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Sloan Roach, the same official who defended the assignment as merely  “bad” questions and had quite a bit to say about the situation when the story made national headlines last Friday, has been given a new song to sing by the school district:

The principal will move forward immediately to fill the vacancy created by this resignation, Roach said in a statement. As this is a personnel matter, the district will not elaborate further.

A teacher created the racially insensitive questions that were used in four classrooms. After an unexpected uproar from parents and activists in the community, the district decided to finally do their job and conduct an investigation that concluded Thursday.

The racist nature of the questions were shocking to some, because 88 percent of students at Beaver Ridge are either Black or Hispanic. The school also has a multicultural staff that reflects their student body, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

We are working to ensure that this does not happen again, said Beaver Ridge Principal Jose DeJesus on the school’s website.

Even though public school textbooks go through extensive review, it seems as if the more mundane task of checking behind teachers for “cultural sensitivity” often gets lost in the shuffle of the day.

Calvine Rollins, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, says that teachers are under a lot of pressure and it’s easy for them to miss things:

Teachers are under the gun to do a whole lot. Sometimes, assignments get pushed out without a glance.

The AJC reports that this is not the first time that racially tinged questions have made their way into Georgia’s curriculum.

Last school year, a third-grade teacher at Chesney Elementary in Gwinnett assigned a reading packet that contained the story “What Is an Illegal Alien?” It had not been reviewed first.

In September, Cobb County students were asked to write about dress codes and read a fictional two-page letter written by a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian woman who spoke approvingly of her fiance’s multiple wives and the law of Sharia.”

Neither of these assignments had undergone review.

While Rollins hypothesizes that teachers are “under the gun,” that does not suffice as an explanation for the blatant disregard shown by four so-called “educators” in distributing insensitive racial information to 8-year-olds devoid of any context or frame of reference.

How callous is it to throw out numbers without giving voice to the the enormity of the subjugation that African slaves faced? How absolutely heinous is it to have children count beatings in their head, diminishing African people to mere human chattel in 2012?

If we’re going to talk about math, let’s talk about all the wealth that was stolen from future generations of the African-American community during slavery, where every back-breaking second, minute, and hour of work translated into profits for white America while our families were beaten, murdered, raped, and torn apart.

If African Americans were allowed to accumulate wealth during slavery, would we still face the highest levels of poverty and unemployment in the country? Why aren’t our future leaders examining that mathematical equation?

While it is a good thing that the teacher resigned, it is unfortunate that he or she was allowed to do so anonymously, with their dignity intact.

Clearly, they were not concerned with the dignity of the students entrusted to their care.

*******************************************

The office staff at Beaver Ridge Elementary were not authorized to answer any questions concerning this matter when contacted by NewsOne, nor were they able to confirm the fate of the three other teachers that used the questions. NewsOne also left a message for Spokesperson Sloan Roach, who had not returned our call by press time.

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Lawyer Patrick Boyd of the Boyd Law Group said that Kenchi faced “consistent insults and ridicule from a hostile supervisor.” The abuse carried on until Kenchi intercepted an e-mail from his boss describing him as a “N*gger.”

The e-mail stated:

Kenchi is seeking “a meaningful apology from Hanes” and unspecified compensation from the company “in excess of $1 million.

Attorney Boyd expressed his feelings regarding the undergarment company:

A company this large, dealing with a diverse community, is not taking responsibility. [The e-mailer] was a designer for the Michael Jordan line of clothing for many years! It goes to show you that even companies with prominent African-American spokespeople can have racist elements at a high level.

Since then, Hanes has issued an apology:

Hanesbrands Inc. is proud of its diverse worldwide workforce and does not tolerate discriminatory behavior. After allegations emerged of improper conduct in the termination of Mr. Kenchi, Hanesbrands conducted a thorough investigation and found evidence of an offensive attitude and use of language that is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. We sincerely regret that the situation arose and are troubled that Mr. Kenchi’s termination process may have been tainted by unacceptable attitudes. In lieu of these findings, Hanes brands took decisive disciplinary steps, including the termination of a supervisor, and made Mr. Kenchi an unconditional offer of employment to return to the company.

Kenchi, who is African American and Muslim, started at Hanes in April of 2007 and was terminated on August 22, 2008. Is it too late for the apologies to overpower the company’s racist practices? Should their biggest endorser, Jordan, cut loose from Hanes?

Read the rest at the Village Voice.

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In the video, a group of females, some scantily clothed and others naked, dance for gawkers as they are being egged on by police. The tourists are seen throwing scraps of bananas and biscuits at the women. The video has shed a harsh spotlight on the island’s administration who have claimed that the film was shot 10 years ago, but these claims are false. The “human zoo” display was apparently caught on film (see below) last month for the world to see, and now human rights campaigners and international politicians are outraged.

The tourists’ and police’s antics were first uncovered in 2010, when tourists utilized an illegal route, Trunk Road, to enter the Jarawa reserve.  Reportedly, the tour companies and cab drivers, usually outfitted with wealthy tourists, would coerce local police with bribes of upwards of $200 just to allow them to travel the illegal road.

Under Indian laws designed to protect ancient tribal groups susceptible to outside influence and disease, photographing or coming into contact with the Jarawa and some of the Andaman aborigines is banned.

Local Andaman organization SEARCH and Survival International, a lobby movement for tribal peoples, launched the tourist boycott of the illegal Trunk Road in June.  The groups have also distributed pamphlets to tourists arriving at the islands’ airport, warning of the dangers of using the closed road. Up until now, their efforts had fallen on deaf ears, but the video has put the human safari issue dead center.

Tribal Affairs Minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo promised to take action over the incident on Wednesday, calling it “obnoxious and disgusting.”  He told the Sakal Times newspaper:

It is disgraceful if something like this is happening,” Deo said. “It cannot be pardoned. It deserves exemplary punishment.

It is undoubtedly deplorable that something this inhumane could occur in this day and age.  What are your thoughts?

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The former 2 Live Crew frontman writes that he’s dismayed at today’s candidates from the party of Abraham Lincoln, a party that he says once “stood up for African-Americans.”

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Campbell is no stranger to politics.

Last year, he launched an unsuccessful bid for the mayoral seat in Miami-Dade County on a platform that included advocating the rebuilding of some of the city’s housing projects and a tax on strippers. And two decades prior to that, he was at the center of a political firestorm when South Florida authorities tried to ban his album As Nasty As They Wanna Be on state obscenity charges.

In his most recent column, Campbell seems bent on ruffling a few feathers with some blunt critiques of Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. He lays into Romney like this:

Long before he was the presumed frontrunner for the White House and Massachusetts’ governor, Mitt Romney was actively spreading his Mormon faith. At the time, church leaders preached that dark skin was a curse from God. Between 1966 and 1968, Romney was a missionary in France. He believed and taught that God was so displeased with “spirit children” who remained neutral in the war against Lucifer that he turned their skin black.

Then Campbell debunks Gingrich’s claim the Barack Obama is “the finest food stamp president” in history and Santorum’s recent comments about African-Americans and the welfare system.

It might come as a shock to Newt and Rick, but 39 percent of welfare recipients are white and 17 percent are Hispanic. Stop accepting the stereotype that poor black folks are always looking for a government handout, you mindless wonders.

And Campbell goes in on Paul too, arguing that Paul’s take on what the federal government should have done to end slavery totally ignores the practice of institutional racism. Campbell concludes:

If he gets elected, I’m moving my family to the Bahamas.

Campbell’s perspective isn’t exactly the most nuanced but it doesn’t mean he’s wrong. What do you think of his take on these GOP candidates?

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First, it was Rick Santorum who said he didn’t want to help blacks with welfare. Now it’s Newt Gingrich‘s turn to alienate African Americans, TheGrio reports.

