White guy runs for 184 yards in NFL!

I'm just sayin'...

Dude's name is Peyton Hillis with the Cleveland Browns, in his third year out of Arkansas. Rushed for 184 in 29 carries today to help upset the Patriots. This may seem like a strange post for an anti-racist, but as long as race IS such a significant factor in our society, I say you might as well talk about it. It's also way cool when black athletes excel at speed skating (Shani Davis, e.g.), swimming (Cullen Jones,e.g.) etc., as well as when whites do well at sports like sprinting (Jeremy Wariner, e.g.).

Why is it "cool" and why would I draw attention to it? Because these athletes that go against the grain of racial expectations have to be twice as good to overcome the stereotype-driven expectations of coaches and others in positions of influence. The fact is, most of the biological explanations for racial dominance of particular sports is just plain bogus. Race ain't a biological category. And the biological explanations make a mockery of the dedication and effort, hard work and intense workouts, intelligence and quick thinking of the many black athletes that excel in basketball, football, track, etc. As if it came easy and "natural" for them.

By the way, Hillis looks like a good bet, if he avoids injury, to become the first white to gain 1,000 yards in the NFL since Craig James in 1985, 25 years ago. He's got 644 after 8 games, the halfway point in the regular season. But you won't see much about it in the mainstream press, because we are "color blind" nowadays. Yeah, right.

That's all.

Dubya on Kanye

Funny, but somehow George W. Bush's preoccupation, all these years later, with the "disgusting" comments of Kanye West during the Hurricane Katrina telethon only serve to make me wonder if there isn't maybe some substance to Kanye's accusations. So what keeps Dubya awake at night is not thinking about how he could have saved hundreds of lives (most of them black) with a more competent and compassionate, swifter response to the disaster. No, what keeps him tossin' and turnin' is the insinuations of one black man on live TV. Quite a revealing look into Dubya's soul.

Bush apparently calls West's words, according to his up-coming memoir, "an all-time low" of his presidency. His interviewer yesterday, Matt Lauer, "asked Bush if he was concerned that some might be upset that he has placed so much emphasis on being angry about someone criticizing his responsiveness to the hurricane victims as opposed to being saddened by the impact of 'watching the misery in Louisiana.' (this according to Billy Johnson, Jr.--see http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/hiphopmediatraining/302226/george-bush-doesnt-care-about-kanye-west/

But Bush dismissed the idea, unable to get past the audacity of anyone who would question his racial views. Sad. So sad.

If you're Gonna Make up a crime story, make the perpetrator black!

OK, so it turns out that Bethany Storro of Vancouver, Washington was not viciously attacked by a stranger throwing acid in her face. No, police have now determined that it was self-inflicted. Just a sad case of a very trouble young soul. So what does this have to do with race?

Well, it turns out that the description of the phantom perpetrator that Storro gave was of a black woman (with a ponytail, no less). Why? Because police, and the public, are more readily prepared to believe the story. We've seen it time and time again. The mother who drowned her kids in South Carolina quite a few years back. The young woman who falsely claimed to be attacked at an ATM machine in 2008 for displaying pro-McCain messages. and many, many more.

we've been fed the image so many times--blacks as criminals--that it's the first thing that comes to mind to those sick minds making up a crime (yeah, this applies to TV and movie screenwriters, too), and we eat it up like pigs at the trough. One more piece of evidence of the destructive, distortive power of stereotypes.

King, Beck, Katrina

So Glenn Beck and his minions are gathering at the site of MLK's most famous address, 47 years to the day of that speech, looking to "reclaim the Civil Rights Movement" or some such trash, and yet it's pure "coincidence" that he chose this date and site (on the national Mall, in front of the Lincoln Memorial). Yeah, right. Beck's (and Sara Palin's, et al) vitriol is, of course, 180 degrees from a genune concern with the civil rights of blacks and other people of color, and other oppressed and marginalized populations.

