Jack & Jill Politics

Baratunde
The video is not working…you click it and it says 'this is a private video, please accept the friend request'

Thank you, Baratunde.

1. I appreciate how you reflect back to Cenk your understanding of what his message conveyed.

2. Agree with your stance on the limitations of walking on “egg shells when approaching folks about racism

3. Kudos for expressing the fatigue most of us experience in having to (a.) call folks on their racist behavior and (b. ) Explaining why the behavir is racist and helping them understand. VERY EXHAUSTING!

4. Love how you put the onus back on white folks- Get to work!

5. Recognize folks are working from a perception of priviledge and merit and need to recognize that racism is a systemic social/historical issue.

6. Recognize we all have prejudices

7. Going forward we need to discuss class issues and include all POC

**Loved the Cornell West impersonation :-))))

Yep, it's such a dead horse that Mr. Rupert Murdoch himself had to come down from Mt. Olympus to make an apology in an attempt at damage control. But thanks for playing.

Thanks…the vid is working now, too.

Thanks Jack. Good piece.

If it were up to Cenk, the only thing that would be called racist is folks in sheets, and we know damn well racism exists way outside of sheets.

As far as 'everyone else' is concerned in the conversation..

'everyone else' needs to stop trying for ' Honorary White' status and stomping on Black folk. I've told you…there's nothing a Latino can tell me about racism and dealing with racism considering the severe colorism that they cling to TODAY.

“there's nothing a Latino can tell me about racism and dealing with racism considering the severe colorism that they cling to TODAY.”

Who's “they”? Cause I'm Latino, and everyone in my family is black. I know some white-skinned Cubans and Venezuelan cats who swear they're white. But they are the minority where I come from. So, when you say “they” you seem to be leavign out just about every Latino I know and have ever met, who also happen to be black.

kinda off the karmi topic, smile. but thinking about what you said about wanting to be more conscious to go beyond reducing the conversation to a black white thing.

maybe we need a whole new voice to do this (keeping with your excellent point that white people need to carry a huge responsibility for developing their voice because it has largely been stunted by mental habits of stubborn and purposeful ignorance).

i thought that zadie smith's essayin nytmes book review comparing PBO's biographies as hopeful compared to tragedy of pygmalion. you have to read the whole thing, but what interests me is a few points in her analysis:

“This new president doesn't just speak FOR his people. He can SPEAK them.”

“The tale he tells is not the old tragedy of gaining a new voice, at the expense of a true one. The tale he tells is all about addition. His is the story of a genuinely many-voiced man. If it has a moral it is that each man must be true to his selves, plural.”

“But I haven't described Dream City. I'll try to. It is a place of many voices, where the unified singular self is an illusion. Naturally Obama was born there. So was I. . . In Dream City, everything is doubled, everything is various. You have no choices but to cross borders.”

“In his campaign, Obama was careful to always say we. He was noticably wary of I. By speaking so, he wasn't simply avoiding a singularity he didn'f feel, he was also drawing us in with him. He had the audacity to suggest that, even if you can't see it stamped on their faces, most people come from Dream City, too. Most of us have complicated back stories, messy histories, multiple narratives. It was a high-wire strategy, for Obama, this invocation of our collective human messiness.”

the whole essay is: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22334

this is a partial thought that I am reaching for, but to really have that conversation, do we (especially white folk) have to make an effort to live into taking the experiences of more and more people who we have “othered” inside us, until we can SPEAK them, until they are part of the array of genuine multiple selves inside us. To do that, I think we have to start with genuine relationships and take in with love, people who are different with us, and by loving them, have them become a part of us. To purposefully desegregate our lives by reading books, watching movies, purposefully choosing the neighborhood where we live to reflect diversity, to take on projects that bring a multiplicity of people together. etc.

What I say is very problematic and partial, however, i think there is something in what zadie smith talks about that points part of a way through the old tired barriers to talking across race, of which you are being singularly and wonderfully articulate in the vlog series.

KatH: LOL! :>) :>) Co-sign!

Ya think that:

Karmi FINALLY RECOGNIZED the FINALITY of the DEATH OF THAT HORSE – - – - the HORSE NAMED – - – and Barack Obama was a member of a racist group for 20 years” :>) :>)

Yaaaaaa! Unless IT RESURRECTS in another POST!! :>) :>)

Good post KatH!! :>) :>)

Baratunde: Creatin' “FAIR & BALANCED” STAFF:

Oregon may require minority interviews for football coaches

A bill scheduled to be introduced in the Oregon Legislature this week would require state universities to interview a minority candidate before it could hire a head football coach.

The Oregonian newspaper in Portland reported on its website that, if it passes, the bill would make Oregon the first state with such a law. It is patterned after the NFL's Rooney Rule, which helped transform the league's head coaching ranks after implementation in 2003. Nine of the 120 major-college football coaches are minorities. NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson said the association does not know of any state with such a law.

Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, drafted the measure at the behest of Sam Sachs, a minority rights activist and former college football player. “It seems to me it only makes sense,” Greenlick told the Oregonian. “because I don't think minority coaches have been given a fair shake in Oregon, certainly in football.”

The bill would not include penalties for schools that do not interview minorities.

Sachs, who played at Western Oregon and approached Greenlick about sponsoring the measure, said in a telephone interview he didn't want “to risk the possibility of this rule not being passed into law” by having a penalty attached. “So we compromised,” he said.

THERE IS MORE.

WATCHIN' . . . . . .

Baratunde: Creatin' “FAIR & BALANCED” STAFF:

Oregon may require minority interviews for football coaches

A bill scheduled to be introduced in the Oregon Legislature this week would require state universities to interview a minority candidate before it could hire a head football coach.

