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Law Students => Current Law Students => Topic started by: beerlaw on September 27, 2006, 03:28:21 PM
Title: Racism Hurts
Post by: beerlaw on September 27, 2006, 03:28:21 PM
Just yesterday, I was very happy with my life. Great job, great family, great friends, house ... But then something happened last night which completely changed my world. I was at a bar in West Hollywood where I got into a verbal argument with a blonde lady (she started it, I'm serious -- instead of saying 'excuse me', she just pushed me out of her way!). Now you know, two people at a bar, you know, tipsy, so an argument or two, not a big deal.
But what was different about this situation was that one of the involved parties (me) had dark skin. Just as I was about to walk away from the scene, the lady whispered this in my ear: "Why don't you go back to your county? We don't need you here!" This was such a big reality slap on my face that I was in absolute shock for about 10 minutes. I can do the best in law school, get a job at a great law firm, drive a fancy car ... but in the end, some lady at a bar, who most likely hasn't even set foot in college, can make a racist comment and completely destroy my confidence.
Well, to make the long story short, I, after a long time, faced such open racism and it has definitely affected the image I hold of myself. All I can say to this lady is, watch out! I'm an attorney and have so much to lose. But sooner or later, you are going to make a similar comment to a guy who is at your level (i.e. has nothing to lose) and he will not walk away from the scene. I guarantee it!
Sweet Revenge--> On a happier note, I ran into this lady after the bar closed. She was getting into her, oh lets just say, "crap" mobile. I, along with my friend, laughed out lound and yelled, "hey, you may not need me, but you definitely need a new car." LOL.
Title: Re: Racism Hurts
Post by: Strong on September 27, 2006, 08:01:48 PM
Just out of curiosity what is your race?
I think certain kinds of racism are worse than classic whites that are anti-black.
It's good that you handled it well.
Post by: 980eQ on September 27, 2006, 10:13:14 PM
ya man, kudos on staying cool about her ignorance. There are people in this world that are just so ignorant that it makes ya want to stick your head in the deep fryer.... balls too...
Post by: valdas on September 27, 2006, 10:50:40 PM
Quote from: beerlaw on September 27, 2006, 03:28:21 PM
What is an individual with darker skin like yourself doing at a bar in West Hollywood? Don't you think you shouldn't be there in the first place?
Post by: royalpain on September 28, 2006, 08:15:57 AM
Quote from: valdas on September 27, 2006, 10:50:40 PM
What is an individual with darker skin like yourself doing at a bar in West Hollywood?
*darker* skin ? shouln't that be *dark* as he said himself his skin is?
Quote from: deltauHUSL on September 27, 2006, 10:13:14 PM
Post by: TheSunDevil on September 28, 2006, 08:38:39 AM
strange that you would get that in LA. my wife is asian and some kids starting making fun of her (trying to pretend to speak "asian") as she waited for her food (at a CHINESE restaurant). needless to say, it totally upset her. i went back to look for the kids but they were already gone. my wife is totally against affirmative action, but to say racism doesn't exist anymore is pretty ignorant. in any event, sorry to hear it happened, but your thinking is in line. you have more than that lady will ever have. if anything, feel sorry for her and her close-mindedness.
Post by: Budlaw on September 28, 2006, 04:04:56 PM
Quote from: TheSunDevil on September 28, 2006, 08:38:39 AM
Just to let you guys know, you're all tools for falling into the Original poster's trap. He copied his bleeding heart story from the below link:
http://www.lawstudentparadise.com/forums/law-students-general-discussion/8272-racism-hurts.html
The above post was originally posted there on August 24th, 2006. 5 bucks says that "Beerlaw" doesn't even have dark skin.
He's just that idiot who makes up new screen names over and over again and copies crap off the internet and passes it off as his own.
I guess the topic for this post really should have been "Plagerism Hurts"
Post by: secret99 on September 28, 2006, 04:59:29 PM
I think "Vik" should not have really put it there .. It is OK for some anonymous poster to say stupid *&^% and flame, but for a credible person to tell a real life story like this? It is depressing.
Let me tell you, where I grew up it was all about the social class. I fuking hate that concept, or any other dividing concept that people tend to cling on to. I grew up almost feeling guilty and ashamed that my family was educated, well traveled, well read, and just well off ... Especially considering the mixture of ethnic backgrounds in my fam, it was always hard to please everyone. I had friends on both sides of the fence, and had to justify every move that my family made, whether political, social, or private ... ughh .. horrific ...
And then people wonder why I am a liberal, and why I feel or believe the way I do. Let's face it, most conservatives (including the elite) are hierarchical and divisive to no end. (And I should know best, did major campaign work on both sides.) So in situations like those, I would say, it is not worth dragging yourself down to the level of what I'd like to call "the uneducated."
Post by: youtube on September 28, 2006, 05:27:22 PM
(http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/7/J/j/bush_guitar_neworleans.jpg)
Post by: lbl on September 29, 2006, 05:27:52 PM
Quote from: Budlaw on September 28, 2006, 04:04:56 PM
How do you know it's not that Original poster coming here to post his heart bleeding story?
Post by: bichemicaloxygen on September 29, 2006, 05:44:46 PM
I agree with Secret99 -- it was not so wise on the poster's part to post his story there and possibly here .. I mean, he's a lawyer, he is not supposed to feel inferior for any reason whatsoever, let alone for his skin colour ..
Post by: mantel on September 29, 2006, 05:48:42 PM
biochemical, I do not think that story is true .. I mean, who would be that stupid to post it even if it were true .. the poster is just a troll trying to get peoples' attention ..
Post by: manday on September 29, 2006, 05:55:15 PM
Quote from: mantel on September 29, 2006, 05:48:42 PM
I don't know why you'd think that mantel, but it may well be that the guy felt so bad about it that he wanted to vent out his frustration .. that is why he posted his story, although -- or should I say, because -- it was so degrading for him .. he just couldn't keep it to himself ..
Quote from: youtube on September 28, 2006, 05:27:22 PM
And, youtube, are you being sarcastic or just realistic when posting this photo .. I really can not tell ...
Post by: venaporta on September 29, 2006, 06:06:54 PM
Quote from: bichemicaloxygen on September 29, 2006, 05:44:46 PM
[...] he is not supposed to feel inferior for any reason whatsoever, let alone for his skin colour ..
What do you mean, "let alone for his skin color"?! If there's anything one would feel inferior about it's his skin color -- when the latter is not white, of course ... So, the real question here I think is, "If you were to choose between being a rich black man (or is it a black rich man :) and an average white one, which would you choose to be?"
Post by: Soon2be1L on September 29, 2006, 06:35:06 PM
Well, if any of this is true, while I understand that the woman was racist in saying what she said to you and I also think she has a lot to learn- BUT I think you're being discriminatory as well. The only facts you state about the woman is that she has blonde hair and drives a crappy car, yet you ASSUME she does not have a college education because she is blonde and drives a crappy car. You're a hypocrite! Discrimination comes in all forms and yes, while it's not racism that you've portrayed- it is still, most definitely discrimination based upon some judgmental attitude of your own.
Post by: aquaductusvestibuli on September 29, 2006, 06:55:18 PM
I would guess you're behaving like a lawyer with a sense of entitlement behaves ... you know, nobody likes arrogant people who think they can do whatever they want just because they drive a fancy car ... or because they happen to be lawyers, for that matter ... the blond lady simply could not swallow down that the person in front of her behaving like that was someone with dark skin; she could have probably kept her mouth shut had you been white, but she just could not understand how someone like you, who according to conventional wisdom is supposed to feel inferior, could act the way you were acting. So I agree with the previous poster, both of you were being discriminatory and divisive.
Post by: noel on September 29, 2006, 07:07:47 PM
This guy is no better than she is ... look at what he says in a latter post,
To tell you the truth, this was not really an old lady. Perhaps in her early to mid-20s and here is the kicker -- she was playing pool with her Mexican friend
http://www.lawstudentparadise.com/forums/law-students-general-discussion/8272-racism-hurts.html#post122449
It's all evident he feels so bad he is not white ... too bad that despite being a lawyer and having money he cant whiten his dark skin just a little bit ...
Post by: heineken on September 29, 2006, 07:19:38 PM
Quote from: noel on September 29, 2006, 07:07:47 PM
too bad that despite being a lawyer and having money he cant whiten his dark skin just a little bit ...
Well, Michael Jackson could ...
Post by: friedman on October 01, 2006, 07:03:40 PM
All I can say to this lady is, watch out! I'm an attorney and have so much to lose. But sooner or later, you are going to make a similar comment to a guy who is at your level (i.e. has nothing to lose) and he will not walk away from the scene. I guarantee it!
You're just a faggot who can't stand up for yourself but make up excuses!
Post by: mandrake on October 04, 2006, 07:20:37 PM
Looks like he was sexually rejected by the blonde and felt really really bad about it.
