Uh huh.

Straight A student.  Soccer team goalie.  Plays trumpet in the band.  Member of Students Against Destructive Decisions.

Her mom describes her as a “perfect child.”

But the Copiah County School District is refusing to allow her photograph in the yearbook.  Because she wore a tuxedo for her senior portrait.  The school district sent a letter stating that only boys could wear tuxedos.

This is a perfect example of how it’s not enough to live an “exemplary life.”  You’ve heard this argument before, haven’t you?

Intimidation

Because when you’re in power, you can do it.

The Medill Innocence Project, founded at Northwestern University’s school of journalism, has uncovered evidence that freed eleven wrongfully-convicted men.  Five of them were awaiting a death sentence.

Recently the project found evidence suggesting that Anthony McKinney, convicted of murder, is really innocent. So how is the state preparing for the hearing?

The Cook County state’s attorney subpoenaed the students’ grades, notes and recordings of witness interviews, the class syllabus and even e-mails they sent to each other and to professor David Protess of the university’s Medill School of Journalism.

Story here.

Institutionalized racism

Is when a university says it has decided to eliminate its racist mascot, and then proceeds to reverse the decision for homecoming the same year, and then host events “celebrating” the mascot in the following years.

The university permitted (sanctioned, approved, supported whatever) Students for Chief Illiniwek to host a dance featuring the mascot at Assembly Hall again this year.

Because the university is committed to diversity and does not stand for racism.  It just doesn’t stand against it, is all.

Oh Canada!

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is not laughing about Radio-Canada’s controversial “Bye Bye 2008” New Year’s Eve sketch show, which drew criticism for its jokes about blacks and anglophones. One of the most outrageous sketches included an interview with a comedian suggesting Barack Obama would be easy to assassinate because the first black U.S. president would stand out against the White House.

Source. What did the show’s producer and writer have to say for themselves?

Veronique Cloutier and Louis Morissette, the producer and head writer of the “Bye Bye,” said in a rambling news conference at the height of the controversy that they aren’t racists and only intended to present an edgy comedy show.

They aren’t racists. Check! They’re edgy. Check!

Stripped of empathy

If racism strips white people of their empathy, undoubtedly homophobia strips straight people of their empathy.  From the New York Times:  Kept from a dying partner’s bedside.

Not necessarily

This story is about a fifth grader who was not allowed to perform in a talent show wearing a Barack Obama mask.  Here’s what his father had to say:

Kelly said that as a gay couple, he and Lechert consider themselves particularly sensitive to issues of minority groups.

“We are white, but we’re a minority class,” he said. “We have some insight into this process of what is and what isn’t offensive. There was obviously no intent to harm here — or really any possibility of offending anyone.”

*bzzzt!* Sorry, wrong answer. Feel free to talk with people of color in the GLBT community. Read R101, focusing on 1, 11 and 15. Also please note WHIB 14a. Thank you.

Slap in the face

Some friends of mine recently lent me the first season of the AMC series Mad Men. The show is about a fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency and life in general in 1960. My friends recommended the show but warned me that the sexism (of the time) was blatant.

Funny, but although the sexism did not go unnoticed by me, the racism jumped out in the opening scene of the first episode. So I wonder, how come my white friends didn’t mention that?

Italian women asking for it

So the head of Italy’s government said. Silvio Berlusconi (no comment) stated it was impossible to stamp out rape in Italy because Italian women were so beautiful.

Of course, everyone knows only the gorgeous girls get sexually assaulted.

Post-racial society

The header is sensationalist, the paper is a rag, but the analysis is spot on. Something to think on instead of bandying meaningless words about.

TREVOR PHILLIPS: Why Britain is now the LEAST racist country in Europe | Mail Online

And another thing

As someone who adopted a child, Cindy and I know better than most couples the amazing satisfaction that comes from providing love to an unwanted child. I believe a child is best raised by a mother and father because of the unique contributions that they make together to the development of a child.

Bet his kid is happy to be referred to as an “unwanted child.”

But here’s another thing–if McCain is so sure that a child is best raised by a mother and father, why’d he fool around on his first wife and then leave his three children to start another family? What about the sanctity of marriage? What about personal responsibility? What about the threat to the union between a man and a woman?