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Steve Gilliard, 1964-2007
It is with tremendous sadness that we must convey the news that Steve Gilliard, editor and publisher of The News Blog, passed away June 2, 2007. He was 42.
To those who have come to trust The News Blog and its insightful, brash and unapologetic editorial tone, we have Steve to thank from the bottom of our hearts. Steve helped lead many discussions that mattered to all of us, and he tackled subjects and interest categories where others feared to tread.
Please keep Steve's friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.
Steve meant so much to us.
We will miss him terribly.
In African folklore, there are many different tales...stories of proud kings, and haughty warriors. Mischevious children, and wise beasts of the plain.
Sadly, most of that folklore has been filtered, and peeled, and torn away by the peculiar, yet powerful institution of slavery--leaving us, several generations hence, with precious few of those stories told by the "village griot" from our points of origin in the Motherland.
But one hardy character from many of those tales of yore stays with us to this day, and that is the character of...The Trickster. Be he Anansi (from West Africa), or Ti Malice (via Haiti's African ties), or perhaps the most familiar to us Americans, the crafty, Br'er Rabbit (later refined by the broader culture into the supremely infamous trickster Bugs Bunny)--we know his modus operandi. Seemingly "in trouble", or in peril from his enemies, he manages, via a smart mouth and quick wits to not only manage escape, but to often put his pursuer/attackers in the "trick bag", leaving them to look foolish, or with their rabbit trap laughably sprung on themselves.
Ol' Br'er Rabbit came to mind recently in a big way via this um..."near-story".
"Civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who led the charge to have radio host Don Imus fired for making racially insensitive remarks, is now under fire for a comment about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon faith.
During a debate on religion and politics at the New York Public Library with atheist author Christopher Hitchens, Sharpton said, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that. That's a temporary situation."
On the campaign trail in Iowa Wednesday, Romney fired back, calling Sharpton's comment "terribly misguided."
"It shows that bigotry still exists in some corners," Romney said. "I thought it was a most unfortunate comment to make."
Asked if he thought Sharpton is a bigot, the former Massachusetts governor said, "I don't know Rev. Sharpton. I doubt he is personally such a thing. But the comment was a comment which could be described as a bigoted comment.
"Perhaps he didn't mean it that way, but the way it came out was inappropriate and wrong."
Now, post-Imus, it's pretty clear that a boatload of scalp-hunters on the right were been itchin' for a fistful of the rotund Rev's bone-straight locks. And damned if this story wasn't just the angle that members of the crimson-neck-tocracy were looking for.
"We gotcha' bo-way! Gotcha but good this time. An' we gonna have us an ol' pic-a-nic whilst you kick n' twitch too! Sheee-*t! Somebody call Ah-mus n' Bernie, so's they can work th' grill, jes' fer irony's sake."
But then, a funny thang happened on the way to the media lynching.
It never took off. Didn't get any steam. It went up as nicely as one a' those old unmanned test rockets that we launched into a thousand pieces just off the pad at Canaveral back in the day. Except, this attempted "story" was the modern day version of those vintage "flopniks".
So, just what happened exactly?
Enter "Br'er Rabbit", ya'll. The next graf in the CNN story is where the bunny trap goes all to sh*t.
"Sharpton said his remarks were being taken out of context and that he was responding to an attack by Hitchens, who, he said, had charged that the Mormon Church supported segregation until the 1960s."
It's where Anansi cackles while escaping the hungry bird. Where the cigar explodes in Elmer's face.
Where Br'er Rabbit dashes off into the briar patch, and Br'er FOX (yeah, as in network) and Bear stands there looking at the viewer as their faces morph into jackass heads. You see, Sharpton's comment was a pointed one. A mean dagger jab, leaving a seemingly superficial flesh wound to Romney. But nobody noted the poison on the dagger's tip until Mitt, and the few in the media who backed him, tried to walk around and crow afterward while going after Sharpton. The poison hit the bloodstream but good, then. And that poison was the FACT that Romney's Mormon faith was an especially despicable supporter of naked racism until fairly recent years in American history. In fact, the stuff was baked right into their good book.
Dig on these fun bits of Mormon teaching:
2 Nephi 5:21
21 "And the Lord had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.
Alma 3: 6 "And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men."
3 Nephi 2:14-15
14 "And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites;
15 And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites;"
Moses 7:22
22 "And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them."
There's all kinda fun stuff like that in Mormon scripture, and thankfully, there has been "something" of a repudiation of a lot of that blatant f*cking racism in their tracts, and the exclusionary racism within the sect itself, but old habits die hard, and that nutty belief in the whole less-than-their-brethren "Children of Cain and Ham means n*ggers" sh*t still has if not legs--quiet cat feet still tip-toeing around in the group. It wasn't actually "disavowed" until sometime in the mid-seventies when under pressure, post-Civil Rights gains, a "new" revelation from God was revealed to the Mormon hierarchy that treating Black folks like compost was now uncool in The Lord's eyes. It sounds loopy, but hey, you can look it up.
And this is why the story died. Because once Mitt, and his "C-Cupped" sycophants on the right instinctively yelped about that mean ol' Black man calling Mitt's *ss out, it was gonna open an ugly--no, not ugly, but a hideous, hatchet-faced pandora's box of questions about Romney's faith that nobody wanted to really f*ck around with. Seriously. Rev. Al's statement was a dual-fuse time bomb. You react to the initial incendiary flash--then you walk over to the device thinking that's it--all done, and then it explodes in your face. Br'er Rabbit to a "T", sucking you in, setting you up, thinking you've got him...and then you're f*cked. And Sharpton knew exactly what he was doing, too. Keeping it totally real, I'm pretty damn sure he has a "THEM!" -sized bug up his *ss about Mormonism's lateness to the equality dance--as a lot of Black folks who know about it do-- the talented, but crazy-*ss Gladys Knight notwithstanding. And his tweaking of Romney had a heapin' helpin' of the ol' "Oh please, please don' throw poor me inna dat briar patch, ya'll" to it. Pull that hook out, and you set a razor-sharp barb that'll f*ck you up as you try to remove it.
And once the media outlets that rushed to his aid realized what they'd signed onto--and trust me, they will run with "big" stories totally half-*ssed.-- they somehow snatched their hand off that live, toasty third rail and quickly found some other sh*t to amuse themselves with. Mitt's buddies in the wingnuttosphere, tone-deaf as an ear-infected Malkin doing karaoke to Aretha songs, of course are still apoplectic over Sharpton's "slur". Dim-witted as usual, to the nth degree and unable to realize why the story's radioactive half-life is something they maybe shouldn't d*ck around with. But what do you expect from the likes of lunatics who promote interning an entire ethnic group in concentration camps, or goofed about Katrina victims as hell descended upon them? So on they prattle, fighting, thrashing and setting the hook deeper in their gullet. as their slightly smarter co-corts in the MSM slip away into the briny deep, lip torn, but alive nonetheless.
And off in the distance, you can hear a hare...a chunky, slick-maned, hare laughing to beat the f*cking band as he scoots on down the road, after having been tossed into the briar patch of handling racism-- the most familiar place in the world to him.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha! I told you, Brer Bear, you shouldn't pay attention to what I said because us rabbits was born in the briar patch."
Thus, the tale ends the way you remember it...with a bouncy, knowing, and winking nod to it's modern-day refinement. :)
-- LowerManhattanite
DrBopperTHP: "Driftglass - Excerpted"
The original attitude
Thanks to DrBopperTHP for finding this important Driftglass post excerpt!
Finally, on Meet the Press, an extended meditation on what happens when the Bad Thing gets caught in the light reflecting off of Dom Imus’ colossal ego.
Allow me to explain.
Tolstoy said: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Which is about half right.
Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, but the razory maw of the beast that bores its way though the bones of every malignantly dysfunctional family has the same name.
The Bad Thing.
The Bad Thing is the light-stealing singularity around which the malignantly dysfunctional family orbits. It is incest or serial abuse. It is violent alcoholism. Thing for your livelihood, you will do and say anything -- anything -- to keep from having to face the true villainy of what it is you have come to serve, and what it is you have allowed yourself to become to serve it.
So it was this Sunday on Meet the Press when Gwen Ifill – for whom I have not had a lot of love in the past – and Eugene Robinson (who I like a lot) delivered a truth-laden and withering lesson on the provenance and prevalence of hatespeech in the media. The casual viciousness of it, and the conspicuous fact that so many of the Media Elite have been so utterly complicit in letting things get so bad.
And Ms. Ifill did not deliver her measured and (for network teevee) harsh jeremiad in a vacuum. She delivered it sitting across from the whitest, pastiest, third-rate, soft-toned, media-bestriding apologist for Conservativism in America today: David Fucking Brooks.
Bobo: We have to remember that a lot of this is comedy? And other people like Howard Stern and Bill Mahr have to look out…
Ifill: Doesn’t comedy have to be funny?
John Harwood: What about Borat? Some people say he’s s stitch. But some people say…
Ifill: Oh fuck you. We know where the line is. We know where the offense is. But the best way to dilute this argument/discussion is to keep saying “What about this” and “What about that?”
Bobo: Borat is cruel too. He is cruel to people who are bad on teevee.
