One Drop Rule

N-word = Racist

2011-12-28T18:50:00.000Z

Not sure if I've talked about this before, but when I came to the realization that white people today view the term "racist" as the functional equivalent of the word "nigger", it was something of an Oprah A-ha moment.

To many white people today, particularly young white people, being called a racist has the same impact and effect that being called a nigger has on black people. At first, when I talked to friends; saw comments on blogs; and observed white peoples' horror at being labeled racist, I thought, "What's the big deal? They called you racist. It's not that deep. Just ask them why they think you're racist, explain why you're not, and keep it movin'."

But, after seeing how distraught some people became at being lableled racist and the seriousness with which they considered the charge, it occurred to me that the label racist, works in almost the same way as the label nigger. Both terms label the person in question and obscure any other characteristic that the person in question might have. Once I call you a racist, you are nothing else. You are not brave, or funny, or caring, quirky, talented, or thoughtful. You're just a racist. Same thing with the n-word: the label destroys any other characteristic of individuality that you hold. You are nothing but a nigger. You are nothing but a racist.

There are of course important differences. The term racist is generally meant to draw awareness to something done or said that has a negative racial impact on others. If I'm calling you racist, it's because you did something that i think is wrong and I don't want you to do it again. I'm actually trying to help you. Not the case with the n-word. The n-word is deployed to make another person feel that they are less than. It's sole purpose is to maintain white supremacy.

The long and the short of it is, I tend to be more careful now about how I deploy the r-word and who I call racist. Perhaps my fellow liberals should follow suit.

Keep it Nappy

2011-10-19T20:31:00.000+01:00

Nappy Riddem CD Release Party Saturday October 22, 2011

@DC 9

9p-2 $10

Support Local Artists!!!

Brotherhood ii - The Writer's Challenge

2011-08-02T18:52:00.002+01:00

In re: Brotherhood

One of my brothers; part of my family; challenged me to write a positive post about the brotherhood of Omega Psi Phi. This is a difficult request to abide by. It's not hard for me to think of famous Omega men: Charles R. Drew, Michael Jordan, Jesse Jackson, Earl Graves, Langhston Hughes, Bill Cosby. And it's not hard for me to think of positive experiences I've had as a brother: the love of fraternal family; stepshows; women; power; the knowledge that I've endured and survived; life lessons.

No, the challenge is difficult because it's not a part of my goal as a writer; nor is it a part of my duty as a writer.

My goal as a writer is not to meet the challenge of presenting a positive picture of my friends, family, race, or country. Not to please, necessarily. Not to anger. Not even to entertain. My goal is to meet Diaghilev's challenge to the poet Cocteau. My goal is To Astonish.

I'm not always successful in meeting that goal: to astonish. But my aim remains the same. I strive for this goal above all others.

I must write. It is something I feel compelled to do. Whether it's in one of the many notebooks floating around my house; or an old journal; or on the back of a cocktail napkin; or on this blog; I'm going to write. I have to.

There are times when the need is less urgent. There are dry spells. There are times when what I've written embarrasses me; times when it doesn't make sense; times when what I've written doesn't exactly capture what I intend. But I need to do it.

My duty as a writer is to be truthful. If I have an iota of talent or ability to convey ideas, feelings, and experiences would I not be doing a disservice to those who take the time to read my words by trading in falsehood? Falsehood: that which condems us to blindness; that which chokes the last bit of air from a small, crowded, room; that which stunts our collective growth. I can think of few greater sins.

Faulkner said much the same:

"There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed

...

The poet’s, the writer's, duty is to write about these things."

The Mask

2011-07-25T13:54:00.000+01:00

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

- Paul Lawerence Dunbar, Lyrics of Lowly Life 1896
(image via blastro.com)

No Tresspassing

2011-07-24T12:56:00.000+01:00

via street art utopia

How'd We Get Here?

2011-07-13T18:38:00.000+01:00

"In January 2001, with the budget balanced and clear sailing ahead, the Congressional Budget Office forecast ever-larger annual surpluses indefinitely. The outlook was so rosy, the CBO said, that Washington would have enough money by the end of the decade to pay off everything it owed. Voices of caution were swept aside in the rush to take advantage of the apparent bounty. Political leaders chose to cut taxes, jack up spending and, for the first time in U.S. history, wage two wars solely with borrowed funds.

