Imus, Duke and the politics of race

"The extent to which we handle race as a political rather than a moral problem, we're going to get it wrong.

"Who, after all, is going to define the rules of engagement? Al Sharpton? Jesse Jackson?

"Both were part of the problem in the Duke case. Both were more than glad to feed the racial flames, and both were dead wrong."

Go to http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55193

Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It

White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay

Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats: From Welfare Cheat to Conservative Messenger

Shakedown: A Shocking Jesse Jackson Biography

"But it was whispered that messing with Jesse risked Fort's displeasure. Two black reporters, Angela Parker and Barbara A. Reynolds, crossed Jesse and paid such a price. Parker questioned Jackson's finances in print and Reynolds wrote Jesse Jackson: America's David - a largely sympathetic biography that boldly contradicted Jackson's childhood stories and his account of the death of Dr. King. Both left Chicago because of threats of violence from the El Rukns and shunning within the black community."

Go to http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21NVWilsonJackson602.html


Jesse Jackson: America's David (Title of Previous Ed.: Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement,)

No Need to Dull 'Barbershop's' Cutting Edge

"If Jackson is truly interested in preserving the 'sacred' Civil Rights Movement, he should start by admitting that he has been lying for more than 30 years about being the last person to hold Dr. King before he died.

"Abernathy recounts in his autobiography that Jackson and another aide, Hosea Williams, had agreed not to talk to the media immediately following King’s assassination until they could learn more details. However, moments later, Jackson was speaking to reporters.

"‘"Yes," Jesse was saying. "I was the last person he spoke to as I was cradling him in my arms." 'With a roar of anger, Hosea started cursing and was halfway up the chain fence before one of the others pulled him down and held him until his anger had cooled. But Jackson has told the same story, or very nearly the same, that morning on 'The Today Show.'

"Barbara A. Reynolds, in her biography, initially titled, 'Jesse Jackson: The man, the movement, the myth,' quotes Hosea Williams: 'I had no hangups about Jesse talking to the press. That was okay, but why lie? Why capitalize on another man’s name and image — a dead man, who can’t speak for himself?'

In a tape-recorded interview with me before he died, Abernathy dared Jackson to say to his face that he —not Abernathy — was the last one who cradled Dr. King. It’s time for Jesse Jackson to come clean. If he can’t, as Eddie says in the movie… Well, you know what he says."

Go to http://www.georgecurry.com/columns/index1.shtml?id=1059845212

Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement, the Myth

Kenneth Timmerman on CNN

"Well, to be frank with you, I have no expectation that a mainstream publishing house in New York would publish a expose on Jesse Jackson. The last investigative book at Jesse Jackson was written in 1975 by a terrific black journalist, Barbara Reynolds. And I interviewed her extensively for this book, great book. She was virtually railroaded out of Chicago by Jesse Jackson and his friends. Her book was never picked up. It was actually a terrific work or journalism. And the mainstream press in New York does not want to do this kind of book. Regnery has got, by the way, a terrific track record and they're a great publisher and I'm very happy to be with them."

Go to http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0203/07/mlld.00.html

Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement, the Myth

The Assassination of Martin Luther King

"One reason to believe that Jackson is the man Sullivan was looking for is that he directly benefited from a lie that the Mass Media told the american people namely that he was the heir apparent to MLK when in fact it was Ralph Abernathy. Barbara Reynolds lays out much of the suspicious activity of Jackson in her suppressed book Jesse Jackson : the man, the movement, the myth. -William Sullivan proposes a, plan to promote a new negro leader: January 1964"

Go to http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3855&page=2

Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement, the Myth

It's getting a lot harder to rev up the electorate

"As for Jackson, in Barbara Reynolds' critical, unauthorized 1975 biography "Jesse Jackson: The Man, The Myth, The Movement," he was quoted as saying 'Regardless of who's in the White House, I don't want to be in the outhouse.'"

