oh, yes you are: part II

and here we go again: people acting like racists while professing their lack of racism. let's apply this logic to other scenarios and see if it holds water, shall we?

- i force children to have sex, but i'm not a pedophile.

- i steal money from old people, but i'm not an amoral thief.

- i constantly tell lies, but i'm not a liar.

- i don't eat meat, but i'm not a vegetarian.

- i wear a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus and swim under the surface of the ocean, but i'm not a scuba diver.

nope....i still cannot seem to make this line of reasoning make even the slightest bit of sense.

but here's what i know for a fact:

the use of the word nigger is designed to strip the humanity from black people and is meant to remind them of the power differential between white and black races . even a person of no financial means or little education can and do use this word to let it be known that whiteness is more valued in this country.

this truth is the rationale behind the punchline to the old "joke" what do you call a black man with a Ph.D?

i'm tired of the old "i'm not (fill in the blank) but" shell game that people like to play. that game people play right before they tell the racist/sexist/homophobic/ xenophobic/generally fucked up "joke."

so to borrow Bill Maher's phrase, here's the new rule: if you don't want to be called a racist, stop doing and saying racist shit.

seems simple, right?

An Officer Acting Stupidly

ok, let's start from the beginning: a Boston police officer is suspended with pay for forwarding an email which referred to henry louis gates as a "banana-eating jungle monkey."

he apologizes for the email, saying he's not a racist, he's just prejudiced against people who behave the way professor gates behaved.

so basically, what's he saying is: "I'm not prejudiced against black people, i just don't like niggers!"

and as if things weren't bad enough, he does the absolutely absurd: he hires an attorney and sues!!

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A Boston police officer is suing the city after he was suspended for referring to a black Harvard professor as a "banana-eating jungle monkey" in an e-mail."If I'm charged with a crime I want a chance to answer. I want the chance for a fair hearing," Officer Justin Barrett told CNN on Tuesday.

Barrett has apologized and denied he is a racist.

His lawsuit claims his civil rights have been violated; Barrett's lawyer said the words referring to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. were misinterpreted.

"The choice of words were poor; but they weren't meant to characterize professor Gates as a banana-eating jungle monkey," attorney Peter Marano said. "They were meant in a response to behavior and characterizing the behavior. Not the person as a whole."

Marano said the city had effectively fired Barrett, though he is officially suspended with pay.
He said it was fair to hold Barrett to a higher standard than the general public because he is a police officer, but that he was still entitled to express his opinions.

"Being held to a higher standard shouldn't eradicate his right under the First Amendment for free speech. That is part and parcel of the lawsuit," the lawyer said.

oh, so he he thinks his civil rights have been violated because he was reprimanded by being suspended with pay for sending a racist email. he's being victimized because he's the true face of racial discrimination these days!

just ask Pat.

isn't it funny that some people always seem to think protection under the first amendement should somehow extend to not having to face the consequences of their speech?

amazing.

What's WRONG with these people?

being black trumps being an insect.

Finally, we see the faces of those discriminated against

were you wondering why 108 out of 110 supreme court appointees have been white men? it's because white men built this country, that's why!

"built," of course, being open to operational definition.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

i for one am relieved we have finally seen the faces of those who are unjustly victimized by the evil that is affirmative action. if only someone would tell all these white women to stop hogging up all the opportunities that rightly belong to white men!

oops. cat's outta the bag...

where you at, Pat?

Michael Steele, my friend warned me about you.

i have a good friend from Maryland who told me months ago, while discussing Michael Steele, that that dude is a boot-licking uncle Tom bastard. I'm paraphrasing, but you catch her drift....

i have friends of different races. i have even been accused, tried, and convicted of liking "white music," and will admit that i have kissed the lips of the Caucasian male and lived to tell the tale!

but one of the things that stick in my craw is the black person who loves their white friends to the point where they feel like they have to start making racist jokes to fit in. it not only begs the question of where is the self-love and self-respect, but also....

why don't you have better quality white friends?

CHECK out this coon right here!

"Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele told a group of young Republicans that he would reach out to black voters by offering them fried chicken and potato salad. Asked by a blogger how he would reach out to "diverse populations," Steele said: "My plan is to say 'Y'all come,' because a lot of you are already here." After someone in the audience said, 'I'll bring the collard greens,' Steele added, 'I got the fried chicken and potato salad."'

because ya see, black folks are so easily swayed and unthinking, we can have our entire political ideology shifted by fried chicken, collard greens, and potato salad.

that's how the GOP got Steele. well, that and they gave him a white girl.

oh, yes you are.

why is it that racists are always trying to hedge and say they're not racist while saying something clearly racist?

What's WRONG with these People??

Audra Sigler Shay and some of her friends, using some of that "humor" them Republicans love so much. Eric S. Piker really cracks her up.

oh, and Jill Catterton, i see you. shopping at walmart and looking down your nose at the "Obama faces."

Click this right here! (and don't forget to enlarge)

What's WRONG with these People??

a south carolina gop "activist"...that's what we call them nowadays?.....discovered what what numerous 20-something-year-old entry level employees across the country discovered last year:

when you show your ass on facebook, everybody looks!

that genius right there is rusty depass. he used to be a south carolina poleetishun. now he's a facebook comedian. of course, this type of comedy leaves me cold. maybe i'm too uptight?

anyhoo, there is a bright side to all of this: at least he's old.

What's WRONG with these People??

as you have probably heard, the prez and the missus had another fantastic date night, taking in a show in NYC. here i was thinking it was a nice, romantic moment shared by two people clearly in love...well, thank the LERD for Rick Santorum, who let me know it not only served as an example but...kinda....overshot the mark?



Take it Rick!

Number one, I think it's great that the president has a date night with his wife. He's a role model.He's a role model in particular, whether he likes it or not, in the African-American community.

right on, right on...

