The board is expected to convene in a series of closed-door meetings without a clear consensus on the candidate. The climate will be vastly different from the board’s unanimous approval of former President and CEO Bruce S. Gordon in the summer of 2005. The former Verizon executive came to the organization amid fanfare and a hope that he could help boost its lagging fundraising. But Gordon clashed with board members over the group’s vision and civil rights tactics, leaving suddenly in March 2007, after less than two years at the helm.
It’s time for our Civil Rights groups to take advantage of some of the great young black talent in America. While the NAACP is probably positioned the best to function in the information age, most like the National Urban League, are still functioning much like they did back in the 60’s. Our Civil Rights organizations need to start embracing social networking sites,blogs, and the rest of Web 2.0’s new advancements because that is where the youth are. That is also where their future is. If they want an example, they just need to go over to Barack Obama’s website. He is giving a masterclass on mobilizing in the internet age. I hope that in choosing a new president. the NAACP will chose a young visionary that understands the “facebook” dynamic, and not just another civil rights throwback. BTW, how about a woman? Someone like Dr. Julianne Malveaux perhaps? Just a thought…
Today I was checking out an article on ajc.com about a brother named Brian Egeston, who turned his love of writing and barbershop discourse into a Magazine. Barbershop Digest is distributed for free in Atlanta-Area barbershops, and it aims to bring the experience of the black barbershop, popularized by Ice Cube in his movie “Barbershop”, home. Inside its cover you will find just about any of the outlandish topics that one would encounter in a black barbershop on a Saturday afternoon.
For example, the current edition looks at the Jeremiah Wright-Barack Obama conflict and covers it like Max Kellerman would cover a fight between Bernard Hopkins and Oscar De La Hoya, complete with a “tale of the tape.” Just like a conversation in a barbershop, the magazine covers a wide variety of issues such as health, barbershop profiles with individual profiles of the barbers, and of course politics, sports and cars. The magazine is smartly done, and if you do not live in the Atlanta area, you can check out the latest issue on their website, http://www.barbershopdigest.com/.
While we’re on the topic of crazy things going on at resturants (see: Atlanta bar selling Obama Monkey t-shirts), here’s a story about a resturant in the Denver area that had a noose as a decoration. Not only that, the resturant proceeded to sit a black family under the noose.
Now unlike the bar owner in Georgia, the restaurant was apologetic regarding the incident, and did remove the noose, but why would they have something like that hanging in their restaurant anyway? The owner said that the noose was part of their wild west decor, and was not meant to be racist, but they had to understand the effect that it would have on African-Americans.
With all of the recent national news coverage about the conflicts caused by such racially insensitive displays (see: Jena 6), they would have to be living under a rock not to. Do you think that the African-American family was too sensitive? Speak Out!
MORRISON, Colo. — A Broomfield family said their Mother’s Day celebration was ruined Sunday by what they saw and heard at “The Fort” Restaurant in Morrison.
“It was shocking,” Lonza Dennis told 7NEWS Wednesday.
Dennis, 37, and her husband Patrick, 38, said they were snapping photos at the table when they noticed a decorative noose hanging on the wall behind them.
Patrick Dennis said he was equally unsettled by the waiter’s response when they asked about it.
“My wife said, ‘We noticed a noose hanging behind the table,’ and his immediate reply was, ‘This is where we sit people who don’t tip very well,’” Dennis said.
“We were speechless,” Dennis added it appeared other staff members were snickering and giggling. Dennis wondered if they were sat there purposely, although he admits, he has no way knowing for sure.
“We’re in the process of terminating the waiter,” said Holly Arnold Kinney, owner of The Fort.
Well, isn’t that nice. It seems like good ol’ Dog the Bounty Hunter is going to get his show back. It’s been less than a year, (7 Months to be exact) since he was taken off the air for using the “N” word, and I guess the powers that be have decided to let him out of the Media “Time Out” Chair. It seems like about 7 or 8 months seems to be the “appropriate” amount of time to punish racially insensitive media personalities. Don Imus served eight months in purgatory for his “Nappy Headed Hoes” remarks while his agents worked out a new radio deal.
