The present day image of Senator Robert Byrd as the born again Christian, kindly old grandfather shedding tears for his friend Ted Kennedy is not the image that comes to my mind when remembering him at his passing today. For much of my life, Senator Robert Byrd was a segregationist who stood along side the likes Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, Trent Lott, Tom DeLay and George Wallace, to name a few.
He is said to have repented his racist feelings, apologizing over and over. Well, apology accepted. However while all may be forgiven, It will never be forgotten.
Robert Byrd in his own words:
“I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.” -Klansman and not yet Congressman Byrd-quote taken from letter written to another segregationist Congressman about Truman attempting to desegregate the armed forces..
“The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation.” -1947 letter to the Grand Wizard KKK
Byrd claims to have renounced the Klan in 1952 when he became a Congressman, however his racist views continued well in the 1960's when he helped filibuster the 1964 Civil Rights Act arguing that the Declaration of Independence..
“did not intend that these words should be taken literally to be true” when they wrote that “all men are created equal.” “Men and races of men differ in appearance, ways, physical power, mental capacity, creativity, and vision,” Byrd said. “One man is born blind. Another is born lame. Geniuses are not made; they are born. Between two individuals, as between two races, there are broad differences.”
Byrd went after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, attempting to cajole the FBI into a more aggressive investigation of the civil rights leader. The FBI declined..
As late as 2001 Byrd was caught up in trying to express his feelings, when he was interviewed by the late Tony Snow and asked about race relations in America....Byrd said:
"They're much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime ... I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us ... I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' We practice that. There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."
Rest in Peace, Senator
Showing posts with label Strom Thurmond. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strom Thurmond. Show all posts
6.28.2010
1.11.2010
Out of the Mouth of Idiots
Comparing what Harry Reid allegedly said to what Trent Lott said about Strom Thurmond is mixing apples and oranges. Lott was praising a rapist, who got away with sexually assaulting a 16 year old Black domestic servant at his parents home and got away with it because his parents covered it up and bought off the victim... He reportedly supported the baby born...but never acknowledged her as long as it could possibly bring down his political career, of keeping Blacks in their place...except I guess when he needed sex...
Strom Thurmond is the old poster boy for GOP racial hypocrisy....He should have been in jail not in Congress..
Like it or not...Harry Reid spoke the truth....I don't care how intelligent or how eloquent a brother is....no matter the number of his post graduate degrees....if he is black as the ace of spades....and talks like Shaft or Biggie or Snoop....or Tupac and is viewed as threatening for some reason...he won't clear local vetting to run for city council..much less national office..
Hell....Tupac an elegant writer and master of the spoken word...is still dismissed by white America as being a thug because of the way he looked...he could never get elected in America...Yet I measure his brain next to Obama's..
If brothers had an equal chance like most of America seems to believe, there wouldn't be 25% unemployment among Black males....The dropout rate...lack of male teachers, etc, wouldn't still be going on...despite having a Black man in the White House..
Jesse Jackson would have been taken seriously when he ran for president......Bill Clinton wouldn't be asking Obama to bring him some coffee...and we wouldn't be having this conversation..
And don't get outraged Black people....have we as a community canceled the “paper bag test” yet?
Are the days of wanting “nothing Black but a Cadillac” and “nothing big but a bankroll” over yet?
What about looking for a job...making a call...talking to a pleasant white lady to get a job interview...putting on your Sunday best to go to the interview only to walk in...be looked up and down like you smell funny and be told by the same nice white lady from the phone that the position has been filled...regardless of how you sound...how you fill out that stylish suit and what is printed on your resume...happens once...okay....happens over and over and over and over and over...and suddenly you feel like kicking some ass....But it happens less to beige brothers then it does to dark chocolate ones..
Hip Hop Mike can go sit down...He's the joker in the deck...except nobody's laughing..
This same book pillories Hilary and Sarah, too...equal opportunity hearsay journalism at it's best...
Sarah allegedly said it was God's plan that she run for VP....We've known forever that God really does have a sense of humor...
