Black History Month Fail

If you are a teacher that sincerely believes its appropriate to have your students "celebrate" O.J. Simpson and RuPaul for black history month then you are too dumb to teach MY kids.

Also, if you are a parent who thinks this is no big deal then you are too dumb to raise YOUR kids.

real talk.

On Harry Reid's Comments

I am not about to go into a long ass post about Harry Reid's comments describing President Obama as a "light skinned" black person who doesn't speak with a "negro dialect" unless he wants to. For one, what he said is true. For two its all been said before, just with "nicer" words. Every time a political pundit last year said President Obama was "non threatening" because of his background and demeanor or anything close, they were saying the exact same thing that Harry Reid said in 2006. Want to take issue with "negro dialect"? Ok then explain to me what the hell ebonics is. I know some of us black folks don't like to admit that many of our people don't speak the King's English well, but its true and trying to act like it isn't is pretty damned disengenuous.

Was it racist? I guess the question I would have in response is who would it have been racist against? Every racist term or sentence or phrase that I know of is meant to demean a person based on their race. Harry Reid was actually speaking favorably of President Obama and talking about why he had a chance to be our first black President. And what do you know, he was right. I guess MAYBE you could try to make the case that it was racist against all black folks not named Barack Obama, bu then of course you would still have to show how its demeaning. As I pointed out before, just the existence of the word "ebonics" in our culture speaks to the fact that many people belive black folks and other minorities speak a different language. Is that a negative? Most of the time it is, especially if you are applying for a job. And wasn't there a story not too long ago about business not bringing people who "sounded black" over the phone in for interviews? But hey why let facts like that get in the way of a hysterical over reaction right?

In closing I will say this, if you ever have had the occasion to praise and or promote Rush Limbaugh or Pat Buchannan, you shouldn't have a got damn thing to say about any of this. And if the mainstream media types were doing their job they would point this out at every turn.

P.S. One more thing, was I the only one who read Reid's comments and immediately thought, "Damn, I guess that means Michael Steele could never be President" lmaooooo

P.S. 2: This still doesn't change my position that Harry Reid is doing a shitty job as Majority Leader. Thanks, that is all.

Freely Giving Cover For Racists

So James Carville and Stan Greenberg have come out with a study on the opposition that purports to prove that they are against President Obama because of ideological differences and not because of racism. An exact quote:

"Instead of focusing on these intense ideological divisions, the press and elites continue to look for a racial element that drives these voters' beliefs - but they need to get over it. Conducted on the heels of Joe Wilson's incendiary comments at the president's joint session address, we gave these groups of older, white Republican base voters in Georgia full opportunity to bring race into their discussion - but it did not ever become a central element, and indeed, was almost beside the point."

Yeah, because you know how racists just LOVE to admit their racism.

What an epic fucking fail from those two. I have no idea how they think this helps President Obama or Democrats for everybody to put their head in the sand about racism in this country but it does prove yet again that Attorney General Eric Holder was absolutely right earlier this year when he said when it comes to matter of race we are a nation of cowards. Good white liberals tend to run for the hills whenever the topic of racism comes up, quick to try to dismiss it and get it out of the public conversation. We saw it just a little while ago. As soon as Jimmy Carter said what should be obvious to anybody,that much of the most ferverent opposition to President Obama stemmed from racism those same good white liberals were falling all over themselves to hurry up and rush to a mic and disagree.

Got damn its frustrating.

This has nothing to do with "most" Republicans or "most" Conservatives. But if you don't think there is a blatant element of racism in the tea bagging movement and in many of these townhall shouters and random protestors bring guns to President Obama's speeches then you are nucking futs. Its really that simple.

But I so look forward to the next big story where a Republican/Conservative says something racist about President Obama and then in defending themselves they say "even the liberal study by Carville and Greenberg...."

You already know its gonna happen. Its just a matter of when.

The Great And Powerful Cos

I wonder if Bill Cosby posting this on his facebook page will alienate him from all of those conservatives who claimed him as their own awhile back when he denounced President Obama over the Skip Gates incident. I am pretty sure it will.

I agree with President Carter that racism is playing a role in recent outbursts against President Obama. During President Obama’s speech on the status of health care reform, some members of congress engaged in a public display of disrespect. While one Representative hurled the now infamous “you lie” insult at the President, others made their lack of interest known by exhibiting rude behavior such as deliberately yawning and sending text messages.