Go to http://www.newsobserver.com/171/v-print/story/178784.html

Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement, the Myth

JESSE JACKSON'S RAPID RESURRECTION AIM

"The revelations about his affair with an employee also bear a resemblance to what was being written about him 25 years ago. Barbara Reynolds in her 1975 book, Jesse Jackson, America's David, reported that Jackson had relationships with singers Nancy Wilson and Roberta Flack. She said that in 1974, when asked about his relationship with Roberta Flack he replied, 'Until such time as I'm ready to concede some formal relationship I refuse to deny it. I'm not going to plead the Fifth.' An article in the January 20, 1988 issue of the Christian Science Monitor said that when asked about Nancy Wilson, Jackson's response was to hold up his hand in the halt position and say, 'That's an inappropriate question.'"

Go to http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/2001/02a.html

Jesse Jackson: America's David (Title of Previous Ed.: Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement,)

THE REV. JESSE JACKSON AFFAIR

"In 1975, I and my associates met with an Afro-American reporter, Barbara Reynolds, then working for the Chicago Tribune. She had written a book about Rev. Jesse Jackson how he fraudulently became a supposed black 'leader,' replacing Dr. King, how he falsely claimed Dr. King died in his arms; and how Jesse gets various benefits from the government and huge corporations who condone his vast deception. Her book, "The Man, The Myth, The Movement" was then being withdrawn from the bookstores and suppressed, she told us, because the Establishment needed to protect their front man, Rev. Jackson. She said the Rev. Jackson's threats were requiring how to soon pack up and leave Chicago. [I have one of the very few copies of the original book.]

"In the early 1990s, she appeared on the TV Show "Tony Brown's Journal". She told what happened to her at the hands of Jesse Jackson and mentioned she thought her book was finally going to be re-issued."

Go to http://www.skolnicksreport.com/jesse.html

Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement, the Myth

Jesse Jackson's Skeletons

"Barbara Reynolds, a black journalist who once idolized Jesse Jackson, followed him for five years to collect information for her book. She has emerged as one of his strongest critics. She says, 'I think Jesse is very much a creation of the media. He's a TV-made Madison Avenue production.' One of the things that anger her is Jackson's success in creating the myth that he was so close to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that he was the last person to speak to him and that he cradled the mortally wounded King in his arms on the balcony of the Memphis motel where King was shot.

"This angered nearly all members of King's staff and his widow, Coretta Scott King. It appeared that Jesse Jackson was trying to create the impression in the public mind that he was closer to Dr. King at the time of his death than anyone else on his staff. King's aides knew that this was untrue. Others were physically closer to Dr. King at the time he was shot. The Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy says he was at King's side from the time he was shot until he was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital. He said of Jesse Jackson, 'I am sure that he would not say to me that he ever came near Dr. King after Doc was shot.' Abernathy has also disclosed that Dr. King was not overly fond of the young and brash Jesse Jackson. He has said that five days before the assassinated, King had been angered by Jackson's conduct, and he had said, 'Jesse, it may be that you will carve your own individual niche in society. But don't you bother me.' (New York Times Magazine, 11/29/87, p. 36)

"Barbara Reynolds says that at least 100 articles appeared, some based on interviews with Jackson, which alleged that Jackson had cradled King in his arms, that he was the last man King spoke to, or that he had attended a meeting in Chicago the day after the assassination wearing a shirt stained with Dr. King's blood. When King was shot, Jackson had been on the ground beneath the balcony where King was standing. When the TV camera crews arrived, Jackson advised members of King's staff not to talk to them. Forty-five minutes after the shooting, King's field lieutenant, Hosea Williams, observed Jesse Jackson himself giving an interview to the reporters. He heard Jackson say, 'Yes, I was the last man in the world King spoke to.' Williams told Barbara Reynolds, 'I knew Jesse was lying because Solomon Jones was the one, and I had a feeling about what Jesse was trying to pull.'

"Pleading illness, Jackson skipped a meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) the next day, and caught a plane back to Chicago that night. He appeared on NBC's Today Show the next morning, wearing a shirt that be claimed was stained with King's blood. Later in the day he attended a meeting called to memorialize King, still wearing the same bloody shirt. He met with Don Rose, a left-wing political consultant in Chicago, that day. Rose told Gail Sheehy, 'There was a deliberate decision to launch an image-making process.'

