Okay folks, have at it. Funniest thing I've seen yet today.
As the man said, this ain't rocket science folks.
Condi Rice just better clear her desk to handle this crisis.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Posted on 06/14/2002 10:24:36 AM PDT by section9
Press Release
SOURCE: The Black Commentator
JENKINTOWN, Pa., June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Warning that deteriorating race relations present "a grave threat to our national security," minority employees at the sensitive Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama have called upon President Bush and his top military and national security executives to "directly and forcefully address this matter before the U.S. Congress acts to create a new Department of Homeland Security."
In a June 13th letter obtained by The Black Commentator, an Internet publication (http://www.blackcommentator.com), the head of the Redstone Area Minority Employees Association said that military and civilian supervisors had used the racial slur "Tar Baby" on three occasions since the events of September 11. Matthew Fogg described the incidents as examples of "an epidemic of official corruption, systemic racial discrimination and vile epithets that undermines our country's War on Terror."
Fogg's organization represents 200 minority employees at Redstone Arsenal, which is home to many of the U.S. Army's precision "smart" weapons systems as well as NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "The alarming resurrection of `Tar Baby' as a term of racial abuse at Redstone," Fogg wrote, "is only one, dramatic manifestation of a deep and escalating breakdown in military standards."
Fogg said Redstone race relations "are even worse than those that prevailed at Goddard Space Flight Center," in suburban Washington, DC, where 120 Black scientists recently settled a discrimination suit against NASA for $3.75 million.
The "security and intelligence agencies of the U.S. are rife with race discrimination," said Fogg, a chief deputy U.S. Marshal.
Fogg called for caution in creating the Homeland Security Department. "Unless discrimination is immediately treated as a national security priority, this new department will find itself hopelessly infested with all of the bias practices of its 22 component organizations," he said.
The letter was addressed to the President, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of the Army Thomas White and Senator Patrick Leahy.
The Black Commentator is an Internet publication of commentary, analysis and investigation on issues affecting African Americans.
Note: The full text of Fogg's letter is available at http://www.blackcommentator.com
Okay folks, have at it. Funniest thing I've seen yet today.
As the man said, this ain't rocket science folks.
Condi Rice just better clear her desk to handle this crisis.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
I wonder what's next, a book burning of the Bre'r Rabbit stories? You know that's a racist story, don't you?
In context from the old Bre'er Rabit fables, a "tar baby" is something that, once you touch it, trying to get it off you just gets you further into the mess. I could see this as some ignorant person taking the term the wrong way.
Most likely, but it doesn't matter...."niggardly" and "denigrate" are also racial slurs, dontcha know?
THE WONDERFUL TAR BABY STORY
"Didn't the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening.
"He come mighty nigh it, honey, sho's you born--Brer Fox did. One day atter Brer Rabbit fool 'im wid dat calamus root, Brer Fox went ter wuk en got 'im some tar, en mix it wid some turkentime, en fix up a contrapshun w'at he call a Tar-Baby, en he tuck dish yer Tar-Baby en he sot 'er in de big road, en den he lay off in de bushes fer to see what de news wuz gwine ter be. En he didn't hatter wait long, nudder, kaze bimeby here come Brer Rabbit pacin' down de road--lippity-clippity, clippity -lippity--dez ez sassy ez a jay-bird. Brer Fox, he lay low. Brer Rabbit come prancin' 'long twel he spy de Tar-Baby, en den he fotch up on his behime legs like he wuz 'stonished. De Tar Baby, she sot dar, she did, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Mawnin'!' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee - `nice wedder dis mawnin',' sezee.
"Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox he lay low.
"`How duz yo' sym'tums seem ter segashuate?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
"Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'.
"'How you come on, den? Is you deaf?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder,' sezee.
"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"'You er stuck up, dat's w'at you is,' says Brer Rabbit, sezee, 'en I;m gwine ter kyore you, dat's w'at I'm a gwine ter do,' sezee.
"Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummick, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin'.
"'I'm gwine ter larn you how ter talk ter 'spectubble folks ef hit's de las' ack,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Ef you don't take off dat hat en tell me howdy, I'm gwine ter bus' you wide open,' sezee.
"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"Brer Rabbit keep on axin' 'im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin' nothin', twel present'y Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis', he did, en blip he tuck 'er side er de head. Right dar's whar he broke his merlasses jug. His fis' stuck, en he can't pull loose. De tar hilt 'im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Ef you don't lemme loose, I'll knock you agin,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat he fotch 'er a wipe wid de udder han', en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain'y sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Tu'n me loose, fo' I kick de natal stuffin' outen you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, but de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. She des hilt on, en de Brer Rabbit lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer Fox, he lay low. Den Brer Rabbit squall out dat ef de Tar-Baby don't tu'n 'im loose he butt 'er cranksided. En den he butted, en his head got stuck. Den Brer Fox, he sa'ntered fort', lookin' dez ez innercent ez wunner yo' mammy's mockin'-birds.
"`Howdy, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee. `You look sorter stuck up dis mawnin',' sezee, en den he rolled on de groun', en laft en laft twel he couldn't laff no mo'. `I speck you'll take dinner wid me dis time, Brer Rabbit. I done laid in some calamus root, en I ain't gwineter take no skuse,' sez Brer Fox, sezee."
Here Uncle Remus paused, and drew a two-pound yam out of the ashes.
"Did the fox eat the rabbit?" asked the little boy to whom the story had been told.
"Dat's all de fur de tale goes," replied the old man. "He mout, an den agin he moutent. Some say Judge B'ar come 'long en loosed 'im - some say he didn't. I hear Miss Sally callin'. You better run 'long."
What about "cracker"? I've heard that term five times in the past week...
But, they're written in Early Ebonics
If I hear that "R" word again there's gonna be a multi-billion dollar suit.
"Redneck, What kind of cracker is that?"*
*National Lampoon Radio Hour, The Hillbillies"
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