Warren Tompkins: The Man Behind Mitt Romney

This afternoon I listened to a radio interview with former Mass. Governor and perpetual GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney on WNYC.

In recent weeks he's displayed an open contempt for his chief opponent Senator John McCain (was thrice-married Rudy Giuliani ever really a serious threat to be the candidate of the party that frowns upon the use of stem cells and a woman's right to choose?)

On the 6:30pm EST broadcast of the NBC Evening News, it was reported that Romney just announced he'll spend millions to air more television ads in key states in advance of next week's Super Tuesday primary.

Personally I give him props for remaining pretty even-keeled in the midst of the many
"flare-up" attacks on his membership in the Mormon Church. He's going to face some tough battles in the southern states and Bible Belt regions where his association with the Mormon Church makes many members of the conservative Christian voter base uneasy.

It worried Romney enough to hire GOP low-ball political strategist Warren Tompkins. Tompkins is a disciple of former GOP Chairman Lee Atwater, who famously created the notorious Willy Horton TV ads to slam Democratic presidential candidate Mike Dukakis.

Atwater helped to evolve the fine art of playing upon negative racial stereotypes and ingrained cultural fears in order to manipulate white voters.

Tompkins demonstrated a mastery of Lord Vader's teachings when he resorted to ordering campaign volunteers to pepper white South Carolina voter's telephones and car windshields with overtly false and racist attacks against political opponents to score his own pathetic version of Willie Horton.

He's a real piece of work, straight out of the Jack Abramoff School of political strategy.

Whatever else we think about Romney, it says quite a bit about his character that he depends on someone like Warren Tompkins to run the strategy that will earn him the nod for the GOP presidential candidacy.

Attorney Richard Barret Organizes Racist March Against Jena 6 on MLK's Birthday

Not everyone was honoring the legacy of Dr. King last week. Racist nut-bag and self-described "corporate transformation expert" Richard Barret (pictured left) organized a rag-tag march of approximately 30 gun toting, confederate flag waving fringe Ku Klux Klan Members, skinheads, neo-Nazis and an assortment of "white leftists" who strode from the LaSalle Parish Courthouse to Jena High School; which has been the focus of so much media attention since white students hung a noose in a tree to protest black students sitting under it.

Barret is the founder of the Nationalist Party, a small white supremacist group based in Mississippi. His followers toted nooses, shouted racist chants and listened to Barret's compelling story of how the group was founded in a chicken coop in Forsythe County, Georgia. We can only wonder what kind of "law" this demented purveyor of hate and bigotry practices.

This is actually just a small fraction of the hate activity going on in the US during January, to see more just click on the link in the upper right-hand side of the blog to check out the Southern Poverty Law Center Website. Their Hatewatch does an excellent job of monitoring the slew of anti-semites, racists and white supremacist who infect our nation like a disease.

Aylwim B. Lewis to Step Down as President/CEO of Sears

It's been a rough year for the corporate sector in many ways. I blogged about Stan O'Neal's ouster from Merill Lynch back in late fall and it hasn't really gotten any better for executives of any race in corporate America. The sub-prime fallout has meant less access to capital stifling growth and hiring, grumbling investors and quite a few layoffs and firings.

It's not all that surprising that Sears CEO Aylwin B. Lewis announced he'll be stepping down as of February 2nd. Lewis (pictured at left) was a former CEO of Kmart and assumed the presidency of Sears Holdings after Sears & Roebuck & Co. merged with Kmart in 2005.

He oversaw some organizational changes and instituted sort of a throwback approach by salvaging things like the erstwhile Sears Catalog and the old blue light specials. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to energize the two US retail giants in the face of competitors like Wal-Mart and Target and a slew of online retailers.

I note it because it still means a lot to have a man of color at the head of an organization the size of Sears and Kmart - regardless of the company's decreasing market share and sagging profitability those brands are embedded in the American psyche.

It definitely reflects some positive things about the slow evolution of the corporate culture.

But there are definitely still a range of issues, some subtle some not, that will require time, effort and dialog to address as our society evolves to move past the entrenched race-based bias that currently characterizes the overall corporate atmosphere.

As a young female co-worker of color confided to me this afternoon; there are very complex issues of socialization and perception that create cultural currents and eddies that can be difficult for minorities to negotiate.

The culturally isolating atmosphere and lack of diversity can contribute to feelings of marginalization - and it can be hard to try and reach out to someone of a different race about matters you aren't sure will translate.

