Waterstar

Oh yes indeed. I'm tellin you Lady Justice ain't blind; she' schizophrenic. These lawmakers have a mother and it is she. One cannot truly examine the child without truly examining the mother. What can we expect from this system? It is the child of those who could claim liberty and justice for all, all while maintaining a slave society. Perhaps the biggest conspiracy theorist in this world is history.

On another note: Cynique said: "Young people seem to have an innate streak of cruelty that being in a dominant position brings out in them. It doesn't goes away once they mature into responsible adults but, in most cases, it is kept under control." Hmm.. I couldn't help but think of the incident that Romney can't seem to remember... It's troubling that he did that to person, but it is even more troubling if Romney really cannot truly remember. How does one forget something like that? Yet this is where our irresponsibility as critical thinkers weighs in: Who listens to Romney saying that he cannot remember but that he played a lot of pranks when he was younger without finding it deeply troubling that Romney would be presented with this terrible blast from the past and start talking about past "pranks"?) Perhaps to people like Romney (and I believe that there are many in this country), Robert Champion's situation is just a "prank" that went wrong.

I've always enjoyed your writing. Speaking of which, where is your poetry??? (Yes, the question is that major!) Also, what was it that you said in a previous chapter about the manner in which one was doin what was bein done; like a race horse or something like that? Hahaha! I laughed and I laughed. Only Cynique! lol

I really like this.

Fayetteville is not far at all from here, (Augusta). I'm excited about this anthology; I'm excited, in general, about this genre... Will definitely be picking this up for sure~

(Are we waking up a bit now, People? If so, then this should sound quite familiar to you. ) The Klan's Fight for Americanism (1926), Hiram W. Evans The backlash against "alien" groups "infesting" American life after World War I assumed its most virulent form in a revival of the Ku Klux Klan. The organization had first emerged in the rural South after the Civil War, seeking to intimidate blacks from voting or holding office, and had pretty much died out by 1900. The zealous patriotism fostered by American intervention in World War I helped revive the Klan. In its new form it was more of an urban than a rural phenomenon. It adopted a broader agenda than the original organization, and its membership grew across the nation. By 1926 it boasted over 3 million members. Klan intolerance now went beyond blacks to include Jews, Catholics, Communists, and labor unionists. Texas dentist Hiram Evans assumed leadership of the organization in 1926. In this speech he reveals that the Klan was fundamentally a protest against all of the ills associated with modern culture. . . . The Klan, therefore, has now come to speak for the great mass of Americans of the old pioneer stock. We believe that it does fairly and faithfully represent them, and our proof lies in their support. To understand the Klan, then, it is necessary to understand the character and present mind of the mass of old-stock Americans. The mass, it must be remembered, as distinguished from the intellectually mongrelized "Liberals." These are, in the first place, a blend of various peoples of the so-called Nordic race, the race which, with all its faults, has given the world almost the whole of modern civilization. The Klan does not try to represent any people but these. . . . These Nordic Americans for the last generation have found themselves increasingly uncomfortable, and finally deeply distressed. There appeared first confusion in thought and opinion, a groping and hesitancy about national affairs and private life alike, in sharp contrast to the clear, straightforward purposes of our earlier years. There was futility in religion, too, which was in many ways even more distressing. Presently we began to find that we were dealing with strange ideas; policies that always sounded well but somehow always made us still more uncomfortable. Finally came the moral breakdown that has been going on for two decades. One by one all our traditional moral standards went by the boards or were so disregarded that they ceased to be binding. The sacredness of our Sabbath, of our homes, of chastity, and finally even of our right to teach our own children in our own schools fundamental facts and truths were torn away from us. Those who maintained the old standards did so only in the face of constant ridicule. . . . The old-stock Americans are learning, however. They have begun to arm themselves for this new type of warfare. Most important, they have broken away from the fetters of the false ideals and philanthropy which put aliens ahead of their own children and their own race. . . . One more point about the present attitude of the old-stock American: he has revived and increased his long-standing distrust of the Roman Catholic Church. It is for this that the native Americans, and the Klan as their leader, are most often denounced as intolerant and prejudiced. . . . The Ku Klux Klan, in short, is an organization which gives expression, direction and purpose to the most vital instincts, hopes, and resentments of the old-stock Americans, provides them with leadership, and is enlisting and preparing them for militant, constructive action toward fulfilling their racial and national destiny. . . . The Klan literally is once more the embattled American farmer and artisan, coordinated into a disciplined and growing army, and launched upon a definite crusade for Americanism! . . . Thus the Klan goes back to the American racial instincts, and to the common sense which is their first product, as the basis of its beliefs and methods. . . . There are three of these great racial instincts, vital elements in both the historic and the present attempts to build an America which shall fulfill the aspirations and justify the heroism of the men who made the nation. These are the instincts of loyalty to the white race, to the traditions of America, and to the spirit of Protestantism, which has been an essential part of Americanism ever since the days of Roanoke and Plymouth Rock. They are condensed into the Klan slogan: "Native, white, Protestant supremacy." [From Hiram W. Evans, "The Klan's Fight for Americanism," North American Review 223 (March 1926):38-39.]

