I love YouTube for so many reasons. mostly for it's relevance to history and our step forward as people from one generational peroid to another. This is part of a series on YouTube from more than 20 years ago - that was on The Phil Donahue Show.
The show includes Dhoruba bin Wahad, Cornel West - Pre Dickey; Sistah Souljah, Tony Brown and others.
We're highlighting this today to remind you that Television Used to Have a Purpose. Lets start to demand more quality programming, and less Jersey Shore.
It's Our World and We Should Be Involved in The Programming
This trailer for the soon to be released Documentary hits the problem in a very sensitive area. Personally speaking I lived this problem for my whole life. my skin is light brown; my hair is curly yet softer; and my eyes are lighter green and hazel.
This makes me stand out in a group of Black People always. it never matters how much we say we are one and the same, I can always feel that someone is looking at me with some emotional baggage, that belongs to neither of us.
The most hurtful comments always seem to come from women who are closer to my skin color. it seems that the lighter your skin color the more you seem to stick out in peoples eyes. much like a sore thumb.
Pigmentocracy : a society where pigment determines ones social class and life possibilities.
This social substructure greatly impacted people like me, whos' Caribbean backgrounds were linked to miscegenation and rape. last year we wrote about the problem with skin bleaching in the Caribbean. yet we still see the sales of these deadly creams climbing globally. it's as though people have adopted the view that to be White is to be Right.
When will we be able to accept each other for the People We Are, instead of the color of our skins ?
That question is larger for me in someways because no matter what I do, I will never be acceptable to either Black folks who are darker than me and have an issue with being Color Struck; or with White folks who seem to want to think that my skin color would make me more of a threat to them, being closer to theirs.
It's an ugly jagged point to always have to live with, regardless of what you may be doing with your life. you are accused of getting ahead because of your skin color; as shown in the video. women look at your hair and often wonder if it's chemically treated or even if it's your own hair. then your eyes really cause the most discomfort when people realize that they are yours, and not contact lenses.
I said I'd never write this post, but tonight it was so obvious to me that if I didn't add my voice to those of the women in the video, no one would understand my personal pain.
The pain of never being the right color. never having the right hair, texture or eyes. always being too close to that forbidden and hated thing. always being the secret that crept out of the closet and declared myself valid. yes valid as a woman, valid as a Black Woman and Valid as a woman who has suffered because of who I AM.
Today I ask you to look into the mirror of your soul and ask yourself, Who Are You Really ?
As I sat tonite and read the piece below I had a few thoughts of my own. first off I want to say to the writer Tami, Yes you have it right indeed.
The writer put it perfectly when she wrote :
it seems, in the end, the blackness preferred by the fashion industry is a "blackness" best supplied by someone who is not black at all
As a light-skinned curly haired Black Woman, I'm even asking myself What's up with this Black-face instead of Black Faces in Fashion Lately ?
For too long Black Models, Designers and Consumers have complained about exactly this. Why are you making the Black Supermodels Disappear Fashion Designers ? Aren't they as beautiful as your non ethnic models in your ethnic inspired fashion shows ? Or are you just going Colorblind - Literally ?
Now we see it becoming mainstreamed as a fashion concept for what ? Exotica; more alike Rubbish..
Europe has long thought that it could mask it's racism behind standards for models; that excluded Ethnic looking features. Yet these are the very same features they are imitating in the French Vogue Black-face model shoot. look closely at the vogue photo shoot below. Clearly this European girl is dressed in 1970's ethnic style fashion doing a 1900 style impersonation from a minstrel show. So why is she modeling 1970's ethnic style In Black-face and an Afro wig with a Real Black Baby ? The whole mix is too racist to decipher.
This only happens inside the mind of a white racist. it's a painful view of their fears dressed up; with no where to go..
When I read this piece it just instantly made me want to scream Hallelujah ! oh yes tonite that was the whole experience in a word - we are so damn tired of this Black-face BS in Fashion that this article touched off a torrent of feelings.
Please take a moment and Read the piece below. We are in TOTAL Agreement.
This sign, in the Lower Ninth Ward, is aimed at tourists who come through the neighborhood on bus tours and is meant to remind those visitors that Hurricane Katrina exacted a horrible human cost that was largely paid by residents of poor areas like this. (Photo Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)
This is a horrible anniversary of the death and destruction of New Orleans. it still pains us deeply to see the aftermath and to know that little has been done to help those who lost the most.
What About The NINTH WARD MR OBAMA?
This is a collection of Videos hand collected to show you the view of Post Katrina New Orleans and specifically The Ninth Ward.
Saturday in Downtown LA; Madness broke out in the face of stupidity. yes that's what I said MADNESS. can you imagine the nutz who thought they could bus in and march all white pride and nazi'd up in the middle of Los Angeles ?
“Thailand is a compassionate nation,” said Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya - “We noticed in the news that the Haitians are all very dark-skinned. This is surely one of the reasons they are living in poverty. With lighter skin they could be more successful.” It is believed that the whitening cream can make the homeless, starving survivors of the earthquake look whiter and brighter in just 14 days, according to the Unilever brochure. It is hoped that by looking whiter, the Haitians might be able to secure more aid.
When I read this I was so angry - I need to make sure this is factual before I expend anymore negative energy. if any one of my Thai vistors can confirm this Please Leave A Comment. I know he does not speak for all the Thai People, obviously. He is just a skrate fool. as far as Unilever I need to explore my cabinets and find out what won't be coming to my house anymore.
