Why am I not surprised this fool is from Ohio?

46-year-old David Tuason of Pepper Pike, Ohio faces federal charges over what authorities claim have been some 200 threatening letters he’s sent over the past 20 years. It appears that the targets of his threats were black men who were in relationships with white women.

One of these letters apparently targeted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, threatening his life by castrating him, shooting him and setting him on fire.

Needless to say, Tuason is one sick puppy. I just hope that he has never acted on these sentiments.

You can read the federal indictment here.

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Craig Holcomb is a white man suing his former employer for discrimination. Now, some might say, “what happened, did they hire a black person for a job he should have gotten?” In a word, no.

Holcomb is alleging he was fired because of who he chose to love and marry. Holcomb was the top assistant basketball coach at Iona College in New York. In 2004, Holcomb was fired from his coaching job by what he says were a group of racists in the athletict department. Specifically, he names the school’s Vice President and former Athletic Director Richard Petriccione as one of the main perpetrators. According to Holcomb, Petriccione repeatedly referred to players as “ni**ers” and called a Nigerian employee a “jungle bunny”. When it was clear that Holcomb was going to marry his then-fiancee Pamela Gauthier, a black woman, Holcomb said Pamela Gauthier told him, “You’re really going to marry that Aunt Jemima? You really are a ni**er lover.”

Originally, his case was thrown out of court because the judge ruled that Holcomb couldn’t file racial discrimination because the racial hostilities alleged were aimed at Holcomb’s wife. However, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan has reinstated his case, ruling that it would be possible for Holcomb to be discriminated against due to his association with his wife.

Holcomb with have his day in court and a college will have to answer questions of discrimination. If true, this is a sad commentary and a reminder that, even today, some people want to enact their own miscegenation laws.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Okay, I have done enough of these stories about white college students in blackface to make it clear that this is an issue. However, while most of these incidents I talk about occur at off-campus parties, what should happen if such an incident takes place at a school-sponsored event.

This brings us to a recent event at North Dakota State University. With a student population that is 92% white, diversity is probably not high on the list of priorities. Okay, maybe this is not a fair statement but, it certainly makes for a fertile breeding ground for those who harbor acrimony towards people of color, as well as other groups.

Which, again, brings us to the incident in question. At the Mr. NDSU pageant on March 18, which was to benefit diabetes research, there was a skit performed by the NDSU Saddle and Sirloin Club. While it lasted only 30 seconds, they packed a lot of hate into such a short time. Here’s one account of the skit:

People who attended it said a pageant contestant from Saddle and Sirloin dressed as a woman from the Internet video “I Got a Crush on Obama” and performed a strip tease for another student who was wearing dark makeup and an afro wig.

In the background, two male students dressed as cowboys simulated anal sex while holding an Obama sign that one student ripped at the conclusion of the 30-second performance…

In a word…”wow!” I don’t know where to begin but, I get the impression that the school is not about to do much because of the following:

(NDSU Dean of Students Janna) Stoskopf said she expected the investigation could take until May 9, the end of the school year.

“One of the issues here is how do we balance what our policies and expectations about behavior are with the issue of freedom of speech,” Stoskopf said. “Where does all of that get us?”

It sounds like somebody’s getting a free pass. I wonder if one of the 1.5% of the black student population had gotten up and said something like, “God d*mn America” during a skit, would this be allowed to pass?

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From the Springfield (Illinois) Journal-Register.

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You might remember the horrifying story of the ordeal experienced by Megan Williams. For a week, she was imprisoned by seven racists who beat her, tortured her, stabbed her, sexually assaulted her and forced her to eat feces.

Two members of this lynch mob received the maximum sentences their charges allowed.

46-year-old Karen Burton (pictured right) and 49-year-old Frankie Brewster heard their fates yesterday. Burton, received three 2-10 year sentences for malicious assault and assault during the commission of a felony, to be served consecutively. She also received a 10-year sentence for a civil rights charge.

Brewster received a 10-25 year sentence for second-degree sexual assault.

They became the 4th and 5th people to receive sentences in this case:

Burton’s 23-year-old daughter, Alisha, and George Messer, 27, both of Chapmanville, both pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping and assault and received 10-year sentences.

…

A seventh defendant, Karen Burton’s son, Linnie Burton Jr., 21, was indicted on a misdemeanor battery charge.

This leaves Brewster’s son, Bobby, and another man, Danny Combs, as the only two to not tried for these crimes. Both face charges, including kidnapping and sexual assault.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Imagine being a black police officer in the segregated South. You have to risk life and limb while simultaneously dealing with the racism and discrimination against you.

Now, imagine doing that for 20 years and, merely because you are black, you don’t get the same pension as white retired officers.

This is the fight of some nearly 200 retired police officers in Georgia. Because of racism, these officers were denied access to a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund until 1976.

Had many of these officers been allowed to buy in earlier in their careers, they would have hundreds of dollars more a month in retirement benefits. Instead, some like J.L. Booker spend what should be their retirement years working to make ends meet. Booker says he could have had as much as $770 extra dollars per month had he been allowed to participate earlier.

Georgia is the only state that has such a pension crisis for black officers. I guess, at least when it comes to police officers, these other states’ legislatures have recognized that racially discriminating against those who served on the ranks of their police forces was wrong or, at least, sent a very bad message about their states.

The fight is not over. If the state legislatures do refuse to act, the next stop is court.

Georgia, stop being shameful. Protect those who protected you all these years.

Popularity: 15% [?]

