Blond, white and beaming, Tareq And Michaele Salahi breezed into the first White House State Dinner of the Obama presidency. The Salahis hadn’t made it onto on any guest lists, hadn’t gone through any of the usual background checks beforehand and apparently didn’t even pretend to have done these things. Instead, they were just smiley, dressed “appropriately” for the festive occasion and walked right in.
When I heard “White House party crashers” story for the first time, I wondered two things:
1. What if the Salahis are terrorists and have …

Maurice Clemmons, alleged assassin, child rapist and repeatedly convicted felon is still on the loose as of now. Clemmons ambush murder of four police officers starting the day at a coffee shop, is one of those street level crimes that tears at the thin fabric of human decency in which most of us seek comfort. Maurice Clemmons apparently went hunting for police officers to kill. And Clemmons is alleged to have told acquaintances as much. He reportedly said to them, “Watch the the news tomorrow. I’m going to kill some …

Being an honest, yet enthusiastic American requires the ability to consistently integrate the pretty, mythic narratives that our nation holds dear with the always more complicated and often very ugly truth of our American story. Like my experience of George Washington’s birthday, some American Indians refer to the Thanksgiving I celebrate as a National Day of Mourning. And with good reason.
Far away from the fables we learned as schoolchildren, the truth is that Pilgrim “settlers” came onto a land that had already been “settled”: corn planted, fields cleared, seeds …

The FBI released its 2008 Hate Crime Statistics report yesterday. Overall Hate crimes were up 2%. That’s bad and it gets worse. In the wake of President Obama’s election, hate crimes against blacks rose 8%.
Hate incidents related to the election occurred in all parts of the country. An interracial couple in Apolacan Township, Pa., who supported Obama, found the remains of a burnt cross in their garden. In Madison County, Idaho, elementary school children allegedly chanted “assassinate Obama” on a school bus. In Mount Desert Island, Maine, black effigies …

The Mississippi Klan stirred up plenty of protest and not much else when they marched onto the University of Mississippi campus last Saturday.
OXFORD, Miss. — Wearing traditional red, black and white robes and carrying flags representing the infamous hate group, about 10 hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan protested on the Ole Miss campus Saturday.
The protest, held on the steps of Fulton Chapel, fizzled after less than 10 minutes and faced a large counter-protest from students and onlookers.
The Klan traveled to Oxford to protest Ole Miss Chancellor …

You have to hand it to Glenn Beck. He is a wizard at whipping up controversy and, therefore, publicity. Beck’s latest dangling shiny object comes in the form of an announcement that in order to support the sales of his upcoming book which will outline a 100 year plan for America, he is organizing a gathering on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The date is August 28, 2010; the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.
At [a] rally and in a letter on his …

Mike Huckabee has done something reasonable and, in these divided times, that makes it newsworthy and admirable. In a talk at the Hudson Union Society, where he discussed his forthcoming book, “A Simple Christmas”, Huckabee pushed back against the conservatives who criticized President Obama’s visit to Dover Air Force base. Via Huffington Post:
When he [Barack Obama] was at Dover the other day, and went there to pay respect for soldiers, I heard a lot of people on the Right say “Aw, that’s just a cheap photo-op.” No, I think it …

Given discussions about health care reform and mental health care swirling around right now, I thought I would re-post this piece which first appeared here at All About Race in 2008. People love to cast me as an example of the American dream. And I love being an example. But I continue to examine what my success really means; and in large part it means I had a lot of help. Please share your thoughts in comments.

My conservative friends think I’ve gone and lost my mind. They think so because …

Jesse Jackson who not long ago expressed his support for then presidential candidate Barack Obama by wanting to “cut his nuts off,” has now turned his attention to supporting health care reform legislation in his own inimitable way. Via Talking Points Memo:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday night criticized Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) for voting against the Democrats’ signature healthcare bill.
“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.” Source: …

Results of a study that claims to expose a correlation between high implicit racial bias and resistance to Obama’s health care reform initiatives popped up in my twitterstream this morning. (Follow me @allaboutrace) “Racial prejudice a factor in opinions of Obama, study finds ‘Hidden biases’ behind opposition to president and his healthcare plan” was released by UC Irvine.
“We show that Obama’s race – not just the ideological character of his policies – is a factor in some of the opposition to his proposals,” said Eric Knowles, assistant professor of psychology …

As I read Andrew’s second essay, I begin to accept that we live in mutually exclusive social realities. And that’s a painful recognition for me. As friends we share revulsion at the exploding deficit, clarity about keeping government out of our bedrooms and the belief that it is an inalienable right to keep guns in our homes. Further, we both do our best to accept each person we encounter as an individual without slathering on layers preconceived notions and expectations of stereotypical behavior.
But on the broader political plane, we’re …

By Andrew Padula
The Democratic party has been very effective at painting Republicans with the label of “racists”. I can understand why we are an easy target and vulnerable to racial persecution. Much has happened culturally in the past half century. Imagine the reaction that people would have today to the uncut images portrayed in Disney’s “Song of the South” or the language of “Blazing Saddles”. Try to visualize the images of urban ghetto life as portrayed in the police shows of the 70’s or …

Many of you are kind enough to shoot me emails when you come across interesting stories I should see. I’m not always able to post about them, but I always read them. So I figured, everyone should have access to your suggestions. So, from time to time, I’ll post them here. Check out the first batch:
From big thinker with a wide world view, long time reader and friend JP:
Gold and Blood at Record Highs, from Wall Street to the Congo (11/3) Excerpt:
The soaring price of gold and the plummeting price …

One of the most interesting black conservative blogs around is Booker Rising. I recommend it. Shay Riley and I don’t agree on everything, but I almost always understand her point of view and I don’t recall her reflexively calling black people who disagree with her one derogatory name or another. I admit I figured folks over at Booker Rising would all be doing back flips of joy over the Black Conservative Town Hall Glenn Beck show. [Click Here for Full Show Transcript]
Not exactly.
A number of Booker Rising readers and other …

A Black conservative town hall filled the studio audience of Glenn Beck’s Friday the 13th show. I wouldn’t characterize it as a horror story, far from it. Solid points about the need to instill more black urban kids with a love for education and learning were made. But I will say right off that it was frightening to observe the monstrous delusions of many who spoke during the show. And what had me gasping in cynical laughter, was that every time a ‘black conservative’ stood up and said anything that …