I'm guessing most of you have not yet read Tim Wise's post at AlterNet titled "

What If the Tea Party Were Black?"

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Check out the whole thing at the link.

Or perhaps you'd like a rap version of this question. Check it out at YouTube.

Y'all know the answers, don't you?

We live in a world of double standards.

--the BB

God does not like this

Our neighboring state of Arizona has waded into the deep end of the racist pool:

Key provisions of Arizona's immigration legislation, signed into law by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday:
_ Makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally by specifically requiring immigrants to have proof of their immigration status. Violations are a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500. Repeat offenses would be a felony.
_ Requires police officers to "make a reasonable attempt" to determine the immigration status of a person if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that he or she is an illegal immigrant. Race, color or national origin may not be the only things considered in implementation. Exceptions can be made if the attempt would hinder an investigation.
_ Allow lawsuits against local or state government agencies that have policies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws. Would impose daily civil fines of $1,000-$5,000. There is pending follow-up legislation to halve the minimum to $500.
--Associated Press

Allow me to cite my authority for saying God does not like this:

One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
--Exodus 12:49

Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.
--Leviticus 24:22

One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
--Numbers 15:16

Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.
--Numbers 15:29

As Stephen Colbert so aptly observes:

Harassing Latinos with racial profiling isn't an inevitable side effect of Arizona's anti-immigration law -- it's the entire point.

The Colbert Report

--the BB

The Klan is on the rise

You can read about it (and see a video) here.

h/t to LaFeminista

--the BB

Looking beyond a candidate's skin color

Bill Maher skewers our stereotypes, pointing out how specious they are in his New Rules:

Now, take a look at these pictures. Here are the CEOs of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and the Lehman Brothers. I know the first thing that jumps out about these faces is that they all happen to be white, and they all happen to be responsible for stealing. But what you have to understand is that these whites are a product of a society that made them that way. It was the neighborhoods and the schools they went to: Harvard, Yale, the Wharton School of Business. They never learned the value of doing real, actual work and the first step to fixing that is better role models, so kids growing up white today don’t think the only way out of Westchester is corporate crime. Or a government handout or sailing. So I get it, the temptation is to look at McCain and vote against him because you don’t see an individual, you just see another typical welfare whitey.

And it’s true, he’s spent his entire life shuffling from one low-paying government job to another. Well, except those years he spent in prison. Typical! And between you and me, he’s not very articulate. Oh, he may have some street smarts, but he’s not what you call an educated man. He freely admits he’s ignorant about the economy. And apparently the only thing his white running mate knows how to do is crank out one baby after another. And now of course, her teenage daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. Because she learns it at home! But that doesn’t mean we should assume all white people are like that, just because so many of them are.

h/t to Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars
--the BB

You're Wrong, Ms. Ferraro

That's the title of an article by the Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, President, Chicago Theological Seminary.

Crooks and Liars pointed me to this portion of Thistlethwaite's comments:

I think of all the ways this comment is offensive and I’m having a hard time choosing between “staggering ignorance of U.S. history and current culture” and the insightful Catholic theological category for human sin, “willful ignorance.” I lean toward the sin concept, because I believe this is a sinful statement on a number of key levels. But I’m not going to ignore historical and cultural ignorance either, as I believe it is the way forward for the country beyond the Ferraros and their monovision.

The New York Times has reported the Justice Department statistic that “an estimated 12 percent of African-American men ages 20-34 are in jail or prison…The proportion of young black men who are incarcerated has been rising in recent years, and this is the highest rate every measured.” Just for comparison, note that 1.6 percent of white men in the same age group are incarcerated.

So, let’s see, to follow Ms.Ferraro’s logic, the other 88% of African American men are being promoted to high public office? Facts dictate otherwise. There are more African American men now in prison than in college and the employment rate for African American men has dropped to just over 50%. It’s nigh on to impossible to get a job in this economy anyway, let alone when you have a prison record. Incarceration rates, unemployment and poverty are linked.

The reason I believe this statement by Ms. Ferraro is an example of the sin of “willful ignorance” is that a person would have to will themselves to actively exclude evidence fully available in every paper, blog, and 24-hour newscycle to come to the conclusion that it’s a “lucky” break for Senator Obama that he was not born a white man.

Ferraro's self-righteous resignation from the Clinton campaign ("The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won’t let that happen.") may now help Hillary recover from Ferraro's foot-in-mouth disease but does nothing to redeem Ferraro's unconscionable statements. That she said the same thing about Jesse Jackson in 1988 only confirms the suspicion that white resentment underlies it all.
--the BB