Free Republic

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - “We’ll never have this opportunity again,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, taking to the streets for what appeared to be an emergency cross country tour in September. He hopes to rejuvenate the Obama excitement that some say has waned since the Democratic National Convention last month. “What we’ve got to tell people is what’s at stake; that we’re dealing now with the new unemployment. Unemployment is higher than it’s been in four years, we are seeing the education and health care of our people as worse than it ever was. We cannot afford to not vote,” Rev....

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Barack Obama's speech last week, hastily prepared to extinguish the firestorm over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, won critical praise for style and substance but failed politically. By elevating the question of race in America, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate has deepened the dilemma created by his campaign's success against the party establishment's anointed choice, Hillary Clinton. In rejecting the racist views of his longtime spiritual mentor but not disowning him, Obama has unwittingly enhanced his image as the African-American candidate -- not just a remarkable candidate who happens to be black. That poses a racial dilemma for...

Watching the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright gesticulate like a horny peacock and spew out ignorance, hatred, and bitterness towards America truly inspired my religious faith. Once Wright pointed out that he was “still in Bible country,” I began to “love the hell out of” rich, white people just as much as Wright does. How could so many people not understand that white people have caused all the world’s problems? As Wright pointed out to his congregation, the Bible says it’s so. I’m not sure what verse actually says that, but I’m now betting that rich, white people are responsible for my...

For most white folks, indignation just doesn't wear well. Once affected or conjured up, it reminds one of a pudgy man, wearing a tie that may well have fit him when he was fifty pounds lighter, but which now cuts off somewhere above his navel and makes him look like an idiot. Indignation doesn't work for most whites, because having remained sanguine about, silent during, indeed often supportive of so much injustice over the years in this country--the theft of native land and genocide of indigenous persons, and the enslavement of Africans being only two of the best examples--we are...

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama in a speech Tuesday addressed the controversy surrounding his former minister, using it as an opportunity to challenge Americans to take a closer look at race relations. Speaking to supporters at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, the Democratic presidential candidate said he rejected racially charged comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but he tried to explain the root of those remarks. Wright formerly preached at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where the senator from Illinois worships. Some of Wright's old sermons came under fire after an ABC News report last week,...

The Early Show did its best this morning to help Barack Obama climb out of the hole he's dug for himself with his close association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In a set-up segment, CBS's Dean Reynolds rhetorically asked: "the question is whether the rhetoric is so remarkable, because in African-American churches pastors often seek to rouse their congregants to self-reliance by speaking harshly about the country's troubled racial past and the need to overcome it." Nice try, but how does accusing the US government of introducing AIDS and giving black people drugs equate to a call for self-reliance? Reynolds...

The eruption of outrage, shock and fear that is flowing over Barack Obama’s campaign like hot lava because his pastor has preached some strident sermons tells us one thing for certain: Many white people don’t know black people at all. If they did, they would know that Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago is hardly the only black minister who uses the pulpit to rant against racial duplicity and injustice. The black church has always been the place for letting our hair down and speaking our peace -- a safe haven from the criminations outside. It’s how and why the black...

It was the liberals who spearheaded the civil rights movement. It was the progressives who preached freedom and equality, who challenged tradition, who demanded change and fair treatment. They were the ones who changed the flawed way Americans used to believe. And thanks to them, and the little bit of good within every one of us, racism in the traditional sense – laws denying blacks equal rights as whites – is dead. And yet people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright Jr. (Barack Obama’s pastor) still seem to be thriving on their incessant and irresponsible patterns of screaming...

Editor's Note: The following report contains objectionable language. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's former church sharply criticized the media Sunday for recent coverage of his past controversial sermons, saying in a statement that Wright's "character is being assassinated in the public sphere." The statement comes two days after Barack Obama, a longtime friend of Wright and attendee of the Trinity United Church of Christ, formally denounced the sermons that have recently become the subject of controversy, calling them "inflammatory and appalling." "It is an indictment on Dr. Wright’s ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound...

Blacks increasingly less certain about racial progress in America WASHINGTON - Growing numbers of blacks say they’re worse off than five years ago and don’t expect their lives to improve, a study released Tuesday shows. Black pessimism about racial progress in America, according to the study, is the worst it’s been in more than two decades. The survey by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based research organization, paints a mixed picture of race relations following Hurricane Katrina and the Jena Six case, in which six black teens were charged with beating a white student at a high school in the...

At this point, there seems little doubt about the ugliness that has simmered, and then boiled, in a little town in Louisiana called Jena. There is a lot that has already been said, and done, about the latent racism in the town that led to the display of nooses on a tree. Racism that led, in reaction, to six black youths brutally beating a young white man, and then the subsequent disproportionate sentencing, in which those black youths could have served prison time for trumped-up murder charges. Action has been taken, and will be taken, so that those charges, and...

UK faces $4-trillion colonial suit Sun, 09 Sep 2007  A Malaysian human rights lawyer has filed a $4-trillion lawsuit against Britain for alleged atrocities suffered by Indians whose forefathers were brought as indentured labourers to Malaysia during colonial rule. Seeking £1-million compensation for each of the currently estimated two million Indian Malaysians, the suit was filed in London last week, Ponnusamy Waytha Moorthy told reporters in Washington on a trip to brief the US Congress and rights groups on the issue. "The colossal suit reflects the years of pain, suffering, humiliation, discrimination and continuous colonialisation under the current Malaysian...

