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John McCain Hates Me
An Asian-American perspective on Senator John McCain's campaign and his use of the racial slur 'gook'
*Update*
Wow, I didn't know my video would garner this much attention, but I'm very glad that a conversation has started around the subject matter. Thank you for your kind comments.
Here is the link to the article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/0... An Asian-American perspective on Senator John McCain's campaign and his use of the racial slur 'gook' *Update* ... more -
Don Haskins 1930 - 2008
Coach Don Haskins passed away Sunday, September 7, 2008. He is most known for being the first coach to start five African-American players in the NCAA tournament championship game in 1966, while coaching Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso).
Coach Haskins died of congestive heart failure at age 78. Coach Don Haskins passed away Sunday, September 7, 2008. He is most known for being the first coach to start five African-American pl... more -
Black history to be taught as part of school curriculum
Radical changes to the secondary school timetable will be introduced next week with key alterations including more emphasis on the study of black Britons and other ethnic minority groups in the history curriculum.
Pupils will be told they should study topics such as the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and the work of reformers such as William Wilberforce, the MP who campaigned for its abolition.
Teachers are encouraged to "brainstorm" issues such as slavery, asking questions such as "did slaves have rights?" and "does slavery exist in the world today?"
However, curriculum planners are anxious that the subject should not just portray ethnic minority groups as victims during history lessons. Topics on the Civil Rights Movement in the US, Mughal India and the arrival of the British in India will also be included.
The aim of the latter is to show that civilisation did not just begin with Britain and the rest of the Western world in the 19th century.
Traditionalists have criticised the curriculum content for specifying characters such as Wilberforce and Equiano by name while omitting mention of noted politicians such as Sir Winston Churchill.
However, curriculum planners argue that there is still a strong emphasis on the study of the Second World War – and that teachers are sufficiently intelligent to realise they cannot teach the topic without mentioning Churchill's role in it. They point out that Hitler is missing too, and that it would be impossible to teach the topic without mentioning him either. Radical changes to the secondary school timetable will be introduced next week with key alterations including more emphasis on the stu... more -
This week the Presidential race pulled dead even
McCain has caught up to Obama in the influential Pew poll.
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Iranian-American youth struggle to define themselves
Teens at Camp Ayandeh learn how to blend their parents' history and culture with their contemporary lifestyles.
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(excerpt)
Ramin Ostadhosseini needed to vent, and this gathering seemed the place to do it.
"I get Raymond, Roman and sometimes Ramen noodles," he told the circle, describing how non-Iranians butcher his name.
This group felt his pain. Here, sprawled out on a manicured lawn at Emory University were dozens of youths attending a weeklong summer camp designed to generate discussion on what it means to be Iranian-American.
(continues) Teens at Camp Ayandeh learn how to blend their parents' history and culture with their contemporary lifestyles. ------ ... more -
Sometimes, the n-word says it all
"Forgive me, for I have sinned. I have reveled in the joys of the n-word. This is my testimony, the confession of a "nigger" lover.
Oh, how will I ever get my point across without that word?
When the men in my life lie, cheat and act selfishly, the n-word has been my choice weapon of verbal emasculation. When family members derail an intellectual debate, saying "you're acting white," the n-word has helped me dig down to their level (Look n - - - - -, what I'm trying to tell you is . . .) to get the discourse back on track. When I see people who want -- and expect -- so much and do so little to get it, the n-word sweetly sums up my commentary. And when that little rusty-butt boy snatched my purse outside of Magic Johnson's Starbucks after church one Sunday, guess what category he went into?
I guess the Rev. Jesse Jackson and I have this in common. In a so-now-we-know moment this week, his full controversial off-mike comments on Fox News were leaked: "He's talking down to black people . . . telling n - - - - - - how to behave," said Jackson in the same tones he used in whispering about castrating Barack Obama.
Now hypocrite-watchers are pointing fingers at Jackson because this is the same guy who implored African Americans to avoid using the word. He called it a "hate" word. I can't argue with them, so I won't. The question is: Can I, should I, overcome my addiction to the n-word?
