I always find it interesting when a white guy wants to tell black folks that slavery really wasn’t that bad. Understand, this is not a man whose family history was virtually lost forever or whose grandparents had to live through Jim Crow and, now, his offspring, James Crow, Esq.

This time, the offender is right-wing hack, Michael Medved. In his latest piece at Townhall.com, he wants to tell us how wrong we are on our perception of what slavery in the U.S. was and how the millions who died in the middle passage weren’t victims of genocide — instead, they were, basically, the unfortunate victims who died when slavetraders were moving product between shores. Also, America is really not to be blamed for its role in slavery but should be commended for its “rapid” abolition of slavery (despite slavery going on for nearly two and half centuries in this country).

I suggest you read for yourself. As for me, I’m not shocked, suprised or amazed, considering the source.

Popularity: 50% [?]

Bill O’Reilly’s racism shines through yet again. This time, he manages to insult just about every black American due to his amazement that black people can actually be normal and engage in everyday living with a self-respect and civility.

What am I talking about?

Recently, on his radio show, Bill O’Reilly recounted his recent safaris into the jungles of black America in order to bring back news to white America about how the natives live there. Oh, is my sarcasm showing?

Just check out some of the highlights:

“I think black Americans are starting to think more and more for themselves. They’re getting away from the Sharptons and the [Rev. Jesse] Jacksons and the people trying to lead them into a race-based culture. They’re just trying to figure it out. ‘Look, I can make it. If I work hard and get educated, I can make it.”

“Starting” to think for ourselves, huh?

(On go to Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem, O’Reilly stated he) “had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful…I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.”

“…even though it was run by blacks…”?

Oh, lets not ignore this gem.

“There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ You know, I mean, everybody was — it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”

What the hell?!!

The bottom line is that Bill O’Reilly has got to be one of the whitest men in America. It is clearly evident that he doesn’t spend any significant time around people of other races, nor does he have to. The ignorance he displayed above only further solidifies this point. However, I am less disturbed by him saying it than I am by the fact that millions listen to him and agree with him.

I have posted the audio below (thanks to Media Matters) for anyone interested in hearing it for themselves.

 

 O'Reilly's surprise at normality of black people: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 31% [?]

You know, I used to think Isiah Thomas was a sensible brother. Now, I really don’t know.

To be honest, I had heard some things in passing about him being named in a sexual harassment suit but, I had not really followed it. But, something I read recently made me do a double-take.

The plantiff in the case is former Knicks vice president Anucha Browne Sanders. According to Ms. Sanders, she was subject to some rather foul, berating language at the hand of Thomas. In a 2004 incident, she alleges that Thomas called her a “f—ing ho”,”b–ch”,”f—ing b–ch” and “ho”.

In another incident, Thomas supposedly told her, “Don’t forget, you f—ing b–ch, I’m the president of this f—ing team.”

But, believe it or not, this was not the worst part of the story for me. This was:

(Jeffrey) Nix’s testimony came a day after a jury watched Thomas’ video deposition, where he said that white men weren’t allowed to call black women “b–ch,” but black men could.

“I’m sorry to say, I do make a distinction,” Thomas said in a videotaped admission viewed by a Manhattan federal jury yesterday.

“A white man calling a black female ‘b–ch,’ that is wrong with me. I am not accepting that. That’s a problem for me,” he said.

But asked if he’d have a problem with a black man calling a black woman “b–ch,” Thomas said, “Not as much.”

Okay…now I have a headache.

Popularity: 40% [?]

In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, I cut Ray Nagin a lot of slack. One would expect that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) actually be able to handle a federal emergency. However, over the last couple of years, Ray Nagin has shown to be just another politician. While many of his city’s poorer residents still remain scattered across the country, Nagin has enacted a property grab that would have made the most staunch free-market conservatives proud. Nagin has, most definitely, proven himself not fit to run a major U.S. city.

So, what should be next for Nagin? How about governor?

Yes, now that he’s done such a “heckuva job” in New Orleans, he may want to take his “success” statewide. Of course, Nagin says that the only way he would run is if he “thought it would help this recovery.”

Ray, please, just stop. Make this your last term and go of into a dark, quiet corner. Perhaps, then, the people of New Orleans…even the poor ones, Ray…might get the type of leadership necessary to have their lives back on track.

Popularity: 27% [?]

It’s no secret that Rush Limbaugh is a racist.

Over the years, the comments he has made on both radio and TV indicate as much. However, his latest may be a new low, even for him. In citing reasons for the call for action to stop the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, Limbaugh hypothesizes that the only reason that some Democrats are calling for it is to get black votes. However, it gets even more interesting after that:

“So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela — who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing”

According to Limbugh, we should not go into Darfur because they didn’t attack us (…and Iraq did?) Kind of a screwy argument, huh?

The bottom line is that to people like Limbaugh, black and brown life are insignificant. Statements like this show just how much he believes this.

The audio from the segment is below.

 

 Rush's Racism Concerning Sudan: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 31% [?]

Chickenhawk:

“…a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or other military action, but has never personally been in a war, especially if that person actively avoided military service when of draft age.

The term is meant to indicate that the person in question is cowardly or hypocritical for personally avoiding combat in the past while advocating that others go to war in the present. Generally, the implication is that “chickenhawks” lack the experience, judgment, or moral standing to make decisions about going to war.”

-Wikipedia listing

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney supports a troop increase in Iraq…as long as it doesn’t involve his sons. At a recent presidential forum, when quizzed about his support for the increase and whether his five sons were in the military, Romney offered the following:

“The good news is, we have a volunteer Army and that’s the way we’re going to keep it. My sons are adults. They’ve chosen not to serve in the military in active duty and I respect their decision in that regard. … And one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I’d be a great president.”

