And anyone who’s ever listened to Kid Rock’s music knows that his love for Detroit runs deep. From songs like “Son of Detroit” to lyrics like “If heaven ain’t a lot like Detroit, I don’t want to go” to his “Made in Detroit” clothing line, Kid Rock has proven himself an undying citizen of the motor city. And when one considers all the struggles Detroit has faced over the past few years, from the financial problems of GM and Chrysler to the large number of manufacturing plants that closed their doors, Kid Rock’s non-stop campaign to see that city return to its glory days should encourage those who live there.

But a few members of the Detroit NAACP aren’t encouraged at all by Kid Rock’s work, nor are they happy that he’s going to receive the “Great Expectations Award.” In fact, they’ve turned a blind eye to his relentless push for Detroit’s rebirth and are instead caught up in the fact that Kid Rock displays a Confederate battle flag during his performances. In their minds, the presence of that battle flag can only mean one thing: Kid Rock is a racist.

Said Adolph Mongo, head of Detroiters for Progress: “[Giving him this award] is a slap in the face for anyone who fought for civil rights in this country, …[because that flag] is a symbol of hatred and bigotry.”

Since Mongo’s use of the phrase “hatred and bigotry” is nothing more than liberal-speak for “racism,” I think it would be nice if he would quit implying that Kid Rock is a racist long enough to explain why the NAACP only seeks the advancement of colored people.

Clearly, Kid Rock is no racist, and the fact that an embittered leader of Detroiters for Progress implies otherwise doesn’t change that.

The sad thing is that this whole episode was avoidable. All Mongo needed to do was be quiet long enough to listen and he would have noticed that Kid Rock has gone on record saying his affection for the Confederate battle flag is tied to the fact that he associates it with southern rock.

Actually, the attendance was easily in the tens of thousands, but sometimes it’s fun to take a cue from the MSM and just understate any fact that doesn’t serve your narrative.

Still, despite the impressive numbers, the predominately white rally does differ from Glenn Beck’s recent Restore Honor rally, and the Tea Party movement in general, in one way that illuminates the core difference between left and right.

Specifically, the Tea Party tends to be a movement of individuals, each pursuing their own interests, self-organizing in defense of their own rights, whereas the One Nation Working Together rally was the product of partnerships between over 400 labor, civil-rights, and other liberal organizations, many of whom bussed in their members by the thousands to bolster their numbers.

If there is any better picture of the top-down, coercive nature of liberalism than their approach to “grass roots” organizing, I’m not sure what it is.

These organizations use intimidation and the power of law to demand workers join their ranks in order to be employed in their sectors, then confiscate money from them in the form of mandatory dues, and then use that money to promote political causes that represent the interests of the organizations themselves – not necessarily their members.

Then they encourage those members to get on the busses their dues already paid for and go spend their weekend marching around to demand that politicians give the organizations even more power over them.

For actors plying their trade in Hollywood, it is an oft-recited axiom that in order to get work, you must be union, but in order to be union, you must get work.

Being a union actor, and therefore employable in Hollywood, means belonging to either the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) or their sometimes-sister/sometimes-bitter-rival union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

Either way, your union dues and infrastructure are being used to support One Nation Working Together – regardless of whether you personally support liberal policies or not.

Both unions sent out official emails to their members encouraging them to participate in the activities in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles this weekend.

SAG says that it supports One Nation Working Together, and that it will be marching in solidarity with its fellows.

AFTRA is an official Endorsing Organization, along with groups like Communist Party USA, MOVE ON, National Council of La Raza (National Council of The Race, for those who don’t understand bi-lingual racism), Code Pink, Rainbow Push, and the International Socialist Organization.

If you belong to SAG or AFTRA and yet happen to be one those racist, mean-spirited, divisive Tea Partiers, or are just generally opposed to bolstering the politics of race-baiters, international communists, or anti-war activists, you certainly don’t have to march in the protest, but you’re still obliged to finance your union’s promotion of it.

* For the record, AFTRA says general member dues were not used to support One Nation Working Together, but that some AFTRA Locals may help to pay for buses.  This misses the point, however, that the entire organizational structure that allows AFTRA to promote these sorts of events is the product of member dues.

