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Tim Wise: Imagine If The Tea Party Was Black

Here’s an interesting and provocative post by our friend, Tim Wise.

What if the Tea Party was Black? Would they get away with half the stunts they’ve pulled at rallies?

“Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black” – Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we?

The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure – the ones who are driving the action – we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose. Continue reading

Drowning in the Politics of Torture

Now playing:
Guantanamo by Nadir’s Distorted Soul

Let’s make this torture debate absolutely clear:  I’ve got cousins, a good friend and a nephew who are all in the military.  If any of them was captured on the battlefield and tortured, I would want the lower level interrogators who committed the act to be prosecuted and convicted of war crimes.  I would want the high level officials who authorized the use of illegal methods (not enhanced interrogation – TORTURE) to be prosecuted and convicted of war crimes.

This is not politics.  This is justice.

As mainstream media talking heads like Joe Scarborough and John Meachum do their best to dissuade the public from demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder do the right thing, the rest of us should not lose sight of the principles that are supposed to be  the foundation of this nation: that all men – including alleged Islamic radicals, prisoners of war, members of Congress and US presidents – are ALL created equal, should enjoy the same rights and deserve the same punishment for their crimes.

How is this debatable?  The law is the law, right?

Well, apparently not in the United States. Continue reading

Drowning in the Politics of Torture

Now playing:
Guantanamo by Nadir’s Distorted Soul

Let’s make this torture debate absolutely clear:  I’ve got cousins, a good friend and a nephew who are all in the military.  If any of them was captured on the battlefield and tortured, I would want the lower level interrogators who committed the act to be prosecuted and convicted of war crimes.  I would want the high level officials who authorized the use of illegal methods (not enhanced interrogation – TORTURE) to be prosecuted and convicted of war crimes.

This is not politics.  This is justice.

As mainstream media talking heads like Joe Scarborough and John Meachum do their best to dissuade the public from demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder do the right thing, the rest of us should not lose sight of the principles that are supposed to be  the foundation of this nation: that all men – including alleged Islamic radicals, prisoners of war, members of Congress and US presidents – are ALL created equal, should enjoy the same rights and deserve the same punishment for their crimes.

How is this debatable?  The law is the law, right?

Well, apparently not in the United States. Continue reading

The Mis-Education System: Schools Suck On Purpose

NOW PLAYING:
Conspiracy (featuring Rev) [explicit lyrics]
from Distorted Soul 2.0

“When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder.  He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it.  You do not need to send him to the back door.  He will go without being told.  In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit.  His education makes it necessary.” – Carter G. Woodson from The Miseducation of The Negro

Our friends at Playahata.com reposted this blog by Patrick Grimm of Zionist Watch which first appeared on News From The West.  Despite the obviously racist and Anti-Semetic views of News From the West, AND the lack of documentation available for the information in this particular post, the article raises some interesting points that are timely in light of Barack Obama’s recent education policy speech.

According to Grimm the failures of the U.S. education system are not only systemic, they are intentional.  Many of us have wondered why the supposedly “educated” people who run our schools would have developed such a mind-numbing, creativity-draining learning process.  Furthermore, why do they keep using it when there is so much evidence that it doesn’t work?  The answer?  It’s all on purpose.

Let’s face it.  School is boring and stupid.  They don’t really teach you what you want or need to know to make a living.  Those of us who have grown into educated, scholarly people have done so most often in spite of our schooling rather than as a result of it.

Our public schools especially are designed to emulate an manufacturing facility, and the schools themselves are factories.  They use an assembly line process to manufacture docile, unambitious workers who are ready to go straight from secondary school to the plant floor.  Is there any wonder that in a world where knowledge of technology and science – not to mention creativity and critical thinking – are nearly essential, the United States lags behind?

Read the post below.  We’ll have discussion afterward, and yes, there will be a quiz.

The Educational System Was Designed to Keep Us Uneducated and Docile Continue reading

The Mis-Education System: Schools Suck On Purpose

NOW PLAYING:
Conspiracy (featuring Rev) [explicit lyrics]
from Distorted Soul 2.0

“When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder.  He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it.  You do not need to send him to the back door.  He will go without being told.  In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit.  His education makes it necessary.” – Carter G. Woodson from The Miseducation of The Negro

Our friends at Playahata.com reposted this blog by Patrick Grimm of Zionist Watch which first appeared on News From The West.  Despite the obviously racist and Anti-Semetic views of News From the West, AND the lack of documentation available for the information in this particular post, the article raises some interesting points that are timely in light of Barack Obama’s recent education policy speech.

According to Grimm the failures of the U.S. education system are not only systemic, they are intentional.  Many of us have wondered why the supposedly “educated” people who run our schools would have developed such a mind-numbing, creativity-draining learning process.  Furthermore, why do they keep using it when there is so much evidence that it doesn’t work?  The answer?  It’s all on purpose.

Let’s face it.  School is boring and stupid.  They don’t really teach you what you want or need to know to make a living.  Those of us who have grown into educated, scholarly people have done so most often in spite of our schooling rather than as a result of it.

