LGBTQ news and entertainment
This new ad from Hillary Clinton is a collection of responses by Republican politicians and pundits regarding GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s assertion that the judge presiding over his Trump University lawsuit can’t be fair because “he’s Mexican.”
(p.s. the judge was born in Indiana…)
Via Mother Jones Facebook page:
Longtime art professor Steve Locke, of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, shares a chilling episode of being stopped by police because he “fit the description” of a recent crime.
On one hand, you might say, “Well, this is how the police work.”
But please click over and read his account of what went through his head at the time.
Because he “fit the description.”
If you are a white male in America, it may be very hard for you to understand why this is troubling.
An excerpt:
I noticed the police car in the public lot behind Centre Street. As I was walking away from my car, the cruiser followed me. I walked down Centre Street and was about to cross over to the burrito place and the officer got out of the car.
“Hey my man,” he said.
He unsnapped the holster of his gun.
I took my hands out of my pockets.
“Yes?” I said.
“Where you coming from?”
“Home.”
Where’s home?”
“Dedham.”
How’d you get here?”
“I drove.”
He was next to me now. Two other police cars pulled up. I was standing in from of the bank across the street from the burrito place. I was going to get lunch before I taught my 1:30 class. There were cops all around me.
I said nothing. I looked at the officer who addressed me. He was white, stocky, bearded.
“You weren’t over there, were you?” He pointed down Centre Street toward Hyde Square.
“No. I came from Dedham.”
“What’s your address?”
I told him.
“We had someone matching your description just try to break into a woman’s house.”
A second police officer stood next to me; white, tall, bearded. Two police cruisers passed and would continue to circle the block for the 35 minutes I was standing across the street from the burrito place.
“You fit the description,” the officer said. “Black male, knit hat, puffy coat. Do you have identification.”
“It’s in my wallet. May I reach into my pocket and get my wallet?”
“Yeah.”
I handed him my license. I told him it did not have my current address. He walked over to a police car. The other cop, taller, wearing sunglasses, told me that I fit the description of someone who broke into a woman’s house. Right down to the knit cap.
Barbara Sullivan made a knit cap for me. She knitted it in pinks and browns and blues and oranges and lime green. No one has a hat like this. It doesn’t fit any description that anyone would have. I looked at the second cop. I clasped my hands in front of me to stop them from shaking.
Speaking at the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Washington Fellowship Presidential Summit this week, President Obama said that he believes homophobia and racism come from the same poisonous mindset.
“The notion that any African would discriminate against somebody because of the color of their skin, after what black people around the world have gone through, is crazy. It is infuriating and I have no patience for it.
“The same, by the way, is true for sexual orientation. I spoke about this in Africa, and everybody is like, oh, oh, we don’t want to hear that. But the truth of the matter is, is that if you’re treating people differently just because of who they love and who they are, then there’s a connection between that mindset and the mindset that led to racism, and the mindset that leads to ethnic conflict. It means that you’re not able to see somebody else as a human being.”
Check the 48:00 mark for President Obama’s comments on homophobia.
In the wake of the Miss Universe and Miss USA Pageants being dropped by NBC and Univision over Donald Trump’s racist remarks about Mexican immigrants, Trump has filed a $500 million law suit against Univision.
In the suit Trump says Univision is seeking to squash his freedom of speech.
(Actually, he’s perfectly free to express himself. He just needs to realize actions and opinions have consequences.)
Trump claims Univision is attempting to suppress his freedom of speech. Here’s an excerpt from The Trump Organization’s statement via NPR:
“Under the contract, Univision is required to broadcast the pageant live on television in Spanish. While Univision claims its decision came solely in response to comments by Mr. Trump during a June 16 campaign speech announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, the decision was, in reality, a politically motivated attempt to suppress Mr. Trump’s freedom of speech under the First Amendment as he begins to campaign for the nation’s presidency.”
Last year’s host of the Miss Universe pageant, Thomas Roberts of MSNBC, has dropped out of the event, as well has co-host Cheryl Burke.
“In light of the recent statements made by Donald Trump and the subsequent decision by NBC to cut ties with Mr. Trump, I cannot in good conscience move forward with participating in this year’s Miss USA Pageant as its co-host,” Burke wrote on Facebook. “Effective today I have withdrawn from my duties with Miss USA.”
