This was the ultimate Twitter nightmare. It can be argued that a clear understanding of how twitter works, and what it’s reach is might have helped avert this situation. Even if he himself was unaware those around him – or there should have been some around him with an understanding of social media networks, Twitter especially since he frequents it so much.

How is it in the African American community who has such a high rate of users on twitter and other social networks, that it appears many are unaware of how this level of engagement TRULY works? There are some that know, but silence appears to be golden. Not so golden for Mr. Martin and others who have fallen prey to errant tweets. No one in this dimension can lay claim to the intent behind words on a screen. Technology is good but it is not yet that good to determine whether or not the text you see on a “screen” is authentic and any  more realistic than the device you use to connect in the first place.

The backlash was somewhat expected and even more so when one contemplates the fact that there are many of his co-workers and fellow journalists that are part of the LGBT community – at best this spells hostile work environment. The backlash TO the backlash was to be expected as well there has already been a Facebook page/group started in support of Roland Martin (Bruhs for Roland Martin)

Understandably, there has been a measure of what would be deemed an angry response from members of the African American community who feel that Mr. Martin was scapegoated, and or unfairly treated in this case.  One wonders if any  of those folks realize the kinds of contracts one has to sign in order to work for any organization of that size and magnitude and especially be in the public eye. Contracts often contain morality clauses or clauses that stipulate that if one’s behavior is not perceived to be in line with corporate policy – it is grounds for termination or breach of contract.

One also wonders if those screaming about the unfairness of Mr. Martin’s suspension have ever considered the creation of a news organization or media outlet LIKE a CNN and that would be minority owned and provide an alternative for individuals such as Mr. Martin so that situations like this would be non-issues.

With very little competition organizations can craft and execute whatever strategies they wish with very little impunity.  Having choices allows for more opportunities for fairness to exist. Having few choices means someone or some group gets to dictate to everyone else.

In the end, regardless of the “side” you may wish to take – reality says there are no sides because we are all humans in the end warts and all. Bad jokes or statements aside we still all bleed and we all feel. Not knowing Mr. Martin personally, the human side of me can and does feel compassion for what appears to be a situation that got quickly and totally out of hand. For all those celebrating this turn of events be careful what you Tweet or say online. The job/life you save may be your own.

Something tells me they are an overlooked crime syndicate given the strength of their voting block. Yep, pretty soon stupid Republicans will try to go after the Amish vote, by creating another wedge issue (read here). Yeah, something tells me that it won’t be long before one of the four stooges Republican presidential candidates will say that president Obama is trying to force Amish people to drive cars so as to open up a new market for his union buddies up in Detroit, as part of the auto bail out deal.

It’s either that or the GOP will spin this to be yet another one of their victories by saying that he “caved”, as I am sure some of my Liberal buddies believe. A pretty stupid assessment if you ask me, because everyone comes out smelling like roses on this one.

Because of today’s ruling by the White House, the Catholic church wouldn’t be forced into performing abortions as idiots on the right would have you believe. However, the burning question now, is that since the so-called “war on religion” has ended with not as much as one Bible tossed, what will the GOP do now? I’m telling you, their desperation will lead them to Gunther.

Systemic racism? What the hell is that? They ain’t burning crosses and hanging Black folks anymore. Hell, we’s post-racial now, RiPPa! Yeah I know, stories or studies like the following and the one I shared recently about Black folks and bankruptcy are all made up. Yep, studies such as this one aren’t valid. That is, unless they come from white comedians in Blackface on college campuses across America. I mean, why even listen to complaining Black folks, right?

A new academic study of 58,000 federal criminal cases has found significant disparities in sentencing for blacks and whites arrested for the same crimes. The research led to the conclusion that African-Americans’ jail time was almost 60% longer than white sentences.

According to M. Marit Rehavi of the University of British Columbia and Sonja B. Starr, who teaches criminal law at the University of Michigan Law School, the racial disparities can be explained “in a single prosecutorial decision: whether to file a charge carrying a mandatory minimum sentence….Black men were on average more than twice as likely to face a mandatory minimum charge as white men were, holding arrest offense as well as age and location constant.” Prosecutors are about twice as likely to impose mandatory minimums on black defendants as on white defendants.

In federal cases, black defendants faced average sentences of 60 months, while the average for white defendants was only 38 months.

