Disqus - Latest Comments for Nquest

Re: The View Co-Hosts Spar Over Ann Romney’s Resume

Nquest — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:50:25 -0000

OP: What does her work experience, or lack thereof, have to do with the race?

Because candidate Mitt Romney attempted to classify the amount of job losses suffered by women (i.e. the experience of working and relying on a paycheck and then not having that paycheck due to job loss) as evidence of Pres. Obama's "war on women." As such, Ann Romney (if in fact she has never had to work for a paycheck/salary like millions of women) simply is not a very credible source to rely on re: women and the economy.

Re: Ann Romney Responds to Hilary Rosen: ‘I Know What It’s Like To Struggle’

Nquest — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:24:31 -0000

This whole thing is stupid. Mitt Romney attempted to define Pres. Obama's "war on women" specifically as being the amount of job losses women have sustained during Obama's term and, yet, Ann Romney who has had no form of employment to lose (Mitt Romney's attack line - i.e. Obama era job losses among women) is, according to Mitt, the person he consults re: women and the economy??

GTFOoH!

Rosen clearly tried to make that very point, however unnecessary, uncalled-for, inartful, etc., etc.

Re: Goldie Taylor On CNN: ‘White People Aren’t Confused By The Word N*gger’

Nquest — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:00:50 -0000

Wow... If one bs excuse wouldn't do... just come up with another bs reason to try to justify what you apparently wanted to feel justified in doing regardless.

Seriously? Who are you kidding but yourself?

Left without any real, logical and truthfully justified reason for you to "walk on eggshells" while some mythical "other" got away with using racial insults against your vicarious tribal group-whole**, you figured you'd navigate to a totally different territory trying to position yourself as in the clear and with a 'valid' reason to stereotype?

Not judge people as individuals. No. You're trying to be cute (avoiding the lack of basis for your initial post) and still trying to say you have a sound/valid reason to use racial stereotypes?

Dude, just save yourself the post-ink and just say you're going to use racial insults and/or engage in racial stereotypes right or wrong, no matter what. That the exact take way we get from this exchange with you.

Re: Goldie Taylor On CNN: ‘White People Aren’t Confused By The Word N*gger’

Nquest — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:44:58 -0000

And, yet, you would be hard pressed to find the equivalent sentiment among African-Americans. Show me when and where AA's have complained about white people having the audacity to take offense when AA's use anti-white racial slurs that whites use amongst themselves. The term "redneck" has made Jeff Foxworthy rich but I challenge you to find a comment section on-line where non-whites pretend/claim to be outraged by some supposed 'double-standard' the way whites have done on-line for years over the use of the N-word.

There is no comparison and no one is making up any excuses or otherwise saying that it's okay for AA's or any non-white to use racial slurs against whites. I don't even know why you felt the need to talk about "walking on egg shells." Hmmm....

PS: The point they tried to make on CNN was that all racial insults aren't made equal and don't carry to same insulting/wounding power. That should be self-evident.

Re: Really, White People? New Polling On Trayvon Martin Shows White Folks Not Paying Attention

Nquest — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:26:10 -0000

The Sanford police reports released to the media regarding the initial
response to the shooting identified Zimmerman as a "white male."

Re: 'Our Blacks' - Atlantic Mobile

Nquest — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:18:40 -0000

Yeah, I think in those cases the concept of "friends" gets confused with being "friendly"... which apparently was/is a great feat of racial progress in itself.

Re: 'Our Blacks' - Atlantic Mobile

Nquest — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:58:24 -0000

"It's often been said, and I think it's true, we love them individually
and kind of distrust them as a group, whereas in the North, they don't
want to get too close to them individually but they embrace them as a
group"

Re: On The Run - Ta-Nehisi Coates - Culture - The Atlantic

Nquest — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:32:02 -0000

From what I can tell (and I wonder why people haven't caught this), the only Black player from 'humble beginnings' that you listed who can even be legitimately considered as a critique to Rose's perception of the type of Black players Duke recruited was Johnny Dawkins. But then you would have to address the question of whether the pre-Rose exceptions (Johnny Dawkins only?) end up proving the rule. That or you might counter with the question of whether Coach K & staff had developed the recruiting end roads into the type of leagues/schools to earn the trust of players like Rose who may have shared Rose's perception but still respected the Duke basketball program.

