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Amy Ridenour is the president of the National Center for Public Policy Research. She and her husband David, the vice president of the National Center, are the parents of three third graders. David's comments, like those of other National Center staff members, directors, associates and fellows, often appear in this blog.
The National Center for Public Policy Research is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan communications and research foundation established in 1982 and based in Washington, D.C. We believe the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility, combined with a commitment to a strong national defense, provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century.
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Labels: Climate, Culture, Environment, Government Power, History, Human Rights, Political Correctness
Posted by Amy Ridenour at 11:19 PM
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"I'm amazed by the silence of the so-called women's rights groups like NOW. This is an example of their selective feminist outrage. When it fits their liberal agenda and bias, they are extremely vocal. When it doesn't, their silence is deafening."My personal theory is the feminist leaders don't identify much with elementary school teachers. Teaching young children is a female-dominated profession, and feminist leaders tend not to think highly of those professions.
Labels: Culture, Foreign Policy, Liberals, Project 21, Social Issues
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Black Activists Criticize Local NAACP, School Officials for Censoring Ohio School Play_____
The Lakota East High School dramatic production of the Agatha Christie novel Ten Little Indians -- initially cancelled by school administrators after it was called racially insensitive by a local NAACP leader -- is back on, but with changes that imply the play will be compromised by political correctness.
Members of the Project 21 black leadership network call the actions of Butler County NAACP president Gary Hines inappropriate and detrimental to race relations. They say it presents the appearance of a shakedown of the southwestern Ohio school system. They are also critical of school officials for buckling under pressure from Hines.
"In this era of unprecedented equality, and particularly when it affects impressionable and innocent young people, Gary Hines is stirring the pot of racial animosity with a pretty big spoon," said Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. "It appears he whipped up a controversy that may generate business for him. Some people would call that a shakedown."
East Lakota students worked for months to produce the play "Ten Little Indians," which the Educational Theatre Association says is one of the top 25 plays produced by high schools nationwide. Based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, it is a murder mystery about a killer stalking a group of strangers trapped on an island. The killer knocks over Indian figurines after a murder is committed.
When it was first published in England in 1939, the title used the "n-word" instead of Indian, and the original English book cover had black figures on it. The American version, first published in 1940, as always used the term “Indian.” The stage version is sometimes titled "And Then There Were None."
Hines -- the owner of the GPH Consultants diversity training company and a reported long-time critic of the Lakota Local Schools system -- implied he was going to lead a protest of the play, which was supposed to be performed this weekend. He told the Cincinnati Enquirer the play is about "genocide" and that "kids don't have enough information about diversity." Referring to the original name and artwork of the novel published overseas over 70 years ago, he told the Cincinnati Post, "We can't run away from that." He said, however, he would not oppose the play being done by a community or professional theater group.
Lakota Board of Education president Joan Powell, referring to Hines' past criticism of the school system, told the Enquirer she believed Hines' financial goals may influence his actions.
Superintendent Mike Taylor today said the play will be performed next month, but with changes. It will be performed under its alternative title, contain unspecified additional material and will feature what the Associated Press describes as "conversations and other activities" that Taylor said will "honor diversity in the community."
Also unspecified is any participation by Hines -- paid or unpaid -- in the school's new diversity-related programming.
"To claim that harm will be caused by students re-creating a 1939 Agatha Christie novel, via a theatre production, is the height of political correctness run amuck," said Project 21 member Joe Hicks. "The trajectory of this nation's racial and ethnic relations has produced a radically altered ethnic and racial landscape. Today, America is the most tolerant industrial society in the world. The assumption that some imaginary hoops have to be jumped through to avoid hurting the feelings of some ultra-sensitive individuals with defined political agendas is simply incorrect."
Project 21 chairman Mychal Massie added: "This ridiculous capitulation further compromises what was already a grotesque abrogation of the students’ creative environment. The Lakota Local Schools is attempting to straddle the fence of racial intimidation. Those innocent school children have the right to their creative enterprise without being subjected to race mongers who are intent on inculcating their condemnable agendas. Instead of coming down on the side of common sense, the school district signaled their willingness to support this person's malevolence."
Labels: Culture, Education, Project 21
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Labels: Culture, Liberals, Media
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Labels: Culture, Labor Unions, Political Correctness
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Hip-Hop Hype Hurts, Just Ask Michael Vick
Hip-hop culture has claimed a high-profile victim: Michael Vick.
I refuse to have an ounce of sympathy for Michael Vick, who is reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors for his role in arranging dog fights on his Virginia property and allegedly killing several of the dogs himself when they did not live up to expectations.
It is mind-boggling to imagine what was going through Vick's mind when he first decided engage in dogfighting. This admired black NFL quarterback was pretty much set for life with the Atlanta Falcons - making millions of dollars a year on the field and off with his many retail endorsements.
Vick apparently could not break with the hip-hop lifestyle he embraced, and now he will more than likely end up in financial ruin, suspended or even banned from the NFL for life and going to jail because of what may have been his insane need to have street cred among hip-hoppers.
