Samantha Pierce

Some big news around here the last few days is the story of a Syracuse City School District (SCSD) substitute teacher stabbed breaking up a fight between students in local high school. People are predictably outraged saying all manner of vile things about not only the students involved but all students in the district. Even Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has weighed in on the matter declaring the school district must drop its current approach to discipline. The SCSD Code of Conduct has been a hot topic of late. It frustrates families, students, and staff. There is plenty of room for improvement. But people seem to have forgotten, or don’t care, how we got to this point. Families first recognized the problem with discipline in the schools. The Assurance of Discontinuance details just how bad the problem was. High rates of suspensions of students, minority students disproportionately suspended, failure to notify families about referrals and suspension...

Here we go again, Rep. Lamborn likens Obama to a "tar baby" . Here's the allegedly offensive yet appropriate use of the term, LAMBORN: Even if some people say "well, the Republicans should have done this, or should have done that," they will hold the President responsible. Now, I don't even want to be associated with him, it's like touching a, a tar baby and you get it...you know you're stuck and you're part of the problem and you can't get away. Use of the term "tar baby" is apparently, for certain folk of a certain persuasion, a tar baby. Just lettin' y'all know before some other poor unsuspecting soul goes and gets themselves tangled up with that particular tar baby. I wonder which is more problematic here. Using the term "tar baby" to describe a sticky situation (for those who don't know tar is notoriously sticky) or assuming that the term "tar baby" is a reference to color and is therefore r...

To quote Ron Weasley, how thick can you get? Democrats criticize Haley's checking of 'white' on voter registration application What box should Gov. Nikki Haley check when it comes to her race? The South Carolina Democratic Party tried Thursday to make Haley out as a liar for checking "white" as her race on her 2001 Lexington County voter registration application. Trying to create controversy with a ten year old voter registration card ? Really? That is some weak sauce right there. But the application had no specific option for "Indian." Her options were "white, black/African-American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American or other." The governor stayed silent on the matter, although her allies accused the Democrats of the lowest-grade politics: race-baiting. Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, has never emphasized herself as South Carolina's first female and minority governor and the country's second Indian-American governor, ...

Saw this clip some time back and my first thought was who is Eddie Murphy really making fun of in this sketch? And who do people usually assume he's making fun of?

Last summer a friend gave me a copy of The Caribbean Islands in Full Color by Hans W. Hannau, published in 1972. I started reading it as I was embarking on a study of the history and culture of the region at the time. While billed as a pictorial volume I found it contained a surprising amount of historical and cultural information. The following excerpt from page 12 caught my attention when I first read it and has stayed with me since. I've added links to the text for those as curious as I was. “Sugar was in some ways the curse of the Caribbean. The industry brought economic, political and social upheaval to the islands, much of it violent and destructive.             The Spaniards brought the first African slaves to the Caribbean in 1510 to work their mines and sugar plantations on Hispaniola. They came from West Africa. Factories were set up along the Guinea coast where African chiefs and kings brought slaves for trade. Each c...

Now in all of the fuss about altering Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn so as to not tread on certain people's sensibilities I came across a reading of this bit of text from the book; Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I weren't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a state in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote again. You can listen to, or read the transcript of, this conversation here, Should The N-Word Be Purged From Mark Twain’s Classic? You know what jumped out at me when I heard this? It wasn't the word nigger. It was the image of a man who was too drunk to vote getting all indignant that someone he considered inferior to himself was exercising that particular civic duty. That's a powerful image to me. Changing nigger to slave (as has been done to a recent edition of the book) in this passage makes no sense ...

Yes I said cotton balls. Apparently dropping cotton balls outside of an establishment known to be frequented by black people is a hate crime. And here I thought it was at worst littering. Arrests Made In Mizzou Cotton Ball Incident: 2 Students Suspended After Their Arrest Two students have been arrested in connection with the incident where cotton balls were left overnight outside the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia. Very early Friday morning, someone threw cotton balls outside the Culture Center. The offensive act sparked a town hall meeting on the Campus Monday night. At the meeting, students discussed what to do in response to the racist display. Police investigated the incident as a hate crime. What to do about cotton balls on the sidewalk? Trample them into oblivion or pick them up! All that drama over cotton balls . I'm trying to imagine a mind fragile enough to be offended by cotton balls on the sidewalk. I don't h...

