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Post by johng on Jun 15, 2009 16:46:54 GMT -5
Thanks to all who commented and offered up valuable thoughts on this. I realize it will not solve the problem, but Like San Diego has avoided "Racial Riots" over the years, considerate discussion seems to defuse. Thanks most for not throwing me under an 18 Wheeler for posting the opinion!
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Post by lou on Jun 15, 2009 18:21:03 GMT -5
"I'm sure it's one of Michelle's ancestors-probably harmless". Rusty De Pass, South Carolina GOP activist, former chairman of the state elections commission. His Facebook entry after a gorilla escaped from the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina. He apologized "if anybody was offended". What? ? I read that story and no one was killed! Is this a joke?
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Post by bruce on Jun 15, 2009 20:37:42 GMT -5
No, it's no joke. Just goggle in Rusty De Pass and there are dozens of links. What do you mean" and no one was killed". That makes no sense. And there is absolutely no record anywhere of Michelle Obama saying we are descended from apes as has been asserted by Mr. De Pass and others.
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Post by Tired in CV on Jun 15, 2009 22:40:59 GMT -5
I wish Dr. Martin Luther King could have witnessed President Obama being sworn in as President. I concur that it would have been great for him to witness such an event. It would also be wonderful to see Dr. MLK walking among his followers whipping them like Jesus did the money changers for their abandonment of his teachings! Many of them are now part of the problem he tried to change!
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Post by bruce on Jun 16, 2009 6:53:50 GMT -5
What is going on with you conservatives? When Martin Luther King was alive, he was villified by conservatives. Communist, troublemaker, radical, peacenik, etc. One of the conservative icons, J. Edgar Hoover, not only wiretapped him, with Attorney General Kennedy's OK after being given false information, and then tried to blackmail him by first threatening to release tapes of King making love to a white woman, and then suggesting to King that suicide would be the best way to avoid this problem. Many conservatives considered him the most dangerous man in America. When I say conservatives, I'm not talking about extremists like the klan.
You did the same thing with Muhammed Ali. When he was a young, strong outspoken brash, threatening young man, he was the devil incarnate. Now that he's an old,sick, dying man who can barely talk, you idolize him.
And again you just can't resist blaming the victim. I do thank you for quoting that great philosopher and political thinker, Charles Barkley.
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Post by johng on Jun 16, 2009 12:29:01 GMT -5
Bruce I think the Democratic Party of old was much more intent on "silencing" MLK than any accused Conservative. What I find strangest is MLK was assasinated but Malcolm X was left run amok and the message from them could not have been more segragated! MLK was successful in his message and approach to "Civil Rights" but it did not resonate until many years later. The most successful example is our new President who seems fine with Black Panther support in mutual direction and his direct support and affiliation with ACORN. I find it really odd to say the least!
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Post by Tired in CV on Jun 16, 2009 13:51:53 GMT -5
What is going on with you conservatives? When Martin Luther King was alive, he was villified by conservatives. Communist, troublemaker, radical, peacenik, etc. One of the conservative icons, J. Edgar Hoover, not only wiretapped him, with Attorney General Kennedy's OK after being given false information, and then tried to blackmail him by first threatening to release tapes of King making love to a white woman, and then suggesting to King that suicide would be the best way to avoid this problem. Many conservatives considered him the most dangerous man in America. When I say conservatives, I'm not talking about extremists like the klan.
You did the same thing with Muhammed Ali. When he was a young, strong outspoken brash, threatening young man, he was the devil incarnate. Now that he's an old,sick, dying man who can barely talk, you idolize him.
And again you just can't resist blaming the victim. I do thank you for quoting that great philosopher and political thinker, Charles Barkley. That first paragraph is full of half truths, bad opinion and lacking a full story as johng pointed out. Which Muhammed Ali are we talking about? It doesn't matter because I didn't have any negative comments about either one of them in the past. Who is the victim I am blaming? I hardly consider Jackson or Sharpton victims! As for Charles Barkley, IS HE WRONG? NO! He is no more a great philosopher or political thinker than those of us here and the posters here make similar comments! The issue is he is right and, if you can, prove him wrong.
