Monday, February 29, 2016

What Asians can Learn from the Racist Oscars "Jokes"


Bring 3 Asian kids onto a stage, prop them with suits and suitcases, glasses, and no voice, and call them "Oscar accountants". Follow that up with, “If anybody’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids." Then, hint at the, "very hard-working, little, yellow people, with tiny dongs...you know, the minions."



One question before I move on. Sacha Baron Cohen, so, when are you going to release your sex tapes with the minions? 'Cause, clearly, you must have slept with ALL the minions to come to the conclusion that they have tiny dongs. 

Ok, moving on.

These tasteless, ignorant, and archaic lines that are tossed around by Chris Rock and Sacha Baron Cohen sound very much like the corny gag trash that comes out of a typical racist bully's mouth. 

One part of the problem is the racist, anti-Asian stereotypes that consistently propagate mainstream media and have no intentions of dying. The other part of the problem is the Asian community's willingness to ONLY stand up to these injustices when it makes it convenient for us to do so. 

Day in and day out, I constantly see Facebook feeds of Black, Latin@, and Muslim people being harassed, discriminated against, or worse, killed. I witness nothing but silence from my Asian community. No voice of anger, protest, or boycott. 

But when Officer Peter Liang gets charged for killing Akai Gurley, or when Chris Rock and Sacha Cohen hurl insults to our faces, THEN sleeping Snorlax wakes the FUCK UP and goes on a Twitter rampage about how butt hurt he felt and storms the streets protesting the criminal charge of one of our own. 

I hate to say it, but Asians can be just as brainwashed, ignorant, and naive as the next white folk who proudly wears a "Trump 2016" T-shirt and an infamous red "Make America Great Again" hat. 

We should be standing up in solidarity with our Black, Latin@, Muslim, and LGBTQ sisters and brothers, arm in arm, hand in hand, and challenge our primary enemy that keeps holding us back - White Supremacy (AKA Insitutional Racism). 

It is only then will we truly realize that racial damage is a thing of the past.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Asians Should Take Advice from Beyoncé's "Formation" Performance

Beyoncé, with the release of her "Formation" music video and performance at the Super Bowl, basically said, "Excuse me, white stage director, outfit my dancers with Black leather tops and shorts, black platform boots, black fishnet stockings, and black berets. They will be keeping their hair natural. Oh, and one other thing - replace the white dancers with Black dancers."



Beyoncé made sure that her music video got released the day after Trayvon Martin's birthday and a day before Sandra Bland's birthday, on February 6, 2016. Beyoncé commemorated the 50th anniversary of the origin of the Black Panther Party. In Black History Month. During this significant election year. In concurrence with the momentous #BlackLivesMatter movement. And on the most populous day for white folks to be glued to their TV screens, Beyoncé showcased her Black anthem during Super Bowl's halftime show.

Beyoncé unapologetically, single-handedly slapped Blackness, Black Pride, and #BlackLivesMatter in the faces of every mainstream media outlet known to humankind. Beyoncé proclaims her endearment for her negro-Creole mixed heritage, Blue Ivy's natural coily hair, and "Jackson Five nostrils". Beyoncé inspires Black people to love everything about their Blackness, so much so that she made me love my boo's Blackness even more than I thought possible.

While Beyoncé brought Black people up, I cannot help but wonder, "Where are the Asians bringing other Asians up?"

Where are the Asians encouraging other Asians to love our distinct almond-shaped eyes, compact noses, and darker-than-pale skin tone? Where are the Asians showing that an appreciation for their own heritage and culture is a wonderful and cherished sentiment? Where are the Asians assuring other Asians that dating another Asian does not remove you as an outcast? Where are the Asians inspiring other Asians to pridefully love their Asian-ness? 


More often than not, I see us Asians sitting quietly on the sidelines, merely wishing and hoping that our days of unabashed pride would come. Unfortunately, not taking actions ourselves equates to us raising white flags of surrender to our current predicament of empty self-love. Instead of wishing upon a wishing star, we should follow in 
Beyoncé's footsteps and lift one another up. 