"Jackson doesn't like to talk about his controversial bloody shirt these days. 'The entire topic is plainly distasteful to Jackson,' says Hattie Clark of the Christian Science Monitor. She reports that Jackson bristled when pressed for an explanation of his conduct at the time of the assassination. He told her the blood was King's and that it was everywhere. Gail Sheehy says that Jackson now tells different stories, 'even to the same journalist,' about what happened.

"The controversy has not been given a lot of attention by the media, but it has not been entirely ignored. A New York Times Magazine article of November 29, 1987, says that now Jackson 'both stands by his story and alters it a bit.' Now he does not claim that he cradled King's head, only that he 'reached out for' him. David Maraniss writing in The Washington Post of April 3, 1988, says that Jackson did not make a beeline for the balcony after King was shot. According to an oral history account by his friend Ben Branch, Jackson 'ducked and went around behind the swimming pool,' Maraniss says Jackson eventually did get to the balcony and may have gotten some blood on his hands or shirt from the pool of blood on the balcony floor.

"Garrick Utley, co-host of NBC's 'Sunday Today,' tried to pin Jackson down about this matter on the program of February 28. He first showed Hosea Williams in a taped interview disputing Jackson's version of events. Appearing live, Jackson bristled when Utley tried to question him about the matter, saying he had discussed it over and over again. Reminded that Hosea Williams had disputed Jackson's version of events, Jackson suggested that he interview the Rev. Billy Kyles, pastor of a Memphis church who was with King on the balcony when the shot was fired. When Utley asked if he was denying the statements made by Williams and others, Jackson replied, 'No, I affirm what I've said consistently for 20 years.'

"The Rev. Billy Kyles was the only person with King on the balcony when he was shot. He is also the only person present who thinks Jesse Jackson might have handled King's body. However, Barbara Reynolds says that Kyles lost control when King was shot. She says he ran back into his room and fell on his bed, screaming. He wasn't in the best position to observe Jesse Jackson's actions.

"Other King staffers remained bitter about Jackson's claims for many years. Hosea Williams said that he decided to forgive him in 1984, and he suggested to Coretta Scott King that she do the same, arguing that there was a 'new Jesse, not the overly ambitious young man we used to know.' Mrs. King replied, 'Hosea, Jesse Jackson has not changed one bit.' (Washington Post, 4/3/88)

Go to http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1988/04b.html

Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement, the Myth

THE MURDER OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.--Unspoken Details--PART ONE

"As the book was coming out, I spoke to Barbara Reynolds. She met me at a restaurant near Tribune Tower. She kept looking apprehensively at the door. "Jesse is going to run me out of this town. I can't stay here anymore" she told me. Someone came to the door and looked right at her. Frightened, she fled our table. Three weeks after the publication of her book, it was withdrawn. I have one of the few copies of the original book. In the early 1990s, Barbara Reynolds finally went public with what happened to her and her long-suppressed book. The Establishment had been plainly protecting their man, Rev. Jackson. She told of her plight while on 'Tony Brown's Journal' TV Program. About that time her book was re-issued but not widely mentioned."

Go to http://www.skolnicksreport.com/mofmlk.html

Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement, the Myth

First Jackson Biographer Threatened, Needed Bodyguards

"Timmerman explained:

"'The first investigative book about Jesse Jackson, and actually the last one until my book came out, was by a terrific black reporter in Chicago named Barbara Reynolds.

"'It was really on its way to becoming a best seller until Jesse and his friends intervened with the booksellers and everyone else. [They] got her kicked off the airwaves and, basically, run out of Chicago."

Go to http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/firTst.htm

Jesse Jackson: America's David (Title of Previous Ed.: Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement,)

Racist Cartoons of Jesse Jackson

Fire them all, somebody!!!!!!

It should be illegal to talk about Rev. Jackson, even if they are telling the truth.

