компютриoffice furniture in BulgariaWhat would it be like to be a Black president?

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преносими компютри преносими компютри преносими компютри преносими компютри преносими компютриoptical communicationscar hire bulgariafurniture ElhovoFor many black people it would be a sign of progress to see a black president grace the podium and address the nation. However, as he stands there what will he really face?

One thing that I’ve pondered is the fact that unlike some of his white predecessors he won’t be able to get away with turning a blind eye to race issues. He would be held to a higher standard by many blacks to take sides which would probably make it seem unfair to other races.
I’m sure that many white supremacists would try to assassinate him, but would his own people turn on him and assassinate his character if he had the slightest slip up? We are a sensitive race and in order to make Barrack Obama’s time in the White House a lot more effective and help create change in our country we would need to grow up as a race and do our part so that every race fight we take on can be fought fairly.

A person in his position would need us to stand behind him and be understanding that things will be twice as hard for him. Are we willing to give that to him? Are we willing to consider taking a step back before coming down on him and ask,
“What is it like to be a Black president?”

Originally published in The Michigan Citizen

For the last 40 years, the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan and the United States as a whole have struggled to come to grips with the week of anger and violence that ravaged the city on those hot summer days and nights in July 1967. Was it riot or rebellion? Why did it happen? Who is to blame? What has changed and what hasn’t?

These questions and many others have been asked and answered for decades now, but somehow the questions remain. The answers begat more questions. The frustration and fury of that time linger for many, mostly lying dormant, but rearing their ugly heads from time to time.

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According to a recent study, white folks don’t understand the Black experience.

The study, titled “The Cost of Being Black: White Americans’ Perceptions and the Question of Reparations,” was facilitated by a postdoctoral fellowship from Ohio State’s Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and appears in the fall 2006 issue of Harvard’s Du Bois Review, a journal on social science research on race. It was designed to gauge whites’ understanding of the hardships faced by Americans of African descent, and to examine their attitudes toward the idea of reparations for slavery.

During most discussions about the disadvantages that are faced by Blacks, many whites ignore the history and legacy of slavery, legal segregation and Jim Crow. They believe civil rights legislation has completely leveled the playing field, and that people like Oprah, Michael Jordan and Bill Cosby demonstrate proof that disadvantages no longer exist. The results of this study, however, show that when they are presented with hypothetical problems that mirror the real obstacles faced by Black Americans, whites relent, and believe that reparations are in order.
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Conservative America has scored another resounding victory in its war against racial and economic diversity in the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, has turned the promise of 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education on its head.

The conservative majority of the Court - Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Uncle Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. - rejected diversity plans from Seattle, Washington and Jefferson County, Kentucky - a school district that was once racially segregated by law. Ironically, the majority relied heavily on the landmark Brown v. Board decision that made segregation illegal in U.S. schools, even as they undermined the spirit and principles of that monumental Supreme Court ruling.
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In an article for the online magazine, Slate, former NBA player, Paul Shirley, currently in the Spanish pro league, recounts the lonliness of the white American basketball player.

Though he makes a great living playing ball in “the second-best basketball league in the world”, Shirley complains about the racism that he has encountered in the NBA. He believed other players didn’t respect his game specifically because he was white.

Of course, Shirley is not best known for his basketball skills. According to his listing in Wikipedia, Shirley’s biggest claim to fame was the online diary he kept as the Phoenix Suns’ twelfth man on their 2004-2005 playoff run, and the blog he writes for ESPN.com. He was cut at the end of that season, and failed to make the Minnesota Timberwolves roster at the beginning of this season. Ironically, Shirley mentioned the $10 million, 5-year contract of white Timberwolf Mark Madsen as the reason he was released.

Paul Shirley offers an interesting perspective on what life is like as a racial minority. White Americans currently make up only 6 percent of NBA players (75 percent are African-Americans and 19 percent are foreigners). Though the winners of the last three MVP titles are of European descent, they aren’t white Americans (two-time winner Steve Nash is Canadian and this year’s MVP, Dirk Nowitski, is German). According to Shirley, this is a problem for white American men who aren’t believed to be as talented as Black and foreign players.
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A Pew Reseach Center survey recently found that viewers of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert were just as knowledgable as readers of major newspapers and much more knowledgable than viewers of Fox News. We know what this says about Fox, but what does it say about mainstream newspapers if “fake news” shows on Comedy Central match their quality? Presumably readers of The Michigan Citizen weren’t surveyed.

