Rep. Giffords was shot through the head at close range and is still in critical condition. Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director of the hospital’s trauma and critical care unit, said Saturday that she had been shot once in the head, “through and through,” with the bullet going through her brain.

Six of the victims died, among them John M. Roll, the chief judge for the United States District Court for Arizona, and a 9-year-old girl, Christina Taylor-Green. Christina, recently elected to her school’s student council, was born on Sept. 11, 2001. In addition to Christina and Judge Roll, those killed included Gabe Zimmerman, a former social worker who served as Giffords’ director of community outreach. Also killed were 76-year-old Dorthy Murray, 76-year-old Dorwin Stoddard, and 79-year-old Phyllis Scheck.

The shooter is identified as 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner was arrested at the scene after being detained by bystanders. He is being quested by the FBI, who have said he was the only shooter. The weapon used was reported to be a 9mm Glock model 19 pistol with a 30 round magazine. Loughner purchased his semi-automatic pistol legally in Tucson.

President Barack Obama called the shooting an “unspeakable tragedy,” adding that “such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society.” Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, another Democrat from the Tucson area, was “sickened by the horrific attack” and called the shooting a tragedy for “Arizona, our nation, and our democracy.” Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said, “My thoughts and prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords and her family, the Congresswoman’s staff and their families, as well as the other victims of this senseless and cruel violence.”

Various senior Republican politicians have expressed their concern for the physical well-being of Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims, and that concern is no doubt sincere. Sarah Palin expressed her “sincere condolences” to Giffords’ family and to the other victims, John McCain is “horrified” by the attack, and House Speaker John Boehner said that “Our prayers are with congresswoman Giffords, her staff, all who were injured and their families.”

Cult of Personality
These is no denying throughout history there are many examples of deranged loners and violent people attacking politicians, what has changed recently is that politicians are actually encouraging a climate of suspicion and division. It is hard to argue that political debate in this country has not only become dangerous, but a cesspit of venomous innuendo and lies.

The tragedy in Arizona is not uniquely the fault of the Republican Party or the Tea Party or right wing American politics in general. While they share the blame as a whole. It’s impossible to know what motivated Loughner, but it is not hard figure out what inspired him. The question of right wing rhetoric and its effects cannot be ignored as if it doesn’t exist, because it does, and they all know it.

What happened in Arizona is evidence that Republican politics have gone overboard in their rhetoric, as Sarah Palin and the leaders of Tea Party movement swung into damage-control. But this does not absolve them for taking part in creating the hyper-vicious climate that have provoked unbalanced nut-cases to attack others, under the guise of striking back and taking back the country.

A cult of personality arises when a country’s leader uses mass media to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. While the cult of personality generally applies to leaders in in a totalitarian nation, it stands to reason that it is also asserted in everyday situations to advocate conformity to philosophies and lifestyles, by way of herd mentality.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik expressed his concern of the current political climate. Dupnik said that “when the rhetoric about hatred … about mistrust of government” gets heated, it inflames “the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Giffords, a moderate Democrat, expressed similar concern before the shooting. Last March, shortly after the House passed health care legislation, Giffords’ congressional office in Tucson was vandalized. Afterward, she warned of the dangers of the animosity against her by conservatives. She was referring to the use of cross-hairs to highlight the vulnerability of her site on Sarah Palin’s controversial Facebook “Hit List” in the November midterm elections.

She said: “We’re on Sarah Palin’s ‘targeted’ list, but the thing is that the way she has it depicted, we’re in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve got to realise that there are consequences to that action.”

had been threatened in the recent past as had John Rolls and his family, who eventually ended up being protected by the U.S. Marshall’s Service for a month in 2009. Dupnik also noted a political event at which an audience member dropped a weapon. During another incident, windows in her office were broken shortly after her vote for health care reform in March, and authorities are currently investigating a suspicious package found Saturday at Giffords’ Tucson office.

Apart from her cross-hairs campaign, she also made news with the remark, “Don’t retreat, Instead RELOAD.”

Palin hasn’t directly commented on whether she thinks there were consequences to her actions, however, this hasn’t stopped from scrubbing the images from her website and her Facebook page targeting Gabriel Giffords and others with the cross-hairs of a gun sight.

No one can argue that Sarah Palin has grown in popularity, to the point she is seen as a pseudo-Biblical figure sent from Above. The truth is, Palin is adored by many because many of them see themselves also taking down the so-called elitists. They stand by her side with an almost unbelievable vigor because, in essence, they are dealing a passive-aggressive blow to those who have frequently criticized their lifestyles over the years.