Go to http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=politicalhumor&cdn=entertainment&tm=6&gps=131_223_1020_542&f=10&su=p445.92.150.ip_&tt=14&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//cagle.slate.msn.com/news/jessebaby/main.asp

Jesse Jokes

"Jesse Jackson was involved in a three-car crash this weekend. I understand that no one was hurt, but I understand that two of the women in the other cars are now pregnant." —Jay Leno

"There was a rumor that Jesse Jackson was going to go over there to talk with the Taliban, apparently they were having trouble rhyming the word Jihad." —Jay Leno

"Jesse Jackson's wife was arrested in Puerto Rico while protesting the naval bombings there. Jesse said he was holding a meeting with four of his secretaries to decide what to do and that these meetings could run well into the night." —Jay Leno

"Jesse Jackson is on a 70-day tour in five cities. One of the problems in this country, he says, is poor people that can't make a living wage. So starting today, he's bumping up the payments he's making to his mistresses by $10,000." —Jay Leno

"Jesse had unselfishly volunteered to go to China to help gain the release of the U.S. soldiers....He was going to go by himself, with no security. He was going to go alone. Once again, Jesse going in without protection." —Jay Leno

"I guess we didn't even officially apologize. Jesse Jackson called on the United States to officially apologize to the Chinese. Jesse said, 'An apology is not a sign of weakness.' And as President Clinton has taught us, an apology isn't even a sign you're sorry." —Jay Leno

"Jesse Jackson's in trouble. They're going after this tax thing. Jesse said he will amend his taxes to show the money that he paid to his mistress. See, he has just one mistress. Jesse uses the standard mistress deduction. As opposed to Clinton, who had to itemize." —Jay Leno

"As part of his ongoing financial disclosures, Jesse Jackson told the Chicago Sun Times this week that he doesn't have a checking account or a credit card. Probably because to get those, you need a job." —Tina Fey, on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update"

"It gives new meaning to affirmative action. She said, 'Do you want some action?' He said, 'Affirmative.'" —Jay Leno, on Jesse Jackson's extramarital affair

"Here's the worst part about this whole thing. During the impeachment trial, Jesse Jackson was Bill Clinton's spiritual adviser. In fact, that's where Bill and Monica got that cigar. Jesse was passing them out: 'Here you go! It's a girl! It's a girl!" —Jay Leno

"Following revelations that he fathered a love child, the good Reverend Jesse Jackson — or should we say the 'very' good Reverend — is enduring the scandal with the help of family and friends. A scandal which gives clearer meaning to the Rainbow Coalition's Operation 'Push'." —Jon Stewart

"Jackson was carrying on his affair with Sanford while he was counseling President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In fact, he even brought his pregnant mistress to the White House, one can only assume to show off to Clinton how to properly destroy one's career and reputation." —Jon Stewart

"Reportedly Jackson paid the woman $40,000 cash to move to L.A. where she is living in a $365,000 home and he is paying her $10,000 a month. Apparently, this woman has found the pot of gold at the end of the Rainbow Coalition." —Jay Leno

"Jesse Jackson needs to recount his children" —a sign seen at Bush's inauguration

Compiled by Daniel Kurtzman

Go to http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bljessejackson.htm

Jesse Jackson, the Man, the Movement, the Myth

Nappy-headed? Now those are fighting words

"If you hate what Imus said about the Rutgers team, you should stop supporting music that denigrates black women."

Go to http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/338189,CST-NWS-mitch12.article

'Last chance' for Darfur troops

"Senior US official John Negroponte is in Sudan in a bid to secure the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the war-torn Darfur region. "

Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6551405.stm

(You must be joking) Pupils rely on magazines to learn about sex

"PUPILS are being forced to turn to raunchy magazines to learn about sex because their parents and teachers are afraid to tell them about the facts of life, says an education watchdog. "

Go to http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=559622007

Parents: Go to the THUGWATCH links to see what your children are learning.

D.A. apologizes to ex-Duke lacrosse players

"DURHAM, N.C. - The local prosecutor who charged three Duke lacrosse players with raping a stripper apologized to the athletes Thursday and said the North Carolina attorney general’s decision to drop the case was right."

Go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18079698/

CBS Director Hopes Imus Will Be Fired (RANT ALERT)

"NEW YORK (AP) - Bruce Gordon, former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp., said Wednesday he hoped the broadcasting company would 'make the smart decision' by firing radio talk-show host Don Imus for his slur against the mostly black Rutgers women's basketball team.

"He's crossed the line, he's violated our community,' Gordon said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. 'He needs to face the consequence of that violation.'"

Go to http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OEJKJG0&show_article=1

Violated our community? Why is it that Whites who violate our community get crucified but Black rappers who make millions of dollars get a free pass and even congratulations from us who use much worse language continually? We are violated more than prison convicts. Go to the "THUGWATCH" links on this page, and you will see what I'm talking about.

