White Supremacist Hal Turner Claims Horrifying Kindnapping/Murder of White Couple in Tennessee was a Hate Crime

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - In a bizarre turn to an already chilling case that shocked the nation, White Supremacist radio talk show host Hal Turner is now claiming that mainstream media has ignored evidence that the January, 2007 carjacking, kidnapping, rape, torture and murder of an Tennessee couple, Christopher Newsome and his girlfriend Shannon Kristin by four African-American assailants, (3 men and 1 woman) was a black on white hate crime.

Turner's Website, which warns, "Don't expect "fairness" or "balance;" that's not what this show is about.", is attempting use the horrific details of this crime to mobilize White Supremacists and try and paint this crime as having been motivated by hate.

John Gill, of the Knox County District Attorney's office said on CNN.com that there is absolutely no evidence to indicate that this was a hate crime.

Fascinating how a hate-filled purveyor of racism who openly called for the assasinations of US Congressmen (see above link to Turner's Website), is using this tragedy to inspire other disturbed individuals like himself to inflict hate upon others.

Look Out! 'Hispanic-ization'!

Monday May 21, 2007 - In the latest round of the "Immigration Debate" Ruben Navarrette, Jr. weighs in, with wit, on "cultural displacement" anxiety in America and Republican Fear-Meiser, Representative Brian Billbray (He's too hot!) and his current Capitol Hill campaign against immigration legislation brewing in the Senate.

As a GOP bonus offering (Thanks guys!) Ana Marie Cox blogs about Senator John McCain's strange remark and poorly-selected joke about Mitt Romney chasing Guatemalans off his yard with a gun.

Abu-Jamal Appears at Appeal Hearing

Friday May 18, 2007 - The strange case of ex-political activist/journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal takes a turn as courts prepare to weigh the validity of his conviction for the 1981 murder of 26 year-old police officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia, PA.

CNN.com reports that Abu-Jamal will get an appeal hearing to determine if his original conviction was valid, or as Abu-Jamal has claimed for years, that his arrest, trial and subsequent conviction were racially and politically motivated.

The facts of this case are complex and it remains to this day, one of the longest and most bizarre and racially-charged trials in US history.

African-American Population Reaches 40 Million for the 1st Time

Wednesday, May 17, 2007 - Sam Roberts wrote a very interesting piece in today's New York Times Website on new census data that shows racial demographics changing the face of the US population.

Giuliani & Romney Snub Urban League

Monday, May 14, 207 - This evening I listened to portions of an NPR piece on GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney lagging behind both John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the polls.

Despite his having raised millions more than either of the two GOP front runners, he lags in 3rd place, puzzling political pundits. I'm not sure if people have figured Romney out yet. I'm sure the GOP voting base wouldn't want to admit it but there appears to be some reluctance to support him because he is a Mormon - something that doesn't sit well with the white, Christian-Right GOP power base that populate the 'Red States' that respond to vague, substance-light hot-button issues like anti-US flag waving amendments, the GOP dead-horse "Family Values" and the usual assortment of patriotic rhetoric - many of them still believe there are WMD's somewhere under the sands of Iraq.

It'll be interesting to see how the GOP fares under the scrutiny of the 08 elections now that the President is widely regarded as one of the most unpopular heads of state in US history - a man who, in his 2nd term in the White House, failed to make Time Magazine's list of the world's most influential people.

As an African-American it never surprises me when GOP candidates blow off opportunities to connect with and reach out to voters of color because, well, they really don't give a shit about the African-American vote. Remember when Bush blew off the NAACP convention? I really wonder about the mindset of a modern US political party that is so disconnected to African-Americans and other minorities.

Even leaving aside the Katrina response, the GOP comes off as hopelessly lost in the cultural sense. Michael Fauntroy writes about this quite frequently and penned an interesting piece on his Website.

Environmental Racism Report

Saturday May 12, 2007 - Is it intentional or just coincidence that 60 percent of the 9 million people living within 1.8 miles of US commercial waste disposal facilities are minorities? Minorities make up about a 1/4 of the US population.

