice. (But then again I’m beginning to see that your way of debating against my arguments is to ignore almost every argument I have used to refute your claims, but then hang on to one irrelevant point for the sake of arguing.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 03:03:01 PM Elb1999 “He forced white america to stare it's hypocrisy squarely in the eye. He did not beg white america to "fix" it's race problem. He simply held up a mirror for them. The the important thing here is that it was their problem to fix not ours. Surely their problem created problems for us, but make no mistake segregation was their problem. Our problem was figuring out how to get white america to deal with the problem of segregation. And King took responsiblity for our problem and he solved it.” Yes, MLK did do this and you’re right about this. But MLK Jr did understand that without the cooperation of whites, the problem of racism would not be solved in America. Therefore, MLK appealed to whites to change the hatred they had in the hearts. Therefore as I stated before, MLK Jr. realizing this is by no mean “begging” for help. And, relating back to the original post which dealt with beauty and race, the problem will not be fixed unless both black and whites worked together to fix it. Therefore, blacks (as many are doing) now must realize that blackness is beautiful, in addition blacks must appeal to the mainstream media (mostly white) to realize this. This is in no way “begging” for help so please I would advise you to use a better (and more appropriate) word choice. (But then again I’m beginning to see that your way of debating against my arguments is to ignore almost every argument I have used to refute your claims, but then hang on to one irrelevant point for the sake of arguing.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 03:28:56 PM Oops, I didn't mean to post twice, but I forgot to add at the end of my post- is this simply your way of saying that I am right about my overall point (the issue needs to be addressed by both blacks and whites), but for “arguments sake” I would like to continue to argue with you to prove that in some way I am right?) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/18/2006 05:22:11 PM Debbie, I said in a previous post that even if you take responsibility for a certain problem, that in no way precludes anyone else from helpingto solve the problem. The issue is ownership of the problem. So in the case of segregation, even though kind "helped" white folks by making them face their problem, there is absolutely no way that problem would have been solved if white folks did not take responsibility for it and thus ownership of it. I'm arguing this issue of black beauty in the same way. We can get all the help we need, but until we recognize it is our responsibility first and foremost, thus giving us ownership over it, the "help" you receive from others will not solve the problem. This goes for any problem you can think of. Addiction, weight, education, whatever. The formula is the same. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 01:44:05 PM Elb1999 “I'm arguing this issue of black beauty in the same way. We can get all the help we need, but until we recognize it is our responsibility first and foremost, thus giving us ownership over it, the "help" you receive from others will not solve the problem. This goes for any problem you can think of. Addiction, weight, education, whatever. The formula is the same.” The issue of black beauty is something black people have recognized and are beginning to take responsibility over. (Narrowing looking at BET does not define the sum black life). Thus I must beg to argue that even when the internal problem is fixed (or being fixed), the external problem must be addressed too. In sum, no matter how often a black girl is told that (she) black is beautiful, she will only have to look at the media outlets and question whether this is true (same can be said for overweight/ normal sized females). So my response is that we all have a role in addressing this problem. Second, in terms of “owning” the problem of blackness and beauty, I think most would agree that both whites and blacks need to “own” up to the problem. Unlike the high black illegitimacy rates- a problem which can entirely be corrected if blacks looked to themselves- the issue of blackness and beauty is different matter. If I had stated that blacks believe that they are ugly (irrelevant of what the media tells them), then you would be entirely correct in stating that blacks must take responsibility for the problem. Instead I mentioned that black girls are taught they are beautiful by family/ friends and actually believe this until they look at the media and learn otherwise- in which case I drew a similar analogy with overweight/ normal sized females and their perception of beauty. Does one actually believe that these girls’ parents are telling them that they are ugly and only anorexic looking females are pretty? Of course not! Do these parents have a reasonable concern when they attack the media for depicting unrealistic/ false ideals of beauty? Yes, I think they have a legitimate concern that must be addressed as both Spain and (now) India have addressed the issue of beauty/ self-image and the media. So even as black girls (fat girls) are being told they are beautiful everyday, the effort is futile if the media refuses to recognize this. The issue of blackness and beauty is not a problem caused by blacks, although it is being perpetrated by both black and white today. Therefore, the problem must be addressed/ “owned” by both black and whites because both are the culprits. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 03:42:28 PM Previously you talked about whites owning the problem of segregation since they were the ones responsible for creating it. Then by your reasoning it should be the responsibility of whites to own up the problem of blackness and beauty since they are the ones responsible for creating it. So our (black) problem would be realizing that we are beautiful, which as I have argued, we already recognized this. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/20/2006 05:28:30 PM Debbie, "Previously you talked about whites owning the problem of segregation since they were the ones responsible for creating it. Then by your reasoning it should be the responsibility of whites to own up the problem of blackness and beauty since they are the ones responsible for creating it." Very good point. Whites who control most of media should be responsible for a more fair potrayal of what is considered beautiful in a multi-ethnic society. I think we can put this one to bed :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/21/2006 12:59:48 PM Elb1999 “Very good point. Whites who control most of media should be responsible for a more fair potrayal of what is considered beautiful in a multi-ethnic society. I think we can put this one to bed :)” Thank you so much for acknowledging this point. I guess you realized that you contradicted yourself because before you kept on saying how (only) blacks needed to “own” up to the problem. After numerous posts you finally got the point- but then again it takes some people a little bit more time :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/21/2006 01:01:09 PM Oh and yes, i agree with you that we can put this one to bed :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Janetjames EMAIL: IP: 130.91.118.232 URL: DATE: 10/24/2006 02:25:27 PM Have you read the book Sweet Thang by Allison Whittenberg? It's set in the 70s but its oh so timely. ----- -------- AUTHOR: sifill TITLE: "Is This America?" STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: politics & voting rights CATEGORY: politics & voting rights DATE: 09/12/2006 08:50:14 PM ----- BODY:When Fannie Lou Hamer and the other members of the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party were barred from seats at the Democratic National Convention in 1964, the great voting rights activist questioned, "Is this America?"
Well tonight I'm channelling Mrs. Hamer. Not that the disaster that is the Maryland Primary election is racial, per se (although the disenfranchisement of voters in Baltimore City, a majority black town, has clear racial implications). It's just that I get the feeling that if an election were held in Beirut tomorrow it might go more smoothly than the election in Baltimore City and Montgomery County, Maryland has run today. What's happening, you wonder? Well, in Montgomery County, a suburb of Washington, D.C. where the most affluent and well-educated voters in the state live, the electronic voting machines that were shoved down the throats of Maryland residents (no paper trail, remember) arrived at the polling places, missing the essential ATM-like key cards needed to enable each voter to cast a ballot. Huh? Someone forgot to pack the cards?
In Baltimore City, the problems have been, well, embarrassing. At many precincts election judges were late or simply didn't show up, so the polls couldn't open. Voters stood in line from 7am when polls were supposed to open until 8, 8:30, 9:45am, before the polls opened. Many voters had to get work and so they left. Wealth didn't insulate voters from this nightmare. In Ruxton, an upper middle class enclave where Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (former Maryland gubernatorial candidate and daughter of Robert F. Kennendy lives) voting machines did not arrive until 11am. Then no official had the keys to start the machine. Voting began at noon.
At polling places all over the City, when machines malfunctioned or didn't arrive, voters were told to vote using provisional ballots (even though those ballots won't be counted for another week, if at all). At still another location, the voters couldn't use the provisional ballots because none of the election judges had thought to bring pencils. In many locations, election judges -- mostly elderly volunteers -- expressed frustration at the training they'd received. Training had emphasized the possibility of voter fraud, rather than how to master the new machines.
It's been in a word, surreal. Fortunately the NAACP and the Maryland Democratic Party brought suit to force the Board of Elections to keep polling places open an additional hour. The decision came down at about 6pm. Montgomery County Election officials decided early in the day to keep the polls open an extra hour.
So, I don't have anything to report on the election contests themselves. I'm doing election coverage for a local TV station, and I "wanna holler and throw up both my hands." (O.K. now I'm channelling Marvin). I can only tell you that the right to vote -- the right that the Supreme Court has described as "preservative of all rights" has been severely and shamefully comprised in Maryland today. Expect lawsuits. And more voter apathy and disgust.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ariah Fine EMAIL: ariahfine@gmail.com IP: 64.195.239.3 URL: http://blog.iamnotashamed.net DATE: 09/12/2006 11:40:06 PM I wish there was ten times more public outrage about this. Be sure to share these realities anytime some one tries to say we live in a free and democratic country. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ariah Fine EMAIL: ariahfine@gmail.com IP: 64.195.239.3 URL: http://blog.iamnotashamed.net DATE: 09/12/2006 11:40:39 PM I wish there was ten times more public outrage about this. Be sure to share these realities anytime some one tries to say we live in a free and democratic country. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: black realist EMAIL: IP: 67.82.26.34 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 12:26:29 AM Maryland's high court decision striking down early voting was perhaps more surreal than any of the above incidents. Yes, this is America--a second-world country in which democracy has become more a cultural export than a sacred domestic reality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anthony EMAIL: alh@theipinionsjournal.com IP: 68.50.50.39 URL: http://www.theipinionsjournal.com DATE: 09/13/2006 06:33:41 AM Hear, hear Ms Ifill! And it's no consolation that rank incompetence (FL) has replaced systematic racism as the means of denying so many Americans the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: LAS EMAIL: IP: 144.45.30.210 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 11:34:25 AM Hmmm? 'W' should be very interested in seeing to it that rank incompetence is replaced by democratic excellence. Oops! I forgot, 'W' doesn't care about... Well, he cares about a very few. America appears to have become a place where it's fashionable to deprive, redicule, deny, lie, or in other words, you got to know how to cheat and then hit the talk show circuit. Echoes of Ms. Ifill (and Marvin): Sure does make you wanna holler! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: acolyte EMAIL: no@no.com IP: 168.16.216.113 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 03:02:46 PM Those are classic tactic as used in third world countries to prevent people in anti government areas from voting!And to think America has the nerve to tell us Africans to conduct transparent elections! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 03:32:19 PM Can I ask a stupid question? Aren't these areas in which black people have a significant hand in the operation of gov't and with that the county elections boards that run elections? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: black realist EMAIL: IP: 67.82.26.34 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 08:26:13 PM elb1999, Professor Ifill's post states: "In Ruxton, an upper middle class enclave where Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (former Maryland gubernatorial candidate and daughter of Robert F. Kennendy lives) voting machines did not arrive until 11am. Then no official had the keys to start the machine. Voting began at noon." Furthermore, the county executive of Montogomery country, MD is white. Let's not blame blacks first all the time. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TheConqueror25 EMAIL: IP: 68.54.91.86 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 10:29:50 PM Good for the NAACP! I suppose the organization IS STILL RELEVANT. Folk were openly questioning its capacity to get things done in this day and age on this very blog not too long ago. See http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/07/is_the_naacp_still_relevant.html#comments (scroll up for original post). It would probably have been better, however, to bring suit with other non-partisan groups rather than with the Maryland Democratic Party. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Akunna Anozie EMAIL: mails4cuteakunna@yahoo.com IP: 198.200.181.207 URL: DATE: 09/20/2006 10:23:07 AM I wish the blacks had the opportunity to rule the country.feel free to express how you feel to anyone because,no one gives a shit about you more especially to the blacks.says ****.the question sherrilyn lfill asked was a good one "is this America". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Matt Jones (CCBC) EMAIL: IP: 68.50.60.21 URL: DATE: 09/20/2006 12:25:17 PM Why should non-partisan groups be more involved than the group that is affected the most by this happening? If the NAACP and Maryland Democratic Party hadn't taken action how safe is it to say that any non-partisan groups would have? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi EMAIL: IP: 205.188.116.136 URL: DATE: 09/20/2006 05:51:23 PM Right on Ms. Anozle! Your sentiments couldn't be more eloquently expressed (I guess except for Mr. West's indictment of our leader's response to new orleans). Not to mention Mr. Brown's reflectionon on the state of Maryland politics. In fact, why does it matter the snafu's described above? It's not like the major players have any political differences to speak of. Indeed, I would take exception to the title of your article and ask "Where does America's allegiance lie and what exactly is this place called America?" That is, in my regal opinion, of course. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Empress EMAIL: IP: 205.188.116.136 URL: DATE: 09/20/2006 05:54:48 PM Whoops, I mean Mr. Jones! Sorry sir. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: kimberly EMAIL: IP: 207.19.141.251 URL: DATE: 09/20/2006 05:56:38 PM People have to understand the work it takes to opperate a voting station. It is very hard for those who work these polls, they have problems with staff and then have to put up with angry americans complaining about how there right to vote was infringed on. I don't agree with what happened, and I am not saying that it was handled spectacularly, but i am saying that we should give those workers a bit of credit for putting up with people like you who are always complaining. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Dawn EMAIL: dbanting2@aol.com IP: 205.188.116.136 URL: DATE: 09/20/2006 09:01:45 PM Yes this is America and every single one of us (black, white or any other ethnic group) should be angry because every one of our votes should count. We need to make more noise to make sure that we don't have the same problems during the General Elections. If we do have the same problems during the Generel Election I will be the first one screaming that this is discrimination be it racial or party discrimination. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Amber OConnor EMAIL: IP: 198.200.181.209 URL: DATE: 09/26/2006 12:30:09 PM I think that things like this happen but that it should be taken more seriously. Some people take the right to vote, very seriously and when that right is taken away but mistakes with voting machines, actions need to be taken to correct them very quickly. I hope that they work all the kinks out very soon and ensure that something like this will not happen for the general election!! ----- PING: TITLE: drug guide metformin URL: http://bestdrugshop.org/drug-guide-metformin.htm IP: 83.219.129.118 BLOG NAME: drug guide metformin DATE: 12/17/2006 01:04:34 PM ----- -------- AUTHOR: jarmour TITLE: West Coast Nigga Thinking 4 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 CATEGORY: criminal justice CATEGORY: race DATE: 09/12/2006 04:40:46 PM ----- BODY:As a new initiate of the blogosphere (I'd never seen a blog before being invited to post on this one), I'm amused by how much like AM Talk Radio the forum can be. In Talk Radio (most recently for me John Ziegler of KFI and Larry Elders of KABC, both conservative hosts based here in LA), you get thoughtful responses, on the one hand, and a fragrant bouquet of arguments ad hominem along with a liberal sprinkling of total non-sequiturs. The art of identifying an argument's premises, excavating its assumptions, tracking its inferences, and weighing its conclusions means little to the ad hominem crowd. Because of time constraints, I learn from but can't engage the thoughtful responses the way I wish I could. As for the others, who want attention more than serious reflection, it is best to simply ingnore them in the spirit of the ancient African proverb, "The elephant who does battle with the ant, does battle with himself."