We believe that we (Blacks) have the right to disrespect ourselves while no one else has that right. As long as we call each other "nigga's," "bitches," and "hoes," we are as happy as a frog finding a bunch of flies.

Black Liberals Need To Stop The Double Standard by Akindele Akinyemi

"I feel it's a damn shame that Black liberals are always protesting and demanding White people be fired for saying something stupid yet we give Blacks who consistently call or sisters bitches and hoes on a regular basis a free pass. We degrade our race by trying to live like Good Times or live out our lives in poverty. We enjoy sagging our pants in public, even in church where it is supposed to be a House of God....

"We call Black women freaks, hizzoes, hoes (yes even nappy head hoes), tramps, pigeons, dykes, jiggas and skanks. We call each other niggers (oh I forgot we graduated, now we call each other niggas), fags, and other dreadful names. We never demand Wendy Williams from being fired or other Black personalities who call other races disrespectful names. I have heard Black personalities and Black liberal leadership call Whites 'crackers' and 'redneck hillbillies' but if a White person call us "hoes" we demand the removal of that person from the station.

"What about Black radio promoting sex, soft porn and violence on the air? I did not see anyone protesting Black radio but you are protesting someone who gave a stupid comment. The images that are shown on Black TV can be compared to a minstrel show. We show brothers and sisters straight screwing on TV (not making love), calling each other bitches on popular Black situation comedies, and showing the most un-Christian images on TV. Will you ever see Al Sharpton demanding positive images on TV? Hell no unless it has a liberal twist."

Go to http://onedetroitnetwork.blogspot.com/2007/04/black-liberals-need-to-stop-double.html

Young, gifted and wack

"Why were blacks willing to raise a ruckus and boycott a company that sold the game Ghettopoly (created by a Asian-American) because it 'promoted negative images,' but not protest when record companies and rappers promote the same negative images the board game touts? (Because we want the right to disrespect ourselves. Others do not have that right. -- Ed.)

"Now, it's happening again. Our culture is being stolen again, only this time it's by young black men who are promoting racist stereotypes of our people simply to make money.

"Black men put black women in videos and call them 'bitches and hos,' and promote drugs, sex, drinking and high-priced luxury items. If they were 'keeping it real,' they wouldn't be able to afford these things, at least not in the St. Louis neighborhood where I grew up....

"Black kids actually see themselves in these rappers. What is so frightening to me is that black children are imitating and emulating these negative role models. The anti-social behavior they glorify is one of the reasons why more black men are in prisons than in colleges.

"In reality, what we actually get from popular rappers is cartoon characters behaving badly and living down to the expectations of what mainstream society perceives blacks to be."

Go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3677687/

Trash Talk Radio

"Calling women and black women in particular bitches and hos just opened the door for others to disparage us the same way rappers have done for years. It's no different. And I don't want to hear that it's okay for black male rappers to deman us but not okay for white males to do the same thing. This is called hypocrisy. Giving rappers a pass while screaming off with his head when a white person demeans us just makes us look like complete hypocritical idiots."

Go to http://talking-stuff.blogspot.com/2007/04/trash-talk-radio.html

Why Hip Hop Sucks, Pt. 2

"...Given their historic indifference to the treatment of Black women, as evidenced by the magazine's nearly pornographic ads and photo spreads, as well as its blind eye towards the remainder of hip-hop misogyny, it appears that Benzino and The Source were fighting for exclusive rights to call and treat Black women like bitches and hos -- no White man was gonna do it for 'em....

"A relative once told me 'Never eat watermelon in front of White people!' His advice was based on the belief that if White people saw Black people doing stereotypical things, it would serve to reinforce racism and somehow justify continued unequal treatment. This same ideology causes me to look around for White people whenever I see Lil' Jon on television, and internally cringe when my White colleagues ask me to explain his antics. Lil' Jon's image, which amounts to postmodern minstrelsy or what Jeff Chang calls 'crunkface,' serves as a brutal reminder of the poverty of Black representation in the mass media. While Lil' Jon is certainly not the first Stepin Fetchit throwback that hip-hop has seen — figures like Flava Flav and Ol' Dirty Bastard can certainly claim OC (original coon) status — Lil' Jon somehow manages to strip his identity of any self awareness and complexity that his predecessors possessed. In place of Flav's musical activism and ODB's Five Percenter allusions is Lil' Jon's lyrically impoverished rants that are just plain 'ign'ant', even under hip-hop standards....

