Free Republic

In a story the New York Times appears not to have touched, Hunter Walker at Observer.com's Politicker ("about" page is here) reported on Tuesday that Thomas Lopez-Pierre, a black Harlem activist, "circulated an email" Monday night "in an attempt to plan a 'private meeting' to 'discuss the potential damage to the political empowerment of the Black and Hispanic community if Mark Levine, a White/Jewish candidate was elected to the 7th Council District in 2013.'" So we see that black Chicagoland establishment officials trying to ensure that the successor to the recently resigned Jesse Jackson Jr. in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District...

Fresh off his reelection, President Barack Obama is asking his supporters to complete a survey that asks the people being polled to check off which “constituency groups” they identify with – there are 22 groups listed but not one for “whites” or “men.” The post-election survey, distributed through www.barackobama.com to “take this organization forward,” includes the question, “Which constituency groups do you identify yourself with? Select all that apply.” It then lists 22 groups. But whites and men are not on the list – women are, as are African Americans, Arab-Americans, Latinos and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). Other...

The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race. On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent. It also measures by other groupings, such as...

From his spot on the Time Ideas blog, the MSNBC anchor Toure admitted "If President Obama had to run against Senator Obama of 2008, he’d probably be crushed. Back then, Obama seemed superhuman; today he is merely mortal. His victory in 2008 was historic, breaking the race barrier in the nation’s highest office." Guess what came next. Re-electing Obama is a greater test of whether America is racist than it was in 2008: "But an Obama victory in 2012 would say something even more profound about how far our country has come. Granted, Obama’s election (or not) is merely one...

In advance of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s speech Wednesday to the NAACP, a liberal group headed by a former New York Times reporter and ex-Media Matter executive have produced a video “satire” that claims blacks don’t like Romney, who they dub so white he makes “Wonder Bread look like pumpernickel.” The YouTube from “The Message,” an online “media hub,” is described as a satirical video of Romney getting advice on what to say to the civil rights group. Or, as they said in a release, the video “lacerates Romney and his advisors as they prepare for his speech to...

When Barack Obama was elected to office in 2008, there was talk of a post-racial America. It seemed as though racism was on an exit route out the back pipe of American society. As the years passed, it became more obvious that this was all just a fantasy. Those who criticized the policies of President Obama were labeled racists within the first year of his presidency. Still, today, his opponents are often branded as bigots. Morgan Freeman, during an interview with Piers Morgan, called the Tea Party racist for making Obama's defeat a part of its agenda. During the 2004...

Cher last week on the Randi Rhodes radio show

Tribune argues it's irrelevant in news According to a statement in the Chicago Tribune, reporting on the race of individuals involved in news events, such as mobs attacking, robbing and vandalizing, is irrelevant. A news anchor at the ABC affiliate in Chicago goes even further: Anyone who reads or writes about the epidemic of racial violence in Chicago is an “idiot” who engages in “meaningless … race baiting,” says Ravi Baichwal. City officials and the media might be the only two places left where people still deny Chicago is under assault from more than 50 episodes of black mobs attacking,...

Rodney King, the man whose videotaped beating by police led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was found dead at the bottom of his pool, police said. Mr. King's fiancée found him at the bottom of the pool on Sunday morning at his home in Rialito, Calif. He was 47. "The preliminary investigation indicates that this is a drowning and there are no signs of foul play," said Rialto Police Sgt. Paul Stella. In 1991, a video of police beating Mr. King after a freeway chase in Los Angeles rocketed across the world, stoking national tensions over race and police...

Perhaps we need a new definition of the word racism because it is now bandied about in a frivolous manner by race baiters who've never undergone its scourge. All we need to do is look at the history of racism in this country particularly in the South to get a real perspective of the pain suffered by blacks during that dark period. Those who underwent that torment are for the most part deceased but their pain has been exploited by modern day race-baiting demagogues who've benefitted by the changes in our civil rights and in the hearts of most Americans....

Politics: This Justice Department's social activism knows no bounds. First it meddled in a border state's right to protect itself. Now it's trying to rewrite school policy to pander to Muslim law. On Monday, Justice sued an Illinois school district for rejecting a Muslim teacher's request to take a three-week leave of absence to travel to Mecca. The suit claims that the Berkeley School District discriminated against middle-school instructor Safoorah Khan, whose religion "required" her to perform the hajj, and is seeking damages for this so-called victim. But it's not stopping there. It seeks an order mandating school officials adopt...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Racism may be less of a factor in politics than other realms of life, according to a new University of Florida study, which found few white voters in Florida to be upset by the presidential candidacy of a black man, and many to be proud of it. To assess attitudes among white voters in a southern state about Barack Obama's historic election to the presidency, two UF political scientists analyzed results from four statewide telephone surveys -- each involving between 449 and 829 respondents – conducted in the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009. Their study...

