By: Danette Gamble, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel
…may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.
This is an adage I’ve heard my whole life.
The meaning--Just because someone calls you a pig, doesn’t mean you’re a pig. (See Sarah Palin).
Name-calling is something people revert to when they can’t give facts to back up their opinion.
By: Danette Gamble, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel
Whenever anyone asks me where I’m from, I simply say, “Louisiana. It’s a nice place to be from." Hopefully, they get it.
In case you don't, to be from somewhere means you have to have moved.
By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Board Columnist
The first African-American mayor of Philadelphia, Miss., told the NAACP of Kansas City today that hate-speech must end.
by Grant Martin, Midwest Voices Guest Columnist '09
Attorney General Holder encouraged everyone to stop being wimps and start talking about race. Here's my contribution:
By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel
Today, David Brooks posts an excellent column in the NY Times entitled “No, It’s Not About Race”. I think Abigail would debate this issue with him very well and reasonably.
By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel
We can discuss the subject of racism from various perspectives, for we know this is not a black and white issue. There are many tints, sounds, and textures to the arguments that bombard our senses via the media and at a dramatic personal level in our daily lives.
By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel
Former President Carter stated his opinion in an interview with Brian Williams of Atlanta. To say that he states the facts is wrong based upon what he said.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Poor White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. He couldn't keep quiet about Sarah Palin and now must pay the price.
By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist, 2009
Almost any experienced police reporter for a large city newspaper can provide at least a few names of "rogue" police officers they know. Most police officers are highly trained professionals, but there are almost always a few who think like President Nixon when he said: "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."
By Grant Martin, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist
I don't know all the facts of the Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. case- indeed, one side says one thing and the other side says something different.
But, if you follow the rule that usually the truth is somewhere "in-between", you could probably come to this conclusion: The good Professor might have acted in a way most of us know NOT to act and the police might have been a little touchy when they arrested him.
But, I also had another thought as I read the reports. Who yells at a police officer?
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Can the American people handle the truth about the questionable actions George Bush ordered as president?
We may find out if Attorney General Eric Holder moves forward with an investigation of the Bush years.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Arlen Specter staked out his independent positions once again on the Sunday TV talk shows. But what difference does it really make?
Specter has never been trusted by the Republicans he bolted just last week.
By Arturo Mora, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist 2009
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s Republican response to the president last week smacked of condescension on more than one level, not just from him but from a Republican party that is schizophrenic on the subject of race.
By Andrew O'Hara, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory panelist 2009
So Al Sharpton and friends are up in arms again over a New York Post political cartoon that links President Obama with a deranged chimpanzee that was killed by police in CT. Try typing "Bush Monkey" into Google Images and see what comes up:
By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist
The 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth is an appropriate time to reflect on what Darwin's evolutionary theories imply about race.
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Claire McCaskill continues to get plaudits for being a confidant of Barack Obama. Big deal. What's McCaskill going to do with her influence to help Kansas Citians and Missourians?
We don't know yet, and that's disappointing. But here are some suggestions:
By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
By now, no one's surprised at what slips out of Sarah Palin's mouth. On Wednesday, Palin offered her services to Barack Obama. Really.
But will he ask for her help?
By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
ABINGTON, Pa.-- Peggy McIntosh connected her transformative work on white privilege to college curriculum changes sought decades ago as feminists worked to gain recognition for women’s contributions.
By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Board
Actor and comedian Bill Cosby made headlines in 2004 when he slammed “some” black people for how they talk and for squandering opportunities.
Denise Tiller, Midwest Voices 2008
We took the family to see the World Premier of John Brown at the Lyric Opera on opening night. It's a good show and I highly recommend it. When it was over, my husband and I immediately agreed on two points. One--it's about 15-20 minutes too long and, more importantly--things haven't really changed here in 150 years.
By Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star Editorial Board
BET's website has a quick quiz on some basic facts about the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
Go here.
For many Americans, time stopped on April 4, 1968.
On that day, 40 years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. For most of his adult life, he had been the most prominent black man in America. For daring to challenge the country’s segregationist practices, in both the North and South, he was cheered and jeered, revered and reviled.
I’m sure people are claiming victory this afternoon as Frances Semler has resigned from her position on the Parks Board. But as a member of the African American community in the Kansas City Metro, I’m not convinced that we have really won.
Sure, the SCLC called for Semler’s resignation or firing, and they got the intended results. But at what cost? Over the past few weeks we have seen rhetoric directed toward the mayor that seemed vitriolic and spiteful.
My perception of the SCLC news conference recently was that the leaders were so concerned with winning this battle that they used any weapon at their disposal without regard for the condition it would leave the city’s racial discussion in. The verbal barrage the Mayor took on December 13 was more focused on publicly denigrating him, and less focused on criticizing him in light of a larger vision for our city on the part of the African American leadership.
While the official origin of the term is up for debate, I find nothing funny nor innocent about lynching. (click here to read more on the history of the term “lynch”)
Jana Brazel cites Tolnay and Becks findings that identify “2805 [documented] victims of lynch mobs killed between 1882 and 1930 in ten southern states. Although mobs murdered almost 300 white men and women, the vast majority (almost 2,500) of lynch victims were African-American. Of these black victims, 94 percent died in the hands of white lynch mobs. The scale of this carnage means that, on the average, a black man, woman, or child was murdered nearly once a week, every week, between 1882 and 1930 by a hate-driven white mob” (click here for more on lynching)
Please read carefully the statement I'm about to make, it probably will anger some and a few may agree with me. America has enough racism in this country that African Americans don't have to chase after bad causes.
I refer you to the incidents over the last several months, Jena-6, Bill O'Reilly, Don Imus, Duke lacrosse team and Justice Clarence Thomas. What do these people have in common besides bad taste or policies that I don't agree with? I will be more than thrilled to answer the question.
These are people that most African Americans felt were guilty of being racist (even Clarence). Look, I put on the black shirt to protest the Jena-6 but when more information was made available it turns out that alot of what was going on down there smiply wasn't true.
The current debate on illegal immigration, news about the “Jena Six” and O.J. Simpson returning to the spotlight has rekindled my belief that America still has a long way to go in reconciling differences based on skin color. Each of these subject areas can be debated ad-nauseam concerning individual facts, however, there is certainly an undercurrent of bias based upon race.
Comments spoken in hushed tones around a water-cooler or on various talk radio shows have their nomenclature that utilizes new key words as descriptors. “Poverty pimps, nappy headed hos, and wetback” are examples of coy catch phrases whose real attempt is meant to be derogatory yet somehow benignly acceptable in public discourse. The latest new justification among whites for using the “N-word” is that black males use it freely with one another.
