Telling Stories

"Obama-Gates"-Gate

Via CBS News:

I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact.

I know everyone is all bent out of shape about Obama's "acted stupidly" passage and the suggestion that race played a factor in Professor Gates' arrest.  I could excuse that on the basis that they're good friends.  What I can't excuse under any circumstance is that he said it after saying this:

"I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here," the president said. "I don't know all the facts."

and

"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that."

You must admit that he was due for a whopper of a mistake.  In fact, I can't recall him saying something this dumb or this stupid ever.  First, he acknowledges that he doesn't know all the facts and that he doesn't have a first-hand account of what happened.  And then he goes on to say that police procedure was stupid and to make a comment that suggests that the police officer's actions were somehow racially motivated.

I have stayed away from this issue for the same reason Obama should have stayed away from it: I don't know what happened.  Second, the guy was arrested for disorderly conduct, not for breaking and entering.  In other words, there was no dispute in the cops' mind that Professor Gates was in his house.

How did Professor Gates act?

Was he warned?

Was he behaving like a jerk?

Was he menacing and threatening the police officer?

I don't know.  But since I am an attorney, I know that many times the facts are not what they appear to be at the beginning of a case and that there's a world of difference between allegations and what you can prove objectively.  And Obama should know that and should have just stayed away from it all.

I'm disappointed he didn't have enough sense to do so.

UPDATE- 3:26 P.M. After reading the Police reports in The Smoking Gun, it looks even worse.  The police report filed by Sgt. Crowley - the alleged racist cop - states that there were "several" officers and passers-by who witnessed the incident.  And there's a separate report filed by Officer Carlos Figueroa pretty much confirming that Gates was flipping out and that Sgt. Gates was trying to calm him down and defuse the situation.

Regardless of whether Gates feels aggrieved or not, it doesn't look good for him.

Post Racial? Not so Fast

To those of you naive enough to believe that Obama's election had moved us past racial discrimination, here's a little reminder that we've still got a long way to go:

After spending eleven days in a federal custody following their arrests for allegedly a torching a predominately black church Nov. 5, three Springfield men were released Monday on $100,000 bail each.

That's Springfield, Massachusetts.  I know that Springfield is kind of dumpy, but it's still one of the bluest of the blue States.  If this can happen here, it can still happen anywhere.

The Pentecostal church was burned down a few hours after Barack H. Obama was elected as the nation's first black president.

Quick aside: notice how, all of a sudden it's OK to use Obama's middle initial and middle name?

In documents unsealed after the trio's arrest, an FBI agent said two of the defendants expressed racial motives for setting fire to the 18,000 square-foot building. . .

The three men face a 10-year minimum mandatory prison sentence if convicted on civil rights arson charge.

You can cure racist.  But in the case of this threesome, you can't cure stupid.

Nearly Forgot About This: WTF Were They Thinking?

This doesn't suprise me.  This does.

LA JARA, Colo. — The photograph, of four popular high school students standing side by side, each clutching a gun in one hand and giving a stiff-armed Nazi salute with the other, terrified many people in La Jara and the surrounding poor farming communities of the San Luis Valley. Its discovery further intensified a bitter racial divide between supporters of a longtime coach, who is black, and a largely white group of students and their parents.

Emphasis added.  "Largely white?"  As in "not all of them were white?"

The boys, all members of the varsity football squad, were upset by what they felt was a lack of playing time and by what they called offensive language in hip-hop songs that Mr. Hunt, known for his intensity, played before games, said Cas Garcia, a lawyer representing the family of Trey Jackson.

Lack of playing time?  You start going all neo-Nazi because of lack of playing time?

This year, the dispute turned ugly when, according to Mr. Hunt’s son, Colby, 17, the players and their friends, who are white and Hispanic, began to insult Colby and other students who support the coach.

Emphasis added.  What kind of a dumb-ass, lame-brain, ignorant, retarded, Latino jock ASSHOLE or his parent would be OK with this shit?  Besides the whole racist thing being poisonous and ignorant enough, how do these morons think this is a proper way of dealing with this issue?

That's what we Latinos need: we're being trampled on by xenophobes, so lets alienate another group, shall we?

Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, and did I say DUMB???!!!

Tags: Race and Ethnicity

P.C. Gone Bezerk!!!

I would think there are way too many things going on in the world to be worried about this

New York City symbolically banned use of the word n****r on Wednesday, the latest step in a campaign that hopes to expunge the most vile of racial slurs from hip hop music and television.

The City Council unanimously declared a moratorium that carries no penalty but aims to stop youth from casually using the word, considered by most Americans to be the most offensive in the English language.

