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.