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Obama's Patriotism: Are Blacks Less Patriotic?

Obama has been put on the defensive by those who think the word white is synonymous with patriotism. These are the flag pin wearing right wingers who believe that they are the true American's. They don't operate on facts or fairness. They believe that they represent in image and thought the true Americans and anyone that's different is second class and taking up space. They are also reluctant to acknowledge that Black and Hispanic Americans have served valiantly in all of America's wars despite being mistreated at home.

POLL FINDS WHITES USE STEREOTYPES

AP

Whites still cling to stereotypes of Black and Hispanic people, a survey has found.

Three of four whites believe Black and Hispanic people are more likely than whites to prefer living on welfare, the General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center found in a survey made public Tuesday. Most whites also believe Black and Hispanic people are more likely than whites to be lazy, violence-prone, less intelligent and less patriotic, the survey found.

The survey was one in a series on social issues sponsored by the National Science Foundation over the last two decades. The research center, a nonprofit institution at the University of Chicago, conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,372 adults nationwide last February through April. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus four percentage points.

Despite their proclivity toward stereotypes, the survey found that a growing number of white people support racial equality. White support for busing to achieve school balance rose to 29 percent last year from 14 percent in 1972, and white disapproval of laws against interracial marriage rose to 76 percent from 48 percent. Six Characteristics Rated

Respondents were asked to rate white, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish and Southern white people on a scale of one to seven on six characteristics: rich or poor, hard-working or lazy, prone to violence or not, intelligent or not, self-supporting or on welfare and patriotic or not.

The survey found these attitudes among whites:

*Seventy-eight percent thought blacks more likely to prefer living on welfare, and 74 percent thought Hispanics more likely to prefer welfare.

*Sixty-two percent thought Blacks less likely to be hard-working; 56 percent thought blacks more violence-prone; 53 percent thought Blacks less intelligent, and 51 percent thought them less patriotic.

*Fifty-six percent thought Hispanic people more likely to be lazy; 50 percent thought them more likely to be violence-prone; 55 percent thought them less likely to be intelligent, and 61 percent thought them to be less patriotic.

Obama's Speech On Partiotism sets the record straght:

Black Female Models - Naomi Campbell Wants More

Black women in America spend over $20 billion annually on clothing, patronizing some of very designers who refuse to use Black models on their runway. Namoi Campbell and other prominent Black models say its time for a change. This is another example of how we as Black people spend money supporting and creating jobs for others who could care less about us.

Race on the Runway: Italian Vogue's all-black models issue aims to change the racial makeup of the industry. Is it an indication of a new trend toward diversity on the runways or just a fad?

By ELVA RAMIREZ July 2, 2008

Italian Vogue's new edition featuring only black models once again brings to attention the issue of diversity in the predominantly white fashion world. The topic has generated some buzz in recent years, but has had little lasting effect on the runways and in magazine fashion spreads.

The magazine's July issue, which arrives in Italy this Friday and the U.S. next week, features nearly 100 editorial pages of the world's top black models, including Liya Kebede, Sessilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell. Modeling agent Bethann Hardison, who is behind much of the recent diversity-awareness efforts in the industry, contributed to a feature on 10 up-and-coming black models. Celebrity photographer Steven Meisel shot the spreads.

Italian Vogue editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani says the issue was inspired in part by Barack Obama -- "If America is ready for Obama, why won't they be ready for black models?" she asks. Also important were her dismay at last season's mostly white runways, and complaints from models like Ms. Campbell.

"I thought maybe we should make a change," Ms. Sozzani says.

But implementing lasting change is difficult in an industry based on appearance, marketability and flighty trends and gimmicks. Jezebel, a blog that covers women's magazines, tallied non-white models in last season's runways as well as some fall magazine issues. Its analysis of December magazines found that in 22 fashion spreads in nine magazines, only one featured a black woman (singer Beyoncé Knowles) in a fashion spread. Jezebel's rundown of last February's New York shows found that 112 black models were used to fill 2,278 slots-- about 5% of the total.

The anticipation surrounding the Italian Vogue issue filtered into coverage of last week's menswear shows in Milan and Paris, when some blogs questioned whether the DSquared² show in Milan, which featured black models, was an early crest of the trend.

The trouble with trends is that they eventually end. The pale, predominantly blonde look of the past few seasons might soon give way to more diverse runways, but if fashion has its way, it could, like everything else, just be a short-lived fad.

