More black racism discussed in an article by Jeff Jacoby. Black racism isn't Jacoby's point really, but I am tired of seeing it. Most racism I see taking place in this country is black racism from whiny ass people who refuse to get rid of their victim mentality (attention all non-whites, you are not victims, GET OVER IT!) and make EVERYTHING into a racial issue. Hopefully these two racist women will be sued for making these nonsense claims, for tying up the courts, and for costing the airline and this woman (who, of course, did NOTHING wrong) time, money, and suffering.
For the kids at the school mentioned, hopefully someone will teach these young fools that african american is a nonsense term that shouldn't be used at all, and it does NOT mean "black." As I have been saying lately, not ALL blacks are from africa, and those who have relatives hundreds of years ago from Africa- most of you know nothing about Africa, you've never been to Africa, and you'll never go to Africa, so calling yourself "African" at all is just stupid and pointless. It's another racist way to try to divide people.
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A LITTLE LESS FREEDOM OF SPEECH
By Jeff Jacoby
The Boston Globe
Sunday, January 25, 2004
It doesn't take much to get slammed as a racist these days. Just ask Jennifer Cundiff.
Back in February 2001, the Southwest Airlines flight attendant was trying to coax passengers boarding a flight from Las Vegas to Kansas City to find their seats quickly so the plane could take off. "Eenie meenie minie moe," she said over the intercom, "pick a seat, we gotta go."
Cute and harmless, right? Not to two black passengers, it wasn't. Louise Sawyer and Grace Fuller, who are sisters, interpreted Cundiff's couplet as a racist insult and said they were sure it was intended to humiliate them. It was so upsetting, Fuller claimed, that it triggered a seizure and left her bedridden for days. Eventually the women sued, charging Southwest with violating their civil rights and inflicting physical and emotional distress.
If you're scratching your head in bewilderment at this point, you aren't alone. Unless you're old enough to remember flappers and speakeasies, you probably don't know that the words that originally followed "eenie, meenie, minie, moe" were "catch a nigger by the toe." Cundiff, who was 22, certainly didn't know. Like most of us, she grew up saying "catch a tiger by the toe" -- she had never heard the older, uglier version.
Ah, but innocence offers scant protection against contemporary racial victimology. Neither does common sense or the right to free speech. Any of those should have been reason enough for US District Judge Kathryn Vratil to summarily bounce the lawsuit as frivolous. Instead, she ruled that Cundiff's little rhyme "could be reasonably viewed as objectively racist and offensive," and said a jury would have to decide "whether Cundiff's remark was racist, or simply a benign and innocent attempt at humor."
The trial took place last week. A jury of eight deliberated for less than an hour before finding Cundiff and Southwest innocent of racism. Needless to say, the stewardess and the airline will not be reimbursed for the lost hours and legal fees this preposterous lawsuit has cost them. And that isn't all that they lost.
Every time a case like this occurs -- every time someone is sued or punished or forced to hire a lawyer just for expressing an opinion or making a comment that someone of a different color finds offensive -- all of us are left with a little less freedom of speech. Dismayingly, such cases seem be occurring more frequently than ever. Now and then one of these incidents draws national scorn. A few years ago, a vast wave of ridicule forced the mayor of Washington, DC, to rehire an aide who had been accused of racism and forced to resign for using the word "niggardly" -- a synonym for stingy -- in a conversation.
But most of the time, these cases end with racial correctness trumping fairness and free speech.
Consider a story out of Omaha last week. According to the Omaha World-Herald, several students at Westside High School were punished after they "plastered the school on Monday" -- Martin Luther King Day -- "with posters advocating that a white student from South Africa receive the 'Distinguished African American Student Award' next year." The posters featured a picture of junior Trevor Richards, whose family moved to Omaha from Johannesburg in 1998, smiling and giving a thumbs-up.
School officials tore the posters down, apparently in response to complaints from a few black students, and denounced them as "inappropriate and insensitive." Trevor was suspended for two days, according to his mother, and two of his friends were also penalized for helping to put the posters up. A fourth student, the World-Herald reported, "was punished for circulating a petition Tuesday morning in support of the boys. The petition criticized the practiced of recognizing only black student achievement with the award."
The students were punished, in other words, for expressing an opinion -- that it is wrong to create an award for which only black students can qualify. That is hardly an outlandish point of view. There are 1,843 students at Westside High, of whom fewer than 70 are black. Why should 96.2 percent of the student body be barred from a school honor on the basis of their race? Isn't that just the sort of offensive racial thinking that Dr. King condemned?
A message is not "inappropriate and insensitive" merely because some people complain about it -- not even if those people aren't white, and not even if the message is politically incorrect. The real outrage at Westside High last week was that four students were disciplined for exercising a freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Other students may not have liked what they had to say. That didn't entitle them to suppress their speech.
The First Amendment says nothing about a right not to be offended. The risk of finding someone else's speech offensive is the price each of us pays for our own free speech. Free people don't run to court -- or to the principle -- when they encounter a message they don't like. They answer it with one of their own.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.)
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I wanted to draw attention to one of the comments by the black lady who is so full of shit, it's coming out of her ears...(yeah, the announcement caused a seizure my ass)...this is what this idiot said after the innocent verdict (the judge should be sued for letting this go to trial):
Excuse me?!?! IF you had a jury of your peers? So, you're a racist who thinks everyone is racist against you, but you don't consider people your "peers" unless they're black?! Whites aren't your peers? Now, who's the racist here? There IS justice for blacks in America, you fool. Racism is no longer a serious issue in 2004...blacks aren't attacked by racists, blacks don't suffer from constant racism, blacks get paid the same amounts as whites, they get promotions like whites, they get the same types of jobs, they live in the same types of neighborhoods, etc. Blacks DO have justice...what you're asking for is to be treated as a victim, to be pampered and tiptoed around. What does it matter that no blacks or minorities were on the jury? What you're saying by that statement is- all whites are racist, and the jurors didn't give us a fair verdict, because they're all racist. That's nonsense, and I hope this story haunts you two fools for the rest of your lives.
