paper stacks

[expatiates]

The Definitive History Of 'George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People'

The story behind Kanye West's most famous remarks.

It’s extremely important that the people in my generation (millennials) look back at Katrina and thoroughly review the events that took place that week. Most of us weren’t old enough, I think, to fully comprehend and analyze what was going on. This article does a great job IMO of giving context to the time period and the realities of what happened in New Orleans and the Gulf. 

“”I hate the way they portray us in the media," he said. "If you see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food.' And you know that it's been five days because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite -- because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before, even giving a donation. So now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what's, what is the biggest amount I can give, and, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help with the set-up, the way America is set up to help the, the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, this is -- Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us. ... George Bush doesn’t care about black people." --Kanye West

Please do yourself a favor and read up on Hurricane Katrina and the nation’s response to it this weekend.

[expatiates]

White middle-aged women model cornrows and weaves

The quirky portrait shots were captured by North Carolina-based artist Endia Beal, who says she's often made to feel like 'the other' in corporate environments.

“In a bid to challenge people's perceptions of appearance, the 28-year-old took a group of white female office workers to an African-American salon and documented the finished results.”

[expatiates]

This man taught himself how to throw javelin by watching YouTube videos.

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How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks

Structured-settlement annuitants are lured by quick cash to unload their future payouts for dimes on the dollar.

It is truly incredible how deep white supremacy goes and how well it sustains itself.

[expatiates]

Misunderstanding Donald Trump Supporters

Donald Trump appeals to a particular sect of the American voting population. If the GOP wants to court his followers, it must first understand them.

This needs to be the last Trump article of the day and it’s a good counter-point article to Washington Post. Some interesting points--

“Many of the critics of Trump and his supporters make assumptions about his likely core demographic, leading to critics and supporters arguing past each other.”

The analysis of the “Disaffected” voter according to Pew Research is just fascinating. Doesn’t support welfare... yet supports entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare. Funny how that works.

“Moreover, as Trump’s more vocal critics have discovered, there are white supremacists and neo-Confederates eager to hitch themselves to Trump’s bandwagon. It’s not shock that this will happen when a political neophyte not only rambles on about Mexicans raping women, but also surges in the polls because of it. As deplorable and undesirable as this is, it is also unfortunate that critics of Trump and his supporters frequently conflate Disaffecteds with Staunch Conservatives or—even more extreme—racists. This is not to claim there is no overlap among these groups. Pew’s typologies, while helpful, are necessarily generalizations, and real people will not always fall neatly into them. And racists aren’t exclusive to the right—they are present across the political spectrum.”

[expatiates]

At Donald Trump Event, Jorge Ramos of Univision Is Snubbed, Ejected and Debated

A journalist for the Spanish-language network Univision who asked Donald J. Trump about immigration was mocked by the candidate, then escorted out of a news conference.

“’You haven’t been called, go back to Univision,’ Mr. Trump said.

As security officers approached Mr. Ramos, a Mexican-American, he said: ‘I am a reporter. Don’t touch me. I have a right to ask the question.’”

Some thoughts-- the “mainstream” GOP

is fine with Trump pushing Republican primary voters to the far right to make the eventual candidate look more moderate and reasonable by comparison

is unable to maintain typical party control and simply can’t push him out due to his populist appeal. If the GOP loses in 2016 and has a party shift or split, Trump would be one (of many, in my opinion) canary in the coal mine. It’s been about 50-60 years since the last major shift and in my gut I feel like something explosive will emerge out the right.

Finally, here’s an NYT article from earlier in the year that expounds on Ramos’ status as the Walter Cronkite of the Univision community. “Republican strategists say their 2016 nominee must get more than 40 percent to win. The last Republican candidate to do so was Mr. Bush, who had supported a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.”

[expatiates]

Donald Trump’s surge is all about less-educated Americans

They have their reasons.

“Today, workers at the top of the education and income scales face some increasingly well-documented competition from well-educated immigrant workers and workers abroad. But it's Americans at the bottom who tend to face job competition most intensely.”

Definitely had hypothesized that lower-educated voters were the main source of support for Trump, but I hadn’t put any thought into their geographic spread.

[expatiates]

The Meaning of Serena Williams

On tennis and black excellence.

“ I couldn’t quite shake the feeling (I still can’t quite shake it) that my body’s frailty, not the cancer but the depth of my exhaustion, had been brought on in part by the constant onslaught of racism, whether something as terrible as the killing of Trayvon Martin or something as mundane as the guy who let the door slam in my face. The daily grind of being rendered invisible, or being attacked, whether physically or verbally, for being visible, wears a body down. Serena’s strength and focus in the face of the realities we shared oddly consoled me.”

Hillary retweeted this today and I’d seen a similar post on Grantland earlier in the summer. I hadn’t thought much about Serena until the past year when I was watching Wimbledon with my aunt (she told me she didn’t like her because she was too “mannish”). Serena’s been around as long as I can remember but doesn’t get nearly the recognition she deserves. We know why...