"Some intellectuals have argued that 'pimp' is merely a metaphor that has been appropriated by the hip-hop generation and given a new and redemptive meaning. This wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility if the people historically designated as 'hoes' were refashioning the pimp, as Black people have done with 'nigger.' But how can the very people who enable and benefit from the hateful practices that normalize pimping (in this case, the male-driven hip-hop industry) suddenly decide to separate it from its vicious history? That's like George W. Bush saying, 'Nigger, no longer means what it used to mean to Blacks. Okay niggers?'"

Go to http://www.seeingblack.com/article_9.shtml

"Now he wants the head of Oprah, queen of American television and one of America’s greatest modern humanitarians and Horatio Alger stories; yet unpopular with the hip-hop/hipster crowd because she won't take an ax to the white man once a week and give an hour-long exclusive interview to Chamillionare. As a psychological play, it’s easy to see why Ice Cube would look at Oprah and recoil with rage. Oprah was born in extreme poverty in the Deep South while Cube was born in relative academic privilege. Oprah survived a hard childhood while Cube had a peaceful two-parent home. Oprah overcame tremendous hardships to rise to tremendous heights while Cube searched for hardships and reconstructed himself as a ghetto sadist to validate his existence. Oprah is a strong successful female while Cube wrote several songs about raping strong successful females. Oprah has an audience that spans the world while Cube’s audience barely goes beyond his B-movie stardom and the frat-boys who eat up his records. Oprah is Cube’s nightmare made flesh, a walking remainder that he made his empire on flimsy excuse mongering, and a symbol that there have been people who have done much more with much less than he had and who have been much more noble while doing so.

Black moguls, clean those dirty mouths

"When the smoke of this fire blows over, the real bugger will be standing there still, a torch still in hand. This matter of insulting is not only a white man's game. P. Diddy, Jay-Z and Russell Simmons, to name three, are black moguls of mainstream celebrity, banking on clean lyrics and images but also what's vile and villainous. Like Imus, they've also put some of their dirty money toward a charity or a just social cause.

"As black moguls, they've launched the careers of too many willing to sling a slur, any slur, to get paid. They bear some responsibility.

"With the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton holding such sway - and correctly correcting Imus - they surely have the power to bring the Diddys and Simmonses and Jay-Zs and crew to the table, stick a mike in their faces, hold a press conference, stand in front of their high-rise offices and ask the obvious question: Why?

"Condemn one? Condemn them all.

Go to http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/ny-etledew5166289apr12,0,5022209.column?coll=ny-entertainment-columnists

"Here’s for the Bitches": An Analysis of Gangsta Rap and Misogyny

"Even though it is not the black community that financially empowers these young gangsta rap artists (by funding their hate lyrics), it is the black community that raises and nourishes them. Gangsta rappers constantly try to identify with the inner-city black community and the urban experience. Traditionally, they have been able to preserve their status within their communities because they bring a segment of the black experience to the public. The truth is, however, that once a gangsta rapper becomes successful, he is no longer a part of the world he raps about: He has become a member of the black privileged class. No longer a member of the impoverished class, he now must overcompensate for his wealth in order to retain the acceptance of his community....

"Gangsta rappers are often quoted as saying that they merely depict life as they see it. A more accurate description of what gangsta rappers depict is a stereotypical fantasy in which black women do as they are told. Perhaps the most ironic observation I can make is that if gangsta rappers were white, the reaction from the black community would be very different....

"Typically, gangsta rappers use sexist and misogynistic lyrics for three reasons. First, they are selfish and seek to empower only themselves. Second, they put business before art: Songs with misogynistic lyrics sell millions of CDs and tapes. Sales mean money. Money means power. Finally, gangsta rappers reinterpret their experiences into a packageable product that can sell. They peddle half-truths and fantasies that formulate a stereotypical mythology in which all black women are bitches and/or all gangsta rappers live the life of driving sports cars, collecting thong-wearing, gyrating women, and smoking chronic....

