Cato Lawyer Slams ACLU Lawyer in Race Debate

I sat through a debate Tuesday afternoon at the University of Toledo College of Law between Mark P. Fancher, staff attorney and director of the Racial Justice Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (standing at lectern), and Ilya Shapiro, the senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute (sitting). (Please forgive the photo quality, I took it with a low-quality cell phone.)

The debate, interestingly enough, was titled "Affirmative Action vs. Reverse Discrimination" and centered on the Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year in Ricci v. DeStefano, the affirmative action case involving a promotion test given to New Haven, Conn., firefighters. (For more background on the case, click here.)

Essentially, the city determined that the examination was racist because statistics showed that not as many minorities as whites passed the test. Therefore, the city threw out the test and refused to promote the whites and one Hispanic who passed the test.

The white firefighters sued.

The appellate court, in an opinion written by now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor, sided with the city in ruling the test as unfair to minorities. The Supreme Court overruled and found for the white firefighters.

In the debate, Fancher, who is black, took the position that the test was obviously racist because of the disparate impact to blacks.

Great quotation from Frederick Douglass

Came across this great quotation from Frederick Douglass. He seems to be anticipating the idea of affirmative action and soundly rejecting such a thing:

“[I]n regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us. … I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! ...  And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... [Y]our interference is doing him positive injury.”

— “What the Black Man Wants”: An Address Delivered in Boston, on 26 January 1865, reprinted in 4 The Frederick Douglass Papers 59, 68 (J. Blassingame & J. McKivigan eds. 1991) (emphasis in original).

Harvard professor a longtime racist

 Henry Louis Gates Jr., the black Harvard professor and friend of President Barack Obama who recently had a run-in with a white police officer, has long held racist views.

View this video from 1996 in which he calls Clarence Thomas a hypocrite and Newt Gingrich and the other Republicans racists.

It was clearly only a matter of time before he went off the deep end like he did July 16.

NY Post cartoon was an opinion, get over it

This cartoon appeared in the New York Post's Page Six today. The cartoon, which refers to Travis the chimp, who was shot to death by police in Stamford, Conn., on Monday after it mauled a friend of its owner, drew criticism Wednesday on media Web sites and from civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Get used to this, folks. Every criticism of President Barack Obama is going to be framed in terms of race.

Col Allan, editor-in-chief of the Post, defended the work and called out Sharpton for what he is: a media whore.

"The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut," Allan said in a statement. "It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist."

The cartoon clearly demonstrates that the stimulus bill signed into law this week was so poorly written that a chimp could have created it.

Police 'diversity' not worth the effort

More racist talk from Derry Glenn.

This time, the most prominent of Lima's three stooges wants to spend his own money to scour other cities for black applicants to apply to become police officers and firefighters. He hopes to scan civil service lists in other communities to look for possible applicants, if the lists indeed contain the skin color of the applicants.

Fortunately for Lima, Glenn rarely follows through on his crazy plans.

Still, there appears to be a belief among some that diversity in the Police and Fire departments is something important. Actually, it extends to work forces generally.

This is simply a fallacy.

Is the Rev. David Harris a racist? What does this sign mean?

Either this sign at Trinity United Methodist Church, which I photographed this morning on my way out of town, is an act of vandalism or the Rev. David Harris feels the need to use gimmicks to put butts in his pews.

If it were vandalism, there is not much that he could do, though I wonder what he did to inspire someone to make such an accusation.

However, if it is simply a pubicity stunt, why would you do that? Why would you publicly claim to be a racist knowing that most of the people reading that sign will never come in to hear the sermon and find out what it really means.

Either way, I am perplexed by the behavior. Can anyone explain it?

Tommy Pitts as Jesus Christ?

The Lima News: Pitts defers to charter review

Tommy "Larry" Pitts, one of Lima's Three Stooges, took a dive off the deep end Tuesday evening when he actually had the audacity to compare himself to Jesus of Nazareth:

"When you start bucking against what they consider the system you don't get treated too well. I can handle it. I've never taken anything personally. The Lord said this would happen. We all know what they did to Jesus when he walked this Earth."

Is he really comparing Mayor David Berger wanting to move the civil service question from his committee into a different (and more logical) committee with the execution of Jesus? How can any thinking person really believe that a minor disappointment is akin to being tortured and condemned to a slow and agonizing death?

For that matter, does Pitts really think he is bucking the system?

Still no apology from Glenn

Derry Glenn

Vickie Shurelds

Derry Glenn once again proved how dishonorable and hypocritically self-serving he really is. One of the many people he offended with his racist comments and "clueless xenophobia" concerning foreigners and Arabs owning stores in his district politely asked for an apology from Glenn at the City Council meeting Monday evening.

Glenn, of course, rudely refused. In fact, he was so rude that City Council President John Nixon had to gavel him quiet and told him, "Have another press conference. You can respond that way." That is a spine I didn't think Nixon actually had.

Then Glenn showed his ignorance on Sunday. I am told that on "Soul of the City," the WIMA-AM radio show to which I no longer listen because hearing Vickie Shurelds' inane and intellectually vapid chitchat is painful, Glenn and Shurelds accused me of doing nothing but sitting on the sidelines and casting stones.

I could list all the community boards and organizations to which I belong, or perhaps the year I spent in the Iraq war or my 23 years of military service to this country, state and community in the Army National Guard, but that is not important. Rather, because Glenn and Shurelds clearly have no idea what it means to live in a free country, let me explain something they obviously didn't learn in whatever government school they attended.

Derry Glenn: Lima's Archie Bunker

Dear Derry Glenn,

Where is your apology?

On Thursday, you badmouthed local Arabs and other foreigners during one of your silly news conferences and idiotic crusades that only serve to get your name in the newspaper and your face on television. That's OK, because I know you are simply a media hound (and a not so mediagenic one at that) and you love to see yourself on TV and in the newspaper.

Still, where is the apology for your racist comments? Or, perhaps, you think it is OK for a City Councilman, an elected representative of the people, to badmouth Arabs and foreigners. I am guessing because you have yet to apologize for your remarks you think it is appropriate for an elected representative of the people to talk like Archie Bunker from television's All in the Family.

Seriously, Derry, the people of Lima deserve better. If you can't bring yourself to apologize for your racist remarks, then perhaps you should do the honorable thing and resign your seat. Unfortunately, unlike the fictional Mr. Bunker, I don't think you have a shred of honor or you would have never uttered such despicable bigoted remarks against hardworking Arabs and other foreigners. It was even more disgusting coming from someone who claims to want to bring the people of Lima together regardless of race or heritage.

In many episodes of All in the Family, Archie ended up doing the right thing and even sometimes learned a thing or two. I am not going to hold my breath that you are going to learn anything, but the people of Lima do deserve a public apology from you.

How about it, Derry? Where is that apology for your bigoted remarks?

I am betting it never comes.

Why is Derry Glenn such a racist?

Sixth Ward Councilman Derry "Curley" Glenn on Thursday blamed "foreign people" for selling drug paraphernalia in stores in Lima. Before he said that, he specifically blamed "Arabs."

This kind of talk from an elected official is despicable. Glenn owes an apology to all Americans. We all come from immigrant stock. He specifically owes an apology to all our Arab friends who have chosen to make Lima their home and have opened businesses, created jobs and contributed to our economy, which is more than Derry Glenn has ever done, even as a member of City Council for some nine years.

Let the foreigners stay and leave them alone. Glenn, on the other hand, should just go. He is an embarrassment to Lima.