Re: Clarifying The Racist Card - Ta-Nehisi Coates - National - The Atlantic

Nquest — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:37:16 -0000

MopTop,

Good try but, pun intended, that only works when your can only see things in black and white. It just so happens that so-called lefties, a good percentage anyways, have rather nuanced views and have a not-so-simplistic idea of what and who is "racist." On top of that, so-called lefties also make a number of different argument, compelling ones at that, which question the character, competence and awareness (something like the lack of ignorance) of people like Barbour who make statements absent all of the above.

And that's the rub...

Calling the statement/argument from a "Lefty" like Matt Yglesias the "he's a racist" dogwhistle is, as Coates concluded, the epitome of "strawmanning" because it is the most transparent and lamest of the serially weak arguments from "righties" who obviously can't be bothered with going toe-to-toe with "lefties" in a legitimate debate. That's why the first reflex was to change the debate because:

"Andrew Ferguson’s profile of Haley Barbour reveals that the guy is dangerously ignorant about the history of race in his state"

... is simply not debatable in terms of whether Barbour's statement at the center of this controversy reflects that of a person with a reputable character on the subject matter who shows both a competence and awareness of the subject matter which Barbour obviously does not (in terms of his history on race) and did not.

But I'm sure you could explain how Yglesias' and other lefty sentiments that essentially labeled Barbour a "guy [who] is dangerously ignorant about the history of race in his state" were, in fact, claiming "he's a racist." That Barbour, for making the statement he did, is a "guy [who] is dangerously ignorant about the history of race in his state" is a statement/argument/observation that asserts what appears to be the obvious fact. Either Barbour statement is or isn't one that is "dangerously ignorant about the history of race in his state." Hearing none (i.e. no serious argument stating Barbour's statement accurately depicted the whole truth of the matter, historically)... we're left with seeing Yglesias' statement as the indisputable statement of fact.

But, go ahead, tell me your position on that.

I think the problem and possible disconnect here is that you're not showing your work -- i.e. how you came to the conclusion that lefties are basically saying "he's a racist." It seems pretty clear to me that there's an undisclosed agreement consciously or otherwise, that Barbour's statement was "dangerously ignorant" or, at least, not competent/aware. So, naturally, you want to get ahead of the game. Apparently you, yourself feel that someone that is so "dangerously ignorant" (or at least so incompetent and lacking in racial awareness) as to make the kind of racially myopic statement Barbour did, and to be so emphatic about it, can't help but be a racist.

You know the answer to the math problem the lefties are working on. Unfortunately, it says more about you (your argument and those who take a position similar to yours) than it does anyone perceived to be on the left.

Re: Power Line - The Czar of nonsense

Nquest — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:03:12 -0000

Hmmm... Rev. Wright actual quote goes a little something like this:

"I think racists in the right-wing are upset because poor people are about to be helped."

How exactly "racists in the right-wing" became "racist right-wingers"... Well, maybe the Nonsense Czar can clear that up for me because I'm having me, Mr. Logic and Madame Honesty are have a hard time seeing the two as one in the same.

One is about location identification -- i.e. there are racists in the right wing. The other ("racist right-wingers"), especially the way the OP attacks its own strawman, suggests racist = right-winger which was not what Rev. Wright said. Hell, the clip wasn't even 10 seconds long.

Also, by Hennesy's calculations, there are 15.6 million completely uninsured Americans and that's going off of old pre-recession numbers (i.e. "2007 calculations" generated by "extending 2005 data") which fail to include people losing jobs+insurance.

