TMR's "Quote Of The Day" Is By A Norwegian Ex-Slave

"Wake up and leave. The entire church is based on slave labor and you know it. People suffer. People die! And you are worried about how to get money for your next spiritual enlightening session. SHAME ON YOU." 

 Somebody contact Barbara Walters for the exclusive interview.

BTW - I've got a better use for that money, if you're interested,...

 

Punk's Dark Outlook May Not Have Been A Coincidence

From Flavorwire's 

7 Nefarious Punk Rock Conspiracy Theories:

The early NYC punks ripped off Death

Credibility level: Fairly high

Recently reunited Detroit trailblazers Death have often been identified as trailblazers for the music that would come to be called punk. The thing is, though, they never made a record and hardly played out of Detroit, and it seems like a remarkable coincidence that a Xerox of their sound would magically arise in New York City a couple of years after their decline. It seems an even more remarkable coincidence when you discover that they recorded a demo tape that did the rounds of NYC-based record companies, who may well have seen the potential in the music, but may also have preferred that it not be played by three black men who called themselves “Death.” Hmmm.

After Years Of Saying, "If You Don't Care, Nobody Else Has To," They Think I'm Crazy (For Acting Like Them,...)

So - how are all of Ann Althouse's "losers" today? Wanna talk about race some more? How about gays? I'm sure I've got some glitter around here, somewhere, that I can fart in someone's face "to make a point." Or will it?

No - not really. Because Americans don't give a shit about my points or yours. Quick to anger, slow to think, that's who we are. It's no mistake one of the most well-known and popular phrases in American english is "What you lookin' at?" because it reflects our sense of our own ignorance so well:

I'm looking at you, asshole.

When I moved to France years ago, I had the shock and misfortune of, on my first day, being engaged with a French nationalist. He had nothing but resentment for George W. Bush and the United States and, immediately, challenged me to prove why Americans are better than everyone else. He, and others, became determined to change my mind about my country and it's people - usually based on race - though they never did. It even got physical. I didn't care. They were French, and I was American, and I seriously didn't care - I'd take them all on. I had friends back home, of every race and nationality, I was proud to bleed for.

But now I'm back, living at home - begging everyone to shut up about race - and my fellow citizens are ever determined to prove the asshole frogs right. Whites talk about "fair" when they know the numbers are so skewed in their favor that such a possibility is probably impossible. Blacks talk about unfairness, like they never catch a break, even after all these years. And neither group thinks about anybody else unless they have to - not just that many blacks are paranoid about being outnumbered by their family's former "masters," but gays, hispanics, asians, etc.. It's all very sick, if you think about it too hard. And we do. Rarely, though, for the kids.

It's so easy to take a "side". Sure, Trayvon Martin was probably, enthralled with "Thug Life," coming home to drink some Lean, and - by age and temporary temperament - not mature enough to handle confrontation well. That still doesn't mean he deserved to die. That doesn't change he was somebody's kid. And it also doesn't mean he, both by his family and the community, wasn't loved.

And, while George Zimmerman may have acted in good faith, only concerned for the safety of his community, that still doesn't change an outlook that - as evidenced by his friends - is pretty insecure. (I'm not even going to comment on the multitude of gun owners who, supposedly, have hearts big enough to care for the community but - when faced with a member of that community - can't think to aim for an arm or a leg,...) George Zimmerman is free, as he should be, but there should also be little cheering. His was not exactly an act of bravery. But instead of a muted response, just by sheer numbers (again) he got an ugly roar of approval. And it was very ugly.

Whites should accept that.

I'm not going to keep up with this racial nonsense because - while the cultish thinking that supports race and racism are a subject I'm happy to cover - TMR's focus has always been on cults, not whatever silly idea or impulse motivates them. Yes, I was born into the "black" one, but we could be fighting over sugar, for all it matters. (And, being Americans, probably would.) I broke free of racism, a long time ago, and - I strongly suggest - the rest of you consider doing the same. As you can see, especially in this silly culture, where "Oh Yeah?" is considered a nifty rejoinder, it ain't going to get us very far.

If any of you were troubled, by the last week's output, don't be. I could give a fuck about race, today, as much as always. What I can't get over is how often it affects everyone else. Let Drudge, or NPR, or FOX, or MSNBC, or (yes) Glenn Reynolds and the mean-spirited folks at Twitchy, ring the bell and Pavlov's snarling dogs come running - Every. Single. Time. It's not smart, it's not helpful, and it's not respectable.