Slate journalist Dave Weigel tweeted that Gingrich told an audience in New Hampshire that he plans to attend the upcoming NAACP National Convention to lecture blacks on the welfare. Check out Dave’s tweet below.

It is blatantly clear that Republicans are trying to recruit the worst possible elements of the GOP voting bloc. And it appears that the racially charged rhetoric of GOP candidates is bound to get worse. Come April or May, welfare comparisons to black people may seem tame.

Read more about Newt’s ignorance here in The Grio.

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A noose displayed before a black American is considered extremely offensive because the rope was used to lynch more than 3,000 black people during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ken White, spokesman for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, would not comment Thursday “on ongoing legal matters.” Panetta was traveling abroad Thursday and was not immediately available for comment. A Pentagon spokesman referred questions to the agency’s legislative liaison, who also did not comment.

Toomer, 45, was fired in September. Before that, her lawsuit states, she had compiled a record of commendations and awards over more than 20 years with the government, including six given last year.

In the lawsuit, Toomer traced her troubles to her complaints about colleague Mathew Estevez, who she said had stood behind her with a pair of scissors, threatened to cut her wig and said he wondered whether the hair would grow back. Toomer said she complained to her supervisor, Diane Stiger, who did nothing.

Toomer followed with a formal discrimination complaint but said in her suit no action was taken. Instead, the lawsuit states, Stiger bound the stuffed ape in rope and hung it near her office where Toomer could see it. The stuffed animal hung there for two weeks and was taken down only after Toomer and another black worker pointed it out to security officers.

“For black people, the lynch rope symbolizes the epitome of victimization of the Jim Crow era,” Temple said Thursday.

The lawsuit states that Toomer asked Stiger to remove the “monkey” but Stiger refused, saying the animal was an ape, not a monkey. She then said to Toomer, “Do you think of yourself as a monkey?” Toomer alleged in the lawsuit.

Toomer filed suit after several separate complaints to supervisors, human resources personnel, the Equal Employment Office, her agency’s director, police and one of her senators.

“I am urging your intervention,” Toomer wrote to geospatial intelligence director Letitia Long, the lawsuit states. “Perhaps you don’t appreciate what it is like for a black person to see an ape lynched/hung from a noose for a two-week period and your white peers laughing about it.”

Temple said Toomer did not hear back from Long.

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Teens and twentysomethings say in an Associated Press-MTV poll that people feel freer to use hurtful language when texting on their cellphones or posting to sites like Facebook than they would face to face. Half the young people regularly see discriminatory slang – including racial taunts and words like “slut,” “fag” and “retard” – and the majority say they aren’t very offended by it.

Those surveyed are twice as likely to say biased slurs are used to be funny as they are to think that the user is expressing hateful feelings toward a group of people. Another popular reason: to sound cool.

“They might be really serious, but you take it as a joke,” said Kervin Browner II, 20, a junior at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. He’s black but says the ugly words he sees are generally aimed at women, not minorities. And although Browner doesn’t like it, he doesn’t protest when his friends use those words on Twitter. “That’s just how it is,” he said. “People in their own minds, they think it’s cool.”

When the question is asked broadly, half of young people say using discriminatory words is wrong. But 54 percent think it’s OK to use them within their own circle of friends, because “I know we don’t mean it.” And they don’t worry much about whether the things they tap into their cellphones and laptops could reach a wider audience and get them into trouble.

Those who use slurs are probably offending more people than they realize, even within their own age range. The poll of 14- to 24-year-olds shows a significant minority are upset by some pejoratives they encounter online, especially when they identify with the group being targeted.

“It’s so derogatory to women and demeaning, it just makes you feel gross,” Lori Pletka, 22, says about “slut” and more vulgar words aimed at women. The Southeast Missouri State University senior said she regularly sees other offensive terms, too – for black people, Hispanics and gays.

But even the most inflammatory racist slur in the AP-MTV poll – the “N-word” – didn’t rouse a majority of young people. Only 44 percent said they’d be very or extremely offended if they saw someone using it online or in a text message. Thirty-five percent said it wouldn’t bother them much, including fully 26 percent who wouldn’t be offended at all.

Among African-American youth, however, 60 percent said they would be offended by seeing the N-word used against someone.

Four in 10 young people overall said they encounter that word being used against other people, with half of those seeing it often.

Other derogatory expressions are more common and accepted. Majorities see “slut” and “fag” used against others, and only about a third consider them seriously offensive.

But 41 percent of women deem “slut” deeply offensive (jumping to 65 percent if it’s used against them specifically), compared with only 28 percent of men. And 39 percent of those who are gay or know someone who is gay are seriously offended by the use of “fag,” compared with 23 percent of all others.

Demeaning something with “that’s so gay” is so common that two-thirds of young people see it used, and the majority aren’t offended at all, despite a public-service ad campaign that tried to stamp out the anti-gay slang.

A similar effort by the Special Olympics and others to persuade kids not to use “retard” hasn’t hit home with half of those surveyed, who don’t find the word even moderately bothersome. Twenty-seven percent are seriously offended, however.

Some teens just text the way they talk. Calling each other “gay” and “retarded” is routine in high school, says Robert Leader, 17, a senior in Voorhees, N.J. So teens text it, too.

But constantly seeing ugly words on their electronic screens may have a coarsening effect. “It’s caused people to loosen their boundaries on what’s not acceptable,” Leader said.

What group gets picked on the most? Those who are overweight. And slurs against the overweight are more likely to be considered intentionally hurtful than slights against others; 47 percent say these comments are meant to sting.

Muslims and gays also are seen as targets of mean-spiritedness.

In contrast, only a third say discriminatory words about blacks are most often intended as hurtful, while two-thirds think they are mostly jokes. And 75 percent think slurs against women are generally meant to be funny.

That blase attitude could lead them in trouble.

Four out of 10 young people have given little or no thought to the ease with which their electronic messages could be passed to people they didn’t expect to see them; less than a quarter have thought about it a lot. Two-thirds haven’t considered that what they type could get them in trouble with their parents or their school. But it happens.

A 13-year-old Concord, N.H., girl was suspended from school for posting on Facebook that she wished Osama bin Laden had killed her math teacher. The University of Texas Longhorns dismissed a sophomore football player for his racial slam against Barack Obama on Facebook after the 2008 presidential election. And a Harvard law student’s email to friends, suggesting that blacks might be intellectually inferior, was forwarded across the Internet, prompting the law school dean to publicly denounce it.

“People have that false sense of security that they can say whatever they want online,” said Pletka of Cape Girardeau, Mo. “Anything that you put into print can be used.”

The AP-MTV poll was conducted Aug. 18-31 and involved online interviews with 1,355 people ages 14-24 nationwide. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

The poll is part of an MTV campaign, “A Thin Line,” aiming to stop the spread of digital abuse.

The survey was conducted by Knowledge Networks, which used traditional telephone and mail sampling methods to randomly recruit respondents. People selected who had no Internet access were given it for free.

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The email instructs Black male students to identify themselves as students, and cooperate with the police when they are stopped.

Here is an excerpt of the letter:

As you may be aware, a series of robberies have occurred around campus over the last few weeks particularly on the south and east ends of campus. Although, most of these crimes have not been committed by University of Akron students, the primary suspects have been African American Males between the ages of 18-23.

In the event that you are stopped by the police, here are a few tips to follow:

Cooperate fully with questions

Identify yourself as a UA student and please carry identification with you at all times

Even if you are angered, refrain from using profanity as you could be charged with disorderly conduct

Do not run from the police as you could be charged with a crime

Read more at BlackCollegeStudents

Mayhem! 47 Shot In NYC Holiday Weekend Of Violence

Things have mostly gotten back to normal in this community of about 3,000 people, which became the site of a massive civil rights protest that attracted thousands in September 2007, nine months after six black students who became known as the “Jena Six” were charged with attempted murder after a white classmate was severely beaten.

