Woes, Ho-Ho's and Foes
2008-03-02 10:19:00
This week, Tim Russert sought to play Six-Degrees-of-Louis Farrakhan with Barack Obama, Kwame Kilpatrick’s troubles got much more serious, we got an update on the horrific statistical inequality in the American justice system, and Obama told black folks to cut down on junk food (not the delicious chocolately Ho-Ho, per se, but it rhymed for the title). In short, the substantive issues explicitly centering on race in politics this week were varied, but the potential effects on attitudes about black leadership were consistent.We’ll start with Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Cleveland, where Tim Russert asked Obama if he would accept the endorsement of former Nation of Islam leader Rev. Louis Farrakhan that was announced last weekend. Obama stated that he rejected Farrakha
O'Reilly Grants Michelle Obama a Pardon, Declares Moratorium on Lynching Party
2008-02-25 00:06:00
This week, Fox News commentator and radio show host Bill O’Reilly
came to Michelle
Obama
’s defense. . . sort of. When a caller chastised Obama over her comments regarding her pride in America, O’Reilly interjected that, without evidence, he is not willing to allow such character attacks on Obama on his station.That’s commendable enough, but what O’Reilly said is more important than the reason he said it. Here is O’Reilly’s statement, as reprinted by Media Matters for America (the entire exchange with the caller can be read there, as well):You know, I have a lot of sympathy for Michelle Obama, for Bill Clinton, for all of these people. Bill Clinton, I have sympathy for him, because they're thrown into a hopper where everybody is waiting for them to make a mistake, so that th
Read more: Party
, Pardon
Ain’t Too “Proud” to Beg: Candidate Spouses Exchange Over Patriotism
2008-02-20 14:08:00
At a campaign stop this week, Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama, quipped, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.” Conservatives in particular jumped all over the comment as an indication of her lack of patriotism. Noel Sheppard of “Newsbusters,” an online site that professes to combat the alleged “liberal bias” in the media, introduced his condemnation by noting that “Mrs. Barack Obama” made the comment. Conservative talk show host Mark Levin ripped into Michelle Obama on his program. Later in the week, Cindy McCain, wife of presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain, noted that she is “very proud of [her] country,” in a clear response to Obama.There are a lot of language issues to consider here,
Read more: Patriotism
, Exchange
, Candidate
, Proud
Tolerating Intolerance? La Raza's Move to Chicago and the Minuteman Response
2008-02-10 22:40:00
This week, La Raza, America’s largest Latino civil rights group, announced that it was moving its 2009 convention from Kansas City to Chicago
. The move is in protest of the appointment of a Minuteman
member to the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board. While much discussion of the move has centered on the economic effect of the move (La Raza attracts some 20,000 participants to its convention), we thought there was a need for some discussion about the discourse surrounding the controversy and, in particular, how that relates to the nebulous concept of tolerance.We get a glimpse into the complexity of the notion of tolerance from an interview with a member of the Chicago Minuteman group, who said of La Raza: “They refuse to go to Kansas City because of someone on some board whose vie
Read more: Response
, Intolerance
Super Duper Party Poopers: Nothing Clear in Democratic Race
2008-02-06 14:06:00
This week’s blog comes to you late. It’s late because we wanted to include some discussion of the Super
Tuesday results. The problem is that we still do not have too much to say. It is a very close race (as it was before yesterday’s contests), and there is no end in immediate sight.The racial discourse was refreshingly absent from the last week of campaigning, but pundits were largely on point with their analysis of exit poll results indicating that Obama was making headway with white voters generally and white women particularly. In Georgia, evidence showed that he took almost all of the female African-American vote.The bottom line, of course, is that Hillary Clinton can afford to lose 100% of the black vote if she is able to secure a disproportionate amount of the white vote.
Read more: Democratic
, Clear
, Nothing
, Party
Clintons’ Racism Shows Through; Voters Respond with Backlash. . . for Now
2008-01-27 21:39:00
The week after the so-called “truce” between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was full of more implicitly racist language by both Hillary and Bill Clinton. It is shocking that even after the Obama camp and media personalities called the Clintons on their implicit racist rhetoric that they actually stepped up their racist attacks while campaigning in South Carolina – a state with a large black voting population. The tactics backfired in South Carolina, where more than half of the voters in Saturday’s Democratic primary were black, and three-quarters of those black voters supported Obama. The result: the largest landslide in any nominating contest this year for Obama. But the results might obfuscate the reality of what appears to be the Clintons’ strategy – to make
Read more: Respond
, Voters
, Racism
"Truce" Instead of "True": Democrats Attempt to Downplay Race
2008-01-20 11:30:00
Many people applauded the so-called “truce” agreed upon last week between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the culmination of a week-long argument battle royal over who played the race card. The presidential candidates pledged to shy away from injecting race into their campaigns, from making race (and gender) a platform upon which to make claims about who is better fit to hold the office of president. But this pledge is as misguided and misplaced as some of the comments flying around over the past few weeks (e.g., BET founder Bob Johnson’s winking nod toward Barack’s drug use, Clinton’s refusal to acknowledge it for what it was, or Obama’s mis-characterization of Clinton’s comments about Marin Luther King, Jr.).The pledge, however, simply denies the realities of racial appea
Read more: Democrats
, Instead
, Truce
Hillary Plays the Race Card
2008-01-14 11:15:00
Last week, we came as close as we ever will to making an electoral prediction. We warned that Barack Obama’s win in Iowa might not translate into a win in New Hampshire because concerns about electing a black man as president (in a state that is almost completely comprised of white voters) can more easily affect vote choice in the privacy of a voting booth as opposed to in a public caucus setting. There is no way to be certain that Hillary
Clinton won for this reason, but the historic inaccuracy of pre-election polls in New Hampshire suggests the possibility.Further, the Clinton camp launched an all-out assault on Obama after his win in Iowa. Two of the comments rise to the level of “playing the race card,” so this space is dedicated to an analysis of those.First, it is important
Read more: Plays
Obama Conquers Iowa: Can He Do the Same in NH?
2008-01-06 13:52:00
The Iowa caucuses held Thursday night were exciting and full of surprises. Despite spending a ton of money in the state, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney had disappointing finishes (Romey, however, fared exceptionally well in the largely-ignored Wyoming Republican caucuses on Saturday). Despite starting late, Fred Thompson did relatively well. Despite being outspent, Ron Paul and John Edwards exceeded media expectations (if not their own campaigns’). Despite not campaigning very much, John McCain had a solid showing, which will be helpful to him as Tuesday’s primaries in New Hampshire approach (recall that McCain beat George W. Bush there in 2000).Among the biggest surprises were Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama
. It’s not particularly surprising that each won his respective party’
This Year in Feedback
2007-12-31 09:34:00
Last December, we ended the calendar year with a tribute to you, our readers. We do the same this year – our first full year of blogging – in the same fashion, by reprinting your comments about our blogs throughout the year. Some were thoughtful; others not as much. Some were complimentary; others not so much. Most were posted in this space, but some appeared on a Facebook group page dedicated to the situation at the University of Delaware. We provide a sampling of all types below, with no editing. Happy New Year!Tee Hill said... Very good interview and observations. I'm doing a persuasive speech research paper at LASWC. I started to argue the point of pros of the word use. I thought that the word should not be banned not because of the freedom of speech, but because we as bla
Read more: Feedback
What We've Learned This Year
2007-12-24 09:37:00
We’ll save next week – our last blog of the year – for the much anticipated "reader response" blog. This week, we want to direct our attention to what we have learned with respect to race and political communication this year.It’s been a busy one to be certain. We’ve offered you some 50 blogs since 2007 rolled in, each of them focusing on current issues involving the way language and power have intersected with race to shape the way we think about racial difference in America. We’re sometimes asked if it is difficult to come up with new topics each week. A glance through the high-salience topics we’ve tackled reveals the answer: we definitely do not have to dig deep in any given week to find issues worthy of our attention.[Rather than hyperlink each blog, which would make the
Read more: Learned
Keeping It Real: McKinney Goes Green, Sharpton Goes Red and Oprah Goes Black(er)
2007-12-18 09:40:00
Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has agreed to be the Green
Party's presidential candidate in 2008. Claiming that the Democratic Party (her former party) has "left so many of its base supporters behind," McKinney said that she accepted the Party's invitation this year after being wooed by them in both 2000 and 2004. Her announcement was greeted with very little fanfare from the national press, and leading Democratic presidential candidates did not even blink. Her candidacy has the potential, of course, of drawing votes away from the Democratic nominee in key states -- something that Green Party presidential candidate (2000) and independent presidential candidate (2004) was accused of doing. It is widely believed that both of Nader's candidacies helped George W. Bush wi
Read more: Black
, Oprah
, Sharpton
Oprah, Obama, Racial Threats, Olympics, Police, Foreclosures, and the Latino Vote: A(nother) Busy Week in Race
2007-12-10 13:10:00
This week, Oprah
Winfrey hit the campaign trail for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama
, Northern Illinois University shut down and reschedule final exams because of a racially-tinged threat, Jesse Jackson plans to march on Wall Street, Rev. Al Sharpton threatens to lobby the International Olympic Committee against Chicago’s bid to host, and Univision hosted a debate for the Republican presidential candidates. There is no direct connection between these events, of course, but there is a common theme of tacit electoral implications between Oprah’s endorsement and the racial concerns at NIU, on Wall Street, in Chicago, and in the Univision debate. Winfrey did not focus on race in her 17-minute speech in Iowa on Saturday. Her endorsement, which did refer broadly to r
Read more: Olympics
, Latino
, Foreclosures
, Police
, Racial
Young Voters and Funny Accents: Romney and Giuliani Scrap Over Immigration
2007-12-03 12:00:00
Before, during and after the CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate last week, conservative commentators bemoaned the “gimmick” of the forum as a trap for liberals to embarrass GOP hopefuls. Crusty commentators complained that “liberal” CNN and YouTube were conspiring to present questions designed to put Republican candidates in awkward positions. (We wonder what sort of question would be too awkward for any presidential candidate to handle? And what could be more awkward than asking if the candidates have talked to their children about sex, as the Democratic candidates were asked?) Perhaps Mike Huckabee’s refusal to answer a question about whether Jesus would support the death penalty is an example. But an espoused Christian and espoused supporter of the death penalty sh
Read more: Scrap
, Giuliani
, Romney
, Accents
, Funny
, Voters
Permissible Discrimination: The View From Congress
2007-11-26 08:20:00
It’s okay to discriminate. So long as those you’re discriminating against are generally poor (that is, can’t afford to lose a job), native Spanish speakers, Mexican, and have the extreme gumption to speak anything but the king’s English when they are at work.This is essentially what the U.S. Congress
said this past week, as it continues to hold hostage the annual appropriation for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) until it capitulates on the issue of litigating cases of employment discrimination based on national origin.How is it, you might ask, that Congress can reasonably demand that the agency charged with being the legal watchdogs of workplace discrimination simply not do its job? Congress did, after all, write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title
Read more: Discrimination
Stories You Might Have Missed Last Week
2007-11-19 19:18:00
New York TimesBlacks See Growing Values Gap Between Poor and Middle Class: Optimism about Black Progress DeclinesSacramento BeeIn Iowa, N.H., race, gender issues appear to fadeJackson, Mississippi Sun-HeraldAttorney: Officials to take 5th in voting irregularities case [that involves claims of voting irregularities, intimidation and racial overtones]South Carolina, Herald/APRare robbery case brings cries of racismOmaha World-Herald/APRacial Bias Seen in Foster CareDesert News (Utah)/APMore than 35 million went hungry in '06, report says
Read more: Stories
Tears of a Hound
2007-11-12 10:24:00
After a very emotionally taxing week following the goings-on at the University of Delaware, we didn’t have much energy left to spend on Duane “Dog” Chapman’s rant against his son’s black girlfriend where he continually used the n-word. Still, Sean Hannity’s best attempts to rehabilitate him this past week are worth some consideration. Here’s our two cents on this. (BTW: We’re still watching the U of D situation, but not much has changed; the “free speech” white folks at FIRE have succeeded in getting diversity language off campus. Three cheers for free speech!) Dog is human, and he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He’s racist like all of us, and he’s clearly a bigot to boot. But he says he’s not, so it’s worth examining his hour-long
Read more: Hound
, Tears
This Week’s Non-Racists: A Dog and Bunch of Angry White Guys
2007-11-04 18:33:00
It’s almost too easy to point out that bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman is a bigot. After his rant to his son in a telephone conversation was leaked to the media this week, there’s no doubt about his attitude toward African Americans. If you’ve not heard it, you can listen here or here. The irony is palpable: Chapman argued that his son must break up with his black girlfriend because the n-word is used around their house, and he was afraid that the woman in question would tape him using the word and sell it to a tabloid, thus ruining his career. If someone had proposed an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm on this premise, even Larry David would have found it ridiculous. So Chapman joins Michael Richards, John Gibson, Dom Imus and Joe Biden on the list of famous peopl
Read more: White
, Bunch
N-Word: The Inaugural Debate
2007-10-29 14:22:00
Last Friday, we engaged in a public debate with one another about who can use the “n-word.” Held on the campus of North Central College, we spent an hour and a half pushing each other to consider the nuances of the debate, while some of the 130 audience members in attendance asked questions that further probed the difficulties of this contemporary issue.TWIR readers will recall that we have blogged on related topics a number of times in the past year. On March 2, we addressed New York City’s banning of the word. Then, on July 14, we addressed how the “ban-the-word” trend had been gaining more momentum. But our discussion Friday centered not on whether the word should be banned, but rather assuming that the word is to be used, who should be able to use it and under what circum
Read more: Debate
Louisiana Elects Its First Non-White Governor: But How Smart Is He?
2007-10-22 09:37:00
In a crowded field of 12 candidates, Bobby Jindal emerged with a majority of the vote for Louisiana
governor, avoiding a runoff election that would have been mandatory under Louisiana’s rules that a candidate must receive a majority (as opposed to a plurality) of the votes to take the office. The election is notable because Jindal is of Indian descent, is only 36 years old, is a racial minority Republican, is the state’s first non-white governor since Reconstruction, and– since he’s not black – he was smart enough to win and may just be smart enough to do the job.Earlier in the week, Nobel Prize-winning DNA scientist James Watson reportedly told The Times of London that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “All our social policies are based on the
Read more: Smart
, Governor
, First
, White
Divide and Conquer: African Americans Expelled from Cherokee Nation
2007-10-14 18:34:00
An op-ed in this weekend’s USA Today brought back to the national agenda an issue that has been stewing since last winter. In a dispute apparently driven by financial incentives, Cherokee
nation members voted overwhelmingly in March to purge some 2,800 blacks of tribal membership. The “freedmen” are, in part, ancestors of former slaves who were awarded Cherokee citizenship via a treaty from the mid-19th Century. With the potential of new casino revenues on the horizon, purging these members of their membership would result in a bigger payoff for those with Cherokee blood. Spencer Overton at blackprof.com was all over this when the vote first took place, as was Yo' Nas Da LoneWolf McCall-Muhammad, an Oglala Lakota black woman. She asks why groups of oppressed minorities
Read more: Americans
, African
, Divide
Maybe Someone Was Just Leaving the Doll As a Gift for a Black Co-worker?
2007-10-07 20:21:00
This past Monday, a black doll bearing “a racial epithet directed at an unspecified black woman” was found hanging in an employee-only area in a Pittsburgh Port Authority garage. This is merely the most recent of a string of similar incidents, including last year’s most visible episode in Jena, Louisiana. Last week, a noose was found hanging in a police station in Hempstead, New York after the department posted a notice of their intention to participate “in a count-ywide effort to recruit minorities and women as police officers.”Such incidents are intolerable and abhorrent to the overwhelming majority of Americans. There’s no question about that. We know that, you know that, and the perpetrators of these acts surely know that. Then why do it? Those who wish to intimidate
Read more: Leaving
, Maybe
, Black
September Surprise: Black Folk Well Behaved at Debate
2007-09-30 12:41:00
Note: We’re keeping this short this week because we’re both in Washington, DC for Charlton’s wedding. We didn’t forget about our loyal readers, but at the same time, there’s a-celebratin’ to do! The most amazing part of this week’s Republican candidates’ All-American Presidential Forum, hosted by Tavis Smiley, was the fact that all of the black members of the audience at Morgan State University were polite, relatively quiet, and calm. As for the panel of journalists of color, they, too, were well behaved; not one of them asked a candidate how they’d answer the “muthaf***in’ question.” We were shocked, but pleasantly surprised. For those whose sensitivity to satire is on the blunt side, we’re poking fun of Bill O’Reilly’s comments this week about
Read more: Surprise
, September
, Debate
, Black
A Busy Week in Race: Fight Over Public Space Draws Our Attention
2007-09-23 09:28:00
We never have trouble trying to find something to write about regarding race, politics and communication. (Stephen pointed out Wednesday [Sept. 19] on the Internet radio program “Outside Voice” that this is evidence in and of itself that we have a long way to go on the issue). Each week, we sift through the stories that have arisen and try to focus on one to analyze. This week was tougher than most. Here were the top contenders:Fred Thompson joined the list of Republicans bailing out of Tavis Smiley’s presidential forum this coming Thursday.Cornel West gave a mind-blowing appearance plugging his new CD on Smiley’s PBS program (reinforcing Stephen’s long-time belief that he keeps his Afro not for political reasons, but because his brain is too big for his head, and he needs to
Read more: Space
, Public
GOP Presidential Candidates Too Busy for Black Folks
2007-09-16 20:25:00
As has been widely reported this week, three of the top Republican presidential contenders – John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney – have notified Tavis Smiley that they will not attend his second All-American Presidential
