The week in racism

“I don’t like black kids” says Fresno middle school vice-president

District spokesman Jed Chernabaeff said the comment was recorded on a student’s cellphone. The video was taken outside of the school’s cafeteria in east-central Fresno. He wasn’t sure when it was taken.

Chernabaeff said the district is investigating the incident. The parents of the student who recorded the video brought it to the attention of district officials Friday.

District officials are reviewing the 15- to 20-second YouTube video for the context in which the comment was made, among other details.

Chernabaeff said DiFilippo has been at Scandinavian Middle School,where 11% of students are black, since August 2010.

“Fresno Unified takes this matter very seriously and we will take any necessary actions pending the results,” Chernabaeff said in a statement.

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GOP politician says ‘Racism is over’, calls colleague ‘colored’

A hearing before the Assembly’s Legislative Operations and Elections Committee this afternoon turned into a festival of crazy, with plenty of lessons to be learned,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted.

“We’re in 2015 and we have a black president, in case anyone didn’t notice,” Fiore said at the meeting in an attempt to justify her claim that voter ID laws can’t possibly be racist.

The Review-Journal reports that “there were apparently audible gasps in one of the hearing rooms” after Fiore congratulated Democratic colleague Harvey Munford for being the first “colored man to graduate from his high school.”

“The color and the race issue,” said Fiore, “I think it’s time we put that to rest and we go forth.”

Gaaaah!!!!

The privilege! It burns!

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Yes, it’s goddamn 2015. Yes a Black man was lynched.

A body was found on property located off of Rodney Road.

The Coroner, J.W. Mallett, confirms the man was found hanging from a tree. Officials say the body was hung using bed sheets.

According to the Coroner the body has not yet been identified because the body has apparently been there so long that identification, by visual means, is nearly impossible. The body has been sent to the State Crime Lab for autopsy.

The Claiborne County branch of the NAACP is indicating the man found hanging is Otis Byrd.

The FBI is only saying that he is a “man last seen March 2nd; and his family filed a missing persons report with the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Department on March 8th.”

In a news release, the FBI say the body was found during a ground search  by the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Wildlife Fisheries and Parks.

54-year-old Otis James Byrd was last seen when a friend dropped him off at Vicksburg’s Riverwalk Casino earlier this month.

His family and friends hadn’t heard from him since then.

The NAACP has now sent an email requesting the US Department of Justice “join the current investigation of the suspicious hanging death of Mr. Otis Byrd.”

The email goes on to say: “Mr. Otis Byrd’s body was [found] today, Thursday, March 19, 2015. After several days of missing, [he] was found hanged to death.”

Here’s a CNN report on the investigation:

Someone should send a link of this video to Rep. Fiore and ask her to explain how, if racism is over, a black man was lynched in 2015.

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FOX guest: If you think this country needs to discuss race, then you’re the racist

“Stop identifying by your race. You’re not responsible for things that came before you, and you’re not entitled to things that came before you.”

“There’s no discussion needed on race in this country,” Hoenig insisted, before saying that “the ones who want the discussion, in my opinion, are the racists.”

Those are the words of FOX “News” panelist and author of Greed is Good: The Capitalist Pig Guide to Investing, Jonathan Hoenig, He really ought to have just said “I’m not affected by racism, and since it doesn’t affect me, it doesn’t exist. So please stop talking about all the ways People of Color are harmed by discrimination and bigotry based on their actual or perceived race.”

Meh. Perhaps that’s too wordy. Let me try again. He really ought to have just said “I’ve got mine. Fuck you.” Yeah, that works better. Especially since he’s an Ayn Rand acolyte and selfishness is at the core of libertarianism.

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Oh look, another racist (and misogynistic) fraternity!

Pi Kappa Phi has placed its North Carolina State University chapter on interim suspension pending the outcome of an investigation into the contents of a book that was found at a restaurant near campus, the fraternity announced Friday morning.

The little, green book, filled with handwritten comments, included racially and sexually charged language and derogatory comments about women and children.

Calls to NC State’s Tau Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi Thursday night went unreturned. No one answered at the fraternity’s national headquarters in Charlotte, either, but the fraternity posted on its website overnight about the interim suspension.

“The written comments and quotes reported earlier this evening are offensive and unacceptable,” Pi Kappa Phi Chief Executive Officer Mark E. Timmes said in a statement. “These statements are inconsistent with the values of Pi Kappa Phi and will not be tolerated. We have instructed our students to cooperate fully with all investigation efforts.”

An interim suspension means that the fraternity can not hold meetings or participate in philanthropic events during the investigation.

Fred Hartman, of NC State’s community relations department, issued this statement:

“NC State was made aware tonight of these disturbing allegations and immediately began investigating.”

Katie Perry, a senior, at State, told WRAL News that her co-workers found what appears to be a fraternity pledge book at a restaurant near campus.

“That’s embarrassing and scary,” she said of the book’s contents.

The comments were signed in places, and the names match up to those listed as brothers on the Pi Kappa Phi website.

“This is just a group of 60-something young men at State making jokes about raping people, raping children, raping dead women, making very overt racist comments.”

At the fraternity’s home on campus, no one answered the door Thursday night, although people could be seen inside the house.

“They were all sitting in the living room, but when they saw me they made a bee-line for the back room,” WRAL’s Ken Smith said.

A short while later, someone inside completely closed the curtains. Smith also saw several young men leaving the house and driving away.

By 9:30 p.m., the list of brothers’ names was removed from the Pi Kappa Phi website.

Excerpts from the book are disturbing.

“It will be short and painful, just like when I rape you,” one page reads.

“If she’s hot enough, she doesn’t need a pulse,” says another.

“That tree is so perfect for lynching,” reads another.

“Be kind to the whales because they’ll lead you to the dolphins,” says a fourth.

Perry hopes the discovery of the book is a wakeup call for those who wrote the comments and others on campus.

“I hope other fraternities are disgusted,” she said. “I hope that if they do have this sort of thing going on in theirs, that they’ll realize, whether they want to or not, that they should change, that they shouldn’t promote this kind of behavior.

I don’t think I’ll hold my breath on that.

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The week in racism
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