Apparently some website called The Root (the root of what I wonder) has delusions about being the arbiter of blackness or something. The folks at the website have put up a list of people they wish they could remove from black history because they are "embarrassing". Okay whatever. Now some folk are trying to say that it was just a joke, tongue in cheek silliness. Yeah it's silly alright. Too late to try putting that toothpaste back in the tube now people. You've already put the foolishness out there. I'm not going to link to the list but I will link to two posts discussing it. First at Booker Rising, TheRoot.com Releases "Black Folks We’d Like To Remove From Black History" List: Bookerista Response and second Althouse, Black Folks We'd Like To Remove From Black History . I found the contrasting tones of the comments on the two posts very interesting. In any case, this stunt doesn't make me very interested in visiting The Root any time soon.

Via Booker Rising . [Insert evil chuckling here.] People do listen when you keep trying to portray them as racists. They're just not coming to the conclusions that you want them to about your claims.

Hilarious commentary (to me anyway) from Tim Blair on the race politics of climategate: Robert James Taylor of the National Black News Journal : Blacks should not join the global warming battle or accept new taxes or restrictions on their lives until the truth about global warming is actually known. I dream of a day when this freedom is also granted to whites. More from the Taylor article: The CRU is the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia near Norwich, England. The CRU is populated by British and American scientists who more than any other group in the world has been responsible for the computer models and measurements upon which the bulk of global warming predictions are based. Indeed, President Obama was in Copenhagen this week pushing an anti-global warming agenda based largely on CRU data. There is just one problem: Global warming has actually stopped. Yes, the planet’s mean temperature did rise for at least 30 consecutive years but somewhere around the ...

A justice of the peace in Louisiana refused to marry an interracial couple because he thought life would be too difficult for any children they may have. Interracial couple denied marriage license in La. A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said. "I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves," Bardwell said. "In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer." Lets set aside t...

Putting aside my issues with the usual portrayals of "The Left" and "The Right" the footage of Barbra Boxer in this video is supremely cringe worthy. Racism Revival: How to Be A 21st Century Bigot Really ma'am? Oh sorry, senator . She worked so hard for her position so I guess I better use her title rather than the universally recognized honorific ma'am . Back to matters of substance though. Boxer's dismissive attitude of the gentleman attempting to converse with her was appalling. I'm not not even angry about. Boxer clearly doesn't know any better. She seems to be operating on the principle that there is an "official" Black View that is handed down to the little people by "official" Black Groups like the NAACP. the dear woman seems thoroughly confused when presented with someone with a view that is different from what she thinks the official one should be. Racist? I don't know. Foolish? You betcha. Hat tip Instapundit .

Anne Althouse commenting about former President Carter's remarks about the supposedly racist nature of objections to current President Obama's plans: Lots of people who voted for Obama believed that his election would reflect the extent to which Americans had moved beyond racism. That was part of why some people voted for him. Little did we realize that it would turn every criticism of the President into an occasion to make an accusation of racism. Racism is revolting, but so is the notion that we aren't allowed to criticize a President! Emphasis added. Among the many reasons that I did not vote for Obama one was that I didn't think voting for a black man for president to prove how not racist America is was a stupid reason to cast a vote for someone. Stupid and naive. It was clear that the charge of racist was just too good a cudgel for some people to pass up. It should have been obvious that the potential existed for the situation in which we now find ourselves where...

I wasn't going to comment on Henry Louis Gates Jr. getting himself arrested after breaking into his own home and then mouthing off to the police officer who had been sent to the home to investigate a potential break in at the house by a neighbor's call to police. Yelling at a cop is almost always a dumb idea unless you are yelling, "Help me officer!" or "Have a good day officer!" The police report was pretty clear about the incident. Even if you are inclined to believe that police officers as lying abusers of power there appear to have been plenty of witnesses present to speak about what they saw occur. Having read the police report I was puzzled when the President of the United States chose to answer a question about the incident at the end of his press conference on health care reform last night. I would have thought that a savvy politician would refrain from getting into the middle of such a squabble before all involved had had a chance to speak their pi...