Palin’s rise is not social phenomena but a manifestation of our credo of rugged individualism. It is this credo that clouds person’s into believing public action as an expression of individual psyche. Jared Lee Loughner may have acted alone and is certainly disturb, but the “political themes of his instability” can be found among the far Right.

There are many other documented incidents carried out by people with mental issues like Jared Loughner, which they are directly involved either with Republican politicians or their supporters at their rallies or in the media. This is not an anti-Republican screed, these are facts and they are representative of the current Republican Party and its links to the Tea Party and right wing voters in general. The Republican Party has done absolutely nothing to put a stop to this kind of intimidation based upon the threat of violence because it needs the votes.

Twenty years before this happened, the funk metal band “Living Colour” prophesied this happening with their hit “Cult of Personality.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

This has been coming for a long time. With all the hate-speech, race-bating, homophobic, immigrant-bashing, and blatant lies that goes unchallenged over the airwaves everyday, it’s a miracle this doesn’t occur everyday

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jack and Jill Politics has the scoop about the video and the reason Jasiri X wrote this rap song. Her blog post is a must read. I totally agree on Cheryl Contee view regarding society’s double standard on communities of color. In fact, the same question can also be asked “What If The Tea Party Was Brown?”

Cartman is clearly disturbed and bemoans how there are too many “Mexicans” and other minority groups at “his” water park. In South Park fashion, Cartman breaks out into a song, “Not My Water Park.”

In the latest incident of violent rhetoric against the President, an anonymous user of Facebook who launched an online poll on Saturday asking “Should Obama be killed?,” with the choices of yes, no, maybe, and “If he cuts my health care.” More frighteningly, the poll drew attracted more than 700 respondents.

According to Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt, the poll was created over the weekend using a third-party application that lets users conduct their own survey and they shut it down once they found out about it. What is truly disturbing, the poll was up for three days before it was yanked down. Giving Facebook the benefit of the doubt that they acted quickly did shut it down once they knew about, that would mean nobody had the audacity to notify Facebook.

Fortunately, GottaLaff from The Political Carnival noticed the poll and alerted the Secret Service immediately and provided them with a screen cap of the poll.

This is not the first time Facebook has made the news for being a forum used for all kinds of hate speech. People used this popular social networking site to post anti-Muslim and anti-immigration rhetoric to college students posting pictures from racist theme parties.

The press continues to look past the obvious and blaming healthcare controversy for the current backlash. For example, The Christian Science Monitor headline is ‘Kill Obama’ Facebook poll: latest sign of healthcare anger?;

Racism is not dead. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Intelligence Report recently reported that the level of hate is rising. With the rise of hate, America is reverting back where blatant racism is becoming the norm.

As long as the right wing pundit dominate the airwaves with their fear mongering and lies, WE are in danger. The President is in danger.

Is there anyone out there interested in peace and unity anymore?

Not only is Obama’s inaugural day deep with symbolism, but a passing of the torch, among one generation who fought for the rights of others to another who are benefiting from those rights. In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about a dream of equality in a speech in Washington, D.C. and 46 years later in the same city, we are witnessing a dream become reality. Martin Luther King must be happy. However, we must also not automatically presume the election of President Obama means we have magically entered a “post-racial” society; not when there is evidence of the ongoing forms of institutional racism.

Today’s inauguration lays the foundation and the groundwork to continue Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s unfinished work. It has also created a sincere and genuine atmosphere of change, not because Obama is president, but the HOPE that he inspires.

Today, history is made, a new chapter in our history is about to begin. We cannot go back to business as usual.

Text of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address

That was the subject of today’s conference call hosted by the Workplace Project, Long Island Immigrant Alliance, New York Immigration Coalition, and the National Council of La Raza.

The death of Lucero is cause for great concern because this is the latest expression of hate that is not only happening in Long Island, but in the nation as a whole. The tragic death of this man must be seen as an urgent warning and call to action.

What we are experiencing is not just an immigrant or Latino issue, but this “hate” has also spread to the African-American community as well. Racism is a serious problem in America. Police has already documented a range of disturbing incidents since the election. These incidents range from vandalism and vague threats to physical attacks. More disturbing, these insults and taunts have been delivered by people from all age groups; from adults to young adults to small children. These are just some of the incidents being reported: (h/t to jobsanger, James of The Mahatma X Files, and Nez of The Unapologetic Mexican)

* Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head.”
* At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.” Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. “Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count,” the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written “Let’s hope someone wins.”
* Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted “assassinate Obama,” a district official said.
* University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. “It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork,” Houston said.
* Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported.
* Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacon Township, PA
* A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted ‘Obama.’
* In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying “now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house.”

