Harvard University Step Show Turns Into Melee

This is an interesting story. At an after-party for the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers a brawl broke out on the dance floor while the DJ was spinning a cut with the lyrics:

"Yeah we knuckin’ and buckin’ and ready to fight...See me, I ain’t nothin’ nice.”

Harvard? You can't say it's the song.

What's going on in the culturegeist of that crowd?

Stan O'Neal Set to Depart Merrill Lynch as CEO

The only thing more surprising than seeing a black Wall Street executive on the cover of today's Wall Street Journal was the staggering $8.4 billion third-quarter write down that will close the curtain on Stan O'Neal's tenure at US financial behemoth Merrill Lynch.

While O'Neal (pictured left)is widely credited with returning the company to profitability after coming on board as president in 2001 - he later became CEO and chairman of the board, the supposedly aloof O'Neal irked many members of "Mother Merrill's" ranks of entrenched, loyal, and some say most experienced, executives and trimmed the members of management who didn't fall in line with his more expansive vision for the company's direction.

The mortgage crisis has and will claim a lot of casualties from the ranks of Wall Street but O'Neal is the highest ranking so far. A former GM executive and unquestionably the highest-ranking African-American Wall Street executive in history, O'Neal will likely leave with a package worth well over $100 million.

Irrespective of how much blame he shoulders for a global credit crunch, O'Neal's personal story is an amazing story of transformation. His ascension through the executive ranks of one of Wall Streets largest firms has had an immeasurable effect on the nation's perception of Wall Street and the scope of his professional achievements in an industry that is notoriously lacking in diversity has forever altered the culturegeist.

Props to Stan for rocking the culturegeist.

Who the !@#$ Would Murder Flamingo's?

Animals are part of our the collective culturegeist too and we don't like it when they're senselessly killed. Some sicko broke into a Frankfurt, Germany zoo and beheaded three Flamingos and strangled another.

Sounds like some cement-head is about to graduate from Serial Killer U....

More Racist Noose Mail for Brooklyn HS Principal

The horrifying wildfires going on out in California understandably grabbed the front page headlines of the New York Post on Tuesday October 23rd but near the fold on page nine was an article about the principal of a predominantly African-American high school in Brooklyn, NY who was the latest reported recipient of a noose.

Accompanying the shockingly offensive symbol of vicious hatred was an equally degrading letter addressed to principal Tyona Washington.

While personally I think this was better than page nine at least the Post ran the story.

Oh, also tucked away on page nine to the right of the latest noose incident, a 3/4 page photo of "embattled" rapper Foxy Brown (aka Ingrid Marchand)and an unflattering account of her getting tossed in solitary confinement for 76 days out on Rikers Island for allegedly getting into a brawl with another female inmate.

Damn, could the day be rougher on a sister?

Enough

The culturegeist has spoken. In the wake of DOJ section head John Tanner's comments, appalling inaction by the Justice Department to take action and enforce hate crimes laws in the midst of a nation-wide epidemic of displays of nooses and other forms of hate messages, civil rights leaders today called for a November 16th march on the Justice Department.

The culturegeist of America is restless and stirring. People of all nationalities, religions and backgrounds, people around the world are outraged at the void of government action to confront this issue and send a message.

This isn't the America we signed on for.

Tanner First Dept. of Justice Section Head to Publicly Demonstrate Cultural Stupidity

It comes as no surprise that the chief of the Justice department's Civil Rights Division's voter's rights section John Tanner was recently quoted in front of a group from the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles as saying: "...our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first."

TPM Muckraker offers some startling details.

This is where you can look inside the wounds of our collective culturegeist. This is look at one part of the core of reasons racism and prejudice persists as major social problems in the US today.

Back in *May I blogged about the lack of diversity amongst DOJ staff when Alberto Gonzales was under fire. Roberta Baskin of WJLA TV in Washington, DC brought attention to the fact that only two of the 250 attorneys in the Justice Department's civil rights division were black - there were two back in 1968.

