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Guilty of being black on a sunny day
The comedian Franklyn Ajai used to do a routine where he said he and a friend were harassed and arrested by the police for being outside and black on a sunny day. At the trial he told his friend to be cool and go with it because what else could they do, after all they were guilty. "Your honor, I tried to tell my friend the sun was coming out..."
Now if you chuckled you're either a minority or very astute. If you're bewildered, indifferent or indignant you not only don't get it you're most likely part of the problem. The comedian Franklyn Ajai used to do a routine where he said he and a friend were harassed and arrested by the police for being outsi... more -
BBC NEWS | Africa | Zuma 'shocked by white poverty'
The head of South Africa's governing African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has said he is shocked and embarrassed about white poverty in the country.
Mr Zuma was speaking after visiting the Bethlehem township near the capital, Pretoria, where white families live without running water or electricity.
He said the high level of black poverty did not mean whites did not suffer too.
South Africa's Helping Hand says the number of homeless white people has increased by 58% since 2002.
A new report by the charity, which helps poor white communities, says more than 130,000 white people in South Africa are homeless.
'Not about politics'
Speaking in Bethlehem, Mr Zuma said: "I am shocked and surprised by what I have seen here.
"The vast number of black poverty does not mean that we must ignore white poverty, which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to talk about."
He said he had seen the same problems facing white residents of the township as he had seen in black squatter camps.
"This is not about politics, it's about people who are poor, who are in need and want to be helped by government," he said, quoted by the AFP news agency.
The trade union Solidarity, whose membership is mainly white, said it welcomed Mr Zuma's visit as an acknowledgement that poverty did not only affect the majority black population.
"For a long time whites have been seen as rich and and blacks poor," Solidarity secretary general Flip Buys told the AFP.
"Talking about white poverty has been seen as politically incorrect. The emergence of this scourge has left everyone looking for answers."
Analysts say Mr Zuma is keen to reach out to the white community at the same time as the main opposition party - which is predominantly white - seeks to increase its appeal to the black community, ahead of next year's election.
The head of South Africa's governing African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has said he is shocked and embarrassed about white poverty... more -
Rapper Nas delivers Fox News petition
Nas delivered a petition of 620,127 to Fox News headquarters, to protest their racist depiction of blacks.
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Racism in modern America
"White people are better than black people. Whites know more, have more, and get more. I wish I was white but I am not." American children of color do not have to contend with apartheid, but they still do not live in a prejudice-free society. "White people are better than black people. Whites know more, have more, and get more. I wish I was white but I am not." American chil... more
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From the mouths of babes
This article is about a young girl asking a simple question "Why are there only statues of white men there?''. It's in response to CarolynGillis' current.topic simple solutions to critical problems. Most critical problems are critical because we have complicated the issues.
To solve critical problems, we have to ask the simple questions. Only then can we find the simple answers. The most important part of this article is the question asked by the little girl. You don't have to be a world leader, or "mover and shaker" to get justice for others. Usually asking that simplest of questions, what can I do to help, will start things moving in the right direction. This article is about a young girl asking a simple question "Why are there only statues of white men there?''. It's in response to C... more -
Racist man intentionally runs over black woman riding her bicycle
This dude ...
A woman riding her bike in Daytona Beach Monday night was hit by car driven by a man targeting African Americans, police said. Police believe Nekedia Cato, a 25-year-old African American woman, was hit by Thomas Cosby, of Port Orange. Police said Cosby, 56, slammed into Cato, took out a nearby porch, hit a tree and then rolled three times.
“He just hit me because I was black,” Cato said. Cato was riding her bike home from the store on South Atlantic Avenue. “I actually saw him coming toward me. I tried to move my bike as fast as I [could], but it wasn’t quick enough. He came straight for me,” Cato said.
Police reported that after Cosby crashed, he got out of his car, screaming racist remarks. Cosby repeatedly used the N-word and shouted he wanted to kill black people, authorities said.
“He was screaming out he had to kill all black people because one slept with his wife,” Cato said.
Cato recently moved to the Daytona Beach area with her boyfriend, D.
“If he could target me just because of the color of my skin, he could target anybody else,” Cato said.
Cato suffered several broken bones, a broken leg and other injuries. Her leg injury was so severe doctors inserted a metal rod into her leg. Cato could be hospitalized for weeks.
“I’m kind of scared walking down the street because I don’t know if people hate me,” Cato said.
Cato just started a new job, but could lose it due to prolonged time in the hospital.
“I don’t have hate in my heart, you know, I just don’t have hate in my heart,” Cato said.
Cosby is charged with aggravated battery and simple battery under the state’s hate crime laws. More severe penalties will follow if Cosby is convicted.
Florida’s hate crime laws went into effect in 1989, including crimes committed not only due to race, but due to religion, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, or age if over 65 years old.
