Arkansas - Slave paraphernalia ballot item can be resubmitted, Beebe says

Associated Press | December 23, 2005 | Andrew DeMillo

[HAL9000]

LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Attorney General Mike Beebe says a proposed constitutional amendment to ban the sale of slave paraphernalia can be resubmitted for his review.

Beebe rejected the proposal Thursday, saying it did not include a copy of the full measure for his review. He also noted several problems with the proposal including that it does not clearly define slave paraphernalia or slave items.

But Beebe told Marquitta J. Corbin of Conway that she can submit the proposal again.

Corbin wants to get the measure on the November ballot but the attorney general must first review the proposal then Corbin will have to get a certain number of voter signatures.

Corbin said she submitted the proposal after seeing a doll in an antique store that she said unfairly depicted black people for sale.

"Why are they going to sell slave paraphernalia for profit?" Corbin said in an interview Thursday. "That's a total disgrace."

Corbin said slave paraphernalia would include anything sold for profit related to the slavery era, and would include photographs and Confederate flags.

In a letter to Corbin, Beebe told her he could not certify the proposal without a copy of the proposed amendment itself.

On Wednesday, Beebe rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to declare the Lost Cherokee of Arkansas a state-recognized tribe. The attorney general's office is still reviewing a proposed ballot title to raise the state's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.15 an hour.

Drew Pritt of Warren, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said he has submitted two ballot proposals. One would create an elected position for state superintendent of education and another would establish a statewide lottery to help support the schools.

A spokesman for Beebe said Thursday the attorney general had not yet received either proposal.

[HAL9000]

I don't think I own any "slave paraphernalia".

[TheDon]

"Why are they going to sell slave paraphernalia for profit?" Corbin said in an interview Thursday. "That's a total disgrace."

Corbin is a fascist.

[msnimje]

This is insane. Most collectors I know (I am an antiques dealer) of slave items are black people. They believe this is part of their history and they have every rights to buy, sell and collect it.

[GodfearingTexan]

This is just stupid. This is the real violation of civil liberties, here! If something is part of history, so what? And what exactly is slave paraphernalia? If I were the AG I would keep finding fault after fault with this proposal. Then I'd lose it a few times, accidentally throw it away a couple of times. They are trying to criminalize something that is not criminal. I'm going to submit a ballot measure to my AG that says that people who submit ballot measures must first prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they aren't a stupid liberal.

[Seamoth]

Guess which demographic collects the vast majority of slave paraphernalia and other Black Americana?

[swmobuffalo]

..."including photographs and Confederate flags"

I sense a hidden agenda here.

[kalee]

ping

[Seamoth]

Beat me to the punch. (An antiques dealer on FR? If you're straight, than that's the end of the world... LOL)

[billbears]

You think?!? Would that ban the sale of union flags and other northern items as well?

[swmobuffalo]

"Would that ban the sale of union flags and other northern items as well?"

Of course not, those things represent "freedom"!!

[bannie]

I wanna' sue the guy who invented the "No Fat Chicks" bumper sticker. It offends me.

;-)

[ReignOfError]

This is insane. Most collectors I know (I am an antiques dealer) of slave items are black people. They believe this is part of their history and they have every rights to buy, sell and collect it.

Years ago, my mom invited her friend Sharon, a black woman, over for dinner. When Sharon arrived, Mom realized that an old Golliwog doll was slumped on one corner, and hastened to apologize. Sharon cut her off, noting that it was a particularly good example, and asked where she'd gotten it. It had been in the family for three generations or so.

Most collectors of Sambo/minstrel-style racist memorabilia are black Americans who are repossessing their history. The stereotypes once owned them, and now they own the stereotypes. They win. More power to 'em.

[msnimje]

I am a married woman (20 years to a MAN)!

[RWCon]

More PC crap.

[Seamoth]

LOL... well, that's the end of the world then! ;-) Merry Christmas to you and your family.

[fieldmarshaldj]

DREW PRITT ?!?!?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA !!!

I've know that psychotic little fudgepacker personally for 6 years, he's been jumping from state to state trying to find a place that will elect his sicko a$$. It's all his "connected" West Virginia family can do to keep him out of prison or a nervous hospital.

[Tzimisce]

Total crap.

[Seamoth]

The stereotypes once owned them, and now they own the stereotypes. They win.

Never saw it that way before. Very interesting.

[The Red Zone]

Whistling Dixie should be a hanging crime, of course.

[sourcery]

This is the real violation of civil liberties, here!

Um, no. A civil liberty is a granted right, such as the right to vote. The proposed Constitutional Ammendment is a violation of the right to Liberty--which is the right to do whatever does not violate the rights of others.

