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Glenn Beck & Alex Jones: Inspiration for White Supremacist 580 Freeway Shooter

October 18, 2010 By

580 Freeway Shooter Byron Williams claims he was inspired by Glenn Beck

Were Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck and 9-11 Conspiracy expert Alex Jones the inspiration for Byron Williams the 580 Freeway Shooter?

We sat down and spoke with Pacifica Radio investigative reporter John Hamilton about his story which first appeared on Media Matters called Progressive Hunter which details what led to the shootout in the wee hours of the morning on July 18th 2010 between 45 year old unemployed white supremacist named Byron Williams and California Highyway patrol last summer.

According to the article Glenn Beck and Alex Jones of prison planet/ infowars were key inspirations for Williams. On the night in question, Williams was enroute to San Francisco where he planned to shoot workers at the Tides Foundation which is an organization that helps distribute funds to left leaning non-profits and political organizations.

When all was said in done that fateful night 3 police officers were left lying in the highway injured. Williams who was wearing body armor had more firepower than the police who eventually subdued him.

Williams in his own chilling words said he was inspired by the attacks exposes put out by Fox News TV host Glenn Beck. We also come to learn that Jones has an even bigger influence.

In the interview below we hear clips from both Beck and Williams who is currently locked up in Santa Rita jail, 20 miles outside of Oakland awaiting trial.

We also talk about the leniency afforded to people like Beck while many others including rappers are shut down and material removed from public airwaves for fear of inciting violence.
This is the first of two parts
In the video below we continue our interview w/ investigative reporter John Hamilton who goes into more detail about the failed assassination plot carried out by Byron Williams.
We hear more about the influence Fox TV host Glenn Beck is having on domestic terrorists. We also focus on the influence Alex Jones had Byron Williams.
Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

‘Mohammad Is a Pig’…Yes, That’s What They’re Yelling at Black People in NY Over this Mosque Controversy

August 23, 2010 By

I’m watching this video of these enraged Anti-Muslim crowd in downtown New York and it doesn’t seem to much different from the videos I saw at the half a dozen Pro Johannes Mehserle rallies held last month or the anti-immigrant rallies I saw in Arizona..What we see is sheer ignorance in masse which can easily become violent. Yet we are as Black folks and People of Color  are told to  1_Move your Mosque 2_ Ignore the racism  because its not something that we should be concerned about 3_Being asked to ease up  and try to understand the angst that other whites are feeling when such actions are pointed out and shared with other people of color.. Sad part is the man is not even a Muslim..but it doesn’t matter and even if he was he shouldn’t be harassed.

I see this video and it reminds me of being in situations where you have to hold your tongue or suffer severe life altering consequences. Anyone who’s been in the presence of a cop berating or even hitting a loved one knows what I’m talking about. You wind up taking it and it sits for years..

To have a group of whites yelling Muhammed is a Pig is outrageous. You see the woman who is going all out to hold up her sign equating Islam with Hamas.. Nothing more needs to be said..Racism and Intolerance is alive and well even in a great melting pot like New York City..

In the video below

A man walks through the crowd at the Ground Zero protest and is mistaken as a Muslim. The crowd turns on him and confronts him. The man in the blue hard hat calls him a coward and tries to fight him. The tall man who I think was one of the organizers tried to get between the two men. Later I caught up with the man who’s name is Kenny. He is a Union carpenter who works at Ground Zero. We discussed what a scary moment that was for him. I told him that I hoped it did not ruin his day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaNRWMN-F4

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R

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Media Matters: Sherrod: I’m a Victim of Breitbart, Fox ‘Racism’

July 21, 2010 By

Sherrod: I’m a Victim of Breitbart, Fox ‘Racism’

by Joe Strupp

Original story: http://mediamatters.org/strupp/201007210037

Shirley Sherrod, the former Agriculture Department Georgia Director of Rural Development, says she is a victim. A victim of poor reporting and, as she contends, clear bias and racist coverage from both Andrew Breitbart and Fox News.

“When you look at their reporting, this is just another way of seeing that they are (racist),” Sherrod told me about Fox in a lengthy interview Tuesday night. “But I have seen that before now. I saw their reporting as biased during the Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration.”

Sherrod was forced to resign on Monday after a portion of a taped speech she gave last March was posted at Breitbart’s Biggovernment.com.

In the edited tape, she spoke about how she had not initially helped a white farmer as much as she could have in 1986 when he was going to lose his farm. In the posting, Breitbart made it appear as though the story had occurred during her time as a federal official and not 24 years ago when she worked for a non-profit organization.

Breitbart also did not include the entire context of the speech, in which she later explained that she learned from the situation and ended up helping the farmer, Roger Spooner and his wife. Both Spooners spoke out several times Tuesday to support Sherrod and voice that they would have lost their farm if not for her help.

Breitbart has since posted the full version of the tape, but his original posting also remains.

“It was a time when I realized that they did some of the same things to white farmers that they did to black farmers,” Sherrod said about the speech. “I thought that all white farmers got the best treatment, but I found out in this case that was not so.”

Explaining the speech further, Sherrod said, “I am trying to say to the people there that it is time for us to move forward. We do not want to forget the past and be in a position that racism is there and we don’t see it. We want to move together. Our area of the state cannot grow and thrive until we learn to get along.”

