July 1, 2015

a recovering racist realizes he enjoyed his position in life under Jim Crow

I am a recovering racist: I was somehow taught hate as a gift of love
I grew up in the segregated South. It took a question from an 11-year-old to teach me how I really felt about it


Did you like having your own special place in the restaurant when you were growing up?” He was referring to the nicer, cleaner, air-conditioned “whites only” sections I sat in, while blacks had their food shoved at them through a window that opened into the alley.

“Like it?” I responded. At first the question seemed irrelevant. What did it matter if I enjoyed it? The point is, it was wrong. But from the way all the kids’ eyes lit up, I could tell the class wanted me to address the boy’s question. He had drawn an adult off script and they couldn’t wait to see how I responded.

I knew what I was supposed to say: “No. I did not enjoy it.” I was supposed to tell him that it was wrong, and that it’s a horrible thing to discriminate against people like that. “We’re all losers when that happens,” I was supposed to say.

But the boy’s instincts were right. And fifth graders know when you are lying to them.

“Yes,” I admitted. “It felt good. I felt like I was on the winning team or voted most popular. I never thought of it before, but yes, it made me feel special.”

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A girl raised her hand. “Did a black person ever have to give up her seat so you could sit down?”

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I was still off balance from the first question, editing my race history to include the fact that I liked segregation for the feelings of superiority it gave me. The thought was disorienting.

“Yes!” I answered, and knowing where she was going with her question, I continued. “I liked that, too. To see a grown man offer me his seat because I was more important than he was a good feeling.”

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/30/i_am_a_recovering_racist_i_was_somehow_taught_hate_as_a_gift_of_love/

July 1, 2015

Canadian potato saboteurs: someone is putting pins, needles and nails in potatoes

Canadian potato farmers on the hunt for saboteurs: 'These are really evil people'
A mysterious outbreak of ‘food terrorism’ – pins and nails found inside Prince Edward Island potatoes – has led authorities to offer a $500,000 reward for tips





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The prosperous farmers of Prince Edward Island in the gulf of St Lawrence have offered a reward of CAN$500,000 (US$400,000) for tips leading to the conviction of the person or people who have been inserting pins and nails into potatoes grown on the island. Since the sabotage began last October, tampered Prince Edward Island potatoes have been found in grocery stores in four different Canadian provinces, triggering what has been described as the most serious crisis to hit sleepy PEI since the British conquest of Acadia in 1710.


“It’s food terrorism,” said island potato farmer Alex Docherty. “The people doing this are cowards, lower than a snake wearing snowshoes. These are really evil people.”

The saboteurs are also having a major impact on the local economy, where growing and processing the tubers is a billion-dollar industry, supplemented in the summer by Japanese tourists eager to visit the island’s many shrines devoted to their cherished “red-haired Anne”.

“Farm families all over the world work so hard to produce food and to have something like this happen is really disheartening,” said Docherty, chairman of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board. “We want the cowards caught and dealt with to the full extent of the law.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/30/canada-potatoes-food-terrorism-prince-edward-island

Jim Barry of Loch Katrine, N.S. found one of the nails. He bought the bag of potatoes from the Superstore in Antigonish earlier this month.

Barry said he and his wife had gone through half the bag when they got a shock Monday while preparing food.

“[My wife] was peeling a potato and she couldn’t get the skin off because she kept hitting something,” he said.

“She cut into the potato and then she couldn’t cut through it. Then she cut through it with a larger knife and [broke] the potato and sure enough, there was a one-inch nail poking out of the potato.”
Barry described the nail as a finishing nail that was embedded all the way through the potato.
http://globalnews.ca/news/2009592/nails-found-in-store-bought-potatoes-in-nova-scotia-rcmp-investigating/

July 1, 2015

American Ballet Theatre names Misty Copeland their first black principal dancer in its 75-year histo

Source: dailymail





Misty Copeland, a soloist with American Ballet Theatre, will become its first African-American female principal ballerina, the dance company, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, said on Tuesday.

Copeland, 32, joined American Ballet Theatre in 2001 and has been a soloist with the prestigious dance company since 2007.

She was among several dancers given new roles at a meeting the company held on Tuesday.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3144985/American-Ballet-Theatre-names-Misty-Copeland-black-principal-dancer.html

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July 1, 2015

Obama's approval rating grows following memorable week

The new poll shows Obama's approval rating up five points since a May survey, when just 45% approved of the job he was doing as president and 52% disapproved. The poll marks the first time his approval rating has been at 50% or higher since May, 2013, and only the second time in that stretch that his disapproval rating has fallen below 50%. It currently stands at 47%.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/30/politics/obama-approval-rating-cnn-poll/index.html

July 1, 2015

Why this black defender of the Confederate flag says slavery was ‘a choice’

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

Cooper is a member of the Virginia Flaggers, an activist group that rejects the idea that the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism and hate.

The group was formed in response to a decision to remove Confederate flags from public view in several locations, including a Confederate memorial chapel on the grounds of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond and city light poles in Lexington, The Washington Post’s Susan Svrluga reported last year.

Like the rest of the Flaggers’ 40 or so members, Cooper feels pride and reverence each time she displays the flag in public.

If the flag was a racist symbol, Cooper argues in the video, she wouldn’t be an accepted member of a group composed primarily of white Southerners.

“I’m not advocating slavery or think that, you know, it was right,” she says. “It wasn’t, and none of my friends think it was. It was just something that happened. It didn’t just happen in the South, it happened worldwide.”

Besides, she adds, slavery is “a choice.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/30/why-some-black-defenders-of-the-confederate-flag-believe-slavery-was-a-choice/?tid=pm_national_pop_b

June 30, 2015

"most despicable act done by Prez in history" = rainbow colors to Whitehouse say rightwing

Radio host. Said the rainbow colors was a big "f u" to half of Americans



Said by gay hating, woman hating, patriarch loving Dennis Prager

June 30, 2015

ISIS drowning people slowly in cages, blowing them up, increasing barbarity

Throwing gay men off buildings. Beheadings


Doesn't seem to be big news anymore

Sick bastards.

June 30, 2015

Vandals attack LGBT mural in S.F. Mission for 3rd time

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Vandals-attack-LGBT-mural-in-S-F-Mission-for-3rd-6357896.php

June 29, 2015

Trump will comb his hair back if elected pres. no more comb over

Donald promises America a new 'do' if it makes him president: Trump reveals he will ditch his infamous hair style in the White House - because comb-over takes too much time to maintain



Donald Trump said if elected president he will ditch his current hair style
Trump told a crowd in Iowa that his carefully combed-over hair simply takes too long to do every day
For his new look, Trump says he would just comb his hair back

Donald Trump may be standing firm in his political convictions as he attempts to secure the Republican nomination for president, but there is one thing he has revealed he will be changing if elected - his hair.
Trump appeared at a dinner in Iowa on Saturday night and told those in attendance that his carefully crafted coif would be no more if he lands in the White House.
His reasoning for the big change is that the look simply takes too long.
Scroll down for video


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3143400/Donald-Trump-reveals-ditch-infamous-hair-style-elected-president-carefully-combed-coif-takes-time-maintain.html#ixzz3eUCO6bBu
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June 28, 2015

Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi at parade today

From dailymail