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Post by jackoliver on Jun 16, 2009 15:38:04 GMT -5
This is way to easy to expose racism still exists in the republican party...Just read the current leader of the GOP and his pearls of wisdom,,,,NOT. _---------------------------------------------------------------- Here’s Our Top 10 Racist Rush Limbaugh Quotes 1. I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark. Okay Rush, slavery was not a good thing for the millions of African Americans who were enslaved, raped and beaten. The streets weren’t at all safe for African Americans. Slavery not a bad thing? Someone should put Rush on a plantation for him to see how great it is. Keep on fear and race mongering Rush, you might get to Goebels status. 2. You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed. Martin Luther King is a national hero, not a black hero. Everybody in the United States celebrates his birthday, children are taught to look up to him as a hero in school. He’s earned the respect and admiration of the world and you believe the man who killed him was a hero? This is beyond racist. This is evil, mean spirited, subhuman. Praising the assassin of one of our great American heroes is beyond the scope of regular racism. 3. Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson? No but I’ve noticed that all racist bigots think like Rush Limbaugh. Comparing a respected black politician and minister to common criminals is Jim Crow racism. Maybe all black people look alike to him, but I’ve never seen a picture of a wanted criminal that looks like Jesse Jackson. A serial killer that looks like Rush Limbaugh on the other hand. John Wayne Gacy 4. Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela — who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing. The communist connection is an old way of dealing with black leaders. They used it on Martin Luther King, they’re using it on Barack Obama and Limbaugh used it on Nelson Mandela. By siding with the racist apartheid regime over a world-wide symbol of peace and freedom, Limbaugh has shown he’s a global racist. 5. Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it. Limbaugh is once again fear mongering and race baiting by associating professional black athletes with criminals and gangmembers. He continues the fear mongering association of good, decent, hard working African Americans as criminals. 6. The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies. Now Limbaugh is saying that an organization with a storied tradition of representing the positive black people for change in their communities are criminals and rioters. An organization that has been represented by intelligent professional African Americans, that has played a part in the Civil Rights movement and continues to be an intelligent, concerned voice for the African American community is degraded to common criminals. There you go Rush. Keep racism alive!!!! 7. They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares? Decent human beings care Rush. Someone out of that 12% may just become President of the United States. Not caring about black people? Even George Bush wouldn’t admit to that. 8. Take that bone out of your nose and call me back(to an African American female caller). Okay Rush that’s classy. The old African bone in the nose stereotype. Wasn’t funny when the racist white school kids called the black kids that and it’s definitely not funny when a grown man with audience of millions of easily influenced dittoheads says it either. 9. I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there’s a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve. I wasn’t super offended by this, the whole black quarterback/coach thing has been going on for years in sports, but the quote was so offensive that Retired General Wesley Clarke said: There can be no excuse for such statements. Mr. Limbaugh has the right to say whatever he wants, but ABC and ESPN have no obligation to sponsor such hateful and ignorant speech. Mr. Limbaugh should be fired immediately. When a respected, retired general condemns the statement of a sportscaster, you know he’s gone too far. 10. Limbaugh attacks on Obama. Limbaugh has called Obama a ‘halfrican American’ has said that Obama was not black but Arab because Kenya is an Arab region, even though Arabs are less than one percent of Kenya. Since mainstream America has become more accepting of African-Americans, Limbaugh has decided to play against its new racial fears, Arabs and Muslims. Despite the fact Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law school, Limbaugh has called him an ‘affirmative action candidate.’ Limbaugh even has repeatedly played a song on his radio show ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ using an antiquated Jim Crow era term for black a man who many Americans are supporting for president. Way to go Rush. So Rush Limbaugh has managed to make racist attacks on four of the most admired and respected people of African descent in the past one hundred years, in Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Colin Powell and Barack Obama. He has called for the assassin of Martin Luther King to be given a medal, and said slavery was a good thing. He has claimed that Joe the Plumber, who isn’t even a plumber is more important in this election than Colin Powell, a decorated military veteran who has served honorably in three administrations. How can the Republican party stand by this man and let their candidates appear on his show? Rush Limbaugh’s comments are so racist, they’re funny, in a Borat, Archie Bunker kind of way. What is not funny is the millions of dittoheads who listen to him, who take in and re-spout all the racist rhetoric that he spits. Limbaugh’s statements are echoed in the racist, angry Palin/McCain supporters who shout ‘kill him,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘communist,’ ‘traitor,’ ’socialist’ and ‘off with his head.’ newsone.blackplanet.com/obama/top-10-racist-limbaugh-quotes/
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Post by bruce on Jun 16, 2009 16:13:04 GMT -5
Tired-of course I wasn't talking about you or anyone here re: either King of Muhammed Ali.( the former Cassius Clay, the boxer who converted to Islam, and refused to be inducted; what other Muhammed Ali were you thinking of? I thought that would have been obvious.) I agree that many democrats of OLD were uncomfortable with King, and Southern Democrats generally took the same position as conservatives. I never mentioned Democrats or Republicans, I said conservatives, most of whom were anti King.
johng=Your knowledge of Malcom X is minimal. He was assasinated and in his latter writings was much more concillatory toward others and broke with the followers of Elijah Muhammed.