But after Breitbart posted the video clip, Sherrod said the lack of context and explanation sparked anger against her. She said she found out about the clip when someone e-mailed a link to her and asked about it.

“I couldn’t believe it. I found this out when someone sent me (a link to) the tape, people who follow him, who put it out there,” Sherrod said about Breitbart. “I got crank calls right away. Someone sent me an e-mail and link and said ‘shame on you’ and other stuff. I was sitting in a meeting and I was really upset.

“I texted back that they were so wrong and that they need to know the message and they got it wrong.”

Sherrod said Cheryl Cook, USDA deputy undersecretary, called her Monday and said she had to be on administrative leave.”

She adds: “People were calling and writing the Department of Agriculture in Athens, Ga., and Washington to tell them about it. That I needed to be fired. That a racist like me had no business working for the department. That is the way they intimidate people and it worked.”

By the end of the day Monday, she was forced to resign.

Sherrod, 62, said her first reaction was shock that, after a career working for civil rights and as the daughter of a father murdered by racists, she would be seen in such a terrible light.

“To have people say that I was such a racist was unbelievable,” she said of the fallout from the video and Fox coverage. “My whole life, if you look into what I have done, my father was murdered in 1965. If you look at all of us, we all hurt with that and we got involved into the movement and channeled our effort into good, instead of hating.

“I am getting hate calls and e-mails at this point. I got one call last night at my house at 12:30 a.m. that said ‘you lost your job, good for you’ and ‘bitch’ There are people out there who will believe that I am a racist person, even though the story is getting out there.”

She said her husband, Charles, and her two children, who also live nearby in Athens, Ga., were surprised, but have been toughened by years of seeing her work in the civil rights movement: “They had to grow up in the movement so they have had to deal with stuff like this through the years. We did not always take the easy road. They have some thick skin as a result.”

But the clear damage to Sherrod comes from Breitbart, who posted the tape without context, and Fox, which ran with the story and did not seek to confirm it.

“The news media should tell it like it is and not the way they want it to be,” she said.

Sherrod said Breitbart never contacted her before posting the video clip to ask about it.

“I never heard that name until a few minutes ago,” she said Tuesday night about Breitbart. “He never contacted me. I think they intended it to be what it ended up being, a racist thing that could unite even more the racist people out there who follow them.”

She also said Fox News never checked the facts with her before posting a story and the video clip.

“Not before they reported it,” she said of Fox’s negligence. “They have called me today and initially I had said yes (to an interview), but I thought about it and I did not think they intended to be fair in their reporting. They are going to say what they want to say regardless of what I say.”

She said Fox showed no professionalism in continuing to bother her for an interview, but failing to correct their coverage.

“I think they should but they won’t. They intended exactly what they did. They were looking for the result they got yesterday,” she said of Fox. “I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person.”

Still, Fox continued to push for an interview with her, Sherrod said.

“It was unbelievable. I am refusing to be on there. They have been calling me and calling me. I have refused to do an interview because they are biased,” she explained. “I don’t think Fox News does it fairly. It is worse so now. I have sat and listened to the way they cover the news even before this administration and I saw what was going on.”

Sherrod said this situation has worsened her view of racism in media coverage.

“I think it is race. You think we have come a long way in terms of race relations in this country, but we keep going backwards,” she said. “We have become more racist. This was their doing, Breitbart put that together misrepresenting what I was saying and Fox carried it.”

Sherrod said she has gotten no future job offers and believes this will scar her reputation forever, even if all the facts come out.

“There will be people who always think of this,” she said. “I can see in the future whatever I do, this story will be recounted, no matter what. This will be brought up. People will constantly be trying to point out negative things.”

Have other job offers come up? “No, no one. People are afraid of me now, I guess, with all of this. That is the other fallout from this. Anyone would be afraid of me, maybe I am a troublemaker, a racist.”

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is reviewing the matter, hinting that Sherrod could possibly get her job back.

Asked if she would return if asked, she said: “I think I would have to go back for a short time, even if I did not stay for a long haul. I would need to prove a point, that I can be bigger than them. I was doing a lot of good things. People had access to that office that never did before. I had reached out to the poorest counties.”

Despite that, she plans to carry on.

“I will go back to doing what I was doing before, working with people, trying to build,” she said. “There are a lot of projects in Georgia I have been involved in creating. I will get busy with that again.”

Sherrod said she is considering legal action, perhaps against Breitbart, Fox or the federal government:

“I don’t know enough to know. I wish I did. I would love to sue. I am going to talk about it. I have been getting calls from all over the country. I don’t want to leave one stone unturned.”

Sherrod said she has been helped by many media outlets, such as CNN and others that have allowed her to explain the truth, enough so that the NAACP retracted a statement Tuesday that had denounced her.

She said that has convinced her to trust some media outlets, noting she had plans to be on Good Morning America and NPR Wednesday.

“The only one I refused to do is Fox,” she said, adding the fair coverage by others “makes me think highly of some of the media, but not any better about Fox. It is a bad taste in my mouth dealing with them. It would help some if they apologized and say they were wrong, but I don’t see that happening.”

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , ,

Why Do We Let Fox & Other Right Wing Outlets Snooker us? Everybody Owes Shirley Sherrod an Apology?