"Has the Bell Begun to Toll for the GOP?" Pat Buchanan May 2012 (in response to Census Results) Among the more controversial chapters in "Suicide of a Superpower," my book published last fall, was the one titled, "The End of White America." It dealt with the demographic decline of the white majority and what it portends for education, the U.S. economy, politics and national unity. That book and chapter proved the proximate cause of my departure from MSNBC, where the network president declared that subjects such as these are inappropriate for "the national dialogue." Apparently, the mainstream media are reassessing that. For, in rare unanimity, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today all led yesterday with the same story. "Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S.," blared the Times headline. "Minority Babies Majority in U.S.," echoed the Post. "Minorities Are Now a Majority of Births," proclaimed USA Today. The USA Today story continued, "The nation's growing diversity has huge implications for education, economics and politics." Huge is right. Not only are whites declining as a share of the population, they are declining in real terms. Between 2010 and 2011, the number of births to white women fell 10 percent. The median age of white Americans, now 43 and rising, means that half of all white women have moved past the age that they are ever likely to bear more children. White America is a dying tribe. What do these statistics mean politically? Almost surely the end of the Republican Party as a national governing institution. Republicans now depend on the vanishing majority for fully 90 percent of their votes in presidential elections, while the Democratic Party wins 60 to 70 percent of the Asian and Hispanic vote and 90 to 95 percent of the black vote. The Democratic base is growing inexorably, while the Republican base is shriveling. Already, California, Illinois and New York are lost. The GOP has not carried any of the three in five presidential elections. When Texas — where whites are a minority and a declining share of the population — tips, how does the GOP put together an electoral majority? Western states like Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona, which Republican nominees like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan swept almost every time they ran, are becoming problematic for the party. Thus the GOP refrain: We must work harder to win over Hispanics. Undeniably true. But how does the GOP appeal to them? Fifty-three percent of all Hispanic children are born out of wedlock, with no father in the home and many of the moms themselves high school dropouts. Most Hispanic kids thus start school far behind. In tests of fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders, their scores are closer to those of African-American kids than whites and Asians. Their dropout rate matches that of black kids. Absent affirmative action, not only are America's colleges and universities but her professions are going to look far more Asian and white than the national population. Not a formula for social peace. Comes the reply: We must spend more to close the racial gap in test scores. Yet, according to The Washington Examiner, in the District of Columbia, the community where we have spent perhaps the most per capita to close the racial gap in test scores, the racial gap is by far the largest in the nation. Not only do we seem not to know how to close it after four decades of plunging trillions into public schools, the country is tapped out. We are in the fourth consecutive year of trillion-dollar deficits, and our largest and richest state, California, just discovered its deficit has exploded to $16 billion. And why should Hispanics vote Republican? The majority of Hispanics are among that half of the population that pays no income tax. Why should they vote for a party whose major plank is that it will cut income taxes? Hispanics benefit disproportionately from government programs. Government puts their kids in Head Start before public school and provides them with Pell grants and student loans after public school. From kindergarten through 12th grade, government educates their kids for free. Government provides them with free or subsidized health care through Medicaid and clinics. Government provides their families with public housing and rent supplements. Government provides the food stamps that feed the family. Government provides them with an annual earned income tax credit, a check just for working. Government provides all these things, and what are Republicans going to do? They promise to cut government. Again, why should Hispanics vote Republican? Establishment Republicans say the party should support amnesty for illegal aliens. Yet this would make millions more eligible for federal programs in a country sinking in debt and mean millions more Hispanics going to the polls, and millions more coming to America in anticipation of the next amnesty. How would that help the GOP? By endlessly expanding Great Society programs, by lopping taxpayers off tax rolls, by supporting open borders and endless immigration from the Third World, the Republican Party, out of sheer nobility of character, has probably ensured its impending departure from history.