Beyond that, I don't know what's the issue hear. The very opposition voiced over extending health care/insurance to cover those who don't have it is couched in the rhetoric of resentment of the (undeserving) poor or other assorted don't use my taxes to help "them."

Glen Beck, the tea party hero, called Obama's health care reform proposal back door reparations. Obama is called socialist because attitudes out there about redistribution of wealth... in a certain direction. America's widening wealth gap between the super-rich and everybody else need not apply.

Re: Bring a gun, get on HARDBALL..bring a SIGN, get a PO-Lice escort.

Nquest — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:13:51 -0000

HILLSBORO, Mo. -- Sen. Claire McCaskill admonished the noisy crowd at a town hall meeting on health care reform Tuesday, saying the people shouting out comments and nearly drowning her out were being rude.
[...................................................]
The hearing included a confrontation in the crowd, when a man approached 52-year-old Maxine Johnson of St. Louis and ripped her sign that showed a picture of Rosa Parks sitting on a bus that read, "First Lady of Civil Rights." The man was arrested on suspicion of assault; his name was not released. Johnson was led out of the auditorium but was not arrested.
http://www.kmbc.com/politic...

TP-Memo notes how signs were supposedly not allowed in the auditorium.

Re: President Barack Obama Is . . . Black?

Nquest — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:17:07 -0000

This is why I don't hold Gates in high regard:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<b?skip gates'="" television="" series="" virtually="" tells="" the="" world="" that="" the="" west="" has="" no="" case="" to="" answer.="" africans="" sold="" each="" other.="" presumably="" if="" there="" are="" to="" be="" any="" reparations="" in="" the="" trans-atlantic="" slave="" trade,="" it="" would="" have="" to="" be="" from="" africans="" to="" africans.="" skip="" gates="" succeeded="" in="" getting="" an="" african="" to="" say="" that="" without="" the="" role="" of="" africans="" in="" facilitating="" it,="" there="" would="" have="" been="" no="" trans-atlantic="" slave="" trade="" at="" all.="" <="" b="">

To my astonishment when watching "Wonders of the African World", I heard a Ghanaian tourist guide at a slave fort (Elmina) tell African-American tourists that they were sold into slavery by Africans. Is this the policy of the Ghanaian government to tell tourists that it was not the white man but the Black man who was responsible for the Atlantic slave system? If not, why is not the guide sacked? He was saying to African Americans "We Ghanaians sold you!"

The Ghanaians I have spoken to since Gates' television series are convinced that the Ghanaian guide at the slave fort was given an "inducement" to blame the slave trade on Africans! Who is behind this rewriting of the history of the slavetrade? I am sure Gates was as surprised as I was when he heard such frankness from a Ghanaian tourist guide.

But even if some Africans were collaborators in the slave trade, why is Gates presenting the story as if the victims were only the Diaspora Africans (exported) while Africans in the ancestral continent were ALL villains? IS BLACK ORIENTALISM racially masochistic?

What about the families of the captured Africans who did not see their loved ones come back home? What about the Africans who were victimised by slave raiders but were never exported? What about African resistance to slavery? What about the Africans who were not involved in the slave trade at all either as victims or as villains? Why is Skip Gates presenting us with a simplistic picture of continental Africans (villains) selling their brothers and sisters (Diaspora African victims), and provoking what he regards as the curse on Africa for selling its children? In reality only a small minority of the inhabitants of Africa could have sold and exported fellow Africans. So why is Africa as a whole presented in such stark evil ways? Why does Henry Louis Gates Jr. virtually let the white man off the hook on the Atlantic slave trade apart from a throw-away sentence? What is going on? What is the agenda? I hope the idea of Black Orientalism is not to sabotage all claims for reparations for Black enslavement.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
http://pl-pl.facebook.com/n...

In a Q&A at an Pres. Lincoln event this year in Chicago, Gates repeated the storyline...