Health care reform is the most important domestic issue facing America today. Disease does not discriminate. African American, White, Asian, Latino, Republican, Democrat, no one in America is immune. So it seems obvious that a debate on health care reform should not include views born solely of partisanship or bigotry.

Various polls prior to the election indicated that between five and ten percent of Americans would never vote for an African American president. That number, of course, only includes those who actually admitted to their prejudice. How many others harbored such feelings but did not respond honestly when asked the question? And how many people oppose Obama’s plan because the President is African American?

In "Birth of a Nation," D.W. Griffith used white actors in black face to portray black legislators as having low intelligence and acting like fools. Today, we have a band of real life congressional fools seemingly bent on blocking any meaningful reform of the health care system. But if we allow even one American to die simply because he or she cannot afford treatment, we are creating a shameful scenario that could aptly be called “Death of a Nation.”

(h/t Koppleman)

Any Discussion On MSNBC About President Carter Needs To Include A Discussion Of Pat Buchanan

As I alluded to in an earlier post, this morning Joe Scarborough had on Michael Eric Dyson to talk about former President Jimmy Carter's statement about racism playing a role in some of the opposition to President Obama. For once Dyson didn't totally irritate the hell out of me (even though he did have throw in his obligatory "I was the first one to endorse Barack" chit) and he made some salient points about why President Carter's words hold weight.

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

Now while I applaud Dyson's efforts this morning to push Joe, Mika and the rest of the lily white panel on the fact that racism has played a role in the opposition to President Obama, I feel like he missed a MAJOR opportunity here. While I agree with him that Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are representative of the prominent conservatives and Republicans who have ginned up racist opposition against Obama, one of the most blatantly racist political commentators shares the set with Joe and Mika several times a week. I am speaking of course of Pat Buchanan.

The same Pat Buchanan that was one of the advisors who came up with the "Southern Strategy". The same Pat Buchanan that tried to portray Justice Sonia Sotomayor as a racist and unqualified because she was a Latina. The same Pat Buchanan who went on "The Rachel Maddow Show" and ridiculously asserted that America is and always will be a white nation, built by whites and fought for solely by whites.



The same Pat Buchanan who uses his column at human events to gin up racial tension with whites on a regular basis.

Yeah, that Pat Buchanan.

See white guys like Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews will say they believe that racism exists in America but then they will turn around and claim its only on the fringes. When you bring up guys like Rush they will quickly claim they have never heard him say anything racist. Its an easy dodge because you can't prove that they have listened to every show. But bringing up Pat Buchanan kills two birds with one stone. All at once you put them on the spot because they can't say they haven't heard the things Buchanan has said on their own network and at times on their own shows. And on the other hand you put MSNBC on the spot for continuing to employ an avowed racist. Something that thus far they have not confronted.

Now I am nobody's fool. I recognize that for Dyson to bring up Buchanan on Morning Joe would probably mean he would have to look elsewhere going forward for TV appearances. But at some point being real has got to mean more than getting paid or getting exposure. Im just sayin.

One last thing, Joe Scarborough obviously DOES listen to Limbaugh quite a bit because he gave the standard Limbaugh excuse for the "Barack the Magic Negro" song that Limbaugh made. In fact he actually called Dyson disengenous because an black LA Times columnist first coined the phrase. Well I have read the column several times and not once do I see in it where there is a parody of an illiterate black man speaking as is the voice on Limbaugh's song. In point of fact the eloquence of the column itself bears absolutely no resemblence to the crass and obviously racially stereotypical words and tone of the song. If anybody is being disengenuous its the person who excuses Limbaugh for that song by hiding behind the original column.

I have posted links to both though so you are free to come to your own conclusion.

What is not in dispute is that MSNBC has a regular commentator who appears on several of their shows who embodies exactly the kind of race baiting that President Carter was speaking of yesterday. So if they are going to ask whether Carter was right or not, that conversation almost has to include a discussion of the things Pat Buchanan has been doing since President Obama took office.