Our public schools especially are designed to emulate an manufacturing facility, and the schools themselves are factories.  They use an assembly line process to manufacture docile, unambitious workers who are ready to go straight from secondary school to the plant floor.  Is there any wonder that in a world where knowledge of technology and science – not to mention creativity and critical thinking – are nearly essential, the United States lags behind?

Read the post below.  We’ll have discussion afterward, and yes, there will be a quiz.

The Educational System Was Designed to Keep Us Uneducated and Docile Continue reading

‘The Bankers Think We’re Chumps’

President Barack Obama’s financial stimulus package does nothing to change one fundamental problem with the current economic crisis: It fails to hold accountable the greedy bankers who caused the financial meltdown in the first place.

As former chief economist for the IMF, MIT professor Simon Johnson told Bill Moyers on the February 15 edition of Bill Moyers Journal, “The structure [of our] banking system, the concentration of power in big financial institutions has to change.”

But Obama’s plan, which at best will put a band-aid on the crisis, does not hold bankers accountable, and does not do anything to really curtail exhorbitant executive bonuses. The BlackCommentator.com cartoon below demonstrates the point well. It’s a dream to believe that the avaricious oligarchs in the banking system will repay the American taxpayer once the economy rebounds and the finanical system is stable.

They are playing us for chumps.

Continue reading

David Duke Calls New RNC Chair ‘Radical Black Racist’

David Duke, former Grand Dragon of the KKK and former Republican congressman from Louisiana isn’t happy about the GOP’s new choice for chairman of the Republican National Committee.  I wonder why…

I got the news from www.BlackVoices.com on Twitter, but I had to go to the horse’s mouth to check it out.

Sure enough, Duke calls former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele “Obama Junior” and “a radical Black Racist”.  He blasts Steele for his pro-affirmative action stance, his opposition to assault weapons and his opposition to the death penalty.

More pointedly, Duke attacks the Republican party for betraying the Republican base.   According to the blog post on his site, Duke told the Washington Post:

I am glad these traitorous leaders of the Republican Party appointed this Black racist, affirmative action advocate to the head of the Republican party because this will lead to a huge revolt among the Republican base. As a former Republican official, I can tell you that millions of rank-and-file Republicans are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore! We will either take the Republican Party back over the next four years or we will say, “To Hell With the Republican Party!” And we will take 90 percent of Republicans with us into a New Party that will take its current place!

Is Duke right?  Many people on the left have accused the Republican Party of racism over the years.  Surely the election of Michael Steele is a political move designed to erase that image and attract more Blacks and other minorities to the GOP.  Continue reading

David Duke Calls New RNC Chair ‘Radical Black Racist’

David Duke, former Grand Dragon of the KKK and former Republican congressman from Louisiana isn’t happy about the GOP’s new choice for chairman of the Republican National Committee.  I wonder why…

I got the news from www.BlackVoices.com on Twitter, but I had to go to the horse’s mouth to check it out.

Sure enough, Duke calls former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele “Obama Junior” and “a radical Black Racist”.  He blasts Steele for his pro-affirmative action stance, his opposition to assault weapons and his opposition to the death penalty.

More pointedly, Duke attacks the Republican party for betraying the Republican base.   According to the blog post on his site, Duke told the Washington Post:

I am glad these traitorous leaders of the Republican Party appointed this Black racist, affirmative action advocate to the head of the Republican party because this will lead to a huge revolt among the Republican base. As a former Republican official, I can tell you that millions of rank-and-file Republicans are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore! We will either take the Republican Party back over the next four years or we will say, “To Hell With the Republican Party!” And we will take 90 percent of Republicans with us into a New Party that will take its current place!

Is Duke right?  Many people on the left have accused the Republican Party of racism over the years.  Surely the election of Michael Steele is a political move designed to erase that image and attract more Blacks and other minorities to the GOP.  Continue reading

Death of Sam?

Is the United States in danger of collapse?  A Russian academic and a now defunct Nashville hip hop group say it is possible.

It’s really hard to stay positive with so much bad news flying about.  So the apocalyptic overtones of a December article in the Wall Street Journal entitled ’As if Things Weren’t Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.’ certainly aren’t helping to brighten my day.

However, daily accounts of the economic implosion we are enduring hit much closer to home now.  The signs have been prevalent here in Detroit for quite some time, but even more people are losing their jobs amid what is now a global economic crisis.  Can we even consider the possibility that the United States as we know it may soon disappear from the face of the map? Continue reading

Death of Sam?

Is the United States in danger of collapse?  A Russian academic and a now defunct Nashville hip hop group say it is possible.

It’s really hard to stay positive with so much bad news flying about.  So the apocalyptic overtones of a December article in the Wall Street Journal entitled ‘As if Things Weren’t Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.’ certainly aren’t helping to brighten my day.

However, daily accounts of the economic implosion we are enduring hit much closer to home now.  The signs have been prevalent here in Detroit for quite some time, but even more people are losing their jobs amid what is now a global economic crisis.  Can we even consider the possibility that the United States as we know it may soon disappear from the face of the map? Continue reading

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