Without even going into all sorts of First Amendment issues, what kind of idiocy is this?  Spending time and taxpayer's dollars debating and approving an unenforceable "moratorium" on a word?  Are these people for real?  See, these are the kind of guys who give liberals a bad name.  This is idiotic.  But it's not just my opinion:

"What, is there a fine? Am I going to get a ticket?" [comedian Chris] Rock mocked in a Reuters interview when asked about the City Council move. "Do judges say, '10 years, n****r!"'

Rock said politicians were trying to divert attention from real problems: "Enough real bad things happen in this city to worry about how I am going to use the word."

Tags: Race and Ethnicity, Politics, Odd News

The Museum of "It"

I don't consider myself a "politically correct" person.  I'm more of a "Golden Rule" kind of guy.  A lot of the stuff people are asked to refrain from doing under the P.C. rubric are things that I just don't do because I wouldn't want to be treated that way.

I also believe that, sometimes, political correctness can lead to pretty bizarre results.  Look at this, for example:

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- The Museum of the Confederacy will likely drop "Confederacy" from its name when it relocates, because of the word's negative perceptions.

"The Confederacy, and by association the museum, now symbolize racism," said a group of historians, preservationists and grant writers who studied the museum's health.

The museum's "health"?  What the hell is that?  But anyhow . . .

"One of our challenges is a gap between the public's perception of who we are and the role we play, and the reality of who we are and the role we play," said Waite Rawls, the museum's president and CEO. "The repositioning we have done over the past 30 years is to be more of a modern education institution and less of a memorial ... to the Confederacy."

Trying to erase everything about the Confederacy off the face of the U.S. is a truly bad idea.  First, the Confederacy and the Civil War are key elements of American history.  This nation wouldn't be what it is but for that war and it's outcome.  Instead of one nation, there might have been two.  Or the Confederacy might have won the war.  We will never know how different the world would have turned out in either case.

Second, this is a case of applying 21st Century sensitivities to 19th Century morality and "conventional wisdom."  The museum should be kept for purely historical reasons.  Racists and bigots don't need the museum's name to believe in what they believe in.

And what are they going to call it?  The Museum of "It"?  The Museum of the Southern States?

It is what it is.  It's like your grandpa the murderer.  Yes, he's in prison serving a life sentence because he killed someone.  And he's your grandpa.  And there's not a damned thing you can do about it.

The best you can hope for is for a lesson, somewhere, that you can put to good use.

Tags: Race and Ethnicity, Politics, Odd News

". . . for the content of their character"

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Just in case you're Rip Van Winkle or have spent your life in utter ignorance, that quote is from Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.  Which is sort of on point when you look at this interesting news item:

Freshman Rep. Stephen I. Cohen, D-Tenn., is not joining the Congressional Black Caucus after several current and former members made it clear that a white lawmaker was not welcome.

"I think they're real happy I'm not going to join," said Cohen, who succeeded Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., in a majority-black Memphis district. "It's their caucus and they do things their way. You don't force your way in. You need to be invited."

Cohen said he became convinced that joining the caucus would be "a social faux pas" after seeing news reports that former Rep. William Lacy Clay Sr., D-Mo., a co-founder of the caucus, had circulated a memo telling members it was "critical" that the group remain "exclusively African- American."

Other members, including the new chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., and Clay's son, Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., agreed.

"Mr. Cohen asked for admission, and he got his answer. ... It's time to move on," the younger Clay said. "It's an unwritten rule. It's understood. It's clear."

The bylaws of the caucus do not make race a prerequisite for membership, a House aide said, but no non-black member has ever joined.

Emphasis added.  Well, the bylaws couldn't openly restrict membership to blacks because that would be racist and discriminatory.  But what I find both intriguing and saddening is this: the white congressman was elected in a majority black district.  He has the presence of mind to acknowledge that the interests of his constituents are aligned with the CBC's interests.  He asks to join the group to further his constituents interests and he's rejected because he's not black.

Some people may think this is just a political ploy on the freshman congressman's part.  But lets be serious.  It's Tennessee.  You don't need to do this to be labeled a progressive in Tennessee.

And, of course, it begs the question of why this isn't called racist and discriminatory.  There are some who believe that only whites can be racist because they have the power while blacks and other minorities do not.  I think that's bull****.  You are a racist if you discriminate against others solely on the basis of their race.  Whether the discriminatory act has a lot, a little, or no impact on the other person's life doesn't change the nature of your act.

This is racist.  Plain and simple.

Tags: Race and Ethnicity, Politics, Multicultural Issues