These are just a few of the hundreds of incidents occurring across the country. In Texas, we have our fair share of anti-Obama and anti-immigration racism. On the campus of Baylor University in Waco, TX, a rope resembling a noose was found hanging from a campus tree the day the nation’s first black president was elected into office. A thin, white rope tied with a loop at the end was found by a Baylor student hanging from a tree. Earlier that week, there were reports that students made a barbecue pit bonfire out of Barack Obama campaign signs. University president is now reporting that the rope was apparently an abandoned rope swing and is also denying students were burning Obama signs in a barbecue pit.

In Austin, TX, it was reported that member of the University of Texas football team was expelled from the team for posting a very racist remark that crossed the line to eliminationism about President-elect Barack Obama on his Facebook page. On the status update section of his Facebook page, Buck Burnette posted, “All the hunters gather up, we have a n* in the White House.”

These incidents are just limited to Barack Obama. Just before the election, in Colorado County, west of Houston, TX, people were outraged over a racist theme party that involved at least one area school teacher after pictures surfaced onto the internet. The pictures were from taken at a pre-Halloween party in the small town of Garwood, TX. They portray white men in “black face” drinking 40-ounce bottles of beer and carrying buckets of fried chicken.

More troubling is the way our law enforcement is contributing to this problem. Last week, a Montgomery County, TX deputy was under fire following comments he made concerning the killing of 17 year old, Eugene Posana Villaruel. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) demanded an apology after Montgomery County spokesman Lt. Dan Norris said the Hispanic culture played a part in the teenager’s murder.

“You can fill in the blanks with Hispanic culture and how they, meaning the Hispanic culture, sometimes deal with family, sometimes thinks and or deals with family issues,” Norris said last week.

Last night, it was reported that the father of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver was in critical condition after Houston police beat him after being stopped for outstanding traffic warrants. According to the family, he can communicate through notes and has described “the torture he went through.”

Community activist Quanell X showed reporters the paper towels Marvin Driver wrote on from his hospital bed. Driver wrote that the officers, whom he said he knew personally, took him to a Valero station, kicked him in the stomach, elbowed him in the neck and forced something down his throat.

“They picked him up and took him behind a Valero station by a dark road, where he was beaten and forced to swallow something. What they gave him to swallow, he said that they made the statement that he was going to see Jesus. Told him to ‘Swallow this. You’re going to see Jesus,’” Quanell X said.

There are endless examples of this, and they continue to this day. The one example that continues to stay fresh to this day is the tragic and brutal beating of David Ritcheson, Latino teen who was brutally beaten, tortured, and sodomized with a plastic pole by two white racist teenagers.

Tuck and Turner began kicking, beating, and stomping [David Ritcheson], Tuck wearing black, steel-toe boots, one of which was emblazoned with a swastika. Yelling “Beaner!” and other racial epithets, Tuck inflicted most of the damage. After one especially vicious kick, Tuck shouted “White power!” and gave a Nazi salute. Unable to fight back or defend himself in any way, [Ritcheson] just lay there and took it, mumbling and groaning occasionally.

Americans are proud that we are people with different backgrounds, faiths, viewpoints, and personal characteristics. A nation with a long history of slavery, segregation, and violent forms of racism, a country has finally came together and elected its first African-American president. However, outside of the public view, the number of hate crimes taking place in the US is on the rise.

Whether intended or not, we are in the midst of a growing culture of hate. If we want to continue to extol the virtues of freedom and rail against oppression, then it is vital as a Nation that we must prevent ourselves from falling destructively under the influence of racist schemes that that are dividing our nation.

The email reads: “With a little planning they easily could have transplanted it to the Rio Grande River. Now that should have cut down on the illegal migration just a tad!!”

If that wasn’t bad enough. Our sheriff’s department also had an email where Osama bin Laden dressed up like Uncle Sam urging people to vote Democratic.

For more about the sheriff’s department email etiquette here in Harris Country, read the rest here.

Abu-Jamal’s lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, told Democracy Now! that he will request a hearing before the full appeals court “within the next few weeks.”

JUAN GONZALEZ: So now, with this, since this was a decision, a split decision, of a panel of the Third Circuit, is it possible then to appeal to the entire Third Circuit on this decision?

ROBERT BRYAN: Well, Juan, you’ve actually—you’ve certainly been doing your homework. That’s exactly what we will be doing within the next few weeks. And that is, this was a decision by three judges, two-to-one; now we will be going before the entire court, all the judges, asking them to review this issue.

Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 after the police officer pulled over Abu-Jamal’s brother, William Cook, in an overnight traffic stop. According to court records, Abu-Jamal, who was on the opposite side of the street, ran toward Officer Faulkner and Cook. As he approached, Abu-Jamal shot Faulkner in the back. As Faulkner was falling to the ground, he drew his own gun and managed to shoot Abu Jamal in the chest, wounding but not killing him. Abu-Jamal was taken directly from the scene of the shooting to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital to receive treatment for his injuries.

