“Dog the Bounty Hunter” Yanked For Racist Marks; Sharpton Won’t Protest New York Knicks

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“Dog the Bounty Hunter” Yanked For Racist Marks; Sharpton Won’t Protest New York Knicks

Census figures show 70 percent of California’s Mexican population are U.S. citizens
Despite the popular misconception that California is “overrun by illegal immigrants,” the United States Census Bureau recently noted that Mexican-Americans comprise 7.6 million of California’s 36 million legal resident population. The study also pointedly notes that half of the country’s total naturalizations of Mexican immigrants between 2000-2006 were from California. San Jose Mercury News.

Al Sharpton backs off threats of protests at Knicks home games
A month ago, Al Sharpton and his organization, the National Action Network, threatened to protest New York Knicks’ games after derogatory comments towards Black women by the team’s coach, Isaiah Thomas, were exposed through snippets of a deposition tape in his sexual harassment case. After review of the entire tape, Sharpton agreed to call the entire protest off. Canadian Press.

‘Racist’ Dog Eyes His Pup
A&E has decided to pull its show “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” after the National Enquirer released a private conversation between the show’s star, Duane “Dog” Chapman and his son, Tucker. Apologetic Chapman believes that his son was responsible for leaking his racist comments, which include the profuse usage of the “n” word regarding his son’s Black girlfriend, to the public. New York Post.

White Yalies in blackface reveal racism on campus
Several white Yale students dressed as racists for Halloween this year. Although some wore Halloween costumes depicting famous Black figures, others went as far as adding blackface to their outfits, entirely ignoring the dark historical roots. Yale Daily News.

Posted at 8:43 AM, Nov 05, 2007 in News | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

Regarding the Yale students: I think it's another symptom of white people in America not being encouraged to or exposed to talk about whiteness and race as to act out in an ignorant way. I think most white peoples' main exposure to speaking of race is hearing issues of gross racism and inequality on the part of minorities, which is an important dialogue, of course, but I think it's also important for white people to hear others talking about whiteness and its position as a race relative to other cultures so they don't just see other races as exotic and opposites to whiteness.

That's why I'm looking forward to Robert Jensen's appearance on the Blog Talk Radio show Lightning Strikes (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lightningstrikes). He'll be talking about issues raised in his book "The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege" and I'll be interested to hear not only his take, but what the call-in audience has to say. This is the kind of issue you rarely hear brought up in the media, and I'm hoping for an active and fruitful discussion.