July 20, 2010 By

Shirley Sherrod

Below is the NAACP’s original Statement Regarding Shirley Sherrod head of the Department of Agriculture’s rural development office in Georgia, after being ‘snookered’ into thinking she was a racist based upon a video shown by Fox and other right-wing outlets..Proceeding it is the full video of Ms Sherrod’s remarks.. Her speech was about reconciliation and overcoming racial hatred.. Whats even sadder is up til now President Obama is sticking to their guns..All parties involved need to do right by Ms Sherrod starting with some major apologies.

Next everyone involved need to take firm steps to stop validating bloggers Conservative attack dog Andrew Breitbart, Fox News and other outlets who say they are news, but are really invested in spreading propaganda and finding ways to take down or aggressively support those who are out to take down their political enemies. In the case of Breibert, that was his full intention, to embarrass and discredit the NAACP-Mission Accomplished. Up til today the story was the NAACP smashes of the Tea Party and their racism  and how the oldest Civil Rights organization was making moves to become more relevant in the lives of today’s generation. All that was gone in an instant with this ‘snookering’ that took place. There are lots of lessons to be learned here.

First, we have got to stop depending upon media outlets that don’t have our best interest at heart to fully deliver our message. This is especially true of places like Fox News. There have been too many good people who have had their reputations soiled because of Fox and their unrelenting attacks. It ranges from Ludacris to Reverend Jeremiah Wright to Van Jones and Yoshi Sergent to Acorn to now Shirley Sherrod. All the while this is happening, Negro after Negro goes onto one of these shows to do verbal battle with hosts who’ve set things up so you will never ever get the last word.

Second we have got to stop letting them dictate what we will and won’t talk about. This is not limited to Fox.. The other day I saw NAACP head Ben Jealous on TV disavowing the New Black Panther Party.. Why? Whatever they said or done could’ve been disavowed on your own terms years ago. Instead they become a hot button campaign for right wing zealots and suddenly the NAACP and every other Black pundit is on TV  apologozing, distancing themselves and acting like they need to be ashamed.  Not a good look. It reminds me of the old Farrakhan litmus test, where every Black person on TV had to state he did not like the Minister in order to appear creditable.

Shame on us for validating them with our presence. Shame on us for using them as the basis to go after someone who had not only the best of intentions but was setting a good example for all of us to follow. Sherrod’s speech was about reconciliation.

The NAACP would do good by investing time and energy into establishing a series of well heeled local media outlets that speak unapologetically to our issues and forget having to explain and apologizee on outlets that little or no interest in giving us equal footing.

-Davey D-

*** Important Update July 21 2010** According to CNN the Agriculture department is now ‘Considering’ Sherrod’s resignation.. Here’s what they said…

(CNN) — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said early Wednesday that he will review the case of a former Agriculture Department official who resigned after a video clip surfaced of her discussing a white farmer.

“I am, of course, willing and will conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts to ensure to the American people we are providing services in a fair and equitable manner,” Vilsack said in a statement.

Shirley Sherrod — an African-American — resigned Monday under pressure after the video clip first appeared on a conservative website and later on Fox News. In the video, she seemed to tell an audience she did not do her utmost to help a white farmer avoid foreclosure. However, Sherrod later said the clip only shows part of her comments, and that she tells the story of her experience — from nearly a quarter century ago when she was not a federal employee — to illustrate the importance of moving beyond race. continue reading here http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/21/agriculture.employee.usda/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NcCa_KjXk&feature=player_embedded

NAACP’s Original Statement Condemning Sherrod

According to NAACP head Ben Jealous, he has since called, spoken with and apologized to Sherrod for the remarks below….

NAACP Head Ben Jealous credit: Jeffrey Macmill

NAACP Head Ben Jealous credit: Jeffrey Macmill

We concur with US Agriculture Secretary Vilsack in accepting the resignation of Shirley Sherrod for her remarks at a local NAACP Freedom Fund banquet.

Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race.

We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers.

Her actions were shameful. While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man.

The reaction from many in the audience is disturbing. We will be looking into the behavior of NAACP representatives at this local event and take any appropriate action.

We thank those who brought this to our national office’s attention, as there are hundreds of local fundraising dinners each year.

Sherrod’s behavior is even more intolerable in light of the US Department of Agriculture’s well documented history of denying opportunities to African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American farmers, as well as female farmers of all races. Currently, justice for many of these farmers is being held up by Congress. We would hope all who share our outrage at Sherrod’s statements would join us in pushing for these cases to be remedied.

The NAACP will continue to advance the ideals of America and fight for freedom, justice and fairness for all Americans.

N.A.A.C.P. Retracts Bias Accusation

By SARAH WHEATON

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/us/21sherrod.html

The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People apologized Tuesday to a black civil servant whose ouster the civil rights organization had originally cheered.

Last week, the N.A.A.C.P. garnered headlines when it accused parts of the Tea Party movement of being racist. Then, over the weekend, a video emerged of Shirley Sherrod, the head of the Department of Agriculture’s rural development office in Georgia, speaking at an N.A.A.C.P. event in Douglas, Ga., in March. In a two-and-a-half-minute clip, Ms. Sherrod seemed to explain that she discriminated against a white farmer 24 years ago.

Ms. Sherrod said she was pressed to resign after the video whipped around the Web. But she said the clip was misleading. According to Ms. Sherrod and people who have seen the full video, she went on to say in her speech that she had learned from working with the farmer that all people must overcome their prejudices.