Race Cards Flying Everywhere

So I am over at memeorandum and I happen to see a story about teenager in St Louis getting beat up on the bus. I am curious about why such a story is posted on memeorandum and is being linked to by all these wingnut blogs so I go to check it out. Evidently a police captain claimed that the attack was racially motivated. Now, as you may have guessed, the reason it drew attention from the wingnut blogs which are usually loathe to talk about racially motivated beatings is because it was a black kids beating up a white kid. Now check out the key passage in the original story:

"In my estimation, it's racially motivated," said Capt. Don Sax of the Belleville Police Department. He said one reason he had formed this opinion was that many of the students, most of whom were black, yelled their support for the beating.

"There was absolutely no justification for the beating either time," Sax said.

So to sum it up, this police captain has come to the conclusion that the beating was racially motivated at least in part because other black students were yelling their support. Pretty flimsy no? Isn't this normally the kind of weak tea that wingnuts decry when its a situation where a white person is accused of a racially motivated beating of a minority? I mean surely this by itself isn't enough to draw such a conclusion is it?

Welp when its a black on white crime and its the hypocritical wingnutosphere its obviously more than enough.

One post in particular caught my eye because it was from Michelle Malkin who usually says she hates people playing the "race card". Amazingly though she goes into quite a lenghty diatribe about this case when its far from certain that it was in fact a racially motivated attack.

Ok so I am being just a little bit snarky here because the level of hypocrisy on this one is just through the roof but I haven't even gotten to the best part yet. First of all lets check out some of the things her commenters had to say about the post.

One says:

Can you tell me there is no race war going on? While white people sit around shaking their heads and looking the other way black people have made every possible issue about race and their anger is erupting more daily. It’s only going to get worse.

Another says

Lovely. “They” are empowered by folks such as West and Serena Williams.

With people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson fanning the flames of racism, it is no surprise.

Another says

The black community race baiters encourage this behavior by telling young black kids that whitey is keeping them down.
It’s no different than middle-easterners telling their children that Jews and Americans are keeping them down, though they do it with even more hate.

The outcome is expected and wanted by the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world. “Let’s you and him fight” has always been the tactic of those lacking in basic decency and courage.

And yet another says

the city of belleville has been targetted by racist blacks from east st louis for decades. the city of belleville was founded by whites driven out of east st louis in the 60s, and now they have a nice suburban city with a nice school district and a shopping district. over the past several years, they have faced racism charges because they dare to protect their people and their property. the police chief was labelled a racist because he stopped cars full of blacks cruising his streets at night. the mall owners have been accused because they won’t allow these gang thugs from east st louis to destroy the mall as they did in north st louis county. but of course the bussing of those poor yutes from the east st louis ghetto to the white school supported by it’s citizens gives ample access for thuggery. the belleville school district should eliminate bussing these thugs into the district.

But none of the people leaving those comments are racists right?

Oh I forgot to mention one thing, the story has since been updated and the police captain has totally back peddled.

BELLEVILLE -- A Belleville police spokesman now says an incident where a white student was beaten by teen black assailants on a bus “may not be racially motivated.”

“It was premature on my part,” said Belleville Police Capt. Don Sax. “It was my personal and emotional comment after only seeing the video briefly.”

Sax said police interviewed the 17-year-old Belleville West High student. However, he said he was unaware of what the student told police.

See this guy made his assessment of this being a racially motivated attack without having even interviewed the students involved nor having any facts other than seeing the video to which he had a visceral reaction.

Now honestly I don't begrudge the man being repulsed by the video. I probably would have been too regardless of the race of the kids involved. But he totally jumped the shark when he claimed it was a racially motivated crime. As a police captain he should know a lot better than that.

Now of course since the story has been updated and it turns out the captain was wrong, surely these wingnuts who just hate race based justice have recanted and updated all of their blogs right?

BUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Several of the comments on Malkin's blog I just posted were put up AFTER someone in comments on her blog posted the update. Mind you she didn't update her own post, but presumably the people leaving comments read what other folks had already said. Still they just couldn't resist piling on could they?

But again, surely they aren't racists.

By the way, if anybody tries to tell you that at least some of the backlash Kanye is facing from being an asshole at the VMAs is about race, don't you believe it, not one single word!

:)

When will Claire McCaskill Apologize?

Here is what Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill had to say to Anderson Cooper about the incident where the woman with the Rosa Parks poster was escorted out forcefully by the police after a teabagger snatched it and tore it up.




