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An unholy row has broken out in New Zealand over a church billboard aimed at "challenging stereotypes" about the birth of Jesus Christ. A dejected-looking Joseph lies in bed next to Mary under the caption, "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow". St Matthew-in-the-City Church in Auckland, which erected the billboard, said it had intended to provoke debate. But the Catholic Church, among others, has condemned it as "inappropriate" and "disrespectful". Within hours of its unveiling, the billboard had been defaced with brown paint. The church's vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, said the aim of the billboard had been...

Filmmaker Michael Moore will probably want to steer clear of one of his favorite leftist countries -- Hugo Chavez's Venezuela -- after he inadvertently insulted El Presidente and enraged the strongman's rabid supporters. Chavez's devoted followers (no doubt at Chavez's behest) are deriding Moore as a liar, racist, and coward -- all for the filmmakers outrageous statements about their leader during an appearance on a late-night talk show, ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live." (A film clip of the Oct. 9th show may be seen here.) Moore described a strange encounter with Chavez during last September's Venice Film Festival. Chavez was there...

Around the world Desmond Tutu is thought of as a powerful peace maker and one of the people who helped bring down South African apartheid. All that is true, but there is one fatal flaw in the Tutu's Character, he hates Jews, and I don't mean he is anti-Israel (which he is) but he hates Jews. Here are some examples: People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God’s world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid...

The differences between men and women surround us in our daily lives — especially in the media. Recent movies such as “He’s Just Not That into You” and “The Ugly Truth” only highlight these differences and affirm the belief that men and women behave like two different species. This means that dating standards for a new generation of college students are much different than those of their parents, as well as the gender and social roles associated with men and women. The modern media rarely shows the smart, hardworking, patriarchal man played by classic Hollywood actors such as Humphrey Bogart,...

Locker Room Bell Curve by: Deborah Lambert, April 27, 2009 A recent study by a Swarthmore College economist showed that students may perform worse on exams if they “think about their jock identities before they take the test.” Researcher Thomas Dee asked athletes about their sports activities before they answered a series of Graduate Record exam questions. Results showed that the “pre-test reminders of their athletic identities hurt the athletes’ test performance by up to nine percentage points,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Stereotype threat is apparently a hot topic in some circles, which “suggests that anxiety can...

Republican governor hopeful Bob McDonnell is being criticized by state Democrats for not condemning comments made by former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (R) at a campaign rally last week. BY HOLLY HOBBS Huckabee, who spoke at a campaign fundraising event in Tazewell County in southwest Virginia, told rally goers that people in Northern Virginia aren't “necessarily thinking the same way folks like you and me think.” Huckabee went on to say that those living near the Beltway “may never fully understand how hard it is for a lot of people to put a paycheck together to feed a family.” Areas...

There are many ways we get stereotypes. We get them from our parents and the things they teach us. We get them from our peer groups and what they teach us. We get them from books, T.V., movies, etc. But the one place we get stereotypes that we seldom hear about is the very people or things we have stereotypes about. I bring this up because of a recent article I read about a movie that is playing in theaters right now. The reviewer said it was a great movie but it played to racial stereotypes. What stereotypes are being...

There’s been much speculation about what lost the election for the Republicans (answer: plenty), but in a word, the most significant factor was hate. Hate for the opposition. Hate for people who are different. A hate that will eventually destroy the party if they don’t make some serious changes. It goes without saying that smear tactics, though petty, will happen in any election. But the Republicans’ campaign against Obama seemed extra vindictive. From the claims that he was in cahoots with Bill Ayers to the rumours that he was a raging socialist, the McCain campaign (especially Sarah Palin, who seemed...

Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington... "We believe in him. He's the best person for the job," Viessman, a former state trooper from Rolla, said of Obama, who met the pair briefly on that July day in Union, Missouri... Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the...

