Free Republic

The Republican Party, says former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, suffers from a “dark vein of intolerance.” We salute Powell’s service. He is a heavily decorated vet who served two tours of duty in Vietnam when things were hot and heavy over there. But General, care to name names? Who are these “intolerant” Republicans? Why engage in accusation by innuendo? By all means, name them, shame them – make them famous. In the meantime, while Powell composes his list, we compile some questions to some possible left-leaning “dark veins of intolerance”: What color was Rep. Maxine Waters’, D-Calif., “vein”...

Many of us who did not vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election found some solace in the notion that Obama’s presidency, if nothing else, would ease racial tensions. The poll numbers suggested the same. In the month of Obama’s inauguration, 79 percent of whites and 63 percent of blacks held a favorable view of race relations in America, something of a high water mark in recent history. Those paying close attention, however, saw reason to worry. There were forces on the left, the White House included, that were prepared to use Obama’s presidency to drive the races...

Starbucks' campaign aimed at encouraging people to talk about race relations in the U.S. is the latest example of a big company trying to tie its brands to big social issues. But the move, which has sparked backlash on social media, also illustrates how those efforts can fall flat if customers don't see a clear correlation between the cause and the company's products. U.S. workers for the coffee chain that is best known for its Frappuccinos have been told to write "Race Together" on cups. The company also plans to start publishing "conversation guides" on the topic, with questions like...

NASHVILLE, TN — On Tuesday, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson spoke at Impact Symposium at Vanderbilt University on the topic of “How You See It: Perceptions of (In)Equality.” Robinson commented on the Republicans opposing President Barack Obama and their perception of being racist for doing so. “I have written in my column, actually, that I wish there were a Republican Party that would actually go after African-American votes and like, not be racist,” he said. ...(more w/audio)...

link only: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/03/16/google-code-2040-tech-diversity-nation/70302194/

Rapper Azealia Banks lashed out at “racist conservative white people” and “fat white Americans” in a wide-ranging, race-heavy interview for her cover of Playboy magazine this month. “Yes! I hate everything about this country,” Banks replied when Playboy asked if she wanted to leave the United States. “Like, I hate fat white Americans. All the people who are crunched into the middle of America, the real fat and meat of America, are these racist conservative white people who live on their farms.”

Why? Why can’t conservatives see that black people are relentless victims of relentless white racism, all the time, everywhere, and that explains everything? That is what Rand Paul and his acolytes at RedState want to know. Why are Neanderthals like economist John Lott unmoved by a recent Department of Justice report that said white police are picking on black people for No Reason What So Ever? Most recently in Ferguson, where even Bill O’Reilly bought into it. Rand Paul has been preaching the gospel of racial victimization to anyone who will listen. He even went to Ferguson to let them...

Long before Michelle Obama became First Lady, her mother had misgivings about her marrying a young man named Barack Obama — because he was biracial. In a Chicago TV interview that aired during Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign — and newly resurrected by Michelle Obama biographer Peter Slevin in a book due out next month — Marion Robinson confessed to being “a little bit” wary about her future son-in-law being the product of a white mom and black dad. But it could’ve been worse, according to Robinson. “That didn’t concern me as much as had he been completely white,” Robinson...

Long before Michelle Obama became First Lady, her mother had misgivings about her marrying a young man named Barack Obama — because he was biracial. In a Chicago TV interview that aired during Obama’s 2004 U.S. Senate campaign — and newly resurrected by Michelle Obama biographer Peter Slevin in a book due out next month — Marion Robinson confessed to being “a little bit” wary about her future son-in-law being the product of a white mom and black dad. But it could’ve been worse, according to Robinson. “That didn’t concern me as much as had he been completely white,” Robinson...

Santa Rosa City Schools officials are investigating what some students at Maria Carrillo High School claim was a “racist” pep rally skit that depicts Latino immigrants being rounded up by immigration officials. According to students who attended the school rally last Friday and a brief video on YouTube, the skit shows students — some of them Latino — dancing to regional Mexican music, or banda norteña. Suddenly the dancers are interrupted by a siren and immigration enforcement officers. They are forced to show their green cards. One of the students, presumably an undocumented immigrant, tries to run away and is...