Back from my vacation and ready to comment on the craziness in the world. So... North Korea has been shooting off missiles left and right and kidnapping American journalists ( remember them? ) as a cover for the fact that the dear leader is dieing of pancreatic cancer. They put me so much in mind of a small terrified child that doesn't want to take its medicine. Like a friend said, this is how you make new racists. Idiots. The follow up story doesn't make anything clearer or sound better. The comments on that second story are a hoot as well. I wonder how much of that bluster those people have in real life? I found this story about Iraqis being disgruntled that they are still seeing US service men and women on their streets amusing in light of the stories ( here's just one ) about the bombs that keep going off in their streets.

Mother Pleas For African-Americans To Donate Marrow . There is a perennial lack of involvement by minorities in bone marrow donation to their own detriment. Whatever excuses one may make for this fall flat when one stops to consider that people die because of it. For information on being a marrow donor, call (800) 627-7692 or visit www.marrow.org . I wrote this back in December 2005 about then Bolivian presidential candidate Evo Morales, "If it makes you feel better to blame the US for all of your problems have at. It's not like we haven't heard it all before." And then there was this sighting of the devil of at the UN. In 2007 I wrote this about Hugo Chavez, "This from a man who lost an election last week and said that he had reached too far in trying to set himself up as dictator for life. Chavez planning to over turn the recent election results is just about what we've come to expect." Last month there was this , Venezuela's Chavez calls Oba...

I need to stop listening to the political and economic news. The temptation to snark is near overwhelming. I'm trying to maintain on overall respectful attitude towards our elected officials but they sure don't make it easy. I heard parts of the soundtrack from Slumdog Millionaire on the news this morning. I like it. I may have to acquire the soundtrack. Unfriendly government workers who have apparently been instructed to find any excuse to refuse to help the people that they are supposed to be helping are annoying. Hubby and I now have the pleasure of requesting a fair hearing to keep our health insurance because our caseworker can't or won't understand the concept of fluctuating income. What is with the obsession with vaccines and autism?! Those crack pot theories have failed to stand up to rigorous scientific scrutiny time and time again. Go away already. Nation of cowards indeed. Does that include black folk who refuse to go somewhere because they just assume all ...

From the comments on this 2005 post : April 1, 2008: "Your blindspots are showing." "I'll forgive your ignorance this time, but try to see beyond your noses." January 16, 2009: "You're white..." The only picture I have of myself on this blog is the South Park cartoon avatar at the top of the left sidebar. (Fixed the date for the January comment.)

NPR is doing a series on how Obama's election to the Presidency of the United States is playing in Europe. The series, Obama's Election Prompts Soul-Searching In Europe , looks Germany, Italy, and France. As it turns out the grass isn't as green on the other side when it comes to race. German Minorities Still Fight To Be Seen, Heard In Europe, Barack Obama's election as president of the United States was met with euphoria. But now, the continent is peering into the mirror, realizing there is little chance a member of one of its own minorities could reach such prominence any time soon. Take Germany, for instance, where notions of national identity are still strictly linked to ethnicity. Nonwhite Germans are still fighting to overcome exclusion from mainstream society in many ways. I always found it amusing when someone popped up in a blog discussion somewhere to claim that Europe was so much better than the US with regard to race relations. Perhaps now we can lay that p...

With a self identified black man having won the Presidency of the United States one would think that we would stop hearing about how racist America is. One would be wrong, at least according to Bill Moyers. In an interview with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air Moyers claims that whites in the south who didn't vote for Obama did so because of racist beliefs. I waited in vain for the host of the show to challenge Mr. Moyers on his speculation about the motives of southern white McCain voters. Diane Rhem would never have let him get away with saying something so outrageous. As I sat in the car getting all indignant on the behalf of fellow McCain voters I thought, so this racist stereotype of the south is what post racial means? I also thought, what he couldn't think of ANY reasons other than racism why someone wouldn't vote for Obama? Finally I thought, what would he make of me a black woman who didn't vote for Obama and never entertained any fantasies of doing so? As ...