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), says one of the reasons he’s supporting Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president is his belief that Obama would have an easier time dealing with Muslim nations because “he is half Wog.” “Senator Obama is dark-skinned just like most Muslim leaders,” Kerry observed. “He will be accepted by them. After all, he is half Wog. Even though his mother was a typical white person, his father was a Muslim from Kenya. This should open many doors for him in the Middle East.”

I've expressed admiration for Barack Obama's political skills, but maybe, in a time of stress, his inexperience is beginning to show. In an interview earlier today, he referred to his grandmother--the one he slandered in his speech on Tuesday--as a "typical white person." Think about it: can you imagine any Presidential candidate, in any context, describing anyone as a "typical black person?" Or a "typical Asian person?" Worse, what Obama said was that the "typical white person" views others of different races with fear and suspicion. Obama appears to be digging himself in deeper and deeper. =========================== Listen to Obama...

(Attacks on Obama evoke the old biases - in pop culture and in politics - that black men are slick and lazy.) Many suspected that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's recent substance-over-mere-words attacks against Sen. Barack Obama smacked of desperation. Some expected these attacks to come to an end once Wisconsin had come and gone, giving the Clinton campaign its expected defeat there. But the fact that Clinton continues to repeat the substance-over-mere-words theme indicates that it may be the last card she has to play.

Homeschool Wish List by: Malcolm A. Kline, February 05, 2008 They are about the one group that so-called elites have no problem piling negative stereotypes upon. Thus, it usually comes as a shock to the system of folks who think that having a BA and watching CNN makes them well-informed to learn that homeschoolers don’t fit the stereotypes that they have come to regard as fact..... Because misconceptions abound about home schooling and those who are, homeschoolers have circulated a “wish list” on the internet.... 1. Please stop asking us if it’s legal. If it is, and it is, it’s...

Rudy Giuliani has gotten big laughs hamming it up with “Goodfellas” mobster Joe Pesci and impersonating Don Corleone but his ethnic antics have some Italian-Americans up in arms with one activist calling him an “Uncle Tomaso.” Florida author and former Westchester County, N.Y., police commissioner Richard Capozzola compares the former New York City mayor’s goomba goofing to blacks who act like “Uncle Toms,” while another New Jersey Italian-American activist says Giuliani has “sold out” his heritage. “This has got to stop. This is not a joke,” said Dr. E.A. Alfano, spokesman for the New Jersey-based Italian American One Voice Committee....

A popular San Francisco news anchor inexplicably made a joke on a Wednesday evening newscast suggesting NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. “should marry his stepmother.” First, some background: Preceding the quip by KPIX news anchor Dana King was a flawed report from sports anchor Dennis O’Donnell about the unveiling of the stock car Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be racing with his new team next season. Dale Jr., son of the late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr., is in his final season with Dale Earnhardt Inc., the racing team his father founded and left to Dale Jr.’s stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt. Dale...

Apparently, Fred Thompson had lapses of judgment during his trip to Iowa last week. No, he didn’t suggest he would bomb Pakistan. He didn’t state that he was going to “take” anybody’s earned profits, nor did he make any similar political faux-pas. That was someone else. He did, however, wear Gucci loafers and ride around in a golf cart. That’s right. According to Fox News, Thompson’s Iowa travels involved mistakes such as “wearing Gucci loafers at a country fair.” Really? That’s the mistake? Before we even get to the merits of wearing Gucci loafers (which in the video look a...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Walt Disney Co.'s 1946 film "Song of the South" was historic. It was Disney's first big live-action picture and produced one of the company's most famous songs _ the Oscar-winning "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." It also carries the story line of the Splash Mountain rides at its theme parks. But the movie remains hidden in the Disney archives _ never released on video in the United States and criticized as racist for its depiction of Southern plantation blacks. The film's 60th anniversary passed last year without a whisper of official rerelease, which is unusual for Disney, but President and CEO...

