Obama and Reconstruction

 https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1UfhM8L3Zr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Redneck Joke ain’t funny

Picture says… leave me alone.. in my world!!!!

 Sweet Jesus….. I’m insulted…. Don’t do it Ms CELIE … it’s 2026 St. Louis Mo

Sharing a table with white couple @ Miles Davis Jazz Lab…. Their friend speaks/intro….. so this raggedy stupid white woman starts a joke …I’m offended.. no smile   No joke  walk away

Why did she do it?  . I googled AI

…..telling a "redneck" joke to Black people can be interpreted in several ways, often acting as a form of class-based humor that can either create rapport through shared laughter or feel insensitive, depending on the context. 

Potential Meanings and Interpretations:

• Classism or Regional Humor:"Redneck" jokes generally target working-class, rural, white Southerners, focusing on stereotypes about education, sophistication, and lifestyle. For a white person telling this to Black people, it may be an attempt to distance themselves from a perceived "lower-class" white stereotype and bond over a shared amusement at those behaviors.
• A Strategy of "Innocent" Humour: The teller might be relying on the popularity of comedians like Jeff Foxworthy to suggest they are simply telling a joke about a stereotype, not engaging in racial prejudice.
• Plausible Deniability/Power Dynamics: Some interpretations suggest that white individuals telling jokes about other white people ("rednecks") can be a way to navigate conversations about race, sometimes acting as "othering" by attempting to set themselves apart from poor/rural whites, or as a way to engage in potentially edgy humor without directly targeting Black people.
• Potential Sensitivity/Misjudgment:Depending on the relationship and setting, the Black audience might interpret this as insensitive or an attempt to use humor to ignore racial power dynamics. While these jokes target a white subgroup, they are still a form of derogatory, stereotyping humor. 

Historical and Social Context:

• Stereotype Focus: These jokes often mock perceived habits like excessive drinking, lack of hygiene, or familial unconventionality.
• Power Dynamics: When a member of the dominant group (white) tells a joke about a marginalized group (poor rural white), it can be seen as "punching sideways" or "down" rather than a marginalized group making fun of their own oppressor. 

In short, it is often a move that tries to make fun of "rural white trash" tropes, but its success and intent can be highly subjective based on the social environment.

Self affirming

 https://www.facebook.com/share/v/184fYjTNxJ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Repeat after me - Eyes on 2026

Repeat after me. 

There is no trade emergency. There is no migrant emergency. There is no crime emergency. There is only a chilling and determined power grab by the most dangerous man to every occupy the White House. Eyes on 2026.

Emergency-Gate: Focus on Challenging the Premise of Trump’s Power

Inbox

Sherrilyn Ifill from Sherrilyn’s Newsletter <sherrilyn@substack.com>    9-1-2025

media outlets, political pundits, and even some activists have taken the bait – 

• focusing their narrative on crime in our cities. Of course there’s crime in all of those cities. But the rates of violent crime are higher in cities located in states like Alabama, Colorado, and Louisiana (all with Republican Governors), making it clear that crime-fighting is not Trump’s obsession. Still local news and national news outlets have taken to airing long drawn-out stories asking residents whether they think that their city could do more to stop violent crime. Obviously, the answer will always be yes. 
• 
  
• That is not really the question of the moment. The focus should be on what Trump is doing – the fact that he has broken a critically important norm by ordering a federal takeover of our nation’s capital, by threatening to do the same in other cities, and that given the absence of an emergency, his actions are likely unconstitutional.

With all that we have seen from President Trump, can we at this point, well into the second half of 2025, start from the premise that whatever Trump does is not for altruistic purposes? He is not interested in the price of groceries, or in the quality of art or museums. He cares not at all for history, or for the imaginary “beautiful Black ladies in Chicago” who he says have begged him to send the military. He has no interest in promoting peace between Russia and Ukraine. He does not want a strong NATO. He cares not a whit about whales, children with autism, veterans, healthcare, antisemitism, or the deficit. Do we get that yet? 

Trump’s only sustained interest is the accumulation of power and money. 

He is also a narcissist. That means he wants to impose himself on every aspect of our society – as dictators do. 

He wants to run the world and the Kennedy Center. He wants the Nobel Peace Prize, and the World Cup trophy. He wants to takeover Greenland, and protect the integrity of the “soft, beautiful, stone”[vii] on the new White House patio.

