Extraordinary!

[Pathless]

I would add that since the white cultures in America seem to be in varying degrees of denial about the deep roots and pervasiveness of racism in this country, and often unaware of the privileges that come with simply having white skin, we must be particularly observant and vigilant to our own assumptions and biases about race. One of the most fallacious popular beliefs is that with the civil rights gains of the '50s and '60s, racism has mostly disappeared, and African Americans as well as other minorities have equal opportunities on the level of white-skinned people. Racism still exists, and non-white people in this country are at significant handicaps in navigating the dominantly white culture. While it may be true that many of the more blatant racists attitudes and practices have disappeared, white racism towards blacks and other minorities is still pervasive, if somehow more subtle.

[Pathless]

From commentary by editorial board members of The Black Commentator:

Originally Posted by Bill Fletcher, Jr

For a mainstream politician running for the Presidency, and particularly for an African American running for the Presidency, this was a critical speech to give. It was essential that he not walk away from, or disown Rev. Wright. At the same time, when we live in a society that is so much in denial of the actual conditions of the oppressed both inside and outside our borders; that has come to accept torture; that often cannot comprehend the tragedy facing the Palestinians; that was angry about, yet threw up its hands in the face of the Katrina disaster (and the government's lack of response); that witnesses major banks and corporations disembowel communities and face few consequences, the anger that was displayed by Rev. Wright should not have surprised anyone. It is both anger AND hope that are critical for a genuine movement that wishes to transform this country. The anger of a Rev. Wright is not a throw-back, but is a reality check.

Originally Posted by Ethel Long-Scott

As poverty has spread to broader and broader sections of our society, there has been a steady push to put in place a system of laws to contain not African Americans, but the impoverished. Managing and controlling the new class of dispossessed is the new paradigm of policing and incarceration. The main agenda for global corporations is to continue to automate production, eliminate jobs, lower wages and cut benefits, so poverty and homelessness will continue to grow. This has already made our nation the world’s leading prison nation. This travesty is driven by the market economy and global capitalism more than racism.

...

And America certainly has changed, in that it has allowed a certain number of African Americans, like our present secretary of state, and our former secretary of state, and Mr. Obama, among others, to join the privileged class. But the profound mistake of Mr. Obama’s speeches is that he speaks as if our economic system isn’t static in its irrepressible need to push a high proportion of its people to the economic bottom, where they can be exploited cheaply for whatever contributions they can make, and pushed out of the economic system entirely – discarded, thrown away – if they cannot be exploited further.

Originally Posted by Jeanne Woods

I welcome Obama's principled and eloquent response to the "Rev. Wright" controversy. This provided an unprecedented teaching moment for the country, an opportunity for him to address directly the issues of racism in the American polity, and, more subtley, the polarizing tactics of the corporate media. While I do not share his opinion that Rev. Wright's views are "distorted", I think he handled the question of their relationship - and by extension his relationship with the Black community - with integrity. It is unfortunate that, as Blackness is apparently equated with lack of patriotism, he felt it necessary to reaffirm his committment to the fight against "radical Islam." On the whole, however, it was a brilliant exercise of statesmanship.

Originally Posted by Lenore J. Daniels

Will the Republican candidate John McCain have to deliver a speech of explanation and apology for the endorsement he sought from Rev. John Hegee, who has made a career denouncing certain groups of Americans?
Would Sen. Obama have had to distance himself from his pastor of 20 years, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright if he were not an African American running for the presidency?

Originally Posted by David A. Love

Members of the conservative punditoracy, the talking heads who are dependent upon the 24-hour news cycle, the 30-second sound byte and the sensationalism of reality-show faux-journalism, never have visited a Black church. Rather than sensitize themselves to the inconvenient realities of racism, they, in their discomfort and false outrage, demanded Dr. Wright’s head on a platter. The senator refused to participate in the Willie Hortonization of Rev. Wright, or the demonization of a rich legacy of political expression in the Black church.