(*click on May, 2007 and scroll down to the entry)

So now we hear that John Tanner is the man running the department responsible for enforcing the laws that protect the rights of Americans; and he's basically an ignorant bigot devoid of the sense God bestowed upon an ass. He approved a Georgia law requiring voters to show photo ID before voting at polls.

It's beyond appalling and as of Sunday, October 21st, Barack Obama was the only presidential candidate saying anything about it. Sunday's New York Times reported Obama had called on members of both political parties to demand Tanner's removal.

Louisiana Elects First Indian-American Governor

His parents were from India. He grew up in the burbs. He's got a conservative track record that earned him the support of regions of the Louisiana that supported former Klansman David Duke's run for the US Senate. Now Bobby Jindal is the Katrina-wracked state's first non-white governor since Reconstruction.

(Not that Dave would've been lonely DC, Sen. Robert Byrd is a former member of the Ku Klux Klan as well...)

But props to Bobby, this election will certainly have ripples across the American political landscape and it's already sending ripples across the cultural spectrum as well. It will be interesting to see how this impacts a growing Indian-American political voice and how it will alter our collective culturegeist.

Winter of Discontent?

Halloween? Thanksgiving? Egads, Christmas?

When I look honestly at my thoughts about the approaching fall, winter and the slew of holiday-related activities, many of the things that come to mind are related to things. Stuff. Material objects.

Prosperity is the byproduct of many things. Patience, charity, hard work, diligence, belief, dedication, education, preparation, good fortune and yes, sometimes just plain old luck. Those can work together in many different combinations or alone.

The concept of prosperity is entwined in the threads that, woven together comprise the fabric of this nation. The America I envision balances prosperity for all into the equation. But on the heels of the sub-prime mess, a weak US dollar, high fuel prices and spikes in layoffs coupled with headline-grabbing cut backs at companies from AOL to Motorola economic indicators aren't looking good at the moment.

To mark the anniversary of Black Monday, the Dow took a huge loss on Friday.

So it hurts when I read this and I'm concerned.

It's going to be a long, hard winter for many people in this country; is this the kind of country we want to be? We just kind of tolerate the idea that the nature of our economy will include millions of people who manage to stay just above the poverty line?

Remember many of these people are working full time and more.

The gap that divides along economic lines widens. Again. Is that promoting the general welfare of our nation?

Gary, Indiana Police Officer Jeffrey Westerfield Goes Beyond Call of Duty to Assist Black Teens After Car Accident

Officer Westerfield was the first to arrive on the scene of a horrific vehicle accident on September 15, 2007. Despite one of the blood-soaked survivors desperately insisting his two friends were down in a ravine in need of help, the apparently unconvinced Westerfield didn't bother looking.

Westerfield apparently couldn't be bothered with something as tiresome as searching for two accident victims; one of the victim's fathers arrived on the scene 6 hours later and located the bodies 15 - 20 feet away from the accident.

Funeral home representatives assert bruising on the bodies make it clear both victims were alive for some time after the accident.


In unrelated news the Gary, Police department are being investigated by the FBI for unspecified reasons.

Belgian Teen Expresses Hatred of Foreigners by Murdering an Innocent African Woman and the 2 Year-Old in Her Care

19 year-old Hans Von Themsche seen leftwas sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Belgian court for shooting and killing Oulematou Niangadou (pictured far left along with fellow victim Luna Drowart), a nanny from Mali in a park in broad daylight in 2006; when the 2 year-old toddler Niangadou was caring for began crying, Von Themsche shot and killed her as well.

Von Tehmsche, the son of the founder of a right-wing anti-immigrant group, told authorities he'd hoped to randomly murder 5 foreigners in Antwerp where the racist shooting spree took place but only managed to murder the nanny and the toddler and wounding a woman of Turkish descent before being shot in the stomach by police.

For years the right-wing Vlaams Blok party has generated support amongst the Flemish population in the north of Belgium by playing off cultural unease with a growing population of foreigners, many of them Muslim.

While Vlaams Blok positions itself as a nationalist political organization, some critics claim it is little more than a racist front.