"In the end, this whole argument boils down to the fact that misogyny is ingrained into our culture and we allow it. We buy CDs and go to concerts where gangsta rappers call black women "bitches" and "hos." It is not just black women who are victimized. Since gangsta rappers disrespect our mothers, sisters, and daughters, every black man is a victim. "

Go to http://www.uga.edu/~womanist/rhym2.1.htm

A New Black Power

"...The Democratic Party and its consultants grossly underestimate Black capacity for decisive action, ignoring the sea changes that have swept over the Black body politic in the past.'"

Go to http://www.culturekitchen.com/sonya/story/a_new_black_power

Imus vs. the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks Chart

"Update: Snoop Dogg attacks critics who compare him to Imus because, as he told MTV:

'It's a completely different scenario,' said Snoop, barking over the phone from a hotel room in L.A. '[Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about ho's that's in the 'hood that ain't doing sh--, that's trying to get a n---a for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC [the cable network home to Imus] going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them mutha-----as say we in the same league as him.'

"Translation: Only black rappers can call women hos and bitches. Only black rappers can call black people niggas. Because it's coming from their minds and souls, *&^&)#*&@!!!!"

Go to http://michellemalkin.com/archives/007286.htm

Bitches and Hoes

"The fact that awful phrase persists in current modern culture is disgusting and its intra-gender propagation as a term of endearment makes the sane wonder how it is possible 'Bitches and Hoes' can be perceived by some as both a compliment and a condemnation in the same thought."

Go to http://urbansemiotic.com/2006/03/03/bitches-and-hoes/

Imus isn’t the real bad guy

"Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem. You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

"You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

"Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred."

Go to http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html

Why Hillary bullies her House slaves

"So if the Democratic Party, which ironically enough founded the Ku Klux Klan** as tool by which to intimidate blacks into voting Democrat, has in fact become the modern day plantation to black voters, Hillary is without question the plantation madam. On her plantation are the house slaves - Revs Sharpton, Jackson, and most recently South Carolina state senators Robert Ford, and Darrell Jackson."

Go to http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KevinMcCullough/2007/02/18/why_hillary_bullies_her_house_slaves

The Culture of "Bitches, Hos, and Niggas"

"Al Sharpton, I am sure, is ready to call a press conference with the National Organization for Women to jointly protest this garbage and the radio stations and big pimpin' music companies behind it."

Go to http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2007/04/11/the_culture_of_bitches,_hos,_and_niggas

What's the "truth" anymore

"The many hoaxes on colleges campuses, mostly involving untrue reports of rapes and racial attacks, often turn out to be teaching instruments of a sort, conscious lies intended to reveal broad truths about the constant victimization of women and minorities. After the Tawana Brawley case, an article in the Nation magazine said the faked kidnapping and rape she reported were useful because they called attention to the suffering of blacks, so 'in cultural perspective, if not in fact, it doesn’t matter whether the crime occurred or not.'”

Go to http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnLeo/2006/01/23/whats_the_truth_anymore

African-American culture at crossroads

"Its official name is the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, but what it represents is a lifeline to America's oldest African way of life."

Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6532403.stm

Google Earth turns spotlight on Darfur

"Using hi-tech satellite imagery, photos and eyewitness accounts, the ongoing crisis in Sudan's Darfur region is being brought into the homes of millions of internet users."

Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6543185.stm

'Black' Obama a laughable contradiction

"He opined that Obama is fulfilling the role of the 'Magic Negro,' a cultural construct that hypes the virtue of certain black figures so that whites can feel good about themselves. I'd always wondered if anyone else had noticed that Morgan Freeman was the only black prisoner of focus in 'The Shawshank Redemption.'

"The weird thing is, Obama is usually depicted as black instead of white. Many funny contradictions arise if these two labels are equally applied. For example, could we safely call him the 'Magic Caucasian,' a character from American folklore that embellishes the goodness of popular white figures?"

Go to http://media.www.dailytrojan.com/media/storage/paper679/news/2007/04/10/Opinion/black.Obama.A.Laughable.Contradiction-2831132.shtml

Obama Says He is Not Interested in US Vice Presidency

"U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama says he is not interested in running for vice president."