But perhaps the greater offense is not his conflict with commemorations of the 1963 March on Washington--after all, that is the 47th anniversary, not exactly one of those round, pretty numbers we make a big deal of. On the other hand, it comes just two days before the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. (Five years ago today, Aug. 27, 2005, which also fell on a Saturday, is when the National Hurricane Center belatedly issued a hurricane watch for southeastern Louisiana, including the New Orleans area, less than 48 hours before landfall). The images are burned into my psyche--those stranded outside the Superdome and Convention Center, or on highway islands, overpasses, rooftops, etc.--the great majority black--and the inability/lack of will of our government to reach them with relief supplies and rescue vehicles for days on end, leaving people in inhumane, disgraceful conditions--severe heat, no sanitation, lack of food and water and medicine, etc. The devastation, much of it avoidable, that resulted was incalculabe and incomprehensible. The whole event was supposed to usher in a long-needed honest discussion of race and poverty in America. So was the 1992 LA riots and a dozen other incedents, before and after Katrina.

I remember hungry and thirsty blacks labled as "looters" while whites were only "looking for food and water" to survive. People criticized those who didn't evacuate the city when the order was given 24 hours before Katrina hit, never thinking that tens of thousands had no access to transportation of their own, and none was provided. The media exagerations of rapes, murders, sniping, etc. were fed by racial sterotypes that the public was only too ready to believe. And so, in memory of the many hundreds of lives lost, the tends of thousands who lost their homes and communities and livelihoods, may we never forget, and vow to continue to work to correct the ongoing injustices in our society. As for Glenn Beck--just shut up. That's all.

Rand Paul's blah blah

Let me get this straight--Republican senatorial nominee Rand Paul of Kentucky says that, based on his libertarian principles, it was wrong (even unlawful?) for the Civil Rights Act of 1963 to outlaw racial discrimination of private businesses, like restaurants, clubs, stores, etc. But, after 24 hours of catching major flak once his position went viral, he did some serious backpedaling and said he was in favor of enforcing the existing law should he be elected. First off, what about living by your principles, public opinion be damned? I guess getting elected trumps principle.

But secondly, and more importantly, let's judge the principle by imagining an alternate history had that principle held sway. Had Rand Paul's position been the law of the land, I wonder when racial discrimination of privately-owned businesses would have curtailed and eventually ended? When the old owner or management died out or retired and a newer, more "racially progressive" generation took over? When the white clientele became more accepting of shopping or eating with blacks? When the blacks were deemed "acceptable" as a result of acting more white? Never?

It seems to me a lot easier for one in the position of privilege--namely, a white male, who has rarely if ever experienced discrimination, to hold to such "principles" leaving it to others with less privileged status to bear the brunt of the resulting repercussions. Had he ever been on the receiving end of having a door shut in his face, left out in the cold looking in, I reckon his high and mighty "principles" might give way to the need to "let justice flow down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream." Just my opinion.

47 Years Ago Today a Nation Was Horrified (or at least a PART of it was)

As African American children ages 6-18 were prevented, by fire hoses and police dogs, from marching to protest segregation in Birmingham, AL. Bull Conner had already filled the jails the previous day--May 2, 1963. On May 3, 1963 the evils of racism and Jim Crow crept into the living rooms of whites throughout America and the world in a way in had not before. And it was a catalyst for long-fought-for change.

Goings on in California state college system

Here's a link to a site set up by UC-Sand Diego students, faculty and staff concerned about a series of incidents that have heightened racial tension and caused minorities to feel unwelcome and threatened. From a racist "Compton Cookout" to a noose in the library, the administration has allowed a climate of intolerance and ridicule to fester.

http://stopracismucsd.wordpress.com/

Tea Party = Racism and Xenophobia

More evidence that the "Tea Party Movement" is racist to the core, from the first so-called Tea Party national convention in Nashville last week:

Opening speaker, former GOP primary presidential candidate Tom Tancredo said Obama won because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country." Yeah, and we don't have poll taxes and near as many lynchings as we used to, either. Oh, those glory days of Jim Crow...

He went on to say that "people who could not spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House — name is Barack Hussein Obama” and blamed our nation's problems on the "cult of multiculturalism." Hmm.

Celebrate aTriumph of Justice!

