Apparently, there's a non-racist way to liken a black man to a "banana-eating jungle monkey." (via)

Yet another crime committed by a fictitious black man. I'm not prejudiced, but fictitious black men do seem to get into a lot of trouble.

"Common sense or racism?" asks the linked AP article, of the evident heightened credulity when a supposed assailant is described as black.

That's pretty enlightened framing, as is this quote from Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry:

"It's a terrifying thing," she said, "for a community to hear that two black men in a black Cadillac grabbed a woman and her daughter."

No doubt, it would be most reassuring to hear that it was, say, two white guys in a Camry. Heck, call off the Amber Alert if it was just a coupla caucasians.

Like Dallas PD, which I've complained about elsewhere, needs another a$$h0le in the public eye, one popped up Thursday to stop a man from making it to his wife's dying mother's bedside.

No biggie, you say? Happens every day, you say? All cops are jerks, you say?

Well, this time the black man being stopped -- who admitted going through a red light en route to the hospital -- is a backup NFL running back for the Houston Texans, and the Dallas PD has put the jerk on administrative leave.

Regarding this:

Jon Keller is right:

"I don't think it's even a close call - this vile New York Post cartoon is racist and deplorable, as is the fact that the Post's alleged editors thought it was OK to print and are defending that decision instead of abjectly apologizing."

Just remove the "I don't think" qualifier; IOW of course it was racist. It isn't by any stretch a close call.   Read more…

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been showing an increase in the number of these groups for a quite a while. They are not confined to the Old Confederacy. SPLC hate group map. Current SPLC Intelligence report. 2008 summary. You can subscribe to the report and search their archives. I recommend.

The two groups that concern me the most are the KKK and Neo-Nazi groups, though they are not the only ones. It looks to me like they are stepping up their recruiting efforts, and read a while back in a trustworthy source that the military has a problem with white supremacists joining up, volunteering for combat units, and then returning to civilian life with those skills. A sort of “train the trainer” from hell. If you just scanned the The Timothy McVeigh Finishing School the first time around, you might want to give it a close read. It’s an important piece of this puzzle.

I want to be clear about what I know versus what I just think, and do my best to avoid fearmongering, so this is going to take a little work.

Here is a plain English story that I am comfortable labeling a historical account, with a little psychology thrown in toward the end for good measure. Everything in here is there either because I am sure research will confirm it, or because I live down here and knew it was going on at the time.

Playahata speculates:

As of Playahata.com press time rumors have it that Barack Obama is set to fill his Secretary of Commerce slot with The rockefeller republican, Lawyer Richard Parsons and Astronaut Charles Bolden Jr to head NASA. If so it would be the first time African Americans have held either slots. Although both Republicans, Parson calls himself a Rockefeller Republican, which is a person who is conservative when it comes to economic matters, and more liberal concerning social issues.
Bolden on the other hand does not like to be identified by party at all.Bolden pictured below, is A former astronaut who has made four trips into space is reportedly a leading candidate for the top job at NASA. The former test pilot left NASA in 1994 after 14 years of service to return to the Marine Corps, where he rose to the rank of major general. He retired in 2003.

I really hate the term 'Rockefeller Republican.' It reminds me of the draconian Rockefeller drug laws of NY state. Anyway, I guess this is affirmative action we can believe in. Or something.

Yo! Barack! That would be you, cuz gawd-only-knows what John McCain is, even if he did steal your rightful label from you.

My vote, it's not going to be for you, nor for me either. Who it will be for....

New Republic-- The Message Keeper:
How David Axelrod learned to conquer race

"... The self-described "keeper of the message" for Obama's presidential bid has taken the lessons he learned from his mayoral and gubernatorial campaigns and made them cohere into something that approaches a unified theory of how to elect a black candidate--emphasizing biography, using third-party authentication, attacking with an unconventional sideways approach, letting voters connect to the candidate by speaking to them directly in ads, and telling voters that supporting the black candidate puts them on the right side of history. ..."

I hate headcolds. Anyway, hope you all are having a good harvest. Here's some planting of the seeds of the future, yesterday, muscially speaking:

I also love the next two songs/numbers in this movie, but I figured one race-traitor lo-fi offering was enough for one night.