Monday, January 18, 2016

Why People of Color Should Vote for Bernie Sanders Over Hillary Clinton


With the Democratic nomination for presidency tightening between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and with a few weeks to go before the February caucuses, I would like to pitch in my 2 cents. 


Imagine that you are a person of color (POC). You reside in a home located in the backdoor to a large factory that spews nitrogen and sulfur oxides, arsenic, and lead, among other pollutants. You put on your work shoes, finish your last bite of a home-made peanut butter jelly sandwich, and rush out the door to your 1993 used Honda Civic. Once outside, you immediately breathe in the air pollutants, not because you want to, but because you have no other option. You pull out of the driveway, and head on your way to work. Suddenly, you see flashing lights in your rear view mirror, to see a cop car signaling you to pull over. So, you pull over. 2 cops step out of their Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. From your side mirrors, you identify both cops as white males. Both have their hands on their gun holsters, ready to draw their Glocks at any moment's notice. They arrive at your car, and demand to see registration and license. You show it to one of the cops, who heads back to the cop car to run some checks. The other cop tells you to step out the car, put your hands on the hood of the car, and starts to handcuff you. Your heart starts to race. You have no idea what is going on. You have a squeaky clean record. You ask, quivering, "What's going on?! Why are you arresting me?!" The cop tells you aggressively to "shut up!!" The other cop comes back from the squad car, and begins "searching" through your vehicle. The cop then pulls out a small plastic zipped bag from his pocket that appears to have some sort of white powder nearly filled to the top. You scream, "That's not mine!! I don't even do drugs!!" With nobody around to videotape and witness the arrest, you have no legitimate recourse. Instead of going to work to punch in your hours, you get booked. Instead of coming home from work and enjoying a home-cooked meal, you do jail time. When you come out of jail, no one will hire you because of your criminal record. You have been forced into a systemic cycle of oppression. 

Given Hillary Clinton's plans on tackling gun violence prevention and criminal justice reform, along with her voting history, and her accepting donations from corporations, I can clearly picture the above scenario to occur habitually to POC with a 2016 Hillary Clinton presidency.
 It appears that Hillary Clinton does not support the end of civil asset forfeiture, civilian oversight of police departments, feedback and contribution from civil rights activists and leaders, laws on allowable use of force, and reducing funding to police departments that do not make progress toward policing reform. Truth be told, Clinton's proposed policies seem to very well make an impact, but may only put a dent in the system. Due to her stances on these aforementioned issues (and more), Clinton's policies, to me, seem to be more and more band-aids on a never-healing wound.   


Now, imagine again, that you are a POC. You live in a neighborhood, sharing the same block with a diverse group of individuals. You step out of the front door of your house, and take a heaping breath of fresh air. You smell the fresh grass, you see one butterfly courting another butterfly, and you smile happily as you trot towards your 1993 used Honda Civic. Absent are the polluting factories. In place of them are sources of renewable energy. As you drive off to work, you wave to your community police, Alex Doe, who is riding along on a bike. Alex Doe has been a neighborhood police for the last 5 years, and knows the history and inner-workings of the neighborhood. As you see Alex fading into the distance, you can't help but feel safe that you are in good hands.


Given Bernie Sanders' plans on tackling racial justice issues (including supporting the aforementioned policies that Hillary Clinton seem to not support), along with his voting history, and his civil rights activism and morally consistent actions since the 1950's, I can vividly picture the above scenario to happen in neighborhoods across the nation with a 2016 Bernie Sanders presidency. Bernie Sanders' proposed policies may very well be the beginning of the break down of institutional racism, systemic oppression, and white supremacy. If his civil rights policies do not produce desired results, I feel confident that Bernie Sanders will work with civil rights activists and leaders to enact policy changes that will uplift POC and intrinsically heal broken wounds.


Beyond Bernie Sanders' racial justice platform, the following are Bernie's other policies that may benefit many POC's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. As you read the following, think about how each of these policies might affect you as a POC and your community.

