Ninja Thought
Between the birthers, Buchanan and now Gates gate, I have realized we haven't come all that far.
I am Frank Chow and I approved this message.
Update: I get it now, everybody can go to bat for a bunch of white firefighters on the "wrongside" of a judgement of law, but a black President of the United States can't go to bat for a black professor wrongly detained. Good to know.
Update II: The woman who made the call said she didn't mention that they were "blacks"and Crowley put words in her mouth. Regardless, the initial cause for alarm by the other woman seems to be clearly "two black guys breaking in" and then a cop acting "stupidly" because the Prof got all "uppity." Another thing noted by teh CNN which is another HUGE CONSISTEN PROBLEM, just because someone is Portegeuse or olive skinned doesn't mean they don't have bias or can't be racist towards teh blacks. You are not exempt from racism just because the color of your skin. Ex. While on a school trip I once witnessed a friend, who is a darker skinned African-American, and my friend was ridiculed and humilated because of the the darkness of her skin. The two making racist remarks were African-Americans of the "lighter shade of brown." Again we have a long ways to go.
Comments
I personally think the cops should have backed out as soon as they saw Gates' ID, but I also think the President shouldn't have answered the question at the press conference.
I also think that if I had studied for a promotion exam and then found out I couldn't be promoted because no African- or Hispanic- or Asian-American dudes had passed, I'd be pissed. I believe in Affirmative Action, but that was a jacked up situation.
The twisting of the President's words into something controversial was just done "stupidly."
And to your last point, I think you are siding with the Supreme Court because you are empathetic. People get passed up for promotions all the time, the more and more I look at the case-if ONLY a black firefighter would have been promoted there would be an argument to be made. In the Ricci case not so much.
Watching the Sotomayor hearings though and then comparing it to the media's reaction to the President is what got me. Hardly anyone was mentioning the racial implications of the Senators using the Ricci case as an attack on Sotomayor. Yet if you turned on the news you would have thought the President was Malcom X.
As per usual, the media loves to report -- and create more -- controversy, so there was the predictable overreaction and the incredulous, "Look what's getting all the attention today!" JACKASS, YOU ARE GIVING IT ALL YOUR ATTENTION!!!
On the Ricci case, the City really hosed it up from top to bottom. There were three times as many whites taking the LT exam as blacks or hispanics and at least twice as many whites taking the captain exam as blacks or hispanics, so statistically there were likely going to be more whites passing the exam and therefore a greater probability that whites would crowd out minorities as top scorers.
I'm not saying that I agree with the Supreme Court's ruling, what I'm saying is that it was a hosed situation and the City of Hartford really screwed it up.
Your argument about "if ONLY a black firefighter" really doesn't apply, because no black firefighters qualified. Maybe the test was unintentionally biased. I don't know.
"I don't think I should get a job over a white person if I get a lower mark on a test.... But if it's tied, FUCK 'EM!" -- Chris Rock
They've been trying to paint Obama as a "militant black" since he started his campaign. The fact that such looney opinions (Birthers and such) get so much airtime is really sad.
The Republican Party is in absolute disarray and unfortunately we're seeing the true colors of the old guard when all they have to argue with are old, tired, race-baiting innuendos.