FACTS & CONTEXT: NAACP VS. BREITBART VIDEOS & TRANSCRIPT OF USDA official Shirley Sherrod’s speech at the NAACP 20th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet on March 27, 2010. First are the excerpt videos released by Andrew Breitbart. Transcripts and timeline have been added. Once the NAACP released the full video of their March event, Breitbart published the full video as well. The NAACP full video proved that Breitbart videos were continuous excerpts of Sherrod’s speech without being cut and edited as many in the press are reporting. FoxNews has also provided a timeline of their coverage. (video, report) At the bottom...

(07-09) 09:59 PDT OAKLAND -- Law-enforcement officers arrested 83 people during Thursday night's protests in downtown Oakland over the involuntary manslaughter conviction of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of train rider Oscar Grant, police said today. The rallies began peacefully but soon degenerated into lawlessness, during which protesters looted businesses, sprayed anti-police graffiti on storefronts, set trash bins on fire and clashed with police wearing gas masks and riot helmets and carrying batons, authorities said. Police from agencies throughout the Bay Area were called in to help Oakland officers. Those arrested were booked on suspicion...

As the verdict reached the streets, hundreds converged in downtown Oakland for mostly peaceful protests before swelling to a crowd of more than a thousand, with a hard-core splinter group of rioters clashing with police and wreaking havoc in downtown. By late evening, hundreds of law enforcement officers from across the Bay Area had descended downtown to help local police quell the protesters. Wearing black masks, many looted stores, smashed windows and rolled trash bins into the streets while setting them on fire. At one point, protesters began throwing M-1000 fireworks at law enforcement officers and other demonstrators. Stephen Allen,...

Created in 1926 by black historian, scholar, educator and publisher Carter G. Woodson, it began as "Negro History Week." By 1976, it morphed into Black History Month -- a celebration of the contributions of blacks to America and their struggles to overcome. From Africa to slavery. The Civil War. Jim Crow and lynchings. Sit-ins and marches. Brown vs. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act. Assassinations. A historic presidency. With history yet to have its full say regarding President Obama, we interviewed a broad spectrum of his fellow Chicagoans and prominent visitors on what the month means to them...

BELLEVILLE — A Belleville West High School student was beaten aboard a bus on the way to school Monday, and a police spokesman said the beating could be racially motivated. The 17-year-old victim was white and the teen assailants were black. Police released a video of the beating, which shows the victim being punched repeatedly while other students on the bus gather to watch, some cheering. It doesn't appear that the victim did anything to provoke an attack and tried only to defend himself. Police said it all unfolded in a five-minute span. The victim was trying to find a...

Silky, straight hair has long been considered by many black women to be their crowning glory. So what if getting that look meant enduring the itchy burning that's a hallmark of many chemical straighteners. Or a pricey dependence on "creamy crack," as relaxers are sometimes jokingly called. Getting "good hair" often means transforming one's tightly coiled roots; but it is also more freighted, for many African-American women, and some men, than simply a choice about grooming. Straightening hair has been perceived as a way to be more acceptable to certain relatives, as well as to the white establishment. "If your...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's pick to become the newest Supreme Court justice, is on the record with some controversial remarks about 'diversity,' 'judicial activism' and female judges vs. male judges. For example, the New York Times reported that in 2001, at the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture, Sotomayor had this to say: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” “Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences,”...

Some people say it is tailored education, but some concerned parents call it segregation. Lufkin High School is pushing for a course offered only to African American females. Despite the controversy, school authorities say that it may end up benefitting students. "First of all you have to be black and second of all, but equally as important, you have to be female. It's only for black female students" said John Mitchell, the Language Arts Facilitator of LISD. "And, it will always be only for black females." The pilot Black Female Literature Course has some questioning why other students couldn't benefit...

