Swedish Minister Says “Sorry” Over “Black Woman” Cake

The moment that sparked outrage, during the 75th anniversary of the National Organization of Swedish artists, Minister of Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth was seen cutting the genital part of a cake representing a typical tribes woman from Africa, designed by Afro-Swedish artist Makode Aj Linde, intended to highlight the issue of female genital mutilation. When the picture surfaced online, it was branded a “racist spectacle” by the National Afro-Swedish Association who is calling for the Minister to resign. The Minister later responded with a statement, “I am sincerely sorry if anyone has misinterpreted my participation... it is unfortunate and highly regrettable that the presentation has been interpreted as an expression of racism by some".

Tulsa Shooting Suspect: "No Hatred Toward Black People"

Tulsa shooting suspect Jake England denies harboring any hatred towards black people. England's attorney interviewed the 19-year old suspect, who is charged in a shooting spree where three blacks were killed and two wounded.

"I Cannot Sit Here Next To This Black Man"

By: Maggie Witkowski

A 50- something year old white woman arrived at her seat on a crowded flight and... immediately didn't want the seat. The seat was next to a black man. Disgusted, the woman immediately summoned the flight attendant and demanded a new seat. The woman said "I cannot sit here next to this black man." The fight attendant said "Let me see if I can find another seat." After checking, the flight attendant returned and stated "Ma'am, there are no more seats in economy, but I will check with the captain and see if there is something in first class." About 10 minutes went by and the flight attendant returned and stated "The captain has confirmed that there are no more seats in economy, but there is one in first class. It is our company policy to never move a person from economy to first class, but being that it would be some sort of scandal to force a person to sit next to an UNPLEASANT person, the captain agreed to make the switch to first class." Before the woman could say anything, the attendant gestured to the black man and said, "Therefore sir, if you would so kindly retrieve your personal items, we would like to move you to the comfort of first class as the captain doesn't want you to sit next to an unpleasant person." Passengers in the seats nearby began to applause while some gave a standing ovation.

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....

Is It The End Of Black Anger?

Clyburn Interview Sets Off Political Firestorm

Image via Wikipedia

By: Frederick Cosby

If you don’t call it the R-word is it still racism?

It’s an interesting question posed as House Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn, the highest-ranking black in Congress, is pushing back against a newspaper article that said he blamed most of President Barack Obama’s political problems on racism.

In a May 26 letter posted Monday on the opinion Web page of The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C., Clyburn said he never used the word “racism” in the widely-reported story that touched off a firestorm last week.

“Those who know me know that I have always abhorred the word ‘racism,’” Clyburn wrote. “I never use it. I believe it is a lethal term, and I am offended that my honest responses to a reporter’s clearly designed agenda would be distorted in such a manner.” CONTINUE....

Apologies For Racism?

By: John McWhorter

New Brunswick, N.J., spring 1984. I was in a bar during an open-mike stand-up show. A white Rutgers student got onstage and opened with, "What do you call 100,000 black people at the bottom of the ocean? A good start."

She didn't see me; I was over in a dark corner.

I should note, for the sake of history, that the joke got only a slight and uncomfortable laugh out of the otherwise all-white (or close to it) crowd. Yet the fact that the girl told the joke at all showed that this was a transitional period. No one yelled, "Racist!" or wrote the girl up in a campus-newspaper editorial the next day. 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....

NAACP Stands by Charges of Tea Party Racism

NAACP President Ben Jealous says tea party supporters like Sarah Palin need to publicly condemn racist behavior among some of the group's members. The civil rights organization accused tea party activists Tuesday of tolerating bigotry.

Disillusioned About Obama Already? Get a Grip

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com

This time last November, Barack Obama persuaded Americans to beat back their doubts – along with this country’s history of slavery and racism – and elect him president.



A year later, that struggle continues.

Disillusioned About Obama Already? Get a Grip....

Black or Not, Is Steele Okay with GOP's Racism?

