The media continues to tear apart the Democratic Party. And we continue to let them.

From a guest post over at Taylor Marsh's blog, a young woman who says what so many of us are feeling, with much greater eloquence:

Let me introduce myself. I am 29 year old female serving in the United States Army. I am black. I am proud. And I am a supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

We have seen daily how Senator Clinton moves forward to speak for our loved ones, our families and our friends, despite the constant call for her to step down. She has gone forward despite the obstacles in her path and she has continued to fight. To attempt to destroy the reputation, the name of the former First Lady and Senator by falsely portraying her supporters as racist is one of the worst mistakes of the 2008 election process. To use the the history and the struggles in the black community to destroy another person's political career is the worst form of politics imaginable.

The media is slowly destroying the black community with their words. MSNBC should fire Keith Olbermann and let him return to being a radio sportscaster. They are ripping the Democratic Party apart and they are dividing this nation. Any sane, reasonable and coherent person can see that the cries of "racism" are their attempts to get Senator Clinton to leave this race. By any means necessary. Therefore any sane, reasonable and coherent person watching this debacle is going to resent what is happening, because anyone can see that Senator Clinton is being railroaded.

African Americans are not in any way stupid. If we believed that there was this level of racial discourse as these pundits make it out to be we would be marching on Washington D.C. But now we can only watch in horror as the media destroys our history. The only ones who are "outraged" are those who have no idea of true racial hatred.

Please read the rest here.

Obama on racism in America: When words get in the way

I've been debating whether I should post this item. I don't want to come off as simply "attacking" Barack Obama for the sake of attacking him. But I do think it's important to point out that some of what he he says just doesn't match up. For example, he gave a speech on Tuesday which has been described variously as "epic," "groundbreaking," and "the most important political speech of his life." In that speech, Obama attempted to show us that he recognizes how wrong it is to make racial stereotypes, when he described his grandmother as:

a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

And I believed him. I believed that because of his biracial and international background that he was indeed above this kind of thinking. And then I read what he said on a Philadelphia radio station yesterday:

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity," he said. "But she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know. . .there's a reaction in her that doesn't go away and it comes out in the wrong way."

And it kinda makes me cringe.

h/t to The Divine Dem

Putting a face on the Jena Six

Before the Jena Six rally on September 20th, I posted my opinion that injustice was being done to these six young men, who are charged with varying degrees of attempted murder for a schoolyard brawl while the white students who instigated the fight by hanging a noose in a schoolyard tree were simply suspended from school for a few days.

There are a lot of heated emotions on this subject. People in the public eye have taken up both sides quite fervently. It's become hard to know what is fact and what has been exaggerated by the media. I also know that a lot of people don't agree with my opinion on this matter. I know of one reader who stopped reading this blog because he so strongly disagrees with what I said about the Jena Six and the boys who put up the noose.

So I was pleased to come across an interview with the mother of one of the Jena Six, Bryant Purvis. The interview with Purvis' mother, Tina Jones, appears in In These Times, and is a thoughtful and articulate description of the facts in her son's case.

I don't claim to be a legal scholar, but it is fairly obvious after reading this interview that in Purvis's case, the charges are bogus. No matter what your thoughts are on the Jena Six, I encourage you to read this story about one of the individuals. It is, after all, important to remember that behind the catchy “Jena Six” phrase, there are six young men facing life-altering criminal charges.

How would you describe your son Bryant?

Bryant was an honor student throughout his first three years of high school. He also played basketball and football, but his main thing was basketball. Hopefully, he’ll get to graduate and go to college and play basketball. If not, he wants to become a coach.

He’s also a people person. When people see his car or somebody finds out he’s here, everybody just walks over to visit.

When did you first know that your son might face legal trouble because of the events at the high school?

Bryant came home and told me that there was a fight at school and that several kids were arrested. Lo and behold, the next day when I get to work, my aunt comes and tells me that Bryant was at the courthouse. I didn’t think it was anything related to the fight. I thought something else had happened.

I rushed down there and they told me that Bryant had been charged.

You were shocked to hear Bryant was being charged. Was Bryant as surprised as you were?

He was very surprised, because he wasn’t in the fight at all. Bryant wasn’t involved in anything that led up to the fight.

Read more here.

Why you need to know about the Jena 6

While we are distracted by the blatant constitutional abuses by the Bush Administration and its supporting cast, Congress, the specter of racism is raising its ugly head. And while we are all focused on one person (the university student in Florida) who has had his right of free speech trampled, 6 young men — boys, really — are facing a much harsher injustice. They face 20+ years in prison for what was essentially a schoolyard fight. This while the white students who committed the hate crime of hanging a noose from the schoolyard tree, were suspended for 3 days.

And in case you think the racism that is at the core of this incident, and the judicial system's reaction to it, is an isolated event, CNN is reporting atmosphere that should be unimaginable in 2007:

Two arrested in noose incident near Jena, Louisiana

A Louisiana city that hosted many of the "Jena 6" protesters Thursday became the site of a racially charged incident of its own.

Authorities in Alexandria, less than 40 miles southwest of Jena, arrested two people who were driving a red pickup Thursday night with two nooses hanging off the back, repeatedly passing groups of demonstrators who were waiting for buses back to their home states.

You can make your voice heard in this cacophony of madness by signing a petition organized by ColorOfChange. The petition asks the governor of Louisiana to intervene and ensure that these six young men face equal justice under the law.