Unilever You Can Kiss My Money Goodbye
Thailand Donates 50,000 Bottles of Whitening Skin Cream To Haiti
I need a few minutes to catch my breath after that one folks. y'all know I started this year out on a NO BS Platform; and this is jumping up and down on that platform. when I saw this tonite on the Current TeeVee Site I was flumoxed. wtf ? this had to be a photoshop game ? oh noooo this is the actual copy of the form that the US Census will be asking it's citizens to complete. complete with the derogatory term clearly included.
well, lets just think about this Black People - this is not to cut out my Non Black readers; just specifically targeted to those who I believe are most impacted by it:
When in Your Lifetime Have YOU Been a NEGRO ? for me, Negro was on my original birth certificate from the 1950's. it was also on my moms birth certificate. that means at least from the 1950's it was seen. my son was born in 1973 and it isn't on his birth certificate at all. it says Black. my present birth certificate says African American. it was issued in the 1990's. My Passport has NO Race in it. only nationality of US.
now just for the sake of argument, Black Peoples how do you like regressing thanks to the US Congress approval of this derogatory piece of us population documentation material ? I doubt anyone will say yes so I won't waste space putting up a poll.
just so you know i'm not trippin off my own supply - here's the real deal from Current's Site.
(Jan. 6) -- As the government prepares to roll out the 2010 Census on March 15, one of the 10 questions on the form already has people cringing. Question 9 asks respondents to designate their race and gives them the option of choosing "Negro," a term many have considered derogatory and antiquated for years.
The question asks "What is person 1's race?" Of the 15 possible options, one is "Black, African Am., or Negro."
The Office of Management and Budget sets racial definitions for the Census Bureau and all federal statistical reporting. In its standards, it says a "Black or African American" person is "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as 'Haitian' or 'Negro' can be used in addition to 'Black or African American.'"
The agency last revised its standards in 1997, and the new definitions first appeared on the 2000 Census, which was also the first time people could identify as more than one race.
A U.S. Census Bureau spokesperson told the Web site The Grio that while the word "Negro" may be old-fashioned, there are still people who prefer to use it to identify themselves. She said the census questions were well-tested and that it was determined that using the word "outweighed the potential negatives."
Still, to many the word "Negro" is a throwback to Lester Walton's days, to slavery, Jim Crow laws and segregation.
The term may have been a preferable delineation of black heritage in 1913 when Lester A. Walton, managing editor of the New York Age, the country's first African-American newspaper, wrote a letter to The Associated Press imploring the group to use the term to refer to a race of people, not a skin color.
"The Census Bureau, in taking the last census, defined as Negroes those who were black. As the majority of my people are not black, in making out the census papers submitted by the enumerators, thousands classed themselves as either mulattoes or of mixed parentage. Others who were not black classed themselves as Negroes," he wrote.
But a century later, the distinction is antiquated and reprehensible to many.
"I don't think my ancestors would appreciate it in 2010," Pamela Reese Smith, a 56-year-old Rochester, N.Y., native, told the New York Daily News. "I don't want my grandchildren being called Negroes."
Look since this is Tricky Thursday - Everybody Please, for thesafety of everybody's safety;lets not get into the habit of calling each other Negroes. Because trust me - it could get physical, esepcially if it's me you try to refer to as a negro in 2010. I promise you it will get physical, with the quickness babies.
01/08/10* UPDATE - THIS KFC COMMERCIAL FROM AUSTRALIA MAKES MY POINT
Chicken conglomerate KFC is claiming that a controversial ad playing in Australia wasn't racist, even though it shows a white man passing out a bucket of chicken to raucous black sports fans sitting near him.
The ad, which has been pulled by KFC, was never intended for U.S. broadcast, but when it was posted on YouTube, the ad caused a stir worldwide.
The commercial features a white Australian cricket fan looking exasperated as black supporters of a rival team are loudly cheering. The white fan asks aloud how to get out of an "awkward situation." He then whips out a bucket of KFC chicken, and the black fans greedily start munching.
A racial conflagration is averted, and the white man says aloud, "Too easy."
There is no doubt that if you are looking to be offended, the commercial supplies plenty of ammo. Here in the United States, the stereotype of black people loving fried chicken has been a staple of racist jokes for generations.
My Dear Friend and Colleague Yvonne McCalla Sobers
wrote the column below my signature; on the whole
Buju Banton and the Gay Community Fracas -
after a recent show on RJR Jamaica a few days ago.
It is clear that Buju Banton is not the only artist who is
living in the shadow of constant scrutiny from a group of angry people.
These people have tried to make Buju their whipping boy;
when in essence he has nothing to do with their real beef;
Their Sexual Politics.
you see Buju's Platform is Family Values - as a Rastaman that's what
Life Is All About. Speaking From Personal Experience; as well as
Personally Knowing Buju for many years. He is a Family Man.
This case has just reached a point of senselessness
and the people who are spending the money to produce shows;
need to stop the disruptions.
the song that this group keeps harping on was produced when
Buju Started His Career More than 20 years ago.
Yeah.1 Song MORE Than Twenty Years Ago -
how about the other 10 cd's he's put out in that time ?
how bout the awards he's won for his music ? and his
philanthropy as a Community Man and a Musician ?
Since then All of his material has been purely "Family Values"
He is a product of Jamaica - and a Rasta MAN.
The California-based gay activists reportedly demanded that the DJ hold town hall meetings to profess respect and love for gays, make donations to Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays and sing songs about loving gay people.
Buju Banton and his management team reportedly rejected out right all the suggestions put on the table.
