We Shouldn't Stop Talking About Race

By: Nathan McCall

One day I asked my college students their views on the state of race in America. A young lady rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue. "Well," she said, "maybe if everybody stopped talking about it so much, it would go away."

"Actually," I told her, "it won't."

Anybody who thinks they can simply wish away the frustrations of race is ignoring this country's very identity. It is as steeped in our culture as the American flag. From the nation's founding, race was an idea constructed to justify slavery. For some it has been a serviceable, if destructive, tool ever since.

Consider radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who regularly uses race to rally millions of loyal listeners with loaded statements, such as "melanin is thicker than water." And what about Glenn Beck, who pumped up the volume, ranting that the term "African American" is "stupid"? CONTINUE....

Sarah Palin's Dangerous Race Game

Image via Wikipedia

By: David Kaufman - The Root

In her new book, the former Alaska governor questions the patriotism of African Americans who point out the country's imperfections. CONTINUE....

Empty Seat Next to Me? I Wish!

Image via Wikipedia

By John McWhorter

I am mystified by John Edgar Wideman's account in The New York Times about how people on the Amtrak Acela train don't take the seat next to him until it's practically the only seat left. I am mystified not because I haven't heard plenty of claims of this kind. I am mystified because nothing of the sort happens to me.

Note: I am not questioning Wideman's experience -- which is what makes accounts like this such a challenge for me to wrap my head around. In my book Winning the Race, I devote a chapter to this type of thing -- of the sort that motivated Ellis Cose's classic Rage of a Privileged Class. It was the hardest chapter I have ever written.

Quite simply: Over the past nine years, I have ridden the Acela up and down the corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C., quite often. Like Wideman, I also prefer the quiet car, and thus our experiences are that much more equivalent. On top of this, I am always on the lookout for the kind of "subtly racist" experience that even middle-class black people, especially men, of unthreatening appearance are supposed to have, as what one of Cose's interviewees termed a "daily litany" of slights.

CONTINUE....

A Summer of Race Talk Gone Bad

All the conversations we had about race this summer have not turned out well.

By: Sherrilyn A. Ifill

Judge Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina Supreme Court justice. The Cambridge police dropped the charges against Professor Henry “Skip” Gates, an action supported by the mounting evidence that he was the subject of a false and racially charged arrest.

But without a doubt, this has been a bad summer for conversations on race. It began with the nomination and hearings for Judge Sotomayor to be elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. As soon as the first Latina was nominated, accusations were hurled, stereotyping the nominee as intellectually dull and temperamental. Then for good measure, Republicans added the charge that the nominee was racist. Her now famous “wise Latina” comments—part of the judge’s thoughtful and candid discussion of how judges are shaped by their backgrounds—were held out as evidence that Judge Sotomayor would be biased on the bench in favor of Latinos. The discussion around the judge’s confirmation hearings focused on pushing back against these baseless characterizations. Judge Sotomayor’s observations about how personal experiences may affect how a judge views the law could have opened a productive discussion about the importance of racial and gender diversity in our courts, or even a thoughtful and more subtle conversation about judging that moved away from the facile image of judges as “umpires” who merely “call balls and strikes”—a concept advanced by John G. Roberts Jr. at his confirmation hearings to become chief justice.

A Summer of Race Talk Gone Bad....

Defenders of Post Cartoon Prove That Eric Holder Was Right

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee

So now, it seems the defenders of the New York Post’s despicable chimpanzee cartoon have veered way off the path of common sense and context to find a scapegoat.

They did some reaching and came up with … Eric Holder.

The nation’s new attorney general recently shook the realm of right-wing punditry and denial-ridden citizens by saying, during a Black History Month speech to Justice Department employees, that Americans needed to have more honest dialogue with each other regarding race and to understand the history of black folks in the United States.

“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder said.

Holder should have known better.

He should have known that calling Americans cowards on the unfinished business of racial equality and on the frank discussion of racial matters, especially when so many of them voted for President Barack Obama and literally believe this county is the “home of the brave,” would set off a lot of folks.

For many people, historical truth is no match for patriotic hype.

