On this April 3, 1968, forty years ago to the day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his the final sermon, at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. At this point in his life he had been THE most prolific leader of the Civil Rights Movement for 15 years.
Dap: plezWorld
Andrew Hawkins, a descendant of the Britain’s first slave trader arrived in The Gambia, West Africa, in shackles and knelt before The Gambia’s Vice-President and thousands of Africans, to offer apologies, on behalf of his family.(link)
I am sure that there are those who would say, and have said already, that this man cannot apologize for what his ancestor did, because guilt cannot be inherited.
True, guilt can’t be inherited, but benefits, liabilities, freedoms, and responsibilities can. While he is not guilty of what his ancestor did, he and his whole family benefited, and you cannot divorce the benefit his family received from the institution of slavery, from responsibility of righting a very old wrong by saying “I’m Sorry.” Granted the gesture is only symbolic, but symbols have meanings. Just ask those who want to amend the Constitution to ban burning the American Flag, or the state of South Carolina which still flies the Confederate Flag.
Dap: Prof. Kim
The actor Damon Wayans has been engaged in a 14-month fight to trademark the term “Nigga” for a clothing line and retail store, a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s online database reveals.
Wayans wants to dress customers in 14 kinds of attire from tops to bottoms, and use the controversial mark on “clothing, books, music and general merchandise,” as well as movies, TV and the Internet, according to his applications.
But, so far, his applications have been unsuccessful. Trademark examiner Kelly Boulton rejected the registration dated Dec. 22, citing a law that prohibits marks that are “immoral or scandalous.” A previous attempt by Wayans was turned down on identical grounds six months earlier.
The trademarking of “common” words and phrases to me is kinda controversial. I know some people gain the rights of some works of some of the more controversial Intellectual Property for the purpose of keeping them from the general public. I had heard that Bill Cosby had acquired the rights to “The Little Rascals”simply so that “Buck Wheat” would never see the light of day again. I Don’t know how true that is especially since I saw a “Little Rascals” DVD for sale at Walmart for a $1. But the trademarking of “Nigga” just so YOU were the only one who could put it on a T-Shirt, that’s just sick.
We have all heard the pro-Nigga arguments. “Black people use it as a term of endearment. ” “It was more about the intellect and attitude of a person than about identifying someones race.” Those arguments hold a kernel of truth. The the overuse of this word. Destroys something. It destroys the historical context that gave birth to the word. That is the thing about words. The more they are used the more connotations and denotations can be attached. And without relevant historical contexts we in the present will not understand what is meant by something written in the past. This word believe it or not, must be preserved. Not as a living word that is used therefore changed of time but so that for ALL TIME the context is static, and constant. So that after a century, or two when the N-Bomb is dropped, it caries sufficient reverence, not for the word but for the tragic history that gave rise to this word, the indignity that it represents and the indignation that it ensues.
Dap: Black Informant
see also: Avery USPTO
Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative information about various candidates. Both groups were quick to spot inconsistency and hypocrisy — but only in candidates they opposed.
When presented with negative information about the candidates they liked, partisans of all stripes found ways to discount it, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected, furthermore, the brain scans showed that volunteers gave themselves feel-good pats — the scans showed that “reward centers” in volunteers’ brains were activated. The psychologist observed that the way these subjects dealt with unwelcome information had curious parallels with drug addiction as addicts also reward themselves for wrong-headed behavior.
(link)
emphasis mine
Obviously once one has been properly conditioned the state of that conditioning is persistent as the brain rewards itself for efficiently justifying contradictions.
Another study that I think is even more controversial is this one: from the same article:
Another study presented at the conference, which was in Palm Springs, Calif., explored relationships between racial bias and political affiliation by analyzing self-reported beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests that measure implicit attitudes — subtle stereotypes people hold about various groups.
That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.
Of course there where detractors:
Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said he disagreed with the study’s conclusions but that it was difficult to offer a detailed critique, as the research had not yet been published and he could not review the methodology. He also questioned whether the researchers themselves had implicit biases — against Republicans — noting that Nosek and Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji had given campaign contributions to Democrats.
feel-good-pat
“There are a lot of factors that go into political affiliation, and snap determinations may be interesting for an academic study, but the real-world application seems somewhat murky,” Jones said.
feel-good-pat
This article only mentioned white people’s attitudes toward blacks. Considering some some of the blogs I frequent I am curious of the results about Blacks and their opinion about Blacks. One has to wonder if the study is true and conservative Whites have a negative bias against Blacks, do Blacks have a negative bias against Blacks?
Best quote came at the end:
“If anyone in Washington is skeptical about these findings, they are in denial,” he said. “We have 50 years of evidence that racial prejudice predicts voting. Republicans are supported by whites with prejudice against blacks. If people say, ‘This takes me aback,’ they are ignoring a huge volume of research.”
In other news, what goes up must come down.
Dap: P6
A museum that supporters say will feature the achievements of African-Americans as well as painful moments in their history will be built on the National Mall not far from the Washington Monument.
The Smithsonian Institution will operate the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The prominent location, announced Monday, promotes the concept that African-American life is a part of mainstream American life, said Rep. John Lewis (news, bio, voting record), D-Ga., who has been pushing for the museum for about 20 years. (Related video: Site for African-American museum)
(link)
Dap: Booker Rising
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Coretta Scott King, who surged to the front of the fight for racial equality in America after her husband Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, died at age 78, friends and family said on Tuesday.
“Her daughter was with her at the time she passed, probably about 1 to 1:15 this morning,” said Bishop Eddie Long of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, the pastor of King’s youngest child Bernice. Link
I do not possess the eloquence to convey what we have lost this day, Or convey what this woman’s life has meant to me, to black people in America, and to the Nation in general. What she has given, what she has stood for. She is among the giants on whose shoulders all Americans must stand. And she hold the standard by which all of us must be judged.
Mrs. King, Thanks you for you life.
queen has passed away today. It was because of her, how she had the courage to demand respect. It was her and those that stood with her, and supported her, and all of those like her, in that era had the courage to do the same in thier corner of America, that we, not only black people, but all Americans, can enjoy any of the freedoms and inalienable that we are promised in the Great Documents of Our Nation. I agree with the Neville Brothers “Thank you, Miss Rosa.”
NEVER EVER should a black man look at another black man and feel embarrassed because of what ‘white’ people say about him. That is inferiority complex at the highest level and has no place amongst our race.
True that !!!
