Dr. Lester K. Spence

I think partly because of the sort of racial narratives that are likely to attach within rightwing circles in the Democratic Party of an Obama defeat, as well as the subsequent role that he’d be likely to play in public life, that from the standpoint of progressive interests, we will ultimately be worse off with Obama as a defeated candidate than with Clinton as a defeated candidate. 

I have to think about this. But I just wanted to throw this out there for folks to ruminate on. Pay particular attention to the differences between Reed and Harris-Lacewell with regards to politics. More here. 

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THE NATIONAL BLACK POLICE ASSOCIATION:
THE SEAN BELL VERDICT EMBOLDENS LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN JUDGES
© April 26, 2008. All rights reserved to NBPA
By Christopher C. Cooper
Saint Xavier University
Chicago, IL
cooper@sxu.edu

The acquittals of the three New York City Policeman who killed unarmed Sean Bell further damages the psyche and perception of the justice system by people of color. There was blatant disregard by Judge Cooperman, the Bell trial’s presiding judge, of the compelling evidence of recklessness. His verdict represents the highest level of judicial abuse. Sadly, his verdict is consistent with outrageous, decision-making by judges throughout America when people-of-color are victims. On the Civil side, it is the power of judges to prevent people of-color, victimized by the police, from ever getting their civil lawsuits against police before a jury. Judges nix a jury by routinely dismissing cases via what is called Summary Judgment. It is a judge deciding that allegations of a black man or woman are not credible enough to go to a jury. (more…)

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The Surge:

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Black History, originally uploaded by Unbowed.

Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter was murdered here. 

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I should have created a psyops category a long time ago. This story is no joke, and required reading.

Five years into the Iraq war, most details of the architecture and execution of the Pentagon’s campaign have never been disclosed. But The Times successfully sued the Defense Department to gain access to 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts and records describing years of private briefings, trips to Iraq and Guantánamo and an extensive Pentagon talking points operation.

These records reveal a symbiotic relationship where the usual dividing lines between government and journalism have been obliterated.Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as “message force multipliers” or “surrogates” who could be counted on to deliver administration “themes and messages” to millions of Americans “in the form of their own opinions.”

Though many analysts are paid network consultants, making $500 to $1,000 per appearance, in Pentagon meetings they sometimes spoke as if they were operating behind enemy lines, interviews and transcripts show. Some offered the Pentagon tips on how to outmaneuver the networks, or as one analyst put it to Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, “the Chris Matthewses and the Wolf Blitzers of the world.” Some warned of planned stories or sent the Pentagon copies of their correspondence with network news executives. Many — although certainly not all — faithfully echoed talking points intended to counter critics.

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Yesterday’s debate between Sens. Obama and Clinton was important because it was the last debate before the critical Pennsylvania primary. But watching it I was not only disappointed in the questions asked by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulus, I was pissed. Over 50 minutes spent on Obama’s minor connections to a former member of the Weather Underground, on Obama’s refusal to wear an American flag on his lapel, on Clinton’s Bosnian lie. And I caught Gibson in at least one critical right-leaning error–asking Obama about his interest in raising the capital gains tax to its Clinton era rate of 28%, Gibson noted that the tax decreases revenue rather than increases it. This is an “untruth” to put it nicely. Of the debates I’ve caught pieces of, this was the worst.If you agree, do me a favor and sign this petition. 

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Two links worth checking out:

MTV has a series of posts based on interviews with blacks in the videogame industry.

A grad student has created a blog about his dissertation, entitled “Becoming War.” The link between this and the MTV stuff can be found in Chapter three. Did you know that the United States Armed Forces not only has a first person shooter available for free, but that they track your results for recruiting purposes?

I’ve been interested in writing on race, politics, and the videogame industry, for a few reasons. I’ve been playing since the Atari 2600 days (still have mine at the crib) and have witnessed the shift in immersive technology and game types. Accompanying the increased immersion is increased affect, and we don’t quite know where this is going or what it means. And while the appearance and play of these games has increased tremendously they are still fairly stuck in the seventies and eighties. Every now and then we get a tetris, or a Katmari Damacy, but something like Doom that knocked me for a loop when I first saw it is nothing more than Contra from a different perspective. And Contra itself is nothing more than Wizard of Wor or Bezerk.

What does this mean for politics and for race? With the increased immersion we increase the reproductive ability of games. Games become the equivalent of leeches, or duppies, controlling not only how we interact within games, but how we move in the world. The USAF use games to reproduce warriors, to get their players to literally “become” war.