Bobo serves the Bad Thing and so Bobo is horribly uncomfortable with the dark corners into which the Imus tempest might blow his little pastel wingnut outrigger. He tried constantly and desperately to steer the conversation away from those scary rocks out into friendlier waters.
Out to a discussion of “the larger picture.”
“The public culture”.
To keep widening the lens until everything is as gray and flat and featureless as his prose.
Yes, kids, you are hearing right: the champions of lock-and-load, lock-em-up-forever, no-mealymouth-excuses-about-how-hard-your-life-has-been Personal Responsibility Conservativism (so long as we’re just talking about muggers and pickpocket and car thieves) and are now desperately and loudly trumpeting their new truth:
That…wait for it…waaaait for it…Society Is To Blame.
That the coarsening of the culture is to blame.
We have now lived long enough to see the Rich, Powerful White People’s Brigade sprint for shelter in the loving arms of “We Were Victims of Circumstances!”
And who is to blame for the plight of po’, po’, wealthy, Caucasian Elites who get caught using their positions of privilege and power to slam and slander the weak and powerless.
Why, those awful Negroes of course. And their Devil Jungle Music! And probably Bill Clinton too, although we’re not yet sure exactly how to string him up for this one just yet.
Ifill: Judge the man by his actions.
Ifill: There has been radio silence about this. Newsweek, who sends all of their reporters on that show, were completely silent over this. Until his show was cancelled. Then and only then did they announce that their people would no longer be treading the Imus boards.
Ifill: The reason it took so long for the media elite to speak up is that they were so deeply complicit.
Robinson: That’s what hurt so much. That these were the best and brightest. These were not the baggy pants kids.
It was, on the whole, a good discussion, but three huge points were mostly overlooked.
First, however lacerating language may be, there is a completely different tenor when using language to take on the powerful, the hateful, the bigoted and the enemies of civil society...and using that language to either premeditatedly or gratuitously beat on the weak, the powerless, the noble, the honorable, the poor, the sick, the lame, the halt, the sick.
It is a categorically different thing for the landed and the privileged to thug on “the least of these”, and they fucking well know it, which is why the Right has had to pour so much time and money over the decades remarketing their whole mythology of victimhood.
That symphony of lies lifted wholesale from the dregs of the Confederacy and the White Supremacist movement to explain to the faithful why their leadership caste of rich, tubby, white bigots and their orc legions are really The Oppressed.
That entire encyclopedia of mendacity devoted to explaining why Bible-pounding, Christ-defiling demagogues with their own satellite networks, teevee stations, coast-to-coast radio empires, publishing houses, marketing firms, think tanks, congressmen, senators, embedded journalists, President, political Party, newspapers, tax-free rivers of revenue, Constitutionally-protected citadels, and a dozen doggie-doors straight into the heart of the White House...are really a horribly put-upon minority. Are really being subjugated by the Sekrit Liberal Elite Media Cabals working to destroy America by aiding terrorists and working with atheist scientists to take away our freedom by faking up a “Global Warming” crisis. The entire operations is run by man-hating feminists, abortionists and obscure assistant professors, accessorized and sexualized by queers, with muscle provided by Dirty Commie Labor Unions, soundtrack provided by Welfare Queens and funding by George Soros.
Second, the panel almost entirely avoided noticing that for twenty years the Right has made its political bones openly trafficking in the Bad Thing.
That the entire Conservative movement owes its electoral successes entirely to its efficient cultivation of the rawest, ugliest and most virulent hatespeech imaginable, and it’s harvesting of its poison fruits at election time. That far from paying the kind of steep cultural price these weak children and neocon stalking horses of the MSM suddenly seem giddily anxious to charge to everyone’s account equally regardless of rank, privilege or context (in the name of Holy “Fairness”), the Right has been lavishly rewarded for adopting the language, habits and attitudes of racists, sexists, homophobes and theocrats.
Third, the embrace of White Supremacist ideological infrastructure dressed up in Biblical language was not an accident. This was done by the Right willingly, carefully and by design. For twenty years the Right has pioneered the use of 1,000 decibel demonization, slander and lies as a matter of tactical necessity. Their leaders and elite media apologist like David Brooks know it, but for twenty years they have stayed silent regarding the simple fact that the entire Ponsi Scheme of Conservativism is built on hateful words and despicable ideas.
Which means that without Limbaugh and Coulter…
Without Hannity and Hume…
Without Will and Gingrich…
Without DeLay and Drudge…
Without Coulter and Malkin…
Without O’Reilly and Savage…
Without Dobson and Cheney…
Without Goldberg and Lott…
Without Falwell and Roberson…
Without Schafly and Tancredo…
Without all the rest of that loud, vile, Democracy-loathing freak-show...
There. Is. No. Republican. Party.
Period.
There. Is. No. Conservative. Movement.
Period.
Without their legion of demagogues, all of those cozy think tanks and glorious corporate welfare giveaways and high value-added wars and plush teevee pundit gigs would vanish in a puff of stink and a flutter of Confederate flags.
They are The Bad Thing and so, for twenty years, The Bad Thing has remained frantically unacknowledged and deafeningly unheard by the David Brookses of the world.
But now the Bad Thing has crawled onto a national stage and take a huge shit under a big spotlight, which is why the Media Bobos are freaked out.
Because the god-fearing, Party of Personal Responsibility Conservatives are terrified that the general public will finally notice that they are the ones who bear the primary responsibility for premeditatedly eradicated civil discourse in our society.
Terrified of finally being forced to submit to that paternity test.
posted by driftglass @ 9:56 PM
- posted by DrBopperTHP
Jesse Doc Wendel: "Education is the silver bullet"
Thanks to Doc for this great commentary!
Someone asked a few weeks back, for a little bit more about my background. I'll tell you this -- I am by far, the least academically distinguished of anyone in my family. My father, a retired Ph.D. in German, lectured in German and Humanities at the University of Arizona for thirty years. My sister is an attorney and a single mother. My brother, two children, married to a Ph.D. professor at the University of Kansas, himself with an MBA, runs the enormous performance arena for UK. And my mother -- *sighs* -- my mother is perhaps the most gifted of us all. A section leader with the Tucson Symphony when I was growing up (violin) as well as Assistant Concertmaster, when I was off to the Army she went to Law School at thirty-five. Went on to become a name-partner in the most profitable bankruptcy law firm in Arizona, then private practice, and in her retirement from active practice, now sits as a part-time Tucson City Magistrate (a judge), when they need someone to fill in, handling everything from traffic tickets to restraining orders to domestic violence.
At one point my mom spent several years as the Chief of Staff to the Chancellor of the University of Missouri at Kansas City, one of the larger metropolitan universities in the United States. Anyone whom has ever watched The West Wing knows the job of Chief of Staff. Mom was there doing her job on 9/11 and in retrospect this may seem obvious but at the time, no one knew it was what we know today as "9/11". It was two airplanes that hit a building and in the first hour or so no one outside the government had any idea what was happening.
The question came to her to make the call, "Should we send everyone home or should classes stay open?" And without knowing the magnitude of what was actually happening, this is what my mother said stone-cold (paraphrasing from memory):People are dying in New York City. Of course, professors may close their classes if they wish, and students may miss classes if they wish. But this University will remain open. And to anyone whom asks why, it is this. We don't know yet what has happened, but the chances this happened by accident are nil. Someone did this. Someone did this instead of negotiating, talking, communicating. This University will stay open today because Education is the silver bullet. Education is how we reach people. Education is how we build a world together. I grieve for the people dying and dead in New York and for their families. This is a sad day. Thank you.
Education is the silver bullet. Amen mom, amen.
I'm as self-taught as they come and certainly don't feel less than my brother or sister because they have advanced degrees. I've been privileged to study with and be mentored by some of the leading computer scientist/philosophers in the world. But I share a love for academics for its own sake, for learning for the love of learning which goes bone deep. I'm never without something to read, simply never. Most nights I fall asleep surfing the web or writing to friends. People I've never met are sometimes surprised to received an email from me and we just start talking. Education is the fracking silver bullet and you never know where you're going to find the next person, the next data point, that makes sense out of some such something over there from six months ago or six years ago, and suddenly a light goes on.
Which is why Imus pissed me off. I must admit, I've never even listened to him. Nothing he says has even made it to my level of attention. Not funny, not challenging, and not going to help me in the future. I know. One of my competencies is being able to pull stuff together from different sources and suddenly, pow, a synthesis. Imus simply ain't gonna help a goddamn thing in the future. Nada. So he's shitcanned from my playlist without even a listen.
But for him to trash some young student-athletes, now that does make it to my radar. Because education's the silver bullet. My mother says so.
I have forgiveness in my heart. Gods know I've done lots -- lots! -- of damage in my life. And someday perhaps you'll get to hear some of that beyond what I've already posted. My point is, I'm open to forgiveness here. Genuine forgiveness. But what comes with forgiveness is profound recognition of the damage done along with a commitment to cleaning up the mess -- and the damage done here goes beyond simply these young women. The damage goes to the very core of education being the great equalizer, not in any racial sense -- although there is that of course -- but in a more universal sense.
