Poll: Views still differ sharply by race
AP - Mon Sep 22, 10:59 AM ET
By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-race-in-america

WASHINGTON (AP) - Since the nation's birth, Americans have discussed race and avoided it, organized neighborhoods and political movements around it, and used it to divide and hurt people even as relations have improved dramatically since the days of slavery, Reconstruction and legal segregation.

Now, in what could be a historic year for a black presidential candidate, a new Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll, conducted with Stanford University, shows just how wide a gap remains between whites and blacks.

It shows that a substantial portion of white Americans still harbor negative feelings toward blacks. It shows that blacks and whites disagree tremendously on how much racial prejudice exists, whose fault it is and how much influence blacks have in politics.

One result is that Barack Obama's path to the presidency is steeper than it would be if he were white.

Until now, social scientists have not closely examined racial sentiments on a nationwide scale at a moment when race is central to choosing the next president. The poll, which featured a large sample of Americans - more than 2,200 - and sophisticated survey techniques rarely used in media surveys, reflected the complexity, change and occasional contradictions of race relations.

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complete copyrighted story at link above   Read More »

That is the red herring/dead horse that the mainstream media have drug out as a sideshow to create a sensation that will distract from all the attention in center ring that is being paid to the failure of the Conservatives who have mismanaged Wall Street and are asking for a handout.

They did the same thing in March. When the deals were being sealed behind closed doors to buy out Bear Stearns with our tax dollars in March, what did the neocon mainstream media play on all their channels 24/7: Look back and see for yourselves. They played the Reverend Wright sound bytes. Check it out. The dates coincide exactly.

This is no accidental programming. It is intentional and the FCC should call them on it.

I just turned on MSNBS in time to hear Chris Matthews beginning one of the faux race issue discussions whipping up fear that Obama might not win because of his race. This is nothing more than a whisper campaign carried out on our mainstream media.

That was it for me with Hardball. Matthews is likly running scared from his recent demotion so he is not asking how high to jump when the ones who write that crap tell him to jump.

BUT NO MORE HARDBALL FOR ME. I'll watch Olbermann and Rachel Maddow but that's it for my mainstrem news viewing.

FOLLOWING IS MY OWN PIECE AS TO WHY RACE IS NOT AN ISSUE WITH THE ELECTION OF OBAMA--and by the way, for what it's worth, I'm an old white lady.   Read More »

THIS ELECTION IS NOT ABOUT RACE AND/OR GENDER. Yes, it's historic: We have the first black presidential nominee and women cracking through the top of the ticket. And as a black female, I am practically salivating. I just made two breakthroughs! But enough already!

THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT THE ISSUES: The economy! Health Care, Education, Failing Infrastructure, Port Security, the Economy! National Security, Jobs, Pensions, Toyota or GM, the Economy! Immigration, Housing, Retirement, the Wars in Iraq And Afghanistan, The Economy! Restoring American Credibility, our Reputation and Moral Standing in the World, The Deficit and Back to: The Economy!

AND THE SUPREME COURT!!!Those justices with one hand on the Constitution and the other hand on women's ovaries! An article titled: The Last Word -- on the back page of the May 12/2008 issue of the news magazine Newsweek calls Supreme Court justices among the most powerful people in America! She says their decisions affect and shape our lives for decades. Like: Brown v. Board of Education? Roe v. Wade. School Prayer. Eminent Domain. Unreasonable searches and protection from self-incrimination.

The Newsweek article says republican presidents have appointed all (but two) of the justices on the Supreme Court in the last 40-years and the court is now tilting in the direct of the ultra-conservative right with the appointments of Samuel Alito (he replaced Sandra Day O'Connor) and John Roberts, the Bush appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice.

And do not forget the lower courts. A USA Today article (May 12, 2008) cites President Ronald Reagan and his influence on the APPEALS COURTS. The author says 20-years ago, Reagan appointed justices to an influential set of 13 regional courts and these Appeals Court justices are now a dominant force in American law. Author says we are now feeling their decisions. These judges have apparently become the first in more than a half-century to say the Second Amendment protects individual rights to own guns. They also took the lead in ruling against affirmative-action (University of Michigan--the affirmative action plan at their law school) and other race-conscious policies. They also upheld bans on partial-birth abortion procedures before that even reached the Supreme Court!