An April 5, 2007 article from The New Standard Website cites stats from a 2007 study and a 1987 report that examined the proximity of minority communities to hazardous waste sites.

KLM Uber Alles?

Tuesday, May 8, 2007 - It's taken decades in some cases but slowly many of the companies that lent support to or cooperated with the Nazi party in WWII are being held accountable in the media, by courts and a variety of interest groups.

It's well known that Coca Cola, IBM and Esso/Standard Oil did business with Germany during the war. Did the Dutch airline company KLM actively participate in efforts to assist known Nazi war criminals escape from Germany to South America?

Two High Ranking LAPD Officers Disciplined in Wake of Attacks on Demonstrators

Monday May 8, 2007 - As a follow-up to our previous post on the violent tactics used by some members of the LAPD against immigrants marching in support of immigrant's rights last Tuesday, police chief William Bratton has disciplined two officers of the LAPD for their role in the excessive force used against men, women and children gathered for a peaceful protest.

50 Years Later: Blacks Call for Ouster of African-American School Superintendent

Tuesday May 8, 2007 - 50 years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision to desegregate the public school system in Little Rock, Arkansas angry African-American members of the school board are trying to use their new majority to oust African-American Roy Brooks.
Brooks, the Little Rock Superintendent, is taking heat (despite improving student test scores and enrollment) from the black community for cutting jobs from the school system to cut costs.

Adam Nossiter wrote an excellent piece in today's New York Times online edition that looks at the same school system where troops from the 101st Airborne Division once had to escort 9 black students to Central High School because of violent white opposition to them being educated in the same classrooms as white students.

Diversity? Not in Gonzales' Justice Department!

Monday May 7, 2007 - I was all set to blog about an interesting piece in today's Wall Street Journal written by Erin White on moves by some American corporations to tap more white males to take reins on diversity initiatives...

That is until I found a link on the huffingtonpost.com Website to a story from WJLA TV, the Washington-based ABC affiliate I grew up watching as a kid in Bethesda, MD.

The 'I-Team' piece by reported by Roberta Baskin looks at the appalling lack of diversity at the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department where only two of the fifty attorneys in the Criminal Division are African-American.

There were two in 1978, so in 39 years there's essentialy been NO progress in diversification within the ranks of the nation's highest legal authority. If Gonzales isn't fired for removing US prosecutors from their jobs purely for political reasons then he should be sacked for this.

Despite his seemingly patriotic, rhetoric-filled, soft-spoken demeanor, Gonzales continues to confront inescapable evidence that he's little more than a Bush-lackey who runs a Justice Department that hires attorneys based on political affiliations versus
their ability perform on the job.

If there is merit to the allegations about the startling lack of diversity in the make-up of the Justice Department one must wonder just what he's doing serving as the attorney general of the United States of America.

Wynton Marsalis Chides Hip Hop Artists as Minstrels

Sunday, May 6, 2007 - I read an interesting news note on the hip-hop Website called rawkus.com today about an interview in which Wynton Marsalis critisized some mainstream hip-hop artists for the distorted images of black Americans that stem from SOME rap artists and their lyrics.

Marsalis compared them to the minstrels of the 19th century who regularly lampooned black Americans and used stereotypical images of them as a part of a form of musical expression that was degrading to blacks.

I wrote some commentary in support of Marsalis in response to some comments from rawkus readers / visitors who seemed hostile to this exceptional musician's opinion on mainstream hip-hop culture. Use the link in the opening paragraph if you'd be interested in reading what I wrote. It's an interesting site and I plan to link to the content they post more often.

CG

LAPD Under Fire for Using Force Against Protesters

Saturday May 5, 2007 - It's been barely a week since we posted on the 15th anniversary of the LA riots that were sparked when four LAPD officers were acquitted by a Simi Valley jury in the beating of motorist Rodney King.

This morning CNN.com reports that the Los Angeles Police Department is coming under fire yet again for their violent response against protesters rallying for immigrants rights last week.

Police used batons and rubber bullets against crowds that included women and children as young as ten. The FBI is one of the organizations opening inquiries into police conduct that resulted when members of the crowd allegedly threw bottles and rocks at police towards the end of the rally.