As the Democrats prepare to return from recess, they must take care not to cede to the narrative of “emergency.” Democrats have no reason to be on their back heels about crime. Violent crime fell precipitously after we emerged fully from COVID and got our bearings. 

Democratic Mayors like Brandon Scott in Baltimore are showing that a city can make progress on violent crime – not by flooding the streets with cops – but by beefing up social services and programs for young people.[viii] He and others like him should be applauded. And national media outlets should admit that they missed that story. 

Chinese and Black Roots of Racism

 Michael Luo

Executive editor

Only one man’s face is clearly visible in the photograph. He is wearing a brimmed hat, an oversized coat, and boots. He seems to be mid-stride, with one foot in front of the other, as though he’s walking out of the frame. He’s staring straight at the picture-taker, his mouth slightly agape, in what appears to be a grimace. The photograph was taken after one of the most gruesome episodes of racial terror in American history. On September 2, 1885, white rioters killed at least twenty-eight Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and burned down the town’s Chinese quarter. The rest of the Chinese population fled. About a week later, several hundred Chinese miners returned, guarded by federal troops. The photograph is a tableau of that moment, when those who came back set up camp next to the railroad tracks. My eyes are invariably drawn to the man in the hat. I wonder about his story.

My piece in this week’s issue is an account of the tragedy in Rock Springsand of the effort today to uncover what happened. (It is drawn from my book, “Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America,” which will be published on April 29th.) The massacre was the opening act of a harrowing—yet under-examined—period in American history that became known as “the driving out,” when dozens of communities expelled their Chinese residents. Part of what I was trying to understand in my book is how fury about an entire people can spill over the way it did against Chinese immigrants at the end of the nineteenth century. Today, we’re once again in a moment when anger toward immigrants is coursing through the country. They’re seen as strangers, making them an easy target for politicians on the right and left. Their stories also deserve to be told.

Boley OK Badge of Honor

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGmFClBpftf/?igsh=MWpwbXhtN3VicW55cg==

Transgenic Mice

 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DG05Qm6IpCN/?igsh=MXZkYWtibzlmbWJjbA==

State of the union lie

White Supremacy reigns

 RACHEL MADDOX MADE STMT BELOW

After math… Trumpism taking shape

THOUGH “I will not defend it….it….it….Hmnnnn it what!  Joy Reid’s firing!?  

RACHEL HAS WHITE PRIVILEGED DRIPPING FROM HER LIVER!!!

Her words are not worth 2-cents    Lynch a nigga… and shake your head and keep your rich status!

Rachel said…. “I will tell you. It is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two – count them – two nonwhite hosts in primetime, both of our nonwhite hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend,” Maddow declared. “And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.”

Uniquely Quiltin’ our Stories

Uniquely different — yet superbly the same in sprit in our luvin’ the fabric!!!  Houston / 11-2024

 

Election Eve 2024

A Democratic process

 

Election - State of Affairs

 

These are truly the kinder.... musings... my thoughts and deep feelings on the upcoming November Tuesday 2024 Election

CRT

Artist Jonathan Harris and his painting titled “Critical Race Theory”

Enough Said

Kamala

 

a Harris win there, capturing sixteen electoral votes, would make it highly probable that she would win the Presidency. As a Harris staff member put it in a training Webinar for about fifty volunteers last month, “There is really no way that Donald Trump can make it to the White House if Democrats win North Carolina.”

Barack Obama, who won North Carolina in 2008 by a scant fourteen thousand votes, is the only Democrat to 

admitting Will Smith: harm he’s done to others.

When Will Smith stormed onto the Oscar stage to strike Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife’s short hair, he did a lot more damage than just to Rock’s face. With a single petulant blow, he advocated violence, diminished women, insulted the entertainment industry, and perpetuated stereotypes about the Black community. 

That’s a lot to unpack. Let’s start with the facts: Rock made a reference to Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, as looking like Demi Moore in GI Jane, in which Moore had shaved her head. Jada Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, which causes hair loss. Ok, I can see where the Smiths might not have found that joke funny. But Hollywood awards shows are traditionally a venue where much worse things have been said about celebrities as a means of downplaying the fact that it’s basically a gathering of multimillionaires giving each other awards to boost business so they can make even more money.

