This Week in Race

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GOP Presidential Candidates Too Busy for Black Folks
2007-09-17 03:25:00
As has been widely reported this week, three of the top Republican presidential contenders – John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney – have notified Tavis Smiley that they will not attend his second All-American Presidential Forum – this time for the GOP candidates – on September 27. Most of the reaction has been negative, but the truth is that Republican candidates are in quite a bind with this event.From the perspective of advocates for persons of color, the event might be read as political strategy in and of itself. It’s a no-win situation for the Republican candidates: If they go, they will inevitably have to either lie (which they are unlikely to do) or profess that any concerns they have about the problems that disproportionately face racial minority communities are better solved by laissez-faire, trickle-down policies. In other words, they will have to admit that they think they know better what is best for black and brown America than African American and Lat...
More About: Black , Candidates , Busy

Black Men: Read A M****F***** Book!
2007-09-09 21:13:00
For the past few weeks, BET viewers and ‘Net surfers have been buzzing about a new hip-hip song by Washington, DC-based MC Bomani “D’Mite” Armah, who claims to actually not be a rapper, but “a poet with a hip-hop style.” Whatever he is, he’s ruffling some feathers, and with good reason: his song “Read a Book ” is a cutting jab at black men who, according to D’Mite, need to: read a book, brush their teeth, raise their kids, wear deodorant, buy some land, and drink water, all shouted “crunk”-style over a catchy hook from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It’s difficult to know exactly what is intended or, quite frankly, what is going on in the song or the video. One reading is that D’Mite is following other so-called “positive” rap artists who have created music designed to effect change in their communities. It’s inarguable that issues such as consumerism and deadbeat fatherhood have contributed to problems that plague black America. Bla...
More About: Black

On the Cutting Edge: New Race and Politics Research
2007-09-03 01:42:00
We spent the past four days at the annual American Political Science Association conference in Chicago. We thought it would be of interest to TWIR readers to see the assortment of papers related to race that were presented at the meeting (including ours, of course, but don’t get your hopes up – we had some data problems). You can search the papers yourself, or you can read the abstract and/or get a copy of a paper that we feature below by putting in the author’s name and downloading it. The search page also allows you to find and read APSA papers from conferences dating back to 2002. * * * * *Ariely, Gal, Canetti-Nisim, Daphna and Halperin, Eran. "The Role of Security Related Perceived Threats in Producing Hostile Political Attitudes toward Minorities: Evidence from Israel" Avery, James, Fine, Jeffrey and Voss, D. Stephen. "Does Turnout Matter? Minority Turnout and Substantive Representation in Congress" Butcher, Charity. "Ethnicity, Rivalry and Territory: ...
More About: Politics , Research , Cutting Edge , Race , Edge

The Natives Are Restless; Does Anyone Care?
2007-08-26 18:52:00
This week, only three presidential candidates attended a presidential forum at the Morongo Band of Mission Indians' reservation in Southern California, reports Diana Marrero of the Gannett news service. (Marrero interviewed Stephen at length for the piece but did not include any of his brilliance in the final edition. WHATEVER!) Bill Richardson, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich showed up, but the so-called “top three” (Clinton, Obama and Edwards) were conspicuously absent. It’s dangerous to read too much into the strategies of national campaigns by examining what events candidates do and do not attend, but given that this likely to be the only significant event to be held by and for American Indians, we should consider what this means for the amount of attention being paid to the numerically smallest historically-oppressed racial minority group. Marrero reports that “[t]ribes contributed $7.6 million to federal candidates in 2006, according to the Center for Responsi...
More About: Care , Restless

Elvis Was a Hero (To Most)
2007-08-17 19:50:00
This week commemorates the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. Among the flocks of fans heading toward Memphis is the release of a duet between Elvis and his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. Of all Elvis’s hits, the song selected was “In the Ghetto” from 1969. This reminds us about Elvis’s legacy with respect to race, as well as the difference between racism and bigotry.In 1989, Public Enemy recorded their most identifiable song, “Fight the Power.” Serving to solidify Elvis’s reputation as a bigot, Chuck D rhymes:Elvis was a hero to mostBut he never meant shit to meA straight-up racistThe sucker was simple and plainAfter Flava Flav extended a verbal middle finger to both the king and John Wayne, Chuck D continues:Cause I'm Black and I'm proudI'm ready and hyped plus I'm ampedMost of my heroes don't appear on no stampsSample a look back you look and findNothing but rednecks for 400 years if you checkMuch of the discussion of Elvis’s racism centers on hi...
More About: Hero

Politicizing Barry Bonds: Implications for 2008
2007-08-11 19:47:00
We generally try not to blog on similar topics two weeks in a row, but as we noted last week, baseball player Barry Bonds has been close to breaking the career home run record. He did so this week, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to address it.Bonds hit number 756 late Tuesday night as his Giants played the Washington Nationals in San Francisco. Of course, the event will forever be clouded by accusations of performance-enhancing drug use. (ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski summarizes the sentiment of those who anticipate an asterisk in the record books beside Bonds’s name.) Some have claimed that the controversy is either partly or largely related to the fact that Bonds is black. As we noted last week about Michael Irvin, the racial issue is more complicated than people simply being bigoted; Bonds “acts black” in the sense that he conforms to negative stereotypes about African Americans being mouthy, flashy, direct and even hostile about racial issues, etc. Like Irvin...
More About: Implications , 2008