Next Up: Town Halls on Race?

What would a town hall on race look like? I do not mean the aesthetics – the color of the carpet or where panelists would sit, but the guts of it – the substance. I am pondering the question because I was recently asked to help organize and participate in a series of such discussions across the country and for the life of me I can’t understand what the purpose would be.

I am not one that believes Americans do not talk about race or that we are cowards when it comes to the issue. Indeed Americans chatter about race all the time. After football, analyzing the issue of race seems to be our national pastime. I suppose it’s to be expected as the issue of race and racial equality is woven into the fabric of our country. But we have a very particular and stubborn framework within which we discuss the issue – race equals virtue.

For instance, the President’s recent Supreme Court nomination was more about race than it was jurisprudence – Justice Sotomayor’s race, her views on race and, once seated on the court, whether members of her ethnic group will now favor one political party over the other. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: healthcare, race, racism, Sotomayor, town halls
Posted Aug 24th 2009 at 5:44 pm in Featured Story, News, Politics | 21043490 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jphillips/2009/08/24/next-up-town-halls-on-race/Next+Up%3A+Town+Halls+on+Race%3F2009-08-25+00%3A44%3A47Joseph+C.+Phillips

Michael Jackson and the Supremes

As we endure the endless hours of Sotomayor testimony, let’s remember that rehashing the bizarre lives of dead pop stars can be SO much more interesting than 99.9% of Senate testimony. That said, in researching my new book “Hollywood on the Potomac,” I found an historic tidbit that spoke volumes about both Michael Jackson and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He wasn’t Chief Justice at the time… but when John Roberts was a young lawyer in the Reagan White House, he was very much concerned with Michael Jackson.

The year was 1984 and Michael Jackson was the biggest sensation since Elvis – moonwalking was rapidly replacing blue suede shoes in America’s pop culture lexicon.  Jackson’s notorious publicity machine was becoming a global tour de force, and he was sending the White House requests for visits, concert tickets and more!  Most of all, Jackson was keen on having Reagan present him with a major award. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: George H.W. Bush, John Roberts, Michael Jackson, ronald reagan, Sotomayor
Posted Jul 16th 2009 at 11:32 am in Celebrity News, Politics | 18321079 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmeath/2009/07/16/michael-jackson-and-the-supremes/Michael+Jackson+and+the+Supremes++2009-07-16+18%3A32%3A30Jason+Killian+Meath

Becoming Post Racial

“Race has no place in American life or law.” President John F. Kennedy spoke these words the evening of June 11, 1963 following the desegregation of the University of Alabama. In the speech Kennedy delivered that evening he chose not to appeal to legal arguments; rather he asked Americans to look into their collective hearts and weigh the moral question of continued racial discrimination. “The heart of the question,” said Kennedy “is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities.”

This week the Arizona state legislature answered that question with a resounding, “yes!” The state legislature cleared the way to place the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative or ACRI, on the Ballot in 2010. ACRI is a constitutional amendment that would prevent the state from discriminating on the basis or race or sex in the areas of public employment, contracting or education.

The action taken by the State legislature now makes it possible for the people of Arizona to actually decide if their state (and ultimately our nation) agrees with the sentiments of former President Kennedy. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Arizona Civil Rights Initiative (ACRI), Cloves Campbell, John F. Kennedy, Obama, race
Posted Jun 29th 2009 at 10:03 am in News, Politics | 1734464 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jphillips/2009/06/29/becoming-post-racial/Becoming+Post+Racial2009-06-29+17%3A03%3A42Joseph+C.+Phillips

Having Your Racial Cake and Eating it Too

John C. Calhoun, father of the confederacy, said about the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence: “there is not a word of truth in the whole proposition, as expressed and generally understood.” These sentiments were echoed by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney. Writing the majority opinion for Scott v Sanford, Taney also denied the veracity of the founding noting, “…the Declaration of Independence shows that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument.”