Of course, you are always perfectly free to just leave the union if you disagree with its political affiliations.  The fact that might mean effectively quitting your profession and giving up your livelihood makes this exactly the kind of freedom the left loves to support.

This is just one more reason it is so difficult for conservatives in Hollywood.  When you are required to financially support liberal political organizations as a prerequisite for employment in a business where being rejected for a job without explanation is necessarily a daily occurrence, it is hard to believe your conformity to the party line is not itself a requirement.

Iraq War vets who complain of discrimination and recrimination by casting directors seem a bit more credible when their own union declares solidarity with Code Pink, and Republicans afraid to voice their beliefs on set for fear of being blacklisted seem less hyperbolic when their own union declares solidarity with LA Grassroots for Obama, SEIU, and the Democratic Socialists of America.  At the same time, writers bemoaning the witch-hunts of McCarthyism in screenplay after screenplay seem somehow less credible when both major acting unions declare solidarity with the Communist Party USA.

In matters of racial or sexual discrimination, the left is quick to point out that discrimination is not just about reality, it is about perception.  A person can be coerced into conformity by just the appearance of consequences for going their own way, even if no explicit threat is made.  So consider for yourself whether the two emails below lend credibility to the fears of conservatives in Hollywood, and ask yourself how you might feel if you were in their shoes.

SAG EMAIL:

AFTRA EMAIL:

Note the progressive buzzwords:  “reverse racism,” which I never mentioned and is a silly concept (racism is racism, no matter from whom), and “scary Black people,” which I never mentioned either, yet seems to be the default spin thrown at Andrew Breitbart for pointing out racism in the NAACP.  The point of the article was that comments and actions which would have drawn the ire of the NAACP if made by white entertainers (can you imagine the response if Lady Gaga made a video where she wore a pointed hood and rallied a mob with torches and lead pipes?) were ignored when they were made by black entertainers—entertainers lauded at the Image awards. 

As some in the comments suggested, however, these entertainers cannot be racist, because racism is not about race but about power; only whites can be racist because only whites have the power to oppress.  Ridiculous as that is, let’s just assume that it’s correct for the sake of argument.  So if it’s not wrong for Ice Cube to refer to white people as his “enemy” and to rap about shooting white people– since as a black man, he cannot oppress a white man—is it wrong for Ice Cube (an Image award recipient) to rap, “Fuck and get up is how I do them stank hoes”?  Regardless of race, the Left cannot deny that men are still in a position to oppress women (just ask about Clarence Thomas), and the NAACP has been woefully silent on the open advocacy of misogyny and sexual violence amongst its Image award nominees and winners.

Discussing sexism in rap is nothing new; I won’t linger.  But do check out this analysis by Edward G. Armstrong.  It’s old, but it’s thorough.  And there are a few egregious examples to focus on:  if you can stomach it, read the lyrics to “Giving up the Nappy Dugout” by Ice Cube, and keep in mind that all of this Polanski-esque perversion is a fantasy involving a 17-year old (he states, “I know she’s a minor and it is illegal, but the bitch is worse than Vanessa del Rio”).  Also note that, with many of the examples I gave of Image awards being given to entertainers with racist lyrics, their nominations were for other works of art.  However, in 2002, Ja Rule won an Image award for his song “Living It Up,” which states, “Half the hoes hate them, half of them love me / The ones that hate me only hate me ‘cause they ain’t fucked me.”  And finally, consider the case of Nelly’s 2008 song “Tip Drill,” whose music video features the artist sliding a credit card through a woman’s buttocks.

The NAACP has said nothing to criticize the debasement of women in these songs.  However, have no fear.  They really hit it out of the park with that Hallmark card that warns black holes that a recent graduate is going to be successful in life.  They’ve got this violence against women thing down pat.

But criticizing rap is old hat, you may say.  That’s just part and parcel of a subculture that has nothing to do with the NAACP (despite their Image awards given to woman-objectifying rappers).  Touche, progressives.  I submit to your superior logic.  But what about Image award recipients and hosts whose sexism has been ignored by the NAACP?

D.L. Hughley, the 2008 host of the Image Awards, said to Maryline Blackburn, who beat out Sarah Palin for Miss Alaska, discussed Palin’s performance in the 2008 Vice Presidential debate on his CNN show.  When Blackburn said Palin became a good public speaker through beauty pageants, Hughley suggested, “If you had a thong and couldn’t talk, you would still get my vote.”  Black commentator tells a black woman her underwear is more important than her thoughts:  no comment from the NAACP.

