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Posts Tagged ‘Racism’

The ‘Blaxit’ Movement: Young Black Conservatives Believe President Trump Can Make America Great For Them (Video)

Yeeeesh!

Okay, get past that feeling because this is actually worth watching; at least to get another point of view you might not have considered. It’s like what Killer Mike was saying on his Netflix show (“Trigger Warning”): You need to actually engage people with views that differ from your own.

In October of 2018, hundreds of young conservatives of color met up in Washington, DC, for the first ever Young Black Leadership Summit: a four-day conference that featured speeches from conservative actress Stacey Dash and firebrand Candace Owens, a trip to the White House to hear Trump speak, and a rare chance for young, black Republicans to get together and network IRL.

VICE’s Lee Adams went to the summit to talk firsthand with young, Black conservatives about what drew them to the Republican party, along with what kind of backlash they’ve faced from the black community for going public with their political views. To find out more about the movement, he also tagged along with Antonia Okafor—an outspoken Second Amendment activist—on a hunting trip in northwestern Iowa with Steve King, a House Rep who’s been widely criticized for his racist comments. Lastly, he met up with Shekinah Geist, a Black Republican and budding social media influencer, and sat in on a conversation between her and a group of peers from the local Black student union who challenged her on her support for President Trump.

– VICE

All this said and shown… this is NOT an endorsement of the GOP or President Trump or the views shared. But it IS an earnest sharing of different point of view (the VICE video and this blog post on it).

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Latinos Converting To Islam (Documentary)

What so-called religions that promise ‘salvation’ can truly forget is the SAVING. What the dude says in here about why he converted to Islam, how it truly SAVED him… He was not speaking of a ‘magical’ event or a sudden ‘newness’ feeling (set to orchestral music or something). Rather, he was speaking of Islam SAVING his life in an UNDERSTANDABLE way that brought joy to his soul and meaning to his life. ‘Survival mode’ to a ‘revival’ by way of the Quran.

Latinos are one of the fastest growing groups within Islam in America. VICE’s Lee Adams travels to Houston Texas, the home of America’s first Islam in Spanish center, to investigate what’s behind this phenomenon and how America’s current political climate might be related.

Another great VICE documentary.

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Bill Duke Used To Hate White People (Video)

Bill Duke’s Great Grandparents were slaves, his parents escaped from the racist, oppressive, and DANGEROUS South to the North… with their lives. Bill was subjected to extreme racism himself as a child. Is it a wonder that Bill feels how he feels? Imagine how you feel watching a movie with some racism in it. That part… times 1000!

In this clip, Bill Duke spoke about growing up in Poughkeepsie, NY, during the 1940s and 1950s. His parents moved North to escape the oppression of the Jim Crow South equipped with just a 2nd- and 3rd-grade education, respectively. Bill Duke opened up about some his early experiences dealing with racism and how some Whites defied the racist logic of the time as well. He recalled what it was like being a pre-teen when the Emmitt Till story made national headlines.
– Vlad TV

But beyond the agony of his youth, there was wisdom, imparted to Bill, and he shares some with us in the clip above. Watch.

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Activism: Porsche Nicole Kelly Takes The Stage And Speaks On A Lot Of Ridiculous Things That Are NOT Funny (Video)

All of these are jokes, but none of them are funny.

Stop her if you have heard this one. Wait. DO NOT STOP HER! Let the poetic activist Porsche Nicole Kelly speak on this: “So a guy walks into a bar…A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar… A White man with a Glock walks into a church…” #Jokes #NotFunny

MORE PORSCHE NICOLE KELLY ON INSTAGRAM

@ojones1

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Many Black Kids Cannot Swim. Really. And Here Is Why… (Video)

Wow, that’s a real thing. All my family can swim. My Dad learned as a kid, self-taught, playing in the ‘crick’ (creek) down the road. My baby brother was swimming by the time he could walk. So, I just kinda dismissed such talk as broad generalization; no real fact-finding driving the claim. Well…

In 2014, the CDC found that an 11-year-old Black child is 10 times more likely to drown than a White child the same age. The notion that “Black people can’t swim” may sound like a stereotype, but it’s a real disparity and it’s rooted in a history of discriminatory access to swimming pools.
– VICE News Tonight

Again, wow. And damn.