In Jamaica homosexuality is known as Buggery
- an english term and law. it's still on the books
and prosecuted today. if you get caught you pay.
In The Caribbean, Homosexuality is seen as a taboo
and representative of non family values.Jamaica is like
most of the world. But unfortunantly it is clear from the
conversations with the gay rights people; that they want
Buju to act like a puppy and toss aside his Rasta Morals
and his entire lifes fiber for the sake of their approval.
What planet are they from ?
It's Not Gonna Happen ..
If it takes the planners of shows to get a better handle on their
venues, then so be it. Madison Square Gardens seemed to have
no problems when Buju appeared there twice recently
- to sold out crowds.
the artists personal politics don't appear on stage- their music does.
that's how I see it, when groups like Black Flag; and Prussian Blue
can tour freely; and appear unharrassed anytime and anywhere they want.
The bottomline should be that if people want to go see Buju Banton Perform, Let Them. Only Buju Should Rule His Destiny..
Family Rights should not be twisted in with sexual politics - please people; Lets Not Get It Twisted,
Buju Banton.Human rights activist Yvonne McCalla Sobers is contending that the overseas gay community may have overstepped its bounds in the demands put to local artist Buju Banton.
News came earlier this week that Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie met with representatives of the gay community, following the cancellation of several of his concerts.
However Mrs. McCalla-Sobers who was speaking Sunday on RJR's weekly news review programme "That's a Rap!" argued that international gay organizations may have pushed too hard and may have been working at cross purposes to the aims of the local gay community.
She said she has spoken with persons in the local gay community directly and through workshops and during these discussions, the rights they were interested in were not those put forward to Buju by the international gay community.
Yvonne McCalla-Sobers.
"If discrimination and the buggery law were some of the issues raised by the international gay community I would say yes you have been speaking to persons here and this is what matter. But I'm not sure about any of those issues that they raised and how in fact these may create the local backlash that the local gay community may not want to experience,"
Mrs. McCalla Sobers said Sunday on RJR's weekly news review programme That's a Rap!.
The California-based gay activists reportedly demanded that the DJ hold town hall meetings to profess respect and love for gays, make donations to Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays and sing songs about loving gay people.
Buju Banton and his management team reportedly rejected out right all the suggestions put on the table.
why are we teaching our children to be fearful of praising the good works they see ?
when we read this story earlier it was appalling to see how these children are being made pawns of stupidity. how do little children fit into the glenn beck drama ? it appears the kids made a little video singing during a celebration at their school; presented it to an author of a childrens book on Barack Obama as a gift; and her pr people capitalized on the kids cuteness factor and put them on YouTube.
What are these kids doing wrong ?
YouTube seems to be getting the rep as the place you find anything to use to stick someone else in the eye with. but why kids and why now ?
the tune is "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" Why is this wrong ?
apparently when they (the political pootbutts) discovered the video it had been up for months, and the becks' folks just discovered it.
Utterly amazing, they are searching for kids videos now to use as fodder in their war of stupidity
Glenn Beck has turned a page in our nations political history, with his step to a lower level. he thinks kids should be used as tools. how crass and totally idiotic. the kids are not praising any political party or actions; they are only singing about their president, much as other kids have done about other presidents of this very nation.
anything that comes up about Barack Obama seems to make Glenn Beck believe he is writing a new page in history. but who's going to read that misinformation and get anything usable out of it ? we doubt anyone who can read the news in comparison, will know that this is a lame attempt to remain in the media - by a personality with little appeal and less common sense.
Glenn Beck take your finger out of your nose and go sit down somewhere,
BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - A school for kindergartners through second-graders in a comfortable Philadelphia suburb has become the latest target of accusations by conservatives that schoolchildren are being indoctrinated to idolize President Barack Obama.
The controversy grows out of a school assembly during Black History Month in February, when gripes about the freshly inaugurated president were still mostly hushed.
That month, a group of smiley and fidgety students at B. Bernice Young School sang a medley of two short songs praising the president.
The first song begins, "Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama/He said that all must lend a hand/To make this country strong again."
The second one was set to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and included the refrain, "Hooray, Mr. President."
While the performance is seven months old, the outrage is new and came about because of the discovery of a YouTube video.
It's been fodder for conservative opinion leaders such as columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin and Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck.
The notion that schoolchildren are being subjected to partisan politics rather than taught civics emerged earlier this month before an Obama speech to students was played in thousands of schools.
By then, unlike February, there was broader mistrust of Obama, particularly over his health insurance overhaul plans. Concerns that he would use his speech to students as a political tool grew partly because the White House initially released a lesson plan encouraging students to "help the president."
The plan was revised and the message to students was not overtly political.
News about the song brought a quick response from New Jersey's Department of Education. Spokeswoman Beth Auerswald said the department wants "to ensure students can celebrate the achievements of African Americans during Black History Month without inappropriate partisan politics in the classroom."
Auerswald said the state would also look into whether posting the video online violated the privacy of students.
Superintendent Christopher Manno defended the performance in Friday's editions of the Burlington County Times.
"There was no intention to indoctrinate children," he said. "The teacher's intention was to engage the children in an activity to recognize famous and accomplished African Americans."
He said he would not identify the teacher who led the song. State education officials said she retired at the end of the last school year.
The source of the video is not entirely clear. In Malkin's column, she said it was posted in June on the YouTube channel of author Charisse Carney-Nunes, who wrote the children's book "I Am Barack Obama."