The case went to trial in June 1982 in Philadelphia. Judge Albert F. Sabo initially agreed to Abu-Jamal’s request to represent himself, with criminal defense attorney Anthony Jackson acting as his legal advisor. During the first day of the trial this decision was reversed and Jackson was ordered to resume acting as Abu-Jamal’s sole advocate by reason of what the judge deemed to be intentionally disruptive actions on Abu-Jamal’s part.

Abu-Jamal has argued in numerous appeals that racism by the judge and prosecutors corrupted his conviction at the hands of a mostly white jury. In his dissent, Judge Thomas Ambro, a Clinton appointee to the bench, strongly criticized his two colleagues, Chief Judge Anthony Scirica and Judge Robert Cowan (both Reagan appointees), and said their was racism in this case. Judge Ambro felt there was racial bias when it came to jury selection in Mumia Abu-Jamal trial. Judge Ambro also accused his colleagues of having a double standard in their rulings.

Our Court has previously reached the merits of Batson claims on habeas review in cases where the petitioner did not make a timely objection during jury selection—signaling that our Circuit does not have a federal contemporaneous objection rule—and I see no reason why we should not afford Abu-Jamal the courtesy of our precedents.

Judge Thomas Ambro also disputed the timeliness standard and said that Abu-Jamal presented enough evidence to warrant further investigation of the exclusion claims. Read the court’s full opinion click here.

Although it is disappointing that the court did not give Abu-Jamal a new trail, however, his attorney does see the silver lining to in the ruling and Judge Thomas Ambro’s dissent and still feels he can free Mumia Abu-Jamal.

For more information on the free Mumia Abu-Jamal movement, click here and here.

To listen to Mumia’s commentaries, visit prisonradio.org and fsrn.org

The reason this was allowed to occur again with Ferraro has to do with the fact nobody really wants to sit down and have a true discussion about race in America. What Ferraro is what many “closet racists” and race neutral advocates do not have the courage to admit out in the open when they see any person of color rise to the top. Sadly, closet racists are unaware of their prejudices. Since this country refuses to take responsibility for sweeping racism under the rug, people will continue to feel like they are stepping on egg shells.

As long as we continue to believing in a fallacy racism does not exist because we live in color-blind society, closet racist will continue to point to other groups, using terms such as “they,” or “those people,” instead of referring to themselves. As a result, people start observing how other groups segregating themselves, such as the claim that Black people only voting for Obama and suddenly race becomes an issue. With blinders on their eyes, and the shield of manipulated language in their repertoire, closet racists can live a full life never confronting their own prejudices.

The post I wrote last year.

The quickest way to either build your career or destroy it is through controversy and for Sen. Joseph Biden, of Delaware, that is something he should have already known. Soon after Biden announced his intentions to run for the presidency, in an interview with the New York Observer, Biden described Sen. Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

However, Biden is no stranger to foot-in-mouth controversy, which tells you, he should have known better. He should have known that his biggest enemy has repeatedly been his own mouth. We often hear that “those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it.” In his first Presidential bid back in 1988, Biden was also surrounded by controversy. In my opinion, the whole plagiarism scandal is a bit questionable. There was a lot of funny business going on at that time. However, when it comes to Freudian slips, he definitely has not learned from his past mistakes. Last summer, in explaining the demographic shift in Delaware, Biden said, “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” Later that year, on “Fox News Sunday,” he bragged about his potential appeal to Southern voters by noting “You don’t know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth-largest black population in the country.”

Words are needed to construct language and language is needed to express thoughts. It is funny how words often fail to meet the expectations we put on them. That is so true for Joe Biden, soon after he made that remark about Obama, he tried to explain his comment,

Earlier in the day, the Delaware Democrat said during a conference call his comments reflected his mother’s expression: “Clean as a whistle, sharp as a tack,” he said. Four hours later, he issued a statement saying, “I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Senator Obama.”

What was supposed to be his be coming out party as he announced his candidacy for President, he probably felt more like he was drowning in a vat of acid as he spent the rest of the explaining himself.

It really is not that hard to figure out precisely what he was alluding to by using racially coded language, such as “clean,” “mainstream,” “articulate and bright,” and “nice-looking” to describe Obama. Most white mainstream pundits on the right and left have primarily focused on the word “clean,” because they are acting as if they are concerned on how super-sensitive Black folk will take it. Basically, it is a facade to cover their real motives, a warped sense of congratulatory adulation for Bidin and how they wish they could skillfully do what many white corporate journalist do not have the courage to admit to: that they consider that Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson are everything Obama is not, your stereotypical uppity black man.

