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POPSObama and Racism: Head in the Sand? The political reality is that Obama and his advisers must know that racial tension and the absence of national leadership fostering a national discussion of race issues in our country is the Sword of Damocles dangling over this presidency. If the mere act of a reporter like Maureen Dowd reconsidering her ideas and coming forward with an indictment can cause a media frenzy, how much more so the first African American president? It will be worth it. Long after medical care has changed to the point that this era looks like bloodletting and leaches, long after the US economy has shifted and adapted, gone through reforms and reboots, this administration and this president will be remember for one thing above all else: Obama will forever be either the man who healed this septic wound that runs across the back of this nation, or the man who turned away from the mirror to solve more "practical" issues.
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POPSGlenn Beck, Van Jones and Race Regarding Obama, he has had immense difficulty seeing past the president's skin. He said Obama was elected because of race instead of his policies. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906080010 He has portrayed the Democratic health care reform effort as "the beginning of reparations." http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907220015 He has said that Obama plans to "settle old racial scores through new social justice." http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907240012 So it should have come as no surprise when Beck, who believes it is actually Obama, not himself, who "has real issues with race," http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907270045 said the president had "exposed himself as a guy" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people." http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907280008 The next day, he said "I think the president is a racist." http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907290012 The Color of Change boycott started soon afterward. http://colorofchange.org/beck/
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POPSGQ’s Jim Nelson Frankly Talks About Race in His Editor’s Letter Here are some of Nelson’s greatest hits: Then made his more ignorant racist claim yet: “This has been a country built basically by white folks.” Which, apart from ignoring the entire history of slavery, is the subtext of every song I’ve ever heard by Toby Keith. Fox News commen-hater Brian Kilmeade, while chatting about a Swedish study that shows marriage can delay Alzheimer’s suddenly went all Third Reich on his co-hosts: “We keep marrying other species and other ethnics. The Swedes have pure genes, because they marry other Swedes…They have a pure society. In America, we marry everybody. So we’ll marry Italians and Irish. does not apply to us. My Irish-English-German-American head spun. Does that mean I’m definitely getting Alzheimer’s?
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POPSIdiocy is Denying That Racism is A Factor in The Town Hall Protests Against the Health Care Plan? Fine. Dissent does not make you a racist. Denying that racism isn't a factor in the protests makes you a party to racism. “These people are bringing race — and ‘Negro’ and ‘colored’ and Obama,” Scott said. “We should applaud the fact that we have an African-American president and he is working on this. This is a great thing. But it should not be a racial situation. What have we done except look at the problem and move on it?”
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POPSIs Health Care Reform a Civil Rights Issue? Sarah is not as dumb as she seems, she knows there’s nothing being talked about in congress that could even remotely lead to death panels she is just trying to assure an ongoing profit stream for the insurance companies by lying to scare people.
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POPSRace, Entertainment and Historical Borrowing: The Case of Lindy Hop
So we have a set of (mostly) white dancers who naively and wholeheartedly emulate a set of black dancers whose performances, now 70 to 80 years old, were produced for mostly white audiences and adjusted according to the racial ethos of the time. On the one hand, it’s neat that the dance is still alive; it’s wonderful to see it embodied, and with so much enthusiasm, so many years later. And certainly no ill will can be fairly attributed to today’s dancers. On the other hand, it’s troubling that the dance was appropriated then (for white audiences) and that it is that appropriation that lives on (for mostly white dancers). Then again, without those dancers, there would likely be no revival at all. And without those clips, however imperfect, the dance might have remained in obscurity, lost with the bodies of the original dancers. As a white lindy hopper myself, for over ten years now, who desperately loves this dance, I find this to be a deep conundrum
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POPSWas there a race war after Hurricane Katrina? The video report is from The Nation. Watch. What you will hear is just incredible. It was great! It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved we shot it. I am no longer a Yankee. I earned my wings. Laughter He understands the "N" word now. Laughter 11 black men shot. No investigation. No arrests.
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POPSConvicted Felon Leads in Alaska's Senate Race The voters are corrupt. “It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.” - David Brin “each candidate behaved well in the hope of being judged worthy of election. However, this system was disastrous when the city had become corrupt. For then it was not the most virtuous but the most powerful who stood for election, and the weak, even if virtuous, were too frightened to run for office.” - Machiavelli
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POPSThe Concept of Race I want to be clear from the beginning, we do know of any gene, no one has ever found a gene, I'm not saying they don't exist, but in all the searching, no one ever has found a gene in which one so-called race has 100% of one form of the gene and some other race has 100% of another form of the gene. There are no single genes that differentiate Africans from Asians, Asians from Europeans, Europeans from Australian Aborigines and so on.
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POPSPat Buchanan 1971 memo: Use Abortion to Split Catholics, Social Liberals The Nixon White House didn’t enact all of these recommendations, but it would be hard to find a more succinct and unapologetic blueprint for Republican success in the conservative era. “Positive polarization” helped the Republicans win one election after another—and insured that American politics would be an ugly, unredeemed business for decades to come. A strategy that has been very effective, using the citizens of the country as pawns in their power game. Pretending to care about abortion, taxes and welfare - when they could actually care less. As with race, those issues elicit highly emotional responses and well reasoned arguments will not work because of anti-intellectualism fostered by an elite. And the game is still open and the pawns are still playing. Imagine that.
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POPSThe Burden of Transcending Race For blacks, the worst thing it seems (at least in the minds of whites) is to be seen as black, which is no doubt why so many whites think it's a compliment to say things to black folks like, "I don't even think of you as black," not realizing that the subtext of such a comment is that it's a damned good thing they don't, for if they did, the person so thought of would be up the proverbial creek for sure. the success of Barack Obama has proven, perhaps more so than any other single thing could, just how powerful race remains in America. His success, far from disproving white power and privilege, confirms it with a vengeance.
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POPSTo Conservatives because they care so much about African-Americans Since conservatives claim to be the historical champions for African-Americans, this little clip lays out the road map that they must take to reclaim their legacy. All conservatives need to do is 1): reform the criminal justice system and 2): strengthen and enforce laws against employment discrimination. It's very simple and will go a long way towards strengthening those African-American families that conservatives claim to care so much about. Indeed, according to the Blumrosen study, at least 1.3 million qualified people of color will face job discrimination in a given year. Or what of the study of temporary agencies in California, which found that white women who are less qualified than their black counterparts, are still three times more likely to be favored in a job search?
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POPSRacism and Discrimination at the Secret Service E. Desmond Hogan, a lawyer for the black agents, said the agents were “shocked but not surprised by the late production of significant evidence of racism at high levels in the Secret Service.” “The government’s delay,” Mr. Hogan said, “follows a pattern of the Secret Service stonewalling plaintiffs and ignoring court orders, depriving African-American agents of the fundamental evidence of race discrimination that is key to their claims.” The lawsuit, which has dragged on through years of litigation, was filed in 2000 by 10 black agents who charged that they were unfairly denied promotions. The agency employs about 3,200 agents, about 10 percent of whom are black.
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POPSCould it Hapen? Repulsed Into Voting Republican It is no wonder then that McCain is making a place at the table for possible defectors, however unlikely. He began his “forgotten places” tour in Alabama’s Black Belt by literally dancing into the arms of an elderly black woman as she sang the gospel hymn “Do, Lord, Remember Me.” Remember that moment if you ever see a bumper sticker that reads, “Repulsed into voting Republican.”
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