Free Republic

Jon Greenberg, an award-winning public high school teacher and writer, is teaching his classes that "whites" wear the "boot of racism" in the United States, and for that reason, it is up to white people to end racism in the US. Writing for the website Citizenship and Social Justice, Mr. Greenberg outlined his ideas on teaching race in an article titled, "Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–from Ferguson to Charleston." When teaching his class, he tells them to "think of racism as a gigantic societal-sized boot." He then asks them several questions. First, he asks,...

“When it comes to church burnings, many African Americans see the difference between an official hate crime and an act of ‘vandalism’ as an issue of semantics, especially given the long, painful history of racists intentionally—and largely independently—setting fire to black churches all over the country,” – Jack Jenkins, ThinkProgress In recent weeks, investigators have been examining the circumstances surrounding a series of fires at predominantly black, southern churches. While some of the more recent fires were ruled accidental, authorities found evidence for arson in at least three cases. Burning black churches has a long, well-documented history as a white...

Huffington Post contributor John Metta published an article this past week in order to tell white people that pretty much everything in our culture is racist. According to Metta, this was originally "a "sermon" that I gave as a "congregational reflection" to an all White audience at the Bethel Congregational United Church of Christ." The piece, "I, Racist," lists a large number of things that sometimes don't even appear related to one another which are "racist," to the point where it seems that nearly everything that exists in American culture is problematic. Here are just a few things that Metta...

In American letters and mythology, there are few characters as noble as Atticus Finch. The gentleman, lawyer, and single father from Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” has been the very model of masculine decency for decades. Whether through the dulcet delivery of the classic novel or the buttoned-up dignity of Gregory Peck’s movie portrayal, Atticus has been loved as few figures of fiction have. As reviews trickle out for Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman,” written before, but taking place after, her masterpiece, one bit of news has dominated: Atticus Finch is a racist. Had he been a historical figure,...

Scott Walker is a now officially a Republican candidate for president, joining a field of roughly 47,351 other candidates vying for the GOP nod. Unlike some other current and former governors in the race, Walker actually enters the fray in fairly good position to win the nomination – he is as of this writing in second place nationally, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, and he’s the current frontrunner in Iowa, outpacing his closest rival by a full eight points. As it’s in the cornfields of Iowa that Walker’s hopes and dreams are sown. He’s running to win the Iowa...

Speaking to a cheering Latino crowd, Sanders promised he would bring justice to undocumented people. Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke out against racism and advocated for significant immigration reform on Monday, contesting media criticism that he has failed to connect with African-American and Latin American communities. Sanders spoke at the National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino advocacy group in the U.S., to share his views on racism, immigration reform and economic inequality in the country. After recognizing the history of racism that “has played in the United States since its inception,” including the near-genocide of Native Americans...

While radical leftists dust off their 60’s and 70’s Marxist yearbooks, dawn their holy Che Guevara t-shirts, wave the black flag of the ISIS JV team, desecrate century-old memorials with ‘Black Lives Matter’, dig up confederate soldiers in the name of progress and rewrite their politically incorrect history to remove the last traces of common sense from the American frontier, perhaps the time has come to ban the most pervasive and offensive embodiment of racism in America: the Democratic Party. Not only did Democrats constitute the beating heart and unrelenting face of human trafficking in America – streamlining commercial operations...

Glenn Nelson of the New York Times asked last week, "Why Are Our Parks So White?" Mr. Nelson believes that race plays a role in visiting national parks and not enough minorities are going to parks. According to Nelson, "The national parks attracted a record 292.8 million visitors in 2014, but a vast majority were white and aging. The most recent survey commissioned by the park service on visitation, released in 2011, found that 22 percent of visitors were minorities, though they make up some 37 percent of the population. "This suggests an alarming disconnect," he writes. Nelson believes that...

In the wake of the recent murders in a South Carolina church, the killer's hope of igniting a race war produced the opposite effect. Blacks and whites in South Carolina came together to condemn his act and the race hate behind it. Some saw in the decision to remove the Confederate flag from in front of the state house a symbolic repudiation of the old South's racial past — and the end of the Civil War. But, unfortunately, wars do not end until both sides decide that it is over. The black parishioners who expressed forgiveness toward the killer did...

Quote: "In early 1955, John Sammons Bell, chairman of the State Democratic Party and attorney for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) suggested a new state flag for Georgia that would incorporate the Confederate Battle Flag. At the 1956 session of the General Assembly, state senators Jefferson Lee Davis and Willis Harden introduced Senate Bill 98 to change the state flag. Signed into law on February 13, 1956, the bill became effective the following July 1." Another: In 1948, the battle flag began to take on a different meaning when it appeared at the Dixiecrat convention in Birmingham as...