But now, some pundits are using Holder’s bluntness to defend what amounted to a racial slur splashed on the New York Post’s editorial page. Cartoonist Sean Delonas recently drew a cartoon of two police officers who had filled a chimpanzee full of bullets – with a caption saying that “They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

The Post initially issued a half-hearted apology, and defended the chimpanzee as symbolic of Congress, not Obama. The Post’s owner, News Corp magnate Rupert Murdoch, today issued a stronger apology.

But scores of black people, many of whom remember a time when some whites thought they had monkey tails and how even today, know that police use slurs such as “porch monkeys,” and “gorillas in the midst,” to denigrate them, aren’t buying the Post’s explanation.

And, for that matter, neither are a lot of whites.

So the Post has been inundated with complaints and picketers. The NAACP has demanded the firings of the editor and Delonas, and the Rev. Al Sharpton is calling for a boycott.

And the commotion over that, say the cartoon’s defenders, is precisely why the country will never be able to speak frankly about race. If white folks say the wrong thing, some pundits argue, they will be labeled as racists. The way they see it, if white folks are cowards, it’s only because black folks are bad sports.

What hooey.

Defenders of Post Cartoon Prove That Eric Holder Was Right....

A Post-Racial Era? Let’s Not Be So Quick to Forget the Past

By: Deborah Mathis

It has become a hot new topic, popular among the talk show pundits in the wake of Barack Obama’s election: We have entered a post-racial era.

That supposedly means that the country has moved beyond race; that race is no longer a significant motivator in how people, or institutions, think of or treat other people.

If only. One leap forward – even a gigantic leap like the emergence of the first black president – does not a cure make for this universally human, but quintessentially American, disease. President Obama has closed a huge gap. But there are many others, and millions languish – or agonize – in those yawning chasms.

So, let them flesh this out. I want to hear more of what this purported post-racial society is about. It must be explained to those of us who worked for, prayed for, waited for and witnessed change but don’t share the confidence of those who think the hating days and hating ways are behind us.

COMMENTARY....

African-American man hopes for Bradley Effect

A conservative African-American man at a Norm Coleman rally in Mora, MN hopes the Bradley Effect comes into play to prevent an Obama presidency. The Bradley Effect is the alleged tendency among some voters to tell pollsters they'll vote for a black candidate, but actually vote for their white opponent.

A French Kiss for Spike- Will the Paris retrospective of Spike Lee's work force the French to deal with their own attitudes on race?

By Miles Marshall Lewis

From skin-privilege arguments, girlfriends greasing dry scalps, 1970s street games and more, race is inarguably the thread connecting all the films in Spike Lee's 20-year-plus career. This month, the famed Cinémathèque Française is running a Spike Lee retrospective in Paris, topped with Lee's appearance at a preview screening of his latest, Miracle at St. Anna, which opens nationwide today in the U.S.

It is an interesting time to open up an exploration of race in the city of Paris, whose reputation is by turns colorblind and friendly to the black American soldiers of the world wars yet racist toward its native French-African immigrants. A fellow expatriate recently remarked that France would take another century to produce its own Barack Obama, and his sentiment is correct. Despite its creed of "liberty, equality and fraternity" for all, social developments like the November 2005 riots have inscribed ethnicity into the general consciousness here like never before. Thirteen years after the homegrown, race-instructive film, La Haine, the city could use some of the enlightened elements of Lee's work right about now.

Evidence of interest in the Spike Lee film festival is found all over the City of Light. The Cinémathèque Française took the rare promotional route of plastering posters in the métro stations. Lee showed up at Fnac, France's major entertainment retail chain, signing autographs and fielding translated questions. It was a media tour de force.

A French Kiss for Spike....

Will Prejudice Trump Economy For Voters? New AP-Yahoo Poll Suggests Obama May Lose Votes Of Dems, Independents Harboring Negative Views Of Blacks

(CBS/AP) How America votes could come down to the economy, and that could be especially true in many of the so-called battleground states where voters have been hit hard economically.

But a new AP-Yahoo News poll shows that race could also play a big role in how some voters make their choice - and this may not bode well for Barack Obama.