@ojones1

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Netflix Presents Ashtan Towles’ Experiences Tackling Race-Related Issues At Yale University (Documentary)

Grew up in the South, all her youth, and she made it through… admitted to an Ivy League university, no less. And STILL this sista cannot ‘get away’ from racism in America.

Imagine waking up to find your school trending because of a racist incident?
– Strong Black Lead

Yeah. Don’t EVER speak of America being post-racial. Even in the ‘affluent’ North. Yale was trending on racism.

@ojones1

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Environmental Injustice And Racism In Uniontown (Documentary)

I’m from Alabama. From a Black community in Alabama. I know, even before the documentary laid this out, this level of injustice is being done to my people (and by proxy, to ME). Been being done. And it still hurts.

Residents of this town have been living under the thumb of environmental injustice and racism #ThinkingInColor
– NowThis

Dammit.

@ojones1

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Michael Moore Calls A Racist A Racist, All Of Them… And Those Who Will Not Denounce Them (Video)

Anybody who enables, anybody who votes for and supports a racist, is a racist.
Michael Moore

The controversial filmmaker Moore has never had a problem calling it how he sees it. And in keeping with the lifted quote above, Moore is holding those who support the racist ralliers and those of their ilk – whether gathered at the Take ‘Murica Back rally in Charlottesville or not – just as guilty. Because #BlackLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter or whatever matters to you aside, the venomous speech, vitriolic tone and victimization of those hurt by Neo-Nazi words and a wildly driven car… well, that all happened. And if you are not denouncing that, you are tacitly supporting it.

#LookingAtYouMrPresident #BothSidesHuh #AndThatTheStoryOfOJ #OK

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Beatriz At Dinner (Trailer)

Whoa! That part at the end. Where Salma (sexy as HELL even dressed ‘all the way down’) told that chick, “You don’t know me.” That was too real. Like just the other day almost-said-to-coworker real!

Beatriz (Salma Hayek), an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico, has drawn on her innate kindness to build a career as a spiritual health practitioner in Los Angeles. Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) is a cutthroat, self-satisfied billionaire real estate developer. When these two opposites meet at a dinner party, their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same.

And wowwww… Don’t know Lithgow as a person, but playing THAT much of an azzhole in this movie HAD to take WORK (one hopes, even though there are some mega-anuses out here in ‘real life’ – real talk).

“Beatriz At Dinner” hits the theater screens June 9th. Watch the trailer above.

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Black Women’s Defense League (Video)

Something about that U.S. Army Oath Of Allegiance comes to mind: ‘support and defend… against all enemies foreign and domestic.’ The documentary above starts off getting right into the range of threats posed to the Black woman by a myria of factions, all the way down to Black men. In the tradition of the Black Panthers, and holding to their radical activist philosophical underpinnings in many ways, the Black Women’s Defense League (BWDL) is all about Black women fighting against the oppressor for each other.

VICE’s Wilbert L. Cooper meets the Black Women’s Defense League, a Dallas-based womanist organization notable for its pro-gun stance. As he follows them from their political education classes to their firearms training, he sees how they fight against White supremacy and patriarchal violence.

On ‘support and defend’… These sistas are definitely doing community education, empowerment and nutrition programs the Panthers intiated and implemented. But note the use of the word ‘many’ when it comes to what Pather traditions BWDL will support and defend… Founder Neicy X says that, unlike in the past, BWDL is NOT toeing the line for ‘the cause’ so far that it even compromises the liberty of women – like not standing against the abuse of their mates. No! ANY enemy, including an abusive husband/mate/relative, can catch a bad one!

Interesting viewpoints – about the right to self-defense, gun ownership (and the U.S.’s racist historical stance against Black ownership) and the inherent dangers, how some see women with guns as sexy (which BWDL does not mind, but stresses that the guns ‘are for USE’) and more – shared in this VICE short documentary.

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Celebrities, News Anchors And More Share When They Realized They Were Black (Video)

I remember growing up how ‘tough kids’ would always remark and bark about how they would have fought if ‘massuh’ hit them with a whip back in slavery times. Even then I knew that was nonsense, bravado, untestable braggadocio bullsh!t. A whip would make a 1500-pound bull jump; not much fight in anybody AFTER getting hit.