Spike Lee was honored with the Hall of Fame award at the 2003 Images.  Lee’s depiction of women has long been considered misogynistic, from his exploitative nude scene with Rosie Perez in Do the Right Thing (her words, not mine) and his 2004 film She Hate Me which depicted a throng of lesbian couples paying the film’s protagonist 10 grand to impregnate them (and not through clinical sperm donation).

And, you’ll love this:  in 2001, Bill Clinton– the textbook case of a politician using sexual harassment to control women—was given the President’s Award.

Silence on racism, awards given to racists.  Silence on sexism, awards given to sexists.  Accusing non-racists and non-sexists of racism and sexism with no evidence whatsoever.  This is the modern NAACP.  How does this fulfill their titular goal of advancing people of color?

—–

Let’s review:

1. The Tea Party was born, causing a frightened media to drum up accusations of racism
2. Later, Congressman John Lewis claims Tea Partiers shouted the “N-word” at him. The press runs with it. Breitbart posts a $100K reward for evidence. None comes.
3. The NAACP creates a race-baiting resolution to smear the Tea Party.
4. Breitbart responds with the Sherrod video – becoming the first conservative to use leftist tactics on the left.
5. It works: the White House and the NAACP look stupid.

Moving on, from the Powerline blog, New York Times reporter Matt Bai writes this of the Tea Party movement on July 17th:

There have been scattered reports around the country of racially charged rhetoric within the [Tea Party] movement, most notably just before the vote on the new health care law last March, when Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, the legendary civil rights leader, was showered with hateful epithets outside the Capitol.

And then last Sunday, the Times ran this correction:

The Political Times column last Sunday…erroneously linked one example of a racially charged statement to the Tea Party movement. While Tea Party supporters have been connected to a number of such statements, there is no evidence that epithets reportedly directed in March at Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, outside the Capitol, came from Tea Party members.

So while the media goes nuts over Sherrod, they completely ignore the fact that the most racially charged accusation one could ever make, never happened.

What…no apologies?

See, race politics only works one way – as a method to disarm Obama critics. As the former head of the Civil Rights Commission, Mary Frances Berry said, it’s “a means of diverting attention away from other issues.” Dem pollsters Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen point out in the Wall Street Journal that while youth unemployment among whites is 23.2%, among blacks it’s nearly 40%.

Guess that’s Breitbart’s fault too. (Racist!)

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist, homophobic bedbug.

Tonight, we’ve got…

the lovely Lauren Sivan!

comedian Paul Mecurio!

commentator Steven Crowder!

and maybe a robot or two!

Spencer “call them racists” Ackerman

It’s exactly what that d-bag, from that private leftwing group Journolist, said. If you remember, Spencer Ackerman wrote:

Instead, take one of them – Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares – and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.

Yeah, deja vu.

Look, this guy is a toolbag, but he’s on the money. He knew that if you falsely accuse someone of something – especially racism – they explode. And to him – and the media – it rarely matters if that rage is righteous. Because all they want is an angry mob.

And that’s what sucks about worms like Ackerman, Media Matters, and the left in general. The Tea Party began as a group of average folks who stepped out of their living rooms for the first time. And what happened Chuckleheads at MSNBC point out how white they are, Janeane Garafalo painted them as Aryan offshoots, and the NAACP drafted a silly resolution.

To blame them, or anyone, for reacting to the NAACP’s silly attack on the Tea Party, is essentially blaming the victim.

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobe fan of country music.

This is gunna be a whale of a show! (no offense to whales)

["none taken," says whale] 

Ann Coulter!

Professor Marc Lamont Hill!

Alfonzo Rachel!

And, Andrew Breitbart

For which group is there more evidence of members assenting to racist comments:  the Tea Party or the NAACP?  

While the national leftist media outlets continue to fall over themselves trying to figure out a spin on the story that sticks, we at Big Hollywood thought we’d double down with some analysis of the NAACP’s treatment of racism in the entertainment industry.