Our culturegeist is unquestionably shifting towards a more diverse makeup that is more reflective of the people that compromise today's America; but the change sometimes moves at a pace that makes it difficult to discern just how it has really evolved.

Each person of color in the corporate atmosphere must, in his or her own way, learn to master the subtleties necessary to move in synch with the currents of the professional environment.

And at times, I think it's important take the chance that someone of a different religious background or race or ethnicity will engage in one of those conversations that don't take place often enough in the corporate environment.

Those conversations, the one's that DON'T come easy, are often the ones that advance our perceptions of ourselves and teach those with the courage to reach out and engage in the dialog.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. observed; "Sometimes faith is taking the first step, even if you can't see the whole staircase."

Ann Coulter Wannabe Kelly Tilghman Back in the Booth

Tiger Woods & Kelly Tilghman

No doubt the sound of the PGAs collective sigh of relief was heard clear through to Whispering Pines as Tiger Woods took his third straight Buick Open over the weekend.

It's probably fair to say the sheen is off, and the media spotlight squarely on the golf industry recently in the wake of golf commentator Kelly Tilghman's (pictured left) jaw-dropping off the cuff remarks.

Which were made live on the air.

As she and on-air partner Nick Faldo joked about how younger golfers could beat Woods, Faldo suggested they should "gang up on him".

After some casual chuckles Tilghman suggested they should "lynch him in a back alley".

The Golf Channel returned her to the booth over the weekend faster than you can say Don Imus.

Last Monday Erik Sass wrote a sharp commentary on Media Post's MediaDailyNews online about the blow-back from Tilghman's blundering on-air revelation of the finer aspects of her charmed South Carolina-Country Club upbringing.

Tilghman doesn't just look like the prototype-perky American blond, this budding Ann Coulter disciple is the real deal.

The North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina native grew up a tom-boy with four brothers and their parents managed the Gator Hole Golf Course for 22 years - her old man was even the Mayor.

Heiress & philanthropist Doris Duke

It strikes me as ironic that young Kelly was talented enough to score a golf scholarship to Duke University, founded of course by the immensely wealthy Duke family, who made part of their vast fortune on the backs of black slave labor imported from Africa to work the huge tobacco plantations that allowed heiress Doris Duke to live a lavish lifestyle that makes Paris Hilton seem like a brain surgeon's tacky mall-rat daughter from Long Island.

Kelly was hard-working and smart enough to find her way into the television booth as a golf commentator; so one wonders how she could have grown up in the midst of the south and not have a clue about the impact of lynching on the black southern psyche?

She was raised a relative stone's throw from the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, the entry point for thousands upon thousands of African slaves destined for a nightmarish never-ending existence of enforced labor and brutality.

How could she grow up in that culture and not know how beyond insensitive it would be to even INSINUATE that the only way for a white golfer to prevent a talented black golfer like Tiger Woods would be to "lynch him in a back alley." ?

It's not even "aww we were just having cocktails on the deck" funny, it's just plain ignorant; it's offensive.

It suggests a great deal about the mentality that Kelly and her brothers grew up with down in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It suggests the constantly perky Kelly knows exactly what lynching is.

It suggests, that in a moment when her guard was down and she was sharing a laugh with someone who looked like her - she let something foul and offensive slip out.

It's out there and the feedback is still being felt across the media spectrum; on the net, most definitely in print (did you see the swinging noose in the cover of GolfWeek? editor David Seanor was fired..) and indeed on television. Kelly's back in her booth job, but the sheen is off this daughter of the old south because she shared something about herself with millions of Americans. Something we didn't like. Something that ruffles the culturegeist.

Something that has made many people look at her in a new light, as we're reminded that indeed, beauty is only skin deep.

Obama Wins Big in South Carolina

Senator Barack Obama capped a tough two weeks of political warfare as he took on blistering character assaults from Democratic rival Senator Hillary Clinton, former president Bill Clinton and even cheap shots from well-known African-American pundits of media and intelligentsia to take the South Carolina primary in commanding fashion and a comfortable share of the delegates.

Preliminary counts showing he beat Clinton 55% to 27% are reflections of a couple things. It shows he did better among women than he did in New Hampshire and also that a large number of black voters got behind him not just as 'the black candidate' but as the person best equipped to represent the Democratic party in the 2008 elections.

It also shows a high percentage of voter turnout across the state and also possible blow-back from Bill Clinton's persistent attacks and Hillary Clinton's disastrous, rambling public assertions that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. couldn't have had the impact on civil rights in America in the 1960's without Lyndon Johnson and Congress as a means to try and contrast her experience and Obama's central themes of change and hope.

