Mr. Beck’s Blackboard Jungle Goes To Washington…With MLK August 27, 2010

Welcome to the return of ALS Diversity Fatigue Friday!

This being ALS Diversity Fatigue Friday, is the perfect day to post about an upcoming event tomorrow which has become a rather heated matter of debate for those of divergent political backgrounds.

On Saturday, August 28^th at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,  there will be a “Million Tea Bag March” to commemorate the gathering of Dr. Martin Luther King JR.’s historic  march on Washington on the very same day in 1963.

Yes, on “I Have A Dream Day”  millions of Tea Partiers will march on Washington in order to promote civil and First Amendment rights and recognize the service of our veterans.  The sponsor of this event- Glenn Beck.

Yes I said Glenn Beck.

And by now you have just spit your Vitamin Water and realized why this rally has become a spectacle for debate.

As a matter of full disclosure,  I  am only jesting in my use of the title “Million Tea bag March “.

Actually the rally is entitled  “Restoring Honor” . Glenn Beck’s sponsorship of the event remains in the not jesting category.  This is very real and making liberals of the Rev. Al Sharpton ilk very angry.

And I do not understand why the left is angry.

I do not understand why self-professed tolerant liberals who argue for things such as a mosque near Ground Zero would be upset that Glenn Beck is marching on Washington on the MLK’s anniversary. ..

Oh what did you say? Okay, now I get it…Because Glenn Beck works for Fox News, he must be a conservative, therefore not worthy of commemorating a historic event in our nation’s history which marks an accolade during the Civil Rights era.

Which is why liberals have mocked Glenn’s original poster with this im-poster (pun intended):

By the way, in the first clip of Glenn Beck , he is talking about Barack Obama – not Martin Luther King Jr.!  I love the way that was juxtaposed and taken out of context.

Hmm, MLK and Glenn Beck….

Listen up liberals, there is no doubt that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  occupies a position of importance in American History, especially for African Americans and Democrats.  Dr. King is the Moses of the Civil Rights era, he led his people to the promised land.

But you are not MLK’s only people.

Do you think that MLK only represented people who hold your views?

Is his memory shared among those with whom he dissented?

Do you believe that only African American’s were included in his vision?

Dr. King wanted people to be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin…I will carry it further and add… or the lever they pull in the voting booth.   Civil Rights affected everyone, even racists such as segregationists.  It was up to them whether or not they benefited from King’s sacrifices in a positive manner.

My above statement is by no means an implication that Glenn Beck is a racist.

He is not.  Whacky in a very Howard Beale ala Peter Finch /Network way he is.

My support of Glenn Beck is tepid.

He started off with a great message but I became lost in the minutia of the blackboard, scented chalk, venn diagrams and finger puppets.  Beck is the Romper Room of Fox News and I find myself wanting to run for graham crackers and a juice box whenever I see him.

“What is this dude talking about?”  I ask.

But there are Beck fans that “get” him and I respect that.   I just don’t do blackboards.

Afrocity is more of a Sean Hannity girl.  I like my pundits straight and without a lot of visual stimulation.   Seldom is Beck on my tele-radar.  Having said that, the show has been seen enough by me to know that he is not a racist.  I also admire his courage to cry on camera and discuss his mother’s  suicide and his battle with alcoholism.

Whatever Glenn Beck is …Martin Luther King,  he is not.

He never said he was.

Did anyone ever hear Glenn Beck say he was Martin Luther King?  Has anyone seen Glenn Beck’s face next to MLK’s on some Hypercolor tee-shirts or thongs like someone we all know?

But obviously you were okay with Barack Obama appropriating the memory of MLK for his own political gain because…Obama is black and one of Dr. King’s people.

Whatever Barack Obama is…Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , he is not.

The man above needs a doctor.

But according to liberals, it is okay to climb up to the Tower of Liberal Fable–  otherwise known as “Kool Aid Mountain” and create the DNC golden calf-ish lobster eating, Martha’s Vineyard vacationing Obama in Martin Luther King’s image.  A wrongful death of logic it is,  to believe that liberals and only liberals have claim to the memory of MLK.

It does not matter to the Beck rally critics that some of the Tea Partiers who attend may be African Americans or folks who were involved in the Civil Rights movement directly and positively.

What happens when you worship a golden calf? Time wears the gold off the feet of all idols and Styrofoam Greek temples, if their feet be made of clay.

The King legacy is yours to pimp.

Do you really believe that the Tea Party has nothing to do with the dream of equal rights?

Unlike Obama, King was a unifying force.

He was not divisive or arrogant. He was humble.

King was a fierce proponent of peaceful protest and non violence .  He worked across the political and cultural aisle with Democrats and Republicans , blacks and whites in order to advance the Civil Rights Movement.  On October 10, 1963 after his great march, the FBI wiretapped King’s home -under the orders of US Attorney General Robert  Kennedy.  Suspicious of King, Kennedy believed that this preacher man from Alabama had ties to the communist party.

So much for civil rights from the Democrats.

So much for looking beyond fear and paranoia and into the content of  Dr. King’s character.  And this is a benign version of the incident.  Dr. King’s relationships with the Kennedy’s and many Democrats were laced with tension and mistrust.   Democrats voted against Civil Rights legislation in large numbers- Republican votes helped pass the bill.  Even JFK voted against civil rights measures as a senator.

Martin Luther King Sr. was actually a Republican and there is a significant amount of proof that MLK was as well…that is until they switched parties.

There is much speculation as to why the father and son switched from Republican to Democrat.   There are some historians who believe that Kennedy’s assistance when King was imprisoned, served as an impetus for gaining the Kings’ support. Others believe the Democrats offered King hope for the future of African Americans by outlining programs to promote self-reliance and success– also known as  “the Great Society” under the Johnson administration.  Left to itself without true structure or aims,  the Great Society led to nothing but dependence upon the Federal Government and the break up of the black family.   I will never allow myself to believe that MLK knew this would happen.

After King’s assassination in 1968,  with African Americans delivered on a platter to the Democrats,  President Lyndon B. Johnson’s got his wish;  “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years, ” he said.

Perhaps. It is possible that African Americans will always be 95% Democrat as a race. However, you cannot have your MLK cake and eat it too.

During the 1980′s liberals rallied President Reagan for a national holiday commemorating King’s birthday. and they got it.