For 41 years, the NAACP has awarded “Image” awards to black entertainers who achieve excellence in the arts.  Despite its rightful role in celebrating the accomplishments of people of color in the arts, the awards show has also been beset by controversy.  Several nominees and winners of awards have engaged in openly racist behavior.  For example, Jamie Foxx, a winner of multiple NAACP Image awards, called Miley Cyrus a “little white bitch” who should “catch chlamydia on a bicycle seat.”  The NAACP has yet to comment on Foxx’s remarks.  Going beyond hatred for one white person, rapper Ice Cube released a song in 1993 titled “Enemy,” with lyrics that state:

[Referring to Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech]

You gonna grow old holdin’ crackers’ hands
Before you hold each others’ hands?
You gonna walk with your enemy
Before you learn to walk with one another?
How sick can you be? …
Please don’t [shoot] til you see the whites of his eyes,
The whites of his skin, the whites of his lies.

Two years later, Ice Cube was nominated for an Image award for his role in the film Higher Learning.

His other songs are reprehensible as well. “No Vaseline” makes derogatory statements about Jews, but the actual focus of the song revolves around anally raping and shooting/lynching his former N.W.A. colleagues.  “Black Korea” is unabashedly racist against Asian-Americans.  After peppering the song with slurs (“Oriential one-penny counting motherfuckers,” “little Chinese motherfucker,” “your chop suey ass”), Mr. Cube says, “So pay respect to the black fist/ Or we’ll burn your store right down to a crisp.”  Sounds a little too close for comfort to the racially incendiary art of another Image award winner. No NAACP statement has ever been made condemning his endorsement of racially motivated violence.

As is commonly criticized in rap lyrics, the “N” word is all too often used and abused.  Jay-Z and Whoopi Goldberg have each stated that they use the term to delineate brotherhood and try to co-opt its original hateful meaning, which I understand completely.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve called myself an evil neocon in jest, attempting to turn a stupid pejorative into a word with no power to intimidate or silence any person by grouping him or her with a label that immediately assigns hate and ostracism.  But in rap music, the use of “n*gger” is often derogatory, not uplifting.  Consider lyrics from Image award winners R. Kelly, Tupac Shakur, and—oh yes, nominee Jay-Z.  Perpetuating the “N” word’s use as a hateful and demeaning slur against African Americans is exactly what the NAACP should be denouncing, not rewarding.

And for these artists, the racially insensitive expressions are not limited to lyrics themselves.  In the music video for “Run This Town,” a collaboration between Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Rihanna (all three are Image winners & nominees), the artists lead a flame-engulfed riot, dressed in outfits similar to groups that promote racially motivated violence:  the PLO (keffiyehs), the KKK (pointed hoods—but they’re black!), and the Black Panthers (plain, all-black shirt & pants with black beret—but, of course, this could just be a reference to beatniks, right?).

And, to top it all off, this past year the NAACP gave an Image award to Van Jones, the former Green Jobs Czar who casually singled out “white polluters,” stereotyped that “only white suburban kids shoot up schools,” and decried Israel’s “occupation” of Israel.  Benjamin Jealous gave Jones the NAACP President’s Award at the 41st annual Image Awards.  “Van Jones is an American treasure,” he reasoned. 

—–

Now, the temptation here is to use the tactics of the left, to declare these men and women wholly bad and to disregard any artistry, charity, or basic humanity for which they should be shown respect.  To do that, or to label the NAACP as an organization that tolerates and welcomes racism as the Left has labeled the Tea Party movement, would be disingenuous and irresponsible.  One person making racist statements or statements construed as racism indicates nothing about the people who constitute the majority of and define the values of a group.  But let’s look at how said majority has reacted to racism in both the Tea Party and the NAACP.

This last April 15th, a small movement of agent provocateurs mobilized to try and embarrass Tea Partiers at nationwide protests.  In several locations, individuals espousing white supremacy or other hateful sentiments were booed and forced away from the crowd.  Whether these people were leftists trying to forge some evidence for the “Tea Partiers are Racist” meme or genuine racists trying to piggyback off the Tea Party’s popularity, the overwhelming majority of Tea Party members showed that racism has no place in their movement. 