The fact is while many accept that while Biden’s use of “clean” was questionable, it is other elements of his statement that make it far worse than the possible jab at non-Obama Black leaders. A major problem with words is their perceived emotional connotations. Connotation in language involves the semantic or deep-structure of words, expressions and texts and is, therefore, strongly related to culture. The fact is, we live in a binary system of opposites which does reflect the archetypal dualism in man’s consciousness.

Here in the United States, we do divide people in the world into the categories of “Clean” and “Dirty” and historically, the use of the word “clean” has come to be synonymous with “whiteness.” In the late 1950s, the word “clean” was used to justify segregation. However, the rules separating dirty from clean are not clear or principled. For example, in Dearborn, MI, Orville Hubbard, Dearborn’s mayor, was blunt and unrelenting in his pursuit to “keep Dearborn clean,” which intended white people only. Our society and culture (especially in elite circles) have racist and classest legacies, which have yet to be fully reconciled or addressed. Former- Secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton administration and President of Harvard University, Laurence Summers, while working for the World Bank in 1991, wrote a memo about “dirty industries,” which was eventually leaked:

‘Dirty’ Industries: Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the [Less Developed Countries] LDCs I can think of three reasons:

1) The measurements of the costs of health impairing pollution depends on the foregone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this point of view a given amount of health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.

The problem with the arguments against all of these proposals for more pollution in LDCs (intrinsic rights to certain goods, moral reasons, social concerns, lack of adequate markets, etc.) could be turned around and used more or less effectively against every Bank proposal for liberalization.

This type of word use is not limited to African Americans. In book Understanding Words that Wound, Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic address the immediate danger of hate speech to Latinos and other historically disempowered groups. Hate speech does not just apply to overt charge words used by folks like the KKK, it further reflects the socially accepted stereotypes. Understanding Words that Wound agues that unpunished hate speech harm individuals and society because it diminishes targeted group members and advocates their different treatment. Walter Lippmann, who coined the term “stereotype,” explained that people make generalize about other people based on fixed views and because of that, our moral system rests on the “accepted version of the facts.”

Widespread belief in the disparagement of historically shunned groups is perpetuated through controversial statements about them. The acute attitudes that stereotypes can prompt in both speakers and victims indicate the extent that those who are affected by prejudices can range from the personal and to group identities. The term “dirty Mexican” is liberally attributed to the Latino community to which Latinos are viewed as being dangerous, lazy, hyper-sexual, intellectual inferior, and intemperance.

Destructive messages can catalyze crimes against humanity such as the Holocaust, American slavery, and Native American removal. There are plenty of historical examples where this has occurred. In a landmark study that was conducted after World War II, The Authoritarian Personality, it was revealed how it was possible for great masses of supposedly enlightened, Christian people were willingly to tolerate the systematic oppression and extermination of their fellow citizens who just happen to be Jewish, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Black, mentally and physically-impaired people, and political dissenters. The goal of the study was to use scientific method in understanding what was “it” that caused an individual to act prejudicial to their fellow person, and to use those findings to help seek a solution to inter-group prejudice and hatred. The report revealed that authoritarian tendencies in an individual’s personality make him receptive to anti-democratic propaganda and policies that target out-groups for discrimination and destruction.

The personality tendencies of the authoritarian-disposed individual were found to include:

“Cultural narrowness” seen in rigid acceptance of the conventional middle-class values of “the culturally ‘alike’” and the tendency to reject and punish “the culturally ‘unlike’ . . . who violate conventional values.” (Ibid, pp 102, 228);

–Negative stereotyped perceptions of the members of “unlike” out-groups (Ibid, pp 228, 235, 236), rather than seeing them as individuals who also laugh and cry and love and hate, or who, in the words of Joseph Berger, “lived, laughed, cursed, fought, who did the things human beings do” (“At Holocaust Museum, Turning a Number into a Name,” The New York Times, Nov. 21, 2004);

–Anti-introspection, i.e. resistance to self-understanding, to soul- searching, to cause-and-effect analysis of individual and group behavior, unable to tolerate ambiguity, belief in mystical, unexplainable phenomenon, disparaging intellectual attempts to perceive life’s nuances and complexities (Ibid, pp 236, 235); and

–Aggression, involving “the ethnocentric need for an out-group” who represents “the intrinsic evil (aggressiveness, laziness, power-seeking, etc.) of human nature . . . [that] is unchangeable [and] must be attacked, stamped out, or segregated, wherever it is found, lest it contaminate the good.” (Ibid, pages 232-234, 148).