20 years ago today, one of the great moments in international racial justice happened, as Nelson Mandela walked free after 27 years as a political prisoner.

Beginning of the End of Jim Crow

Fifty years ago today, a few brave young souls from an historically black college in Greensboro, NC decided to lay their bodies on the line to express their conviction that they had as much right as white customers did to sit at the Woolworth's lunch counter. It wasn't the first such sit-in. It isn't commonly seen as the spark of the civil rights movement (Emmett Till's murder, or Brown v. Board, or the Montgomery bus boycott get credit for that). But the Greensboro sit-in movement, begun Feb. 1, 1960, sparked something. Within weeks, similar sit-ins had broken out in dozens of other towns. Within months, it was going on in 100s of places with novel variations. Jails started filling up as the common masses and college students took over what had been a somewhat elite-led movement. Three years later, the 1964 Civil Rights Law outlawed Jim Crow segregation in privately owned businesses that served the general public.

I Can't Make This Stuff Up!

Apparently, a minor league, or semi-pro basketball league for white players only is in the works. Only in America, O my God! I thought sure this was like an Onion satirical fake news story or something, but apparently not...

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2010/01/19/nba_563760.shtml


Basketball league for white Americans targets Augusta
By Billy Byler| Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A new professional basketball league boasting rosters made up exclusively of white Americans has its eyes set on Augusta, but the team isn't receiving a warm welcome.
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The All-American Basketball Alliance announced in a news release Sunday evening that it intends to start its inaugural season in June and hopes Augusta will be one of 12 cities with a team.

"Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league," the statement said.

Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver, who has publicly expressed his support for minor league teams in the past, said he would not do the same for this team.

"As a sports enthusiast, I have always supported bringing more sporting activities to Augusta," he said. "However, in this instance I could not support in good conscience bringing in a team that did not fit with the spirit of inclusiveness that I, along with many others, have worked so hard to foster in our city."

Clint Bryant, athletic director at Augusta State University, laughed when he heard the news.

"It's so absurd, it's funny, but it gives you an idea of the sickness of our society" he said. "It shows you what lengths people will go to just to be mean-spirited. I think at any basketball level, no matter if it's all black, all white, all Hispanic, all Asian or anyone else, the players should just be a basketball team."

Don "Moose" Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league's roster restrictions is not racism.

"There's nothing hatred about what we're doing," he said. "I don't hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."

Lewis said he wants to emphasize fundamental basketball instead of "street-ball" played by "people of color." He pointed out recent incidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas' indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, as examples of fans' dissatisfaction with the way current professional sports are run.

"Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?" he said. "That's the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction."

The Atlanta-based league, which will operate as a single-entity owning all of its teams, is looking for local contacts to pay $10,000 to become a "licensee" in one of 12 cities throughout the Southeast. Lewis said he has already received threats from people opposed to the roster restrictions and several cities have told him to stay out of town. Lewis said he has yet to hear from any one in Augusta.

"We need a local person ingrained into the community to make this successful," he said.

Lewis said he expects to eventually find support in every town with a team.

"People will come out and support a product they can identify with. I'm the spoken minority right now, but if people will give us a chance, it'll work... The white game of basketball, which is essentially a fundamental game, works."

Lewis said he wasn't sure where the team will play.

Augusta has had problems with minor league basketball teams in the past, but the issues never centered around race. The Augusta Drive lasted less than a month before folding in 1995, citing financial reasons. The Augusta Groove made it through a full, 20-game schedule in 2009, but accusations from players and local businesses that the team wasn't paying its bills surrounded the team during the second half of the season. The team later shut down in the offseason.

From the Tuesday, January 19, 2010 edition of the Augusta Chronicle

"Father of Reparations" and President of "the Republic of New Africa"dies

RIP to a visionary or crazy guy--take your pick. I'll take visionary.

From http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=11849216

Imari Obadele "Father of Reparations" dies in Ga.

Associated Press - January 19, 2010 11:14 PM ET

ATLANTA (AP) - Imari Obadele, the former leader of the Republic of New Africa separatist group, has died. He was 79.

