Rick Santorum: Blah People (Black People)

Did you see the news item about Rick (Don't Google Me!) Santorum? He was overgeneralizing about poor people the other day, and he said "black people." Actually, he said something like "blaque. . ." people, with a very slightly garbled last consonant. Clearly, in context, he was saying black,  but thought better of it just a little too late. Santorum then scummily tried to walk it back by saying he started to say a different word (what, blank? bland? blanket?) and mangled whatever it was supposed to be. But it certainly wasn't "black!" Yeah, and he never said gay relationships were like "man on dog sex" either, right?

Notable Quotable: Randi Rhodes on Ann Coulter and Black People

"Ann Coulter says “our blacks are better than their blacks.” I don’t think so. And if it seems that way, it’s only because Republicans have so few blacks that they can lavish extra care and attention on them. It’s true. Take a look at Republican Allen West—every hair in place, all of his clothing immaculately pressed. Then take a look at Cornell West. He always looks like he rode to the interview on the roof of the car. So yes, their blacks might win the evening gown competition. But when it comes down to the part where they have to answer questions, our blacks come out on top." 

--Randi Rhodes, RandiRhodes.com

FOX "News" Doesn't Like Black People

Wait, did I type that right? Whoops. No, the headline is up there as an homage to Kanye West, and the truth of this story is that black people don't like FOX "News." And that's some good taste for you right there. But it doesn't mean that FOX does like black people, and I think you could make a strong case for my headline with 5 minutes and The Googles.

[Excerpt]

Only 1.38 percent of Fox News’ primetime viewers are African-American.

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter tweeted that, according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News has averaged just 29,000 black viewers in primetime so far this television season (9/09-7/10). That represents just 1.38% of its 2.102 million total viewer audience.



CNN and MSNBC, meanwhile, both have far more black viewers, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of their overall audiences. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Imagine a World Where the Tea Party Was a Black Thing

The first time I heard this concept was on The Karel Show, a talk radio program out of San Francisco.  I was a little gobsmacked, because I hadn't heard the idea before. But really, imagine it. An angry, organized, gun-toting protest, made up of mostly black people. Do you think Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh would be for such a thing?

[Excerpt]

"Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" - Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins. . .

Read more at: Ephphatha Poetry by way of AmericaBlog.com

Strange Maps: 1860s Cotton vs. 2008 Election

This was too interesting not to share. The site linked below shows that the voters for Barack Obama in the south this year is almost identical to the highest cotton production in the south in the 1860s. The theory goes that those cotton producing areas were heaviest with slaves in the 19th century, and that the density of the African American community stayed heavy there.

[Excerpt]

From Pickin’ Cotton to Pickin’ Presidents

. . .The link between these two maps is not causal, but correlational, and the correlation is African-Americans. Once they were the slaves on whom the cotton economy had to rely for harvesting. Despite an outward migration towards the Northern cities, their settlement pattern now still closely corresponds to that of those days. . .

Read more at: Strange Maps