Last week the GOP named James L. Hart as its candidate in Tennessee's 8th Congressional District - a man Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence of Democratic Talk Radio call "the most blatantly racist Republican political figure since David Duke." Now in Maryland, Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich, a Bush protege and bosom buddy passed over possible black candidates to two school board positions, leaving just one black representative on a 12-member board in a district where nearly 40% of students are black. Earlier, Bush blew off appearing at the NAACP conference.

On July 16, Michigan state Rep. John Pappageorge (R) said outright, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election." When he discovered that people were outraged by the remark, he admitted it was a "poor choice of words" but said his remark shouldn't be construed as racist. Okay, maybe it really wasn't racist, it was only anti-democratic-with-a-small-d. Either way, it's representative of what the Republican Party has become. And that ain't good.

"To Jefferson County (TX) Commissioners: We the undersigned individuals and organizations join the many local Texas residents who urge the Jefferson County Commissioners to erase the derogatory name of 'Jap Road' from the maps of Texas and replace it with 'Mayumi Road' to honor - not tarnish - the contributions of the Japanese community. We understand that the historic justification for 'Jap Road' is that it was named to honor the Mayumi family who lived on the road in the early 1900s. Without removing that historical reference, we believe that 'Mayumi Road' is an appropriate substitution. Any era in which the term 'Jap' was considered acceptable is long past, and continued use of the name only debases the original intent of honoring the family.... 'Jap Road' dishonors the memory of the Japanese Americans who lived in the area, fought for our country, and helped to build the community. We urge to you change this shameful name to 'Mayumi Road'." Sign the petition.

Mike Hersh revisits Republicans' use of racism to win elections: "Yes, Republicans are so supportive of Black people. Just ask JC Watts, the highest ranking Black in Congress. Oh yeah, he's gone. The top Republicans dissed him and he quit. This because Republicans only use Blacks - as tokens and tools. Colin Powell is getting the same treatment. Cheney ordered Powell to lie to the world at the UN to get us into the Iraq War. Powell is now ashamed and disgraced." Hersh explains that the Bush family has a particularly racist history.

AP reports that the latest "State of the South" report reveals that "a 'new apartheid' is gripping southern education in the United States -- less visible, but equally as lethal as the old form that once ruled South Africa. The report says the fastest-growing population segments of blacks and Latinos are not being adequately trained for the south's growth and prosperity. The "State of the South" report says too many low-income and minority youth attend "isolated, resource-poor schools." The study urges a restructuring of public education to better serve blacks and Latinos. Without quick change, recent gains could be reversed. For example, in the 1990s [under Clinton], black college enrollment rose 48 percent, while Hispanic enrollment increased by 70 percent. But "disconnected youth" [under Bush] could cause a reversal of those gains."

Howard Stern was banned from several radio markets for making crude sexual jokes about Paris Hilton, while Bob the Love Sponge (another liberal host) was fired for lighthearted sexual comedy. Yet a rightwing Clear Channel host, Bill Handel, was not even reprimanded, much less fired, over a sickeningly obscene smear of Muslims. "CAIR has filed complaints with both the FCC and Clear Channel over the skit, in which Handel claimed Muslims have sex with animals, avoid bathing and are obsessed with killing Jews." In the March 10 Bill Handel show on KFI AM 640, a pretend "Muslim" allegedly reading from the new Iraqi constitution refers to "hairy Iraqi women," "lovely Japanese schoolgirls," the "infidel custom of bathing on a regular basis," and "civil unions" between Iraqis and "loving camels and goats." This clearly proves that HATE is not only acceptable to the FCC and Clear Channel, but PROMOTED.

"A south Louisiana NAACP branch is considering seeking a sanction against a white judge who appeared at a Halloween party in black face and wearing a prison jumpsuit and shackles around his wrists and ankles. Judge Timothy C. Ellender, a state district judge in Terrebonne Parish, has acknowledged that he wore the costume, including an 'afro' wig, but said it was a harmless joke. 'It's a tempest in a teapot,' he told The Courier of Houma... Jerome Boykin, president of the NAACP's Terrebonne Parish branch, said that Ellender's costume stereotyped blacks as criminals and convicts... Ellender has agreed to meet with Boykin and about 10 other black activists, elected officials and clergy this... The black leaders will decide whether to file a complaint to Louisiana's Judiciary Commission, which can censure and dismiss judges who violate the state's judicial code of conduct. The code requires that judges always behave in a manner that promotes public confidence in the system's fairness."