...

All told, Obama-era choices account for about $1.7 trillion in new debt, according to a separate Washington Post analysis of CBO data over the past decade. Bush-era policies, meanwhile, account for more than $7 trillion and are a major contributor to the trillion-dollar annual budget deficits that are dominating the political debate."

Running in the red: How the U.S., on the road to surplus, detoured to massive debt. Lori Montgomery. Wapo

Critical Convergence

2011-07-05T13:14:00.000+01:00

"The party is not being asked to raise marginal tax rates in a way that might pervert incentives. On the contrary, Republicans are merely being asked to close loopholes and eliminate tax expenditures that are themselves distortionary.
This, as I say, is the mother of all no-brainers.
But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative"
David Brooks, NYT 7/4/11 The Mother of All No-Brainers

"Someone ought to study the Republican Party. I am not referring to yet another political scientist but to a mental health professional, preferably a specialist in the power of fixations, obsessions and the like. The GOP needs an intervention. It has become a cult."
Richard Cohen, WaPo 7/4/11 A Grand Old Cult

The irresistable force of reality seems to be on a collision course with immovable Conservative ideology.

Big Boom July 3rd

2011-07-02T13:29:00.001+01:00

Tix on sale now for the Big Boom featuring DJ Nu-Mark, See-I, Fort Knox Five and Rex Riddem at UHall!!!
$10
18 & Up
9pm – 3AM

Get tickets at:
http://www.ticketfly.com/event/478

#Big_Up #FortKnoxRecordings

Libertarians ii

2011-06-21T15:26:00.003+01:00

I wrote a marginally coherent post on Libertarians awhile back during the BP oil spill focusing on what I saw as the fundamental flaw of the philosophy: free markets and free individuals are also free to harm others, so there needs to be some check on that freedom through government intervention for the good of society [a bit more coherent in the re-telling]. You can't have government intervention without a government and you can't have a government without taxes to pay for it.

Slate's Stephen Metcalf has assembled a still more cohesive explanation of Libertarianism's allure and inherent flaws:

And the screw takes one last turn: By allowing for the enormous rise in (relative) income and prestige of the upper white collar professions, Keynesianism created the very blind spot by which professionals turned against Keynesianism. Charging high fees as defended by their cartels, cartels defended in turn by universities, universities in turn made powerful by the military state, many upper-white-collar professionals convinced themselves their pre-eminence was not an accident of history or the product of negotiated protections from the marketplace but the result of their own unique mental talents fetching high prices in a free market for labor. Just this cocktail of vanity and delusion helped Nozick edge out Rawls in the marketplace of ideas, making Anarchy a surprise best-seller, it helped make Ronald Reagan president five years later. So it was the public good that killed off the public good.

It's difficult for me to understand why Libertarianism survives. "Imma do me", the philosophy of every man for himself, is no way to run a society as the last decade should have made evident.

On a related note, Matt Stone and Trey Parker are wack.

Who's Afraid of Ai WeiWei?

2011-06-08T14:08:00.000+01:00

Free Ai WeiWei

One Drop@Tumblr

2011-05-24T15:35:00.001+01:00

One Drop Rule on Tumblr

BK Adams, H St, NE

#Big_Up #D.C.

2011-05-20T00:18:00.000+01:00

Cool "Disco" Dan

also see BORF

Frum Finds Needle in Haystack

2011-05-17T14:50:00.001+01:00

h/t Cardsplayer4life

@DavidFrum tossed this grenade on twitter today:
"Cornel West attacks Obama as "too comfortable" with smart Jews. http://bit.ly/ko69nT"

At first glance, Frum's tweet has the perhaps not unintended effect of leaving the reader with a sense that either Barack Obama or Cornel West is an anti-semite of the Mel Gibson variety. As a tweet, it's quite effective. By mentioning President Obama, philosopher West, and implying anti-semitism, Frum rounds the bases in one short sentence. You get a nice grouping of Obama with "radical" Blacks who stereotype Jews. One has to appreciate the talent involved in packing that much gasoline into less than 140 characters. Well played sir.

