Free Republic

I am safe on the plane now. On the way to Los Angeles International Airport this afternoon, I thought I was about to be murdered. In the run-up to a weeklong business trip, I called the car service I've been using for years to pick me up at my home. The driver arrived promptly at 1:30 p.m., the arranged time. The ride to the airport started out just fine. The driver began making small talk. I noticed he had a Jamaican flag on his dashboard, so I asked if he was Jamaican. He said he was, and he asked if...

Last year, more than 7 million American people -- that’s about one in every 32 adults -- were behind bars, on probation or parole. The United States has, for years, imprisoned more people than any other country in the world. Yet, we don’t have the highest literacy rate.... (snip) Inner-city schools fail half of their students, and jobs are removed from communities, replaced with guns and drugs, resulting in incarceration, if you’re lucky; death if you’re not. Nonetheless, many U.S. states have cut their education budgets to compensate for rapid growth in prison populations and prison construction. The misguided priorities...

Indianapolis -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday blamed racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city's ability to weather Hurricane Katrina and recover from the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast nearly a year ago. In remarks to the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, Nagin said the hurricane "exposed the soft underbelly of America as it relates to dealing with race and class." "And I, to this day, believe that if that would have happened in Orange County, California, if that would have happened in South Beach, Miami, it would have been a different...

In an interview, Young was asked whether he was concerned that Wal-Mart causes smaller, mom-and-pop stores to close. ``Well, I think they should; they ran the 'mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood,'' the paper quoted Young as saying. ``But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores.'' Young said he...

Not at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Of nearly 10,000 black students who graduated from Los Angeles County high schools this past June, just 1 percent will attend UCLA, according to NPR's Morning Edition. Why? For many, the culprit is Proposition 209, the 1996 anti-affirmative-action bill backed by former UC Regent Ward Connerly, which made it illegal to use race-based preferences in admissions, employment and contracting throughout the state. When Connerly's term ended in January 2005, his message was clear: Don't bring back affirmative action, according to Black Issues in Higher Education. UC may not be able to...

HAMILTON OPP officers assigned to the native standoff in Caledonia say their bosses have put their public image ahead of officer safety and law and order. Talking for the first time since the volatile land occupation began 100 days ago, the president of the Ontario Provincial Police Association said a meeting is being held tonight in Caledonia so the association can hear the concerns of officers who have been told not to wear riot gear or tactical uniforms when dealing with native protestors, are being sent out without proper back-up and are left wondering if commanding officers and the courts...

A white woman said she was in shock after a black man threw a 10-inch chunk of concrete at her sport utility vehicle in what police were labeling a hate crime. Kim McCandless, of West Islip, was driving to the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa on Monday with her two daughters, a niece and a nephew, all between 7 months and 4 years old, when the concrete struck her windshield. No one was injured. McCandless said she made eye contact with the attacker before he threw the concrete. "I was in shock," she said. "I didn't understand why. Why me, why...

The worst thing said in the case involving rape charges against Duke University students was not said by either the prosecutor or the defense attorneys, or even by any of the accusers or the accused. It was said by a student at North Carolina Central University, a black institution attended by the stripper who made rape charges against Duke lacrosse players. According to Newsweek, the young man at NCCU said that he wanted to see the Duke students prosecuted, "whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past." This is the ugly attitude...

BRITAIN’S most senior policeman Sir Ian Blair is facing a race relations dilemma after the release of figures that reveal almost half the number of people arrested in relation to car crime in London are black. Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has signed off a report by his force’s traffic unit which shows that black people account for 46% of all arrests generated by new automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras. The technology allows car registration plates to be scanned and automatically run through databases to determine whether a vehicle is stolen, uninsured or has not had its road tax paid....

BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics,... Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men. ...These were among the recent findings: ¶The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly...dropouts.... ¶Incarceration rates climbed in...

Reverend Jackson criticizes hurricane relief efforts, news coverage CHICAGO The Reverend Jesse Jackson is criticizing the news media and the Bush administration, saying they are hampering rescue and relief efforts in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Jackson spoke today at his Rainbow Push Coalition headquarters in Chicago. He says the Bush administration should have had a better emergency plan. Jackson also says the news media have portrayed blacks as looters and refugees, rather than citizens. Jackson returned to Chicago early today from Louisiana -- where he'd transported ten busloads of people out of New Orleans.

Tune to CSPAN now for THE RALLY!