NATIONAL HOLIDAY. No mail. Stay at home.

That is everyone’s holiday and King’s memory belongs to ALL.

Your King day is my King Day is Glenn Beck’s King Day.

Upon leaving Washington DC two weeks ago, I felt secure in knowing that a museum dedicated to African American history would finally reside on the Washington Mall in the year 2015. Being a curator and an avid museum goer, I have wanted this for some time in my life.  Seeing the beginnings of African American themed  exhibits at the Smithsonian bring me closer to the reality of a museum which shares MY heritage with my fellow Americans.

Me looking at an exhibit on The Apollo Theatre at the Smithsonian

For years, I have been secretly jealous of a particular museum which has nothing to do with my heritage directly but rather captures my heart and the attention of so many others who pass through its doors.  Of course I am speaking of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

One museum is a reality, the other is just a design.

Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup is the architectural team who will design the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall near the Washington Monument.

As a study in memory and trauma, the Holocaust extends to every American whether they wish to admit it or not. The evidence and ugliness of genocide went beyond traditional boundaries of race or creed.  There were crimes –genocide- the extermination of thousands of Jews which yielded victims.

There was punishment for war crimes which yielded villains.  There were those who served as intervention, as rescuers , – Great Britain, Russia, and the United States.  There were massive relief efforts to refugees by American organizations such as the Joint Distribution Committee. Food, money clothing sent to Poland, Germany, France.

This was everyone’s story and everyone can remember that story either personally through photographs and spoken word or publicly remembered at spaces such as the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.  You may ask, why is there a museum placed within our US capital solely dedicated to an event which did not take place on American soil.  The answer is simple.

Because the Holocaust did not end in the concentration camps; it did not end with the suicide of Adolph Hitler.  What was left behind was the scars of trauma and the triumph of survival –all crystallized as memory.  If one were to survive the Holocaust and come to the United States, those memories and the need to remember or forget came with them. As Americans we are all included in the process of holocaust remembrance because Jewish immigrants are Americans.  The museum is in America because we all either directly or through collective memory have a claim on the event. It is ours.

Every visitor, even African American non-Jewish Afrocity brings some sense of self and understanding to the commemorative space. What does the Holocaust mean to me as a black woman?   Looking at the seemingly millions of Jewish faces – portraits of life and legacy which were extinguished,  I only have one comparison to make- the trauma of slavery and the triumph of the Civil Rights Act.

Permanent Exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Wall of faces

I take inspiration from the Jewish community in knowing that despite a horrific event, they overcame.

I want that for African Americans and I want everyone to commemorate the loss, pain and struggles of slavery publicly in a safe space for everyone without judgment.

African American history is American history.

Our museum will be your museum.

The march that Dr. King took on August 28, 1968 is everyone’s march.

There are no special claims.

Go march on Washington Mr. Beck

Autographed Letter Signed,

AFROCITY

Bullshit: It’s Not Just For Republicans Anymore August 8, 2010

As Democrats continue to put their best face on events, arguing, in fact that it is the Republicans that got us into this mess and it is gonna take them and only them to get us out, I wonder when did the good guys suddenly turn into the stupid bad guys?   When did the liberals become masters of the bullshit machine? Political battles within the Democratic camps has shown that the party is in the state of panic.  However, they still need a message.  When you don’t have a message and you’re house is not in order (thanks  First Lady) but you have guests coming over for dinner. You have to feed them something. What do you do? You give them a bullshit sandwich.

Can someone tell me is Barack Obama good at anything besides Pez dispensing liberal platitudes and divisive bullshit? Especially when he is backed into a corner?

President Obama flies Air Force One to Chicago on his birthday to campaign for yet another Illinois crook- Alexi Giannoulias, who is campaigning as a Democrat for Obama’s old Senate seat.  Obama raises over 1 million dollars in a day for Giannoulias.  Like Obama, Giannoulias is ” change we can believe in”:

Where is the change ?  Where is the little guy in this? Meanwhile little guys in Chicago oooh and ahhh over catching a glimpse of the chosen one riding through the city.  Like bobble heads “I saw him!!! Did you see him?”   “I got a picture with my iPhone!!!”

The First Lady and child are making headlines in Spain on vacation… again where is the little guy in all of this?

What’s wrong with letting some presidential cash flow to Jackson Hole, Wyoming or Mount Rushmore? How about a “stay-cation” ?   That would reflect your solidarity with the American people who voted for your husband.  I suppose they make organic bullshit burgers too.

How about making a campaign stop in the inner city of Chicago- you know where all of the black men are killing each other?  Any words or fundraisers for them?   Mr. Obama did you know that Chicago police are now riding three men in a car?

There are times when I am blown away when I consider that I once voted for this party without much question.  They represented “brown people”.  They represented women.  The poor and suffering and that was me- at the time.  Yes I am still black and a woman but I stopped being poor and suffering when I graduated from college.   That was when I began to wake up and smell the donkey shit.  Aside from being a black pro-choice woman, there was nothing in the liberal message that resonated with me.  A ten year stint in the great state of Texas proved to me that Republicans are not all a bunch of racists.  In fact, the conservatives I knew provided more positive outreach to their communities than any Democrat I had witnessed during my time in Chicago.

Texans lived relatively high quality lives as compared to Chicagoans.  No state taxes.  No taxes on food.

I can recall during my first Texas year stepping up to a Piggly Wiggly cashier and exclaiming over my 89 cents can of tuna fish costing exactly 89 cents.

“Honey, there is no tax on food here,” the cashier said to me. “Where have you been?”

I was in shock.  “…Chicago…The only time we don’t pay taxes on food is when we use food stamps.”

The cashier just gives me this blank stare.  I think she went home and prayed for me that night over her tax free meal of Frito Pie.

Afrocity just wondered if living in a Republican run state was so bad, why did I get to keep more of my hard earned money?  Oh, because the Republicans don’t care about the little guy. My mother learned this when she moved there and attempted to get on welfare without children and at age 54.  Texas told her to cut the bullshit and get to work.  You should have seen my mother’s face when the caseworker handed her a list of jobs- GUARANTEED JOBS.

“Um, err, I can’t work, ” my mother lied.  “I have a bad…knee… Can I get disability?”