According to the poll released Saturday, a little over one-third of white Democrats and independents agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, and they are less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't hold such views.

"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford University political scientist Paul Sniderman, who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.

The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in such a close race with Republican presidential candidate John McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats; President George W. Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war, and a national sense of economic hard times cut against Republican candidates, as does the fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.

Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president - white, black or brown.

Will Prejudice Trump Economy For Voters?....

Who's Racist Now? Republicans get a bad rap on race. But, Democrats may be the ones who have shown their true colors this political season.

BY ROBERT A. GEORGE

Sept. 2, 2008-- Republicans are trying to get their national nominating convention underway after deep worry about the effects of Hurricane Gustav, but the Grand Old Party faces other significant challenges, including an unpopular president and a country frustrated with both the economy and foreign policy. And a Democratic ticket—led by a charismatic African American that has enthralled much of the electorate—certainly doesn't help the GOP with its difficulties attracting black voters.

That said, the fractious primary contest between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama demonstrated that the Democrats have their own thorny problems with race. True, the party put on a unified front in Denver. Bill and Hillary Clinton both said the right things in endorsing and making the case for Barack Obama as the next president. But the primary season was rife with racial tension. When Hillary won both Kentucky and West Virginia in later contests, pundits focused on the apparent racial resistance to Obama from white, working-class voters. And Hillary herself made no secret of her intention to play on their fears.

Stereotypical "redneck" voters may be easy targets. But, the most caustic criticisms of Obama came from a trickier camp to explain: liberal intellectuals and white upper-middle-class Democrats who, in supporting Hillary, displayed overt, often racially infused contempt for Obama.

This hostility seems to go far beyond political rivalry. It seemed to suggest a sense of entitlement that this young black politician should not have the right to move up so fast, without first receiving the blessing of white appointed leaders. Women were especially fierce in their attacks in a way that suggested more than just gender-related grievances. Hillary and her supporters, women who themselves often facing the "not experienced enough" assertion, used the accusation as a weapon against Obama.

PUMAs ("Party Unity My Ass")—a group of disgruntled Hillary voters, primarily made up of Democratic, upper-middle-class, white women—arrived in Denver still aggrieved, some vowing to vote for McCain. Since Hillary Clinton formally ended her campaign, the PUMA Web site has been filled with angry, racially-tinged comments on how "vicious" the Obama campaign is. He is sarcastically described as the media's "golden boy"—with a dismissive "Oops, was that racist?" line added.

Former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, of course, caused a major stir when she declared that the only reason Obama was leading the race, was, well, because of his race. On the last day of the convention, as Obama prepared his acceptance speech, Ferraro printed an op-ed piece explaining what Hillary supporters want: Recognition from Barack Obama that Hillary was a victim of media sexism—and to denounce it.

Who's Racist Now?....

Patriotism and race - Obama disowns Wright (2 of 2)

The media and Rev. Wright.

Patriotism and race - Obama disowns Wright (1 of 2)

The conflict between Obama and Wright represents two opposing views of America.

RACE ABOUT TO BE IN YOUR FACE: It's an issue, angle, tactic and strategy all rolled up in one.

In a report that shows how racism is being ratcheted up in the presidential race, Richard Prince's "Journal-isms," lays out how it's being used by the press.


And of course it comes as no surprise that the Republicans are getting their licks in as well. Put it this way, the right Rev. Jeremiah Wright won't be forgotten any time soon.


The article points out an article the Washington Post by Dana Milbank writing about the declining town of McKeesport, PA:


"On the river bank, Andrew Carnegie's mills have fallen silent. The corrugated metal ones are rusting. An old brick one, from 1906, still says 'National Tube Company.' But the loss of industrial jobs here has turned downtown McKeesport into a place for repo lots and pawnshops ('Cash 'til Payday') and nonprofits caring for the elderly.


"It's enough to make anybody bitter — and some of that is directed at Obama. 'I think he just wants to be president because he's black,' said Tim Hetrick, smoking a cigarette as he waited for a bus among the crumbling structures of downtown McKeesport. A Democrat, he's thinking about voting for McCain in November."


