Archive for July, 2010

Webb of Deceit: Racism, Affirmative Action and History as Misunderstood by a U.S. Senator

In this summer of white resentment, one would think it sufficient to have to suffer through the daily droning of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the crew at Fox News, or perhaps the dishonest machinations of professional liar and fear-pimp Andrew Breitbart. What with their endless claims that the Obama Administration is […]

Netroots Nation 2010 – Civil Rights Panel, 7/24/10

Tim Wise discusses why progressive movements must be explicitly anti-racist. View other speakers and original post on NetrootsNation.org

Faux-pression: Racism and the Cult of White Victimhood

To hear conservatives tell it, there’s a one-sided race war going on in America, and white folks are the targets. From President Obama’s secret plan to use health care reform as a way to procure backdoor “reparations” for slavery, to his equally secret plan to wreck the economy as a way to pay white people […]

Black Power’s Gonna Git You Sucka: Right-Wing Paranoia and the Rhetoric of Modern Racism

Prominent white conservatives are angry about racism. Forget all that talk about a post-racial society. They know better than to believe in such a thing, and they’re hopping mad. What is it that woke them up finally, after all these years of denial, during which they insisted that racism was a thing of the past? […]

“Colorblind” on the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, 7/9/10

Reading Racism Right to Left: Reflections on a Powerful Word and Its Applications

This is part one of a two-part series on racism on the right and left of the United States’ political/ideological spectrum. Part One provides the reader with a working definition of racism, and then explores how racism at both the ideological and institutional levels is connected to and enhanced by American conservatism. Part Two will […]

Of Collateral Damage and Roosting Chickens: Reflections on Racism, the Economy and the High Cost of White Ambivalence

The message began ominously enough, with words no one really likes to hear directed their way. “With all due respect,” it read. As a writer I am painfully aware of the imprecision of language. Meaning is not always perfectly–and often not at all–communicated by the words we choose to represent our thoughts. But if there’s […]