(Note: Would anyone happen to have a violin? You can almost hear the snobs and feel the tears and snot dripping from the screen.) "Path to National Suicide" Pat Buchanan 2007 "At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? "I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." So said Abe Lincoln to the Young Men's Lyceum in Springfield. Observing the Senate last week, and looking over the latest figures from the Census Bureau, America is now risking national suicide. Last week, senators meeting in secret produced a bill to legalize our 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens. If a path to citizenship becomes law, nothing will stop the next invasion. As President Bush acknowledges, 6 million tried to breach our Southern border in his first five years. One in 12 — 500,000 — had a criminal record. Last week, senators meeting in secret produced a bill to legalize our 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens. If a path to citizenship becomes law, nothing will stop the next invasion. As President Bush acknowledges, 6 million tried to breach our Southern border in his first five years. One in 12 — 500,000 — had a criminal record. According to the Census Bureau, from mid-2005 to mid-2006, the U.S. minority population rose 2.4 million, to exceed 100 million. Hispanics, 1 percent of the population in 1950, are now 14.4 percent. Their total number has soared 25 percent since 2000 alone. The Asian population has also grown by 25 percent since 2000. The number of white kids of school age fell 4 percent, however. Half the children 5 and younger in the United States are now minorities. What is happening to us? An immigrant invasion of the United States from the Third World, as America's white majority is no longer even reproducing itself. Since Roe v. Wade, America has aborted 45 million of her children. And Asia, Africa and Latin America have sent 45 million of their children to inherit the estate the aborted American children never saw. God is not mocked. And white America is in flight. In the 1990s, for the first time since the Spanish came, whites left California. Two million departed. From July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006, 100,000 more packed up and headed back whence their fathers came. The "Anglo" population of the Golden State is down to 43 percent and falling fast. White folks are now a minority in Texas and New Mexico. In Arizona, Hispanics account for over half the population under 20. The future is not in doubt. Why ought this be of concern? First, while the black and Hispanic population combined is now 85 million — five times what it was in 1960 — half of all black and Hispanic kids drop out of high school. And the average math and reading scores of the half who graduate are at seventh-, eighth- or ninth-grade levels. And the future is not so sanguine as it seemed 50 years ago. As I write in "State of Emergency": "In 1960, 18 million black Americans, 10 percent of the nation, were not fully integrated into society, but they had been assimilated into our culture. They worshiped the same God, spoke the same language, had endured the same Depression and war, watched the same TV shows on the same four channels, laughed at the same comedians, went to the same movies, ate the same foods, read the same newspapers and went to schools where, even when segregated, we learned the same history and literature and shared the same holidays: Christmas, New Year's, Washington's Birthday, Easter, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Columbus Day. Segregation existed, but black folks were as American as apple pie, having lived in this land longer than almost every other group save the Native Americans. "That cultural unity, that sense that we were one people, is gone." Today's immigrants exceed in number anything any nation has ever known. They now come from cultures and countries whose people have never before been assimilated by any First World country. Not only is the Melting Pot broken, it is rejected by our elites. Minorities are urged to hold onto their own language, customs, traditions. Identity politics is in. And the largest cohort, Mexicans, comes from a country with a historic grievance and a claim on the territory they are entering. Moreover, since the cultural revolution of the 1960s, we have been fighting one another over issues of race and ethnicity, history, heroes and holidays, morality and religion, right and wrong. All over the Western world, multiethnic, multicultural countries are coming apart over language, ethnicity, history. The Soviet Union broke into 15 nations, Yugoslavia into half a dozen. Czechs and Slovaks divorced. Scots want separation from England. Catalans and Basques seek independence. Corsicans and Bretons want out of France. Northern Italians want to secede. Only immigrants who prefer Ottawa prevent Quebecois from breaking free of Canada. As we see from the election battles in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Mexico, race and ethnicity are not receding as issues, but rising. In South Central Los Angeles, black and Hispanic gangs are at war over race and turf. Addressing the Knights of Columbus in 1915, Theodore Roosevelt warned, "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities." In every way possible, Americans have said they do not want to take this risk with their country. Why then are our elites taking it? ((Note: For those who are not familiar with Buchanan's Books of Lamentations [a collective term for all of his work dealing with the dying out of the American myth], when he says "elites", he is talking about people who are working to have the more marginalized people/issues represented in society, Academia, justice system etc.You should read him sometimes.You better read stuff from people like this. Who u think helpin to advise these politcians? He says what many on his side of things feel/think yet do not. Imagine Senator McCain's "anger interpreter". ha ))

Hazing is also common in students in many high school bands, which emulate the students/structure of the college bands. This case is terrible and what is worse is that people are getting even more ridiculous because they are becoming more and more desensitized, less and less likely to even care.

I can absolutely respect this.