It was on Aug. 30, 2006, that a black student asked if he could sit under a tree on campus or if it was for white students only. The next morning there were three nooses hanging in the tree. The tension culminated on Dec. 4, when Justin Barker was beaten. Six of his black classmates were arrested. Three days later, five of them were charged with attempted murder.

The town has moved on from the perception of racial tension that once defined it. So, too, have the Jena Six.

Reed Walters, the LaSalle Parish District Attorney since 1991, said he believes the incident drew the town closer together, including the march. Thousands of chanting demonstrators filled the streets that September day, led by figures such as the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. At the time, the town was left to fend off accusations of racism in the justice system – no one was charged for hanging the nooses, and protesters derided the attempted murder charges as excessive. The charges were later reduced.

“The world had been told that Jena was such an evil place,” Walters said. “I think during that march people saw that was not true.”

Members of the Jena Six are determined to move away – and learn – from their controversial pasts. They say they want to be something one day: A sports agent, a lawyer, a military man. Those interviewed said they don’t run into problems when they return to Jena to visit family.

“I’ve tried to wash those memories out of the back of my head,” said Jessie Ray Beard, who was 14 when he was arrested in the beating. “I have other things to concentrate on.”

Beard’s attorney’s arranged for him to stay with another attorney’s family in New York about three and a half years ago and attend the Canterbury School, a private boarding school in Connecticut.

“That first year was very, very hard for him,” said Alan Howard, the attorney with whom Beard lives.

“It took a tremendous effort on his part to make it.”

Beard has since gone on to Hofstra, where he earned an academic scholarship, is pursuing legal studies and business, and plays on the lacrosse team. He plans to go to grad school on the west coast and eventually work as a sports agent.

Robert Bailey Jr., who graduated from high school in Georgia, plays wide receiver at Grambling and is a member of the ROTC. After he graduates in 2013, he hopes to pursue a military career.

“Because of what happened, I grew up. I learned things too, like doing things the right way,” Bailey said.

Mychal Bell, who was 16 at the time, was the only defendant to go to trial. He was convicted, but that decision was set aside. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a second-degree battery charge and received an 18-month sentence. The other five accepted a plea deal that gave them seven days probation, a $500 fine and court costs.

Bell, a highly recruited football player before the beating, is a cornerback on Southern University’s team. His attorney said it was best if he wasn’t interviewed.

“Every time there’s something in the press about him, he gets a lot of hate mail,” said Bell’s attorney, Louis Scott.

Theo Shaw, 21, is now studying political science and history at Louisiana University-Monroe and plans to go to law school. He has done several internships in the field, he said, including one with the Innocence Project, a national nonprofit that works to free wrongfully convicted prisoners. His time in jail sparked his interest in law – he said he spent a lot of time reading up on the subject so he could file court papers.

“I do think it was a situation that helped me to develop character and be a better person,” Shaw said. “But beyond that, I don’t think of it much anymore.”

Bryant Purvis is enrolled in Southeastern Louisiana. Carwin Jones did not return calls left with his father for comment.

The victim, Justin Barker, is the only one who still lives in Jena. Now 22, he’s an inconspicuous young man: thin, with soft brown hair and large eyes, a Southerner raised to say “Yes, ma’am” and “Yes, sir” and stay quiet around strangers. So he’s always surprised when someone asks if he’s “that” Justin Barker, he told The Associated Press in his first media interview since the beating five years ago.

“That’s the only time that whole thing comes up,” Barker said, sitting in the dining area of his tidy new trailer. These days he works on an oil rig in Texas – seven days on, seven off – and helps his father cut timber when he’s home. He recently divorced the woman who was his girlfriend when he was beaten.

The defendants initially claimed Barker had made a racial slur, prompting the attack. But they admitted that was untrue as part of the plea deal. As for Barker, all he remembers is this: He walked out of the gym and turned left to avoid a crowd when something hit him.

“I don’t know why they attacked me,” he said. “No one ever told me, and I don’t have a clue until this day.”

He woke up in the emergency room, his right eye swollen shut and his jaw fractured. Both took months to heal, and he still deals with TMJ – a popping in the joint where the jaw connects to the skull. He sued the defendants and was awarded $22,000 for medical bills and $7,000 in damages. Now he says he’s put it all behind him.

“I’m just trying to get on with my life,” Barker said. “I have put all that behind me.”

Barker is one of the few young people that stay in town, as most leave to find jobs, said Mayor Murphy McMillin. These days, town officials are focused on ensuring there is a high quality of life in Jena. For the mayor, the term “Jena Six” has taken on new meaning.

“There is a new Jena Six – the mayor and the five city councilmen,” McMillin said.

The town’s seven black churches make a point of getting together and interacting with folks who attend white churches, “and we have it on a regular basis,” said the Rev. Jimmy Young, 70, pastor of L&A Baptist Church. Young is black.

Walters, the district attorney, won’t talk about the case. But he does have one regret.

“I wish I had been able to explain things better,” he said. “I don’t think I did a very good job of that.”

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They’ve replaced the description with “Ethnic Earrings,” and maintain that it was a mistake due to an improper translation.

TheRoot.com reports:

We apologise for the inconvenience. It is a matter of really bad translation from Italian into English,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Franca Sozzani, said in a statement. “The Italian word, which defines those kind of earrings, should instead be translated into ‘ethnical style earrings.’ Again, we are sorry about this mistake which we have just amended in the website.”

Read more at TheRoot.com

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Deborah Madden, an FBI spokeswoman in Mississippi, said Wednesday that the bureau is investigating the June 26 death of James Craig Anderson. Madden said the agency wants to “determine whether federal civil rights crimes occurred.”

Anderson’s death flamed anger across the country when a surveillance video was made public of him being run over near a hotel in Jackson. Mississippi was the scene of some of the most shocking violence of the civil rights era.

Deryl Dedmon, who authorities say was driving the green 1998 Ford F-250, is charged with murder. John Aaron Rice is charged with simple assault for allegedly assaulting Anderson before he was killed.

Mississippi authorities say Dedmon and Rice, both 18 at the time, and a group of other teenagers were out looking for a black person to assault when they found Rice just before dawn near a Jackson hotel.

Their attorneys deny they were involved in a racially motivated attack.

Rice had also been charged with murder, but a judge reduced the charge after police testified that he had left the scene in another vehicle before Anderson was run over. Prosecutors said they will still urge a state grand jury to indict both teens for murder.

Hinds County District Attorney Robert Schuler Smith did not respond to messages Wednesday seeking comment. Jackson Police Detective Eric Smith, who investigated the case, refused comment Wednesday.

The hotel’s security camera captured video of Anderson being run over. The surveillance video, obtained by The Associated Press and other media, shows a white Jeep in which Rice was allegedly a passenger leaving a hotel parking lot at 5:05 a.m.

Less than 20 seconds later, a Ford truck backs up and then lunges forward. Anderson’s shirt is illuminated in the headlights before he disappears under the vehicle next to the curb. The hotel provided Jackson police with the video, which prosecutors say has been vital in the investigation.

Rice’s attorney, Samuel Martin, suggested during a hearing last month that the teens were on a beer run after a night of partying, not looking for a black man to assault, as prosecutors allege.

Martin suggested during a line of questioning with a police detective that Rice had no knowledge of any plan to indiscriminately attack a black man.

Smith testified during a bond hearing in July that Dedmon had been robbed by a black man in the weeks before Anderson’s death and was looking for “some sort of revenge” when he asked people at a party in Rankin County to go to Jackson in search of someone “to mess with.”

Seven people headed to Jackson in two cars, with Dedmon and Rice in separate vehicles.