The urge to oversimplify dilemmas and find designated scapegoats for complex predicaments underlies the popularity of stereotypes. Approaching adversities from a biased perspective gives simplistic though meaningful answers to inexplicable predicaments. Latinos are often blamed for losses in jobs and the reduction in wages.

Continued uses of code words like “articulate,” “mainstream,” and “nice looking” are only manifested substitutions for the “oh you are not like them” messages. Repeating misethnic slurs only perpetuates institutionalized discrimination, which is only meant to detract from a person’s humanity, dignity, self-respect, standing, and potential. After a while, epithets become the norm and a frame of reference not only to individuals but also to the person’s entire cultural group. Biden’s the message implied that he saw black people in America as different from the “norm” – unfamiliar and not quite equal.

The message is a painful reminder, not only to African Americans, but also to all people of color of the extent of white society’s commitment to white supremacy. Biden’s, as a white man and representing this country’s power elite, message implied, if we strongly hope to achieve the “American Dream” we must become like Obama who is capable of using the proper subject/verb agreement, not look and act so “ghetto” so “barrio” or “rancho” – all forms of internal colonialism. As stereotypes are communicated repeatedly in diverse social contexts, in time, less information is require to evoke a whole series of negative connotations. The fact that Biden remarked that Obama was the first “mainstream” African American implied that Shirley Chisholm, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Carol Moseley Braun, and Rev. Al Sharpton were more uppity and did not know their place in society, so they did not count. The underlining question is, are people of color who seek leadership roles held to higher standards? The answer is yes.

For African Americans, it has been found that there are fewer black members of corporate boards or black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and those with a “black-sounding” names are less likely to be interviewed or hired than a person named John or Jenny. As for Latinos, studies have documented the challenges encountered by Latino applicants for presidencies and provostships at American colleges and universities. The studies found that “key decision makers in the selection process for presidents and provosts expected higher standards of qualifications and experience for Latino men and women than for members of other ethnic and racial groups.” Even though this article, The Dearth of Latinos in Campus Administration, by Roberto Haro focuses on Latinos, the patterns Dr. Haro found in researching the “type” of person sought for a leadership experience are the same patterns among other people of color I have found through my own personal conversations other people.

In the screening process used to select senior campus leaders, some questionable patterns surfaced. Four deserve mention: the “type” of person sought; the desired experience; the “style” of the candidate; and interview performance. What is meant by type? A particular image emerges that includes words like tall, distinguished-looking, well-dressed, and impeccably groomed. A trustee at a selective liberal-arts college I interviewed said, “Look at the pictures of our previous presidents. Now that’s what we want for this college.” As I looked at the photographs, they were all white males. In a nutshell, most of the institutions wanted a distinguished-looking, gray-haired, white man, standing about six feet tall and dressed in an expensive designer suit. A few might settle for a white woman with similar characteristics. Some white male candidates could get away with being shabbily dressed; they were simply viewed as tweedy intellectuals or athletics boosters in their sport coats, but Latino candidates who dressed down found that it was held against them.

The matter of “style” was difficult, but possible, to categorize. Decision makers wanted candidates of a particular culture, polished speakers, those at ease in any setting, attentive listeners, and stable personalities, the ideal Rotary Club leader. A white female vice president at a research university said she had voted against a Latino presidential candidate because he “did not appreciate the Western European tradition and literature.” This was surprising given that the Latino candidate had a strong reputation for translating some of the Great Books of European writers into Spanish. The head of a search committee at a selective liberal-arts college rejected a Latino candidate because he “spoke with an accent,” and used a “terminology and pronunciation in his vernacular that did not sound like good English.” The candidate had a soft Southern drawl and used terms he had learned during extensive study in England and France.

A trustee at a two-year college was displeased by the earrings a Latina applicant was wearing and said they appeared “cheap and distracting, reflecting poor taste.” They were modest family heirlooms handed down through three generations. At a different two-year college, a trustee voted against a Latina candidate because the woman “was overweight, and her blouse was too tight;” the college ultimately hired a white woman who was overweight. These are but a few of the subjective comments that revealed biases against Latino candidates.

It is that kind of thought process that is the root cause for the disparity we currently are having in this country between whites and people of color. It is why every year white students at prestigious universities – Clemson University (2007); the University of Texas at Austin (2006); the University of Chicago (2005); Cornell (2004); and MIT (2003) – feel they can mock the appearance and behavior of the black and brown people of the “ghetto” and “barrio” by throwing a “[tag]ghetto themed party[/tag]” – 40-ounce cans of malt liquor, fried chicken, fake guns, “ethnic” names, do-rags, jeweled grills on their front teeth, and loud jewelry were all part of their party.

