Archives for: July 2010, 15
07/15/10
Now I'm hittin MC's like Hadouken!
In a nerdier life, I could have been Daigo Umehara.
Permalink • Send a trackback » 09:27:33 pm by Ragamuffin
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ABC News: US homes lost to foreclosure on track to eclipse '09 levels as banks work through backlog
CNN: Most countries fail to deliver on Haiti aid pledges
MSNBC: New jobless claims fall to near two-year low
Permalink • Send a trackback » 04:01:00 pm by Ragamuffin
The crowd's the jury
An amazing case of cognitive dissonance by Larry Elder in "Jesse: LeBron James Was Treated Like a 'Runaway Slave'":
In post-Obama-election America, Jackson and Al Sharpton (the Robin to Jackson's Batman) struggle with a declining market share. They are rabble-rousers in search of rabble to rouse, race-card players in need of race cards when anti-black racism has become an inconsequential matter. With their dark view of "race relations" in "White America," they never saw Obama coming. They lacked the awareness to see that America had changed and that Obama's election was possible.
So Jackson's flying on fumes. Consider this:
In Oakland, Calif., a white transit officer shot and killed a black passenger. The officer claims that he shot accidentally, that he intended to reach for his Taser and instead pulled out and fired his gun.
A jury — with no blacks — found the former officer guilty of involuntary manslaughter rather than second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. The sentence can range from probation to 14 years with the gun enhancement charge. The minimum for second-degree murder is 15 years. Post-verdict riots in Oakland resulted in the arrests of over 80 people.
The idea that racism is "inconsequential" is in and of it itself ridiculous, but the idea that Elder both knows and notes that an all white jury made the decision to acquit doesn't strike him as being the result of a racist jury selection process (pdf) is astounding. There's solid evidence that prosecutors have been trained to exclude black jurors. The level of denial involved here is pathological.
It could be that Elder thinks that it's coincidence that an all white jury ending up deciding this case exists, but this has happened far too many times for him to keep going to that well.
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