This has got to be so hard for the family of Tyler Clementi. Can you imagine the heartbreak of the dead son as the mother of the defendant, bawled and that her son (who was possibly facing at least 10 years) had not even yet had the chance to live his life, that he already had "so much on his shoulders"? What about the Tyler Clementi? Who has less of the chance to live his life? Is the one that was breathing and looking quite indifferent as the mother of the son he had spied on cried? Or is it the one who ended his life after being humiliated by the defendant's cyber actions? I know that Ravi did not physically murder Clementi, that Clementi took his own life. However, that the judge gave Ravi a slap on the wrist and not, at the VERY LEAST, 3,000 (what the heck is 300 hours? That's not even a slap on the wrist; that is a peck on the cheek!) hours of community service and cyber bullying education is just deplorable. I am no advocate for Clementi's lifestyle, there are many people who are advocates for such. However, who can, in any way, be endowed with the human factor and not notice that Clementi seems to be being treated as if he were a non-human just because of his lifestyle? By MICHAEL KOENIGS (@mckoenigs) , CANDACE SMITH (@CandaceSmith_) and CHRISTINA NG (@ChristinaNg27) NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., May 21, 2012 Former Rutgers student Dharun Raviwas sentenced to 30 days in jail by a New Jersey judge today for spying on his roommate's gay tryst. Ravi's freshman roommate Tyler Clementi committed suicide days later. "I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi," Judge Glenn Berman told the court. "He had no reason to, but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity." Ravi, 20, must report to Middlesex Adult Correctional Center on May 31 at 9 a.m. for his 30 day jail term. He was also sentenced to three years probation, ordered to complete 300 hours of community service and attend counseling programs for cyber-bullying and alternative lifestyles. He must also pay a $10,000 assessment to the probation department in increments of $300 per month beginning Aug. 1. The money will go to victims of bias crimes. The judge recommended that Ravi, who was born in India and is here on a green card, not be deported. "I heard this jury say, 'guilty' 288 times--24 questions, 12 jurors. That's the multiplication," Berman said. "I haven't heard you apologize once." Berman also berated Ravi by saying that most defendants stand when a judge speaks to them, but told him, "Keep your seat." The judge called Ravi's pre-sentencing letter "unimpressive." Ravi, who was expected to make a statement to the packed New Brunswick, N.J. courtroom, declined to speak before the sentence was read. The prosecution, which sought a significant prison term, indicated it will appeal the judge's sentence. Ravi was convicted of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering and hindering arrest, stemming from his role in activating the webcam to peek at Clementi's date with a man in the dorm room on Sept. 19, 2010. Ravi was also convicted of encouraging others to spy during a second date, on Sept. 21, 2010, and intimidating Clementi for being gay. Before the judge's sentencing, Ravi's mother delivered an emotional plea for leniency during which she and her son both broke into tears. At the end of her plea, Ravi's mother threw herself on her son, sobbing and hugging him. "Dharun's dreams are shattered," his mother Sabitha Ravi cried. "And he has been living in hell for the past 20 months. It's hard for me to say that my son is sitting here physically alive in front of everyone...I feel that Dharun has really suffered enough for the past two years in the media." Sabitha Ravi said that her son lives an isolated life studying, has lost 25 pounds and only eats one meal a day to "suppress his hunger." "This case has been tried, has been treated and exists today, as if it's a murder case," defense attorney Steve Altman said. He spoke about the need for Ravi to be defended and looked at the Clementi family when he said, "I know that family hates me. I'm a demon to them." In March, Ravi was found guilty of a bias crime for using a webcam to spy on Clementi. Clementi's family bitterly asked the judge today to sentence Ravi to prison time. Clementi's father, Joseph Clementi, told the judge, "One of Tyler's last actions was to check Ravi's Twitter page" and noted that his son checked his roommate's Twitter page 37 times before leaving the Rutgers campus and driving to the George Washington Bridge where he jumped to his death. Ravi was convicted of a hate crime for using a webcame to spy on Clementi during a sexual liaison with a man identified only as "MB" and announcing what he saw on Twitter. Ravi put out another tweet when he heard Clementi was having a second date with MB. Joseph Clementi said that Ravi decided his son "wasn't deserving the respect of basic human decency" and "was below him" because Tyler Clementi was gay. "He did it in a cold calculating manner and then he tried to cover it up," the father, who had to pause to compose himself, said. Clementi's mother Jane Clementi cried in the front row has her husband spoke. The father accused Ravi of having any "lack of remorse." Tyler Clementi's mother Jane Clementi recalled the day she helped her "excited" son move into his Rutgers dorm room and the coldness Ravi showed by not getting up from his computer to say hello. Dharun Ravi Showed No Remorse, Tyler Clementi's Family Stated "He never even paused to acknowledge that Tyler was in the room," she said. "He never stopped what he was doing, no greeting, no smile, no recognition, no nothing." Jane Clementi said that though she initially thought Ravi may have been stressed or busy, she said she realized during trial that that was not the case. She heard during the trial that Ravi had not reached out to her son on Facebook or via email, but, rather, had used his computer skills to plug Clementi's email address into various computer programs to discover what websites he frequented and to discover that Tyler was gay. "He never really knew Tyler, not the smart, kind, articulate, humble, funny, talented, caring, thoughtful, generous, trustworthy and dependable person Tyler was," she said. "All he found out was that Tyler was gay." She called Ravi's actions toward her son "arrogant and mean-spirited." Clementi's brother, James, told the court, "I watched as Dharun slept through court as if it was not worth" paying attention. "I watched Dharun and his lawyers laugh as if it were a private joke." Earlier a lawyer for MB read a statement asking for prison time for Ravi because, he said, Ravi has not accepted responsibility for his actions. "He must serve some type of confinement… To this day he appears to blame me for his conduct," citing Ravi's claim that he spied on his roommate because he feared MB would steal his iPad. MB said he does not believe, however, that Ravi should be deported. Watch Chris Cuomo's exclusive interview with Dharun Ravi on the full episode of "20/20" In recent days, several prominent gay activists have made public pleas for Ravi to not be sent to prison. The judge began the proceedings today by noting the court had received a box full of petitions seeking a pardon for Ravi. Some of the petitions were addressed to President Obama, but the judge said the president has no ability to pardon someone for a state crime. Some of the petitions were addressed to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who would have the authority to pardon someone for a state crime. ***You know though, when I think about it, karma can be something else. 30 days in jail might even be all that Ravi needs to be taught a lesson in empathy... Wonder if his hands are steady enough to not drop the soap.. Mind a CO records it with his iPhone... Karma is like lightning; man cannot tell it where to strike.**