But what I really found funny about the press conference announcing Dog’s return to TV, was how his public relations people flew in Niger Innis, the National Spokesman for CORE, to speak on behalf of all African-Americans. Innis told the press that Dog was forgiven by African-Americans. How do they know this? Did they take a poll? To me, this shows the pitiful depths to which this once proud organization has fallen. Are they aching for relevancy so bad that they would go out to Hawaii and become shills for a two-bit dog and pony show? But then, I guess that one should expect anything from an organization that made Idi Amin a lifetime member.
A few posts ago I talked about the Bar in Georgia that was selling the Obama as Curious George T-Shirts. Well because a picture tells a thousand words, I thought I would post the video. Here’s bar owner Mike Norman talking about his shirts:
According to a new LA Times/Bloomberg poll, the Majority of African-Americans look at their economic situation in a Negative way:
The poll also found a sharp racial disparity in how Americans view their finances. Although 61% of whites and 54% of other racial groups polled said their personal economic situation was secure, just 39% of African Americans described their finances in positive terms.
More than half of African Americans polled, 53%, said their finances were shaky; 34% of whites and 42% of other ethnic groups polled expressed similar concerns.
For those who wonder why white voters in West Virginia voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton, and against Barack Obama, Professor Ron Walters gives some great insight in a new article:
Here are some of the main points:
Election pundits have repeatedly asked why Barack Obama has trouble attracting blue-collar whites, as if he created the problem and could solve it. Hillary is seldom asked why blacks don’t vote for her, a problem she could solve. But it is interesting why blue-collar whites consistently vote against themselves, supporting Republicans who care little about their problems.
Part of the key lies in the fact that many such whites, (defined as those with no college and who make an average family income of under $50,000 per year) are like those in other classes who possess an attitude of racial supremacy. This has been important in maintaining a buffer between themselves and blacks, keeping them on lowest rung in the socio-economic ladder.As the Civil Rights movement pushed for racial equality, working class whites and others pushed back in the 1980s and 1990s to maintain the whiteness of their neighborhood institutions as much as possible, along with their dominance over economic opportunity.
Walters Continues:
Globalization and technological change, however, began to shrink the number of industrial jobs, touching off a fight for the crumbs left by corporations who fled the country. Industrial jobs have remained stable at about 30 million, but they have been redistributed overseas, and to southern and western regions of the United States.
And as the black middle class grew, it challenged white lower middle class hegemony over many white-collar jobs. So, the tension created by job competition led to blacks being blamed for white economic immobility in some places. A deeper understanding of this issue requires reading such texts as The Possessiveness Investment In Whiteness, by George Lipsitz, who describes the tangible financial and psychological rewards that whites get by their investment in white identity. And if whiteness yields fewer hard economic returns, then the psychology of white supremacy may grow as a resource to hold on to.
The reason why blue-collar whites have trouble voting for black candidates, then, is that it would be a tangible concession that blacks are not the cause of their condition, an admission that blacks have an equal right to access social goods and most important, that they have as much right to posit the esteem of their own humanity as others do.
You would think that we as a society are over the whole black people as monkey thing. But some new T-shirts depicting Barack Obama as Curious George show that this caricature is still alive and well.From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Marietta bar owner Mike Norman says the T-shirts he’s peddling, featuring a look-a-like of cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with “Obama in ‘08″ underneath, are not meant to offend.
Norman acknowledged the imagery’s Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey,
“We’re not living in the (19)40’s,” he said. “Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears - he looks just like Curious George.”
About a dozen protesters rallied against the shirts Tuesday afternoon, condemning them as racist and asking Norman, longtime proprietor of Mulligan’s Bar and Grill on Roswell Street, to stop selling them.
What’s the difference between this and hanging a noose from a tree? What’s the difference between this and painting a swastika on a synagogue? To me they are all hate crimes. This man should be in Jail for selling these shirts. What do you think? Speak Out!
If People thought that Jeremiah Wright was out there, then they haven’t heard the liturgical stylings of the Honorable David Manning of ATLAH World Ministries, based in ATLAH, New York. (That’s the Name that God Gave Him for the Neighborhood of Harlem in Manhattan, By the Way..) Over the last couple of Months, Pastor Manning has shared some harsh words about Barack Obama across the pulpit, and many of them are posted on You Tube for all to see. The statements that he makes are so outlandish that you have to wonder “Is he serious?”
Here’s a clip of Pastor Manning talking about how Barack is a “Good House Negro”:
