The GOP's Message to Black People: Who Needs Niggers!

As reported on ABC News, a couple of weeks ago, Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich starked controversy when he said:

“And so I’m prepared if the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.”

ABC News also reported that Newt Gingrich repeatedly refers to the first African American President as the food stamp president:

"A portion of Gingrich’s usual speech given to crowds includes a line in which Gingrich says more people are on food stamps under President Obama than with any other president. ABC News fact checked Gingrich’s food stamp claims earlier this month, confirming that Americans on food stamps is at a record high, but mostly attributed to a weak economy.

“The fact is if I become your nominee we will make the key test very simple – food stamps versus paychecks. Obama is the best food stamp president in American history. More people are on food stamps today because of Obama’s policies than ever in history,” Gingrich said. “I would like to be the best paycheck president in American history.”

To top it all off, Newt Gingrich basically said that poor children, code for "poor black children", are lazy and shiftless:



On Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Newt Gingrich spent time defending his racist statements during the Republican Presidential Debate in South Carolina. The crowd's reaction was even more sickening than Gingrich's statements.

The crowd applauded when Newt Gingrich justified his bigoted statements. The crowd booed FOX news analyst Juan Williams for having the audacity to question Gingrich about the statements. Unfortunately, the crowd's response is a symptom of a larger problem.

As reported on Politics365, Newt Gingrich is not the only Republican candidate to make racist statements about African Americans:

"A second Republican candidate said: “I don’t want to make Black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to earn the money and provide for themselves and their families…”

A third Republican candidate for president published a newsletter in his 50s claiming that “racial violence will fill our cities” because “mostly black welfare recipients will feel justified in stealing from mostly white ‘haves.’”

A fourth Republican candidate for the presidency signed a pledge claiming that African American children were more likely to grow up in stable families during slavery than in contemporary times.

A fifth Republican candidate said: “many African Americans have been brainwashed into not being open minded to not even considering a conservative point of view…” two months ago."

The Republican Party's Southern Strategy to secure the redneck, racist white vote continues today. As long as it benefits them politically, Republican candidates will continue to label African Americans as lazy and welfare dependent. I would not be surprised if the candidates try to out racist each other while campaigning in South Carolina. After all, it is the heart of the Confederacy. In case you forgot, they proudly display the Confederate flag at the state capital to remind you.

Even worst than their racist statements, Republicans will continue to pursue policies that are detrimental to African Americans. The Republican Party's stances on affirmative action, health care reform, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, workers rights, voter identification requirements and other issues adversely and disproportionately impact black people.

As far as the GOP is concerned, black people are invisible, irrelevant and expendable. Republicans clearly don't give a damn about us or our issues. Through their policies and bigoted statements, the Republican Party is essentially saying to the black community, "Who needs niggers!"

This article is cross-posted on Jack and Jill Politics.

A Tribute to A King and A Movement!

Let's honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the movement by getting involved in the today's struggle for social justice!

Time to Boycott Lowe's?

America has evolved. At least in law and theory, discrimination is no longer acceptable. It is not longer acceptable to discriminated against African Americans, Jews, Catholics, women and the physically disabled. Nowadays, even the most rabid reactionaries try to avoid being labeled as racist.



However, it remains acceptable to discriminate against and to hate Muslims. Mainstream politicians openly express hatred against Muslims with impunity.

The most recent example of this hatred is the Lowe's situation. Under pressure from the Florida Family Association, Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse decided to pull advertising from the All American Muslim program on TLC. The Florida Family Association opposes the show the following reasons:

"The Learning Channel's new show All-American Muslim is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law. The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish."

The Florida Family Association's argument is absurd. That is analogous to condemning the Cosby Show for excluding drug dealers, gangsters, buffoons, hoochie mamas, pimps, and "welfare queens" from the show.

In preparation for this article, I watched a couple episodes of All American Muslim. It is a wholesome family show. The viewers see mothers give birth, men coach football, boys play sports, families discuss business ventures, families dining together, people attending religious services and people working. We see Muslims, religious and non-religious, doing things that normal, ordinary people do. That is too much for the Florida Family Association.

They call it propaganda because it does not fit their narrow, stereotypical image of Muslims. The Florida Family Association does not want people to see positive images of Islam and Muslim like this.

Instead, the images below are what they want the world to see when they think about Islam and Muslims.

They can only envision Muslims as wife beating, turbaned, gun toting, suicide vest wearing maniacs. They cannot see Muslims as fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, police officers, doctors, coaches, business people or as patriotic Americans. As far as Florida Family Association is concerned, any attempt to portray Muslims as typical American citizens must be propaganda. This is no different from antisemitism. It must be condemned as antisemitism is condemned.

When Muslim groups complained about Lowe's decision to cancel advertising on All American Muslim, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Lowe's issued this lame "apology":

"It appears that we managed to step into a hotly contested debate with strong views from virtually every angle and perspective – social, political and otherwise – and we’ve managed to make some people very unhappy. We are sincerely sorry. We have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, across our workforce and our customers, and we’re proud of that longstanding commitment.