Dogfighting is a major component of hip-hop culture. It can be seen in videos and lyrics of hip-hop giants such as Jay-Z and DMX. According to an article recently posted on MTV's web site, "hip-hop is one of the only outlets in American where you'll find references to [dogfighting]."
I see many young black men dragged through the streets of Washington
DC by their angry-looking pit bulls. I suspect those dogs, from the looks of them, are the victims of repeated beatings and maybe even fed gunpowder to make them even more vicious. I expect they are being conditioned to fight.
These animals become so dangerous that, when they are abandoned for being either too old or no longer wanted, local animal control officials often euthanize them quickly because they are unable to control them.
There are those who will defend Vick or demonize his prosecutors for his already-admitted indiscretions. NBA star Stephon Marbury called dogfighting a sport and compared it to deer hunting - an activity that is highly-regulated by the government and not a vehicle for organized gambling. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference - the group founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - came dangerously close to turning its 50th anniversary celebration into a pro-Vick rally. Even the NAACP got dragged into it when Atlanta chapter president R.L. White said the NFL should show Vick mercy no matter what Vick's plea and punishment are.
I expect charges of racism will soon follow.
How many more Michael Vicks, Mike Tysons and Adam "Pacman" Joneses will it take before the black community wakes up and demands these athletes and others who embrace the hip-hop culture take personal accountability for their own actions? Vick and the others are suffering because of their own actions. Racism has nothing to do with it at all.
League commissioners, owners and fans, to their credit, seem no longer to be willing to play along with these bad-boy attitudes. People are not going to pay good money to see R-rated sporting events. The NBA found this out the hard way several years ago when people started calling it "thugball" and fan attendance started dropping off after players began physically assaulting fans and coaches.
In the end, I expect Vick will have learned a very valuable lesson - that his boys were not going to take the fall for him as they all turned state's evidence against him, forcing him to cut a deal. I guess the no-snitch rule among hip-hoppers went out the window. There truly is no honor among thieves.
It is here that we see the downside of the hip-hop culture. The ruined lives. Incarceration. It's not glamorous.
Vick's future now seems to include a fitting for a pumpkin-colored suit, soap on a rope and learning to sleep on his back. The only football he will be throwing around will likely be in the prison yard because, at the end of the day, he was just plain stuck on stupid and lost it all because he craved an image.
Labels: Culture, Project 21
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As a race, blacks endured hundreds of years of slavery and then legalized segregation, brutal racism and other forms of discrimination well into the 20th century. We emerged from this hardship a stronger and better people. Now, after all that we've been through, a few unkind words from one largely irrelevant white man is causing so many of us to fall to pieces and this one person in particular to be so devastated that she has to sue for damages? This is the kind of knee-jerk victim mentality that makes us, now more than four decades past the civil rights era, look pathetic._____
This shows that too many people are still fixated on race, and I'm looking beyond Don Imus. If Ms. Vaughn and other aggrieved black women really wanted to strike a blow against the use of words like 'ho,' 'bitch' and 'trick,' they would be suing Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and other thug rappers and the record companies that have been proliferating and profiting off this kind of language for years. Don Imus was merely doing a poor job of parroting their words.
Labels: Culture, Media, Project 21
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Bevolyn Williams-Harold watched her son sing and dance as he took part in a radio station promotion at The Westchester shopping mall in White Plains. She chatted briefly with the other mothers as their children played musical chairs and other games.Read it all here.
As the event continued, two black teenage boys dressed in baggy jeans walked through the food court laughing loudly. "The parents who were chattering just stopped talking and stared at these two young men," Williams-Harold said of that moment in October. "You kind of felt the tension."
The same white women who talked with her, seemingly oblivious to her dark skin, froze at the mere sight of the black boys.
She thought of her 7-year-old son, Jourdan, a first-grader at George Washington Elementary in White Plains, and wondered how long it would be before they cringed at the sight of him. She also considers the avalanche of obstacles he would face throughout his life as such negative perceptions provoked unfounded fears.
"Black men have a hard time in this country. It's a difficult road to walk," said Williams-Harold, a 40-year-old freelance writer who lives in White Plains. "I want people to understand how difficult it is to raise a black child and the added difficulty with a black male child."
Williams-Harold embodies an attitude common among many black men and women. While the notion of overt racism and discrimination seems outdated given advances in civil rights and changes in social attitudes, many blacks say there is still evidence of racism in their everyday lives...
...But the progressive attitudes most people believe they have seem to disappear when it comes to close encounters with black men, said Ernest Prince of Katonah.
Prince said he is often followed around stores by security staff and clerks when he shops, whether he's wearing sweats or a three-piece suit.
Such tales are a frequent complaint of young black men, whom merchants say often come into stores in groups and look suspicious. But Prince is 64 and president of the Urban League of Westchester County.
"They just automatically assumed black man - criminal," Prince said. "They don't see me, they just see black."
But that rush to judgment can cut both ways, and often does when blacks demonize whites, said Mychal Massie, the outspoken chairman of Project 21, a black conservative think tank in Washington.