The state of Texas tried to call BULLSHIT but mother found a liberal lawyer and  some quack doctor to claim that she was 35% disabled.  Back on foodstamps she went- happy as a government fed clam.  Beyond these incidents, there was much that occurred which persuaded me to switch parties but still I stayed on the jackass boat, aborting any signs of mutiny in the womb before it manifested itself at the voting booth.

I know, I know…How could you Afrocity?

But understand that bullshit is an acquired taste.  That is to say, if someone feeds you crap election year in and election year out, you only know… well…crap.   You become accustomed to the broken promises and pointing fingers game.  You accept your permanent place in the war of America’s needy versus America’s greedy.  Despite your inner brilliance- your wiser conscious plea to ask questions and get real answers, you continue to eat the plate of bullshit set before you.  Some like myself ate with small spoonfuls -drinking huge glasses of water between each swallow.  Others like my mother and most Obama supporters  put the feedbag on with gusto.

The day I woke up and took a much needed shower, was the day the bullshit became not a meal for my liberal friends but something to throw at me.

Friend: Afrocity how can you turn your back on everything the Democrats have done for black people”

Afrocity: Like………….

You see Afrocity does not play the bullshit game anymore.  Give the donkeys their breast cancer hued pink slip.

The Democrats do not have the answers and maybe the Republicans don’t either.  However, do not spin the liberal bullshit message that because the Republicans do not have all the answers or because President Bush got us into this mess,  the American people  should continue to support Obama and the current imbeciles in Washington.

No more.

Wake up zombies.  Stop drinking KoolAid.  Stop listening to this walking campaign slogan of a president you elected. The man does not have answers, he has more divisive rhetoric- NOTHING MORE.   To borrow from his analogy of America as a vehicle stuck in a ditch…How can Obama get you out of the ditch when he is in the car expecting you to push? Refuse or get in the way of his best friend- the rear view mirror, and he add you to the list of many to run over when the car gets started.

Wake up America and wipe the bullshit from your mouths.  It is time to make some changes to the menu.

Autographed Letter Signed,

Afrocity

Live From The Obama Fallout Shelter July 27, 2010

There are certain times in life, when I maneuver conflict more gracefully than others.  For the times I don’t,  I retreat. Which is why I have been a non blog posting flake for the last two months.  Remember the old Afrocity who used to post once or more a day?  What happened to her?  Did she turn liberal again? Is she floating in the Chicago River face down with a “Sarah Palin  is a Cunt” tee shirt tied around her neck?  Clearly the victim was strangled before she was murdered and it was staged to appear as though the right wing turned on the poor misguided African American conservative.

And here lies the question.

Who can you trust nowadays?

Honestly, (and my dear readers will never have me any other way)  there are days when both sides get on my nerves.  Yes liberal readers, Afrocity does get fed up with conservatives at times. The abortion issue is one of those times.   I do not need the Christian Coalition Against Choice task-force sending me emails every time I author a pro-choice piece.

“It is not about government interference or privacy, it is about murder and against God’s will…yada, yada, yada, yada”

Nothing will make me anti-choice.  Sorry conservative Charlie.  And while we are at it, nothing will ever make me protest gay marriage.  It is not my business.  Having said that, you will never see Afrocity at a gay marriage rally either.  I check my activism at the door when it comes to matters concerning religion, life, death, abortion and marriage.  Meddling often overrides political common sense.  Gay marriage and abortion, have no place in a political discussion.  Both issues unnecessarily divide women and men who may otherwise choose different political parties if the conflict did not exist.  According to liberals, Sarah Palin could never be a feminist because she is pro-life.   In the world according to ass,  pro-life women do not want equal pay or the right to vote.  Why would a pro-life woman care about matters concerning breastfeeding in public or day care?  Pro-life women must love getting sexually harassed at work.

Only liberal women care about that sort of thing you know.

Resolutions to the abortion issue will never follow my lifetime because really, both parties do not want the conflict to end.  It creates much needed political tension and division.

Without divisions, there would be no base.

And speaking of political division… Democrats, before you begin licking your donkey chops, you should know that conservatives- the group with whom  I identify with the most- annoy me far less than most liberals do.  Far, far, far, far less.

The liberal tourist traffic frequenting the FOX NEWS/New Black Panther Party drama coupled with the press attention over the NAACP and the Tea Partiers has of late rendered me politically tone deaf.  Although the NAACP was useful during some stage in American history, after taking a look at their website site recently, I do not know what the hell they are doing besides fueling… well…racism.

Take a look at the lovely online exhibit of racist Tea Party signs the NAACP has curated:

I cannot tell you what the NAACP hopes to accomplish with this. You cannot truly fight racism unless you first cut the cancer from your own hypocritical backsliding throat.  Racism is racism.  You cannot call it racism when it only effects your special interest group.

This is the NAACP’s  pledge to “repudiate racism” in the Tea Party

I believe all Americans have equal rights and equal value.

I cherish the diverse cultures, beliefs, and values of America.

I believe we can disagree without being disagreeable.

I repudiate all acts of racism and hate, both in words and action.

I have faith in the promise of America – a promise built on mutual respect, common civility, and hope for a better tomorrow.

I commit to building that better America by participating actively and peacefully in the democratic process.

We are one people. We are one nation. I’m an NAACP American

That last line really troubles me. I am an American first.  Yes I am an African American.  I am a female who happens to be black.  I am surely not an “NAACP American”.  What does mean anyway?  Exploring the pledge further makes me wonder if the NAACP actually followed their own advice in the past and enforced the PLEDGE when the following Democrats said:

“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? … Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”–Howard Dean

“I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time” – Robert Byrd

“He [RNC Chairman Michael Steel]has a career of slavishly supporting the Republican Party.“–Democrat Steny Hoyer

“He’s [Clarence Thomas]  married to a white woman. He wants to be white. He wants a colorless society. He has no ethnic pride. He doesn’t want to be black.” -California Democrat Diane Watson

Would the NAACP ever hang this picture at headquarters?

Where was the NAACP when Condeleeza Rice was branded an Aunt Jemima along with colorful images of her clad in a red do rag and mammy doll’s clothing?

Where was the NAACP when African Americans made racist remarks against Hillary Clinton supporters- especially black Clinton supporters?

“At the end of the day, Hillary is still a white woman.”

