We're back from our break. We accomplished a great
deal on projects you will see the results of in the not too distant
future.
One change is an updating of our Advertise
with Us and rate pages making our ad sizes and prices much
easier to understand. Gone is the arcane rate chart. Now we simply
say that we have a wide range of ad sizes and positions to accommodate
any budget. So, give us a shout and begin a plan to reach our
unique and highly influential audience of  readers
like you.
You will also hopefully notice the display ad encouraging organizations
and businesses with a social conscience to get in touch with us
to advertise products, services and job openings.
We invite you to check out the Job
Postings page. You'll find a job posting by SEIU
Local 399 in Southern California. If you or someone you know
is ready to join SEIU Local 399 in its fight to organize for
economic justice, please click on the ad and follow up.
Since August 5th when we published our best of 's
101 the Website was not without changes. Each week a new RADIO
BC audio commentary was recorded by Co-Publisher
and Editor-in-Chief, Glen Ford. If you have not yet made listening
to RADIO BC a part of your weekly
visit, please visit the RADIO BC page and
check out how we sound!
withdrawal
pains
Our publication breather was not intended to cause problems, but
we received the following message from an anonymous addict.
Help!
What has happened to my weekly newsletter????
These withdrawals pains aren't easy!!
And this one from Lynn Chadderdon.
HEY !!
Am a basket case until ya'll return!!
We hope this issue will serve as an adequate fix.
The "Rosetta Stone" of your
Computer
Abby in Honolulu has made the RADIO BC connection.
I have attempted to listen to the RADIO
BC commentary a few times in the past. However, each
time I failed to manipulate my computer software correctly.
I rarely utilize my PC's media capabilities, and I was discouraged.
Today, I learned something - two things actually.
First, I learned I don't need a broadband subscription to listen
to your radio program, because my 56k dial-up connection is adequate.
Second, I believe this is the first time I have heard anyone
adequately address how the US Democratic Senators ignored the
crime of 2000 (or maybe I was just asleep before, nevertheless,
Amen!).
Now that I have discovered the "Rosetta Stone" of
my PC, I will be listening to all of your radio commentaries.
We did not chose the Windows Media Player as
the format for RADIO BC because we have a love affair with Microsoft,
but because
it works on any computer (PC or MAC) and comes free with Windows
operation or can be downloaded free. It also does not bother
you with constant upgrades or promotional messages to sign up
for news, music or other items. If you don't like Microsoft,
but must admit WMP is the best choice, just hold your nose, download
it so you can listen to RADIO BC.
Sort of like preparing to vote for John Kerry so you can stop
listening to W.
Back Issue reading of
The activity logs of our Website tell us what pages
are being visited. Therefore, we are encouraged on a regular basis
to see readers checking out previously published commentaries.
However, our working vacation issue encouraged readers to include
past issues of in
their late summer reading. We are pleased with the results in the
data and the e-Mail it generated.
Martin F. Harper of High Point, North Carolina sent a note of
praise, but was disappointed with our Best
of 101
Cartoons choices.
Thank God Almighty for this bastion of truth called Black Commentator.com!
How could you leave off the Clarence Thomas
in a dress cartoon as a "top 101" when the article
it inspired was definitely a top 101? (just my opinion).
Keep up the good work!
Brother Harper is correct - so here she is - A female Clarence
Thomas!
Those hard-right idiots are so insane they don't
know how to read a cartoon. If Clarence Thomas was a woman he would
look almost exactly how we depicted him.
Speaking of cartoons, Marjorie Loring spent some
time on our Cartoons
Page where every cartoon we have ever published can be viewed.
I remember the days when cartoons made me laugh.
Today, I spent five minutes in the
above named section of and
I sit here weeping.
Thank you.
I'll pass them along.
We don't want to make you sad,
but if "29" touches
your heart, we guess that's good.
Camille Sanders went back to issue
number 20 to read about America's Black Right-Wing Forum.
I read with great interest your article about the new and not
improved Americas Black Forum program. I ceased watching the
show several years ago, when Armstrong Williams and Juan Williams
joined the helm. Has a paradigm shift occurred in the African
American media community that would allow a pit-bull like Williams
to encroach on what the show once stood for? What happened? The
Williams team makes Julian Bond look completely out of place
which renders his political perspectives to become null and void.
