Recently in Racism Category

omg...lol. This one is for those who keep saying we live in a colorbind society. I am listening to talk radio right now while I work on my paper, so a caller calls into the talk show and tells a story about a family friend who is a police officer and the types of calls they get. She lives in the North Shore area, north of Boston in a predominately white neighborhood.

Her officer friend told her when a black man is walking down the street, they get several citizen calls to report to the police that "there is a black man walking down the street." LOL. I can only shake my head.

This is fictitious dialogue, but I can bet the conversations are similar to this:

911 Operator: You are being recorded. 911, what's your emergency?

North Shore caller: Can you get an officer over here? (In a whispered, nervous voice): There's a black man walking down our street.

911 Operator (snickering under his breath): Ma'am is there any suspicious activity? Is he committing a crime?

North Shore caller: No...he's walking down the street, and looks like he doesn't belong here.

911 Operator: Ma'am let me transfer you to a police sergeant.
The call is transferred.

Marblehead police sergeant: How may I help you?

North Shore caller: Yes, there is a black man walking down the street. Please hurry. He is walking on Red Coats Road, and just turned right onto Tea Party Lane. Please hurry.

Marblehead police sergeant: Ma'am, what is he doing?

North Shore caller (in a slow terrified voice, almost trance-like): He's....walking....down...the...street.

Marblehead police sergeant: You mean to tell me he's walking down the street? Is he wearing blue jeans, a white shirt, brown shoes, neatly trimmed short cropped hair?

North Shore caller: Yes, and if you don't hurry, you will miss him walking down the street. Hurry, before I lose sight of him.

Marblehead police sergeant: Ma'am, we took down all of the information. This is the fifth call we have received of this black man walking down the street.

Synopsis from RopeofSilicon.com:
"Towelhead" follows the dark, bold and shockingly funny life of Jasira, a 13-year-old Arab-American girl, as she navigates the confusing and frightening path of adolescence and her own sexual awakening.

When Jasira's mother sends her to Houston to live with her strict Lebanese father, she quickly learns that her new neighbors find her and her father a curiosity. Worse, her budding womanhood makes her traditional and hot-tempered father uncomfortable. Lonely in this new environment, Jasira seeks friendship and acceptance from her neighbors Mr. Vuoso, an Army reservist, and Melina, a meddling but caring expectant mother.

Thrown into an unfamiliar suburban world, Jasira must confront racism and hypocrisy at home and at school - and at the same time struggle to make sense of her raging hormones and newfound sexuality. Her boyfriend, Thomas, though a few years older, provides some comfort - but even that relationship causes problems when her father discovers that Thomas is black. Surrounded by adults who are just as lost as she is, Jasira yearns for understanding, even amidst often brutal acts.

Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Alicia Erian and written for the screen and directed by Alan Ball (Oscar® winning writer of "American Beauty" and creator of "Six Feet Under"), "Towelhead" stars Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette, Maria Bello, Peter Macdissi and newcomer Summer Bishil as Jasira. Towelhead is due to be released on Friday, August 8, 2008.

There are charges of racism and discrimination in the United States Secret Service in a federal lawsuit brought by black employees, and tonight the story airs on “"Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET.

According to ABC News:

“The Secret Service flatly rejects the allegations, but the lawsuit has led to the discovery of troubling internal e-mails circulated among senior Secret Service managers.

One video e-mail attachment depicts an interracial couple — a black man and a white woman — lying on the ground kissing, and then rolling over onto a white sheet. The shot then reveals a group of Ku Klux Klan members surrounding the couple and a burning cross.

That video, according to court documents, made the rounds among senior Secret Service agents.

One of the agents who was recently on the detail of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is under investigation for allegedly sending a January 2005 e-mail that included a crude sexual joke about blacks and American Indians.” READ MORE...

