TresSugar

Say What? Louisiana Judge Won't Marry Interracial Couples

TresSugar — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0700

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way."

- Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana Justice of the Peace who sounds like a Rip Van Winkle character who slept through the '60s,'70s, '80s . . . (you get the picture). He says he's concerned for the children interracial couples would have, and that in Tangipahoa Parish where he lives, interracial marriages don't last long. Last I heard, the chances of any marriage in the US lasting is about 50/50 and that people of opposite sexes, anyway, are free to marry who they choose.

Front Page: Carter: Angry Obama Opposition Based on Race

TresSugar — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:00:48 -0700

Jimmy Carter says Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie" outburst along with other angry opposition toward President Obama is based on racism. - MSNBC
Lab technician Ray Clark is released after providing DNA samples to police in the murder case of Yale student Annie Le. - CNN
The FDA has approved a swine flu vaccine that should arrive the first week of October. - AP
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports the idea of banning smoking in public parks and beaches. - New York Post
Runner Caster Semenya is placed on suicide watch. - Chicago Now

Say What: Maureen Dowd Gives a Shout Out to Congressman

TresSugar — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:44:44 -0700

"Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president - no Democrat ever shouted 'liar' at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq - convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it."

- New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd on Congressman from South Carolina Joe Wilson's shocking interjection of "You lie!" during President Obama's speech on health care. Dowd agrees with others who think that this breach in protocol and civility was an attempt to delegitimize him as the president - because he is black. Congressman Wilson, as it turns out, once spearheaded a campaign to keep the Confederate flag above South Carolina's state Capitol and denounced the black woman who stepped forward and said she was Strom Thurmond's daughter. (She was.) Wilson has since apologized and the President has accepted his apology, but he's now a sort of folk hero for those who don't like the president, and "You lie!" bumper stickers abound. What do you think of that outburst and its significance?

Caster Semenya Now in Hiding, Tests Reveal She's Intersexed

TresSugar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:00:00 -0700

It's easy to forget that in the middle of this battle to figure out South African runner Caster Semenya's sex, there's an 18-year-old, raised as a girl, who trained hard to win the gold medal at the World Championships in Berlin last month.

Now that the IAAF's (International Association of Athletics Federations) sex test results have come back and reveal that Semenya is intersexed, she's in hiding.

The test results indicate that Semenya doesn’t have a womb or ovaries, she has internal testes and three times the amount of testosterone that an average woman would have. It is still unclear whether the IAAF will strip Semenya of her medal or bar her from future races - but her case has caused outrage all over the world. The National Assembly sports committee chairman Butana Komphela made an official complaint to the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights saying that the IAAF has been racist and sexist toward Semenya. (Remember also, that she was tricked into allowing these sex tests, thinking they were testing for drugs.)

The general population knows so little about intersexed people, and we are so conditioned to believe that there are two sexes and two sexes only. The fact of the matter is, one's sex is actually determined by a complicated set of factors, including variations in chromosomes and hormones and their interaction. Gender, on the other hand, is a social construct, how we "perform" our sex. (This renders the repeated use of the term "gender testing" in news reports on Semenya's case nonsensical.)

If there's a silver lining in this sad tale, it's that more light will be shed on what some call the myth of two sexes. Stay tuned for more posts on this fascinating topic. How do you feel about how Semenya's been treated?

Say What? Harvard Professor on Henry Louis Gates's Arrest

TresSugar — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:00:00 -0700

"Ain't nothing post-racial about the United States of America."

- Lawrence Bobo, Harvard professor and colleague of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Gates's arrest last week. The acclaimed Harvard scholar, author, historian and PBS documentarian was arrested trying to unjam the front door to his house after police were called by a neighbor who thought someone was breaking into the home. Although what happened isn't entirely clear (police say Gates was being "tumultuous" and Gates claims he was asking for the police officer's badge number), many see the incident, from beginning to end, as a classic case of racial profiling.

Responsible White Separatists Have an Image Problem

TresSugar — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:30:00 -0700

"The responsible white separatist community condemns this,” he said. “It makes us look bad."

John De Nugent, an acquaintance of accused killer James von Brunn (pictured here), denounces yesterday's shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

The white supremacist/separatist movement has tried to reframe itself as a movement about love and preservation of the white race rather than about racism and hatred. But to me, "responsible white separatists" makes as much sense as: empathetic racists, or accountable rapists.

Soldiers' Graves Graffitied on Islamic Festival of Sacrifice

LibertySugar — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:30:53 -0800

Anti-Islamic insults desecrated at least 500 tombstones of Muslim soldiers in France's largest military cemetery. The racist graffiti attack took place on the eve of today's Islamic Eid al-Adha festival (the festival of sacrifice), a day when Muslims visit the graves of loved ones. Each grave was marked with either a swastika, or a letter that helped spell out derogatory messages.

Many of the soldiers whose memories were affronted died fighting for France during the battles of World War I, but their resting place has battled racist attacks during recent times. This is the third attack directed toward Muslims on this site in the last two years.