Post by: earthlaw on October 04, 2006, 10:04:59 PM
Well look on the bright side if you get pulled over in your fancy schmancy car and the cops do something wrong you are a step ahead of the game, because you are an attorney (Welcome to being Black in America). I hope you didn't think because you use proper English, live in a gated communnity, with a nice car, well paying job, and a graduate degree that you were somehow excused? (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)Think again. Some people will still view you the same way they view some guy who sits on the corner and drinks 40's all day and breaks in cars at night all because you have the same skin color, there will be alot of women that will dart the other way or grab their purse because they think oh this guy is going to attack me (eventhough its the middle of the day in a business district, you have on a suit, and are carrying a briefcase, how threatening). Oprah has more money than you do and they called the cops on her. Attorneys get paid daily because racism does indeed exist. (DESPITE WHAT SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO DONT EXPERIENCE IT MAY THINK). I live in the south I could give countless stories, but there is not enough space on this box to write them all . My husbands uncle got pulled over a few times when he was an attorney, ever since he became a Judge it's amazing how that all came to a screeching halt. And this business about you losing confidence over some Broad you knew in a bar for a few minutes?? Man you have some deep-rooted insecurities if you let her break you that easy. Look my Dad is kida old. When he grew up they had the colered water fountains , separate schools, and yadda yadda yadda. My dad always taught me not to abandon who I am (no matter how much education and or money I have I am still black) and to always work very hard to strive for excellence. Because between the media, narrow mindsets, and statistics many have extremely low expectations for you. And once you cross all of the T's and dot all of the I's you have to have thick skin becaue you still have to coexist in midst of all of this foolishness. In a perfect world we are ALL EQUEAL. But this is America we al larent treated as such. When race kept Thurgood Marshall out of U of MD, he went to Howard, now U MD wants to name buildings after him, if he had given up things may have been different today, who knows. Oh and by the way (reality check) don't assume that in 100% of the cases just because you have a couple of lettters behind your name that you are always intellectually superior to someone else. There are members of Mensa that have GED's and there are people that live under bridges that are way smarter than you. Ill never forget it I was at school and this janitor overheard me talking about my pre-calc homework this older black man put down his mop and helped me with my work (you never know)
(HAHA) (I watch too much Dave Chapppele)
Post by: damnn on October 05, 2006, 01:56:47 AM
There are three cops that come to this bar everyday after work. Cop 1 and Cop 2 are veterans and Cop 3 is a rookie. One day Cop 1 comes into the bar very happy, buying drinks, giving drinks, spending money. Cop 2 and 3 ask, "Why are you so happy, won the lottery?". Cop 1 replies, "I was having sex with my wife, missionary style, and when I was about to cum I shot my gun off and her female private part got so tight... man i had the best orgasm of my life". Cops 2 and 3 laughed about it. The next day Cop 2 comes into the bar. He is all happy and jolly, bying drinks and having a great mood. Cop 1 and 3 ask, "What happened why are you so happy?" Cop 2 replies, "I tried your advice. I was having sex with my wife, doggy style, when i was about to cum, I shot my gun and just like you said it would her pusssy got tight as hell and had the best orgasm of my life". The next day Cop 3 comes into the bar. He is very mad pushing people, kicking chairs and the other two veteran officers ask, "What happened?". Cop 3 says, "I took your advice. I was 69 my wife and when I was about to come i shot off my gun and the female dog almost bit my male private part off and shitted in my face".
Post by: scaru on October 05, 2006, 02:36:49 AM
...a group of soldiers in 1968 went into a village. They had been in Vietnam for 3 months and lost about 10% of their people -- maybe 10 or 15 -- to accidents, killings and bombings. There were 550 women, children and old men in the village and they executed them all. It took a day. They stopped in the middle and they had lunch. The and Hispanic soldiers -- about 40 of them, there were about 90 men in the unit -- shot into the air. They wouldn't shoot at the villagers in the ditch. The soldiers collected people in three ditches and just began to shoot them. The blacks and Hispanics shot up in the air, but the mostly white, lower middle class soldiers -- the kids who join the Army Reserve today and National Guard looking for extra dollars -- those kind of kids did the killing. One of them was a man named Paul Medlow, who did an awful lot of shooting. The next day, there was a moment that everybody remembered afterward. One of the mothers at the bottom of a ditch had taken a child -- a boy, about two -- and got him under her stomach in such a way that he wasn't killed. When they were sitting having the K rations, the kid somehow crawled up through the bodies and began screaming. And Calley, the famous Lieutenant Calley, the Lynndie England of that tragedy, told Medlow: Kill him. "Plug him," he said. And Medlow somehow, who had done an awful lot as I say -- 200 bullets -- couldn't do it. So Calley ran up as everybody watched, with his carbine. Calley had a smaller weapon, a rifle, and shot the kid in the back of the head. The next morning, Medlow stepped on a mine and he had his foot blown off. He was being medevaced out. As he was being medevaced out, he cursed and everybody remembered one of the chilling lines he said. "God has punished me, and he's going to punish you, too"
From a speech made by Seymour Hersh at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York.
Post by: WKRUSE on October 05, 2006, 04:03:50 AM
What exactly was the point of the last post? My Lai happened forty years ago.
UMKC has a great page about the my lai killings http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/Myl_intro.html
I did find it ironic that there was no mention of minority soldiers abstaining from the killings in the actual reports or the fact that if they felt so bad about it, why it took a recon soldier who later learned of the event to bring it to the public's attention. Needless to say, I don't exactly believe Seymour Hersh's new version of events. Why didn't he say these things in 1968, when he first wrote about them? Just be careful not to believe everything you read.
Post by: ellaine on October 06, 2006, 01:13:39 AM
Quote from: scaru on October 05, 2006, 02:36:49 AM
The and Hispanic soldiers -- about 40 of them, there were about 90 men in the unit -- shot into the air. They wouldn't shoot at the villagers in the ditch. The soldiers collected people in three ditches and just began to shoot them. The blacks and Hispanics shot up in the air, but the mostly white, lower middle class soldiers -- the kids who join the Army Reserve today and National Guard looking for extra dollars -- those kind of kids did the killing.
Are you somewhat suggesting by means of this analogy that the dark-skinned young lawyer won't be doing white man's work the way he's supposed to?
Post by: main on October 07, 2006, 07:12:04 PM
Quote from: aquaductusvestibuli on September 29, 2006, 06:55:18 PM
aquaductus, you obviously hate lawyers! I'm sorry but how do you know that the guy was behaving like a "lawyer with a sense of entitlement" behaves? What does that mean in the first place? How do you know that the guy of the story was not behaving like a learned person of good manners behaves?! And that the blonde was not a person of a lower class, thus being pretty sure she would be rejected by the guy?! How can you be so sure to conclude that it was the guy's fault that made the blond woman react the way she did?! May it not be that it was her that, having no better way to compensate for her inadequacy and inferiority, used the race card to frustrate the guy and make it appear that she was the winner?!
Post by: dpor on October 08, 2006, 06:51:13 PM
Quote from: ellaine on October 06, 2006, 01:13:39 AM
I don't see how one would equate killing people with the tasks a lawyer performs ... unless the latter go into politics and become officials giving orders when, where and whom to kill! Otherwise, it's just inconceivable that a minority lawyer would hesitate to complete properly the "white man"'s work!
Post by: aisha on October 09, 2006, 09:25:22 PM
Quote from: dpor on October 08, 2006, 06:51:13 PM
It's really troubling to see the black/Hispanic soldiers being told by the mutilated white soldier he had been punished for not having the courage to "plug" the kid the next day as Calley ordered him to ... I bet they felt at that point in time twice as guilty as they did two days before!
Post by: maximillien on October 10, 2006, 01:42:11 AM
Quote from: aisha on October 09, 2006, 09:25:22 PM
What kind of twisted, sick perverted freak are you, aisha, to interpret the story in this manner?
Post by: mensman on October 11, 2006, 02:40:10 AM
Quote from: main on October 07, 2006, 07:12:04 PM
I'd guess that's likey to happen if the "blonde" also were minority just like the guy .. Indian, black, whatever ..
Post by: jolie on October 12, 2006, 03:33:33 AM
Quote from: maximillien on October 10, 2006, 01:42:11 AM
Indeed, this person is an inverted human. His/her unconscious is his/her conscious. This person acts out the most repressed drives, fantasies, and wishes of humanity. He/she is not the devil -- but the banality of evil. Just an ordinary, mentally disturbed failure, a member of a mentally disturbed and failing profession, living through disturbed and failing times.
Post by: denis on October 12, 2006, 03:50:10 AM
Quote from: earthlaw on October 04, 2006, 10:04:59 PM
Man you have some deep-rooted insecurities if you let her break you that easy. Look my Dad is kida old. When he grew up they had the colered water fountains , separate schools, and yadda yadda yadda. My dad always taught me not to abandon who I am (no matter how much education and or money I have I am still black) and to always work very hard to strive for excellence. Because between the media, narrow mindsets, and statistics many have extremely low expectations for you. And once you cross all of the T's and dot all of the I's you have to have thick skin becaue you still have to coexist in midst of all of this foolishness. In a perfect world we are ALL EQUEAL. But this is America we al larent treated as such.
Post by: lovie on October 12, 2006, 09:12:03 PM
Quote from: mensman on October 11, 2006, 02:40:10 AM
Quite the opposite! At least theoretically, that's more likely to happen if the discriminator (which in this case was a "blonde") is not minority, as s/he would have a reason to feel inferior/inadequate (being of a lower social class and caste) -- but one for which she can somehow compensate for, given the fact that s/he is of a "higher" race (discriminator has 1 advantage, 1 disadvantage)
In the case of a black/Indian/Hispanic, the "reason" to be prejudicial towards another black/Indian/Hispanic who has some sort of "social status" compared to the "discriminator" would be that, minorities could not, and should not, aspire to, and actually have an elevated social status (discriminator has 1 disadvantage)
Post by: malittlecherryblossom on October 12, 2006, 10:01:26 PM
Quote from: lovie on October 12, 2006, 09:12:03 PM
Minorities are invariably discriminated against and oppressed. The oppressed adopt an attitude of "adhesion" to the oppressor and they cannot "consider" him sufficiently clearly to objectivize him -- to discover him "outside" themselves. Their perception of themselves as opposites of the oppressor does not yet signify engagement in a struggle to overcome the contradiction; the one pole aspires not to liberation, but to identification with its opposite pole.
The oppressed cannot perceive clearly the "order" which serves the interests of the oppressors whose image they have internalized. Chaffing under the restrictions of this order, they often manifest a type of horizontal violence, striking out at their own comrades for the pettiest reasons. This is when niggers beat each other up. It is possible that in this behavior they are once more manifesting their duality. Because the oppressor exists within their oppressed comrades, when they attack those comrades they are indirectly attacking the oppressor as well.
Most white people are also oppressed. At a certain point in their existential experience the oppressed feel an irresistible attraction towards the oppressors and their way of life. Sharing this way of life becomes an overpowering aspiration. In their alienation, the oppressed want at any cost to resemble the oppressors, to imitate them, to follow them. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in the middle-class oppressed, who yearn to be equal to the "eminent" men and women of the upper class.
Self-depreciation is another characteristic of the oppressed, which derives from their internalization of the opinion the oppressors hold of them. So often do they hear that they are good for nothing, know nothing and are incapble of learning anything -- that they are sick, lazy, and unproductive -- that in the end they become convinced of their own unfitness. They call themselves ignorant and say the "professor" is the one who has knowledge and to whom they should listen. The criteria of knowledge imposed upon them are the conventional ones. As long as the oppressed' ambiguity persists, the oppressed are reluctant to resist, and totally lack confidence in themselves.
Post by: ñ on October 16, 2006, 04:50:53 AM
Quote from: malittlecherryblossom on October 12, 2006, 10:01:26 PM
It is generally assumed that women will exclude themselves from violence-prone groups due to their own socialization. Yet, young women are attracted to ultra-right ideologies for reasons not found among their male counterparts; for instance, majority of the females evince xenophobic tendencies. Intolerant, anti-foreigner sentiments may be the means by which female extremists vent their frustrations over gender inequality per se.