'Song of the South' pits art vs. cultural sensitivity http://www.charleston.net/assets/webPages/departmental/news/Stories.aspx?section=localnews&tableId=136791&pubDate=3/31/2007 http://tinyurl.com/2w5vty BY RON MENCHACA The Post and Courier Talk of a possible re-release of the 1946 Walt Disney film 'Song of the South,' which is criticized for its plantation-era depictions of blacks as the happy servants of wealthy whites, already is sparking a debate. The film was reshown in theaters as recently as 1986, but it never was released on video in the United States. Its cultural and cinematic significance have been the subject of scholarly debate for decades, and bootlegged copies of the film are popular on the black...

In some circles, Poland suffers from an undeserved reputation as an antisemitic country. How to deal with the stereotype? The New York premiere of the theater play "The Last Jew in Europe" by a Jewish director Tuvia Tenenbom, in which Poles are pictured as a vehemently antisemitic nation, has met with concern from the Polish community in America, offended by what they felt was a suggestion that Poles are inherently anti-Jewish. The Polish Consulate in NY has protested against the poster promoting the play. Consul General Krzysztof Kasprzyk has seen it: 'The controversy around the play and the atmosphere, which...

Gov. Deval Patrick defended his use of a new taxpayer-funded Cadillac yesterday, saying that a less expensive Crown Victoria was not available, but an aide later said Patrick’s explanation to reporters was misleading. Fielding tough questions about the car from reporters yesterday, the governor said the Crown Victoria model used by his predecessor Gov. Mitt Romney was no longer in production. “I asked whether the extended cab version of (the Crown Victoria) was in production, and I was told it wasn’t,” Patrick said. “If that’s wrong, then take it up with the state police.” An aide to Patrick said after...

DALLAS - Authorities at Tarleton State University said they plan to investigate a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that mocked black stereotypes by featuring fried chicken, malt liquor and faux gang apparel. "I feel like there is no excuse for this type of ignorance," said Donald Ray Elder, president of the Stephenville school's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Photographs posted on social networking Web site Facebook.com showed partygoers wearing Afro wigs and fake gold and silver teeth. One photo showed students "mocking how African-Americans do step shows," Elder said. In another picture, a...

Sept. 15, 2006 — Are whites smarter than blacks? Are men better than women at science? Those are the stereotypes. But now psychologists say, wait a second, you don't understand the power of a stereotype. One study showed that women who watched commercials with stereotypical ditzy females before taking a math test scored 38 percent lower than women who didn't see the ads. The Kaplan Education and Test Prep company helped us run similar tests. And sure enough: Even in our unscientific test, the women who viewed the sexist commercials did worse. This stereotype effect has been found in study...

The life of African-American middle-school students can be pretty stressful. From the moment they step into the classroom, some must contend with not only coursework but also the anxiety that performing badly might confirm negative stereotypes. That fear can itself lead to poor performance, researchers have known for a while; now they've come up with a simple antidote: getting students to reflect on their sense of self-worth by writing a personal essay about what they value. Geoffrey Cohen, a psychologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his colleagues tested the strategy among 243 seventh graders at a northeastern U.S....

A candidate running for the congressional seat of Rep. Katherine Harris apologized Thursday for comments he made about the swimming ability of blacks. Republican Tramm Hudson, a banker, made the comments earlier this year at a Christian Coalition political forum. The remarks appeared on blogs Thursday. "I said something stupid," Hudson said in a statement released by his campaign. "I apologize for it and would apologize in person to anyone hurt by my comments." Hudson made the comments as he described efforts to rescue a black soldier who had fallen into a river while the Army Reserve company Hudson commanded...

A question of manlinesshttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=395271 http://tinyurl.com/zmrh5 By MARTIN NEWLAND, Daily Mail 07/12/06 - News section There is, apparently, a resurgence of manliness in America. Superman has returned to the big screen and unshaven, testosterone-charged film stars such as Colin Farrell no longer look socially marginalised. The A To Z Of Manliness, a compendium of tips on such matters as how to punch properly, is number two on the New York Times bestseller list, while a rash of academic books on the importance of real men have added fuel to the fire. The Boston Globe recently summed up the phenomenon: "We're in...