The Smiths could have reacted by politely laughing along with the joke or by glowering angrily at Rock. Instead, Smith felt the need to get up in front of his industry peers and millions of people around the world, hit another man, then return to his seat to bellow: “Keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth.” Twice.

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Some have romanticized Smith’s actions as that of a loving husband defending his wife. Comedian Tiffany Haddish, who starred in the movie Girls Trip with Pinkett Smith, praisedSmith’s actions: “[F]or me, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives.” 

Actually, it was the opposite. Smith’s slap was also a slap to women. If Rock had physically attacked Pinkett Smith, Smith’s intervention would have been welcome. Or if he’d remained in his seat and yelled his post-slap threat, that would have been unnecessary, but understandable. But by hitting Rock, he announced that his wife was incapable of defending herself—against words. From everything I’d seen of Pinkett Smith over the years, she’s a very capable, tough, smart woman who can single-handedly take on a lame joke at the Academy Awards show.

This patronizing, paternal attitude infantilizes women and reduces them to helpless damsels needing a Big Strong Man to defend their honor lest they swoon from the vapors. If he was really doing it for his wife, and not his own need to prove himself, he might have thought about the negative attention this brought on them, much harsher than the benign joke. Thatwould have been truly defending and respecting her. This “women need men to defend them” is the same justification currently being proclaimed by conservatives passing laws to restrict abortion and the LGBTQ+ community. 

Worse than the slap was Smith’s tearful, self-serving acceptance speech in which he rambled on about all the women in the movie King Richard that he’s protected. Those who protect don’t brag about it in front of 15 million people. They just do it and shut up. You don’t do it as a movie promotion claiming how you’re like the character you just won an award portraying. By using these women to virtue signal, he was in fact exploiting them to benefit himself. But, of course, the speech was about justifying his violence. Apparently, so many people need Smith’s protection that occasionally it gets too much and someone needs to be smacked.

What is the legacy of Smith’s violence? He’s brought back the Toxic Bro ideal of embracing Kobra Kai teachings of “might makes right” and “talk is for losers.” Let’s not forget that this macho John Wayne philosophy was expressed in two movies in which Wayne spanked grown women to teach them a lesson. Young boys—especially Black boys—watching their movie idol not just hit another man over a joke, but then justify it as him being a superhero-like protector, are now much more prone to follow in his childish footsteps. Perhaps the saddest confirmation of this is the tweet from Smith’s child Jaden: “And That’s How We Do It.”

That's How We Do It

The Black community also takes a direct hit from Smith. One of the main talking points from those supporting the systemic racism in America is characterizing Blacks as more prone to violence and less able to control their emotions. Smith just gave comfort to the enemy by providing them with the perfect optics they were dreaming of. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro wasted no time going full-metal jacket racist by declaring the Oscars are “not the hood.” What would she have said if Brad Pitt slapped Ricky Gervais? This isn’t Rodeo Drive? Many will be reinvigorated to continue their campaign to marginalize African Americans and others through voter suppression campaign.

As for the damage to show business, Smith’s violence is an implied threat to all comedians who now have to worry that an edgy or insulting joke might be met with violence. Good thing Don Rickles, Bill Burr, or Ricky Gervais weren’t there. As comedian Kathy Griffin tweeted: “Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters.” 

The one bright note is that Chris Rock, clearly stunned, managed to handle the moment with grace and maturity. If only Smith’s acceptance speech had shown similar grace and maturity—and included, instead of self-aggrandizing excuses, a heartfelt apology to Rock.

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air October 5, 1994 

I met Will Smith when I appeared on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air 28 years ago. And I’ve been to his house. I like him. He’s charming, sincere, and funny. I’m also a big fan of his movies. He’s an accomplished and dedicated actor who deserves the professional accolades he’s received. But it will be difficult to watch the next movie without remembering this sad performance.

I don’t want to see him punished or ostracized because of this one, albeit a big one, mistake. I just want this to be a cautionary tale for others not to romanticize or glorify bad behavior. And I want Smith to be the man who really protects others—by admitting the harm he’s done to others.

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Update: Since this article was first published, Will Smith has issued an apology to Chris Rock, the Academy, and the audience. In part, he posted:

“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” Smith wrote. “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”