The district attorney has said racial slurs were used during the attack and that Dedmon later bragged that he “just ran that n—– over.”

The killing has evoked memories of the state’s racially violent past, including the beating, jailing and killing of civil rights activists in the 1960s.

Dedmon was pulled over on Interstate 20 in Rankin County later that morning. Rice was arrested a few days later. Authorities have not ruled out that others at the scene could be charged.

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“The name is insulting to our African-American heritage and the over-saturation of these types of establishments within the economically disadvantaged communities is simply a continuation of the exploitation of the poor,” the Rev. Kyev Tatum, president of the SCLC, said in a press release.

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The business, which boasts that it sells “Krispy Krunchy Chicken, cheap cigs, and lotto tickets, [sic],” is currently seeking a liquor license.

The East Forth Worth Business Association is calling for the community to reject their application, saying it’s not only insensitive, it’s bad for business.

“We need employers to come in here. And employers are not going look to come into East Forth Worth if its ‘Da Hood’,” said the President of the East Forth Worth Business Association.

Read more at YourBlackWorld.com

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“I think it was over there,” said Howe, an 81-year-old lifelong Owensboro resident and retired county coroner. “I used to pass it on the way to school. That’s what I was told. It was over there somewhere.”

The grave is anonymous and unmarked, like other places associated with Rainey Bethea’s hanging on Aug. 14, 1936. As the 75th anniversary of the execution approaches, it is something some in Owensboro would like history to remember differently.

Bethea, a farmhand and sometime criminal, went to the gallows near the banks of the Ohio River before a throng of people estimated at as many as 20,000 strong. The execution drew national media coverage focused on a black man being executed by a white, female sheriff with the help of a professional hangman.

“It was not a carnival in the end,” insisted 85-year-old James Thompson, the son of then-sheriff Florence Thompson.

Still, Kentucky lawmakers cited the negative publicity surrounding Bethea’s hanging in ending public executions in the state in 1938. Kentucky was the last state to do so. Later, Gov. Albert B. “Happy” Chandler expressed regret at having approved the repeal, claiming, “Our streets are no longer safe.”

___

By the time Bethea went to the gallows, most states had long since closed executions to the public and started using the electric chair because hangings were becoming “ghoulish public events” said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor who studies the death penalty.

“There was a feeling that with the pain and botched hangings … it was inviting the worst in human behavior,” Denno said.

That’s certainly the way Bethea’s death was portrayed nationally.

Headlines from around the country screamed news. From Chicago — “Death Makes a Holiday: 20,000 Revel Over Hanging.” From Evansville, Indiana — “Ghostly Carnival Precedes Hanging.” From Louisville — “‘Did You Ever See a Hanging?’ ‘I Did,’ Everyone in this Kentucky Throng can now Boast.” Newspapers described vendors selling hot dogs, popcorn and drinks.

“Every bar was packed to the doors. Down the main street tipsy merrymakers rollicked all night. ‘Hanging parties’ were held in many a home,” Time magazine reported in an Aug. 24, 1936, article.

Sheriff Thompson consulted with a priest before deciding to go through with the hanging, the magazine said: “Nevertheless, soft-hearted Sheriff Thompson sighed: ‘I suppose I will spend the rest of my life forgetting — or trying to forget’.”

“It was quite a burden on her,” her son said.

Bethea, convicted of rape, was 26 or 27 at the time (records listed only his year of birth, 1909), and he appears young and thin, wearing a cross on a chain around his neck, in a photo of his last meal.

Pictures taken the morning of the hanging show a large crowd — men and women, some holding children — standing in downtown Owensboro, some on the rooftops of brick buildings. They watched as the execution team put a black hood over Bethea’s head. Then they saw Bethea fall through the trap door. Doctors pronounced him dead about 10 minutes later.

Perry Ryan, an assistant attorney general in Kentucky who wrote a 1992 book about Bethea’s hanging, “The Last Public Execution in America,” said witnesses didn’t recall a rowdy atmosphere as Bethea died.

“I think it was an event they found to be kind of scary,” Ryan said. “They just stood there.”

The crime for which Bethea was tried had played as big news in Owensboro: A wealthy, white, 70-year-old widow, Elza Edwards, was raped and strangled in her bed. After less than five minutes of deliberation, a jury convicted Bethea of rape.

Under the law at the time, the maximum penalty for a rape conviction was hanging in the county where the offense occurred. Public hangings had a long history in many states and sometimes created a spectacle. Just a year before, in Smithland, Kentucky, a convicted rapist scolded the crowd and argued with his accuser before telling the sheriff, “Do a good job with that knot.”

No such theatrics occurred at Bethea’s hanging, handled by an execution team headed by professional hangman Phil Hanna of Epworth, Illinois. A former Louisville police officer pulled the trip lever. Sheriff Thompson, who declined that task, watched from a car near the scaffold.

Had Bethea been convicted of Edwards’ murder — prosecutors never pursued that charge — the sentence would have been a private execution in the electric chair at the state penitentiary. And since his death, executions have been done in private, following a precedent set by New York when it switched to the electric chair in 1898.

The recent video recording of Andrew Grant DeYoung’s execution in Georgia for the 1993 murders of his parents and sister has raised some concerns about the continued privacy of executions. The video came at the request of defense attorneys who want to document the effects of the sedative pentobarbital, part of the lethal injection method. Denno, the Fordham professor, said the video provides “a big step toward transparency” in capital punishment, but is not a harbinger of a return to public executions.

“Occasionally, you hear ‘Why don’t we televise them?’ That never really goes too far,” said Richard Dieter, head of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. “And, it probably won’t.”

___

Bethea made a final request in a note to his sister, Ora Fladger, in Nichols, South Carolina: to take possession of his remains and bury them with other family members.

“So good by and paray that we will meet agin,” Bethea wrote.

His remains were not sent east, and there is no record of why. Fladger died in 1980, and letters sent by The Associated Press to other family members drew no response.

Bethea’s body went to a pauper’s grave in Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery in Owensboro, according to Howe, the retired coroner, who at age 6 was deemed too young by his parents to watch the hanging.

“No one knows where he’s buried,” said Sheila Heflin, information services manager at the Daviess County Public Library, which has an archive of materials related to Bethea’s case.

Most remnants of Bethea’s hanging are gone from Owensboro, a city of 57,265 about 40 miles east of Evansville, Indiana. The gallows are lost to history and the site where they stood is under development as part of an effort to revitalize a stretch along the Ohio River.

But, the stigma of having conducted the last public execution in America lingers.

Heflin recounted a story of how the library acquired photos of the hanging: A man walked in with an envelope marked “1937 flood and hanging” and handed the photos over, saying his family wanted to get rid of the images.

“I don’t even know who he was,” Heflin said.

The Rosehill Elmwood Society, a small group of re-enactors who portray the lives of famous people buried in the cemetery, has avoided taking on the Bethea case. Dariush Shafa, a member of the society and reporter for The Messenger-Inquirer newspaper in Owensboro, said no one has wanted to raise the ghosts of the execution.

“It’s still a sore spot,” Shafa said.

As for Florence Thompson, who had succeeded her husband Everett as sheriff upon his death in 1935, she received both death threats and marriage proposals after the execution. But she won election to the remaining two years of the term in a landslide on Nov. 3, 1936.

Still, James Thompson said his mother lived with the decision to carry out the execution until she died in 1961. Thompson describes his mother — and by extension, Owensboro — as hard working and committed to carrying out her duties as required.

“She did a good job in the end,” Thompson said.

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The developer, Lin Xuehua, issued a statement claiming that it was a mistake made due to his poor English.

“Feel so sorry to have expression mistake. New version will coming soon(sic),” the author said in the statement.

