Racism as a Backhanded Compliment

By Guest Contributor G.D., originally published at PostBourgie

In a post called “Penny-Pinching Jews and South Carolina Republicans,” Jeff Goldberg points to an editorial by two South Carolina Republicans defending Sen. Jim DeMint’s opposition to opening the federal spigot for his state.
Recently your newspaper published a letter from state Rep. Bakari Sellers attacking U.S. Sen. Jim [...]

ACORN Pimp Sting, Child Prostitution and Accountability

by Guest Contributor (and frequent commenter) Atlasien

It’s all over the news lately: an elaborate sting operation by conservative activists.  A man and a woman go into an ACORN office, and ask about how to get affordable housing and file taxes properly.  The woman says she’s a sex worker.  The ACORN representatives give a variety of [...]

Van Jones Pushed Out of the Obama Administration

by Latoya Peterson
Over the weekend, I received the following email from Green For All:
Late last night, Van Jones resigned from his position with the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Many of us are left with pain and anger after seeing a leader of integrity, vision, and commitment targeted by hateful personal attacks. [...]

Open Thread: Why, Free Republic, Why?

by Latoya Peterson

So here I was, blissfully disconnected from politics for the week, working on upcoming content for September, when Anna from Jezebel emails me this:
The fine Real Americans at the Free Republic have found Obama’s achilles heel: his Long Dark Staff of White Insecurity.
hoosiermama:
The only other [...]

The Healthcare Reform Debate in Atlanta, With a Racial Update

by Guest Contributor (and regular commenter) Atlasien
UPDATE: There is a guy with a gun outside of Obama’s town hall. This shit is getting ridiculous. Gawker has details:
MSNBC just aired video of a man with a pistol strapped to his leg waiting for Barack Obama to arrive at a townhall in New Hampshire.
The man [...]

Neoliberalism and Reggaeton

By Guest Contributor Marisol LeBron, originally published at post pomo nuyorican homo

Reuters recently published a pieced entitled “Reggaeton fever shakes up Cuba’s culture” the article cites an now infamous (in reggaeton circles anyway) quote by Juventud Rebelde that calls reggaeton a “reflection of ‘neoliberal thinking’.”
I think the development and growth of reggaeton in Cuba has [...]

The Breakthrough by Gwen Ifill [Racialicious Reads]

by Latoya Peterson

To understand civil rights, you must understand how it feels…to be trapped in someone else’s stereotype.” – Deval Patrick
During the year of 2008, people loved to talk about change, normally as a positive outcome righting a wrong or correcting a historical slight.
However, change never comes easily. Friction always occurs between the [...]

You Say You Want A Revolution (In a Loose Headscarf)

by Guest Contributor Mimi, originally published at Threadbared

Because this is a fashion plus politics blog, I want to post some very brief thoughts about the protests rocking Iran after what some observers are calling a fraudulent election, reinstalling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against his main opposition, moderate reformer Mir Hossein Mousavi. (For news about the election [...]

Obama, and the Birth of the (Above-)Racist

By Guest Contributor Catherine, originally posted at Hyphen Blog

The New York Times commemorated President Obama’s 100th day in office last week with some optimistic reportage of race relations in the United States. Citing a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, the article asserted that Obama is positively influencing public perception of race relations, stating that
Two-thirds [...]

Open Thread: Bobby Jindal and Colbert’s “Ablacknophobia”

by Latoya Peterson
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The Colbert ReportMon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word – Ablacknophobia

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Floor is open commenters.
Feel free to discuss the GOP, Bobby Jindal’s speech, Obama’s address or The Word segment posted above.

Open Thread: Michael Steel Elected Chairman of the GOP

by Latoya Peterson

So, Michael Steele was elected Chairman of the GOP.
The Republican Party chose the first black national chairman in its history Friday, just shy of three months after the nation elected a Democrat as the first African-American president. The choice marked no less than “the dawn of a new party,” declared the new GOP [...]

Quoted: Van Hunt on Barack Obama

Excerpted by Latoya Peterson

I would like to congratulate Barack Obama on ascending to the pinnacle of American politics and public stature. Now, a friend asked if I was watching the parade for the new president. I told him “sentimentality and symbolism are not my favorite things, so I don’t enjoy watching them on full blast.” [...]

Law of the Land: ABC’s Homeland Security Reality Show Isn’t Very Real

by Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie

Arnold Shapiro, the executive producer of ABC’s Homeland Security USA, states in a Washington Post article that, “It [the show] doesn’t have a political point of view.” The show aims to depict the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security as they do their jobs at the airport, the [...]

Black Conservatism Revisited

by Guest Contributor David Schraub, originally published at The Debate Link

First of all, I want to thank all of the folks who have helped touch off this conversation and have given me so many kind words, particularly Andrew Sullivan for the original link, Rod Dreher at Crunchy Con and the Dallas Morning News, Jim Buie, [...]

Black Conservatives in Large and Small Caps

by Guest Contributor David Schraub, originally published at The Debate Link
About a year ago, I penned a post entitled “Taking Thomas Seriously“, about the particularly political ideology held by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In it, I noted that both liberals and conservatives misunderstood Thomas’ orientation because they tried to map him onto “standard” [...]