Obama redirected the current discussion away from the unhelpful distractions, the scapegoating and the smokescreens, and towards the larger fundamentals of inequality and power in America. He addressed the legacy of oppression that people of color face, and the economic deprivation that many whites experience, all against the backdrop of corporate greed and a devotion to business as usual among the political elites. This is just the beginning of a conversation that is needed in this country. Obama is challenging the people to take advantage of a window of opportunity, and to try a refreshingly new and different approach to this American experiment.

Originally Posted by Leith Mullings

The measure of Obama’s success will be determined by his ability to create, build and galvanize a grassroots mass movement that links anti-racism to the practical tasks of governing. Such a movement will have to bypass the media, pundits, and politicians who manufacture consent that prevents the majority of Euro-Americans from acting in their own interests.

These are only excerpts. Read the entire commentary at:

The Black Commentator - Cover Story: Obama Race Speech Analysis By BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Members

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by Pathless

Yes, you've now said that in a couple of related threads recently. Any other observations? Thoughts? I'd be interested in hearing your perspective on these events.

I don't see much future for the Americans. Everything about the behavior of the American society reveals that it's half judaized, and the other half is negrified. How can one expect a state like that to hold together?
Adolf Hitler


Is it a progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec


Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.


I hate to spread rumours. But what else one can do with them?
Amanda Lear


There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don't come to know that soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.
Isaac Asimov


Americans always try to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
Winston Churchill


There never was a good war, or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin


Love of one's country recognizes no frontiers... of other countries.
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec


Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.
Kenyan proverb



Humans sheesh..
Yo-Eleven-11
Thats my observation.


Think about it.

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by YO-ELEVEN-11

I don't see much future for the Americans. Everything about the behavior of the American society reveals that it's half judaized, and the other half is negrified. How can one expect a state like that to hold together?
Adolf Hitler


Is it a progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec


Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.


I hate to spread rumours. But what else one can do with them?
Amanda Lear


There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don't come to know that soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.
Isaac Asimov


Americans always try to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
Winston Churchill


There never was a good war, or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin


Love of one's country recognizes no frontiers... of other countries.
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec


Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.
Kenyan proverb



Humans sheesh..
Yo-Eleven-11
Thats my observation.


Think about it.

What, that's it? Come on, man. You can do better than that.

[Pathless]

Relevant quick online activity from Southern Poverty Law Center:

Southern Poverty Law Center : Stand Strong Against Hate

Racism is a serious problem in America. We've identified 888 organized hate groups — a staggering 48% increase since 2000.

This increase in the number of hate groups — white supremacists, neo-Nazis, anti-immigrant extremists, anti-gay groups and others — is an alarming trend.

As the ranks of hate swell, people of goodwill must stand up and be counted.

Add yourself to our map as a voice for tolerance. Join people across the nation who are standing strong against the hate, racism, and intolerance infecting our communities, schools and political debate.

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by Pathless

What, that's it? Come on, man. You can do better than that.

ok. think about again...



I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Almighty Creator. By fighting the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work."
— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator."— Adolf Hitler, ibid., Vol. 1 Chapter 2

"Thus inwardly armed with confidence in God and the unshakable stupidity of the voting citizenry, the politicians can begin the fight for the 'remaking' of the Reich as they call it."— Adolf Hitler, ibid., Vol. 2 Chapter 1

"The National Government will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life."
— Adolf Hitler, Berlin, 1933, first radio address after coming to power. Here are pictures of Christian Nazism.

"The national Government sees in both Christian denominations the most important factor for the maintenance of our society."
- Adolf Hitler, speech before the Reichstag, March 1933

"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . We need believing people."
— Adolf Hitler, April 1933, from a speech made during negotiations leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of 1933

"On the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the Earth."
— President George W. Bush, a born-again Christian

"He [God] is using me, all the time, everywhere, to stand up for a biblical worldview in everything that I do and everywhere I am. He is training me."
— Tom DeLay (R-TX), Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives

"When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we'll execute you. I mean every word of it. I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed."
— Randall Terry (whose son happens to be gay)


pause-------------------



"To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler. Hitler tried to speed up evolution, to help it along, and millions suffered and died in unspeakable ways because of it."
— D. James Kennedy