Stewart and Colbert haven’t gone without criticism though, and until recently their most glaring offense has been a lack of racial diversity among the casts. Colbert’s contest to find “a new black friend” was really stupid, but the Daily Show has followed through with the solid casting of Aasif Madvi as its Senior Iraqi Corespondent, and Larry Wilmore as the show’s Senior Black Corespondent.

On the May 3 “fake newscast”, Wilmore offered a frank, but hilarious analysis of the “Stop Snitchin’” trend that is growing among hip hop artists and the greater Black community. According to Wilmore there is hope for the inner city through gentrification.

Don Imus just won’t go away… ABC News reports that the recently jetisoned shock jock is expected to sue former employer CBS next week for $120 million after he was fired for his racist and sexist insults of the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team.

A draft copy of Imus’s lawsuit says that the network expected him to be controversial and irreverent under the terms of his contract. And he claims Imus’s show was on a five second delay that allowed the network to censor him if they wanted.

The draft points out that Imus wasn’t fired for two weeks after the remarks were made.

Meanwhile, four former FCC commissioners contacted by ABC News say they do not believe that the speech was actionable under current federal guidelines that prohibit profanity or indecency on public airwaves.

Of course, CBS will fight this, and believes they can win any legal action. Whether we want to or not, we’ll soon find out.

ABC News

Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refuses to step down over the politically motivated firing of eight US attorneys. His boss, President George W. Bush, continues to support Gonzo despite bipartisan calls for his ouster. However, new information about the attorney firings may take on greater relevance in a post-Don Imus world.

Reports have surfaced that at least two attorneys in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division were fired because they failed to file charges that would have helped disenfranchise Black voters.
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Right on the heals of Mitch Albom’s claims that the Duke lacrosse players will carry this “slander” with them for the rest of their lives (read Pidgin’s post from a couple of days ago), comes the news that team captain David Evans has just landed a six-figure gig on Wall Street working for Morgan Stanley.

What was it Albom said?

I’d like to follow them when they apply for a job, and the company interviewing them has a staff meeting and someone in that staff meeting says, “Maybe we should stay away from this guy. After all, that whole rape thing …”

Well, the New York Post says:

The high-powered hiring comes after Evans, 24, lost out on a job offer from JPMorgan Chase when he was accused last year of raping a stripper at a lacrosse team party. Last week, he and teammates Reade Seligmann of New Jersey and Collin Finnerty of Long Island were cleared.

The loss of the job was a bitter blow to Evans.

“This woman has destroyed everything I worked for in my life,” Evans told CBS’s “60 Minutes.” “She’s put it on hold.”

Apparently Evans’ life wasn’t on hold for long. He’s just received a lesson that many have to wait years to learn. A good lawyer can be a rich man’s best friend.

I wonder how the accuser’s job prospects will improve now that this case is behind her. I suppose Mitch Albom couldn’t care less.

The New York Post

The Imus/Rutgers insult and the furor that followed illustrate both the power of words, and the volatility of race as an issue in America and the world.

The remarks that he made have struck nerves on so many levels. The term “nappy headed” invokes Black hair politics; the reference to women as “hoes” is degradation; darker skinned Blacks are pitted against fairer skinned Blacks with the “jiggaboos vs. wannabes” comment; and all of it raises questions like Who has the right to call people names? Why is it okay that Blacks can use certain language while others can’t? How responsibile are Black people for the words that are used against us when we perpetuate the issue by continuing the use of those words?

On April 10 after the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team’s press conference, I submited a post titled, “Not a Nappy Head in the Bunch” on Last Chocolate City. The post pointed out that those beautiful women had responded to Don Imus’s comments with poise and grace. The title implied, though the article did not clarify, that none of the women had what most Black folks would consider, “nappy” hair. Unfortunately, some people were offended by my reference to the women’s hair.

I didn’t mean to offend anyone with that statement. I apologize personally, and on behalf of LastChocolateCity.com and The Michigan Citizen, Inc., I apologize as well.