The report concludes that sentence disparities “can be almost completely explained by three factors: the original arrest offense, the defendant’s criminal history, and the prosecutor’s initial choice of charges.” (source)

At any rate, what does it matter to have information like this if nothing is going to be done about it? Yep, simple-minded readers will say this is yet just another reason for people like me to “hate whitey,” I suppose. Rather than act in the interest of justice and equality. I’m pretty sure someone will digest this info and suggest that it’s better that Blacks are locked away longer, because we are genetically predisposed to commit crimes. Sounds crazy, but people actually believe we are.

The issue of mass incarceration is almost never discussed within our political discourse. That is with the exception of the occasional racist Willie Horton ad if you’d like to give the impression that as a candidate, you’re tough on crime. This is one issue that I suppose many see as a political liability. I mean how dare anyone running for president speak about the racial disparities in sentencing, the prison industrial complex, or even the opportunity cost of it all, right?

Clearly I don’t have to tell you that “his side” meant getting cozy with right-wing nutjobs in an activist setting. OK, so I read his spill, and what really struck me was one line in his sales pitch. He said that I as a Black man, should be against president Obama and his ruling that mandates coverage for contraceptives by Catholic-run institutions. His reasoning? Because as a Black man, I should be concerned about the “Black Genocide” that is the abortion of Black babies. Yep, imagine that; apparently Obama is killing Black babies now. See wha’happen when you don’t pay attention?

Now my first instinct was to go smooth the fuck off and ask him where was he and his concern for “Black Genocide” about four hundred odd years ago when Black folk were brought to this country in chains. But I decided against that because to do so would not have been fair. Yep, never mind the fact that he probably wasn’t alive.

Instead, I asked him if he was concerned about said “Black Genocide,” why then he didn’t spend his energy to end it on the continent of Africa since he has a newfound love for Black people. You know what he told me? He said, that if the government would stop funding Planned Parenthood, then maybe those funds could be reallocated to ending “Black Genocide” in Africa. I really got heated then, but I decided to give him a pass because it’s Black History Month, and I ain’t trying to sin by cussin’ out white folks. But hell, who knew Planned Parenthood was standing in the way of saving the lives of Black folks in Africa. Hell, it makes me wonder why I even bought a We Are The World t-shirt that went to buying some starving kid in Africa some Ramen Noodles. You mean there are millions of people dying everyday in the Sudan, and it’s due to the gov’t wasting money by funding Planned Parenthood?

I swear, y’all white folks right-wing nutjobs have all the answers.

Speaking of which, did y’all hear about the white comedian in Blackface walking around the campus of BYU asking folks about Black History Month? Yep, I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right: his punk ass would’ve never pulled that shit at an HBCU. Nah son, we ain’t that post-racial. But then again, maybe we are? I mean I’ve always wondered if white people in America took Black History Month seriously, or whether they even cared. My guess has always been that collectively, a vast majority of them didn’t. I mean it’s not like that white folks are going out of their way to give Black people jobs this month as messed up as the economy is. But stand-up comic, Dave Ackerman in the following video has helped me to realize that I’m right. Sure he wore Blackface in Black History Month which I’m sure will make some of my cousins upset. However, what he exposes with his “fighting ignorance with ignorance,” campaign, in one video, shows that some people truly just don’t care or wish to. Now that I’ve seen this video, I can honestly say, that I wished I would have cursed out Mr. Random White Guy who emailed me this morning, for his ignorant slaes pitch.

You may think that a white man wearing Blackface may be overboard and insulting as Ackerman does in the following video. But since there are many white folks who refuse to listen to Black folks like myself and others when it comes to racism. Maybe this is what it will take for them to get it.

Love may conquer hate, but maybe there’s something to ignorance fighting ignorance:

This is what’s been happening with this not-so-new but ongoing debate over contraceptives between the Catholic church and the White House. People have been asking me what are my thoughts concerning the debate, and I’ll say to you as I have said to them:  for Republicans, treating contraceptives and abortion as one in the same – clearly, they are not – is politically expedient. I mean think about this: the argument made by Conservatives suggests that president Obama is infringing on the Constitutional right to freedom of religion. Let them tell it, the government is forcing a Catholic run facility to provide coverage that covers contraceptives, that somehow kills a fetus.

Mitt Romney himself said on the campaign trail that the policy forces women to use the Morning After Pill, which he considers to be an abortion pill. Simply put, this is not true; this is the twisting of facts for political expediency. And the funny thing about this, is that Romney himself signed into law the very same measure as governor for Massachusetts infamous “Romneycare”. You know, that now evil health care plan that was the template for today’s Affordable Care Act  otherwise known as Obamacare? Yeah, you know that whole Kenyan style Socialist thingy?