Why else would he have given the world Rod Blagojevich....he jumped on Obama in an interview to be published in Esquire in February....
"I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived," Blagojevich said. "I saw it all growing up." ….ex gov Rod B...
hehehehehe!
Oh man... Do I yearn for the days of half hour news at 6pm and 11pm....no CNN, no FOX, no MSNBC.. And real journalists who found two sources before rushing to publish or report.....with at least one willing to go on record....
Oh for the good ole days!
Strom Thurmond is the old poster boy for GOP racial hypocrisy....He should have been in jail not in Congress..
Like it or not...Harry Reid spoke the truth....I don't care how intelligent or how eloquent a brother is....no matter the number of his post graduate degrees....if he is black as the ace of spades....and talks like Shaft or Biggie or Snoop....or Tupac and is viewed as threatening for some reason...he won't clear local vetting to run for city council..much less national office..
Hell....Tupac an elegant writer and master of the spoken word...is still dismissed by white America as being a thug because of the way he looked...he could never get elected in America...Yet I measure his brain next to Obama's..
If brothers had an equal chance like most of America seems to believe, there wouldn't be 25% unemployment among Black males....The dropout rate...lack of male teachers, etc, wouldn't still be going on...despite having a Black man in the White House..
Jesse Jackson would have been taken seriously when he ran for president......Bill Clinton wouldn't be asking Obama to bring him some coffee...and we wouldn't be having this conversation..
And don't get outraged Black people....have we as a community canceled the “paper bag test” yet?
Are the days of wanting “nothing Black but a Cadillac” and “nothing big but a bankroll” over yet?
What about looking for a job...making a call...talking to a pleasant white lady to get a job interview...putting on your Sunday best to go to the interview only to walk in...be looked up and down like you smell funny and be told by the same nice white lady from the phone that the position has been filled...regardless of how you sound...how you fill out that stylish suit and what is printed on your resume...happens once...okay....happens over and over and over and over and over...and suddenly you feel like kicking some ass....But it happens less to beige brothers then it does to dark chocolate ones..
Hip Hop Mike can go sit down...He's the joker in the deck...except nobody's laughing..
This same book pillories Hilary and Sarah, too...equal opportunity hearsay journalism at it's best...
Sarah allegedly said it was God's plan that she run for VP....We've known forever that God really does have a sense of humor...
Why else would he have given the world Rod Blagojevich....he jumped on Obama in an interview to be published in Esquire in February....
"I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived," Blagojevich said. "I saw it all growing up." ….ex gov Rod B...
hehehehehe!
Oh man... Do I yearn for the days of half hour news at 6pm and 11pm....no CNN, no FOX, no MSNBC.. And real journalists who found two sources before rushing to publish or report.....with at least one willing to go on record....
Oh for the good ole days!
9.11.2009
Friday Rap
9/11
8th anniversary of the attack on America. There is still a hole in the ground where the Trade Towers stood. Bush is out of office, but the war in Afghanistan is bloodier than before, even as Iraq is winding down, thanks to Obama.
Waldo, Osama and Carmen
Waldo, Osama Bin Laden and Carmen Sandiego are the only three people in the world that American spy satellites can't seem to locate. Despite a 25-million dollar bounty on his head and the fact that he has failing kidneys and is 6 feet 4 inches tall, They can't find him...
Think about it....a six foot four Arab pulling a dialysis machine through mountains...
Do we really want to find this guy? After all...America armed the Taliban in the first place...Why can't we end this American created inter squad scrimmage and come home, now?
-0-
Michael
MJ may have been the king of pop when alive, but his family is going to make him the hardest working man in show business, since he passed. Joe's got all kinds of plans for his late, estranged son...Jermaine is in the corner scheming like always, while the other brothers run around looking lost..
The crazy one, LaToya is screaming murder and doing all the interviews...so you know there is nothing of substance being said....The MSM talks to her because they want controversy and headlines..nothing more...that's not news...
Katherine and Janet seem to be only voices of sanity, trying to keep the others from spinning totally out of control.....and those poor kids are trapped in the middle.....lost in Jackson Wonderworld..