An educated person, someone whom thinks for themselves, can't be bullshitted. They know who they are, they are prepared to take life on, the inequities of wealth, of race, of social status, all this can in large part be erased or at least be compensated for by a good education. But without a good education, truly there is no hope for the current world which some of us dream of dissolving, a world where 1-2% of the rich own 60% of the world, where half of the world's population is poor. That world can not and will not and shall not end without education. For only with education can people learn how to do anything except get angry and blow shit up. Only with a commitment to education as the answer, will governments use this silver bullet, instead of real bullets, and bombs and soldiers. Only education holds out hope instead of death. An attack on young people attempting to learn is an attack on the heart of what it is to be human.
I don't expect Imus to understand all this. He comes from and validates a world attempting to maintain its privilege any way possible. It would be good to shift that entire world all at once, and I am confident as with the contextual shift of drinking and driving, sitting at the back of the bus, and England owning India, that day will eventually come. Till then, demanding and receiving apologies one at a time is a good place to start.
These girls were attacked by a media sniper using wealth, power and privilege. He tried knocking them off their real game -- getting an education. An authentic apology is due.
Trash Talk Radio
By Gwen Ifill - Op-Ed Contributer - The New York Times
LET'S say a word about the girls. The young women with the musical names. Kia and Epiphanny and Matee and Essence. Katie and Dee Dee and Rashidat and Myia and Brittany and Heather.
The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University had an improbable season, dropping four of their first seven games, yet ending up in the N.C.A.A. women's basketball championship game. None of them were seniors. Five were freshmen.
In the end, they were stopped only by Tennessee's Lady Vols, who clinched their seventh national championship by ending Rutgers' Cinderella run last week, 59-46. That's the kind of story we love, right? A bunch of teenagers from Newark, Cincinnati, Brooklyn and, yes, Ogden, Utah, defying expectations. It's what explodes so many March Madness office pools.
But not, apparently, for the girls. For all their grit, hard work and courage, the Rutgers girls got branded "nappy-headed ho's" — a shockingly concise sexual and racial insult, tossed out in a volley of male camaraderie by a group of amused, middle-aged white men. The "joke" — as delivered and later recanted — by the radio and television personality Don Imus failed one big test: it was not funny.
The serial apologies of Mr. Imus, who was suspended yesterday by both NBC News and CBS Radio for his remarks, have failed another test. The sincerity seems forced and suspect because he's done some version of this several times before.
I know, because he apparently did it to me.
- - - - - -
Whatever. This is not about me.
It is about the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. That game had to be the biggest moment of their lives, and the outcome the biggest disappointment. They are not old enough, or established enough, to have built up the sort of carapace many women I know — black women in particular — develop to guard themselves against casual insult.
Why do my journalistic colleagues appear on Mr. Imus's program? That's for them to defend, and others to argue about. I certainly don't know any black journalists who will. To his credit, Mr. Imus told the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday he realizes that, this time, he went way too far.
Yes, he did. Every time a young black girl shyly approaches me for an autograph or writes or calls or stops me on the street to ask how she can become a journalist, I feel an enormous responsibility. It's more than simply being a role model. I know I have to be a voice for them as well.
So here's what this voice has to say for people who cannot grasp the notion of picking on people their own size: This country will only flourish once we consistently learn to applaud and encourage the young people who have to work harder just to achieve balance on the unequal playing field.
Let's see if we can manage to build them up and reward them, rather than opting for the cheapest, easiest, most despicable shots.
Gwen Ifill is a senior correspondent for "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" and the moderator of "Washington Week."
- posted by Jesse "Doc" Wendel
LowerManhattanite: "He Hoped He Was Funny...And Failed"
The unfunny *sshole's the one laughing--the comedian's the one thoughfully plotting his grisly murder
Thanks to LowerManhattanite for this great insight into Imus!
I found myself going through a few crates--U-Haul boxes actually, of old vinyl records this past weekend. Gearing up for the big spring ditch-uh...cleaning, the wife likes to see happen every early April. Having worked in radio for many years, I've found myself with duplicates of albums--a necessity for staple recordings because heavy use wears 'em out--but now, as I'm digitizing a lot of my rare and out-of-print vinyl, I can simply digitize these certain recordings and toss the dupes.
I came across the box with all of my classic Richard Pryor albums, and considered for a moment tossing them for space's sake, as I'd a few years ago received the box set of CD's of the albums. And then, like Bugs Bunny, realizing he was swinging a sledgehammer at a live bomb, I practically screamed to myself in utter disbelief, WhadddammIdoin'?" . These were the original dead sea scrolls of comedy! The books of laugh-your-*ss-off Revelations. The original, mother-f*ckin' "word", ya'll. Couldn't toss 'em. The comedy Gods would strike me dead. So, I thumbed through 'em. "Wanted". "Was It Something I Said". I chuckled to myself looking at the "band" titles, and remembering those bits like it was yesterday. And then, I stumbled across the seminal "Craps: After Hours" album from '72. That album was the comedic slap across the face with a glove, challenging the world to a duel it would later lose, Alexander Hamilton-badly to Pryor's nuclear arsenal of comedy perfection. I didn't have this one on CD, so I took it to my computer/audio area to digitize it . Carrying it to the stereo, it wasn't alone. I had pretty much the whole stack of Pryor classics, and took a minute to fan 'em out and look at 'em as I set things up.
I found myself laughing again at the "band" titles. And looking at the back of the brilliant "That N*gger's Crazy", I couldn't help but notice the title of the first track:
"I Hope I'm Funny."
Richard Pryor--at the peak of his comedic powers--and conversely, in the midst of a terrible, years-long bout with substance abuse--still had the self-awareness and humility to at least put that little bit of trepidation out there.
"I HOPE I'm Funny."
Those words stayed in my mind kinda peculiarly. They hung there askew on a hook of irony for me because in the background, I had the radio on, and it was tuned to 660 AM WFAN, the sports radio station. The top sports radio station in the country...and the radio home ...
...of Don Imus.
So those words, "I Hope I'm Funny", rang a little different with me at that moment--and now--from that moment on.
We're having that discussion again--Goddamnit. The one where classism, sexism and basic human respect come down their individual roads and criss-cross at that big 'ol traffic circle called racism--and yeah, crack the f*ck up as usual. The same conversation we had six months ago when Michael Richards floored it, hitting everything in sight and ending up *ss over tea kettle in racism's fountain in the middle. The same conversation where a lot of folks blithely told people "Keep moving...nothing to see here...it's just an accident." A mistake? An accident? Funny, that. Most "accident" scenes boast skid marks--an attempt to at least... stop, from the careening "accidental" offender. No such forensic evidence exists here. It was the usual headlong. pedal-to-the-metal plow, smack into the same old bullsh*t.
But this time--in Imus' case it seems, no mere suspension, querulous-voiced "apology" or duck-away rehab stint is gonna cut it.
Nor should it. And that's a good thing.
'Cause this ain't new sh*t by a mile. As a New Yorker, I've been exposed to Imus' "humor" for thirty-plus years, when he and Howard Stern first showed up at 66 "W-NNNNNNNNNN-B-C!" in the seventies. He and his gang of *ssholes have been doing this for years. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I recall vividly the flap over one of his idiot aide-de-camps--Sid Rosenberg--on Imus' show a few years ago "hilariously" referring to the tennis playing Williams sisters--based on their next-level athletic style of play--as..."animals"...and as being"better suited for National Geographic Magazine than for Playboy". Rosenberg was fired for this--for about two weeks--and then brought back by Imus when he--guess the f*ck what?--made an on-air apology. As former NBA star Derrick Coleman said so perfectly, "Whoop-de-damn-doo." On the show, Rosenberg would later refer to Palestinians as "stinking animals" and that the U.S. "Ought to drop the bomb right there, kill 'em all right now". No suspension for those words. And Imus' producer, the blotchy-faced, half-wit bigot Bernard McGuirk has spewed so much racist sh*t through his "Amos n' Andy"-esque "impersonations" of Maya Angelou, Spike Lee and Ray Nagin, not to mention his own proud wingnut persona, that there's just too much to mention--so just click here for a single recent, heinous sample. It's a daily thing. His job is to play the hyper-bigoted foil to Imus' faux-tut-tutting centrist--all in the guise of in-studio conflict--while still getting that "shockingly funny" sh*t out there. So it's him and Imus we're focused on today.
Let's go over the actual exchange from last week, shall we?
Imus In The Morning Program--April 4th 2007:
IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between -- a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.
ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night -- seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.
IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --
McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.
IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.
McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.
IMUS: Yeah.
McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes -- that movie that he had.
IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough --
McCORD: Do The Right Thing.
McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
IMUS: I don't know if I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?
ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.
IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah.
RUFFINO: Only tougher.
McGUIRK: The [Memphis] Grizzlies would be more appropriate.
Little bit more involved than just the "nappy-headed hos" comment when you read it out, ain't it? They're "hard-core", as in thugs. "Jigaboos", as in hewing to something other than the "pretty white girl" beauty standard. And to cap it all off, they're compared to animals--that old standby for the Imus show--"Grizzly Bears"--to be precise.
Now again...this isn't anything new for Imus and his crew of pointy-hooded sycophants. It's been a three decade-long series of diarrheic blasts of shock-geared bullsh*t (And take special note of the inability to tell the difference between one Spike Lee Movie and another. "School Daze" featured the infamous self-hate spoofing, satirical production number "Good and Bad Hair"--not "Do The Right Thing") from this guy. He'd become something akin to the old, spatter-shirted, muttering, miserly nut down the block that you eventually learn to sorta ignore. If you freaked out every time he randomly tossed a mildewed toilet seat out the attic window, you'd get tired. But imagine now, if you will, that the old nut has a steady stream of influential visitors to his house--a steady stream of powerful visitors sucking up to him. Say the mayor (Joe Lieberman) comes by--followed by the Governor (John McCain)--then the publishers of the town's two big papers (Kurtz and Fineman), et.al. All currying favor with the rich, old nut because in spite of his natterings, he knows people. He's got influence. That's what's so pernicious here. Imus was irrelevant for years until he refashioned himself as a Beltway megaphone. When the bigwigs realized he was "rich"--a.k.a.--a potential asset to be used, his status changed, and thus, his impact as well. Which is why his statements--and the statements on his show, which he did not even mock 'tut-tut" last week, carry the weight that they do. But, hey! As the "I"-Man said to an in-his-face Al Sharpton yesterday, his "agenda was to be funny".
Back to that whole "funny" thang again.
I've written on "funny" here, in dealing with Michael Richard's' wig-out, and on the failures of wingnut-geared comedy efforts in comments elsewhere. , and was ironically enough in the process of writing another one on wingnut comedy in general when this Imus hemorrhoid ruptured before all of our eyes. So I'll fold what I was writing on that into this. I'm no genius...but I know a little about comedy. I've gotten paid to write it for television for years. Performed it on radio, onstage and in the occasional comedy club. And as much an inexact "science" as comedy is--there is some pretty basic sh*t to it. It's rarely "discussed" analytically, because it sorta loses its magic when you deconstruct it. Doing so outside comedy circles is like watching an autopsy. Informative as hell, but clinical and un-fun to witness.
So...I'll try to go about it "Quincy"-style. to make it a little more palatable.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, you are about to enter the most fascinating sphere of yuks, haw-haws and titters--the world of comedic analysis"
What is "funny"? Well, it's a combination of things. The absurd. The sublime. Free-form rambling and...silence. It's a rubber face, and a frozen one all at once. A bold pratfall and a slowly levitating eyebrow. It's speed. A slow burn. Timing. Timing. Timing. It's brains. A quick wit--and simultaneously the idiot's vacant stare and accompanying remark falling from a drooped lip. It's born of pain, raised by anger, wizened through adult exasperation and seasoned by the cynicism of experience. It's the painter's gift--of whipping the verbal brush strokes that create a funny visual for an audience It's the writer/storyteller's gift of connecting, disconnecting and intentionally mis-connecting words that stimulate the collective cerebrum of a ready-to-be-brain-tickled crowd.
It's juggling, knife-tossing, acting, soliloquizing, contorting, debating, whispering and shouting all at f*cking once.
And very, very few people do it well--and too many try it at all. You know the greats and the goods. No need to list the pantheon. So let's look at those who don't make the cut and why. Meanness and viciousness for meanness and viciousness' sake isn't funny. It's an element of funny, but not a basis. Unless it's part of a character you're playing--like Don Rickles' eternally dyspeptic, ugly grump, whose raison d' etré is to metronomically rail at anyone within five feet of him. Rickles' angle was "Zing--then move on. Zing--then move on". Hit any-and-everyone in sight. You laugh at the guy next to you being roasted and then laugh at yourself when your number comes up eventually as the crazy, angry guy locks eyes with you. Meanness and viciousness can be deployed as defensive armor--as in the case of the shooting star that was Sam Kinison at his peak. His venom and ripping was based on who you saw spewing it--a short, fat, ugly little man you'd probably dismiss as a cipher if you saw him bringing your mail or stacking boxes at the supermarket. The eternal underdog. The shlub. His primal scream therapy/schtick worked because he was NOT the homecoming king. He was a nobody giving vent to his desire to not be ignored. It was genius. And fleeting. It became intolerable as soon as he embraced a pseudo-rock star persona. He wasn't a shlub anymore, giving vent. He became the rich, loud-mouthed, spoiled jerk, and that scream went from being celebrated as "rah-rah" to "getthef*ckouttahere" A key part of comedy is identifying with the audience. To be the put upon "everyman". Even Bob Hope, deemed by many to be a pretty good stand-up comedian (though not a great in my mind), made his true comedic mark as a put-upon comic foil to Bing Crosby's above-it-all straight man in the "Road" movies.
They humanized him. You see, his acerbic ripostes got loads more mileage with him in the underdog role.
But meanness and viciousness for its own sake? A non-starter. And when your target becomes the little guy, the low man on the totem pole, because it's easy and cheap--well...that's when you get an Imus situation. Because there's one key thing I left out of the above description of "funny". And that thing is power. Comedy is rooted in power relationships. The boss mocking his underlings is NOT funny. The boss slipping and busting his *ss in the office parking lot IS funny. Why? Because mocking the establishment, the power structure is the REAL taboo. Tweaking "The Man", if you will. Because it's freighted with the danger and excitement of challenging power--in spite of its ability to crush you. Imus' idiocy fell flat for many reasons. One, because it took no thought at all to fall back on silly racist tropes of the stale, old Hottentot Venus and pickaninny variety. Two, it scanned as out-of-the-blue venom, with not a hint of humorous context--just under-the-breath misanthropic invective broadcast out loud. All these women did was lose a championship--as an underdog (that again), and be Black while doing it. Wow. what chortle-worthy fodder. And third...he represents the establishment, the aforementioned power --a.k.a. stodgy old White guys looking down their wrinkled noses and mocking their perceived lessers--namely Blacks and Women. How does he reflect that power? Look at the people who call him "friend" and give him that patina of "gravitas" through their fawning as guests--the likes of Joe Lieberman, Chris Dodd, The Howards--Fineman and Kurtz, Pat Buchanan, John Kerry, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert and of course, Mr. Straight Talk, John McCain. A Beltway insiders' "Who's Who" to beat every band in the joint. Power...f*cking personified. When power laughs, parts of the masses laugh nervously and scattered. When the little guy laughs, his co-horts in the masses laugh comfortably, naturally--and in greater numbers. It also explains the comedic failures of Rush Limbaugh, Dennis Miller and the bed-sh*ts of Fox's "Red Eye" and "The 1/2 Hour News Hour".
Limbaugh identifies with White Power lite...closet Klansmen who don't take heavy starch in their hoods--thank you very much. And as such, his brand of humor is rooted in a faux-populist attachment to the powerful's dream and equality-crushing of the amorphous, non-All American "other". It gets stiff hee-haws from his racist listenership not because it's funny--because as pure humor, it isn't--but because it's racist and fueled by a desire for that audience to feel some sort of kinship with that racist application of power.
Miller fails even more spectacularly because he doesn't even attempt these days to try to mask his running alongside said dream and equality-crushing power. He happily hitched his cart to a runaway train headed straight for end-of-the-line pilings, concrete, and a tank car full of gasoline, post-September 11th. And he fatally wounded an already flagging career--a career flagging due to a Johnny-one-note delivery, well-documented laziness, and an already annoying, smarmy and condescending style. That superior air alone sucked away most of the wind Miller's wit had puffed his meager sails with--but couple it with his proud embrace of an oppressive elite and it dis-masted him and left him adrift--humorless...unctuous...simply a pissy, sniping boor.
In the case of Fox's "Red Eye" and "HHNH" ("Half-Hour News Hour"), the f*ck up is simple. The goofy, sh*t-for-brains boss stand before the employees cracking jokes on the assembled. The only ones laughing are those close to the boss, or currying favor with the boss. Humor based on the power-ful mocking the power-less spawns hollow laughter indeed. It's forced. And mean for meanness' sake. Again, look at the Kinison example. The underdog can afford to be grating and mean as he elicits sympathy. How does one sympathize with a roughshod-running president, naked political hypocrisy, and championing stomping the little guy? Only misanthropes would. And if that's your target audience--You. Are. F*cked.
So, we come back to Imus. "Nappy-headed hos". A multi-car pile-up where classism, sexism and basic human respect come down their individual roads and again. criss-cross at that dangerous traffic circle called racism. But where-oh-where was "teh funny"? Well, looking at the wreck CSI-style, we can suss out this much. He was probably falling back on the humor staple of the anachronism. The supposedly incongruous emanating from the unexpected source. Like the Staples commercial with the office dweebs dancing heartily to Salt n' Pepa's "Push It", or the nerdy arena organist freaking the Funkadelic keyboard part in Nike's "Roswell Rayguns" spot a few years ago. Imus thought it would be cute and ironic for a creepy, old White guy to diss young Black women based on their looks, using stilted ghetto lingo.
Except he forgot one thing. Creepy old White men dissing young Black women is such a part of Americana that it's near impossible to do it ironically. That is, without coming off as...yeah, a creepy, old White guy dissing young Black women based on their looks. How un-common. Non-racist. And gasp!--non-sexist.