After seeing the full video, the N.A.A.C.P. said Tuesday that it had been “snookered” into believing Ms. Sherrod had acted with bias.

“We are in a moment where there is heightened sensitivity and concern, including within the N.A.A.C.P., about discrimination against white people,” said Benjamin T. Jealous, the group’s president. He said the N.A.A.C.P. wanted “to be clear that there’s a single yardstick by which civil rights are judged.”

In the video, which received much airtime on the Fox News Channel on Monday, Ms. Sherrod recalled working for a nonprofit organization in Georgia.

“I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland, and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land,” Ms. Sherrod said in the video. “So I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough.”

The video was spotlighted by Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger known for promoting videos that emerged last year and ultimately brought down Acorn, the community organizing group. By Monday evening, Ms. Sherrod was out of her job. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack cited the agency’s “zero-tolerance” policy on discrimination in explaining her ouster.

Ms. Sherrod took to the airwaves, especially those of CNN, on Tuesday. She told the network that the N.A.A.C.P. was “the reason why this happened.”

“They got into a fight with the Tea Party, and all of this came out as a result of that,” she said.

Mr. Breitbart reached a similar conclusion, though from a different perspective. “They’re trying to make this about me and Shirley Sherrod. This is about the N.A.A.C.P.,” he said by phone. He said that the civil rights group had “spent an inordinate amount of airtime trying to brand the Tea Party as racist” while tolerating racism itself.

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Jasiri X Drops New Song & Banging Video-What if the Tea Party Were Black?

July 14, 2010 By

Jasiri X has released a video called “What if the Tea Party was Black?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtH7vH4yRcY

The Hip Hop artist says that he got the idea when Paradise,a member of the pro-black rap group X-Clan, forwarded him a copy of Wise’s article. “I saw the article and I liked the concept,” says the rapper. So Jasiri hit the studio with producer Cynik Lethal while Paradise grabbed his video camera and they went on their mission to defeat the Right Wing propaganda machine.

What If the Tea Party Were Black?

by Tim Wise

http://www.alternet.org/story/146616/what_if_the_tea_party_were_black?page=entire

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure – the ones who are driving the action – we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that prominent black commentator and his sister — who also works for the organization — defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and “going through a tough time in his life” would anyone accept their excuse-making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream network? Because that’s what happened in the real world, when Pat Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America’s Cause, a blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents: attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.” And what would happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for “speaking common sense” and likened his hate talk to “American values?” After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way, despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the daughter of a white president, calling her “typical redneck trash,” or a “whore” whose mother entertains her by “making monkey sounds.” After all that’s comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as “ghetto trash.”

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Game Over.

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Rachel Maddow & Rand Paul Square Off Over Civil Rights & Racism

May 20, 2010 By

Last night Rachel Maddow and newly elected Tea Party icon Rand Paul son of Congressman Ron Paul square  off over the Civil Rights Act..

This should give you some keen insight into the political mindset of the Pauls and what they are ultimately about..

Here’s a brief summary from Mediaite

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rand-paul-and-rachel-maddow-debate-the-civil-rights-act-in-theory-and-practice/

Since last Tuesday, it’s been morning after week for Kentucky Senate Republican candidate Rand Paul. While he recorded interviews at NPR and The O’Reilly Factor today, he didn’t waste any time booking himself for the toughest interview he could find. Tonight, that interview was on The Rachel Maddow Show. Don’t be deceived by the lack of shouting– this was by far the most heated exchange of the night across cable news.

It wasn’t the first time Paul was on the program– in fact, he had announced his candidate for Kentucky Senate on The Rachel Maddow Show months before. But last night’s interview was almost like a science experiment: put two of the most ideologically pure people in the politi-media world together to challenge each other on one of the issues they each care about the most. For Paul, that issue is the rights of the individual and the danger of the federal government stepping over them. For Rachel Maddow, the issue is institutional discrimination and the moral obligation to abolish it. That, at least, is how each one of them saw the respective problems and successes of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which Paul had been coming under attack for allegedly opposing.

While, as he has before, Paul reiterated that he personally hates racism and, for the most part, likes the Civil Rights Act, he is definitely giving people the space to assume that he would be ok with segregated businesses, because he expects the practice to negatively affect a business so much that the market wold take care of eliminating racism without the government getting in the way. It’s a consistent application of his ideology, but Maddow counters that, in practice, the market just hasn’t proven enough of a detractor to ensure that racism will not be institutionalized.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3O2rBz9gwo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS_qya7w0hs

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An Open Commentary To Adam Coralla’s & Teri Hatcher Comedians Who Like to Poke Fun at My Filipino People….

April 5, 2010 By

 

I am not much of a fan of boxing. Occassionally, I’ll sit beside my partner Rob at home to support his love for boxing and UFC. But most of the time, I am eagerly waiting for the fights to end so I can change the channel or I am either sitting there cringing at the sight of blood or bickering about the politics of these brutal sports that often pin people of color against each other while waving money and all sorts of other material things at them as though they were animals. I haven’t even begun to mention the loads of gender stereotypes this sport just breeds. But to be quite honest, I really don’t know much about the politics of sports but I see what I see – almost every sport have treated their players as though they can be bought and sold. And yes they are often bought and sold. Whether it’s to matches, traded to different teams or that Arrid Extra Dry commercial – they are bought, traded and sold. Sadly, it is often at the expense of their own lives and well-being.