And those three things - without a PC veneer - encapsulate exactly what I've been trying to regain, in and for my home, since I returned to it, gladly, oh so long ago.

If only in my own eyes.

I hope my little "protest" was a good *enough* example of the futility inherent in it. (It took a lot out of me.) Didn't like it? Think it was unworthy? Unfair? Not "right"? Well, flip it upside-down, moron:

I could spend this week doing the exact same thing - for whites - and it would look just the same,...

 

Jonathan Ferrell: Killed By Cops While Looking For Help

I think that a lot of the energies of the 19th century, that could fairly be called democratic, have really ebbed away. That can alarm me. The tectonics are always very complex. But I think there are limits to how safe a progressive society can be when its conception of the individual seems to be shrinking and shrinking. It’s very hard to respect the rights of someone you do not respect. I think that we have almost taught ourselves to have a cynical view of other people. So much of the scientism that I complain about is this reductionist notion that people are really very small and simple. That their motives, if you were truly aware of them, would not bring them any credit. That’s so ugly. And so inimical to the best of everything we’ve tried to do as a civilization and so consistent with the worst of everything we’ve ever done as a civilization.

Black News: Keeping Whites Up On What's Going Down

“He’s engaged to be married, he has a dog and a cat, he was driving a Toyota Camry, he survived an accident, had 3.7 GPA, a chemistry major. This is not someone who posed a threat to the officers or anyone else, this is an everyday American.”

The buying power of African-Americans continues to grow, but advertisers are missing the mark by passing over black-oriented media. That is the conclusion of a Nielsen report, which shows that of the $75 billion spent last year in the U.S. on television, magazines, Internet and radio advertising, less than 3 percent went to media focused on black audiences.

Like much of the history of South Carolina's black community, stories of the 1st S.C. Volunteers -- the first official black regiment of the Union Army -- have been largely by word of mouth.

It is with extreme sadness that I inform The Chess Drum readership of the death of FM Ronald Simpson. He succumbed to Stage Four cancer on Thursday, September 19th. Simpson was an active member of the North Carolina community after being a legendary figure in New York’s “Black Bear School of Chess” for many years. Ron’s last USCF rating was 2338 and last tournament was the Asheboro Open in July…which he won. 

Even if they come from affluent families or attend highly rated schools, black students in Ohio continue to lag far behind their white peers in school, according to a Dispatch analysis of data from state standardized exams. On more than two dozen state tests given to students in kindergarten through high school last year, the average passage rate among black students was 64 percent. On average, 87 percent of white students passed. Disparities between races have existed across the country since schools were physically divided by race, researchers say, but many now view those gaps largely as a product of high poverty among minorities.

U of Alabama ends 'whites only' sororities

On Education and Corporate Culture…

Bill Siegel,...skillfully directs “The Trials of Muhammad Ali.” In terms of archival footage Siegel has an embarrassment of reel riches to choose from. The director, a researcher for the 1994 Oscar-nominated doc “Hoop Dreams,” selects wisely and edits a knockout.

Highlights include the doc’s opening, with a black and white clip of talk show host David Susskind, the archetypal liberal, delivering an excoriating televised verbal assault on Ali during his draft trials and tribulations that is even more vituperative than segregationist Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox’s later remarks. On the other hand, there is a color clip of neocon George W. Bush awarding the athlete the Medal of Freedom in a 2005 White House ceremony. There is much footage of Malcolm X -- before and after his split from the NOI. In other shots, Ali the separatist hugs Martin Luther King and calls the integrationist “brother;” in another clip Dr. King calls on all young men to do as Ali did by filing for C.O. status and lauding his “courage” for refusing to fight in Vietnam. A laughing Coretta Scott King later tells Ali he is “our champion in boxing and in justice.”

We also hear from Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown along with famous African American sports figures. Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain and John Carlos, who made a gloved Black power salute during the 1968 Olympics awards ceremony in Mexico, support Ali, while ex-heavyweight champ Joe Louis and baseball’s racial trendsetter Jackie Robinson (who similarly betrayed Paul Robeson in the 1950s) oppose him. Meanwhile, the recently deceased talk show great David Frost takes the blustery Ali to task for calling all white people “devils.”