This from Team Obama:

Mitt Romney is attacking new Affordable Care Act guidelines that require most insurance providers to cover contraceptive services, accusing President Obama’s administration of “using Obamacare to impose a secular vision on Americans who believe that they should not have their religious freedom taken away.”

But the facts tell a different story. Just as he criticizes federal health reform based on the law he passed in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney is attacking the President for providing women with the same access to contraception and preventive health care services Romney did as governor. Our new infographic takes a look at how contraception coverage compares under the Affordable Care Act and the Massachusetts law Romney stood behind.

But no, today contraceptives used by women and covered by health insurance companies, are treated like back alley abortion. And all the while, nobody on the right like Romney mentions that this rule already exists in 28 states; or that 98% of Catholic women have used contraceptives at one point in their lives. But no, let them tell it, you’d think that Catholic men will go to hell if they use condoms, and the pill is like smoking crack. Yep, and of course nobody wants the government to force people to smoke crack or be damned to hell. Listen, you can choose to believe the lies of the GOP if you choose if you like. But hey, if you’re interested in understanding just what I’m talking about, Rachel Maddow does an excellent job of breaking it all down in the following video. Yep, do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to understand just what this is all about.

Clearly with nothing else to stand on, the road to the White House run through a uterus.

Yesterday, the usual suspects sat around trashing president Obama like always. This time, they were attemting to paint the picture of Obama as being a hypocrite for going against his 2008 stance to not accept Super PAC funding. If you haven’t been paying attention, yesterday president Obama encouraged would be donors to send funds to a newly launched Super PAC to assist him in his re-election bid. Now, does going against an earlier position make him a hypocrite? In this instance, I don’t think so. Hell, the Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision wasn’t made back in 2008 before the general election. Instead, it is now the permissible rule of the political land; and, undisclosed gobs of money has been pouring in, in support of Republican candidates. Why can’t Democrats get some?

This is What POTUS Looks Like to Fox Viewers

Look, the fact that Republican Super PACS have been kicking the asses of Democrats as far as fundraising, is reason enough and hardly hypocritical for president Obama’s campaign to be supported by one. Call it the sign of the times, but big money has been given a green light to buy more power and influence from here on out, without any full disclosure or transparency. One can only expect POTUS or anyone in this political game to understand shifting with the times. Whether it’s politics, the entertainment industry, or life in general, you must get with the times; getting with the times doesn’t make president Obama hypocritical. In fact, it shows that he is intelligent enough for the game of politics. Not only that, it shows that he’s committed to winning. Call him a sellout, but this is a competition, folks; and until you get money out, this is to be expected. I mean really, is he supposed to bring a knife to a gunfight?

But don’t tell that to my chowder-head of the day, Eric Bolling. According to him, an Obama Super PAC or an attempt to compete, is too much like him becoming a drug dealer while masquerading as a counselor of drug addicts. Sure he could have chosen a better analogy, but I guess this is as close as he could get to calling the president an “N-word” without fear of repercussion from groups like Color Of Change, and other Negro enabling activist groups. You know nothing says “we hate white people,” more than a Color Of Change petition against anyone from Fox.

The racial undertone disguised as an analogy can be easily ignored and dismissed as, “just being an analogy.” But then again, I don’t watch Fox, and there’s no correlation between my I.Q. and racism, like the faithful viewers of that network and the people who entertain them – people like Eric Bolling. If you think I’m wrong, maybe you should check out Bolling’s earlier racist comments about president Obama “chugging 40s” at the White House after an F5 tornado wiped out a small town in Missouri. Idiots like him shouldn’t be on television, but obviously there’s a market for stupidity.

Check out the video:

What I did witness, however, were Roland Martin’s tweets (complete with exchanges from a few of my very sharp followers) that were, in short, homophobic, heterosexist, and disgusting. Now, I wasn’t entirely surprised at Roland, given how he defended Tracey Morgan’s remarks that he would stab his son is he turned out gay, writing it off as mere comedy. Roland tweeted advocating violence toward men who engage in behavior that is not hetero-normative, quickly distinguishing the difference between a “real” bruh and all others.

I’d like to say, though, that this is not that uncommon a stance within the Black communities. Roland’s homophobia is dangerous and damaging particularly to the Black community; and I am in support of GLAAD’s position that language matters and that there should be no space on CNN for a pundit who puts the LGBTQQI community in fear of being assaulted for expressing themselves (or, in many instances, minding their business and not physically expressing themselves at all!).

