Campus racism. Here we go again

It began as lynching and other forms of violent terrorism. It's morphed into spray-painting "nigger" on the walls and throwing "themed" parties that malign and ridicule black people. Now, at Johns Hopkins University, James Crow, Jr., Esquire strikes again... or does he?

(see Baltimore Sun for the complete story)

Hopkins fraternity accused of racism
Black students protest mock lynching, language on Halloween party invitation

Johns Hopkins University administrators suspended the Sigma Chi fraternity yesterday after a weekend "Halloween in the Hood" party that included a skeleton pirate dangling from a rope noose.

Black Student Union members protested the fraternity's actions, saying the appearance of a mock lynching highlighted the atmosphere of racial insensitivity and tension at one of the country's most prestigious universities.

There hasn't been much about this incident in the blogosphere so far. My informal poll shows a slight weighting of opinion toward WTF!?! (see: RELLevance, ptah and Mummy's Little Batty Bwoy) balanced with a bit of a) black culture is fair game for mockery because it's pop culture, b) the hanging figure was a pirate, not a black person (see Through the Magnifying Glass, and the GorillaMask forums).

More from the Sun story:

The invitation to the Saturday night party, posted on the Web site Facebook, described Baltimore as "the hiv pit" and encouraged attendees to wear "regional clothing from our locale" such as "bling bling ice ice, grills," and "hoochie hoops."

The invitation, students said, was indicative of the pervasive attitude of condescension to Baltimore residents and another example of the university's strained relationship with the surrounding community.

Black people are still a joke to many white people, and these are the educated white folks. At Johns Hopkins, HIV is now hilarious. The commercial hip hop that began as an authentic outcry from the voiceless masses now encourages its own sad parody. Its global popularity gives license to anyone -- those with an understanding that separates truth from hyperbole and those without -- to pick up its language and wield it as an entertaining jab or a painful stab.

Here's the way I see it. Hanging pirates is not racist. Pirates are big this year thanks to Mr. Depp and the promotions department at Disney. Pirates were, in fact, hung.

A "hood" themed party is also not racist by default. As some of the critical blogs I linked to above remind me, there are "white trash" themed parties, pimps and hos parties, and other themed gatherings based on mocking a popular image of culture. To the extent that "the hood" has been glorified and commercialized by the mainstream pop culture industry, we have capitalism to thank for that. The market is painfully adept at co-opting any meaningful movement for superficial financial gain (see Rosa Parks selling Chevy trucks or just see what happened to punk music).

Yet, this situation still saddens me. It's the combination of the mockery of that which has come to symbolize black culture (hip hop) with one of the most frightening symbols of American terrorism (lynching) and the addition of a completely heartless joke about AIDS in Baltimore ("the hiv pit").

No party should be held in celebration of these things. According to the Maryland AIDS Administration:

• African Americans represent 80 percent of living AIDS cases in Maryland (but only 28 percent of the population)
• Over half of those AIDS cases are in Baltimore City

I understand that holding a college fraternity to any standard of responsibility or basic home training is asking a lot. It's a lot like asking the Bush administration to think its decisions all the way through -- a nice bonus, but not to be expected (see what happens when you ignore crazy Kim??).

However, I'm glad to see a ruckus being raised over the situation, and I'm proud to see those black students at JHU having some knowledge of their history. It would make me sadder indeed if they didn't stand in opposition to this party

The mass killing of black people decades ago took the form of lynching. In the 1990s it began to look like AIDS. In the 21st century, will it be commercial hip hop that most painfully damages our people?

Lieberman Fights Hard To Help Black People Vote. For Him

Joe Lieberman has always been a friend to black people. That's why he wants to inspire them to vote and make it as easy and attractive as possible. He will stop at nothing, not good taste and certainly not the law, to help us poor lil "low information" voters vote. More. For Joe.

Here's a list of our hero's program courtesy of Connecticut Blog:

Lets look at the scoresheet.

To date, Lieberman has now:

1. Distributed race-baiting flyers.

2. Dished out 387,000 in COLD HARD CASH in a time span of twelve days prior to the primary.

3. Sent his goons to distrupt several Lamonts events who verbally assulted Lamont to his face.

and now...

4. Hired goons who are barred from handing out to absentee ballots to hand out absentee ballots in the African-American community.