Oh don't get me started on Brother Malcolm. Words can't even express... You know, Sonia Sanchez was speaking about going to see Bro. Malcolm speak for the very first time. After the speech, she told him that she agreed with many things that he said, but that she did not agree with some. He smiled and told her, "One day you will, Sister... One day, you will." To this day, so many of our people shun Malcolm. I tend to believe that this is more out of perceptions shaped more by Media than experience or self-research. Then, there are some who understand and agree with his words in private but will never, ever come out and say it. Surely, our people are still so much under the control of the dominant culture. Troy, perhaps if more of us understood what happened, they would know the effects and remnants when they look at them. To this day, Assata Shakur is vilified. Mumia Abu Jamal is in prison.Sundiata Acoli, countless others. Political prisoners who were saying or doing too much to help change the miserable condition faced by those of the other America. The voice of the media has been louder than the evidence that screams out about trumped up charges. It never helps when our people are so trained to turn the other way anytime it involves those individuals and movements in opposition to a the status quo of oppression, repression, corruption.. . Oh yes, Cynique. I know that being out and trying to get home has probably been crazy there. They probably chilled out on havin all dem Hummers drivin up and down the city. Gas ain't no joke. Let me know if you see Obama ridin in a 1982 Chevette. (I wonder who got one a those. Probably costs like $20 to fill them things up. lol) SALUTES @ Bro. Fred Hampton. His son has taken up the torch. This "Democracy Now!" interview sheds much light on govn't covert operations and the assassination of Fred Hampton. http://www.democracy...adow_government (I hope it appears automatically like the youtube videos do, but I'm computer illiterate danna mug, so just click if not. :-/ )

Oh my, right where my interests lie. That's wonderful, Bro. I will definitely check you out. That's really wonderful. Also, I know that we're speaking on literature, but I just thought some of you might appreciate checking this out: "Pumzi" (Straight from Mama Africa, Kenya to be exact.)

I went to public school, too...and, outside of smart/wise fam, if it weren't for libraries and book stores to aid in self-education from young, I would probably be a complete idiot. Wellllll Troy, perhaps it was an unintentional pun, but it would still be a curiosly random one, because gay politics and bending over backwards is just a queer (See? Like that.) pair.

ABC News Hate Groups Grow as Racial Tipping Point Changes Demographics By COLLEEN CURRY May 18, 2012 The number of radical hate groups and militias has exploded in recent years in reaction to the changing makeup of America, and new census figures showing the majority of babies born in 2011 were non-white could fuel those simmering tensions, experts who track hate groups warned. "White supremacist groups have been having a meltdown since the census bureau predicted that non-Hispanic whites would lose the majority by 2050," said Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups. "The demographic change in this country is the single most important driver in the growth of hate groups and extremist groups over the last few years." The data released this week revealed a tipping point in the country's demographic shift. For the first time in the country's history, more minority children were born than white children, setting the stage for an eventual non-white majority in America's population. The census found that 50.4 percent of births in 2011 were of Hispanic, black, Asian, and other minority children. White babies accounted for 49.5 percent of the country's newborns. In addition, more than 49 percent of all children under 5 years old are minorities, the report said. For white supremacist and radical right-wing groups, the data is especially troubling, and made all the more apparent by the fact that a black man was elected president, Potok said. "This very real and very significant change is represented in the person of Barack Obama. We've of course seen the most remarkable growth in the radical right since 2008, precisely coinciding with Obama's first three years as president," he said. According to the SPLC, the number of radical "anti-government" militia groups increased from 150 to 1,274 during the years of the Obama presidency. There have been more homegrown domestic terrorism attacks by right-wing groups than by international terrorists during his presidency as well, Potok noted. Marilyn Mayo, co-director of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, said white supremacist groups have increased their efforts to recruit and plot based on the changing racial makeup of America. "I think that what we're seeing is that hate groups, particularly white supremacist groups, are talking a lot about the fact that whites will soon be a minority in this country, that their goal at all costs is to preserve the white race in civilization, which spurs them to recruit more, and have more incendiary rhetoric," Mayo said. Mayo cited two recent plots by radical groups in Florida and Minnesota that involved stockpiling weapons for racially-motivated attacks against other Americans. "These are just examples of people who feel like they are at a point where they have to take action because soon whites will lose power and authority and they have to protect the white race from extinction," she said. "We're not saying that patriot militia groups are made up of klansman," he said, referring to the Ku Klux Klan. "It's more diffuse than that. It's a generalized feeling that 'this is not the country my Christian white forefathers built. We've got to take this country back.' It's not rancid straight ahead race hate, but it is very closely tied to race and the changing look of the country." The changes in demographic will challenge the political and social landscape of the country, he said. In California, the shift to a non-white majority in 2000 resulted in changes to the Republican Party, which had to shift left to appeal to non-white voters, he said. Potok pointed out that more young people than ever before, hovering around 95 percent of young voters, approve of interracial relationships and marriage. Though the country is going through a "backlash" against demographic changes, newer generations will come to accept the changes, he said. "The thing I think to understand is that the radical right is not entirely composed of people who are insane. These are people reacting to real changes in the real world around them," Potok said.