Frum's link leads to the second page of Chris Hedges' May 16th TruthDig column, "The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic," which painstakingly details Professor West's beef with the President. Hedges' column explains West's two-fold personal and political disappointment in Obama's apparent concessions to the ultra-wealthy elite. On one hand, the Professor seems insulted that the President had not done more to personally interact, respond, and thank him for his support during the campaign, which seems sort of petty but whatever. On the other, West is infuriated by seemingly counter-productive actions such as Obama's appointment of Timothy Geitner and Larry Summers to oversee a corrupt financial sector whose corruption they themselves participated in. This attack seems fair. Appointing Summers and Geitner to oversee the financial sector is sort of like appointing FEMA's Michael "Heck of a Job" Brown to oversee the current Mississippi flood. Like, didn't he screw that up the first time?

You may be wondering at this point, where Jews fit into all this.

It's clear from Professor West's quotes in Hedges' column that he's personally salty with the President, leading him to the sort of "you a house n!@@a" character assassination I'd hoped we left behind in the late eighties. West:

"I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,” West says. “It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man, they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them. It’s a tension, given the history. It can be overcome. Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination. It is understandable.

“He feels most comfortable with upper middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy and very effective in getting what they want,” he says."

In it's own way, West's critique of Obama isn't much different than the sort Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, or Dinesh D'Souza deal in. Along the lines of Gingrich's, "What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?"

But West only mentions Jews in passing. As far as I can tell, the word Jewish appears ONCE in the entire lengthy article. To take, "Cornel West attacks Obama as "too comfortable" with smart Jews" from one passing mention of comfort with middle-class, white, AND Jewish men in a long article focused on personal insult, the financial sector, politics, race, and so on, seems ... hmm what's the word, disingenuous ... at best.

Still, nice tweet.

McCain Sets Record Straight on Torture

2011-05-13T21:18:00.001+01:00

Former George W. Bush officials and like-minded Conservatives have wasted no time congratulating themselves for the killing of Osama Bin Laden despite the order, mission, and completion of the deed occurring under the leadership of President Obama. At least one such congratulatory claim, that enhanced interrogation techniques; torture; revealed information leading to Bin Laden, came under fire this week. In a WaPo op-ed, Wednesday, Senator John McCain revealed that not only did enhanced interrogation NOT lead to the capture of Bin Laden, it in fact provided false information:

"I asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and he told me the following: The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda.

In fact, the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced false and misleading information. He specifically told his interrogators that Abu Ahmed had moved to Peshawar, got married and ceased his role as an al-Qaeda facilitator — none of which was true. According to the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee — information describing Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti’s real role in al-Qaeda and his true relationship to bin Laden — was obtained through standard, noncoercive means."

Don't believe the hype. Torture debases our Nation, and it simply doesn't work.

h/t Carlos Latuff for image

Myth of the Independent Voter ii

2011-05-05T01:44:00.002+01:00

WaPo reports on a new Pew study suggesting that the Myth of the Independent Voter still holds true. Myth, the 1992 independent voter report, made a persuasive case that most Independents (two-thirds) are partisans who vote party line. In other words, most independent voters are Democrats and Republicans who don't have the balls to claim their party. WaPo on the Pew study:

Among the increasingly growing segment of Americans who identify with neither party and call themselves independents, there are fewer moderates. Many in the “middle” hold strong, ideological views. The study concluded that three groups in the center of the Pew typology “have very little in common, aside from their avoidance of partisan labels.”

“What we see is a much bigger and increasingly diverse middle,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew center. “What’s striking about it is that they’re not so moderate. People in the middle have some strong, well-defined ideological points of view.”

The idea that there is some large bloc of independent voters that can be swayed one way or another is a myth. In reality there are Democrats and Republicans with a shadow contingent attached to each party that refuses to identify themselves but still reliably votes partisan. Look, independents, just man up and say you're a Dem or Repub, you're not fooling anybody except yourselves.