The song medley was presented to Carney-Nunes, who had been invited to the school, as a demonstration of a project the children had put together, her public relations firm said in a statement.
"Charisse feels it is unfortunate that an event put together with sincere intentions to encourage literacy while celebrating the contributions of African Americans to our great nation has become political fodder and hopes cooler heads will prevail," the hoverFly media statement said.
The video was ubiquitous online Friday but was not listed under Carney-Nunes' feed.
Officials at the Burlington Township Board of Education did not return calls Friday to discuss the incident or how much public response it received, and the district's Web site was not available.
Leslie Gibson, the mother of a kindergartner and a second-grader, said the incident was not addressed in Thursday evening's back-to-school assembly.
Gibson said that while parents had different views about how problematic the song may have been, one thing was unanimous: They don't like having television trucks and reporters camped out on the streets near the school.
Friday afternoon, there were two police cars posted outside the building.
There wasn't much protest, though. One man, Chris Concannon, from nearby Magnolia, was outside hoping to speak with school officials about what happened.
"It's just like the Hitler Youth all over again," said Concannon, an unemployed 26-year-old former National Guardsman. "They should be learning history, but instead they're being taught to worship the president."
It's Thirsty Thursday and today we featuring Lite News in Autotune.
that's because your bartender Ms. Cher of AskCherlock.com is on a news break. so if we wanted to bring you news, it had to be disguised
as entertainment. you know not to mess with the bartender.
Notice she is UP ON The BAR Already Y'all, (gettin hers)
The manufactured anger driving the birthers and health care town halls is the same white rage that has divided poor white people from poor black people for all of our history.
By: Kai Wright | Posted: August 12, 2009
If ever there was a “teachable moment” about race in modern America, now is it. With the birthers and the reparations conspiracy theories and the Nazi imagery at health care meetings, someone’s gotta explain why all these white folks are wilding out. We need an articulate, impassioned race man to clarify things. But not Al Sharpton; I say pass the mic to Jim Webb.
Remember way back when Webb, a Democratic senator from Virginia and the voice of Appalachia’s neglected white yeoman, was sniffing around a veep nod? In the midst of that media moment, he hit on an idea we’d do well to dwell upon. “Black America and Scots-Irish America are like tortured siblings,” Webb patiently explained to Pat Buchanan in a May 2008 Morning Joe appearance on MSNBC. “There’s a saying in the Appalachian mountains. … ‘If you're poor and white, you’re out of sight.’”
Webb went from there into a bizarre attack on all the nonwhite and nonblack people who he believes have hijacked affirmative action. But his core message is deeply relevant to today’s tumult. Poor whites have always gotten screwed in America, Webb told us, and they’re terribly angry about it. Whoever directs that rage harnesses a powerful political tool.
Which brings us to both the profiteering right-wing media and the aimless Republican Party stuck in its tail wind. Both have decided their survival in America’s new multiracial reality depends upon a very old playbook: pursue narrow financial and political gain by exploiting the justified anxieties of working-class whites.
As a result, we all feel like we’re living through a Saturday Night Live skit. Each day brings another twisted punch line. More than half of Republicans aren’t convinced Obama’s a citizen? Huh? Fox host Glenn Beck actually attracts viewers by proclaiming Obama has “a deep-seated hatred of whites”? Health reform as Holocaust? Really?
Most commentators try to make sense of it by harking back to Nixon and the GOP’s “Southern strategy,” when it consolidated regional power by stoking reactionary fear of the civil rights movement. That’s true as far as it goes. But years earlier Martin Luther King described it more broadly. “The Southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow,” he explained, summing up the region’s history in a sentence. “And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than a black man.”
The white aristocracy is still serving that gamy old bird. All that’s changed is the waiter. Gone are thugs like Bull Conner and the local elites whose power they protected. In are stooges like Beck and the corporate media elites they enrich. Rupert Murdoch may have decided that the feud between his guy Bill O’Reilly and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann hurts News Corp.’s bottom line, but you’ll see no such restriction on demagoguery. And Rush Limbaugh brags that 2009 revenue is “through the roof.”
*A veteran civil rights organization - the Southern Poverty Law Center - last week issued a report carrying a severe warning.
We Also Saw This Headline -
and it made us wonder when the FBI would be getting the message that all the rest of America is seeing on their nightly news ? this is no joke people. this is what you can label Homegrown Extreme-ism. anotha ism and skizm to act as a buffer to reality in america.
*A swastika was found Tuesday painted on a sign outside Rep. David Scott's district office, an act the Georgia Democrat said reflects an increasingly hateful and racist debate over health care, reports the Associated Press.
Could it be that when we read these two stories we didn't read them together, and use the same scale to measure the effects on the whole of America ?
*The town hall meetings on "Obamacare" have been eventful to say the least. Outbursts and fury have been commonplace, but the news reports of unruly participants have been erroneous ... well, at least in the case of a Ms. Maxine Johnson in Missouri.
Look at 0.42 of the video and see her assaulted from across the aisle by a man who snatches her sign, and tosses it out. she is taken out and arrested - he is just taken to the lobby and returns to the event; even though he is the one who started it.
WHY ?
This guy poses a definante threat - with a GUN.
Why Is He Allowed to be so close to a crowded debate with a gun?
He is a threat to the President of the United States. this wouldn't have ever happened under Any Other President.
Do You Remember it Happening Before ?
anyone found thinking about a gun in the state would end up in a stranglehold and in jail; or a mental institution, for the rest of their lives; under the previous administrations.