Here is what actually happened along with a contrast in what happened to some white attendees who were holding their own signs.





I just want to know at what point will Senator McCaskill apologize to those women who were thrown out, to Representative Scott for calling him irresponsible and to all of us for the way she tried to dismiss the claims of racism so flippantly?

And if she doesn't, at what point do we start looking for a progressive alternative in a Democratic primary against her in a few years? She doesn't seem to understand that she is now representing a blue state anyway. It might be time to put a real Democrat from Missouri in office.

I Can't Wait To Hear About How Many Black Friends He Has

Check out the lede from Niall Ferguson's new article in the Financial Times.

President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat. One of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black. He was also very, very lucky. And that pretty much sums up the 44th president of the US as he takes a well-earned summer break after just over six months in the world’s biggest and toughest job.

You just gotta love this post racial America!

(h/t Attackerman)

And Pat Buchanan Thinks He Has It Rough.

How many white professors do you think would be arrested for trying to get into their own home?

Stay Classy Miguel Miranda.

Greg Sargent reported earlier today that former hacker in the "Memogate" scandal, Miguel Miranda, is leading an effort to pressure Republican Senators to attack Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Now Greg is reporting that Miranda has made a racist statement about black people.

Today, Miranda did a conference call with conservative bloggers organized by the Heritage foundation, where he discussed Sotomayor. Asked how Republicans could oppose her while avoiding charges of racism, Miranda said they had to wage substantive attacks. Then he segued into a discussion of the views of Hispanics on issues, saying:

“By the way, Hispanic polls, Hispanic surveys, indicate that Hispanics think just like everyone else. We’re not like African Americans. We think just like everybody else.”

I would hope that Republican Senators will be questioned about Miranda's statement IMMEDIATELY and asked if they will continue to take his calls about Judge Sotomayor. Its time to pull the veil off of this bullshit and confront the racism that still exists in this country. And ain't no time like the present.

So Predictable

Will our mainstream media as Congressional Republicans if they agree with Limbaugh?

Dropping Knowledge

In a post that ends with an ancedote about Joe The Plumber's most recent idiotic comments, Ta Nehisi Coates connects all the dots about how politicians use racism and bigotry to condition their constituents into what he terms lazy thinking. The post brings the AWESOME and you need to check it out, but I am just going to hit you with the part on JTP.

So much of this is so perfect--including the idea that "honkey" is the worst slur Joe can think of. But his attitude toward not letting "queers" around his children, is oddly reminiscent. Much as the racist demagouges of yore convinced themselves that highest aim of black maledom was to bed their fugly-ass daughters, Joe the Plumber is convinced that the highest aim of all queerdom is to spend some time with his snotty-nosed brats.

He's indicative of a demographic that has long been ill-served by its leadership. That works out well for the leadership--at least initially. But over the long-term, the trouble with ignorance is that it trades the "now" for the future. You're betting that those who come after you won't wise up. How's that working out?

Now go on and check out the whole thing.

The GOP Doesn't Trust A Black Man With Their Money

What other impression could you come away with after reading the Washington Times article about how some in the RNC are trying to take Michael Steele's right as Chairman to determine where to spend money away from him?

A battle over control of the party's purse strings has erupted at the troubled Republican National Committee, with defenders of Chairman Michael S. Steele accusing dissident RNC members of trying to "embarrass and neuter" the party's new leader.

Randy Pullen, the RNC's elected treasurer, former RNC General Counsel David Norcross and three other former top RNC officers have presented Mr. Steele with a resolution, calling for a new set of checks and balances on the chairman's power to dole out money.

The powers include new controls on awarding contracts and spending money on outside legal and other services.

Mr. Steele could not be reached, and a spokesman for the RNC chairman declined to comment on the move.

The resolution prompted a top Steele supporter to issue a scathing attack against Mr. Pullen and his allies after they had asked Mr. Steele to support the "good governance" resolution at a special meeting of the full national committee set for next month. The party spent about $300 million in last year's elections.

"I urge you to reject this hostile attempt to embarrass and neuter the chairman of the RNC," Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus wrote in an e-mail to the 168-member national committee.