The Oregonian newspaper in Portland reported on its website that, if it passes, the bill would make Oregon the first state with such a law. It is patterned after the NFL's Rooney Rule, which helped transform the league's head coaching ranks after implementation in 2003. Nine of the 120 major-college football coaches are minorities. NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson said the association does not know of any state with such a law.

Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, drafted the measure at the behest of Sam Sachs, a minority rights activist and former college football player. “It seems to me it only makes sense,” Greenlick told the Oregonian. “because I don't think minority coaches have been given a fair shake in Oregon, certainly in football.”

The bill would not include penalties for schools that do not interview minorities.

Sachs, who played at Western Oregon and approached Greenlick about sponsoring the measure, said in a telephone interview he didn't want “to risk the possibility of this rule not being passed into law” by having a penalty attached. “So we compromised,” he said.

THERE IS MORE.

WATCHIN' . . . . . .

Baratunde: WOW! :>) Annnnnd, THANK YOU!! :>) :>)

FIRST: I've WAITED TO EXHALE!! :>) :>) THANKS!! WHEW!!! :>)

NOW – - -some thoughts:

1. I appreciated your “code switching” – - – - – CP TIME!! :>) :>)
It's a “cultural thang!” :>) :>) IMHO that was worthy of as much discussion as “Naw – - We STR8!” :>)
Annnnd, the MORE people talk to 1 another – - -terms like this can/will B exchanged. Or at least they will be recognized.

E.g., When I was working, there were days when I would tire of the ceaseless ” “Good mornings” that I hadta face. So one day, I STR8 said to my supervisor – - -”Whazzup” – - complete with the appropriate “head movement!”

After a little discussion as to its meaning, etc. – - she began to PRACTICE it WITH ME! :>) :>)

After that, she said it all the time – - – complete with “appropriate head movement!” You could have heard a pin drop when we exchanged greetings in the Superintendent's Cabinet meeting. But, nobody said a word. :>) :>) I saw them. :>) :>)

YOUR POINT: By THIS TIME – - we should B able to DISCUSS certain topics – - -like RACISM. YEP!! :>)

2. Institutional Support: U CALLED IT OUT!!

Here's what I noticed also:
a). On TV – both of you were SIMILARLY DRESSED.
b). Part 1: You were CASUALLY DRESSED.
c). Part 2. As U CALLED IT, HE was DRESSED; STUDIOED, etc. IFFF that were me, I would have dressed similar to U. BUT – noooo. NOT him. Hmmmm.
D). Part 3. You were CASUALLY DRESSED annnnnd, you UPPED the LEVEL of DISCOURSE [applause] by addressing HIS DRESS, etc.

Now, Ima STR8 watch 4 PART 4. :>) :>)

3. THANK YOU 4 addressing the concept of “QUESTIONABLE.” Did ya happen 2 notice HOW MANY TIMES I used that term- – carefully placing it B 4 calling something RACIST!?
Talk about FATIGUE!! WHEW!! ***shakin' my head***

FREE AT LAST! Thank you – Baratunde- 4 FREEING me – - -AT LAST!! :>) :>)

4. FATIGUE – GENERATIONAL:
“By this time we should B able to CALL OUT/Discuss RACISM.” YEP!!

When non-melanined & melanined people do racist acts – - -THEY KNOW!! They JUST don't want the CALL OUT. It's the “HEAD-IN-THE-SAND Phenomenon!”
Shhhhh! IFFF no one CALLS IT OUT- – THEN it isn't RACIST! WHAT????

5. NEGROPEDIA: LAWD HA'MERCY!! :>) ***shakin' my head*** :>) :>)
Good one!! :>) :>)

BUT, I said – - – -It has been written!! Di 'int we JUST have Black History Month? Di 'int erry TV station, product PR person, etc. make SURE that they gave a “CULLUD SHOUT OUT” for ALL 28 days??
THEY KNOW!! :>)

BUT – - – -I REALLY appreciate YOUR book. Sooooo, Ima ENCOURAGE YOU to “WRITE ON!” ***right fist in the air*** :>) :>)

6. DISARMING TENSION:
YOUR STRATEGY – - – -SOOOO ON POINT!!! Recognize RACISM!! Embrace IT!
NOW LET'S TALK!! :>) :>)

7. CLASSISM:

You have MOVED the debate/discussion. YES!! :>)
As U indicated – - – Let's go there.

Yesterday, we advanced that notion. I posted a statement that what we were discussing was BEYOND the black-white dichotomy/bifurcation. It was about CULTURAL DIFFERENCES.

Sooo, I APPRECIATED YOUR RAISING and EXPANDING the LEVEL of this DISCUSSION. :>)

Annnd, I'm NOT so sure of the COMFORT level of discussions about CLASS DISTINCTIONS. That can become vitriolic also. Hmmmm.

8. ONE OTHER THING: You truly disarmed some tension when you REDUCED the NUMBER of NON-MELANINED PEOPLE to asmaller group – - – i.e, “NOT ALL WHITE PEOPLE!”
That was just the strategy that PRESIDENT OBAMA used when he said that the objections that the Repugs were raising to the STIMULUS PLAN were over 1 – 2% of the funds.

People could THEN see – - – -Oh! Is THAT ALL? NEXT!! :>) :>)

DISARMED!! :>)

FINALLY, GOOD LUCK WITH Mr. I.R.S. :>) :>)

Thank U 4 this thread. :>) :>) It's HUGE – - – IMHO!! :>)