american black

A Dog Named "Nigger"

Quasan from lovely San Jose, had this interesting post.

...some wierdo wants to name his horse Sally Hemmings - former slave and concubine of President Thomas Jefferson (not really buying into the whole "mistress" thing because it implies a choice and when someone owns you ...). While I think it is an ignorant idea and probably that it has some not so savory motivation behind it, it's just not one of those things I am going to get myself worked up about.

I can understand the "letting stupid people do stupid things" mentality. I kinda agree with it. But the details surronding this case are quite interesting. As Gordon noted:

The Jockey Club rejected the name because it is of a person and the horse owner doesn't have permission. Furthermore, the Jockey Club fears it will be offensive to certain groups. The horse owner shot back saying that since Hemmings is dead, there shouldn't be a problem.

I don't know who is right on this situtation (by the way, if one looks at the foal's parents, you can see where the name Sally Hemmings came up: Dam: Jefferson's Secert. Her sire? Colonial Affair, most famous, until now, for winning the Belmont Stakes with Julie Khrone as his jockey), but I will say this, the Jockey Club is very inconsistent enforcing their naming rules.

The name rules for the American Stud Book are long, but they boil down to this: you can't name a horse after a person or a copyrighted or trademarked product without permission; you can't name a horse with a name that is deemed offensive; you can't name a horse after another horse that has been put on a special list reserved for the great race horses (i.e. you can't name your horse Secertariat or Man O War); and you can't name a horse that is similar in name to another horse currently running or at stud. All very good rules.

Conservatives Continue To Ignore Constitution

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights plans to air a commercial attacking Janice Rogers Brown as a "radical judge" unworthy of confirmation to the appeals court. For some reason, cheap labor conservatives see this as racism. How nutty is that?

Are they saying that Blacks should agree with every other Black? Isn't that the kind of thinking they claimed to be against?

Of Course this is not an isolated incident. The usual suspects are in a tizzy over a Facebook group entitled "Every Time I See a Black Republican, a Piece of Me Dies a Little." 

My ex-wife (the smart one) got her Masters from Tulane (the school in question). To think it is some liberal oasis is a joke.

Haven't these people learned anything from the Dixie Chicks fiasco. They looked like idiots because they forgot that America is about letting people say what they want even if you don't agree with it.

Will someone please give these people a copy of the Constitution.

 

Speaking Japanese (Or Is Gwen Stefani Racist and Hot Or Just Hot)

Girls as accessories? The song was released last year but some folks still seem to have a problem with Gwen Stefani's harajuku girls:

Here's the problem. Is a questionable action validated merely because members of the group to be offended are a party to the offending group? The Harijuku girls of Gwen Stefani, arguably, illicit wrongful stereotypes of Asian-American, or more specifically Japanese, females. The girls are displayed BECAUSE they are Japanese. Apparently, they aren't allowed to speak english, even though they can (one, apparently, is from the US, but under contract, is prohibited to speak English). The range of wrongful stereotype stemming from the Harijuku girls depends on the collective opinion of the masses. One thing is for sure, however: it doesn't promote diversity, and it certainly implies ethinic-function and positioning. (read more of this post)

Check out a live performance "Harjuku Girls" by Stefani [Sessions@AOL] or sample the song online [iTunes]. Or Look at some everyday images [Flickr] of Harajuku girls.

A 12 Year Old Nike Investor...

Via John Hope Bryant

...Doing a Banking on Our Future financial literacy event in Chicago and a volunteer HOPE Corps member from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago told me the most interesting story; a local African-American 12-year old boy that had completed a financial literacy course was talking amongst his friends about the best use of $75 they each had. His friends immediately said they would go out and buy a pair of Nike shoes, while this young man said he would prefer to purchase one share of Nike stock! And with that the young man then said something truly transformational...

He said, "..next week you two are going to buy a pair of Nike shows, and the funny thing is, when you do that you will be making me money (as an owner of one share of Nike stock!)."  Now is that money smart, or what?

And speaking of Nike. keep voting for Ian's sneaker.

Is Baltimore’s Central Booking our Abu Ghraib?

Over the past two years approximately 1.2 prisoners have died every month at Baltimore’s Central Booking, the city’s intake jail.

Prisoners have been denied medical care.

Cells designed for seven to eight prisoners are holding 17 to 18.

Conditions are so overcrowded that those jailed have been forced to lie in vomit.

The Baltimore City Police Department’s policy of “zero tolerance” has compounded the problems with neighborhood sweeps and indiscriminate arrests. There is now a police quota of arrests per officer and per district, which encourages harassment and arrest.

Some 100,000 people have been arrested out of a population of approximately 650,000. Thirty-three percent of those arrested have never been charged with a crime.

2 corrupt cops were arrested last month for using their police powers to detain drug dealers. They would take drugs and cash then let the dealers go without filing any charges.

Crack Cocaine: What's In It For You

Douglas A. Berman found this potent editorial entitled "Bring Fairness to Drug Sentencing" that is focused on the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. Here's an interesting paragraph:

Congress spawned a national trend toward discriminatory sentencing when it drew a false distinction between powdered cocaine and crack cocaine for law enforcement purposes during the 1980’s. Crack is simply powdered cocaine cooked in baking soda. The theory at the time - that it was more addictive and generated more violence than powder - was later proved false. By then, however, Congress had made crack the only drug that mandates a sentence for a first offense and fixed high sentences for people caught with relatively small quantities.

Let's continue with Luke's comments posted at The War Report:

The “distinction", is that crack is more addictive and causes more violent behavior. This, of course, has no scientific basis and was disproved over and over again. But for the drug prohibition advocates, this type of hyperbole or lying is simply par for the course. Can we really expect a modicum of candor from people who liken recreational marijuana use to Russian Roulette? 

What this crack/coke distinction breeds is the disproportionate incarceration of blacks. The argument that the drugs are “tomato/toe-mah-toe” in that while each ethnic group has his own drug, that in no way suggests one drug is more heavily enforced. But that’s exactly what happens. While coke might have a more profitable trade, it doesn’t exist with the same prevalence at the street level and is not as easily purchased given its high price tag. This naturally translates into street cops coming into contact with crack with significantly higher frequency. This is almost identical to the government making both FUBU and Versace clothing illgeal (irrational in its own right), then arguing on top that FUBU wearers deserve higher punishment because those who wear the clothing are more prone to violence. And white people are baffled at black suspicion of the government?

One Liners (Sleep, Soft Porn and Baldilocks Edition)

• One Day Left to help Ian win a new pair of kicks.
• Never sleep again...really.
• Watch the 49er's Training Video.
• We almost got rid of one...

Robert Johnson's Legacy (or My Dad Started BET But All I Got Is This CBS T-Shirt)

Robert Johnson deserves credit for a lot of things. You have to respect the man for creating a commercially viable cable channel for Black folks.

In a world where very few Blacks have "fuck you money", it's nice to see Mr. Johnson's estate.

But I'll be honest. I am not a big BET fan. And the fact that the founder and CEO of Black Entertainment Television, is finally stepping down is not a bad thing in my book. (Of Course, what no one is saying, is that he has to step down. When he sold the company he was told he could stay for at least 5 years. Those 5 years are up.)

What is his legacy?

Slate said the following in 2000, after BET was sold to Viacom::

Black leaders and artists have repeatedly whacked Johnson for BETs dismal programming, but he is not interested in uplifting the race. If something wonderful appears on BET, fine, but no tears if it doesn't. Johnson shuttered the critically praised magazines Emerge and YSB because they were losing money. He started the "BET on Jazz" channel not because he wants to support the art form, but because he wants to profit from it. He launched a pay-per-view channel specializing in action movies and soft-core porn. BET was the only channel to accept hard-liquor ads and one of the few media companies that refused to adopt the voluntary TV ratings system. He has fought savagely against efforts to unionize his employees and has been raked for paying performers sub-union wages.

But Yemi Toure explains it best to me:

He should have taken a lesson from John H. Johnson, owner of Johnson Publishing   Co. (JPC), another Black-owned, privately held media company, which publishes Ebony and Jet magazines.   White firms have been salivating over JPC for decades, but John H. Johnson   has not sold out. Is it that JPC is too small to be bothered with? No. JPC   is larger than BET--it is the largest Black-owned private company in the   United States.

John H. Johnson has resisted offers to sell his company to Whites because   he has a greater vision and a stronger sense of the importance of Black ownership.   He also has more of a sense of legacy--he has trained his daughter, Linda   Johnson Rice, to run the business. She is president and chief operating officer   of the empire, set to take over when the old man dies. When Bob Johnson's   daughter, now in the 9th grade, gets older, can he tell her to prepare to   run his empire? No. But he can help her fill out a job application.

Ford Close To Settleing Civil Rights Lawsuit

A proposed settlement of a class-action civil rights lawsuit filed by 11 African-American workers at Ford Motors Co.'s Sharonville Transmission Plant was taken under advisement by U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spiegel on Wednesday following a final settlement hearing.

Spiegel gave preliminary approval to the plan in February. It calls for Ford to guarantee black employees access to an apprenticeship training program in the automaker's factories from which they say they were illegally barred.

Ford says it did nothing wrong in administering the program at its plants nationwide. Under the proposed settlement, it would set aside 279 positions in the program for blacks and pay $2,400 apiece to as many as 3,400 current and former workers in the affected class.

What Sharpton and Madonna Know That You Don't (Or How To Be As Popular As Angelina Jolie)

Is Rush Limbaugh back on the "pain medication"?

After delivering on-air remarks that he was considering allowing Rev. Al Sharpton to host his syndicated radio program for 30 minutes a day to "teach" Sharpton the ins and outs of the medium, Rush Limbaugh now seems to be backing off in the wake of Sharpton's quick acceptance.

I know we live in a virtual world but lets get real for a second. The best speaker on the National stage is Al Sharpton. If you heard his speech at the Democratic convention in 2000 you could not be anything but moved.(watch it here) I realize most white people hate his guts. That people see him as divisive. But if you have been listening to him for the past 3 years (when he finally understood he had a national audience) he has been making sense.

Here's my take on Al. Few people understand the power of a good soundbite like Sharpton. Few people know how to exploit the media's thirst for sensationalism like Al. He caught on to the same thing Madonna did. You polarize first. Get your core audience. Bring your message mainstream. And most important: Be entertaining.

Of course you'll be hated for a while (maybe forever to some unforgiving folks) but in the end you'll end up with everyone on your side.

This formula always works.

Look at Eminem. Or Public Enemy. Angelina Jolie. Or Madonna's first husband. Most politicians also live by the rules. Pick your enemies well. But they drop the ball with the entertainment factor. George Bush is President today because he was more entertaining than the other guy (Diebold was just backup).

I say all that to say this. Sharpton on the radio would literally kick-ass.  He'll change minds. And having Limbaugh's audience to kickstart his radio career would probably be the dumbest move a Republican ever made since invading Iraq.

Mark my words. It will not happen.