I watched with utter disgust as Julian Bond grappled with trying
to make his point while appearing helpless in the jaws of Armstrong
Williams.
This is appalling and sad at best. How did
this happen? As your article correctly states, the Fox agenda
is clearly in focus
here. What are the alternatives? Are the Armstrong Williams of
the world the new face of Black media; are they here to stay?
Isn't there a much better alternative than this pit-bull journalism
that Fox News has adapted as their new "journalistic" paradigm.
I am truly disturbed by all of this.
Reader Jimmie also likes our take on Armstrong Williams.
You are right on point!
Oh my goodness!!! It's so refreshing to read from a group of
African American people who can see the garbage that people like
Armstrong Williams can't. I wonder what he will do when the racist
establishment turns on him, as it always does in the long run.
Our response regarding Armstrong Williams:
Don't fret about the future of Armstrong
Williams. He has already made millions performing his "special" services
to the enemy. He represents near-zero opinion in Black America
-
and will not be mourned.
Patricia Sharp checks in from Maine to attack the corporate beast.
I'm too busy, struggling for my own survival, to do more than
scan your article today... but I wanted to write a quick note.
We old 55 yrs. & up, Wasps in the rural areas have joined
the urban blacks in being marginalized, by the corporate beast!
I am in Washington County Maine, one of the biggest "drug
problems areas " in the country (on a
smaller scale) and where a number of us retired, have fled for refuge.
In '92 I drove across the southern US, & up RT #5 to get
to my Mother in Portland OR. I noticed the pockets of older Americans
in all the little towns I passed through. (The food was always
better out there!")
I'm suggesting joining forces... after the election, when Kerry
wins! Then our work just begins!
Discovering Obama
The speech by Barack Obama at the Democratic convention
in Boston brought a number of readers to issue
number 45 in June of 2003, including this anonymous person from
Pennsylvania.
I enjoyed your commentary "In
Search of the real Barack Obama".
How far do you folks think this young man
will get if he does not begin the long and arduous process
of bartering and bargaining
for his rightful place among our nation's "leaders" (
I use this phrase lightly )?
Although it might be possible for him to
get elected by holding fast to his original platform, how long
do you folks think it
would be before he would be marginalized and cast off by his "colleagues" in
the Senate, as just another person of color on "an emotional
mission"?
The cries of the people in this country for "justice" have
been falling on deaf ears since the killing years of the late
60's.
I wish him well, pray for him and hope that he can politic his
way into this rat infested system and manage to keep most of
the stench off him in the process. There is so much that needs
doing for our community that, unfortunately, can only be done
from the inside.
Thanks for your enlightening piece. I will keep a closer eye
on his progress as a result.
Unfortunately for Obama, some of his comments tied him in with
crazy Bill the pound cake comedian according to John Eden of Jesup,
Georgia.
Hooray for "No Fools Allowed"!
So glad to see the return of the reader's column, interesting
new format, tho it
doesn't sound like you...
Re: the 'acting white' issue - in my experience here in the deep south, black
kids are more likely to shut out other black kids and accuse them of 'selling
out' for dating or otherwise hanging out with whites, or for how they speak
than for doing well in school.
Of course you know, Cosby and the others are just saying what will gain
them white approbation. Can we name that the Clarence Thomas phenomena?
It's what
the kids call "sucking up." It's part of the nature of authoritarian,
power-based systems.
I'm interested in what you and others think of Barack Obama, who said we
must "eradicate the slander that says that a black youth with a book
is acting white." I'm not sure exactly what he means by that, and it
was probably tweaked to fit into the whole carefully scripted mold of the
DNC anyway, but most of his speech was excellent -- perhaps if he reads the
August issue you're promising, he'll turn out to be a positive force for
progressive change. He's certainly got the political gifts!
I am still amazed by the great stuff you publish - installment
5 of the Plan for Cities is one of the most hopeful and inspiring
things I've read in a while. Even as a white rural professional,
I can fight Walmart.
Thanks again!