I've got to check Dr.Cress-Welsing's interview out. (I bet you have the best collection of books, videos, AND music! I would LOVE to go through your stash!) Cynique, the things that you are speaking about are very important yet understudied topics. Actually, just last week, I was thinking about integration, that if it was any kind of blessing, it was at best a mixed blessing. As far as drugs, the undoing of much re: sociopolitical movements, and a completely different black community, that topic is wayyyy too understudied, so much until most of us have never even HEARD of a COINTELPRO. I don't think most of our people realized its mission and part in all of those things that I just mentioned and I definitely do not think that most of our people know now or even want to know. This type of stuff did not just affect the more radical black leaders/movements. It also affected nonviolent civil rights leaders and movements . (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as one of many examples.) This type of stuff is not simply about the past, either. "Listen to me now, believe me later on." [media=]

LOL Ok, ok... I added two options to the poll. Perhaps, but the irony in this is that ownership of something that America herself does not own is the story of America. She is the gangsta land hijacker and she is the spreader of freedom and democracy. Her left hand points to reservations to tell them native Americans to get to steppin and her right hand is over her heart, pledging allegiance to the flag that is stuck in the earth (upon which she has made her slavery-powered plantation) as she says the last words with the pride of a true patriot, "With liberty and justice for all." (She's not a hypocrite; she's a schizophrenic.)

I will indeed and I will also check the interview out. (Thanks!) Perhaps the book would have enjoyed the coverage that it deserves had it not been published smack dead in the middle of the post racial society era. Perhaps the book is just much more "inconvenient" than it is dated. However, I remember very clearly our beloved elder saying that the older she gets, the more she says just what she feels. I think that a book written by an African American woman who says just what she feels, a woman who has lived through the Jim Crow era and can cite parallels between what she saw in the past and what she is seeing in the present, a book in which she shares these parallels with a nation that will not remember what she cannot forget, a nation, also, that will not see what they are looking at.... well... I think that a book like this is not exactly the flavor of the day in this post racial era.

Oh Troy, I did not at all take it as a personal attack on my intellectual gangsta! If I would have, I woulda holla'd at my folk (notice I didn't say boy/girl) Boitumelo to put a put a CAP in ya. haha Actually, I wasn't even going that deeply with it, I was just wondering if those in the Black church who feel so strongly against homosexuality to the point that Obama's support for gay marriage will cause them to turn into ex-Obama supporters who do not vote for him would at all feel differently about King James (or if it would not even matter) if the issue of King James' less-than-hetero-sexuality came to light. Cynique, you said: "One good argument which a lot of disgruntled black leaders are making is that Obama has bent over backwards to not show any favoritism towards Blacks, the implication being that this was a smart political move. Yet, he risks being re-elected by catering to the homo-sexual voting bloc, something that is alienating his most loyal supporters." Cynique, I have not said anything about that, but of course, it has been in my mental book of interesting observations. lol Still, a politician is what a politician does and Mr. Obama has a price just like most of the black leaders who are supporting him AS WELL AS most of the black leaders who are disgruntled. Once upon a time, the president of America said, "SHOW ME DA MONEY!!" So in one corner of America, all the black people of America gathered, pooled all their money together and came up with much more love, passion, and emotional support for the president than money for the president. In the other corner of America, all the people of the LGBT community got gathered, pooled all their money together, and came up with "some" love, passion, and emotional for the president but much more money for the president than love, passion, and emotional support for him. So he President chose the LCBT community. The end. Cynique: (on how some disgruntled black leaders feel)"....Obama has bent over backwards to not show any favoritism towards Blacks..." Ahhh snap! That was one WICKED double entendre! lol

The show actually is made up quite a few panelists and Brother Malcolm is but one, so the title doesn't reflect this. This is a very interesting show, especially in that the relevance of it can be seen so clearly today. Even somewhere in the first 3 minutes of this sounds like a current commentary of the events surrounding Trayvon Martin's death, yet this was filmed in the 1960's.

