Afro-American

Can't find any trace of this in the local paper, although there is a very big local connection. The NY Times reports:

WASHINGTON — Ward Connerly, the black businessman who has been the face of the movement to end affirmative action for nearly two decades, is facing accusations from a prominent former ally that he has mismanaged — and exploited for his own benefit — donations to that cause made by fellow conservatives.

Moreover, a group Mr. Connerly founded to advance government policies that are race and gender neutral, the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Institute, is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and by the attorney general of California, according to documents and interviews.

That was beautifully said. There is an ignorance about Michael Jackson in contemporary America that bears no relationship to the impact that this human being had upon the world. Watching MSNBC's liberal newscasters simply categorize Jackson as a weird demented icon was heart wrenching. They destroyed my image of a passionate and empathetic news station  and cruelly reminded me of FOX's discriminatory coverage of O.J. Simpson. This deja vu constantly reminds black people that in the eyes of white liberals we are a guilty headline to be exploited by the CEO's of corporate advertisers. MSNBC's coverage was not an honorable memorial, but a lynching party with a Vanity editor tying the hangman's noose by the dim light of hyperbole from seasoned newscasters.  

You're right, meaningful liberals are all too eager to march to the distant sounds of apathy because they can step over the pig manure they historically permeated in their own back yard. Thanks for being you.

There may be no more recognizable icon of “Retro-Cool” than that photograph of the Rat Pack standing in front of the marquee at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. They’re right there, lined up in front of their own giant names on the marquee: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Night after night they would gather with friends such as Shirley MacLaine, Angie Dickinson, and Johnny Carson, to deliver some of the greatest nightclub performances in entertainment history. Today’s story, however, focuses on what happened after the show: when four of those five could leave the showroom, drink at the bar, gamble at the casino, and go upstairs to their rooms. In a town sometimes known as the “Mississippi of the West”, however, one of those five performers could not do any of those things. Our Journey In Two Parts literally crosses over to the “wrong side of the tracks”, tells a story of segregation overcome, and recounts the six-month history of a Las Vegas hotel that has a 55-year history: the Moulin Rouge.

“...We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people above all other peoples.

In order to complete today’s story we return to travelling the seas around the High Arctic...and in telling the first half of the story we were introduced to a sea captain and his parrot, we examined the destruction of a tribal village by United States Marines—and we learned that “tricing up” someone is not some kind of weird dating ritual. The story has already raised questions of race and culture; and as we move forward it’s going to encompass whaling, an incredible rescue, and more personal trials and tribulations—not to mention the Brewery Worker’s Union—and if all that wasn’t enough, we’ll even bring in a few thousand reindeer to round the whole thing out. So put on your caribou fur, clean up your sled runners--and let’s head north to Alaska, before the rush is on. Those of you who were with us last time will recall that we are telling an epic tale of 19th Century Alaska...and for those of you who were not, let’s bring you up to date: Captain Mike “Hell-Roaring” Healy, possibly the most influentia

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute's article by John McAdams, defending the huge disparity in incarceration rates for blacks and whites, continues to spark debate.

We wrote about it yesterday, saying that McAdams's findings seemed to suggest a remedy like 40 acres and a mule.

Paul Soglin weighed in with the suggestion that McAdams's approach would also suggest that Milwaukee could tolerate more black murders.

Conservative Rick Esenberg responded to Soglin.

And Soglin offered a rebuttal to Esenberg.

And Esenberg volleys back.

It's an interesting back-and-forth, a much better exchange than the usual name-calling that takes place in the Cheddarsphere.

As every waitress/waiter seems to say these days, "Enjoy!"

From Paul Soglin's Waxing America blog

 

Blacks in Wisconsin Prisons - Governor Jim Doyle is creating a panel to study the high incarceration rate of blacks in Wisconsin prisons. Doyle orders new panel on blacks in state prisons: Far too many of our citizens, particularly African-American males, are serving time in... paul soglin [Paul Soglin - Waxing America]

The report on which all of this is based is truly interesting reading. We tend to think of ourselves in Wisconsin as being progressive and - well, perhaps a little less bigoted than the rest of the country. Apparently we're wrong, at least when it comes to the prison system. The chilling stats about young black men in prison in Wisconsin should bring in to question what our commitment in the state to fairness really is. I'm glad to see that Governor Doyle is concerned about this - but perhaps we should have all been concerned quite some time ago.