And I don't care who gave him the injection.....Michael was an addict....He did what addicts do..had the money to get it done....and paid the consequences....
He killed himself...
-0-
Caster Semenya
May be an intersexual...or sources allegedly close to the testing have told a couple of foreign newspapers..Today, I am questioning those reports as accurate....primarily because...of the terms that the sources are using...Hermaphrodite is not the au currant term these days....It's Intersexed..
In the meantime these “sources” say she has organs for both men and women. The sports governing group says since she didn't cheat, she may get to keep her medals, but they still have studying to do and that will take a few more weeks...
The downside is that she may never be allowed to compete again, because she is too strong to go against women, yet not man enough to go against men...
There is an upside to all of this controversy....the girl is happy with who she is...the world seems to be happy that she is happy...and that is a good thing....no one wants her stripped of her medals or hurt anymore by this mess...
-0-
Joe Wilson
It gets better about Congressman Joe “that's a lie” Wilson....seems he is back tracking his apology saying the GOP leadership told him to say sorry....
Kind of like the kid who gets the crap beat out of him then tries to spin it by saying...”did you see me punch his fist with my face?.....I kicked his ass!”
Yeah, right..
This little piss-ant apparently has a long history of letting his mouth get his behind in trouble...seems way back when, when the world got wind of racist Strom Thurmond's black daughter...Wilson attacked the daughter....Essie Washington....as disrespecting a fine upstanding and respectable Congressman that was the segregationist Thurmond.....All Essie said to disrespect the man was....”yes, he is my father.”
Thurmond supported Essie his entire life....just kept her hidden....to keep his buddies from stripping him of his KKK membership...
Wilson, like many of his modern day fellow republicans has a problem with black-white love or sex...especially when it begets babies who may someday grow up to be president...
-0-
Mad Dogs and Republicans Come Out in the Noon Day Sun
This week shows that the GOP has jumped off into the deep end is unsteadily stroking into deeper and deeper water. They've reached the point of no return and don't seem to realize it..
They've marginalized the sane members and embraced the lunatics...
Can total extinction be far behind?
-0-
Queen Serena
Has her toughest match this afternoon, not Saturday night when the final will be played...She is playing Kim Clijsters today in the semis.....Kim is dangerous and has nothing to lose...Love her game...but I love Serena even more....
Go Serena!
The sisters are in the Doubles finals on Sunday...they got pushed yesterday...but got through it...that's okay....They need to be pushed in order to get better....
Go Venus! Go Serena! Go Venus! Go Serena!
8th anniversary of the attack on America. There is still a hole in the ground where the Trade Towers stood. Bush is out of office, but the war in Afghanistan is bloodier than before, even as Iraq is winding down, thanks to Obama.
Waldo, Osama and Carmen
Waldo, Osama Bin Laden and Carmen Sandiego are the only three people in the world that American spy satellites can't seem to locate. Despite a 25-million dollar bounty on his head and the fact that he has failing kidneys and is 6 feet 4 inches tall, They can't find him...
Think about it....a six foot four Arab pulling a dialysis machine through mountains...
Do we really want to find this guy? After all...America armed the Taliban in the first place...Why can't we end this American created inter squad scrimmage and come home, now?
-0-
Michael
MJ may have been the king of pop when alive, but his family is going to make him the hardest working man in show business, since he passed. Joe's got all kinds of plans for his late, estranged son...Jermaine is in the corner scheming like always, while the other brothers run around looking lost..
The crazy one, LaToya is screaming murder and doing all the interviews...so you know there is nothing of substance being said....The MSM talks to her because they want controversy and headlines..nothing more...that's not news...
Katherine and Janet seem to be only voices of sanity, trying to keep the others from spinning totally out of control.....and those poor kids are trapped in the middle.....lost in Jackson Wonderworld..
And I don't care who gave him the injection.....Michael was an addict....He did what addicts do..had the money to get it done....and paid the consequences....
He killed himself...