Brother Eden has noticed the slightly different house negro and
oreo naming smart-assed voice of No Fools Allowed. No Fools Allowed
will always speak from a position of anger, militancy and impatience.
Alan Keyes in his own words
People For the American Way sent us an e-Mail containing The
Wit and Wisdom of Alan Keyes.
Alan Keyes, a right-wing pundit and former
presidential and senatorial candidate who lives in Maryland,
is reportedly considering
a run for the U.S. Senate on the Republican Party ticket in Illinois.
Here, in his own words, is a sampling of Alan Keyes’ record
and rhetoric.
Keyes on Running for Office in another state in 2004:
Former GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes
told Illinois Republicans Monday that he is ‘‘open to the idea’’ of
taking on the Democrat in the U.S. Senate race ... Keyes lives
in Maryland.
Chicago Sun Times, “GOP wooing Keyes to take on Obama,” August
3, 2004
Keyes on Running for Office in another state in 2000:
“And I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented
by Hillary Clinton’s willingness to go into a state she
doesn't even live in and pretend to represent people there. So
I certainly wouldn’t imitate it.”
Fox News, “Special Report with Brit Hume,” March
17, 2000
Alan Keyes on principle in 2004:
“I do not take it for granted that it’s a good idea
to parachute into a state and go into a Senate race,” he
said before meeting the Republican leaders. “As a matter
of principle, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Chicago Tribune, “GOP Wants Keyes,” August
5, 2004
Alan Keyes on principle in 1996.
“This must be a terrible feeling,” Keyes tells his
would-be supporters. “You make a decision based on expediency,
and it doesn’t work. And then you are left without expediency
and without principle. With nothing. This is sad, I never want
to wake up the day after an election or any time else with that
emptiness in me, knowing I have given away the things that matter
most for the sake of what I thought would win and finding that
I have lost and have nothing.”
Minnesota Christian Chronicle,
“In ignoring Keyes, Christian voters choose expediency
over principle,” Feb 22, 1996
Keyes on the Republican Party
In 1992, according to the Washington Post,
as Republican nominee in Maryland’s U.S. Senate contest that year, Keyes denounced
the national leadership of his party as racist, saying senior
GOP officials had ignored or disparaged his campaign because
he is black. GOP leaders “basically are sending the message
that beyond a certain level blacks need not apply,” Keyes
said. “If I can work out in the fields, I think I ought
to be allowed to come into the house for dinner.”
Washington Post, “GOP Hopeful Says Party Is Racist,” August
14, 1992
Keyes on Moderate Republicans
“On all the matters that touch upon the critical moral
issues, Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the evil side. This is a
fact. A mere list of the positions he supports is enough to make
this plain: abortion as a ‘right,’ cloning of human
beings, governmental classification of citizens by race, public
benefits for sexual partners outside of marriage, disrespect
for property rights against environmental extremism, repudiation
of the right to bear arms - no more need be said to show that
this candidate is wrong where human decency, human rights and
human responsibility bear directly on political issues.”
WorldNetDaily, “Arnold’s corruption of Republican
Party,” October 6, 2003
Keyes on Black Leaders
“ I think part of it is that the Black
leadership, the vocal ones that the media concentrates on,
are all bought-and-sold,
step-and-fetch-its of depravity for the Democratic party.”
People For the American Way Foundation, “Eyewitness Report
from the C-PAC Conference,” February 21, 1999
“I think it would be a terrible shame
to abandon the fate of America or the black community to the
likes of people who
are speaking as Julian Bond has spoken, but more importantly,
the likes of people who have supported policies that have destroyed
the black family, that support abortion, which is committing
genocide against black people in this country with devastating
demographic results that we have already seen in the course of
the last census.”
Hannity and Colmes, “Interview with Alan Keyes,” July
12, 2004
Keyes on Reproductive Choice
“The violation on [sic] innocent human
life is the same whether you commit terrorism or commit abortion.”
People For the American Way Foundation, “The Vocabulary
of Terror: Anti-abortion politics since 9/11,” April 10,
2002
“I will never again cast a vote for an individual I in
conscience believe to be pro-choice, pro-abortion, not pro-life.