Oh yes, yes indeed. I read it because I like it. That's my best answer... To elaborate a little, perhaps it is because since childhood, I have always had the kind of mind that appreciated the presentation of other spheres of possibilities/realities. Maybe I was a weird child to some. When I wasn't trying to be with the elders, I was reading or writing, preferably in Mama Nature. Was not a big tv watcher, but when the tv was on, I was enjoying stuff like Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Dr. Who and other stuff like that....or political stuff. Boring stuff to most little kids, boring to most adults too, I notice. lol Having the mind to live in the box is beyond mundane, it is mentally and spiritually suffocating.

Should Mt. Rushmore be returned to indigenous Americans? Why or why not?

Wowow, this is BIG news! Those in the mainstream media are really keeping this pretty quiet, but this is big, big, monumental (literally) news! http://www.huffingto..._n_1496120.html 05/07/2012 12:12 pm Updated: 05/08/2012 12:48 am Mt. Rushmore Site Should Be Returned To Indigenous Native American Tribes, U.N. Official Says South Dakota's Black Hills, home to the granite faces carved into Mt. Rushmore, should be restored as Native American tribal lands, a United Nations official recently said. James Anaya, a U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, completed a fact-finding mission on Friday that included meetings with a number of Native American tribal leaders as well as White House officials. His investigation led him to suggest that the United States take additional steps to repair the nation's legacy of oppression against Native Americans. He'll officially propose the plan in an upcoming report. From the Associated Press: Anaya said land restoration would help bring about reconciliation. He named the Black Hills as an example. He said restoring to indigenous people what they have a legitimate claim to can be done in a way that is not divisive "so that the Black Hills, for example, isn't just a reminder of the subordination and domination of indigenous peoples in that country." The Black Hills, home to Mount Rushmore, are public land but are considered sacred by the Sioux tribes. The Sioux have refused to accept money awarded in a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision and have sought return of the land. The Black Hills and other lands were set aside for the Sioux in an 1868 treaty. But Congress passed a law in 1877 taking the land. According to Anaya, handing over these lands would be a key step toward repairing relations with the indigenous people who once controlled them. It would also further the nation's compliance with the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a measure that President Barack Obama endorsed in 2010, reversing a previous vote. "I have heard stories that make evident the profound hurt that indigenous peoples continue to feel because of the history of oppression they have faced," Anaya said Friday in a statement issued by the U.N. human rights office in Geneva. "Securing the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands is of central importance to indigenous peoples' socioeconomic development, self-determination, and cultural integrity. ... Continued efforts to resolve, clarify, and strengthen the protection of indigenous lands, resources, and sacred sites should be made." Anaya will outline a full set of recommendations regarding Native American relations in a report set to be released later this year.