Mr. Pullen and his allies need signatures from RNC members from 16 states to force the resolution to the floor for a vote by the full party committee at the May 20 special meeting.

snip

"This resolution is an attempt to usurp the chairman's authority in a completely unprecedented and historic manner," Mr. Priebus wrote to the other party chairmen and national committee members from the 50 states and five U.S. territories.

Mr. Priebus, who heads the transition team for the newly elected chairman, also urged the resolution's sponsors "to stop playing political games and begin thinking about what they can do to help our party move forward as we face the elections of 2009 and 2010."

Now I don't agree with Michael Steele on pretty much anything, however what they are trying to do to him here is just wrong. Why after all these years are they trying to rules now when Steele is Chairman? And they wonder why people believe the GOP is racist.

"Mr Monkey Boy"

Do you need any more evidence that "post racial" is total bullshit?


Via ThinkProgress

Today on C-Span’s “Washington Journal,” conservative columnist Fred Barnes continued to defend the Bush presidency and insisted that Barack Obama would not represent much change from Bush. When a caller — who identified himself as a big fan of Barnes — referred to Obama as “Mr. Monkey Boy,” Barnes didn’t bat an eye, immediately addressing the caller’s question without pausing to condemn the epithet.

Props to the second caller from Georgia for pointing out the racist rhetoric that had just been spouted on CSPAN which neither consevative ass clown Fred Barnes nor the host of the Washington Journal acknowledged let alone denounced.

They Are Just Making This Too Easy

I didn't really post anything about the Chip Saltsman story where he sent out the "Barack the Magic Negro" song to all his friends up until now because it has been widely covered and I really didn't have much to add. I didn't think it was that earth shattering because I have always seen the Repubican party as white and racist. Now I know that there will be card carrying rank and file Republicans who will be offended by that but I have some advice for you. If you want to stop being seen as racists stop supporting racist elements in your party. There aren't a whole lot of Democrats listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. I don't see Howard Dean sending out racial parodies of Condeleeza Rice. It is what it is. But here is the thing, not only did Saltsman not apologize about the incident, he didn't even admit it wasn't a very smart thing to do at a time when his party is trying to reach out to minorities. Hell he basically said he didn't do anything wrong and get over it. I mean I should also point out that the CD had the "Star Spanglish Banner" on it as well. Stay classy GOP

Now I don't honestly know if Chip Saltsman is a racist or not, but I do know at the very least he is very racially insensitive. But I blame not only him but also the few black folks that actually are members of the Republican party. They are so eager for those white folks to accept them that they never stand up and protest when members of their own party pull this kind of bullshit. Ken "Uncle Tom" Blackwell almost fell all over himself trying to defend Chip Saltsman which in my eyes is enabling. From now on whenever Saltsman or any other GOP member tells a racist joke the can say "Don't worry, Ken said its OK". Talk about being a useful fool.

This is why I say the Republican party is about to go the way of the dinosaur. They aren't headed for the wilderness, they are headed for the abyss. Time has truly passed them by and they still don't get it. Minority outreach will become more and more important in the coming years because very soon there will be more minorities in this country than there will be white people. And after so long of not caring about the minority vote, the good white folks in the Republican party have not the first clue about how to reach out to those minorities. They think that if you just explain that the "Magic Negro" song is just a joke then nobody will really care. Especially if its a joke from that notoriously funny guy Rush Limbaugh. Seriously.

Now today we get a story from Politico with this headline:

'Magic Negro' flap might help Saltsman

I absolutely hope so. I want Chip Saltsman to be the RNC chair so bad I wish I could vote for him two times. Because anything that helps him is going to hurt the Republican Party. If they can't see that electing a guy to lead their party who sent that CD out is going to cost them minority votes in perpetuity then they deserve to have him as chairman.

Speaking of the RNC I wonder what their committee members think about Saltsman's stunt.

“When I heard about the story I had to figure out what was going on for myself,” said Mark Ellis, the chairman of the Maine Republican Party. “When I found out what this was about I had to ask, ‘boy, what’s the big deal here?’ because there wasn’t any.”

Well thats just one white guy, lets see if anybody else has an opinion.

Alabama Republican committeeman Paul Reynolds said the fact the Saltsman sent him a CD with the song on it “didn’t bother me one bit.”

“Chip probably could have thought it through a bit more, but he was doing everyone a favor by giving us a gift,” he said. “This is just people looking for something to make an issue of.”