Title: Race Matters ..
Post by: agrippina on October 17, 2006, 02:08:24 AM
In June 2005, Orpah Winfrey was denied access to the Hermès company's flagship store in Paris, France. Winfrey arrived 15 minutes after the store's formal closing time, though the store was still very active and high end stores routinely extend hours for VIP customers. Winfrey believed she would have been allowed in the store if she were a white celebrity. "I know the difference between a store that is closed and a store that is closed to me," explained Winfrey. In September 2005, Hermès USA CEO Robert Chavez was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and sincerely apologized for a rude employee.
Post by: traptie on October 17, 2006, 02:55:59 AM
Oprah should shut the @#!* up -- were she not black she would have never been who she's today. A white woman of her "caliber" -- with her crappy interviewing style and the like -- would be considered average at best.
Post by: rodtopinka on October 17, 2006, 03:29:28 AM
Quote from: traptie on October 17, 2006, 02:55:59 AM
Oprah should shut the f**ck up -- were she not black she would have never been who she's today. A white woman of her "caliber" -- with her crappy interviewing style and the like -- would be considered average at best.
How could you say something like this and make race the cause of her success when it's much more logical to consider it a disadvantage for her? She should be given credit for rosing from the depths of poverty to becoming one of the richest women in the world. She has overcome the limitations faced by African-American women, what is called the "double jeopardy" of being black and female in a country that in the recent past practiced legal discrimination against both. She was raped by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend and had to live in the inner city ghettos -- yet she was able to become who she is today.
Title: Key To Success
Post by: a n on October 17, 2006, 03:42:52 AM
Right on traptie. At the end of the 1960s Oprah ran away from home and ran the streets. After skipping two of her earliest grades (which are very easy, by international standards anyway) she also became the teacher's pet. She was also very promiscuous, sexually speaking; after all, going with quite a few guys in adulthood it's pretty lame when you take into account that she was forced to go with close realtives at an early age or so we are told (that must have helped). Finally, in a field dominated by white males -- that of TV talk show -- she is a black female of ample bulk, a reason that can certainly not be downplayed in the big picture, remember the faggotty Eminem?
Post by: kimnorth on October 17, 2006, 04:14:17 AM
I have mixed feelings about Oprah, and I'll tell you why.
Yes, I think it's great that she came from nothing and turned herself into a very successful person. It's even greater that she gives large sums of money to charity. What's my beef with her then? I'll explain.
Today I was walking downstairs and I walked past a copy of Oprah's Magazine, O. Immediately I saw one of the titles on the cover which said something along the lines of "The Wrinkle Report: Finally science has done something for Women." I sat and thought for a minute and it really made me laugh.
Surely:
* Insulin
* Cat Scans
* Heart Transplants
* Decoding of DNA
* Open Heart Surgery
all qualify as significant medical improvements. These are only a select few that I can list, plus they were all discovered in the 20th century.
I'm not sure if all of the above listed only apply to men or wrinkles really are a bigger problem which we need to focus more time on. This leads me to my next point as to why Oprah sucks. I was flipping through channels a few weeks/months ago and I saw Oprah's special about when she went to Africa. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who noticed her obviously fake and insulting (at least to me) accent, which she so non-chalantly switched on and off depending on who she was talking to. It just seemed extremely fake.
My third and final reason as to why Oprah sucks is that while she does give large sums of money to charities, she wears it on her shoulder like a medal. There are plenty of people who give to charities and that don't publicize it like the last episode of Friends. I think, and this is just my opinion, that she gives to charity for the wrong reasons. Does she care about the cause? Perhaps. However, I think she's milking it for all it's worth.
Those are my reasons as to why I think Oprah sucks. In her defense, she does run a classy TV program and she isn't giving America a bad image like other TV programs. So do I really hate Oprah? No. But if she can get away with a statement like "The Wrinkle Report: Finally science has done something for Women," then I can get away with saying she sucks.
Post by: cherrypie on October 17, 2006, 04:22:14 AM
Oprah exploits a culture of victimization that she did so much to create. She glamorizes misery. She amplifies already widespread narcissism and solipsism. Oprah Winfrey fills people's heads with hackneyed nostrums about life.
Post by: abd on October 17, 2006, 04:53:19 AM
In Oprah's world, it's all about to 'change your life,' a slogan that does not mean engaging in the difficult and often dirty struggle to challenge hierarchy and democratize society. The broad has a fortune estimated at a net-worth of $800 million in 2000 and Forbes most recent estimate for Winfrey's wealth is at least $1.5 billion otherwise I would not have bothered to write on this bc.
I recently caught a snippet of television that was relevant for understanding the savage persistence of stark racial inequality in the United States. I was flipping the dial late at night and caught part of Oprah. She was speaking to Oscar favorite Jamie Fox, who appeared on a giant screen, sitting in front of a piano. They were talking about his experience playing Ray Charles in the movie "Ray." The multi-billionaire Oprah mentioned that she realized she could "be anything I wanted to be" when Sidney Poitier won the first Academy award ever given to an African American. She told Jamie that she loved him. The multi-millionaire Jamie informed Oprah that he loved her back. They spoke cheerfully about the significant black presence that will be displayed at this year's Academy Awards ceremony, which is being hosted by the black comedian Chris Rock. "It's really going to be a black-tie event this year," Jamie said. Everybody laughed.
Jamie played a song on the piano. Oprah and Jamie exchanged some more "I love yous." It looked like Oprah was tearing up. Many of her predominantly white female audience members seemed equally moved. They were happy for Jamie and Oprah and Chris Rock and all the other African-Americans who have "made it" in the United States. And they were happy for America's benevolent decision to slay the beast of racism and open the doors of equal opportunity to all. It was another chance for white self-congratulation and for whites to forget about -- and lose more sympathy for -- the large number of black Americans who are nowhere close to making it in post-Civil Rights America.
"They've Got the NBA -- What More Do They Want?"
Ask white Americans who think that blacks are equal to (or even ahead of) whites what exactly they are talking about and you won't get census data. You'll hear about Oprah, Michael Jordan, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Barack Obama, the guy who leads Jay Leno's band, or the black lawyer or doctor who recently moved into their neighborhood. The white father of a white friend of mine contributes the following pearl of wisdom regarding what he sees as black Americans' exaggerated sense of grievance and entitlement: "they've got the NBA -- what more do they want?"
Wildly popular among white viewers, "The Cosby Show" helped fuel some of this sort of thinking during the Reagan era. As left culture critic Mark Crispin Miller noted in a 1986 essay titled "Cosby Knows Best," the affluent, hyper-consumerist, apolitical African-American Huxtable family -- headed by the affable, impish obstetrician Cliff (played by Dr. Cosby himself) -- functioned as "an ad, implicitly proclaiming the fairness of the American System: 'Look! [Cosby shows us] Even I can have all this!'" "On 'The Cosby show,'" Miller noted, "it appears as if blacks in general can have, and do have, what many whites enjoy and that such material equality need not entail a single break-in. And there are no hard feelings, none at all, now that the old injustices have been so easily rectified." Consistent with its mission of selling the American System and the related idea that America's racial divisions had been overcome, "The Cosby Show" refused to permit any "negativity" on the screen. "This is a conscious policy," Miller noted, observing that "Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard, reads through each script as a 'consultant,' censoring any line or bit that might somehow tarnish the show's 'positive image.' And the show's upscale mise-en scene has also been deliberately contrived to glow, like a fixed smile. 'When you look at the artwork [on the show's walls], there is a positive feeling, an up-feeling,' Cosby says. 'You don't see downtrodden, negative I Can't Do, I won't do.'"
Separatism and Its Consequences
Part of the problem behind many whites' racial equality understanding gap is segregation, which continues at high levels. White women might flock en masse to their black princess Oprah's Chicago television studio to receive inspiration, wisdom, and (on lucky days) surplus commodities, but Oprah's home city is harshly segregated by race. The Chicago metropolitan area has a black-white dissimilarity measure of 80.8, meaning that more than 4 out of every 5 area blacks would have to move for African-Americans to be distributed evenly with whites throughout the metropolitan area. Within Chicago, 74% of black residents live in neighborhoods that are 90% or more African-American. The average Chicago black lives in a census tract where 4 of every 5 residents (81.1%) are African-American, while the average white lives in a census tract where less than 1 in 10 people (8.9%) is African-American.
50 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision ruled that "separate is unequal," the average black K-12 public student in Chicago attends a school that is 86% black. 247 schools, (or 47%) of the city's 579 public elementary and high schools are 90% or more African American and 173 of these schools -- or 30% of all public schools in the city -- are 100% black. Of the 0.5 million blacks living outside Chicago in the 6 county Chicago metropolitan area in 1999, 70% lived in Chicago's Cook County, the great majority residing south of the central city. More than half (52%) of all suburban blacks reside in just 13 south suburban Cook County towns -- this in a broader metropolitan area that is home to 265 local municipalities. Under such separatist -- dare we say apartheid? -- conditions (and Chicago is no longer the most segregated city in the nation), large numbers of whites have only the slightest sense of the reality of black experience. The corporate-electronic visual mass culture is their main source on that experience and that medium presents a dangerously schizophrenic image of black America split between super-successful and largely admirable (not-all-that) black superstars (Oprah being the best of all) and dangerous (all-too) black perpetrators (though many successful black athletes and artists inhabit what seems to be in an intermediary category of their own: successful perpetrators). The majority of ordinary, hard-working black Americans who happen to be neither rich nor criminal are amazingly invisible on television and in the broader white-owned corporate communications empire.
Covert racism may have actually deepened
The "odd black family on the block or the Oprah effect -- examples of stratospheric black success -- feed," Cashin observes, "these misperceptions, even as relatively few whites live among and interact daily with blacks of their own standing." Episodes and events like the brief humiliation of Lott or the election of a black Mayor or U.S. Senator or City Hall's criticism of racist sentiments on the part of bigoted white firemen offer opportunities for public officials and the broader mass culture to pat themselves on their back for advancing beyond the primitive state of open racism even while they promote policies that dig the hole of more covert institutional or societal racism yet deeper. Martin Luther King. Jr. sensed some of the danger here at the outset. He noted in 1967 that "many whites hasten to congratulate themselves on what little progress [black Americans] have made. I'm sure," King opined, "that most whites felt that with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, all race problems were automatically solved. Most white people are so removed from the life of the average Negro," King added, "there has been little to challenge that assumption."
"Change Your Life," Not the System: The Full Effect
Oprah's usefulness in fueling white racism denial goes beyond the fact that she is one of the richest people in the world -- sufficiently wealthy to periodically hand out millions of dollars worth of consumer goodies to hundreds of assembled middle-class white women in her studio audience. The full toxic "Oprah effect" is also about the how of her ascendancy. Like Powell, Rice, and perhaps now Obama, Oprah is perceived by many whites as succeeding because she's "not all that black," as Powell once described himself: because she has absorbed dominant white middle- and upper-class "self-help" values and rejects the supposedly obsolete and dysfunctional effort to make white America face up to -- and pay for -- its racist structures, policies, and practices, past and present.
It's a carefully cultivated perception. With her army of disproportionately white counselors, personal trainers, fitness consultants, personal chefs, massage therapists, interior designers, and New Age healers, Oprah has taken an "inner journey" toward primarily personal healing and accountability and away from the collective struggle for racial equality and social justice. "The other kids were all into black power," Oprah told the Tribune in the mid-1980s. But "I wasn't a dashiki kind of woman ... Excellence was the best deterrent to racism and that became my philosophy." As her programming became ever more racially "sanitized" during the 1990s, Elaine Brown notes (in her excellent book The Condemnation of Little B), Oprah's emphasis focused on "providing ... comfort to what became her core audience of white women, in the form of 'lifestyle' and glamour 'makeovers,' diets, and New Age self-healing readings and practices and endless self-deprecating discourse over her own weight and 'nappy' hair." "Winfrey carefully avoided using her unparalleled power and voice on behalf of black women," Brown bitterly observes, "even as the political agenda pounded poor black women and their children ever deeper into poverty and degradation."
Today, while American inequalities of class and color are worsened by racist imperial adventure in the Middle East, Oprah trumpets and exemplifies narcissistic personal obsession, egoistic wealth accumulation, and the narrow pursuit of individual "excellence" amidst permanent, unchallenged, and brutal social injustice. In Oprah's world, it's all about how to "Change Your Life," a slogan that does not mean engaging with fellow African Americans, other people of color, and white allies in the difficult and often dirty struggle to challenge hierarchy and democratize society. It's mainly about private color-blind solutions and personal experience. It means working with what Brown calls "a group of whites possessing curious credentials" (New Age healers and consultants), the great struggle to look and feel better inside the smaller circles of daily life -- circles that happen, in Oprah's case, to be situated at the super-opulent heights of a grotesquely unequal societal pyramid that grants more than 2 billion world citizens less than a dollar a day on which to live the good life that is sold in Oprah's show and magazine.
As for the participants in the upcoming and aforementioned "black tie event" (the Academy Awards), it is worth recalling the meaner side of black upper-class elitism, expressed by Chris Rock in his popular routine "n-word vs. Black People." Rock divides black America into two classes, Cosby's "lower economic people" being the "n-word." "I love black people," Rock says, "but I hate n-word! Boy, I wish they'd let me join the Klu Klux Klan." Now there's something for Oprah's predominantly white audience to get teary-eyed about, after a bit of advice on how to decorate their next palatial Hollywood mansion more perfectly in accord with the unmet needs of their inner child.
Oprah Winfrey is a politicalc whore. Well, at least.
Post by: hscb on October 17, 2006, 05:29:05 AM
Quote from: abd on October 17, 2006, 04:53:19 AM
Does "bc" mean black female private part?
Post by: thatkillerusername on October 17, 2006, 05:35:04 AM
Quote from: agrippina on October 17, 2006, 02:08:24 AM
Winfrey believed she would have been allowed in the store if she were a white celebrity. "I know the difference between a store that is closed and a store that is closed to me," explained Winfrey.
What a hypocrite! Here it is:
Like Powell, Rice, and perhaps now Obama, Oprah is perceived by many whites as succeeding because she's "not all that black," as Powell once described himself: because she has absorbed dominant white middle- and upper-class "self-help" values and rejects the supposedly obsolete and dysfunctional effort to make white America face up to -- and pay for -- its racist structures, policies, and practices, past and present.
Post by: florida357 on October 19, 2006, 10:13:58 AM
Doesn't sound like much to me. Two people in a random encounter saying the most hurtful things they could think of to each other. Happens everyday. Perhaps the real problem is with your self confidence.
The world is full of hate, all you can do is be above it. The fact that you got "sweet revenge" means that you are on a similar level as her, even if not quite as low. In her mind, you are just another minority harrassing her in a dark parking lot. And in your mind, she is just another person discounting you despite all your accomplishments.
Title: Re: Key To Success
Post by: hippocampus on October 25, 2006, 05:39:56 AM
Quote from: a n on October 17, 2006, 03:42:52 AM
[...] after all, going with quite a few guys [...]
quite a few???
[...] that she was forced to go with close realtives at an early age or so we are told [...]
Are you somewhat suggesting she's made that up to sound interesting?
remember the faggotty Eminem?
Could you expand this please?
Post by: ipsedixit on October 26, 2006, 06:03:33 PM
Quote from: hippocampus on October 25, 2006, 05:39:56 AM
I guess they're saying, hippo, that Orpah succeeded in a genre largely populated by whites, just like Eminem did the-inherently-black-music while being white.
Title: Re: Race Matters ..
Post by: irrevocable on October 26, 2006, 10:38:12 PM
I've never been in France but they say the n-word thing is not a big deal there - it's more about social class than racism or anything else.
Post by: proxy on October 26, 2006, 10:41:06 PM
Did they recognize her being Oprah Winfrey? I mean, if they did not, they could have thought she was just another crazy black woman trying to enter the store after it closed ..
Post by: monikka on October 27, 2006, 03:03:42 AM
Quote from: proxy on October 26, 2006, 10:41:06 PM
I can agree with this ... I mean, Oprah does not usually dress up to suggest to people that she's may be black , but not a n-word ...
Post by: free on October 27, 2006, 04:06:03 AM
Wildly popular among white viewers, "The Cosby Show" helped fuel some of this sort of thinking during the Reagan era. As left culture critic Mark Crispin Miller noted in a 1986 essay titled "Cosby Knows Best," the affluent, hyper-consumerist, apolitical African-American Huxtable family -- headed by the affable, impish obstetrician Cliff (played by Dr. Cosby himself) -- functioned as "an ad, implicitly proclaiming the fairness of the American System: 'Look! [Cosby shows us] Even I can have all this!'" "On 'The Cosby show,'" Miller noted, "it appears as if blacks in general can have, and do have, what many whites enjoy and that such material equality need not entail a single break-in. And there are no hard feelings, none at all, now that the old injustices have been so easily rectified."
So America does care to give the impression it's not discriminating against n-word and the like?!
Post by: kohls on October 27, 2006, 04:09:12 AM
Quote from: free on October 27, 2006, 04:06:03 AM
America doesn't f-ing care to give that impression! It's minority members like Oprah and the like that conform to the system and therefore get "promoted" to majority status!
Post by: rudia on October 27, 2006, 04:30:36 PM
Quote from: ipsedixit on October 26, 2006, 06:03:33 PM
It's true that Oprah and Eminem both glorify the system, but Eminem is peculiar in that he does that in a very "funny" way: he's so on your face when exposing the system for what it is in order to get people all riled up to buy his crap music.
It's funny to read rationalizations of critics that want to portray Eminem as attacking the system for real. Eminem is a creature of his environment. He is the authentic voice of the poor, white working class. White trailer trash. He is what American capitalism has made him. His angst is real, his anger legit -- though misdirected at women and gays because of malign social forces. Like Elvis. Or Bill Clinton. One critic called him "our" Johnny Rotten. But where the Sex Pistols attacked the Queen, Eminem bashes queens. One's political, the other's not. And that's all the difference in the world.
But then on top of this a second defense is layered: namely, that Eminem is a master satirist; that his lyrics-which some demented writer in "The London Guardian" declared as being the equal of, and in some ways superior to Robert Browning's -- are really an ironic expose of our own homophobia, mysogyny, class bias. He's our Swift, Twain, Ishmael Reed.
Then realizing there might be a potential conflict between defense A and defense B, a third one is proffered: namely, that the genius of Eminem is to be found in the "ambiguity" of his lyrics-which would, we guess, allow for him to be both "authentic" and "satirical". It's like there's an unreliable narrator at work, say the narrative voice in Henry James or Alain Robbe-Grillet.
"My little sister's birthday, she'll remember me
For a gift I had ten of my boys take her virginity ("Mmm-mm-mmm!")
And bitches know me as a horny-ass freak
Their mother wasn't raped, I ate her female private part while she was 'sleep
Pissy-drunk, throwin' up in the urinal
("You @ # ! * i n' homo!")
That's what I said at my dad's funeral"
From the song "Amityville"
All these defenses are undermined by what Eminem himself has to say about what he's doing -- which is that the lyrics are a "gimmick", that "they don't mean what they say", and "aren't worth a grain of salt". In other words, it's all a put on, not for some satirical purpose, but merely because he and his label know that these kinds of exploitative lyrics appeal to pre-teens who share many of the same phobias/fantasies. In other words, it's not about making music, expressing the condition of the alienated working class in Detroit, but about making money. Eminem said this precisely in his attack on Napster. He's marketing hate to kids for money. It's that simple and not that different in kind from tobacco advertising -- which could be defended on artistic and First amendment grounds as well, and indeed has been by the tobacco industry's hired guns.
Eminem's lyrics are a kind of premeditated infantilism, but not a healthy regression toward the polymorphous perverse, but a summons to the thanatic impulse, a call for division, repression, an invocation of the very forces that have divided the working class for decades. He serves the interests of the State. The idea that Eminem might be "censored" is a ruse, and a tired one, and an insult to those who have truly been censored. Cross the powerful, question the System and you risk censorship, lawsuits, SLAPP suits, beatings, harassment or worse. As long as Eminem remains a whore for the corporations, he will continue to accumulate wealth and be shielded from the censors of the state. And he is a corporate mercenary, whether it's flacking for Nike or for the music industy's trade association, the Recording Industry Association of America.
