Tag: Civil Rights

Mr. Nice/Ninth guy?

“And that’s why John Roberts doesn’t alarm me much. The same conservatism that leads him to decry judicial overreaching in the privacy and civil rights contexts is part and parcel of a larger conservatism that distrusts reckless grandiosity…Roberts cares a lot about looking temperate, and that isn’t a bad thing in a judge.” As Senators Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy turn up the heat on the Roberts nod, Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick argues that, at the very least, he seems temperamentally unsuited to be a judicial bomb-thrower. That’s good, ’cause even with today’s news of a missing civil rights folder and a possible conflict-of-interest in a terrorism case, there doesn’t yet seem to be a silver bullet that could derail this nomination. Update: Dahlia Lithwick reconsiders after pondering Roberts’ “Woman Problem.”

The Race Card Shell Game.

“Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong.” (And, now that we’ve got all the racist white freakshows definitively in the bag, we’re coming for you…) RNC Chair Ken Mehlman will apparently apologize for the “Southern Strategy” before the NAACP today. Well, I presume there nobody will fall for this ridiculous ruse…Just ask Katharine Harris.

A Conspicuous Silence.

“There’s not much these days that the two parties in Washington can rally around, as evidenced by the increasingly shrill tone here. You might think that one thing on which everyone in both parties could agree would be a resolution apologizing for the Senate’s failure, over many decades, to make it a federal crime for racists to hunt black people like animals and hang them from trees.” Terry Neal wonders why eleven GOP Senators refused to sign the recent anti-lynching resolution. (Cliopatria‘s Robert KC Johnson posted a list of the eleven Senator’s responses from Roll Call a few days ago.)

As I’ve said earlier, I can see how a mea culpa that’s coming anywhere from thirty to 130 years late may not be the most useful legislation ever passed by the Senate. But, when it comes time to mark your name down against an abomination like lynching, why not take the opportunity? To paraphrase Karl Rove, moderation and restraint is not what I feel when I see African-Americans strung up and mutilated by mobs of white folk. But, for one reason or another, a sizable number of the GOP think different. Therapy and understanding for the attackers, perhaps?

Ghosts of Mississippi.

Edgar Ray Killen, the 80-year-old Klansman mastermind behind the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in 1964, is found guilty of three counts of manslaughter. To some extent, as with the recent Senate sorry-about-all-that-lynching resolution, I feel justice delayed is justice denied here. This fellow Killen got to live out the 41 years since — a lifetime he denied his victims — in freedom. Still, for the families of the slain, for the rule of law, and for the history books, it’s good to know that these crimes will no longer go unpunished. It may take a lifetime, but, as a purported man of the cloth such as Killen should’ve known, eventually the sins of the past will catch up with you. Update: Killen gets the max — 60 years.

The Vanishings.

“A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as ‘petite,’ and it also helps if she’s the kind of woman who wouldn’t really mind being called ‘petite,’ a woman with a good deal of princess in her personality…Put all this together, and you get 24-7 coverage.” The Post‘s Eugene Robinson deconstructs the “Damsel in Distress” genre so beloved by today’s newsmedia. Obviously, if a friend or family member disappeared under strange circumstances, I might want some degree of media coverage in order to help find her. But, the amount of round-the-clock national attention devoted to these sad stories (and rubbernecking drek like the Michael Jackson trial) is patently ridiculous. Hey, don’t look now, but our nation is at war right now.

When Filibusters Were Bad.

“‘We have to recognize that as a legislative body we made mistakes,’ Sharp said. ‘The responsibility for it weighs heavily on the Senate.’” If all goes according to plan, the Senate will apologize next week for continually failing to pass an anti-lynching law, as per the bill introduced in February by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and George Allen (R-VA).

Emmett Exhumed.

“Twas down in Mississippi no so long ago,
When a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door.” FBI agents begin an exhumation of the murdered Emmett Till. “‘One purpose of this is to positively identify the remains and dispel any rumors as to whether it is truly Emmett Till or not,’ [FBI Spokesman] Bochte said. A second reason, he said, is to ‘see if any further evidence can be looked at to help Mississippi officials bring additional charges if warranted.’”

In the Key of X.

“‘I think people will find something in the objects to provoke new levels of interest and new levels of scholarship,’ Howard Dodson, chief of the Schomburg, said in an interview. ‘We’ve consciously tried to stay away from putting a heavy interpretative line on it and to let Malcolm X speak for himself.’” The NYT previews the new Malcolm X exhibit, opening at the Schomburg Center next Thursday.

The Blackness of Space.

“It was a different time, 1957 or ’58. America’s love affair with racism was in full swing. NASA was no exception.” Ted at The Late Adopter sends along a sordid tale of cosmic achievement and racial injustice in this award-winning documentary on The Old Negro Space Program, a film not by Ken Burns.