In the past, I’ve discussed how oppressed people often become oppressors, even while still being oppressed. Roland Martin’s tweets are a perfect example of that. I am a firm believer of calling people on their shit when they are wrong. What I am not a firm believer of, however, is fighting bigotry with bigotry. For Roland’s hate-filled words, he was called a N-word, an ape, made fun of due to his weight (during which, I interjected because fat-shaming is wrong), and even told by a psuedo-celeb for effect that he hopes he is “assraped”. I get it — we’re hurt, outraged, and upset. I do not by any means support any of what Roland Martin said; I absolutely agree with my LGBTQQIA family that he has a history of inappropriate and quite disgusting homophobia. I feel very strongly, though, that you cannot fight ignorance with ignorance. That, instead of encouraging more bigotry and even more violence (yes, Perez, I am talking to you), we must combat that shit with intelligence. Otherwise, we’re just as small-minded as the promoters of bigotry.

I stand with GLAAD, and yet I think that this may be putting a band-aid on a larger problem. We absolutely have to address LGBTQQIA rights on a larger scale, and within the home. We absolutely must do so within the Black community. If you think that we have, I’d encourage you to check the comment section under the video of the young man who was recently attacked – by multiple with a tire, by multiple men – in Atlanta for being (presumably) gay*. It’s sad and beyond offensive; hate speech, especially that provoking violence, infringes on basic civil and human rights owned by any individual.

*If anyone in the Atlanta area knows who the parties in the linked video are, please contact law enforcement.

This isn’t really surprising; especially since Ron Paul is  opposed to a woman having the right to file a claim for sexual harassment. Yep, Paul recently said that if a woman was sexually harassed, her natural (and only) course of action should be to terminate her employment. That’s right, don’t even think about holding anyone accountable for creating an uncomfortable work environment. Yeah, jokes of a sexually inappropriate nature? Penis on your shoulder while sitting in your cubicle? Yep, just shut up and quit like a big girl would. Yep, sexual harassment is illegal in Libertarian land.

“Employee rights are said to be valid when employers pressure employees into sexual activity. Why don’t they quit once the so-called harassment starts? Obviously the morals of the harasser cannot be defended, but how can the harassee escape some responsibility for the problem? Seeking protection under civil rights legislation is hardly acceptable.” – Ron Paul, Freedom Under Siege: The U.S. Constitution after 200-Plus Years

My guess is that the train of thought is that none of this is in the constitution, no? Yep, obviously in Libertarian utopia, just like in the real world, the rights of women are compromised and just not important. Uh huh, Paul went on to argue that women should not have the right to abort a “nine-pound baby,” despite the fact that 90 percent of all abortions occur within the first trimester.

MORGAN: But it’s a dilemma that I am going to put to you. You have two daughters. You have many granddaughters. If one of them was raped — and I accept it’s a very unlikely thing to happen. But if they were, would you honestly look at them in the eye and say they had to have that child if they were impregnated?

PAUL: No. If it’s an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room. I would give them a shot of estrogen or give them –

MORGAN: You would allow them to abort the baby?

PAUL: It is absolutely in limbo, because an hour after intercourse or a day afterwards, there is no legal or medical problem. If you talk about somebody coming in and they say, well, I was raped and I’m seven months pregnant and I don’t want to have anything to do with it, it’s a little bit different story.

But somebody arriving in an emergency room saying, I have just been raped and there is no chemical — there’s no medical and there’s no legal evidence of a pregnancy.

Watch it here:

I know some of my cousins may be offended by this, but I’m not. The thought of a White History Month, or even a Caucasian American Day is so hilarious to me. It is, because even if said group became a minority, there’s no way in hell they’d be oppressed. Nor would there be a need to “celebrate” the achievements of white folks in America. But I guess for some, this would be necessary; especially to  overcome white slavery and all the Jerome Crow laws.

PHOENIX (CBS5) - Arizona is already taking a lot of heat for its reputation regarding illegal immigration, and for Gov. Jan Brewer’s finger-wagging at President Barack Obama during a recent visit, and a state lawmaker isn’t exactly helping the state’s image.

Rep. Cecil Ash, a Republican from Mesa, is suggesting Arizona needs a holiday for white people.

“I wanted to speak to you all about Latino Americans here in Arizona,” said state Rep. Richard Miranda on the House floor Monday, starting the conversation that sparked the controversy.