Interested in political science? Learn about great degrees at GuideToOnlineSchools.com

Ethered

2011-05-03T13:20:00.005+01:00

via The Daily Conversation

As @Miss_Info noted, Trump got ethered.

Killing Bin Laden

2011-05-03T13:20:00.004+01:00

h/t Josh Pesavento

Maybe, given the nature of this war against Al-Qaeda, the operation resulting in the death of Osama Bin Laden is the closest Americans will get to a VE Day.

Still, I'm ambivalent about celebrating death. I understand. We've been through such a sustained period of darkness: unemployment; wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya; natural disasters. We needed something to celebrate. But, as @2tuffdc tweeted yesterday:

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." - Martin Luther King Jr."

[apparently, this quote comes not from Dr. King, but instead from Jessica Dovey and Penn Jillette. Regardless, I agree with the sentiment.]

Then I think about the faces of the cheering crowds on May 2nd. Mostly kids, young adults. People that were maybe ten years old on 9/11. Young people who've lived with the spectre of Bin Laden looming over them for half their lives. Killing the boogey man must feel good.

Idgits

2011-04-27T14:38:00.004+01:00

So now that President Obama has released the birth certificate; you know, the one his antagonists have brayed about for the last two years (I'm still not sure why the shorter birth certificate he released long ago is insufficient for these clowns). Will Trump, Palin, Huckabee, Limbaugh, Beck, and the rest of their mouth breathing, racist, hordes apologize for wasting the country's time with this bullshit?

#Not_Holding_My_Breath

Update: As I'm typing I'm watching Donald Trump's New Hampshire press conference where the Donald has now shifted the discussion from his birth certificate stupidity to supposedly hidden Obama school records ... sigh ... no answer will satisfy these people. You provide whatever they ask for and they then move on to the next idiotic conspiracy. At some point you have to ask yourself why we bother to entertain their nonsense.

None of this has anything to do with security or anything of substance. This is about a segment of the American population that cannot and will not accept a Black president.

#Rhode_Island_Ave

2011-04-21T04:48:00.001+01:00

#Albus_Cavus#Mural

#The_Worst_Idea_In_Washington

2011-04-04T14:03:00.000+01:00

@ezraklein #Balanced_Budget_Amendment

"Every single Senate Republican has endorsed a constitutional amendment that would’ve made Ronald Reagan’s fiscal policy unconstitutional"

"That’s how far to the right the modern GOP has swung."

#Where'sTheLeft?

Why?

2011-04-02T13:18:00.001+01:00

#SanFrancisco

Interested in the big questions in life like "Why?" Consider taking psychology classes online.

Brotherhood

2011-03-31T16:20:00.004+01:00

I became a brother of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, a Que Dog, in the spring of 1994.

It seemed like a good idea when I was a rowdy 19 year old boy. Sean McLean, one of the kids I'd gone to high school with; a few years older; had pledged. His family and my family go back to the time before I was born. His folks went to Howard with my folks in the sixties. His mom and my mom worked together for the government in the seventies. In the eighties they sent us to Sidwell Friends. For all intents, they are extended family. So seeing what was essentially my older cousin who walked on water, barking, talkin shit, and setting out hops at the big Emory campus when I was just a freshman, had an outsized impact on me.

Then of course, there was Dr. Cummings. The Cummings moved into a house up the street from my parents' when I was about ten years old. They had two boys, one my age, another a few years younger. From fifth grade through high school, we carpooled to school together; rode bikes through the neighborhood on the weekends; played football in the yard when it was warm; video games in the basement when it was cold. Dr. Cummings became my loud, gregarious uncle. And he too was a brother of Omega. Older men aren't really considered "bruhs" like the young roughneck turks running wild on college campuses; they're distinguished men of the brotherhood. The kind of old black men you see at the front of the church; yelling encouragement at kids' basketball games; arguin' in the barber shop 'bout whether Muhammad Ali would've knocked out Mike Tyson.

During the Christmas break of my sophomore year, I made up my mind to pledge. I didn't think about it too long or too deeply. I didn't think about much at all I suppose. But it seemed like something that would raise my stock on campus. I remember practicing angry faces in the mirror, throwing up the Omega hand sign - shootin' the funk - and awkwardly trying to to emulate the steps I'd seen Sean hop at the frat parties from my freshman year.

