Herman Cain foolishness, take 2. Aaaaaand, action:
OK, so on the real: what the hell is wrong with this man?
- ACL
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All posts for the month March, 2012
According to the Santorum camp, re-electing Obama to a second term will lead us into some kind of post-apocalyptic world that would make the Walking Dead blush. Be afraid, America. Be very afraid:
Whoa. The sound you just heard was me taking a deuce in my pants.
Kidding aside…what the hell was this? The ridiculousness of this clearly exaggerated apocalyptic theme notwithstanding, I can’t help but think Rick “I said BLAH people” Santorum was somehow trying to relay a message specifically to white America about how the policies of the Obama Administration will negatively affect them, and them alone. In fact, the only people of color you see in this commercial are Obama, a subtly superimposed Ahmadinejad, and a group of flag-burning Middle Eastern protestors. Yes, my white brothers and sisters: Obama hates you and he wants you all to suffer and die.
I suppose a lot of this plays in to the Republican strategy: we have no shot at winning the black vote, so forget them. In return, a large contingency of black people will shy away from Republicans. In return, Republicans will ignore black people. In return, black people will shy away from Republicans. In return, Republicans will ignore…wait, have I said all this already?
Rick Santorum is on his last leg and will probably be out of the race by the end of next month. So this is much ado about nothing. But as a cautionary tale to whom I’d suspect will be the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, avoid this strategy. In fact, be afraid of this strategy…almost as afraid as white people were supposed to be of Santorum’s attack ad. While it is true that black Americans generally vote Democrat and an overwhelming number of black Americas will indeed vote for Obama, Romney must do his best to widen the tent if he wants any shot at winning the White House. Bush and his team did a marvelous job of securing a staggering amount of black votes in 2004, and President Obama is beatable due to his vulnerabilities. But if Mitt follows Santorum’s drumbeat and plays the game of exclusionary politics, the clip above might wind up being less of a snapshot of Obamaville in 2014, and more like RomneyCampaignville.
- ACL
Oh my damn.
Just when I was ready to give up on the entire species of black women, I’ve finally come across one who hasn’t lost her damn mind. It’s just too bad that, at best, she and I can only have computer love . Please check her out as she kicks knowledge (you have to suffer through two and half minutes of clips from ‘crazy black woman’ movies to get to the vlogger who stole my heart):
That’s it. I need to find this sister. Starting.Right.Now.
- ACL
If you guys haven’t heard about the Travon Martin case by now, you should. Here’s a quick background:
- Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Florida high school student, was found shot and killed, in Sanford, Fla., a community north of Orlando. Several eyewitnesses reported that they heard a scuffle, then a cry for help, and then a gunshot.
- According to the Sanford police report, George Zimmerman, 28, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, was later found armed with a handgun, standing over Martin. He had a bloody nose and a wound in the back of his head.
- Martin was pronounced dead at the scene. He had no weapons on him, only a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea. Yet Zimmerman told the police he killed Martin in self defense. The police, stating there is no evidence to dispute the self-defense assertion, have yet to arrested him, nor administered a drug test, an alcohol test, or a background check.
MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry offers a solid account of the case:
After hearing about this story, a few thoughts come to mind:
(1) There is a clear difference, which needs to be explored and emphasized, between an actual police officer and a neighborhood watchman. I won’t turn this into an issue of gun control, as everybody has a right to carry to protect themselves (or whatever the argument is by gun enthusiasts), but I will say that a neighborhood watchmen has no earthly business being armed with a gun in this capacity. A neighborhood watchmen’s job – and I use the term “job” rather loosely – is to monitor activity going on in the neighborhood. That’s it.
(2) As Harris-Perry noted, the “Stand Your Ground” law is a breeding ground for vigilantism. On top of that, the law is so vague and subjective that it virtually leaves room for any type of encounter to fall under what could be considered “responsive force.” Despite evidence being uncovered which suggests otherwise, Zimmerman was claiming he felt threatened and the situation warranted the use of deadly force. Unless Martin planned to assault him with a bag of Skittles, Zimmerman’s life was not in danger. This whole “shoot first, ask questions later” situation is dangerous.