Meanwhile "Journal-isms" quoted MSNBC's report on how the North Carolina GOP is playing the race hard, hard:


"This morning, NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann reports, the North Carolina GOP will unveil a 30-second ad that attacks Democratic gubernatorial candidates Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore for their endorsements of Obama. The ad, per the party, will reference 'controversial figures from Barack Obama's past' and raise the question of the candidates' 'judgment' in supporting him.


"The ad will be unveiled at an 11:00 am press conference. So far, the Democratic gubernatorial campaigns say that they have not yet seen it and declined to comment before knowing the content. But it's anticipated by Democratic bigs in the state that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright will play a starring role."


"Journal-isms" also noted that: "Dann later reported that the Republican National Committee said it had been in contact with the North Carolina GOP, urging it to refrain from running the "Extreme" ad. McCain did the same. However, the ad was introduced anyway."

Read the full piece here.

TPMtv: Sunday Show Roundup: Bill Clinton Pile-On

Coming off Saturday's South Carolina blow-out, the Sunday shows were a wall-to-wall Clinton pile-on. In today's episode of our weekly Sunday show roundup we bring you the high/lowlights.

UPI VIDEO NEWS 01.16.08

Romney wins Michigan's GOP primary.

Mitt Romney is the winner of yesterday's Republican primary in Michigan. The former Massachusetts governor picked up 39 percent of the vote. Arizona senator John McCain trailed at 30 percent, and Mike Huckabee came in third at 16 percent. Romney is a Michigan native, and his father was governor of the state in the 1960s.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party officials voted to strip Michigan of its Democratic delegates. That's because the state decided to schedule the primary so early. In a show of solidarity, the top-tier Democratic presidential candidates, except for Senator Hillary Clinton, asked that their names be removed from the ballot. The former First Lady grabbed 57 percent of yesterday's Democratic primary voters. Thirty-eight percent voted "uncommitted."

And while Michigan wasn't in the Democratic spotlight, last night's debate in Nevada made headlines. Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama vowed to put a recent campaign controversy over race behind them. They blamed aides and campaign surrogates for fueling the incident, saying they have enthusiastic supporters and overzealous staff members. Overall, the tone of last night's debate was cordial despite the stakes involved in the race. Nevada will hold its Democratic caucuses this Saturday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is asking farmers to keep their cloned animals off the market. That's despite a recent announcement from the Food and Drug Administration saying food from cloned livestock is safe to eat. The USDA is calling for more time for U.S. consumers to accept the issue given its emotional nature. However, evidence suggests that Americans are probably already eating meat from the offspring of clones. Officials from the nation's major cattle cloning companies say they haven't been able to keep track of how many offspring of clones have entered the food supply.

UPI VIDEO NEWS 01.14.08

Romney leads in Michigan primary.

The top GOP White House hopefuls are making last-minute efforts to win over Michigan voters before tomorrow's primary there. The most recent polls show former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the lead over Arizona Senator John McCain. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is currently in third place. Romney, who's a Michigan native, has spent $2 million in ads for Michigan...the most of any of the candidates. He and his rivals are focusing on the state's economic concerns, trying to ease fears and convince voters the situation can be improved.

On the Democratic side, the issue of race is heating up between presidential hopefuls and Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Yesterday, Clinton accused Obama of distorting what she said last week to Fox News about the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement. Some have interpreted what Clinton said as giving U.S. President Lyndon Johnson more credit than Martin Luther King for advancing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Obama responded to Clinton's claim saying it was quote ludicrous, but said the former first lady had offended some Americans with her comment.

Peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could begin as early as today. The two agreed yesterday to authorize discussions. The announcement comes three days after President Bush visited Israel and the Palestinian territories to promote peace efforts. The core issues that still need to be worked out include Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, and the future status of Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, President Bush is in Saudi Arabia today to garner support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He's also encouraging U.S.-led efforts to contain Iran on his Middle East tour. Bush is asking his Arab allies to provide diplomatic and financial backing to Palestinian leaders who are negotiating with Israel. The President will make a stop in Egypt tomorrow before returning to Washington on Wednesday.