"You have to accept that as the nature of fashion," says model Veronica Webb, who appears in the issue. But when the trend cycles back out, perhaps now "it may not be so pronounced," she says. "It may be that if you're a black girl and you dye your hair blonde, you can work -- you're not categorically rejected if you have dark skin."

Indeed, Ms. Sozzani says she's hoping her issue will provide a more long-term impact. "We're not looking to start a trend. We think this could be a normal thing -- to use a white girl [or] black girl without any difference," Ms. Sozzani says. "When we shoot Naomi [Campbell], we don't care that she's white, black or yellow. She's just Naomi."

But the spotlighting of black models in a grouping of their own -- not integrated with any other races -- could have unintended implications. The issue also fails to recognize any other ethnicities that are underrepresented in fashion.

"It's a slippery slope towards reversing the kinds of problems that the magazine was trying to overcome by making this gesture," says John L. Jackson, Jr., a professor of media analysis at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. "The danger is that all [the editors] have done is find a different way to single out the difference of European beauty, by marking off these racialized bodies in their own special issue."

So far, fashion insiders are cautiously optimistic about the long-term impact of an all-black issue.

"You celebrate and remind people of the contribution of the black image," Ms. Hardison says. "I think where we win is when it becomes all inclusive. I don't mind being the minority as long as I'm part of the flow."

The runway seasons to come will be telling.

"This season we're going to see a lot of black girls in shows," says Neal Hamil, North American director of Elite Model Management. "It's the season after this one that's going to be the test."

Unless We Embrace Our Own Beauty As Black People, Most Of Our Children And Especially Our Girls Will Continue To Suffer From An Inferioity Complex With An Increasing Number Of Our Lost Boys Showing A Preference For White Girls.

Black people in UK SEVEN times more likely to be searched by police while 'random stops' increase by a third

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:32 PM on 08th July 2008

The number of people stopped by police on the streets has soared by a third year-on-year, bringing a massive rise in form-filling for front line officers.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice revealed yesterday that officers carried out 1.87million 'stops' in 2006-2007 - up from 1.4million the previous year - along with almost a million stop-and-searches. Please forgive the cursr words in Advance.

In every case they had to fill in a 1ft-long form to record every detail of the encounter, including the suspect's ethnic background.

Typically it took an officer eight minutes at the scene, and another 17 minutes of police time to process the information later.

Tory critics said yesterday the paperwork is taking up more than 1.2million hours of patrol time - equal to more than 500 officers.

They pledged to scrap the forms and replace them with far simpler recording of basic data.

The paperwork accompanying the use of the powers was introduced after the Stephen Lawrence case, in response to concerns that officers were disproportionately targeting black men.

Separate figures showed black people were seven times more likely to be 'stopped and searched' by police than white people in 2006/07, a slightly higher ratio than in the previous 12 months.

Asian people were 2.2 times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites, compared with a rate of 2.1 in the previous 12 months.

In the different category of police 'stops', black people were 2.5 times more likely to be stopped than whites, the figures for England and Wales showed.

After years of complaints over the bureaucratic burden on police the Home Office is considering overhauling the paperwork.

The MoJ figures show that 955,000 stop and searches were carried out in 2006-2007 - the highest figure for seven years - with the most common reasons being suspicion of drugs or stolen property.

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve welcomed the increased use of what he called 'a vital tool in the battle against knife crime'.

He added: 'That is why we have announced proposals to radically reduce the bureaucracy. If the Government is serious about freeing up our police to combat knife crime, they would adopt our proposals.'

The Home Office pledged further increases in stop and search powers as part of continuing efforts to curb the rise in knife crime.

A spokesman added: 'As with all police powers, they must be exercised efficiently and, importantly, in support of and with support from the local community.'

You Get To Hear First Hand The Detrimental Effects Of How Racism Demoralizes People Of Color Globally:

Black Doctors Finally Get An Apology From The AMA

By LINDSEY TANNER

CHICAGO (AP) — The American Medical Association on Thursday issued a formal apology for more than a century of discriminatory policies that excluded blacks from participating in a group long considered the voice of U.S. doctors.

The apology stems from initiatives at the nation's largest doctors' group to reduce racial disparities in medicine — from the paltry number of black physicians to the disproportionate burden of disease among blacks and other minorities.

"The AMA is committed to improving its relationship with minority physicians and to increasing the ranks of minority physicians so that the work force accurately represents the diversity of America's patients," Dr. Ronald Davis, the group's immediate past president, said in a statement posted on the AMA's Web site.

Davis said that "by confronting the past we can embrace the future."