Compare this with the NAACP’s reaction to clear racism in both the political and entertainment world.  Ms. Sherrod’s remarks, before revealing her change of heart, were greeted by her audience with murmurs of approval, chuckles, and absolutely no objections.  Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s audience has been a tad more enthusiastic in response to his hateful comments, with no rebuke from Mr. Jealous’ organization.  The NAACP has nominated the aforementioned artists for Image awards, given them the prizes—sometimes more than once—and never once condemned their openly hateful speech.  At the very least, even if the opportunity to deny an artist a nomination has passed, the organization could issue a statement saying that such behavior is not appropriate for those who have been honored with Image awards. 

The NAACP ought to hold those it designates as role models for the black community to higher standards than this.  If it continues to ignore the propagation of racially incendiary and violent expression, the group has no leg to stand on when condemning the Tea Party.

My whole childhood was like that. A lot of crazy stuff, a lot of running from police. Was a local sport, like train-hopping. But that’s all just the gritty side of Cambridge. And even though I’m a rank Righty today, I still love Harvard University all the way, the Square especially. It’s the Crossroads of the World. I was a total Harvard Square rat growing up. Harvard is the Bright Light of Olde Cantabrigia. Harvard was also very active in the community back then, and most likely still is today. Harvard hosted field trips to the campus from schools all over Cambridge. The Agassiz Museum was my favorite. Lots of dead bugs and dinosaur bones. That was Heaven to me. Still is.

So there it is. Cambridge Dark and Light. Of course, as a Harvard Square rat I ran into my fair share of elitist Harvard eggheads, both students and faculty, whose utter contempt for a lowlife Cambridge projects kid like myself could be felt with Hiroshima-like intensity. But given my many experiences on campus, and as a waif wayfarer on Harvard’s Challenge program, I believe most people at Harvard, both faculty and students, could not be more honorable or pure of heart and intent. I’m not going to smash that whole crate because of a few bad eggheads. Harvard has its troublemakers, too. Lots! Just ask former Harvard president Larry Summers. He was run out on a rail by militant feminists.

Fact is, I love Cambridge. Warts and all. Part of my heart and soul, and one of the most egalitarian cities on earth. So when news broke about Dr. Gates’ outrageous charges of racism, I immediately and most publicly called him a bold-faced liar. But not just in defense of my hometown or CPD. I called it based on personal experience. And I called it right on the money, did I not? See, some years back my brother and I, both drunk, were in a confrontation of my idiot drunken brother’s making with five Cambridge cops when I yelled “Your Mama!” at a black cop. We were arrested for disorderly conduct, cuffed, thrown into the paddy wagon and hauled off to the same jail as Dr. Skippy.

That incident took place not five blocks from Dr. Gates’ house. In short, I had experienced the exact same arrest for the exact same charge in the exact same neighborhood by the exact same PD. Who not actually there could have seen how the whole thing went down better? From yelling “Your Mama!” to cuffing to paddy wagon ride to booking in the same jail? Yet Dr. Gates’ hoax cry of racism at whom we now know is one of the state’s top racial profiling experts, President Obama’s Man Show suds-rinsing of Dr. Gates’ crime by sitting down white victim and black victimizer on an equal moral plane in sickening equivocating fashion, is not even the real monster here.

The real monster would have been if Al Sharpton brought his Traveling Racial Arsonist Show to town, which he was ready to do. Big Al lives for incidents like this to spark or fuel smoldering racially-tinged incidents into Towering Inferno proportions. Think about this. Had Officer Crowley been just some regular Officer Joe on the Beat, and not been able to provide the damning refutations of Dr. Gates’ hoax cry of racism, Cambridge, the city of my birth that I love warts and all, might at this very moment be going up in flames, both racial and literal, for Big Al’s race-mongering fun and profit. Just like Crown Heights and Freddy’s Fashion Mart. Nine dead in those two alone. And it would have all gone down over yet another foul race-baiting hoax, just like Tawana Brawley and Duke.

In my city? In my birthplace? He’ll have to kill me first! Over my dead body! Not a rare outcome when Big Al brings his racial gas cans and lighters to town. How Big Al a bullet did Cambridge just dodge? I’ll bet Big Al is breathing a sigh of relief as he watches Dr. Skippy burn in a fire of his own making, yet is even now scouring the American landscape for the Next Big Whitey Thing to torch to the skies. That’s who he is. A black David Duke, as Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe so aptly put it. What happens to the next racially-targeted innocent white police officer, his city and his peaceful neighborhoods, when said officer is NOT a racial profiling expert who teaches the subject?