Based on the confession of his heart in New Hampshire, when John
McCain told us clearly that he would tell his daughter it was
her choice -- and every woman is somebody’s daughter, so
if you tell the daughters of America it’s their choice,
you’re pro-choice. He is pro- choice, he is not pro-life.
I will not support a pro-choice, pro- abortion candidate.”
Republican Presidential Debate, March 2, 2002
Keyes on Homosexuality
“Hitler and his supporters were Satanists and homosexuals.
That’s just a true statement.” He added that, “The
notion that is involved in homosexuality, the unbridled sort
of satisfaction of human passions” leads to “‘totalitarianism,’ ‘Nazism,’ and ‘communism.’”
People For the American Way Foundation, “Hostile Climate
1997,” p.26
Keyes on Equal Rights for Gay Americans
“It’s about time we all faced up to the truth. If
we accept the radical homosexual agenda, be it in the military
or in marriage or in other areas of our lives, we are utterly
destroying the concept of family. We must oppose it in the military.
We must oppose it in marriage. We must oppose it if the fundamental
institution of our civilization is to survive. Those unwilling
to face that fact and playing games with this issue are doing
so irresponsibly at the price of America’s moral foundations.”
Republican Presidential Debate, January 6, 2000
Keyes on Hate Crimes Legislation
“The whole push with respect to hate
crimes legislation is an effort to create a body of law that
allows the government
to coerce opinions, and to punish people because of their opinions.
In this particular case, the opinion that is going to be punished
is the opinion that homosexuality is immoral and against the
laws of God. That opinion is now going to become a crime. And
this whole push with respect to hate crimes is an effort to establish
that agenda.”
WorldNetDaily, “The Trouble with ‘Hate Crimes’,” October
16, 1998
Keyes on the Courts and Prayer in Public Schools
“If they tell us that we cannot pray
in the classroom, we should pray. If they tell us that we cannot
pray in the hallways,
we should pray. If they tell us that we cannot pray at graduation
ceremonies, we should pray. Because what they are doing fundamentally
violates probably the most important of our God-given rights,
which is the right to appeal for aid to our Almighty God.”
Renew America, “Alan Keyes on the Issues,” http://www.renewamerica.us/keyes/issues.htm
Keyes on Taxes
“The income tax is a twentieth-century socialist experiment
that has failed. Before the income tax was imposed on us just
80 years ago, government had no claim to our income. Only sales,
excise, and tariff taxes were allowed. ... Only abolition of
the income tax will restore the basic American principle that
our income is both our own money and our own private business
not the government’s.”
Renew America, “Alan Keyes on the Issues,”
Keyes on the Democratic Party
“Democrats are going to have to go
on record standing against the marriage-based family, standing
for the continued
annihilation of new generations of young black babies through
the promotion of abortion in the black community. This is devastating,
the truth is going to be told.”
Hannity and Colmes, “Interview with Alan Keyes,” July
12, 2004
Keyes on Affirmative Action
“Moreover, preferential affirmative
action patronizes American blacks, women, and others by presuming
that they cannot
succeed on their own. Preferential affirmative action does not
advance civil rights in this country. It is merely another government
patronage program that secures money and jobs for the few people
who benefit from it, and breeds resentment in the many who do
not. It divides us as a people, and draws attention away from
the moral and family breakdown that is the chief cause of the
despair and misery in which too many of our fellow citizens struggle
to live decently.”
Renew America, “Alan Keyes on the Issues,”
Keyes on Jews and Anti-Semitism
“The tragic and violent clashes between
blacks and Jews are unhappily not the product of a unique and
isolated set of
circumstances. I believe that, unwittingly, Jewish supporters
of the government-dominated welfare state approach to the economic
and social problems of the black community helped to create the
mentality that now produces anger and anti-Semitism in black
neighborhoods.”
Alan Keyes, “Our Character, Our Future,” May
2, 1996, p. 48-50
Keyes on the First Amendment and Separation of Church
and State
“[The Founding Fathers] put an amendment in the Constitution
with … wording intended to tell the Congress and thereby
the national government that the whole business of religious
belief, that whole business of any regime, any attitude to be
imparted through law, that it was none of the federal government’s
business.