-0-
Caster Semenya
May be an intersexual...or sources allegedly close to the testing have told a couple of foreign newspapers..Today, I am questioning those reports as accurate....primarily because...of the terms that the sources are using...Hermaphrodite is not the au currant term these days....It's Intersexed..
In the meantime these “sources” say she has organs for both men and women. The sports governing group says since she didn't cheat, she may get to keep her medals, but they still have studying to do and that will take a few more weeks...
The downside is that she may never be allowed to compete again, because she is too strong to go against women, yet not man enough to go against men...
There is an upside to all of this controversy....the girl is happy with who she is...the world seems to be happy that she is happy...and that is a good thing....no one wants her stripped of her medals or hurt anymore by this mess...
-0-
Joe Wilson
It gets better about Congressman Joe “that's a lie” Wilson....seems he is back tracking his apology saying the GOP leadership told him to say sorry....
Kind of like the kid who gets the crap beat out of him then tries to spin it by saying...”did you see me punch his fist with my face?.....I kicked his ass!”
Yeah, right..
This little piss-ant apparently has a long history of letting his mouth get his behind in trouble...seems way back when, when the world got wind of racist Strom Thurmond's black daughter...Wilson attacked the daughter....Essie Washington....as disrespecting a fine upstanding and respectable Congressman that was the segregationist Thurmond.....All Essie said to disrespect the man was....”yes, he is my father.”
Thurmond supported Essie his entire life....just kept her hidden....to keep his buddies from stripping him of his KKK membership...
Wilson, like many of his modern day fellow republicans has a problem with black-white love or sex...especially when it begets babies who may someday grow up to be president...
-0-
Mad Dogs and Republicans Come Out in the Noon Day Sun
This week shows that the GOP has jumped off into the deep end is unsteadily stroking into deeper and deeper water. They've reached the point of no return and don't seem to realize it..
They've marginalized the sane members and embraced the lunatics...
Can total extinction be far behind?
-0-
Queen Serena
Has her toughest match this afternoon, not Saturday night when the final will be played...She is playing Kim Clijsters today in the semis.....Kim is dangerous and has nothing to lose...Love her game...but I love Serena even more....
Go Serena!
The sisters are in the Doubles finals on Sunday...they got pushed yesterday...but got through it...that's okay....They need to be pushed in order to get better....
Go Venus! Go Serena! Go Venus! Go Serena!
11.15.2006
Having It Both Ways
The Grand Old Party gets blown out of the water during last week’s midterm elections and what do they do....they trot out Tom Delay to explain and rationalize what happened. I ignored that when I saw it. The GOP is clueless and has repeatedly proven it the past six years.
The morally judgmental party talks the talk but never walks the walk. Delay has not yet been convicted, but it’s no secret the guy is bad news. Next to Jack Abramoff, he is probably the worst of the lot, which brings me to my subject today.
I find myself railing at my televison set today because Trent Lott has been elected minority whip. For those of you not versed in congress-talk that means he is the GOP vote counter in the senate.
It is a power position. Lott was booted out of power four years ago for making racially insensitive comments while toasting a fellow senator at his birthday party.
Basically, Lott said the country would be better off today, if birthday boy, former senator, staunch segregationist and proven father of a black illegitimate daughter, Strom Thurmond, had been elected president back in 1948. He apologized and was banished until today.
Today he is back in the old boy’s club.
Throughout the past several months, I’ve watched how the party of compassionate conservatism rationalizes the racist, sexist and bigoted attitudes of it’s members. From George Allen in Virginia, to the campaign run against Harold Ford in Tennessee, to the bigotry spewed by Ken Blackwell against Ted Strickland in Ohio, the attacks were unbridled and vicious in their intent.
Yet when called on it, they immediately try to rationalize and explain it away. When they find themselves unable to explain it away, the other members banish them for a while, only to trot them back out and into a power seat when they think we’ve forgotten.
The Christian principle of “forgive and forget” only applies to members. Those on the outside are never allowed to forget and are never forgiven (can you say, Jane Fonda and Bill and Hilary).
The GOP which wants to codify discrimination against gays and lesbians and has actually written it into its party platform, finds itself being outed as the true party of gay white men.