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee

When Michael Steele became the first black to chair the Republican National Committee, I harbored hopes that he might turn out to be the face of racial change in a party whose future hinges on it broadening its base beyond Southern white people.

Sadly, he’s become the face of complicity.

Black or Not, Is Steele Okay with GOP's Racism?....

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....

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?....

Commentary: Poor Whites Voting Against Their Own Interests Out of Racism Only Reap More Poverty, Hardship

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com

He should have just come right out and said, “So long, suckers.”

Vice president Dick Cheney -- the power behind the hubris-padded throne of George W. Bush -- recently gave a verbal middle finger to all the poor white people who voted them into office -- twice.

During a question and answer session at the National Press Club, Cheney talked about how his wife, Lynne, had researched his roots, and had learned that he had Cheneys on both sides of his family.

“And we don’t even live in West Virginia.” he said.

Then to eliminate any doubt about his intent to insult West Virginians, he added: “You can say those things when you’re not running for re-election.”

In other words, he was saying: “To hell with you hillbillies. I’m outta here.”

Not surprisingly, he apologized later. Yet while some pundits have decried Cheney’s insult as proof that poor whites are the last group that can be insulted with impunity, I say that for the majority of them, the condition is largely one of their own making.

COMMENTARY....

No Surprises Here: Racial Attitudes, Racist Whites Pose Big Challenge for Obama, Democrats

By: Charles Babington, Associated Press

GREENSBURG, Pa. - (AP) Joyce Susick is the type of voter who might carry Barack Obama to the White House -- or keep him out. A registered Democrat in a highly competitive state, she is eager to replace George W. Bush, whom she ranks among the worst presidents ever.

There's just one problem.

"I don't think our country is ready for a black president," Susick, who is white, said in an interview in the paint store where she works. "A black man is never going to win Pennsylvania."

Susick said her personal objection to Obama is his inexperience, not his color. "It has nothing to do with race," she said.

If Susick is right about Pennsylvania voters, it presents a major hurdle for the presumed Democratic nominee. Democrats have carried Pennsylvania in the last four presidential contests, and Obama would have to offset a loss of its 21 electoral votes by taking Republican-leaning states from John McCain.

STORY....

Weighing in on Wright

In Washington, Howard University students respond to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial comments.

"This most recent attack on the black church is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright; it is an attack on the black church, " Rev. Jeremiah Wright said at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday. Senator Barack Obama responded to the remarks rejecting them as divisive and not accurately reflective of the black church. The Real News Network's Matt Palevsky spoke to students at Howard University about Wright's comments and Obama's response.

Has the Government Been a Friend or Foe for Minority Groups?

The Cato Institute's Casey Lartigue discusses whether the government has been overall a friend or an adversary for American minority groups.



"Race and the State," featuring Bruce Bartlett and Casey Lartigue.

Is government more likely to be the friend or adversary of minority groups? Has it been liberals, conservatives, or libertarians like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass who have been the most consistent defenders of everyone's rights? What does history suggest would be the best public policy for racial minorities in the 21st century?

Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan administration economist with a provocative new book, and Casey Lartigue, coeditor of Educational Freedom in Urban America and a controversial former XM 169 talk show host, will discuss these questions - Cato Institute

Casey Lartigue is a former policy analyst with Cato's Center for Educational Freedom. His research expertise includes school choice, teacher quality and minority education. His writings have been published in USA Today, Ed. magazine published at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Education Week, the New York Post, the Washington Times, Asian Week and the Washington Post.

Before joining the Center, he worked as a staff writer at Cato. He has spoken at the National Press Club, Harvard Law School, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, been a guest on the Rush Limbaugh Show, and testified before Congress on school choice in the nation's capital.

Prior to joining Cato, Lartigue taught English and worked as a language examiner in Taiwan and South Korea. Lartigue received a bachelor's degree from the Harvard University Extension School and a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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.