Many angry users expressed their disgust with the app on the reviews:

““I used this app all the time before the update, now there is an effect called n****r brown?! That is disgusting. That is unacceptable and the creators should be ashamed,” wrote Reviewerofthemonth.

Read more at NewsNet5.com

Slurs and a noose strung up outside his barracks were among the alleged forms of harassment he filed in a complaint this week.

Specialist Adam Jarrell, the only African American in a unit of 216 soldiers of the New Mexico Army National Guard, told Reuters on Tuesday that his complaints to superiors were not only ignored, but resulted in increased harassment.

“It’s dangerous when the only people you can count on are the people hanging nooses outside your room, telling you they hate you because you’re black,” said Jarrell, 23, a Sheriff’s deputy in Hobbs

VIDEO:

Read entire article at Reuters.com

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Last year, while reading a book about the history of race relations in California, local NAACP chapter president Rev. Amos Brown said he uncovered “the chilling details” of Burnett’s tenure from 1849 to 1851.

“I called the superintendent and I said, `We need to change the name of that school,’” he said of the Burnett Child Development Center in the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood. “There was a great team effort in the community after I sounded the alarm.”

That effort culminated last month in the Board of Education’s unanimous vote to rename the school the Leola M. Havard Early Education School after the city’s first female African-American principal. On Thursday, local education officials, families and community activists gathered at the Oakdale Avenue site for a dedication ceremony honoring the 91-year-old Havard, who still lives in San Francisco.

“Through the change of this name, we’re getting away from a vestige of our dark past,” Brown said.

Burnett first entered politics in the 1840s in the provisional legislature in Oregon, where he proposed that all free blacks be forced to leave the state or face arrest and floggings every six months until they did.

He moved to California in 1848 in the early days of the Gold Rush and was elected governor the following year. He pushed for a similar exclusion policy there, but the Legislature rejected his efforts.

Burnett abruptly resigned from office after state lawmakers roundly criticized his first annual address, according to the California State Library’s online account of his governorship.

Several community members suggested renaming the Burnett Child Development Center after First Lady Michelle Obama, Brown said. But he said he immediately thought of Havard, calling her “a symbol of struggle and achievement” in San Francisco.

Havard began her 30-year career in the San Francisco Unified School District in 1949. She served as a teacher and assistant principal at several local elementary schools and finally as head of John Muir Elementary School before retiring in 1979.

The school board passed a resolution April 12 honoring Havard for being an educational leader who dedicated her life to all students, regardless of their cultural heritage, economic background or educational capabilities.

In addition to recognizing Havard’s contributions to the city, the board wanted to send a message to the school’s young children, said board member Kim-Shree Maufas. She said she was shocked to read about Burnett’s positions.

“We are really correcting an injustice that was going unnoticed,” she said of the name change. “We want (students) to know and be proud of who their school is named after.”

The school was built in 1911 and officials believe it has carried Burnett’s name since the beginning, said school district spokeswoman Heidi Anderson.

The former governor’s name also graces Burnett Avenue in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks neighborhood and several other schools around the state

One of those schools, Burnett Middle School in San Jose, underwent its own name modification last year when a group of students successfully lobbied the local school board to drop the first name Peter and leave only Burnett.

Principal Lisa Aguerria Lewis said she researched Burnett’s history about nine years ago before coming to the school, located 50 miles south of San Francisco. But she said she wanted any efforts to distance the school from the former governor’s controversial stances to be led by the students.

“It wasn’t a plight I wanted to take on my own,” she said, adding that no one spoke out against the change.

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We originally reported that the Human Relations commissions ordered the Carmike theater to pay the patrons in the 2007 ruling. The theater was actually vindicated by the Delaware Supreme Court days prior, which we failed to report.

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Justices Randy J. Holland, Carolyn Berger and Jack B. Jacobs ruled the non-racial explanations for the announcement were reasonable and pointed to uncontested evidence that a week earlier Stewart had made the same announcement at a showing of the movie “Halloween” to a largely teenage audience.

Read more at DelawareOnline.com

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Specifically, authorities concluded, the Becks violated the federal Fair Housing Act by refusing in 2007 to rent a dwelling to Halliburton because of her race. A month after turning her down, the Becks rented the same home to a white man, according to federal officials.

Despite feeling “disrespected and violated” in her encounter with the Becks, Halliburton continued to deepen her roots in the Detroit Lakes. She works as a nurse’s assistant at a nursing home, rents a home in town and attends Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Detroit Lakes, where she studies occupational therapy.

“I have a lot of things going on here,” she said Friday. “I felt I’d be giving up if I went away. I’ve met a lot of nice people here. I have a wonderful landlord.”

Read more at StarTribune.com

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Baltimore — Police are investigating an attack on a 15-year-old African-American youth by a group of men associated with a Jewish community patrol group, which occurred on Nov. 19 in the Upper Park Heights Community of Baltimore.

According to a police report, the incident occurred at approximately noon when the boy was traveling on Falstaff Road. After he noticed a red, two-door vehicle following him, he told police that he asked the passengers, two Jewish White males, “What’s up? What are ya‘ll looking at?”

The two passengers got out of the vehicle and responded, “What’s up? You’re the guy from yesterday on Park Heights. You want some problems?”

The teen said that as he continued to walk, the men got back in their vehicle and proceeded to follow him. The boy said he then grabbed a wood stick for safety, but threw it down as the men got out of the car a second time.

Read entire article at Afro.com

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But he denied killing anyone.

“I’m guilty of being an a——,” he said Monday, “but not of murder.”

Ditullio, 24, is accused in a 2006 double stabbing that injured a woman and left a teenager dead. He went to trial last year on charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder, but the jury, leaning toward acquittal, ended up deadlocked.

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He took the stand in his own defense then and again Monday, calmly answering questions, never losing his temper and revealing much about his mentality at the time.

Ditullio said he was working as a tattoo apprentice in New Port Richey when a friend introduced him to the American Nazi group living in a mobile home on Teak Street.

“He suggested there would be some tattoo work I could make some money on,” he said.

But he quickly formed stronger ties.

“I was blown away, man. I get to this place. It’s like a 19-year-old’s dream. Everybody was drinking. There was guns everywhere. I was blown away by the theatrics,” he said.

“You viewed this group as a family?” one of his attorneys, J. Jervis Wise, asked him.

“As a brotherhood, as a family, absolutely,” Ditullio said.

He felt a particular bond with Brian Buckley, the group’s president, who is now serving a prison sentence for burglary.

“I was just overwhelmed with finding a father figure in my life,” Ditullio said.

He soon became a prospect, vying for full membership. That meant he had to follow orders, wear a uniform, perform manual labor and submit to hazing.

He also took part in harassing the neighbors next door: a woman named Patricia Wells, who lived there with her son, Brandon Wininger, who was gay. Kristofer King, a friend of Wininger, often stayed over.

Ditullio said he didn’t harbor any particular malice toward gay people, but he admitted shouting slurs at Wininger.

On March 22, authorities say, Ditullio put on a gas mask and barged into Wells’ house, stabbing her in the face and hands as she ran to a bedroom where King was using the computer. Then he turned on King, 17, who died of his stab wounds.

But Ditullio testified that he never left the neo-Nazi house that night after the group had forced a familiar hazing ritual on him: lacing his drink with Xanax, then taunting to him to stay awake.

He said he was starting to pass out on the couch when Shawn Plott, another group member, tossed the gas mask at him and told him to hang it up.

“He had the look on his face like when an animal sees a human for the first time,” Ditullio said. “He was shaken.”

Ditullio said Plott was wearing khaki pants and a white T-shirt — the same clothes Wells described her attacker as wearing. She also said the attacker had no tattoos on his arms, and Ditullio’s lawyer had him show the jury the tattoos that cover both of his arms.

