According to Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball, “regular folks” = “white folks”. Chris Matthews isn’t even trying to be covert anymore. He’s just outright saying that whiteness is “regular”. Unbelievable. The stench of white privilege is emanating from the video. Whiteness is “regular”. Whiteness is “normal“. That’s what he’s saying.

So Chris, if white folks are regular, what are folks of color? I can’t believe that you are allowed to sit behind a desk and broadcast this racist garbage and call it news.

From Media Matters:

On the July 7 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews teased an upcoming segment by saying: “They’re the working-class white voters Hillary Clinton won and Barack didn’t. Can Obama now win over the regular folks, white folks, against John McCain? We’ll ask the strategists.” On the June 30 edition of Hardball, Matthews similarly teased a segment by asserting: “Up next: They’re the working-class white voters Hillary won and Barack didn’t. Can Obama win over the regular folks against John McCain?”

It’s about time!

The Oregon Primary Election ends on May 20th. Don’t forget to vote. If you vote by mail make sure you use a 42 cent stamp.

The Oregonian has some sweet sets of photos from Obama’s latest visit to Oregon.

I remember when I was a kid that my parents would not tell me who they voted for. I never understood the reason for the secrecy that surrounded voting… I’m glad that I voted for Barack Obama in the Oregon primary. It’s the second time that I have voted for him. The first was when he was running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois.

The third time that I will vote for Barack Obama is when he is on the nationwide elections ballot for President of the United States.

It has been a little over a week since Barack Obama’s speech on race in America. I watched the speech while I was at an Academic Advising conference in Vancouver, BC. It feels like a moment that I will remember for a very long time. It’s similar to the Challenger accident or the events that transpired on September 11, 2001. This was a monumental day in American history.

• I was in Cotter, Iowa at Cotter Elementary when the Challenger exploded.
• I sat in front of a tv at my apartment in Oak Park, Illinois on 9/11.
• I watched Barack Obama’s historic and moving speech in a hotel in downtown Vancouver.

These are three events that will always remain in my memory. I’ve watched this speech several times and it’s not perfect, but it’s the most honest speech on race in the United States that I have ever watched.

(continue reading…)