Lambert de-front-paged my post about the Confluence's response to the whole quoting-Liebowitz-on-the-mortgage-meltdown brouhaha, and I understand why he did it even if I don't at all agree, and it is his site. So I hope he'll leave me the liberty of linking to a version of the post that I've put on my own personal blog, where I used to do this sort of thing on a more regular basis. (But now just post tourism photos from my handheld, mostly.)

Please take your comments there.

[Welcome, Conflucians! For two other perspectives, see here and here -- lambert]

There's lots for me to criticize in this Confluence post about the relationship between race and the subprime market, including a certain amount of PC policemanism which I am not at all averse to inflicting. Let's just say that it's pretty much well known around both here and there that my threshold for a racism accusation is a lot lower than theirs, and for that reason, the PUMA phenomenon as a movement seems rather tone-deaf to me about race issues.

[update: fixed the link, sorry about that] Fear and Loathing (or not) in Denver:

Another pause. Then: "If Obama wins, I just hope that black people don't start thinking they're superior."

You all can hate on me for this, but I really wish we could discuss this more here. If this doesn't hook you, try this, from the same post:

overcome all the fuzzy directions and vague instructions and claw our way past the security staff, shove our way past the Google lounge and up the diggit staircase and down the YouTube corridor...into a hectic room full of rude people with laptops. As a software guy, it occurs to me that I've never seen a room with so many computers and so few Asians. In fact, it seems to me that the blogger pool is considerably less racially diverse than the mainstream media. The overwhelming whiteness of this crowd really can't be exaggerated.

Very recently, this thread on Clinton Derangement Syndrome erupted into flame over Bill Clinton's famous Sister Souljah Moment when I mentioned it as a possible cause of dissatisfaction with him felt by some people (me included) during his presidency. You know, things were different then, and we never imagined things could get this bad. Ah, the memories.

Another post as part of my social justice series.

Bruce Western - of Punishment and Inequality in America fame - hopes so (via Chris Uggen ) in this article in the Boston Review.

"The British sociologist T.H. Marshall described citizenship as the “basic human equality associated with full membership in a community.” By this measure, thirty years of prison growth concentrated among the poorest in society has diminished American citizenship. But as the prison boom attains new heights, the conversation about criminal punishment may finally be shifting.

For the first time in decades, political leaders seem willing to consider the toll of rising incarceration rates. In October last year, Senator Jim Webb convened hearings of the Joint Economic Committee on the social costs of mass incarceration. In opening the hearings, Senator Webb made a remarkable observation, “With the world’s largest prison population,” he said, “our prisons test the limits of our democracy and push the boundaries of our moral identity.”

Via Booman, read the whole thing.

Back in the great state of Louisiana, Baron "Scooter" Pikes was spotted by the police while walking peacefully down the street. Given his outstanding warrant for possession, one Officer Nugent gave chase, and Pikes was cornered. Due to his failure to submit, Nugent tased him. Nine times. In 14 minutes. While Pikes surrendered and begged him to stop.

Pikes died shortly thereafter. He was a healthy man of 33 years. Nugent claimed that, in an apparent Bob Woodward-style near-death confession, he told them (in between the screams of pain and death rattles) that he was high on crack and PCP (never heard that one before!) and had asthma. The coroner found no evidence for any of these claims and ruled the death a homicide, but hey, what are you gonna believe, hearsay from a hardly-impartial participant or hard science from a 33-year veteran?

In an apparent goodwill gesture to shock Pikes back to life, Nugent admitted that he tased Pikes twice while he was unconscious and in custody.

I really wish I could link to the part of the Milgram experiment wherein the actor "dies" and the unwitting partipant shocks him again, and again, and again. Gee, I don't know why. A person administering an electrical shock that they are told is, well, maybe-sorta-safe, but they definitely won't be held responsible if things go awry... nah, never mind, there's no similarity there whatsoever. I don't know what I was thinking.