Hate is addictive because it yields a sense of power but like all addictions it is a deception. We are very clever at trying to deceive our fellow people into unquestioning loyalty. Loyalty is where social power really is. It is rationalized by selectively picking out the evidence until there is sufficient evidence to justify their point. This fraudulent way of gathering evidence is a common trait of bigots and extremists.

Historically, charismatic bigots can galvanize dangerous social movements by manipulating widespread prejudices. Racial stereotypes of Latinos have already been exploited to gain support for federal statutes that curb the rights of legal and illegal immigrants. News is even further tainted when it becomes a platform for hate dressed in the cloak of respectability. Adolf Hitler used the indiscretions of some Jews as evidence of all Jews being “collectively guilty” to justify his plans for persecuting them in his autobiography, Mein Kampf, years before he became Chancellor of Germany. The KKK looks for incidents of black crime to justify their own hate crimes. Andrew Jackson won the presidency in 1829, in part, because of his vocal support for Indian removal, and he continued that aim during his term in office.

The essential need for the contextual analysis is of particular importance in avoiding the destructive psychological effects to children and adults. Prejudices are often learned early in life, before children are wary enough to question their validity. Culture imprints beliefs and practices in children that are easily manipulated by the advocacy of violent, antisocial behavior against a historically disempowered group. The depictions of Latinos as criminals or drunkards on television perpetuate racism by giving these false representations a de facto stamp of popular approval.

Jeanne Guana writes:

After the Mexican American War ended in 1848, people of Mexican origin faced lynchings, land theft and virulent racism. Later, in times of economic depression, people of Mexican origin–citizens and non-citizens alike–were deported en masse . . . . As a result, many Mexican-origin people internalized the racism and learned to despise all things Mexican.

Unfortunately, internalized oppression runs high within the Latino community because it is deep-rooted within us. We have been conditioned at many levels and for many centuries to believe that lighter skin is more desirable. Despising all things native to ourselves causes unhealthy behavior, including self-loathing and participation in the perpetuation of negative stereotypes. Latinos may be conditioned to believe that other Latinos – particularly recent immigrants – are also taking away jobs or are unfairly taking advantage of the social services they are not qualified to receive.

Additionally, we may avoid from using Spanish in professional settings because it will betray our heritage, or we may believe that Whiter is better. In fact, our own self-loathing curtails our own empowerment efforts because we have been conditioned at many levels and for many centuries to believe that lighter skin is more desirable. So it is not surprising when Latinos have stopped drinking the “kool aid,” like other oppressed people in this society, we should question the reasons when someone is able to twist reality in such a way that conforms to contemporary socio-political “norms.”

The latest noose sightings:
PASADENA, TX: Earlier this week, a noose was found hanging over at the Pasadena Plastics Complex, a facility owned by Chevron Phillips Chemical located in Pasadena, TX. The noose was tied to a piping system. Plant officials said an internal investigation is under way and the police and FBI were notified.

Coincidentally, this took place in the same city where another racial incident took place. Last month, Joe Horn shot Miguel Antonio Dejesus and Diego Ortiz in the back with a shotgun because they were burglarizing his neighbor’s home.

The transcript of the 9/11 call Horn made just before shooting:

[Click here to listen to the call.]
Horn: He’s coming out the window right now, I gotta go, buddy. I’m sorry, but he’s coming out the window.
Dispatcher: Don’t, don’t — don’t go out the door. Mr. Horn? Mr. Horn?
Horn: They just stole something. I’m going after them, I’m sorry.
Dispatcher: Don’t go outside.
Horn: I ain’t letting them get away with this s–t. They stole something. They got a bag of something.
Dispatcher: Don’t go outside the house.
Horn: I’m doing this.
Dispatcher: Mr. Horn, do not go outside the house.
Horn: I’m sorry. This ain’t right, buddy.
Dispatcher: You’re going to get yourself shot if you go outside that house with a gun, I don’t care what you think.
Horn: You want to make a bet?
Dispatcher: OK? Stay in the house.
Horn: They’re getting away!
Dispatcher: That’s all right. Property’s not worth killing someone over, OK?
Horn: [curses]
Dispatcher: Don’t go out the house. Don’t be shooting nobody. I know you’re pissed and you’re frustrated, but don’t do it.
Horn: They got a bag of loot.
Dispatcher: OK. How big is the bag … which way are they going?
Horn: I’m going outside. I’ll find out.
Dispatcher: I don’t want you going outside, Mr. Horn.
Horn: Well, here it goes, buddy. You hear the shotgun clicking and I’m going.
Dispatcher: Don’t go outside.
Horn: [yelling] Move, you’re dead!
[Sound of shots being fired]

Mr. Horn has yet to be charged with any crime. The case has divided the city into two camps: Those who support the shooter’s apparent vigilantism and argue his actions were reasonable under the Second Amendment; and those who say he is a murderer whose actions may have been racially motivated.

