links for 2007-05-05
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The Right of Peaceful Assembly. Gone – The Unapologetic Mexican
“the city of LA—a city infamous for their brutal and lawless police—sent out their goons in riot gear to chase Americans out of a public park and fire weapons at them, disregarding the children, of all things.”
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$5 million OK’d for boot camp death – MSNBC.com
“Gov. Charlie Crist and black legislators had led the effort to compensate the family of Martin Lee Anderson, who died in January 2006 shortly after being kneed, struck and having ammonia tablets held to his nose at the military-style facility”
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Genealogy connects Obama to Irish immigrants – Barack Obama News – MSNBC.com
What’s up with all these genealogists?? “Documents unearthed by an Irish vicar show ancestors of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama may have arrived in the United States from a tiny village in central Ireland as early as the 1790s.”
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LeBron, Kobe rip study about refs’ racial bias – NBA – MSNBC.com
“Bryant, LeBron James and four other NBA players dismissed an academic study that found evidence of racial bias in referees’ calls, saying they’ve never experienced it. The NBA also refuted the study, saying its own analysis showed no racial bias in o
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Hat tip to Resist Racism. “…amazed by Boggs’ dealings with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights figures. Wang was also intrigued by the longstanding commitment Boggs and her husband, Jimmy Boggs, had to Detroit’s Black community”
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Producer Fired Over Racist Allen Iverson Skit – MyFox Colorado
Thx Tereza. “The producer of a sports radio talk show that aired a parody about Denver Nuggets guard Allen Iverson with references to drugs, seeking sex from Mexican women and the shooting of a homeless man has been fired.”
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A Look at the Forces Behind the Anti-Immigrant Movement – Democracy Now!
Thx Tereza. “the movement “did not come from a vacuum…They come from the white nationalist movement, a movement that seeks to maintain what they consider the white character of then United States.”"
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Thx Saada. “Pat Buchanan blamed the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech on lax U.S. immigration policies, stating that gunman Cho Seung-Hui “was among the 864,000 Koreans here as a result of the Immigration Act of 1965…”
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Tommy Hilfiger Actually Does Care About Black People – mediabistro.com: UnBeige
Thx ananser. “Oprah Winfrey had guest Tommy Hilfiger on today’s show to put to rest the urban legend that he was ordered off Winfrey’s show…”if I had known that black people would wear my clothes, I never would have designed them.”
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STUDY: Bill O’Reilly Uses Derogatory Names ‘More Than Once Every Seven Seconds’ – Think Progress
Thx Tereza. “A new study by Indiana University media researchers finds that Fox News host Bill O’Reilly calls “a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open
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Police order shopkeeper to remove golliwogs from window – the Daily Mail
Thx Tereza. “A shopkeeper was told by police to remove Golliwogs from her window display – because they were offensive. Moira Pickering, 62, was warned that she risked breaching race hate laws if she failed to take them down.”
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What’s the Real Reason for the Sudden Attack on Hip Hop? – VIBE.com
From Mark Anthony Neal: “the current critique of hip hop is aimed at undermining the culture’s potential to politicize the generations of constituents that might claim hip hop as their social movement.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Ghno wrote:
What was the point of Unapologetic Mexican’s piece? There are a number of more insightful accounts from citizen journalists popping up on the blogosphere versus this rant. Does heat count more than light now, simply because a person of color generates it?
Assuming there was no intentional attempt to distort or mislead, had the post added some facts– even from IndyMedia if you don’t trust MSM– they would have pointed out that *several* members of MSM press, reporters and camera operators, (inclunding FOX!) were hit by those 240 rubber bullets.
This helped push it to nonstop cable loops and natl. newspaper coverage, calls by major press organizations and unions for lawsuits and investigations, etc. And that’s before the independent media’s spin on this.
So it’s not accurate to imply that no one was paying attention. This was a direct assault on the First Amendment. Lesson: shoot the press, they’ll hit back. Except for Iraq of course.
Worst part: LAPD did this before in 2000 with the Dem Natl. Convention, banging up reporters and protestors. They don’t know restraint and itch to set it off.
There’s too much rant in that post to sift through. Read other firsthand accounts that at least point to some facts.
Posted 05 May 2007 at 9:34 am ¶
damie_dee wrote:
RE: What’s the Real Reason for the Sudden Attack on Hip Hop?
The current societal reprimand of Hip Hop’s exacerbating immorality is long over due. I welcome it.