That said, proponents of the Politics of Solidarity (the kind of politics embraced by West Coast Nigga Thinking) can get down and dirty with the proponents of the Politics of Respectability and Distinction. Rather than defining the "us" and "them" in terms of "good Negroes" (law-abiding blacks) and "bad Negroes" or "niggas" (blacks involved in crime), the Politics of Solidarity defines the "us" in terms of blacks who refuse to disown and shit on their own wayward children and youth (staggering numbers of whom are involved in crime) and the "them" in terms of blacks whose chielf concern is being viewed as "decent," "respectable," and "acceptable" by white America. Proponents of the Politics of Respectability locate the source of the plight of black youth in their failure to be "responsible." But as Toni Morrison says through the mouth of one of her young characters who is reprimanded by adults for being irresponsible, "How dare you talk to me about responbility as I stand waist deep in your hypocrisy and in the toxins of this nations past."
Nas trenchantly takes on the Politics of Respectability, and speaks for much of the youth today, in his recent track These Are Our Heroes (from his LP Streets Desciple):
Let's hear it one for the coons on UPN 9 and WB/Who "yes Massa" on TV
Whatever happened to Weezy, the Redd Foxes, never got Emmys but were real to me
Let's hear it two for the spooks who do cartwheels/Cause THEY said they play their parts well
Now they claim caviar, hate that ox tail
Lambda, Sigma, Phi badge on lapel
Whitey always tell him "oooh, he speaks so well"
Are you the one we look to?, the decent Negroe, the acceptable Negroe
Hell naw!
But THEY say these are our heroes.
Next blog let's get into what ordinary language philosophy has to say about the term "nigga."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 68.232.163.70 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 06:46:55 PM Politics of Solidarity defines the "us" in terms of blacks who refuse to disown and shit on their own wayward children and youth (staggering numbers of whom are involved in crime) and the "them" in terms of blacks whose chielf concern is being viewed as "decent," "respectable," and "acceptable" by white America. predictable kill the messenger rhetoric....since when did being decent, respectable and acceptable become the province of white people? There are levels of conduct that are not decent, respectable or acceptable, no matter if you're black, white, green or purple. There was a time in our communities where kids and young adults didn't dare do the things you see now adays with adults around. But as Cos said, now our dirty laundry is walkin down the street everyday at around 3 o'clock......the idea of dencency, and respectability being link to acceptance by whites is insulting and in my opinion further shows this particular professor's alienation from reality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 68.232.163.70 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 07:47:56 PM Politics of Solidarity defines the "us" in terms of blacks who refuse to disown and shit on their own wayward children and youth (staggering numbers of whom are involved in crime) and the "them" in terms of blacks whose chielf concern is being viewed as "decent," "respectable," and "acceptable" by white America. predictable kill the messenger rhetoric....since when did being decent, respectable and acceptable become the province of white people? There are levels of conduct that are not decent, respectable or acceptable, no matter if you're black, white, green or purple. There was a time in our communities where kids and young adults didn't dare do the things you see now adays with adults around. But as Cos said, now our dirty laundry is walkin down the street everyday at around 3 o'clock......the idea of dencency, and respectability being link to acceptance by whites is insulting and in my opinion further shows this particular professor's alienation from reality. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marie EMAIL: IP: 71.247.177.254 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 07:58:23 PM More on why I disagree, respectfully, with Armour's "west coast nigga politics of solidarity": I wonder whether even the most fervently empowered and aware use of the n-word can ever successfully disassociate the word from the hair-raising history of white supremacy in this country (speaking of which, anyone interested in reviewing Nicholas Lemann's recently published "Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War"? It is about the failure of Reconstruction, or as Lemann quotes Eric Foner writing, the "unfinished revolution" in U.S. race relations). Despite one's best intentions, the word exerts its own hydraulic power, summoning all of this country's past to pull one into a vortex of hate and self-hate. More bluntly, just because you think you're using the word in an "enlightened" sense, excuse the term, doesn't mean others understand that you are. You might be using the term "nigga" in a militant way, a pro-solidarity way, an ironic way, an artistic way, whatever. But I fear that the main thing that happens is that less militant, pro-solidarity, ironic, artistic folks hear you saying it and just think you're using the term in the old way. Consider a post by Jo in a prior chapter of Prof. Armour's running commentary, found at http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/09/west_coast_nigga_thinking_1.html#comment-86521. Jo uses the n-word without all of the layers of compassion and thoughtfulness applied by Armour, but rather with a traditional and straightforwardly hateful tone. It's as though Armour has opened the door, freeing Jo to let loose and wallow in the fear, hate and contempt that seems to be roiling just under the surface. Now, a word is just a word. Surely there are innumerably more important things to focus on in the world, so I'm not suggesting that we take on eradication of the n-word as a major cause. Nor do I advocate censorship - as hateful as Jo's speech seems to me, I would not suggest that the law should seek to prevent him from uttering it. So not as a matter of law, or large-scale politics, but just of common sense: is it such a great idea? As well-meaning as Armour's intentions might be, we're aware that good intentions don't always lead to good outcomes, right?... As I mulled this over, I found myself wondering whether there is a parallel to be drawn here between race and sex. For example, I find myself both understanding the recent resurgence of the hoochy-mama aesthetic and feeling uncomfortable about it. Third-wave feminists would have us believe that, these days, if we trade in our feminine wiles, we're being empowered. The Paris Hiltons and Lil' Kims are empowered because they are choosing to commodify themselves, right?... Well, I guess I'm not so sure. Granted, it can be fun, liberating, exciting or whatever to play dress-up. Still, though, as I walk around the city and see more and more of my sistren mincing around on tiny stillettos, I wonder - how exactly is this different, again?... If we choose to play ourselves, aren't we still getting played? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ed EMAIL: IP: 68.217.124.157 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 08:30:50 PM I think the thinking of the "good Negroes" versus "bad Negroes" is not parallel to reality. The way I see it, it's fake frontin credit-card $750/month E-class debt-ridden cookie cutter mcmansion sellout suburban two household working while latchkey kids having teen sex that want to call themselves "middle class and the good of our race" and you then have the keep it real, playing the cards dealt, buying fish and spaghetti from the neighbor, bartering by fixing washing machine for turning on free gas for the winter with the U-pipe, 94 Buick that runs nice brothas and sistas in the hood who enjoying their life and not striving for the artificial crap you "good Negroes" choose to pursue... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marie EMAIL: IP: 71.247.177.254 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 08:52:51 PM Another thought, based on my previous post and Prof. Armour's allusion to "language philosophy" -- how should we determine the meaning of "nigga" when Armour says or writes it? From Armour's subjective intentions, or from the perceptions of others when he uses the word? Classical contract law, for example, would tell us that we should determine the word's meaning "objectively" - that is, according to what a reasonable third person would think based on the plain meaning of the term, as well as any other pertinent considerations or contexts about which the average person would have reason to know. Contemporary theorists, however, might counter that there is no such thing as "objective," and therefore that the term "nigga" can have no stable meaning - leaving it much more open to the kind of contestation that Armour proposes. What's in a name, indeed?... All of this controversy and confusion manifested recently in the trial of "Fat Nick" Minucci in New York, for beating a black man with a baseball bat while calling the man the n-word. (See, e.g., http://brooklynrail.org/2006-07/local/crossing-the-line.) Minucci and/or his counsel felt that he had a shot with the defense that he was using the term in the in the culturally empowered and pro-solidarity way that Armour promotes. By the way, Minucci's defense was (dis)graced with the expert testimony of Prof. Randall Kennedy, the author of the book "Nigger." Whatever... Anyways, the jury didn't buy Minucci's defense. But what do we make of the fact that Minucci thought this line of argument was worth a shot? Does his defense strategy underscore, as I would suggest, the self-defeating consequences of endorsing the n-word's usage, that usage ultimately serving only to condone a legacy of violent white supremacy? Or, might an Armour or a Kennedy argue that we can trust juries and anybody else to distinguish between "pro-solidarity" usages and white-supremacist usages, as exemplified by the verdict against Minucci in this case? What to make of the fact that Kennedy's thinking, which Armour has strongly criticized on this blog (see, e.g., http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/09/west_coast_nigga_thinking_1.html), seems nevertheless to converge with Armour's in endorsing the use of the n-word? Would Armour support Kennedy's testimony for Minucci's defense? If not, why not? How does Armour distinguish his "west coast nigga thinking" from Kennedy's "east coast nigga thinking"? And finally ... what am I supposed to make of the fact that, weirdly, I almost believe that, in Nick Minucci's atrophied pea-brain and in the context of the pan-ethnically thuggish NYC neighborhood culture in which he grew up, he may actually have believed both that he was justified in beating the guy up (the victim admitted he was in the neighborhood looking to steal a car) and that he meant no specific harm in using the n-word? Lordy, lordy... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marie EMAIL: IP: 71.247.177.254 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 09:00:32 PM A final thought on the Minucci trial - I think ultimately that it shows that Armour's "pro-solidarity" usage and others' white-supremacist and anti-solidarity usage will converge in actual practices that are harmful to black people and to society at large... and that's why I think that "west coast nigga thinking" is a kind of well-intentioned thinking that is leading us into a trap and a cultural loop of repeated and repeating regression and regressiveness in race relations. Phew! OK I think that's all I have to say. :) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 24.229.253.243 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 10:20:49 PM The really white looking, pro-criminal, Harvard trash, poseur lawyer, race traitor calls those who disagree and seek to introduce a few facts, ants. That's funny from a naive, Ivy-indoctrinated criminal cult victim. He swallowed the party line in its entirety, the chump. The consequence of following this PC thinking is here: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/race.htm the death penalty for an excess of 100,000's of black males over decades. Because of its relentless, never miss repetition, the execution of an excess of 1000's of black males by this lawyer's customers each year has taken on planetary orbit foreseeability. Not even an ort of a hint of a thought about the murder victims. This dreary foreseeability of excess rate of murder of black people applies to kids under 5. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/children.htm#kids What did 5 year olds do to keep the black thug, in "the toxins of this nations past?" Here what they did. They failed to generate a fee for the lawyer. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Marie EMAIL: IP: 71.247.177.254 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 10:30:00 PM Wow, S.C., despite myself I have to compliment you on your vocab! "Ort" is a word that up to now I had never seen used outside of the NY Times crossword puzzle. Also, Ed thank you for your nice words on the other post - I just read through it today. Had to take a break for a while. Happy blogging everybody, Marie ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 24.229.253.243 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 10:41:39 PM Marie: Sorry. I am regaining my composure now. I learned the word, ort, doing that puzzle in the subway on the way home from school. I was so upset by the rayssissme, sexisme, speciessisme, transgender biasse/homophobia of this Harvard educated lawyer. Imagine besmirching our hymenoptera brothers the way he did. He needs a course of sensitivity training. Very upsetting. I am calmer now. Thank you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 66.91.246.41 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/13/2006 08:22:59 AM We are surrounded by far more good people than bad. As a part of Project 2996, some of us are celebrating the lives of people like this and people like this. While some want to focus on the criminals and thugs, I suggest we learn more about what makes the majority of the people around us pleasant and kind. Like Sanity Inspector said in an earlier post, Instead of trying to get down in the gutter with underclass out of a sense of solidarity, why not demand that they stand up, side by side with you? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David C. EMAIL: IP: 24.12.118.170 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 10:20:59 AM I am confused about how a politics of solidarity is construed as diametrically opposed to a politics of respectibility. Uplift (a close cousin if not twin to a politics of respectibility), as countless scholars of black intellectual thought have argued, has been a central tenet to a politics of racial solidarity and advancement. It seesm to me that current attempts to revive a politics of solidarity are attempts to revive a tradition of black responsibility for the community as a whole, rather than an attempt to flee from responsibility, as Prof. Amour suggests. It is also an attempt to hommage to the lives and sacrifices of a people who, in the words of Jay-Z, dared to dream dreams bigger than their windows. It is not some attempt to gain white respect, so much as it is an attempt to deserve the respect of black folk whose voices are long-silent that people attempt to revive a politics of respectibility. Now this politics isn't always as advanced as it ought to be, but it's a decision to act in the world for the better. While biography isn't everything, let's think about that black Ohio community that created and nurtured a future Nobel-laureate, let's think about the institutions that were impportant to this Howard-trained AKA. And let's be careful about throwing out the baby with bath water that might be a bit stale and dirty. I concede that there are many who want to cast a generation of black youth into eternal damnation, but there are many more who lament like Jeremiah over their complicity in the creation of a troubled generation. So let's be a bit more charitable on all sides. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kim EMAIL: kimbolive@hotmail.com IP: 128.164.135.250 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 11:54:24 AM Prof. Armour, you wrote: "Politics of Solidarity defines the 'us' in terms of blacks who refuse to disown and shit on their own wayward children... and 'them' in terms of blacks whose chief concern is being...'acceptable' by white America." To be honest, I am not really thinking of White America when it is (and has been more than once) a black man who is calling me "bitch" and following me home trying to scare me b/c I didn't respond to his sexual advances. I am not giving up on "wayward" BLACK youth (and adults) with problems. I AM, however, re-considering supporting someone white or black who takes what little posessions I have b/c they feel they are entitled. I worked hard for what I have. I, like many others who have come up from the ranks, as it were, support those - especially those of our own - who are trying hard as well. But I'll be doggoned if I am going to say someone with my background who steals from me is a victim of circumstance. Nor will I feel ashamed of being angry about their actions. The scores of other blacks who are law-abiding victims of crimes committed by one of their own are reluctant to agree, as well. Flouting the rules b/c you don't feel like following them isn't about black or white. It's about selfishness. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TO EMAIL: IP: 208.27.111.122 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 01:00:20 PM "How dare you talk to me about responbility as I stand waist deep in your hypocrisy and in the toxins of this nations past." Others might call this the politics of victimhood. To speak to you in your own language, look at the "Black Girl Lost" lyrics (Nas, It Was Written, 1996) Nas is intelligent enough to discuss social factors as well as personal responsibility, rather than insisting on this dichotomy of "politics of solidarity" and "politics of respectability." Nas doesn't write people off, but he doesn't deny personal responsibility either. But you're probably just poser anyway. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Sanity Inspector EMAIL: synapsid@hotmail.com IP: 168.28.128.78 URL: http://atlantarofters.blogspot.com DATE: 09/13/2006 05:10:55 PMProponents of the Politics of Respectability locate the source of the plight of black youth in their failure to be "responsible." But as Toni Morrison says through the mouth of one of her young characters who is reprimanded by adults for being irresponsible, "How dare you talk to me about responbility as I stand waist deep in your hypocrisy and in the toxins of this nations past."Why do libs of all color make mascots of society's enemies? There must be some urge of épater les bourgeoisie that causes this. As for Morrison's fictional character, that sentiment is neither new nor black: What young man, going out into the world full of ardour and passion, does not say to himself: "The impulses of my heart are the voice of Nature, which is never mistaken. The institutions that stand in my way are man-made and are only arbitrary conventions to which I have never given my consent. In trampling these institutions underfoot, I shall have the double pleasure of satisfying my inclinations and of believing myself a hero." --Frederic Bastiat, 1848 Just replace "ardor and passion" with "criminal tendencies", and "hero" with "victim". ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 24.229.253.243 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 06:34:05 PM Sanity: Libs are spoiled brats with intelligence. They are totally upset that they have to earn power and leadership. They expect it to be handed to them, as it is in France. They are appalled a bunch of Southern hicks with a little charm get to lead the US over and over. In their rage, as a tantrum, they align themselves with evil and deviates, to give the rejecting people of the US a hard time. It is revenge. The remedy is firm corporal punishment. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 24.229.253.243 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 06:56:02 PM Sanity: Back up. Sorry. I think I went overboard in attributing aims of revenge to the lib. Too lofty, in the case of the lib lawyer. This is Harvard trash, a lawyer running his con, pretexting ("frontin'") on behalf of the customer. Offer this genius a raise as GC for a gasoline company, he can declaim on their behalf just as passionately in days of $4/gallon. The nature of the client is irrelevant. It's in their Rules of Conduct and Ethics. Everyone is entitled to generate a fee for the criminal cult enterprise. It's not Shaniqua that's a huge ho. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paradigm Shift EMAIL: neville209@hotmail.com IP: 68.40.194.84 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 01:35:20 AM The politics of respectability is not about pleasing whitey. It's about confronting our intra-group demons...demons that we've ignored simply out of pride. This form of psychological cleansing that shies away from painful truths has its roots in the dismissal of a searing prophecy by the hands of a white man- Daniel P. Moniyhan- who argued that the black family was in trouble 40 years ago. Black scholars back then called this racist and ignored the warnings. Instead Great Society white liberals took it upon themselves to save black folks with government programs. We now have a situation where an entire generation was raised in which the majority of black children lacked fathers in the home. No amount of public charity will fix this. Furthermore, contrary to scholarly assumptions that this has its roots in slavery, the majority of black children were raised in 2 parent households 50-70 years ago. Our pride is killing the black poor. We defend the indefensible, or rationalize it by blaming racism while ignoring poor leadership, moral decay and the cultural crisis that is smacking us in the face. I say this as a 23-year-old masters student that grew up loving hip hop but can't take 95% of it anymore. I'm also tired of liberal dogma, which doesn't seem to be standing up to facts anymore. The black family survived slavery, segregation, and years of overt racism only to fall apart AFTER the government decides to "help" us out? Something doesn't add up. Let's not forget the "Great Society" also coincided with the drug-induced, sexaholic counterculture from which America has yet to recover. Although I haven't read his book Juan Wiliams is right...enough is enough. I'm not convinced racism is entirely, or even mostly, to blame. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 09:06:23 AM "Three generations of fatherless women....We drownin instead of swimmin" Chuck D of Public Enemy. I'm glad to see that so many people of various inclinations are rejecting this "Professor's" nonsense. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 09:14:19 AM Paradigm, While Juan Williams book is on point, it is a populist book, that doesn't really explain how this all came about. For a deeper understanding of how all of this happened and how we go to this point read "White Guilt" by Shelby Steele ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Paradigm shift EMAIL: IP: 141.211.26.73 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 03:14:40 PM Thanks elb1999...also I'd like to take back my statement that "no amount of public charity will fix this." What I meant is that impersonal, bureacratic forms of public charity do not work simply because they treat poor folks as the very thing we don't want them to become: dehumanized statistics. This was the problem with the welfare bureacracy. Score one for Steele's politics of truth. The fact that he is a former civil rights worker and Southern Christian Leadership Conference member should make anyone think twice before assuming he is an Uncle Ruckus. McWhorter's "Winning the Race" is also good because of its in-depth historical revisionism. Regardless of how we feel about him, the scholarship he displayed in this book is qualitatively, if not always quantitatively sound. He presents facts and sobering truth about the rapid transformation of black culture that began after the civil rights movement fell apart. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DM EMAIL: IP: 64.231.173.218 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 10:08:42 PM Since Prof. Armour completely ignores even quite intelligent posts, I'll ignore his post as well. But I want to respond to a couple other comments. Marie, I disagree with your comments on the Minucci trial. Saying that he meant it in pro-solidarity sort of way is implausible. More likely, he said it in a neutral way. See my posts on the issue in this post: http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/06/defending_nigger.html#comments Paradign Shift, I think you can account for the post-60s deterioration of the black family, etc. in terms of segregation-era racism. The kind of culture that emerged in the post-60s era didn't happen overnight. So pointing out that black families were still intack 50 years ago is beside the point. See my posts in this post: http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/09/affirmative_action_for_jamaica.html#comments ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/19/2006 06:32:31 PM A lot of people here have a lot to say about liberals and their so called “white guilt”- though many will argue that this is nearly as baseless as the so called liberal media, but can any one tell me what social conservatives are doing to help the flight of poor blacks. It’s one thing to pay lip service, but what are people like Juan Williams actually doing to solve/ heal the problem? We may not like people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or even Bill Cosby with his conservative ideas, but at least these people have actually done things to help the plight of poor blacks. Is it enough simply to preach about the need for moral values amongst poor blacks? What about finding a way to put well-paying jobs in the inner-cities so that many of these vices (crimes, lack of self-esteem amongst blacks, etc.) will disappear? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: tommy EMAIL: inel89ef@yahoo.com IP: 165.138.204.2 URL: DATE: 10/05/2006 10:19:33 AM I think this website is just what the world needs. The only white pride thing on the internet is for jackass crackers who hate everyone dipped in chocolate. later ----- -------- AUTHOR: pbutler TITLE: Toni Morrison's Elegy: The Dead of September 11 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/12/2006 10:43:58 AM ----- BODY:
The Dead of September 11 (Toni Morrison)
Some have God’s words; others have songs of comfort for the bereaved. If I can pluck courage here, I would like to speak directly to the dead – the September dead. Those children of ancestors born in every continent on the planet: Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, Australia; born of ancestors who wore kilts, obis, saris, gelees, wide straw hats, yarmulkas, goat-skin, wooden shoes, feathers and cloths to cover their hair. But I would not say a word until I could set aside all I know or believe about nations, war, leaders, the governed and un-governable; all I suspect about armor and entrails. First I would freshen my tongue, abandon sentences crafted to know evil – wanton or studied; explosive or quietly sinister; to stand up before falling down. I would purge my language of hyperbole; of its eagerness to analyze the levels of wickedness; ranking them; calculating their higher or lower status among others of its kind.
Speaking to the broken and the dead is too difficult for a mouth full of blood. Too holy an act for impure thoughts. Because the dead are free, absolute; they cannot be seduced by blitz.
To speak to you, the dead of September, I must not claim false intimacy or summon an overheated heart glazed just in time for a camera. I must be steady and I must be clear, knowing all the time that I have nothing to say – no words stronger than the steel that pressed you into itself; no scripture older or more elegant than the ancient atoms you have become.
And I have nothing to give either – except this gesture, this thread thrown between your humanity and mine: I want to hold you in my arms and as your soul got shot of its box of flesh to understand, as you have done, the wit of eternity: its gift of unhinged release tearing through the darkness of its knell.