I reached out to Sean when I'd made up my mind to pledge. Calling him at home over the Christmas break. He asked me about my grades. Once I told him I had above a 3.0, his interest picked up. "mmm-hmm! mm-hmmm!" he growled when I told him I was doing well enough to pledge. The frat required a minimum gpa which I was well above, but more important than my grades was the fact that I had the balls to approach the bruh and tell him I was interested. He told me who I should contact when I got back to campus and gave me a reading list. It all seemed like a big adventure. I wore a goofy smile as he instructed me. I didn't comprehend the scope of what I was actually undertaking. But, as is still my disposition when confronted with a new challenge, I thought it couldn't really be that bad. I'd wrestled in high school; played football and lacross growing up. I'd been in fights; been jumped. I assumed I was tough enough to handle they're little pledge club. And I remained under that delusion until the bruhs literally slapped the fantasy out of me.

When I got to campus that spring, I was greeted warmly by friends from D.C. I'd grown up with who had also gone down south to school with me. A couple of Atlanta kids they'd met, greeted me more warmly than I would've expected. They knew Sean. They knew who I was before I knew who they were. Ron Sailor Jr. was one of them. It's hard to forget Ron. He lived on the same freshman hall as my boys from D.C. and he was loud in every sense of the word. The first time I saw him he had on a matching short set - paisley, rayon, short-sleeved dress shirt; paisley, rayon, dress shorts; black socks and dress shoes. No lie. Back home we called kids like that bamas. But my D.C. boys, unsure of this new land of Atlanta we'd entered, deferred to Ron's fashion sense as something beyond our comprehension. The son of a famous Atlanta media personality and pastor, Ron always seemed to be caught between two worlds: religious and secular; bruh and pledge; cool and wack. After we pledged, I remember hanging in Ron's apartment. I noticed that he had the same thick collection of Shakespeare plays that I had in my dorm room. I also noticed in his cd collection a copy of the same Isley Brothers Greatest Hits that I had. At first I thought Ron and I, beneath it all, had the same tastes. Upon further inspection I discovered he'd rolled my book and cd on a previous visit to my dorm room. I promptly reclaimed both. I got burned. We both laughed. I appreciate a good swipe.

Another ATLian, JB, set up a meeting for those of us who'd expressed interest in pledging at the beginning of the semester. He, Ron, and the other kids who'd been fuckin with the bruhs during the previous semester organized our pre-pledge group. They gave me little crumbs of knowledge: read this book; memorize that poem. Learn the greek alphabet. There were more clandestine meetings. More kids I'd never met before. We gathered on different parts of campus so as not to give ourselves away. My friends from home began to see me less often. Occasionally our new clique would pass other small groups. We'd nod to each other as we crept through the halls wondering what fraternities they were pre-pledging. These meetings went on for several weeks until slowly, one or two real brothers of Omega began to look in on us. They threw us more crumbs of fraternity knowledge; told us how to stand; how to address them; what to learn about each other; lined us up.

Eventually, the real process began. I can't say much about it. I respect the secrets of the fraternity, but I can say that it was brutal. I was paddled so hard and so often that my ass was hardened to a tough leather. My girlfriend's eyes swelled with tears when I winced as she touched my bruised body. One time she was staying at my place and found me slumped outside the front of the apartment, dropped off after a particularly ferocious session, pawing the door, exhausted. I couldn't muster the strength to knock. One line brother was temporarily disfigured with a horrible case of poison ivy on his face he caught when we were running through the woods to get away from the bruhs after a session. Another ended up in a back brace. Still, we laughed a lot. Cracked jokes on each other; cracked jokes about the bruhs; especially Ron. We became soldiers forged in fire. Hard. For a brief time the process became my whole existence. I failed the entire semester that I pledged.

