Holiday cheer.
3 days ago
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Cheers to Beers
Here's to Gates, Crowley and Obama--may they enjoy the brew, leave with a better understanding of one another, and leave us with an example of one way to try to deal with interpersonal racial conflict.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Henry Louis Gates Victim of Racial Profiling
Ok, Sorry, faithful readers, that I've been lax in commenting on incidents like Obama's trip to and speech in Ghana, and the African American campers disinvited to the private club swimming pool. My bad.
Today, however, comes breaking news that preeminent African American scholar Henry Louis Gates of Harvard was arrested in his own home by police supposedly investigating a reported break-in. Here's the story I read from the Boston Globe:http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/07/20/harvard_professor_gates_arrested_at_cambridge_home/
(Thanks to a FaceBook friend for posting the link that drew my attention)
Simply put: some Harvard police officers got some "'splainin' to do." Another egregious case of arrest for LWB--Living While Black. Disgraceful. Sad. But NOT surprising. May this be a lasting, embarrassing blot on Harvard, and a warning to other institutions to get their sh... I mean act together.
Today, however, comes breaking news that preeminent African American scholar Henry Louis Gates of Harvard was arrested in his own home by police supposedly investigating a reported break-in. Here's the story I read from the Boston Globe:http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/07/20/harvard_professor_gates_arrested_at_cambridge_home/
(Thanks to a FaceBook friend for posting the link that drew my attention)
Simply put: some Harvard police officers got some "'splainin' to do." Another egregious case of arrest for LWB--Living While Black. Disgraceful. Sad. But NOT surprising. May this be a lasting, embarrassing blot on Harvard, and a warning to other institutions to get their sh... I mean act together.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Nixon's Racist View on Abortion
I just read in Time magazine a disgusting, revealing quotation from recently released tapes of Richard Nixon (you mean we didn't already have them all? Where have they been?!)
"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape."
Not when you have a severely deformed fetus. Not in cases of incest. Nor cases of extreme poverty. Or severe risk to the mother's health. No, what comes to tricky Dicky's mind is the horror of a white girl (let's be honest--he wasn't thinking of the more historically common occurence of black women becoming pregnant by white men) giving birth to a (half-)black baby. Probably revealing of his own psyche concerning his daughters--anything but THAT!
And, sadly, it was no doubt a common sentiment of the time, and hardly extinct in our time. Sad.
"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape."
Not when you have a severely deformed fetus. Not in cases of incest. Nor cases of extreme poverty. Or severe risk to the mother's health. No, what comes to tricky Dicky's mind is the horror of a white girl (let's be honest--he wasn't thinking of the more historically common occurence of black women becoming pregnant by white men) giving birth to a (half-)black baby. Probably revealing of his own psyche concerning his daughters--anything but THAT!
And, sadly, it was no doubt a common sentiment of the time, and hardly extinct in our time. Sad.
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