Reagan was the one (according to the USA Today article) who set out to (quote) reverse the trend of judicial involvement in school integration, prison problems and the environment...(unquote) Reagan also broke the prior White House pattern of accepting senators preferences for appeals courts seats and put in place a sophisticated screening of candidates run by Department of Justice and White House lawyers. One critic in the article says good people were passed over because they were not ideologues. The author says president Bill Clinton did not want to expend major political capital with his court appointments. Clinton chose, instead, to put a priority on diversity and set records for appointing women and minorities.

A president Obama or John McCain will likely get to appoint several justices to our highest courts. The question for voters, especially female voters OF ALL RACES IS: Do you want more conservatives and ultra-right courts? Want judges legislating your reproductive decisions? If you do not, then decide carefully whom you vote for. Because you may try to exercise your free will to choose what to do with your fallopian tubes and find that a pit bull is blocking your path. With or without lipstick!

Throughout this Presidential election process, we have heard criticism of media bias in the content and amount of coverage given to some candidates verses others. The protest prose the question of if the media drives the story, or the story that drives the media? Could John Edward's grievance of Clinton's and Obama's coverage been driven by; the more interesting story of two groundbreaking candidates, qualities of the candidate, the popularity or notoriety of the candidates, or the boredom of covering Edward's unmodified message for the third time? The question of why Edward's even thinner resume was never an issue, but Obama's experience was and is continuously questioned was never publicly posed. Although from the start there have been racial challenges and threats waged on even the Caucasian workers of the Obama campaign, the camp made every attempt to avoid any public complaints related to racism or prejudice.

McCain, who at one time referred to the media as a part of his constituency, has even vigorously voiced his complaints of the media's coverage of both his primary and general election run. Most recently, McCain has protested what he deemed as uneven coverage of the Obama European tour. Are we suppose to have sympathy for a male that never had the deck stacked against him or societal limits on his opportunities, because he's not as interesting as his opponent?

McCain's recent negative "celebrity ad" that attempts to minimize some of Obama's "star power", diminishes his history of integrity, doesn't speak to why he's the better choice, insults Obama's supporters and reneges on his promise of a positive campaign. When there are such vast policy differences to debate, McCain just appears petty and personal. To equate Obama to the unearned celebrity contributed to the likes of Paris Hilton is to minimize the testimony of Obama's childhood, discount his professional and educational achievements, overlook his public works, disregard the power of his message of change, dismiss his leadership of an effective organization and campaign, and to ignore his miraculous rise despite historical obstacles.   Read More »

http://religion.info/english/articles/article_385.shtml

Source: Religioscope
Author: Richard Cimino

While there have been allegations in the past of government investigation of mosques on issues relating to terrorism, the recent report, first featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper, is said to be the first confirmation that surveillance is taking place.

An article in the Los Angeles Times (May 29) reports that information about the alleged spying surfaced in a case about classified files concerning terrorism that were stolen from a secure office used by military and civilian law enforcement officials at Camp Pendleton. Some of these classified records referred to the surveillance of Muslim communities in Southern California, specifically, the Islamic Center of San Diego. The records alleged that the mosque had been monitored as part of a federal surveillance program targeting Muslim groups, according to the Union-Tribune article.   Read More »

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/10/muslim_profiling/index.html

Source: Salon
Author: Juan Cole

The U.S. Justice Department is considering a change in the grounds on which the FBI can investigate citizens and legal residents of the United States. Till now, DOJ guidelines have required the FBI to have some evidence of wrongdoing before it opens an investigation. The impending new rules, which would be implemented later this summer, allow bureau agents to establish a terrorist profile or pattern of behavior and attributes and, on the basis of that profile, start investigating an individual or group. Agents would be permitted to ask "open-ended questions" concerning the activities of Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans. A person's travel and occupation, as well as race or ethnicity, could be grounds for opening a national security investigation.