Yes, according to Romney, working on his campaign is just as good as risking one’s life as an active-duty military person in Iraq. Before anyone asks — yes, they are of age. They range from 26-37 years old.

So, what other “sacrifices” are the Romney boys making?

Romney then spoke about how his son Josh and his family are driving across Iowa in a recreational vehicle to help promote the campaign.

Wow…I can see how that would compare to military service!

Of course, the conservative website Townhall.com puts it all in perspective for us:

The conservative Townhall.com has posted an Associated Press report that says “Romney, who did not serve in Vietnam due to his Mormon missionary work and a high draft lottery number, was posed the question by an anti-war activist after a speech in which he called for ‘a surge of support’ for U.S. forces in Iraq.”

So, the younger Romneys are keeping up the family tradition of letting other people die while they reap the benefits of their sacrifice.

My father, a Vietnam veteran who volunteered at age 17, discouraged me from a life in the military. I will do the same with my son. If avoiding military service is good enough for the fat cats in Washington and their kids, it’s good enough for me and mine, too.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Okay, this is a two-fer. You get to see Republican hypocrisy and racism at work all at once.

Florida state senator Bob Allen was arrested July 11, 2007, charge with soliciting an undercover MALE officer for sex. Yes, the party that campaigns on a love for God and a hate for gays has a lot of individuals tripping and falling out of the closet.

But, that’s not the best part. Allen explained why he offered the officer $20 to allow Allen to perform oral sex on him:

“This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park,” Allen, who is white, told police in a taped statement after his arrest. Allen said he feared he “was about to be a statistic” and would have said anything just to get away.

You catch that? According to Allen, he was not there to have sex. He just figured that the big black man would kill him for $20 and a B.J.

I could say more but, in the interest of good taste, I’ll stop here.

Popularity: 16% [?]

This, apparently, is the face of terror.

66-year-old Sarah Weiss is “responsible”, in part, for the recent terror scare in which we were told that terrorists were trying dry runs of terrorist attacks. A search of her bag yielded 2 old icepacks (The TSA identified them as ‘clay’), which she used for her bad back and a report from a survey of Muslim Americans, which she was reading for her outreach work for her faith-based group. This was July 5, 2007. Weiss was detained and questioned for three hours and was asked, among other things, if she knew Osama bin Laden. You can see the video here.

But, this is not a story about who the local TSA detained. They are tasked with looking into suspicious luggage, even if we don’t necessarily agree with what’s to be considered “suspicious” and they should not make assumptions about who could be involved in acts of terrorism.

No, there is another story here. Weeks later, as the Bush Administration is catching heat over the Attorney General, this report is leaked and a terror warning is issued. We were told about an incident involving clay (the incident above) and another one involving blocks of cheese, supposedly with wires and a cellphone near them. What we were not told was that these incidents, and two others, were explained away and no charges were filed in any of them. In other words, we get another bogus terror alert. In the end, this blew some of the heat off the AG story as we have yet another phony terror alert surfacing at a convenient time form Bush and Co.

Keith Olbermann has a series called The Nexus of Politics and Terror. The latest installment breaks it down quite nicely.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Some of you know how I feel about the whole “stop snitching” thing. It’s used as a means to allow criminals to go on conducting criminal activities in the “hoods” they claim to love. These same fools tell us that it’s selling out black people to have black criminals in jails but, apparently, it’s not selling out black people to kill or sell dope to your brothers and sisters.

Whatever.

Now, a web site along these lines has been launched. Whosarat.com, for a fee, offers subscribers a list of “snitches”. The site uses public records (sentencing documents and plea agreements) to get the names of police informants. This has judges scrambling to get access to this information limited. To date, the site lists som 4,300 informants.

This site is the brainchild of Sean Bucci, a former Boston dj who, himself, is now serving a 12-year sentence for being part of a drug ring. Bucci was convicted due, in part, to the testimony of informants.

My personal take: people are going to get killed because of this site and potential witnesses, who are already reluctant to come forward, will not do so now because their names will be splashed all over the internet. While what Bucci is doing may be legal, it is definitely intimidation and a big help to criminals in our community. Sadly, rather than trying to become a better citizen, Bucci is more interested in providing better tools for criminals.

Popularity: 43% [?]

If you believe former chairman of the Roger Williams University, Ralph Papitto, this is what happened.

Pappito was a board member for nearly 40 years so, I can only imagine how he might have used his position to make it harder to recruit black students and staff. I say that because last May, when the board met, there was a heated discussion on the university’s difficulty in recruiting black people to the school.

Then it happened.

Barbara Roberts, then a board member, said Papitto became irate when he discussed pressures to make the board more diverse, at one point using the slur to refer to black candidates.

She said he then told the board he knew he couldn’t say that because of Don Imus, the radio host who was fired after referring to Rutgers University women’s basketball team members as “nappy-headed hos.”

“There was, like, this complete and utter silence, and I was shocked beyond belief and very angry,” Roberts said.

Papitto has given the school at least $7 million, and his name is on the law school, the only one in Rhode Island.

He said he had never used the term before.

“The first time I heard it was on television and then rap music or something,” Papitto told WPRO.

Awww…hell no. You’ve never used the word before and your old a$$ first heard it while listening to rap? Please stop. There’s no fool like an old fool. The sad part is that he’s been able to hold this attitude while overseeing the direction of an institution of higher learning. This says a lot about Roger Williams University.

Popularity: 45% [?]