Miranda said Arizona should have a Latino American day in Arizona.

After some heated debate, Rep. Cecil Ash stepped up to the mic.

“I’m supportive of this proposition. I just want them to assure me that when we do become in the minority you’ll have a day for us,” Ash said. (source)

That Rep. Cecil Ash sure is a funny dude, but not really.  When the governor of your state disrespects America’s first Black president by waving her finger in his face in full view of the world. As a lawmaker, you could only be half kidding about something like maybe a White folks appreciation day. Hell, they banned ethnic studies and passed racist immigration laws in Arizona, didn’t they? Yeah, white folks have done a lot out there. So yeah, Happy White People Day.

Rewind with me, the year is 1985 and location Frazier Elementary School in Greensboro, NC. A young Phlip, swathed in silly little shirts that he hated at the time and would surely beat his mother for showing you images of now, arrives for kindergarten like responsible parents bring their 5 year-olds to do.

A large part of the interaction between kids is that, by this time, the only kids they’ve encountered for the most part are family members or our parents’ friends’ kids with whom the interaction is definitely not as permanent as a classroom setting will wind up being. With that in mind, the tenets of things like “fairness” as it relates to playtime is still a skill to be acquired. Becoming used to life at home where every toy is “mine and mine only,” playtime is where most kids FIRST learn to be assholes.

To employ a metaphor to something we will discuss later, we will say that I am playing with this toy, and will play with it until I am done. I am more than welcome to walk away from it to go to the bathroom or succumb to the will of my short attention span, but once it comes back into my field of vision, it is mine again and you can not question this. I will simply relieve you of possession, thanks much…

… except you, as a like-minded 5 year-old, have the same point of view with no practical reasoning to even think that it is not exclusively yours. Conflict occurs and one of us will continue to play with the toy while the other sits on the sideline pissed off.

Well, make that “pissed off until they decide ‘since I can’t play with it, no one will’” and breaks the toy in question.
[Phlip note – I have been BOTH kids in this scenario at some point in my life… to avoid being judged, I will withhold discussion of when I stopped]

With a particularly ugly GOP primary season causing candidates – specifically the now-remaining Romney and Gingrich – dishing dirt on one another left and right as they ruthlessly try to convince registered Republican primary voters which is a better candidate to get that ni–… uh, “Marxist” out of office, this has made for the best news and talk radio coverage I have seen in a while.

While Romney continues to hold a lead in the primaries that count and the opinion polls, it is being said that Gingrich is quoted as saying that he will stay in the race to the end if he has to. In my observations as a dude who has voted in 3 presidential elections, it has been prudent to be a big enough man about NOT winning the primary to fall back and let the front-runner focus on winning the general election without expending all of their energies fighting a nasty primary fight. With none of the “John McCain has an illegitimate black daughter” bombshells to serve as that crushing blow to bury either of the top two candidates, we’re now at the “conflict” portion of the kindergarten story from above.

In my mind either candidate could still get the nomination, but it should become abundantly clear long before anyone is further embarrassed by more details of their personal lives being made public.

The “details of private personal life made public” is the “pissed off kid coming back to break the toy” part of the kindergartners at the beginning of this presentation. I am SURE that someone high up in the party has been in the ear of each person to fall back telling them to do so, but now we’re at the point where Mitt probably feels like he is owed it, as the guy who came in second to the nominee last time, like McCain was before that. Meanwhile, Gingrich is a hot-headed old coot and will be damned if he lets anyone tell him what to do. The more they butt heads, the longer the primaries will drag, the longer they drag and the uglier they will become and the uglier they become, the less work Democrats will have to do in finding dirt on their opponent and Barack walks into the end zone.

To the GOP, “Barack walks into the end zone” is the part of the interaction where the toy in our original metaphor falls to the ground and shatters into a billion little pieces. Perhaps if the focus was more on “fix the country” and ideas presented were more to that effect, then it wouldn’t have come to that. As it were, to this point, we have had the “look, we have a black guy too!” approach (which I would have found MUCH more entertaining with Michael Steele or Alan Keyes) that fell on its face. Now it has actually dumbed down to actually arguing during debates over who is more like Ronald Reagan, who old Ray-Gun would have liked if he weren’t dead or who even LIKED Reagan while he was in office?
Hell, at this rate, I am going to have people bombard WWE offices in Stanford Connecticut, because I could be drawn back into watching Monday Night Raw if they would promise one of these GOP debates for about 30-45 minutes every other week.