TONI MORRISON
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Sanity Inspector EMAIL: synapsid@hotmail.com IP: 168.28.128.78 URL: http://atlantarofters.blogspot.com DATE: 09/12/2006 01:30:30 PM When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart. For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I'm feeling most ghost-like, it's your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation. When I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way. If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget me, part of who I am will be gone. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom," the good thief said from his cross (Luke 23:42). There are perhaps no more human words in all of Scripture, no prayer we can pray so well. --Frederick Buechner ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: JM EMAIL: IP: 71.247.177.254 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 06:50:34 PM Speak, Toni, speak! This woman's words are so powerful, so honed, the experience of reading them is almost a directly physiological one. The words immediately become experiences. As the eyes pass over her words, the heart floods with emotions, the spirit with visions. Toni Morrison, you are an oracle of this nation's past and its future. Bless you. And bless all those who have suffered and died in the September 11th attacks and in their wake. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Andre L. Smith EMAIL: ansmith@fiu.edu IP: 131.94.167.141 URL: DATE: 09/20/2006 01:04:01 PM Bo,Bo,Bo!!!! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: karel EMAIL: thomson@gmail.com IP: 81.177.15.65 URL: http://www_4_1.gmail.com/ DATE: 10/17/2006 06:27:06 AM ionolsen20 Hello Jane, great site!www_4_2 www_4_3 www_4_4 www_4_5 www_4_6 www_4_7 www_4_8 www_4_9 www_4_10 www_4_11 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: thomson EMAIL: kranik@gmail.com IP: 81.177.15.42 URL: http://www_4_1.gmail.com/ DATE: 10/22/2006 05:58:57 PM ionolsen26 Your home page its great www_4_2 www_4_3 www_4_4 www_4_5 www_4_6 www_4_7 www_4_8 www_4_9 www_4_10 www_4_11 ----- -------- AUTHOR: dcarbado TITLE: Straightfoward Politics? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: gender CATEGORY: gender CATEGORY: race CATEGORY: sexuality DATE: 09/12/2006 04:52:52 AM ----- BODY:
In his post Marc Lamont Hill, Mel Gibson and the Politics of Apologies thoughtfully explored racial politics of apologies. The recent controversy surrounding Arnold Schwarzenegger invites us to think about this issue again. In a conversation with his aides, the subject turned to Governor Republican Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia. A question is raised about whether she is Cuban or Puerto Rican. The governor responds that it does not matter: “I mean, they are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it.“ This was caught on tape—and, of course, made its way to the press. The short of the story is that the governor apologized in press conference to Garcia—and to anyone else who was offended. For her part, the Assemblywoman said she was not offended: “I love the governor because he is a straight talker just like I am. Very often I tell him, ‘Look, I am a hot-blooded Latina.’ I label myself a hot-blooded Latina that is very passionate on the issues. And this is kind of an inside joke that I have with the governor.” So, at least one Latina, is willing to forgive him—nay, was not even offended. The question I am interested in is this: Does it matter whether the “very hot” language that Schwarzenegger employs refers to sexuality or temperament? Several of the press accounts of the issue construe the governor’s statement as signifying on temperament. Does it—should it—matter?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 66.91.246.41 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/12/2006 08:49:33 AM Does it matter whether the “very hot” language that Schwarzenegger employs refers to sexuality or temperament. Does what matter? No one was offended outside of the humorless cyborgs who are preprogrammed for outrage. By the way, that quote was incorrectly punctuated. It should have a question mark instead of a period at the end. I'm sure someone in your English Department is offended. As soon as we accept the lowest commond denominator for offense, we're all screwed. That's how San Diego has ended up fighting for over a decade to keep the Mount Soledad cross. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carmen Van Kerckhove EMAIL: carmen@newdemographic.com IP: 149.77.22.87 URL: http://www.mixedmediawatch.com DATE: 09/12/2006 09:52:08 AM I don't think it matters whether Schwarzenegger was referring to sexuality or temperament. The point is that he's engaging in essentialism that defines ALL Latinas as being "hot-blooded." And by referring to "black blood" and "Latino blood" it's clear that he believes there's a biological basis for this "hot-bloodedness."To briefly recap W.C.N.T. 1 and 2: Proponents of the Politics of Distinction propose that we in the black community distinguish between what Randy Kennedy calls "good Negroes" and "bad Negroes" and what Chris Rock calls "black people" and "niggas" (as in the bumper sticker, "I love black people but I hate niggas"). According to this perspective, anyone involved in criminal conduct deserves to be characterized as a "bad Negroe" or "nigga" (e.g., by this definition, because 56% of young black males in Baltimore and 33% of those in the state of California in prison, on probation, or on parole, that percent of brothers in those jurisdictions are niggas). I find such a politics of distinction both odious and futile: Odious because it invites and encourages the rest of us to distinguish, disown, and condemn staggeringly high percentages of our own community; futile because the practice of racial profiling (a practice rooted in the statistical link between race and the risk of crime, for blacks do commit a disproportionate number of street crimes) means that for police, cab drivers, store security, etc., "respectable Negroes" and "niggas" are cats of the very same hue.
Further, because the crime rates between middle class blacks and middle class whites are similar, most of the black folk committing street crimes are poor. Thus, there is a class tension here, also--the "good Negroes" are disproportionately above the poverty line while the "niggas" are disproportionately below. Unless you think people are poor because they are "bad," then perhaps they are "bad" because they are poor; hence, their wrongdoing is not something you can attribute entirely to their "bad choices" or "bad character." In any event, I reject the politics of distinction, opting instead for a politics of solidarity grounded in 1) an internally-motivated identification with the plight of those turning to drugs and other crime in despair, and 2) an externally-imposed lumping together of "good" and "bad" alike through the ubiquitous practice of racial profiling. To make my rejection of this politics of respectability and distinction (as well as to make my embrace of a politics of solidarity) as clear, concise, and unabiguous as possible, I say "call me a nigga." What I call Nigga Thinking is the kind of thinking that rejects the effort to distinguish between good and bad blacks on the basis of criminal histories and instead seeks to redirect attention toward the abject poverty, unemployment, crumbling schools, and other external compulsions that breed crime.
For this entry let's focus on jokes, punchlines, and the politics of distinction. As James Boyd White recognized, jokes (like all texts, including judicial opinions, books, poems, movies) invite the addressee to become a certain kind of person. Think, for instance, of the discomfort many ethical people feel upon laughing (or feeling tempted to laught) at a racist, sexist, homophobic or similar joke. I'd venture to say that many of us have come across a joke or jokes that are both insulting or degrading to some socially marginalized group and yet "funny" (at least in the sense that it exploits comedic elements such as incongruity and suprise to arrive at an effective punchline). If we hear such a "joke" and laugh, we may feel uneasy if not upset. The reason we are uneasy is because we realize that to laugh at a racist or sexist joke is to constitute ourselves as racists or sexists for that moment. Put differently, because we are defined by our responses to the world around us, to the degree that we respond favorably to a racist joke we are defining ourselves as racists, we are being racists. The joke, like any other text, is an invitation to be a certain kind of person, namely, the kind of person who responds positively to such jokes and texts. If we laugh at the joke we accept the invitation, but accepting it can cause us to feel self-conscious embarrassment (at least to the extent that the person we are invited to become contradicts our internalized standards of how we ought to be and who we want to be).
One of the invitations at the heart of jokes is to distinguish between "them" and "us," "we" and "they." "Them" and "they" are butts of the joke, "we" and "us" are the ones laughing at "them." Indeed, at the very moment of the telling of the joke and our laughing at it we are constituting a community of "us" who are in on the joke and a community of "them" who are oh-so-laughably -different from "us." Politics, too, consists in creating communities of "them" versus "us." "Women unite/ take back the night" and "say it loud/I'm black and I'm proud" are essentially political acts and slogans aimed at mobilitizing collective action on a group ("us") basis.
Consider how a white comedian can find compliciity among blacks for racist/classist jokes by tapping into a politics of distinction. Recently, in Bill Maher's Real Time, he delivered the following joke while holding up a pill dispenser:
"If you think there's a pill for everything in this country, look at some of the ones they have in the pipeline...ahhh, this is good, it 'Fights the infections picked up from crack prostitutes, Campho-Shaniqua, Reliable Pain Relief, Trusted by Crack Whores Everywhere, Easy to Swallow Liquid Formula."
The punchline here unaplolgetically turns on viciously racist, sexist, and classist stereotypes. The audience and guests (two of whom were white women) burst into laughter. I wondered immediately upon hearing it how the Shaniquas who I've run across (one of the stars of the WNBA is named Shaniqua) would feel sitting in that audience and hearing that punchline followed by the explosion of laughter. The joke invited all addressees to see themselves as part of an "us" community (non-Shaniquas) whose members are better than the "them" who make up the Shaniqua community. Happily for "us," the "us" community can include most middle- and upper-class blacks since, as Bill Cosby, our shining Black Brahman, tells us, only irresponsible poor blacks--"niggas"--come up with exotic names such as "Shaniqua" for their children. So, black advocates of the Politics of Distinction can laugh heartily right along with Bill and his audience at Shaniqua's expense.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.222.153 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 12:42:41 AM http://www.lyricsdownload.com/one-track-mind-shaniqua-lyrics.html For those who may not know this song by heart. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DM EMAIL: IP: 67.70.148.67 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 12:59:50 AM As I tried to argue in your last post on this, you can have something like a politics of respectibility without (what you now call) a politics of distinction. I would have thought that with your new post you would have at least attempted to respond to this (as well as other important points raised in your last post, both by myself and others), but you haven't. It is interesting that you choose a white comedian to take a swipe at when black comedians have been doing this for years (and probably still do). This may support my view that many of us often don't see something as wrong until whites start doing it. (And for the record, I found Rock's -- and many other black comedians' -- routine distateful from the very beginning.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.222.153 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 02:22:33 AM To black law students: The lawyer is all upset about any verbal criticism of the black criminal. Even a simple joke is now upsetting to the lawyer. The lawyer says nothing about the 7 fold rate of black criminal victimization. The black criminal generates fees. The black crime victim does not generate fees. If the police had a duty to individuals in torts, by statute, overturning Supreme Court decisions, you would see something. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 66.91.246.41 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/12/2006 08:57:06 AM Professor Armour, it's time for a pop quiz. Put away your books and papers and get out a pencil. Ready? 1. Anyone involved in criminal conduct deserves to be characterized as a A. Criminal B. Criminal C. Criminal D. Criminal Please pass your tests in to the aisle for the TA to pick up. Thank you. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: TO EMAIL: IP: 208.27.111.122 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 10:20:47 AM What I call Nigga Thinking is the kind of thinking that rejects the effort to distinguish between good and bad blacks on the basis of criminal histories and instead seeks to redirect attention toward the abject poverty, unemployment, crumbling schools, and other external compulsions that breed crime. So...basically it's a denial of the existence of personal responsibility for anything. There are no killers, rapists, batterers, or drug dealers, only victims of poverty. Have I missed something, or is your position really this absurd? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: David C. EMAIL: IP: 24.12.118.170 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 10:51:15 AM Your post leades me to think about that line from "A Raisin in the Sun" that Lena Younger utters in disgust at Walter Lee and Beneatha, when she says: "You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched . . . You ain’t satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don’t have to ride to work on the back of nobody’s streetcar—You my children—but how different we done become." I read your post, Prof. Amour, and I am led to wonder where you are from. What black people do you know, in short, as my mother would ask, "Who raised you?" Your comments seem to be disembodied from black people's historically lived experiences. And this, it seems, is the tragedy of so much of what passes as black intellectual thought in the academy. I do not think that Lena Younger would recognize your statements at all. I do not think that they reflect the spirit of dignity and acheivement in the face of loing odds that marks black people in America. Again, I am sitting here wondering, "Whose child are you?" My grandmother who could barely read, but who educated all of her children, who was proud to never have had to visit a jailhouse, also wonders. Stop with your nigga thinking and start thinking in a way that honors the dignity and sacrifices of black folk in America. As I type this, I am mystified, "Who raised you?" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 10:58:36 AM TO, You've missed nothing. His position is really that absurd. Maybe he'll be enlightened when he is jacked for his big german sedan while pulled over on the side of the road in South-Central to check his GPS for directions to whatever function he's going to where his "soul" brothers will only be clearing tables at best. Hopefully telling them "I'm a nigga too", will be enough to save his nigga ass. But for some reason I don't think so. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Sanity Inspector EMAIL: synapsid@hotmail.com IP: 168.28.128.78 URL: http://atlantarofters.blogspot.com DATE: 09/12/2006 02:56:37 PM What I call Nigga Thinking is the kind of thinking that rejects the effort to distinguish between good and bad blacks on the basis of criminal histories and instead seeks to redirect attention toward the abject poverty, unemployment, crumbling schools, and other external compulsions that breed crime. It's possible, indeed necessary, to deal with crime and social woes at the same time. The liberals' approach during the Sixties and Seventies, which was in essence to decriminalize crime since crime was all society's fault, was a disaster which I'd hate to see return to our dear nation. Here's a thought: Instead of trying to get down in the gutter with underclass out of a sense of solidarity, why not demand that they stand up, side by side with you? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sewere EMAIL: drbiyi@netscape.net IP: 63.149.243.176 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 08:56:13 PM How is it that most of the responders here not only disagree with Prof. Armour but are more than willing to add condescension to their critique? The point of this post is not to cuddle criminals by equating them with law-abiding folks (can someone point this out in context?). Rather, the point is that the Politics of Division has its origins in the systematic racism that is entrenched in the criminal justice system which seeks to affirm that there are black people deserving of the derogatory form of the word nigga (does society refer to criminals of other racial groups with similar slurs?). Prof. Armour's position is that when we allow this distinction of black people vs. niggas to continue, we are playing into the mentality that bad black people are niggas, which when it comes to reality is not distinguishable from good black folk (as those of us who have lived the experience of being racially profiled are all to familiar with). Why is it that every time a person of color makes a statement, you will always find someone with a racist bent (KT) willing to belittle the person? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sewere EMAIL: drbiyi@netscape.net IP: 63.149.243.176 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 08:58:02 PM How is it that most of the responders here not only disagree with Prof. Armour but are more than willing to add condescension to their critique? The point of this post is not to cuddle criminals by equating them with law-abiding folks (can someone point this out in context?). Rather, the point is that the Politics of Division has its origins in the systematic racism that is entrenched in the criminal justice system which seeks to affirm that there are black people deserving of the derogatory form of the word nigga (does society refer to criminals of other racial groups with similar slurs?). Prof. Armour's position is that when we allow this distinction of black people vs. niggas to continue, we are playing into the mentality that bad black people are niggas, which when it comes to reality is not distinguishable from good black folk (as those of us who have lived the experience of being racially profiled are all to familiar with). Why is it that every time a person of color makes a statement, you will always find someone with a racist bent (KT) willing to belittle the person? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Sanity Inspector EMAIL: synapsid@hotmail.com IP: 4.154.76.74 URL: http://atlantarofters.blogspot.com DATE: 09/12/2006 10:05:48 PM So Sewere, what shall we call the "bad black people"? (I don't like or use any form of the N-bomb, myself.) It surely isn't sustainable to pretend they don't exist. After the Cincinnati riots, sparked by accusations of police brutality, pretty near the first thing the community black leaders did was do scream for the police to quit looking the other way and get tough on the local black thugs. Again. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 66.91.246.41 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/13/2006 08:43:11 AM Severe, I'm sorry if you think me racist. I would suggest that your reponse is what has led to posts like Professor Armour's as well as the earlier one by Professor Smith about Andrew Young's comments. I admit I am probably far to snarky in my tone. It's a bad habit. Attributing this to racism is a bad habit as well. Most of the posts on this blog seem to me to be poorly reasoned and written from a very narrow viewpoint. The Andrew Young post was a great example. Terry Smith clearly did not know the first thing about the microeconomics of a local grocer. His post was a dreadful mishmash of illogic, ignorance and bile. How did he get to be a professor with that kind of thinking? Worse still, how did he get to be a professor and not even know he was ignorant in those areas? He wasn't just slightly misinformed, he was totally clueless. To me, this suggests that throughout his academic career, people tried to avoid disagreeing with him. The fact that he did not engage in any of the discussions following his post, just as Professor Armour does not, suggests that he has very little experience with reasoned dissent. Your comment suggests one possible mechanism. Why is it that every time a person of color makes a statement, you will always find someone with a racist bent (KT) willing to belittle the person? Rather than address the issue, you're claiming that I disagreed with him because of his race. In person, I would most certainly not disagree with him out of concern that a racially charged confrontation might arise. It is better to let Professors Armour and Smith continue on with their ignorance than it is to challenge them. Thanks to attitudes like yours, my education, experience and opinions are not available to help them form their own. They are the poorer for it. Here on the Internet with reasonable anonymity and a great deal of distance, I can say what I think. I think they both need to get a clue. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 12:22:14 PM K T Cat “Most of the posts on this blog seem to me to be poorly reasoned and written from a very narrow viewpoint. The Andrew Young post was a great example. Terry Smith clearly did not know the first thing about the microeconomics of a local grocer. His post was a dreadful mishmash of illogic, ignorance and bile.” Funny that K T Cat is now saying this. In the post dealing with the controversial comments Arnold Schwarzenegger made K T Cat claimed the reason he (or she) likes posting here is because Blackprof gets him thinking. K T cat’s exact words were “why do I post here? The posts and comments make me think. That's why”. http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/09/straightfoward_politics.html#comments Now that you have just clearly stated that the most the posts are poorly reasoned and written from a very narrow point of view, I must ask you again So again, why do you post here? Poorly reasoned and narrow viewpoints do not get rational, smart people thinking, all it leads to is petty bickering and conflict. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 128.49.26.155 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/13/2006 12:46:03 PM Debbie, I could never understand thinking like Professor Armour's or Professor Smith's before. I knew I disagreed with their conclusions, but not knowing their thought process underlying it, I couldn't very well provide a counter point beyond "You're wrong." While I don't think they do a good job with their posts, I do think their posts are internally consistent. That in itself is useful in codifying and clarifying one's own arguments. Even better than that are the comments that follow. The ones in the post about Andrew Young were stellar. I learned quite a bit from them, particularly from those who worked in family grocery stores. And thanks to you, you've forced me to examine why I do comment here. I appreciate that. By the way, I'd like to offer another example of someone to aspire to, like The Sanity Inspector recommended above. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcact@san.rr.com IP: 128.49.26.155 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/13/2006 12:53:59 PM Debbie, I could never understand thinking like Professor Armour's or Professor Smith's before. I knew I disagreed with their conclusions, but not knowing their thought process underlying it, I couldn't very well provide a counterpoint beyond "You're wrong." While I don't think they do a good job with their posts, I do think their posts are internally consistent. That in itself is useful in codifying and clarifying one's own arguments. Even better than that are the comments that follow. The ones in the post about Andrew Young were stellar. I learned quite a bit from them, particularly from those who worked in family grocery stores. And thanks to you, you've forced me to examine why I do comment here. I appreciate that. By the way, I'd like to offer another example of someone to aspire to, like The Sanity Inspector recommended above. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Sewere EMAIL: drbiyi@netscape.net IP: 63.149.243.149 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 01:32:08 PM "So Sewere, what shall we call the "bad black people"? " What do you call bad white, latino, asian people? "How did he get to be a professor with that kind of thinking? Worse still, how did he get to be a professor and not even know he was ignorant in those areas? He wasn't just slightly misinformed, he was totally clueless." "In person, I would most certainly not disagree with him out of concern that a racially charged confrontation might arise. It is better to let Professors Armour and Smith continue on with their ignorance than it is to challenge them. Thanks to attitudes like yours, my education, experience and opinions are not available to help them form their own. They are the poorer for it." I'm guessing such racist programs as Affirmative Action are to blame (let's not forget the liberal-communist brainwashing education from Havard and Berkeley) ... God only knows that's how he could gotten through undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as peer review before being selected to teach at USC... I'm still waiting for someone to actually address the issue put forward in this post. How is it ok to call black people niggas because they're black but no such racial epithets exist for whites or other people of color? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 02:33:11 PM K T Cat Right, I am trying to understand how a poorly reasoned post coming from a very narrow point of view can possibly provoke a rational person to think “smart”. As I said before poorly reasoned and narrow viewpoints do not get rational, smart people thinking- all it leads to is petty bickering and conflict. If the posts seem to you to be a “dreadful mishmash of illogic, ignorance and bile” then why waste your time responding. Example, when I run across racist websites like Stromfront for example, I do not waste my time posting comments to people who thought process is so irrational because nothing much will come of sense. As the saying goes (not sure of the exact wording) when a smart person is arguing with a stupid person, the bystander is unable to distinguish between who the real idiot is. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 02:48:59 PM “I'm still waiting for someone to actually address the issue put forward in this post. How is it ok to call black people niggas because they're black but no such racial epithets exist for whites or other people of color?” Sewere To answer your question, it’s not okay. Bad people are just that- bad people, regardless of what skin color they are. If anyone tells you otherwise, then perhaps that individual has some unresolved issues. I’m assuming that no racial epithets exists for whites because since they are the dominant group (in terms of sheer number and share of power), the bad deeds done by them (whites) are examined only according to the bad deeds not their skin color. Remember the majority is practically invisible, while the minority is always apparent. Thus, most of the times when there is a focus on a criminal’s skin color, he/ she will almost always be of a minority group. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 128.49.26.155 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/13/2006 02:52:40 PM Sewere, IMHO, it is most certainly not OK to call anyone "nigga" for any reason. It describes nothing but the user's mentality. Plenty of words exist to call the person what they are. Murderer, rapist, criminal, thief, and so on. I really like your take on it. "So Sewere, what shall we call the "bad black people"? " What do you call bad white, latino, asian people? As for how Professor Smith managed to receive his degree and yet be able to post something as poor as his article about Andrew Young is a mystery to me. There was a commenter on his post that quoted a Thomas Sowell piece that obliterated Andrew Young's arguments. It's too bad that there was no indication that Professor Smith read that or learned anything from it. I had theoretical math professors who were just as bad, so I guess I shouldn't be so judgmental. My bad. I also pledge to de-snarkify my comments from now on. Thanks to those who took me to task on it. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: Ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 09:33:04 AM Sewere, When I was in college, there was a poor white community adjacent to the campus. The residents of that community were called "hillrats" As for other epitaths: "white trash", "spic", "wetback", "dego", "chink", "charlie" ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: karel EMAIL: karel@gmail.com IP: 81.177.15.61 URL: http://www_4_1.gmail.com/ DATE: 10/13/2006 09:20:27 PM ionolsen17 I like your sitewww_4_2 www_4_3 www_4_4 www_4_5 www_4_6 www_4_7 www_4_8 www_4_9 www_4_10 www_4_11 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: topicstarter EMAIL: thomson@gmail.com IP: 81.177.15.56 URL: http://www_4_1.gmail.com/ DATE: 10/13/2006 09:20:28 PM ionolsen17 Hello Jane, great site!www_4_2 www_4_3 www_4_4 www_4_5 www_4_6 www_4_7 www_4_8 www_4_9 www_4_10 www_4_11 ----- -------- AUTHOR: pbutler TITLE: Affirmative Action for Jamaicans? For P Diddy's Kids?: Quotas in India - Part II STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/11/2006 01:22:31 PM ----- BODY:Two questions about US affirmative action came up often during my talks in India. One was about the American "creamy layer" (the Indian term for upper-income beneficiaries of quotas). Do I think that people from wealthy minorities families should benefit from affirmative action? My answer is "yes." First of all, they need it - the studies I’ve seen suggest that middle-income blacks, for example, tend to have standardized test scores more similar to lower-income whites than to middle-income whites. I would attribute this sub-standard performance to a legacy of white supremacy - something that can’t adequately be compensated by one or two generations of parents who earn middle-income wages. Second, if wealth is measured by thicker criteria than income, there are still relatively few "wealthy" blacks (compared to whites). Politically it would be tough to make the case that BET founder Bob Johnson’s or Sean P Diddy Comb’s kids "deserve" affirmative action, but as a realistic matter, the middle income blacks who are the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action probably are significantly less wealthy than their middle income white counterparts.
