Category: Racism

Jesse Jackson, Please STFU

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What is happening to the Jena Six in Louisiana is a racist bigoted miscarriage of justice. There Jesse Jackson and I agree.

The Democratic party should be doing more about this. There Jesse Jackson and I agree.

The presidential candidates should be doing more about this. There Jesse Jackson and I agree.

That being said, when Jesse Jackson critics Barack Obama for “acting like he’s white” , he’s jumped the shark.

I’m not in a position to discuss whether or not Senator Obama has a special obligation to address this issue, but I am saying that ALL the presidential candidates should address this, and come out against the bigoted, vindictive, and (conveniently) Republican political establishment in Jena, Louisiana.

This isn’t “acting white”. This is simply being timid, and it can be addressed to all the presidential candidates, and to the Democratic party establishment in Louisiana too.

Iraq War Brings Drop in Black Enlistees – New York Times

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There is an interesting article in the NY Times regarding precipitous drop in Black enlistment in the military.

The sharpest decline in black recruitment has been experienced by the Army, which has the most troops deployed in Iraq; black recruits dropped to 13 percent of the Army’s total in 2006 from 23 percent in 2001. In the Marines, with the second-largest force in Iraq, the share of black recruits decreased to 8 percent from 12 percent in the same period. There were also declines in the Navy and the Air Force, though not as great as those in the two other services.

To provide some perspective, note that Blacks are about 13% of the US population.

As a traditionally economically disadvantaged community, it should be noted that Blacks are traditionally more likely to enlist, as doing so is perceived as a way out of poverty and America’s profoundly dysfunctional ghettos.

“I’m not really into going overseas with guns and fighting other people’s wars,” said Mr. Finch, 18, headed to college this fall to study accounting.

While the fact that we are mired in a senseless quagmire in Iraq, this quote highlights another aspect of the drop, that many Blacks feel divorced from the US Government, and in particular George W. Bush, with whom the Iraq war is closely associated.

Additionally, it should be noted that one of the reasons that Black ghetto youth joined the military was to get away from gang activity in their neighborhoods, and because of the lowered recruiting standards, gang members, and gang culture, have increasingly entered the military.

Our military is being destroyed, and in a much more profound and long lasting way, by our fools errand in Mesopotamia.

Brits to US: Sod Off in Afghanistan!!!

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This is interesting, it appears that the British operating in Southern Afghanistan want the US to stop operations in their area.

A senior British commander in southern Afghanistan said in recent weeks that he had asked that American Special Forces leave his area of operations because the high level of civilian casualties they had caused was making it difficult to win over local people.

ther British officers here in Helmand Province, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized American Special Forces for causing most of the civilian deaths and injuries in their area. They also expressed concerns that the Americans’ extensive use of air power was turning the people against the foreign presence as British forces were trying to solidify recent gains against the Taliban.

An American military spokesman denied that the request for American forces to leave was ever made, either formally or otherwise, or that they had caused most of the casualties. But the episode underlines differences of opinion among NATO and American military forces in Afghanistan on tactics for fighting Taliban insurgents, and concerns among soldiers about the consequences of the high level of civilians being killed in fighting.

The US military has a culture that is disastrous in a counter-insurgency situation.

There is a general disregard for civilian casualties, and an understanding of these consequences that I believe comes from an unwillingness to ascribe basic human motives to the indigenous population, along with an over-reliance on air-power.

This racism (and what else can you call dehumanizing someone in this way) is disastrous in a counter-insurgency situation, and the British are calling the US on this.

I understand the difficulties of dealing with a situation where the insurgents blend into the population, but if a police force were to, as a matter of policy, shoot hostages, there would be justified outrage.

This is worse than wrong, it’s aiding the enemy.

Republicans Hate Brown People More than They Value Their Word

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Republicans protest pensions for Filipinos
By Rick Maze – Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 24, 2007 15:46:17 EDT

Republicans on the House Veterans Affairs Committee are trying to scuttle a committee-passed plan to provide pensions for World War II-era Filipino Scouts by getting a major veterans’ service organization to question whether this is the highest priority for improved benefits.

In a letter, the 13 Republicans on the committee complain about being blocked on July 17 from offering amendments that would have redirected the $875 million being spent on disability pay and pensions for Filipino veterans, including those who are not American citizens and who don’t even live in the U.S.

…….

Filner said during the July 17 session in which the bill was passed that he was trying to fulfill a promise made at the end of World War II to provide benefits to people who fought on behalf of U.S. interests but were not part of the U.S. military.

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It should also be noted that they were citizens of the US when the fought. The Philippines were a US colony at the time.

This is all about another phony way to cast Democrats as N***** lovers.

All-White Jury. Nope, no racism here.

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Bet you haven’t heard about this in the news, but a European paper, the International Herald Tribune, did.
All-white jury likely to hear racial fight case in Louisiana

The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

JENA, Louisiana: An all-white jury was seated Tuesday to hear the case against the first of the “Jena Six” — a group of black youths accused of beating a white fellow student amid racial discord at a Louisiana school.

Five women and a man will hear opening arguments Wednesday morning at the courthouse in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, where the black population is only about 12 percent.

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The approaching trial had led to allegations of racism from parents of the accused, who said the original charges — attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder — were out of proportion to the crime. The charges carry a combined sentence of 80 years.