Many of the "poor people who have been voting for Democrats for the last 50 years" are no longer poor, the % in poverty has gone down, mostly under Democrats.
There is a certain amount of hypocrisy in Conservative's tendency to praise Dr. King today when in the 60's they were on a campaign of smear.
Jack Oliver-fantastic post!!!
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Post by EscapeHatch on Jun 16, 2009 17:40:51 GMT -5
I may have posted here or at RR some time ago that I saw Dr Martin Luther King when I was younger. My memory was faulty, it would seem. It was another reverend whose name I can't recall. Faulty memory of a child of the sixties. Go figure.
In June of 1968, while living in Virginia, some friends and I planned a tour of Washington D.C. to celebrate graduation from junior high school. The plan was to be dropped off on the D.C. side of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, tour the city on foot, and end up at the Virginia side of the Arlington Memorial Bridge.
The 4 of us "buds" piled into a Porsche that had a minimal back seat. Being young teenagers, we were all elbows, knees and pimples. One of our group was called Paco. The car belonged to Paco's father, who worked for the the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture at the Mexican Embassy. Paco sat in the front seat, of course.
Paco's dad pulled a good one on us: half way across the bridge, he pulled over and said "get out!". So, we did. Paco got out first and had to help unfold the rest of us and pull us out of the sports car. We were stopped in the middle of this bridge and his dad hollered at us for moving too slowly. It took me a good five minutes before I could walk fully upright.
We headed first towards Georgetown. We passed a circular building complex called Watergate, saw all kinds of hippy smoke and poster shops, smelled incense throughout the town. One of the guys pulled down on change/refund levers on every pay phone we passed. He hit pay dirt with two of them. One emptied itself of a lot of change, another a couple of dollars worth. Life was good.
We walked down an alley between some very old buildings. In one, a back door was open, so, we went in. Snuck in, really. We walked down a hallway and came to some stairs. We walked up, went through an ancient door and found ourselves in another hallway with brochaded walls, draperied doorways with what turned out to be private balconies at an old theater. There were people in 1800's period costumes rehearshing down on the stage. We krept as quietly as we could further down the hall and came to one balcony with a gold rope strung across it. An engraved sign said that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated there. We were in the Old Ford Theater, before it reopened for the first time since the assassination, or so the story went. The play was to be the first performed since that day- again, as the story we were told went.
We were discovered by someone who told us to follow him down stairs that put us in the lobby. There, the old guy gave us a bit of a history lesson, took us to another door looking out onto the stage and allowed us a couple of minutes to listen to the play. He then walked us out the front door where I was able to take a couple of pictures with my mother's Brownie camera.
We saw the city, the museums and walked past Ressurection City. Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered just months before. The March on Washington was his idea, but, sadly he was cut down before in April of that same year. Walking past the tent city, we were told by police to walk in numbers no larger than two. So, we broke up into two groups of two. The cop told us that we could be arrested for inciting a riot and to keep on walking by and to not stop to talk to anyone.
Oops. A black guy with a huge afro called out to us, telling us to stop. He came over to the rope that surrounded the "City", and told us to step over the rope and see what he and his friends had to show us. We did since no one was watching, and man, that was the first time I ever tasted real crawfish. It was in a gumbo. Can't say why we were asked in, but, I was sure glad we did at the time. But, we were sure sorry afterwards.
We hopped over the rope as a group and were seen by a couple of cops. They ran up to us and said we were under arrest. We were actually handcuffed and taken by one of the cops to a car some distance away from where we jumped over. The cop unlocked the cuffs and told us to walk up the street, away from Ressurection City, and to not look back. The last time I saw the "City" was that evening, at home, when my parents were watching the news.
My mom asked how my day was. All I could say was that it was a learning experience and that it was profitable.
I still had a couple pounds of change in my pockets. It was later confiscated because Mom always kept what we forgot to take out when we put our clothes in the laundry hamper.