The apology comes more than 40 years after AMA delegates denounced policies at state and local medical societies dating to the 1800s that barred blacks. For decades, AMA delegates resisted efforts to get them to speak out forcefully against discrimination or to condemn the smaller medical groups that historically have had a big role in shaping AMA policy.

While the national organization didn't have a blatant policy against black doctors, physicians were required to be members of the local groups to participate in the AMA, Davis said in a phone interview.

"To the extent that our practices may have impeded the ability of African-American physicians to interact collegially with white physicians, it's conceivable" that patient care was harmed, Davis said. "That would certainly be another reason why we would have profound regret for our past practices."

Davis said he hopes the apology "will hasten healing between the AMA and our African-American physician colleagues so that we can create a better future for our patients, our communities and the medical profession."

The apology might seem belated, but it isn't the AMA's first for its discriminatory history. Dr. John Nelson, then AMA's president, offered a similar apology at a 2005 meeting on improving health care and eliminating disparities, sponsored by the government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

That came a year after the AMA joined the National Medical Association, a black doctors' group, and other minority doctors' groups in forming the Commission to End Health Care Disparities.

The new apology is a more formal acknowledgment of the AMA's embarrassing past, and is also part of the AMA's efforts to improve an image that in recent years has lost its luster. In many circles, the AMA is seen as a stodgy trade group focused on doctors' rather than patients' best interests.

Many black physicians applauded the AMA's move.

"It is true that what the AMA did historically was awful," said Dr. Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society's chief medical officer. "There were AMA local chapters that actually had rules against black members well into the late 1960s, and policies that made blacks not feel comfortable well into the 1980s."

Brawley, who is black, said he's never been an AMA member, but that the apology "certainly makes me much more interested in working with them."

Dr. Nelson Adams, president of the National Medical Association, said the apology is courageous and "extremely important."

AMA's discriminatory actions hurt black doctors and kept many from working and caring for patients, Adams said. That's because in many places doctors couldn't work in hospitals unless they were members of local medical societies, he said.

He said there's evidence that black patients fare better when treated by black doctors, so these policies could have contributed to poor health care for blacks.

While blacks represent roughly 13 percent of the U.S. population, less than 3 percent of the nation's 1 million doctors and medical students are black, Adams noted.

And according to 2006 data on AMA's Web site, less than 2 percent of AMA members and voting delegates are black.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Adams said.

Dr. Monica Peek, a Chicago internist and member of the AMA and National Medical Association, said the apology "creates an open and healthy dialogue for addressing these issues" that black doctors have long been aware of.

But she said AMA's actions don't lessen the need for a separate group representing black doctors.

Addressing health disparities hasn't always been a part of AMA's mission "but it's something that has never been off of NMA's radar," Peek said

Jessie Jackson Makes Negative Obama Comments

                                    Jessie Jackson's Negative Obama Comments Exemplifies "Crabs In A Barrel."

The fact that Obama talked about personal responsibility, most recently when it comes to our responsibility as Black men to our children, I believe, has nothing to do with talking down to us, as Jackson insinuates. It has everything to do with our survial as a people. As men, we must be the leaders and the backbone of our families. Raising children is not about what we say, its all about what we do. Racism has nothing to do with the personal relationhips a Black father has with his children. The greater conversation our Black churches should be having is what we can do to change our spending patterns as a people with the companies and products we support, to begin to empower ourselves.  The goal of this site is to be a distributor of empowering information that will change the future of Black people in particular and humanity in general. In all due respect, Rev. Jackson, we thank you for the work you have done, but it truly is time for a change. Obama is not running as 'The Black President,' he's running as President of the United States. Our future depends on it.

 

More Crab Comments.

Barack Obama Speaks To The NAACP 2008 Convention About Responsibility

I find it interesting that for weeks we heard the media talk about Obama not wearing an American Flag pin, and Michelle Obama being supposedly angry and all of the trivial nonsense to distract us from the real issues of this campaign. A day after Senator Obama's tremendous speech about responsibility to the NAACP, we have heard very little from the media at large and more importantly his critics. We are hearing nothing because the facts Obama outlines speak for themselves. Hypocrites and bigots run from the facts because the facts reveal the truth.

Black In America - CNN

Soledad O'brien of CNN explains why it was important to tell the whole story of being Black In America! She's An Excellent Reporter Who Proudly Speaks of Her Heritage.

Barrington Irving 23 Year Old Black Role Model Makes Black History

This is a true role model for young black teens to show what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it! Where was his record breaking story in the national news?