Do you remember Lynette "Squeeky" Fromm who was just released from jail this week; yearssss after Reagan was dead and burried. hmmmm.... this is a sign that the times have changed - and not for the better I might add.
Please tell me why he is NOT a Threat to The People There and The President -
By AMANDA LEE MYERS and TERRY TANG (AP) – 08/17/09 7:30pm
President Obama supporters and protestors gather outside the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Monday, Aug. 17, 2009. Obama is scheduled to speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars 110th Convention at the convention center later in the day. (AP Photo/Matt York)
PHOENIX — About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday — the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.
Each of the different news stations that covered this story, in their local area; showed different versions. This was clear, and it prompted us to wonder why the stories were shot differently ?
were they catering to their locality ?
was there a Black Producer on One and a White Producer on the other one ?
what made this story appear differently in all the versions of this tape and the story; that we've read over the past few days ?
is american racism now hybridizing ? it appears that there seems to be regionalism coming into play in these cases.
during this week - we'll again be pointing out examples of regionalizm of racism and it's hybridization. strange but of course, american still - sadly.
The "Cuddle with Me" doll package he complained about includes an African-American doll and a plush monkey. The baby doll is wearing a hat that reads, "Lil' Monkey."
The dolls were sold exclusively at Costco stores in the Northeast and Southeast.
The Reporting of the story has taken several slants - and we wonder if the doll; or the reporting is more of a problem. the doll is absolutely racist - but the reporters in each case seem to be looking at it differently. the two white reporters shown first seem trapped into reporting it - where the Black and White Reporters shown second, seem to give more attention to detail - Why is it that this would be a choice in attitude when reporting a very worthy news story ?
Does the news media really think we see things differently if we're different races ? could it be true ? Racism is Racism and it's Wrong - regardless of who you are. when you grow up in America - you know it's wrong. so why are these reports so much different on the same story by two different news teams ?
The bottom line is that this story like the one on the kids drill team before it; says that America is still attempting to silently program racism into it's children; and maintain it inside societal mores'; however covertly. as well it seems, the media still continues to instill its racial mores' into the adults; who watch the news and are buying these toys.
Brutally Sad but True... right before our eyes, on the National News.
This cartoon illustrates the story below - Stupidity at Work Today.
America, How Can You Continue to Build on a Legacy of Hatred ?
This is absolutely stupid - I saw this on Aldon Hynes' blogtoday; and it pissed me off to no end. how the scenario played out according to the article points out some fundamental issues that seem to be too American, for America.
Please Be Sure to Continue to below the article to read Aldons' Very Well Written Letter - which has received NO Response yet from Sheraton.
Leave the Kids out of your Damn Racism Adults - Really Doh
Dixwell’s drill team soared to victory in a national competition in Kansas City — then saw its trip cut short by a late-night visit from the cops.
The Nation Drum and Drill Squad took a bus ride back to New Haven Wednesday after scoring gold and silver trophies in a national drill team competition.
Their return trip came one day earlier than planned — after an early-morning wake-up call from the police.
In what staff called a “highly unusual” move, the Sheraton Kansas City Sports Complex Hotel evicted the 35 kids and 13 chaperons from their hotel rooms at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, citing repeated noise complaints from people who were trying to sleep nearby.
The hotel called in police officers to kick the group out. No arrests were made.
Doug Bethea, leader of the Nation Drill Team, called the eviction a “horrible” end to an otherwise successful trip.
“I’ve never in my life experienced something like this,” Bethea said. He accused the hotel of racial discrimination and vowed to litigate.
“It all boils down to, they had 48 black people in their hotel and they did not like it,” Bethea said. The hotel denied that charge.
Bethea, the founder and head of the Nation squad, has been leading the group to national competitions for 21 years. The competition is in a different city each year. This year’s trip started out well: On Tuesday, the group scored first place in the junior division precision category, and second place in the senior division “fancy trick” category, in which they were defending champs. Click here and on the play arrow to read about how hard they worked to get there.
After the competition, the trip took a turn for the worse, Bethea said. He described Wednesday morning as the breaking point of a week of discriminatory treatment from hotel staff.
“Get Out Of Here Now”
Ten police officers banged on his hotel door wielding Taser stun guns at about 1:30 a.m., he said. Hotel staff was there, too.
“We want you guys out of here now,” they told the drill team, according to Bethea. The cops didn’t use the Tasers, but their presence scared the kids, he said.
Bethea was outraged. He said at that time, the only people who were awake were four adults and four college-aged kids. They were hanging out together in one hotel room, giggling, laughing and telling stories. The drill team folks in the other nine rooms were asleep, he said.
He asked why the police needed to wake up all the children, including three babies, in the middle of the night.
“There’s no justification” for that, he said. He asked the hotel to let these kids stay; he would get them out in the morning.
The hotel refused.
According to the hotel’s general manager, Ted Frerking, Bethea had already been warned that the group was on the verge of eviction. Staff had received repeated complaints about the group being noisy ever since the drill team checked in Sunday night, he said. On Tuesday at 10:30 p.m., they got two more noise complaints from guests.
Hotel staff gave the drill team a “final warning,” Frerking said. Then, at 1:20 a.m., they got two more guest complaints. They made the decision to kick the group out. Since it was such a large group, they called police for help with the eviction, Frerking said.
Bethea said the situation was tense. Parents and some older kids on the trip “wanted to stand their ground.” Some of the kids “were ready to fight the police officers.”
Bethea said he complied with the officers’ request, in order to defuse the situation.
