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Mr. Moses:

In reply to your article titled “Racism at Cape Cod?”

The introduction to your story raises another issue
of “racism” which begs the question: When will
white people get away from self-centeredness and
learn to seek out and enjoy “black” movies?

It is not unusual to see black folks (and members
of other “minority” groups) waiting in long lines outside
of theaters showing “white” movies (i.e., movies with
predominantly white characters and, perhaps,
“white” themes). When will white folks learn to value
(or, at least, respect) the talent, culture and skin color
of other peoples, as other peoples have learned to
respect the talent, culture and skin color of whites?

I have a sneaking suspicion that white folks really are
watching “black” movies– maybe they just wait until
the “black” movies come out on video or DVD, and then
they can “sneak it” from their local video store. Much
the way white folks use to sneak and listen to black
music during the Jim Crow Era of racial segregation and
racial terrorism. Back then, a white person could get
killed for admitting they liked black music.

A modern day “hidden shame” may be at work today when it comes to “black” movies. Or perhaps it is true, as I’ve
heard some suggest, that white men won’t take their
girlfriends to see any of the rare black “date flicks”
because they can’t stand to have their girlfriends
watching a black man having sex on the big screen
(big name movie stars like Denzil Washington and
Will Smith, seem to avoid sex on screen like the
plague– some say because of the continued white
male fear of the black penis).

It’s like listening to the “liberal” NPR radio network
where you hear programs about sit-coms, and you
listen for a half an hour or forty-five minutes to a show
where black sit-coms are not mentioned even once. Do
those folks believe that there is something inherently
“profound” and “superior” about white sit-coms? I’ve
watched both “white” and “black” sit-coms, and they
seem equally stupid to me; both re-cycling the same
old sight gags and the same old story lines. Even
Seinfeld admitted his show was mostly “about nothing.”

No “black” movies in the theaters of Cape Cod?
I insist that this is an example of the self-centered racism
that continues to haunt white society. A kind of racism
that has major news outlets focusing massive attention
on missing white women, while ignoring those women of
other races who have gone missing.

It is an issue of what white folks value: and they seem to
have little value for (or fear of) things labeled “not white.”

Ronald Jackson
Staten Island
Posted by permission of the author.

The writer points up a crucial issue regarding liberal “public radio” and other usual suspects of the progressive left. Truth in labeling would usually require “progressive” institutions to be say it plain: “WHITE progressive.”–gm

Three reasons to face the Fourth with hope:

PRESS RELEASE
June 29, 2005

Coleman Fights to Protect Gay and Lesbian Students During Special Session: Passes amendment on bullying, re-files Dignity for All Students Act

AUSTIN, TX – Against the backdrop of a special session of the Texas Legislature to overhaul the way in which Texas funds public schools, Representative Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has taken two extremely important steps that could reform Texas public schools to ensure the safety of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.

Last night, during a long and intense debate on HB 2–a bill to overhaul the funding and programming of Texas public schools–Representative Coleman successfully added an amendment that will shed light on the bullying and discrimination that takes place everyday in our schools. The amendment, crafted by Randall Ellis (former Executive Director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas), would require the Texas Education Agency to collect data on the reasons for and frequency of bullying and discrimination in our public schools. The results of this report will help educators and policymakers create positive environments and ensure that all schools are places where students are free to learn, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/_expression.

“Governor Perry has called us back to Austin to fix some of the fundamental ways we fund and educate our Texas youth,” stated Representative Coleman. “During this important debate, we must remember that every Texas student has the right to a public education. When students are discriminated against in school, and the school does nothing about it, we are failing them in a very fundamental way. This amendment will give lawmakers the necessary information to better understand and address the issue of bullying and discrimination against LGBT youth in our public schools”

A separate bill filed by Representative Coleman, HB 60, would go one step further. The Dignity for All Students Act would protect students from bullying and discrimination based on the ethnicity, color, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or national origin of the student or the student’s parent in Texas public schools.

The Dignity for All Students Act is seemingly a nonpartisan issue: it protects gay kids from being harassed in public schools. Representative Coleman filed the bill in response to the fact that no state or federal law extends protections to LGBT youth in Texas public schools. A national study done by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, indicates 84% of LGBT youth in public schools reported regularly experiencing homophobic harassment, while 82.9% of LGBT students report that faculty or staff never intervened or intervened only some of the time when present and homophobic harassment takes place.

“Instead of addressing the real problems of our state during our regular session, Governor Perry chose to hide behind an amendment to the Texas Constitution banning the recognition of same-sex marriages,” continued Representative Coleman. “I will not tolerate politics based on fear and prejudice, and I will continue to fight for all Texas youth. I want to send a message loud and strong across Texas. No type of discrimination will be tolerated in this state.”

Rep. Coleman represents District 147 in Houston and is the Chair of the Legislative Study Group (LSG).

——–

See Also: PinkDome’s posting of Rep. Senfronia Thompson’s defense of civil rights for gay and lesbian Texans.

——–

And while we’re waxing nostalgic for Texas Civil Rights highlights this Fourth of July, don’t forget Sen. Rodney Ellis who brought a catheter to his planned filibuster of Republican-led efforts to imposed voter ID restrictions. This clip from Dos Centavos.

For some reason, there are people that seem to enjoy a fast race to the precipice. Reading your piece on racist intent and results, I wonder if the feeling that they are at the wheel compensates for the results.

I see very clearly, I think, some trends that spell disaster. Can China keep the pace? Can U. S. and Japan keep living off the past while becoming shabby genteel? Can some people (racist?, demagogues?, profiteers?) derive so much joy from short term kicks that they can ignore without any qualms their obvious destinations, and leave most urgent and deep problems emanating from unlawful inmigration instead of promoting an equitative, fair, realist solution, one that will disappoint demagogery but satisfy all legitimate interests?

Can we let centuries old traumae keep piloting us? What I was driving at is that ancient traumae and unfinished business (at the Middle East, for instance) are pushing us over the cliff, and lots of people seem to prefer it that way, and in general millions of people enjoy the chance of looking at some people fall first that they don´t seem to mind the certainty of soon going after them.

Rodrigo Saldaña Guerrero
Posted by permission