Photo Credit:
ABC News

Wow! It seems like the word "monkey" has experienced a surge in popularity usage, especially globally. Take a look at this YouTube video in which Aussie cricket player Andrew Symonds is being verbally abused with racial chants, where ironically over 90% the people chanting are either his shade of skin color or darker, AND don't look much different from him.



I don't want to get into the inferiority complex some East Indians suffer from, so I will save that post for another day. Andrew Symonds Bio

Spike Lee is condemning movie director/actor Clint Eastwood for failing to include black soldier portrayals in two of his films, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. Hundreds of black soldiers fought for the Japanese island in 1945.

Lee said: “There were many African-Americans who survived that war and who were upset at Clint for not having one [in the films]. That was his version: the negro soldier did not exist. I have a different version.”

According to the Times Online, Spike said Eastwood had information on blacks who served in the war, but “It’s not like he could say he didn’t know. It was a conscious decision not to have any black people.” READ MORE...

Spike was speaking at a Cannes Film Festival press conference and promoted his new World War II film “Miracle at St. Anna” an epic story about the all-black 92nd Buffalo Division, which fought the Germans in Italy, and four African-American soldiers get trapped in a Tuscan village.

"Miracle at St. Anna" is due out in October 2008 and stars Derek Luke, Kerry Washington, John Leguizamo, Michael Ealy, Joseph Gorden, Derek Luke, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Matteo Sciabordi, John Leguizamo, and Joseph Gordon Levitt.

Here is Spike in an interview talking about the Miracle at St. Anna and race.

Mulligan's Tavern a Marietta, Georgia bar owned by Mike Norman is supposedly selling 'OBAMA in '08' t-shirts with Curious George monkey image on the front. Atlanta's WSBTV reports the publishing company Houghton Mifflin, which owns the rights to the cartoon character is said to be weighing its legal options.

The news station adds:
The Anti-Defamation League also condemned the T-shirt being sold, saying it's, "An outrageous slur against Barack Obama and all African Americans."

"Mike Norman - the bar's owner - pretends he is shocked that people would be offended by the T-shirt," said Bill Nigut, ADL's Southeast Regional Director. "But he knows full well that the characterization of African Americans as monkeys is a highly offensive stereotype. Every time he sells one of the shirts he is happily sending a racist message out the door." READ MORE...

Mulligan's has exercised his free speech, so if you want to exercise yours, here is the link to contact information if you want to contact the owner, and let him know what you think about his t-shirts. Contact Mulligan's

I don't know how come I didn't run across this story in my Boston Herald, but thanks to Jonathan for sending me the news link.

There are reports with the source stemming from Fashionista, that top photographer Steven Meisel wrapped up photo shoots for the rumored issue. It sounds like there may be an all black model issue of Vogue Italia in the making. If true, this issue is sure to break barriers and fuel further discussion on discrimination and diversity within the fashion industry.

Out of curiosity I would probably buy a copy. It would most likely become a collector's item. And I HOPE this won't be a case of "we gave them what they want, now let them shut up," then carry on business as usual, with very little representation of black models in their publications. At best, this will be a signal of change. Therefore, I will risk betting on the side of optimism.

Fashionista reports:

This just in from a source:

xoxo.

Reference:
Fashionista
Black is finally in fashion at Vogue

The Fort Wayne, Indiana company settled an U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) age, race, and retaliation lawsuit. The company will have to pay total of $580,000 and up to $5,000 in settlement administrative expenses. It doesn’t pay to discriminate, IF you get caught.

According to the EEOC: “Renhill Services, Inc. violated federal law by failing to refer African American applicants and applicants age 40 for work assignments. Further, the EEOC said, Renhill unlawfully retaliated against employees who objected to these referral practices.” READ MORE...

HOW IRONIC? As soon as you click on Renhill's website there is a large image of a BLACK woman on the homepage, then photos of others flash. She's the first face you see.

Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is featured in two EEOC Anti-Discrimination PSA. Follow the jump to see the video.