Re: ‘Stupid is as stupid does’ – Note to Skip Gates’ arresting officer

Nquest — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:28:13 -0000

No. Both Gates and Pres. Obama released written statements regarding the "beer summit."

Re: President Barack Obama Is . . . Black?

Nquest — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:02:18 -0000

Yeah, I was saying I didn't have a high opinion of Gates to start with and this situation, even though he was wronged and I will defended him to the hilt... my opinion of him sunk even lower. Though I'd have to recalibrate (lol) my views considering his role as editor at THE ROOT -- i.e. his personal accomplishments are one thing but his contributions to the larger African-American community are undeniable and commendable no matter what I think of him/him views.

Re: A Pleasent Surprise

Nquest — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:53:31 -0000

My bad... I hadn't read all your links before my last comment.

Re: A Pleasent Surprise

Nquest — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:51:25 -0000

white people need to quit acting like the sky is falling when they're accused of racism

You know, I would honestly like to sit and hear why White people react to charges of racism the way they do. Like the way I see Gates' behavior as perhaps not-so-genuine, I've been in exchanges with Whites online who have played the "you called me a racist=KKK" card even when I made no statement about racism at all. I recall one where it seemed pretty obvious to me that the person was trying to drum up the kind of fake outrage we see conservatives/Republicans try to use to paint Democrats/liberals in a certain way and paint them into a corner.

Beside that, apparently there was a good discussion over at Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog after a White person claimed the "R"-word (racist) for Whites is "close" to the "N-word" for African-Americans.

http://ta-nehisicoates.thea...

Re: A Pleasent Surprise

Nquest — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:39:49 -0000

Did you see Don Lemon's other, all-male panel which included two diversity specialist (one White, one Black)... Ronald Hampton with Nat'l Black Police Assoc. and the social networking brother...? It was good, too, and a pleasant surprise. It was on Saturday and the White diversity specialist touched on how there is such a thing as White Privilege...

Anyway, go to CNN's video page, there is another part to the panel discussion you found:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/...

Re: President Barack Obama Is . . . Black?

Nquest — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:15:56 -0000

What do you mean, "lean in that direction"?

I just found myself at first in total disbelief that Gates, from what I knew of him, saying something like the stuff he supposedly did. (Note: I've seen nothing where he denies saying something like what was reported.) To me, it was out of character for him and I didn't particularly hold him in high regard because he always struck me as the type who dismissed the kind/degree of concerns a lot of Black people have about racism... And now that I've found out that he's married to a white woman (not like there's anything wrong with that)... It just lends credence to the "opportunist" theories out there and it's hard for me to consider some of the stuff he's said after the incident as sincere/genuine.

On the other hand (and nobody has said this), I could imagine Gates saw Crowley speaking to that "white lady" outside before Crowley came to his house and had one of those "I can't believe this is about to happen" moments. So I completely understand the reaction and, of course, as a Black man in America have been subjected to the kind of racial profiling suspicion-by-skin-color madness...

Way back when I was in college, my short azz was walking back to my dorm at night and was stopped by an officer looking for someone described as 6'0 tall. I can't stand 6'0 tall with a step-ladder (actually, I'm avg. hgt. 5'7... 5'8 on a good day). I'll never forget when me and my brother was stopped and a noticeably nervous county cop seemed like he had his hand on his gun and wanted to search my trunk. Here I am, basically a square... don't smoke, don't drink... and this dude (the cop) is looking for drugs or something....

Oh and I also had a situation similar to Gates... Similar in the sense that I had a friend who moved in with me after moving to the town I lived in. He is a big guy and used to be a track star, fast but with a very muscular build. We went to a bank close to my apartment and supposedly looked "suspicious"... for just inquiring about how to open an account or whatever my friend needed to do (I banked somewhere else). Actually, I think we were supposed to be casing the joint or something, according to what I was told... (I think there was a recent case like this in Chicago).