Here we have a president of the United States who says that marriage is cool. You have respect for your wife, and you treat her with the respect and dignity that she deserves. And she is part of this team. And it's not just part of professional team, but it's also part of a personal, romantic team. I think that's all great. So I think it's important that he keeps having his date night.

yes, that is great. especially since we've never had a married president before. wait...wait, we have, but black people haven't been influenced by the marriages of white people. we only respond when we see other black people doing something. kinda like running away from a club shooting.

wait, what?

I think he has to realize that flying to New York is self-indulgent. Go down to the corner bar and have a drink, a shot and a beer. It does not matter where you go with your wife, is that it's with your wife. That's really the point... I would make the argument, the simpler the date, the more normal it is.

...did this dude just suggest that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES should take THE FIRST LADY to a bar and just have a drink? why in the world would the man holding the most important office in our country do that, Rick?


It connects to people. Here is what you do. Here is how you do it. And it is not going to Broadway. All right, once in awhile, you do something special. But it is mundane that really makes the marriage special, but because you are with your wife the mundane isn't mundane. It's special.

so, by saying connects with people, he means black people. because black people don't go to new york and they don't go to broadway plays. and a black woman is not going to think it very special to fly her to another city and treat her to a broadway show! nah, nah, naaaaaaaah....here's what you do....here's how you do it: take her to Smitty's for a couple shots of aristocrat, then head on back to the criz-zib, play some big daddy kane, and work it OUT.

huh.

you know i just cannot take it. i cannot even begin to climb that mountain that this man has laid out in front of me. i can only say a few things before i completely degrade and start screaming at my computer:

1) rick santorum is no expert on marriage and no one asked his advice. so what's with the paternalistic, condescending attitude? why does this guy, who's about the same age as Obama, and who lost his re-election bid think he can tell the President how to date his wife?

2) by suggesting the president merely go to a bar for some shots instead of taking his wife to nyc to broadway is absurd. and i know he isn're really going to go there with something being "self-indulgent" when Dubya used Air Force One regularly to travel to and from his private ranch in Crawford, TX. do you now how much it costs to use Air Force One per hour? over $50,000. it's a 2 hour flight from DC. and he visited Crawford 77 times during his administration. do the math.

3) this script follows all too closely to what many people of color have experienced in this society by our paler, well-meaning neighbors. it's patronizing, infuriating, and biased thinking based on racist notions of the black community.

4) with regards to the usual complaints at this junction of any race conversation of someone "always playing the race card" i have this to say: if you don't want me to play the race card, quit dealing from that particular deck.

and they drove a black car with a black dog in the backseat!!!

gloria d. mosovich, a landlord in buffalo, recently had her ass handed to her in court because she violated fair housing law. and yet, despite evidence which proved that she's rather lie like a bitch than rent to an african american, she came away from the judgement with this statement:

“Now come on. Was that fair? Now where did I discriminate? The people I rented it to are African- American. Now will you please tell me where I discriminated?” said mosovich.

well, let me break it down for you, miss mosovich:

after the case against you was opened, the fair housing center decided to test you to see if you'd again do what you'd been accused of...AND YOU DID. you told the black testers that the apartment wasn't available but then told the white tester that it was.

your performance in the test completely contradicts your defense that the reason you told the nice black girl the apartment wasn't available was because you had just rented the apartment 2 days prior to someone else. because if the apartment had really really been rented, you wouldn't have offered it to the white tester, now would you?

but, you argue, you rented the apartment to an african american family! how did you discriminate?

because you told someone an apartment wasn't available for rent when it clearly was. otherwise, you wouldn't have offered it to the white tester. and at the last second choosing to rent to a black family doesn't fool anyone or change those facts.

i hope this clears things up for you. and i'm glad to hear you'll be writing a couple of good sized checks to make up for your violation of the housing law. and even if you don't want to admit it to the press or to the girl who you denied an apartment to...deep down inside, you can agree that you'll never make this particular mistake again, right?

well, like they say in texas: now i hate dr. phil too.

i tried to watch dr. phil last night and just couldn't take it. his guests at the beginning of the show were ann coulter and alan colmes. and while i'm used to seeing ann on talk shows, i am not used to watching shows in which she has a large amount of support coming from the audience. it seemed like the more outlandish and offensive she became, the more some in the audience absolutely loved it.

and of all the people he could have had on the show representing counterpoint, he chooses alan colmes?? well, that was useless.

gone are the days when ann coulter had to shut the hell up because her jaw was wired shut. she's going from show to show using the same lines over and over again....(yes, yes, last 12 kings of Swaziland, i've heard that one 3 times already)...basically making herself and her career relevant again on the coattails of President Obama.

when i heard those people in the audience cheering as she defended sarah palin's vacuousness as authenticity, i just kept reminding myself of one thing ann wrote last year:

In an April 2, 2008 column, she characterized Barack Obama's book Dreams From My Father as a "Dimestore Mein Kampf." Coulter writes, "He says the reason black people keep to themselves is that it's 'easier than spending all your time mad or trying to guess whatever it was that white folks were thinking about you.' Here's a little inside scoop about white people: We're not thinking about you. Especially WASPs. We think everybody is inferior, and we are perfectly charming about it."

ok, so it's clear that i'm not her audience. and i'm not even going to go there about someone who says that but then runs her trap about the horrors of jeremiah wright (wait, who?). but now that dr. phil has given her a welcome platform for her nonsense, i'm not part of his audience either. and that's a shame, because dr. phil has some of the best make-up artists and hairstylists out there! his team can take a guest with 2 pieces of hair and 5 teeth and make them look like marilyn monroe! AND THOSE ARE THE MEN!

i guess i'll just have to find other crappy tv shows to watch at 8 pm.