Let him rap by all means. To our minds, he's a hired gun from the poor part of town who preys on the powerless, extorts money from the poor, and celebrates a thuggish brand of gangster capitalism. His defenders and apologists in the critical world are just another arm of the very same industry. The more instructive analogy with Eminem would have been with Browning's original idol, Percy Shelley -- the most irascible English poet since Kit Marlowe. Shelley was an adulterer, an atheist, an abortionist, drove his first wife to suicide, a victim of censorship who was driven from England, and in turmoil with his own homosexual longings. The all-round infant terrible of English poetry, who had the honor of being savaged by the crypto-fascist Matthew Arnold. Forget Shelley's ability with the language and look only at the sensibility of the two. Both have blood lust. But Shelley longs to see the powerful pay, the deposition of tyrants; he was an unrepentant Jacobin. Eminem is the neighborhood bully, preying on the weak, the defenseless, the marginalized, singing the virtues of accumulation and consumption, never once taking on the powerful-a would-be tyrant, himself.
It's one thing to defend Eminem against censorship -- quite another to promote, as Chaucer would say, "the sentence" or message of his lyrics. Remember the lines by Shelley, dashed off in a hour of rage following the Peterloo Massacre -- the WTO protest of its day, where 40,000 protesters and laborers were trampled by English police on horseback. Try to find any similar sentiments in Eminem. Here are two stanzas:
The seed ye sow, another reaps;
the wealth ye find, another keeps;
the robes ye weave, another wears;
the arms ye forge, another bears.
Sow seed-but let no tyrant reap;
Find wealth-let no imposter heap:
Weave robes-let not the idle wear;
Forge arms-in your defence to bear
Title: Eminem is a f-ing joke
Post by: anotherblogispossible on October 27, 2006, 04:42:43 PM
I generally don't pay much attention to rich white boys rapping hip hop unless they have some talent like the Beastie Boys. Never understood the popularity of Eminem, but I can say after watching his latest anti-Bush video that the guy's career has definitely jumped the shark. If you haven't seen the video, it's basically an animated anti-Bush song full of feisty imagery. Just when you think that the video is going somewhere with a soldier doffing their uniforms and putting on black bloc hip hop gear, the video ends with one of the most intentionally hilarious bad endings ever filmed. We're talking the end of "Return of the Jedi" here, but instead of brave rebels dancing with muppets we have a revolution that crashes and burns at the voter registration table. Instead of the angry peeps burning down the institutions of imperial America, they obediently get into line to register their disempowerment via the voter registration form.
Decontructing this video, you have to wonder if Eminem secretly despises his fans. He urges them to get behind him in this army of disgruntled hip-hoppers who wear identical gear from Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters. They obediently line up to register to vote and will presumably queue up in the sequel to buy more of Eminem's liberal hip hop crap. I would love to be a fly on the wall of a room filled with former Black Panthers who are watching this video. I can imagine the hilarity that would ensue in the room as true revolutionaries reacted to the liberal sell-out message of this talentless rapper. I can also see the sparkle in the eyes of the Chumbawamba troupe, as they exchange knowing glances, right before bursting out in song: "turning revolution into money."
It's a total shame that Eminem has offered up this hilarious display of revolutionary premature ejaculation. The video is fine in terms of criticizing Bush, but it fails to criticize the Democrats, who are equally culpable in the war and the other ills depicted in the video. The urging for people to vote at the end is just a sorry example of liberal capitalism trying to exploit revolution and popular anger for a few more bucks.
Eminem, you @ # ! * i n g suck, you liberal capitalist wanker!
Post by: zaphir on October 27, 2006, 04:55:51 PM
Time for the "faggotty" stuff, now. I would like to see some pictures depicting him for the homo he is. Roll on, fellas!
Post by: mellisabean on October 29, 2006, 04:42:33 AM
Are fame and fortune dreams come true? According to Eminem, they're more of a nightmare.
(http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6573/untitledyq2.jpg)
Born Marshall Mathers III and alternately known as Slim Shady, the guy from Detroit came from out of nowhere, skyrocketed to hip-hop stardom in less than two years, and is now a household name, unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons. With four-million copies sold in five weeks (ten-million to date), Eminem's latest release The Marshall Mathers LP scored the best-selling solo debut week in pop history. The CD won countless awards, accolades, and, an avalanche of criticism, for its implications of violence and prejudice. The unrestrained rapper has become a steady guest on every rock radio station's playlist and every publication's headlines. Each for very different reasons. Eminem has kept the news desks full with his controversial lyrics, arrests, weapons charges, lawsuits, marital disputes, and, believe it or not, four Grammy nominations – complete with corresponding backlash from critics and activist groups alike.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3j8m8IyQ-s&mode=related&search=
Post by: frisky on October 30, 2006, 01:10:38 AM
Quote from: kohls on October 27, 2006, 04:09:12 AM
America doesn't @ # ! * i n g care to give that impression! It's minority members like Oprah and the like that conform to the system and therefore get "promoted" to majority status!
Way too many black women conform to the system but they don't get so easily "promoted to majority status," let alone earn millions like Oprah did ..
Post by: netka on November 02, 2006, 01:59:04 AM
I can swallow down the cousin and the "family friend," but what about about the uncle thing?!
Post by: pixelaw on November 03, 2006, 08:45:56 PM
You can definitely think in these terms .. I mean, in Nazi Germany you had no chance whatsoever to rise in prominence if you're Jew, even if you supported Hitler's views 110% .. Any Jew Nazi Party members, anyone?
Post by: Dr. Balsenschaft on November 04, 2006, 11:50:23 AM
I find it interesting that Bill Cosby was offended by his portrayal in The House of Cosbys when black people were offended by their portrayal in The Cosby Show.
"He was a Cosby fan at heart...it's clear.
He searched and found a Cosby hair.
He spent 10 long years and built a cloning machine!
And now he's accomplished his wonderful dream.
To make a house of Cosbys...It's a House of Cosbys...."
Post by: asif on November 04, 2006, 10:23:15 PM
Quote from: pixelaw on November 03, 2006, 08:45:56 PM
Reinhard Heydrich.
http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/students/index.php/topic,4878.msg41136.html#msg41136
Post by: triad on November 05, 2006, 04:43:20 AM
hmm ...
Post by: ilove on November 05, 2006, 05:25:14 PM
Quote from: asif on November 04, 2006, 10:23:15 PM
Posterity has sometimes portrayed him as the beau ideal of the racist Nazi fantasy, the fulfillment of the blond-haired blue-eyed Aryan dream. But one contemporary described Reinhard Tristan Heydrich in less flattering terms:
"He was a tall, impressive figure with a broad, unusually high forehead, small restless eyes as crafty as an animal's and of uncanny power, and a wide full-lipped mouth," wrote Walter Schellenberg, Heydrich's protege in the German intelligence service. "His hands were slender and rather too long -- they made one think of the legs of a spider. His splendid figure was marred by the breadth of his hips, a disturbingly feminine effect which made him appear even more sinister. His voice was much too high for so large a man and his speech was nervous and staccato."
Whatever the reality of his physical appearance, Heydrich was by all accounts brilliant, ruthless, sadistic and profoundly anti-Semitic. Determined to scale the heights of Nazi power, by the spring of 1942 he was well on his way. Second in command of the Schutzstaffel -- Heinrich Himmler's rapidly expanding security system -- and Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia, he was responsible for creating a model SS state in which all Czechoslovak culture would be Germanicized and all Czechoslovak Jews "resettled" in the Eastern territories.
But on May 27, 1942, while riding in an open touring car from his home to his office, Heydrich was fatally wounded in a grenade attack by members of the Czechoslovak underground parachuted in by the British. It was an event so singular and so successful in its immediate objective that it has ever after posed the question why other major Nazi figures didn't suffer similar fates. In "The Killing of SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich," Callum MacDonald, a historian at the University of Warwick, England, has provided the most complete account to date of Heydrich's assassination. He has offered a portrait of the so-called Butcher of Prague that explains why Adolf Hitler admired him so and considered him a possible successor.
Post by: gejco on November 06, 2006, 03:45:46 AM
Quote from: netka on November 02, 2006, 01:59:04 AM
You mean, the uncle is a close relative and she would not have included him in the list of her rapists, had she made the whole thing up?
Post by: TammySouza on November 06, 2006, 04:34:38 AM
Exactly, gejco, I mean, unless they gangbanged her, I just can not see how she would get raped repeatedly (in three separate occasions) by family members -- I mean, c'mon, did she not tell anybody, didn't they take any measures to protect her from such rapists? Where are these three individuals today?
Post by: deja on November 06, 2006, 04:44:23 AM
Tammy, if you're asking where "these individuals" are today to imply they should/could have been prosecuted, you've to take into account the statute of limitations issue (not sarcastic.)
Post by: theworldinahand on November 06, 2006, 09:47:51 PM
Be grateful that you are broke law students, otherwise you'd have been assessed a meaty judgement against given what you've said here ...
Post by: pruritis on November 07, 2006, 05:24:48 PM
... and become "famous" in the process, theworld ... maybe that's why they don't get sued, after all ...
Post by: captain jack on November 07, 2006, 06:05:24 PM
Quote from: deja on November 06, 2006, 04:44:23 AM
Why did you think we could think you were sarcastic? What you said is true and did not appear to be snide at all ...
Post by: gabryponte on November 07, 2006, 06:52:14 PM
Quote from: pruritis on November 07, 2006, 05:24:48 PM
But that's not why they're posting what they're posting, though :)
Post by: kipeet on November 14, 2006, 02:25:14 AM
Quote from: damnn on October 05, 2006, 01:56:47 AM
Can ya direct to some cops porn vidoes? Anyone?!
Post by: Runner-up on November 16, 2006, 08:31:15 PM
You're never going to purge the world of racism. It exists on both sides of the fence, and it will never completely go away. The question is how well you deal with it. Whether you are able to rise above it or sink to it's level. The answer that many people give to that question is not comforting.
In fact, it's sickening.
Post by: butas on November 19, 2006, 08:28:13 AM
Not really! We read all the time about people being charged for murders they committed 20 years ago! Rape and/or statutory rape may not be as bad as murder, but it's close!
Post by: bionse on November 29, 2006, 11:17:06 PM
(http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7283/image79lvy9.jpg)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=695xuPr_OQU
Post by: cleverhans on December 07, 2006, 02:16:42 AM
Oprah is just a piece of obama!
Post by: rosebud on December 07, 2006, 07:21:42 PM
LOL cleverhans! ;)
Post by: LawNOrder on December 29, 2006, 08:49:43 PM
Wow, interesting username, pixelaw!
Post by: my stepson my lover on May 31, 2007, 03:51:43 AM
Oprah Winfrey is a whore. Well, at least.
