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Soldiers' Graves Graffitied on Islamic Festival of Sacrifice

LibertySugar — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:30:53 -0800

Anti-Islamic insults desecrated at least 500 tombstones of Muslim soldiers in France's largest military cemetery. The racist graffiti attack took place on the eve of today's Islamic Eid al-Adha festival (the festival of sacrifice), a day when Muslims visit the graves of loved ones. Each grave was marked with either a swastika, or a letter that helped spell out derogatory messages.

Many of the soldiers whose memories were affronted died fighting for France during the battles of World War I, but their resting place has battled racist attacks during recent times. This is the third attack directed toward Muslims on this site in the last two years.

Considering France has Europe's largest Muslim population, do you think these types of hostile actions will increase or decrease?

Source

Have Hate Groups Been Quieter Than Expected This Election?

CitizenSugar — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:59:49 -0700

Despite news of a dead bear cub shot through the head and draped with Obama signs and a car vandalized allegedly for sporting a McCain sticker, apparently hate group activity has been less intense than expected this campaign. Groups who monitor hate activity with an eye toward preventing violence are reporting an eerie silence from traditional sources of open racism — much less than they expected this late in the race.

The director of a law center that tracks hate group says, “What we really haven’t seen is white supremacists really rallying over an Obama presidency. Hate groups are in a more or less stunned position right now; they haven’t been able to figure out how to proceed just yet.”

Politician Douglas Wilder, 20 years ago had a campaign almost fail because of the Bradley (or Wilder) effect — where polling indicates voters will do one thing before succumbing to suspected race-related cold feet in the booth. He now says, "America has grown, people have grown."

Is this the case? To find out,

Louisiana Teen Who Hung Nooses Gets Four Months in Prison

CitizenSugar — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:23:51 -0700

Louisiana Teen Who Hung Nooses Gets Four Months in Prison A Louisiana teenager who hung nooses off the back of his truck to intimidate a group of black civil rights demonstrators has been sentenced to four months in prison. Federal prosecutors say 19-year-old Jeremiah Munsen displayed the nooses when he drove past people who had attended a massive civil rights march in Jena on Sept. 20. Munsen had faced up to a year in prison after pleading guilty in April to a misdemeanor charge of interfering with the marchers' federally protected right to travel.

Rapper Nas Gives Petition to "Propaganda Machine" Fox News

CitizenSugar — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:55:15 -0700

Rapper Nas joined with the Color of Change and MoveOn to deliver a petition to the offices of Fox News yesterday. Just after his controversial album hit number one, Nas took the podium protesting the racist attacks he sees coming from Fox against Black Americans and Barack Obama.

Delivering over 600,000 signatures to the network, Nas delivered a prepared speech saying, "We already knew that Fox is not a news network; they are a propaganda machine . . . Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try to call it news. This should outrage every American that Fox uses hateful language to talk about the person that may be the first black president."

Fox declined receipt of the signatures, but issued a statement: "Fox News believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech, including Nas, who has an album to promote."

That album now called Untitled had an original, much more controversial title. Does this affect his statement against Fox?

To see clips of the Fox language Nas finds offensive — served up on last night's Colbert Report (where the petition was delivered after Fox refused to accept it) — plus Nas's interview with Stephen,

Girl Power? Couric Claims Sexism More Common Than Racism

CitizenSugar — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:50:20 -0700

In the fight for girl power, three women have jumped into the ring in the past 24 hours with very different viewpoints. Katie Couric, in Israel covering Obama's world tour made this striking proclamation:

I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance, and realizing what Hillary Clinton might have realized not long ago: that sexism in the American society is more common than racism, and certainly more acceptable or forgivable.

Sexism trumps racism? So what's a girl to do? Oh! I know! We'll ask Brooke Hogan (of the dubiously-named Brooke Knows Best) what the role for women should be! Here's her take:

I think it's kind of crazy that a woman is running because I think that women deal with a lot of emotions and menopause and PMS and stuff. Like, I'm so moody all the time, I know I couldn't be able to run a country, because I would be crying one day and yelling at people the next day, you know?

Surely a gal has to be Wonder Woman to exist in both realms, fighting for a world where woman can and should be allowed to do it all, amid the utterings of a generation of Brooke Hogans who glimpsed the dream of equality and said, "nah." That superhero fighting could be the very element that's undoing feminism. To see how,

Jury Awards $11 Million Payout to Neighborhood Denied Water

CitizenSugar — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:00:32 -0700

Imagine one family with 10 children sharing two tubs of water between them on bath night. Imagine a neighborhood where residents either pay for private wells to be dug, haul water from cisterns, or collect rain water to be able to drink, cook, and bathe.