“Let’s get out of here before anyone gets hurt,” he told them. With police standing guard, the group packed up its belongings and left at 2:30 a.m., Bethea said. He pulled $400 from his own pocket to find rooms to stay in at a nearby Days Inn.
The eviction was carried through without incident, according to Sgt. Stacey Graves, a public information officer for the Kansas City police. She confirmed that a staff person at the hotel called police at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday. The caller said a large group was refusing to leave the hotel. They were “arguing about payment, and arguing with security,” she said. Police showed up at the hotel and resolved the issue, she said. She said the police did carry Tasers, which are standard issue on police uniforms. No arrests were made and no police report was written, she said.
“A Reality Call”
Reached by phone Wednesday, Bethea and two members of the trip said they had been discriminated against by the hotel all week. Bethea said the New Haveners were among the few black people at the largely white hotel.
Racial tension first materialized Monday night, when about five teenagers went down to the hotel bar to get something to eat. An intoxicated patron at the bar made a remark to the effect of “wow, look at the black people,” according to Bethea. Heated words flew.
Bethea was called downstairs to resolve the situation. There was no fight, but the kids were on the verge. “These kids were ready to do whatever they had to do to survive,” he said.
Frerking said the New Haven kids misconstrued a statement made by a bar patron. He said they thought the remark was about them, but it wasn’t.
Diane Wilson, a chaperon and the grandmother of a 11-year-old on the trip, said racial profiling took other forms, too: The group wasn’t given room service for two days, was denied new rolls of toilet paper, and was subjected to racially charged remarks by hotel staff, she asserted.
As one hotel staffer got off an elevator, she was overheard saying “there’s a bunch of them running around here,” Wilson said. Wilson took the remark to have a racial connotation.
Ronald Huggins said he heard a female staffer say the New Haven kids were “all over the place like roaches.” Huggins, Bethea’s nephew, drums on the drill team and helps manage the team.
Frerking said he didn’t know anything about those allegations. He denied the group was mistreated on account of race.
“We treat all our guests fairly. It had nothing to do with the group other than the noise,” said Frerking. “Like any room, if they’re noisy, we would ask them to depart.”
He called the situation “unfortunate,” but said the hotel “has the responsibility to maintain quiet and restful environment.”
The disruption was starting to be costly, he added: Frerking said the hotel has had to compensate seven guests with free nights’ stays on account of the drill team’s noise.
“We’ve got to respect the concerns of the other guests as well,” he said. The hotel plans to reimburse the drill team for Tuesday and Wednesday nights’ stays, he added.
Meanwhile, reached on the 22-hour bus ride back to New Haven, Bethea vowed to file a racial discrimination lawsuit.
To top off their trip, Bethea and Huggins said the group was called “monkeys” by a client at the second hotel. The person told them to “go back to Africa,” according to Huggins.
“I’m upset and appalled,” said Huggins. He said the trip served as “a reality call” for the kids on the team, many of whom don’t otherwise get to leave New Haven. He said the trip showed him that in America, “certain parts have progressed, and other parts are still behind.”
Next year, the national competition will be in Las Vegas. Bethea said he doesn’t expect any problems there.
The experience in Kansas City “won’t stop me from doing competitions,” he said. “This is what I live for.”
From: Aldon Hynes [mailto:Aldon.Hynes]
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 9:33 AM
To: publicrelations@starwoodhotels.com
Subject: Alleged Racial Profiling at Sheraton Kansas City Sports Complex
Hotel
One of the top news stories in Connecticut right now is about New Haven
Connecticut's Dixwell National Drum and Drill Squad which won gold and
silver trophies at the Elks Grand Lodge World National Championships in
Kansas City.
"In what staff called a “highly unusual” move, the Sheraton Kansas City
Sports Complex Hotel evicted the 35 kids and 13 chaperons from their hotel
rooms at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, citing repeated noise complaints from people
who were trying to sleep nearby.
The hotel called in police officers to kick the group out. No arrests were
made."
I am interested in writing a follow-up to these articles, and I am wondering
if you have any comments.
Has anyone from any of these news outlets contacted the public relations
department for Starwood Hotels?
If so, can you tell me anything about which organizations contacted you and the nature of their questions?
If not, had this reached the public relations department, or is this the
first you have heard of it? If you have already heard of this, where did
you hear about it? How does your department track stories that could affect the image of your hotel properties?
Will Starwood Hotels do any sort of internal investigation of the event
and/or issue any sort of press release?
Are there security camera tapes that substantiate or contradict the
statements about "children running down the hallway and music blaring"?
According to the New Haven Register article, hotel manager Ted Frerking
claimed to have received numerous noise complaints from other guests since the group arrived Sunday afternoon and checked into 10 rooms. Are records kept of these phone calls? Can the number of phone calls be reported?
Frerking also claimed that one-too-many angry guests grew upset. How many is that? Is there any way I can contact any of the guests that Mr. Frerking is talking about? What are Starwood's policies concerning evicting guests?
The article also reports that Doug Bethea, leader of the Nation Drill Team,
claims Sheraton hasn’t compensated them for leaving their rooms two nights
early. What are the policies for reimbursing guests who are asked to leave
early?
I realize that this may be a complex issue in respecting the rights of all
patrons, those celebrating from a national victory as well as those seeking
a good night sleep. I also realize that with the possibility of pending
litigation, you may be limited about what you can say. However, I do
believe that this provides an important opportunity to examine how a
corporation chooses to address a volatile situation and any insights into
how you are arriving at what statements you make would also be greatly
appreciated.
