Silflay Hraka

An Ignorant Nigger?

Crooks, the black stable hand in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men suffered at the hands of racists, and knew them and their ways. He wasn’t allowed to associate with the others because of his “stink”.

They play cards in there, but I can?t play because I?m black. They say I stink.

He is threatened with lynching, and no one pays him any mind.

Crooks leaned forward over the edge of the bunk. “I ain’t a southern negro,” he said. “I was born right here in California. My old man had a chicken ranch, ’bout ten acres. The white kids come to play at our place, an’ sometimes I went to play with them and some of them was pretty nice. My ol’ man didn’t like that. I never knew till long later why he didn’t like that. But I know now.” He hesitated, and when he spoke again his voice was softer. “There wasn’t another coloured family for miles around. And now there ain’t a coloured man on this ranch an’ there’s jus’ one family in Soledad.” He laughed. “If I say something, why it’s just a nigger sayin’ it.”

It’s been three days since Billy McKinney, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives said, when asked about his daughter’s troubles in her congressional race said “That ain’t nothin’. Jews have bought everybody. Jews. J-E-W-S.” Other than an article about the tactical fallout of the race, no one in the mainstream media has said a word about the quote. Hell, very few bloggers have.

Imagine for a second that it wasn’t Billy McKinney that said “Jews have bought everybody. Jews. J-E-W-S.”. Imagine that instead, that David Duke said it. It shouldn’t be much of a stretch. He’s certainly said similar things.

“Jewish power is ubiquitous. Every politician is so aware of it that he knows he cannot dare mention it! Jewish organizations, Jewish media and Jewish political agents ruthlessly seek their perceived interests without remorse and without introspection.”

David Duke has been rejected again and again by the American public, and pilloried by the American media. Duke himself says so. Groups have been formed to oppose him and all that he stands for.

“There is no room in the party of Lincoln for a Klansman like David Duke” –Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson

This is America, so David Duke is allowed to say whatever insane venom comes to his mind. And when he does open up the shithole he calls a mouth, we publicly reject him. Whether they think racist thoughts or not, white politicians aren’t allowed to openly spout racist hatred, and when they do, they get a good smacking, and their career is over. You know why? Because, when it comes down to it, we expect better things from a white person.

To allow Representative McKinney to say what he said about Jews without publicly punishing him in the same manner as we punish David Duke is to hold the same attitudes the ranch hands held in Of Mice and Men. No one who is not a racist would tell him to his face that he’s just an ignorant nigger, but to let his anti-Semitic ravings go by without a word is to treat him like one. Until all of us demand the same standards of behavior from black politicians that we demand from white politicians, we will still be judging people on the color of their skin, and not on the content of their character.

Now, if you don’t mind, I have an asbestos suit to go put on.

Update: John Rosenberg of Discrimination blogs about Black and Jews and …Blacks and the racial breakdown of Danise Majette’s supporters.

“We Want A Pitcher, Not A Rich Ol’ Bitcher”

With the baseball strike looming in the distance, what are Americans doing to prepare for the inevitable collision between owners and players? Pretty much nothing. What can we do? And in the big scheme of things, who really gives a rat’s ass.

I am a fairly avid New York Yankees fan. I watch their games when they are on, but don’t tend to watch baseball when they are not playing. Although I am faithful to the Yankees, I suppose I am not the most faithful fan to MLB in general. Still, after getting used to (although not bored) watching the Yankees continue to play games well into October (and November last year) I have tried to imagine what life may be like this Fall if a strike occurs and once again the World Series is cancelled. What I found was a bit surprising. I realized that I would be fine, life would move on, and I might not even give it a second thought as I spend more nights on the porch enjoying the weather as it begins to cool.

The question often asked is, whose side am I on? Can the players and owners come to some agreement? Will everyone be happy? The answer to that question is that everyone but the fans may be happy. Bigwig’s assessment of MLB’s treatment of the fans was dead on, the paying public are simply whores for MLB. This is not to suggest that we should not go to the games. As mentioned, I love to attend a game. The problem begins when the players and owners stop playing our national pastime to quibble over millions of dollars, completely ignoring me as a fan, yet I return to the ballparks as soon as they kiss and make up. Simply don’t go or don’t bitch. One group has attempted to start a movement to show MLB the importance of the fans, but the fact that most of you have never heard of them should be some indication as to their effectiveness.

The point I am trying to make is that this really is not as big a deal as we are making it out to be. So we won’t have baseball for a while, does it really matter? The sun will still rise, I will still have bills to pay, and I might even end up spending a good amount of time outdoors doing something productive instead of watching the tv in 3 hour chunks. The owners and players will continue to talk over the next week and offer new proposals consistently during that time. Maybe they will come up with an agreement, and maybe they won’t. I’m just suggesting that having professional baseball will not make my life, or perhaps even my Octobers any better.

The last straw came for me when I heard Nomar Garciaparra say how they were doing this for all of the kids who will play professional baseball in the future. He doesn’t want them to look back and say, “Man, I wish I could have played back then.” That has to be the biggest load of bullshit I have ever had to stomach. Screw you and your million dollar salary. Perhaps the players don’t realize how good they have it. Do they understand that most of us will work 30+ years and not make the money they make in one year? Do they realize that if we do illegal substances we are most likely fired? If you cared about anyone you would look after the fans and work hard to come up with an agreement that truly would be good for everyone. But that would most likely call for the “C” word (compromise), and that apparently is not in either of these groups’ vocabularies.

Take your balls and go home, I just don’t care anymore.

Study explains why your family stinks

Family members tend not to like the way they smell, researchers say, speculating that the unpleasant stink of your closest relatives may be one of nature’s ways of discouraging incest.

In related news, Jerry Falwell has claimed that people who bathe are inviting incest.

Batman can do anything.

A hearty welcome to our our guests from the CIA! (relay2.ucia.gov), who came hither searching for “links: www.al-neda.com”

Ya’ll make sure to be on the lookout for Nigerian golfers, now.