Personally I think many voters or all races felt Hillary made a clumsy attempt to pull out race and use it to shore up the political momentum she gained in New Hampshire following the beating she took back in Iowa. I also suspect Hillary put too much confidence in Bill Clinton's appeal among black voters; I mean what the hell does an endorsement from former New York Mayor David Dinkins do for Clinton?

It comes off as a desperate attempt to try and reach out to black South Carolina voters than it does an honest assessment of what voters of color around the nation really think about Hillary Clinton .

I certainly admire Dinkins but what he thinks about the candidates is totally irrelevant to me and many other African-American voters as fas as this race is concerned; Bush has destroyed this country's credibility abroad, allowed the fabric of our national identity to whither and divided the people over his determination to wage a war for a resource is likely going to run out by 2050.

Dinkins soft-tossed Hillary the endorsement out of loyalty because he owed Bill Clinton, not because she's the best candidate.

The numbers also reflect many voters fears that Hillary carries too much political baggage and that Bill Clinton back in the White House will hamstring Democratic efforts to retake the White House in 2008 rather than help.

Police Shooting of Black Off-Duty Police Officer in White Plains Raises Spector of Giuliani-Safir Regime

It's been seven years since an undercover NYPD officer shot and killed Haitian-American security guard Patrick Dorismond (pictured left) inside a Manhattan bar but his death still looms over the culturegeist and a city and region wracked by a slew of police shootings of innocent victims of color.

Yes, it's not even February and it's already happened to another innocent man of color, this time to an off-duty police officer trying to help out a stranger he didn't even know.

On Friday afternoon 23 year-old off-duty Mount Vernon, New York police officer Christopher Ridley was driving in downtown White Plains when he stopped to break up an altercation between two homeless men.

According to witnesses, Ridley exited his vehicle and chased one of the men involved with the fight, a homeless man known locally as "Twin" before getting into a physical confrontation.

At some point his gun fell to the ground and went off, hitting concrete; details are still not fully clear but two White Plains officers, responding to the shot and the scene, shot and killed Ridley after he was asked to the drop the gun. Two witnesses to the fight and the shooting told reporters Ridley might have been dazed from the chase and fight and didn't hear the police commands.

As a male African-American and a resident of New York City it's hard to process the outrage you feel inside when members of the police department routinely make the fatal decision to use excessive force in cases and incidents where men with dark skin are involved.

Whether it's Westchester, Long Island, White Plains or any of the five boroughs of New York City, police officers in the New York region seem far more pre-disposed to the use of deadly force against black and Latino suspects.

The color of a man (or boy's) skin seems to be far more important than innocence or guilt; to say nothing of his being an active member of law enforcement.

It wasn't that long ago that the city reeled under the senseless shooting of security guard Patrick Dorismond (pictured above). It was 2000 and the NYPD under Rudy Giuliani's regime seemed at times to have free reign to treat minorities like targets on a range.

Dorismond became the fourth unarmed black suspect to be shot and killed by NYPD officers
in the opening months of 2000.

The facts of the case enraged New Yorkers of all races and religions. Undercover members of the NYPD, finishing up a night of marijuana arrests approached Dorismond, a innocent Haitian - American working as a security guard, and asked him if he had any pot.

Dorismond became angry at the question, a scuffle started and seconds later he was shot and killed by the undercover officers.

The incident came on the heels of the acquittal of the officers charged in the brutal killing of Amadou Diallou and Giuliani, already under fire along with police commissioner Howard Safir for their handling of some of the most high- profile and controversial killings by NYPD officers in the city's history, almost tripped over himself trying to side with the PBA and the accused officers.

Without having the complete facts of the case Giuliani leapt to the defense of the officers and shocked people by ordering the NYPD to release details from Dorismond's arrest to the press; including a 13 year-old juvenile arrest that had been sealed by the court.

Giuliani did his best to trash Dorismond's name and slander his character in a desperate attempt to justify his killing at the hands of over-zealous, stressed-out NYPD officers; even insisting to reporters that the innocent victim was "no alter boy". It was later revealed that not only had Dorismond in fact BEEN a Catholic alter boy (Hello? Haitian-American??) he'd served in the same Catholic church Giuliani attended as a child.

Among the former-Mayor's more absurd responses in defense of his actions?