Those words were spoken to me by my aunt- a rabid Obama supporter.  Her worry was that black women would vote for Hillary over Obama because she was a woman.  Auntie was simply reminding her politically wayward niece that color trumps gender.    I will not get into the narcotic Kool Aid dependencies of Obamabots in this post, but I knew auntie was inhaling and sending her last dollar to the Obama campaign. Her will to see beyond race was compromised by her commitment to righting the political wrongs of slavery and bondage.  In essence , African Americans were becoming everything they used to hate.

What a sad delusion.

What an abysmal state of mind to be stuck in.

The Democratic party- the party of equal rights, tolerance, diversity and most of all liberalism, is on auto-destruct mode.  Such a reversal of misfortunates.  You were once racist against me so that give me the right to be intolerant and racist against you–FOREVER.

Within the analogy of annoyances between conservatives and liberals,  everything depends on what I can and cannot morally stomach.  I hate hypocrisy.  At least the religious/holier than thou trope has always been a staple amongst conservatives. Republicans are pretty consistent about being anti-choice, anti- government and self-knowingly quite hypocritical about it.    Along with the heavy moral quotient, regardless of any fallacies committed along the way, the elephant is usually not delighting in the enslavement of identity politics. The elephant does not suffer from amnesia when it comes to the Civil Rights Era.  The elephant is not involved in some KoolAid/cult of personality  addiction narrative that seems to follow their most successful leaders (Kennedy/Obama).   The elephant in my view is not dispensing hopium to its patients and quickly escaping on a jet to play a hundred rounds of golf in Hawaii.

Is all hunky dory on the right side of the tracks?

No, of course not.  I would be lying if I said it was.   I battle everyday to get conservatives to understand why some of us Americans want to be called African Americans.  If I want a hyphen, then damn-it I can have one.  When I expatriated from the Democratic Party, I did not stop being African American.  If the GOP wants more people of color , they will have to market the brand in a way that does not compromise the values of conservatives; while at the same time showing us that it is okay to be proud of one’s ethnicity.  No watermelon cart is needed.  You don’t need a reparations bill to get African Americans to join the conservative party. Just be yourselves and show them what you stand for and how it can benefit them.

Someone may listen.

I did.

Well, back to the shelter…I may crawl out in a few days when I run out of Beanie Weenies and Gatorade.  Visit if you choose but be warned… I do not allow Kool Aid or Barney Franks.

Autographed Letter Signed

AFROCITY

PS:  Today is my mother’s birthday she would have been 71. It also means my birthday is in 6 days. We always spent the week together as a tradition. It will be lonely in the shelter this week.

Liberal Hypocrisy Files: You Can Choose to Where to Abort but not Where to Educate May 8, 2010

My mother could not bring herself to consent her daughter’s education to Chicago Public Schools.  On my first day of school, I sported a nifty chocolate plaid pleated skirt with matching yellow blouse and brown button down sweater.  This was all due mostly in part to the financial generosity of my grandmother.  It was expected that this was the best thing for any child in Chicago’s inner city, to send them to a school where the teachers were good and the influence of the streets were diminished.  It was rare to see a single mother on welfare send her child to a private school but I was the exception.  While African American like me, most of my classmates came from two parent families  in which mom and pop had jobs.  They were bus drivers, postal carriers, retail salesmen, factory workers- they had skills.  Food stamps or welfare checks were never spoke of in front my classmates and my father died in Vietnam.  That is what we told the nuns when I was admitted.  Uniforms were a good front for having few clothes. The nuns hardly let the girls speak to boys as to insure our virginity.

The word of God according to Catholics was taught at least one hour a day.  Religion and morality could be found in everything from arithmetic to why I must share my tater tots with fat, clumsy Theresa who tripped and spilled her lunch tray on the floor.  Yes the nuns engaged in corporal punishment by twisting our cheeks and paddling us with a two by four but we were in the minds of our parents, safe from the failings of Chicago Public School.

Private education is of course a luxury that comes with a price. A price that my mother could no longer afford after my grandmother had a heart attack which lead to her retirement from housekeeping.

In 1981, the feet of young Afrocity touched public school ground for the first time in her eleven year life.  Now granted this was Oak Park, Illinois- a suburban school so it was not considered the true hell that I would later experience in Chicago Public School.   Although young, I knew that my choice to a top notch education was locked.  My mother was poor, hence the quality of my  education would be proportionate to her income.

If there were educational vouchers then, mother and I did not know about them.  I would have loved to be the recipient of one as my grades slid into an abyss once I was enrolled in the Chicago system. The teachers thought we were all lost causes except for myself and several others.  Our reward for being “teacher’s pet”  was a daily dose of ridicule from envious classmates.  High School was somewhat better than junior high as I had tested well enough to attend a “school for the gifted”.   Magnet schools provide a marginal escape for ghetto kids.  Black faces peppered  a sea of Caucasian, Asian and Middle Eastern grammar school superstars; often it was futile to compete for the instructors attention.  If you were African American and ran tops at cross country meets then and only then were you likely to be a teacher’s favorite.   Afrocity disappeared into the sea of faceless kids. CPS student # 1453768235 and so on and so on.   She did not reemerge until graduate school.

I remember the entire experience with sadness and anger.  First through fifth grade in parochial schools, sixth through 12th in public schools.  Truthfully the former was the better of the two halves. Imagine my feelings when I notice this article in the Chicago Tribune:

Illinois House kills school voucher bill

Fervent lobbying by unions sinks idea to give students $3,700 to switch to private or parochial schools

May 5, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — A measure to let students in Chicago’s worst-performing and most-overcrowded elementary schools use taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private schools was defeated in the Illinois House on Wednesday, giving teachers unions a major victory.

The landmark legislation would have made Chicago Public Schools the site of what experts said would be the nation’s largest voucher program. Up to 30,000 of the district’s 400,000 students could have left the weak schools they now attend, setting up competition for public schools.

The legislation got through the Senate in March after being championed by Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago, and suburban Republicans. But by Wednesday, teachers unions had regrouped and its supporters found themselves pleading with opponents to overcome a furious lobbying effort to stop the bill.

“Think back to why you ran for office,” said sponsoring Rep. Kevin Joyce, D-Chicago. “Was it for a pension? I doubt it. Was it to protect the leadership of a union? I doubt that. Actually in all cases, I believe each and every one of us here got involved to try and make a difference in the lives of our fellow man.”