  • Bridge the income and wealth inequality
    • raise the minimum wage to $15/hour (including enacting paid family and medical leave, and universal childcare) 
    • ensure the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share in taxes (including closing tax loopholes, imposing the estate tax, and tax on Wall Street speculation)
    • bring outsourced jobs back to America
    • invest in youth jobs program to help the youth climb the economic ladder
    • expand social security
    • strengthen unions
  • Make public college education tuition-free, so we can afford higher education and move up in the economic ladder
  • Reform the way the political process works by reforming campaign financing, so each and every one of us has a voice and a vote that can be heard
  • Instill Voting Rights Act and make voting easier (including making election day a national holiday)
  • Combat climate change, so that people do not have to succumb to living near environmental hazards
  • Create fair and humane immigration policies, so families can stay together 
  • Fight for equal pay for women
  • Fight for LGBTQ rights
  • Ensure healthcare for all (including more affordable prescription drug prices) 
  • Break up big banks
  • Support organic farming 
Bernie Sanders' vision of America is a near-identical embodiment of that of Martin Luther King Jr. Bernie Sanders is instilling massive enthusiasm in the American people and is surging in momentum every single day. We may only have one chance in 2016 to elect a president who will fight for POC, who is committed to righting the wrongs for the past 200 plus years, and who will work hard to make America work for everyone. 

Don't just take my word for it. Do your research. Be politically educated. And engage in the political process. 


How you can help

If this post resonates with you, please, share it with your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and strangers. Also, with the February caucuses coming up, please go to Bernie Sanders' website to find out how you can help the early caucus states nominate Bernie Sanders. After all, a presidential candidate like Bernie Sanders may come and go like a flicker of light. 


Who will you vote for, and why?

Friday, January 8, 2016

My Experience Coordinating a PowerBall Lottery Jackpot Pool


With the $800 million Powerball lottery jackpot drawing on Saturday, I decided I need to get a piece of this action! So, I asked people at work if they were interested in pooling our funds together to purchase the tickets in order to increase our already minuscule odds at winning.


Hot Dough: Hollywood: Take Notes From The Walking Dead

Basically, the game plan goes like this. Say, 50 people chip in $2 apiece for a total of $100, which gets us 50 entries (1 entry is $2). So, instead of going solo and having my chance at 1 out of 200,000,000, it's now 50 out of 200,000,000. Yeah, I  know. Like that extra 49 entries are going to help.

I get it. But, I am a half-full kind of guy, so having 50 chances is better than just having one chance. And who knows, if we get that winning ticket, I'll be the last one laughing.

So, anyway, back to the original point (sorry, I got a little sidetracked).

I got a few coworkers to participate, whom got excited and reached out to other coworkers, whom were mostly white. We gathered a good number of participants (don't even ask me how many, 'cause I lost count). A brief while later, I bumped into one of my coworkers, a Black woman, in the break room, and asked if she was participating in the Team Lotto pooling.

Her: What?! I wasn't notified of the lotto pooling.

Me: Really?! (How did nobody not include her on this grand opportunity?! I mean, the other coworkers who I told first who went to tell others happen to reach people who were basically sitting all around her. I mean, left, right, up, and down the aisles. I was so surprised.)

Me: Well, I'm glad I reached you, 'cause it's not too late. (Then I described to her how we're going about this.)

If we were to win the $800 million lotto and had not reached out to our Black coworker that day, she wouldn't have been able to cash in on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'm glad I reached out to her, and that she's in Team Lotto.

At the end of our conversation, I couldn't help but wonder if, during the course of our recruitment process, we somehow reached out to white people in preference to Black people to join in on Team Lotto.

And more importantly, on the larger scale, how often are Black people overlooked for opportunities that they could have obtained? Team Lotto? Job opportunities? Promotions? Pay raises? Apartment rental approvals? Offer being accepted for a home? Dating? Modeling contracts? 

What can we do, as a society, to be more inclusive of  Black people, so that they too, can join in on the fun of a pooled lotto, even if we don't hit it big? 

As an Igbo proverb says: 
"If I am in heaven, then my brother has no business in hell."

P.S. - If you win the lotto, what are the top 3 things you would do?  