Oh so he was doing everyone a favor. Oh now that makes all the difference in the world. But maybe these views aren't all that representative.

“I don’t think he intended it as any kind of racial slur. I think he intended it as a humor gift,” Oklahoma GOP committeewoman Carolyn McClarty added. “I think it was innocently done by Chip.”

Yeah, it was a humor gift... because Saltsman is a fucking joke. What makes it so bad is that the song isn't funny AT ALL. Over at Coates' spot we had a conversation about a different parody song of K Fed a few weeks back that had racial overtones. Now that song was bad, but it sounds like comedic gold compared to Limbaugh's tripe.

Now I know what you are thinking. "What about the hanful of white guys who came out and blasted Saltsman over the gift." Well I would point out that Mike Duncan had a vested interest in doing that seeing as how he is the current RNC chairman and wants to keep the post. But thats not even really my strongest selling point today. What do you think other party members think about Duncan coming out and doing the right thing and saying Saltsman was wrong?

Not everyone is so sure, with some RNC members contending that Anuzis and Duncan may have actually hurt their candidacies with their responses.

“Those are two guys who just eliminated themselves from this race for jumping all over Chip on this,” one committee member told Politico. “Mike Duncan is a nice guy, but he screwed up big time by pandering to the national press on this.”

Ok Ok so thats just one anonomous person. I mean surely nobody else in the Republican party thinks like that.

While South Carolina GOP Chair Katon Dawson and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele have decided to stay away from the controversy, offering no comment, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who would be the party’s first black chairman, has drawn notice for his vigorous defense of Saltsman.

“Unfortunately, there is hypersensitivity in the press regarding matters of race. This is in large measure due to President-Elect Obama being the first African-American elected president,” Blackwell said in a statement. “I don't think any of the concerns that have been expressed in the media about any of the other candidates for RNC chairman should disqualify them. When looked at in the proper context, these concerns are minimal. All of my competitors for this leadership post are fine people.”

As a result of his position, a source close to the race said that at least 12 uncommitted committee members have contacted Blackwell to thank him for his support for Saltsman and have expressed anger toward Duncan and Anuzis “for throwing a good Republican under the bus.”

Indeed, in a fluid race in which six candidates are vying for the votes of 168 members, both Blackwell and Saltsman stand to benefit from a backlash to the flap.

Yeah you read that right folks. Sending a "Barack the Magic Negro" CD out and defending the guy who did it will get you MAJOR street cred in the Republican Party. Coming out against such a racially insensitive and all around dumbass move might get you fired though. Great job on that minority outreach thingy Republicans.

Is there really anything more to say? I mean I haven't even brought up the disasterous Republican positions on Economic and Foreign Policy. What exactly does a Republican bring to the table these days? IMHO not much.

So don't believe the hype Republicans, you aren't going into the wilderness. you are going into the abyss. I can't say that I am sorry to see you go.

Can We Talk About The Congressional Black Caucus For a Moment?

Over at Ta Nehisi Coates' spot he has a post up about Vietnamese-American Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao's intention to try to join the Congressional Black Caucus. I have to admit something, when I first read his post I felt a certain indignation about the premise of the article that he linked to which was basically that Cao might not be allowed to join the CBC just because he wasn't black even though he was elected from a majority black district. For some reason I was instantly indignant that anybody would dare accuse the CBC of excluding people just because they were not black. I had my rebuttal already formulated about how this was just another attempt to promote the notion of reverse racism. But as I clicked through TC's links and started doing a little googling I came to find out that there was one problem with my indignation.

I was wrong.

Setting aside for a moment that I should have known better because TC isn't the kind of journalist based on his body of work that would push a "racist black folks" meme unless there was some validity to it, I am still shocked by this revelation.

You see the Congressional Black Caucus DOES discriminate on the basis of race. Evidently it is allowed to do so based on Congressional rules governing such organizations. But as my father told me many times growing up, just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do it. Besides the fact that Cao's exclusion would be used against them politically, the mere fact that the CBC wouldn't want to include a person who will be representing a lot of black constituents in a part of the country that has been through so much in the last 3 years is just not a good look IMHO. It begs the question, is the CBC about representing black folks, or are they about representing black politicians?

