"All the other racist shit"

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Keith Olbermann—Dr. Laura is the Worst Person in the World

"We have to be able to discuss these things. We're people—goodness gracious me. Ah, Hypersensitivity. OK, which is being bred by black activists." — "Doctor" Laura

Click here to see the video. I love the man.

"We don't speak Mexican here"

"Kamau Kambon says kill white people" –YouTube Video

I found this interesting video from the "Hurricane Katrina & Issues Facing African Americans" conference that was aired on CNN following Hurricane Katrina. The message is controversial for sure, but what I found interesting is WHERE this video was posted—www.davidduke.com. For those of you who don't remember him, here is his wiki page. Also, the introductory message to the video is pretty offensive in itself in its anti-Semitism. It's so funny that the site for a former Grand Wizard of the KKK is somehow using this reaction to the treatment of Black people as a justification for their beliefs and existence. Duh.

Not sure if he is literally saying White people should be exterminated, but it's interesting and radical nonetheless. I love that he and his wife had two home births and that they are vegan.

Paul Mooney

An interesting interview with Paul Mooney about the "n-word." He vowed not to say it after Michael Richards's rant that included the n-word, and he hasn't said it since. There's some other very funny, true stuff in this interview as well. Incidentally, I just rewatched Michael Richards's rant, and it's quite disturbing. Look at everyone leaving at the end.

Mitrice Richardson

Great blog post about the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson, a Black woman in America, from DailyKos.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/13/103131/101

Welcome and a Rant

I have been mulling this blog over for a long time and am finally spurred on by the recent insane rantings of Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Yes, she's still around and saying dumb shit for our entertainment. This is disgusting though. Listen here to her idiotic "advice" to a Black woman asking how to deal with her husband's racist friends and family and his lack of defending his lovely wife.
The woman calls in to ask what she should do, and the radio personality's first reaction is:

"Give me an example of a racist comment, BECAUSE SOMETIMES PEOPLE ARE HYPERSENSITIVE."

At least she didn't say "folk." From the get-go she assumes that this Black woman is overreacting. This pretty much reflects what many White people think when, say, a cane-wielding Harvard professor claims racism contributed to his arrest in his own home or when saying something dumb, uninformed and racist. (More on the word "racist" in another post).

For some reason, many people, in this supposedly "color-blind," "post-racist" society believe that racism is dead and that anyone "crying" racism is an overreacting "race-card" thrower who can't leave the past in the past. White people will say "Well, my family didn't own slaves," or "Hey, I didn't get a promotion because of Affirmative Action! That's reverse racism!" These comments do not respect the long history of our country in regards to race "relations." (More about the Fondling Fathers later.)

So anyway back to the call. The woman starts saying "This neighbor every time he comes over it's always a black comment 'oh how do you black people like doing that or this' and usually I just ignore it but last night I got to the point..." Here, the radio woman butts in and says "I don't think that's racist." The woman says something about stereotyping and once again the "doctor" says "Iiiii don't think that's racist. I think..." The woman tries to comment again and Laura says "No no noooooo." Then she says something quite bizarre:

"Well, listen, without giving much thought, a lot of Blacks voted for Obama simply because he was half Black. Didn't matter what he was gonna do in office. It was a Black thing. You gotta know that. That's not a surprise. Not everything that somebody says...we had friends over the other day, about 35 people here. The guys were going to start playing basketball. I was gonna go out and play basketball. My body guard and my dear friend [she has a Black friend everyone!! She's not racist!! Or stupid!! Wait for it... here comes the qualifier!] is a Black man, and I said 'White men can't jump, I want you on my team.' That was racist? It was funny!"

OK, so what does any of this have to do with why the caller was calling in the first place? So what if a lot of Black people voted for Obama just because he's Black? I'm guessing some people DIDN'T vote for him simply because he was Black. So where does that leave us?

Then comes the N-word section of the conversation where the doctor reiterates the nonsense that other people say which is, "Well if I can't say nigger than the Black people who don't want me to say it are the ones discriminating. Reverse racism, I say!" Whatever.

I find the "n-word" part to be the LEAST offensive part of this audio. For the record, I don't give a crap about Dr. Laura. I do question the sanity of the Black woman calling in for her advice on how to handle racism though. I don't want to talk about Dr. Laura and should probably stop mentioning her name, but I think what she said is so much a reflection of the situation today in America. Here is her lame apology the next day:

"I articulated the N-word all the way out - more than one time," ... "And that was wrong. I'll say it again - that was wrong."

Uh, honey, Patti Smith can say that word all day and she's White and she isn't a racist. It's not the saying of the word that is offensive, it's all that led up to it and all that came after. You don't get it.

What was really offensive was your disrespect and disregard for the woman who called in. It's a reflection of the problems in our society today.

Here is a link to a much better blog post by someone else about this topic. It spells out how Dr. Laura has a hell of a lot more to apologize about than saying the n-word. He also has a link to the full phone call, which apparently gets even more offensive, and the audio as well.