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Asian Fathers Value Their Darker Skinned Daughters

My insides do flips and somersaults when I see Asian dads with their darker skinned children. One time, Brooke and I were shopping at Walmart, and I saw an Asian man in his 30's pushing a shopping cart with his dark skinned, coily haired daughter in the flip-up child seat. He was like Dwayne Johnson in The Pacifier on a mission - he couldn't care less of what you thought of him and his daughter. Another time, I saw a Black girl ranging from 5-8 years old holding hands with her Asian father in his late 30's to 40's, looking at clearance toys at Target. The father was engaged with his daughter in their quest to find the perfect toy. Another time, I saw an Asian dad holding hands with his 5-6 year old daughter, strolling through the streets.


My emotions had urged me to go up to the father and salute him, and tell his daughter, "You're in good hands." But my brain was telling me, "Don't be a creep and move right along." Knowing that I did not want to come across as a weirdo, I high-fived the fathers and daughters in my head as I walked on by, smiling. 

Now, you might ask, "Why are you so happy about seeing Asian fathers with darker skinned children?!"

Because day in and day out, I keep seeing photos, ads, and movies that keep stuffing my mouth with corn pop cereals with whole milk for breakfast, potato salad mushed between 2 white Wonderbread slices for lunch, fettuccine alfredo for dinner, and vanilla ice cream with marshmallows, white chocolate, and whipped cream on top for dessert. Media loves light skinned females, and works incredibly hard to make everyone else desire them as well. 

I am sorry, media, but this Asian fell in love at a young age with Cocoa Puff cereal with chocolate milk, Nutella spread smeared between 2 dark rye bread slices, black rice supplemented with cooked black beans, and dark chocolate ice cream with magic shell chocolate, blackberries, brownie bits, and Hershey kisses on top. I love women with skin tones covering all colors of the rainbow, and would be totally fine with my children looking darker skinned. 

So, it warms my heart when I see other Asian men who are like me - we value and appreciate melanin-rich skin color of our women and children, and do not blindly succumb to the white-washing from the media.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

19 Dark Skinned Women That Will Make You Crave For More!

Let's face it. Dark chocolate women don't get as much love as the caramels, milk chocolates, and white chocolate women. It is a damn shame, 'cause the dark chocolate crave is REAL!


So...


Gents, lock your bedroom doors and whip out the lotion!


Ladies, ditch the skin-whitening cream, or, if you are into other women, whip out your toys!


Because, I guarantee you that these women will make you crave the 70%!




1. Yaya Dacosta

2. Nia Long

3. Heather Headley

4. Adaora Akubilo

5. Arlenis Sosa Peña 

6. Damaris Lewis 

7. Tomiko Fraser Hines

8. Geidy Mena Cuesta 
Geidy Mena Cuesta

9. Kiara Kabukuru

10. Kenia Martinez 

11. Veronique Boubane

12. Lydia Marsha 

13. Chavoy Gordon

14. Philomena Kwao

15. Lupita N’yong’o 

16. Isabel Correia 

17. Joelle Kayembe  

18. Danai Gurira

19. Michelle Obama

Who are your top 3? Any dark chocolates I am missing? 

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Dear Abigail Fisher: You Prove that White Privilege is a Double-Edged Sword



Dear Abigail Fisher:

You are a prime example of how White privilege is a double-edged sword. On one end, White privilege allowed you to have a suburban life valued at $114,619/year in household income in Sugar Land, Texas. White privilege allowed you to go to an all-around decent school system, rated 7-10 from elementary to high school. White privilege gave you resources to enable you to become an accomplished cellist. 


Hot Dough: Hollywood: Take Notes From The Walking Dead

On the other hand, White privilege is like a Western-style mother. White privilege spoiled you from infancy to adulthood. When you screamed and slammed your fists on the kitchen table demanding a chocolate chip cookie from the cookie jar, even after running around the house in your mud-filled shoes from your afternoon fun, mommy swiftly told you to help yourself instead of disciplining you for creating a dirty playhouse out of your home. White privilege gave you a plate of Breyer's strawberry ice cream even after you missed cello practice. In effect, White privilege spoiled you and made you feel entitled. This sense of entitlement disturbs your psychological health when results do not favor you. Your psyche takes a punch, your heart cringes, and you sense defeat.

But because of your feeling of entitlement, you felt that the University of Texas at Austin owed you a Letter of Acceptance. 