Now my embarrassment didn't end with just finding out that I was wrong about the CBC's racially discriminatory practices. It was heightened by the fact that these practices were on full display when it came to a white jewish Congressman by the name of Stephen Cohen who happens to represent my hometown of
Memphis the 9th Congressional district of Tennessee. How I totally missed this story is beyond me. I could blame it on a lot of things but I won't. I pride myself on keeping up with the politics of my hometown. My father and many of my extended family still live in Memphis and who knows maybe one day I will move back there. So I have always felt like it was important to keep tabs on what was going on there. But not only did I miss the story of how Steven Cohen was re-elected to the House of Representatives by defeating one Nikki Tinker who has been described quite accurately in my opinion as a black Ann Coulter and was backed by the CBC, I also had totally missed the story about Cohen being rebuffed in his stated intention to try to join the CBC when he was first elected to the House in 2006. Now because I missed the story I am betting that others did too so I feel like to understand the Cao situation it makes a lot of sense to delve into the Cohen situation and what happened with him.

So the story goes that in 2006 Stephen Cohen while campaigning for Harold Ford Jr's vacated seat in the House pledged to seek admission into the CBC. The reasons for doing so would seem to be obvious. In representing the 9th district of Tennessee which is basically Memphis, Cohen would be representing a district that is 60% black. But a funny thing happened when he arrived in Washington. Before he could ever reach out to the CBC they reached out to him, and not in a good way. Evidently the old guard just wasn't having it and let it be known in no uncertain terms. Just check out this reporting from Politico from last year:

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."

Well I don't think it can get any more unambiguous than that. It didn't matter what Cohen's district looked like. It didn't matter what kind of politics Cohen was promoting. It didn't matter if he was willing to vote with them on major issues. For the CBC the only thing that mattered was the color of Cohen's skin and that, to me, is incredibly ironic. For a group that was formed in part to help combat discrimination against people on the basis of race, the fact that they are engaging in the very same behavior is pretty damned disturbing.

But the story doesn't end there. Just this year Cohen was up for re election and he was opposed by one Nikki Tinker who ran a very devisive campaign encorporating both race baiting and Jew baiting. But in an unprecendented move, the CBC endorsed not the incumbent Democrat in Cohen, but the embarrasing and repulsive Tinker evidently just because she was black. I say that because when I look at Cohen's record it would seem that he have been a very progressive Congressman over the last two years and I couldn't find a major issue that he differs with the CBC on. Thankfully my hometown represented and voted overwhelmingly for Cohen back in August. But what does it say about the CBC when they would back such a horrible person instead of a guy who has done a good job over the last two years just because she was black and he wasn't?

It doesn't sound to ME like they cared about the black folks in Memphis on that one.

Now I understand the urge to want to keep some things exclusive to black folks. For many many years in this country we were never allowed to have anything of our own. And then when we finally were, we were still given second class treatment. So there is a certain pride in keeping some black organizations exclusively black. But as TC points out, even the HBCU's never discriminated against white people from being admitted. In his words

HBCUs are clearly set up to educate black kids--but they don't bar white kids from coming. They just tell them to expect a heavy dose of Baldwin--as they should.

And I get that some people think that when you start allowing white people into a historically black organization that you run the risk of losing the focus. But as President Elect Obama has said, the focus should come from the top. Just like you can allow white people in there is nothing that says you can't kick them out if they are disruptive or are trying to lead your organization down a path that is in conflict with the path already chosen. So to me that argument only holds water if you feel that you have such WEAK SAUCE that just by admitting in a white person will somehow confer all of your power to them.

So now we come back to the present day question about whether Anh Cao should be allowed into the CBC. To me it should be a no brainer. Not only could the CBC help shape the way that Cao votes on major issues, they could also potentially influence him to cross the aisle. I mean doesn't that just make sense? But even if he doesn't, are we so stuck on political partisanship that if he votes like a Democrat we will still treat him like a Republican? That to me would be in a word STUPID. But hey I could say the same for rebuffing Stephen Cohen as well. In the immortal words of Forrest Gump "Stupid is as stupid does", truly.

Surely the CBC can come up with a formula whereby if a non black person is elected from a district where black folks are in the majority, they can join the caucus. If not they run the very real risk of rendering themselves irrelevant by inviting scorn and derision for not practicing what they preach, and rightly so.