German stereotypes of Poles 29.06.2006 They are car thieving, backward and unemployed who can’t play football, apparently. Report by Slawek Szefs Although their image has been changing for the better, Poles are still negatively perceived by most Germans and are not fully accepted in the country of their Western neighbors. Those are the conclusions of a six-year study published in a report by the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw. In the eyes of an average German, Poles are mostly associated with car theft, cultural backwardness and unemployment. What's worse, they can't even play football! The latter opinion is fully...

The flier put out by Jim Webb's campaign for U.S. Senate described his opponent as a corporate lobbyist who made money by sending American jobs overseas. But what caught Dan Smolen's attention was the cartoon that accompanied the text: That of a man with a hook nose and money spilling from his pockets. It was a caricature of Harris Miller, Webb's opponent in Tuesday's Democratic primary who happens to be Jewish. The image made Smolen, who is Jewish and Stafford County's Democratic chairman, uncomfortable. "I don't think whoever did the cartoon caricature meant this as an ethnic slur," he said,...

The Committee of 100 survey that I have mentioned here in the past asked the question of American opinion leaders - What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear "China?" 4. Human/religious/civil rights - 16% (This is the percentage of the US population that are treehuggers and activists.) 3. Communism - 16% (They think this means everyone eating off of the same table and sharing the car.) 2. Population - 40% (Finally someone realizes that China has something the rest of the world doesn't - the largest population in the world) and.... 1. Economic growth -...

The Committee of 100 survey that I have mentioned here in the past asked the question of American opinion leaders - What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear "China?" 9. S.A.R.S was mentioned by 1%. (where's this dude been?) 8. Military threat was mentioned by 2%. (and these guys are opinion leaders?!) 7. The Great Wall was mentioned by 3%. (they must have been on the moon when they answered) 6. Long History - 3% (this is the three percent of the US population that is over 100 years old) 5. Culture/food - 9% (they...

PHOENIX -- A middle-age Hispanic man pushes a mower across the lawn of a giant home in an affluent neighborhood. A middle-age white woman pulls up driving a BMW. "Can you please come here por favor," she said, sticking her head out the window. "I was wondering how much you charge to landscape this home?" The man stops and asks: "Why would I charge to landscape my own yard?" She blushes and drives off. The commercial clip later freezes and an on-screen message appears: "I am an American." The commercial is being filmed for a new Web site created by...

THE 'Y1-HUF'Outrage over stereotype. Photo: J. Scott Wynn April 29, 2006 -- Adidas' hottest new sneakers are being kicked to the curb. The trendy sportswear line released a sneaker with a slant-eyed, bowl-cut, bucked-tooth caricature of an Asian man popping off of the tongue earlier this month, enraging critics who dubbed the shoe racist. Now, in response to pressure from the Asian-American community, the sneaker is being pulled from shelves. "Out of respect to those offended and to demonstrate our deep commitment to inclusiveness and diversity, we have chosen to pull the remaining shoes from the marketplace," Adidas said...

Parents of daughters are more likely to be left-wing, whatever the feminists claim FATHERS WILL DO anything for their little princesses. They turn a blind eye as the house becomes a palace of pink fluff. Later on they play a pivotal role in their daughters’ social development — that of chauffeur. Dads will even, we learnt this week, shift political allegiance for their daughters. Andrew Oswald, from Warwick University, and Nattavudh Powdthavee, of the Institute of Education at London University, have discovered that how parents vote is linked to the gender of their children. The more daughters there are in...

Quick! Give me your stereotype of a "typical DUmmie." How about dogmatic, clueless, and so gullible that he/she/it will readily hand money over to an obvious con artist for merely promising the possibility of overturning a presidential election. While the DUmmies are residing impotently in their Alternate Reality, they love nothing more than to take potshots at conservatives in general and Republicans in particular as you can see in this THREAD titled, "Quick! Give me your stereotype of a 'typical Republican.'" So let us now watch the typical DUmmies rage in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble...