If you’re an attorney, being called a “Supreme” would only be a compliment if it was in reference to a seat on the Supreme Court. So, when it was used recently by a county judge in Hagerstown, MD to describe public defenders there, it was no compliment.

Recently, Washington County Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone was officially reprimanded for his incredible lack of professionalism and discretion when he referred to three black female public defenders as the “Supremes” and instructed the defendant in the case to get “an experienced male attorney.”

In a letter from the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities, Boone’s actions were labeled as “undignified and disparaging.”. Though Boone has offered to recuse himself from their future cases, each of the attorneys in question has appeared before his court since the remarks were made last April.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Let’s just put it out there — Pat Buchanan is racist or, should I say “white supremacist”?

The former member of Congress, presidential candidate and frequent talk-show contributor puts on an air of congeniality and feigns sage wisdom but, if you actually pay attention to what he says and writes, it’s clear that he feels that if white men are not in charge, we are doomed.

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, author of “The Isis Papers”, once stated that white supremacy exists “for the ultimate purpose of white genetic survival and to prevent white genetic annihilation on planet Earth - a planet upon which the vast majority of people are classified as nonwhite (black, brown, red and yellow) by white skinned people, and all of the nonwhite people are genetically dominant (in terms of skin coloration) compared to the genetic recessive white skin people.”

In other words…it’s the fear of a black planet.

Sound crazy? Well, think about the above as you read what Pat Buchanan says in his latest book, “Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, And Greed Are Tearing America Apart”(thanks to Media Matters for the catch):

“How is America committing suicide? Every way a nation can.

The American majority is not reproducing itself. Its birthrate has been below replacement level for decades. Forty-five million of its young have been destroyed in the womb since Roe v. Wade, as Asian, African, and Latin American children come to inherit the estate the lost generation of American children never got to see.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 2005 to 2006, our minority population rose 2.4 million to exceed 100 million. Hispanics, 1 percent of the U.S. population in 1950, are now 14.4 percent. Since 2000, their numbers have soured 25 percent to 45 million. The U.S. Asian population grew by 24 percent since 2000, as the number of white kids of school age fell 4 percent. Half the children five and younger today are minority children.” (Pages 7-8)

In other words, he fears white genetic annihilation and is sound an alarm to white people that, if they don’t get to making babies, they are doomed. Oh, but it gets worse. Here’s another passage from the book that should make it even clearer about where Buchanan is coming from:

“Almost as many African-American males are in jail or prison as are in colleges or universities. Half of all African-American and Hispanic students drop out of high school. The other half graduates with the math and reading skills of seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders. Yet by 2050 the number of African-Americans and Hispanics will have almost doubled from today’s 85 million, to 160 million. The future seems more ominous than it did in the hopeful days of civil rights. For these burgeoning scores of millions will not long accept second-class accommodations in the affluent society, where they are the emerging majority. The long hot summers of yesterday may be returning.”

In other words, the ignorant hordes of n*ggers and sp*cs are coming and white people will no longer be able to contain them.

It would be humourous except that, nearly every night of the week, he is on MSNBC or PBS, allowed to speak as a voice of credibility on a myriad of issues and, therefore, has an audience to which he can peddle this garbage.

I once heard a sort of joke that goes something like this — what’s the difference between a racist and a white supremacist? A racist doesn’t want to be around minorities at all. A white supremacist doesn’t mind being around minorities, as long as he’s in charge.

I guess I see to whom that joke refers.

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It should be of little surprise that, in times of heightened national fear or crisis, that hate crimes go up in this country. When people are unable or afraid to challenge those in power, they, instead, find a scapegoat for their problems.

So, as the financial problems in this country mount, you won’t see bankers or politicians in the crosshairs. Instead, you’ll see a lot of average folks, mostly minorities, who’ll face the backlash.

The FBI is reporting that the number of reported hate crimes increased by 8% in 2006. This just leaves one to wonder what 2007 will bring as we see the number of nooses popping up in workplaces on the rise. Our history shows that when the harsh words and symbols start becoming more frequent, action often follows.

Sadly, fear often motivates people to terrible ends. I am afraid we are in for more madness.

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Ever since the story of the Jena 6 hit the national spotlight, America has had to deal with the significance of racist symbols, particularly that of the noose. Since that time, we have seen story after story about nooses popping up in workplaces in apparent attempts to intimidate black people.

In the previous incarnation of this site, I posted many stories referencing articles about nooses turning up in workplaces. For the most part, because the stories involved working-class people, they didn’t gain much traction in the mainstream press. But, as I said previously, the happenings in Jena, Louisiana changed all that.

Now, in another part of Louisiana — New Orleans, to be exact — a supervisor has been suspended and the FBI has been called in to investigate yet another noose incident at a sewage station of the that city’s department of public works.

This came to light after an employee there, Terrence Lee, blew the whistle after his superiors did nothing about the racist symbols on display in the office of Lee’s supervisor, Bill Hartline. After being ignored, Lee went public with photos he took of the inside of his boss’s office. These photos show that, inside his office, Hartline had hung two nooses. Also, Hartline proudly displayed a bullwhip he owned, with the word’s “Bill’s Whipping Post” and, worse yet, a dartboard with a black man standing in the center and his groin as the bull’s eye.

This case has been referred to the department of Justice’s civil right division, which, sadly, is now no friend of black folks (please reference my previous posts about how Bush has gutted the civil right division). Therefore, I don’t expect too much to happen in this case…if we don’t say something.

Therefore, we need to raise enough hell that incidents like this can’t be ignored. Some say the noose is back. I say it never left but, we need to make it do so.

Popularity: 43% [?]