Lowe’s has received a significant amount of communication on this program, from every perspective possible. Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lighting rod for many of those views. As a result we did pull our advertising on this program. We believe it is best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance.

We strongly support and respect the right of our customers, the community at large, and our employees to have different views. If we have made anyone question that commitment, we apologize.

Thank you for allowing us to further explain our position."

If Lowe's truly supports diversity, it would not defer to bigots like the Florida Family Association. Lowe's should be ashamed of itself for bowing down to the demands of bigots.

All people of good will should urge Lowe's to reject bigotry. If Lowe's does not understand the language of tolerance and acceptance, maybe they will understand the language of money and boycott.

This article is cross-posted on Jack and Jill Politics.

Herman Cain's Minstrel Show Has Finally Come to an End!

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Yesterday, Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain finally ended his minstrel show. Opps. I mean his campaign. Hopefully, this is the last time I will have to mention his name.

This is What's Wrong with the American Political System!

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This video summarizes the problem. Through campaign contributions, the power elite dominate both political parties. They own and control the American political process.

Herman Cain, The Day of the Geechie is Gone!

“See, the black race can’t afford you no more. Oh, there used to be a time we’d see somebody like you singing, clowning, yes sir bossing and we wouldn’t do anything. Folks liked that. You were good, homie kinda nigga. When they needed someone to mistreat, call a name or two, they paraded you. Reminded them of the good old days. Not no more. The day of the geechie is gone boy and you goin’ with it. We can’t let nobody go on believing that we're all fools like you.” Sergeant Waters, A Soldier's Story

It looks like Herman Cain's 15 minutes of fame are over. A couple of weeks ago, it was all good for Herman Cain. He was the front-runner for the Republican Party nomination. He actually started to believe that he could garner significant support from the African American community. The Washington Post reported that:

"Herman Cain’s turn atop the polls in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination captured the attention of journalists and pundits and sparked excitement among grass-roots conservative activists. But is it really possible that he — a black man who overcame poverty in the segregated South to become a wealthy entrepreneur and front-runner in the GOP race — would be the one to bring African American voters back to their original political home?

Cain seems to think so. In a mailer sent to Iowa voters recently, the candidate says “as a descendant of slaves I can lead the Republican party to victory by garnering a large share of the black vote, something that has not been done since Dwight Eisenhower garnered 41 percent of the black vote in 1956.”

It is a proposition that was quickly dismissed by political scholars and analysts, including some members of Cain’s party. Although he has done better than any other black Republican presidential candidate in terms of attracting support, few believe Cain could snare a sizable number of black voters in a general election, especially against President Obama."

Yes, some of us identify with the fact that Mr. Cain attended a historically black college, Morehouse College. Yes, some of us may identify with the fact that Cain was poor and raised in the segregated South.

However, most African Americans do not vote for candidates based solely on the pigment of the candidate's skin. The overwhelming majority of African Americans would never vote for Herman Cain, not because we are brainwashed, but because him and his political party are diametrically opposed to our interests.

Cain and his party oppose affirmative action, health care reform, workers rights, federal student financial aid and other issues that matter to African Americans. In addition, our people's support for President Barack Obama is unwavering. So, Cain never had a chance to win over a substantial segment of the black community.

His temporary popularity among Republicans was probably due to a couple of factors. First of all, the Republican field is garbage. All of their candidates stink. In such an environment, any charismatic and personable candidate would shine and steal the limelight. Also, he reminded the white Right of the good old days before we had an intelligent, relatively progressive African American president.

He gave the racist, xenophobic elements of the Tea Party cover. As a black man, his extremist and buffoonish anti-black, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim statements made it ok to be bigoted again. Such statements are nothing but modern day "yes sir bossing". Knowing that he never had a chance to be president, the Right was amused and entertained by his nonsense. They laughed when he sang hymns and "clowned" about "po".

Although the Right initially supported Herman Cain when the sexual harassment allegations emerged, I knew that his demise was inevitable. Let's face it. The Republican Party is a racist, white male dominated institution. Did Herman Cain really think that he still had a chance of winning the nomination after at least four WHITE women accused him of sexual harassment? There is no way that such a party would nominate a black man, especially one who is accused of defiling their precious white women.

Now, another WHITE woman claims that she had a 13 year long affair with Herman Cain. Consequently, according to CNN, Cain is now reassessing his campaign. The Republican Party is also socially conservative and self-righteous. I doubt that they would nominate a known adulterer to be President of the United States. Cain's 15 minutes of fame are over. In the words of Sergeant Waters from A Soldier's Story, the day of the geechie is gone and Cain is going with it!

Georgia Woman Claims 13-Year Affair with Herman Cain: MyFoxATLANTA.com

This article is cross-posted at Jack and Jill Politics.

Herman Cain Finally Addresses Sexual Harassment Allegations

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Today, Herman Cain held a press conference to finally address the sexual harassment allegations.  I plan to follow up this article with in depth commentary.

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