Archive for the ‘race in America’ Category

The declining economic fortunes of African Americans under President George W. Bush

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

By Kathy G.

The list of political and economic disasters that have befallen America on George W. Bush’s watch is extensive and remarkably varied. There’s the Iraq War, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, the Patriot Act, the illegal surveillance of law-abiding Americans, and, of course, the mortgage crisis and the financial crisis, to name but a few. But there have also been other failures that, while they are not as high-profile as the others I’ve named, are also quite serious and troubling. One of these, which I’ve written about before, is the fact that, during the Bush years, real wages have declined for workers in every educational group except those with professional degrees.

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Posted in economics, obama, race in America | 12 Comments »

Obama and Cindy McCain Should Be Drug-War Felons?

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

Johann Hari at Huffpo is spot on:

Before this campaign is out, Obama needs to be asked: do you really think you should be in jail? McCain needs to be asked: do you really think your wife should be in jail? Both need to be asked: do you really think 46 percent of Americans should be criminalized? And if not, what are you going to do to begin ending this mad, unwinnable ‘war on drugs’?

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Posted in Campaigns, Election '08, McCain, obama, race in America, the war on drugs | 3 Comments »

I Have a Dream

Saturday, July 19th, 2008

Soledad O’Brien, at the beginning of CNN’s “Black in America:  Reclaiming the Dream,” cited as evidence of the at least partial fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream that “Some are CEOs.  Some are Secretaries of State.”

Well, I have a dream of my own:  To strangle the last CEO with the entrails of the last Secretary of State.

Seriously, there’s something really nauseating about a model of “Progressive” politics that’s perfectly willing to leave the present structures of political and economic power intact, so long as the board rooms and cabinets contain a representative selection of races and genders (”look like America,” as Slick Willie put it).

As a white man, I can tell you, I derive very little satisfaction from the knowledge that I’m being screwed over by people who look like me.  Instead of worrying about the racial and gender makeup of the board rooms and cabinets, I’d like to tear them down.

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Posted in liberalism, managerialism, race in America | 10 Comments »

Former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) Has Died

Friday, July 4th, 2008

The reliably authoritarian and retrograde Mark Levin over at NRO’s The Corner whines that he has: (more…)

Posted in Republicans, gay rights, race in America | 4 Comments »

Obama Speaks Truth About Families on Father’s Day

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

I’ve long held the view that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was unjustly vilified for his scholarly discussion — published over four decades ago — arguing that pathologies in the black community were at least partially responsible for the plight of the black “underclass.” At the time, one could not raise such issues without being labeled a racist. But Moynihan is somewhat vindicated today by the black man who hopefully will be the next President of the United States: (more…)

Posted in Family, obama, race in America | 13 Comments »

Horseraceblogging

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

I’m on deadline for a book review due tomorrow night so for the moment I only have more primary-blogging to offer. More in a day or two. Meantime, my cobloggers continue to put up awesome stuff.

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Posted in Democrats, Election '08, Uncategorized, race in America | 3 Comments »

Criminal Injustice in America — Either Way One Takes that Title is Accurate

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Marie has been posting some highly disturbing videos of law enforcement officers committing what are or should be crimes against citizens. But at least as bad as those incidents is the fact that when a non-wealthy criminal defendant is assigned an underpaid and over-worked public defender — who has available nothing remotely comparable to the forensic and investigative resources that the state does — odds of wrongful convictions rise dramatically. See these faces:

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Posted in Behind bars, abuse of power, race in America | No Comments »

Penn’s Woulds

Monday, April 21st, 2008

Surely a blog dedicated to partisan coalition-building is not too cool for a primary predictions thread! Therefore I inaugurate it.

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Posted in Campaigns, Democrats, race in America | 7 Comments »

Forty Acres and a Mule: Or Why Pat Buchanan Should Shut His Mouth

Monday, March 24th, 2008

When it comes to the “outrageous” remarks of the week, it usually takes me a while to get a handle on what all the fuss is about. (Update–the best commentary I’ve yet seen on the media reaction comes from Matt Taibbi.)  When the commentariat had their knickers in a twist back in the ’90s over Wayne LaPierre’s statements on guns and government tyranny, my reaction was, “Yeah, so?” It seemed pretty tame (not to mention self-evident) to me. And now, listening to Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s “God damn America” sermon, my reaction is pretty much the same: “Yeah, so?”

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Posted in race in America | 27 Comments »

Beat the Black Press

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

We’ve been having an interesting — and I think productive — discussion of race in America in my thread below. The video here of an African-American reporter doing her job, and being brutally attacked by Caucasian barbarians who spouted the usual epithets at her, is a good counter-point to the issue of inner-city black violence. She was hated primarily because she was reporting on her attackers’ relative who is a murder suspect, but her race seems to have thrown them into an enhanced fury.

Posted in race in America | 5 Comments »