What exactly is so wrong with greasing a few old ladies' palms and helping them fill out absentee ballots? Or whatever it is that "street money" is for. See, Joementum is down with the people like that. He understands their struggle. Street money flushed through $387,000 of petty cash is merely a symbol, a down payment if you will, on the kind of support disadvantaged CT African-Americans can expect Lieberman to provide with his powerful seniority in the Senate. A vote for Lieberman is a vote for creative use of street money to bribe as many people as it take to GOTV.

George "Mailbox" Allen Attacks Again

For those of you wondering what your typical black person might be thinking after watching this video:



here are my thoughts.

1) Why does it surprise anyone that George "Macaca" Allen's goon squad would react to a constituent asking questions he doesn't like by putting VA student Mike Stark in a headlock and throwing him to the floor? The only surprise is that they did it in front of so many cameras. Did Allen learn nothing from the Macaca fracas? He's gotten arrogant and sloppy. He's forgotten the early lessons that stuffing someone's mailbox with a deer head, spraying racist graffiti and other intimidating tactics don't count against you if you don't get caught on camera. In fact, it can only help you!

This is the same man who kept a noose in his government office. Allen is the classic good ol'boy used to having things his way. Kind of like George W. Bush whose team ensures that audiences are cleansed of all who may ask disagreeable questions in any way, peacefully or not. That's why Allen's casual reaction of essentially "These things happen" should also be no surprise. This is par for the course for him.

2) What might this look like if Mike Stark were black? Would people be more sympathetic -- would it be more confirmation of his racist and violent tendencies? Or would the false claims that Stark was a "protestor" from that dangerous liberal dirty internet hippie "blog" site "Daily Kos" be more easily changed to "attacker"? Would a black Mike Stark have not only been put in a headlock and thrown to the floor but arrested and taken to jail -- all with the standard George Felix "Mailbox" Allen smirk hovering nearby in tacit approval of his supporters' actions, proud to see them kicking his constituent's "soft teeth down his whiny throat"? Would it still be newsworthy? I'd like to hope so.

Wait -- breaking news -- Allen attacks another "protestor" asking about Allen's arrest and divorce record! Video below.


I'm glad Mike Stark is pressing charges and I hope he sues. I agree with Stark when he says here:

George Allen, at any time, could have stopped the fray. All he had to do was say, "This is not how my campaign is run. Take your hands off that man." He could have ignored my questions. Instead he and his thugs chose violence. I spent four years in the Marine Corps. I'll be damned if I'll let my country be taken from me by thugs that are afraid of taking responsibility for themselves.

It just isn't the America I know and love. Somebody needs to take a stand against those that would bully and intimidate their fellow citizens. That stand begins right here, right now.

I am also glad that Jim Webb is pulling ahead in the polls.

Black churches aren't getting the faith based money

It seems I have a religious theme today

The main story: Black Churches Missing Out on Federal Aid

In a story by Hamil Harris, Black Enterprise reports:

When President Bush unveiled his faith-based initiative, African American church leaders from across the country were invited to the White House to stand with him as he detailed a plan to help churches and community groups gain access to millions of federal dollars to provide day care, drug abuse counseling, and other needed services.

Five years later, a study released by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that only a fraction of African American churches surveyed obtained grants

I always thought the Faith-Based Initiative was shady. As David Kuo's new book mentions, the Bush White House was very cold and calculating in its use of the funds. However, this BE story seems to find that the use of such money in black churches was not nearly as politically or financially effective:

Of the 750 African American churches questioned, only 2.6% received grants with 47% of the recipients having congregations located in the Northeast and just 26% in the South.

I had assumed black churches, notorious for passing that collection plate, would have rushed to get this federal funding. I was wrong.

Meanwhile, was Jesus black? A new movie says yes. I say, of course he was!

It is quite painfully obvious that the idea of a white Jesus has been forced upon black folk for a long long time. I love going into a black church in the middle of the hood and seeing all these brothers and sisters praying to a while man on high for salvation.

If your God doesn't look like you, but rather your oppressor, what does that say?

Harold Ford Fears AND Loves the Lord -- Do You?

I expect we'll be hearing more about this soon. Harold Ford says that Republicans only fear the Lord. (That's "God" to the confused out there.) Democrats fear and love the Lord. (Props: