The Race(ism)/Hate Thread

[ice grillin you]

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/pleas-in-mississippi-case-show-some-progress-and-that-much-work-remains-ahead-of-u

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2011/08/05/griffin.mississippi.hate.crime.cnn

[ice grillin you]

White Men Rule

So why do so many of them whine about how tough it is to be a white man?
     
I have been a white male all my life and to tell you the truth, I have found it to be a pretty sweet deal. If you doubt me and would like to see a demonstration of just how sweet it is to be a white guy in modern day America – just come with me and stand in the visitor's gallery of the U.S. Senate sometime when they are all gathered for a vote and look down upon that fleshy sea of men. Of the 100 members of the U.S. Senate, just 17 are women. And in the entire history of our country, only six African American have served in the Senate. White men rule.

It's the same in the U.S. House of Representatives, where women make up just 17 percent of the current membership. It's the men who rule.

In the 220 year history of the Supreme Court, only four women justices have ever served. And three of those women are on the court right now. In the entire history of the nation, there have only been two African American Justices. So half of all the African Americans who have ever served are on the court right now: Clarence Thomas. Again, white men rule.

Of the Fortune 500 companies in 2011, just 12 of America's biggest companies were run by women. And there are currently just eight African American CEOs. You guessed it: White men rule.

Wherever you look and by almost any metric, any statistic, it works out to be a pretty sweet deal to start out life as a white male. And if I ever become deranged and suddenly start to kill all of the people who annoy me on Facebook with a potato peeler, I have the comfort of knowing I will stand a lower chance of being executed for my crimes just because I am white. If you've seen Facebook these days, you know what a relief that can be.

So I cannot, for the life of me, understand why so many white men like me can be found whining about how tough it is to be a white man. It's a mystery to me how they came to feel so beset on every side by feminists, minorities, and "the system." When in fact, the system is so stacked in our favor, it's almost embarrassing. It's like our mothers set up the world for us. For white men, life is almost like T-ball. We are almost guaranteed to get on base. But lately, some of us seem to be having issues with self-esteem.

So it's especially strange to see white men like Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and various "Men's Rights" groups complaining bitterly about the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which may come up for a vote this week. Grassley and the far right don't want to see it pass in its current form because it extends some of its protections to LGBT victims, Native American victims, and some illegal immigrants. Because of what? Because it should be OK to brutalize them?

For the first time since the law was passed, it has become politicized. And in a move to make up for voting for the awful anti-women Blunt amendment, Senator Scott Brown says he's for it.

The passage of the bill has also been muddied by — well — mud. Stuff crazy people make up and throw out there to make it seem like it's somehow a radical or controversial idea to try to stop people from beating up women. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which, among other things, tracks hate groups, has now started paying attention to some "Men's Rights" groups that seem to just flat-out hate women. One of the things these groups like to do is generate baloney statistics about how men are the "real victims" of domestic violence.

I know this sounds a little crazy. But just take a look on the web. Watch this YouTube clip from some guy who looks kind of normal and then he goes on about how feminism is a form of stealth genocide and how feminism and the courts have criminalized fatherhood. He claims that the system is ready to put most men in jail. But for people in the lower class who don't really care — because they spend most of their time there anyway — so it's like a second home to them. If this doesn't seem crazy to you, I suggest you seek professional help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB2C-2dhcsE&feature=player_embedded

In a piece titled Men's Rights Movement Spreads False Claims about Women the SPLC points out that a 2005 Department of Justice study also found that between 1998 and 2002, 84 percent of spousal abuse victims were female, as were 86 percent of victims of abuse at the hands of a dating partner. Males made up 83 percent of all spouse murderers and 75 percent of dating partner murderers. If you really really don't want to get beat up, killed, or thrown in jail, my suggestion to you would be to become a white male

These men's rights groups also, I am told, hate relatively normal men like me who generally find women to be good company. They call us "Manginas." Cool. I think I may just get a button with that on it.

[ice grillin you]

interesting little tidbit from a former tuskegee airman

http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/roscoe-brown-jr-and-javier-henriquez/

[Sgt PSN]

Wow.  Is Limbaugh running Adidas these days? 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/06/new-adidas-shackle-sneakers-likenend-to-slavery/1#.T9-ndSue4zE

[ice grillin you]

their design/creative department might need an overhaul

[Sgt PSN]

Adidas decided to pull the plug on them. 