NY Gov. David Paterson Says Racism Puts All Blacks In The Same Boat Regardless Of Income

Paterson, at N.A.A.C.P., Warns of Racism’s Power

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Published: July 18, 2008

CINCINNATI — David A. Paterson, in his first major speech to a national audience since becoming governor of New York, said on Thursday that even as black Americans rejoice about the possibility that Senator Barack Obama could become president, they cannot lose sight of the serious social and economic ills that plague their community and should remain mindful of the racism that still exists.

“The gap between the haves and have-nots right in our own community is wider than it has ever been before,” Mr. Paterson told a crowd of thousands at the N.A.A.C.P. ' s annual convention here.

“No matter how prosperous we are, no matter how well heeled we may be, no matter how ambitious and successful we have been, we still can be cast under the same net regardless of our circumstances.”

Mr. Paterson, who is New York’s first black governor and only the third black man since Reconstruction to lead a state, addressed the convention as the intersection between race and politics in the United States appears especially fraught. Recent polls have shown that whites and blacks hold very different views of Mr. Obama, and that despite the senator’s candidacy, blacks do not believe that race relations have significantly improved.

Addressing those fissures in his speech, the governor said that he was not sure whether Americans would be able to put their differences aside in this election and support Mr. Obama.

“Can America reject the crucible of race that has dictated and pervaded all of our history to embrace an African-American man who has the right policies?” he said. “We will find out.”

The speech demonstrated how Mr. Paterson, a 54-year-old Harlem Democrat who never experienced the days of segregated lunch counters but still felt the sting of discrimination during his Long Island boyhood, has taken lessons from the civil rights struggle of his parents’ generation and melded them with the experiences of his and younger generations of blacks, who he said too often play down racism’s lingering taint.

“This is why the Jewish community has the motto, ‘Never again,’ ” Mr. Paterson said in an interview after his speech, as he rode in a car through downtown Cincinnati. “There are those who, if they had their way, would return us to an era of separate but equal.”

Mr. Paterson’s speech was interrupted repeatedly by applause and enthusiastic cries of “Yes we can!” the common refrain of Mr. Obama’s supporters. His trip to Cincinnati was part of an effort by his advisers to raise his profile, and after he spoke at the convention he gave interviews to National Public Radio and MSNBC, among other media.

Mr. Paterson said he often felt pulled between two generations of black Americans: those who grew up fighting for civil rights and those who grew up benefiting from their parents’ victories. He said that he understood where the complacency that some younger blacks feel about civil rights comes from, but that he thinks it borders on ignorance.

“The struggle was clear in that generation,” he said. “If you sit in the back of the bus, you know you’re in the back of the bus. If there’s a ‘whites only’ sign, you know you can’t go in.” But coming of age in the 1970s, as he did, when racism was less pervasive than in the first half of the 20th century, some of his peers lost perspective, Mr. Paterson said.

“What you had were a number of people who thought this struggle didn’t affect them,” he said. “They were the beneficiaries of it. And the fact that they could be comfortable saying such ignorant things is a testament to how far we’ve actually come.”

As easy as he had it compared with his parents, Mr. Paterson said he still encountered some painful instances of discrimination as a boy, which serve as a reminder to him that bias will never truly fade away. He attended grade school on Long Island because the New York City schools did not teach blind students outside of special education. He was one of the first black students to enroll at his elementary school in Hempstead.

One afternoon when a white friend invited him over to play, a neighbor unaccustomed to seeing black children in the neighborhood accused him of destroying her flower pots, he said. Mr. Paterson said his friend’s mother rose to his defense, saying that he had been in the house the entire time. The neighbor responded, according to Mr. Paterson, “You bring them in this neighborhood, and then you don’t want to take responsibility for them.”

Mr. Paterson’s views on discrimination have been shaped by the fact that he is both black and legally blind. He said one of the most painful experiences he had with discrimination came from a black businessman who refused to hire him because of his blindness.

“That’s when I realized this is kind of a universal problem that exists, this fear of the unknown, fear of others displaying difference,” he said.

That experience persuaded him to start imploring fellow blacks to examine their own attitudes about prejudice, he said. “What I could try to be was a symbol of the resistance,” he said, “but also one who would point this out internally in our own community.”

And on Thursday, he seemed to draw on that lesson as he asked black Americans to remember the gulf between prosperous and poor: “How are some of us, who have many times been luckier than we have been good, going to help those who unfortunately haven’t been able to receive prosperity as we have?”

Police Brutality: Soledad O'Brien Talks about the police advice Black parents have to give to their boys

There are words of advice that Black parents of all socioeconomic levels give to their boys, that white parents don't give a second thought about.