Fight BEFORE, or run away. Yeah, back back in the day, I knew I would have played it ‘smart’ like that. But watching this… this is within these folks’ lifetimes, some even younger than me… These stories are NOT whip lashes, but Whites lashing out against my people in the vilest ways. Inhumanely… like they were acting to deny or strip away their humanity. And soon after the clip above started to play, I felt like I would have responded the way Jason George did – blacked out with rage #BlackOutRage

In “The Souls of Black Folk,” W.E.B. Du Bois talks about the first time he realized his skin color made him different. We asked celebrities, CNN anchors and reporters, and others to tell us when they first realized that being Black affected how people treated them. Share your own story with #RealizedIWasBlack

But I must say, making it to the end made me think of when I realized I was Black. I then realized that I don’t have an awful story to share. You see, I’m from Tuskegee. I was raised there. I grew up steeped in Black History. Loved on, scolded, chastised, challenged (by well-meaning adults and bullies) that were Black. Hell, being light-skinned, I was the guy who got ‘janked’ (meaning ‘joned’ or ‘cracked on’ or whatever your word for verbal hazing is) for being damn near White.

However, I was taught my history; ALL of it, MYstory, not HIStory. And I was imbued with a certain forgive-if-you-can-but-NEVER-forget attitude that persists today. I am sure that is why I often toss a ‘Black History’ lecture into conversations… Which likely why I often proclaim, “I’m from ‘Skegee, and that makes me the Blackest man in the room.” My upbringing and attitude is what steels my nerve and puts a fire in my belly when I watch or hear or read anything about how Black folks are mistreated – by individuals or institutions. I am usually able to channel my #BlackOutrage (see what I did there? #BlackOutRage to #BlackOutrage hash flip) positively… to fight negativity nowadays. But I also KNOW that is because my ancestors took the lashes, took the lynchings, took the billy club beatings… picked the cotton, picked their battles, put up with losses, pushed through struggles, put in ballots, and punted White Power in its azz to get them out and make Tuskegee the Black Mecca of my youth (Google ‘Gomillion v. Lightfoot‘). So while I do not have a story to share like those in the clip above, I feel them. I really feel them as they are told.

That said, I do remember that White security guy that used to follow my brothers and me around the grocery store when we were kids like we might shoplift. But he was a weirdo.

Watch the clip above. Compelling! Follow the link to CNN for even more.

MORE: I REALIZED I WAS BLACK (CNN)

@ojones1

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Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America (Festival Trailer)

I never set out to convert anybody. In my quest, some of them ended up converting themselves.
Daryl Davis

So, go on and plan on watching the trailer above TWICE, because the first run will likely leave you breathless. This is the award-winning documentary about a Black musician, Daryl Davis, who befriends and engages members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists in an extended dialog about race, hate, and how we can get past it. Turns out this all started as a bold an simple measure to get the KKK’s answer to this question: “How can you hate me if you don’t even know me?”

(Davis’ dialogs with Klan members have been so powerful that several members ultimately left the organization. You MUST watch!)

“Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America” comes to PBS on February 13, 2017.

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Mr. Noah Goes To Washington: The Full President Obama Interview (Video)

Trevor Noah visits President Barack Obama at the White House for a special interview for The Daily Show. The two discuss Russia’s impact on the 2016 election, the state of the U.S. democracy, the incoming Trump administration, the future of Affordable Care, modern racism and more.

@ojones1

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Roland Martin Vs. White Nationalist Richard Spencer On History, Racism, & White Supremacy (Video)

Roland RichardCLICK IMAGE TO PLAY
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Why Racism Isn’t Just a Southern Problem (Video)

Sure, Harriet Tubman led slaves away from the South to escape slavery… the Jim Crow and Civil Rights black & white photos and videos show the South as the true ‘home’ of racism… BUT, let Franchesca Ramsey hip you to fact that racism ain’t just in the South good buddy!

While the stereotypical racist in the US might be a southern good ole boy, the reality is that “progressive” Northern and Western states have had a pretty long and terrible history with racism as well. Whether it’s the history of sundown towns that threatened violence against people of color if they were found there after dark, the incredibly racist founding of Oregon, or the long history of redlining to prevent home ownership, it seems like racism certainly wasn’t and isn’t just a southern phenomenon.

Go Franchesca! Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show was cancelled, but you’ve got too much to share with the world to stop now. No joke. Keep it pushing!