The second common question was about minority immigrants to the US and their children. Should recent immigrants from, say, Jamaica or El Salvador be entitled to race-preferences? I think the answer is "yes," if if the purpose of affirmative action is "diversity." If, on the other hand, the purpose of affirmative action is remedial, then the answer is "no." Immigrants of color certainly enhance a learning environment, including by contributing to the "cross-racial" understanding that persuaded the Supreme Court that diversity affirmative action is constitutional. At the same time, they have not been as direct victims of state sponsored discrimination as native born African-Americans or Hispanic-Americans and don’t have the same claim to reparative remedies.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ETS EMAIL: escott@alumni.unc.edu IP: 204.155.172.17 URL: http://www.azcentral.com DATE: 09/11/2006 01:49:06 PM I'm about diversity. Period. And the reality is that wealthy and middle class people of color and immigrants are underrepresented in higher education and the workforce. Something needs to be done to fix that. As of now, I'm not sure that there is anything in place that can remedy that better than affirmative action. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 02:00:43 PM "...middle-income blacks, for example, tend to have standardized test scores more similar to lower-income whites than to middle-income whites. I would attribute this sub-standard performance to a legacy of white supremacy..." While the first sentence of this statement is certainly true, the second sentence shows the affirmative action argument at its weakest. The second statement is often made flippantly as if it is obvious and needs no evidence or explanation to confirm. So professor Butler exactly what part of the legacy of white supremacy is causing black middle class kids, who are presumably in the same schools and classrooms and schools with white middle class kids, to perform on par with poor white folk. Is the fact that my daughter is the only black student in 2 of her honors classes at a private catholic high school that has a nearly half black student population part of the legacy of white supremacy? (incoming freshman students were placed based on their middle school grades and performance on an entrance exam; based on tuition, I will assume that most of the black students can be characterized as middle class) If it is, why are the sports teams more reflective of the racial make up of the school? If you are really interested these questions, I suggest you read the following book. "Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement" (Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 2003) by Dr. John Ogbu It is a concrete study that goes beyond the tired explanation of the nebulous "legacy of white supremacy" in explaining to a degree te achievement gap. If you are going to make certain claims about causation at least back them up with referenced information. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 02:02:11 PM The above post was not anonymous. It was me forgetting to sign. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Vic Fleischer EMAIL: victor.fleischer@gmail.com IP: 128.138.174.246 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 02:08:54 PM You may also want to consider the implications of using income, as opposed to wealth, as a basis for affirmative action. African-Americans are closing the income gap more quickly than the wealth gap. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 02:20:02 PM Here's a funny story about diversity. Back when I was in high school in the early 80's the Cleveland Public School system was placed under a court ordered desegragation policy. In addition to the desegration policy, the school board came up with the brilliant idea that all sports teams be racially mixed. This was mandatory policy. My high school at the time was one of the few in the city that was already racially mixed, sitting right on the boarder of a white neighborhood and a black neighborhood. The football team was mixed, but the basketball team was all black. This new mandate led to a comical search for a white guy who was willing to join the basketball team. One was finally found and was affectionately nick-named "Bird" by the student body. And though he was wildly cheered on the few occassions he actually got into a game, his skill were marginal at best and it was obvious he was there as a token. After intense community pressure, the backwards policy was reversed and "Bird" was no longer required to suit up, I'm sure to his delight and to the delight of whatever deserving black kid he displaced. Diversity isn't always the right answer. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Christine Hurt EMAIL: achurt@law.uiuc.edu IP: 130.126.87.180 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 02:20:51 PM I think it's amazing that this argument has not changed in the last 20 years. When I was in high school and applying to college, you often heard the angry remark that because of affirmative action, "Dr. Huxtable's kids get full scholarships." I guess the only difference in rhetoric is to replace the fictional father whose kids are stealing your place in college with P. Diddy, who may seem more polarizing than Dr. Huxtable. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: LB EMAIL: barbersview@yahoo.com IP: 208.59.118.90 URL: http://lashawnbarber.com DATE: 09/11/2006 04:49:47 PM So professor Butler exactly what part of the legacy of white supremacy is causing black middle class kids, who are presumably in the same schools and classrooms and schools with white middle class kids, to perform on par with poor white folk. I can't wait to read the answer. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hope EMAIL: IP: 24.62.63.248 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 04:52:08 PM OK Paul. I'll bite. Been to Jamaica lately? (And not to the all-inclusive resorts part.) Either 1st or 2nd highest murder rate. Did a quick search and came up with the following (revealing) statement from a UNDP report: "A study carried out by A. Harriott shows that the homicide rate in Jamaica is four times higher than the world rate, with the city of Kingston having the highest rate in the world at 109/100,000, followed by Washington D.C., at 67/100,000." Poverty in "one or two" places on the island (being ironic). If we go back historically, where do you think all those enslaved Black people from West Africa were shipped before entering the U.S.? Just hate the myth (shared by some in the US and in those countries alike) that Black folks from outside the U.S. were not oppressed by white supremacist ideology and racism or do not have consciousness of it. Could be with you on the notion that affirmative action, in so far as its intent is to compensate African-Americans for hundreds of years of enslavement, Jim Crow, lynching, segregation, discrimination, lack of voting rights, and unequal access to education. Under that analysis, immigrants would just be "due" compensation for the oppression they experienced since they arrived. But affirmative action is about even more--I think it is to make sure that Black children at least have a fighting chance of being what they want to be, going where they want to go, and maybe even benefiting the communities that sent them there while doing it. Never been happy about the "add spice" to the soup argument for affirmative action. Black children should be in school for the reasons any children should be in school, not just to make others feel that they've done their duty or will now have a better "understanding" of multiculturalism. I hope they will, but that's not why Black children should be there. If the distinction between native-born and immirgant is going to be made, then, indeed, we do need to internationalize the issue. In that case, the domestic affirmative action movement should be linked to the international reparations movement. For the hundreds of years of enslavement, murders, rapes, discrimination, colonial oppression, theft of resources, Cold War (murderous) manipulation, support for apartheid, etc. that went on in the Caribbean and much of Africa. And yes, the European powers and, sometimes, the Soviets, were in "command" of many of those regions much of the time, but the U.S. has had its share of responsibility, particularly in the most recent century or so. As for P Diddy (or other "super-rich"), I'm sure that the universities and other schools will continue to welcome the children of the "super-rich"--affirmative action or no affirmative action. As long as they pay that tuition and endow a chair or two. Race will still matter of course, as soon as those children do something that displeases the mainstream or if they get stopped by the police on a lonely road. They probably won't be asked their nationality or income-level first. We need to defend against the wholesale attack on affirmative action in this country. And I mostly think the internal debates (as pointed out in a comment above, it's a very old one) is a distraction from the fact that all Black kids, rich or poor, Jamaican or from Louisiana, should be able to go to school. Not the case now in any of those places. We're fighting over a small slice of the pie when we need a much larger piece. Am also sure that the Dalits in India need a much larger piece as well. Peace, H. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: The Sanity Inspector EMAIL: synapsid@hotmail.com IP: 168.28.128.78 URL: http://atlantarofters.blogspot.com DATE: 09/11/2006 05:49:51 PM How in the world could admissions and hiring quotas bring up test scores? I mean, isn't that mommy and daddy's job? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: schmidt EMAIL: mail@nospam.com IP: 207.67.146.213 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 10:55:48 PM The real issue has nothing to do with P. Diddy or Dr. Huxtable for that matter, and fwiw the argument has indeed changed over the last twenty years. Read this NYT article on the concerns of black professors at Harvard over who is getting the benefit from the current practice of affirmative action. "At the most recent reunion of Harvard University's black alumni, there was lots of pleased talk about the increase in the number of black students at Harvard. "But the celebratory mood was broken in one forum, when some speakers brought up the thorny issue of exactly who those black students were. "While about 8 percent, or about 530, of Harvard's undergraduates were black, Lani Guinier, a Harvard law professor, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Harvard's African and African-American studies department, pointed out that the majority of them — perhaps as many as two-thirds — were West Indian and African immigrants or their children, or to a lesser extent, children of biracial couples." http://www.uh.edu/ednews/2004/nytimes/200406/20040624harvard.html ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: cmoney EMAIL: IP: 68.48.19.250 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 11:48:49 PM When morons like George W. Bush can get into Yale and Harvard and take the space of a qualified minority student by his family connections, yes we do need affirmative action for minorities. The same could be said for Al Gore, another marginal Ivy League student who got in based upon White privilege and family connections. I don't want to hear any more White people complain about affirmative action when they benefit from it everyday in ways African-Americans could only dream of. Immigrants do not have the same connections in this country that would give them the same advantages that native born Whites or even African-Americans have in some instances (African-American operated institutions such as colleges, banks, fraternal organizations, non-profits and churches)so I say they should benefit from affirmative action too. Let's level the playing field! It's still an uphill climb for us despite all of the propaganda by Fox news types who would have us believe that we are all equal in this country. Far from it! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DM EMAIL: IP: 67.70.148.67 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 12:20:48 AM Let me say first that I am interested in the moral justification of affirmative action, not the legal one. Let me say too that I am uninterested in (and frankly not impressed by) the diversity argument for AA. 1) I agree that wealth/high income blacks should also benefit from AA. Look at this example: Say B steals A’s bike, but through A’s ingenuity A manages to learn how to ride a bike, and indeed becomes fairly adept at bike-riding. Now suppose that after A does this there is an opportunity to compensate A for B’s theft of her bike. It seems to me that the argument that, because A learnt to ride a bike anyway, there is no need to compensate her, is totally unconvincing. A’s overcoming of B’s-imposed disadvantage (completely or only to some extent) can’t be used to deny A compensation for B’s-imposed disadvantage. 2) I disagree with the claim that if AA is remedial then immigrants should not benefit from AA. Why? Because of contemporary racial discrimination. It is interesting that Prof. Butler left this out as a justification for AA. 3) Elb1999, I think your challenge can be met, but I don’t think liberals like Prof. Butler can meet it. I, too, as you know from my past posts, think culture is very important factor in explaining black underachievement. But I think you can tie that culture to a history of racism. The short version: because of Jim Crow a self-defeating aspect of black culture slowly emerged in the 20th century; most aspects of this culture is likely to be seen in the inner cites, but it extends to some extent in the black middle class as well; hip hop has been instrumental in spreading this aspect of black culture; without a history of racism (specifically during the Jim Crow period) this culture would not exist. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 10:00:12 AM DM, What is always conveniently left out is that black people had a history of academic excellence and achievement in the midst of Jim Crow under much harsher conditions with far fewer resources. Their were all black high schools in D.C. and other major cities that routinely outperformed white high school on standardized test in the early 20th century. I can agree with the argument that Jim Crow , etc. had some impact on our educational advancement, but a generation past the desegragation era the gap shouldn't be as wide as it is. The cultural piece is definitely a significant piece of this problem. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 12:23:29 PM “What is always conveniently left out is that black people had a history of academic excellence and achievement in the midst of Jim Crow under much harsher conditions with far fewer resources. Their were all black high schools in D.C. and other major cities that routinely outperformed white high school on standardized test in the early 20th century.” DM Do you have any proof that backs this claim? If so, please post the link. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: DM EMAIL: IP: 130.63.18.226 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 12:52:03 PM Elb1999, Read carefully what I said. I said the culture in question emerged SLOWLY. So that they were poor all-black schools during Jim Crow in which students excelled doesn't count against my argument. In my view the culture was consolidated just as black people saw real results -- in terms of legislation -- from the civil rights movement. (That said, I think with a different leadership (including intellectuals) the process could have been arrested and reversed.) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 03:59:46 PM DM, I would argue that the self defeating culture emerged not during or because of Jim Crow, but after the civil rights movement. The movement would not have been possible with a strong self defeating attitude embedded in black culture. A strong anti-establishment, anti-anythingwhite attitude, nutured in the black nationalist movement was the catalyst for this self defeating culture. Although the black nationalist idea might have been noble, (a rejection of all things white base on our suffering at their hands), the effect was to throw the baby out with the bath water; i.e. a "white" education. Nevermind that math and science have no color. As i did some 20 odd years ago, smart black kids are still being castigated for trying to act white. There was no such idea in regards to education prior to the civil rights movement; witness Brown vs. BOE.; the little rock 7. The whole idea was that education was wholey and singularly important. In our haste not to be white, it somehow eluded us that education was not in fact a white province. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 04:07:12 PM Elb1999 “What is always conveniently left out is that black people had a history of academic excellence and achievement in the midst of Jim Crow under much harsher conditions with far fewer resources. Their were all black high schools in D.C. and other major cities that routinely outperformed white high school on standardized test in the early 20th century.” DM Do you have any proof that backs this claim? If so, please post the link. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 04:53:27 PM Debbie, Ask and you shall recieve :) http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams012104.asp ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: konnie EMAIL: no@no.com IP: 207.195.254.206 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 06:47:59 PM The link makes reference to the academic excellence of DC's Dunbar High School. You need to understand that Dunbar was what we'd now call a magnet school, for the best and brightest black kids who were headed toward college. It was an elite college prep school. Unfortunately, Judge Skelly Wright ruled that the Bill of Rights precluded such a school! Dunbar stopped being a magnet school. It took decades for everyone to realize how wrong that approach was. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 10:36:37 PM “What is always conveniently left out is that black people had a history of academic excellence and achievement in the midst of Jim Crow under much harsher conditions with far fewer resources. Their were all black high schools in D.C. and other major cities that routinely outperformed white high school on standardized test in the early 20th century. I can agree with the argument that Jim Crow , etc. had some impact on our educational advancement, but a generation past the desegragation era the gap shouldn't be as wide as it is. The cultural piece is definitely a significant piece of this problem.” Elb1999 The article only points to only one black high school that outperformed its white counterparts and that is Dunbar. You make it seem as this “out performance” of whites were common/ widespread in the early 20th century. How can you make an argument “their were all black high schools in D.C. and other major cities that routinely outperformed white high school on standardized test in the early 20th century” based on one example? Furthermore, many scholars argue that public education has worsened both in white and black public schools. Blacks feel the brunt of this phenomenon because, of course, their schools have always been inferior. The last point is that the obvious reason you do not see elite black private schools nowadays is because many upper-class blacks nowadays choose to send their children to white elite schools. During the Jim Crow Days this was never even an option, therefore upper-class blacks were forced to build their own black upper-class schools. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 68.232.163.70 URL: DATE: 09/12/2006 11:20:29 PM Debbie, You must not have read the whole article. There was reference to other excellent schools in other cities and also the reference of harlem schools in the 40's performing above or at the same levels as white schools on the lower east side of Manhattan. The point being that at a time of much worse social alienation, racism and prejudice; at a time when funding was surely vastly unequal, there were black schools and black students holding their own. Today we have a situation where black kids are sitting in the very same class rooms they are being outperformed by significant amounts. The question is why were some black schools and students able to hold their own under much worse conditions, but today they are underperfoming even when they are in the exact same environment. Your point about white and black public schools being worse is irrelavent. Black kids are underperforming no matter what school they are in. That point was pointed out by professor butler, (black middle class kids are performing at the level of poor white kids) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debbie EMAIL: IP: 70.108.195.76 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 12:45:55 AM Let me clarify myself I bit. Good education more so runs along one’s (high)socio-economic lines. I would speculate that a major reason for the high performing black schools during the early 20th century is because these schools likely only catered to upper-class income black people. Nowadays, you have a situation in which blacks are diffused throughout different schools of diverse racial and socio-economic class. My main concern about this finding comes with the article stating that black schools outperformed white schools. Did the author control for socio-economic backgrounds of both schools? Or could it quite be possible that the author compared a black school aimed at upper-class blacks to a low-class white school? In fact the reason that I suspect these black schools, in the early 20th century, outperformed white schools is because they consisted of mainly upper-class blacks. The article does state that: “In fact, from its founding in 1870 to 1955, most of its graduates went off to college.” It’s my assumption that most blacks who could afford college during this time had to have been well off. (I could be wrong however). If this is the case then if we were to group upper-class blacks and place them in black schools then they would outperform/ be on the same level as their white (poorer) counterparts. This would hold true because it is the case even today. I guess my main concern is whether the author controlled the economic factor when comparing theses two groups. If not, then the argument rings hollow. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/13/2006 09:35:32 AM Debbie, I think the point you are missing is that these were public schools. Do you actually believe there were enough wealthy black people in D.C. at the turn of the 20th century to fill an entire high school. There's barely enough truly wealthy people to do it now. It's probably more likely that those schools were populated with people of modest incomes as at that time the majority of black folks were poor. If the black pverty rate is 23% now, what do you thing it was in 1900, some 30 odd years after slavery? my guess 80; 90%. I haven't read the study but it would seem that at that time there wasn't really that much black wealth to control for. Also you did not address the harlem vs. lower east side piece in the 40's. There simple was not enough of a concentration of black wealth to populate entire black schools with well to do kids in order that socio-economic factors would explain their on par performance. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: sls EMAIL: IP: 209.183.239.14 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 11:25:03 AM I just wanted to address the diversity argument for affirmative action. I had always imagined that the diversity rationale was based upon the idea that an integrated student body would encourage an exchange of views, cultures, and ideas that would be beneficial in and of itself. If that's the reason, then racial diversity shouldn't be the sole determinant. Students of all races from more privileged backgrounds can learn a lot from economically disadvantaged students as well, just as those who have not been subject to the obstacles of racism can learn from those who have been. So I'm not sure that the diversity justification should necessarily advantage an immigrant black student over a decendant of American slaves; on the other hand, the diversity justification would support (weighted) preferences to anyone not in the most common / advantaged groups. Realistically, I think that AA is based on a combination of remedial and diversity rationales--its current forms seem to reflect that. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: EMAIL: IP: 151.196.98.42 URL: DATE: 10/04/2006 08:22:29 AM p. diddy suck ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Royalty Free Beats For One Dollar EMAIL: allshoptk@hotmail.com IP: 24.188.167.177 URL: http://upbeat.tk DATE: 10/26/2006 03:20:12 PM Royalty Free Beats For One Dollar At http://upbeat.tk All of our one dollar beats are sample free and royalty free, these beats can be used for Rap, Hip Hop, R&B, advertising, motion production, sports, games, software, ringtones, and more. All we ask is two things, one if you use these beats for commercial purposes that you give "upbeat.tk" written credit for our production and two not to resell or give away beats without vocals if used for musical purposes. Links to download beats will be sent by e mail after purchase, each beat will be sent as a WAVE Audio File and a MP3 File. When purchased you will have non-exclusive rights to the beat or beats you buy for life. If you have any questions feel free to email us at upbeattk@gmail.com thank you and enjoy. ----- -------- AUTHOR: soverton TITLE: Where were you on 9-11? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: history CATEGORY: history DATE: 09/11/2006 12:10:26 PM ----- BODY:Picking up on Professor Wing’s important post, what were you doing five years ago on September 11, 2001? (comment below on Prof. Wing's post).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: awing TITLE: Remembrance on 9-11 STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 PRIMARY CATEGORY: history CATEGORY: history DATE: 09/11/2006 09:09:17 AM ----- BODY:
It does not seem that five years have passed since 9-11. NO doubt everyone in the US, if not the world, remembers where they were when the tragic events happened. I watched it on the news before going to school to teach. On this day, what immediately also came to mind for me were those killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, the 1995 Oklahoma City Murrah federal building, the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, the 2002 Bali disco, the 2004 Madrid Train station, and the 2005 London Tube.