You didn't get accepted into UT because you earned a 3.59 GPA. That was not sufficient to qualify you for the 10% Rule, which guaranteed admissions to the top 10% of students in your graduating class. Your 1180 SAT score was average compared to the old 1600 perfect score. And let's not compare that 1180 to the current 2400 perfect score. Other than your not-so-stellar academic achievements, you were President of the Cello Club, and you volunteer here and there. Was that all you were working with when you applied to UT? 

Then what in Bevo's hell do you think you should have been granted admission to UT?! 92% of UT's admissions process is dominated by the 10% Rule. You were considered with the rest of the applicants via the 8% admissions process, which is highly competitive. The applicant pool you were competing against included 841 applicants, with ONLY 47 applicants who had PAI/AI scores lower than yours. That means you ranked at probably no higher than the 5th percentile of the applicant pool. And of the 47 applicants with lower scores than you, 42 were white. WHITE. WHITE. And WHITE. And let's be clear: 168 applicants of non-white status had higher scores than you...and they were rejected! Your case is merit-less.

So, let's get this straight. You didn't work hard enough to score a 3.9 GPA. You didn't study hard enough to test higher than a 1500 on the old SATs. You didn't organize an orchestra to complement the holiday caroling in December. Basically, you were too lazy, too privileged, and too entitled to put yourself in that 10% pool to GUARANTEE yourself a spot at UT. 

So, don't go blaming minorities, ESPECIALLY Black folks, for your misfortunes. People of color had NOTHING to do with your rejection.

Oh, and one other thing. It's been 7 years since your failure. It takes 4 years to complete a finance degree. What happened with the other 3 years? Instead of race-baiting and race-blaming, what about using those 3 years to PROVE UT wrong in their decision?

Stop feeling butt-hurt. Quit throwing temper tantrums. You're old enough to get wasted. Take your failure, learn from it, and make a name for yourself. Just not the name you currently have amassed.

Good luck.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

By saying no apology necessary for 'all lives matter', Jeb Bush in effect supports institutional and systematic racism.

 
Jeb Bush said, "We're so uptight and politically correct now that you apologize for saying lives matter."   


Hot Dough: Hollywood: Take Notes From The Walking Dead

Jeb, imagine your kind:
  • getting shot and killed for running from the police, for being stalked after leaving a store having purchased a bag of skittles and a drink
  • wrongfully targeted and threatened with a gun at a pool party that was legitimately held
  • killed at 12 years old for holding a toy gun, after only a split second encounter with the police
  • consistently ignored at the awards ceremony despite comparable winning performances
  • incarcerated at record levels compared to the rest of society
  • denied mortgages and rental housing despite having qualifying numbers
  • overlooked for jobs and promotions in statistically significant numbers
  • constantly reminded that your hair, lips, and body are "ugly", unattractive, and abnormal
  • prevented from furthering your education due to financial barriers
  • forced into cycles of poverty due to the above scenarios and discrimination since the day you were born
  • and, to sum it all up, to live in cycles of slavery.
So, you're saying that someone shouldn't apologize to your people for saying, "all lives matter" when your people are constantly being denied the freedom to live their lives in a fair, just, and dignified manner?

What you're doing, then, is looking the other way, away from the VERY problem that America faces. You're walking away from dismantling and destroying the INSTITUTIONAL AND SYSTEMATIC RACISM that keeps certain groups of people down while elevating others. 

This is what you value; this is what you espouse. JEB, are far out of reach from America. You do not CARE for the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the impoverished, and the people who have been wrongfully wronged. 

And for that, I do not endorse you. I do not support you. And, I will NOT vote for you.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Dear Donald Trump: Keep Your Racism Coming!

 
Dear Tronald Dump,

You recently announced that Mexican immigrants "have lots of problems", and are "bringing those problems to us. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists."


Hot Dough: Hollywood: Take Notes From The Walking Dead

YOU are a racist, ignorant, piece of DUMP.

Where were you while Maria keeps slaving herself cleaning after your Dump properties, just to earn $8.50 an hour to provide for her family of 6, so her kids can go to college and make a future for themselves? Where were you while Rafael works 70 hour weeks so he can save enough to start his own business? Where were you while Gustavo bends over backwards to harvest fruits and vegetables in the desert hot sun so he can take care of his ailing parents? 