[PAR35]

I don't think I own any "slave paraphernalia".

No history books around your house? No antiques from before 1865?

"and would include photographs and Confederate flags."

I just realized I was reading it too narrowly. Since slavery is still practiced in parts of Africa, and perhaps Asia, this is still the 'slavery era'. "anything sold for profit related to the slavery era". So you wouldn't be able to buy anything in Arkansas - no food, no clothing, no cars. By her definition, everything you own is 'slave paraphernalia.'

[reformedliberal]

I know someone who collects WWII memorabilia, including weapons and NAZI insignia.

Of course, anything related to either is banned on most Internet auctions.

This collector has consigned some of his items to a dealer with a good-sized list of other such collectors. They are sold at low key, very private auctions. Prices have been going higher for some time, I am told.

I own a Vigny Golliwog perfume presentation. It stays in its box in a cabinet and is shown to a select few, as we are simply nervous about someone being *offended* and retaliating. This item had nothing to do w/slavery. It dates to the late 1920s and was symbolic of the Jazz Age. The black American jazz musicians in Europe were considered exotic and slightly dangerous, in an exciting way. If you get a chance to see the ads for this perfume from the era, one shows a flapper holding the Golliwog bottle on her upturned palm and blowing a kiss toward it.

I recall reading that in Britain in the 20s, the minstrel shows were confined to the ends of piers, where the musicians had to pass the hat to make any money. These performers were Caucasians in black-face. They were considered vulgar.

Golli dolls were a fixture in most British, Australian and South African nurseries. I have seen a very ardent South African anti-apartheid activist just soften and get misty when they see a Golli.

[wildbill]

Oh. I thought they were going after the BDSM fetishists.

[bert]

This is a direct assult on the first ammendment. I essentially ends mention of the Civil War. The woman needs to be sold down the river. America doesn't need her kind.

[Casloy]

"Why are they going to sell slave paraphernalia for profit?" Corbin said in an interview Thursday. "That's a total disgrace."

I guess that silly US Constitution is going to be an annoyance to Corbin.

[right right]

Racism knows no limits or boundries. I guess dynamite is now to be banned after W and Karl blew up the levies. They have eye witnesses you know!!!! Blacks are the most racist and selfish people on earth.

[Mike Darancette]

This is probably the most stupid law I've heard of in a long time. Slave paraphernalia is very collectible and owned by many Black Americans.

Would the ban include items made by slaves such as quilts, pottery, furniture and other folk art items? Some of it is very very good and lends to the knowledge of Black history in America.

To my mind the most hateful stuff is what was manufactured post bellum in the north. And even that junk is avidly collected by Black Americans.

[jordan8]

Obviously, the state of Arkansas has no right to ban the sale of "slave paraphernalia." This is just a petition for a ballot initiative from some yoyo that the AG of Arkansas has to vet for legality. Because it's from a black woman and is about slavery political correctness kicks in and instead of just telling her to buzz off he has to pretend to take this seriously. She's going to press it though, and it's actually amusing to see public officials squirm in cases like this. Hoist by their own petard is the correct phrase, I believe. Course the danger is that they will actually push these sorts of laws through rather than face up to political correctness.

[gitmo]

So Arkansas citizens will have to go to another state to sell their belongings. Any sales tax will go to the other state.

[atomic conspiracy]

My neighbor, a physician, was born and raised here in West Texas. For the first ten years of his life, he could not sit in the lower section of a theater or eat in the front section of a restaurant. His great-grandparents were slaves and his great-grandmother was still alive when he was a small child.
He is an avid collector of Black Americana, a very popular and historically important collecting field. Much of the material in his collection is overtly racist. Most of this is from the early 1900s (pages from the 1904 Sears catalog, for example), but some of it dates from slave times.
This collection is heritage and the truth of history, not partisan activism. The proposed amendment is pure Orwellian revisionism, an obscenity, and very probably a violation of the First Amendment.

[bigsigh]

There goes the bubble!

[atomic conspiracy]

Sheesh, it's occurred to me that I'm getting to be a major thought-criminal. First, I am Jewish, which is a crime in and of itself in many parts of the world. Worse, I have a fair collection of Nazi and other antisemitic propaganda. It is not pretty but it is history and we forget at our peril. In more practical terms, it is handy to have around for comparison when similar material is propagated by Islamofascists and their media tools.
Finally, I engage in an ongoing and flagrant violation of ethnic identity codes by eating ham and putting up Christmas trees.
Someday, I will probably be forced to join the rest of you outlaws in some mountain hide-out, safe from the depredations of the inclusiveness/sensitivity gestapo.

[GodfearingTexan]

yeah ok!