And then, suddenly, it was over. I was a Bruh. Purple and gold from head to toe. Settin' out hops. Talkin' shit. Bullying anyone I thought beneath me. My girlfriend said I was brainwashed. Toward the end of our relationship I remember her saying, "I don't like this Phife Dog person, I like Randy." For me though, it was excruciatingly blissful. I had indeed raised my stock on campus. Random girls, frat groupies, gave me their numbers. There were lots of girls who floated around us. Lots of parties. Singing old negro spiritual sounding frat songs. People told stories about us; how there were hundreds of us on campus (there were eight); how we broke some kid's nose in intramural football (it was an accident). It felt like we were larger than life. When I came back to D.C. on summer vacation, my mother was proud, my sister was proud, my grandmother saw me wearing my fraternity 'nalia and said, "that means something." Dr. Cummings beamed, grinning from ear to ear when he saw me. My father who grew up in the Caribbean, was perplexed, as he was of most African-American culture. When he saw my shoulder, freshly branded with matching Omega symbols, he shook his head, holding my arm, peering over the top of his glasses. In his still thick Nevisian accent he said, "how could you let dem do dat to your hand?" which I thought was hilarious. "This is my shoulder," I said pointing to the brands. "This is my hand," I said showing him my palm.

As time wore on, the brainwashing faded. I had an easier time taking punishment than doling it out. From the inside looking outward I saw things that I found either disgusting, boring, or lame. Harassing pledges. Fights. Wrestling in the grass with grown men. False bravado. Sexually assaulting women. Conformity to the traditions of the fraternity, the look of the fraternity, the feel of the fraternity. I'd pledged Omega as opposed to Alpha because I thought I would be able to be myself. That was far from the case. My red dred locks drew quizzical looks from bruhs who didn't know me. My choice of friends; my best friends; white, indian, black private school, g.d.i.'s (god damn independents) were not what the bruhs expected. Trippin' acid, shrooms, smokin la, all of it was "not traditional". By my senior year, I saw the writing on the wall. Aside from revealing secrets, non-participation is the ultimate sin of the brotherhood. Unlike white fraternities, black fraternities are supposed to be a lifetime commitment.

After graduation I would occasionally, half-heartedly attend frat functions. In law school, I ran afoul of the New York bruhs who expected me to participate. The same was true at Dr. Cummings' son's wedding. This troubled me deeply then and still sometimes. I'd been through so much and it seemed to be for no reason.

Not long after the wedding, Dr. Cummings succumbed to cancer. I remember one bruh who was beefing with me at the wedding, ice grillin' me at the funeral ... at. the. funeral. Jesus. That was pretty much the end for me. Ron Sailor, I learned years later, never found a way to reconcile the forces pulling him in different directions:

"Former Rep. Sailor sentenced to 63 months in prison

By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
When state Rep. Ron Sailor Jr. learned he could launder money that came from cocaine sold to college students, he didn’t blink.
In fact, the preacher-turned-lawmaker asked if he could work with a large-scale drug dealer who could bring in lots of cash. Then Sailor asked for some cocaine he could sell himself.
Former state Rep. Ron Sailor Jr., a Democrat, represented DeKalb and Rockdale counties.
These revelations came out in court Tuesday when Sailor was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for money laundering and defrauding the church he once led as pastor.
“I understand I could have taken a very different route,” Sailor, 33, told U.S. District Court Judge Jack Camp before sentencing. “I’ve repented before God for my mistakes.”"

As for me, I'm retired.

Looting in Japan

2011-03-18T14:05:00.000Z

On Wednesday, Slate's Chris Beam provided several reasons why there have been few reports of looting in Japan in the wake of the triple threat earthquake, tsunami, and radiation from a nuclear power plant. Reasons including:

honesty with incentives -

In a 2003 study on Japan's famous policy for recovering lost property, West argues that the high rates of recovery have less to do with altruism than with the system of carrots and sticks that incentivizes people to return property they find rather than keep it;

police presence -

Japan has an active and visible police force of nearly 300,000 officers across the country;

and, organized crime -

Police aren't the only ones on patrol since the earthquake hit. Members of the Yakuza, Japan's organized crime syndicate, have also been enforcing order. All three major crime groups—the Yamaguchi-gumi, the Sumiyoshi-kai, and the Inagawa-kai—have "compiled squads to patrol the streets of their turf and keep an eye out to make sure looting and robbery doesn't occur," writes Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan.