Massie cited the controversy surrounding the rape case at Duke University, in which a group of white athletes were accused of raping a black exotic dancer. Serious doubts about the truthfulness of the woman's account have since been raised, but not before the men involved were tarnished with charges of racism, Massie said.
"There's a difference between racism and ignorance," he said. "Just because ... a person is put off by the sloppy gangster-style dress that we see so many of our young people, especially young black people, wearing, it does not make them racist. I don't believe that white people get up in the morning thinking about what they can do to oppress black people or hold black people down."
But as with the reactions by the women in the mall, Williams-Harold said, racism can be conscious or subconscious, and she believes it is more pervasive than many would like to admit...
...But Massie maintains that concerns about racism are often overblown, and suggests individual behavior and performance are key...
Labels: Culture, Project 21
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Black Conservatives Mark "Juneteenth" Civil Rights Holiday
Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are asking that the oldest and most recognized commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States - "Juneteenth," observed on June 19 - be used as a day for reflection on the struggle for freedom and the ongoing quest for self-empowerment.
Project 21 members urge black Americans to use this day to embrace their inherent talents and strengthen their ties with family and community for the betterment of themselves and future generations.
"The abolishment of slavery paved the way for blacks to empower themselves and opened the doors for freedom and opportunities," said Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli. "Juneteenth celebrations are a reminder to all that freedom is never free."
Juneteenth commemorates the anniversary of the arrival of Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. The soldiers carried with them the news that the Civil War was over and that slavery was abolished through President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation two-and-a-half years earlier.
The annual commemoration of this date, which became known as Juneteenth, quickly became a stabilizing as well as a motivating presence in the lives of the African-Americans who lived in Texas and faced the many uncertainties associated with their newly acquired freedom. The observance quickly spread from Texas to become recognized in black communities across the United States.
Juneteenth is celebrated in diverse ways, but over the years, education and self-improvement have been consistent themes at commemorative community gatherings and picnics. In 1980, Juneteenth was made an official holiday in Texas. According to the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign, 25 states currently recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday and it has been recognized by President George W. Bush in special presidential messages.
Project 21 member Murdock "Doc" Gibbs, a Texas resident, said: "June 19, 1865 was a turning point for the black people of Texas. It was a recognition of the equality between them and their former white masters. We must continue as a people to shake off the modern slave masters that threaten our families, our communities and our future - the slave masters of drugs, illegitimacy, family breakdown, poor education and crime. We can use this important holiday to remind us that we are the masters of our own destiny and hold the keys to our own survival through the choices we make."
Labels: Culture, Project 21
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Massie laid much of the blame for the NAACP's financial problems on Julian Bond, director of the organization's board of directors. Bond, he said, 'can find no good thing in society today and still asserts that America is living in the Jim Crow past when nothing could be further from the truth.''At the same time, they're not addressing the very real ills in the black community: out-of-control abortion, which amounts to nothing more than black genocide; out-of-control single-parent households; out-of-control black-on-black crime; and out-of-control disrespectful, misogynistic behavior directed toward women in rap music,' Massie said.'Instead, they are stuck in the antediluvian mantra of days past where 'white people are out to get us.' And that is wearing thin,' he said.Mychal also told CNSNews.com that the NAACP is "a dinosaur."
Labels: Culture, Liberals, Project 21
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Labels: Culture, Education, Regulation, Regulatory Victims, Social Issues
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Labels: Culture, Education, Regulation, Regulatory Victims, Social Issues
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Labels: Culture, Defense, History
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...For young black hip-hop artists to use such language [as "nappy-headed hos"] to demean black women is similarly deplorable -- and, I would argue, even more damaging. But come on, people, don't deceive yourselves that it's precisely the same thing. Don't pretend that 388 years of history -- since the first shackled African slaves arrived at Jamestown -- never happened. The First Amendment notwithstanding, it has always been the case that some speech has been off-limits to some people. I remember a time when black people couldn't say "I'd like to vote, please." Now, white people can't say "nappy-headed hos." You'll survive...For Martin Luther King, Jr., it was about equality. For Eugene Robinson, it's about retribution. (Witness Robinson's evident satisfaction that there's something -- he believes -- white people are not permitted to do.)
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Mychal Massie: "These comments meant to be insulting, calcify that which we have long known -- for liberals, it isn't what you say that matters, it's who you say it about. Imus's sin was clearly who he chose to comment about -- had he directed his insults at Dr. Rice or Justice Thomas not only would there have been no penalty or outcry from the cacophony of race-mongers we now hear, but we would be the only ones talking about it."I agree with both.
Deneen Borelli: "This Don Imus impersonator is ignorant of the fact that Dr. Condoleezza Rice is a successful black female, currently the Secretary of State, former National Security Advisor, former Stanford University Provost, has several honorary doctorates, served on numerous boards, is a concert pianist and is fluent in several languages. Cheap insults will never diminish her accomplishments."
Gay Patriot_____
The Mahablog
Riehl World View
Blog-o-Fascists
186k Per Second
The Wiccan Warrior
Neptunus Lex
lgf
Gateway Pundit
Confederate Yankee
Villainous Company
captaincox.com
Right Wing News
Labels: Culture, Liberals, Project 21
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