Imus and his team had attacked the women for their physical appearance, and the women of Rutgers obviously did not fit the description of “nappy headed hoes” by any stretch of the imagination. My intention with my post was to emphasize the fact that Imus’s comments were not only hateful, but inaccurate. However, by stating that there wasn’t a nappy head in the bunch, I stirred up some deep seated animosities within the Black community.

For the record, I am a brother with waist length locs. My hair is nothing if not nappy. The comment I made was intended to be a humorous remark directed with love for my sisters on that team and for my people. But by making comments that were offensive to someone else, my intentions (and my hair) were not scrutinized. What mattered was the perception and that another human being was hurt by my words.
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The American National Socialist Workers Party, (not to be confused with the Westland, Michigan based American Nazi Party) are trying to stir up racial hatred in Cincinnati.

The group wants to celebrate Hitler’s birthday by marching through the Queen City’s Over-The-Rhine community - ground zero for Cincinnati’s 2001 rebellion which was sparked after Cincy police killed over a dozen Black men in five years.

Recognizing the provocative and potentially violent nature of the Nazi request, the city wants to find a legal way to move the march.
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The Rutgers Women’s Basketball team responded with class and poise to racist comments from Don Imus’s “Imus in the Morning” show at a press conference on Tuesday.

The radio/television host and his producer, Bernard McGuirk, referred to the Big East champions as “nappy-headed hoes” and “jiggaboos” last week after their loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Women’s National Championship game. Imus will serve a two-week suspension beginning on Monday, April 16.

Rutgers team members refused to comment on the severity of the punishment or on whether they thought it was just. The university used the opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of the group this season and to focus on their intellectual prowess. Rutgers has tough academic standards, and according to Coach C. Vivian Stringer

“These young ladies before you are valedictorians, future doctors, musical prodigies… these young ladies are the best this nation has to offer and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers. They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate. They are gifted.”

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As Black History Month came to a close, two news items prove that the legacy of slavery in America is far from over.

The first was former presidential candidate, the Rev. Al Sharpton’s, revelation that one of his ancestors was owned by a relative of late South Carolina Senator and segregationist Strom Thurmond.

Professional genealogists working for Ancestry.com found that Sharpton’s great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond’s great-great-grandfather. Coleman Sharpton was later freed.

In the second report, a geneaologist claims that an ancestor of current presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s white mother owned slaves.

According to the research, one of Obama’s great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 Census in Nelson County, Ky. The same records show that one of Obama’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.

None of this should be a surprise to anyone. If your ancestors were in the United States before 1860, then it is highly likely that their lives were touched by the peculiar institution in one way or another. So why is this such a big deal? (more…)

New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch weighs in on crime…especially crimes perpetrated by Black people. And he has some harsh criticism for the bleeding heart-types who excuse Black criminal behavior.

“Before the victories of the civil rights movement, the murders of black people during the most intense redneck reigns throughout the South were committed by those once called “poor white trash.” These were the people who became homicidally enraged at the idea of a black man acting as if he was a free person. What is now so appalling is that while the street gangs that presently terrorize black communities across the nation do so with astonishing levels of murder and mayhem, they are so often defined by supposedly empathetic liberals as victims of race and class.”

NY Daily News

This past weekend, I admired Forrest Whitaker’s brilliant portrayl of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. The Oscar talk is well-deserved (though Ghost Dog is still my favorite Whitaker vehicle), but Amin’s brutality was disturbing. And he isn’t the only African tyrant who is guilty of such abuses.

“Africa has had far too many dictators like that,” my wife remarked as we walked out of the theater.

James McAvoy also did a fine job as Nicholas Garrigan, Amin’s personal physician and “closest advisor”. In the film, Amin turned to Garrigan for advice on dealings with his ministers, his family and with the media.

Ultimately, Ugandans relied on him to tell the story of the despot’s attrocities. A Ugandan doctor tells Garrigan in the movie, “They’ll believe you. You’re a white man.”

And that line reveals the truth, doesn’t it? The character of Garrigan is fictional, created for the book by Giles Foden and adapted for the movie. Was the white man added to the story to make it more “believable”, or is he there to make an African tale more “marketable” to a white audience? (more…)