Now isn’t it a coincidence that a noose is found in the same where the Joe Horn incident is playing out? I think not, anybody who knows Passadena, would tell you it used to be a very racist town. A one point it was home of the Ku Klux Klan.

ST. LOUIS, MO: Recently, fire officials in St. Louis, MO found a noose and stuffed monkey were hung inside an engine house. The stuffed monkey was found hanging by its neck from a strap on a coat hanger. According to the Associated Press, “racial tensions in the city’s fire department have been high since the first black chief was ousted by City Hall earlier this year.”

However, there is more to this story. NBC local affiliate KSDK is reporting that a local firefighter who has been working for the city for the past two and a half years found the stuffed monkey hanging in his locker. The firefighter told KSDK that this was not the first racially motivated incident he’s had to endure.

He claims that firefighters, within his fire house, broke into his home back in August, hoping to prove that he was living in Illinois instead of in the city. And he claims that top fire department brass, including a deputy fire chief, had knowledge of the break in, but did nothing.

The city’s Public Safety Director, Charles Bryson, says the city is currently investigating both claims. However, it seems like the city is beginning to close ranks. The city’s new Fire Chief, Dennis Jenkerson, is stating that, “there was no noose,” and running with this claim, Bryson is stating that the rope was used for training. According to the St Louis Dispatch, Bryson said. “It is not a noose. It’s to practice tying knots.”

POWAY, CA: The Poway Unified School District had a meeting on strengthening their policy on hate crimes because there has been several noose sightings on a couple of high schools. On Nov 27, a noose and racial slur was found on the stage of the Rancho Bernardo High School theater. The student who hung the noose was suspended for a couple of days. Last month, a noose was found in a boy’s restroom at Poway High School.

NASHVILLE, TN: WTVF reported earlier this week, a man found a burning cross on his porch with a note and a noose attached to it. Police wouldn’t comment on the case.

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI: On Nov 12, nooses were found in the classrooms of Central Michigan University’s Engineering and Technology Building. A student has admitted to campus police to having a role in hanging the four nooses, made from flexible compressed gas lines. Yet, the police are pondering if this should be considered a hate crime.

Last month, FBI officials reported that there were 7,722 hate crimes nationwide in 2006, an increase of almost 8 percent over the previous year’s total. More than half of the hate crimes involved race with 51.8%, religion resulted in 18.9%, sexual orientation with 15.5%, ethnicity hate crimes with 12.7% and people with physical or mental disabilities suffered 1% of all hate crimes.

This goes to the argument I was saying about reporting hate crimes. While it is true that a majority of victims of hate crimes do not report it because they either have a fear of retaliation or have a lack of awareness about hate crime laws or feel they are not taken seriously by law enforcement; my concern has to do with the lack of reports submitted by law enforcement officers. For example, the latest FBI figures did not contain the incidents that occurred in Jena, LA.

“The FBI report confirms what we have been saying for many months about the severe increase in hate crimes,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a leading civil rights leader. “What is not reported, however, is the lack of prosecution and serious investigation by the Justice Department to counter this increase in hate crimes.” Sharpton urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights leaders to discuss the matter.

The fact is, when people do report a hate crime, it is at the discretion of the police officer at the scene to decide if they either classify the incidents as a hate crime or as “suspicious circumstances” or “malicious mischief.” I would not be surprised if those boys were charged with “malicious mischief.”

By manipulating the number of reported hate crime in a city or neighborhood is a way for the establishment to create an illusion for that a city. There are reports from law enforcement officials that testify that chambers of commerce, city officials, developers, and others sometimes attempt to discourage police and the media from reporting hate crimes for fear of tarnishing their community’s image, such as the town of Jena, LA.

No matter how much remains in dispute, one thing cannot be underestimated – the enduring power that that a noose and its implied threat of lynching carries for not only for African-American, but for people of color. This is not a black-white issue; there were Xhicanos/as, Asian Americans and Native Americans who were lynched too. As long as this country continues to rationalize the insanity that passes for AmeriKKKan history, the truth will continue to be suppressed.

Regardless, these incidents that are occurring across the county is just a return of the painful symbol of the past. And as long as these events continue to be downplayed, people will continue to feel they can display this whenever they feel like it.

It is time to WAKE UP and STOP THE INSANITY! It is time to shut down this conspiracy of silence.