Go to http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-04-10-voa57.cfm

China calls for change on Darfur

"Sudan's key ally China has urged it to show greater flexibility in discussions over its war-torn Darfur region."

Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6538401.stm

Rwanda genocide 'failure' berated

"Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused the international community of deliberately failing to prevent the genocide in the country 10 years ago."

Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3599493.stm

Chad admits battle inside Sudan

"Chad's government has admitted that its forces crossed the border with Sudan, where it clashed with the army."

Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6542045.stm

I Caught Iman

Copyright 2007 Robert Oliver, All Rights Reserved

Tom Jones - She's a Lady - Festival Viña 2007 -- VIDEO

Did he turn Black?

Independent Woman Destiny's Child -- VIDEO

Day-Late and Dollar-Short Black Leaders

WARNING: OFFENSIVE WORDS WILL FOLLOW

(This is a commentary I made on a Chicago radio station in December 2006.)

Today I read in the latest issue of a Black newspaper a front-page article entitled “Leaders Call for Boycott of N-Word.” The Rev. Jesse Jackson, comedian Paul Mooney, Willis Edwards, and U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, D-CA, spoke at a press conference on November 27, 2006 to address comedian Michael Richard’s tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club. It seems there were Black audience members talking during his act and Richard’s blew up with part of the tirade saying, “Throw his ass out. He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! A nigger, look, there’s a nigger!”

Of course Richard’s apologized, but the war was on with a firestorm of protest. Jackson even said that the latest release of the Seinfeld television series’ DVD’s should not be purchased. (Those sales actually were so great, the distributors should have thanked Rev. Jackson for plugging them. – Ed.) As Seinfeld has never been a “must-see” for American Americans (name one African American regular in the cast.). I doubt any “boycott” will even show on the radar screen.

However, I’m puzzled. In 2001, U.S. Senator Robert Byrd, D-WV, articulated on national television the words “white niggers.” May I quote him in entirety: “There are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I’m going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I’d just as soon quit talking about it so much.” Of course the Black community was outraged that this White man, a former Ku Klux Klan member, said those words, right? I did not hear a word of protest from any African American leaders. Why was that? This is the same person who once said that he would never fight “with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.” Where was the outrage? I suppose that many African American leaders would say “We are a very forgiving people” or “He was just an old man.” But why was there no firestorm of protest for the N-word spoken on national television as we had for Richards? Why was there selective outrage? Wikipedia.com in its article on the word “nigger” includes” “As such words are easily mistaken for ‘nigger,’ their use is frowned upon by some and sometimes seen as offensive. David Howard, a White city official in Washington, DC, resigned from his job in January 1999 when he used niggardly (a word that had nothing to do with race at all) in a fiscal sense while talking with Black colleagues who took offense at his use of the word. After reviewing the incident, Washington mayor Anthony Williams offered Howard his job back. Howard declined that position, but accepted another position in the Mayor’s administration.”

Yet “white niggers” from a U.S Senator gets a pass.

Let’s get this straight. “Nigger” is a word from the gutter, used pejoratively against people of African descent for a few hundred years. When I was a child, “nigger” was a swear word, strictly taboo. Now “we” can use it, but “they” can’t use it. But “we” don’t mind when “they” are entertained by the word in hip-hop lyrics. We don’t mind when they play it, but we mind when they say it.

Some say it is a term of endearment. Funny, other ethnic groups do not use slur words within their own communities to address each other. You know the words, so I won’t repeat them. Have you ever heard a Nazi or a Klan member call each other “cracker” or “honky”?

What is it with this knew-jerk reaction when certain public figures say the word as if it never existed before? White people have been saying it long before Richards said it. There has already been a movement to ban the word long before Richards said it. Go to www.abolishthenword.com. Perhaps it is the dysfunctional “term of endearment” mentality. Perhaps it is the mentality of “earning the right” (?) to “appropriate” a word used by racists (even while lynching Black men). The late Tupac Shakur once said: “Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs.”

Will the discussion of abolishing the word be on the table seriously? Or do we have to wait for another wonderful opportunity for certain White people, we will not protect, to say the word publicly? Then we will get another chance to complain again?