However, even knowing all this, and as contradicting as this may sound – I still somehow have some sort of respect for boxing and UFC. And it’s not because of the excitement by the techniques of left hooks and uppercuts. To be honest the punches gives me too much awful memories of my own days of experiencing violence growing up. The respect that I give to this sport and the kind of “understanding” that i have when I see people go crazy over the bloody sports is because of what it means to our communities – people of color communities. It becomes more than just a sport, or a match for money or a match for the title when boxers from our communities like Muhammad Ali, Erik Morales and Manny Pacquao fight in the ring.

 
As a Filipina-American growing up in America, long before ABDC and the Jabbowockeez existed, i hardly ever saw any Filipino (a)’s on television. If I did, it was often stereotypes of a Filipina as a maid or a prostitute or a mail order bride. Or you’d often just hear derogatory names, terms all in bad context whenever the Philippines or Filipino’s were ever mentioned. Often times you’d just see Filipino’s acting in other Asian roles as Chinese or Japanese when you knew they were Filipino. Or you would know that Lou Diamond Phillips, Nia Peeples, Nicole Scherzinger were all born of Filipino blood but you hardly heard them ever talk about it on television or interviews, or if at all. My point is, I never really did see my brown skin on television. And if they were on television, it was almost as if they were ashamed to even admit they were Filipino because the industry limited them into characters that were anything else but themselves. Characters that often deem and oppress our Filipino people.

So, when someone like Manny Pacquiao steps out onto the ring – he becomes so much more than just a fighter. He becomes our hero. A hero that represents the thousands upon thousands of Filipino’s in the States and in the Philippines that have been waiting for someone to represent them more than just on TV but to win a championship that proves so much more than “boxing”, but a championship of surviving. While I don’t know what Manny Pacquiao’s political views are, I do know that he is no different than what Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos meant to the black community. Manny Pacquao knows what his celebrity status means for his Filipino people, which is why he makes the efforts that he does to give back to our Filipino people. Unlike what comedian Adam Carolla recently stated about the Philippines being “nothing but “Manny Pacquiao and sex stores”, Pacquiao knows that the Philippines is more than just that… which is why he fights so diligently, swiftly, quickly and passionately. And he does this for us.

I am not trying to romanticize Pacquiao, or place him up on a pedastal because although i respect that many of our people view him as our hero I personally don’t view him as an icon. I view him as another brother from our homeland doing what he needs to do to survive, doing what he can do for as long as he can for his people. Just like the rest of us should be doing. Especially now more than ever, because of racist, sexist, ignorant comedians like Adam Carolla who think it’s funny to poke fun at the expense of third world countries like the Philippines.

Adam Carolla

Someone like Adam Carolla wouldn’t understand why Manny Pacquiao means so much to us, simply because everyday he can look at television and see people with the color of his skin not having to resort to boxing to make a name for themselves. Carolla wouldn’t know that the Philippines is so much more than just sex stores because people with the color of his white skin purchase more than 5,000 Filipina mail order brides yearly into the United States. Adam Carolla wouldn’t know the beautiful islands of our country because it is rare to see when imperialist countries all over the world suck all our resources dry. Of course, Adam Carolla would find this all funny, because he has the luxury to never live this life. He has the luxury to never have to walk down daily the slums of the Philippines looking for food to feed his children. He never has to sell his body and be used as a commodity as does the 150,000 young Filipina women who are trafficked into prostitution in Japan.

But there are so many privileged Adam Carolla’s and Desperate Housewives Teri Hatcher Comedians in the world, aren’t there…? So many comedians who think they can get their ticket into fame with racist and sexist jokes. To me it’s just another way for the white supremacist to tear us down – take one of our known shining heroes like Manny Pacquiao and take one of largest known thing our country struggles with like sex-trafficking and prostitution — and blast it upon the rest of the world by making fun of it….. Yeah, just another way of tearing us down.

But what people like Adam Carolla doesn’t know is that we are all Manny Pacquiao’s as we are all our mothers and our sisters and our daughters trying to survive from sex-trafficking. And my people are strong, we are survivors… and we have fought a million wars for thousands of years. We have fought being invisible, we have fought racism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism, imperialism, and all kind of isms and oppressions….. we have done more than just boxed.. and wrestled. we have nursed, we have doctored, danced, sung, beatboxed, break’d, tagged… and DJ’d our way through —- we have held our fists in the air…. letting you all know that we exist… that we are no longer invisible… and that it’s going to take a lot more than just the petty ignorant jokes to take us down. Because we’re here… we’ve been arrived… and we will survive you. We always have.

Below is a note good friend Kevin Nadal, PhD sent earlier requesting everyone to sign a petition against Adam Carolla. It also includes a link of his derogatory, racist jokes.. – pls take the time to read and sign.

Thank you for your time
DJ Kuttin Kandi

============================================
Dear Kababayan, Friends, and Allies,

Radio host and comedian Adam Carolla has recently made several
disparaging remarks about Manny Pacquiao and Filipinos. He has
insinuated that Filipinos “pray to chicken bones” and that the
Philippines is nothing but “Manny Pacquiao and sex stores.”