Joseph Lowery, Jay-Z and Jeezy I watched the inauguration with hundreds of other Democrats on Tuesday and I would say that 98% of them were white. The room we were in was filled with applause, tears, laughter and a sense of community that I had not felt in a long time. We all watched with collective anticipation as the clock approached 12:00 noon because we knew at that moment our country would have a new President, a man who obviously we had all supported and had voted for. And after Obama took the oath of office and the inauguration continued,...

Benediction at Obama's inauguration, Rev. Joseph Lowery: 'Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in the back, when brown can stick around... when the red man can get ahead man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen. Say Amen'...

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations recently presented a report about how hate crimes stacked up in Los Angeles County for the year of 2006. The report came back with some interesting figures on the rising tensions between African-American and Latino communities. Hate crimes directed towards African-Americans have been on the rise leading many to abandon their communities. According to an analysis by Manuel Pastor, a University of California, Santa Cruz professor, the Highland Park area was 80 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic in 1980. By 2000, it was 60 percent Hispanic, 40 percent black.

"This is what we do. Just walkin' the halls all day, baby. F-k class, that s-t's for clowns man. [Laughter from his friends] We don't go to class 'round here. Man, f-k academics. That ain't me, dawg. Academics, we gonna leave that to them nerd-ass mahf-kers. We gon' keep s-t straight hood up in here."  -- From the HBO documentary, Hard Times at Douglass High. quoted by Sonny Bunch in the Weekly Standard, My son-in-law is an Obot. I'm sorry, that's the kindest thing I can say. A specimen of his thinking is this: He likes Barack Obama because...

By BILL MURPHY Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Comments (304) Yahoo! Buzz The Houston rodeo has rejected a U.S. Justice Department offer to mediate disputes with minority groups who say it needs more minorities in high-ranking positions, doesn't give scholarships to noncitizens in the country legally and has stopped featuring Tejano performers on its main stages. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo does not believe mediation is needed because it promotes diversity and does not engage in discrimination, said chief operating officer Leroy Shafer. "At this point, we see no need to have a Justice Department mediator involved in this," he...

  Senator Obama is one of key leaders in a campaign to make Juneteeth Day a National Holiday in the United States. Juneteeth Day occurs on every June 19th, the anniversary of General Granger announcing the emancipation of slaves in the South West. The Holiday would be celebrated on the third Friday in June. Here's what the NYT wrote about it on 2004: "Most gatherings are decidedly upbeat, but the sobering reason for the holiday has also been part of Juneteenth's growth. Dr. Ronald Myers, the leader of a movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, says June 19 should...

(April 2) - An Atlanta, Georgia, judge who ordered white lawyers out of his courtroom so he could lecture African-American defendants called that decision a "mistake" Tuesday night. Judge Marvin Arrington says he is fed up with the defendants he keeps seeing in his courtroom. "In retrospect, it was a mistake," Judge Marvin Arrington told CNN. "Because my sheriff said to me, 'Judge, that message should be given to everybody' -- 'Don't violate the law, make something out of yourself, go to school, find a role model, somebody that will help you advance your life.'" Arrington, who is African-American, is...

Rules--link only http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080207/NEWS01/802070330/1002

Rather than relieving racial tensions, might an Obama candidacy instead intensify them? Iowa Caucus results quickly shifted many Democrats' sense of Hillary's inevitability to one of Barack's providence.  The smooth-talking senator's surprising historic victory gave fellow blacks and liberal whites a common hope that monumental change was just over the horizon. The happy union didn't last a week. Explaining last week's celebrated upset, Newsday's Martin Evans told of Obama's: "... populist message hat has tapped into the desire of voters here to end decades of infighting between Democrats and Republicans, and to banish traditions of racial politics that have divided...

Last May, firefighters at a Baltimore, Md., fire station came under scrutiny for displaying a deer with an afro wig, gold tooth, gold chain and a cigarette hanging from its mouth. Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, went ballistic, charging, "There is now and has been a culture of racism and white supremacy within the Baltimore City Fire Department." As it turns out, it was a black fireman who dressed up the critter. Cheatham refused to apologize for his accusations of fire department racism, maintaining "there is now and has been a culture of racism...

The three main minorities in the United States -- blacks, Hispanics and Asians -- have little trust for each other and hold prejudiced views about Americans of different ethnic origins to their own, a poll showed Wednesday. "This extraordinary poll reveals some unflattering realities that exist in America today," said Sandy Close, head of new America Media (NAM) which sponsored the poll together with ethnic media groups. Forty-four percent of Hispanics and 47 percent of Asians are "afraid of African-Americans because they are responsible for most of the crime," the survey of 1,105 adults drawn from the three ethnic groups...