Then, I realized that many nations have had the equivalent of 9-11, or even worse. WE in the US may not even know what those events are for that society, even though many thousands of people may have died. In particular, I wonder how the people in Afghanistan and Iraq feel? As their nations persist in war conditions, is there a particular day that stands out? What about the Lebanese? The Palestinians? The Israelis? The Pakistanis? The Mexicans? The Canadians? The Chinese? The Rwandans?
To help remember at our school today, I will moderate a movie called September 11 from Empire Pictures. It consists of 11 directors telling 11 stories concerning the following countries: the US, Iran, France, Egypt, Bosnia, Burkina Faso, United Kingdom, Mexico, Israel, India, and Japan.
On a more permanent basis, I found that the events of 9-11 have created great interest in learning about Islam and the Muslim world among students. So I started a course called Law in the Muslim world in the spring 2002 semester. See http://www.uiowa.edu/~lawakw/muslim_law/muslimworld%20syllabus06.pdf. While I teach it every year, I was very glad to do this course for the first time in my summer abroad program in France. I then took 24 people with me to Turkey for a week, where the text could come to life. Iowa students in Istanbul and Ankara!! Many want to go back or experience another such country first hand. A few now are interested in careers that involve the Muslim world.
What do you remember on this day? How has your life changed?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Hope EMAIL: IP: 24.62.63.248 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 11:15:13 AM Glad you wrote about this, Adrien. I thought about it, but was just too emotionally drained. What do I remember? I remember thinking along the same lines about the degree to which mass violence around the world often goes unobserved and unmourned except in the location where it happens. I remember thinking that some of the global trauma came from the fact of being able to observe it all happen in real time anywhere there was a television set or computer. And the symbolism of the loss of "control" in a center of so much power. And the individual and collective courage of so many. I also remember thinking (while news reports were saying that there could have been more than 50,000 people in those buildings at the time--I'm from NYC, and also spent years in DC) about my family and friends (they were OK) and then about all those other family and friends. And then came despair, because I knew that, whatever social justice progress had been made in recent years was about to be turned back at so many levels. That despair has since lifted because of the work of so many (mostly ordinary) people, but one has to keep fighting it. Peace, H. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Kim EMAIL: IP: 128.164.135.250 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 11:54:14 AM On this day, I was walking in my adopted town of Arhus, Denmark, where I was teaching Ethnic Marketing as a visiting lecturer. For me, and other Americans who have spent a large majority of their adult lives overseas, 9/11 was more than surreal, more than catastrophic. It tore the strings connecting us from "there" to home. To speak with those of us who were living abroad then, it was a completely different existence. Our discussions were held in Danish, German, French, Spanish, from the p.o.v. of outsiders, from the p.o.v. of foreign governments. The newscast I saw was in English, but the commentary I read was in Danish. Even as a true blue, brown American (who just so happens to love getting new stamps on her passport), "my" 9-11 reminds me that for the millions of us living overseas, we remember and experience that terrible day in a completely different way. Only others living abroad during that time really seem to understand the feeling of helplessness I felt at not being able to comfort, hug, speak to, my people at home. The outrage, sadness and utter confusion felt by Americans and others living in America during that time was increased ten-fold for those of us who didn't have the luxury of being "home." But the good that came out of my being overseas is a blessing. The courses I taught that year and subsequent years in other countries became geared toward inter-cultural understanding, about opening dialogue about America and debunking stereotypes and misconceptions. So even though I often feel disconnected and possibly unworthy to engage in discussions on "where were you?," I do understand that this little girl from Illinois has done some good in the places she was, even if they were across the pond. (p.s. while I know the comment about Iowans in the Middle East wasn't meant in a bad way, we Midwesterners do like to learn about other cultures; it's a common idea that we only bake pies and shuck corn. That's only half the story. We farm and bake while listening to NPR and reading the international pages. ^-^) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Spencer EMAIL: IP: 69.250.39.219 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 12:12:17 PM I woke up early in Davis, California (about 5:30 am), and went into my office to my computer to read the New York Times online and then get to work. At a certain point a message came across the screen indicating that a plane flew into the WTC. I turned on the television. People were still wondering whether it was an accident. I woke my wife, and it soon became clear that it was not an accident. And we watched the events unfold from there. I can really relate to Hope's comment. There was so much uncertainty. I remember feeling as though everything was out of control. The news kept jumping from Washington, to New York, to Pennsylvania . . . At that time, we didn’t have the benefit of hindsight, and we did not know which U.S. city or building would be hit next. We also didn’t know that the attack was only from the air. I didn’t know, for example, if the collapse of the towers resulted from the planes or from bombs that had been planted in the buildings. I called friends in New York City, but the calls didn’t go through. The scope and the pain of the tragedy hit me later. For me, the feelings of the day were confusion, helplessness, uncertainty, disarray, and the fragility and vulnerability of our nation and important institutions within it that previously seemed so solid. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: anthony EMAIL: alh@theipinionsjournal.com IP: 68.50.50.39 URL: http://www.theipinionsjournal.com DATE: 09/11/2006 12:14:09 PM Prof Wing The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were clearly horrific. (Indeed, so much so that even the French expressed genuine sympathy....) But one of the reasons why America has squandered so much international goodwill is that too many Americans behave as though no other country in the world was ever victimized by such dastardly acts of terror. (It is instructive that it took reflections on 9/11 to belatedly disabuse even you of this woe-is-America exceptionalism.) But I applaud your Law in the Muslim world course and your summer abroad program. Because I suspect that the awareness they foster, and the kinds of interpersonal (cross-cultural) exchanges you lead, will do more to prevent another 9/11 than all of America's military might and hair-gel-confiscating security measures combined.... ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: ETS EMAIL: escott@alumni.unc.edu IP: 204.155.172.17 URL: http://www.azcentral.com DATE: 09/11/2006 01:28:20 PM I was beginning my junior year at the University of North Carolina. In my 9:30 class - African-American literature after 1965, someone announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Being a journalism major, I was unfortunately a bit desensitized to bad news. My other classmates seemed to be as well, so we carried on as usual. When class dismissed, they yard was PACKED and those who could circled around TVs. It was then that I knew that this was serious and that I found out a plane had crashed into the Pentagon. I'm from DC and somewhat of a military family, so that struck home. I was in a fraternity and ran into a member of a rival fraternity whom I had never spoken to or spoken positively about, but I knew he was from DC. We spoke for the first time that day asking if each other's families were ok, and that was the beginning of a whole year of me putting my life as I knew it at that time in perspective. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.209.202 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 08:42:32 PM Prof. Wing: I have a 9/11 analysis blaming American lawyers. Out of affection and respect, I am sparing you. Your course material seems to be Islamic law through the prism of an American, academic, PC lens, tilting everything to the left. You discuss feminism, and a variety of left subject, seeking a procrustean fit on Islamic law. At best, these subjects are marginal, over there. Naqib Al-Misri's Reliance of the Traveler has some wacky stuff, like Jews should walk to the outside of the sidewalk. http://www.astrolabe.com/product/952/Reliance_of_the_Traveler.html However, overall, as a Hornbook, it is eminently easy to understand. Most of the doctrines are humane, and logical. It is surprisingly devoid of supernatural requirements such as intent, foreseeability. It is relatively free of religiosity, and is quite secular and sociologically well guided. It covers contracts, family law, criminal law, criminal procedure, hygiene, agency, property law, including a private nuisance doctrine, consumer protections, warranties of merchantability, and a host of very familiar sounding law subjects. I liked it. Why not use original sources? They are pretty good. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Starry Decisive EMAIL: IP: 75.21.80.98 URL: http://www.nlgchicago.org DATE: 09/11/2006 09:41:29 PM I was doing back-to-back client interviews inside a large county jail, starting around the time the first tower was struck, and ending a little while after both towers had collapsed. I got out of the jail and turned my phone back on, and found increasingly frantic messages from a coworker to come back to the office. I called in, and that was how I found out what had happened. All of my clients that morning had at least one diagnosis of chronic illness or mental illness, and two that I remember were catastrophically ill. When I got back to the office, the only activities were watching TV and trying to raise loved ones on the phone or by email. All other work had stopped - in an office where people usually moved like their hair was on fire. That in itself was extremely eerie - nearly as unsettling at the attack. What I remember now, 5 years later, was how a public catastrophe for a moment superseded the hidden, private catastrophes of our clients' lives. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Anon-e-mous EMAIL: IP: 68.48.19.250 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 11:29:27 PM I could tell you how horrified I was tht day (I was) but I have to admit that I had really great sex that day. A friend was stuck in the traffic jams around DC for hours and called and asked if she could come over and rest until the traffic died down. I said, of course you can. We watched the dreadful news and decided to do something beautiful. If this was going to be one of our last days, we wanted it to be good. It was beautiful and passionate. Call me shallow, but when we saw all of the hate and hurt on 9-11, we responded with love for one another. Don't you wish you did the same? Don't hate! When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.222.153 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 11:55:38 PM As we speak, 100's of lawyers are embedded with our troops in Iraq, signing off or refusing to sign off on warrior action, at the tactical and strategic level, thereby cancelling them. As we speak, a lawyer, one with a judicial temperament, a Harvard Momma's boy dumbass, a soft on terror collaborator lawyer traitor heads Homeland security, a job proper only for a soldier. It should be illegal and unethical for any lawyer to set policy in the war on terror. The risk is that payback for the current lawyer softness on the terrorist, total mismanagement, and allowing another major attack will be against the rule of law. The lawyer has an affirmative duty to prevent that by abstaining from the rent of the war on terror. The stupidity of the lawyer is going to take out 1776, that rare, frail flower of Athens. Lawyer stupidity leaves me breathless. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: the Rising Jurist EMAIL: trj@onebluesun.org IP: 165.189.204.253 URL: http://www.onebluesun.org/trj DATE: 09/13/2006 10:45:41 AM When the first tower was struck, I was alseep, having just completed the third shift at the local jail. I received a phone call from my girlfriend, who demanded that I get up and turn on the news. I was on the phone with her, describing what I was seeing, when the second plane hit. Up until that point, the prevailing notion was that it was a tragic accident on the part of the pilots. But with that second strike, it all became painfully obvious what was happening. And not long after that, the towers fell. We had just been to the WTC a month earlier, spending some time on the observation level. And now, the towers were gone. There was a sinking feeling as the day unfolded and we wondered just how deep this plot would go. Would there be ground forces? Would suicide bombers start turning up all over town. All commercial air traffic had been grounded, which was unusual enough. But at the time I live fairly close to a nuclear facility. So fighter jets circled the sky near my house for some time. That was a truly frightening thing. It was the shock and the unknown that made that day, and the days that followed it, so tense. ----- -------- AUTHOR: soverton TITLE: Blackprof is NOT just for Professors STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: tinymce ALLOW PINGS: 1 DATE: 09/11/2006 08:53:50 AM ----- BODY:At the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend, I ran into a dynamic young African-American woman who told me that she has been “eavesdropping” on blackprof.com. She said she enjoys reading the posts on our site, but that she does not comment because she has the impression that the site is designed for professors.