Wait. You think I was gonna walk away from this and not deal with this doddering, play-cowboy f*ck's SEXISM on this sh*t? Oh no. Before I take him off the hook, let me tear his f*cking lips and gills out while doing so. Spare me please, the bullsh*t about how "The rappers do it too. He was borrowing from them". The "Michael Richards/Murder On The Orient Express" everybody's guilty excuse not only doesn't wash, but actually further soils matters. "Hos"? Context, if possible please, mother-f*cker? Were the Rutgers girls known to be promiscuous for pay? Reknowned "skanks" in the Paris Hilton mold? What did he know of them other than their being Black women? Is it some twisted holdover from slavery days where Black women were little more than disposable "bed-warmers"--simple sex objects to the moneyed slave-master elite? To be cackled at and sexualized all at the same time? It's the Hottentot Venus all over again. "Nappy-headed"? What the flying f*ck does their Goddamned hair texture have to do with thing the first--unless one is trying to somehow rip at the women because they don't hew to the oh-so-perfect beauty standard that Imus' late-life trophy wife so blondishly projects. How e-gali-f*cking-tarian. What fun it is to try to bring a group of women down--to disparage them just because they don't fit a narrow, silly-f*ck mold of what constitutes womanliness in the eyes of a few shallow, superficial pr*cks. This cuts close to the bone, here. My lawyer sister is a Rutgers Law School Alumni--active in the school post-graduation. My stepson's cousin is a starter for Duke's women's team. We've been to games and socialized with the players--as hard-working a group of student-athletes as I've ever seen--moreso than many I've come across, and that includes professionals .
And I have a daughter. An athletic African American teenaged daughter who's had to contend with the "beauty standard" bullsh*t foisted upon her by society in general. She's one of the few "chips in the cookie" at her school in Jersey and has enough to deal with on that tip. So for a prominent, and influential broadcaster to "jokingly"--ha-ha--call these Black women--who he doesn't even know--at Rutgers "Nappy-headed Hos", is to call my daughter a "Nappy-headed Ho" as well. And that ain't gonna sit well with me...ever. So for the record, f*ck R. Kelly. F*ck Luke from 2 Live Crew. F*ck Rush Limbaugh, and yes indeed Don Imus--f*ck your shriveled old *ss too.
By all means, tout the "beautiful", "blonde" Anna Kournikova as perfection on the tennis courts where she's won as many major tournaments as I have. Um... none, based on her looks alone. Raise to the heavens the equally blonde and "perfect" Maria Sharapova as your onanistic paragon in spite of her comparatively thin winning record--to that of the too-Black-to-be-considered-attractive and feminine, but more talented Williams sisters. Please...objectify these women to your sick, twisted, hateful heart's content. And then beg bullsh*t forgiveness when you overstep as usual and are exposed as the cultural, "Dimus-aur" you are. Quiver in mock-upset. Waver your voice in pretend shame at this week's ugly line-cross. I don't care if you unearth the bodies of PIgmeat Markham, Redd Foxx, and Richard Pryor, somehow re-animate 'em and bring 'em on your show in a weekly token Black comedian segment for penance. You picked on a bunch of girls out of high school a couple of years who just lost the game of their lives while trying to make something out of themselves in this world. So I say again, with gusto and a little extra spittle at you---f*ck your shriveled old *ss--to the second power. You wouldn't know funny if you sat on the toilet, had it crawl outta your *ss, look up between your liver-spotted legs waving a sign saying "Hello...I'm Funny", and then bit you on the nuts while humming the "i'm funny" blues at 115 decibels. Jesus Chocolate Christ--you still use a Richard Nixon impersonator on your show in 2007! F*ck if I can't wait for Bernie McGuirk's hilarious impersonation of Harold Stassen giving us his pointed take on those Iowa caucuses coming up.
And truly...truly spare the world your patronizing "I helped a n*gger once" sob stories. It smacks of your boy Joe Lieberman's "I was down with Civil Rights...once." punk-*ss bitchery. I know you Imus. I work in NY radio. I was friends with the late Monteria Ivey, a Black comedian you pimped as a protegé on your show and hooked up with an occasional show on FAN. He and I worked down the street from each other on TV projects for awhile in the city. Not the funniest Black guy in town...no way you'd have that, as it would've exposed you as the coasting burnout you are. But because as funny as he was, his stock and trade was limited to playing the "bad dozens-running n*gga" and other simple stereotypes you found heh-heh..."funny", he was cool to you. "Yeah...but I helped him!" you wanna blurt and interrupt. Well...your kind of "help" reminds me of a great line from a real comedian you wouldn't f*ck with if your life depended on it-- Chris Rock.
"If you're black, America is like the uncle that paid your way through college....but molested you.."
You're that uncle, Imus. That unfunny old uncle--stinking of Brylcreem, cocktail franks, Wild Irish Rose and the rotting remnants of a marginal talent long-ago consumed. Oh yeah...and sweat. Acrid, senses-assaulting flop sweat.
What was it you said? "Our agenda was to be funny".
It brings me back to Pryor's opening bit. "I Hope I'm Funny."
The man who had more funny in a single nose hair than you have in every inch of that sallow, wrinkled body of yours had the humility to openly hope he was funny before an audience. Yet you, possessing the all the laughs of a dumpster full of body parts go on the air day after day, squeezing out turd after turd of "funny" that your olfactorily-challenged *ss can't smell as plain old sh*t. .
Or perhaps you do know...and it doesn't really matter as the game for you is all about "teh powah", and the lame-*ss humor is just a front for what your game really is. Who knows? All I know is, your *ss is off the air for two weeks right now. And you're starting to feel the heat, as longtime advertisers like Staples, Proctor & Gamble and Bigelow Tea have dropped you faster than you dropped the acid tabs you cooked your brain with in '71. The Rutgers girls easily embarrassed you Tuesday with their poise and humanity contrasting with your coarse and demeaning rhetoric. You're bleeding in the water I-Man. And sharks are circling like a mother-f*cker.
The Richard Pryor bit about his divorce from his wife comes to mind here. It seemed that on the day he showed up in court, his soon-to-be ex came in looking angelic--crying, playing to the sympathies of all assembled.
"She had everybody cryin'. The bailiff. The lawyers. The mother-f*ckin' judge. Judge said, 'N*gger we want everything. You got any dreams? We want them, too."
It's come to that, Imus. You f*cked up that badly here. And maybe for the last time. "We want everything. You got any dreams mother-f*cker? We want them too".
- posted by LowerManhattanite
Watson: "Imus"
Before the strange cowboy fixation set in
Thanks to Watson for this thought on Imus.
Imus has indicated that he will make programming changes in the aftermath of his sexist and racist comments about the Rutgers women basketball players.
Assuming that he is not taken off the air, I suggest that he voluntarily refrain from using blacks as the subject matter of his humor.
His on-air staff is all white, as are virtually all of his guests, so his black jokes don't have the 'all in the family' context appropriate for ethnic humor.
Health and income statistics indicate that blacks have not recovered from being legally confined to the bottom of our society, so these jokes have the ugly and cowardly aspect of kicking someone who is down.
Mr. Imus prides himself on being an 'equal opportunity bigot', so given the numerous other ethnic groups for him to lampoon, the black material should scarcely be missed.
- posted by Watson
Jo Public: "Dinsy Imus"
That whole cowboy thing - sheesh
Thanks to Jo Public for this great piece!
CNN:
“Howard Kurtz, media critic for The Washington Post and host of CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources,’ said Imus is known for his comedy, but, he said ‘the problem is... his comedy too often strays into the offensive.’
Kurtz, whom Imus once called a ‘boner-nosed, beanie-wearing Jew-boy,’ said Imus may now understand that his remarks about the Rutgers team crossed the line.
‘Imus should be held accountable for some of these offensive things that he says, but there is also a good side to Don Imus, and I don’t think that should be completely obliterated in all of this chest thumping,’ he said.”
I liked it better in the original British:
http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/piranha.htm
Presenter: Another man who had his head nailed to the floor was Stig O’Tracy.
Interviewer: I’ve been told Dinsdale Piranha nailed your head to the floor.
Stig: No. Never. He was a smashing bloke. He used to buy his mother flowers and that. He was like a brother to me.
Interviewer: But the police have film of Dinsdale actually nailing your head to the floor.
Stig: (pause) Oh yeah, he did that.
Interviewer: Why?
Stig: Well he had to, didn’t he? I mean there was nothing else he could do, be fair. I had transgressed the unwritten law.
Interviewer: What had you done?
Stig: Er... well he didn’t tell me that, but he gave me his word that it was the case, and that’s good enough for me with old Dinsy. I mean, he didn’t *want* to nail my head to the floor. I had to insist. He wanted to let me off. He’d do anything for you, Dinsdale would.
Interviewer: And you don’t bear him a grudge?
Stig: A grudge! Old Dinsy. He was a real darling.
- posted by Jo Public
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: "gingrich: el español es la lengua del ghetto"
Labels: gingrich, racism, wingnuttery
Allow me to lecture you
Gracias a Skippy para este articulo (my espanol blows!)
en una tentativa evidente de cortejar el voto coveted del fanático, gingrich del newt comparado español con "lengua del ghetto" e insistido que cada uno habla inglés, al parecer toda la hora. los asspress:el altavoz anterior newt gingrich de la casa comparó la educación bilingüe sábado con "la lengua de vivir en un ghetto" y de imitación los requisitos que las balotas se impriman en idiomas múltiples.
"el gobierno debe parar el asignar de que por mandato los varios documentos estén impresos en de 700 idiomas dependiendo de quién demuestre aleatoriamente para arriba" al voto, dijeron gingrich, que está considerando el buscar del nombramiento presidencial republicano en 2008. él hizo los comentarios en un discurso a la federación nacional de mujeres republicanas.