America has a complex relationship with that word. Dead presidents like Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson peppered their language with it daily to reinforce white hegemony, according to Jabari Asim's The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't and Why. It has been used as a sort of rhetorical glue to uphold institutional racism. Like most weapons, the word has been turned against its original users, and is now used by some African Americans as a term of endearment, chastisement, or like Jackson, an assumption of groupthink.
Conflicted, I've gone off the n-word in long stretches (along with meat, potato chips and candy bars) only to come back to it. I signed up for that a-word-a-day e-mail to boost my vocabulary. But sometimes I don't want to use nice language. Sometimes it's not enough to say, "I have a visceral antipathy to my boss' viewpoint on X." Given that I have a small voice, I don't want folks misunderstanding that I really mean, "That's damn crazy."
Like many taboo words, the n-word is used as a cultural signifier. It's like the word "trifling," which generally means "slight," "insignificant" or "small." In black circles it means "lazy," "shiftless" and "slovenly": "Tyrone will never keep a job because that 'n-word' is trifling." I come from a religious family of teetotalers who universally eschew profanity, but they embrace the n-word. It's usually lobbed against "trifling" neighbors who don't cut their grass.
I've also been in the Chris Rock school of n-wording. "Negroes," according to Rock, are responsible, moral and ethical citizens. "N-words" always come along and destroy what Negroes are trying to build, create or cultivate.
Cultural groups have the right to use whatever signifiers that make the ties that bind even tighter. Unlike Oprah, I do think people who overhear other people's dubious cultural signifiers should be smart enough to avoid using them. But if I use it and my niece, cousin or friend overhears it, thinks it's poetry and makes a hit song with it, what have I done?
So n-word, like many dysfunctional relationships I've weathered, you must pack up and leave my mouth. We did have a lot o ffun. Like a drunken uncle, you are a great punch line. But you are hurting people I care about, so you've got to go." "Forgive me, for I have sinned. I have reveled in the joys of the n-word. This is my testimony, the confession of a "nigger&... more -
Stephen Colbert on White Male Oppression - Esquire
"Who knows? With John McCain as our ghostly white beacon to guide us, we may finally re-reach that mountaintop, walk into one of the two Starbucks up there, order a half-caf (maybe an almond croissant), and proudly proclaim,
“Free at last, free-er at last, thank God Almighty, we are free-est at last!”"
While Colbert is obviously being satirical, there are many who claim white male oppression.
Is the white man being victimized? "Who knows? With John McCain as our ghostly white beacon to guide us, we may finally re-reach that mountaintop, walk into one of ... more -
'N*gger' incites fear, outrage, censorship
When Nas said he didn't name his album "Nigger" because there might be problems getting it into stores, it was no surprise. But when he said pressure from black leaders played a role, it seemed out of character.
The Queens-reared rapper has never been one to kowtow. Just last month, he referred to the Rev. Jesse Jackson as "the biggest player hater" and declared Jackson's time as a voice for black America over.
But in a recent CNN interview, Nasir Jones explained he didn't change the album's name to please the Rev. Al Sharpton and other black leaders. Rather, they were stealing his thunder.
"I don't think I liked the attention I was getting from some of the elders in my community," he said. "I saw it kind of leaning toward being about them ... only about them. I kind of wanted to just shake that off of me."
His remedy? To drop the title altogether -- literally. The album, out Wednesday, has no name. But don't think Nas is cowering from controversy -- the cover features the rapper shirtless with his iconic, gothic "N" digitally whipped into his back.
With a host of racial issues -- the Jena Six, Don Imus, nooses -- fresh on America's mind, naming an album "Nigger" seems ill-advised. Nas, however, said his goal wasn't to upset; it was to upend a society that focuses more on pejoratives than the racial plights that spawn them.
"There's still so much wrong in the whole world with people -- poor people, people of color -- I just felt like a nice watch couldn't take that away, make me forget about that. A nice day on a yacht with rich friends couldn't make me forget about reality, what's going on," he said. "That's why I named the album that -- not just that the word is horrible, but the history behind the word, and how it relates to me, how it's affected me, offended me."
Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy delves into the frustrating duality of the slur in his 2003 bestseller, "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word." Since colonist John Rolfe first coined "negar," referring in 1619 to a shipment of Africans to Virginia, the epithet has lived a largely opprobrious life, with one exception, Kennedy writes.
"Currently, some people insist upon distinguishing nigger -- which they see as exclusively an insult -- from nigga, which they view as a term capable of signaling friendly salutation," Kennedy writes.
Kennedy, who is black, concludes his book expressing satisfaction that the word's use causes anxiety. Politicians should avoid uttering it at all costs, he writes, and uses by nonblacks is most often a no-no.
But never underestimate the word's complexities, says Kennedy: "For bad and for good, nigger is thus destined to remain with us for many years to come -- a reminder of the ironies and the dilemmas, the tragedies and glories, of the American experience."
Kennedy declined to comment for this story, and Sharpton's press office did not respond to an e-mail and voice message requesting an interview.
Because Nas rescinded the title doesn't mean the multiplatinum rapper isn't prepared to engage in debate on the word's merit in today's lexicon.
"It's all about the intent and what you mean and how it's coming off and the reason why you're saying it. You know, if it's ill intent, if you're angry, being ignorant, being meanspirited, saying that word -- it means the worst," he explained. "If you're just a couple of black guys on the street corner, doesn't mean it's a great thing, but it's not that they're trying to harm each other when they say it."
As for a wholesale ban on the word -- something Jackson and Sharpton have suggested -- Nas scoffed.
"For some people, you should never be able to use it," he said. "For others, it's way too late. It's too late to try to stop using it. It's something that's just part of the language now." When Nas said he didn't name his album "Nigger" because there might be problems getting it into stores, it was no surpr... more -
Thug life - the new American dream
American popular culture has always had a tendency to romanticize hoodlums, whether Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde or Tony Soprano. But the hip-hop world's celebration of savage violence, educational failure and misogyny by gangsta rap has been one of the worst influences on American youth, especially black youth, in decades. If you want to ruin a nation, a society or an ethnic group, persuade its members that the highest form of achievement lies in criminality.
Folk art has never been so popular -- or lucrative. The worst of gangsta rap has not merely reflected behavior but has also inspired it, much of it lawless and destructive. Its lyrics are paeans to murder and mayhem. It celebrates an outlaw culture that disrespects women, mocks middle-class values and preaches against any cooperation with police in catching criminals.
The baggy britches that are now de rigueur in hip-hop circles grew out of jail rituals. When men are arrested, their belts are confiscated, so their trousers tend to droop. It's from that unfortunate facet of ghetto life that the ubiquitous sagging pants were launched.
Even before the 1980s, when gangsta rap oozed out of downtrodden black neighborhoods, too many black men were marginalized -- unlettered, unemployed, imprisoned. They were already the victims of a fratricidal cycle of violence, predator and prey. They were already disproportionately fathers in absentia, completely divorced from the lives of their children, providing neither material support nor moral guidance.
If black men enthusiastically abandon a passable reputation for the notoriety of a prison record, then black America is in serious trouble. If it is better to be an outlaw than to be a teacher or a chemist or accountant, then young black men will continue to go to prison in record numbers. If it is more acceptable to be violent and reckless than to be a responsible father and husband, then marriage will continue to decline in black communities.