According to Swedish school textbooks, Finns are poorly educated and abuse drugs, but are nonetheless excellent in sports. The same books keep quiet about the Finnish-speaking minority in Sweden. "The picture given by the schoolbooks of Finns and Finland is rather bleak and old-fashioned. Actually, it is as prejudiced as it was in the 1960s", observes Antti Ylikiiskilä, a lecturer in Swedish at Högskolan Dalarna, a university in Sweden. According to Swedish school textbooks, Finns are poorly educated and abuse drugs, but are nonetheless excellent in sports. The same books keep quiet about the Finnish-speaking minority in Sweden. "The picture...

Previous studies have suggested that men who are fertile have more attractive faces. In the latest research, scientists at St Andrews University established a similar pattern in women - and then looked further to examine the effect cosmetics have on this gift of nature. They found that make-up could improve the appearance of the less attractive woman, thus confusing the instincts of the male into thinking she was more fertile than she actually was. But on the good-looking woman, it did not improve her chances of attracting a partner. She would be just as successful relying on her natural beauty....

I recently was hired by my school newspaper to be an opinion columnist. I am the only openly conservative writer on the op. eds. pages. This is my first column. Hope you enjoy it! I am trying to get the conservative messages out on my liberal school campus!

Arab-American professional wrestler Muhammad Hassan, played by Italian-American Mark Copani for World Wrestling Entertainment, has seen his last day in the ring, according to a WWE spokesman. The smackdown of Hassan during last weekend's "Great American Bash," an annual pay-per-view event, came after UPN and World Wrestling Entertainment received several letters and protests complaining that the character was an offensive stereotype of Arab-Americans and Muslims. Hassan, whose storyline is that he's Arab-American born and raised in Detroit, rants and raves about being profiled and discriminated against, especially since Sept. 11, and is usually accompanied by other angry Arab-American men. An...

AMMAN, Jordan - On his first visit to the Middle East, Ricky Martin declared he will try to change negative perceptions of Arab youth in the West. "I promise I will become a spokesperson, if you allow me to, a spokesperson on your behalf. I will defend you and try to get rid of any stereotypes," the 33-year-old singer told youngsters from 16 mainly Arab countries at a youth conference on Monday. The children, ages 14 to 16, expressed concern about being labeled as "terrorists" by the West.

Through their activism, they got TV stations to stop showing reruns of "The Lone Ranger" because of the way Tonto was depicted (by Jay Silverheels, an American Indian actor). If Indians had their way, the Cleveland and Atlanta baseball teams and the Washington NFL team would follow the lead of hundreds of high schools and colleges that were browbeaten into adopting non-Indian mascots. Indians don't even like being called Indians, preferring Native American to avoid, as they put it, "the dehumanizing stereotype of the bloodthirsty savage." (But they don't seem to mind their stereotype as scalpers of patrons to their...

It didn't take long for Howard Dean, the new Democratic National Committee chairman, to show his credentials as a graduate of the Trent Lott school of racial sensitivity training. His remarks, at a meeting with the uniformly Democratic Congressional Black Caucus, that Republicans would need the "hotel staff" if they wanted to fill a room with blacks, tell us a lot about the man. They also tell us a lot about the Democratic Party that has chosen him to lead it out of its abyss. Dean and his party are frozen in a time warp. Their sense of the social...

The most powerful African American member of the House of Representatives is calling on Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to apologize for a racially insensitive joke he told Friday during an address to the Congressional Black Caucus. Asked on Tuesday if Dean should apologize for suggesting during his address that minorities usually work as servants, Rep. Charles Rangel told ABC Radio's Sean Hannity: "If he offended anybody, he certainly should." Critics say Dean crossed the line when he told the CBC, "You think the Republicans could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they...

Rep. Charlie Rangel is blasting ex-President Bill Clinton as "a redneck" after New York Sen. Hillary Clinton refused for the second year in a row to support his bill to help the mother of police shooting victim Amadou Diallo stay in the country.