At least four people including a member of the press are filing suit against the LAPD for injuries they received from police.

This latest incident involving the LAPD continues to fuel the image of this police force as an urban authoritative body that uses excessive force against minorities as a matter of policy.

I don't view all police as enemies and I think it's absurd to suggest that African-American's cooperating with police are traitors to their race or communities; as has been suggested by many Hip-Hop artists - who are paid by white-owned record companies...

What does it say about America when members of the nation's largest police forces feel so threatened by peoples of color that the application of excessive force against them (whether warranted or not) is standard operating procedure?

Klan Member Gets Immunity to Testify in James Ford Seale Trial

Friday May 4, 2007 - CNN.com reported that one of the two Ku Klux Klan members originally charged with the 1964 kidnapping, beating and murder of two 19-year old African-Americans in Missisippi will receive immunity in exchange for his testimony against 71 year-old James Ford Seale.

The horrifying details of this brutal crime were the subject of a gripping February 2007 documentary produced and directed by David Ridgen in cooperation with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - the man holding the picture is Thomas Moore, brother of victim Charles Eddie Moore, one of the two victims who were kidnapped, by Seale and other Klansmen, tortured, duct-taped and wrapped in plastic while still alive then thrown into a turnk and driven a hundred miles where they were both tied to train rails and a Jeep block and thrown into the Ole River in Talluah, Louisiana.

The smiling young man is Thomas' brother Charles.

CG

Friday May 4, 2007 - Gun control laws have moved up a few notches on the nation's media 'Hot List'with the controversy surrounding the Virgina Tech shootings that still have people around the world shaken and horrified.

Michael Luo penned an interesting piece for the New York Times Website detailing how the state privacy laws are impeding Congressional efforts to ensure that the Federal database that tracks gun ownership in the US include links to mental records so that nutbags can't purchase handguns and murder people. Accessing the Times link above may require you to sign up to login for access to their online articles but it's worth it.

Not surprisingly gun control groups are opposing the House measure on the grounds that it violates the privacy rights of the individual. Interestingly mental health groups and the pro-gun lobby are united in this effort to prevent mental health records from being tied to Federal background searches for gun owners. Oh the irony..

I studied Consitutional law in college and our rights must constantly be weighed and evaluated in light of the society we live in. So the rights of an individual's privacy must be weighed against the rights of other citizens not be to exposed to potentially dangerous individuals armed with handguns.

Our collective right not to have an unfortunate, possibly life-threatening encounter with a mentally disturbed individual armed with a gun is more important than that individual's right to keep their mental health records under wraps.

Given the widespread availablity of and access to handguns the collective rights to peace and prosperity outweigh privacy rights where the purchase of handguns are concerned.

CG

U Penn NBA Study: Race is a Factor in Foul Calls

Friday May 4, 2007 - In an article published in Wednesday's New York Times claims that a study shows that statistics demonstrate a correlation between the racial make-up of an NBA referee crew and the number and frequency of fouls called against a player of a different race.

While the authors of the research, Wharton associate professor Justin Wolfers and cornell grad student Joseph Price, claim their study shows that white refs are more likely to call more fouls against black players than they are against white players (and the opposite holds true for mostly or all black ref crews with regards to white players) the statistics point to the myriad of ways that subconscious thought patterns can influence prejudice and behavior that could be interpreted as racist.

It suggests that the extent to which assumptions, stereotypes and learned patterns of thinking based on skin color permeate our society on multiple levels and in many different areas. Professional sports, the film industry, the court/legal systems, education, media...

View the actual text of the study

More Hatian Refugees Drown off Turks and Caicos

Friday May 4, 2007 - As a followup to a previous link to a story posted here on March 27th about Ethiopian and Somali refugees dumped into the seas off the Yemen coast by smugglers, an article just appeared on the Yahoo News site reporting that yet another boat carrying refugees capsized and sank near Turks and Caicos. The boat was apprently carrying Hatian refugees desperately trying to flee the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

At least 20 were drowned and there was evidence of shark attacks, the US Coastguard is searching for at least 60 missing people. The immigration issue is and will certainly be in the media spotlight as the 2008 presidential race heats up. At some point the United States is going to have find a better solution for dealing with the thousands of Hatians illegally trying to enter the US each year.