Hear more about his hate here:
(Warning: This is vulgar and may not be suitable for children).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOSqFWwdtAE&feature=player_embedded

As a community, we must stand up again and let it be known that we
will not allow such hateful words to be made about our community.
These messages of hate help to promote the negative stereotypes about
Filipinos and Filipino Americans and we must put an end to it.

Please read and sign the petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/FilAmAC/petition.html

And please forward this to your colleagues, family, and friends.

Sincerely,

Kevin Nadal, PhD

I AM RAISING A CALL TO ACTION AGAINST CBS CORPORATION TOMORROW,
TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 2010 AT EXACTLY 9:00 AM EST (12:00 pm PST)
These are the numbers in which you should call:
CBS Corporation
CBS Headquarters51 W. 52nd StreetNew York, NY 10019-6188
212-975-4321

complaint line: 212- 975-5005
Investor Relations
51 W. 52nd StreetNew York, NY 10019investorrelations@cbs.com1-877-227-0787

ALSO PLEASE FILE A COMPLAINT TO THE FCC AGAINST ADAM CAROLLA’S SHOW on
KACE through IndustryEars.com

————————————————————————————-

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , ,

Is the Healthcare Bill Racist Toward Rich Socialite & Poor Redneck Women?

March 26, 2010 By

I read this article and could only shake my head and say wow.. wow wow wow.. and shake my head again..

Davey D

http://www.examiner.com/x-6996-Louisville-Economic-Policy-Examiner~y2010m3d25-Healthcare-Reform-Taxes-Are-Racist

In a previous article I had written about how the Democrats in Washington had driven me into a state of depression caused by their relentless attacks on our nation’s Constitution, freedoms and optimistic spirit.  After Barack Obama signed this disasterous healthcare reform plan into law, one of my good friends called me to ask if my depression was better since I now had mandated healthcare insurance to help care for it.  My answer was that I was still depressed but at least now my care was so much cheaper than it had been in the past.  Right…

During that phone call, my friend also stated that I must be happy that I decided buying a tanning salon that I was thinking about buying a year or so ago.  That is of course due to that new revenue-producing 10% tax on indoor tanning salons.  Of course, the rational is that since the tanning can lead to skin cancer which can lead to a need for healthcare services, then the Democrats must do everything they can to discourage people form tanning in the first place.  There means to that end is of course ‘targeted taxation.’

So that made me wonder why the Democrats did not include a tax in their healthcare reform package against the Sun.  After all, the Sun surely causes more cases of skin cancer than all of the indoor tanning salons combined.  The Sun is very powerful – some people even claim that it is the leading cause of warming the Earth.  Of course, Al Gore and others like him claim that warming on the Earth is man-made.

Therefore, it would make much more sense to have  a Sun tax than an indoor tanning tax, so why would the Democrats not have included that in their plans?  Then it hit me – their ‘targeted’ indoor tanning tax is racist.  That is because it will disproportionately affect whites but have very little impact on some of the Democrats favorite constituencies like blacks, Latinos, Muslims and other people of color.

On the contrary, it directly targets some of the Democrats least favorite groups such as women, especially wealthy socialite women and poor redneck women – two groups that seem to make up the bulk of the indoor tanning customer base.  Democrats and liberals have shown their misogynistic views toward women in their treatments of Hillary Clinton in the most recent presidential primary and Sarah Palin since she has become a household name.  And this tanning tax hits my area of the country particularly hard.  Another friend of mine often comments that he sees more tanned women in the Kentuckiana than he saw in the years when he lived in an area of New Mexico which had a high Latino and Native American population.

But this tanning tax does not just affect women it also affects white men as well, like myself.  I admit that I use indoor tanning services myself at the advice of my doctor to treat some occasional flare-ups of psoriasis.  That is pretty much my one and only medical need at this time in my life.  So thanks to the Democrats’ healthcare reform plan, my healthcare expenses will go up by 10% in the near future.

So clearly this healthcare reform plan is racist and discriminatory against whites and should therefore be deemed (since it is so easy to just ‘deem’ things these days) unconstitutional.  At the very least, this legislation should be sent back and amended to include a Sun tax which will can be applied failrly to people of all color.  Plus, just think about how happy Al Gore will be because if we can somehow tax away the effects of the Sun then he will finally be able to prove that humans are the cause of planetary warming.

Rob Binsrick

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles Tagged With: , , ,

Noose Found at Racist UCSD where White Frats had Comptom Cookout

February 26, 2010 By

Noose found at Geisel Library, message to Guardian says more are coming

http://forwarducsd.org/?p=187

There is much to be said about the last week at UCSD, but for right now it is imperative to know what exactly is going on.

 A noose has been found hanging off of a light at Geisel Library. This is connected to the racial tensions of the last few weeks, just the most recent manifestation of a long-standing racism that is deep within every breath we take at UCSD. It is our history; we cannot avoid it. We must look it right in the eyes. Here’s a link to Student Regent Jesse Bernal’s page on the topic, with a picture of the noose for documentation purposes. I don’t want to alienate people by showing the offensive picture here, but I want people to have the relevant visual aid for this post, so they know this is some real shit. Some people need to see it. Others may disagree; our comment box is always open.

noose found at ucsd library UCSD is racist. Let’s take a second to note that. UCSD is racist. In the meantime, let us remember the words of a wise man: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Spotted exactly one week after the words “Compton Lynching” were seen in the Koala’s office, this message from UCSD’s white-supremacists was accompanied by a separate message to the Guardian that more were coming. Certain elements within our generally sickening student body have decided to taunt students of color with the most potent symbolism of white-on-black violence in America, just for funsies. This is what students who don’t stand for something are being asked to fall for. If I’ve gotten to know this school as well as I thought I have in 12 years connected to it, I think a lot of white people here are going to fall for it.