Joyce could muster only 48 of the 60 votes needed to pass a bill that would have allowed students to get vouchers worth about $3,700 to switch to private or parochial schools beginning in fall 2011.

Joyce said the bill would have passed if it had not faced the union opposition. The bill got support from 26 Republicans and 22 Democrats, fewer votes than Joyce had expected from his fellow Democrats.

Fighting back tears during the lengthy debate, Rep. Suzanne Bassi, R-Palatine, called on fellow lawmakers to “search your souls” to support the measure because “we have failed these kids in the inner-city schools.”

“I’m pleading with you,” said Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, who represents an area with four public schools where students would have been eligible for vouchers. “I’m begging you. Help me help kids in my district.”

A bit of background here.  Democrats like President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, are notoriously opposed to educational vouchers. Both men hail from Illinois.  This decision to kill the Illinois voucher program is of no surprise to me.  Like most liberal hypocrites, the Obama’s daughters attended not Chicago Public Schools but nice comfy private schools. On the issue, the Democrats never practice at home what they preach to their voters.  Unions and the need to improve  Chicago Public Schools should come second to the welfare of the children.  If a child wants out now, then I feel that the child should be allowed assistance to attend whatever school its parents pleases. What if that voucher is a matter of life and death?  What about Derrion Albert? Remember him? The young boy that was beaten to death in a public school last year. I wonder if his fate would have resulted in a happier and longer life had he not been in a public school ridden with gang violence and drugs?

Here are a few comments from opposing sides of voucher assistance at the Tribune blog:

“Under different economic circumstances, I might support school vouchers for private schools, but during these bleak economic times, public dollars should be spent on public education. Rather than providing school vouchers to a small number of CPS students, however deserving, city and state policymakers should be concerned with providing schools with the funds needed to prevent cutbacks in teaching staff.

Pry more money out of the Obama administration. Raise our taxes if you must. Otherwise prepare to have an even greater proportion of Chicago’s public schools classified as “low-performing.”"

— Woman in Chicago

Voucher questions

As many as 22,000 or more children who go to the weakest Chicago Public Schools could be getting vouchers to go to private schools (“More kids, more choices,” Editorial, April 28). Why have the staff members at these schools not been fired and replaced with better teachers? Also what part does the parent play in the failure of the student? How will these children get to the new schools? What will happen to the children who stay at the poor-performing schools? Will those schools still be left open and have to be funded?

Yes the voucher program seems nice. But as a taxpayer, a lot of questions still need to be addressed.

Autographed Letter Signed,

Afrocity

Bill Clinton: Great and Not So Great Moments In Politics April 20, 2010

It wasn’t until the Monica Lewinsky scandal that I realized my beloved President Bill Clinton was capable of being human.  He fell off of my Afrocity made pedestal like a ton of donkey manure.

This was a man that I campaigned for relentlessly, endured sexual harassment from Jesse Jackson staffers and voted for twice. From the moment he played the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show, I was in love.   I was also a twenty something liberal, lukewarm in her support of previous candidate Mike Dukakis and happy to vote for someone who gave her hope for change.

You see at the time I was voting with my heart not my head.  Liberalism is a low-yielding farm but it employs minorities and that was all I cared about.  Republicans help the rich. Democrats help the poor.  Got it.

Because I was there once, I understand the young people who voted for Obama.  Kids like Kool Aid.  It was the other demographic of seniors and middle aged that I did not understand.  Kids need a rockstar candidate and one decade’s rock star does not necessarily translate into another decades rock star as Bill Clinton soon learned  when he was campaigning for his wife presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

(Shudder) I hated that primary. That was when conversations about hatred and racism began to get ugly.

We were really hoping the race and hate monger cards would retire to the deck after the 2008 primary.  Unfortunately, they never did.  The cards continue to be played with more vitriol than ever, especially when it comes to the Tea Party movement.

From Obama, Biden, Gibbs, Pelosi, Reid and MSNBC, I would expect this sort of rumor mill talk.

From Bill Clinton, I would not.

Oh, Big Dawg.  Tea Party rhetoric leads to Timothy McVeigh-ish domestic terrorism acts of epic proportions?  NO.  Not you BC.  You President Clinton, of all people who was dragged through the Kool Aid flavored mud of Obama Island during the 2008 Democratic Primary along with your wife “Bros before Hoes“  Hillary and daughter “Pimping for Hillary“  Chelsea, I would think that you would be more open minded concerning the Tea Partiers.

Perhaps our former president has had a temporary memory lapse. He has not yet divorced himself from the liberal right to hype.

Allow me to kick Mr. Clinton back to reality.

Ah, see how lovingly demonstrative the left can be? Didn’t you just feel the love for Hillary?  Not one drop of hatred in the entire leftist bunch.  No dreadful “fringe” people.  And of course, PUMAs were embraced by all.

Terrible image of women being lynched on Anti-PUMA website

Listen up liberals!!! We all know the real deal. Remember I used to be one of you, so let’s not EVEN go there. I know the tricks in your government issued feed bags. Please stop the madness.

The question remains whether or not Bill Clinton actually believes his charge that the Tea Party can incite acts of domestic terrorism?

Really now, does this look like a potential Timothy McVeigh to you?

From I Own The World.com

I am thinking (hoping…praying) a firm NO.  Hopefully he just chose the wrong words to show support for the Democrats.  Clinton could also simply say nothing but then again that has never been his strong suit.

Yes I still have a soft spot for the Big Dawg but I will not let him get away with anything just because I have always admired him.  I felt compelled to write this post because I truly am disappointed in his words concerning the Tea Party movement, especially when the shoe and the navy blue Gap dress have been on the other foot.

Autographed Letter Signed,

AFROCITY

Our prayers are with the families of the Oklahoma Bombing on this anniversary of an act of terror that never should have been. God Bless America.

Moonbat Monday: Tea Party Haters- Ugly and Amazing April 12, 2010

So much for the left wing being open, tolerant and understanding.

