Seeking for the reality about African American lives was never an easy task. It was never found in history books and certainly not in Hollywood. Racism in movies always resounds the culture at large and reveals a nation that troubled for centuries by its history of slavery and segragation. Hollywood never forgets what culture is all about and potrays it in movies, songs etc.

Elizabeth Edwards Calls Racist GOP Wright Ad an “Assault Weapon”

Taking time off from her family vacation in Florida, Elizabeth Edwards commented on the GOP racist ad, “Extreme,” during an MSNBC interview, calling it an “assault weapon.” Elizabeth went on to support Obama’s decision to separate himself from Reverend Wright.

Watch the interview here:

Checking through the blogs I came on this post in something called The Secrecy File by Rebecca Carr. It is a report, NOOSE ALLEGEDLY FOUND AT SECRET SERVICE TRAINING CENTER, which couples this incident with allegations of a biased promotions policy with the service.

The U.S. Secret Service has placed a white agent on leave after an African American employee reported finding a noose hanging at the service’s main training facility outside the nation’s capital.

The service has acknowledged “an allegation of misconduct” at its J.J. Rowley Training Center in Beltsville, Md., and that an employee last week was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation. The employee is a veteran agent with the service, according to fellow agents.

The noose was found by an African American officer in the uniform division of the service during the week of April 14, according to those familiar with the alleged incident. That division protects the White House and surrounding grounds. He reported the incident to his supervisor and it was sent up the chain of command. He declined to comment for this story.

...snip...

The alleged incident happened as U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson is expected to decide next month whether to sanction the service for failing to turn over evidence in a long-running lawsuit alleging that the service created a racially hostile atmosphere that tolerated discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Atlanta native Reginald G. Moore, alleges that the Secret Service routinely discriminates against black agents seeking promotion in favor of white agents who scored lower on promotional exams.

The implications of this are obvious, not only for the sitting president but for the three leading candidates, particularly of course Barack Obama.

posted with permission from Nick Benton, owner/editor of the Falls Church News Press.

The continuing flap over Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, serves as a sobering reminder of the true state of affairs, when it comes to race and class differences, in our land. All of the platitudes and self-righteous disclaimers notwithstanding, America remains deeply divided, and whenever indisputable evidence of that bubbles to the surface, things get ugly.

Privileged white males like Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and their ilk dominate the nation’s airwaves daily, fomenting racially-tinged outrage against targeted Hispanic and other “alien” populations with impunity. Sadly, Limbaugh was elevated by ABC-TV to status as a commentator on Monday Night Football, until he made a racist remark that even his most sympathetic patrons in the media industry could not condone.

Via Crooks and Liars, where they have the video up:

Keith Olbermann brings on Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson to discuss the horrific history behind Bill O’Reilly’s casual and callous use of the phrase “lynching party” in reference to Michelle Obama’s quote about being really proud of this country and the implications one may draw from it.

You know what lynching was? Lynching was a horrific practice of murder, torture, dismemberment, burning alive, hanging, and the only purpose of lynching was to perpetuate white supremacy in the Jim Crow south. It wasn’t…the idea of course, wasn’t to lynch all black people, but by lynching a few black people…not a few, by lynching some black people to demonstrate to other African Americans that this could happen to you, that you have no power, that we have all the power, and that we can take anything we want from you, including your life. There’s nothing funny about lynching. There’s certainly nothing at all funny or remotely appropriate about the use of a lynching reference to talk about Michelle Obama. And the word “unless” followed by “we’ll track it down,” is way beyond the pale.

I have written on this subject before, and I agree with Eugene Robinson on this topic, but I also think that it goes beyond just the racial issues:

Hey fellas here's the perfect send-up for those claims about the superiority of the so-called "white" race. It just so happens that that they share the genes that determine their pale mottled complexion with the stickle back fish. I kid you not, here are excerpts from a Howard Hughes Medical Institute press release

Same Genetic Machinery Generates Skin Color Evolution in Fish and Humans

Is Obama making a courageous test of the moral fiber of the country by running, or is he pig-headedly ignoring the "fact" that a Black person is still not electable for the nation's highest office? Can he bring the Democratic Party to Victory or is he ensuring its defeat. This is the provocative question posed by Eugene Robinson's commentary Disappointment Doesn’t Have to Be Normal.

IMO the choice would indeed seem different if Obama were not such a middle-of-the road candidate.Following excertps from Robinson's post, I have provided a link to an interview John Lewis on the history of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King's vision which he shares.

Two subway stops, equidistant from my Brooklyn place—which to use?

One is reached through a predominantly middle-class enclave before it spills you out onto the chaos of Flatbush Avenue. The route to the other takes you through streets of diminishing wealth to Nostrand Avenue, as busy as Flatbush but of an entirely different character. Both routes take one through racially mixed areas, but the white person is rarely “alone” when heading towards Flatbush. That is, there are generally other whites in sight as one dodges through the crowd. And a number of the blacks one sees look successful, as comfortably middle class as the whites. Towards Nostrand one hears much more Haitian Creole and music blaring from the open doors of double-parked vans.

Now, here’s the question: Is it racism that inclines the whites in the neighborhood to gravitate to the Flatbush stop?

It all depends, as Bill Clinton might say, on what the meaning of “racism” is.