Got an idea. And THAT is the monstrous 800-pound gorilla that is occupying and trashing the Obama Racial Harmony Room, to wit the all-too-profitable and most politically powerful black Lefty racial grievance-mongering Hate Whitey cottage industry in America. It’s got to go. The law, and the law alone, from the cop on the beat to the US Supreme Court, should deal with all crimes and legal matters of race, not the racists themselves. Kind of defeats the whole purpose, doesn’t it? They’re like the black radical version of the Klan, showing up with ropes and torches at even a whiff of white-on-black injustice, real or imagined, wherever it happens in America. Duke Lacrosse ring any bells?

In fact, black Lefty racial grievance-mongering is a HUGE business in America today. With a black President in a 72% white-majority nation, how sad is that? In this Obama Age of Racial Harmony, in particular? Tell me truly. What legal resources and avenues of redress do any and all minority Americans NOT have? The federal and state EEOCs, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and a million other NGOs and government agencies exist, and even live, to redress real racial grievances to the fullest measure and extent of the law. As they should. For ALL races of Americans!

Since news on Dr. Gates first broke, I have been neck-deep in it. It has been my mission in life since to bring him down, and as many of his fellow career race-baiters and grievance-mongers who jumped all over this race-hoax abomination from the word go. Anderson Cooper’s AC360 show called me about my first damning oped on Dr. Gates. The Cambridge Chronicle is reprinting it Thursday. My reports are all on file at my article folder at Digital Journal, including one manic thirty-hour stretch when news was breaking insanely fast and furious.

Lots more deep background on Cambridge, and some very unsavory stuff on Dr. Gates et al. But this has all been a very unsavory episode, hasn’t it?

That monster is growing, people. Worst of all, with President Obama’s direct aiding an abetting by giving Get-Out-Of-Terrorizing-White-Voters-Free cards to the three Black Panther thugs whom career DOJ lawyers wanted to skin alive, and had default convictions in hand to do just that. Why did Obama do it? Aren’t white voters just as protected by the law as blacks in the Jim Crow South? Or are we witnessing a regression of the law in favor of black radicals? When you throw in Obama’s equivocation of Dr. Gates’ crime of yelling racial “Fire!” in a crowded country, it doesn’t look good.

A lot more background in my DJ reports, but here’s two related news items you may find interesting.

AL SHARPTON’S NIECE WANTS REPERCUSSIONS FOR SNITCH WHO CALLED 911

That would be Ms. Lucia Whalen, the woman who placed the 911 call, whom Brittany Sharpton wants revenge served cold on. Ms. Whalen has been insanely persecuted ever since that call, even though she never mentioned race until asked by CPD. Great. Rile up some whack job black racists to terrorize an elderly woman for doing a public service, even for Dr. Gates has it been a real break-in like the one he recently suffered. Like Uncle, Like Niece.

Here are some delightful insights from Facebook on NBBP poll watcher thug-in-chief Jerry Jackson, who will be right back terrorizing, er, I mean watching the polls in Philly:

DISTURBING CONTENT ON NBBP JERRY JACKSON’S FACE BOOK PAGE

‘Killin’ Crakkkas’ is very high on Mr. Jackson’s To-Do List. He also has a very welcoming sign at his home in Philadelphia: “COLORED ONLY: NO WHITES ALLOWED”

I have to tell you, people. I may not be black. But with all that’s going on lately, I’m starting to get an idea of how it felt to be a black man in the Jim Crow South. Tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way. Racial injustice knows no color, people. And Hate is as Equal Opportunity as it gets. Stop The H8!

The most unsettling news story of the last week came out of Philadelphia, where a group of black and Hispanic children of elementary-school age paid for the right to swim at a private suburban club and were denied the experience without cause and publicly humiliated in the process.

While the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton cry racism too often and make a mockery of their cause by exploiting events for their personal gain, sometimes old-fashioned bigotry does rear its ugly head in America.

In this instance, the Valley Club’s president confirmed our worst fears when he offered something far from an exculpatory explanation. “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler said in his initial statement.

Some campers claim to have overheard at least one parent fretting about the sudden influx of 65 minority children at the mostly white club.

True or not, these children were clearly wronged and it’s hard to believe that race didn’t play a significant part in their being tossed from the suburban club on their very first field trip.