From TomPaine.com's blog: "Need proof that our society isn't color-blind? Recent studies show that putting a white-sounding name on an application is worth as much as an extra eight years of work experience to employers. White ex-cons get called back for job interviews nearly as much as black men without any criminal record. Today's Wall Street Journal reports on research that racial prejudice remains a huge barrier to employment. Despite the popular myth that affirmative action advances unqualified minority applicants, studies show that employers would rather hire whites than blacks, even if those whites have a criminal record. Think it's tough for a white guy to get ahead these days? Think again."

The Capital Times reports: "A racist, anti-immigrant poem that led to the resignation of a top state official in Arkansas surfaced recently on the official Web site of the Republican Party of Winnebago County. The poem, titled 'Illegal Poem,' uses broken English to suggest that white Americans are 'crazy' to pay for public assistance to illegal Mexican immigrants... On Wednesday, the head of Arkansas' emergency government resigned after e-mailing the same poem to employees of his agency... the state Democratic Party said the poem was another example of Republicans' insensitivity to minorities. Party spokesman Seth Boffeli noted that the state party recently had to remove a cartoon on Indian gambling that American Indian leaders had denounced as racist. 'Once again, we see Wisconsin Republicans showing very poor taste,' he said. 'In this poem, they are feeding into the worst racist stereotypes just to make a point on welfare.'"

AP reports: "A year after holding their first integrated prom, some students at Taylor County High School have decided to again hold a separate, private party for whites only. While many whites say they still plan to attend next week's integrated prom, the decision to hold the whites-only prom this Friday saddened senior Gerica McCrary, who helped organize last year's dance. 'I cried,' said McCrary, who is black. 'The black juniors said, 'Our prom is open to everyone. If you want to come, come.'"

CNN reports, "A dozen years after the Supreme Court made it easier for public schools to escape court-ordered desegregation plans, black and Hispanic students across the country are increasingly less likely to learn side-by-side with their non-Hispanic white counterparts, according to the findings of a study released Sunday. Although minority students in the South and West, the regions with the largest minority populations, attend the most integrated public schools, so-called 'resegregation' is occurring faster there than in other regions, according to researchers at Harvard University's Civil Rights Project. The study also found that among minority groups, Hispanic students attend the least-integrated schools; Asian students, the most integrated. White students were the most segregated overall, attending schools that, on average, were 80 percent white."

CNN reports, "The White House is expected to file a brief by Thursday with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing a University of Michigan affirmative action program, according to administration officials. Such a move would immerse the administration in a politically and socially charged subject at a time when Republicans are trying to recover from a racially tinged firestorm in the Senate and reach out to minority voters. Details of the brief are still being finalized, the officials said, but the White House is expected to argue that there are better ways to promote diversity than the program that gives preference to African-Americans and Hispanics applying to the university. The expected move was being closely watched on Capitol Hill by Democrats who say Republicans have failed to encourage racial diversity." Hey Karl - why don't you send Bush to stand in front of the Supreme Court with Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond to declare "Segregation here, segregation now, segregation forever!"

Juan Andrade writes, "It took [Pat] Buchanan about two minutes to shift the focus and start blaming the influx of immigrants for America's race problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. Buchanan is just a liar and a hatemonger. Is it any wonder racial discrimination doesn't stop? Why can't bigots like Buchanan accept responsibility? ... I don't purport to have all the solutions to our race problem, but I'm convinced accepting responsibility has to happen first--i.e., whites must recognize they created a huge problem and now need to be proactive in helping remedy the problem... Buchanan types propose changing society from the bottom up because they know it will never happen, and that will keep whites on top forever. The solution to our race problem is going to have to start from the top down, and for that to happen, whites are just going to have to make room on the ladder to the top for more minorities for as long as it takes, Buchanan types be damned."