Further, GOP talking heads are making the talk show rounds having to defend their gay party members.
The talking heads argue that it is okay to be gay and to have a private life. It’s okay to have a job and a beautiful house or condo. People should not be punished for that.
Question: If gay is okay....then how come folks are still being killed, like the guy in New York, two weeks ago...how come Gary Studds husband can’t receive the dead congressman’s pension....how come people who want to get married, can’t, because it’s against the law....how come certain companies are allowed to fire people for looking gay, Cracker Barrel.....how come there is a boycott of walmart, and ford motor company for entering into a business agreement with an LGBT organization....
Yeah, It’s okay to be gay, as long as you’re closeted, support oppressive laws against other LGBT people, and are a member of the republican party....Mary Cheney. Phyllis Schafly’s son, whatever his name is. Mark Foley...the list goes on and on....Can you say Roy Cohn and J. Edgar Hoover.
Kind of like me supporting legislation against black people. Oh, I forgot, that’s Clarence Thomas’ job and Harold Ford Jr's, Alan Keyes' and J.C. Watts'. But that is a topic for another. day.
The GOP is going to have to make up it’s mind, which way it wants to flow or face the possibility of permanent banishment to their garden of homegrown hypocrisy.
The morally judgmental party talks the talk but never walks the walk. Delay has not yet been convicted, but it’s no secret the guy is bad news. Next to Jack Abramoff, he is probably the worst of the lot, which brings me to my subject today.
I find myself railing at my televison set today because Trent Lott has been elected minority whip. For those of you not versed in congress-talk that means he is the GOP vote counter in the senate.
It is a power position. Lott was booted out of power four years ago for making racially insensitive comments while toasting a fellow senator at his birthday party.
Basically, Lott said the country would be better off today, if birthday boy, former senator, staunch segregationist and proven father of a black illegitimate daughter, Strom Thurmond, had been elected president back in 1948. He apologized and was banished until today.
Today he is back in the old boy’s club.
Throughout the past several months, I’ve watched how the party of compassionate conservatism rationalizes the racist, sexist and bigoted attitudes of it’s members. From George Allen in Virginia, to the campaign run against Harold Ford in Tennessee, to the bigotry spewed by Ken Blackwell against Ted Strickland in Ohio, the attacks were unbridled and vicious in their intent.
Yet when called on it, they immediately try to rationalize and explain it away. When they find themselves unable to explain it away, the other members banish them for a while, only to trot them back out and into a power seat when they think we’ve forgotten.
The Christian principle of “forgive and forget” only applies to members. Those on the outside are never allowed to forget and are never forgiven (can you say, Jane Fonda and Bill and Hilary).
The GOP which wants to codify discrimination against gays and lesbians and has actually written it into its party platform, finds itself being outed as the true party of gay white men.
Further, GOP talking heads are making the talk show rounds having to defend their gay party members.
The talking heads argue that it is okay to be gay and to have a private life. It’s okay to have a job and a beautiful house or condo. People should not be punished for that.
Question: If gay is okay....then how come folks are still being killed, like the guy in New York, two weeks ago...how come Gary Studds husband can’t receive the dead congressman’s pension....how come people who want to get married, can’t, because it’s against the law....how come certain companies are allowed to fire people for looking gay, Cracker Barrel.....how come there is a boycott of walmart, and ford motor company for entering into a business agreement with an LGBT organization....
Yeah, It’s okay to be gay, as long as you’re closeted, support oppressive laws against other LGBT people, and are a member of the republican party....Mary Cheney. Phyllis Schafly’s son, whatever his name is. Mark Foley...the list goes on and on....Can you say Roy Cohn and J. Edgar Hoover.
Kind of like me supporting legislation against black people. Oh, I forgot, that’s Clarence Thomas’ job and Harold Ford Jr's, Alan Keyes' and J.C. Watts'. But that is a topic for another. day.
The GOP is going to have to make up it’s mind, which way it wants to flow or face the possibility of permanent banishment to their garden of homegrown hypocrisy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)