"(Y)ou cannot libel a dead a dead person." And my personal favorite, "(..the assertion that) Mr. Dorismond has spent a good deal of his life punching people is a fact."

The 81 year-old Mahattan DA Robert Morgenthau, ever the loyalist, demonstrated just how completely out of step he really is with the scope and repercussions of police violence against minorities and public opinion on the matter by announcing that no charges would be brought against any of the officers involved with Dorsmond's shooting.

Just another in a slew of cases where an innocent minority was shot and killed by police - and no charges were brought against ANYONE.

As the city waits for the facts in the Ridley case to emerge, the only sense of reassurance is that Giuliani's weak performance in the Republican primary/caucus has him on the verge of being eliminated from the GOP presidential race - so t least we don't have to worry about this divisive, racist, pontificating hypocrite getting too close to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Have Working Class Americans Become a Commodity?

Brunch and PBS go so well together after sleeping in on a cold January Saturday. As I prepped my three-egg spinach, cheddar & onion omelet I watched a pretty interesting discussion on "To the Contrary", a Channel 13 program currently in it 15th season that examines issues from a diverse range of perspectives.

Bonnie Erbe brings an extensive resume of national reporting experience to her role as host of this weekly program; the first of its kind to feature analysis of news and other important issues from an all-female panel.

One of the segments centered on the plight of a young Asian-American woman; one of millions of Americans working two different jobs that offer no benefits, no 401k and no opportunity to build the kind of stability that will offer financial stability and a real future.

What is the fabric of our nation going to look like with so many people working all the time but not saving anything? The stats are pretty grim for those working jobs that pay minimum wage.

The Economic Policy Institute has some fairly alarming statistics about the minimum wage on their Website. Right now the president is talking about a massive economic stimulus package as the government looks to hold off a recession - what will that really mean for those that work jobs that don't allow them to save anything, let alone create equity like stock, bonds or that ultimate image of the American Dream, a home?

Are we really morphing into a nation that offers opportunities for prosperity to some and not all? Is that the mark of a world power?

The Race Heats Up

As the race for the Democratic presidential candidates to snag critical delegates heats up in South Carolina, the tone of the debate has been cranked up to a whole new level. It's becoming clear that race is becoming more of a factor as both Democratic front-runners are increasingly becoming more divided along racial lines.

During last night's debate Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clashed for over ten minutes over the Clinton's repeated attacks on inconsistencies in Obama's voting record in the Senate and his current position as a presidential candidate.

At one point they both traded cheap shots; Obama calling Clinton out for sitting on the board of Wal Mart while she was a lawyer; and Clinton accusing Obama of having worked for a campaign contributor who is alleged to be tied to legal improprieties.

The tension is showing. In Greenwood, South Carolina, Obama snapped at New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny who confronted him on the effects the Clinton attacks are having on his campaign.

I've been impressed with Obama's campaign. If he becomes the nation's next president, his race is going to impact his presidency in a variety of ways. There's no question he's going to have to mature as a politician very quickly.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are savvy politicians with a wealth of experience in the global political arena. They also come to this race with truckloads of credibility among African- Americans including myself. They're going to use any weapon in their arsenal including Obama's relative inexperience and race.

The sooner he learns to counteract these strategies and stray on message, the more effective his campaign is going to be. Indeed race and ethnicity are going to be an integral part of the 2008 election, in the end Obama's message of racial unity is going to have more widespread appeal amongst American voters - but it has to have as much intensity as the politics of division, it has to have more to reflect the will of the culturegeist who are weary of the road to the White House being lined with appeals to ingrained racial fears and cultural ignorance.

We're a better nation than that.

C-Span Economic Discussion on MLK's Birthday

Amaad Rivera of United for a Fair Economy was a guest on C-SPAN this morning during a really interesting discussion about the impact of race upon economic status in America.

Rivera is one of the most eloquent and insightful speakers I've seen talking about raising awareness of inherent inequities and imbalances in the US economic system that penalize and financially marginalize hard-working tax-paying Americans of all races.

The non-profit UFE is one of the groups trying to stem the growing wealth divide in this nation and seeks to restore economic stability and opportunity for for all Americans.

He's the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative Leader of UFE and a co-author of the January, 2008 "Foreclosed" Report available in a PDF version

C-Span continues to offer up serious and substantive analysis of relevant issues and the highest quality of television journalism. An appropriate format on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Blacks & Jews Together: A Complex Alliance?