L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, who made history as the nation's first elected black governor, is preparing to campaign aggressively for Barack Obama, and predicted in an interview that the charismatic young candidate could shatter the Republican Party's virtual lock on the South. "He's not race-less," Wilder said of Obama, "but the skin color is of no moment. I don't think he would be an easy target for the Republicans." The unstinting embrace by Wilder, now the mayor of Richmond, could be important in Virginia and other southern states, where his reputation still looms large and the African-American vote could...

<p>The plan to erect a giant memorial statue of Martin Luther King on the National Mall in Washington has become embroiled in controversy after it was decided to appoint a Chinese artist as the lead sculptor. Lei Yixin was spotted by a team from the King Memorial Foundation when he was taking part in a discussion on stone carving in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which is twinned with his home town of Changsha.</p>

Are Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton racist bigots? Yes, at least Don Imus could cite brain damage due to drug abuse as an excuse for what he uttered. No, they only say and do the things they do for money and power, not because they believe them.

NEW YORK - Promoting the concept of good global citizenship, former President Clinton implored black leaders Thursday to take better care of their health, reduce their use of energy and recognize the promises and peril of globalization. Appearing before the National Action Network, a civil rights group founded by Rev. Al Sharpton, Clinton gave a wide-ranging talk on topics from the genocide in Darfur to his efforts to reduce the calorie content of soft drinks. He spoke of a booming global economy that has enriched many but has remained unattainable for most. "People say, 'This deal is not working for...

This is a must read for anyone interested in cop shootings. The author,Phila Bulletin columnist Michael P. Tremoglie not talks about his own experiences as a cop he has got data about cop shootings in here that takes a flame thrower to the myths and claims by Al Shartpon and company. http://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17567142&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=574088&rfi=6

For your viewing entertainment... I mentioned that my friend Bryan Preston of Junkyard Blog and I attended the New Black Panther Party's protest of the Danish embassy in Washington, D.C., over the weekend. Bryan has put together a mini-movie highlighting the unintentionally comical wit and wisdom of NBPP leader Malik Zulu Shabazz. It's called "Takbir!" Which is a call to arms...or at least fists. In any case, the angry clown Shabazz spent a lot of time exhorting his very small legion of followers with the phrase and threatening the peaceful counterprotesters. Unfortunately, we can't afford to dismiss the likes of...

The recent gang riots in Toledo, Ohio has produced a renewed interest in the issue of street gangs and their criminal activities. Americans were shocked at news broadcasts showing gang members on the streets of Toledo looting, breaking into homes and torching buildings. The news media template for the rioting is that these thugs were anguished and enraged over a group of Neo-Nazis protesting on the streets considered the territory of gang members. But an honest view of news footage of the gang members rioting displayed an atmosphere of celebration and lawlessness rather than anguish. The violence broke out about...

Over 800 hundred people living at the Jesse Jackson Town Homes in Greenville County may be displaced if a government grant goes through. The question is, "Is it too good to be true?" Civil Rights Activist Jesse Jackson says, "Well until we see where the monies are, it's not true." Tonight Jesse Jackson came to meet with residents not because the Town Homes bear his name. "I'm here because I grew up here .. . here because I have friends here." The neighborhood may look idyllic with children out riding their bicycles but at night resident Dianna Turner says it's...

The NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, is refusing to cooperate with an IRS investigation into whether its chairman made an improper political speech, charging that the timing of the probe was itself politically motivated. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in October that the group's tax-exempt status was under review after its chairman, Julian Bond, gave a speech that criticized President Bush. In a letter to the IRS on Thursday, NAACP attorneys said the group will not hand over documents requested in the probe and argued that the IRS followed improper procedure by launching...

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (AP) -- The ballroom is decorated with floor-to-ceiling paintings of shiny soda fountains, classic cars and the old store windows downtown. A stoop juts out from a rendering of the high school facade, so graduates can sit and talk -- just like in the old days. And just like in the old days, not everyone in town is invited. Advertisement The reunion Saturday is only for those who graduated from Washington High School before it opened its doors to black students in the fall of 1969. Some black leaders say the all-white reunion is sad and painful...

A panel of the Metropolitan Transit Authority board wants to know why the agency employs so few Hispanics, but its search for answers has been slowed by the difficulty of wading through reams of employment records. Board member Janie Reyes, who chairs the committee looking into hiring practices, said Monday the agency did not computerize these records until October. Despite incomplete records, the committee will hold its first meeting today to begin its review of Metro's hiring practices. "I'm asking for the last year of applicants," she said. "The problem is the time it takes manually to pull them out."...

Where have you gone, Joe Lieberman? At one point in time--say, seven years ago--Joe Lieberman was one of the few leading Democrats (Bill Clinton was another) to talk a new politics of race. His early backing of civil rights in the 1960s demonstrated his commitment to African American equality, and he was supportive of many paleoliberal remedies for black marginalization. But what set Lieberman apart was his emphasis on the importance of rescuing the black family to improve the plight of African Americans; and on the way in which affirmative action was undermining the principle of individual equality of opportunity...

Silent No More: A Major Crisis in the African-American CommunityBy Rev. John J. Raphael, SSJRoman Catholic ChaplainHoward University, Washington, DC Do you know what the leading cause of death in the African American Community since 1973 is? Think about it for a minute. Is it heart disease-2,266,789 deaths since 1973, cancer-1,638,350, or accidents-370,723? Is it AIDS-203,695, or violent crimes-306, 313? There is one possibility that is often overlooked. It happens 1452 times a day in our community. It has taken over 13 million Black lives within the last 30 years. It has taken 1/3 of our present population. What...