I just finished watching one of the most obvious conspiracies in the history of professional sports on full display, as the Dallas Mavericks somehow came back from a 9 point deficit with 3 minutes left to defeat the Golden State Warriors, final score 118-112.
I watched the game with Bob, a big-time Mavs fan, who was wearing his Mavs cap and 2006 NBA Western Conference Champion Mavs T-Shirt in desperation, since his team needed to win to avoid one of the biggest upsets in basketball history. The referees failed to call a foul on any of the Mavs at any point after 5 minutes were left in the game. They didn't call an obvious foul on a 3-point shot attempt when Mavs star Dirk Nowitzky slapped the hand of a Warriors player. The shot would have given Golden State a 2 point lead with about a minute left. Instead, the refs called a phantom foul on the Warriors best player, Baron Davis. The inexplicable foul call knocked Davis out of the game when the difference was 1 point and less than a minute remained on the clock.
In Bob's estimation, the Warriors "got jobbed."
So, what else is new? The NBA has been jobbing teams all year. They extend playoff series to seven games whenever possible, by any means necessary to keep the ticket sales rolling in. The officiating in the NBA is terrible, as I've said before, and it's bad for the sport, bad for the fans, and most of all it's bad for America.
And to pour even more fuel on the burning embers that are all that remains of the NBA's credibility, according to a new study out of Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania, the officiating isn't just conspiratory, it's also racist. Screw this league.
Oh, by the way, Go Pistons!
When progressives talk about race, it's usually in the same ways that just about all Americans talk about race. We often operate with the assumption that we shouldn't or even mustn't talk about race. After all, it's by talking about race that we keep racism alive, right? The goal, in short, is colorblindness - and we progressives shouldn't block the path to a post-race future by talking about race.
This way of thinking is a huge mistake. In fact, progressives who follow this line fail to ask the critically important question: Who benefits from so-called "colorblindness"? Even more important: How can progressives develop sustainable and effective coalitions without addressing race and racism?
These questions - which run deep in terms of history and strategy - are far beyond the scope of a simple blog post. But there's an urgently needed document on these questions from john a. powell and Stephen Menendian here.
powell and Menendian, in just 40 pages, trace the lineage of race and racism in American politics from the 1700s, and they offer a necessary corrective to progressive political strategies in 2007. Put simply, any successful and sustainable progressive coalition must take race into account. That's impossible so long as the conservative "colorblind" position remains ingrained in progressive strategy and thought.
"....The story of the fight for states rights, unions, our electoral system, and limited federal government is radically incomplete without being informed by race. Equally, the fragmentation in metropolitan space with our segregated neighborhoods and high poverty schools cannot simply be explained by local control. All of these arrangements and the resistance to change obstruct a progressive agenda with negative consequences for whites and non-whites alike. Race is the biggest reason that the United States, unique among advanced countries, is ruled by a political movement that is hostile to the idea of helping citizens in need.... Many assume in the United States that race and class are largely distinct or that race can be reduced to class. Under this view, race disparities should more appropriately be addressed by class. This is both an analytical position as well as a strategic position. These set of assumptions are almost articles of faith in much of the white progressive movement.... Class based alternatives are a misnomer and fundamentally conservative. They focus on advancing disadvantaged individuals to the status of middle-class rather than on transforming or restructuring the relations between classes on a more equitable basis. As a consequence, they are not a useful organizing mechanism for building a progressive coalition on the basis of shared interests or a sense of solidarity. While it is clear there needs to be a focus on class and economic issues, unless properly approached such an effort is not likely to be progressive or successful. A progressive alternative requires addressing race and building cross-class, multi-racial coalitions...." (emphasis added)Racism isn't something that happens only when celebrities use epithets. Race and racism are all around us, and we need to acknowledge that in order to move to a post-racial America. Progressive activists must be aware of the history and strategy outlined by powell and Menendian. If you only read one 40 page PDF the whole year, make it this one.
From the Courage Campaign
Labels: From The Courage Campaign, Politics, Race
An important report from the National Council of La Raza was released today confirming once again that poverty in the United States is real for millions of Americans. "Sin Provecho: Latinos and Food Insecurity," the latest report from NCLR, is getting international attention. The research details the effects of poverty for Latino/as in the United States in specific, revealing the staggering statistic that nearly one in five Latinos (19.6%) "faces food insecurity each year." The effect of ethnicity and race on hunger revealed by this report is equally alarming - while almost 20% of Latinos face hunger, only 5% of non-Hispanic, white Americans face "food insecurity" according to the US government.
This latest study reconfirms the problem of hunger in America. Although the Bush Administration recently removed the term "hunger" from its reports, instead terming the problem "food insecurity," the NCLR report shows once again that people in the United States face pain and malnutrition due to an inability to get food, which by any reasonable definition qualifies as hunger. The USDA recently showed that some 11% of all American households faced "food insecurity" - hunger - in 2005. In the wealthiest nation ever, this level of poverty and hunger is embarrassingly high.
The problem of hunger is not unsolvable, however, and the NCLR report offers specific suggestions. A large part of the problem affecting Latino families comes due to the fact that "eligible Latinos miss out on the benefits of food assistance programs." Often, this is simply because there's a lack of "culturally- and linguistically-appropriate information" as well as "confusion about eligibility rules." In other words, too many Latino families in the US believe they're not eligible for existing food assistance problems or simply can't find information on the programs. A simple and obvious way to help would be to make more Spanish-language information available indicating that most people residing in the US are eligible for food assistance. Other suggestions from the NCLR report include creating new outreach initiatives to help immigrant families find food assistance, eliminating all restrictions on legally-present immigrants, and allowing food stamps to be used at local farmers' markets.
During the holiday season, it's important to remember that hunger doesn't only exist elsewhere, far from home. It's present in California, and indeed all across America. But we can do better. Thanks to Jennifer Ng'andu and Emilia M. Leal Gianfortoni, the authors of the extremely important National Council of La Raza report.
From The Courage Campaign
Labels: From The Courage Campaign, Politics, Race
Demetrius Crocker, a 40-year old farm worker, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison last week for obtaining what he thought were ingredients to make a bomb, after telling undercover FBI agents that he would use the bomb to attack the Capitol.
As David Neiwert points out, if this Demetrius Crocker were of Middle Eastern descent, we'd probably have seen Attorney General Gonzales or maybe even President Bush himself on television trumpeting the fine work of the FBI in apprehending this would-be mass murderer. Since Crocker is, in fact, a white, ultra-conservative -- there's no need to pay any attention to his story.
UPDATE, 12/8/2006: The agent in charge of the FBI office in Chicago announced today that they've caught a Muslim man who tried to buy grenades from an undercover agent in a plot to blow up a shopping mall. There goes the theory that only because Demetrius Crocker was acting alone did we not hear about it. The Muslim name was enough for this to become a big news story.