“Now, that still gives rise to the possibility. Some folks
don’t want to see it. There might be states in which they
require a religious test or oath of office. There might be states
in which they have established churches, where subventions are
given to schools and so forth to teach the Bible. There might
be places where you and I might disagree with the religion some
folks wanted to put in place over their communities. But guess
what the Founders believed? They believed that people in their
states and localities had the right to live under institutions
they would put together to govern themselves according to their
faith.”
Roy Moore Rally, Montgomery, Alabama, August 16, 2003
Compiled by People
For the American Way, August 2004
Still upset with reactionary tripe
Anthony Ware writes to us about Spike Lee and the Cos.
Congratulations on the 100th issue!! Keep up the good work.
That Mars Blackman (Spike Lee) would follow lock step behind
Bill Cosby with more reactionary tripe isn't surprising. Comments
from a filmmaker that played plantation politics to make a bad
film about Malcolm X, Lee should shut up and concentrate on making
better films.
Cosby's comments on May 17, 2004 reflect sentiments he's had
since 1968, according to Clarence Page Washington Post May 25,
2004. Why did it take 36 years? Classist diatribe and cowardice,
in my opinion. To Bill, its working class and poor African Americans
that prevented him from buying NBC instead of rich whites. Twisted
logic.
Old Bill insults the memory of so many that fought for educational
equity against Jim Crow by referring to Brown v. Board as a deal
that lower socioeconomic blacks aren't upholding. Yet, none of
his supporters seem to notice. His commentary diverted attention
from meaningful dialogue regarding Integration in America in
the context of Brown v. Board 50 years later.
Stating that Africans Americans are more concerned with police
murder than thieves stealing pound cake and black men incarcerated
in high numbers, Cosby casts his lot with the White Plutocracy,
whose direct response to the Civil Rights/Black Power eras is
state repression and the prison industrial complex.
Bill Cosby should cease and desist.
From Nassau, Bahamas Alexandrio Morley sends
a thank you and uses the "T" word.
I don't know who you people are nor which heaven you all came
from, but I would like to say; Thank you, thank you, and thank
you.
I have been reading this publication for
the last year now, and it feels as if my A.Q. (African Quotient)
has increased two
folds. I constantly find myself quoting your articles during
heated debates with friends who believe that "Africa is
dead" or that Black culture, politics and economics is becoming
insignificant or marginalized with the coming of the new bogey
man; globalization.
I am a young aspiring Afrocentric/Pan Africanist from the Bahamas,
and I truly believe that your publication is the most progressive
black magazine on the net. Trust me I know.
In answer to your question about Black Leadership; I truly
believe that men like Mr. Cosby (sorry I meant Dr. Huckstable)
should be called out Malcolm X style. I don't mean that he should
be called a house nigger either. I believe that men like Mr.
Cosby and others like him (e.g. Colin Powell) are not house negroes,
because the argument can be made that house negroes did what
they had to do to survive.
However men like Mr. Cosby, have been blessed
with education, money, and success and yet they still tend
to turn on their people
or they simply believe that everyone else is not "trying
hard enough". Forget labels like house nigger, sell-out
or even black bourgeois, these men are plain and simple traitors
to the race.
Yeah I said it; he is a traitor. Race hatred plus poor people
bashing equals traitor in my book.
Keep up the excellent work.
An anti-racism Website worth visiting
contributor
Tim Wise wrote to us to announce the creation of his anti-racism
Website.
Hoping not to seem distressingly narcissistic (and because I have some requests
to make), I wanted to let you all know about the launch of my website, www.timwise.org.
I have put off doing this for a while because I know how important it is
for those of us who are white allies in this anti-racist struggle to retain
as much humility as possible, and something about a website named for oneself
can seem counterintuitive to that need. In any event, I finally decided that
because of the need to get some of these ideas out there to as broad an audience
as possible (ideas which, to be sure, I owe all of you something, because
they are in most cases yours as well as mine), I should go ahead and do this.
Having made that decision however, I want you all to know that
I want this site to be a place where folks can find not just
my writings, etc., but also really good links to other antiracist
organizations, media outlets, etc., as well as recommended readings
for people who might come upon the site (maybe because they saw
me speak at their school or something), and who need to delve
into this work more deeply. So...