I am writing for a 3 PM deadline, so please plan your response accordingly.
"Since Obama took office, the rate of Death Threats against the president has increased 400 percent from the roughly 3,000 per year under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of "In the President's Secret Service."
On Sundays' BadGalSays, we gave some insight into our feelings on the new infamous Dark Knight Obama Poster sweeping the internet; and larger urban centers around the USA. it's not funny, nor is it a joke worthy of ignoring; because this is a thinly veiled threat to our national security - and outright to murder the head of this country, President Barack Obama.
please take a moment and check the post out below, and the comments which are the most telling. we expect more, as this post is just hitting the fan.
We became aware of the poster on our pass through one of our regularly visited blogs - The Bobo. we were so shocked by what we read on his site that we responded quickly in his comments; before fully digesting the real meat of his words.
we've thought about it over the course of the week; and now we believe that it illustrates the prime reason the we are seeing this tremendous hike in presidential death threats. it's sad, but this is America. One Day We Will All Be AMERICANS; according to Some Americans who seem to have appointed themselves the guardians of What Represents "Americanism".
We ask You to Take Your Time and Read these sad examples of American Politics, and make your own conclusions as to why someone would take any of this lightly. we remember the sting from the Dead Monkey Piece above...
*President Barack Obama is the target of more than 30 potential death threats a day and is being protected by an increasingly over-stretched and under-resourced Secret Service, according to a new book.
Since Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 percent from the roughly 3,000 per year under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of "In the President's Secret Service."
Some threats to Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicized, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history.
Most however, are kept under wraps because the Secret Service fears that revealing details of them would only increase the number of copycat attempts. Although most threats are not credible, each one has to be investigated thoroughly.
According to the book, intelligence officials received intel that people associated with the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab might try to disrupt Obama's inauguration in January, when the Secret Service coordinated at least 40,000 agents and officers from some 94 police, military and security agencies.
More than a dozen counter-sniper teams were stationed along the inauguration parade route and the criminal records of employees and hotel guests in nearby buildings were scrutinized, the book states. Despite all this, there were glaring loopholes in the security.
Kessler describes how more than 100 VIPs and major campaign donors were screened by metal detectors but then walked along a public pavement before boarding "secure" buses and were not checked again. It could have been relatively simple for an assassin to have mingled with them in order to get close enough to shoot the new president, the book notes.
After Obama was elected president, his two children Malia, 11, codenamed Radiance, and Sasha, eight, codenamed Rosebud, began receiving Secret Service protection. Obama's wife Michelle is codenamed Renaissance. The Secret Service also started to protect Vice-President Joe Biden's children, grandchildren, and mother.
Instead of bringing in more agents, the Secret Service directed agents to work longer hours to cover the extra load and to miss firearms training, physical fitness sessions and tests.
"We have half the number of agents we need, but requests for more agents have fallen on deaf ears at headquarters," a Secret Service agent told Kessler. "Headquarters' mentality has always been, 'You can complete the mission with what you have. You're a U.S.S.S. agent'."
August 4, 2009
*And it don't stop. Has the circus that is the Obama Haters added another act, so to speak?
Some supposed "artist" is going around LA plastering posters of the first black prez made to look like Heath Ledger's Joker in the "The Dark Knight." Not only that, but the word "socialism" is prominently situated under the image.
The unknown person or persons created the poster by combining the cover photo of Mr. Obama from the October 2006 issue of Time Magazine, with the face makeup from the Joker.
According to reports, the posters have been spotted in different parts of Los Angeles on Monday. Most people who have spotted them claim they were located near on-ramps and underpasses in both LA and Hollywood. Another report says they've also been seen in the Atlanta area.
Meanwhile, LA activist and EUR columnist, Earl Ofari Hutchinson is challenging the group or individual that put up the posters to have the courage and decency to publicly identify themselves.
"Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery," says Hutchinson, "it is mean-spirited and dangerous.
"We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."
To no one's surprise, the graphic has also gone viral online. It initially crashed the website of conservative radio host Tammy Bruce, where it was first posted over the weekend. It has also risen to the top of Google's "Today's Hot Trends" list.
Professor considers moving in the wake of racially-charged arrest.
August 4, 2009
*Black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. made his first public appearance since sharing a beer with President Obama and the white officer who arrested him for disorderly conduct last month during an incident at his home.
Speaking before 150 spectators at the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival, where he was promoting his book, “In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past,” Gates said he has received numerous death threats since he accused the officer, Sgt. James Crowley, of racially profiling him during the arrest.
“You should die; you’re a racist,” read one e-mail that Gates recalled.
The threats, Gates said, prompted Harvard University officials to suggest he consider moving. It has already forced Gates to change his e-mail address and cell phone number.
Crowley was investigating a possible burglary at Gates’ home, which Harvard University owns. While Crowley claims Gates became enraged and continued to yell despite warnings, Gates has alleged racial profiling and said he never raised his voice. A charge of disorderly conduct against Gates was dropped.
The arrest incited a national debate over race and class that Gates said yesterday shows no sign of abating. “They have not been resolved at all,” Gates said.
On July 25, someone posted signs outside Gates’ Ware Street home calling him “shameful” and a “racist.” Gates said he has also received bomb threats.
Gates said he dreamed he was arrested at the White House the night before his meeting with Obama and Crowley. He said his family and Crowley’s were “like a deer caught in headlights” upon meeting. But the two were able to use humor to break the ice, Gates said.
