Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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So, this is the legacy you want, John McCain?

You did not start the race division between the Republican and Democratic Parties, but you are feeding it generously. We can most likely find its birth in the moments after Lyndon Johnson had addressed Congress, advocating for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and uttering three words that transformed the political divide for the next 43 years.

He looked out at his colleagues and the nation and said, “We shall overcome.” [ LBJ video ] How’s that for guts? Could you have mustered such courage?

On January 2, 1960, John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. A month later—on February 1st, 1960—four African American college students asked to be served in an all-white restaurant at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, an act that gave birth to the Sit-In movement. Those two events had a great impact on me at the time and have since then, but there is no way I could have imagined how they would cast forty-eight year old shadows across the presidential election of 2008.

In my first year of graduate school in a Methodist seminary in Dallas, Texas, the 1960 presidential election was my first opportunity to vote. My social ethics professor, the one who a year later would take me to hear Dr. Martin Luther King at a voter registration rally, was also instrumental in getting me involved in JFK’s campaign in Dallas. When I volunteered to help, I was given a car full of JFK/LBJ signs to give to friends who would put them up in their yards. I didn’t know anybody but students in Dallas and so didn’t do a very good job. But I was committed to the JFK candidacy and embarrassed by the anti-Catholic bigotry all around me.

Today's New York Times piece about the role of race in American politics and American society is a deeply disappointing expose of how far we've got to go. But instead of wringing our hands and lamenting the problem, let's confront the issue directly, all the better to put it aside.

A color-blind society may never be in the cards for us. We're too pluralistic a society, for one, and second of all it's an oversimplification to think that even those of us who share the same skin color would think with one voice, or be one monolithic entity. This is the nation of rugged individualism, after all. And by this, I aim to emphasize we may simply be unable undo the ways things are and may always be.

by Mikhail Lyubansky

“Fiction,” said Stephen King, “is the truth inside the lie.” The problem is (apart from the necessary mental calisthenics involved in deciphering this comment) is that, for many filmgoers, it may well be the only truth they get, at least about some issues. It is therefore noteworthy that recent films (and of course the books and comics that spawned them) such as X-Men and Harry Potter have explicitly taken on racial issues and race relations. As a result, important issues such as blood purity, group prejudice, and even eugenics have become part of the dialog – both online and at the kitchen table. With several more Harry Potter and X-Men films currently in production, these themes are likely to remain in our cultural dialog for the foreseeable future.

Carter Camp gave me his permission to repost his essay entitled “Mass Racial Taunting; America’s Weekend Sport” in the comments of "Stereotypical Elements (that) appear… in Athletic Contests" posted at Native American Netroots. I had mentioned that I wanted to cite the Shadow Report as an introduction, so here’s what the Consolidated Indigenous Shadow Report says about Indian Mascots on page 72.

The speech on race took away any doubt I had about Obama standing up for what is right. As an Edwards supporter I was wary of Obama's fight, not when it comes to Democrats but when it comes to the forces of evil that I believe exists in our Country today. Those forces not only benefit from a racial and class divide in our Country but they profit, profusely.

The politically expedient thing to do would be for Obama to leave his Church and to say that he no longer considers Wright to be an ally or a friend. Would that be the right thing to do though? I've heard many say that Obama would do anything to be President and the speech he gave proved to me that is not the case at all. Obama took the high road, something so few politicians do, not in order to win votes but to declare that we cannot dispose of those we vehemently disagree with if we want to make any progress or change.

Obama displayed to me what he means by reaching across the aisle, that because we may not like what other people stand for we have to work with them if we are to get anything done. Obama epitomized what he's been saying throughout his campaign in this speech, that we cannot have politics as usual anymore.

When Barack Obama gave his speech on "A More Perfect Union", the public was treated to something different and almost hypnotic; a Politician who didn't duck the issue, "disown" his pastor for remarks that shocked many Americans, but instead - Senator Obama faced the controversy head-on and attempted to bridge the gap of racial divisiveness that often muddies the waters whenever someone plays the "race card" and responded with a message that resonated with truth and power! Mr. Obama uttered words that are often whispered about or spoke of in the privacy of our homes, black and white; for once, the 600 Lb Gorilla that co-exists in millions of families across this country was acknowledged and for all practical purposes, was laid bare for all of us who have open minds to examine and analyze.

Here is a link to the text as well.

Okay, that’s just a catchy headline. The problem isn’t with progress, but our reaction to it. When it comes to social progress, America is like a chronically ill person who stops taking his meds prematurely once the most egregious symptoms are gone.

Regarding racial inequality and black Americans, our country took its “medicine” through civil war, grassroots rebellion and governmental upheaval. As a result, the most egregious symptoms of racism are gone—slavery, lynching “parties,” poll taxes, “sundown towns” and government-sanctioned (or at least ignored) hate crimes against black citizens, are for the most part, sad stories from out past. And so, America put away its medicine. And because we have stopped having substantive racial dialogue, because we have too soon forgotten the sins of yesterday and too long ignored the sins of today, America’s low-grade fever is turning into an infection: a race-torn presidential primary where a nationally-known politician can say without irony that black men are privileged in American culture, and even white progressives are shocked at the anger coming from the pulpit of a black church.

From recent conversations in the media and online, several things are clear to me:

Why say “Dead Warrior Creek,” when racism fuels cultural hegemony so well?

Source

The official name now is Dead Warrior Lake, ending for some a controversy over the lake's name that has been going on for almost a decade.

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Pointing Out the Monsters among the Sheep
By David Glenn Cox

They beat a 14-year-old child to death for a minor offense and the law says they did no wrong. Emmett Till was 14 when he was beaten to death in Mississippi back in 1955. He had supposedly whistled at a white woman but that minor offense carried a death sentence. Martin Lee Anderson had stolen his grandmother’s car and was sentenced to boot camp where he was executed for his crime.

When will anyone say "enough is enough" and take Bill O'Reilly off the air?

copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org

Crossposted at Progressive American Patriot

Conservatives have been extremely good at using deceptive talking points to redefine Ann Coulter's homophobia, Don Imus' sexism and racism, and John McCain's warmongering gaffes into a debate over liberal overreactions, hip hop, and whether Congress is surrendering to the terrorists. Progressives must shift the debate back to reality if they hope to bring the troops home and select a progressive president from a diverse field of Democrats. The Republican party has some explaining to do for its support of bigots and the warmongers.