Want to know how Americans REALLY feel about the GOP and Trent Lott on the issue of racism? Here's an insight: the number one most read and clipped article in the New York Times for the week ending Dec. 13 was a piece by Adam Clymer (the guy Bush called an asshole during his campaign) that exposes the total insincerity of the GOP when it comes to race. Instead of being honest proponents of civil rights, the GOP have treated the issue as just one part of a PR juggling act in which they seek to court blacks with token figures like J.C. Watts, while subtly encouraging white power to win the white vote. Clymer reminds readers of a Thurmond quote from the 1948 election: "On the question of social intermingling of the races, our people draw the line," Mr. Thurmond said. "And all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, into our schools, our churches and our places of recreation and amusement."

Jonathan Kozol's book "Savage Inequalities," written during the "reign" of Bush I, has, alas, become all the more relevant today under Bush II: Under Bush I, writes Elena Rutherford, "integration is a fading ghost of a dream, and urban public education writhes in the throes of strangulation, as it remains, today. The language of apartheid had become, if anything, colder and more deeply threatening than the squeals of frenzied southern segregationists. Black lives are simply nor worth nurturing. Education of African American youth is not cost-efficient. The economic basis of white privilege cannot, must not, be tampered with." With Bush II's aggressive push for school privatization/vouchers, the plight of black urban students will become intolerable, says Rutherford - Jim Crow in all but name, while "The battle for democracy and human standards of worth will be truly savage."

Texas Attorney General John Cornyn always brags about his close ties to G.W. Bush. They were on the same page when it comes to "justice for evildoers." (See http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1513358 re: Bush and Cornyn). But where was Cornyn when an unscrupulous Texas lawman named Tom Coleman was trumping up charges against 37 black members of a small community? These folks were rounded up, charged, and tried based on what later was shown to be largely fabricated accusations and nonexistent evidence. But despite the outcry, Bush and Cornyn remained silent. Only now under a new governor is an official investigation into the case being launched. "It's about time," state Rep. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen said recently, "Where was [Cornyn] when it was going on?" Better yet, where was Bush? And... is he using the same tactics himself against Muslim "terrorists?"

Bob Herbert writes, "Tulia is a hot, dusty town of 5,000 on the Texas Panhandle, about 50 miles south of Amarillo... On the morning of July 23, 1999, law enforcement officers fanned out and arrested more than 10 percent of Tulia's tiny African-American population. Also arrested were a handful of whites who had relationships with blacks... Most of Tulia's white residents applauded the arrests, and the local newspapers were all but giddy with their editorial approval. The first convictions came quickly, and the sentences left the town's black residents aghast. One of the few white defendants, a man who happened to have a mixed-race child, was sentenced to more than 300 years in prison. The hog farmer, a black man in his late 50's named Joe Moore, was sentenced to 90 years. Kareem White, a 24-year-old black man, was sentenced to 60 years. And so on... In a just world, this case would be no more than a spoof on 'Saturday Night Live.' Instead it's a tragedy with no remedy in sight."

Liz Tilley writes, "Here's the association the right wing is pushing: Black Muslims = Malcom X = Farakhan = terrorism = Padilla = millions of Black felons carrying unspeakable terror to white America. We can almost hear Ashcroft spitting out the denunciations in his inimitable and creepy style... There it is. American Black men will save the Bush presidency in just the same way that Jews provided for Hitler's success in oppressing his own people... The strategies of the Bush clique are majestic in scale and breathtaking in bravura. As we learned from the blitzkrieg announcement of the government reorganization, this White House crew cooks things up in total secrecy and springs plans on us for maximum debilitating effect... We must put Bush and Ashcroft and the right-wing racists on notice that this demonization and scapegoating of our Black brothers and sisters will not stand."

"To hear conservatives tell it [race-conscious politics] undermines meritocracy by making identity the criteria for advancement rather than ability... The qualification for high office, conservatives insisted, should be experience and brains, not whether you fill some racial or gender slot. But Bush brazenly violated that principle even before taking office. According to conservative color-blind logic, the Bush campaign should have allocated speaking slots at the 2000 GOP convention according to merit; it should have featured the most experienced and thoughtful Republicans, regardless of race or gender. What happened was virtually the opposite: Bush's advisers trotted out an endless succession of black, Hispanic, and female unknowns--state representatives, lieutenant governors, and obscure members of Congress. Meanwhile, the people who really run the Republican Party remained out of sight--because they happen to be white men." So writes Peter Beinart in the New Republic.

