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.

Equal Opportunity Abuse of Civilians By Members of the Chicago PD

English teacher Robin Petrovic went out dancing at a nightclub but got danced on by a pissed off member of Chicago's finest after getting into an altercation with a bouncer.

The Petrovic incident joins the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the 1969 deaths of Black Panther members Roger Hampton and Mark Clark and the videotaped February, 2007 beating of Karolina Obryka as a long list of thousands of cases of brutality by the CPD.

Mixed Race Lancashire England Police Officer Cleared of Criminal charges After Mistakenly Claiming 90 Pounds of Expenses for Gasoline

In an investigation that cost 500,000 pounds to prosecute, 37 year-old Detective Constable Jason Lobo was cleared of criminal charges related to department accusations that he falsely claimed 86.50 (UK Pounds) for gasoline.

DA Reconsiders Decision to Try Jen 6 Juvenile After 15,000 Black People Stroll Through Town

LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters is an experienced local prosecutor who denies any connection exists between the noose hung from a tree by 3 white high school students and the subsequent beating of white student Justin Barker by a group of six black students known as the Jena 6.

He finally ended his bizarre quest to press 2nd-degree battery charges (reduced down from the original 2nd degree attempted murder and conspiracy charges) against teenager Mychal Bell. Bell was finally released from custody today.

Not wishing to leave any doubt as to why he would try and charge high school teenagers as adults on attempted murder charges for a school fight, Walters left no doubt as to which side of the cultural street he stands on.

In discussing the impact of over last week's march of over 15,000 protesters, Walters asserts that "The Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people and they responded accordingly."

Boss Hogg on line one! Yeeee haaaaaa!

Bill O'Reilly Shocked to Discover Civilized Black People inside Landmark New York Restaurant

In one of his most bizarre verbal tirades to date Fox anchor Bill O'Reilly inexplicably chose Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem to convince the American public of the depths of his deep-seated cultural insensitivity and smug stupidity.

As NPR's Juan Williams and a crowd of mostly African-American diners looked on in horror, O'Reilly ranted and babbled in an apparent attempt to prove that he's really just an ignorant bigot with a television show.

Mandela Alive Despite Bush's Lack of Insight on African Affairs

On the eve of the gathering of world leaders, government representatives and officials from around the globe at the UN General Assembly in New York, George W. Bush demonstrates publicly that he has a tenuous grip at best on African affairs.


Even his closest advisers and senior GOP members of the house and senate must be wondering how it is possible that the man who sits in the Oval Office has the audacity lack of mental foresight to use a posthumous reference to man who sacrificed his life for the cause of freedom and human rights, to defend his failed Iraq strategy.


It's just the latest embarrassing mental flatulence by the President but given the timing and media spotlight on world affairs this week, it's a whopper.

CG

Thousands Rally in Support of the Jena 6

In one of the largest shows of support for civil rights in recent memory, thousands of protesters packed the streets of a tiny Louisiana town that has been thrust into the media spotlight.

The fact that white students placed nooses in the now infamous "Tree" is shocking as is the unstated "Whites-only" rule about hanging out under the tree. Is this really 2007? The facts are confusing but clearly illustrate the deeper underlying roots of racism, prejudice and bigotry that still exist in the south.

Some are saying the Jena 6, the name given to the group of black HS students who were charged in the beating of a white student, is a wake up call to action for the next evolution of the civil rights movement.

6 Accused of Torturing 20 Year Old Woman in West Virginia

A CNN.com report details a disturbing case from West Virginia in which a 20-year old African-American woman was kidnapped, tortured, subjected to a stomach-churning variety of degrading acts and sexually assaulted for over a week.

Two mothers and their children were among the six white people arrested by police for the crime. What's going on in the minds of these suspects? What demented psychology produces such deep-seated hatred? How could mothers participate as their children dehumanize a 20-year old woman?

Civil Rights Attorney Oliver W. HIll Dies at 100

Virginia lawyer Oliver W. Hill may not be as recognizable a name as his Howard University classmate Thurgood Marshall but his legacy as a defender of civil rights for Americans is no less illustrious.

Hill, a WWII veteran and Virginia native was instrumental in dismantling the segregationist laws that were declared un-Constitutional by the Supreme Court in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.

This civil rights pioneer will be missed but never forgotten.

Horrific 1946 Moore's Ford Lynching Re-enacted

This photo of an unknown African-American lynching victim from 1889 illustrates the terrifying legacy of lynching in the United States that claimed over 5,000 thousand black victims in the southern US in the Post-Civil War period.

Today on the CNN Website Elliot C. McLaughlin wrote a fascinating article about a group of activists who re-enacted the bloody kidnapping/murder of two African Americans couples near the Apalachee River in Georgia on the night of July 25, 2007.

Roger and Dorothy Malcom and George and Mae Murray Dorsey were dragged from their car by a white mob, beaten and then shot before one of the attackers used a knife to cut Dorothy Malcom's unborn 7-month old baby from her stomach.

The case remains unsolved to this day and the CNN article outlines Justice Department efforts to fund an FBI cold-case division to try and resolve some of the many unsolved hate-related murders and lynchings that occurred in the south in the 1930's, 40's, 50's and 60's. A bill to fund the bill, supported jointly by the Southern Poverty Law Center, National Urban League and the NAACP, is currently stalled in the US Senate.

18 Year-Old White Alabama Student Earns More Than Diploma

Monday June 4, 2007 - A racial milestone of sorts was reached on Friday May 25th in the capital of Alabama. Crystal Wadsworth, 18 became the first white student to graduate from the predminatly African-American AH Parker, HS in Birmingham, AL.

While there have been other white students enrolled in the school, Wadsworth now holds the distinction of being the first white student to earn a diploma in the 107-year history of the school.

I was moved personally by an interview I heard with her over the weekend on NPR having often been the lone African-American student in my classes in Bethesda, Maryland growing up from nursery school through 10th grade.