Racist Ranch Name Comes Back to Haunt Rick Perry

Via Authentic HistoryTexas Gov. Rick Perry got himself involved in a little racial imbroglio this weekend when The Washington Post ran a story on some rural West Texas property managed by his family that contained the name of "Niggerhead Rock." Perry contends his family painted over the rock with the problematic name shortly after acquiring the old hunting grounds and cattle land, but visitors to the ranch say, "Nuh uh." And no matter what, people in the area who hunted on the land seemed very aware that the place had just always been called "Niggerhead," a slur that, at one point in American history, was commonly used to describe everything from streets to brands of tobacco.

But, is anyone surprised? (I used to live in West Texas, Midland, to be precise, so I'm just going to say, "No. No you shouldn't surprised.")

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Herman Cain Tries To Win Over Black People By Insulting Their Intelligence

Via FacebookYou know? I'll never get this tactic that is, in my opinion, overused by certain black conservatives to get their fellow Negroes to cross over to the GOP side. I call it the "All black people are stupid but me" tactic. Which is, by far, the worst tactic to use. Herman Cain, presidential wannabe and Godfather pizza man, recently went on CNN and said the Democrats have "brainwashed" black people into not seeing conservatism and the Republican Party as viable political options. Which ... OMG? Really? That old lie that pretends like the 1960s and 70s never happened? But then, maybe Cain wasn't trying to win over any black people to the GOP with that statement. Maybe that was really about making white conservatives feel better since the GOP is routinely accused of harboring, defending and protecting bigots within their own party, rather than running them out of town.

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Some GOPers Will Be No Shows For President's Job Speech Tonight, Possibly Because They're Jerks

President Barack Obama talks with Governor Rick Perry to express his concern for citizens of Texas impacted by the unprecedented fires, during a phone call in the Oval Office, Sept. 7, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)With the Obama Presidency (and the constant disrespect this President gets for having the nerve to be president), sometimes it's hard to tell if Republicans are being dicks because the president is a black guy or because the president is a Democrat.

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I'm A Broken Record When It Comes To The Black Marriage Crisis

As many of my friends, peers and the occasional curious reader knows sometimes, for no reason, upon being asked a simple question I'll launch into a lengthy email screed. I'm pretty hit or miss about it. Usually my email replies are only a few sentences, but sometimes I'll write you a book on racial motifs in Star Trek or something else random. So, today, Fotorater Magazine founder/editor Marc Cameron emailed me a link from Vice, featuring an interview with Is Marriage For White People? author, Stanford Law Professor Ralph Banks and my head exploded. What flew out of the remains of my skull was a "greatest hits" rehash of my issues with the marriage crisis debate.

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Natalie Hopkinson Shames the Black Middle Class Blamers

On The Root today, author and contributing editor Natalie Hopkinson goes in on those who accuse the black middle class of "abandoning" poorer black Americans by relaying the experience of Washington, D.C.'s black middle class members who remained in the city, even after the 80s crack epidemic opened up around them. Hopkinson was responding to a recent Washington City Paper story that cited the abandonment of the city by the black middle class as slowing progress in fixing city school districts.

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Fashion Is A "Slave" For Your Hoop Earrings and Other Race Maladies

Fashion decided to make your human chattel an accidental fashion icon.No one ever takes sensitivity training seriously. It's always a joke to people. I have a friend who works in human resources who occasionally conducts racial sensitivity training sessions in various workplaces. It's a mess. No one, I mean no one, ever truly "thinks" they have a race problem. But then they say troubling things like, "Shelly only got this job because he was an Affirmative Action hire and a woman. She's a two-fer!" Ignoring the fact that Shelly put herself through four years of law school, had three letters of recommendation and is the first black and woman they've hired since never. Preston Winthrop the third who was a legacy hire from Yale because his father is a big cheese down at the cracker factory "worked hard for everything he got in life" and whatnot and so forth, so it was OK for him to say that shit about Shelly.

A nightmare it is. After all, Winthrop is NOT racist. He totally has black friends and maybe even dated a kind of blackish lady once. Does anyone ever think of HIS feelings? And conversations like this exist whether you're working on an assembly line in the South or in a posh office in lower Manhattan. 

Sensitivity training. It's important.

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Maxine Waters Clowns on Allen West Over "Plantation" Comments (Video)

Coming of her "unleash" comments regarding President Obama, Rep. Maxine Waters headed to MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews where after some light chit chat about her remarks she went in on fellow member of Congress, Tea Partier, Rep. Allen West. 

West, a Republican, had made comments earlier accusing Waters and others of being "overseers" on the Democratic Party's "21st century plantation." Waters countered that she found it "odd" that when West's own unemployed brother needed help, West told him to head over to the Congressional Black Caucus' job fair and talk to those he despises.

*Clears throat* *Leans back* *Prepares self*

OH, SNAP!

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Idris Elba: "Black Men Are Never Called Sexy" (Video)

Found this one over at The Root this morning. Ridiculously handsome British-born actor Idris Elba told the folks at The Life Files that "Black men are never called sexy." I immediately wondered if this was A) a plea for more compliments or B) maybe black people in Great Britain aren't treated like the fetish objects they are treated as in America.

In the clip, Elba says he learned from fellow handsome actor Denzel Washington to never read your press. So maybe he just missed this 2009 issue of Essence with his face on it and the word "sexy" written across the front. 

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Melissa Harris Perry Hates Her Some "Help"

Prof. Melissa Harris PerryRecently academic and author Melissa Harris Perry took one for the team and watched Hollywood's latest offering in mainstream cinema about nice white people saving unfortunate black people (it's their favorite kind), aka, the new Viola Davis film "The Help."

Prof. Harris Perry was able to stave off a head-explosion of irony and focus on everything she absolutely hated about the film -- from the "feel-good" premise of black maids being given their voice by some perky young white woman to how the film took an ounce of history and turned it into a "cat fight" about the "Real Housewives of Jackson, Mississippi."

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