Ditullio was soon alone in the compound, thinking another hazing was unfolding. They called it “code red” and his challenge was to stay inside with guns, make sure they were loaded and guard the compound.

He had no idea, he said, what had happened next door.

In and out of sleep, he said the next thing he knew, there were deputies everywhere, surrounding the compound.

Read entire article at TampaBay.com

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West could have faced more than 44 years in prison if convicted on felony charges in the beating of Tasha Hill in September 2009 outside a metro Atlanta Cracker Barrel. The charges were reduced to misdemeanors in a plea deal.

Read entire article at FoxNews.com

Milwaukee — A sign excluding black people from a future business is enraging some people in a small town. Now, the man who put it up is speaking out.

Federal and State law says if the business is open to the public, prohibiting people based on race is illegal. If the man’s proposed gentlemen’s club was going to be a private club, then an African American historian says he could discriminate. Legalities aside, his is a sign that many say is appalling.

“If I’ve got a problem with you it’s going to be on the front of my store,” says Mark Prior.

Prior posted his ‘No Negros Allowed’ sign after he says he had some problems with black people in the past and needed to make a policy against them.

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“I’m going to stick to my guns because I think I have the right as a business owner to reject service to anyone. It’s not all the black people there are just a few bad ones,” Prior says of his problems in the past. Prior wants to open a gentlemen’s club in a building next to the Abbotsford city hall and library. He says he moved his sign inside after someone with the city asked him to remove it. “Our mistake is sometimes we look for logic in something that is just plain stupid,” says Dr. Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, an African American historian at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Ducksworth-Lawton says she feels Prior is out to get attention. She says the second he opens his business, he’ll be in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Read entire article at WEAU.com

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Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies told Markus Eliseuson Wednesday that he could be charged with a crime because the snowman was holding what appeared to be a noose. Deputies were called by neighbors who were appalled by the pointy-headed snowman with two dark eyes.

Hayden for decades earned notoriety for being near the former compound of the Aryan Nations.

Eliseuson could have been charged with creating a public nuisance. Idaho law defines such a nuisance as anything “offensive to the senses” or that interferes with the comfort of an entire neighborhood. The noose has been removed.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana State Senate employee was suspended without pay Tuesday after sending an e-mail to hundreds of government workers apparently trying to show President Barack Obama as white and suggesting that opposition to him doesn’t equate to racism.

Several African-American lawmakers replied to the e-mail, complaining that it was offensive.

The message, sent by Senate researcher Tammy Crain-Waldrop and obtained by The Associated Press, includes a doctored photo of Obama with light skin, blue eyes and a different hairstyle and says, “Do you like him any better now? No? Me neither ….. Then you’re not a racist.”

After she sent the e-mail, Crain-Waldrop sent another message apologizing and saying she sent it to the state Capitol e-mail post office box by mistake.

Senate spokeswoman Brenda Hodge said Crain-Waldrop was suspended without pay pending an investigation. Crain-Waldrop could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

It’s unclear how many employees in state offices received the e-mail beyond legislators, their staffs and others who work directly in the Capitol. Several people, including three black legislators, replied to the message to complain about it. Copies of the e-mails were also provided to the AP.

“This is not funny at all and I think it should not have been sent over a public e-mail system,” wrote Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, in an e-mailed response to the state Capitol post office box.

“This is NO where near funny!!! This is very offensive,” said Rep. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, in another e-mail.

The head of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, Rep. Patricia Smith, said the caucus didn’t ask for any specific action against Crain-Waldrop but would wait to see what type of reprimand she receives for the e-mail.

“It’s a personnel matter as of right now,” said Smith, D-Baton Rouge. “Those of us who responded were not very pleased and were very disappointed that it was sent at all. It’s not taken lightly, I can tell you that.”

A spokesman for Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office said he didn’t know of any members of the governor’s staff receiving the e-mail Tuesday. But spokesman Kyle Plotkin said in a statement: “There’s no room for this type of discourse when we face serious challenges as a state and country. We can disagree without being disagreeable.”

The Louisiana Senate fired its secretary, Mike Baer, in 2004 after he sent a series of sexual jokes to the state Capitol e-mail post office box. At the time, Baer said he meant to delete the jokes but hit the wrong button on his computer and accidentally forwarded them. An investigation disputed Baer’s explanation.

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A “Ghetto Fab” wig for Halloween? Seriously, Kohl’s?!, I find the term “ghetto fabulous” TASTELESS!

I am in no ways ‘ghetto’ and neither is my kinky hair

Kohls later changed the name to curly wig before taking the product

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“To not put my name on it would be saying that I’m embarrassed or afraid, or ashamed of what I’ve done,” Paul Snover said. “And, I’m not.”

Snover says the picture shows what some call Mr. Obama’s four faces. He’s depicted as a terrorist, a mobster, an illegal immigrant, and a gay man as he gambles with different values that America stands for.

He’s shown gambling away things like the constitution, the bible, the liberty bell, and our troops’ lives.

Read The Whole Story

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This week’s Village Voice’s cover story by writer Steven Thrasher entitled White America Has Lost Its Mind, has received numerous responses from angry readers. Thrasher’s informative essay aimed to criticize various White figures who have made moronic or racist gaffes (i.e Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck). Instead the article was interpreted as a racist diatribe against whites, and consequently led to numerous racially motivated hate letters.

The Village Voice has publicly shared the readers responses. Many are extremely vulgar as well as racist.

One reader writes:

You racist f—. Like to use the term white boy a lot huh? Well how about this black boy…. go f— yourself.

Another reader writes:

You and your party are about a month away from getting the ass kicking your father should have given you had he been interested enough in his kids to have been around.

Read Hate Mail

Read “White America Has Lost Its Mind” at VillageVoice.com

Click here to join the 2011 Black History Month contest

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The New York Post lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by a former editor who said she was fired after complaining about racism and sexism, including a cartoon that appeared to liken U.S. President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee.

Sandra Guzman, a black and Puerto Rican associate editor, alleged she was fired September 29, 2009, in retaliation for her complaints over inappropriate conduct, including one senior executive she accused of referring to her as “Cha Cha #1.”

The lawsuit also alleged that Guzman was among those who complained about a February 18, 2009, cartoon in the newspaper depicting a policeman shooting a crazed chimpanzee, a play on an actual Connecticut incident.

The caption read: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

Read entire article at Reuters.com

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A white supremacist who goes by the nickname “Hitler” pleaded guilty Wednesday in the unprovoked beating of a black fisherman in a Baltimore park.

Calvin E. Lockner, 29, agreed to a 31-year prison term and will be sentenced Monday, said Joseph Sviatko, a spokesman for the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office. He pleaded guilty to charges including armed carjacking and first-degree assault.

Lockner and two teenagers beat James Privott, 77, and stole his car in August 2009 while he was fishing, according to police and prosecutors. Privott was beaten with a baseball bat and suffered a broken eye socket and lost two teeth. One of his attackers yelled racial slurs, and Lockner told police the attack wouldn’t have happened if Privott had been white.

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Lockner belongs to white supremacist groups and has a tattoo of Adolf Hitler on his midsection, and police said the Nazi leader’s was his nickname.

Read entire article at FoxNews.com

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Miami quarterback Jacory Harris said Sunday that he received a racially motivated hate message on Twitter following the Hurricanes’ loss to Ohio State last weekend.

Jacory Harris said Sunday that he received a racially motivated hate message on Twitter.

The 6-4, 200-pound signal caller, who is black, said he received at least one comment on the social-messaging site from someone saying that Miami should not have “a black quarterback.” Harris threw four interceptions, matching a career-worst, in Miami’s 36-24 loss to Ohio State on Sept. 11.

Five days ago Miami told its football players to discontinue using Twitter.