[ice grillin you]

tremedously well written piece

http://gawker.com/5921553/internet-girls-mad-men-and-why-the-greatest-generation-wasnt

[SD]

Happy White People Day

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/05/chris-rock-white-peoples-day-july-4th-tweet_n_1651833.html

[ice grillin you]

if he says that on stage in a routine no one blinks...but because its on twitter it makes news

[Rome]

Chris Rock is a racist douchebag.  He's funny as farg so people overlook his bullshtein.  If he were white he'd be on Fox News.

[Munson]

[Eagaholic]

Wells Fargo's disgraceful discrimination scandal: A guide

The bank ponies up $175 million to settle accusations that it charged blacks and Latinos higher interest rates and fees on their mortgages
posted on July 13, 2012, at 4:24 PM


This week, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $175 million to settle charges that it discriminated against thousands of blacks, Latinos, and other minority borrowers between 2004 and 2009. The Justice Department had accused Wells Fargo, the country's largest mortgage lender, of charging minority borrowers higher interest rates and fees on home loans than it charged white borrowers with similar credit ratings. Thomas Perez, an assistant attorney general at the department, slammed Wells Fargo for levying the equivalent of a "racial surtax." People "should be judged by the content of their creditworthiness and not the color of their skin," he said. Here, a guide to the case:

What exactly did Wells Fargo do?
The Justice Department says Wells Fargo engaged in a pattern of "systemic discrimination" in which some 30,000 minority borrowers across 36 states were charged higher fees and interest rates than their white counterparts. A black borrower in Chicago, for example, paid an average of nearly $3,000 more in fees than a white applicant who had the same credit rating. A Latino borrower paid more than $2,000 extra. The average "surtax" for a black borrower in the Miami area in 2007 was $3,657. In addition, Wells Fargo steered some 4,000 minority borrowers with good credit toward subprime loans — which are usually reserved for those with shaky credit, and have interest rates that often spike after several years.

What does Wells Fargo say now?
Though it's coughing up a massive settlement, the bank did not officially admit wrongdoing, and claims that it settled the case "solely for the purpose of avoiding contested litigation" with the government. The bank stopped issuing subprime loans in 2008.

Why were minority borrowers treated differently?
The case was part of a recent phenomenon that civil rights groups call "reverse redlining," in which banks flooded poor, minority communities with predatory loans that contained hidden fees and interest rates. (Redlining in its original form dates to the days of segregation, when banks refused to give home loans to blacks.) The trend was spurred by financial innovations on Wall Street that made subprime loans profitable to investors — "and blacks were one of the largest untapped markets," says Ylan Q. Mui at The Washington Post. Reverse redlining played a significant role in the housing boom that preceded the 2008 financial crisis.

How has it affected minority communities?
The bust in the subprime market has had a disproportionate impact on blacks. The fallout has "left a scar on the finances of black Americans," says Mui, "one that not only has wiped out a generation of economic progress but could leave them at a financial disadvantage for decades." The Justice Department's case against Wells Fargo stems from a lawsuit filed by the city of Baltimore, which found that its minority communities were decimated by the housing crisis. In late 2011, Bank of America settled a similar discrimination lawsuit in which it paid out $335 million.

What happens to the settlement money?
Wells Fargo will use $125 million to compensate affected borrowers. The remaining $50 million will go toward helping people in eight metropolitan areas' minority communities, including Baltimore's, make down payments or improve their homes.

Sources: Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post

[Sgt PSN]

http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2012-07-26/carl-crawford-racial-slur-police-officer-fired-boston-red-sox

Can honestly say I've never heard this before. 

Perrault had been on paid leave since he called Crawford a "Monday" before a July 5 minor league game in Manchester, N.H.

The word can be used as a derogatory term for blacks, and is often associated with Mondays being one of the most-hated days of the week, such as in the common phrase, "I hate Mondays."

New board filter? 

[Munson]

I've heard it before sadly.

[Rome]

A racial epithet ignorant people from upstate New York call blacks: "Canadians".

Seriously.