As Sarah Kreager, 26, tried to sit down on a Baltimore City bus Tuesday, police say, a middle-schooler told her she couldn’t. When she attempted to take another seat, a middle-schooler wouldn’t let her. Finally, according to police, Kreager just sat down. She was “immediately attacked” by nine students — three females and six males — from Robert Poole Middle School. They punched and kicked her at 2:59 p.m. at the intersection of 33rd Street and Chestnut Avenue, according to Maryland Transit Administration police. Kreager was dragged off the bus and her boyfriend, Troy Ennis, attempted to get her back...

A black firefighter admitted he placed a knotted rope and threatening note with a drawing of a noose in an East Baltimore fire station last month.The firefighter has since been suspended for other performance-related issues, but will also likely face additional punishment for his act, officials said. City officials said the man admitted to the hoax and will not face criminal charges.Officials identified the man as Donald Maynard, a firefighter-paramedic apprentice who is black. The incident sparked outrage and led to a federal investigation into charges of racism. It was also the latest in a series of other incidents over...

Vehicle's passenger was beaten to death by several men, police say. AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF A group of men fatally beat a passenger in a car that police said accidentally struck a child outside an East Austin apartment complex, police said today. As many as 3,000 people were in the area following a Juneteenth celebration at the time, officials said. Austin police Cmdr. Harold Piatt estimated that dozens were in the parking lot of the Booker T. Washington apartment complex at the time and that preliminary information shows no witnesses apparently tried to prevent or stop the attack. "At this point, we...

<p>Nifong Accepts Disbarment David Freedman, Mike Nifong's attorney, has just announced that Nifong has accepted that disbarment is an "appropriate" penalty, and has accepted both disbarment and waived the right to appeal.</p>

Group Annouces Support for JeffersonWednesday June 13, 7:02 pm ET By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Writer Jefferson Backers Claim Justice Department Using Indicted Congressman As a Scapegoat NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Supporters of a Democratic congressman charged with bribery and money laundering harkened to their civil rights days on Wednesday as they denounced the allegations against U.S. Rep. William Jefferson. The group, including ministers and the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, alleged the 16-count corruption indictment was the work of a Republican White House and Justice Department scheming to target black Democratic leaders and shift attention from...

The Smog of Race War in LA Roberto Lovato Wed Mar 21, 12:18 PM ET The Nation -- These days, Chris Bowers wakes up every morning to a vivid reminder that crossing borders can get you killed in South LA's Harbor Gateway area. Just outside the fence in front of his rented stucco house on Harvard Boulevard is a silver scooter, an assortment of dried flowers and a dozen candles bearing religious messages written in Spanish and English--a makeshift memorial to Cheryl Green, the 14-year-old whose murder last December by members of the 204th Street Gang sparked accusations of Latino...

I did a search and didn't find this posted in the past on FR. I also checked Snopes and found this is TRUE. They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be.. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. Everybody knows it's important to speak English... except these knuckleheads. Mushmouth is what they speak! You can't be a doctor with that...

City JournalThe New Black Realism A new generation sees opportunity in America—and seizes it.Kay S. Hymowitz Winter 2007 What if someone gave a convention called “Black America Today” and Barack Obama, Harold Ford, Cory Booker, Bill Cosby, and Juan Williams starred as the marquee names? Right now, these are some of the black “It” guys (along with Diddy, of course)—yet they don’t fit the typical idea of “Black America,” do they? In his new book Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—And What We Can Do About It, NPR and Fox...

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/sayitloud/kane111 Commentary: Feeling Sorry for Those Poor, Falsely-Accused Duke Lacrosse Players? Cry Me a River Date: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 By: Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com Commentary: Feeling Sorry for Those Poor, Falsely-Accused Duke Lacrosse Players? Cry Me a River Date: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 By: Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com Michael Nifong, the district attorney of Durham, N.C., recently dropped rape charges against the three white Duke University lacrosse players accused of raping a black North Carolina Central coed. As expected, the cadre of right-wing commentators defending the three have gone into overdrive. And, once again, I’m compelled to write about how I’m...

Michael Richards exploded in anger as he performed at a famous L.A. comedy club last Friday, hurling racial epithets that left the crowd gasping, and TMZ has obtained exclusive video of the ugly incident.