"Blacks and Jews Unite" - The headline instantly brought to mind hopeful images of reconciliation. Like the undated photo of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (pictured left) marching with Jewish leaders.

Of all places it was in the pages of the frequently reactionary and sometimes cartoonishly conservative New York Post that I caught site of a headline that sent me to my computer to blog. Massive props to assemblyman Dov Hikind stepped up to the plate and showed leadership as an American, as a leader as a man who understands the importance of reconciliation and synergy between different communities.

The need for a more coherent joint response from Jews and African-Americans is immediate in the face of rising incidents of racism and anti-semitism across the Tri-State region.

Just recently New York's local CBS affiliate WCBS Channel 2 broadcast an extremely disturbing report about hundreds of headstones being toppled over in the PoileZedek Jewish Cemetery in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The Jewish Press reports that hate crimes against African Americans and Jewish citizens have increased by 25% in the New York. Are we moving backwards?

I went to few a Websites and was quite surprised at the tone of conversation going amongst Jewish New Yorkers; I'm talking conversation threads where people who are hostile to Hinkindd's initiative are basically saying, what's the point of even trying to have a dialogue with black folk, they're all anti-semites?

I've spoken with two of friends of mine who are Jewish; they suggest the threads I'm reading are extremists and do not represent the mainstream views of most Jews in America.

Indian Cricket Player Harbhajan Singh Suspended for Racist Remarks Against Australian Player

The BBC reported that Harbhajan Singh (pictured left) , a member of the Indian cricket team was found guilty of calling Australian cricket player Andrew Symonds a "monkey" during a recent match between the two teams.

Referee Mike Proctor found Singh guilty after a four-hour official hearing. Symonds is the only non-white player on the Australian team, which beat India by 122 runs.

This is not the first time Indian cricket players and fans have vented their frustrations by using racial slurs and gestures against the 32 year-old Symonds, who as born to West Indian parents in England. Singh's suspension comes on the heels of four Indian fans being banned from a one day international match in Mumbai (Bombay) back in October.

Photographs submitted to officials showed fans using monkey gestures when Symonds came up to bat, both Symonds and Australian team captain Ricky Ponting have lodged complaints of gestures and monkey chants by Indians fans in earlier matches - charges Indian cricket officials dismissed as a "cultural misunderstanding".

Singh is no stranger to controversy, besides his offensive on-field behavior he was sharply criticized by Sikh leaders in January 2006 for removing the traditional head-covering worn by Sikh men in an ad for Royal Stag Whiskey.

While the actions of a few fans certainly do not reflect the views of all Indians, on more than one occasion I have personally experienced subtle and overt prejudiced behavior by men of Indian descent driving cabs or working in bodegas here in New York.

Racism is infectious and I think some Indians, who themselves experienced prejudice because of their status in India's notorious caste system, sometimes project their resentment on African Americans in this nation as they all too quickly absorb the negative perceptions that result from the entrenched racism in this country.

New Year, Ethnic Tensions Spiraling Out of Control as New Challenges for Democracy in Kenya Arise

As the new year unfolds political turmoil in Kenya is making this relatively prosperous and peaceful African nation the scene of mounting violence that has left at least 120 dead in the wake of the recent presidential elections that many international observers are calling questionable and some nations including the US are calling bogus.

Pictured above: Opposition candidate Raila Odinga, left and incumbent president Mwai Kibaki at right

The story is getting wide coverage across the media spectrum, it was featured on the major network broadcast news, NPR, WCBS, The News Hour on Thirteen - and of course the BBC seems to be providing the most thorough and exhaustive coverage I've seen.

Of immediate concern are the violent clashes that are taking place between supporters of the incumbent who was declared president Mwai Kibaki - mostly members of the Kikuyu tribe; and backers of the main opposition candidate Raila Odinga who is backed by members of the Luo tribe.

While the election results have already undermined the authority of the Kenyan government, the rising ethnic tensions divided precariously along political lines are raising serious security concerns for this nation known for a stable, productive economy and a healthy tourism industry worth $1.5 Billion (US) by some estimates.

The African Union already has it's hands full with the situation in Darfur as well as regions such as Ethiopia and Somalia where Al Qaeda-backed Muslim Extremists are still major concerns. The situation in Kenya is in many ways, the first test of 2008 for the governments that are going to have to cooperate to instill at least a sense of legitimacy to the African Union.

African leaders as well as the international community must combine efforts and available resources to ensure that racial and ethnic violence between the Kikuyu and Luo tribe members does not spin out of control and threaten stability in the region.