The most recent news from Ferguson concerns what Eric Holder has rightly called the “ambush shooting” of two police officers outside the city’s police department. This incident occurred in the wake of two detailed reports released by the Department of Justice. The first report deals in depth with the shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The report recommended that the case against him be closed. The second DOJ report contained a scathing indictment of the sad state of affairs within the entire criminal justice system of Ferguson. The combined effect of these two reports is likely...

Turn on the news and you expect to see people of different races and politics denouncing each other. That's why what happened last week on "The Kelly File," Megyn Kelly's Fox News program, was so remarkable. Following the expulsion of Parker Rice and Levi Pettit, two Sigma Alpha Epsilon members at the University of Oklahoma, upon the video release of a racist sing-a-long they led, Isaac Hill, the president of the university's Black Student Association, told Kelly the students should be forgiven. Kelly, who is normally in complete control, was stunned and nearly speechless. It was not what she...

Full headline: Huh? Mother Jones Explains Why Eating 3 Square Meals A Day is Actually Racist.According to an essay by Mother Jones Senior Editor Kiera Butler, eating three meals a day is “anti-science, racist, and might actually be making you sick.” Butler’s astounding proclamation that three square meals is “racist” is supported by her interview with Historian Abigail Carroll, who wrote the book Three Squares: The Invention of the American Meal: When European settlers got to America, they also imported their meal habits: a light meal—maybe cold mush and radishes—in the morning, a heavier, cooked one midday, and a third...

A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of sending a racist tweet aimed at Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck. SNIP The 15-year-old boy SNIP

A conservative radio show host used the story of Black teenage girls viciously assaulting another girl at a Brooklyn McDonald’s as an opportunity to direct a stunningly inaccurate and racist diatribe against the entire Black race. During a recent segment on his show, Texas-based host Michael Berry attempted to draw a comparison between the behavior of Black people and white people while attacking the girls involved in the McDonald’s beating. “We have people living in our country who are savages. Absolutely, positively savages, to engage in this kind of behavior,” Berry said, making it clear he’s talking about Black people....

White students were discriminated against at Ryerson University because, ironically, they had never been discriminated against. Two students tried to attend Ryerson’s Racialized Students’ Collective on March 11. However, when Trevor Hewitt and Julia Knope tried to enter, they were told they were “not victims of racialization,” and were thus barred from entering. The judgement was apparently made based solely on the color of Hewitt’s and Knope’s skin. “It felt really bad… kind of embarrassing,” Knope told the campus paper. “If their goal in these meetings was to end racialization then it needs to be something everybody is involved in....

Professor of multicutural education at Westfield State University Robin DiAngelo has a message for white people living in the United States: it doesn't matter what hardships you've had to face, you still have white privilege. In an interview published today, Professor DiAngelo talked about "white fragility," or how white people dismiss racial issues like "white privilege." According to the interviewer, Sam Adler-Bell, a story about a Jewish person's struggle against Nazi tyranny "followed a familiar script" for Dr. DiAngelo: a white person is offended when someone says they still are privileged, even though they've faced hardships in their lives. "It’s...

A search is underway for two male suspects who opened fire in South Los Angeles Sunday, leaving two LAPD officers injured. The shooting was reported in the area of 65th Street and Broadway just before 6 p.m., police said. The officers, who were in plain clothes at the time of the shooting, were treated at the scene and are in good condition.

There is no defense for the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri ("2 Ferguson police officers shot in protest outside station," March 13 news story). It was a cowardly act and the perpetrators should be punished to the full extent of the law. However, even more problematic to me is that the event wasn’t shocking. With our culture of gun violence and regular shootings of young black males, only someone who has no understanding of America could be genuinely shocked. Blacks have come far — we can celebrate a black president and attorney general — but racism is...

It now seems likely that “Ferguson” will endure as a synonym for injustice — lingering racial injustice that is real and tragic enough in America today. But the bitter (and apparently forbidden) truth is that Ferguson’s unique and special infamy in this regard actually results from another injustice — a cruel slander perpetrated against former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, and by extension against the Missouri town and police department that put him on the streets. What’s worse, to judge from events earlier this month — and with tensions rising anew after last week’s shooting of two cops — that...