In your mental image, what year is this happening? What country is this taking place?

Did you say Columbus, OH, up until 2003? No!? Oh, yes, it's true — and the 67 plaintiffs denied public water service from 1956 up until five years ago have just been awarded $15,000 to $300,000 after civil rights attorneys sued and won a discrimination case in which residents of a mostly black neighborhood were denied public water service. The award totals $11 million.

The residents of the Coal Run neighborhood went without public water for decades. One resident says, "As a child, I thought it was normal because everyone done it in my neighborhood. But I realized as an adult it was wrong." The money will compensate the plaintiffs for pain and suffering as well as monetary losses. To see the defense's argument,

Droopy Drawers: Is a Ban on Baggy Pants Racism in Disguise?

CitizenSugar — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:15:29 -0700

Like your pants with a little extra room? If you live in Flint, MI, you better hitch up your britches; the city's new police chief announced yesterday that he's going to start arresting people wearing baggy pants. Oh yeah, you heard correctly. No more low-hanging pantaloons — the chief says people are showing off altogether too much of their derrières and it's creating a problem. He says, "this immoral self-expression goes beyond free speech. It rises to the crime of indecent exposure/disorderly persons." The pants punishment? $500 and up to three months in jail. While it's true that many don't understand the need to sag one's pants, and may rather not see someone's underduds, can a person's pants lead to arrest? It's a case the ACLU is quite interested in. Curious in not only how the law will be enforced, but also how it will disproportionately target young African-American men. A local ACLU attorney says, that a person's right to choose their clothing is an issue of freedom of expression, though he cautions that not all expression is protected by the Constitution. The local NAACP president expressed her concern that the new law has racial implications this way, "I'm not interested in looking at anyone's underwear. My concern is how (the policy) will be applied equitably."At the moment, the police aren't entirely sure either. Is it possible that dealing with a small societal issue like indecent saggy pants, could have larger benefits over time? Is this a racially motivated move costumed by concern for decency?Source

Droopy Drawers: Is a Ban on Baggy Pants Racism in Disguise?

It's racist, targeting a community through a popular style. Indecency is just a cover.

Ridiculous! Sagging pants can be indecent, and little changes do make a place better.

I don't know whether it's racism, but it's certainly not a good use of police time.

Other. I'll wear my opinion on my sleeve in the comments.

You Asked: Should I Have Taken the High Road?

DearSugar — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:00:00 -0700

Dear Sugar,

This weekend I was at a party where a friend of a friend turned up. I’ve never liked him because, well, he’s loud and boorish yet I always try to be polite to him. This time, though, he decided to tell a “hilarious” story that was incredibly racist. I tried to change the subject as soon as I knew where it was going, but he could not be stopped. The party had people from all kinds of backgrounds and races, and he was visibly making people uncomfortable. Finally, I said, “You know, I don’t think this story is funny at all. I find it offensive, actually.” He then turned it around and made a big deal about how I’m allegedly too sensitive. How would you have handled this kind of situation? — I Spoke Up Susi

To see DearSugar's answer

E-Mail Shows Racial Jokes by Secret Service Supervisors

CitizenSugar — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:55:03 -0700

E-Mail Shows Racial Jokes by Secret Service Supervisors Secret Service supervisors shared crude sexual jokes and engaged in racially derogatory banter about blacks, and passed around an anecdote about a possible assassination of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to internal e-mail disclosed in a federal court filing on Friday by lawyers for black Secret Service agents. The filing includes 10 e-mail messages that were among documents the agency recently turned over to lawyers for the black agents as part of an increasingly bitter discrimination lawsuit.

Are We All Just Too Easily Offended?

CitizenSugar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:00:40 -0700

I don't know if it's just me, but every news story I read today is another tale of people getting bent out of shape. Have we built a culture of super sensitivity, or are there just so many things to object to nowadays? To the evidence!

Barack Obama's campaign has just persuaded a delegate to step down after she was ticketed for describing her neighbor's children's behavior using the word, "monkeys." The kids were playing in the tree next door to her house. According to police, the woman "came outside and told the children to quit playing in the tree like monkeys." The woman says she didn't want the children to get hurt, and she even calls her own grandchildren "monkeys." Why the ticket and her banishment as a delegate? The children were African American. Obama's campaign called her use of the word monkey "divisive and unacceptable."

There's more offensive evidence if you'll just