The right to free speech and assembly are American freedoms that the left seems to believe is only available to them. Why else would the Tea Party movement unnerve them so much to the point that they attempt to discredit it as a racist bunch of rednecks?  If you attend a Tea Party rally,  some skinhead is sure to be there just thinking the “N-word” .  Even if you are an African American Tea Party participant, you are simply invisible to the liberals.  No, No, there are no blacks in the Tea Party and someone is there about to say the “N-word”.  He/she  doesn’t have to say it but a liberal knows they are thinking it.  Unlike left wing protesters, Tea Party folks are hateful anti-Obama racists out to kill our president.

From I Own The World

Liberal moonbats are psychic clairvoyant mind readers you know.  Someone was thinking that awful word at the Tea Party. How else could you explain liberal claims of John Lewis being called racially derogatory remarks without there being any proof on tape? If John Lewis and the AFL-CIO head Richard Trumpka (aka union scum),  says racists are at Tea Party rallies then betcha by golly it must be true.

I love it!  Protesters of Tea Party protesters.  Andrew Breitbart just imagined those liberals throwing eggs at the Tea Party bus.  As if in a moonbat fever,  some liberals so badly want to discredit the Tea Party movement that they will stoop so low in the donkey cesspool to serve as Tea Party poseurs.

The blacks at the Tea Party rallies must be vampires because their image does not capture on liberal video tape.   All people of color love Obama right?  So this African American man who created a YOU TUBE video describing why blacks should NOT be Democrats is just some illusion?

Liberals just don’t get it.  Obama’s election is actually a blessing in disguise for conservatives.  With their golden ass made in God’s image now seated in the White House, their behavior has been on auto-pilot and without filters.  Now they have finally outed themselves as the most oppressive, racist, controlling and manipulative political party known to Americans. The peaceful liberal protest and shining happy people fighting for freedom of speech for all has been debunked. It is okay to hate a president if he is a Republican.

I have said to my PUMA sisters that you can waste your time attempting impossibly to save the Democrats from their own poison. They are a train wreck.  No longer what they once were, the Party of ASS is now only a shill for Obamabots and socialism. Drinking Kool Aid by the gallons, five swallows at a time without stopping to check out their reflection in the mirror of truth.  Dribblings of purple dye all over their mouths and shirts. They look absolutely and positively ugly and amazing.

Autographed Letter Signed,

AFROCITY

Black Tea and Sympathy: Will Olbermann Attend Dallas Tea Party??? February 24, 2010

It does not come as any surprise to me that the prestige of MSNBC is wearing thin among sane non-Kool Aid drinking Americans.

Nevertheless, we must challenge the residual ignorance that blankets the remaining 650,000 viewers MSNBC receives per day.

Kudos to the  Dallas Tea Party Organization for challenging  Keith Olberman and MSNBC to look at the lack of diversity in their own media outlet.

This repudiation of Olbermann’s statements has been a long time coming.  I have had it with the mainstream media pretending that people of color in the Tea Parties do not exist.  The same assumption is made concerning the Republican Party as a whole.  African Americans that choose conservatism are marginalized to salt and pepper on an iceberg sized steak.  We are characterized as mere tokens used as black up.

Will Olberman show?  Of course not.  He may risk some violence from all of the angry gun toting racist like Dallas Latina conservative, Katrina Pierson or Alfonzo Rachel (aka ZoNation)- an African American Republican.

Even the above examples do not account for all of the diversity within the Republican Party.

There are women, physically challenged persons, Asians, Jews,  gays and lesbians all in the Republican Party.

Any person who attempts to prove this to the mainstream media- is quickly shut down, marginalized, invalidated, and branded as “stoopid”.

Republican National Committee Chairman, Michael Steel is constantly belittled as someone who “should thank Barack Obama for his job”.    Liberals believe had it not been for Obama paving the way in the struggle for the brutha, Michael Steel would not have a career, let alone have been selected as RNC chairman.  MSNBC never reported that Steele was not the only African American on the RNC ballot. They never mentioned that Steele was once the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, a FOX NEWS contributor,  a former GOP senatorial candidate,  and quite active in the Republican Party  BEFORE OBAMA WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT.

To assume that Michael Steele was only elected as RNC chair because he was black is sort of racist isn’t it?  How would MSNBC like it if we said that Rachel Maddow was the token lesbian?

MSNBC will never interview this man:

MSNBC will never send reporters to cover this event:

The Dallas Tea Party Organization is awaiting your reply Mr. Olbermann.  Or will you make the entire Tea Party, The Worse Person of the Week simply for extending you an invitation?  I am betting that somehow Mr. Olbermann will find the underpinnings of racism within the video. It will be akin to the snuff film of the decade. Yeah, that’s it Katrina Pierson was forced to be in the video because her family was being held hostage somewhere in an Atlanta peach orchard by Rush Limbaugh.

Autographed Letter Signed,

AFROCITY

Keith Olberman: An Obamabot Cartoon Flip Flop Book February 17, 2010

It is not easy to reconcile with many of the things said about and done to Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign season. Especially when for the latter, the verbal assault continues on her as well as her children.

It is interesting that I never, never liked the Family Guy long before Sarah Palin came on the political scene. Friends would chide me all of the time about missing “that great show” that was “..even better than Beevis and Butthead and South Park“.   Truthfully as a matter of personal taste, I am just not that into dysfunctional family animation.  The Simpsons is rarely watched in my home and the same goes for South Park.  While dysfunctional family animation shows are to be credited with memorable characters like Homer Simpson, “Man Bear Pig” and are canonized in popular culture, my own life was overrun by a “duh-oh” mother and an absent father.  Young Afrocity could have channeled the frustrated Lisa Simpson., young gifted and black among the mom with a GED. No thanks,  I don’t need  see my life replayed on television in claymation, animation, or otherwise.  I am sure the same goes for Sarah Palin.

The liberation of Hillary Clinton from the sharp tongued Obamabots came only after her decision to campaign for Barry.  Do as we say and the liberal attacks will go away.  Remember this little anti-Hillary gem  from MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann?

Olbermann was one of those Hillary haters that emphasized racism on the part of the Clintons at every turn. Hillary should be taken to a room “where only he comes out”.

Now fast forward to 2010 and Olbermann has somehow inherited Hillary love from the purple gods of Kool-Aid mountain, especially when it comes to invalidating Sarah Palin.