"la gente americana cree que el inglés debe ser la lengua oficial del gobierno... debemos substituir la educación bilingüe por la inmersión en inglés así que la gente aprende que el lenguaje común del país y ella aprenden la lengua de la prosperidad, no la lengua de vivir en un ghetto," gingrich dicho a las aclamaciones de la muchedumbre de más de 100.
la "ciudadanía requiere pasar una prueba en historia americana en inglés. si eso es verdad, después no tenemos que crear balotas en ninguna lengua excepto inglés, "él dijo.
peter zamora, co-silla de la coalición hispánica washington-based de la educación, que apoya la educación bilingüe, dicha, "el tono de sus comentarios era muy odioso. el español es hablado por muchos individuos que no vivan en el ghetto."
él dijo que la investigación ha demostrado "que la educación bilingüe es el mejor método de enseñar inglés a los altavoces no-ingleses." los español-locutores,él dijo, saben que necesitan aprender inglés. "no hay resistencia al inglés que aprende, realmente, entre inmigrantes, entre ciudadanos nativo-llevados. cada uno desea aprender inglés porque es lo que usted necesita para prosperar en este país."
[nota del ed.: si usted necesita ayuda que traduce este pedazo, intente el web site del babelfish de alta vista!]
- posted by Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Ice Weasel: "Swiftboating History....Again"
Labels: racism, wingnuttery
bob perry, the scum behind the swift boat liars works to eradicate
history
thanks to Ice Weasel for finding this sad article - THANKS ICEE!
A few excerpts from this article...Texas district built by freed slaves fades away
By Jeff Franks
HOUSTON - One of the last surviving communities built by freed slaves
after the U.S. Civil War is on the verge of disappearing, despite
long efforts to save it.
The old buildings of Freedmen's Town in Houston are being bulldozed
to make way for new homes in a transformation that preservationists
say is wiping out an important piece of history.
The U.S. South was once scattered with such communities, but most
have faded away or been swallowed up by suburban growth.
The loss of Freedmen's Town is particularly significant because
historians believe it was the largest of the freed slave settlements
that was still intact architecturally and to some degree culturally.
Its long rows of narrow wooden houses, interspersed every block or
two by churches, stood as a monument to the will of its founders to
thrive despite bitter racism that forced them into isolation.
Freedmen's Town was listed on the National Register of Historic
Places in 1985, with more than 530 buildings in a 40-block area in
the shadow of downtown Houston.
Today, only about 30 of those buildings remain and their fate is
uncertain.
A few groups are scrambling to save what is left because they say it
is important that society not forget the dark era in U.S. history
that produced the freed slave settlements.
NEVER AGAIN
"People need to know that even though slavery ended, there was still
a long time of disenfranchisement. Just like the Holocaust museums,
this can remind us of what should never happen again," said Catherine
Roberts, founder of the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum, one of the
remaining homes preserved in the neighborhood.
...
HARSH BLOW
The Depression dealt a harsh blow to Freedmen's Town, and from then
on it declined economically, becoming steadily poorer and less stable.
Politicians, with support from developers who coveted the prime
location, began promoting the idea of urban renewal for the
neighborhood in the 1970s.
Black leaders resisted for years, insisting that Freedmen's Town be
preserved, but by the 1990s political and economic pressure to
redevelop had won out.
What began as a trickle of change in the old quarter has become a
flood the past few years.
Developers such as Bob Perry, better known nationally as the chief
funder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacks against
John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign, have torn wide swaths
through the old housing stock and replaced it with condos and
townhouses.
...
Even though Freedmen's Town was on the National Register of Historic
Places, weak local preservation statutes allowed the wholesale
demolition of the old homes.
But in the end, said Lenwood Johnson, who grew up in Freedmen's Town
and led a long fight to protect it, one thing did in his old
neighborhood -- money.
The desire to make a buck by putting up new homes trumped the
interest in preserving history.
"The people with money wanted it and got it. This system is so
controlled by corporate dollars," Johnson said.
"Now a people's history and culture is being destroyed. If you
destroy their culture, you eventually destroy the people."
- posted by Ice Weasel
Watson: "Old Business: the O.J. Simpson Verdict"
Labels: racism
They love me in Florida
Thanks to Watson for this great analysis - THANKS WATSON!
While we wait for our 'justice system' to process the police killing of Sean Bell, permit me to revisit another racially charged case. I followed the O.J. Simpson trial pretty closely, closely enough to believe that the outcome was a miscarriage of justice, and that OJ got away with a double murder.
My complaint is with the mainstream reaction to the verdict. I thought that Simpson's acquittal was a routine example of the wealth effect on criminal justice. There were some evidentiary problems with the prosecution case, Simpson had the resources to magnify those defects, the defense team was more credible than the phony Marcia Clark, and so the jury acquitted Simpson.
Our punditocracy doesn't usually object to the fact that defendants wealthy enough to spend millions of dollars on investigators, experts, and lawyers regularly turn prosecution weaknesses into 'reasonable doubt' acquittals.
But in the Simpson case the pundits were infuriated. What was different in his case?
Granted, double murder is more serious than the varieties of grand theft for which our well-to-do brethren are ordinarily indicted. But an honest punditocracy would object to the wealth effect phenomenon in all cases.
To me the different reaction was because our pundits are biased and racist.
Wealthy defendants are typically white males, our pundits are mostly wealthy white males. Simpson, though wealthy, was black, as was the lead attorney, and most of the jury.
The pundits asserted that the miscarriage of justice was caused by Johnny Cochrane's unprincipled 'playing the race card', but it was they who were unprincipled in howling 'reverse racism' to obfuscate the fact that the result was just another instance of the wealth effect.
Cochrane didn't bring race into the case. Time Magazine admitted that its 'cover portrait of O.J. Simpson after his arrest was doctored to make his skin look darker. The manipulation made an accused man seem more sinister before he had gone to trial, and it did so by playing off the language of racial stereotype.' Race was introduced into our culture hundreds of years ago by slavers, and we adamantly refuse to take the steps necessary to become a non-racial society.
Cochrane didn't bring race into the courtroom. The LAPD injected race into the trial when it dispatched racist Mark Fuhrman to the crime scene and to Simpson's residence.
The famous gloves were put into evidence by the prosecution on the theory that they were the murderer's gloves. Officer Fuhrman said that he found one of them in Simpson's yard. When they appeared not to fit Simpson, it was perfectly appropriate for Cochrane to argue that Fuhrman was a liar whose racism gave him a motive to frame Simpson.
Dishonest criticism of the Simpson verdict has served to reinforce our dominant culture's dogma that blacks, unlike whites, are irrational and dishonest about race and racism.
As if.
That's why I believe that it's important to defend the Simpson verdict as rational given the circumstances. The outcome was because rich people can buy justice, not because Cochrane or the jury were racist or unprincipled.
- posted by Watson
blksista: "Newshounds.com - Mark Fuhrman Too Racially Sensitive For Hannity"
Labels: racism
thanks to blksista for this great find - THANKS!
From Newshounds.com:Yes, you read that right. Mark Fuhrman was the guest on tonight’s Hannity & Colmes (3/14/07) to discuss the pending Grand Jury decision on the case of the unarmed bridegroom, Sean Bell, shot and killed by policemen in New York City last fall. One of Hannity’s favorite black boogeymen, Councilman Charles Barron, was the other guest. Rather than discuss the facts of the Bell case, Hannity and FOX News made the story about Barron and his alleged incitement to violence.
....
When it was his turn, Hannity quickly went to Mark Fuhrman for a comment on the case.
Barron said what I suspect a lot of non-bigots must have been thinking: “Mark Fuhrman? You have a lot of nerve bringing him on!”
Hannity, in his bullyboy voice, read a quote from Barron and asked Fuhrman, “Is he inciting a riot?”
But to Hannity’s evident chagrin, Fuhrman didn’t think so. Fuhrman replied, “He’s crafting the words very carefully… I’m not sure it would be a threat or a passionate response.”
Hannity interrupted Fuhrman in an obvious effort to egg him on against Barron.
Other Democrats should take a lesson from Barron on how to handle Hannity. Barron didn’t sit there like a lump and wait for the invective against him to stop. He knew his opponent and seized the moment. He interrupted Hannity by saying, “Let (Fuhrman) talk.” Then the canny Barron said, “Mark, you didn’t say what he wanted to hear.”
- posted by blksista
Tom Watson: "Party of Bigots"
National shame
A big thank you to Tom Watson for this terrific cross-post - THANKS TOM!
A few years ago, a business trip took me through some of the great battlegrounds on this continent. Birmingham. Montgomery. Tuskegee. Selma. To my tour guide at the time, a liberal white judge from Alabama, they were as sacred to the American text as Gettysburg and Yorktown. He spoke with deep reverence about the struggle of black pilots to fly in the Second World War, the bus boycott, the Freedom Riders, and the bombings in Birmingham. He didn't shy away from the personal history, either, and strongly recommended Diane McWhorter's Carry Me Home, the memoir of the daughter of a white supremacist family in Birmingham. Her story, he said, was the story of thousands of white sons and daughters of Alabama.
When we walked through the brilliant Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, he had a quiet suggestion: things change, Alabama has changed, we've all changed.