14th St, NW, Wash., DC

I snapped this on the way to work today on 14th and P NW DC. It is the window lettering of Bob Gold Mitchell Williams which is some bourgeoisie furniture store. It speaks volumes for the transition of 14th Street in this decade.

Yeah, it is about slip covers, sheets, and towels, but sheesh.

More from Hoogrrl

I was prepared to go to bed when I read this:

Black campers recruit against history, stereotype
(...)

GADSDEN, Ala.—The throngs filling campgrounds across America this weekend will include hardy outdoors types and those who prefer creature comforts, but they'll have at least one important thing in common: Nearly all of them are white.

A small but committed group of campers is trying to change that by growing a generation of black campers, one person at a time.

The National African-American RVers Association is composed almost exclusively of black people who camp, although it includes a few whites and Hispanics. The group doesn't have much money to buy ads or solicit new members.

 Read more…

I just got off the phone with an Israeli friend, and we had some fun joking with each other about the timing of the call. I was reading this post from a very strong Obama supporter, and I complimented the author on his honesty and willingness to say what needs to be said. Short version: it's not "anti-semitic" to point out that in critical, large, expensive media states like NY and FL, the people raising a lot of money for Dem candidates in those states, as well as pulling state-level political strings (think backroom superdelagate type games) are also "Jewish," whatever that is supposed to mean*. Nor it is anything less than fact to say many of these fundraising powerhouses really think Israel can do no wrong, and that because of their great influence on the political process here at critical moments, overall American ME and I/P policies are warped. I'm very proud of Boo for reminding us that it's virtually no different with Cubans in FL; I'd add other single/special interests like the so-called 'farm lobby' in the plains states, or even the so-called gay lobby in small Eastern states in which some gays have both money and overrepresentation/overempowerment in local political circles. That's just how politics works right now here. If you've got money/friends with money, and you play your cards right in your state, when the Presidential candidates come to your 'hood, you make them say what you want to hear: in Spanish, Yiddish, or flatland drawl.

But then I thought more and more about Boo's confidence that Obama wants to do more, and better things for the Palestinians even as he takes the standard, ironclad, pro-Likudnik hardline. (Way not to impress your own people, Obama. Tone deaf much? Or do you just think they don't matter?) Still, I think Boo could be right.

On the morning of the West Virginia primary, Washington Post Associate Editor Kevin Merida published a blockbuster story about ugly racial incidents experienced by Obama campaign workers that continues to fuel debate.

Media pundits are now using it to prove that “Clinton is willing to ride these biases to the White House.”

My thoughts started to coalesce from a thread on TalkLeft titled "Politics Has Always Been Stupid which brings up an NYT Op-Ed piece by Bob Herbert titled "Overkill and Short Shrift. This article laments the media play of Jeremiah Wright as a diversion to discussing the real issues of this political season.

It's not accidental that the discussions of race have been systematically dismissed from this campaign. From the very start, Obama has been the first black candidate to nationally campaign with the premise that no where in his agenda is there a desire to hold white Americans accountable for the past.

In the ongoing saga of WKJM, today's edition tries to answer the question, why did Hillary win Ohio and does it have anything to do with why she'll win Indiana and Kentucky? Not one to bury the lede, let me say that WKJM's answer is that there are a whole bunch of racists in those states.

Examination at The Root of the perceptions and personas of Oprah and Obama, and how unrealistic stereotypes and expectations--and meeting them and molding yourself to fit them--provide very fragile and shaky foundations for trust.

I was reading one too many references to "Archie Bunkers" when it occurred to me that Archie is getting a bad rap.

Yeah, Archie was a bigot in 1971 when "All in the Family" went on the air, but he changed over the years.

From Wikipedia:

Jake Tapper tells the tale:

In an interview with National Journal's Linda Douglass, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe downplays the impact Obama's race will have on any November match-up, saying "the vast, vast majority of voters who would not vote for Barack Obama in November based on race are probably firmly in John McCain's camp already."

Did Obama run out of Democrats to offend? Is this strategy part of the "party building" meme?

Will this be a chapter in How to Win Friends by Insulting People" by Barack Carnegie and Dale Obama?

Expect W.O.R.M. 1.0 by tomoorow morning.