"The plaque stated, 'Thank you James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive.' But the name should have been 'James Earl Jones,' the Tony Award-winning actor…The plaque was intended as a gift from the city of Lauderhill, Fla., to Jones, who will be the featured speaker at the city's annual Martin Luther King celebration on Saturday. James Earl Ray shot and killed King in 1968...The case of the terribly wrong name is also fueling conspiracy theories [sic]. [AdPro owner] Wilcox said he knew the error didn't come from his company, but he sent a company secretary scurrying through order forms -- just to be sure...He said the first phone conversation broke down when a Merit [the company that provided the plaque] employee became uncooperative and cut the call short. On a second try, Wilcox talked to the owner, Herbert Miller. 'I explained to him why this was so important. He said I was making a mountain out of a mole hill,' Wilcox said…On Tuesday, Merit's Miller called the mistake not a 'slur' but a 'copy error.'"

A true leader in a time of crisis would call for calm, wise reflection, and restraint. A true leader would quickly condemn any racist attacks against innocent people in retaliation for what criminals who happened to be of the same ethnic background may have done. But Bush, caught up in his own saber rattling, has failed to do any of these things. Now a wave of hate crimes is intensifying against not just Arab Americans, but anyone even looking, to the bigot's eye, like an Arab. In AZ, an Indian gas station owner who apparently looked too "Arabic" has already been murdered. Bush has failed to point out that hundreds of Arab Americans were killled or lost loved ones in the disasters. Most humiliating for the U.S. is that Bush's FATHER had to be the one to step forward and make a plea against anti-Arab hate attacks. Meanwhile, Bush's silence can only be interpreted as condoning the attacks by would be perpetrators.

"A collection of photos depicting dozens of American lynchings finally will be exhibited in Atlanta, the hometown of its owners, two years after it opened in New York... "Without Sanctuary" initially had trouble finding a venue here... Emory University and the National Park Service came up with a plan to display the exhibit from May 1-Dec. 1, 2002, at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site... The exhibit will include 75 photographs and postcards showing corpses of young black men hanging from branches, telephone poles and, in one case, a bridge. One image shows a young man being burned at the stake, while another shows "the half-burned head of James" on a pole. In some of the scenes - which were mostly captured by amateur photographers - people pose and smile next to the dangling victims."

Washington Post columnist David Broder is not known for stepping off the median stripe of American political analysis. But the media's uncritical coverage of Jesse Helms' retirement made even Broder blow a fuse. "What really sets Jesse Helms apart is that he is the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country -- a title that one hopes will now be permanently retired. A few editorials and columns came close to saying that. But the squeamishness of much of the press in characterizing Helms for what he is suggests an unwillingness to confront the reality of race in our national life." We would go even further by saying that the white media has embraced a new form of racism, which opposes equality for all blacks except the few who opportunistically become Republicans, like Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and Clarence Thomas. To wit, just compare the media's treatment of the marital problems of Jesse Jackson Jr. (loud and persistent denunciation) and J.C. Watts (complete silence).

"The Rev. Jesse Jackson lambasted President Bush on Monday for boycotting the United Nations conference on racism and said he would lead his own delegation to the Durban, South Africa, meeting... 'To opt out of that conference is to opt out of a chance to lead the world toward more racial justice and multicultural living,' Jackson said... Jackson said U.S. leadership helped end apartheid in South Africa, and the United States has something to offer the UN conference on racism 'even with our unfinished business' on that subject." You go, Jesse!

"Despite half of all blacks saying they have experienced discrimination in the past 30 days, whites persist in believing that we know their realities better than they do, and that black complaints of racism are the rantings of oversensitive racial hypochondriacs. Blacks, we seem to believe, make mountains out of molehills, for God knows we would never make a molehill out of a mountain," Writes Tim Wise in Detroit's Metrotimes. "There is statistical evidence indicating that equal opportunity is the stuff of fiction...and that white perceptions of racism’s salience have always been splendidly naive. Indeed, as far back as 1963, before there was a Civil Rights Act to outlaw even the most blatant racial discrimination, 60 percent of whites said that blacks were treated equally in their communities." Yet some want to believe black churches would get equal treatment in a faith-based system!