Seems to me you haven't been around the block. 

I live in a heavily Hispanic-populated area, and I see many, MANY, people of Hispanic descent working hard, if not harder, than the man/woman next to him/her. AND they don't complain.

So, I disagree with your opinion, but I thank you for your expression of your thoughts.

Because your drugged, criminally raped mind let slip comments that:
1. show your racist, ignorant, self
2. push away people and voters from your name on the voting ballot, who understand and care about our Hispanic friends
3. make the Republican party look foolish, racist, and unintelligent

Please, Dump, keep 'em coming. What else do you think about Black folks? Asians? Middle-easterners? Women? LGBT people? Keep showing your dim-witted self, why don't you?


Sincerely,


Someone who's never going to vote for you nor step afoot in your Dump Towers. 

P.S. - Univision, you made the right decision. 

P.S.S. - Dylann Roof, Elliot Rodger, Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, James Holmes, Charles Whitman...ring a bell?

Friday, June 26, 2015

My Response to Dissenters of Supreme Court's Ruling for Marriage Equality

 
I am in total disbelief to the responses of the dissenters of the Supreme Court's recent ruling for marriage equality. From John Roberts and Antonin Scalia to Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy, they all sound like some of the Republicans who spew garbage out of their ignorant mouths. Because of their topsy-turvy thinking, I just have to respond with my two cents.


Hot Dough: Hollywood: Take Notes From The Walking Dead

My first cent, in response to Antonin Scalia...

Justice Antonin Scalia said:
"So it is not of special importance to me what the law says about marriage. It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact—and the furthest extension one can even imagine—of the Court’s claimed power to create “liberties” that the Constitution and its Amendments neglect to mention. This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves."
Scalia, where were you when your high school teacher made each student recite the Declaration of Independence? Hiding behind the bleachers daydreaming, perhaps? Reading history books? Skipping class?

Regardless, you are excused for whatever you did back then. But, you are not excused for not knowing the Declaration of Independence. You are a Supreme Court Justice. You cannot have a lengthy legal career without comprehending what America was founded upon. In it, the Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

If all people are indeed created equal, why can only a man and a woman marry, and benefit from things derived from their marriage? Marriage should be allowed between a man and a man, a woman and a woman, a transgender and a transgender, and so forth. That's equality. If marriage is restricted to only a certain type of relationship, that's inequality.

Furthermore, if all people are endowed with liberty, aren't they free to marry whomever they want to marry? 

And lastly, your statement "the freedom to govern themselves" TOTALLY contradicts the exact thing you support. If people are free to govern themselves, then they are free to marry whomever they want. 

Get it together, Scalia.

My second cent, in response to Bobby Jindal...

Republican Bobby Jindal said, "I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. My faith teaches me that, my Christian faith teaches me that. I'm not for discrimination against anybody."

Sure, your Christian faith teaches you that marriage is between a man and a woman. It's your personal choice to believe in that faith, and to act in accordance to that faith. But it is not your right, nor the right of any governmental entity, to deny people their right to exercise their religious faith, whatever that may be. If the Supreme Court were to ban same-sex marriage, it would violate people's religious freedom, their freedom to marry. And that religious freedom, is a constitutional right. Please step down as governor - you clearly need to retake Law 101.

And since you're totally in support of banning same-sex marriage, you ARE discriminating against the group of people who want to enter into a legal marital partnership not as a man and a woman. Not only do you not know the Fundamental Rights, you outright LIED.

Thank goodness the Supreme Court ruled in favor of #marriageforall #MarriageEquality.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Dylann Storm Roof is a Racist, White Supremacist, and a Domestic Terrorist. White Extremists are too. End of Discussion.

 
Fox News, conservatives, white supremacists, and extremists who refuse to label Dylann Roof as a terrorist need some serious schooling. Seriously. Maybe they think terrorism only applies to Muslims. Or they think terrorism and white don't belong in the same sentence. Well, think again, you ignorant pieces of denials.


Hot Dough: Hollywood: Take Notes From The Walking Dead

Let's review the word "terrorism".

Terrorism, according to Merriam-Webster, means: "the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal".

