Results tagged “racism”

• The next Osama bin Laden?
• Best frenemies forever: China talks smack about U.S. tire duty taxes
• New bin Laden tape surfaces

• A poll sponsored by Kos and put together by Research 2000 has Texas Republicans split (48%/48%, with 4% not sure) on the question of whether Texas would be better off as a whole other country. A majority of them approve of Perry's comments about our state perhaps, maybe, sometime in the future seceding. In all though, 61% of Texans say Texas should stay in the states, and a majority don't approve of Perry's statements last week. [Washington Post]
• Elise Hu, KVUE's political reporter, illustrates how some state politicians/legislators still have a long ways to go in their views of Chinese-Americans, including the Betty Brown incident with a couple others this session. The last paragraph of her post is priceless. [Political Junkie]
• Vice President Biden will be in town next week to tour the National Domestic Violence Hotline Center (2009 is the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Violence Against Women Act, which Biden championed). He'll also attend a DNC fundraising lunch while in town. Wonder if he'll have anything to say about Perry's hints at secession. [KUT]
Continue reading "Half of the Texas GOP Wants Outta Here [Political News Roundup]"

I think I might be the most racist person I know. Let me clarify. When I say I’m a racist, I don’t mean that in the classic sense which, in my case, being a whitey, would shake down as me discriminating negatively against groups outside of my own race. Like the blacks. Or the Jews. Au contraire! For often enough it is the lily white man—usually the one in the business suit pushing me out of the way at the airport—that most alarms me. Those others? Well let’s just say sometimes I go overboard in the opposite direction.

I personally believe that racism is little more than lazy analysis, for which every human who has ever existed is guilty. Generalizations of any kind, whether drawn along lines of race, gender, sexual preference, eye color, juggling ability, or gastrointestinal fortitude, are simply the product of a lazy, bullshit short-cut.

Republican Market, a Florida-based website devoted to all things GOP, was recently spotted at the Republican State Convention in Houston with a booth offering the latest round of politically shallow and morally irresponsible pins declaring "If Obama is President...will we still call it the White House?"

It shouldn’t take more than 350 words to explain why I intended to vote Ron Paul for President, and roughly two words to explain why there’s now no chance in hell.

Then last November, the magazine put together a diverse panel of women to discuss the issues that were raised by the ex-staffer's comment. Local academic Barbara Trepagnier, a professor of sociology at Texas State, was called to be on the panel because of her research on racism. In her book , Barbara argues that because racism is built into our culture, there's no point in talking about whether whites are racist or not racist. Instead, she says that racism should be thought of as being on a continuum with well-meaning whites at one end and people who are intentionally racist at the other. By formulating the issue this way, she thinks that Americans will begin increase their race awareness and it will help to break down racist cultural norms.

Photo of Frantz Fanon courtesy of AFS website AFS Essentials: Black Is, Black Ain’t and Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White MaskTuesday, November 20thAlamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)$4 / Free to AFS Members, 7PM[info] | [tickets]Most of the time it is easier to just blend in with everything around you, to not be different, to avoid rocking the proverbial boat, perhaps to the detriment of your true identity and eventually your soul. In the...

Sugar Cane Alley, the third offering of the current Austin Film Society series Torn From the Motherland: Films from the African Diaspora, introduces us to a young boy named Jose who has grown up in the shanty towns of Martinique. Life in his village has been poor in material possessions, but rich with lessons. He has learned about race relations through his friendship with a child of mixed ethnicity, the bastard son of the Creole...

Iraq to review all security contractors working within its borders, after Blackwater screwup kills eight over the weekend. What the hey, they're an autonomous government. Right? Clinton to public: Can I have a health-care do-over? Racism ain't dead, for the 897th time. Mayor Wynn doesn't drive a hybrid, but he will, he tells Sprig.com. Senator Craig is getting support from the ACLU, which has got to sting. Everybody's leaving Britney. Why didn't FOX let...

One of UT's more infamous fraternities is in hot water again, this time as the defendant in a civil lawsuit over assault charges.

"This one is called 'Sacrament of the Unholy Communion" -opening act, Ball Gag Boston thrash metal gurus AC have long teased and taunted fans with their relentless pursuit of all things offensive, both audibly and lyrically. Frontman Seth Putnam has spearheaded the band's rise to infamy since 1988, pushing the limits of feasible tongue-in-cheek aversions to political correctness to the outer limits despite death threats, drug-induced comas and censorship woes (well, and a libel...

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal...

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into...

Activist and author Elie Weisel is in town to speak tonight to a sold-out audience. He is kicking off the 23rd Austin Jewish Book Fair which starts today and goes through Sunday, November 12. Tonight Wiesel will most likely speak on the topics of racism, anti-Semitism, genocide in Darfur, religious fanaticism and more. When we heard him speak he was still working on his lecture for this evening. "Indifference is the enemy of humanity."...

Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa... -Austinist reveled in the dumb antics of some U.T. law students and posted some great audio from former New Orleans natives who've decided to stay in Austin. But the best news for Austinist? They were voted Best Local Entertainment Web Site by the local Austin alt-weekly. Congrats, Austinist. -DCist gloried in being told their musical tastes made...

This week, ProArts Collective's Black Arts Movement Festival concludes with more amazing works by more amazing performers. Though there's a motherload of theatre open and opening in A-town right now, we think you should give these gems some serious consideration when you're planning your artful outings for the next few days. Note: Tickets are $10, door only / $35-$65 via festival pass, online only. Dance: ACC Dance, Dallas Black Dance, and UpRise! Productions We...

Ah, Austin. Quirky, quaintly subversive, and highlighted by outlandish old hippies with a hankerin’ for the demon weed, our fair city is cutely characterized in Zach Scott Theatre's wildly popular Keepin’ It Weird. The show isn’t perfect (towards the end especially – it gets downright hokey), but dag gummit if you’re not having fun in the first five minutes, chances are you’re dead, you’re Pat Robertson, or you’re from Dallas. This show should be required viewing for all Austinites – whether you’re nostalgic for the good-ol-days, new and needing indoctrination in local lore, or have simply lost perspective and could use some sound advice from centered folk.

For the past 40 years, the federal Fair Housing Act has made it illegal for newspapers to run discriminatory housing advertisements. Ads like this have become more common in the online world, with the numerous amount of housing and advertising sites available on the internet. The Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has a case filed against Craigslist stating that they should be required to screen these posts. A hearing is currently...

In case you've missed it, there's a comedy revolution brewing in New York right now. Comics like Todd Barry, Demitri Martin, and Aziz Ansari have been drawing huge audiences of hipsters and regular folk alike with satire that owes far more to the silliness and irony of Steve Martin and Eddie Izzard than to the lowbrow Comedy Central/Def Comedy Jam nonsense that's infested comedy clubs for a decade. Among the brightest lights of the...

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors

We saw both Freedomland and Caché this past weekend. One we loved, the other, not so much. Can you guess which is which? Okay, you got us, we are gluttons for arty French films. And yet, we always show up for the American thrillers, despite low scores on Metacritic. These two films actually do have something in common. They both deal with race and how racism affects the lives of individuals, directly or indirectly. Of...

The Austin Center for FEMA Disaster Relief closed yesterday The New Pantheon shortlist nominees have been announced, and they are: Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons, Fiona Apple, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Kings of Leon, M.I.A., and Sufjan Stevens So there's evidently a species of rare African clawed frogs that, when injected with urine from a pregnant woman, will ovulate. There's also a story about how they're dying...