REW-FFWD by Denis Villeneuve, National Film Board of Canada

The 30 minutes of REW-FFWD are introduced as the content of a “black box,” the video record of a nameless photojournalist’s trip to Jamaica,....

The journalist is sent to Trench Town, Kingston by an ignorant and somewhat racist editor who wants a “Heart of Darkness” story on what he assumes is a violent, barbaric island nation. When the journalist finally arrives, his car breaks down and he is forced to stay with the actually warm and helpful locals until the local mechanic can fix it.

When you get a good look at it, that “Heart of Darkness” is pretty amazing:

The black man occupies a unique space in American culture. He is an aggressive and inherently violent threat to society. Both insatiable and lazy, he is creator of chaos and maker of his own inevitable demise; he is forever guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He does not feel pain, or remorse, or empathy. As angry and volatile as their female counterparts, black men, by their very presence, give society reason to assume the defensive. He is simultaneously invisible and ever present in the minds and lives of white America. A non-citizen, he holds no right to self-defense.

     Debased, filthy and unworthy, black men, we are told, are sexual deviants incapable of either desiring or maintaining healthy, meaningful relationships. 

In fact, at a recent fellowship dinner at Columbia Law School, a wealthy, white businessman told me that the biggest business problem occurring in America is the inability of black women to find [black] husbands. He declared that this travesty is rooted in the black man’s inability to commit, not just to a woman, but also to a job. Upon picking my jaw off the floor, I concluded three important things: (1) my supposedly personal decisions regarding who I choose to fuck or date or marry are very much political, (2) so long as I date black men, I will carry their burden, and (3) while my decision to primarily date black men is a conscious one, it is not necessarily simple.

  As a racially ambiguous woman, I have the privilege of changing the way society receives me at my discretion. Sometimes I am black, other times I am Indian or Latina, or I may be French, or just a white girl who tans a bit too much. Sometimes I am intimidating or a race-baiting Angry Black Woman, but I can just as easily morph into innocent and approachable.  Over time I’ve found that the easiest way to change my ethnicity – change the way people treat me – is to change my company.  And the company that most defines us is, in fact, our choice in a mate. When I choose to date a black man, I inevitably send a message to society about who I am and what I represent. When I choose to date a black man, I choose to be ignored at bars, barred from clubs, humiliated by groups of drunken white men, or passed over by taxis. I choose to internalize their experiences of undervaluation, passed over promotions and emasculation. I choose to carry the burden of [dating] black men, and I choose it often; 90% of the men I’ve dated are black.

Surprised? The Cop that Shot Jonathan Ferrell Dead Like a Rabid Dog 

Used to Work as an "Animal Control" Officer

This Is Me - Blowing My Life - Trying 2 Get $ From Yours

A couple of days ago, when I wrote "'Nowhere To Run, Nowhere To Hide' Ain't Just A Song" I ended the post with "Death stalks us in this land,..." Now I'm sure, to some of you, that's merely hyperbole but, to the rest of us, it ain't no joke:

“There are more African-Americans on probation, parole, or in prison today than were slaves in 1850. It is not a crisis of crime. It is a crisis of people being left behind. 

...We tried to outpace the thing that chased us, that said: You are nothing. We tried to ignore it, but sometimes we caught ourselves repeating what history said, mumbling along, brainwashed: I am nothing. We drank too much, smoked too much, were abusive to ourselves, to each other. We were bewildered. There is a great darkness bearing down on our lives, and no one acknowledges it.”

Today it's not fair to say "no one acknowledges it," but it's difficult to understand how so few Republicans truly comprehend the life-or-death implications of how this plays out. Inside and out. 

Or the opportunities missed. 

Not to get all Glenn Beck on you but, speaking of the 1850s:

There's a growing fan club for Woodrow Wilson?

Although [Woodrow] Wilson promised African Americans "fair dealing...in advancing the interests of their race in the United States", the Wilson administration implemented a policy of racial segregation for federal employees. Although considered a modern liberal visionary giant as President, in terms of implementing domestic race relations, however, Wilson was "deeply racist in his thoughts and politics, and apparently was comfortable being so. 

...the Republicans won a landslide in 1920 by denouncing Wilson's policies."

I bet - and we could again. Why's Leo here? Because he's doing what I can't as a Republican (no worth in it) - he's living a life of being creative - but with the truth. Or, as one writer said, This is nuts.