Obadele's daughters, Marilyn Obadele and Vivian Gafford, said Tuesday that their father died of massive stroke Monday in Atlanta.

Known as the "Father of Reparations," Obadele was a staunch supporter of Malcom X and eventually became President of the Republic of New Africa, which sought to establish its own nation in the South.

He was president when, in 1971, city police and FBI agents battled RNA members who were inside a fortified home in Jackson, Miss. One police officer was killed and two others were wounded in the shootout.

Obadele spent more than five years in prison for conspiracy but was not charged with murder.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Got MLK Quotes?

Some favorite quotes from the man whose life and legacy we honor today. Feel free to add your own in "comments":

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." from "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

"...freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." from "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." (using a quote originally attributed to Rev. Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister and abolitionist of the 19th century who said "the moral universe" instead of "history")

"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. " posted by FB friend Justin Seabe

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." posted by FB friend Justin Seabe

"The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and , therefore, brothers." posted by FB friend Ed Sunday-Winters

What words of inspiration or conviction would you add?

Prayers for Haiti, Comments on Dunderheads

The devastation in Haiti is beyond belief. It seems a cruel fate that such a disaster should befall the poorest country in our hemisphere. And it is no accident or fault of theirs that they are so poor. Few commentators have made clear the historical causes of Haiti's dire poverty. Just as the Kerner Commission report in 1968 boldly declared, in the wake of urban riots, that "we [the white community in power] created the ghettos," so it is true that "we [the white-dominated nations of our hemisphere, led by the U.S.] created the impoverished state of Haiti." Haiti's slaves overthrew their cruel masters in a rebellion/revolution from 1791-1803; the white-controlled slave empires of the hemisphere, in order to make a cautionary tale out of such obstinate slaves, did all they could to totally isolate this rebel country politically, economically, etc. With no immigration or travel in or out, no trade, no investment, no cooperation of any kind for over 100 years, it is not surprising that Haiti, a small island country thousands of miles from the homeland of blacks, was unable to progress economically and develop sustainable industry and farming. To now blame them, as if lazy or irresponsible or unintelligent, for their plight, is ridiculous.

Which brings us to a couple of dunderheads named Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson. First Rev. Robertson, that epitome of Christ's compassion for the poor and outcast. I would almost say that he deserves kudos for knowing the history of Haiti as the first country in this hemisphere where slaves were freed, and where blacks gained political power. Yet the inevitable conclusion he draws from these events is that the only way blacks could possibly defeat whites is by selling their souls to the devil.

As for Limbaugh, his knee jerk reaction is to cynically see Obama's response as an opportunistic attempt to "look presidential" while expressing racial solidarity and thereby gain points with the Congressional Black Caucus. Gee, with so much to gain (and at a cost of only a few hundred thousand casualties), Limbaugh might even believe that Obama somehow caused the earth to tremble so violently in order to serve his purposes. Now THAT would be a powerful black man to make every white racist tremble in fear.

Again, prayers for those in need of water, food, medical attention, shelter, and loving compassion. Our hearts go out to yo as we can only imagine the extreme difficulties you face. May you heal in every way, completely and as quickly as humanly possible.

Harry Reid Speaks of the Unspeakable!

My reactions to the storm brewing over Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid's reported comments (http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20100111/pl_politico/31340)

1) What a crock. The GOP's colorblind ideology police want to make it a crime for anyone to talk about race honestly. And the mainstream media play along. I don't know the exact context or intent of Reid's comments, but it's a joke to think that Obama's skin tone and speech patterns were NOT a factor in his crossover appeal to white voters. Get real...

2) "Negro dialect?" "NE-gro dialect?!" "NEGRO dialect?!!" "KNEE-GROW dialect?!!!" You gotta be kidding me! What decade are those Mormons caught in the vacuum between the West Coast and the rest of the known world living in?

3) Needless to say, to compare these comments to Trent Lott's comments about how things wouldn't been better had Strom Thurmond been elected president under the Dixiecrat's eternal segregation platform is not a stretch, it's a laughable stellar leap.