If our nation can afford to spend more than $500 billion on the occupation of Iraq is it unreasonable to assume we can do better than Camp Bulkeley?

I am deeply troubled by the conditions all refugees and illegal immigrants face when they seek to escape wars, persectution or rampant poverty - but as an African-American, the plight of refugees of African descent is of particular concern to me personally.

CG

Dept. of Justice Stats on DWB

This blog is relatively new so we haven't yet had the chance to get into the issues that surround Driving While Black (DWB), the nationwide problem of police officers stopping African-American and Hispanic drivers based on nothing more than the color of their skin; but we will.

It's always good to begin with facts. There was a piece on the CNN Website on Sunday that was also widely reported on NPR and other news media outlets on Monday regarding the release of Justice Department statistics showing that police are much more likely to stop black and Hispanic motorists and are also far more likely to use physical force on or against them when they do than they are against a driver who is white.

This comes as no surprise to most blacks and Hispanics in this country. It only confirms allegations that have been common in communities around the nation for decades, allegations many white Americans do not understand because police treat them differently because of the color of their skin - but one example by the way of the existence "white skin privilege" in America.

One of the troubling realities of this nation is that many (NOT ALL) of the thousands of people who choose to become officers of the law bring ingrained prejudices with them; and it affects not only the way they percieve people they encounter, but the frequency, discrepancy, intensity and sensitivity with which they apply the laws they are sworn to uphold.

This nation will never evolve while law enforcement is applied on the basis of skin color. Check out the links above because we'll be exploring this in much more detail in future posts.

CG

US Govt. Turned Down Millions in Foreign Aid Offers to Katrina Victms

An article in Sunday's Washington Post reported that the Federal Government was so unprepared to deal with the aftermath of the damage to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, that it turned down more than 50 offers of aid from nations around the world to help the citizens of New Orleans.

From water pumping equipment, generators and search and rescue teams to cell phone networks, ships to house displaced residents and medical supplies, the US government turned down aid potentially worth almost a billion dollars. If you're interested use the link above to read John Solomon and Spencer Hsu's eye-opening article.

It's more than a little disconcerting to discover that our government, which has spent more than $125 Billion dollars in taxpayer money on Katrina-related costs, could not find ways to channel aid which was desperately needed to the citizens who suffered for days in the sweltering heat until the US Army finally managed to begin tranpsporting supplies to relieve the suffering.

But it's not surprising. In a nation that still has an enormous blind spot when it comes to obejective historical analysis of slavery and the effects on the institutionalized racism still a part of America to this day, why should it come as a shock that the same GOP-led government was somehow "uable to cope" with the distribution and transportation of desperately needed supplies to thousands of poverty-stricken largely African-American citizens?

Read the Post article and decide for yourself. Was the government more concerned about saving face after the huge bureaucratic failures in the wake of Katrina, or were they legitmately unable to find ways to transport aid to those in need?

Remember, relief supplies transported across the globe by the US military had reached Indonesia 48 hours after the 2005 Tsunami. There are a range of unexplored issues related to the race of many of the New Orleans Katrina victims and the shockingly slow, ineffectual and unacceptable response of the Federal Government. Are most Americans ready to examine these issues?

Probably not, for like slavery they force us to collectively look inside our national conscious and squarely face the realities of race in our country and in our hearts. What's in there isn't easy to face.

CG

Rodney King 15 Years Later

Sunday April 29, 2007 - On Sunday afternoon NPR broadcast a really fascinating episode of the Tavis Smiley Show from Los Angeles that looked back on the riots that gripped the City of Angels in 1992 in the wake of the acquittal of the four white LAPD police officers charged with beating African-American motorist Rodney King.

California State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, Maxine Waters the US Representative from California's 35th congressional district and LA Mayor Antonio Villagrosa were all on the program. Former LA police Chiefs Darryl Gates and Willie Williams were both guests on the program as well.

Gates was surprisingly candid about how shocked he was when he walked into work the day after the videotapes of the vicious beating of King were released and his secretary told him something horrible had happened. After examining the tapes himself, Gates said he was as disturbed as anyone.