 Let me state first off that if you think this is funny, you’re probably the kind of person I wouldn’t miss. I can only speak for myself here.

 Secondly, there’s a disturbing trend in white activism, including my own, to depersonalize the real pain and suffering of real people in our moral and political judgments. There are plenty of objective political reasons and shining moral reasons to oppose this disgusting display of white power. But what have moved me most in the last few hours are the personal thoughts of a few students of color I’ve been privileged to read from. I will share these on this forum, so that, if only for a moment, we are thinking about the real-life horror that UCSD students are imposing upon one another.

 As you read these, if you have the privilege of being emotionally removed from the situation, think about how you would feel as a student, worker or teacher of color walking this campus, knowing you are outnumbered up to 18 times over by people who throw so-called Compton cookouts, drop N-bombs on all-campus TV, push you off of committees if you are perceived as a threat, and hang nooses in the library for kicks. Would you feel safe? Would you feel like the campus you’ve put years of hard work and insomnia into belongs to you like it does to other people? Do you? Students of color, how does this event change your perception of the campus you live, work, teach, study, play and dream on?

 We welcome all comments on this matter except that I will try to keep this a safe space for people who are already being ridiculed, dehumanized, and spat upon enough. If you have to ask what that means, chances are you’d be better served by some cheap-thrills message board or morning show.

 Disclaimer: the individuals quoted are not affiliated with Forward and did not specifically approve their thoughts being posted; I will delete the relevant quotes if they ask, though.

 A statement from one antiracist organizer, reminding us of why this kind of imagery is considered such a vicious personal threat for black students here:

“We are in a state of emergency my friends. Latest news is that a NOOSE was found hanging on the 7th floor of Geisel Library. People ask whats the big deal? Why is everyone so upset? I’ll tell you why take note of this excerpt in the autobiography of Angelo Herndon titled “Let Me Live”:

“I know many stories about Negroes who were lynched on no more just provocation than this. Sometimes the lynch mobs need neither provocation nor excuse to carry on their bestial orgies. Often I used to read with horror about the lynching of some Negro worker in the South. The most gruesome, the most disgusting lynching story I ever heard was that which concerned Hayes and Mary turner, Negro sharecroppers in Georgia. They were pauperized and their landlord had tried to rob them of everything they had produced on their land with the toil of their hands and the seat of their brows. The share cropper was man enough to stand up for his rights. He demanded that the farm products be divided equally, as had been agreed upon at the beginning of the year. The landlord grew violently abusive. He threatened him and said he would “fix” him. Terrified out of his wits, for he knew that his landlord would not stop at anything to revenge himself, Hayes Turner tried to make a quite getaway. But his landlord had not allowed grass to grow on his track. He quickly organized a posse of hooligans and the most disreputable elements in the community and gave chase to the runaway. The posse, led by the County Sheriff, caught up with Hayes Turner at the fork of the road near Barney. THEY STRUNG HIM UP ON A TREE AT WAYSIDE WHERE HE HUNG FOR TWO DAYS. Hysterical and grief-stricken, Mrs. Turner was heard to remark that she would have the lynchers arrested. When the lynch mob heard of her determination they decided they were going to teach her a lesson for such a presumption. Although she was in the eighth month of her pregnancy, THEY STRUNG HER TO A TREE AND BROKE HER NECK. THEY HANGED HER BY HER FEET AND POURED GASOLINE OVER HER. As she burned, the mob howled with glee. Then one maniac, wielding a hog-splitting knife, RIPPED HER BELLY OPEN AND THE LITTLE INFANT FELL OUT. ONE OF THE LYNCHERS STAMPED THE INFANT WITH HIS HOBNAILED SHOES INTO THE EARTH. Then the mob, driven with wild bestiality, began to howl like wolves and in their criminal sadism fired hundreds of bullets into her lifeless body.”

This my friends is the BIG DEAL. This my friends is what a noose symbolizes and if the individual that put this up or the individuals that agree with that person putting this noose up for everyone to see agrees then they are perpetuating this very act of violence and genocide of a group of human beings. So now it’s time to mobilize MORE THAN EVER before. It is time to come together in solidarity and struggle. Tomorrow 8am library walk WEAR ALL BLACK AND BE READY TO HAVE OUR VOICES HEARD!!!!!!”

Finally, most personally, a text message from a friend, herself a student of color at UCSD:

“I don’t feel good about this. Reading the noose thing just filled me with such fear and now I’m trying to stop crying.”

How would you feel if your sister wrote this? Your cousin? Your mother? Yourself?

Before last night, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to a white Southern college from the 1930s. After this morning, we’ll see what UCSD looks like.

In the meantime, those of you who don’t go to UCSD: Burn down the state’s rotten, racist institutions in solidarity. Let your righteous anger be your guide. The issues of campus climate and academic access deserve your full attention.