Roberts sent this Tweet on Tuesday: “Best of luck to all #MissUSA2015 contestants this year & THX to the good people behind the scenes @MissUniverse – been a joy working w/you!”
NBC has announced it will not air either pageant even as the Miss USA event is scheduled to go on July 12th.
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| Pic via Facebook |
According to Salon.com, Gov. Nikki Haley may have had a change of heart over the weekend regarding flying the Confederate Flag near the state house’s ground.
The governor has announced a 4pm press conference for today where she will reportedly call for the flag’s removal.
Controversy erupted around the flag that has flown on South Carolina’s State House grounds since 1962, when it was put there in defiance of the civil rights movement, after it flew at full mast the day after the gruesome murder of nine African-American churchgoers by an apparent white supremacist.
Pastor and South Carolina Senator Clementa Pinckney was one of the victims of the church attack. His body will lie in state in the Capitol rotunda where the flag flies right outside.
After pictures of the alleged shooter, Dylann Roof, posing in front of a Confederate Flag surfaced calls for the flags removal grew quickly.
A MoveOn.org petition demanding Haley “Remove the Confederate Flag From All Government Places” has already garnered over half a million signatures.
Removal of the flag would require a two-thirds majority in the state legislature where Republicans outnumber Democrats 106-64.
Over the weekend 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney called for the removal of the flag as a symbol of racism.
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| Dylann Roof |
A website that appears to belong to the accused Charleston church shooter, Dylann Roof, is being investigated by authorities and the media for it’s disturbing contents.
A manifesto of over 2,000 words and almost 60 photos of Roof seem to reveal a racist motivation for the shooting.
Throughout, Roof refers to Black people as “negroes,” and capitalizes the word “whites” but not the word “Blacks.”
In addition, there are photos of Roof posing with the Confederate flag, and burning/spitting on the American flag.
Here’s just some of Roof’s statements at the website:
“Niggers are stupid and violent. At the same time they have the capacity to be very slick.”
[snip]
“I have no choice,” he writes. “I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight.
“I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country.
“We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”
“Segregation was not a bad thing. It was a defensive measure. Segregation did not exist to hold back negroes. It existed to protect us from them. And I mean that in multiple ways. Not only did it protect us from having to interact with them, and from being physically harmed by them, but it protected us from being brought down to their level. Integration has done nothing but bring Whites down to level of brute animals.”
“A horse and a donkey can breed and make a mule, but they are still two completely different animals. Just because we can breed with the other races doesnt make us the same.”
Roof also maintains that blacks were not treated terribly during the slavery era and that “it is all based on historical lies, exaggerations and myths.”
Read more at NBC News.
I think Dale Hansen should have his own national TV show. He completely rocks.
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"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." – Albert Einstein. In case you missed it, this is why everyone is talking about Dale Hansen.Posted by WFAA-TV on Friday, February 27, 2015
Over the past several days of the Donald Sterling debacle, some pundits have made a point of saying that Sterling is a Democrat. Not sure why it matters, but to some it’s been important to assign that label.
Many in the interwebs have been quick to assert that Sterling is a Democrat for some reason.
And yet, it turns out Sterling has been a registered Republican since 1998.
Sometimes it seems there are no surprises left in life…
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| LA Clippers Donald Sterling |
The fallout continues and gets worse for LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling as his corporate sponsors are now fleeing the ship quickly. From ESPN:
The Chumash Casino, the presenting sponsor of the Los Angeles Clippers, jumped ship Monday along with used car dealership chain CarMax and airline Virgin America as advertisers pondered their partnerships with the team in the wake of racist remarks allegedly made by owner Donald Sterling.
Virgin America said in a statement that it was cutting ties with the team “while we continue to support the fans and the players.” State Farm, Kia Motors America, Red Bull, Lumber Liquidators and Sprint have condemned the remarks and said they will suspend their sponsorship and advertising obligations, closely monitor the situation and assess their options.
The statements attributed to Sterling have caused a firestorm in the sports world. Over a nine minute recording obtained by TMZ, Sterling apparently made several racist comments like the following:
“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?” the man believed to be Sterling says. He continues, “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in. You can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.”
At this point in time, only Corona is still listed as a sponsor for the Clippers.
In related news, Sterling apparently contacted his ex-girlfriend V. Stiviano asking “How can we make this thing go away?” According to TMZ, she apparently has over 100 hours of recorded conversation with Sterling which, one imagines, could be very damaging to his career and fortune.