“I offered to get his kids into Harvard if he doesn’t arrest me again,” Gates said. “I said to him, ‘I would have sworn you were 6-feet-8 inches tall,’ ” Gates said. “He said, ‘I used to be, but I’ve lost 2 to 3 feet over the last two weeks.’ How can you be mad at a guy like that? When he’s not arresting you, Sgt. Crowley is a nice guy.”
They even talked about meeting again, perhaps going to a Red Sox or Celtics game, Gates said. A man in the crowd told Gates he admired his sense of humor, prompting Gates to quip: “I should have been funnier in the kitchen of my house on July 16.”
Gates is planning a documentary from both the perspective of police and people who have been victims of racial profiling so “Americans can understand that you can have two equally valid perceptions of the same event.”
This is the video from the officers of cambridge mass in support of their fellow officer sgt crowley. the female who speaks, makes me want to slap my monitor. I will stop there as I am sure everyone will have their own opinion of this little demonstration and exercise in "Can't We All Just Get Along-ism". why didn't they just start singing "kum baya"
later this evening, the president - professor gates and sgt crowley are said to be sitting down to discuss the episode over a beer. the entire episode has now turned itself inside out; and the victim is now the attacker.
I am still not feeling this fake commiseration because the episode that occured, cannot be resolved with simply a bottle of beer. Glen Beck is on tv calling the president a racist; and we tolerate that bs ?
why do we now need amnesia when we can see what led to this ? why not really talk about the problem HONESTLY; and work on a REAL Solution. Lets work out a way for this bs to never ever happen to Anyone Ever Again in America.
Sometimes The Media can be a very bad influence on Reality; as we can see from this case.
This is one of those situations which make you want to just scratch your head and say, OMG. they had to know who this man is ?
well I can just imagine that we'll see both a sizable settlement and alot of classes coming up for the coppers, cause they shouldn't have messed with this man.
OOOOhhhhhhh They don't realize how big of a mess this is gonna be..
All I can say is Oprah Please, Have Mercy on they asses Girlllllllllll....
Prosecutors dropped the disorderly conduct charge against prominent black Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested Thursday at his home after a reported break-in.
The city of Cambridge issued a statement Tuesday saying the arrest "was regrettable and unfortunate." The statement says police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution.
Supporters say Gates - the nation's most renowned scholars of African-American history - was the victim of racial profiling.
Police responded to Gates' home near the university in Cambridge, Mass., after a woman reported seeing two black men trying to force open the front door.
Gates said he had returned from a trip overseas, found his front door jammed and had to force it open.
Gates showed the officers his drivers license, which listed the address as his residence.
Police said the 58-year-old Gates was arrested after he yelled at an officer, accused him of racial bias and refused to calm down.
A distinguished black Harvard University professor was handcuffed and dragged off his porch to jail after Massachusetts cops mistook him for a burglar.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most renowned scholars of African-American history, was busted when he repeatedly accused a cop of racism for confronting him, police said.
"Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Gates, 58, demanded, the police report said.
"I warned Gates to calm down, but Gates ignored my warning and continued to yell at me," Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley wrote. "It was at this time that I informed Gates he was under arrest."
Despite his fame, Crowley, who is white, didn't recognize Gates, prompting the prominent academic to yell, "You don't know who you're messing with!"
Crowley said he took offense at Gates' "loud and tumultuous behavior."
"I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me," he wrote in his report.
Crowley said Gates continued to berate him - and when he asked the professor to speak to him outside, he claims the scholar told him, "Ya, I'll speak to your momma outside."
Gates apparently arrived home from China last Thursday to find his front door so damaged he couldn't open it, said his Harvard colleague Charles Ogletree.
When Gates and his driver tried to get in through the back door they set off the alarm and a white neighbor who saw them called the cops.
"He was handcuffed on his own front porch," said Ogletree, explaining that Gates produced ID to prove he lived there and that he was a Harvard professor.
Gates was held at the Cambridge police station for four hours before being released without bail on charges of disorderly conduct, Ogletree said.
Harvard colleagues called the arrest a case of racial profiling.
"We do not believe this arrest would have happened if professor Gates was white," said Allen Counter, who has taught neuroscience at Harvard for 25 years.
In a statement last night, the Rev. Al Sharpton called Gates' arrest "an outrage of no small implication."
"I have heard of driving while black and even shopping while black, but now even going to your own home while black is a new low in police community affairs," said Sharpton, who is vowing to attend Gates' Aug. 26 arraignment.
Yvonne McCalla-Sobers.
*A veteran civil rights organization - the Southern Poverty Law Center - last week issued a report carrying a severe warning.
*A swastika was found Tuesday painted on a sign outside Rep. David Scott's district office, an act the Georgia Democrat said reflects an increasingly hateful and racist debate over health care, reports the Associated Press.
*The town hall meetings on "Obamacare" have been eventful to say the least. Outbursts and fury have been commonplace, but the news reports of unruly participants have been erroneous ... well, at least in the case of a Ms. Maxine Johnson in Missouri.
The Reporting of the story has taken several slants - and we wonder if the doll; or the reporting is more of a problem. the doll is absolutely racist - but the reporters in each case seem to be looking at it differently.
the two white reporters shown first seem trapped into reporting it - where the Black and White Reporters shown second, seem to give more attention to detail - Why is it that this would be a choice in attitude when reporting a very worthy news story ?
*Black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. made his first public appearance since sharing a beer with President Obama and the white officer who arrested him for disorderly conduct last month during an incident at his home.
Joseph Sinnot