Thanks y'all. Hope you're well.
Tim's site is so thick, it's dangerous to the workday of brothers
and sisters.
Freedom Rider
Margaret Kimberly's column about Arabs
on Planes and White People in the Board Room was applauded
as a fantastic piece by Chad C. McCool.
The blatant bigotry and racism that has
exploded in this country (all in the name of "Homeland Security")
is absolutely disgusting. It frightens me to know that I am
about to bring
a child into the world with all of this going on, while White
America sits by and feels that it is all okay.
The thing that truly saddened me was to hear on a news or pundit program,
I can't recall (although it is hard to tell them apart these days), say that
why were 14 Arab men allowed to be on the same flight.
I look forward to your pieces each week, keep up the fight; it does not fall
on deaf ears.
Peace...
Joe Osorio kept it simple.
Margaret,
Keep White people away from money. I love it!
From Fayetteville, NC, Victor Hebert wants Margaret to hit the
big time.
I really like your column. Lady, you are something special.
Keep up the good work. In reading your recent contribution, I
couldn't help but think, comically, that you are som nuther else
(I think you may understand this
slang expression).
Lady, don't you know that our good suthrn and nawthrun
white folks are gonna cry foul when you tell the truth. I know. Almost as
bad is their black surrogates.
I wish this article could be published on the front page of
the New York Times, and every major paper in the nation.
Anyway, keep your rope for lynching lies, lies, and damn lies
always taut.
May God be with you in your career.
Question of the Week
The question of the week brother Morley was referring to was the
following which was published in the first No Fools Allowed column
on August 5th. The question was:
How would you rate the current Black Leadership?
A - They are wonderful and love Bill Cosby like I do.
B - Not very angry, militant or impatient.
C - Need to be "called out" Malcolm
X style.
Here are some of the responses we received.
From Kim Elliot:
The answer to the question of the week for
me is : C - These Negroes need to be "called out" Malcolm
X style.
For every example of Blacks who fail to rise above the challenges
and obstacles placed in front of them by the reality of a tremendously
race-judgmental society, I could show him ten of whites who,
with every advantage and resource available to them, managed
to lower themselves to the depths of marital failure, financial
failure, addiction, crime, and personal degradation. But for
some reason, these whites are never the ones contrasted with
Blacks.
I just loved that response from Derbig Mooser about that Jell-O
minstrel, fool cosby! I can't BELIEVE you actually got tons of
people defending that fool. Ugh...
From Eric Bogan of Portland, Oregon:
How I would rate the current black leadership? Judging from
the hoopla surrounding Cosby's street-corner tirades, not highly.
Davey D mentioned the lack of visibility of members of the Congressional
Black Caucus with some of the Nat'l Hip-Hop summit folks in Boston.
So, I would choose C.
From Jeanette Pollard:
That is a very loaded question. First, to define leadership.
If you are referring to those people who manage to get themselves
into the spotlight only to further their own ambitions, then
there is no Black leadership in my opinion.
I believe that everyone, in his/her own
little corner, can become a "leader", by speaking out and speaking up
about issues that affect them and their surrounding community.
I can't remember the last time I sought help from a so-called "leader",
and I had more courage than the "leader" had.
From Elizabeth Quinn:
Firstly, what black leadership?
Sarcasm aside, my vote: B -- Not very angry, etc. (The Rev.
Al's Dem Convention speech, notwithstanding.)
To call them out Malcom X style would be counterproductive,
I think. People are confused enough and lack motivation.
For the record our very un-scientific poll did not receive a single
vote for choice A.
Our question for this week is:
What percentage of American Blacks do you think are as far to
the hard-right as Armstrong Williams?
A - Greater than one percent?
B - Are you kidding?
If you would like to suggest a question the No Fools Allowed column,
please do. Remember, a multiple choice format is probably more
fun for this rhetorical exercise.
We also think creating a question of the week for us would be
a very entertaining exercise to do around the dinner table, the
lunchroom table at work or school or an after work gathering.
Send your e-Mail to [email protected].
Thank you very much for your readership and keep writing.
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