Abdullah Alarian, an intern for Rep. David Bonior (D-MI) got treated to a large helping of White House hospitality this week. Fifteen minutes into a meeting of Shrub's Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, Alarian was summarily pulled from the room and ejected from the White House. Why? No doubt the same reason Chinese-American Congressman Wu was barred from an energy conference on the west coast recently: He didn't look "American" enough for Shrub's secret service. When the agent refused to say why Alarian was being ejected, the other 20 Muslim participants in the meeting angrily left the White House. To make matters worse, last week, Cheney stood up a group of 85 Islamic leaders after agreeing to meet with them. Guess they didn't look American - or Christian - enough, either.

When blacks and hispanics commit crimes or join gangs, it is decried as a racial problem (what's wrong with the black culture, etc.). When whites commit crimes - such as just about every mass school shooting yet - the violence is deracialized. "Apparently it is news to my fellow white folks that our kids are potentially just as dangerous and dysfunctional as anyone else's," writes Timothy Wise in Detroit's "Metro Times." "Apparently it is news to whites that we have plenty of pathologies in our communities, and that crime and deviance are not merely black and brown problems. But to those same black and brown folks who are usually on the receiving end of racial stereotyping and profiling, this is not news at all."

Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing groups in the U.S. and one of the greatest contributors to science and high-technology. However, says William Wong, author of "Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America," "The Asian presence in the United States is both rich and mostly invisible." While it is now taboo to racially parody Native Americans or Blacks, Asians are still fair game. For example, at a recent convention in Washington, DC, there was a skit on U.S.-China diplomacy in which a white actor playing a Chinese official wildly waved his hands about while babbling "Ching ching chong chong." Worse yet, Bush seems to be targeting Chinese as our "adversaries," as are Neo-Nazi groups such as the National Alliance. http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=14175

As we showed in a previous story, white supremacist hate groups in the U.S. are feeling empowered these days, viewing the activities of the Bush administration and our Supreme Court as evidence that "their side's" time is coming. Now the National Alliance, a particularly odious group, seeks to fan the fires of hatred in Cincinnati. See next story link for info. on the National Alliance, who wins our BARF BAG of the YEAR award hands down!

Segregation was on shameless display on the White House lawn. "The Bush administration's plan for an unbeatable public relations stunt came a little bit unstuck once the teams ran out to play: one was all-black, the other was all-white, except for one black player. It had not been planned that the two teams chosen to play the first of an occasional series of 'T-ball' games on the lawn should so dramatically illustrate Washington's racial divide. It just appears that no one stopped to think." Said one television cameraman, "You see that? It's black against white. What's that all about?" Good question! And we can't resist a few more: Did Bush frisk the kids like he planned for the Easter Egg Roll? Did he use racial profiling to decide which team to frisk? Did 'Friskie' Todd have a hand in it? Where have you gone, Jackie Robinson?

"Mississippi voters decided…Tuesday to keep their state banner which prominently displays the Civil War Confederate flag, rejecting a new design that would have removed [the] emblem…Mississippi could now face the kind of economic boycott from blacks and others that forced South Carolina last year to move a Confederate flag [from above] the state Capitol to a less prominent location...The result was a defeat for Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and black leaders who backed the new design. It showed that the legacy of the Civil War, slavery and segregation continues to exert a powerful hold over politics in the Deep South…[Many] see the emblem as a banner of slavery and Ku Klux Klan violence. More recently, it has been adopted by neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists." Think there's a correlation in the following statistics? "…65 percent voted to retain the old flag…while 35 percent voted for the new design. Mississippi's population is about 61 percent white and 36 percent black."