EDINBORO, Pa. -- A black student at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania illegally accessed another student's e-mail account to send racist and threatening messages to about 20 other black students, university police said. Douglas A. Spadey, 18, of Philadelphia, was arraigned yesterday on charges of unlawful use of a computer, harassment by communication and terroristic threats, Cpl. Robert Burns said. The messages were sent Monday and Mr. Spadey admitted sending them, Cpl. Burns said. "This individual was trying to call attention to himself . . . (and) it blew up in his face," police Chief Tom Nelson said. "He didn't understand...

Gubernatorial candidate and professional wiseacre Kinky Friedman was accused Wednesday of making another racially offensive remark _ this time in a year-old interview in which he said sexual predators should be thrown in prison and forced to "listen to a Negro talking to himself." The independent candidate already was under fire for referring to Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Texas "crackheads and thugs." ... The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Houston Chronicle have reported on an interview with Friedman that aired on CNBC last year in which the country singer and comedian was asked what to do with sexual predators. "Throw...

AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas chapter of the NAACP asked comedian and independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on Friday to apologize for using a racial slur during a 1980 nightclub act in Houston. NAACP President Gary Bledsoe said in a letter that Friedman's remarks "invoke the worst racial stereotypes about people of color." Friedman's campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment. On Thursday, the campaign issued a lengthy statement denying Friedman was a racist and explaining that he used comedy to lampoon bigotry. Friedman told The Associated Press the criticism was orchestrated by his political opponents. Earlier this...

AUSTIN — Republican Gov. Rick Perry criticized his rival Kinky Friedman Thursday for making "racist" comments about blacks. In a video clip widely circulated this week, the entertainer-turned-politician says he would punish sex offenders by throwing them in prison and making them "listen to a Negro talking to himself." He also called the term Negro a "charming word" in the CNBC interview, which first aired months ago. Friedman, running as an independent, offered no apologies and says his blunt rhetoric is sorely needed in an otherwise timid political culture. Perry, asked about the remarks during a wide-ranging news conference at...

AUSTIN - Kinky Friedman has thrived on brash commentary, outlandish attire and crude humor. But some critics say the independent candidate for governor has gone too far with his comments about African-Americans. Friedman, in a video clip that some of his opponents began circulating Tuesday, calls Negro a “charming word” and uses it in an explanation of what he would do to sexual predators if elected governor of Texas in November. “Throw them in prison and throw away the key and make them listen to a Negro talking to himself,” Friedman said in the TV interview, which CNBC broadcast late...

Veteran U.S. civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, walks past an anti-U.S. banner placed among the rubble of a building that was destroyed following Israeli bombardment during the 34-day long Hezbollah-Israel war, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006. Jackson, who said Tuesday that an Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian militants and two others held captive by Hezbollah are alive, also said Syria, a main backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah, wanted to be involved in a prisoner swap that included the three Israelis and Syrian nationals detained by Israel in the Golan Heights....

The history of the United States is a tale of constant oppression— a story of a checkered past where political leaders and economic moguls continually acted in their own self-interest… or so many left-leaning history authors would prefer modern Americans to believe. American history has been hijacked by the left wing, where the mistakes of America’s past such as slavery, disenfranchisement, and class warfare are overemphasized, while Franklin D. Roosevelt is simultaneously glorified as the savior of the twentieth century with his New Deal policies. While most textbooks of that nature may cast American history in a bad light and...

Confirming weeks of rumors, CBS has revealed the identities of the twenty castaways who will be competing in this fall's Survivor: Cook Islands and announced that the castaways will -- in what the show's producer and host both acknowledge to be a controversial move -- initially be organized into four tribes divided along ethnic lines (African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic and White.) "We're going to take some heat for it," Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett acknowledged to People about the segregated tribe decision that will no doubt give the thirteenth edition of the long-running reality series -- which will also include the...

New Orleans police chief during Hurricane Katrina, Eddie Compass, says he unnecessarily "heightened people's fears" by repeating unconfirmed reports of out-of-control crime in the city during the aftermath of the storm, adding to the confusion caused by the disaster and potentially hampering rescue efforts. "There were reports of rapes and children being raped. I even got one report … that my daughter was raped," Mr. Compass says in a Spike Lee documentary scheduled to air on HBO tonight. "In hindsight, I guess I heightened people's fears by me being the superintendent of police, reporting these things that were reported to...