Considering France has Europe's largest Muslim population, do you think these types of hostile actions will increase or decrease?

View 5 Photos ›

Source

Have Hate Groups Been Quieter Than Expected This Election?

CitizenSugar — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:59:49 -0700

Despite news of a dead bear cub shot through the head and draped with Obama signs and a car vandalized allegedly for sporting a McCain sticker, apparently hate group activity has been less intense than expected this campaign. Groups who monitor hate activity with an eye toward preventing violence are reporting an eerie silence from traditional sources of open racism - much less than they expected this late in the race.

The director of a law center that tracks hate group says, “What we really haven’t seen is white supremacists really rallying over an Obama presidency. Hate groups are in a more or less stunned position right now; they haven’t been able to figure out how to proceed just yet.”

Politician Douglas Wilder, 20 years ago had a campaign almost fail because of the Bradley (or Wilder) effect - where polling indicates voters will do one thing before succumbing to suspected race-related cold feet in the booth. He now says, "America has grown, people have grown."

Is this the case? To find out, read more.

Perhaps. Though even children are acutely aware of the issue of race in the campaign, it seems to be having an unexpected affect - nine percent of voters say they're more likely to vote for Obama because of his race, more than those who wouldn't for the same reason.

But has hate been quiet? We've seen presidential mailers looking like food stamps emblazoned with fried chicken, an effigy of Obama hung from a tree at a college in Oregon, and the KKK saying they hope if Obama is elected it will inspire a white backlash.

I suppose listening is in the ear of the beholder as to gauge the volume level on that. But will hate groups' vociferousness become more prevalent in the next two weeks - or on election night? Are they really too stunned by the becoming more real possibility of an Obama presidency to gather their organizations to rally? Or has America, like Wilder says, "grown?"

Source

Rapper Nas Gives Petition to "Propaganda Machine" Fox News

CitizenSugar — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:55:15 -0700

Rapper Nas joined with the Color of Change and MoveOn to deliver a petition to the offices of Fox News yesterday. Just after his controversial album hit number one, Nas took the podium protesting the racist attacks he sees coming from Fox against Black Americans and Barack Obama.

Delivering over 600,000 signatures to the network, Nas delivered a prepared speech saying, "We already knew that Fox is not a news network; they are a propaganda machine . . . Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try to call it news. This should outrage every American that Fox uses hateful language to talk about the person that may be the first black president."

Fox declined receipt of the signatures, but issued a statement: "Fox News believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech, including Nas, who has an album to promote."

That album now called Untitled had an original, much more controversial title. Does this affect his statement against Fox?

To see clips of the Fox language Nas finds offensive - served up on last night's Colbert Report (where the petition was delivered after Fox refused to accept it) - plus Nas's interview with Stephen, read more.

Nas was in studio with Stephen too - see the episode with his interview including talk of his feud with Bill O'Reilly.

Does Nas and the Color of Change/MoveOn petition have a point? Is Fox racist?

Source

Girl Power? Couric Claims Sexism More Common Than Racism

CitizenSugar — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:50:20 -0700

In the fight for girl power, three women have jumped into the ring in the past 24 hours with very different viewpoints. Katie Couric, in Israel covering Obama's world tour made this striking proclamation:

I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance, and realizing what Hillary Clinton might have realized not long ago: that sexism in the American society is more common than racism, and certainly more acceptable or forgivable.

Sexism trumps racism? So what's a girl to do? Oh! I know! We'll ask Brooke Hogan (of the dubiously-named Brooke Knows Best) what the role for women should be! Here's her take:

I think it's kind of crazy that a woman is running because I think that women deal with a lot of emotions and menopause and PMS and stuff. Like, I'm so moody all the time, I know I couldn't be able to run a country, because I would be crying one day and yelling at people the next day, you know?

Surely a gal has to be Wonder Woman to exist in both realms, fighting for a world where woman can and should be allowed to do it all, amid the utterings of a generation of Brooke Hogans who glimpsed the dream of equality and said, "nah." That superhero fighting could be the very element that's undoing feminism. To see how, read more.

This Townhall column, taking on last weekend's NOW National Conference said the leaping-tall-buildings motif is exactly where the so-called fight for women's rights gets it wrong:

The superhero analogy demonstrates the destructive attitude dominating feminism today. It is the attitude that everyone is against women, out to get them. To feminists, women must take on the entire world. They must save everyone, even sometimes from themselves. Like Superwoman, these feminists are constantly fearful that they will find an enemy, like sexism, around every corner.

Are feminists fighting just for the sake of fighting? Katie Couric may be right, studies are still being released showing the prominence of gender discrimination - but how should the battle be fought? If sexism is a foe bigger than racism, comments like Hogan's do nothing to advance the cause. At the same time, perhaps Hogan's comments exist precisely because so much progress has been made. Those who aren't oppressed, don't feel the need to fight against it. And then there's the question of the fight. Is calling attention to inequity, simply creating a self-fulfilling prophecy? Do women now, or will they ever have equal rights? Should they?

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