"If somebody votes for a party that you don't agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you like. … But on the other hand, if somebody says, 'I mustn't move a light switch on a Saturday,' you say, 'Fine, I respect that.'"
— Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."
— George Bernard Shaw

"At present there is not a single credible established religion in the world."
— George Bernard Shaw, from "Major Barbara"

"We do not know how God created, what processes He used, for God used processes which are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe. This is why we refer to divine creation as special creation. We cannot discover by scientific investigations anything about the creative processes used by God."
— Duane Gish, in Evolution, The Fossils Say No! p. 42

"We experience happiness and suffering ourselves; we encounter others in the world and recognize that they experience happiness and suffering as well; we soon discover that 'love' is largely a matter of wishing that others experience happiness rather than suffering; and most of us come to feel that love is more conducive to happiness, both our own and that of others, than hate. There is a circle here that links us to one another: we each want to be happy; the social feeling of love is one of our greatest sources of happiness; and love entails that we be concerned for the happiness of others. We discover that we can be selfish together."
— Sam Harris, The End of Faith, pp.186-187

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

HUMANS SHEEESH
----YO-ELEVEN-11

[greymare]

yep, we treat this planet like it belongs to somebody else..........

[Tao_Equus]

Yo 11 11,

I loved the way you selected the quotes from Hitler. It would be hard to make a more succinct point about the use of religion in American politics today. We often forget that those who seek political office study political theory and methodology, they know what works. Take for example Hitlers line "the unshakable stupidity of the voting citizenry" and this infamous clip of Bush :
YouTube - George W. Bush: Only In America But no surprise there really, after all the same idealogical organisation that put Hitler in power still operates and put Bush, Reagan, Ford and Nixon in power too. Hitler went off the rails, cut the strings of the puppeteers that gave him his platform. The lesson was learned from. Is JWB his own mind, was Reagan? Is it just a coincidence they both seem constantly confused when presenting anything ? How would you stop a puppet running the show? You dont see the same thing in Bush Snr nor in Nixon who were both organisational stalwarts. OHHH deary me... I'm just a hapless conspiracy theorist though... aint I just!!

The GB Shaw quote nicely sums up the other thread on religious people being happier :
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."
— George Bernard Shaw

Tao

[Pathless]

Okay. I like the quote game.

"The Lord showed me that this is a time for self-examination."

--Reverend Jeremiah Wright, preaching after the September 11th attacks
YouTube - Reverend Wright Speaks Out

We would have done well at that time to heed his words, and at this time, too. Any time is the right time for self-examination. Introspection. Deep probing into the context of things. "Think about it" indeed. Context.

What does it mean when a country blindly ignores its own history, preferring instead to cling to manufactured untruths about their government's unassailable nobility? What does it mean when dissent is criminalized and marginalized and, in the best cases, co-opted by mainstream media or governmental organizations? It means we have a limp citizenry, washed up. What does it mean when the vast majority of Americans believe that clips of a reverend, played out of context and spliced neatly into political agendas in a time of electoral politics, mean that this person is anti-American, and that to support or even listen to what he has to say is somehow blasphemous to the great nation? What does it mean when that man is actually speaking to a deep historical condition of the same country, but no one wants to hear because it is too painful or would cause them to have to drastically revise their assumptions about the motives of their country?

Does it mean that we are living in the political progeny of the Third Reich? Does it mean that media outlets are essentially a propaganda arm of the nation-state? Quite possibly.

If that is what it means, then what do we, as individuals of conscience who understand that the corporate media serve the militaristic and imperialist agendas of the nation-state, do? Can we, in good conscience, watch from the sidelines, nodding sagely as we use our keen insight to x-ray the situation? Or do we hunger to do something more?

Some questions.

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by Pathless

Okay. I like the quote game.

"The Lord showed me that this is a time for self-examination."

--Reverend Jeremiah Wright, preaching after the September 11th attacks
YouTube - Reverend Wright Speaks Out

We would have done well at that time to heed his words, and at this time, too. Any time is the right time for self-examination. Introspection. Deep probing into the context of things. "Think about it" indeed. Context.

