is the title of a piece in the Guardian.uk by James Ridgeway.
Fourteen Words that spell racism
The prospect of an African-American president is bringing white supremacist subculture in the US out of the shadows
It was written in response to the arrests of the 2 young skinheads arrested for plotting to decapitate black Americans and kill Barack Obama.
I wish that American news sources would address this arrest in context, as does this piece.
I have been interested in genealogy for years, have spent many years researching my own family and helping other people explore their family trees.
One of the myths about African-American genealogy is that their history stops, once you get back to 1865; that is is impossible to climb the brick wall of enslavement. At Afrigeneas we have helped thousands break through that brick wall.
I stumbled across a wonderful article and photo journal documenting Michelle Robinson Obama’s paternal roots which led back to the Friendfield Plantation in South Carolina.
The article, and photo gallery were in the Washington Post:
A Family Tree Rooted In American Soil:Michelle Obama Learns About Her Slave Ancestors, Herself and Her Country
Slave Quarters, Friendfield Plantation
There is a very very short entry in wikipedia about Alma Powell.
Alma Vivian Powell (née Johnson), born in Birmingham, Alabama, is an African American audiologist and the wife of military and political figure Colin Powell, whom she married on August 25, 1962. She is a graduate of Fisk University.
She is the mother of former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Powell. Her father and uncle were principals of two of the black high schools in Birmingham; Condoleezza Rice’s father worked in her uncle’s school as a guidance counselor.
Alma Powell is the Co-Chair of America’s Promise, an alliance of national organizations dedicated to teaching today’s youth. She has also authored two children’s books, America’s Promise and My Little Red Wagon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A…
It really gives you no insight into the wife of one of the most prominent African-American’s in the world, who has just endorsed Barack Obama today. I realize that many of you here may not have the same view of the Powells as I do, but as a black woman I for one was exhilarated by the endorsement, and I know my parents, were they alive would have jumped for joy.
I watched as family friends lost their jobs. I remember the witch hunt, the whispers, the children taunting “Oh say can you see..any red bugs on me…”
I remember leaving New York with my parents to hide in obscurity. Teachers were fired. Reporters suppressed. Articles censored. Film director’s attacked. In 1947, the year I was born,Ronald Reagan led the charge against “communist interests in the movie industry” and was rewarded with the plum – leadership of the Screen Actor’s Guild, and testified against his friends in front of HUAC. His wife, Jane Wyatt – disgusted with him – the traitor in her home, divorced him in 1948.
I remember those people who committed suicide.
I remember those who refused to testify against their friends, family members and co-workers.
I remember those who did, to save their asses and their careers.
I remember.
It is starting again. We have to stop it.
I’m still a relative newcomer to the political blogosphere, and spend most of my days happily reading diaries at Daily Kos, MyDD, and now here.
I should subtitle this “anthropologist channels Alice.”
I visit Huffington Post, and TPM, but that’s pretty much the extent of my exploration, unless a link in a diary takes me somewhere else.
Intrigued by a diary on DKos discussing the meltdown over in a foreign country (to me) called RedState, I resolved to pay a visit, but then it was suggested that I avoid FreeRepublic.
I rarely read conservative columnists. Not enough hours in the day to read writers I agree with. For some reason this morning I decided to read David Brooks column: The Class War Before Palin in which he laments about the current bent of the Republican Party.