My response to her and everyone with a similar perspective . . . .
PLEASE comment! The site was set up for you.
As professors, we talk to one another through academic articles and at conferences, but blackprof gives us a more direct link with the larger community outside of the ivory tower. Blackprof also provides policy analysis—not only from those of us who post but also those who comment on issues that shape our community (to me the comments are often more interesting than the posts). Further, we saw blogging as a medium to facilitate real exchange—regardless of one’s title or degrees—and we wanted to promote the vehicle within the African-American community.
Civic engagement is key toward moving our community in a good direction. People of color feel silenced in too many arenas. I don’t want this to be one of them.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 66.91.246.41 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/11/2006 08:57:27 AM I'm not a professor, nor do I play one on TV. I'm a blogger and as a part of Project 2996, I posted a tribute to Margaret Elaine Mattic today. I'd sure appreciate it if you stopped by to read about her. Comments on my post are welcome from everyone. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 10:05:40 AM As we've seen from many posters, intelligence is not reserved for those who have been able to attain the distinguished position of professor....nor does the distinguished level of profesor necessarily coincide with intelligence all of the time :) Cat, the Saints spoiled my weekend after Ohio State got if off to a rousing start ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: K T Cat EMAIL: ktcat@san.rr.com IP: 66.91.246.41 URL: http://ktcatspost.blogspot.com DATE: 09/11/2006 10:31:31 AM I might have been the loudest nut at the sportsbar yesterday morning. It was great to see the Saints defense play way beyond expectations. You are now permitted to go win the rest of your games. Until the Saints and Browns meet in the Super Bowl, of course. :-) ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: vistor EMAIL: IP: 69.224.113.188 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 06:00:49 PM Thanks for letting us, non professors be part of your very well organized web blog. I am not a professor, but have gain valuble insight from the many professors who post their views and I also have learned from the vistors, like myself who comment weekly. Keep up the good work! ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Supremacy Claus EMAIL: supremacyclaus@yahoo.com IP: 71.224.209.202 URL: DATE: 09/11/2006 08:09:19 PM Sweetie, you are correct. The blog is strictly for Ivy indoctrinated, left wing, black professors (really half white trash, Irish-Scottish, pretender American South-Americans). Mainstream or conservative, really dark professors are not welcome here. There is a rigidly enforced, Party of Treason partisanship, and a racism within a racism here that is never interrupted, not even for an intermezzo nor just for laughs. The Comments are for something that disrupts their PC, flat earth, Hate America reverie. It is called, the facts. Do not use a government computer nor government time to chime in. Your adversaries will use those to seek your destruction in lawyer gotcha. And do not use any identifier, allowing your identity to be guessed. You walk the floor of a pit of vipers where you work. I wish you well. If you are fired, you will be snapped up at 3 times your salary by a productive sector of our economy. You can do the public a favor by explaining why government does not nothing well, why slow shuffling, clueless, government workers become topnotch people upon leaving. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Xavier Pickett of RBA EMAIL: IP: 71.230.164.225 URL: http://www.ReformedBlacks.org DATE: 09/14/2006 09:45:06 AM I am glad for the reaffirmation that this blog is also for non-academicians/professors. However, if I may offer one suggestion towards fulfilling the goal of facilitating real exchange for good of Black folks, wouldn't that goal be enhanced if professors responded *more* to comments? ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: elb1999 EMAIL: ebevel@yahoo.com IP: 199.33.129.101 URL: DATE: 09/14/2006 09:56:52 AM Xavier, I think one one of the reason that the professors don't respond more is that they are quite literally shocked by the amount of well reasoned opposition and dissention to some of their posts. They are so used to "preachin to the choir" that the don't know what to make of dissention. That and the fact that they don't have a well reasoned comeback. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Buy camper shoes EMAIL: camper@gmail.com IP: 68.195.120.225 URL: http://www.abitipuliti.org:8080/abitipuliti/Members/burning/camper-shoes.html DATE: 09/23/2006 07:55:00 AM I like your site. Look my Buy camper shoes f045e8d2ab6057f ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Real estate for sale EMAIL: Real@hhh.com IP: 24.185.80.169 URL: http://www.hf.ntnu.no/motus2/Members/hary/Real%20estate%20for%20sale.html DATE: 09/23/2006 02:01:15 PM Real estate for sale property. Real estate for sale estate brokers offer the finest selection. 0d8681316e07bce ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MBA enrtance exam EMAIL: EntranceMBA@jjj.com IP: 72.49.47.118 URL: http://www.hf.ntnu.no/motus2/Members/niko/MBA%20enrtance%20exam.html DATE: 09/23/2006 08:15:05 PM Such that can MBA enrtance exam get u an MBA. 5cb377072c293f2 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Real Estate Investing EMAIL: Real-Estate-Investing@fff.com IP: 24.117.173.148 URL: http://www.hf.ntnu.no/motus2/Members/hary/Real%20Estate%20Investing.html DATE: 09/24/2006 07:32:04 AM Depending Real Estate Investing on the nature of the business. 2cf92c03ff13d38 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Colon Cleansing EMAIL: colon@gmail.com IP: 69.119.50.99 URL: http://www.freepages.at/colon/colon-cleansing.htm DATE: 09/24/2006 02:04:24 PM Do you want to make Colon Cleansing 8d3eb5c4ac8353f ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MBA enrtance exam EMAIL: EntranceMBA@jjj.com IP: 68.195.97.189 URL: http://www.hf.ntnu.no/motus2/Members/niko/MBA%20enrtance%20exam.html DATE: 09/24/2006 05:38:27 PM Such that can MBA enrtance exam get u an MBA. 5cb377072c293f2 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Soft toys EMAIL: Soft-toys@kolkf.com IP: 24.155.119.121 URL: http://www.hf.ntnu.no/motus2/Members/hary/Soft-toys.html DATE: 09/25/2006 04:13:33 AM Best {LINE} line industry. Soft Toys unique and attention-getting product line that would capture your interest. 1427a9eafcc41f2 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debt consolidation in seconds EMAIL: Debt-consolidation@fkjs.com IP: 24.131.167.198 URL: http://www.hf.ntnu.no/motus2/Members/hary/debt%20consolidation.html DATE: 09/25/2006 09:27:51 PM Debt you may qualify for an unsecured loan. Credit Debt consolidation in seconds unions (see link to debt consolidation the debt consolidation left) typically offer lower rates than you're paying now. c5194954f2a3d60 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: MBA entrance exam EMAIL: EntranceMBA@jjj.com IP: 67.182.49.46 URL: http://www.hf.ntnu.no/motus2/Members/niko/MBA%20enrtance%20exam.html DATE: 09/26/2006 06:30:30 PM Such that can MBA entrance exam get u an MBA. 5cb377072c293f2 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Soft toys EMAIL: Soft-toys@kolkf.com IP: 68.195.97.189 URL: http://www.hf.ntnu.no/motus2/Members/hary/Soft-toys.html DATE: 09/27/2006 04:16:57 AM Best Soft toys line industry. Soft Toys unique and attention-getting product line that would capture your interest. 1427a9eafcc41f2 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Accutane EMAIL: accu@gmail.com IP: 24.91.43.10 URL: http://accutane.forospace.com/forum.php DATE: 09/27/2006 09:48:41 PM You want to buy Accutane c31130dbe81a18d ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Rolex EMAIL: roll@gmail.com IP: 68.8.40.83 URL: http://myrolex.4h.pl DATE: 09/28/2006 07:51:41 AM Buy Rolex Watches Online d788a988e00f405 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Debt consolidation EMAIL: ahg@gmail.com IP: 71.198.199.21 URL: http://debtconsolidation.4h.pl DATE: 09/28/2006 04:32:37 PM Debt consolidation Loans - Consolidate Debts 503c19481a6b288 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Carolina Professor EMAIL: IP: 198.86.128.240 URL: DATE: 10/06/2006 05:32:44 PM I was searching for some articles on "the plight of the black male" and ran across your site. I look forward to sharing with you. Thank you for taking the time to think of such a meaningful way of communicating for professors. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: penis enlargement EMAIL: richardhill@ga.com IP: 58.187.120.115 URL: http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/ DATE: 10/06/2006 06:56:18 PM Three phrases should be among the most common in our daily usage. They are: Thank you, I am grateful and I appreciate. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: penis enlargement EMAIL: richardhill@ga.com IP: 58.187.120.115 URL: http://www.enlargepenisguide.com/ DATE: 10/06/2006 06:57:02 PM Three phrases should be among the most common in our daily usage. They are: Thank you, I am grateful and I appreciate. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: xanax EMAIL: xan@gmail.com IP: 24.168.150.15 URL: http://xanax-buy-here.blogspot.com DATE: 10/09/2006 06:39:39 PM Good site xanax 0fa94a964e3208d ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: karel EMAIL: tester@gmail.com IP: 81.177.15.55 URL: http://www_4_1.gmail.com/ DATE: 10/17/2006 04:25:34 AM ionolsen20 So interesting site, thanks!www_4_2 www_4_3 www_4_4 www_4_5 www_4_6 www_4_7 www_4_8 www_4_9 www_4_10 www_4_11 ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Divorce lawyer EMAIL: divorcelawyer@msn.com IP: 68.4.117.91 URL: http://mywebspace.quinnipiac. DATE: 10/18/2006 10:56:12 AM Divorce lawyer ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Divorce lawyer EMAIL: divorcelawyer@msn.com IP: 68.4.117.91 URL: http://mywebspace.quinnipiac. DATE: 10/18/2006 12:51:47 PM Divorce lawyer ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Divorce lawyer EMAIL: divorcelawyer@msn.com IP: 68.4.117.91 URL: http://mywebspace.quinnipiac. DATE: 10/18/2006 01:23:52 PM Divorce lawyer ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Divorce lawyer EMAIL: divorcelawyer@msn.com IP: 68.4.117.91 URL: http://mywebspace.quinnipiac. DATE: 10/18/2006 01:38:03 PM Divorce lawyer ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Divorce lawyer EMAIL: divorcelawyer@msn.com IP: 68.4.117.91 URL: http://mywebspace.quinnipiac. DATE: 10/18/2006 01:53:21 PM Divorce lawyer ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Divorce lawyer EMAIL: divorcelawyer@msn.com IP: 68.4.117.91 URL: http://mywebspace.quinnipiac. DATE: 10/18/2006 02:09:50 PM Divorce lawyer ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Divorce lawyer EMAIL: divorcelawyer@msn.com IP: 68.4.117.91 URL: http://mywebspace.quinnipiac. DATE: 10/18/2006 02:26:49 PM Divorce lawyer ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Divorce lawyer EMAIL: divorcelawyer@msn.com IP: 68.4.117.91 URL: http://mywebspace.quinnipiac. DATE: 10/18/2006 02:42:09 PM Divorce lawyer ----- PING: TITLE: Unsecured Loan URL: http://www.cyberloan.info/unsecured-loan/ IP: 72.29.92.19 BLOG NAME: Unsecured Loan DATE: 12/14/2006 06:13:06 PM ----- PING: TITLE: Direct Loan Consolidation URL: http://www.tax-debt-help.net/state-tax-debt/debt-loans/direct-loan-consolidation/ IP: 72.232.136.106 BLOG NAME: Direct Loan Consolidation DATE: 01/16/2007 08:20:13 AM Direct Federal PLUS loan for parents 5. Federal Perkins Loan 4. Unsubsidized Staffor ----- PING: TITLE: Qualify For Debt Consolidation URL: http://www.consumercreditcounselinginindiana.downstatepundit.com/qualify-for-debt-consolidation/ IP: 205.234.98.73 BLOG NAME: Qualify For Debt Consolidation DATE: 09/20/2007 05:55:58 PM Find out if you qualify for a debt consolidation loan ----- --------