Post by: jillibean on May 31, 2007, 06:08:07 AM
No matter how great you do or how far you come there will always be some people out there who see one thing- your skin. Racism does hurt, but don't let it bother you- you can't change their feelings and you can't take back the moment anyway
Title: A Judge's $54 Million Lawsuit Against Dry Cleaners, Day 2
Post by: cashonly on June 30, 2007, 03:21:17 PM
(http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/OB-AL727_roy_pe_20070614093335.jpg)
Roy Pearson (pictured), the D.C. administrative law judge who sued his dry cleaners for allegedly losing a pair of pants, asking for $54 million in damages.
Pearson accuses Custom Dry Cleaners of returning him the wrong pair of pants and breaking its promises to him because of signs that hung in the store which said "Same Day Service" and "Satisfaction Guaranteed." The trial began on June 13.
Pearson said yesterday that "there is no case in the District of Columbia or in the United States that comes anywhere close to the outrageousness of the behavior of the defendants in this case." When on cross-examination the lawyer for Custom Dry Cleaners asked Pearson, "Without regard to the law, as a human being, as a person, don't you think it makes sense to interpret merchant signage in a reasonable way?," Pearson responded, "No."
Then, Judge Judith Bartnoff asked Pearson the following hypothetical, according to the WaPo: If a customer demands $1,000 for a lost garment and the merchant truly believes the customer is lying, does a "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign require the shop owner to hand over a check? "Yes," Pearson said.
The judge said she wouldn't issue a decision until next week. Stay tuned.
Post by: landrover06 on July 01, 2007, 07:25:01 PM
Jesus Christ! So trite and meaningless this story. Life is too short for this. You are crying because you have no shoes. Imagine how people feel who have no feet.
Here's some rules to live by:
1) Racism will always exist. Dark-skinned black people will catch the worst of it, so be prepared.
2) Be prepared.
3) You can't change people, only your reaction to them.
4) Racism will always exist in every form at every level. Be versatile enough to navigate around or through it.
5) People treat you different because of your race, it's their problem, not yours.
6) We are in Dubya Dark Ages, where it is fashionable to be a redneck, a hillbilly, or a backwoods moron from Crawford, Tx. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
7) The red states were wrong.
8) The blue states were right.
9) Kick yourself if you reside in a red state. You get what you deserve.
10) Pat yourself on the back if you reside in a blue state. Better, but not perfect.
11) Only you can create your own reality.
Title: Re: A Judge's $54 Million Lawsuit Against Dry Cleaners, Day 2
Post by: BKA on July 03, 2007, 06:34:00 PM
Quote from: cashonly on June 30, 2007, 03:21:17 PM
cashonly, you're so funny! ;)
Post by: spoons on July 04, 2007, 07:10:02 PM
(http://www.beatcanvas.com/pics/pompous_ass_roy_pearson.jpg)
Pearson's undergraduate degree was earned at Lake Forest College and his J.D. at Northwestern University School of Law. Upon graduation, he first taught at, then became assistant director of, the clinical program at the Georgetown University Law Center. Pearson passed the bar for the District of Columbia in 1978 and was admitted to the bar for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985.
Washington DC lawyer Roy Pearson lost his $54 million lawsuit against his dry cleaner whom he claimed misplaced his pants. According to ABC News, Pearson, who represented himself in court, broke down and cried while questioning himself about the mental anguish of losing his pants. He claimed they cost $800.
The sad thing is that ol' Roy's a judge, who holds court to interpret the law for others, and he somehow believed that the law gave him the right to drag his local dry cleaners through court for two years and sue for an amount totalling over 80,000 pairs of the pants, which had a value of $800, as he gave it. And if that's not enough to believe Judge Pearson impeachable, how about his behavior on the stand? On the witness stand, Pearson broke down in tears and had to take a break from his testimony because he became too emotional while questioning himself about his experience with the missing trousers.
Those weren't pants... it was his woobie.
In his opening statement, Pearson came out swinging, telling the court, "Never before in recorded history have a group of defendants engaged in such misleading and unfair business practices." Repeatedly referring to himself as "we..." What is he - the queen?? Pearson sought to present himself as the leader of a class of tens of thousands, if not a half million people, consisting of local residents he believes are at risk of falling for such insidious business practices as posting "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Same Day Service" signs. Pearson said at one point in court filings that he planned to call 63 witnesses.
"Mr. Pearson, you are not 'we.' You are an 'I,'" Bartnoff told him.
As Pearson explained the details of the missing pants, he struggled to get through his hour and a half of testimony, most of which concerned his credentials and his background. He became visibly emotional when he reached the point in the story in which he recounted a confrontation with Soo Chung from the dry cleaning store. "These are not my pants," he testified, and said he told her, "I have in my adult life, with one exception, never worn pants with cuffs." Pearson testified that Chung insisted, saying, "These are your pants." Pearson then rushed from the courtroom, overcome with emotion.
He rushed from the courtroom, overcome with emotion, over a pair of pants? And he presides over justice in court?? Hoo boy. I hope that's corrected as soon as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTB4AsHJQFg&mode=related&search=
Post by: laundry on July 04, 2007, 07:22:21 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOBfba65ZZA&mode=related&search=
Post by: Victoria Principal on July 06, 2007, 04:11:57 AM
Quote from: laundry on July 04, 2007, 07:22:21 PM
Oh man, it\'s so @ # ! * i n g funny!
Post by: height on July 09, 2007, 04:52:32 PM
Post by: ActiveXControl on July 10, 2007, 04:20:59 PM
Quote from: spoons on July 04, 2007, 07:10:02 PM
Pearson\'s undergraduate degree was earned at Lake Forest College and his J.D. at Northwestern University School of Law. Upon graduation, he first taught at, then became assistant director of, the clinical program at the Georgetown University Law Center. Pearson passed the bar for the District of Columbia in 1978 and was admitted to the bar for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985.
Just a reminder to all you bigshots that go to Northwestern and the like and eventually become law professors -- this is who your colleagues are! :P
Post by: la bamba on July 27, 2007, 05:02:19 PM
Nobody has ever said that everyone who goes to a top law school is right in his mind!
Post by: winnow on September 02, 2007, 09:49:53 PM
Quote from: irrevocable on October 26, 2006, 10:38:12 PM
Although you cannot reduce everything to class, class remains an important factor in understanding multiple forms of oppression. For instance, it is a mistake to view all blacks as one monolithic cultural group without marked differences: US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is black, after all (and conservative). Race, itself, is not necessarily a unifying force. While you cannot reduce the analysis of racism to social class, you cannot understand racism fully without a class analysis. What is crucial to understand is that the analysis of oppression should be approached through a convergent theoretical framework where the object of oppression is cut across by factors as race, class, gender, culture, and ethnicity.
Post by: everyman on September 06, 2007, 07:59:00 PM
Oprah Winfrey's horoscope is quite interesting! ;) She's a T-Cross in Fixed signs. Mercury in Aquarius is opposite Pluto in Leo. Both have square aspects from Mars in Scorpio. Mars (energy and action) is in Point Focus, giving plenty of energy. The empty leg of the cross is opposite that 11th house Mars. That means the focus is on her 5th house, the house of romance, creativity, and self-expression, as well as fun and games. She has to be having lots of fun doing that show (and all those other activities). Basically, her occupation is just being Oprah and that is a very 5th house. The T-Cross is in Fixed signs and they have to do with values. Through her show (and now the magazine) she affects the opinions and values of millions. The empty sign in the T-Cross is Taurus, a sign of money, possessions, and resources. Yes, Oprah has made a lot of money for herself. And every time she recommends something, it becomes a best seller.
Post by: internet on September 09, 2007, 01:14:31 AM
Well, I guess she'll retain your services as her personal astrologer when she becomes Secretary of State! :)
Post by: Cathy Vernon on September 10, 2007, 03:44:44 AM
Quote from: internet on September 09, 2007, 01:14:31 AM
LOL internet! ;)
Post by: QI on February 27, 2008, 12:34:55 PM
(http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8413/432216445d00a381121okt3.jpg)
Post by: berate on April 15, 2008, 02:06:37 PM
Quote from: rudia on October 27, 2006, 04:30:36 PM
It's funny to read rationalizations of critics that want to portray Eminem as attacking the system for real. Eminem is a creature of his environment. He is the authentic voice of the poor, white working class. White trailer trash. He is what American capitalism has made him. His angst is real, his anger legit -- though misdirected at women and gays because of malign social forces. Like Elvis. Or Bill Clinton. One critic called him "our" Johnny Rotten.
LOL rudia! ;)
Post by: amantadine on May 05, 2008, 09:38:15 AM
Quote from: winnow on September 02, 2007, 09:49:53 PM
There's no doubt a lack of motivation among many black students to work hard at school. Many black youth do not have the motivation to stay in school and study. One of the most important factors in how motivated a student is is his parents. There has been shown to be a correlation between how much parents care about their child's education and how well the student performs in school.When students' parents care about their education enough to pay attention to the grades they get and make sure that they do their homework, students will at least care about what grades they get and will probably be motivated to do some of the work. It is also quite likely that such parents can instill in their children an understanding of the value of a good education. Unfortunately, many students' parents do not pay enough attention to their children's education, either because they do not think it is important, or because they are so busy with other problems.
An important part of this is how their parents perceive the educational system. Due to the fact that over the years schooling for black students has often been inferior to that of white students, many blacks do not trust the educational system to have any interest in preparing their students for desirable jobs. As a result, they often do not cooperate with the schools by making their students do their homework and by teaching their students how important it is for them to get an education. A main reason that black youth are not motivated to learn in school is due to inequality in society. The problem of black motivation originates with black people's awareness of a bias against blacks in the job market and in the educational system. A system of castelike stratification is in place, one in accordance with which many blacks are prevented from getting good jobs due to racist hiring practices. This is different from class stratification, which is the division of people by education and ability instead of race. In fact, class stratification has not completely replaced caste stratification.
Post by: christophine on May 06, 2008, 08:20:40 AM
Sure it hurts, but not as much as sexual harrassment.
http://www.philalawyer.net/archives/lawyers_in_heat_1.phtml
Yes, this happens. I have heard horror stories.
Post by: fortified bread on May 06, 2008, 02:51:52 PM
Quote from: labeta on May 05, 2008, 09:38:15 AM
Interesting, labeta!