Anyway, after I was stopped by the police (and happened to be acquainted with the officer who stopped me), I was told that my car fit the description of a car used in several recent bank robberies. Only my car was like 10 years newer than car in the reports.

As for how I lean....
http://africanamerica.org/e...

(Note: My name there is "Nmaginate.")

Re: President Barack Obama Is . . . Black?

Nquest — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:53:31 -0000

Though I hate the term and though I strongly believe Gates' arrest was wrong... I have to admit that Gates "playing the race card" after being the kind of post-racial, "no excuses" type of person Obama is/was seen as gives me an even lower opinion of Gates than I previously had.

Re: Countdown to the Inauguration: 68 Days — Open Thread

Nquest — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:24:29 -0000

Here's the YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

The "personal attack" wasn't the mythical "move to Canada" thing... That weird "examine yourself" stuff was personal and who knows what that sh*t was about.

Re: Countdown to the Inauguration: 68 Days — Open Thread

Nquest — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:33:50 -0000

Regarding Pat Buchanan.... I was just referring to his apparent best selling book,
"State of Emergency". The SPLC called it "Selling Racism". ThinkProgress clipped this part of Buchanan's anti-immigrant, White Nationalist agenda:

If we do not get control of our borders, by 2050 Americans of European descent will be a minority in the nation their ancestors created and built. No nation has ever undergone so radical a demographic transformation and survived.

Media Matters kept tabs on him:

Truly, America faces an existential crisis. Are the racial, political, social, and cultural forces pulling us apart overwhelming the forces holding us together?

It is the belief of the author and premise of this book that America is indeed coming apart, decomposing, and that the likelihood of her survival as one nation through midcentury is improbable -- and impossible if America continues on her current course. For we are on a path to national suicide.

[...]

The American majority is not reproducing itself. Its birthrate has been below replacement level for decades. Forty-five million of its young have been destroyed in the womb since Roe v. Wade, as Asian, African, and Latin American children come to inherit the estate the lost generation of American children never got to see."

Now you know what the Republican (the Grand *WHITE* Party) pro-life campaign is really all about.

Re: Wednesday Open Thread #2

Nquest — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:19:31 -0000

Quick answer: Hell nawl!!!!

Obama's victory is no more MLK's "dream" than the passage of the civil rights and voting rights acts.

I do like what Obama said about "this is not the change we seek..." So, in that sense, Obama himself would probably disagree.

This idea of casting Obama's incredible victory as the crowning achievement, the fulfillment of MLK's dream strikes me in the same way people talk about Jim Crow and reduce all that went on then to White and Black drinking fountains and bathrooms. It is soooooooo not the point, in and of itself.

Re: President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama

Nquest — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:13:09 -0000

Somewhere in that link it says that Rosen has kids from her marriage to her Black husband...

Re: Wednesday Open Thread

Nquest — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:48:46 -0000

Well, both Rhondacoca and I agreed with what he was saying and the fact that his statement, however problematic, was about issues and about "real change" vs. the symbolic... that's why what Tavis said matters.

I don't give a f-ck if everybody in the world but me sees that point. The fact is: folks criticizing Tavis for being petty are being petty in their reflexive criticisms of Tavis.

All Black people don't think a like (we all know that) and we've always had varying and often competing visions, even different goals. If all folks care about is having a Black president then, in one sense, it's an insult to the lives, memory and legacy of our ancestors. But maybe that's me... because my Freedom Dreams are bigger.

I appreciate where we are and how big this is but this isn't the Promise Land many envisioned. Maybe some, maybe even most did. Maybe this is all some could ever conceive of.

To each his/her own...

Re: Wednesday Open Thread

Nquest — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:40:22 -0000

I think Tavis really had an issue with sitting next to the Racial Arsonist in Chief (Pat Buchanan) and was just too down on the situation which made it look like it was both personal (ego-driven) and on the serious issue of real, substantive, structural change.