Leonardo Di Caprio is making a biopic about Woodrow Wilson, based on a new book that celebrates the life of the most racist president of the 20th century. 

Wilson supported the KKK, defended lynching, re-segregated Washington DC, and fired all African-Americans from federal jobs. Wilson was not just a racist; he was a proud racist. He actually had the KKK-endorsing film “Birth Of A Nation” shown at the White House and called its depiction of the Klan as liberators of white southerners “history written with lightning.” 

Wilson was no mere man of his time. His time, on matters of race, was passing and he used the powers of the presidency to hold the clock back.

That's a light brush stroke, worthy of a Leo's making-a-movie exposé. But turn back to Woody Willie's hard-assed Wikipedia page and then, if you have any feeling for black people - as people - the true depth and horror of being bent over hits you. It hits me, anyway. The Right should already be ripping Leo's guts out (as they should've Oprah's, pre-Obama) making damned sure he gets this story correct:

In 1912, "an unprecedented number" of African Americans left the Republican Party to cast their vote for Wilson, a Democrat. They were encouraged by his promises of support for minorities. However, once in office, Wilson's cabinet members expanded racially segregationist policies. Black leaders who had supported Wilson in the 1912 election were angered when Wilson placed segregationist white Southerners in charge of many executive departments, and the administration acted to reduce the already-meager number of African-Americans in political-appointee positions. Wilson's cabinet officials, with the president's blessing, proceeded to establish official segregation in most federal government offices – in some departments for the first time since 1863. New facilities were designed to keep the races working there separated.

Historian Eric Foner says, "[Wilson's] administration imposed full racial segregation in Washington and hounded from office considerable numbers of black federal employees." Segregation was also quickly implemented at the Post Office Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. Many African American employees were downgraded and even fired. The segregation implemented in the Department of the Treasury and the Post Office Department involved not only screened-off working spaces, but also separate lunchrooms and toilets. 

 

Some segregationist federal workplace policies introduced by the Wilson administration would remain until the Truman Administration in the 1940s.

Other steps were taken by the Wilson Administration to make obtaining a civil service job more difficult for blacks. Primary among these was the requirement, implemented in 1914 and continued until 1940, that all candidates for civil service jobs attach a photograph to their application further allowing for discrimination in the hiring process. 

Despite these policies, Wilson was criticized by such hard-line segregationists as Georgia's Thomas E. Watson, for not going far enough in restricting black employment in the federal government.

Wilson did not interfere with the well-established system of Jim Crow and backed the demands of Southern Democrats that their states be left alone to deal with issues of race and black voting without interference from Washington. 

In 1914, Wilson told The New York Times, "If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it."

I guess that was considered the president giving a pep talk. (Blacks get a lot of bullshit pep talks in the face of real obstacles. The line "Don't be a victim" is usually in there somewhere. Let's see, we got the enraged broke-back black guy and a Jewish blogger, against Leonardo Di Caprio and the marketing might of Hollywood - that's a fair fight to the Right.) Shut up, Leo. You're actually making me understand those slow-assed people in the DMV better. There's no point, in working faster, if they're so far behind they'll never catch up. A life of crime's right around the corner for their kids, trying to make up for what Woodrow took away, before their grandparents spent their lives fighting to get that shitty assed job for their children. "Don't be resentful" others say, while out kayaking, flying their planes, horseback riding, or the best - in email, while on this thing most blacks still have never experienced, a mythical escape from your troubles called a "vacation."

Fine, I'll stop resenting, and just stay depressed I'm not even surviving and the story of why is "history written in lightning." 

"They" ought to correct it - like stolen lives and fortunes easily come back. Or easily produce happy productive people, always on the right road, as long as they stay positive - over generations -  that's the fucking joke.

The implication, on top of everything else, that no matter what the issue, black lives are expected to consist of struggling to fix a multitude of injustices - or struggle at all - it's just sick. This isn't France - I'm at home, damn it, in NewAgeLand. Where everyone else pursues their interests, and I'm not supposed to notice what I've been stuck writing about, as opposed to my own possible concerns (or unlikely desire) for ebony ironwood lighting fixtures, the locations of any black Buddhist tourist attractions featuring unicorns bred by Rappers out to "save the planet," or the casually-approached question of whether the best place to post my long-awaited essay, A Negro Dolphin Wishes Of Love, is on Craig's List or not?

You know, good ol' dependably empty-headed, me:

I never have anything better to do,....