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I attended the Midwest Political Science Association conference in Chicago this last week. And got into a few interesting discussions about Obama that I’m pretty sure will translate into a research project. We know that implicitly racist ads move white voters further to the right. Check out the ad below: 

Harold Ford lost in Tennessee a couple of years back because he didn’t respond to this, and this it turned (white) voters without a preference against him at the last second. We also know that when the covers are pulled off of these ads, when they are made explicit rather than implicit, the ads lose their affective power. (This is why Ford should have at the very least had a surrogate condemn the ads–he would have won going away .) (See The Race Card.)

But what is the effect of these ads on black voters?

Further, what is the effect of the charge of racism on black voters? I’d think that one result is that black voters would–depending on the source of the charge–move away from the candidate. I know a number of black voters who plan to vote for McCain if Clinton wins. I’ve thought about it myself, although Clinton’s recent promise to appoint a cabinet level person to deal with poverty (John Edwards?) has caused me to reconsider. Does this also make the black candidate (or the non-racist candidate) much better in their eyes, independent of his/her actual policies? Tavis Smiley left the Tom Joyner show today.

I’m reluctant to refer to Smiley as a casualty here, because he’s still getting paid, and also because he brought this on himself to a certain degree. Smiley’s criticism of Obama for skipping out on his State of the Black Union meeting sounds like the type of black broker criticism that we can do without. But Obama shouldn’t take our vote for granted, and he should still be subject to unrelenting scrutiny. If Tavis is the only one really doing it, I am not sure he should be criticised for it (and shouldn’t necessarily be criticized for not having a strong stomach).

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The NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit is one of the organization’s largest fundraisers, and is the largest sit down dinner of its kind in the country, routinely bringing in well over 10,000+ participants. I’ve just been informed that Pastor Jeremiah Wright will be this year’s keynote speaker. If you’ve got connections of any kind in Detroit, and have a little bit of loot to spare, I think it’ll be worth it. Sunday, April 27, 2008.  

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I wish I’d thought of this:

Stand Up! The New Politics of Racial Uplift A Public Philosophy Symposium

Temple University

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

9am to 5pm

Kiva Auditorium and Tuttleman Learning Center, Room 101

For information about participants, schedule, and work by participants and material relevant to symposium themes, go to our website:

http://www.temple.edu/philosophy/standup/

Purpose of Symposium:

The Millions More Movement, Cosby’s ‘call-outs,’ and other recent trends renew an old approach to black political thought and practice. The racial uplift tradition tries to improve the conditions of black life by insisting on moral refinement and race-based organization. Uplift ideology and practice have a long and storied past, but critics of the tradition worry over its limitations. Some express concern that it is anti-democratic, intolerant, elitist, sexist, and heterosexist. Others think it focuses too much on personal morality and cultural pathology and not enough on social justice and political economy. 

The participants in the ‘Stand Up!’ symposium will think through the risks and rewards of this new racial uplift politics. This interdisciplinary exercise in public philosophy will explore the implications of a social phenomenon with broad ethical significance. The new politics of racial uplift emerges from a widely shared conviction that something is deeply wrong in American society. Our public philosophy conference will take this judgment seriously, and subject this politics to searching and critical scrutiny.

Confirmed Participants:

Angela D. Dillard, Afroamerican and African Studies and Residential College, LSA, at the University of Michigan

Kenyon Farrow, essayist, organizer, media and communications specialist, and board co-chair for Queers for Economic Justice

Kevin Gaines, Afroamerican and African Studies and History at the University of Michigan

Kathryn T. Gines, African American and Diaspora Studies and Philosophy at Vanderbilt University

Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Religion and African American Studies at Princeton University and the Jamestown Project

Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Women’s Research and Resource Center and the Women’s Studies at Spelman College

Joy James, Humanities and Political Science at Williams College and Senior Research Fellow in the Center for African and African American Studies at the University of Texas-Austin

Adolph Reed, Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania

Jared Sexton, African American Studies and Film & Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine

Aishah Shahidah Simmons, AfroLez® Productions and award-winning African-American feminist lesbian documentary filmmaker, international lecturer, writer, activist, and producer, writer, and director of the internationally acclaimed documentary NO!

Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr., Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard University Law School and the Jamestown Project

Paul C. Taylor, Philosophy at Temple University and the Jamestown Project

Sponsors:

Temple University Department of Philosophy, the Office of the Provost, the College of Liberal Arts, the Center for Humanities at Temple, the Ira Lawrence Family Fund, and the Jamestown Project

The symposium is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Tamara K. Nopper, assistant organizer, at tnopper (at) temple.edu 

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