Self introspective castigation is important and mandatory for moral improvement.
Posted 05 May 2007 at 9:57 am ¶
Reyes-Chow wrote:
I have been subscribed to this for a while and have never left a comment. No comment here either other than to thank you for the links. Good stuff! Blog on!
Posted 05 May 2007 at 9:52 pm ¶
B.G. wrote:
Damie_dee, plenty of black people have long excoriated the misogyny of mainstream hip hop. There’s no need to paint the Imus scandal as a good thing because of your own ignorance of the commentaries of black critics.
Posted 06 May 2007 at 2:47 am ¶
B.G. wrote:
And note that I wrote, “mainstream”. Figure out who exactly is profiting the most from selling the mainstream stuff.
Posted 06 May 2007 at 2:48 am ¶
Koko wrote:
Who is profiting the most from the mainstream?
I’m kinda slow(kinda)…..
And what do you guys think of the golliwogs?
Posted 06 May 2007 at 1:11 pm ¶
damie_dee wrote:
@B.G.
You made a pre-assumption of my position, that shows your ignorance of my viewpoints. I never said there weren’t Black critics previously. The minority who did criticized, weren’t eroding corporate support of the subject matter, and the recent controversy is finally putting relevant pressure on the corporate level more than ever.
For example, Russel Simmons stricter stance in censoring extreme material, and the recent outcry against Akon’s simulated rape behavior on stage has forced the Verizon Corporation to stop sponsorship of his tour.
Though corporate support shoulders a segment of blame, the main onus is on Hip Hop performers, culture, and fans themselves. I find your not being critical enough on the majority of Blacks who have tolerated and enabled the immorality that has hurt their community most.
Posted 06 May 2007 at 3:29 pm ¶
deb wrote:
Before I heard about the Tommy Hilfiger urban legend, there was the one about Liz Clairborne appearing on Oprah saying that she didn’t design clothes for black women because “their hips are too big.” I believe Director Spike Lee had a hand in spreading the rumor too.
Instead of questioning what the designer said, I simply said that I would never buy anything with Clairborne’s name on it. As it turns out, Clairborne never appeared on Oprah and denies having said those damning words. See: snopes.com
Posted 07 May 2007 at 6:35 am ¶
wendi wrote:
Thanks for posting the article about Grace Lee Boggs. That was a very interesting read, and I applaud her for her commitment to activism. She’s definitely going on my list of role models
Posted 07 May 2007 at 2:09 pm ¶
hoo_boy wrote:
Deb: I heard that Liz Claiborne rumor a long time ago too, along with some other urban ones.
Genuine straight truth: how come you wanted to believe and boycott instead of playing skeptic? I know why I did: the products sucked and the companies didn’t need my money compared to then- upstarts.
BUT If it turns out black companies were spreading the bad word on white companies (maybe using the weapons of mass confusion against elites?) I’m just worried about us getting played by marketing in general, you know? You don’t need to badmouth the competition devious-like with gossip and rumor to trumpet your excellence.
Posted 07 May 2007 at 3:26 pm ¶
deb wrote:
hoo_boy check out I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Rumor in African-American Culture. It mentions the urban legend concerning the TROOP clothing line. The one that said that the brand was created by the Klan and that the acronym stood for The Robes of oppressed people. It also mentions the urban legend about Tropical Fantasy soda. It was believed that the soda caused sterilization in black men. Don’t know the effects it was supposed to have on other men of color, or white men, for that matter.
Anyway, I fell in with that crowd of non-critical thinking folks. I question things a lot more now.
Posted 08 May 2007 at 9:02 am ¶
B.G. wrote:
Yeah, I agree the artists themselves are complicit. Didn’t mean to sound harsh. I realize that on the nets, I often have a riding-into-battle attitude, because the anonymity tends to make conversations less polite.
Posted 08 May 2007 at 11:58 pm ¶
hoo_boy wrote:
Thanks Deb! That book looks like the read, so I ordered it from Alibris (no Amazon for me!) just now.
I stopped eating KFC and Church’s a long time ago. Never heard of Tropical Fantansy, never wanted to sport Troop or FUBU or HOBO, or even get my fortune read by Miss Cleo neither.
Dang, this is something, it’s not just rumors but the *intentional* rumors and lies and gossip that get started and won’t (no– CAN’T) ever disappear.
Looking forward to what Patricia Turner has to say about all this spin, def…
Posted 09 May 2007 at 2:41 pm ¶