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Images Exposing America’s Racism: The Murder Of Emmett Till (Video)

1955. Your parents and/or grandparents REMEMBER this. The killing of Emmett Till happened not even ONE full lifetime ago. Anybody wanting to tell you that revisiting such a ‘distant past’ is divisive, that you should just ‘move on’… well you should. They would have been the same people who would have believed Emmett was ‘flirting’ and that his death was his fault or just a fact of life. The fact is that the loss of Emmett’s life was a TRAGEDY. That a movement found life and strength provides some solace but in no way lessens our sadness and mourning.

Anyone telling you to move on is right. Do it. Move on… AWAY FROM THEM! Anyone telling you that to keep bringing up race, protest or even talk frankly about race-motivated violence against Black Americans that is going on in the same lifetime as the murder of Emmett Till is ‘divisive’… Move on. But remember who they are.

“The irresponsible rhetoric of our President, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone.”
Donald Trump

So, The President, a Black American (whose citizenship Trump consistently contested, remember?), even talking about what has happened to Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Walter L. Scott, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner or others divides us and makes for a dangerous environment? Hmmm… okay… Glad the cameras caught that tidbit in the midst of your nomination acceptance speech.

Yeah. I heard you RNC. I heard you, Donald Trump. And I am moving on!

But back to the video above: Watch. Grieve. Get focused. Get motivated. Get moving. Get more informed. And never forget Emmett Till!

#BlackLivesStillMatter

MORE: THE PHOTO THAT CHANGED THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (TIME)

@ojones1

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Stephen A. Smith Says “Racism Doesn’t Exist” For Today’s Youth… They Strongly Disagree! (Video)

ESPN commentator and show host Stephen A. Smith stressed that “racism doesn’t exist” anymore and that “White folks got problems, too,” during a Black History Month speech he delivered at The University of South Alabama. He probably spoke his true convictions, as always. That doesn’t mean he’s not wrong. In fact, watch some youth (Black and White) school ‘folks’ [that believe in Stephen’s point of view]. They have an entirely different truth to share – that racism still exists – with FACTS to back it up. Impressive!

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Neshoba: The Price of Freedom (Documentary Trailer)

“Neshoba: The Price of Freedom” tells the story of a Mississippi town still divided about the meaning of justice, 40 years after the murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, an event dramatized in the Oscar-winning film, “Mississippi Burning.” Although Klansmen bragged about what they did in 1964, no one was held accountable until 2005, when the State indicted preacher Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old notorious racist and mastermind of the murders. Through exclusive interviews with Killen, intimate interviews with the victims’ families, and candid interviews with Black and White Neshoba County citizens still struggling with their town’s violent past, the film explores whether the prosecution of one unrepentant Klansman constitutes justice and whether healing and reconciliation are possible without telling the unvarnished truth.

NESHOBA: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM (DVD ORDER LINK)

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Jadakiss Joins ‘The Nightly Show’ Panel Hosted By Larry Wilmore (Video)

Jadakiss joined Larry Wilmore’s panel on The Nightly Show the other night. Got in on the discussion on student protests against racism, stagnation of progress on race-related matters on campus and across the country and more. The dude got to show skills on the mic in a different light, and no doubt to keep making noise for his project “Top 5 Dead Or Alive” push and for his place among Hip-Hop’s top noteworthies.

JADAKISS – TOP 5 DEAD OR ALIVE

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Ricky Velez Confronts Racism… In The Ring! (Video)

Wow! It’s been forever and a day since we’ve seen WWF’s WWE’s Virgil, muscle and manservant to The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. Whoa wait-a-minute. Manservant? Isn’t that pretty much another term for slave? To get the answer, The Nightly Show correspondent Ricky Velez goes to the former WWE wrestler and former ECW wrestler Tommy Dreamer for some real answers…and some real training…enough to fake it and make it in an actual match…and dares to expose the truth about racism in professional wrestling. Oh, and the answer to that ‘manservant’ question? That’d be a ‘YES.’

“Wrestling is racist as f#ck, Larry.”
Ricky Velez

Let’s start there.

And watch the two-part story, starting with part 1 above, for the whole story, exciting ‘finish’ (part 2 and bonus clip, after the jump) and discussion with host Larry Wilmore.

@ojones1

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