Unsought Input

By now everyone has heard about Barack Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright and the inflammatory speeches he gave. But before I go on, stop and ask yourself, what have you actually heard?

Did you hear the speeches, or did you just hear that the speeches were racist and proclaimed hatred for America?

Did see the video of the actual speeches or did you hear a bunch of speculation over whether or not Obama has distanced himself enough?

Did you get to read the full text of the sermons, or did you just see tiny, tiny pieces, quotes taken out of context?

(more…)

Borders Stores in the UK are removing the Tintin Graphic Novel “Tintin in the Congo” after a customer complained the book was racist. The book does contain racist depictions of Africans as subhuman savages who come to worship Tintin and his dog Snowy as gods. The book as been widely referred to as racist and has not been available in an unedited version until 2005, which featured a disclaimer explaining about the colonial period in which it took place. The customer was not fully happy with Borders decision and wanted the book removed from the store like other racist material.

(more…)

The House of Representatives has voted to expand democracy to American citizens in Washington DC. Over the past 200 years, through the Civil War, the end of slavery, the women’s suffrage movement, two World Wars, and the defeat of the Soviet Union, America has neglected to expand voting rights to hundreds of thousands of its own citizens. Washington DC has no real representation in the House or the Senate.

And despite this latest vote it’s likely to stay that way. It doesn’t look like the bill will pass in the Senate, and even if it does George W. Bush is likely to veto it.

“It’s unconstitutional!” is the whine from Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell. You see, it’s not because they are afraid that Washington DC residents will vote for Democrats, or because DC residents are largely poor and black. Of course they think everyone should have the right to vote! Of course they aren’t elitists or racists!

It’s just that the procedural steps for granting suffrage properly is much more important to a democracy than, you know, actual democracy.

(more…)

For years, he has been ever with us. A familiar face in the grocery aisle, quick to ease our hunger. But he shall serve you rice no more, for Uncle Ben has been promoted to CEO (or perhaps chairman of the board) of Uncle Ben’s Inc.

Uncle Ben, instant rice pitchman, has long been seen as a holdover from less polite times. He clearly was not meant to be your actual uncle, or even that guy your dad knew from school that everyone made you call “uncle” as a creepy sign of pseudo-familiarity and respect.

Since he was an older black man, dressed as either a manservant or perhaps maitre d’, and “uncle” was a disrespectful way to refer to blacks in the South, it seemed perhaps he was just another racist stereotype. Oh, they told us that he was a farmer known for the best rice in the region, but why the fancy duds?

(more…)

Don Imus is all over the news. CNN, the radio, newspapers. Everywhere you turn you see Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton denouncing him, protesting him, making demands that he be fired.

It’s because he called some basketball players “nappy-headed hoes.” He’s apologized, and now he’s lost his radio show, but I don’t blame Jackson and Sharpton for continuing to call for marches, punishment, and penalties. Imus has been around for a while and he should know by now that you don’t go on the radio and call black women “nappy-headed hoes.”

You call them bitches. And also hoes. And then you threaten them, and tell them to Get Low:

To the window, to the wall, (to dat wall)
To the sweat drop down my balls (MY BALLS)
To all these bitches crawl (crawl)
To all skeet skeet motherfucker (motherfucker!) all skeet skeet got dam (Got
dam)

(more…)

Hi guys! My name is Jamal and I just wanted to introduce our new Klub. This is the Gay Black Jewish Klansmen for Tolerance and Understanding Klub. I am this years (our first!) President and cofounder with Dante. I am posting a picture of our first meeting after we got the robes specially made in Mexico. (They were expensive! Who knew that pink and purple satin cost so much!)

Not pictured: Danny. We told him that he didn’t fit the criteria for the Klub but he kept showing up at Dante’s house and saying things like “I thought you were understanding! Either way, we had to change the night so he would stop coming. And, Dante’s mom told him that if he shows up again, she will call the police. Thanks Dante’s mom!

(more…)