While racism remains a potent force in American life, it doesn't hold the malignant power of gangsta culture. American popular culture has always had a tendency to romanticize hoodlums, whether Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde or Tony Soprano. But t... more -
Bill Cosby: "this is how we lost to the white man"
"...Cosby has been telling thousands of black Americans that racism in America is omnipresent but that it can’t be an excuse to stop striving. As Cosby sees it, the antidote to racism is not rallies, protests, or pleas, but strong families and communities. Instead of focusing on some abstract notion of equality, he argues, blacks need to cleanse their culture, embrace personal responsibility, and reclaim the traditions that fortified them in the past. Driving Cosby’s tough talk about values and responsibility is a vision starkly different from Martin Luther King’s gauzy, all-inclusive dream: it’s an America of competing powers, and a black America that is no longer content to be the weakest of the lot". "...Cosby has been telling thousands of black Americans that racism in America is omnipresent but that it can’t be an excuse to s... more
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Color Struck
The legacy of slavery has left African-Americans with an interracial disparity between light-skinned and dark-skinned blacks. This candid conversation between black women of all shades asks, "Is the black community still color struck?" The legacy of slavery has left African-Americans with an interracial disparity between light-skinned and dark-skinned blacks. This can... more
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Who's Ready for Change?
For two years, some African Americans asked: Is he black enough? Now the question for this son of a white mother and an African father has become: Is he too black to win? For two years, some African Americans asked: Is he black enough? Now the question for this son of a white mother and an African father... more
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White supremacist protest in Jena, La.
A crowd mostly made up of members of the media listened as four white separatists demanded white rights, severe prosecution of six black teens accused of beating a white classmate and an end to the Martin Luther King holiday. A crowd mostly made up of members of the media listened as four white separatists demanded white rights, severe prosecution of six bla... more
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Only in Arkansas...
Dr. Martin Luther King is honored on the same day as General Robert E. Lee. Yes, that's right, the leader of the Civil Rights Movement shares the same state holiday as the leader of the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Dr. Martin Luther King is honored on the same day as General Robert E. Lee. Yes, that's right, the leader of the Civil Rights Mo... more
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Segregation in Schools?
Isn't it amazing that 50 years after the desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School, the legal wranglings are still going on. It's now a district-wide debate, but the core conflict hasn't changed all that much in half a century. Isn't it amazing that 50 years after the desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School, the legal wranglings are still ... more
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Glamour Editor: "Being Black is KINDA a Corporate DON'T!"
A recent slide show by an unidentified Glamour editor on the "Do's and Dont's of Corporate Fashion" at a New York law firm shed some light on the topic, according to this month's American Lawyer magazine. A recent slide show by an unidentified Glamour editor on the "Do's and Dont's of Corporate Fashion" at a New York ... more
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Comedy and the Race Card
Popular sitcoms are challenging political correctness by laughing at race and stereotypes.
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Channel 4 Cleared In Big Brother Race Row
Media watchdog Ofcom ruled that the broadcaster was right to show student Emily Parr dropping the n-bomb because the programme made clear that her comment was offensive and unacceptable. Media watchdog Ofcom ruled that the broadcaster was right to show student Emily Parr dropping the n-bomb because the programme made cl... more
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Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?
According to a 2005 report of the International Centre for Prison Studies in London, the United States?with five percent of the world?s population?houses 25 percent of the world?s inmates. Our incarceration rate (714 per 100,000 residents) is almost 40 percent greater than those of our nearest competitors (the Bahamas, Belarus, and Russia). Other industrial democracies, even those with significant crime problems of their own, are much less punitive: our incarceration rate is 6.2 times that of Canada, 7.8 times that of France, and 12.3 times that of Japan. We have a corrections sector that employs more Americans than the combined work forces of General Motors, Ford, and Wal-Mart, the three largest corporate employers in the country, and we are spending some $200 billion annually on law enforcement and corrections at all levels of government, a fourfold increase (in constant dollars) over the past quarter century. According to a 2005 report of the International Centre for Prison Studies in London, the United States?with five percent of the world?... more
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Unity a Consequence of W. Virginia Hate Crime
This actually happened a month or two ago but I feel it's still relevant. Apparently overshadowed by other, more "important" hate crimes, school shootings, and what not, the story of a "20 year-old black West Virginia woman who was allegedly kidnapped, raped and tortured by six white career criminals, three of whom are women" isn't garnering much national attention, but it is certainly affecting West Virginia in a big way. At least its sparking some helpful dialog about racism. This actually happened a month or two ago but I feel it's still relevant. Apparently overshadowed by other, more "important... more
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