(Read Michelle Malkin's story on this same trial)
(and another piece from the washinton times)
I agree with this article, but then again I don't. I down right hate racists, there may be some good people out there who are racists, but I don't think I care all that much. In my opinion, (which I think should be everybody's opinion but that's just an opinion so keep that in mind)there shouldn't be people who don't like other people just because of the way they look. What if I was to say that I didn't like you just because of the clothes you wear or the glasses that you might have to wear. Its stupid! You should treat others the way you want to be treated!..if you want to be treated like shit then maybe you should treat other people like shit...but just reamber that we're all human beings and that even if you are black or come from an asian or koren backround etc..etc....they still have feelings like everybody else. And I know that somewhere deep inside you know I'm right too!
Posted by: Dayme at February 4, 2004 03:30 PMAnd if any of you have a problem with the comment i just posted then feel free to e-mail me at dayme_terry@hotmail.com
Posted by: Dayme at February 4, 2004 03:35 PMwhy would i have a problem with that comment?
i hate racists personally. i hate people that live their lives trying to perpetuate hate against others for their own gain. racists do that. especially black racists like jesse jackson, sharpton, naacp, black muslims, and others. they make a living, a career off of trying to put racism into situations where there is no racism. trying to divide the races, and keep them divided. if we all truly came together, theyd be out of a job...and they wouldnt rake in millions from various hustling schemes they run. or donations given to their organizations from racists themselves.
its ridiculous. so...i can honestly say i hate people who do this for a living...who cant stop looking at people by their color. i look at people by their character, the way they treat me and others around them, the company they keep, etc. i dont see people and go...oh, that person is asian, so it must mean this and this and that. or this person is mexican, so surely this is true about them.
like i said. we need to come together and stop trying to divide into different groups all the time.
btw. umm who are you?
Posted by: Josh Bozeman at February 4, 2004 06:42 PMI agree completely with your article. Making a simple song a case for racism is beyond disgusting.
Many people always make race an issue, even when it's clearly not. If you take this "race-card," playing view, it's obviously common, take for example the Michael Jackson case. Instantly, the case was labelled "racist," and the Nation of Islam was called in: a very serious hate group was called in to stir racial tensions and make Jackson seem innocent... Hmmm?
It's time people starting practicing equality, not reverse racism.
And thankyou, Josh, for having the guts to speek freely.
Posted by: Dave at February 7, 2004 04:31 AMno problem dave. i always speak freely here. :)
anyhow...i heard someone the other day (on TV i think) that said reverse racism is a ridiculous term. i used it for a while, but thought to myself- it makes it sound as tho only whites can be racist, which we all know isnt true. ive said many times, blacks are much more racists than whites from what i can see. many agree with me...many pundits agree with me- black pundits at that.
too many in the black community live their entire lives with a victim mentality that is not even anywhere close to warranted...many times they get special treatment, for fear of others being called a racist for not tip toeing around them.
affirmative action- special treatment...set asides for minorities- special treatment...and on and on. whites are scared to death to be called a bigot, a racist, a black hater, so many times they do all they can to treat blacks they live with/work with special.
the jackson case is absurd...the nation of islam is not only an extreme racist group, theyre also very anti-semitic. theyre sorry to try to make it a racial issue, when its not close to a racial issue- its an issue about a disturbed 45 yr old man who acts like a ten yr old (he is 10 in his head, im sure). the thing that gets me as that farrakhan gets taken seriously- i saw him on mtv a cpl months ago, and they were praising him as a hero for bringing warring rappers together (whatever that means!?) i had to sit there and listen to him preach to foul mouth thug ja rule... and watch that insane news guy (sway, i think he calls himself) with the weird thing on his head (who refuses to speak english- gotta love his ebonics) sit there and talk about how great farrakhan is and all the wonderful things hes done for the black community (absurd.)
its all a big joke.
Posted by: Josh Bozeman at February 8, 2004 01:43 PMYeah, you're right. There's too much political correctness on television. I for one am for EQUALITY: that is equal treatment for all. But a lot of these civil rights leaders want special treatment, and they don't care who they discriminate against. I mean, shouldn't people be hired on the basis of merit, and not be given bonus points for having the right skin color?
Television is also a problem. Sure, more positive images of minorities on tv is great, but civil rights leaders won't be happy until 50% of tv is black. How is that fair if only 11% of the population is black?? Arrrgh, Common sense is so elusive in today's society!! Just take a look at the Grammys...
When Farrakhan is seen as a positive influence on society, you know the world has become too damn politically correct! I mean if I equated the hatred of the Nation of Islam with the KKK, I wouldn't be wrong. But people are so damn "polite" that they won't even criticise bigots, despite th fact they're savagely racist! I mean, the NOI believe that God is Black, and created the White man in a lab. In my book, that's black superiority and that signifies nothing but racism. But does that get a mention on tv? No!
But why won't anyone stand up and demand equality, rather than further support the new wave of black racism in society?!
Well, there are people keen on *Real* equality, and fairness, let's hope the rest of society catches up.
Posted by: Dave at February 15, 2004 12:32 AM