Like Ex-GOP Strategist Lee Atwater, Harry Dent Regreted Manipulating Racial Divisions for Votes

As the world marks the Friday, September 28th passing of Republican strategist Harry S. Dent it must be remembered that he used his considerable creative political talents and drive to help the Republican party craft it's divisive "southern strategy" politics in the 1960's and worked on behalf of southern pro-segregationist GOP members of Congress.

The Republican party has never shied away from capitalizing on the air of fear, mistrust and resentment that were byproducts of the civil rights movement that began to gain prominence in the world media and bring social injustice and racism into the national spotlight.

If Dent lagged behind his moral conscience, he managed to catch up to it as his health began to wain as he admitted regret at some of the choices he had made during his political life.

Lee Atwater regretted the Willie Horton ads too when he was laying in a hospital bed dying of brain cancer.

Deaf to Sound and Reason?

Abraham Lincoln signed the original charter of Gallaudet College in Washington, DC when the school for the deaf was established in 1864 by an Act of Congress.

A recent incident in which the words "KKK" were scrawled on the body of a deaf Gallaudet student by six white and one black student from a high school situated on the grounds of the college campus.

The attackers range in age from 15 to 19. It's a pretty diverse student body so the incident doesn't seem logical on the surface. Particularly since a black student allegedly took part in the attack.

One doesn't particularly associate incidents of racism with Gallaudet, but that doesn't mean cultural issues don't exist just because the members of the student body are deaf.

The "Tawana Brawley-Sharpton" meter goes up a couple notches though. These were supposedly high school students, so it's possible some kind of fight went bad and the group tried to cover up their involvement by attempting to pass it off as a racist incident. Wouldn't be the first time.

French Catholic Priest Brings the Fate of 1.5 Million Ukrainian Jews to Light

French Roman Catholic Priest Patrick Desbois (pictured left holding mic, interviewing a Ukrainian witness to Nazi executions) has spent nearly five years documenting the execution of nearly 1.5 million Jews murdered by Nazis who invaded Russian in 1941.

His interviews with local Ukrainian witness to the executions will help cement eye witness testimony to crimes against humanity that are still yet to be healed.

In 2000 Father Desbois founded Yahad in Unum an organization that focuses on common interfaith interests between Catholics and Jews.

The mission of Father Desbois brings concrete hope to humanity's dedication and commitment to bring spiritual healing to the collective global Culturegeist that has been wounded and scarred by the horrors born of hate, fear, oppression and ignorance.

Michael Medved Reassures Americans That the Slave Trade Really Wasn't That Bad

Culturegeist doesn't recommend bloggers lightly.

Read this blog by Trey Ellis that was posted on Huffingtonpost.

If you want to take a look at where the rubber meets the road as far as self-anointed cultural intellectuals trying to reinterpret historical facts in order to justify their own ingrained prejudice, ignorance and fear, read Ellis' take Michael Medved's (pictured left) recent column, Six Inconvenient Truths About Slavery.

This country isn't perfect but caring about each other is a part of that abstract sense of who we want to be. That's easier than it sounds. Part of living in a nation with such an enormous range of races, religions, languages and backgrounds is that it takes an effort to understand one another.

For those people who view the events of history as an intricate part of the reality we live in, listening to someone deny the holocaust happened offends me. So I'm equally, if not more offended when people attempt to dismantle the reality of the slave trade into little sections so they can be reassembled to conveniently fit into the narrow parameters of the far right wing conservative mindset that infects the media and the Culturegeist of this country like a virus.

People like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Mike Medved gave up on trying to get to know the Americans who don't look and think like them a long time ago. For the most part they stopped relying on facts to support their arguments and pseudo intellectual rants at about the same time.

They envision an American that does not exist anymore, their ignorance and fear, though repulsive, must be examined and exposed for what it is.

Outrage Sparks Black Lawmakers to Outlaw Bad-Fitting Clothes

Baggy pants belted well below the waist have a become a common, perhaps to some unflattering fashion statement among urban African American kids from areas that are strapped by poverty.

But the look has tested the patience of some members of the African-American community. In communities from Atlanta, GA to Delcambre, LA to Trenton and Philadelphia - some local law makers have had enough.

Arnette Lartigue, a Trenton Councilwoman and Councilman Lincoln Green of Pleasantville are trying to make this style illegal.

