Black Rage and the Bluest Eye
Are blue eyes superior to brown? Have you ever experienced or witnessed an example of Black Rage? In 1970, author Toni Morrison took on both matters in her first book and subsequent ovaric masterpiece: The Bluest Eye.
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Does Dark-Skinned Equal Blackness?
We have wondered here in the past about the cultural constrictions we press into skin color, and a related and deeper issue is one of darker skin — Black skin in particular — and how it is socially demonized by negative, historical, intellectual and emotional touchstones associated with “Blackness.”
Are Nooses Hate Crimes?
The Jena 6 happening brought nooses back to the mainstream mindset and we now seem to be in the midst of a media frenzy where nooses are seen everywhere and people are put on edge just waiting to be insulted by a length of knotted rope so they can express their indignant outrage.
Hand Me that Bowl of Nigger Toes
“Hand me that bowl of Nigger toes,” my grandfather shouted at me across a large oak table filled with family and holiday dressings for Thanksgiving dinner.
I must’ve been around eight-years-old at the time and before I could ask him — what bowl of who — his two daughters, one of them my mother, shouted back at him, “Dad! We don’t talk like that here!” He shrugged them off and pointed at me, “There, boy. By your hand. Shove over that bowl of Nigger toes!”
The Lesson in Lynching Black Children
It there a lesson to be learned in the semiotic lynching of Black children on the campus of Grambling State University?
Republicans Branding Black Stereotypes
Is the Republican Party in the USA Racist? Are the GOP — “The Grand Old Party” — kind to Blacks and other minorities, or is their entire purpose and strategy to demonize Blacks and win elections off their backs while only pretending to want and welcome Black skin into power?
The Mark of Cain and the Mountain Meadows Massacre
As an avowed atheist — I prefer to worship art and nature — it may seem strange that I have a long list of religious friends. Of my many Mormon friends, I have discovered there are two topics that, when mentioned, will cause them to give you the stink eye and turn away from the conversation. If you press the matter, they will refer you to the LDS website for official commentary.
The first verboten topic is colloquially known as “The Mark of Cain” and it is an interesting and undeniable stain on the Mormon church where Blacks — men of African descent — were denied the priesthood because of their “mark”… their skin color.
Continue reading → The Mark of Cain and the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Invasion of the Orange People
We all know there is nothing good for you under the sun. I wholly support the idea of not getting a suntan from the sun. I am, however, confused by the idea of “sunless tanning” where orange dye is applied to the skin in order to give a full and healthy glow. There’s even a “reality” TV show on the E! network called “Sunset Tan” where we get to watch feeble-minded people turn their skin orange for a thousand dollars a session.
Methods of Execution: Death Row Racism and Gender Bias
Are you in favor of Capital Punishment?
If you do support state-sponsored killing, do you prefer hanging, firing squad, lethal injection or death by electric chair?
Is the current method of execution in America Racist and muddled in gender biased while being based on misinterpreted Laws of Moses using “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” as a rationale for killing?
There is a rather gruesome conversation going on in the state of Nebraska right now concerning their use of the electric chair as the sole method of capital punishment.
The argument isn’t over the issue of using the chair or not or if killing people is right or not.
The discussion concerns just how much electricity it takes to “humanely” kill someone:
Continue reading → Methods of Execution: Death Row Racism and Gender Bias
Jack Roosevelt Robinson
Today is the 60th anniversary when Jack Roosevelt Robinson — Jackie Robinson — became the first Black player to take the field in a Major League Baseball uniform. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Few know that in 1941 Jackie Robinson was the first athlete in the history of UCLA — of any color — to letter in four sports: Baseball, Football, Basketball and Track. There are perils when you are a pioneer and a barrier-breaker and — in the light of our Don Imus Conversations — we cannot deny how the past haunts us with a similar hatred that still chases us today as witnessed in this letter sent to Jackie Robinson on May 20, 1951:
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