February 26th, 2010 | Tags: | Category: Uncategorized 

2 comments to Noose found at Geisel Library, message to Guardian says more are coming

  • Montana

    The noose. So, what exactly will the excuses be for this cowardly act that brings up memories of the confederate KKK of the South in their attempts to keep slavery and the non-whites in fear? Is it that are uneducated, is it that they are live in fear because our President in the white house is not 100% white. This is what the republican party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” have brought you. These kids follow what their dullard leaders say, are you surprise at what they do when you know what they think.

  • Chiggs

    First off, let me say that it is ridiculous that the recent conflict has escalated to the point where death threats have been made. It is upsetting and unacceptable that people feel “free speech” can be displayed through threatening symbols such as a noose. I am completely outraged at this event.
    But with that said, in response to the caption of the noose photo, how can you pin a demeaning and hatful term such as racist on an entire student body. Clearly there are racists people at UCSD, there are racist people at every school. the actions of UCSDs administration have given the white supremacists an excuse to react with hate. But in no way can you slogan UCSD as racist. The majority of the people here are certainly not. If the noose was an isolated issue, i can guarantee there would be thousands of students marching at the protest this morning. But there events are so tied up in a wide array of actions that have taken place over the past few weeks, demeaning all students and faculty at UCSD.
    The people that placed the noose and promised more to come are cowardly, hateful, and yes, racist. Their threatening message should and does call for action. It sickens me that people like this are still around in the 21st century.

 

Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , ,

. . . and the ‘hood pass’-Adam Mansbach Goes in on John Mayer

February 15, 2010 By

. . . and the ‘hood pass’-Adam mansbach Goes in on John Mayer

By Adam Mansbach
AS JOHN Mayer’s racially-charged comments in Playboy magazine ricocheted around the Internet this week, I found myself exhausted by the sad reality that the national dialogue on race remains driven by the engine of celebrity gaffes and gotcha moments.

Our voracious, ADHD-afflicted news cycle castigates, forgives, and forgets at a rate that precludes sustained discussion, so expect Mayer to spend a week with his head on the chopping block and then jog away, rubbing his neck, to join Chris Matthews, Harry Reid, Michael Richards, Geraldine Ferraro, Don Imus, and John Rocker on the list of figures whose shocking transgressions have faded to dim memories.

An analysis of such incidents and their scant longterm fallout suggests that it is now more acceptable to publicly spout racism than to publicly accuse someone of spouting racism. Look for Mayer to continue to make a vague apology to a fanbase and a punditry eager to excuse racist action because they can find no racist feeling behind it. Look for Mayer to swear he’s never uttered the n-word before and never will again, and look for the context in which he said it and the clumsy if well-intentioned point he was trying to make about white privilege to be obscured.

Look for him to continue not address more problematic statements from the interview, in particular the one about his male organ being a “white supremacist’’ — a flippant attempt to explain his dating preferences that takes up the language of dehumanization and reveals a blithe willingness to reinforce any number of stereotypes about sex, race, and desirability. Look for the mainstream media to ignore that comment too.

Look for the “hood pass’’ Mayer stumbled so badly in trying to discuss to be serially snatched away and restored in a blogopshere-wide game of capture-the-flag. Far more importantly and indicatively, look for the very notion of a “hood pass’’ to go largely unexplored.

The “hood pass’’ is symbolic of white acceptance, personal or artistic, by the black community. Although both the notion of a monolithic black community and the conflation of blackness with the “hood’’ are problematic, the “hood pass’’ has been widely accepted. Part of the reason may be that it appears to place agency in the hands of black people, as arbiters of who and what constitutes tolerable incursion. Given the profound legacy of white co-option and exploitation of black life and culture, this might seem like a step in the right direction.

The problem with the “hood pass,’’ though, is that it turns racial progressivism from an activity to a state of being. It places engagement with this country’s system of structural racism, and the privileges white people accrue from it, in the past tense — as if everybody in possession of a “hood pass’’ has already fought and won what is actually an ongoing struggle with one’s self and one’s country.

This complacency underwrites the widespread belief of young white Americans that they can be as “down’’ as necessary by consuming black cultural artifacts pushed by media conglomerates whose profits depend on expert marketing of the ghetto to the exurbs, black to white, and visceral “realness’’ to a generation of voyeurs. Full of empathy and short on identity, with few relationships to actual black people and less understanding of the machinations of institutional racism, they conclude that they, too, have “hood passes.’’ Through the magic of circular logic, they then conclude that every stereotype they embrace is as legitimate as they are. Much as Mayer seems to have.

It was a conversation with an old friend, filmmaker Kesime Bernard, that reminded me what we stand to gain by talking about the latest display of ignorance by an avatar of a culture that rewards it. “Our generation has built a cottage industry around uncomfortably edgy racial humor,’’ she wrote, “but the reaction is as important as the delivery.We carve out boundaries in real time. These little celebrity scandals do ‘teach’ us little by little where we stand.’’

I want to believe she’s right — that we can make this not about Mayer’s hood pass, but the hood pass, not one rock star’s cavalier bigotry, but the millions nodding to it. That Americans can learn from where we stand, and that we stand for something. Because if we don’t, as the old saying goes, we’ll fall for anything.

Adam Mansbach is author of “The End of the Jews,’’ and “Angry Black White Boy.’’

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Filed Under: 2009-Daily Hip Hop News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , ,
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