I don't doubt that there are elements intrinsic to Japanese culture that limit the liklihood of looting, but clearly government plays a role as well. Police presense, familiarity with police, rewarding good citzenship with cash, and punishing petty crime all played a role in the relative civilian calm in Japan. All of those factors are products of government intervention.

After reading the comments attached to Beam's article, many implying that race, racial homogeneity and liberal education (?) were the causes of looting in the U.S. as opposed to Japan [not sure how that lines up with looting in Chile, England, or sports riots, but whatever], I assumed there would be an avalanche of articles citing similarly retarded explanations, but that hasn't really been the case. The bulk of that "reasoning" appears to be contained in reader's comments and white supremacy web sites.

Last point: The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan has compiled several comments noting that there have indeed been sporadic reports of looting in Japan. While it makes sense to examine the full range of explanations for Japanese civility during this disaster, there's no reason to ignore the role of government in promoting civility or the actual incidents of crime that have occurred belying the image of civility the media has fostered.

Going Going, Back Back, to Cali Cali

2011-03-07T13:52:00.004Z

#SanFrancisco

GOP Union Busting

2011-03-03T03:24:00.003Z

Update: 3/17 Gov. Walker’s Budget Repair Bill Will Most Adversely Affect Wisconsin Minorities #wiunion http://bit.ly/enopV8

Reactionary as unions can be, they do put some floor under the wages of ordinary people. In the private sector, those wages actually declined in the 2000s. They now bid fair to do the same in the public sector in the 2010s. If not unions, what force will ensure that the benefits of future prosperity are shared by all, not hoarded by a few? David Frum

Black people are 30 percent more likely than the overall workforce to be employed in public sector jobs. Jobs like teachers, social workers, bus drivers, public health inspectors. As Kai Wright notes, the public sector employs significantly more African-Americans than the private sector. So, whether it's a purposeful thumb in the eye to Black folks or the thumb in the eye is just a consequence of GOP ideology, plans like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights hurt Black people.

Given that we all need jobs, what recourse does the lone employee have when employers squeeze him?

If my employer decides that they'd like to make me work twice as long for the same rate we agreed to when I began (as just happened to me) what recourse do I have? Quit? No. I need that job. I wouldn't have taken it in the first place if I didn't need it. With jobs in short supply, would I rather have zero dollars or the half-pay my employer has just ~~extorted~~ offered? I could argue with my employer; telling them that we agreed to a certain wage and benefits and that they should live up to the original agreement. And in return they can fire me and replace me with someone who is willing to work for the peanuts they've offered. Or I can get together with my co-workers and negotiate - collectively bargain - with my employer to preserve (or create) benefits. That's a union. By myself, I am powerless in the face of my employer's unrelenting compulsion to pay me as little as possible for the maximum amount of work. With my co-workers at least we can, as a group exert more power than an individual so that our employer deals with us fairly. As a group we can affect the employer's ability to produce their good or service. This is the only power we really have. And this is the power Republicans seek to limit and eliminate.

We're weathering an economic downturn. And yeah, it's true that some public-sector pensions and salaries are unreasonable. But teachers' salaries are not the reason that state budgets across the nation are broken. Unions and teachers' salaries did not trigger Wisconsin's budget problems. The financial crisis of 2007-2010 did that. This is not to say that the recession is the only factor crippling states' economies. Demographics, debt, and, yes, public pensions all contributed to state financial problems. But unions and collective bargaining are not the story here. Unions and collective bargaining did not get us into this position of broken state budgets, and dismantling them won't get us out.

Unions, public-sector employees, collective bargaining, and by extension Black people are all being scape-goated by Republicans. Why are we the first on the chopping block to pay for states' economic woes? Why are Republicans looking to the least wealthy to pay for the damage done to our economy by the most wealthy?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood the connection between strengthening unions and uplifting workers to achieve long-term economic justice for African-Americans. He continuously showed his support for the labor movement when he addressed hospital workers at 1199SEIU in New York and marched with striking sanitation workers trying to form a union in Memphis just before he was killed. Dr. L. Toni Lewis, SEIU Healthcare Chair