TARZAN
RETURNS!
You might remember the White immigration
judge who was hearing the case of a Ugandan woman named Jane, who had been
beaten, raped and tortured and her husband killed. She was seeking permanent asylum in America. At the beginning of her hearing, Judge Ragno
joked, “Jane, come here. Me
Tarzan.” The judge has been on
administrative leave since mid 2003 but is expected to return to the bench on
February 22 of this year. I suppose
they washed his bigotry away with Dial soap.
GOD
BLESS CHRIS ROCK!
Super comedian Chris Rock is using the
power of his substantial presence to lobby for an academy award for Jamie Foxx
for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the widely acclaimed movie, “Ray.” Rock, who is hosting the Awards ceremony,
said, “I am rooting for Jamie, and if he doesn’t win, I’m going to talk about
it on the show…(and if Foxx doesn’t win) I’ll take an Oscar from one of the
sound or light people that win and give it to him. Jamie Foxx is not going to walk out of that place without an
Oscar.” Go ahead, Chris Rock!
LET’S
BE FAIR
“Investigators have concluded there was
sexual contact between comedian Bill Cosby and a women who is accusing him of
fondling her at his home, but are trying to determine whether it was
consensual.” Boston Herald (of
course), January__, 2005 . Now, now,
Bill, you can’t have it both ways—being the moral messenger for the Black
community while engaging in some of the very behavior you’ve complained
about…not once that we know of, but twice.
We wonder what else might be under your rug?
WELL,
WELL, WELL
You might have read my previous Af-Am
News Bits’ predictions about Armstrong Williams, the Black conservative radio
commentator who has been burned at the stake by the mainstream press for taking
money to promote Bush administration policies.
I wrote, “…you can bet that a lot of White journalists, radio talk show
hosts and television commentators are hoping to put the Armstrong Williams
story away fast before the light is shined on them.” Point of View, February, 2005. Well, before the February issue returned from the printer, we
learned that columnist Maggie Gallagher was paid $21,500.00 and Michael McManus
about $53,000.00. Their names, of
course, have been buried in news stories and we have to simply guess what their
race and political leanings are, while the media made a big issue of both when
they “outed” the conservative and Black Armstrong Williams.
TREASURER
ACTS DECISIVELY
Hurrah for State Treasurer Tim
Cahill! After reports that the Metro
Boston newspaper’s top managers made racist comments in public and
maintained a racist atmosphere at their company, Cahill cancelled $20,000.00 in
state Lottery ads that were planned for this year.
WE
LIKE CONDOLEEZZA RICE!
Democrats made a big miscalculation going
after the very qualified Condoleezza Rice, who became the first Black, female
Secretary of State in spite of their 13 nay votes. They didn’t only embarrass Secretary Rice but they insulted an
entire nation of Black folks, who are becoming real tired of their White
“allies” not quite getting things right.
We’ve remained loyal Democrats in recent times simply because we have
had no reasonable alternatives. But
every day the alternatives are looking better and better.
SPEAKING
OF ALTERNATIVES…
You know, Ralph Nader may have been
right.
BLACK
IS BACK!
Tiger Woods won Golf’s Buick Open and
Serena Williams won the Australian Open Women’s Tennis Championship. Looks like Black is back! Love it!
ART
IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
Watching replays of Muhammad Ali dance
like a butterfly and sting like a bee as he knocked out several highly touted
heavyweight contenders made me compare him to Mikhail Baryshnakov, the highly
regarded Russian dancer. The moves of
both demonstrate grace and power and the amazing flexibility of the human
body. Give me Ali the artist any day.
SURPRISE,
SURPRISE!
Virtually all of the Massachusetts
Congressional delegation’s highest-paid senior staffers are White and one
congressman, U. S. Representative William Delahunt, has not hired a minority
since he was elected in 1996. Maybe we
should refer them all to the President for advice on where to find qualified
Black employees.
YEA,
BANK OF AMERICA!
Did you know that the NAACP ranked Bank
of America at the top of the list of any major bank for its minority hiring and
community reinvestment practices?
WHAT’S
UP WITH THAT?
Turns out that the Boston charter schools
have been gaining students faster than the Boston public schools have lost
them. From 1998 through 2003 Boston
charter schools had an average growth per year of 50% higher than the rate at
which the Boston schools were losing students.
The additional students came from private and parochial schools. Since they are in charter schools, they no
longer have to pay tuition, but the public schools have to pay the charter
schools millions of dollars for these students who were not in the public
schools in the first place. Sounds like
a serious loophole.
CHEAP
SHOT
That was a cheap shot in Cries and
Whispers against State Representative Benjamin Swan’s State Street office real
estate taxes. (The Republican,
January 31, 2005) He had brought them
current almost two weeks earlier and Cries and Whispers made it appear that
they remained outstanding and that he was not concerned about paying them.
TRUTH
BE TOLD
The slave trade was very important (in New England) because it jump-started the New England economy…Slavery created connections all over the Atlantic. In New England, it involved ship building, insurance, and many other ancillary trades supporting the institution. Many Yankees participated passively, buying shares of a slave voyage much as we buy mutual funds…With the emancipation of slaves here came an immediate amnesia among Whites about their immediate past. “There was a denial of the existence of slavery, of its importance, a denial of responsibility.” Boston Globe, April 25, 2004. n