Is Howard Dean a Racist? The reader will recall during the 2004 Democrat presidential primary, people began to wonder if Howard Dean was sufficiently sympathetic to the plight of the black man in America. Then came this utterly foolish snafu: I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," the former Vermont governor said in a telephone interview quoted in Saturday's Des Moines Register. "We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats." Now comes another troubling utterance from the angry little man from Vermont; one that has...

Men’s Resource Center Abuses Men with False Stereotypes On Monday February 14, the Men’s Resource Center of Western Massachusetts is running a Valentine’s Day advertisement (see below) which states, “Women are entitled to live their lives free of fear of abuse and violence.” The ad conveniently forgets to mention that women are just as likely as men to commit domestic violence. Indeed, the advertisement promotes the worst stereotypes about the so-called “masculine culture of violence.” On February 4, Tammy Warner of Lake Jackson, Texas was indicted for negligent homicide. She is accused of killing her husband, Michael, by giving him...

'Polish Joke' plays up stereotypes at SLAC By Brandon Griggs The Salt Lake Tribune Some of the most widespread and tasteless American jokes have long made fun of ethnic groups, and perhaps no minority has suffered more than the Poles. For reasons that remain unclear, people from Poland have been the brunt of countless jokes that play off cruel stereotypes of "Polacks" as stupid blunderers. How do you sink a Polish battleship? Put it in water. Ha, ha. Now comes "Polish Joke," a comedy by David Ives that opens in previews Tuesday at the Salt Lake Acting Company. By focusing...

Alongside U.S. 59, several miles north of the Loop, sits the appropriately named 59 Gun Range. Run-down homes, vacant lots and a fireworks emporium line its block. Immediately adjacent is Pancho's Mobile Homes, a makeshift sales lot marked by a hand-painted sign, where dented trailers teeter on cinder blocks like derailed train cars. In the smoky gun shop, which forms the lobby of the range, a wispy teenager with long, oily hair and a dimwitted but lively gaze drawls about the thrills of gun recoil. His sidekick affirms with a crooked smile. At one of the shadowy shooting lanes, Marie...

I've had a cold this weekend and as such have watched more TV than usual. I did a quick (I'm ill, you know) search on FR and didn't find anything on this, but if this has been posted, please forgive me. Is anyone else here on FR not bothered by the images of invading and marauding Vikings and "European Barbarian" warriors in those Capitol One credit card commercials? For those of you unfamiliar, basically, the ad starts with a customer telling the cashier, "I'll just put it on my credit card." Enter the marauding white males......The message being that you'll...

is what was stated on a Madison, WI Radio Talk Show today. If she is being categorized as today's Aunt Jemima, this is great! Aunt Jemima is remembered with love and respect. Her role was a powerful one. Nancy Green, Rosie Lee Moore, Lillian Richard and many others who portrayed this image created an endearing and enduring icon. These women held jobs with high profile positions and traveled with expense accounts as celebrities in a time when women didn't hold high profile positions. These women were also historians. The character of Aunt Jemima was more than and advertisement for pancakes,...

As the furor over the election dies down, with unseemly whining from sore losers and unseemly gloating from sore winners, certain stereotypes of Bush voters continue to command currency among disgruntled liberals. One of them is that Bush supporters, and conservatives in general, are dumb, ignorant, and out of touch with reality. This notion has been bandied about with quite a bit of smugness. Some on the left, taking an ironic cue from the widely reported comments of a "senior Bush advisor" to the reporter Ron Suskind, have begun calling themselves "the reality-based community." The idea that Bush voters are...

George W. Bush received more votes in Tuesday's election than any presidential contender in the history of the United States, and I would like to believe Michael Moore was partly responsible. Here, after all, was not simply a film director whose "Fahrenheit 9/11" emitted a vile propagandistic stink, indicating something contemptible in the mind-set of its creator, but someone who went trotting about Europe telling the adulatory press that Americans "are possibly the dumbest people on the planet."