This dude mad because his wife got the PIPE laid on her. People be actin’ out. How you gonna go run a random black person down because of that? Man. Some people need a reality check.
SOURCE: http://www.wesh.com/news/16891770/detail.html This dude ... ... more -
Secret ban on blacks in Beijing bars during the Olympics?
SAY WHAT? Alright ... now before I break fly and act a fool - let me retort in saying that this piece of news that surfaced via crackberry this morning was really baffling to the tenth power! While many of us find ourselves hyped up for next months 2008 Olympic Summer Games, it looks as though there is a rumor running around the web that selected Beijing ‘hot spots’ are preparing throw a some shade during the summer game festivities.
According to reports from Huffingtonpost.com & Beijing Boyce , Hong Kong’s English newspaper The South China Morning Post reported last Friday that Chinese authorities have issued a secret ban on blacks, Mongolians, and other ‘social undesirable’ from local Beijing bars during the Olympic games. The Chinese online news source is only available for subscribers only - lucky enough Beijing Boyce brings fourth an excerpt from the online new source:
Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city’s bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, “One World, One Dream”.
Bar owners near the Workers’ Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises….
Security officials are targeting Sanlitun, which Olympic organizers expect to be a key destination for foreign tourists looking for a party during the Games.
The pledges that Sanlitun bar owners had been instructed to sign agreed to stop a variety of activities in their establishments, including dancing and serving customers with black skin, they said.
This past Saturday Beijing Boyce updates on the story reporting:
* An owner said police met with Sanlitun bar reps and told them to monitor black patrons. He said the police told the reps that drug dealers are predominantly black in the area. He said the police did not ask bar owners to ban blacks.
* Several Sanlitun area bar owners said they had not been told by police to ban blacks or Mongolians.
* I also spoke to several people in the restaurant business and they told me they have not heard of police telling city eateries to ban people.
* Most interesting, two people working at one bar had different perspectives on the terminology used by the police. One said the police used “black” in reference to skin color; while the other said it was used in terms of bad elements (the Chinese character for “black” is part of a phrase used to describe criminals).
Ok…so will this stop me from watching the Olympics next month? Hell No! But I am curious as to know how you ladies feel about the issue at hand? It’s time to get LIVE & Direct this Tuesday morning. SAY WHAT? Alright ... now before I break fly and act a fool - let me retort in saying that this piece of news that surfaced via crack... more -
Two in a million: twins born - one black, one white
Doctors say it is an extremely rare occurrence, but it is possible if genes combine in a certain way. The twin boys, named Ryan and Leo, are the offspring of a mixed-race couple. Doctors say it is an extremely rare occurrence, but it is possible if genes combine in a certain way. The twin boys, named Ryan and Le... more
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RAW Project LB Brent
The RAW project was developed by In-volve, a voluntary sector organisation. RAW is the name of a 16 week, high intensity, personal development process for young people to assist them in becoming the best that they can be. The RAW project was developed by In-volve, a voluntary sector organisation. RAW is the name of a 16 week, high intensity, personal dev... more
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China orders bars not to serve blacks
Bar owners in Beijing have been forced by the P.S.B. to sign an agreement 'not to serve blacks or Mongolians'.
One World, One Dream indeed.
http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2c9132164... Bar owners in Beijing have been forced by the P.S.B. to sign an agreement 'not to serve blacks or Mongolians'. ... more -
Obama: Tough Love for African Americans
'Obama 'Won't Back Off One Bit' on His Tough-Love Message
July 13, 2008 9:43 AM
ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., says that he won’t back down on his “tough love” message to African Americans -– a subject that prompted Jesse Jackson's angry open-mic gaffe this past week.
Obama told reporters aboard his plane to San Diego that Americans need to recognize that there is a problem when more than a half of African American children are growing up without a father in the house.
“That is a problem and I won’t back up one bit in asserting that that’s a problem that we have to be honest about," he said.
Obama’s tough love message to African American fathers came most notably in a Fathers Day speech last month in which he told fathers that “any ol' fool” could conceive a child –- but it takes a man to be father.
Many, including Jesse Jackson, took issue with the speech, and the manner in which Obama spoke to his audience. This week, Jackson sparked a controversy when Fox News Channel released a video in which Jackson was caught with a hot mic saying that Obama was “talking down to black people.”
Obama confirmed that Jackson’s feelings were well known to him before the tape was released –- communicated to him from Jackson himself.
“I had spoken to him before, a few days before what he said was released," Obama said, "and we had actually discussed some of the concerns he had raised about my fatherhood speech.”
Obama said that he told Jackson be believes that there are structural inequalities in the country that have to be dealt with.
“My argument is simply that it’s not an 'either-or' proposition, it’s a 'both-and' proposition," Obama said. "The government and society as a whole has an obligation to deal with poverty, particularly poverty that’s deep-rooted not just in the inner cities, but in rural communities all across America.”