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“Not really worried about it,” Harris told The Associated Press. “I know people say things like that. It’s part of the sport. Got to get used to it.”

Harris neither said specifically what was written nor revealed the sender’s identity, and he said he could not remember if the tweet contained any threats. His Twitter account was deleted last week. He noted that he skipped through many of the messages he received because they were mainly negative.

Read entire article at NationalFootballpost.com

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The National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) recently held its annual fall Board of Directors meeting in Charleston, S.C. last weekend, dubbed “The Southern Experience”. The BVX.com reports that controversial pictures of S.C. Senate President Glenn McConnel have surfaced online, with the South Carolina leader dressed as a confederate soldier posing with Black people dressed as slaves.

Unfortunately, many southerners embrace the Confederate south as a foundation of their heritage, while many others wish to forget the era which was driven by racism, bigotry, and legislation which enslaved African-Americans.

The attendees may have found this humorous, but many viewers do not find this event comical at all.

TheBVX.com:

Now, McConnell has been known for his affinity to dress up as a Confederate soldier. It’s certainly something that African Americans in general aren’t too fond of. However, the fact that there are not one, but two, African Americans in attendance dressed up as slaves and willing to be photographed smiling is just mind-blowing. Perhaps they didn’t get the memo that being dressed up as slaves and taking pictures with a Confederate soldier isn’t cool.

Read entire article at TheBVX.com

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Newt Gingrich said this weekend that President Obama exhibited “Kenyan, anticolonial behavior,” an observation that drew angry if puzzled responses from Democrats and questions about Mr. Gingrich’s meaning and motivation.

Mr. Gingrich, who is mulling a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, made the comments to National Review Online. He was quoted by the conservative Web site as saying: “What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anticolonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

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Commenting on a recent article in Forbes by Dinesh D’Souza, Mr. Gingrich told National Review Online that Mr. Obama “is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president.”

“I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true,” Mr. Gingrich was quoted as saying.

Mr. Gingrich’s comments drew sharp rebukes from the Democratic National Committee, which accused him of stoking the false rumors about Mr. Obama’s heritage and birthright.

Read entire article at NyTImes.com

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If you’re black and a student at one public middle school in Mississippi, you can’t run for president – only whites need apply.

Nettleton Middle School in Nettleton, Miss., has segregated its elected class positions by race, according to a memo sent home with children at the school last week that was obtained by NBC News.

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The memo was first brought to light when Brandy Springer, a mother of four children, contacted blogger Suzy Richardson, founder and editor of the blog mixedandhappy.com. It was also reported by Gawker.

“My [eighth-grade] daughter came home from[Nettleton] school telling me that she wanted to try out for the school reporter, but it is only open to black students,” Springer wrote Richardson. “They told her ‘she should run for class president, that was open to only white students.’”

The memo indicates that only white students can be president of the school’s eighth grade, while only black students can be vice president.

Read entire article at MSNBC.com

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In some fashion, the article holds a hint of validity in recognizing the presence of a personal connection between users which extends outside the limits of each user’s friends list. On the other hand, the article offends in it’s inability to recognize Black trends as an extension of Black creativity, rather than attributing these trends as an intellectual flaw and lack of morals.

While this article is packed with research, a majority of the facts are erroneous and assumption based. The motive of this article is to be a voice of reason, but it ends up offending African-Americans, Twitter users or not.

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Manjoo states in the beginning of the article: “Black people—specifically, young black people—do seem to use Twitter differently from everyone else on the service.” But he then points out that Twitter doesn’t collect race, gender, or age demographics.

While claiming to be an analytical and theory based article, Manjoo uses backwards reasoning; beginning with a racist assumption, then finding evidence to support his assumption. He says: “The prevalence of these tags has long puzzled non-black observers and sparked lots of sometimes uncomfortable questions about how black people use Twitter.” He perceives Black people’s Twitter behavior as wrong or deviant, solely because he, nor ‘non-black’ people understand the phenomena.

Manjoo continuously describes people of other races discontent and concern with Black twitter trends; positioning that Black people are utilizing Twitter to insult themselves. He says: “A lot of people of all races insult one another online generally, and on Twitter specifically. We don’t usually see those trends hit the top spot. Why do only black people’s tweets get popular?”

Are my intentions in writing this response, an attempt to defend the old double-standard that black people can’t be racist to their own people?

Not at all.

Regardless of Manjoo’s race, it is an injustice to condemn Black people of this behavior, without understanding the behavior. Comical trending topics are an indication of thousands of Black people’s ability to create witty jokes, not a lack of morality.

Read “How Black People Use Twitter” Article on Slate.com

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From NYpost.com

American comedian Whoopi Goldberg denied supporting Mel Gibson as the “Lethal Weapon” star faced scandal over a series of foul-mouthed and allegedly racist rants, London’s Metro newspaper reported Tuesday.

In an interview with the paper, Goldberg said she did not defend Gibson in comments made to ABC’s “The View” in July, at the height of an outcry surrounding leaked tapes of arguments between him and his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva.

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“All I said was that in my opinion, Mel Gibson isn’t a racist. That isn’t sticking up for him,” she said. “I know him, I’ve spent time with him, my family have spent time with him — I’d have noticed if he was a real racist. I didn’t stick up for him but I’ve met real racists and he isn’t one of them.”

Read entire story

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OPINION: Don’t Blame Mel Or Whoopi, Blame The Media
Whoopi Goldberg Says Mel Gibson Is Not A Racist

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Cooper says Obama lost her trust when he nominated Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court and with his handling of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr.

She classifies her experience with the Tea Party Movement as “wonderful” and rejects the recent NAACP condemnation of the Tea Party as racist. “It’s absurd,” the New York native said. “I’ve never seen anything racist about it. At the meetings there are patriotic Americans. No one should talk about the Tea Party unless they have gone to the meetings.” Cooper criticizes President Obama’s spending, but rejects the Republican Party, who she views as obsessed with “getting re-elected.”

It seems Cooper does not support a President who sympathizes, nominates, or supports people of their own race. Has she seen the US Congress lately?

According to Cooper, we cannot criticize the Tea Party, until we go to a meeting. The signs the Tea Party display don’t typically look like invitations for blacks, do they Cooper?

Click to read more on story.

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The 5 Types Of Tea Party Racists [OPINION]

When we study the intense struggle for civil rights in this nation, we quickly – and rightfully so – find ourselves analyzing the life and legacy of the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We learn of his tireless efforts to achieve equality and justice for all of humanity, as we pass on anecdotes of sit-ins, marches and boycotts to our children. Our schools highlight the selfless sacrifice of Dr. King in rooting out the stains of racism and achieving integration across the country.

But what we as a collective sometimes forget to impress upon the next generation is the depth to which Dr. King was an advocate for federal government as he knew it was the only effective way to ensure a unified system of equality in every state. Today, the Tea Party stands to break that national stance on justice and in turn, break the crux of what the civil rights movement symbolized and what Dr. King fought and literally died for.

Long observing a consistent pattern of racist comments and behavior within the Tea Party, the NAACP recently voted on a resolution urging leaders of the Party to denounce such inflammatory elements of their organization. What has ensued is a back-and-forth between between the two groups with a national discussion surrounding race and race relations. But in this much needed conversation, we cannot glance over what the Tea Party as a whole stands for: smaller government and states’ rights. It is a group so ardently focused on state sovereignty that talk of secession and state self-regulation has become as commonplace as the bigoted signs visibly present at their gatherings. And it is an ideology that should raise alarm bells to anyone who believes in true freedom and justice for all.