Oh, no you don’t Keith ol’ buddy, ol’ pal.  Can I say that this clip was the most contrived and homespun bullshit piece of journalism I have ever seen in my life.  How dare he infer that Hillary Clinton nuanced anything about Sarah Palin being a flash in the political pan with her response to the rather ….stupid question asked of her?  Furthermore, Keith Olberman failed to air Hillary’s full response to the young man. A response that was delivered with the precision grace and class that we all expect from a Secretary of State.

Shame on you Mr. Unfair and Unbalanced Keith Olbermann. You will never spin Hillary Clinton’s words into vitriol for Sarah Palin.

Autographed Letter Signed,

AFROCITY

Conservative Ladies Night On Fox News!!! January 13, 2010

From I Own the World

Uh-oh it is that time. Occulata palingenia haterus moonbats are at it again. Sarah Palin made her debut as a Fox commentator on the O’Reilly Factor last night and fresh off the presses are Palin haters with remarkable mutation stories of her performance. From this article by Baltimore Sun critic David Zurawik:

January 12, 2010

Sarah Palin’s Fox debut: Prime-time propaganda

“Sarah Palin and Bill O’Reilly — the only question is how high the ratings will go.

What a pair and what an awful politicization of TV news.

O’Reilly, the highest rated host on cable news TV, introduced the newest star in the Fox News galaxy Tuesday night as a “news analyst.” If what Palin did in her debut is news analysis, I’m the governor of Alaska and I can see Russia from my backyard.“

Zurawik’s  “Russia from my backyard” statement pretty much tells you where he is going with his critique.  Down the long and winding mudslinging  road of outdated and rehashed Tina Fey SNL Sarah Palin parody skits.  Wow, how creative and appealing to your readers. What an awful politicization of journalism, huh?Watch your readers slobber with Palin hating delight?  What the article suggests is more of the same liberal bashing and fine tooth combing of Palin.  She will never have a chance with these guys.  The article showcases the not so clever and unoriginal words of a so called TV and pop culture critic for the Baltimore Sun who writes about the “craziness of TV” though the crazy lens of liberal mainstream media.

The readers of the Baltimore Sun should be blessed that  Zurawik’s genius “Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an M.A. in specialized reporting (on popular culture) from the University of Wisconsin” deigned to take on the lowly subject of Sarah Palin.

After all Sarah Palin is an insignificant political is a nobody… right?

Zurawik is such the bigger person, not former governor of Alaska with the powers of persuasion to rally hundreds of thousands, raise five children including one who is special needs, and land a contract with the nation’s most highly rated cable news channel.  I will spare you Zurawik’s blow by blow account of Palin’s conversation with O’Reilly and let you see and hear the exchange as it appeared on Fox News:

Zurawik continues:

“In the language of television, that exchange was a perfect interview pas de deux, with Palin sounding intelligent and reasonable with all the “perhaps-es” and the “quites,” while O’Reilly deftly introduced the outrageous notion that Pelosi is ”crazy” — and somehow made it seem like it is a widely held belief.

What a cart and pony show. O’Reilly is a TV master, Palin’s a TV player, and together they are going to bring orgiastic TV delight to right-wing viewers. I think I actually heard Nielsen People Meters exploding on TV sets in the more affluent suburbs of Baltimore last night when these two really got going.

I will spare you the scenario of O’Reilly teeing up old sad sack Harry Reid so that Palin could talk about her lifelong commitment to “diversity” and how indefensible she found Reid’s comments about the color of Obama’s skin.”

Really Mr. Zurawik?  You will “spare us that”? Gee why? Could it be because Harry Reid’s comments were indefensible? Oh I forgot Harry Reid is a Democrat, so lets just hold our hope n’ change noses in the air while that big smelly liberal hypocrisy fart bomb dissipates into see no liberal evil, hear no liberal evil la la land.

Nah, he ain't racist. He's my liberal brutha.

“I will also spare you the show-trial-like give-and-take play acting they did with O’Reilly quoting or replaying bad things that were said about Palin on “60 Minutes” so that she could call them “b.s.” or label them one-by-one a “lie” and then try to rewrite what she said — just as she did in her book “Going Rogue.”

I must briefly mention, however, the way O’Reilly helped her promote a Tea Party event at which she will be the featured speaker — and the way he tried to defend her receiving payment for the appearance. I must because I really hate it when O’Reilly uses TV this way to promote partisan events.

I will also share what she had to say about Obama’s sinking poll numbers: “Of course, they’re sinking.  It was just a matter of time before more of that reflection of the people’s uncomfortableness that they feel towards this administration is manifesting in these poll numbers,” she said. “… There is an obvious disconnect between President Obama and the White House, what they are doing to our economy and what they are doing in terms of not allowing Americans to feel as safe as we had felt…”

I forgot how Palin speaks in a grammar and syntax unlike anyone else on this planet, but you get the idea. And I’ll tell you what: In a protected TV environment like the one Fox and O’Reilly skillfully provided for her Tuesday night, I think she could be a red-hot ratings winner. And the country and our political conversation are going to be the poorer for it.

I can only imagine what kind of power these two might come to wield in the elections of 2010. This is not news analysis. This is TV as political propaganda.”

Ah, beware of the conservative sirens of Fox News. Flashing their shiny hair and pro-life smiles. Gunning for your liberal ways.  How dare FOX make you watch them.  How dare they! You are just minding your own business reading Mother Jones magazine, sitting on your organic milk crates stolen from the Trader Joe’s,  munching on dehydrated apricots and hemp granola, just minding your own business when something compels you to turn on FOX News and watch Sarah Palin. Oh, God pray to Saint Olbermann and Matthews.

” I can only imagine what kind of power these two might come to wield in the elections of 2010″

Now that is hilarious. Sarah Palin obviously makes Zurawik have nightmares.

Concerning her appearance on O’Reilly, it was Sarah Palin’s first outing as a commentator on FOX News. O’Reilly was doing more of an orientation in my view. The same thing he did with John Stossel and Lou Dobbs when they were on his show.   O’Reilly is not the only FOX News venue Palin will appear on, so rest easy, you will have plenty of hate candy to chew on in all sorts of formats while viewing your FOX favorites.

Sarah and Sean.

Sarah and Greta.

Sarah and Chris Wallace.

Sarah with Fox N’ Friends.

