If a certain family member wonders why I stopped reading their blog, it is due to their defense of (and site link to) Glenn Beck. Rather than engage in a fruitless back-and-forth (like last time when my life experience was called into question), I will simply post these recent videos. Glenn Beck’s rhetoric is blatantly racist and disingenuous. The first clip is of Glenn Beck appearing on the pro-eugenics FOX & Friends. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart once again provide commentary on the idiocy that is Glenn Beck.

Call on advertisers to drop sponsorship of Glenn Beck.

Race is, and always has been, an explosive issue in the United States. In this timely new book, Tim Wise explores how Barack Obama’s emergence as a political force is taking the race debate to new levels. According to Wise, for many whites, Obama’s rise signifies the end of racism as a pervasive social force; they point to Obama as a validation of the American ideology that anyone can make it if they work hard, and an example of how institutional barriers against people of color have all but vanished. But is this true? And does a reinforced white belief in color-blind meritocracy potentially make it harder to address ongoing institutional racism? After all, in housing, employment, the justice system and education, the evidence is clear: white privilege and discrimination against people of color are still operative and actively thwarting opportunities, despite the success of individuals like Obama.

via City Lights Publishing [mp3]

Tim Wise talked about his book Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama (City Lights Publishers; January 2009). He argued that the election of Barack Obama says very little about a reduction of racism in America. He said it reinforces the old negative views about the larger black community while carving out exceptions for blacks like President Obama. His election may therefore complicate progress against racism. Mr. Wise also acknowledged that day as the 41st anniversary of the death of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and talked about white perceptions of racism at that time. He also talked about a highly publicized mass killing the previous day in Binghampton, New York, by a Vietnamese man and how, like in other incidents, blame is assigned to an entire group, unless the perpetrator is white. He also talked about other types of discrimination, the pervasiveness of racism, and the personal responsibility to combat it.

via C-SPAN

Does Race Still Matter?

Interrogating “Post-Racial” Notions in the Age of Obama

Panel Discussion / Open Forum
Tuesday, May 12
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Memorial Union, Room 213
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331

Google the term “post-racial” and one will find plenty of debate surrounding our current historical moment and the significance-or insignificance-of race in US society today. After all, did we not elect our first African American President? How then can one argue that race is still a factor of any substantive consequence in American life? Clearly, given Obama’s election we have reached a point in our history where race no longer constitutes a barrier to opportunity or socioeconomic mobility-or so the argument goes.

What exactly does it mean to assert we are now living in a “post-racial” US? What is at stake? Does race still matter, and if so, in what ways?

Join the Oregon State University Association of Faculty for the Advancement of People of Color (AFAPC) in a panel discussion and open forum as we grapple with these very questions.

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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.

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