And he was right. We have changed. But lately, I've come to feel we're not as far down the road as many of us think we are. Even as Alabama does a bonanza business in civil rights tourism, the history feels nearer; the bigots in our grand American tapestry are not so neatly sown into the margins. They're right there in the middle. They have a place in the national party of bigotry.
One national political party does business with bigots - openly and in thinly-coded language.
One national party came to power on the strength of a regional strategy aimed at scratching the scars of the civil rights era till they bled, and delivered a stream of bloody-red electoral votes.
One national party tolerates bigoted speech at its national gatherings, on its mainstream blogs, and on the lips of its grand commentators and media wizards.
That party is the Republican Party - the only national party where bigotry is accepted and in some quarters, openly encouraged.
In what other political movement could a prominent commentator call another human being a "faggot" at a national conference and still possess a career or a pulpit; or worse, have apologists line up to wave it off as "humor." The Republican candidates all issued the usual statements about Ann Coulter's anti-gay attack on John Edwards, but they sounded like a platoon of little captains dressed like Claude Rains in Casablanca. Shocked, one and all.
"With a single word, Coulter sullied the hard work of hundreds of CPAC participants and exhibitors and tarred the collective reputation of thousands of CPAC attendees," mourned Michelle Malkin.
But Malkin's got it wrong - Coulter didn't sully the hard work of CPAC's tribe; she represented it. She didn't tar their collective reputation; she embodies it.
Keep in mind, these people cheered and applauded wildly after Coulter's remark. These are people who believe it was fair game, that they're fighting a righteous battle against the "homosexual agenda." Coulter didn't offend any of them.
Don't believe me? Go read the comments on Malkin's blog, or over at FreeRepublic, or any of the "mainstream" clubhouses where conservative Republicans hang their virtual hats. Or take a look at some of the hats and t-shirts they were selling in the hallways. Or watch MSNBC: I just watched Pat Buchanan call Coulter "courageous" and Tucker Carlson agreed with him. Intolerance sells to this crowd. Any candidate who speaks to CPAC must know that. Indeed, this was a return appearance for Coulter. They like her. Here's what she said last year, to raucous applause:
"I think our motto should be post-9-11, 'raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.'"
Coulter's word offended like a back-hand to the face of our political conscience, but Newt Gingrich showed what the real Republican Party apparatus thinks in his remarks about New Orleans at the self-same Conservative Political Action Conference. Hurricane Katrina, declared almost-candidate Gingrich, merely uncovered:
"...the failure of citizenship in the Ninth Ward, where 22,000 people were so uneducated and so unprepared, they literally couldn't get out of the way of a hurricane."
Mmmmm. Those folks in the Ninth Ward aren't good citizens. We get it, Newt. We get it. Ever since Reagan's successful and utterly calculated southern strategy, one party has leaned hard on its end of the pool table - and done its best to collect the bigot vote. As blogger John Cole - no liberal - puts it:
Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are the same visible, high profile, symptom of the problem with what is modern ‘conservatism.’ Throw in Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Dinesh D’Souza, and the rest, if you still don’t understand....the reason her comments are a problem is that the majority of the ‘conservative’ movement is dominated by people who think there is something wrong with homosexuality and that there are few things worse than being a “faggot.”
Prejudice doesn't leave us easily, and our collective march toward real civil rights is not as far along as many of us think. In this year's race for President, we have a woman, a black man, and a Mormon and each has taken the arrows of bigotry. After all, this is a country where Rush Limbaugh is a millionaire and Maureen Dowd collects a paycheck from the New York Times on the basis of her ability to stereotype; in her world, Barak Obama is a little boy in need of wise (white) counsel while Hillary Clinton is a "feral" woman, conniving and calculating.
I started this post recalling a trip to Alabama for a reason. Two Democrats were in Selma this weekend to commemorate the historic march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge, and while the press played the civil rights gathering as a battle between the Clintons and Obama for the black vote (some truth to that), I was struck by how the entire legacy of civil rights is anathema to Republicans and conservatives. It was easy to recall how the conservative intellectuals of the 50s and 60s, led by a young William F. Buckley, opposed civil rights.
Their legacy is a party in which hate and intolerance are winked at, shrugged off as humor, used in barely-coded language, and celebrated in electoral victories as "true conservatism."
UPDATE: Digby, as usual, gets it right: "For forty years the Republicans have been winning elections by calling liberals "faggots" (and "dykes") in one way or another. It's what they do. To look too closely at what she said is to allow light on their very successful reliance on gender stereotypes to get elected."
- posted by Tom Watson
SteveAudio: " That old black magic has me under its spell"
Labels: food, immigration, racism
Yummy. Not so much.
Thanks to SteveAudio for this great cross-post and over-eating deterrent - THANKS STEVE!
Tyson Foods was sued by a group of employees for racial discrimination, and the lawsuit was taken seriously by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that they joined in the suit. I wrote about this previously here and here.
Seems like the whole thing was, ah, settled back in November:BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced a major litigation settlement with Tyson Foods for $871,000 on behalf of black workers who alleged that they were racially harassed and retaliated against at a chicken processing plant in Ashland, Alabama. The three-year consent decree entered today by U.S. District Court Judge Karen O. Bowdre also includes significant injunctive relief that will foster a discrimination-free workplace at Tyson Foods in Ashland.
The decree resolves two race discrimination and retaliation lawsuits against the poultry giant under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act: one filed by the EEOC in August 2005, and another filed by a group of 13 former and present African-American employees. The cases, resolved during the discovery stage, had been consolidated by Judge Bowdre in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (In Re Tyson Foods Litigation, Consolidated Case No. CV-05-BE-1704-E).
Collectively, the litigation charged Tyson Foods with maintaining a racially hostile work environment at the Ashland facility – including a racially segregated bathroom facility, racial slurs, and intimidation – and retaliating against employees who complained about the unlawful conduct. As part of its suit, the EEOC said that a Tyson employee established a locked, segregated bathroom facility, which on occasion had signs posted. Keys to the facility were allegedly distributed by that employee to white employees only.
Well, indeed.
Is it any wonder then that some folks don't exactly believe that progress has been made against racism? Tyson had to settle, not because of angry black folk, but because the EEOC lawyers had them dead to rights. That this goes on, today, in this country, is just wrong.
And we have enlightened lawmakers to show the way:The day after lawmakers honored the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., a member of the House of Delegates stirred furious and tearful debate in Richmond with inflammatory comments about African-Americans and Jews. Del. Frank Hargrove, R-Hanover, triggered controversy while talking about an impending House resolution that would formally apologize for the state's role in the slave trade. He said African-Americans should "get over it" because no one alive today was involved in slavery.
"Are we going to force Jews to apologize for killing Christ?" Hargrove asked.
First, I'm pretty sure there was a guy named Pontius Pilate involved. Second, you're an idiot.
Racism and eliminationist rhetoric seem to be at an all time high, from Right-wing pundits (Beck, Malkin et al) to seemingly rational talking heads.
David Neiwert has more:Immigrants: All colors and kinds of immigrants have historically been the subject of violent and bigoted campaigns, targeted by so-called Nativists who demand that their arrivals cease. These range from the Know Nothings whose main efforts focused on keeping out Irish and other Catholic immigrants, to the anti-German agitation that peaked in the 1870-1920 period, followed by the anti-Asian campaigns that flourished between 1880 and 1924. The latter were notable for the appearance, for the first time, of an effort not merely to prevent their arrival but to actively deport those already here, accompanied by the requisite eliminationist action, including violent massacres and concentration camps. The same impulse lives on today in the agitation against Latino immigration, which has proved to be a major bridge for extremists to expand their reach into the mainstream of American discourse.
The eliminationist impulse gained fresh life in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, especially as the flames of fearfulness it produced were actually fanned rather than calmed by the American right, including the Bush administration itself. Professional fearmongers leapt onto the national stage to denounce fresh threats to national security, particularly seizing on the immigration debate, which was inflamed by claims that the insecure borders over which undocumented workers were flowing presented a prime opportunity (though the reality regarding those borders was largely obscured in the racial agitation that accompanied it).
The fearmongering occurred at all levels, from Pat Buchanan proclaiming that white American culture was about to be overrun by Latinos and other nonwhites, to Lou Dobbs parroting white-supremacist nonsense on CNN, to the entire bandwidth of nativists -- including the usual suspects: VDare, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Michelle Malkin, Juan Mann, Glenn Beck -- demanding the immediate arrest and deportation of all 12 million illegal immigrants in America.
And even in the 21st Century, we still have this:What the investigation unearthed was a story that no one in Linden wanted to believe: Billy Ray, who is mentally disabled, had been taken to a party, ridiculed, called racial slurs, knocked unconscious, and then dumped by the side of the road. Even the strangers who had come to his aid were not Good Samaritans but two of the perpetrators. Had the town's white residents condemned what had happened to Billy Ray, the incident might have faded into memory; the crime pivoted on a single punch. Instead, they closed ranks, and juries in both criminal trials that followed declined to give the defendants more than a slap on the wrist.
So good for the EEOC in helping shame Tyson Foods. They had it coming.
- posted by SteveAudio
blksista: "The Shame of America"
Thanks to blksista for this great cross-post - THANK YOU!
Via the New Standard, from the AP: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimated there were 754,000 homeless people in 2005, including those living in shelters, transitional housing and on the street. That's about 300,000 more people than available beds in shelters and transitional housing.