Post by: STATA on May 31, 2008, 12:57:35 PM
Oprah should shut the @ # ! * up -- were she not black she would have never been who she's today. A white woman of her "caliber" -- with her crappy interviewing style and the like -- would be considered average at best. At the end of the 1960s Oprah ran away from home and ran the streets. After skipping two of her earliest grades (which are very easy, by international standards anyway) she also became the teacher's pet. She was also very promiscuous, sexually speaking; after all, going with quite a few guys in adulthood it's pretty lame when you take into account that she was forced to go with close realtives at an early age or so we are told (that must have helped). Finally, in a field dominated by white males -- that of TV talk show -- she is a black female of ample bulk, a reason that can certainly not be downplayed in the big picture, remember the faggotty Eminem?
That's exactly what they say about Obama -- he would not be where he is were he not black.
Title: Eminem ain't nothin but a b i t c h
Post by: m a y a on August 29, 2008, 11:58:23 AM
It's funny to read rationalizations of critics that want to portray Eminem as attacking the system for real. Eminem is a creature of his environment. He is the authentic voice of the poor, white working class. White trailer trash. He is what American capitalism has made him. His angst is real, his anger legit -- though misdirected at women and gays because of malign social forces. Like Elvis. Or Bill Clinton. One critic called him "our" Johnny Rotten. But where the Sex Pistols attacked the Queen, Eminem bashes queens. One's political, the other's not. And that's all the difference in the world. But then on top of this a second defense is layered: namely, that Eminem is a master satirist; that his lyrics-which some demented writer in "The London Guardian" declared as being the equal of, and in some ways superior to Robert Browning's -- are really an ironic expose of our own homophobia, mysogyny, class bias. He's our Swift, Twain, Ishmael Reed. Then realizing there might be a potential conflict between defense A and defense B, a third one is proffered: namely, that the genius of Eminem is to be found in the "ambiguity" of his lyrics-which would, we guess, allow for him to be both "authentic" and "satirical". It's like there's an unreliable narrator at work, say the narrative voice in Henry James or Alain Robbe-Grillet.
Eminem's lyrics are a kind of premeditated infantilism, but not a healthy regression toward the polymorphous perverse, but a summons to the thanatic impulse, a call for division, repression, an invocation of the very forces that have divided the working class for decades. He serves the interests of the State. The idea that Eminem might be "censored" is a ruse, and a tired one, and an insult to those who have truly been censored. Cross the powerful, question the System and you risk censorship, lawsuits, SLAPP suits, beatings, harassment or worse. As long as Eminem remains a whore for the corporations, he will continue to accumulate wealth and be shielded from the censors of the state. And he is a corporate mercenary, whether it's flacking for Nike or for the music industy's trade association, the Recording Industry Association of America. Let him rap by all means. To our minds, he's a hired gun from the poor part of town who preys on the powerless, extorts money from the poor, and celebrates a thuggish brand of gangster capitalist [...]
Eminem: Nowadays everybody wanna talk
But nothing comes out
When they move the lips
Its just a bunch of jibberish
And motherfuckers act like Eminem aint' gay
Everybody forgot
Eminem: What up Dre
Dre: Yeah
Eminem: It's all about Dre
Dre: Compton's in the house
Eminem: Yeah, thats right Compton is in the house
Dre: Come here pull down your panites you little b i t c h
Eminem: Aiight, hold up dog go easy on me and * & ^ % you ripped my a s s h o l e last time
Dre: Come get some of this Compton d i c k
Eminem: Let me take off this white shirt so you can see my bird chest
Dre: You wanna be famous?
Eminem: Uh huh
Dre: Spread that b i t c h ass
Dre: Yeah, Compton
Eminem: Uh, dog, your hurting me dog
Dre: Your the tightest detriot rapper you little b i t c h
Eminem: Your ripping my a s s h o l e dog, hold on a sec, wait don't bust
Eminem: Hold on a sec, don't bust
Dre: Come here
Eminem: Wait, uh wait, uh, hold on don't bust
Dre: Take all of this Compton d i c k
Eminem: Hold on don't bust, do it on my lip like a milk ad
Dre: Comptons in that ass
Eminem: It's all about Dre, ahh ahh
Dre: You wanna be famous you little b i t c h
Eminem: Man don't tell Kim dog please, it's all about Dre
Dre: Aiight, now get the @ # ! * out of here
Eminem: Aww * & ^ %
b i t c h boy mutha fucka
You might have them 11 year old groupies
Believing your * & ^ %
But you ain't fooling nobody b i t c h
You a mutha @ # ! * i n - b i t c h
You ain't never shot at us with no paint balls
Matter of fact you can come get these painted balls, mutha fucka
Come get these juggalo painted balls, b i t c h
You ain't never chased us out of no club, b i t c h
Only club you ever chased anybody out of was a gay bar, b i t c h.
Straight out of Warren
b i t c h you a joke
Sucking so much d i c k your @ # ! * i n g lips smoke
With your silly ass pretty boy rap
Mean muggin and thuggin sittin on Dre's lap.
Pull a gat on my thug
No bullets or nothin, you shaking
Stumbling, nervous
Fumbling, scared to death
Screamin for help
So damn shook you almost shot yourself.
You're a radio thug with your preppy smile
Got everybody hoppin out every 35 miles tellin us we fake
Lil faggot, I'ma knock your teeth out the back of your neck
You might have little girls cryin and * & ^ %
But the detroit thugs aint buying your * & ^ %
Run your ass back to Dr Dre and open your butt
Little groupie ass boy get screwed!
*chorus*
Dumbass, hoeass, weakass, b i t c h!
Eminem ain't nothing but a b i t c h (b i t c h)
Weakass, markass, punkass, bitchass, b i t c h!
Sissy ass radio b i t c h (b i t c h)
Wait a minute don't run, what's up with that?
I'm just trying to give you this 300 bucks back
That you gave to Twiztid so you could open up they show
You little p u s s y ass hoe
Look at us dawg who put us on the map?
3 plat, 2 gold, and we still like that
We did it alone without D.R.E)
But he owns and knows your butt like a puss
Husband, tell me where she at
Everybody be @ # ! * i n g that b i t c h you don't see that?
I know 3 people she @ # ! * e d on you
Over at Hotrocks, she be @ # ! * i n g bitches too
You told the world you gonna kill the slut
Then you on tv licking her butt
Be careful your prolly gonna taste my nut
Cause even I be @ # ! * i n g that b i t c h raw, like what
Preppy ass teenie bop b i t c h (b i t c h)
I remember yo ass at St. Andrews Hall, handing out yo flyers
"Come one come all, come to my show"
I looked at it, WHAT, right there
"Insane Clown Posse might show up".
What the @ # ! * kind of rapper could be that lame
Only way you draw people is to use our name
I could have just @ # ! * e d you up right there
But I let it pass.
I felt bad for ya b i t c h ass
Everytime I met you your sucking d i c k
Now your on the pop charts sucking d i c k
You'll be sucking d i c k for eternity
Look at ya mouth it look like a p u s s y
I know that Slim Anus got to you
Yeah only because it was so damn true
When think of your daughter, it makes me sad
She got a whore for a mama and a b i t c h ass dad
Top 40 female private part rap beotch (b i t c h)(b i t c h)(b i t c h)(b i t c h)(b i t c h)
Eminem ain't nothing but a b i t c h (b i t c h)(b i t c h)(b i t c h)(b i t c h)(b i t c h)
Mainstream pretty boy bitchhhhhhhhhhhhh (b i t c h)
Sucka ass mother fucka
Hitler ass haircut
Bitchass mother @ # ! * i n g
Boyband ass Top 40 Casey Casem
Carson Daly d i c k suckin mutha fucka
http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/i/icp4323/eminemaintnothinbutabitch526460.html
Post by: marshallah on September 03, 2008, 04:17:48 PM
Looks like we're getting pretty graphic in here..
Post by: lust on September 03, 2008, 06:13:57 PM
Not at all, marshallah, Eminem is truly a b i t c h!
Post by: OldCraig on September 03, 2008, 09:36:04 PM
To the original poster:
You think modern-racist jeers hurt? Try being pigeon-holed as a has-everything, racist, womanizer b/c your a decent looking white male and having any shot at meritocracy destroyed by affirmative action which claims to help minorities when really you represent more of a minority than any shallow racial categorization could b/c individually you represent a working-class, disjointed first generation Frenchman who has to bleed hard to get ANYthing in this country.
To you I'm just a white guy - a part of some ill-conceived mass populous hell-bent on "keeping you down" - THAT HURTS my friend.
Title: Mary Kay LaTourneau: A Love Like No Other
Post by: u s ehe r n a m e on September 06, 2008, 01:25:00 PM
It's interesting to see in what ways people react to the values of their parents and the like. John George Schmitz (1930-2001) — also known as John G. Schmitz — of California, born in Milwaukee, Wis., on August 12, 1930, was the father of Mary Kay LeTourneau. Schmitz was a member of California state senate; U.S. Representative from California 35th District; reprimanded by the California Senate in 1982 over a press release issued by his office, which characterized a critic and her supporters with crude slurs. Prominent member of the John Birch Society (a right-wing racist organization) and the American Independent Party candidate for President of the United States in 1972.
It may come as no surprise why Mary Kay acted the way she did -- in fact, in her biography she talks about her father, whose life also fell apart when he had an affair with a former student; her unhappy marriage, forced by her disapproving parents; and her continuing love for Vili, the father of two of her children.
Mary Kay Letourneau, was 34, and the married mother of four children in 1996, when she and Vili Fualaau, her 6th grade student entered into a sexual relationship. She was arrested in 1997 when she was pregnant with their child and sentenced to 6 months in jail and ordered to have no contact with Vili. A month later she was caught in her car with him and she was pregnant with their second child. She served 7½ years in prison for having sex with a minor. She was released from prison on August 4, 2004. The movie "All-American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story" (2000) has been suggested to have accurately portrayed the anguish and the ecstasy of a true love occurring between an adult woman and a minor man, confronting the Talibanistic-Christian sexual repression that underlies far too much of American society.
Post by: naturallybeyoutiful on September 17, 2008, 11:58:35 AM
Quote from: STATA on May 31, 2008, 12:57:35 PM
I'm more interested in Palin. If she were "Shanika" Palin with the *EXACT SAME* qualifications -- would John McCain have chosen her as his running mate and put her one heartbeat away from the highest office in the most powerful nation on earth? (Clearly, this is rhetorical!)
