Because Power concedes nothing without a Demand.

race & racism

Colbert, Dan Savage, Olberman, and me on Prop 8

I think it’s a good thing that media types are talking about it now, I just wish they’d talked about it before the election instead of being too busy talking about Obama and McCain; and not allowed the bastards who passed it to go unchallenged spreading lies about schoolchildren being indoctrinated and other nonsense.  This ties directly into the article i posted right before the election about how the puppet show of “representative” democracy distracts people from the real issues that they can actually do something about.

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Grats to ya boy.

Last night around 8pm I was at a house party here in Oakland getting ready for my band’s set when somebody across the room shouted out “Obama won!  he did it!” and the whole room broke out in cheers and clapping.   I pulled out my cellphone and sent a text message to my friend Labrie (who’s been pulling hard for an Obama victory and recorded a couple songs supporting him and his candidacy) saying “Grats to ya boy” and went back to working on getting our sound set up.  Later that night as we closed our set with ‘None of the Above’ several of the Obama supporters, including my bandmates wife, waged a bit of a counter-insurgency, shouting out “Obama!” every time the chorus of “Which one?  None of the Above!” came up.

Such is the fate of an Anarchist among Liberals.

Seriously though, I know this is a big day for a lot of folks who’ve put time and energy into getting dude elected, and in particular - as even McCain acknowledged - it’s a big day for black folks in America.  For over 200 years black folks have watched white Presidents completely ignore their issues and support policies that hurt them.  Now, thanks to Obamas historic win, poor and working class black folks get to have their issues and their needs ignored by a person with the same color skin as them.  That’s an honor that poor and working class white folks have enjoyed in isolation for far too long.  It’s only fair to spread the joy around a bit. Read more »

McCain, Obama, & White Privilege

Saw something interesting on the AP wire today, apparently Obama has decided to be more overt in opposing identity-based smear tactics against him and has explicitly called out the RNC for fear mongering. Here’s his exact words:

“What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me… You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills” [from the Associated Press]

McCain, of course, reacted with indignation and accused Obama of playing the Race card by accusing McCain of playing it.

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Does Race Exist?

My last post prompted a few responses. 2 of those were from ‘national anarchists’ and i marked them as spam because i’ve already made it clear i’m not interested in giving them a voice on my blog. they’ve got their own blogs where they can run on as much as they want. Fact is, while many of the NA’s claim to be anti-racist, the fact that they’re willing to work with white nationalists tells me everything i need to know about just how flimsy their commitment to anti-racism really is. (not nationalists who happen to be white, like say scottish nationalists, but white racists who want to create explicitly and exclusively white “nations” in america, australia, south africa, etc. That’s not an endorsement of scottish nationalists either, I’ve got a completely different set of issues with the SNP, but I’ll save that for another post.) So …. yeah. I’m not down with NA’s and i’m not going to approve their comments or dignify them with further response.

The third response, and the one that prompted this post, was from a right-libertarian who asserts that I am wrong and race does actually exist. He provided a link to an article by Ernst Mayr, a biologist, to support his statement. This is my response to his claim:

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Eulogy for Utah Phillips

I just got the news that Utah Phillips, one of the strongest and most consistent voices in America for the rights and dignity of working class people and for a free world based on human values, has passed away in his sleep at the age of 73. (http://www.kvmr.org/utah_letter.html - Utah Phillips has Left the Stage)

What follows are just a few of my thoughts, as one performer to another, speaking about a man who influenced me and my music tremendously over the years. I would not presume to present this as anything other then that, just a few words of gratitude and sorrow, nothing more. Utah’s family has posted an official obituary on his website - http://utahphillips.com/. Ya’ll should go check it out. Also, The family requests memorial donations to Hospitality House, P.O. Box 3223, Grass Valley, California 95945 (530) 271-7144 www.hospitalityhouseshelter.org

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