Obama said his conversation with Jackson was not met with a lot of open resistance on the other end of the phone.
“In my conversation, I think it would be hard for him to disagree with that since many of the things I have said are the things that he has said in the past,” Obama said.
The presumptive Democratic nominee has since accepted Jackson’s apology for his remarks, but confirmed they have not spoken since the controversial tapes of Jackson were released. "
Do you think Obama talks down to African Americans?
'Obama 'Won't Back Off One Bit' on His Tough-Love Message July 13, 2008 9:43 AM ... more -
Wal-Mart removes Mexican comic criticized as racist
Memin Pinguin, a comic book character created by Yolanda Vargas Dulche, has been a favorite cultural icon in Mexico and South America since the 1940s. The comic book made recent uproar after complaints from African Americans who discovered the comic book at a local Wal Mart in Houston, Texas, resulting in the removal of the comic from Wal Mart shelves and protests from minority activists and people alike. Memin Pinguin, a comic book character created by Yolanda Vargas Dulche, has been a favorite cultural icon in Mexico and South America ... more
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How Much Does It Cost You in Wages if You Sound Black?
Fascinating new research by my University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compares the wages of people who “sound black” when they talk to those who do not.
His main finding: blacks who “sound black” earn salaries that are 10 percent lower than blacks who do not “sound black,” even after controlling for measures of intelligence, experience in the work force, and other factors that influence how much people earn. (For what it is worth, whites who “sound black” earn 6 percent lower than other whites.) Fascinating new research by my University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compares the wages of people who “sound black” when t... more -
Can We Talk About Black Theatre? (And how well will we listen?)
"If a black person produces something such as a play, a film or music should it be associated with the word black?" asks playwright Bola Agbaje, author of Gone Too Far! which returns to the Royal Court in July.
This well-written and researched article examines current trends regarding so-called "black theatre" in Britain. Does labeling a play as "black," "gay," "Muslim," or "radical" help to put them in context? Or does it create a segregation of sorts? And also, how do these subcultures of theatre change our definition of what we concider "mainstream?" "If a black person produces something such as a play, a film or music should it be associated with the word black?" asks playwright Bo... more -
Project Acheive
A program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore
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MEMPHIS POLICE BEAT TRANSSEXUAL - CAUGHT ON TAPE
What is the world comming too?
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In South Africa, Chinese is the new Black
China Journal reports:
"A high court in South Africa ruled on Wednesday that Chinese-South Africans will be reclassified as “black,” a term that includes black Africans, Indians and others who were subject to discrimination under apartheid. As a result of this ruling, ethnically Chinese citizens will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid."
-In South Africa they have pretty much put everyone in the catagory. In their eyes your either white or black. China is also tying to get natural resources from Africa as well.
China Journal reports: ... more -
S Africa Chinese want to be black
Chinese communities in South Africa are taking the government to court over laws which they say discriminate against them.
The Chinese Association of South Africa says it wants its members to be included in the definition of "black people" in constitutional laws.
It wants people of Chinese origin to be included affirmative action programmes designed to help black people.
An estimated 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in South Africa.
Ethnic Chinese will soon know if they will benefit from the Broad-Based Economic Empowerment and the Employment Equity Acts.
The BBC's Mpho Lakaje in Johannesburg says these laws were designed to eradicate the legacy of apartheid which left many black people impoverished.
The laws give people classed as blacks, Indians and coloureds (mixed-race) employment and other economic benefits over other racial groups.
The Black Economic Employment concept was initiated by the governing ANC to help previously disadvantaged individuals - to start their own businesses or become part of existing companies - thus redressing the country's historic inequalities.
Whites still on top
Our correspondent says a ruling should provide clarity for corporations in South Africa on the rights of their Chinese staff - who were declared "coloured" under apartheid but are generally regarded as white today.
An example cited in court papers includes an oil company that disqualified Chinese citizens from getting a slice of its biggest empowerment transaction to date.
The company says the group is not catered for in the Black Economic Empowerment codes.
Another example includes a Chinese national who was refused an opportunity to buy shares from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange two years ago.
None of the three government departments cited as respondents in the court case are expected to oppose the application.
A study released last month revealed that white South Africans still earn around 450% more than their black counterparts, 14 years after the end of apartheid. Chinese communities in South Africa are taking the government to court over laws which they say discriminate against them. ... more -
The State of Black Skate
A look into the world of black skateboarders, including interviews and footage of some of the most talented members of the Zoo York Skate team. A look into the world of black skateboarders, including interviews and footage of some of the most talented members of the Zoo York Sk... more
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Shifting the paradigm
A Conversation with Dr. Na'im Akbar and Viv Ahmun. Black Psychology.
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