Online Video & Social Networking Site Facebook Help College Student Kristy Smith to Share Her Ignorance and Bigotry With Broader Audience

During some of the many dialogues I've had about race, people often ask, "Are things better though? I mean it's 2007."

Well, that's not an easy question to answer, but I'd say no. In many ways US society seems to be reverting in some aspects, in the ways blacks are seen, portrayed and treated.

It's 2007, are we better off when some white college students still think it's funny to put on black-face and party? Do they even really understand what that means? If they don't, why do it?

University of Louisiana-Monroe student Kristy Smith admits she was just fed up with the media coverage of the Jena 6 incident and the subsequent high-profile protests broadcast around the globe.

Her solution? Shoot a no-budget mockumentary complete with 3 white male friends in black-face running around the banks of the Red River in Louisiana reenacting the beating of white high school student Justin Barker by 3 members of the six black teenagers known as the Jena 6.

What's happening in the minds of people living this country?

Memo Proving Gonzales/White House Approved Harsh Physical Torture Methods for CIA Only Proves What Millions Already Knew

Memo to CIA, all White House staff; the Fox News organization; Rush Limbaugh, all WABC political radio hosts, various members of both sides of the House and Senate and millions of Red State residents:We knew.

We blogged about Alberto Gonzales (pictured left)back on May 7, 2007, when it was shown the civil rights arm of the DOJ had the same number of black attorneys as it did in 1978 - two. The blog entry lamented the fact that the DOJ was just an empty husk of what it once was; populated with incompetent political appointees and power hungry lawyers who didn't give a shit about civil rights.

The problem is he isn't a bad human being. He was loyal to the President when Bush was the governor of Texas and W rewarded that by nominating him to the highest position in US law enforcement.

The problem is one that even some conservative members of the GOP acknowledge publicly; that Gonzales was completely out of his league in a major cabinet position heading up the Department of Justice. He was little more than a White House functionary, extending the already formidable reach of the Vice President into the office of the Attorney General.

There's little reason to scapegoat Gonzales, he was just rubber-stamping White House policy. And because he was not his own man, he was unable to step up to his role as the man charged with enforcing the laws of this nation. Sadly for this extrordinarily average non-visionary, history will show he was just another Bush lackey who thought it was a good idea to subvert the ideals of the Constitution and torture people under the guise of defending Democracy.

Members of NJ State Police Form Violent Racist Society After Obsessively Watching 1983 Film Starring David Keith

Recent allegations from a New Jersey State Trooper about the existence of a rogue, racist subculture known as the Lords of Discipline, that exists within a veil of secrecy inside one of the nation's most controversial law enforcement bodies, are not shocking for many African-Americans in New Jersey.

33 year-old former NJ State Trooper Justin Hopson's charges of systematic physical abuse and harassment might just begin to shed some light onto years of allegations of racist behavior of officers from a state that many truck drivers who regularly traverse the heavily traveled New Jersey Turnpike quietly call "The Nazi State".

Ironically the hate-loving white supremacists named their group after the title of a 1983 Pat Conroy novel, completely missing the point of the writer's vivid portrayals of the south's breathtaking natural landscape contrasted against the dark portrayals of insidious demented hate ingrained in some of the characters from his best-selling novels.

I can clearly recall commuting up from Exit 8-A to the Meadowlands five days a week from 1993 - 1995. It was nearly always a given that if Troopers had a car pulled over on the shoulder of the New Jersey Turnpike the occupants were either black or Hispanic. After a growing outcry from members of the minority community, politicians, activists and a wide range of concerned citizens of all backgrounds, media attention began to bring more scrutiny to a police force whose own records show that at one time over 88% of the traffic stops on the New Jersey Turnpike were African-American when blacks comprised about 11% of the state's population.

Blackwater Guards Bring 'Traditional Old West' Approach to Privately Funded Counterinsurgency in Iraq

After more than 200 incidents involving gunfire discharge since 2005, the largest private security contractor in Iraq is about to come under the scrutiny of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform now that they reportedly have State Department documents and Blackwater e-mails to sift through.