(3) I think this story was definitely racially motivated, but it also reaffirms everybody’s tendency to look at minorities a certain way. Normally when we think of racial profiling, we limit it to white people and their perceptions about a minority group. But that’s entirely unfair to white people. We may not want to admit it, but minorities are also guilty of racial profiling, even to each other. Even the most socially conscious amongst us have harbored certain thoughts when a young, black person in baggy clothes and a hoodie is walking directly toward us. As I argued on Twitter, how and what we think about black people is often informed by what is projected in the media or what we’ve experienced in our personal dealings. Which leads me to my next point…
(4) …this is a perfect opportunity for us to once again examine the disastrous affects of the thug culture so many of our young people embrace. This, in my opinion, indirectly led to Trayvon Martin being killed. Something possessed Zimmerman to think that an otherwise innocent black kid was up to no good. I suspect, as I mentioned before, that some of Zimmerman’s thinking was informed by what he’s seen or heard about black youth. Unfortunately for minorities in this country (black and latino men, especially), we are usually defined by the more deviant folks in our group. Is it fair? Of course not. Does it happen? Absolutely.
(5) The Trayvon Martin case represents the very reason why black people fear figures of authority (I wouldn’t call Zimmerman an authoritative figure per se, but him having a deadly weapon and Martin not having one gives him some kind of authority in this situation). My mother – along with countless other black mothers in this country, I suspect – taught me some very important lessons when it came to dealing with police. Always comply. Respect them. Don’t talk back. Never run away from them. Keep your hands in sight. To this day, I’m still shocked (thankful, but shocked nonetheless) that Skip Gates had the kind of encounter he had with police and is still alive to talk about it. Black men , obviously including Mr. Martin, have been killed for much less.
(6) Finally, while I can certainly appreciate how black folks have rallied behind all things Trayvon Martin, it seems to me that our outrage is only evident in the face of violence against black people from some other group. But where is the similar outrage when it comes to black-on-black violence? Twitter and (probably) Facebook (I can’t tell with Facebook. I’ve been off the site for Lent) have been blazing with activism regarding this story. Meanwhile, this same world is mute when it comes to the proliferation of killings in Flint, Saginaw, and Detroit. Gary and Trenton. Compton and Philadelphia. We ignore the reality that approximately half of all the murders that take place in America are against black folks and nearly all those black folks are killed by other blacks.
There is a scene from the 90′s horror flick “Tales From the Hood” (a very underrated movie, I should point out), where a gangbanger is going through rehabilitation. During his treatment – in some Clockwork Orange sort of a way – he is forced to watch flashing images of lynchings shown in juxtaposition to images of black-on-black violence. Some pretty prophetic stuff, especially from around the 1:45 – 4:20 mark:
We get outraged when violence against blacks is perpetrated by non-blacks. But we meet black-on-black violence with a collective “meh.” All that being said, if Mr. Zimmerman been black, would we see the same outpouring of anger and emotion? Not likely.
Anyway, that’s my six cents. What do you think?
- ACL
The following story is not for the faint of heart:
Doctors in Shenzhen, China have reattached a 6-year-old boy’s penis after his father bit it off, the Shanghai Daily reports.
According to the paper, witnesses said the 32-year-old father was walking with his naked son and 4-year-old daughter on the street Thursday when he commanded the boy to bite his penis.
When the boy refused, the man attacked him.
Horrified passersby subdued the man, forced him to spit out his son’s penis, and called the police, China Buzz reports.
The boy’s reattachment surgery was successful, but it is too early to tell whether he will have normal use of the appendage. The Shanghai Daily reports that relatives will care for the boy’s sister.
Cops say the father is likely to have a mental illness — he was recently seen pretending to strangle his son on their balcony, according to witnesses. Police also found that the man, who was only identified by the surname Yu, was severely in debt after a failed business venture and was often seen gambling.
Mental illness or not, this dude needs to get his. Any man who could do such a brutal thing to another person – much less his own son – deserves every horrible thing coming to him. I’d say the death penalty, but maybe throwing him in a hole for the rest of his natural life would do. Crazy or not, he doesn’t need to see the light of another day for what he did to this poor child. Unfortunately, though, you can just as easily look stateside for horrendous acts committed by adults on poor, defenseless children.
That’s it. I’m getting my act together. The end is so, so, near.
- ACL