Bigotry is not a partisan issue, and to be sickened by this story is the proper human response. America’s original sin of slavery and the stain of Jim Crow make a bad situation almost viscerally unbearable – and warrant a conclusive remedy. This, unfortunately, is our country’s long-term burden.

Many members of the private swim club, removed from its director’s idiotic move, now find themselves in the unenviable position of working round-the-clock to defend themselves and their previously unblemished club. Even neighbors of the institution have taken to the media to distance themselves from the awful act.

“I think they’re knuckleheads up there,” said John Fenton, a local. “I don’t know how you can do that to little kids.”

Whenever legitimate acts of bigotry occur, they should be exposed to the light of day. The media and the legal system – fueled by public outrage – can do the rest. In this case, substantial national and even international news coverage of the Valley Club incident is beginning the process of making the campers whole.

You can read the column in full here.

All it takes is one person to break the ice. Example. Twenty years ago, my brother won tickets to a Journey concert in Worcester, Massachusetts on the radio. We rode a packed WBCN Party Bus out of Boston, but everyone was kind of uptight and kept to themselves, like there were cops in the crowd. So I took a risk and lit up a big fattie anyway. Within minutes, it was like a Cheech and Chong movie. You couldn’t see out the windows. Everyone was laughing, joking, hacking and toking.

So, at the risk of stinking up the joint again, but with the possible reward of jovial comradery and a few laughs, looks like I’ll have to be the first one to light up. The only real question is, will this be the torching that finally gets me arrested?

So be it. Great reward often involves great risk. To be fair, Jimmy Kimmel went to a black barbershop to ask black people what subjects for humor were taboo or not. Very funny stuff. As for me, I’m gonna live a little more dangerously, like Pryor and Bruce. Here goes my comedy career!

-

“Did you hear President Obama had to cancel his press conference today? Got his halo stuck in a TelePrompTer!”

“President Obama said he’s unlike all those other presidents we’ve ever had, and he’s right. What other president in American history could fit in at both an NAACP dinner and a KKK rally?”

“Did you hear Newsweek editor Evan Thomas said Obama was like God? In related news, the American Medical Association recommended that journalists covering the President should see their doctors for regular prostrate exams.”

“The Obamas held their first open-to-the-public Easter Egg Hunt today. Thirty thousand guests hid their wallets around the White House grounds for Timothy Geithner to find!”

“In related news, the Obama Administration seized millions of dollars from the accounts of online poker players. Strangely enough, they were all corporate executives who canceled junkets to Vegas on the President’s recommendation. Just goes to show, the house always wins!”

“First Lady Michelle Obama was seen walking around London today wearing a stuffed orange snake around her waist. In related news, former GM Chairman Rick Wagoner was spotted walking around Detroit wearing his ass for a hat.”

“Jimmy Carter was honored by the Palestinians today for his support in helping them toward independence. In this Fourth of July spirit, Hamas revelers set off fireworks on Israel.” (I know that wasn’t about Obama. Just mixing it up, like a good sit-down comedian should. Besides, one Carter’s as good as another when it comes to comedy!)

“Well, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is back in the news again. Said ‘them Jews’ won’t let him in to see Obama. Seems the Good Reverend is going to unusual lengths to get an audience with his former parishioner. He was last seen roosting like a chicken on the White House fence.”

“Former Obama associate William Ayers is back in the news. Seems he was barred from entering Canada over a forty-year old felony conviction. Fortunately, he was able to catch a ride back with Janet Napolitano, who was just barred from Canada for felony idiocy.”

“As you all know, the President promised to find new homes for the Chinese Uighur detainees at Gitmo. Four are now in Bermuda, and another thirteen will be soon be sent the island paradise of Palau. In related news, the Taliban and Al Qaeda reported a recent upsurge in recruits.”

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I tried to come up with Biden jokes. I really did. But the guy’s a Perfect Storm of Comedy. It’s like trying to make jokes about Curly Howard. How can you top perfection?

So there it is. The ice is broken, and possibly my clean criminal record as well. Oh well. Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true. By the way, if any of you have any great joke ideas, or know any great Obama jokes, please post them in the comments section. It’s not like anyone in Hollywood or the media is going to steal them and cash in on them. Have fun!