Of course, HUD admitted that they undercounted in 2000. That report, from the last year of the Clinton Administration, showed only 171,700 homeless. The Urban Institute, in 1996, used Census tabulations to find that there were between 600,000 to 840,000 homeless Americans.
Among the findings for people in shelters and transitional housing:
Add to this that many of these homeless are addicts and/or are mentally ill. But these people could be assisted and redeemed, if local, state and Federal governments truly exercised the will to solve this continuing problem.
Emergency shelters are more than 90 percent full on average nights, said a recent report sponsored by the Urban Institute. Overcrowding would occur were it not for seasonal shelters (especially during this crazy winter) taking up the slack. By comparison, homeless families occupy less than three-quarters of transitional housing.
I would not be surprised that of the disabled, many may be veterans, veterans of the first Gulf War waged by Bush senior. No doubt, if patterns continue, their number will swell with junior Bush's war on vets: long on platitudes about supporting the troops, but way short on continuing benefits, physical and mental health care.
If minors are on the street, they are a part of families headed by single mothers. The number of homeless families are said to be markedly higher in rural areas than in cities. If not, they are children who have been kicked out of their homes because they are gay or 'unmanageable.'
But get this. The number arrived at doesn't even touch those still homeless from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, which two years ago displaced another 750,000 people. There is no true accounting of how adequately the survivors are housed, in or immediately outside of New Orleans or outside the state of Louisiana. While there have been published stories of individuals and families being placed in favorable circumstances, many thousands have not been as lucky.
Worse, those who are already homeless in other cities and towns have to compete for services with those who are trying to recover from the disaster. This is something I witnessed when the Oakland Hills brushfires displaced many upper- and middle-class residents in the late 1980s. Interestingly, the residents refused to call themselves homeless, yet certainly availed themselves of generous short-term benefits from the city fathers and other charities before the insurance money kicked in. Meanwhile, scores of other homeless people were dramatically shortchanged, and wondered why they couldn't have the same assistance and concern for their plight.
Alphonso Jackson of HUD is still keeping out the bulk of New Orleanians who want to move back into their homes, while proposing to demolish the four largest projects. Meanwhile, those lucky enough to have a FEMA trailer or a car to live in are getting smacked by tornadoes before they can move back into new homes.
One notorious Katrina homeless camp in Baker, Louisiana, just outside Baton Rouge, Renaissance Village, could classify as a 21st century Hooverville. Dozens of underage children are still roving about unsupervised, truant or unregistered in local schools. Some parents use older children to safeguard what belongings and food remain, or to take care of younger siblings while the adults work.
Said Karla Leopold of the Rosie O'Donnell's For All Kids Foundation (RFAK) in late August 2006, during the days marking the first anniversary of the tragedy: It has been a very difficult year for these people. Their relocation to Renaissance Village has not been easy. Getting the children enrolled and attending school has been difficult. The number of teenagers not going to school is alarming. The school district appears overwhelmed and ill prepared to deal with these children from New Orleans. Two therapists from our team spent a separate week working hard to enroll the children and dealing with some of the difficulties involved. The day care center, teen center and Head Start facilities donated by RFAK over eight months ago are still not opened due to construction delays and the complexities of working with governmental entities. There are no computers for the people to access their e-mail or to do research. The bus service has been severely reduced. The food service closed. So many of these people have lost everything and lack the means, strength and skills to rebuild their lives and many of them are reluctant to accept the help that is offered through agencies
.
Their mental health needs are overwhelming. This displaced population has been traumatized. As reported by the New York Times: "Among children fourth grade and beyond, affected by the storm, 49 percent met the threshold for mental health clinical referrals." This is a generational problem that is not being treated. The Red Cross and members of the community report that our team of art therapists and volunteers has offered the most consistent and effective mental health services for the families of Renaissance Village. Yet we work there only every other month and have no future trips planned.
The RFAK website has not been updated since November, 2006. Must be that the Rosie-Trump feud that gets better headlines.
All of this is a goddamn shame. In our America.
- posted by blksista
Cherokee, Black, but not both
Labels: American Indians, racism
A Cherokee tribal member from Liberty Lake, Washington, is seen here in Post Falls, Idaho, in July 2004. Native American Cherokees have voted to expel descendants of black slaves from their tribe nation in a special election that has prompted charges of racism, according to returns made public.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Jerome Pollos)
No negroes, pleaseUS Cherokees vote to expel descendants of slaves
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Native American Cherokees voted to expel descendants of black slaves from their tribe nation in a special election that has prompted charges of racism, according to returns made public early Sunday.
But a vote of 77 percent to 23 percent, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma adopted Saturday an amendment to their constitution that strips membership from so-called "Freedmen," those descended from slaves once owned by Cherokees, blacks who were married to Cherokees and children of mixed-race families.
"The Cherokee people exercised the most basic democratic right, the right to vote," Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, said in a statement. "Their voice is clear as to who should be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. No one else has the right to make that determination."
However, opponents of the amendment say it was a racist project designed to deny the distribution of US government funds and tribal revenue to those with African-American heritage, US media reported.
"This is a sad chapter in Cherokee history," Taylor Keen, a Cherokee tribal council member who opposes the amendment, told the New York Times.
"But this is not my Cherokee Nation. My Cherokee Nation is one that honors all parts of her past."
Advocates of changing the 141-year-old treaty rules defining who is a Cherokee say the tribal nation has a sovereign right to decide citizenship and that other tribes base membership on blood lines.
The Cherokee Nation, which ranks as the second-largest tribe behind the Navajo, has some 250,000 to 270,000 members and is growing rapidly. Members are entitled to benefits from the US federal government and tribal services, including medical and housing aid and scholarships.
Cherokees, along with several other tribes, held black slaves and allied themselves with the Confederacy during the US civil war. After the war, the federal government in an 1866 treaty ordered the slaves freed.
In 1983, the Cherokee Nation expelled many descendants of slaves as members but a Cherokee tribunal ruled last year that the Freedmen were fully-fledged citizens with voting rights. That court decision prompted Saturday's special vote.
Native American tribes recognized by the United States government have the right to self-determination and authority similar to US states.
Election results will remain unofficial until certified by the Cherokee Nation Election Commission, but officials said percentages were not expected to change significantly.
You kind of don't expect it from Cherokees, given all they've been through.
- posted by Jim in LA from a reader submission through Jen
Unapologetic Mexican's Nezua: "Can You Feel Me Now?"
derived from this and inspired by this.
- posted by The Unapologetic Mexican
FDL's Pachacutec: "For Want of a Dentist"
This story is just plain wrong
Thank you to Firedoglake's Pachacutec for this insightful piece - THANKS PACH!Pr. George's Boy Dies After Bacteria From Tooth Spread to Brain
By Mary Otto
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday.
A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.
If his mother had been insured.
If his family had not lost its Medicaid.
If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.
If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.
By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.
Deamonte's death and the ultimate cost of his care, which could total more than $250,000, underscore an often-overlooked concern in the debate over universal health coverage: dental care.
Some poor children have no dental coverage at all. Others travel three hours to find a dentist willing to take Medicaid patients and accept the incumbent paperwork. And some, including Deamonte's brother, get in for a tooth cleaning but have trouble securing an oral surgeon to fix deeper problems.
In spite of efforts to change the system, fewer than one in three children in Maryland's Medicaid program received any dental service at all in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The figures were worse elsewhere in the region. In the District, 29.3 percent got treatment, and in Virginia, 24.3 percent were treated, although all three jurisdictions say they have done a better job reaching children in recent years.
"I certainly hope the state agencies responsible for making sure these children have dental care take note so that Deamonte didn't die in vain," said Laurie Norris, a lawyer for the Baltimore-based Public Justice Center who tried to help the Driver family. "They know there is a problem, and they have not devoted adequate resources to solving it."
Maryland officials emphasize that the delivery of basic care has improved greatly since 1997, when the state instituted a managed care program, and in 1998, when legislation that provided more money and set standards for access to dental care for poor children was enacted.
I’d quote the whole article, but that would run afoul of fair use stuff. Go read the whole thing.
This is an economic justice story with elements of race. As ever, race and class are all tied up together in America. Can you imagine this story written about some white kid in Bethesda, instead of Prince George’s County? No? Neither could I.
There are new things happening in African American culture and politics mistrustful of old line, established political groups, insiders, but it’s not happening online to the same degree the progressive netroots is organizing online.
These groups could become very powerful allies, but offline bridge building has to take place. Netroots progressives need to be able to tie matters of economic equality not just to concepts like the middle class squeeze and income disparity, but right back to color.
With the right wing’s racism so nakedly on display more and more, that shouldn’t be hard, but it would make a lot of heads in DC explode. I like Jim Webb. He speaks compellingly about working people, but he doesn’t speak that way about race or the racism of the right wing. That would make Mudcat Saunders’ head explode, not to mention James Carville and the Clinton gang that punked Ned Lamont after seeing him onstage with Sharpton the night he won the Connecticut primary.
It’s the same thing with immigration, the war on brown people in America, and for my writing on the subject at FDL, I always tie the right wing’s immigrant bashing back to its racism. I hope more writers online will start watching what Tavis Smiley and others are doing offline. If we can build trust and wor