Sarah sitting on Charles Krauthammer’s lap…

In fact she will appear on the Glenn Beck Program this afternoon.  Don’t forget to bring your Obama pillow and copy of Strunk and White. You must use that PhD. in American Studies for something besides maintaining tenure at the Baltimore Sun.

And if you Palin haters still have a  size extra small condom wrapper left, you may be interested in Ann Coulter’s slap down of Al Sharpton on Hannity which also aired Tuesday night.  Of course, as the honorable mouthpiece for the entire black community, Rev. Sharpton’s credibility’s rating is in negative digits but someone please archive this interview so we can tell him to shut the hell up the next time he brings up a racist cartoon or white person walking by a black church with a bucket of fried chicken in the near future.

And no liberal politicians, it is not okay to only call Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev.  Jesse Jackson the next time a racist flag is pinned on on the tail of a DNC jackass. YOU MUST CALL OR TEXT EVERY BLACK PERSON IN AMERICA.  What if I don’t attend their church? How will you know what I am thinking? How will you know that I have accepted your empty apology?

Autographed Letter Signed,

AFROCITY

Blackhanded Compliments: Plenty of Room at the Shelter for Battered Liberals January 12, 2010

Have you ever been slapped in the face by the most wonderful compliment?

There you were minding your own business and BOOM. Ka-pow !!!  You were bitch slapped with a compliment. It was so beautiful and star appeared before your eyes.  You were so mesmerized by its sheer generosity that you hardly noticed the black eye you had the next morning.

Sad and shameful is the black liberal attempt to drive home the point that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is on the right side of history.

I recall with some crystal clear clarity that it was a year ago when the liberals were in an uproar over comments which alluded to Barack Obama as the “Magic Negro”.

The hunt for racists continued with Rev Al Sharpton’s tirade against the monkey cartoon which appeared in the New York Post.

Now as Democrats rush to squash media attention on Harry Reid’s unfortunate words, this latest chapter in liberal hypocrisy only serves as a further demonstration in the danger of identity politics. Some group is always going to get hurt while hoping their needs will be met. When hurt does occur, they keep coming back for more and more and more.

Black America has come to accept the worse from the Democratic Party.   Like a secret society, liberals like Harry Reid can say that our president is the “Magic Negro” .  That is okay because Harry is down with our history and he is one of our peeps.   This characteristic of African Americans is in keeping with the unspoken rule that only blacks can call other blacks the “N-word”.

“What’s up my nigga?”

Harry Reid’s comment was certainly welcome by the liberals as a compliment…

My, my, my the topsy turvy definitions of racism we weave.  From my first hearing of the Harry Reid light skinned comments, I immediately recognized them as racist which fall into the “well meaning white people” category.  Only someone who is arrogant, ignorant or both would perceive Reid’s comments as a compliment.  I should know, I was one of those people. I was ignorant.  During a work situation, in which a Caucasian colleague was assessing my potential, I was referred to as “articulate” Being the daughter of a woman possessing only a GED and a monthly welfare check, I smiled and lapped up my “compliment” Afrocity had arrived.

A white person said I was articulate.

I was not ghetto like the lessor blacks.

I am educated. I have a masters degree damn it and white people notice me. I am sorta young (ahem), gifted and black!!!

Articulate Afrocity was queen of the mainstream white world!!!!  Until a colleague of color informed me of my erroneous black thought patterns.

“Afrocity,” she implored. “That was not a compliment. It implies that you speak well for a black woman while other blacks are ignorant hood rats. It was a pat on the back for being educated- something that every person should be.”

My colleague’s version made perfect sense.  I felt like an idiot.  Selfish with the cocaine like powder of compliment whoring all over my mouth.

From the " Far Side"

She continued, “Think about it. Do you ever hear white people telling other white people that they are articulate?”

Good point. I never ever heard a white person give that particular compliment to anyone except when referring to a person of color.  Shame continued to grip me as I recalled every moment that I did not correct someone for giving me compliments such as the following:

“Afrocity, I am so glad that you are not like other black people. You don’t sound ghetto.”

“Why do you act like a white person?”

“Afrocity is black but I don’t think she knows it.”

“You are the only black person I can be friends with because you don’t act like a nigger.”

“Afrocity, you are proof that all blacks need is a good education and to stop acting black.”

“How come your skin color is so nice and not all black and chalky?”

“Afrocity when I call someone a nigger, I don’t mean you because you are special and different- not like other blacks”

Yes, readers these are all actual statements made to me during my life. Statements in which I was somewhat inclined to speak out against but remained silent because after all they were complimenting me. I was different from other black folk. A treasure among whites who were tired of hearing about black on black crime, teenage pregnancy, and the rising high school drop out rates among black youth.  I was a “Magic Negro”.

"And He's Clean Too" cartoon by Stilton Jarlsberg, Hope n' Change Cartoons.com

In each case, the compliment giver was someone who like Harry Reid, was “on the right side of history”.

All except one, was a liberal Democrat. They stood alongside me at Bill Clinton rally’s.  I was their only black friend and that made me special.  I was teaching them silently that blacks were not all alike.

I was wrong.

Now I know better. What I do not understand is why President Barack Obama does not know better.

When one is abused and so used to hearing derogatory comments, sometimes we are not aware when we are being verbally beat down.  Someone is kind to you.  They give you food and shelter. Nevermind if they step on your tail from time to time. They did not mean it. They are on the right side of your history.  You defend them when they deserve a sharp tongue, chastising them and saying they cannot and should not speak to you in that manner.

You lash out at the likes of GOP chairman Michael Steel.  “That brutha is not with the program. Republicans are not on the right side of history.”

Liberal women are no stranger to battered liberal syndrome. Sarah Palin was a shock to their culture of brow beating conservatives for sexism while turning the other cheek when such transgressions were made by liberal men like Bill “Bubba” Clinton. Nevermind that your “on the right side” of feminist history Svengali master DNC was kicking the shit out of Hillary Clinton when she ran against Barack Obama during the primaries. You dressed your wounds in laughs at lipstick on a pig comments.

Liberals when will you ever learn that racism means racism and sexism means sexism.

Understand the difference between party loyalty and co-dependency.

Start a  publicity campaign against  “Silence of the Libs”.  Help conservatives and liberals fight racism and sexism.

Autographed Letter Signed,

AFROCITY