Some have accused Gates of creating something of a "occupational force" mentality within the LAPD ranks in regards to the controversial police tactics used in the mostly African-American and Latino communities. So I admit to being somewhat taken back hearing this from the mouth of the same man who created SWAT teams in part to deal with urban violence stemming from the riots that broke out in southern Los Angeles' mostly African-American community in the 1960's.

Willie Williams (the former LAPD chief hired in the wake of Gates departure) expressed concern that the rapid clean up of the landscape and streets of LA had the effect of clouding the deeper issues of prejudice and racism that have existed in the city of Los Angeles for decades. Tensions between African-Americans, whites, Koreans and Latinos stem in part from the lack of education, community investment, economic planning, career opportunities and jobs that affect the poor communities of color.

Each of the politicians reported that it is in fact these socio-economic conditions that lie at the root of these problems that explode into the media spotlight in the wake of incidents like the OJ Simpson decision, the acquittal of the LAPD officers in the beating of Rodney King or when Soon Ja Du, the Korean grocer who killed 15 year-old African-American Latasha Harlins when she shot her in the back of the head after a physical confrontation over a $1.79 bottle of orange juice; Du received 5 years probation, a $500 fine and 400 hours of community service from Judge Joyce Karlin. Karlin's decision outraged community activists and further fractured relations between the black and Korean communities in LA.

Let's get serious; can you imagine the reaction if a 15 year-old white girl from Westchester County was shot in the head for stealing a bottle of juice from a convenience store?

The causes of these incidents are not just racism, it's about perception; nearly 70% of the LAPD is now made up of people of color yet the tensions between police and residents of poorer communities continues to exist as do incidents of police brutality by the LAPD.

America can never collectively evolve as a nation until all citizens have a better understanding of how substandard education, exclusion, lack of economic opportunity, fear and ignorance spark the prejudice and racism that continue to divide our nation and pollute our collective conscious.

CG

April 26, 2007 - A cnn.com piece reports that Israel announced it will plant a forest of trees in honor of Coretta Scott King, the wife of slain civil righs leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It's such a postive healing step for relations between African-Americans and Jews as well as a healing balm for the areas scrorched by Hezzbollah rocket attacks last year.

Anti-Semetism has always troubled me. Our next door neighbors were Jewish in the suburban Bethesda, Maryland neighborhood in which I was raised. As the oldest son in the only African-American family in the area I always found that a genuine closeness and comfort existed between our two families. Mrs. "J" (their last name begins with J and ends with a Z, but I'm protecting their privacy) would always happily offer a ride to school to my younger brother or me if we needed one. During holidays, my mother always sent my brother or me over to their home with fresh baked bread to honor Hannakuh. I can't count how many games of Kick the Can we played with the two kids Jenna and Paul during long summer evenings.

That was my experience with Jewish people growing up, not seeing them as Jewish but simply as the nice people who lived next door. In the 1980's and early 90's when a new wave of Black Nationalism and Afro-Identity swept through popular culture via music, there were some really uncomfortable periods for African-American/Jewish relations. I got really bored with the tedious, Anti-Semetic rants from people like Khalid Muhammed and Sister Souljah who often used the media spotlight to demonstrate their contempt for Jews.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Chuck D and Public Enemy, but Sister Souljah always came off as a loose associate of the group, but she had no real musical talent of her own who seemed desperate for attention. Frankly she was such a moron I never took her Anti-Semitism very seriously - it was based on ignorance and anger; and shed light on her own personal fear and insecurity.

Jesse Jackson calling New York Hymie-Town didn't help. Nor did it help when a car in the motorcade of a popular Brooklyn Rabbi struck and killed 4 year old Gavin Cato; an African American child wo lived in Crown Heights. The subsequet protests between members of Crown Heights black and Orthodox Jewish residents horrified the nation and divided New York City.

But there are many of us, Jewish and African-American who have never bought into the media's common stereotypical Spin of Jewish-Black relations. History makes it clear that the ancestors of Jews and Americans of African descent share a common bond in being used as slave labor and scapegoated for societal ills.