The rumored changes have provoked protests from Muslim American and Arab-American groups. The Council on American Islamic Relations, among the more effective lobbies for Muslim Americans' civil liberties, immediately denounced the plan, as did James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute. Said Zogby, "There are millions of Americans who, under the reported new parameters, could become subject to arbitrary and subjective ethnic and religious profiling." Zogby, who noted that the Bush administration's history with profiling is not reassuring, warned that all Americans would suffer from a weakening of civil liberties.   Read More »

"Barack Obama's March 18, 2008 speech, "A More Perfect Union," focused attention issues of race and class in America today. Forty years ago race and class was on the minds of Americans too — when The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders released its report on the urban riots of 1967. That report, more commonly known as the Kerner Report, with its stark conclusion that "Our nation is moving towards two societies — one white, one black — separate and unequal" — was a best-seller. It was also the source of great controversy and remains so today.

Referencing the Kerner Commission report has become rhetorical shorthand in some ways. For critics it suggests wasteful federal spending programs — for others, societal goals and potentials not yet met. In covering the 40th anniversary report USTODAY headlined its 40th anniversary coverage "Goals for Black America Not Met." The article raised some ire when quoting Robert Rector of Heritage Foundation: "Rector says the report ignores a major cause of poverty: single-parent homes. He says 70% of black children do not have a father in the home." That sentiment earned this response from Elliott Currie, a member of the Kerner Commission, 40th Anniversary Task Force: "The implication is that it's the heedless behavior of black men — rather than the strains of a blighted economy and a legacy of discrimination — that is responsible for the continuing crisis of poverty and racial disadvantage 40 years after the Kerner Commission."

SOURCE AND MORE:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03282008/profile.html

I don't know if any one referenced this today in the discussion on race, but it case not, here it is.  March of this year marked the 40th anniversary of the release of the Kerner Commission Report.

If you are interested in racial issues and are not familiar with this report, you might like to watch the Bill Moyers video on the topic. It was presented a couple of months ago on PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03282008/profile.html

 

http://atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/4016/32/ Source: Atlantic Free Press Author: Stephen Lendman Yassin Aref is a 37 year old Albany, New York resident and one of many Muslim victims of police state justice in post-9/11 America. They've been hunted down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in isolation, denied bail, restricted in their right to counsel, tried on secret evidence and trumped-up charges, then incarcerated as political prisoners or deported to where they face possible arrest and torture. Because of his faith and ethnicity, Aref was victimized by US "justice" in a post-9/11 climate of fear. He's an Iraqi Kurd who emigrated to the US as a UN refugee in 1999 with his wife and three young children. He's now in federal prison but committed no crime. He's also the author of a poignant memoir/autobiography titled "Son of Mountains: My Life as a Kurd and a Terror Suspect." He wrote it in custody at Troy, New York's Rensselaer County Jail after his wrongful conviction in October 2006.   Read More »

http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_C_muslim30.426eaa8.html Source: Press-Enterprise Author: Paige Austin A civil-rights group and a coalition of Muslim activists headed by a Corona man called on Congress this week to investigate a report that military and law enforcement officials stole surveillance records of Southland Muslims from Camp Pendleton. The request stems from a news report that military officials and law enforcement members of the Los Angeles County Terrorist Early Warning Group illegally took the top-secret documents from the base's Strategic Technical Operations Center. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Gary Maziarz has been court-martialed and convicted for his role in the thefts. While the details of the surveillance and the alleged theft remain largely unknown, the incident provides confirmation that the military and law enforcement groups have been gathering information about local Muslim communities, said Michael German, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington Legislative Office.   Read More »

(MIAMI, FL, 6/4/08) - On June 2, 2008, Florida Muslim leaders met with Doudou Diène, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, at a Miami hearing to discuss Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination. For photos of the event: http://picasaweb.google.com/bedier/UNMiamiHearingOnRacism Special Rapporteur Diène is visiting several cities across the United States to "gather first-hand information on issues related to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia." Reuters: U.N. racism investigator to visit U.S. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL16843098   Read More »