Let's break this down...

"the use of violent acts" - The pulling of a trigger to kill 9 innocent people constitutes the "use of violent act". Plain and simple. Period.

"to frighten the people in an area" - Ask the surviving victims of the church shooting to see if they were frightened by Dylan Roof's acts. I swear, on Dylann's racist, white supremacist pale ass, that the people at the church were indeed frightened for their lives. No question about that. None. Nada.

"as a way of trying to achieve a political goal" - A political goal is "the way power is achieved and used in a country". Power can be achieved by the oppression, disenfranchisement, and disempowerment of group(s) of people. Dylann acted as part of a larger organization whose intent is to oppress Blacks. In fact, Dylann clearly stated that he wanted to start a "race war" so that whites can take back "their" country. His statement serves as sufficient evidence of his political goal.

Given that all three parts are met, we need to label Dylann Storm Roof accordingly - as a terrorist. More specifically, he is a RACIST, WHITE SUPREMACIST, DOMESTIC TERRORIST.

Fortunately, the term "terrorism" sees no color.

So, extremist denials, if you don't label white adult Dylann Roof as a terrorist, don't you DARE label the people who collapsed the Twin Towers and killed thousands of people on 9-11 as terrorists. Don't you DARE slap on your headlines that the two gunmen who injured the security guard in Garland, Texas are terrorists. And, don't you EVER DARE use the word and any derivative of the word "terrorism" in your vocabulary. 'Cause clearly, you cheated your way past high school.

P.S. - If you extend this discussion a bit further...

Ever since whites stepped off the Mayflower onto Native Americans' land, we see acts of white terrorism. Whites nearly decimated Native Americans in the takeover of current day America. Whites lynched, raped, shot, and assaulted Blacks from living free and peaceful lives more than 100 years ago. Current day America is no different - extremist whites kill innocent Walter Scott's, Tamir Rice's, and Trayvon Martin's, to the point where Blacks feel the need to ALWAYS watch their backs. Whites harassed, violently assaulted, and forced Asians into internment camps during World War II. And extremist whites kill unarmed Antonio Zambrano Montes's.

If you want to be granted the permission to use the word "terrorism", start by labeling these extremist whites as what they are - terrorists.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Democratic Presidents Result in Better Outcomes for Blacks, Latin@s, and Asians

 
Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum - what policies do you guys support that make Earl Holt III (the racist, white supremacist, and leader of a terrorist group) drool so much so that he's willing to part ways with his Benjamins in the amount of $65,000 to have your Republican backs? Is it your passion to repeal Obamacare? Your insistence on loosening gun control? Your itching desire to lower taxes on the 1%?


Hot Dough: Hollywood: Take Notes From The Walking Dead

Regardless of your stance on policies, the secret is out: you guys have been funded by a white supremacist - an anti-Black, racist terrorist.

And that begs the question: are Republicans, and in particular, these presidential candidates who received donations from Earl Holt III, in bed with white supremacists? In other words, are Republicans aiding white supremacy ideologies, ways of life, and culture?

History shows us that when the nation is governed by Democrats, as compared to Republicans, Black lives fare better. Black incomes grew $1,000 faster yearly, "Black poverty rate declined 2.6 points faster and Black unemployment rate fell almost one point faster" when under Democratic leadership versus Republican leadership. Similar results hold true for Latin@s and Asians. 

With Republicans' current positions on issues like voter ID laws, immigration reform, abortion, and discrimination against LGBT folks, Republican hopefuls seem to err on the side of history.

So, let's revisit the question: are Republicans in bed with white supremacists? It's a loaded question that would take a Ph.D. thesis paper to hash out. But it's a question worth asking. And it's a question I want to pose to you, to get you thinking about how politics influence outcomes for groups of certain "races".

When a candidate brings up issues about education, immigration, taxes, gun control, the economy, and health care, among many other issues, ask yourself, "how does this candidate's stance on (plug in an issue) affect (plug in a "racial" group)?" There are many factors at play with any given issue, but I will conclude by saying that "race" plays an important role in politics, in more ways than people think.

So, with the upcoming 2016 presidential election looming around the corner, start asking yourselves.