Why did the southern states reward a racist murderer by making him the most significant southern political figure since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Are southern politicians so ignorant that they don’t understand that the people who commit such crimes do so to get attention? Why are they aiding and abetting his effort to steal the Confederate Flag and make it a symbol of racism? Why are they trying to cause whites to be mad at blacks and possibly hate them?

With his angry rants against undocumented immigrants, Donald Trump is a stark reminder of the GOP’s terrible problem with Latino voters. In short, Latinos don’t like—or trust—the Republican Party. But Trump also illustrates a second, more complicated problem. As long as his rhetoric has a place in Republican politics—as long as it has defenders—it won’t just alienate Latinos. It will offend and turn off voters who have conservative ideas and beliefs but won’t sanction or support anti-immigrant sentiment. Before looking at this other side to the “Latino problem,” it’s worth examining the first one. In the past two presidential elections,...

Now that South Carolina has taken down the Confederate flag flying on statehouse grounds, MSNBC is drumming the five whose state flags incorporate “Confederate themes.” MAP: The 5 states that still have flags with #ConfederateFlag themes. #ConfederateTakeDown pic.twitter.com/HkYOHEoQX5 — bernie lubell (@bernielubell) July 10, 2015 They continue to prove liberals are never satisfied. We fought the Civil War. We ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. We have the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The civil-rights movement was a success. Now, we have South Carolina pulling down the Confederate flag. But it’s still not enough....

To no one’s real surprise, the national Confederate-flag debate turns out not to be about flags alone. It’s not even truly about history. And it’s certainly not about dealing with the issues of crime and poverty that still disproportionately impact the black community. It has now moved entirely into the realm of raw cultural and political power. It’s an identity-politics hammer that is “heads, I win; tails, you lose” for all too many conservatives. With the Left in the lead, you’re either a racist for refusing to bulldoze history or — if you go along — you’re still a racist,...

It’s an Obama world. A mob of black youths attacked a woman near the University of Chicago with children in the back seat. The youths were using racial slurs as the beat the car. Her two children were covered in broken glass. The youths threw a bike through her back window. ABC 7 reported: “Her car damaged, her nerves shaken, the victim of an alleged group attack near the University of Chicago campus with her children in the back seat of her car talked exclusively with ABC7 Eyewitness News about the incident Friday night. Police say two people were arrested...

On Wednesday afternoon, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced with fanfare the closing of a June 23 homicide case in which the victim was found dead in a burning trash bin. One unsolved murder down, countless more to go. * Most pulling the triggers or wielding the knives are believed to be African American males, too. Unless sensational, like a quadruple murder in an upscale Northwest neighborhood, a prominent reporter’s slaying or a brutal stabbing on a Metro train with eyewitnesses, most murders don’t hit the headlines. Especially those that occur in neighborhoods...

Rep. Louie Gohmert took to the House floor to deliver an impassioned speech about history, with a lesson on hypocrisy, reminding the nation and those on the left the rabbit hole of removing all things perceived as racist – like the Confederate flag – is a deep one that leads right to the Democratic Party. The context of Gohmert’s remarks was the nationwide condemnation of the Confederate flag, leading to a congressional attempt to boot the banner from some federally managed properties. Gohmert first reminded the cause of the shooting at the Charleston, South Carolina, church that left nine dead...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)It’s true. Black America spends a good amount of time discussing race, thinking about race, experiencing race, and living through the trauma these conversations and incidents based on race bring. No surprise there — our Black and Brown skin has for so long bound us to a contentious relationship with a country that created a system of privileges and rules that disenfranchise and oppress minorities. That’s true, too. And although conversations about race have dominated media and social media, although Black and Brown people are still being unjustly treated or killed, and although a gunman stormed a historically Black church...

Another hugely dramatic day at the Tour de France, during which race leader Tony Martin abandoned the race with a fractured collarbone following a multi-rider pile-up and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali allegedly threw a bottle at new race leader Chris Froome, whom he accused of having caused the fall, ended in a racism controversy. It was claimed that an MTN Qhubeka rider was called a “f–– n––” during yesterday’s fourth stage of the Tour of Austria. The South African team’s principal, Doug Ryder, claimed last night that the incident was far from a one-off, alleging further racist abuse and bullying...

The "Racialised Students' Collective" of Ryerson University is warning "whites/non-racialised people" that their "race and ethnicity is taking up space and silencing others." In February, they held a "racial micro aggression campaign" and posted these pictures online: In March they held a meeting to create "anti-racism" on campus: Now, the RSC is telling white people that their "race and ethnicity is taking up space and silencing others:" According to the Racialised Student Collective, simply being white is oppressive to people, even if you do not speak or act in a racist manner. They judge you poorly based completely on the...