Source: Huffington Post UPDATE: A judge denied Marissa Alexander a new trial Thursday morning for the 2010 shooting, The Florida-Times Union reports. EARLIER: It took nearly a year’s worth of violent physical abuse before Marissa Alexander decided to stand her ground against her husband. On Aug. 1, 2010, her husband cornered her in their Jacksonville, Fla., home. Alexander said she ran to the garage to escape, but the garage door was jammed, so Alexander grabbed a pistol. Her husband, Rico Gray, 36, saw the gun and threatened to kill her, Alexander would later say in court documents. Fearing for her life, she raised the pistol above her head and squeezed the trigger, the crackle of gunfire pelting the kitchen ceiling. While the shooting may have gotten Alexander out of one jam, it put her in another: She has been in a Florida jail since 2010 awaiting a mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The 31-year-old mother of three has said that she believes she had a legal right to protect herself that day under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which gives citizens expanded rights to use force when threatened with bodily harm. But moments after the shooting, Gray ran outside and called police alleging that Alexander shot at him and his two sons. Alexander was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Gray later changed his story about the shooting. During a court hearing to determine whether or not Alexander could be protected under the Stand Your Ground Law, Gray said he'd lied during his earlier deposition and that he "begged and pleaded for my life when she had the gun." A judge rejected Alexander’s Stand Your Ground defense, saying that she could have escaped her attacker "through the front or back door," court records say. The State Attorney’s Office offered her a plea deal that would have sent her to prison for a few years, but she rejected it, hoping to convince a jury that she was defending herself. It took a jury 12 minutes to find her guilty. Under the state’s mandatory sentencing guidelines, Alexander faces a 20-year prison sentence with no chance of early release. She could be sentenced as early as next week, but at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Alexander will be in court for a pre-sentencing hearing, where her attorneys will ask for a new trial. "This is my life I'm fighting for," Alexander said in an interview with CNN. "If you do everything to get on the right side of the law, and it is a law that does not apply to you, where do you go from there?" The death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, about two hours south of Jacksonville in Sanford, has sparked new interest in the state’s Stand Your Ground law. Martin was shot and killed in late February by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who claimed that he shot Martin in self-defense. The police questioned Zimmerman the night of the shooting but let him go hours later, saying that they did not have enough evidence to counter his self-defense claims. The police chief at the time cited a citizen’s right to defend himself or herself under state law. Zimmerman has since been charged with second-degree murder in Martin’s killing. The State Attorney’s Office in Jacksonville responsible for the Alexander case is led by Angela Corey, the special prosecutor leading the prosecution against Zimmerman. Her office could not be reached for comment. Alexander’s family and supporters said hers is a clear case of self-defense, given Gray’s violent history of abuse and the circumstances surrounding the incident. What exacerbates Alexander’s case is Florida’s 10-20-Life statutes, they say. In Florida, anyone who pulls a gun during a crime receives a mandatory 10-year sentence. Firing a gun during the commission of a crime equals a mandatory 20-year sentence. Anyone convicted of shooting and killing another person during a crime is sentenced to 25 to life in prison. Alexander, who did not have a criminal record before the shooting, was convicted of felony assault with a gun. “Florida has some of the more draconian mandatory minimum laws in the country,” said Greg Newburn, a spokesman for Families Against Minimum Mandates, an organization that has worked to dismantle the state’s mandatory sentencing laws. “It’s the sentence that’s really the problem in this case. You have a person who believes that she is protecting herself and believes she is covered by state law. But the way the law is written, it doesn’t provide for any kind of distinction for anyone that acts out of malice and someone who act out of fear.” Helena Jenkins, 26, Alexander’s younger sister, said the law that should have protected her has failed her. “I feel like she is being punished for doing the right thing,” Jenkins said. “I feel the law wasn’t upheld from the beginning, it was like, no one looked at it as what it really was.” The local NAACP and women’s advocacy groups have rallied around Alexander’s case to urge court officials to grant her a new trial. “The community is outraged about it, based on the history of her husband and this being domestic violence,” said Isaiah Rumlin, head of the Jacksonville branch of the NAACP. “We have been working with her lawyer, working with the State Attorney’s Office trying to urge them to just look at this thing on the merits.” Angela M. Nixon, a spokesperson for Florida New Majority, an organization that works to empower women and underserved communities, said the Alexander case exemplifies how ill-equipped the justice system is to protect the most vulnerable. “A woman’s right to protect herself shouldn’t be on trial,” Nixon said. “A woman’s right to safety, to protect herself from harm's way, from violence, from being killed should not be on trial.” Alexander had given birth just nine days before the 2010 shooting. The couple had been married three months, but since early in their relationship, Gray had choked, pushed and beaten her, Alexander’s family told HuffPost. Gray was arrested a year prior to the shooting incident for an attack that put Alexander in the hospital. In a deposition after the incident, Gray said he had “laid hands” on nearly every girlfriend that he’s had. That day in August, Gray became enraged when he went through Alexander’s cell phone and found messages to her ex-husband, who remained her close friend. "I told her if she ever cheated on me, I would kill her," Gray said in a deposition. "If my kids weren't there, I knew I probably would have tried to take the gun from her," he said of the shooting incident. "If my kids wouldn't have been there, I probably would have put my hand on her." "I got five baby-mamas and I put my hands on every last one of them except for one." Gray and Alexander have joint custody of their now 2-year-old daughter, but Jenkins said Gray doesn’t allow their side of the family to see her. Alexander’s ex-husband, Lincoln Alexander, said he and her family will keep fighting the case until the very end. “I know she’s innocent,” he said. “I’m not going to give up on her.” If Alexander isn’t granted a new trial, she could be sentenced as early as next week. Her family and friends are hoping for the best, but preparing for the reality that Alexander could spend then next two decades behind bars. “It hurts,” said Helena Jenkins, Alexander’s sister. “It’s like, having a piece of you torn away every time I think about her. My stomach drops just knowing what kind of person she is and what she’s going through.” Jenkins said Alexander is her inspiration and her hero, having graduated with her bachelor’s degree in computer network engineering and later her MBA. But, when it came to love and loving Gray, she described her sister as an “addict.” She said didn’t know Alexander was being abused until Gray put her in the hospital in 2009. “She tried to stick through it with him and she hoped that something different would turn about, but it ended so tragically for Marissa,” Jenkins said.