Let's face it, folks. It's not about Obama. It's Sarah Palin who would not be where she is were she not a white woman. But our nation isn't intellectually honest enough to admit this. When blacks achieve, it's because there was some kind of extrinsic handout that made a success out of a lazy, slothful, slow-witted failure who wasn't supposed to do anything other than the 2008 equivalent of "yessir, massa" from the back of the bus, the foot of your bed, or the back door to your establishment. For many people, there's not one black person -- not Obama, not Oprah, not that black guy in your Civ Pro class who you know "took the spot" of your well-deserving white friend in what is the most insidious case of true (aka reverse) discrimination you've ever witnessed -- who has actually earned anything they've managed to acquire besides perhaps an STD or a sentence of 25 years to life.
When whites advance, however, it's because they intrinsically earned and deserved the promotion, opportunity, and accolades. It's never because of luck, their family ties, political connections, physical appearance, financial resources, country-club affiliation, "legacy" status, or (gasp!!) the fact that white people even subconsciously look out for one another and give each other the benefit of the doubt, etc. And it's certainly not because they are riding on the back of something their daddy/granddaddy did that, in turn, was not earned solely on the basis of his "qualifications"/hard work or was altogether foreclosed to blacks during that era, too. No, no, no. It's only the white person's ingenuity, perseverance, determination, preparedness, intelligence, wit, charm, likeability, charisma, brilliance, and the like that opened those doors. Why, that's the (white) American way. ::) ::yawn::
Of course, this thinking is the way every generation of whites in this nation has found to justify the continued double-standard when it comes to race and class divisions in this country, and it is a convenient and self-serving doctrine grasped tightly by those who can afford to be comfortably ignorant to the truth. And for that reason, I and millions of other blacks like me will still work to knock down barriers, open doors of opportunity for all, and challenge a nation unaccustomed to anything resembling a true meritocracy to actually live out the true meaning of its creed. Those are just my thoughts. ymmv
For Those Who Are Confused - Michael Tomasky
I received this email over the weekend from a friendly acquaintance. It should help sort out some questions you may have. The subject heading on the email was "I was confused but now I'm not." This took some figuring out:
If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers -- a quintessential American story.
If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track -- you're a maverick.
Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
Attend five different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
If you spend three years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a constitutional law professor, spend eight years as a state senator representing a district with more than 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
If your total resume is: local weather girl, four years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment
of her inner-city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude," with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
Post by: naturallybeyoutiful on September 17, 2008, 12:03:43 PM
And while we're on the subject....
Obama is where he is *IN SPITE* of his race, not because of it. This is the kind of crazy crap that black people are up against day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. The higher you climb, the nastier and more insidious the fight. This latest stunt from the right-wingers (with whom I agree on some issues, but not on their choice of candidates in this election) is a disgrace to our entire nation and an affront to me as a black American, as a Christian, and as an informed citizen who takes seriously her vote in our democratic system.
First, Aunt Jemima. Then Uncle Ben. Now I guess it's Obama. The more things change, the more they stay the same...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chip-berlet/bigoted-obama-waffles-pac_b_126404.html
Post by: khalid on November 03, 2008, 10:52:46 AM
Over the years unhappy former employees have revealed tidbits about Harpo as a less-than-loving workplace. "An environment of dishonesty and chaos" is how one former publicist described Harpo in a 1994 statement accompanying a suit seeking severance and back salary. (That suit was settled quietly 2 years later.) Oprah has successfully intercepted revelations by insisting that everyone who works at Harpo sign an unusual lifelong confidentiality agreement. "You wouldn't say it's harsh if you were in the tabloids all the time," Oprah says in her defense. The confidentiality agreement underscores what is both her business' greatest strength and its potential downfall: Oprah's business is Oprah. If she does something as Oprah the person that undermines the trust her customers have in Oprah the persona, her brand could quickly fizzle. It's a threat that Oprah has under tight control.
Elizabeth Coady, a former senior associate producer, quit in 1998 and intended to write a book about her experiences at Harpo. Coady calls Harpo, where she worked for more than 4 years, a "narcissistic workplace." Of Oprah, Coady says, "Everyone undermines everybody else to get more access to Oprah, and I think she encourages it." But it's unlikely we'll hear more details in a book; an Illinois appeals court upheld the confidentiality agreement Coady had signed.
Today Harpo has 221 employees (68% are women), modest turnover (10% to 15% a year), and stability at the top. The average tenure of 16-year-old Harpo's ten most senior execs is ten years. The cavernous Harpo headquarters, housed in a onetime hockey rink reconfigured into a maze of offices and production facilities, has an in-house spa and a gym--where most mornings Oprah can be spotted sweating on the treadmill. Pay and benefits are "exceptional," says Debbie McElroy, a headhunter with the Lucas Group who recently tried to recruit a $100,000-a-year personal accountant for Oprah. "Employees get an average 6 weeks' vacation their first year at Harpo," McElroy says. Two of her candidates met with Oprah, but the boss wound up hiring a friend of a friend. That's typical. Everything is personal at Harpo. While Oprah does delegate operational decisions, she is all over her content. Before O gets shipped to the printer, she reads every word and scrutinizes every picture--typically working on the magazine, via her office PC, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and all day Friday, when she doesn't shoot her show. "She's into every little niggly thing -- the commas, the exclamation points," says Gayle King, who, as editor-at-large, is Oprah's eyes and ears at the Manhattan-based magazine.
Post by: turquoise on November 04, 2008, 07:52:58 PM
Hahaha - you're so funny, khalid - I know what ya mean! ;)
Title: Oprah: Now that Obama has won, 'I'm unleashed!'
Post by: mind on November 05, 2008, 11:10:54 AM
Quote from: khalid on November 03, 2008, 10:52:46 AM
(http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5940/90927569om4.png)
Oprah Winfrey greeted viewers in a live show from Chicago this morning, a mere 10 hours after President-elect Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech a few miles away in Grant Park, wearing a "Hope Won" T-shirt and calling it "a new day for America." Winfrey, who could be seen getting teary as Obama spoke late Tuesday night, called it "one of the most electrifying and emotional nights I've ever experienced" and said she still does not know the name of the man on whose shoulder she sobbed. "Thank you Mr. Man for letting me cry on your shoulder," she said. Winfrey was an early supporter of Obama's historic pursuit of the White House, but she said Wednesday that she "made a vow at the beginning that I would not use my show as a platform" during the campaign. "So I kept my mouth shut and supported Barack Obama as a private citizen," Winfrey told a studio audience and the millions of viewers who watch her top-rated syndicated daytime show. "Today, though, the election is over and I'm unleashed!"
David Gergen, one of Winfrey's guests, marveled at that. "Oprah unleashed," said Gergen, a CNN analyst and Harvard professor who has advised four U.S. presidents. "I'm sure that will change history." Winfrey's attempt to distance her politics from her television program may have been simply a matter of trying not to alienate those fans who did not share her support of Obama, and she made an effort to reach out to those people as well. "For those of you who have been loyal viewers who voted differently than I and 52% of the country did, I respect your choice and understand how you might be feeling -- somewhat disappointed today -- just as I would be," Winfrey said. "I'm telling you, if this were not the outcome, I would be doing this show from Northwestern Hospital with a drip today. Really. So I do understand," she continued. "But my deepest hope is that in the days and weeks ahead we will all come together with the same renewed spirit that we took to the polls because we need each other now more than ever."
Title: Oprah sued over man's arrest on extortion charge
Post by: W.W. on November 05, 2008, 11:33:24 AM
(http://www.ruthlessbiz.com/media/Keiferpicture_1.jpg)
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A Louisiana man has filed a lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey, claiming she and an attorney made false statements that led the FBI to arrest him on charges that he tried to extort the talk-show host. Keifer Bonvillain, who had the charges dismissed, seeks damages of $180 million from Winfrey, her attorney and the FBI in the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. Bonvillain, of Houma, Louisiana, was arrested in December 2006 after he allegedly recorded telephone conversations with an employee of Winfrey's production company and told a company associate he wanted to publish a book based on the recordings. The FBI said he claimed to have offers from publishers and tabloids ranging from $500,000 to $3 million. The FBI arrested Bonvillain when another company associate agreed to pay him $1.5 million, wired him $3,000 and arranged to meet him. Bonvillain claims in the lawsuit that he did everything he could to avoid doing anything illegal.
"There was substantial damage done to my name and reputation on a world level," he wrote. "The extent of my damages is vast." Federal officials agreed to dismiss the charges last year on the condition that Bonvillain perform 50 hours of community service, undergo drug testing and pay $3,000 in restitution. Chip Babcock, a lawyer for Winfrey's Harpo Productions, denied the allegations in Bonvillain's suit. "And we know that this whole episode started when the plaintiff wiretapped a Harpo employee in California," he said. "We advised (Bonvillain) that we believe that wiretapping was illegal, and this case will give us an opportunity to determine whether we were right about that."
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Post by: vögeln on November 12, 2008, 01:27:08 PM
Power would harness power, but power lies in the flow itself, in the broad and deep currents that transverse society. And, in fact, capitalism has understood something of this and sought to harness the flows (the opposition of those who would naturally go against the grain -- the underclass as one would call them) without trying to freeze them. In other words, assimilation aimed at reintegrating the antagonistic forces.
Post by: vergene on December 11, 2011, 12:39:28 AM
[...] Everything is personal at Harpo. While Oprah does delegate operational decisions, she is all over her content. Before O gets shipped to the printer, she reads every word and scrutinizes every picture--typically working on the magazine, via her office PC, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and all day Friday, when she doesn't shoot her show. "She's into every little niggly thing -- the commas, the exclamation points," says Gayle King, who, as editor-at-large, is Oprah's eyes and ears at the Manhattan-based magazine.
Oh my, she must be obssesive-compulsive to do that!
Post by: J a m i e on December 13, 2011, 02:51:34 PM
Quote from: TammySouza on November 06, 2006, 04:34:38 AM
Quote from: rodtopinka on October 17, 2006, 03:29:28 AM
[...] She was raped by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend and had to live in the inner city ghettos -- yet she was able to become who she is today.
It doesn't mean that she was gangbanged - she has been raped in separate occasions by these people. It may sound strange to people as to why they were not punished for doing that (I don't know what the particulars of the Oprah's story are), but I can tell you this: many people will not go to the authorities to charge a relative with rape for many reasons, shame being the obvious one, but also because they don't want their relative to end up in prison. When I was in college I was sexually assaulted by my cousin; I kept it to myself, I didn't tell to anyone, let alone go to the police. I know it may sound strange to some of you here, but I was too ashamed to even admit that - and truth be told - I did not want him to rot in jail for years and years. I am sure I'm not the only one!
Post by: Julie Fern on March 20, 2012, 05:59:16 AM
you people actually getting paid post this crap? oh my.