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The racial tension began in late August in Jena — a central Louisiana town of 2,900 with about 350 black residents — after a black student sat under a tree traditionally used as a gathering spot by white students. The next month, three nooses were hanging in the tree when students arrived on campus.

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The school’s principal recommended the students who hung the nooses be expelled, but they served brief suspensions instead.

On Dec. 4, Justin Barker, who is white, was attacked at school by a small group of black students. He was treated at a hospital.

Yes, It Is Racist, Beds Are Burning Edition

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(It’s a reference to the song by Midnight Oil.

Australian clampdown on Aborigines condemned as racist

Fri Jun 22, 1:44 AM ET

An Australian government plan to ban alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal communities to try to curb rampant child sexual abuse was labelled racist and knee-jerk by indigenous groups Friday.

Prime Minister John Howard announced the unprecedented measures on Thursday following a government report detailing paedophilia and juvenile prostitution in Aboriginal communities across Australia’s vast Northern Territory.

As government ministers appealed on national television for health professionals to help solve what Howard described as a “national emergency”, critics said Canberra’s plan had been hastily prepared and poorly thought out.

Indigenous activist Michael Mansell accused Howard of trying to stir hysteria against Aborigines ahead of national elections later this year, where the prime minister’s conservative government will seek a fifth term in office.

Mansell said the government’s plans singled out Aborigines.

“It would be different if his social behaviour strategy applied to everyone in Australia, but it doesn’t, making his policies racist,” said Mansell, the director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.

“This is a racist attack on the weak and an immoral abuse of power, amounting to nothing more than political vote scoring.”

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Emphasis mine

Republicans Piss Away Hispanic vote.

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Truth be told, I tend toward the restrictive side to immigration, but it’s not over concern about Hispanics.

I’m more concerned with potentially importing anti-Semitic Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, or Estonian skinheads than I am about someone from Latin America, and I’m not too concerned about them.

I’m not that concerned about the above either. When people come to America, they tend to leave a lot of that behind, which is a good thing.

I’m concerned about immigration being used to depress wages, and it is used that way with H1b and L-1 visas, and the repeated suggestions about slave labor guest workers, who would constitute a permanent underclass.

I also agree with Paul Krugman’s assessment that a large underclass creates a breeding ground for right wing politics.

That being said, there are clearly is both a right wing and a left wing position on expanded immigration (cheap labor and empatyh respectively) and on more restricted immigration (racism and wages respectively).

Personally, I favor a bounty program for illegals who rat out employers.

That being said, the Republican anti-immigration side is clearly racist, and it shows to the newly minted Americans.

New mood from new citizens

Latino immigrants in South Florida who have traditionally registered with the GOP have felt alienated by the party, critics say.
By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer
June 16, 2007

MIAMI BEACH — As a Cuban who fled Fidel Castro’s communist rule for a new life in the U.S., Julio Izquierdo would seem a natural Republican voter — a sure bet to adopt the same political lineage that has long guided most of his countrymen who resettled in South Florida.

But moments after taking his oath this week to become a U.S. citizen and registering to vote, the grocery store employee said he felt no such allegiances.

“I don’t know whether Bush is a Democrat or a Republican, but whatever he is, I’m voting the other way,” Izquierdo, 20, said Thursday as he waited for a taxi after a mass naturalization ceremony at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Izquierdo said he did not like President Bush’s handling of the Iraq war and was miffed at politicians, most of them Republican, who seem to dislike immigrants.

That sentiment, expressed by several of the 6,000 new citizens who took their oaths Thursday in group ceremonies that take place regularly in immigrant-heavy cities nationwide, underscored the troubled environment facing the GOP in the buildup to next year’s presidential election.

Surveys show that among Latino voters — a bloc Bush had hoped to woo into the Republican camp — negative views about the party are growing amid a bitter debate over immigration policy.

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Doughy Pantload Wants to Eliminate Public Schools

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Let’s be clear about this. There are two goals here. Eliminating the teachers’ unions, because they support dems, and resegregating schools.

Do away with public schools – Los Angeles Times
Jonah Goldberg

Government is inept at running schools. It should subsidize education for needy students, then get out of the way.
June 12, 2007

HERE’S A GOOD question for you: Why have public schools at all?

OK, cue the marching music. We need public schools because blah blah blah and yada yada yada. We could say blah is common culture and yada is the government’s interest in promoting the general welfare. Or that children are the future. And a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Because we can’t leave any child behind.

he problem with all these bromides is that they leave out the simple fact that one of the surest ways to leave a kid “behind” is to hand him over to the government. Americans want universal education, just as they want universally safe food. But nobody believes that the government should run 90% of the restaurants, farms and supermarkets. Why should it run 90% of the schools — particularly when it gets terrible results?

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This is All About Racism

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Let’s be clear. This case was about stringing up a black man from the beginning, and the DA is stringing it out because it’s good politics there.

Tough on crime=Keeping the N%^$#@s down.

Appeal blocks release in teen sex case – CNN.com: “ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Prosecutors filed a notice of appeal on Monday in the case of Genarlow Wilson, blocking him from being released from prison, his attorney B.J. Bernstein said.

Wilson is serving a 10-year prison sentence for a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old girl that occurred when he was 17.

Earlier in the day, a judge in Monroe County, Georgia, voided that sentence and said Wilson should be released.

The judge ruled Wilson could serve one year, less than he has already served, and that he would not be listed as a sex offender.