It is a continuing source of fascination that the new left has chosen this view of the founding, replete with its historical inaccuracies, while the political right has adopted that of Abraham Lincoln and Justice John Marshall Harlan. It was Harlan who wrote in his famous dissent in Plessey v Ferguson that “Our Constitution is colorblind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”

This brings us to the current controversy surrounding the president’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: identity politics, Obama, race, racial politics, Sotomayor
Posted Jun 8th 2009 at 12:31 pm in Politics | 1546145 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jphillips/2009/06/08/having-your-racial-cake-and-eating-it-too/Having+Your+Racial+Cake+and+Eating+it+Too2009-06-08+19%3A31%3A25Joseph+C.+Phillips

The Wisdom of the White Male

There is an often overlooked fact in the discussion of the advancement of minorities over the past 100 years.  No single group has done more to “level the playing field” bring about “social justice” or move our nation towards equality than the white male.

Unless I’m missing something, I don’t recall the Women’s Suffrage Revolt of 1920 where armed women stormed the Capitol, beheaded president Harding and declared their right to vote.  I also must have missed it when Martin Luther King Jr. unleashed suicide bombers on D.C. until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

No.  Great men and women brought the nation together and increased awareness of social and political injustices.  The great service of Martin Luther King, Fredrick Douglas, Susan B. Anthony and others was to expose injustice and let the powers that be know that the Constitution should and does apply to all people.

Power, they say, is taken and not given.  Except, of course, in the United States. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: American History, Jr., Martin Luther King, Sotomayor, Suffrage
Posted Jun 8th 2009 at 5:03 am in Politics | 1500624 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lscott/2009/06/08/the-wisdom-of-the-white-male/The+Wisdom+of+the+White+Male2009-06-08+12%3A03%3A14Leigh+Scott

Sickness of our Age: Leftist = Historic

If someone like Beethoven had a vision of the future and realized the impact his music had on humanity, would he be able to compose with the same fortitude and confidence, or rather, would the pressure of the realization of his own importance would eventually render him dysfunctional? 

I don’t confuse this hypothetical inquiry with Beethoven’s realization of his genius. I’m sure he knew of his own greatness. This is different, though, from the pressure that one may experience if his or her genius is also perceived in its historic context and significance. 

In other words, would Beethoven be able to remain Beethoven if, well, he was conscious of the fact that he was Beethoven, (or Beethoven the way he is perceived today)?

These musings of mine could easily be dismissed as exercises in futility or outbursts of excessive if not useless imagination if they were not so coincidental with the policies and style of our current government and prevailing cultural mindset.  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Clarence Thomas, Guinness Book of World Records, Hillary Clinton, historic, history
Posted Jun 5th 2009 at 9:58 am in Politics | 1485582 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ykochar/2009/06/05/historic%e2%80%99-sickness-of-our-age/Sickness+of+our+Age%3A+Leftist+%3D+Historic2009-06-05+16%3A58%3A00Yervand+Kochar

Lies Obama Told Me

Remember way back in 2008 when George Bush was still the President and everyone on the left was screeching about lies?  If you can’t remember that far back just flip over to MSNBC and wait a few minutes they’ll be happy to remind you. I thought I would write a short piece about the lies we have already heard from President Obama. I did little research and there are plenty of websites that focus on a lot of picayune stuff and things from long ago.

I decided to stick to direct quotes from the President within the last 18 months. Some I have commented on, the others, as they say at Harvard Law, res ipsa loquitur.    

1)  ”…not because I believe in bigger government — I don’t — not because I’m not mindful of the massive debt we’ve inherited — I am.”   Speech to Congress, February 24, 2009

2) “And that is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists…” Speech to Congress, February 24, 2009 (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: big government, Economy, federal budget, lies, President Obama
Posted May 28th 2009 at 2:44 pm in Politics | 1451267 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjena/2009/05/28/lies-obama-told-me/Lies+Obama+Told+Me2009-05-28+21%3A44%3A45Jeffrey+Jena

Daily Gut: You Win, I’m Racist!

And so within hours of posting my Gregalogue, a bilious blogger did what bilious bloggers do best: call me a racist. Which is awesome, because it proves my point. In the world of racial politics, all you have to do is call someone a racist, and you win! 

Game over. 

And now, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs is pretty much doing the same thing preemptively, telling critics of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to watch what they say when it comes to her confirmation hearing. This is amazing, only because there was no need to say it at all.  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Marlin Fitzwater, Obama, racism, racist, Robert Bork
Posted May 28th 2009 at 12:48 pm in Daily Gut, Featured Story | 1459788 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/05/28/daily-gut-you-win-im-racist/Daily+Gut%3A+You+Win%2C+I%27m+Racist%212009-05-28+19%3A48%3A26Greg+Gutfeld