What does it mean when a country blindly ignores its own history, preferring instead to cling to manufactured untruths about their government's unassailable nobility? What does it mean when dissent is criminalized and marginalized and, in the best cases, co-opted by mainstream media or governmental organizations? It means we have a limp citizenry, washed up. What does it mean when the vast majority of Americans believe that clips of a reverend, played out of context and spliced neatly into political agendas in a time of electoral politics, mean that this person is anti-American, and that to support or even listen to what he has to say is somehow blasphemous to the great nation? What does it mean when that man is actually speaking to a deep historical condition of the same country, but no one wants to hear because it is too painful or would cause them to have to drastically revise their assumptions about the motives of their country?

Does it mean that we are living in the political progeny of the Third Reich? Does it mean that media outlets are essentially a propaganda arm of the nation-state? Quite possibly.

If that is what it means, then what do we, as individuals of conscience who understand that the corporate media serve the militaristic and imperialist agendas of the nation-state, do? Can we, in good conscience, watch from the sidelines, nodding sagely as we use our keen insight to x-ray the situation? Or do we hunger to do something more?

Some questions.

What does it mean when a country blindly ignores its own history, preferring instead to cling to manufactured untruths about their government's unassailable nobility?

When one door closes another one opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
Alexander Graham Bell

What does it mean when dissent is criminalized and marginalized and, in the best cases, co-opted by mainstream media or governmental organizations?

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Eric Hoffer

What does it mean when the vast majority of Americans believe that clips of a reverend, played out of context and spliced neatly into political agendas in a time of electoral politics, mean that this person is anti-American, and that to support or even listen to what he has to say is somehow blasphemous to the great nation?

The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Alghonse Karr

What does it mean when that man is actually speaking to a deep historical condition of the same country, but no one wants to hear because it is too painful or would cause them to have to drastically revise their assumptions about the motives of their country?

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
Jimmy Dean

Does it mean that we are living in the political progeny of the Third Reich?

Tough times never last, but tough people do!
Robert Schuller


Does it mean that media outlets are essentially a propaganda arm of the nation-state?

Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!
Sir Walter Scott, Marmion (1808)


If that is what it means, then what do we, as individuals of conscience who understand that the corporate media serve the militaristic and imperialist agendas of the nation-state, do?

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. And if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you.
Friedrich Nietzche

Can we, in good conscience, watch from the sidelines, nodding sagely as we use our keen insight to x-ray the situation? Or do we hunger to do something more?

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
-Abraham Lincoln

[Pathless]

Alice Walker has written a powerful and important article in response to the racial backlash of the Reverend Wright controversy.

White People Have a Racial History Too | Election 2008 | AlterNet

Originally Posted by Alice Walker

We lived in a shack without electricity or running water, under a rusty tin roof that let in wind and rain. Miss May went to school as a girl. The school my parents and their neighbors built for us was burned to the ground by local racists who wanted to keep ignorant their competitors in tenant farming. During the Depression, desperate to feed his hardworking family, my father asked for a raise from 10 dollars a month to 12. Miss May responded that she would not pay that amount to a white man, and she certainly wouldn't pay it to a nigger. That before she'd pay a nigger that much money, she'd milk the dairy cows herself.

...

When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves.

...

It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs. Clinton (I wish she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as "a woman" while Barack Obama is always referred to as "a black man." One would think she is just any woman, colorless, race-less, past-less, but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in America in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world, did not react to this fact. How dishonest it is, to attempt to make her innocent of her racial inheritance.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking, person to person, with any leader, woman, man, child or common person, in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks. I cannot see the same scenario with Mrs. Clinton, who would drag into 21st century American leadership the same image of white privilege and distance from the reality of others' lives that has so marred our country's contacts with the rest of the world.

Full article: White People Have a Racial History Too | Election 2008 | AlterNet

[YO-ELEVEN-11]

Originally Posted by Pathless

Alice Walker has written a powerful and important article in response to the racial backlash of the Reverend Wright controversy.

White People Have a Racial History Too | Election 2008 | AlterNet



Full article: White People Have a Racial History Too | Election 2008 | AlterNet

“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.” Kofi Annan quotes (Ghanaia