The Shrubmeister always whines that he isn't a racist. In fact, some of his best friends (Colin Powell, Condy Rice) are black - well, sort of black. But now our clueless leader has made a first blow for the new confederacy and withdrawn the nomination of interim Judge Roger Gregory, an outstanding jurist who happens to be the first African-American to sit on the 4th Circuit bench. "After centuries of waiting for the 4th Circuit to finally be desegregated by the nomination of an African-American jurist, that process is being scuttled by the president," laments Black Leadership Forum chairman Dr. Joseph E. Lowery. Better start wearing turtlenecks, Shrub - your red neck is showing!

Ernest Allen of UMass Amherst and Robert Chrisman of the Black Scholar do a great job of debunking that David Horowitz ad campaign in college newspapers as not really being about reparations. And they point out that paid commercial speech is subject to all sorts of limitations. They write: "As one examines the text of Horowitz's article, it becomes apparent that it is not a reasoned essay addressed to the topic of reparations: it is, rather, a racist polemic against African Americans and Africans that is neither responsible nor informed, relying heavily upon sophistry and a Hitlerian "Big Lie" technique. To our knowledge, only one of Horowitz's ten "reasons" has been challenged by a black scholar as to source, accuracy, and validity. It is our intention here to briefly rebut his slanders in order to pave the way for an honest and forthright debate on reparations. In these efforts we focus not just on slavery, but also the legacy of slavery, which continues to inform institutional as well as individual behavior in the U.S. to this day."

"The clashes were set off by Saturday's fatal shooting of Timothy Thomas, 19, who was hit by gunfire as he ran from an officer who was trying to arrest him on 14 warrants. Thomas, of Cincinnati, had been wanted for misdemeanors and traffic violations. The FBI on Tuesday opened a civil rights probe and will forward findings to the Justice Department, said FBI spokesman Ed Boldt. Prosecutor Michael Allen said a Hamilton County grand jury also might investigate the shooting, which came as tensions were already high between police and many blacks. Officers have killed four black men since November." Per the news ticker at Black World News, "Cincinnati's mayor may call in National Guard to quell riots."

Historian John Hope Franklin shows just how wrong David Horowitz is in claiming that no one benefited from slavery. In fact, the legacy of the laws forbidding blacks from learning to read and write is still with us today: "And as long as there are pro-slavery protagonists among us, hiding behind such absurdities as "we are all in this together" or "it hurts me as much as it hurts you" or "slavery benefited you as much as it benefited me," we will suffer from the inability to confront the tragic legacies of slavery and deal with them in a forthright and constructive manner."

It is a largely undocumented phenomenon nationwide, but one that has taken place several times in the past few years in the District, with deadly consequences. In the nation's capital from 1995 to 1998, three black police officers were mistaken for criminal suspects and shot by white officers, two of them fatally.

In the year ending June 30, 2000, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took 39% of 5,851 drug-exposed black babies into foster care, but only 27% of 1,035 white babies.

It's what we've suspected all along. The religious right has a hidden racist side that rears its ugly head when no one's looking. Except in the case of the Christian Coalition some black employees had the courage to take the hypocrites on. Good luck in your law suit. Take the Christian Coalition to the cleaners. They are not children of God.

To put in perspective Dick Armey's (R-TX) Goebellian complaints of the NAACP practicing "racial McCarthyism", this LA Times editorial reviews a little of the GOP's racist history. From Goldwater's "Southern Strategy" through Bush Sr.'s "Willie Horton" ad to Bush Jr.'s Bob Jones U. appearance, the article can only provide a brief list of racism and pandering by high-level Republicans. Note how eerily similar Armey's backward scapegoating is to Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese's declaration that the Voting Rights Act "discriminated against the South". And bear in mind that Armey the homophobe called Barney Frank "Barney Fag".

On Tuesday, Bush promised an end to racial profiling in America. The very next day, "Omaha police stopped and frisked two Lincoln Journal Star staffers - one black and one Native - who were in town Wednesday to cover President Bush's visit. The incident occurred at mid-morning shortly after reporter Butch Mabin and photographer Ken Blackbird claimed one of the last parking spots atop a garage across from Omaha's Civic Auditorium." So George – when exactly will you end racial profiling?

Bush always talks about what's in his heart. Want to know what's in the heart of Bush's Texas? Spend some time with the Kappa Alpha fraternity at the University of North Texas. If Bush disapproves of this attitude, how about saying something from the bully pulpit?