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During the struggle for civil rights in the 1950’s and 1960’s, it was more often than not, the federal government that intervened when state policies failed us. At Clinton High School in Tennessee, it was National Guard troops that protected Black students as they entered a desegregated educational facility for the first time. And it was the federal Supreme Court that ruled segregation resulted in unfair and unequal practices to begin with in the infamous Brown vs. Board of Education decision. It was federal policies that allowed Blacks and other folks of color to exercise their right to vote and voice their opinion in the politics and social issues of the day. It was national regulation of discriminatory housing and zoning laws that afforded the marginalized a shot at the American dream. And if we take it all the way back to the days of emancipation, it was a President and a federal government that ended the abhorrent institution of slavery.

On August 28th, 1963, Dr. King went to Washington and held a rally for the precise purpose of pushing for increased federal action and involvement to nullify all discriminatory state and local practices. As we prepare to mark the 47th anniversary of his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on this date, Glenn Beck and others push for an expansion of states’ rights – the exact antithesis of the civil rights movement and Dr. King’s legacy.

We can already clearly see the detrimental effects of state regulation with the recent passage of Arizona’s immigration bill SB 1070. And when members of the Tea Party like Rand Paul state that it is perfectly permissible for private businesses to discriminate on the basis of race, we have a serious problem. The NAACP was inarguably justified to call out racist elements of the Tea Party, but we must also ensure that we question the legitimacy of the Party’s foundation itself. As the chants for states’ rights and secession get louder, we must all ask ourselves if we would truly like to return to a period where there was less federal involvement??

In the tradition of Dr. King and the civil rights movement, I urge for more – not decreased – federal intervention. This is, after all, the United States of America; let’s start acting like it.

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The 5 Types Of Tea Party Racists [OPINION]

VIDEO: New Footage Emerges Of Tea Party Racists

We never anticipated the popularity of this article, nor the controversy that it would cause.  But all we can say is, “Thank you, Rush, for being you.” Before we get into the Top 10 Racist Limbaugh Quotes of All-Time, here are some of Limbaugh’s most recent racist statements.

Do you think any of Limbaugh’s recent rants belong in the TOP 10?  If so, let us know in the COMMENTS!

THE TOP TEN RACIST RUSH LIMBAUGH QUOTES

1. “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”

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No, but I’ve noticed that all racist bigots think like Rush Limbaugh. Comparing a respected black politician and minister to common criminals is Jim Crow racism. Maybe all black people look alike to him, but I’ve never seen a picture of a wanted criminal that looks like Jesse Jackson. A serial killer that looks like Rush Limbaugh on the other hand.

John Wayne Gacy

2. “Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela — who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing.”

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The communist connection is an old way of dealing with black leaders. They used it on Martin Luther King, they’re using it on Barack Obama and Limbaugh used it on Nelson Mandela. By siding with the racist apartheid regime over a world-wide symbol of peace and freedom, Limbaugh has shown he’s a global racist.

3. “Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

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Limbaugh is once again fear mongering and race baiting by associating professional black athletes with criminals and gangmembers. He continues the fear mongering association of good, decent, hard working African Americans as criminals.

4. “The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”

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Now Limbaugh is saying that an organization with a storied tradition of representing the positive black people for change in their communities are criminals and rioters. An organization that has been represented by intelligent professional African Americans, that has played a part in the Civil Rights movement and continues to be an intelligent, concerned voice for the African American community is degraded to common criminals. There you go Rush. Keep racism alive!!!!

5. “They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”

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Decent human beings care Rush. Someone out of that 12% is the President of the United States. Not caring about black people? Even George Bush wouldn’t admit to that.

6. [To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”

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Okay, Rush, that’s classy. The old African bone in the nose stereotype. Wasn’t funny when the racist white school kids called the black kids that and it’s definitely not funny when a grown man with audience of millions of easily influenced dittoheads says it either.

7.  ”I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.  They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well.  I think there’s a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve.”

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I wasn’t super offended by this, the whole black quarterback/coach thing has been going on for years in sports, but the quote was so offensive that Retired General Wesley Clarke said:

There can be no excuse for such statements. Mr. Limbaugh has the right to say whatever he wants, but ABC and ESPN have no obligation to sponsor such hateful and ignorant speech. Mr. Limbaugh should be fired immediately.

When a respected, retired general condemns the statement of a sportscaster, you know he’s gone too far.

8. Limbaugh’s many attacks on Obama.

Limbaugh has called Obama a ‘halfrican American’ has said that Obama was not Black but Arab because Kenya is an Arab region, even though Arabs are less than one percent of Kenya. Since mainstream America has become more accepting of African-Americans, Limbaugh has decided to play against its new racial fears, Arabs and Muslims. Despite the fact Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law school, Limbaugh has called him an ‘affirmative action candidate.’ Limbaugh even has repeatedly played a song on his radio show ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ using an antiquated Jim Crow era term for Black a man who many Americans are supporting for president. Way to go Rush.

So Rush Limbaugh has managed to make racist attacks on four of the most admired and respected people of African descent in the past one hundred years, in Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Colin Powell and Barack Obama. He has claimed that Joe the Plumber, who isn’t even a plumber is more important in this election than Colin Powell, a decorated military veteran who has served honorably in three administrations. How can the Republican party stand by this man and let their candidates appear on his show? Rush Limbaugh’s comments are so racist, they’re funny, in a Borat, Archie Bunker kind of way. What is not funny is the millions of dittoheads who listen to him, who take in and re-spout all the racist rhetoric that he spits. Limbaugh’s statements are echoed in the racist, angry Palin/McCain supporters who shout ‘kill him,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘communist,’ ‘traitor,’ ‘socialist’ and ‘off with his head.’

9. “We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”

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Okay Limbaugh let’s take back all of the Civil Rights movement and bring segregation back. But you’re not a racist.

10. “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.”

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So everything Obama is doing is a big plot to give money to Black people. Any evidence? Stop the racist fear-mongering.

THE TWO CONTESTED QUOTES

We ran these two quotes as part of our original list of ten. However, in the fall of 2009, this post surfaced in the debate that followed Limbaugh’s dismissal from an investment group attempting to purchase the St. Louis Rams. NewsOne has, as yet, not been able to determine the veracity of these quotes.  We note the following for the record:

• These two quotes were both sourced to a book by Jack Huberman called “101 People Who Are Really Screwing America,” published by Nation Books in 2006. The author of this book, in turn, claims that he procured these quotes from a source which he has refused to reveal “on advice of counsel.”
• Rush Limbaugh has vigorously denied that he said these things.

In sum, NewsOne can no longer vouch for the accuracy of these quotes. Nor can we trust Limbaugh, who never denied saying the other eight racist quotes on our original list, and whose own track record of duplicity gives us pause.  We keep them in our post for their news value as a controversial, and perhaps dubious attribution. Segregated, of course. Which should make some people very happy.

1. “I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”

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2. “You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed.”

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BONUS QUOTES

(…because ten isn’t enough!)

“Obama is “more African in his roots than he is American” and is “behaving like an African colonial despot”

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How exactly does and African colonial despot behave? Trying to degrade our President by attacking his African roots?

“Obama is an angry Black guy”

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Was John McCain an angry white guy? Was George Bush a dumb white man? Is your hero, Dick Cheney, an evil white demon? Why are you playing off the angry Black guy stereotype to disrespect our President?

ANTI-LATINO QUOTES

“Let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.”

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“You’re a foreigner. You shut your mouth or you get out.”

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“A Chavez is a Chavez. We’ve Always Had Problems with Them”

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YOUTUBE CLIPS ON LIMBAUGH’S RACIST RANTS

Limbaugh’s Racist Rant on Obama

The Young Turks Have Been Doing A Great Job Covering Limbaugh’s Racism Check This One Out

Here’s Limbaugh Condemning the Victims of Hurricane Katrina from the Young Turks

Here’s Limbaugh’s Racist Song for Obama, Barack the Magic Negro

Here’s Limbaugh Defending Barack the Magic Negro