Forum – this time for the GOP candidates – on September 27. Most of the reaction has been negative, but the truth is that Republican candidates are in quite a bind with this event.From the perspective of advocates for persons of color, the event might be read as political strategy in and of itself. It’s a no-win situation for the Republican candidates: If they go, they will inevitably have to either lie (which they are unlikely to do) or profess that any concerns they have about the problems that disproportionately face racial minority communities are be
Read more: Candidates
, Black
This Just In: White Guys are #1, Black Men Belong in Back of Bus
2008-03-09 00:12:00
In what seems to be a stranger and stranger season of open racial bigotry, this week’s events involving race and language almost write themselves. Three very visible conservative pundits expressed openly bigoted comments that demonstrate less that they are hostile, hate-filled reactionaries and more that they just do not get it.Reacting to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean’s comments that the Democratic presidential candidates resembled America while the Republican side “looks like the 1950s and talks like the 1850s,” Tucker Carlson and Pat Buchanan engaged in a televised gripe session about how white men have been getting the short end of the stick. Said Carlson: “I must say, I'm not going to sit by a single more time and listen to someone slag on, quote, ‘w
Read more: White
, Black
, Black Men
Ferraro, Wright, Paterson. . .(sigh): Big Week in Race
2008-03-18 11:22:00
The delay in this week’s blog is inexcusable in some ways, but predictable, as well. You would think that by our 81st blog we would realize that no matter how much racial news is pouring in, we need to cut off the “week” at some point and write. With all of the rapidly unfolding developments this week, we just didn’t know when to stop watching and start writing. So we decided to write immediately after Barack Obama’s watershed speech on race today.Before we get to that, though, here are the other two issues that were relevant this week:1) Geraldine Ferraro claimed not to be a “racist” after saying that Obama has only done as well as he has because he is black. We had a lot to say about this (original title of the blog: “This Week’s Non-Racist: Geraldine Ferraro”), b
Read more: Wright
Speaking Truth to Power: The Role of Liberation Theology in American Life
2008-03-24 15:50:00
In the past few weeks, more than one commentator has opined that Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons about American
foreign and domestic policy have no place in a space that is awarded not-for-profit status by the government. While this makes sense to many of us, it is important to examine the assumptions that come with such a belief. Assumption #1: Churches’ missions, as not-for-profit organizations, must not be about social or political change, but rather only about worship and “service” to community. As has been noted several times over the past few weeks, much social change has been rooted in organized religion. With respect to race relations, perhaps the most lucid reminder came from E.J. Dionne, who noted that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached what many considere
Read more: Speaking
, Truth
, Liberation
Our "View"
2008-03-30 22:54:00
ABC’s daytime talk show The View was full of discussion of Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright over the past week and a half, culminating in an appearance by Obama on Friday. We break down the discussion that took place on the popular program and offer commentary about the conversations.First, it’s important to be aware of the show’s premise (from its website): It “is ABC Daytime's morning chatfest, featuring a team of dynamic women of different ages, experiences and backgrounds discussing the most exciting events of the day.” Anchored by Barbara Walters (who receives unnerving deference from the other women), the show has changed co-hosts over the years (Star Jones, Rosie O’Donnell and Meredith Vieira had stints of various lengths), but now includes Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Joy Be
The Fatigued Bloggers: An Overview of Some Things You Might Have Missed
2008-04-08 08:13:00
We spent the better part of last week preparing for our two research presentations at the Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting in Chicago. You can read our papers if you like, but we warn you: they're a bit rough."Racial Frames and Potential Effects on Minority Candidates in the 2008 Presidential Election""Winners and Losers: Factors Contributing to Minority Candidates' Successes and Failures in American Elections, 1990-2006"There were many other presentations relevant to TWIR readers, as well. Feel free to browse through the preliminary program and/or search for papers from the conference read.We're pretty beat (which is partly why we're late this week). Here are some odds and ends that we've not had a chance to get to over the past month or so._________________________
Read more: Overview
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