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Post by bruce on Jun 16, 2009 18:52:14 GMT -5
I may have posted here or at RR some time ago that I saw Dr Martin Luther King when I was younger. My memory was faulty, it would seem. It was another reverend whose name I can't recall. Faulty memory of a child of the sixties. Go figure. In June of 1968, while living in Virginia, some friends and I planned a tour of Washington D.C. to celebrate graduation from junior high school. The plan was to be dropped off on the D.C. side of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, tour the city on foot, and end up at the Virginia side of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. The 4 of us "buds" piled into a Porsche that had a minimal back seat. Being young teenagers, we were all elbows, knees and pimples. One of our group was called Paco. The car belonged to Paco's father, who worked for the the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture at the Mexican Embassy. Paco sat in the front seat, of course. Paco's dad pulled a good one on us: half way across the bridge, he pulled over and said "get out!". So, we did. Paco got out first and had to help unfold the rest of us and pull us out of the sports car. We were stopped in the middle of this bridge and his dad hollered at us for moving too slowly. It took me a good five minutes before I could walk fully upright. We headed first towards Georgetown. We passed a circular building complex called Watergate, saw all kinds of hippy smoke and poster shops, smelled incense throughout the town. One of the guys pulled down on change/refund levers on every pay phone we passed. He hit pay dirt with two of them. One emptied itself of a lot of change, another a couple of dollars worth. Life was good. We walked down an alley between some very old buildings. In one, a back door was open, so, we went in. Snuck in, really. We walked down a hallway and came to some stairs. We walked up, went through an ancient door and found ourselves in another hallway with brochaded walls, draperied doorways with what turned out to be private balconies at an old theater. There were people in 1800's period costumes rehearshing down on the stage. We krept as quietly as we could further down the hall and came to one balcony with a gold rope strung across it. An engraved sign said that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated there. We were in the Old Ford Theater, before it reopened for the first time since the assassination, or so the story went. The play was to be the first performed since that day- again, as the story we were told went. We were discovered by someone who told us to follow him down stairs that put us in the lobby. There, the old guy gave us a bit of a history lesson, took us to another door looking out onto the stage and allowed us a couple of minutes to listen to the play. He then walked us out the front door where I was able to take a couple of pictures with my mother's Brownie camera. We saw the city, the museums and walked past Ressurection City. Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered just months before. The March on Washington was his idea, but, sadly he was cut down before in April of that same year. Walking past the tent city, we were told by police to walk in numbers no larger than two. So, we broke up into two groups of two. The cop told us that we could be arrested for inciting a riot and to keep on walking by and to not stop to talk to anyone. Oops. A black guy with a huge afro called out to us, telling us to stop. He came over to the rope that surrounded the "City", and told us to step over the rope and see what he and his friends had to show us. We did since no one was watching, and man, that was the first time I ever tasted real crawfish. It was in a gumbo. Can't say why we were asked in, but, I was sure glad we did at the time. But, we were sure sorry afterwards. We hopped over the rope as a group and were seen by a couple of cops. They ran up to us and said we were under arrest. We were actually handcuffed and taken by one of the cops to a car some distance away from where we jumped over. The cop unlocked the cuffs and told us to walk up the street, away from Ressurection City, and to not look back. The last time I saw the "City" was that evening, at home, when my parents were watching the news. My mom asked how my day was. All I could say was that it was a learning experience and that it was profitable. I still had a couple pounds of change in my pockets. It was later confiscated because Mom always kept what we forgot to take out when we put our clothes in the laundry hamper.
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Post by bruce on Jun 16, 2009 18:54:25 GMT -5
How interesting, an ad for something called "Inter Racial Dating Central" at the top.
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Post by EscapeHatch on Jun 16, 2009 19:03:38 GMT -5
I saw that, Bruce. People come up with so many ways to make a dollar. It's very American!
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Post by johng on Jun 16, 2009 19:04:19 GMT -5
Bruce,
Thank you for correcting me. I only intended to point out that MLK was assasinated by the "Whity" (conservative if you chose) in 1964 but Malcolm X carried on into 1965 (February) and was taken out from within his own group. The world mourns MLK appropriately IMO, not so much Malcolm albeit I don't like irreverence to the deceased.
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Post by bruce on Jun 16, 2009 20:12:00 GMT -5
Malcolm X was killed for "dissing" Elijah Muhammed, the Nation of Islam, and black separatists. After a trip to the middle east, he came back and said that he realized that black separatism and other teachings of the Nation of Islam. Before the trip, he had no idea there were blond, blue eyed Muslims, and Muslims of all colors. This was the primary reason he was killed.
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